From Knowledge to Wisdom

Scary Bad News

Despite the fact that my family classify me as a "doom and gloomer", I actually think that I have a naive optimistic view of the world. That partly comes from being a baby boomer - growing up in the fifties and sixties of the 20th century, it seemed that the normal course of events in the world was for things in general to get better. In the UK we had free schooling, free healthcare from the National Health Service and in the sixties The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Radio Luxembourg and stereo record players. And it was possible to hitch-hike from my home in Edinburgh to the south of France.

The only serious doom and gloom bit that I recall was a few days around the Cuban Missile Crisis when I was outside school looking up at the sky and wondering whether there were actually US and Soviet nuclear bombs being delivered over our heads by ICBM. Well, of course, there was the assassination of John Kennedy. That was a serious break in the everything gets better all the time trend.

Anyway, three news items last weekend put me into a doom and gloom perspective on world affairs:

The Bush regime has the characteristics of a Mafiosi organization Jan Tromp, the Volkskrant's correspondent in the USA, is moving on after four years. He had a feature article in Saturday's paper that was an inventory of evidence of the corrupt, secretive, deceptive, anti-democratic and illegal activities of the Bush regime. Now, of course, we knew this already. Ages ago I joined the kids on a Stop Bush demo.

kinda self-explanatory.    Originally uploaded to Flickr by jillwrites.com.

But, somehow, the extensive matter of fact inventory of known evidence wiped away all hope that somehow things might come right in the USA, in the end.

European Body Life Conference 2 - Purpose of the Church

The themes of the European Body Life Conference and "God's Ultimate Passion" form the basis for a talk for our gathering this morning. Here are my notes:

I have mentioned before a book I have been reading "God's Ultimate Passion" by Frank Viola and some of you know that I went to a conference in early June where Frank Viola was the main speaker and his presentations were an introduction to the themes of the book. So  .... it will not be surprise that I am sharing this morning some things I am absorbing from these sources.

I am also working from the three readings we had this morning.

• Isaiah 5:1-7 About the love of God for His people and how he would like the relationship to be. His disappointment.
• Paul from 1 Cor 12:12-31 About the Body of Christ and its parts and their functions and relationships.
• Jesus in Luke 12:49-56 with some tough statements about the conflicts and divisions He is bringing and the signs of the times
  

The Context
I think the reading from Isaiah provides us with some context for consideration of the themes of the other readings. It is talking about a landowner with a vineyard on his land and the care and effort he put into establishing and cultivating his vineyard. And his disappointment that it did not yield any good fruit but only bad.

What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad? (Is 5:4 NIV)

The writer is very explicit about this story being an image of God, the landowner, and His care and love for His people represented by the vineyard.

The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. (Is 5:7 NIV)

We can see here in microcosm the story of the OT. God created in love, hope and expectation. He looked forward to relationship with mankind. But mankind fell into rebellion and out of relationship with God. But God still hoped and loved and sought ways of recovering the relationship. Until, as in this passage and the remainder of the chapter - He considers giving up and laying waste to the vineyard and threatening the people of Israel with destruction and exile.

We know that in the end God offered the ultimate means of salvation, reconciliation and restoration.

So this image of God's love and care for His creation, although in many times and many ways He has been disappointed and frustrated with the response to His love and care, ... this image provides a context for considering the themes of the other readings.

The Purpose of the Church
Some propositions about the purpose of the church ...