Piled upon the others …
Your little sin
Piled upon yours …
Their little sin
Upon theirs:
Each, seemingly,
So insignificant,
So minuscule,
But daily,
Weekly,
Yearly,
They grow and grow.
The heap rises to the depths.
It blots out the light of God.
Darkness descends,
Until the cross …
Until the Grace …
Until the Sacrifice
… breaks through.
Author Archives: Pieter Stok
“Forgive Us Our Trespasses No.2” a poem
My one little sin
Piled upon the others …
Your little sin
Piled upon yours …
Their little sin
Upon theirs:
Each, seemingly,
So insignificant,
So minuscule,
But daily,
Weekly,
Yearly,
They grow and grow.
The heap rises to the depths.
It blots out the light of God.
Darkness descends,
Until the cross …
Until the Grace …
Until the Sacrifice
… breaks through.
Piled upon the others …
Your little sin
Piled upon yours …
Their little sin
Upon theirs:
Each, seemingly,
So insignificant,
So minuscule,
But daily,
Weekly,
Yearly,
They grow and grow.
The heap rises to the depths.
It blots out the light of God.
Darkness descends,
Until the cross …
Until the Grace …
Until the Sacrifice
… breaks through.
Categories: christian, Devotional, Faith, Poem
Tags: Christian, Devotion, Faith, Poem, sin
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“Forgive Us Our Trespasses No 1” a poem
Forgive us our trespasses.
How vast the canyon
Riven by me
Between us.
How prohibitive the distance
That I have stretched
Between us.
How impossible the mountain
My brokenness has heaped
Between us.
But the cross
Bridges,
Restores
And surmounts
All my sin has accrued.
My Amen …
… beyond words.
How vast the canyon
Riven by me
Between us.
How prohibitive the distance
That I have stretched
Between us.
How impossible the mountain
My brokenness has heaped
Between us.
But the cross
Bridges,
Restores
And surmounts
All my sin has accrued.
My Amen …
… beyond words.
Reflections on Walhalla Cemetery
Walhalla is an old and remote C19th gold mining town north of Moe in Victoria. This is not the majestic hall of the slain at Asgard in Norse mythology. However, many, many people have died here – young and old. More precisely, the very young and middle aged. In, what is now, a collection of a few houses and tourist stores, there was once a mad scrabbling, digging and tunnelling for gold in a busy narrow valley that would have rung with voices and machines. The valley is silent. Now the forlorn cemetery on a hill overlooking the valley, attests that for many of the people who arrived from a variety of countries to find their fortune, ultimately, only placed loved ones in the ground.
Now that is not exactly true. Technically the graves are more like filing cabinet drawers slid into the steep hillside. There are about about 1300 burials here. Many extant graves are dug into the hillside at one end and 1 or 2 metres out of the ground at the other as the hillside side is very steep – quite an unusual arrangement. Visiting the cemetery is an arduous climb!
Reading the headstones is a very sobering exercise:
There is one poignant grave where it seems that a whole young family has died within a little more than a year. However at the bottom of the headstone the inscription reads that it was erected by a surviving son.
The two over represented groups are young children and young men. The first succumbing to the many diseases in this pre penicillin era and the second were often victims of mining disasters.
It is impossible to walk through this cemetery and not be deeply moved. One wonders of the hopes and dreams the people had. One wonders how they coped with this very present spectre of death. And the survivors, the successful and unsuccessful, one wonders whether they thought, in the end, it was worth the toil and heartache.
Here we see a headstone of a dad and three children aged 3 years to 5 years.
The verse reads: Nothing In My Hand I Bring, Simply to the Cross I Cling
Overall, there is one striking truth that resounds from many of the headstones and that is, there is a merciful God, who loves His children, not just for a moment but into eternity. Beyond this life there is a better life where the streets are paved with gold.
One final observation: Sometimes in our desire to do good, we wreak havoc. When the cemetery was first established a well meaning person planted cypress pines. Over the years these have grown into giants, destroying everything around them. Graves have been pushed aside and in one or two places the pines grow directly out of a grave. In recent years many the trees have been cut down, but the consequences survive.
