"Mutiny" and "Robin Hood" have both arrived. They deal with pirates and, of course, Robin Hood. The struggle of the 99% against the 1% - the exploited against the exploiters. Great to read of this ongoing struggle from entirely, for me, different perspectives. Will add some thoughts later.

OK, I know, why more than 12 months with nothing. Could be that had nothing much to say. Could be that things were quite 'shitty' in the church and I had to take some time off. And for the last 9 months or so I've been trying to come to grips with my concluding ministry at Glenelg after 15 years. The end of 2012 will see me, probably, in some kind of 'retirement' phase. I'll be just off 67 and despite it being the case that ageism and age discrimination should not exist I'm having trouble persuading folk that I am still passionate and up to it as a minister. At the same time there are a number of recent graduate students looking for a church to serve, and I've been told (by someone who matters) that folk like me should assist them to have an opportunity to exercise ministry in a congregation. As well it seems that congregations are all looking for someone in their 40's with young and teenage children, a committed partner and, oh yes, that the minister has a good 20 years experience.
I'm getting a bit maudlin. Time to stop complaining and start looking at what is around. Perhaps it is retirement and doing something very different. Perhaps it is getting out of the comfort zone and entering into a new unknown.
Will reflect on some different reading next time. Books have just arrived from o'seas in last two days.

Easter reflection 2012

The gospel is the proclamation of a new age begun through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That gospel, moreover, has a form, a political form. It is embodied in a church that is required to be always ready to give hospitality to the stranger. The gospel is a society in which difference is not denied but used for the discovery of goods in common. It is, as Yoder observes, a society called into being by Jesus who gave them a new way to live.

He gave them a new way to deal with offenders - by forgiving them. He gave them a new way to deal with violence - by suffering. He gave them a new way to deal with money - by sharing it. He gave them a new way to deal with problems of leadership - by drawing on the gift of every member, even the most humble. He gave them a new way to deal with a corrupt society - by building a new order, not making the old. He gave them a new pattern of relationships between man and woman, between parent and child, between master and slave, in which was made concrete a radical new vision of what it means to be a human person. He gave them a new attitude toward the state and toward the "enemy nation."

That is the politics begun in Christ. That is the "good news" - that we have been freed from the presumed necessities that we inflict on ourselves in the name of "peace," a peace that too often turns out to be an order established and continued through violence.

Is it any wonder that Jesus was despised and rejected? Is it any wonder when the church is faithful to Christ that she finds herself persecuted and condemned? Yet if such a church does not exist, the world has no alternative to the violence hidden in our fear of one another.

(forwarded by a colleague in the USA)