Christchurch Earthquake Liturgy

I have wanted to blog meaningfully about the earthquake, but found myself inadequate, preparing for this Sunday's service has been hard enough, but unlike a blog post I have no choice about doing that. Three posts about the earthquake that I believe are meaningful and am not ashamed to be leaning on in my own preparation for tomorrow:

• Frank Rees: The God of the Tsunami
• Paul Windsor: Christchurch Comfort
• Doug Chaplin: Praying in and after the Christchurch Disaster

Facebook Theology: Is God a Literalist?

How to pray when you are on reality TV

I was watching The Amazing Race last night and was reminded of a thought I often have when watching American reality TV (which I try not to do too much, but I am only human). Here's the thing, it really really bugs me when people in a competition pray for God's help to win, or even just not to lose. It is just plain ridiculous, and if God did help you it would be cheating.
Here is how you should pray:

Heavenly Father,
Your name is holy help me not to profane it or take it in vain today
You kingdom is coming, help me not to do anything on TV that will hinder that
Your will be done, so I recognise that may or may not include me winning this competition
Thank you for giving me not only my daily bread but the extreme luxury of being on reality TV and doing wasteful and pointless activities for the entertainment of the privileged few
Lead me out of temptation, but when the opportunity does arise (as after all I know it will.. this is what reality TV is all about) help me not to do anything really stupid that I will regret later
And deliver me from the manifest evil of treating the people I meet and interact with as mere pawns in my game, help me to remember these people live here and I am their guest and that I am commanded to love my neighbour as myself
For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory and may mine be the sense of perspective I should get from praying that
Amen

Matt 6:9b-10: The Lord's Prayer Revisited

πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς
ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου
γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου
ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς

Which we uually translate something like:
Our Father, who is in Heaven, hallowed be thy name
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

But we tend to read 'hallowed' as being a stament of fact, i.e. 'your name is holy.' But this takes us away from the original Greek where the archaic 'hallowed' is perhaps better rendered 'sanctified.' Our English translation also misses two other things present in the Greek. 1) The repetition of the word σου (your/of yours) at the end of three phrases which links together name, kingdom and will. and 2) the use of the imperative form of each verb. Perhaps my translation here (which is poor English) demonstrates those features.

Father of ours, who in Heaven is,
Sanctified must be the name of yours
Coming must be the kingdom of yours
Happening must be the will of yours
As in Heaven, so on Earth.

Reading it like this the prayer takes on a different shape. 1) Reality is reflected, in that God's name is often not (as it should be) holy but often treated as a swear word and used casually. 2) The inevitability of God's name being sanctified, the Kingdom's arrival, and the accomplishment of God's will, shows our prayer not to be a request for God to do something but an alignment of ourselves through prayer to the future certain promise of Heaven coming to Earth. If God's name will one day be treated with total holiness then we antipate that day by doing so now. If God's kingdom and will will one day be supremely manifested on Earth then we anticpate that day by living according to them now.

[Disclaimer: I am still a novice when it comes to Bible translation and so take my translation as being a provisional attempt of a learner rather than the work of an expert, please!]

Headlines on the persecuted church

This month from from Barnabas Fund

SRI LANKA - ANTI-CONVERSION LAW MAKES PROGRESS
PAKISTAN - CHRISTIANS ATTACKED AND CHURCH DAMAGED IN PUNJAB
KYRGYZSTAN - PRESIDENT SIGNS RESTRICTIVE NEW LAW ON RELIGION
CENTRAL AFRICA - ATTACKS BY LORD'S RESISTANCE ARMY ON CHURCHES
CHINA - PASTOR "BIKE" ZHANG DRIVEN OUT OF BEIJING
ERITREA - RENEWAL OF GOVERNMENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHURCHES
BANGLADESH - ANSWERED PRAYER FOR DECEMBER ELECTIONS

Does anyone know what it is about Bangladesh that the current trend towards the radicalisation of Islamic countries doesn't seem to be taking place there? (Or maybe it is but not as quick?)

Phosphorus melted my Daughter in Law

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7848768.stm

Anyone still require evidence that humanity is in need of a judge and a saviour?

God have mercy.

Regarding Gaza

By Rev. Alex Awad, Dean of Students, Bethlehem Bible College
December 31, 2008

One hundred tons of bombs are Israel’s way of saying to the captive citizens of Gaza, Merry Christmas, Happy Eid (feast) and Happy New Year. These “gifts” that were showered from US-made F-16 fighter jets demolished government buildings, mosques, a university, hundreds of homes and snuffed out many lives – among them scores of children. Like many in this part of the world and around the globe my heart aches when I read and see pictures of the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and likewise when I see Israelis killed or injured by Qassam rockets. However, I have a special love for Gaza and its people. Before the strict closure of Gaza, Bethlehem Bible College used to have an extension there. I went to Gaza once every Thursday to teach our students and often I stayed the night there. Interacting with Gazans in class, in church and in the community, I learned much about the kindness and the hospitality of the people of Gaza, both Muslims and Christians. The majority of the people of Gaza are not Hamas militants. They are people like you and I who long to live in peace day in and day out. Regretfully, everyone in the Gaza Strip--men, women, children, civilians and fighters alike—is now feeling the horrible impact and devastation caused by the newest and deadliest Israeli incursion over the Strip in many years.