Blues Brothers Christianity
The other evening, in a weaker moment, (my wife says I am lying – I had been wanting to rewatch it for a while) I watched the Blues Brothers again. The unbelievable mayhem and pandemonium was still as funny as it was all those years ago. It was their tag line that got me thinking, “We’re on a mission from God.”
Once Elwood and Jake understood their task, nothing would stop them. The Illinois police, Nazis, a maniacal ex girl friend, The Chicago police and the army all failed to halt their progress. They were single minded and did not count the cost, to themselves (or anybody else for that matter).
The thought crossed my mind, “What if Christians were like that?” How would the world look? If we go back to the apostle Paul: imprisonment, beatings and riots did not thwart his real “mission from God.” William Wilberforce, William Booth, Loren Cunningham (YWAM) are just three amongst a myriad of examples who were on their “mission from God”. There are the many unkown (to us) in Asian, African, South American and Chinese Churches who are quietly (and sometimes not so quietly!) carrying out their missions.
In Australia there were the Dutch migrants who revitalised Christian education in the 1960s and 70s with the Christian Parent Controlled School movement which has since morphed into Christian Education National. Their impact went far beyond their numbers and nationality. The idea of unschooled Dutch migrants setting up and running schools was considered laughable by many. Fifty years later thousands have flocked to these and similar schools around Australia.
The fact remains though, that in western countries, like Australia, we need spiritual Elwoods and Jakes, or should I say, Pauls and Williams and Lorens to halt the slide into godlessness; a godlessness and spiritual paucity that that is feeding the hopelessness that so many feel today. What is required is a vision of what God’s Word calls for, and a passion and zeal to see it carried out. It requires people who know and understand to the core of their being that they are “on a mission from God”.
I would love to hear from you what you believe the “missions from God” are for Australia and Australians today.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Church, Devotional
Tags: Christian, Devotion, Faith, Future, God
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Anima Christi – C14th Prayer
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O good Jesus, hear me;
Within Thy wounds hide me;
Let me never be separated from Thee;
From the malicious enemy defend me;
In the hour of my death call me,
And bid me come unto Thee,
That with thy Saints I may praise Thee
Forever and ever. Amen.
A C14th Prayer – Author unknown
Christian Indifference of the Good Kind
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matt 6:19-20
Normally when we think of being indifferent we conjure up a “couldn’t care less” attitude.
St Ignatius, the Counter Reformation Reformer, uses the term in a totally different way. His definition of the word suggests, rather, a sense of detachment. He doesn’t say that the things of this world are unimportant but he suggests that we need to develop an attitude where God’s priorities take precedence over all. So God’s will becomes the key motivation for our lives – not money, nor pleasure – nor even the length of our life.
What St. Ignatius is acknowledging, is that the command of Jesus in the sermon on the mount, is a radical reorientation of our lives. It confronts the attitude of the “tacked on faith” that our lives so often portray. Too often, faith is that insurance policy, that little extra that gives our life a deeper dimension, or faith is that element that stops our lives being as shallow as that of so many people around us. “Indifference”, however, declares that “tacked on faith” is not what God wants for His children. Our Creator wants lives anchored in Him, not in the transient trappings of this world – no matter how alluring and tempting they may be.
Does this mean that Jesus is calling for an ascetic other worldliness? Not at all. Jesus enjoyed a party just as much as the rest of us. (See Tim Chester’s “A Meal with Jesus”). Our problem is that we often confuse the things of this world with ultimate meaning. Our wealth, fame, house, possessions, or my case, books, is what, so often, gives our life meaning, rather than our relationship with God and our place in His Kingdom. That is why Jesus gives us the warning about our heart and our treasures. That is why he says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. We so easily confuse the temporary niceties for eternal realities.
Secretly we think that Jesus’ command and St. Ignatius’ injunction cause us to be hard done by. Somehow we are missing out. But let us reflect more deeply. Does the God who sent His son to die on the cross for us, whose son is right now preparing a place for us, who dwells within us with his Holy Spirit, who pictures a city the streets of which are paved with gold – is this a God who wants to short change us and deprive us? Or is it that He has greater things in mind for His people and it is just our feeble baby like like imagination that clamours for the dross rather than wait expectantly for the gold.
