The Black Knight

(Cue thundering guitar riff)
Black knight is not right.
I don't feel so bright.
I don't care to sit tight.

Maybe I'll find on the way down the line
That I'm free, free to be me.
Black knight is a long way from home.

Who needs a dark tree?
Who wants a rough sea?

(Chorus:) Black knight, black knight, we don't need a black knight.

I can't see - dark night.
Black knight is a long way from home.

With apologies to Ian Gillan - the master. Who knew?

The Dangers of Speaking with Your Mouth Full

Oh dear, getting behind with the posting. Just a short one for today. Went down the social club and had a very interesting chat with the Secretary of the Temperance Club about the difference between methylated spirits and ethyl alcohol. Unfortunately she was well over the limit herself. Never mind, eh, do as I say and not as I do?

Literary Tricks

(Re)discovered a figure of speech on "Eggheads" yesterday and wanted to compose a few. Two to go on with:

"Time ran out and so did the dog."

"I cleaned out the garage first and the casino second."

Eggheads called it zeugma but Wikipedia says this is syllepsis, a sub-category.

Quiet Day Quotes

"It was my grandfather that taught me how to kill."

"The body is like the benefit system; designed to fail you."

(Contributions welcomed.)

Edit: and the image of the day is M... in his woolly jumper modelling the "drug baron" look.

Suffering Schillebeeckx

(Catching up on Leading Thinkers)

Anyone who gets up the nose of the Pope is all right by me.

Revelation is to be mediated through experience (but not reduced to it). The subjective/objective is a false dichotomy.

Mystery, the unknown, mysterion (Graham and I thought they were in Captain Scarlet, but apparently that was somebody else.)

Rightness of belief must be expressed in a dialectic of theory and experience. God is a transformer (where do all the cartoon references fit in?) Jesus is an eschatological prophet, the paradigm of humanity.

Must live the story of Jesus to know the God of whom Jesus witnesses. Er.

It's all about being connected.

Is he just a 19th Century liberal? Or is he really undermining authority (stop cheering at the back)? And the ontological nature of the priesthood? (More cheers, suppressed.)

And just what is orthopraxis?

Abraham was a Grumpy Old Man

If he wasn't when he started he would have been after a bit, anyway. All that stuff about I've got this promise and then you get a gift and you have to promise to give it back and you don't actually have to in the end what is all that then why can't you just go about it in a straightforward manner, never mind having faith let's just say what we want shall we?

Anyway he went on a journey so I will too. Let's hope we can manage the direct route for once I don't have two hundred years.

Thoughts For the Eve of Ascension Day

The disciples did not know it until the next morning, but today is the day of closure before the start of the next phase. The waiting is finished, the unknowing and unknowable preparation has been done, the spaces are all filled. Even the i's are dotted (forgive the obtrusion). The resolution may be unexpected and shocking to some but it is resolved. Some will be happy, some will be perplexed, some are uncomfortable and inevitably some will misinterpret. How long was it before someone asked "did he really go to heaven?". Not long, I think. And then "did he come from heaven?" And then, and then .. and then the theologians got going.

No matter. The Rubicon is crossed. The gammon is averted. The study is closed. Not resignation, but a new game. The best one in town.

I have seen the sheepdogs learning new tricks.

Recipe for Disaster

Ingredients:
1 bushel of ambition
3 rivers of frustration
2 beating hearts
1 streak of defiance
1 cupful of salvation
2 fishy tails
1 flash of anger
1 well of tears
Lifetime's supply of love
Large dollop of forgiveness
Spark of creativity
Dash of hope
Large quantity of naivety and ignorance

For a really fiery mixture, marinade in a sense of history

Preparation Time: Long

Method:
Beat the ambition, love and frustration together until the skin is tender. Break the hearts and fold in.

Separate the mercy and discard (this can be fed to swine).

Chop the rest of the ingredients into small pieces, carefully remove the peace and add haphazardly.
Stir and stir again. If it does not settle, disinformation may be added.
Important: no respect should be included.

The confusion should be visible on the surface. Don't worry if it's a bit lumpy, it adds relish.

Roast the mixture under a high heat and grill on one side until flaming.
Warning: the mixture may spontaneously combust during this process. That is to be expected and quite normal. If it remains cool, boil the distressed mixture in ashes.

Strain.

Turn out.
Cover up with artificial sweetener.

A mock garnish may be added.

Do not serve.

At Odds With the Church

The radio came on this morning with the Today story about a Catholic priest, much loved by his flock, who has been removed from his post because he has broken the rules of the church. He got married. Another priest, his friend apparently, said that the rules must be obeyed because without the rules they would not be Catholics they would be Protestants or Jews. Perish the thought.

So Father Leon is not recognised as a priest because he sees a higher way. I wonder how he feels.

Pain and Healing

It is too easy to write comforting words about healing. Anyone can write a cosy 15-minute sermon about the story in John's Gospel of Jesus healing the man at the poolside. Wrap it up in a comforting theology.

That gives the impression that healing is always available; that Jesus is there with a sticking plaster to make it all well again. Well of course he is available, but sometimes the sticking plaster is not the right treatment. To assume this is to assume that healing is always the correct answer, that it is natural for humans to feel whole. That not being healed is due to lack of faith, or worse.

But it is human to feel pain and to continually experience it. And although it is tempting, attractive, to want to cure the pain, it is necessary sometimes to face the pain, to endure it, to live it. We develop all sorts of strategies to deal with pain. We distract ourselves, we deny it, we suppress it, we ignore it. But it is still there. So sometimes we face it. And to re-examine old pains, of bereavement, of loss, of rejection is also sometimes necessary - for although they (appear to) fade they do not go away.