There is no doubt that the Qassam rockets launched against the western Negev and Ashkelon by Islamic militants linked to Hamas cause great pain and anxiety for many Israelis. Most people agree that Israel, like any other country, has the right to defend itself from outside attacks. However in this unequal conflict between Israel and Hamas, Israel, as usual, has overdone it. When it comes to dealing with its enemies, Israel has a pattern of being extreme. “An eye for an eye” does not satisfy. It has to be more like one hundred eyes for one eye and one hundred teeth for one tooth. When the Israelis attacked Lebanon in June 2006, they sprayed the country with millions of cluster bombs (which are internationally banned) and these bombs continue to kill innocent people even today. What troubles me most in this current war is that most of the victims of this Israeli incursion on Gaza are average people-men, women and children--who are struggling to just to survive under the extreme and harsh conditions that the Israeli siege has created. For 40 years the Gaza Strip has been under Israeli occupation and during the last few years, although the Israelis redeployed their troops from Gaza, they never withdrew the symbols of their dominance and occupation. They continue to control the borders, which mean controlling food, medicine, fuel and goods going in and out of the Strip. In essence, they have turned Gaza into the largest open-air prison in the world.

If the Israeli leaders assume that they can assure the security of their citizens by the might and the power of their superior army and air force, they are mistaken. The outrage caused among the peoples in the Arab and Islamic world by these horrible attacks will most likely blow dark clouds over the skies of Israel or elsewhere in the world.

Israel should learn to negotiate with its neighbors in good faith. Negotiating in good faith means implementing UN resolutions, ending the occupation of the West Bank, opening the borders of the Gaza Strip to the rest of the world and stopping military incursions into the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The rise of Hamas and militancy in Gaza is directly related to a vacuum that Israel and the United States have created by dragging their feet in never-ending and fruitless peace negotiations with moderate Palestinians. As long as Israel continues to place obstacles on the path of the peace process and as long as the US continues to allow it to do so, we can expect new outbursts of violence in the Middle East that will cause more horrors and waste more lives on both sides of the political divide.

The Israelis have the right to live in peace and security and so do the people of Gaza. I call on you, friends, to pray for the civilians on both sides who are caught in this nightmare. In addition to praying, let us protest these lethal bombs with a barrage of our own letters to our elected leaders calling for an end to this human tragedy.

Getting in Tune

You will be forgiven if you don't know what that is. Before a practice or performance a guitarist will often spend minutes hunched over such a box, focussed intently on its flashing lights and arm moving on the screen. The box itself makes no music, but if the guitarist wants her music to sound 'right', even more if she wants to play along with other musicians, the guitar must first be brought into accordance with the box. It is a guitar tuner.

For the same reason, Christians need to spend time as often as possible in prayer and reading the Bible. These precious times allow us to tune our thoughts, desires, and feelings into harmony with God's. When our lives feel dischordant and out of tune our greatest need is to reorientate our inner world according to the music we find in scripture and the great composer we meet in prayer. Then we will know what it is to live in harmony, not with the world around us but the transcendent reality of God. The same God who will one day bring all things into his loving and glorious harmony.

How to pray when you have the attention span of a puppy in a field of bunnies

OK, every once in a while I decide to Sort-My-Prayer-Life-Out. I'm sure many of you can relate, even if you dont pray, it is just like any other kind of resolution. I normally last about a week of doing 15/30/60 minutes (whatever I decided to do that time) before I miss a few sessions and then feel too guilty to pray at all. Kind of misses the point of having a relationship with God through prayer if I just use it to generate periodic bursts of guilt, n'est pas? This is what I do now, maybe it will help you. Or maybe you need to tell me i need to get back to being on my knees for an hour a day and try harder to focus. Let me know what you think :)

When I eat I say a prayer.
When I walk I say a prayer.
When I start a car journey, I say a prayer.
When I put my daughter to bed, I pray with her.
When I go to bed I pray with my wife (if she is awake).
When I read a prayer request on email I say a prayer.
When I see some bad news I say a prayer.
When someone prays at church or elsewhere I pray with them.
When I start a difficult task I pray.
When I have to make a big decision I pray.
When I feel anger, or despair, or joy, or love, I pray.

Not everytime, but if I miss one or two, then it is not such a big deal, and over a day I have ended up doing lots of praying. And I have spent time with God, the transcendant one, throughout my day.

Jos, Nigeria: Local Election Sparks Religious Rioting which Kills Hundreds

Hundreds of people were killed and an estimated 7,000 – 10,000 fled their homes in two days of rioting last week between mainly Muslim Hausa people and mainly Christian Berom people in Jos, the capital of Plateau State, Nigeria. Senior Christian leaders in the state believe that the riots were coordinated and planned, and that the political events were used as a pretext for anti-Christian violence.

The rioting began at 2.00 a.m. on Friday, 28th November, following local elections on Thursday 27th. A police spokesman said that the clashes were triggered by a rumour that the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) had lost the election to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In the midst of the violence, the election results were announced, confirming that the PDP had won all 17 local government areas, including the Jos North local government area where the violence was centred. In Jos the ANPP is considered to be a predominantly Muslim party, whereas the PDP is perceived to be mainly Christian.

A curfew was enforced and troops deployed with orders to shoot curfew-breakers on sight. By Sunday calm had been restored. Most estimates of the death toll suggest that 200 to 400 people were killed. Both churches and mosques have been burnt.

[Please pray. For the rest of the article click here. Source: Barnabas Fund]