Categories: Camino, christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, St. Ignatius
Tags: Christian, detachment, Devotion, Faith, indifference, St. Ignatius
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The New Conspirators: A Review
The New Conspirators: Creating the future one mustard seed at a time, Tom Sine, IVP 2008.
In 1980 Tom Sine challenged western Christians in the “Mustard Seed Conspiracy” to use their wealth in small seemingly insignificant ways to make a real difference in the world. He heightened that call in 1999 in “Mustard Seed versus Mac World” when he explored the dangers of Globalism and the consumer culture and suggested ways in which, via the mustard seed metaphor, Christians/the church could respond in Biblical ways.
“The New Conspirators” maintains the metaphor and the call. Written before the GFC occurred, it nevertheless says much to challenge us .
He starts off by taking us on a journey, exploring how “new conspirators” are being and doing church, in what Michael Frost would call this “Exilic” age. Sine explores 4 models: Emerging, Missional, Mosaic and Monastic. I found this section particularly exciting as it revealed ways in which church can be relevant in an age that (in western cultures) is rapidly turning its back on the Christian faith. This section also shows that there is no one answer and that our God given creativity is a key to how we make ourselves relevant.
In the next section Sine asks to what extent globalisation is shaping our culture (and imagination) . This scenario becomes the basis for his call that Christians have been called to create life transforming alternatives – alternatives that take regard for all sections of society – in particular the vulnerable.
He concludes by giving us five imaginative challenges with regard to the world as it is, stewardship, mission, community and entrepreneurship.
This is a challenging book, but unlike many that can be deflating by revealing a disheartening picture that is too immense, Sine’s mustard seed approach, littered with current examples of effective action, is spirit enlivening. If you are challenged by what it means to be a relevant Kingdom worker in this post GFC globalised economy, in which the Kingdom of Christ is being marginalised – take heart and instruction from this book. After all, it only requires a mustard seed.
P.S. This book has handy questions at the end of each chapter that can be used to engender discussion and action.
Categories: Book Review, christian, Christianity, Church, Teaching
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Church Structure and Christian Obedience
Being “between churches” I was ruminating on the positive aspects of institutional church. When a person is a traditional church member there is a lot of security and familiarity within its organisation. Its activities and expectations provide daily guidance and discipline in a very concrete way. The church services, Bible studies, men’s and women’s groups, Sunday school, mission and deaconate organisations, the giving – all provide a ready made and comfortable ( and comforting) structure in which to live and serve.
Being “between churches” at present means all those usual trappings are absent. My wife and I have to invent them for ourselves. We need to determine our worship (yes, we always sit in the same “pews”). Bible study is easier because that is part of our regular pattern. But tithes, who and where to serve and other church-like activities, we need to determine for ourselves. A home church would have similar questions – or should we call them possibilities?
For us, the positives are that our current situation makes us think deeply about our Christian life, service and expression as it would be easy to slide into “nothingness” as far as faith and public worship are concerned if we not proactive.
And yes, we are also aware that we need to be part of a living expression of the body of Christ and as neither of us is musical, we miss the singing! However, our journey does give us time to pause and reflect on what “church” should be and look like in the C21st.
A Verse for Monday Psalm 8:1
LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Categories: christian, Creation, Devotional
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A Poem on Sunday Gen 3:4-5
The world tugs and wrenches at my heart.
Slyly it lures and entices.
Whispers and cajoles.
“You will know the truth.”
“You will not die.”
“You will be like God!”
“Bite, chew, enjoy!”
“Savour the taste.”
Slyly it lures and entices.
Whispers and cajoles.
“You will know the truth.”
“You will not die.”
“You will be like God!”
“Bite, chew, enjoy!”
“Savour the taste.”
…
The world still tugs, wrenches and lures. Double minded heart. Dissembling mind.…
The drag and pull relentless, But life is at hand. The Calvary comes, Spirit descends. Still at war … … but my side is winning.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Poem
Tags: Christian, Devotion, Poem, Poem on Sunday
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Travels from Ur 