Seasons

 

          Jacko - triumph and tragedy!

 

Michael Jackson's career was marked by spectacular success, with countless fans applauding his creative, innovative music and shows. From his childhood he gave himself to the medium of entertainment and gained its rewards of wealth and fame. But somewhere along the way, the medium exacted its cost and the person Michael was lost to the persona Jacko. Triumph had turned to the tragedy of plastic surgery, sexual threat, repudiation, massive debt, and isolation. 'If we give up our lives to the media of money, stuff and image, there will be dark side.' (Neal Lawson)

 

Well, don't blame Michael Jackson, for we are the fans. We are the consumers who feed the system. We are the ones with the unquenchable thirst for celebrity news. We are the ones who secretly crave some wealth and fame.

 

Nor should we imagine that the problem was merely one of extent, for any thirst for 'the media of money, stuff and image' will have its dark side. In our consumerist culture we all run the risk of 'gaining the world and losing our souls'. What a cost if all life finally produced was a glittering persona.

 

Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.  Matthew 16:24-25

 

 re-forming church -

Oh we find ourselves in a difficult place! Knowing we must embody to gospel that the world might see it is real, yet caught ourselves between two worlds. The kingdom that has come yet not fully come, and as new people in Jesus Christ but still battling the old nature within. So we find ourselves in the position of announcing something to the world we cannot fully demonstrate. We don't need others to point out our hypocrisies!

 

So do we quit, out of our compromises, failures and embarrassment? No!

 

Part of the answer is corporate worship. God's pilgrim people gather and in the liturgy we re-tell the story of Jesus, of salvation, of kingdom hope. In worship good news is proclaimed free of human frailty, and human frailty is embraced in worship. In the paradox of this we may well encounter God best.

 

Our practice of worship may change and may need to, but those who advocate substituting it with some walk in the bush or talk in a cafe have got it wrong.

 

 down the road -

Verse:  The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into our neighbourhood.  John 1:14

May God help us to see Jesus,

in the mess next door, in the noise down the way

in racers along the road, in domestics close by.

            May they see Jesus in us,

            in how we respond to mess and noise, to youth and couples

            in how we live, and in how we serve.

Amen.

 

 sunday@Discovery -  some insights from John Calvin after 500 years - and setting apart our new elders

 sunday@Oaks -    Psalm 99 and the God who is Sovereign

 

SIGN OFF

Recently, as part of a national review, I listened to Maori, Pacific Island and Asian people telling me how on the margins they felt in the Presbyterian Church. How the typically western / pakeha ways of 'doing church' were so dis-empowering to them. It was very sobering! Where to go next? I don't know but I had better get on with adding my bit to the report.

Have a great day

Garry

 

            End quote: The society in which we live suggests in countless ways that the way to go is up.  Making it to the top, entering the limelight, breaking the record - that's what draws attention, gets us on the front page of the newspaper, and offers us rewards of money and fame. The way of Jesus is radically different. It is the way not of upward mobility but of downward mobility. It is going to the bottom, staying behind the sets, and choosing the last place. Why is the way of Jesus worth choosing? Because it is the way to the kingdom, the way Jesus took, and the way that brings everlasting life.' Henri Nouwen.

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