>Side by side by God

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>Yesterday we played with our text from John 14:15-21 -particularly “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth.”

At one stage “counsellor” was translated “advocate” or more obscurely “paraclete”. Both those words carry the meaning of “called to the side of” – so Jesus is promising another one to be “on/at our side” (the other one being Jesus himself). It’s quite something to have God “at/on our side”.

Preparing yesterday’s sermon I came across these words: “We observe some people who are seriously ill and marvel at their courage and doggedness. How do they do it?, we wonder. What enables them to go on and not become discouraged and bitter? Then we notice a worn bible and prayer books by their bedside; the regular visits of a eucharistic minister bringing them communion and words of support from parishioners; family and friends who assure the infirmed of regular prayers and visits.” – All these at her side – as advocate, counsellor, paraclete and all those other words we use to describe the effect of God’s work at our side and on our side – encourager, comforter and peace. I wonder how this understanding inspires a more effective ministry of advocacy – the nurse, solicitor, neighbour, friend and priest.

It reminds me of another reference to God being at our side in his creation of companionship and relationship when kneeling on man’s side removed one of his ribs to create a woman. (Genesis 2:21) There’s a good cartoon here with Eve saying “No Adam, I don’t want to see your scar.”

>Getting off my high horse

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> How do you climb down from a high horse? When you’ve decided to ride a high horse, how do you get down? That so much better than what might be a more modern phrasing: “how to get out of the car without showing your nickers” – but that video – see below – does explain the steps we need to take to climb down with dignity.

1. practice

2. gather your material – (not your skirt, but your thinking)

3. get someone to help you down

4. avoid heaving – it should look effortless. Let people support you

5. balance – make sure you have a firm footing – falling on a curb or banana skin isn’t going to help the dignified climbdown

6. make it swift – should be done with one flowing movement –

When you’ve committed to an issue, how do you withdraw? How do you withdraw from Iraq?

This image: http://rubyshooz.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/high-horse.jpg

Here’s how to get out of a car without showing your nickers – (I love the wink at the end):

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

David HerbertLeave a comment

“How are we going to cope with this?” or “What on earth can we do about that?” is so often the starting point for a relevant and exciting piece of theological work, even though it begins on a negative and worrying note….. It is a fact that good theology is more likely to derive from a problem rather than a statement, more likely to arise in a prison than a palace.
Laurie Green

The whole team are leaders

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Leadership is not the personal responsibility of the team leader. It is to be exercised by all both collectively and individually. So the role of the team leader is to encourage growth in leadership in your colleagues. Just as a cricket captain seeks to bring out the best in bowler or batsman, so the team leader encourages, motivates.
Geoffrey Cornell – How to become a Creative Church Leader

>Now can you see over the wall?

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>

How we need each other! This celebration of cooperation is enacted in Catalan at various festivals.Besides the people who actually climb, many are also needed to form the the base of the castell. They help sustain the weight and act as a sort of safety net. How about this as a team building exercise for our clergy conference, or something for our all age worship?

Dee Hock agonised over what makes an institution or organisation and has this to say: “Healthy organisations are a mental concept of relationship to which people are drawn by hope, vision, values and meanikng, and liberty to cooperatively pursue them.” (p120) Healthy organisations induce behaviour whereas unhealthy organisations compel behaviour and are destructive. He adds: “Without a deeply held, shared purpose that gives a meaning to their lives …. communities will disintegrate, and organisations become instruments of tyranny.”

“People deprived of self-organisation and self governance are inherently ungovernable.” (p121)

A free image from wikimedia commons

Nature

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The striking of a match is every bit as wonderful as the working of a brain; the union of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen in a molecule of water isevery bit as wonderful as the growth of a child. nature does not class her works in order of merit; everything is just as easy to her as everything else: she puts her wholemind into all that she does … she lives through all life, extends throaugh all extent, spreads undivided, operates unspent.
Stephen Paget

from Dee Hock

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Without an abundance of nonmaterial values and an equal abundance of nonmonetary exchange of material value, no true community ever existed or ever will. … When we attempt to monetise all value, we methodically disconnect people and destroy community.

True community requires proximity; continual, direct contact and interaction between the people, place, and things of which it is composed. Throughout history, the fundamental building block, the quintessential community, has always been the family. It is there that the greatest nonmonetary exchange of value takes place. It is there that the most powerful nonmaterial values are created and exchanged. It is from that community, for better or worse, that all others are formed. The nonmonetary exchange of value is the vary heart and soul of community, and community is the inescapable, essential element of civil society.

Birth of the Chaordic Order – page 43