A recent publication across my desk reminded me of an article I wrote in June 2006 in response to the suggestion that Christians are the Light in the Darkness. It appears that in yet another publication...
"The colonial [religio-arrogant] mentality of the Christian taking God to the barbarians still prevails. We may not say it, we definitely don’t write it, [although this time we have, in black and red] but underlying the motivation of our giving, and our going, is that belief that we are both the light and living in the light, and our duty is to save those in who live in darkness.
"How arrogant can we be? Is it not possible that God already exists in that which we label darkness? Is it not possible that God reveals Godself to all people, regardless of religion, ethnicity and colour? Could it be that 'everything was created through God; nothing - not one thing! - came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light [God] blazed out of the darkness.’ (The Bible: John 1:3-4 The Message)
"Is it possible that we do not always recognise the fact that the Light shines on in the darkness because we are measuring the Light by our own predetermined set of rules and biases?
"Our responsibility is not to take God into that which we call darkness. God is already there, and the darkness has never, and can never, overpower the Light (John 1:5). Our role is to find the ways in which the Light is already being revealed by asking God to open our eyes and having helped us recognise the Creator’s continuing engagement, to become partners in God’s revelations. It will involve us putting aside our constrictive assumptions of God and rather than being lecturers, becoming listeners and learners as well as contributors.
Monday, 20 July 2009
What Profit in Your Prayers?
I WAS HUNGRY:
and you set going a humanisitc association,
and you discussed my hunger.
Thank you.
I WAS NAKED:
and in your mind you debated
the morality of my appearance.
I WAS SICK:
and you knelt and thanked God
for your health.
I WAS HOMELESS:
and you preached to me
of the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I WAS LONELY:
and you left me alone
to pray for me.
You seem so holy,
so close to God.
But I am still hungry and lonesome, so cold.
So where have your prayers gone?
What does it profit a man
to page through his book of prayers
when the rest of the world
is crying for his help?
and you set going a humanisitc association,
and you discussed my hunger.
Thank you.
I WAS NAKED:
and in your mind you debated
the morality of my appearance.
I WAS SICK:
and you knelt and thanked God
for your health.
I WAS HOMELESS:
and you preached to me
of the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I WAS LONELY:
and you left me alone
to pray for me.
You seem so holy,
so close to God.
But I am still hungry and lonesome, so cold.
So where have your prayers gone?
What does it profit a man
to page through his book of prayers
when the rest of the world
is crying for his help?
Friday, 10 July 2009
CLIMBING MOUNTAIN DEO
Once all the people of the world were one, they lived, they cried, they laughed and they died together - all in the shadow of Mount Deo. But when selfish ambition and greed were released from their prison people became suspicious of one another, they sought division rather than communion, and they ignored the shadow of Mount Deo.
Humanity planted new villages and towns in the valleys and plains surrounding Mount Deo. In all directions they dispersed around the Mount: to the East, the West, the South and the North they fought and claimed land as their own. They developed new rules of living, new laws of life and they sought to find new paths to climb the mountain.
For many years suspicion fed jealousy and people allowed xenophobic hedges to grow. Every now and then the people would attack one another - accusing each other of cultural, moral and religious superiority. Tolerance and acceptance in the face of diversity are hard won today, in the shadow of Mount Deo.
But, despite the inherent distrust and suspicion of all others, there existed a kernel of hope. Suspicion and greed could not completely destroy the power of friend - and from the villages in the shadow of Mount Deo four friends met: they ate, they laughed, they cried - and they hoped.
They hoped for a time when once again, the people in the shadow of Mount Deo would honour and respect one another; they prayed for a time when diversity would not divide but unite; and they longed for an era that would be defined by acceptance in the face of difference.
From the vantage point in their villages, Hameed, Isaac, Daryl and Yun stared with eyes of hope at the summit of Mount Deo. Hameed looked east and saw the sun rise above the peak, Isaac looked north and watched the shadow slowly shrink, Daryl gazed west as the side of the mountain was lost in darkness and Yun stared to the south as the shadow cast by the rising sun changed the shapes on the face of the slope.
The friends stared in awe at the same Mountain - and yet, as each of them had named it differently, so too the summit and the path to it, appeared different. Each of them imagined a different journey. Each of them plotted a unique path to the summit - yet each of them longed for the same goal - the Summit of Mount Deo.
___
Is it possible that the Cartographer has mapped multiple paths to Summit Deo and that humanity, in its division and diversity has named them in their own language? Is there a hope that the climb, though by different paths, and the reaching of the summit, though by different light are more important than the name, the language, the division, the dispersal and the past?
Humanity planted new villages and towns in the valleys and plains surrounding Mount Deo. In all directions they dispersed around the Mount: to the East, the West, the South and the North they fought and claimed land as their own. They developed new rules of living, new laws of life and they sought to find new paths to climb the mountain.
For many years suspicion fed jealousy and people allowed xenophobic hedges to grow. Every now and then the people would attack one another - accusing each other of cultural, moral and religious superiority. Tolerance and acceptance in the face of diversity are hard won today, in the shadow of Mount Deo.
But, despite the inherent distrust and suspicion of all others, there existed a kernel of hope. Suspicion and greed could not completely destroy the power of friend - and from the villages in the shadow of Mount Deo four friends met: they ate, they laughed, they cried - and they hoped.
They hoped for a time when once again, the people in the shadow of Mount Deo would honour and respect one another; they prayed for a time when diversity would not divide but unite; and they longed for an era that would be defined by acceptance in the face of difference.
From the vantage point in their villages, Hameed, Isaac, Daryl and Yun stared with eyes of hope at the summit of Mount Deo. Hameed looked east and saw the sun rise above the peak, Isaac looked north and watched the shadow slowly shrink, Daryl gazed west as the side of the mountain was lost in darkness and Yun stared to the south as the shadow cast by the rising sun changed the shapes on the face of the slope.
The friends stared in awe at the same Mountain - and yet, as each of them had named it differently, so too the summit and the path to it, appeared different. Each of them imagined a different journey. Each of them plotted a unique path to the summit - yet each of them longed for the same goal - the Summit of Mount Deo.
___
Is it possible that the Cartographer has mapped multiple paths to Summit Deo and that humanity, in its division and diversity has named them in their own language? Is there a hope that the climb, though by different paths, and the reaching of the summit, though by different light are more important than the name, the language, the division, the dispersal and the past?
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