The journey

Need to find a way to save what I've written here. Any suggestions?

It seems Facebook has completely replaced this. So let's call it a day here.

I realise I haven't been writing a lot lately. Seems that somehow, this doesn't seem the right place to do it anymore. Not sure what I'll do with this journal in the future.

Oh yes, you can find the song here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKuCaPkR7O4

Went to a conference at Northwest Nazarene University last week. I guess this song says it all.


11-57
Words and music by Brian McLaren, (c) 2007, Brian McLaren.
Publishing, Revolution of Hope Music Group SESAC 2007, all rights reserved. Registered with CCLI

We made a suicidal system, and we said it was predestined, we said devil made us do it, we told a lot of
lies. It was a system of injustice, built on arrogance and greed, it was an empire for the powerful, and a
hell for those in need. A suicidal system. A suicidal system.

We made a suicidal system, and we turned a handsome profit, and we made a billion guns, and made
more wars to utilize them. And we keep the poor in slums, to ignore them or despise them, and we
broadcast shows and movies, to amuse and tranquilize them … in the suicidal system, the suicidal
system.

God help us, for we are trapped
Stuck in this grim machine
Please free us, teach us to live
In joy and peace and justice

We made a suicidal system, and we pumped it full of toxin, and we killed off lots of species, and we made
the world an oven. And we built a lot of churches, and we saved a lot of souls, but we destroyed a lot of
good things, and our way of life was full of holes. A suicidal system. It’s a suicidal system.

We made a suicidal system that cannot be sustained. It must be redirected and we must be retrained …
to reclaim our true identity in harmony and care with saving love for everyone to free all creatures
everywhere from the suicidal system. The suicidal system.

God help us, for we are trapped
Stuck in this grim machine
Please free us, teach us to live
In joy and peace and justice

We made a suicidal system, and we pray it’s not too late, but it’s 11:57, so we’d best not hesitate. It’s time
for a defection, to choose a new direction, to seek for reconnection, pass through death to resurrection
from the suicidal system … The suicidal system.

There is another system, another way to go, it’s nearer than the air you breathe, it’s better than you know.
It’s a sacred ecosystem, it’s invisible but there, it’s a gentle revolution, it’s the answer to our prayer. An
answer to our prayers.

God help us, for we are trapped
Stuck in this grim machine
Please free us, teach us to live
In joy and peace and justice

Dark valley, shadows of death
Please be our shepherd Lord
Still waters, green pastures
There we will be restored

These words have kept on going through my mind. I can see them almost like an epitaph: William Bradford Mercer - 4-6-1956/13-12-2007 - "I Just wanna be a blessing".

I know, it usually meant for him that he was joking. But in retrospect, it is so much more, so much more profound too. It's not a bad goal for one's life, not at all.

I'm writing here to remember Brad and share what he meant to me. Which is good! But I want more, I want his legacy to come alive in me. I want that epitaph to be true for my life as well, when the day comes that I'll be leaving this earth for the arms of my Lord and Saviour, the One, who, (it's slowly getting through to me) truly loves me, rejoices in me, is even proud of me and only wipes away all those times I started with, "Yes Lord, but ....".

I want to live a life where love is enough indeed and I can be a blessing. You showed me, brother. Thanks a million. I'll follow.

I've been buying lots of books lately and haven't kept up with my reading. The following ones are on my desk


Avilla, St Theresa of - Interior Castle (halfway)
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich - Mijn ziel keert zich still tot God
Edersheim, Alfred - Sketches of Jewish Social Life
Fudge, Edward W. - The Fire that Consumes, a Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment
Geysels, Luc - De weg van de Dienaar, lezen in het Marcusevangelie
Grenz, Stanley J. - A Primer On Postmodernism (reading now)
Hendricks Jr., Obery M. - The Politics Of Jesus
Heschel, Abraham J. - God in Search of Man, A philosophy of Judaism (halfway)
Kruis, Jan van het - Donkere Nacht (halfway)
Miles, Jack - Jezus, een crisis in het leven van God
Shelton, R. Larry - Cross & Covenant
Smith, James K.A. - Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Deridda, Lyotard and Foucoult to Church.

