How are you defined?

Found this over at Chris's blog, who found it at Karen's blog. You type in your name and it comes up with a definition of your name if you were a word. Maybe there's some hope for my preaching yet!

William -- [noun]: A master of storytelling 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I tried it a second time, but using my sign-in (wcs53) instead. Hmmmm, this doesn't look so promising:

wcs53 -- [noun]: A person of questionable sanity who starts their own cult 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Blue-Rinse Dreams and Banoffee Pie

I was reading one of the articles in Ron Ferguson's 'Blue-Rinse Dreams and Banoffee Pie' this morning before going to church and the following quotes from 'Time to ban this steamy book' really spoke to me:

"I don't want to be saved from adult choices by zealots who want to do a bit of censoring or hand-chopping on God's behalf ... For Christ's sake, is the deity so weak that he needs to be defended by obnoxious creeps with a humour-bypass ... Christianity has had a privileged position for far too long. Religious adherents need to make their case in today's market place of ideas by the integrity of their thinking and the attractiveness of their exemplars and not by blasphemy laws, historic privileges, threats, serial taking of offence and fatwas."

It just hit me in light of what I've been thinking about lately with so much time wasted by the church trying to stop people from doing 'things that are wrong'. Are we not convinced that the message we have is good enough? One of the ones that is doing the rounds here (influenced heavily by US televangelists, this is Canada, not the US) is that the 'downfall' of our society started when they took the Lord's Prayer out of the schools. What a load of baloney!

Anyway, for those who don't know it, Ron Ferguson is a retired Church of Scotland minister, who lives in Orkney. He has a weekly column in 'The (Glasgow) Herald' and 'Blue-Rinse Dreams...' is a compilation of these columns. I usually receive one of these books from my parents at Christmas every year, for which I am really grateful. I just love reading his stuff. I would've probably enjoyed listening to his preaching every week - funny, thought-provoking, relevant. For an example of his sermons check out another of his books: 'Love Your Crooked Neighbour: Thoughts on Breath, Bread, Breasts and Brokenness'.

Toronto Maple Laughs?

All they had to do was to win a couple of games in Montreal and they were back in it. Well, they only lost 5-1 and 6-2. The golf clubs will be getting cleaned soon. Needs to be some major changes this summer - don't ask Lindros back, pay off Belfour and find a good young goalie for starters.

Oh well, the baseball season starts soon.

(P.S. Any good captions for the above picture. I think Pat is saying: 'We're that close to getting into the play-offs.')

Tooth and Nail freebie

Tooth and Nail, the Christian punk and harcore label that has given us many great bands, such as MxPx, the Halo Friendlies, Thousand Foot Krutch, Underoath, mewithoutYou, Starflyer 59, Watashi Wa, and many more, is offering a free 20 track sampler for download here. The offer is good until June 1, 2006. It's free, so give it a try - you might enjoy it!

Will the real Bono please stand up

Honestly, this is not brainwashing! Recently Cameron has taken to putting on his Hot Wheels shades, declaring that he is Bono, then launches into his version of 'Unos, Dos, Tres, Catorce!'

On Saturday we had to watch the video for 'Vertigo' six times. We also had to listen to 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb' in the car on the way to Sudbury. No offence to Elmo, but it is more fun than having to listen to the best of Sesame Street on every journey with the kids. Hopefully he won't grow out of it.

VERTIGO (U2)

Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

love haiku

I was just wondering...

...do we often spend too much time concentrating on less important issues at the expense of more important things?

Jesus said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself."

Are we always striving to do this in some of the things the church gets caught up in debating? I'm specifically thinking of the inordinate amount of time spent in recent time on the debate over gay marriage, and the seeming obsession that the condition of society is somehow linked as starting when the Lord's Prayer was removed from the schools. What also about all the effort spent in trying to get pre-Christians into the movie theatres to see 'The Passion' (if ever a movie sucked - that was the one)? What about the time spent trying to remember formulas? The debates on abortion and evolution? The money spent on court-cases to try and make a point, to score points against our opponents?

Loving God and Loving our neighbours like ourselves? We can't reach out with one hand, whilst smacking them over the head with the other. We need to reach out in love with both hands. Why is the Christian church not at the forefront of the 'Make Poverty History' campaign? Why is so much money invested in monstrous structures? I don't have all the answers, but these are questions I'd like to explore more.

Here's a few quotes that I read recently that got me thinking some of these questions:

"Eight million people die every year for the price of going out with your friends to the movies and buying an ice cream. Literally for about $30 a head per year, you could save 8 million lives. Isn't that extraordinary? Preventable disease - not calamity, not famine, nothing like that. Preventable disease - just for the lack of medicines. That is cheap, that is a bargain." (Bono)

"I have three things I'd like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”...“Jesus refers to the poor over and over again. There are 2,000 verses of Scripture that call upon us to respond to the needs of the poor. And yet, I find that when Christians talked about values in this last election that was not on the agenda, that was not a concern. If you were to get the voter guide of the Christian Coalition, that does not rate. They talk more about tax cuts for people who are wealthy than they do about helping poor people who are in desperate straits.” (Tony Campolo)

Makes you think...right?

spring haiku

Vertigo '06: Final Dates Postponed

It is with great regret that tour promoter The Next Adventure announces the postponement of the final ten dates of U2's Vertigo '06 tour. This action is unavoidable due to the illness of an immediate family member of one of the band. The effected dates are listed below.'

Any fan of U2 will realise that this decision has not been taken lightly', said TNA President Arthur Fogel. 'We will announce further details as soon as we have them.'