So when someone tells you their pain, do not try to cure it. Just listen to it and share the dark place, and feel privileged that they have chosen you. And when you have your pain, do not look for solutions and potions. But find a friend who will share it with you, who will not ask anything of you, who will not try to do anything to you, who will not be embarrassed if you cry, or rage, or sigh, but who will affirm you in your pain. And value that friend.

And remember that pain brings growth and that growth is always painful.

The Song of Cassandra

I sought Fletcher but found Metzke.
I tried to be Twain and Eliot but turned into Queen.
I am Winston's friend aged twenty-three.

You need a long spoon to study the work of fiction that is the Bible; old conversations echo through time.
To step through the looking-glass you must speak Latin backwards. Then it is just the same.
Where are you, Leo?

Can you hear me, Jane?

Break the pot. Shatter it against the wall. Grind it underfoot until none remains. The image persists.

It's time to leave Kansas.

Personality Crisis (The New York Dolls)

When you go down the rabbit hole you come back a different person. Alice knows that and so does Grace.
But do you come back ten feet small or ten inches tall?
And does it matter?

Waiting, Hoping, Believing

The holy trinity. Which is the hardest?

Rahner Rocks!

This week's leading thinker is Karl Rahner, the antithesis of Barth. Whereas Barth says all revelation comes from God and there's no other place to start from (or to receive anything) Rahner says it's the very nature of being human that enables you to be aware of God.

In one fell swoop he does away with proofs and he solves the Chalcedon paradox in a very creative but Scripturally sound way! The divine and the human are not a dichotomy but intimately complementary. Vorgriff auf esse indeed.

Slogans:

To live Him is to know Him.

Knowledge is Mysticism.

Secularism diminishes Humanity. Spirituality enhances it. (Poor old Dawkins, doing exactly the wrong thing again.)

We do not seek to dominate but to be suffused by. Eucharist is not an incursion but a manifestation (an epiphany???) Just need to make sure that not too much gets in under the net. Need to assert the uniqueness of Christ before we fall into nirvana-seeking. Yet nirvana-seeking isn't too far away?

Bit concerned about deeming people to be within "the Church" and that phrase was a bit too lightly used.

Oh yes. What is wrong with Schleiermacher? barely allowed to mention his name. Maybe we get there in a bit.

What Do You Want From Me?

Sweettalkinhandholdinsoftwalkin
hairgoldencoolprayinsafeleadin
homestayinmilkfeedinloudswearintrashshoutin
sloganwearinbringoutinsmartmouthinlovegivin?

Values

Speech is silver
and
Silence is golden
but
Listening is diamond set in platinum.

Mixed Messages

If the church you're in starts singing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

With apologies to Roger Waters

Books For Men

If you go into [name of famous Christian bookshop deleted] you will find a section on feminist theolgy. A large vibrant challenging section at a convenient browsing height.

Tucked away on the bottom shelf (Freudian?) you will find a tiny, rather apologetic, "men's section".

Well it's right to be apologetic about it.

Whereas the feminist section is full of affirming, inspiring, provocative, positive stuff the books for blokes are appalling.

They fall into two types.

The first type is about sex. Not having any, to be precise. How it's a real problem, how you have to pray harder and harder every day and how you can never truly succeed because the danger of falling away is always present and defeat is always round the corner (there's probably a witty turn of phrase here, but it won't come). Even Stephen Fry would find them hard going. Dispiriting, insulting, repetitive, strident books. Who writes whole books about this? Yes it's an issue, men are obsessed by sex, but come on, give us a break, change the record, can't you say anything uplifting, a whole book?

Still the feminists may say there is a need for such books. They won't say that about the second type. They'll do more than that - if they knew they existed they probably would want to burn the shop down.

For the second type says that the man is the head of the household and it's all his responsibility to keep his wife from falling into sin, for she can't do it herself, she's too weak and it's only to be expected that if he relinquishes control, the household will go to hell (literally). He is to be her teacher, her instructor, her example and yes her disciplinarian. I kid you not. Woman can only be saved one at a time by her strong man, who shows no weakness.

Per-lease. The first type is insulting to men, the second type to women.

So, can someone try and write us a truly masculinist theology book, please? Just one?

Dangerous Element

No-one ever shouts Water! Earth! Air!

Fire!

That's the destructive one. So a flash flood or a mud slide can be massively destructive but they follow the geography. The fire will burn whatever it finds in any direction. The air must be polluted or thin to be a hazard - pure oxygen is dangerous because of the fire hazard. In a tunnel, the fire is the most dangerous, creating choking smoke and forcing you away.

The blonde may be glamorous and the brunette sultry, but the redhead is fiery and that's her attraction.

Rivers are watchable when they are gentle and babbling, air when it is fluffy clouds and rustling in the trees and earth - when it's a placid pasture? But fire is more exciting and fascinating the more out of control it gets.

The Holy Spirit came in tongues of fire.

We splash about in the water, we take the air for granted, we might have a mud-fight when we're small, but we all love playing with fire.

Flaming Effervescence
Igniting Iridescence
Rock'n'roll Radiance
Emerging Evanescence.

Set The Controls For the Heart of the Outback

Wonderful digeridoo sound.

Also:
The Great Gig in the Sea.
Wish You Were a Kangaroo.
The Lunatics are on the Grass.
Time and Money.
We Don't Need No ...
Astronomy Domine but no Interstellar Overdrive
and no Gnomes.

Thanks to Bruce and Sheila.
To find where they come from, go here