Well, I've finished. Sigh. What do I think of it?

It seems to me the book is a great reference book on Wesley's "practical divinity". It is neatly divided in any theological topic Wesley has said anything on, including the filioque clause and the future redemption of the animals, to give some indication of the detail. It is not an easy book to read. In fact, it was a struggle for me to read it and I am relieved that I finally finished it.

It is mostly descriptive of Wesley's thoughts, and I think, in a fairly balanced way. Where Collins offers his own views, I'm far less attracted.
The applications to modern times are somewhat strange here and there, in my view.

Frankly, I am puzzled at what is so special about the book other than the thoroughness with which Collins describes Wesley's thinking. It would make a good book for a course on Wesley, but in my view, it would be hardly more than a start on how to work with Wesley's theology in the 21st century.

There is one issue that really bothers me:

The statement that if anyone says that God is love, God is holy, God is the God of holy love, I can't imagine any Wesleyan would consider either of these statements untrue. No problems there.

But what I do not understand is where he writes: "love apart from holiness is soft, naively wishful, and likely self indulgent." (p 9) Now even that statement in itself would be correct, were it not that it is in a context of trying to argue why we have to talk about "holy love" instead of merely "love" as Wesley's ultimate hermeneutic (p 8).

And there I disagree. For if we talk about "love" within the context of Wesley's hermeneutic, it is totally obvious we are talking about agape. There can be no shadow of a doubt there. We are talking about the love the apostle John wrote about in John 3:16 and 1 John 4:16. And agape isn't ambiguous nor needs qualification. And it certainly isn't "soft, naively wishful, and likely self indulgent". On the contrary, it is the love that led our Lord to the cross, and that would be the very opposite of it.

So to talk about "holy love" is like talking about an "ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene". There are no elders in the CotN that are not ordained. Outside the CotN, yes, I have been one myself and I have never been ordained. But inside of the CotN, there is no such thing.

Likewise, when we talk about love as Wesley's hermeneutic, it is totally clear that this is God's love. And God's love, His agape, is never ever unholy.

So to me, to argue for the qualifier "holy" when discussion love in a book on Wesley's theology, is superfluous. And I therefore think Collins does Oord and Lodahl unjustice.

Hannie and I read a book by Henri Nouwen for our morning devotionals. I was touched by the piece we read this morning. It was in Dutch so don't blame Henri for any awkward translation on my part.

The Dance Of Life

The world around us radically differentiates between joy and sadness. People tend to say: "If you're happy, you can't be sad, and if you're sad, you can't be happy'. Our current society in fact tries everything to keep sadness and joy apart. Sadness and pain are to be avoided at every cost, for they are the opposite of the happiness and joy we so deeply long for.

Death, disease, human brokenness.... all of that is to remain out of view, because it takes from us the happiness towards we strive. They are obstacles on the road to our life's purpose.

However, the view that Jesus presents us with is in sharp contrast to this worldly view. Jesus shows us, both in his teaching and in his life, that true joy is often hid in our sadness, and that our dance of life often finds its source in our grief. He says: "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:24-25). He also says: "It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you" (John 16:7). And his two disciples on the Emmaus road, so down after His suffering and death, He told: ""How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" (Luke 24:25-26).

Here a totally new way of living is revealed. Pain can be accepted with thanksgiving, not out of the desire to suffer, but from the understanding that out of pain something new can be born. Jesus calls our pain, "the pains of child-birth". He says: "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." (John 16:21).

The cross is the sign of this view. It is the sign of death and life, of suffering and joy, of defeat and victory. The cross shows us the way on which joy and grief walk hand in hand.

On the 22nd Edwin, Tim Leguit and me went to Paradiso in Amsterdam to see Suzanne Vega and band. It was a very good concert indeed, you can see for yourself at http://www.fabchannel.com/
The band was good, and sounded louder than I was used to. I like the very different version of Tom's Dinner. Also, the addition of a keyboard player was quite succesful.
I'd never been to Paradiso, it was nice to be there. Would be a great church too! ;-)

The only disappointment was that they didn't play When Heroes Go Down. I'd love to have heard that song with this band. Oh well, you can't have everything.