The effected shows, which are all sold out, are: March 17th & 18th, Ericcson Stadium AUCKLAND; 21st, Queensland Sports & Athletics Centre BRISBANE; 24TH & 25TH, Telstra Dome, MELBOURNE; 28th, AAMI Stadium ADELAIDE; 31st & 1st April, Telstra Stadium, SYDNEY; 4th, Nissan Stadium YOKOHAMA; 8th Aloha Stadium, HONOLULU.

Check U2.com for any further details.

Quote...

"If we do not bear the cross of the Master, we will have to bear the cross of the world, with all its earthly goods. Which cross have you taken up? Pause and consider."

- Sadhu Sundar Singh

Text for this Sunday: Mark 8:31-38

Church tag

We had to play church tag today. Both our kids are sick and I am just getting over a 'flu' thing. I was going to do the whole service, but I was worried that my voice would give out before the end.

So, I stayed home for the first part of the service and Pamela went to church for that part. Then when she was doing the kid's time she paged me to let me know to get ready to take over.

We live next door to the church, so it was no problem. She came home during the singing of a chorus and I, a little out of breath, took over for the rest of the service.

I wouldn't want to do this every week, but it worked okay today. I must admit it was strange going in and reading Scripture right away before getting straight into the preach, without having been at the rest of the service.

Hopefully we'll all be fit and well again next week!

W.W.W.B.D.

As if W.W.J.D. (what would Jesus do) wasn't bad enough, by which I mean how could we ever imagine that we would come close to knowing what Jesus would do. Now it seems we have W.W.W.B.D. - what would William Booth do.

Recently I have become more distressed and irate as I read blog after blog by these so-called 'Primitive Salvationists'. They seem to be creating an elite class of Salvationism that you can only belong to if you embrace all the Booth ideas, rather than the spirit of what he stood for. 'Aggressive Christianity' - isn't that like some kind of oxymoron? Apparently it's time for the Revolution and it's coming in the form of 19th Century-style Salvationism. The rest of us, I guess, will just have to be content with being left in their wake.

I think it is the elitism, or even the superiority, of many of the people who push this agenda that bothers me the most - 'get on board with us or get out of the way'. Some even suggest that being an adherent is a cop-out, or wishy-washy, at best. It's this kind of talk that really creates divisions.

Stand-up tunics, firing volleys, loving the O&R, dying for the flag, War Colleges, crests better than shields, army barmy, etc., ad nauseum.

W.W.W.B.D? Well, we know what he did, but would he have done it exactly the same today in the 21st Century? Personally, I don't think so, but that's just me, or is it?

Love is blindness

I was just reading the report from last night's U2 show in Buenos Aires and discovered that they closed with 'Love is Blindness'. It's one of my favourites and, unfortunately, they didn't sing it when I saw them in Auburn Hills in October. I shouldn't complain, though, as they did sing it in Glasgow when I saw them there in '92.

At least that's the good thing about U2 concerts - you never get the same one twice, they're far from predictable.

Love is blindness, I don't want to see
Won't you wrap the night around me?
Oh, my heart, love is blindness.

In a parked car, in a crowded street
You see your love made complete.
Thread is ripping, the knot is slipping
Love is blindness.

Love is clockworks and cold steel
Fingers too numb to feel.
Squeeze the handle, blow out the candle
Love is blindness.

Love is blindness, I don't want to see
Won't you wrap the night around me?
Oh, my love,
Blindness.

A little death without mourning
No call and no warning
Baby, a dangerous idea
That almost makes sense.

Love is drowning in a deep well
All the secrets, and no one to tell.
Take the money, honey...Blindness.

Love is blindness, I don't want to see
Won't you wrap the night around me?
Oh, my love,
Blindness.

(from 'Achtung Baby', 1991; words and music by U2)

primitive haiku

Lent

Well today, being Ash Wednesday, is the beginning of the Season of Lent. It seems to be one of the least talked about times of the Christian year these days, which is unfortunate as it has very significant meaning.

Started reading 'Bread and Wine' this morning and found the following quote, which I think is a helpful reminder as we enter this season:

'...Lent is traditionally associated with penitence, fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. It is a time for "giving things up" balanced by "giving to" those in need. Yet whatever else it may be, Lent should never be morose - an annual ordeal during which we begrudgingly forgo a handful of pleasures. Instead, we ought to approach Lent as an opportunity, not a requirement. After all, it is meant to be the church's springtime, a time when, out of the darkness of sin's winter, a repentant, empowered people emerges...

'...Put another way, Lent is the season in which we ought to be surprised by joy. Our self-sacrifices serve no purpose unless, by laying aside this or that desire, we are able to focus on our heart's deepest longing: unity with Christ. In him - in his suffering and death, his resurrection and triumph - we find our truest joy.'

(pages xvi-xvii)

Peace On Earth

Heaven on Earth
We need it now
I'm sick of all of this
Hanging around
Sick of sorrow
Sick of pain
Sick of hearing again and again
That there's gonna be
Peace on Earth

Where I grew up
There weren't many trees
Where there was we'd tear them down
And use them on our enemies
They say that what you mock
Will surely overtake you
And you become a monster
So the monster will not break you

It's already gone too far
Who said that if you go in hard
You won't get hurt

Jesus could you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
No whos or whys
No-one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth
She never got to say goodbye
To see the colour in his eyes
Now he's in the dirt
Peace on Earth

They're reading names out over the radio
All the folks the rest of us won't get to know
Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann and Breda
Their lives are bigger, than any big idea

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
To tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth

Jesus this song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth
Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So what's it worth?
This peace on Earth

Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth

Music: U2

Lyrics: Bono