The Daily Gazelle

A Reader Replies to "The Religious �Right� and Fox News Fiction"

Mon, 03 May 2010 19:50:00 +0100

SFOT writes in response to a November article(link)

Thank you, SFOS, for responding to this article. So few do, out of the 100,000 visitors per year. The primary purpose of the Daily Gazelle has been to encourage discussion, but has not succeeded very well in doing so.

It would be helpful, however, if your comments addressed specifics of what you dislike about what I have written. The Editor would love to read reasoned responses from different points of view, particularly within a Christian perspective. You said:

�I�ve heard you wax poetic about maintaining unity among Christians and how the �us v. them� debate is tearing us all apart and has been for a long time, however it doesn�t look like you�re doing much of anything to help it at all, by the looks of this.�

I confess that I have noticed myself being a bit strident of late, for which I apologise. The thing about conversations between people of differing views is the need for conversation. The Editor has tried to engage people in conversation here, and at times (if you read back far enough) this has worked well. But not with American politics. I have raised questions with friends via other media, such as Facebook and email, in the desire for genuine dialogue, but this has not worked well. My questions are never answered. The responses tend to be along the lines of ad hominem attack, confusion of categories of discussion, dismissal as �liberal� which apparently needs no response, and silence. I have pushed the limits of the bonds of friendship and kinship, without reasoned responses to my questions. I have come near to the point of despair, and unfortunately have shown it in being less than kind in my use of adjectives. �Delusional� is not a good term for conversation. Oddly, though, it seems to have finally provoked someone to write.

With conversation in mind, let me respond to your comments:

�This is clearly a ridiculous and sweeping generalization of Americans-"

No, it is directed only to the religious right (and didn�t seem to strike the previous commenter as so sweeping). And, to whom is this so clear?

��coming from someone who hasn�t lived there in how long?�

Does living outside the US for 29 years disqualify me for some reason? Am I tainted by living in Europe? Is there some diminution of the right to free speech when one doesn�t live in the US? Something along the lines of the Bush administration�s view that the writ of habeas corpus applies only in the US, and not in Guantanamo Bay?

�Do you even vote in the elections, anywhere, to make your voice heard in a way that actually affects the outcome of an election?�

The previous question seems to disqualify me from the right to speak for not living in the US. This one casts aspersions on my character.

I am on record elsewhere on this matter. In the past I have not voted in the US elections because I felt I did not know enough from a distance to make a decision. I should think you would appreciate this. This is no longer true, however�the internet makes finding information much easier; and being free of the daily blitz of party commercials is a bonus.

I am not a citizen of the UK, so cannot vote here.

Does you mean by this, then, that if I do not vote, for such reasons, I have no right to have my voice heard at all? If I did not vote out of apathy or laziness, I might accept this as a justified challenge. It doesn�t work in this case.

Not voting and not having any affect at all on the outcome of an election are two separate matters. And, the question of voting in an election is not pertinent to the subject at hand�which is about the sources of political influence on Christians.

To call conservative, christian (sic) Americans �deluded� and to take cheap shots at Fox by calling them �fiction�- really�.come one (sic)�..

What is cheap about what is said here? Can you answer my challenges regarding the network and its motives? Have you investigated Rupert Murdoch�s history of political involvement, and attempts to have major control of all media in any market? Can you answer my challenge regarding the religious right�s acceptance of the Fox network as �truth� while turning a blind eye to the unchristian morality it advertises on its �news� front page?

Can a network which regularly calls the Obama administration both socialist (meaning communist) and Nazi be taken seriously? In what way, then, is this a �cheap shot�? I am in dead earnest.
If any Christian thinks Fox is a defender of Christian concerns, or is an unbiased source of information, I am afraid they are deluded. I will stand by that.

This comment reveals a significant difference in point of view that I suggest you consider carefully. If you spoke of �American Christian�, or �conservative Christian�, I would not mention it. But the fundamental problem I have with the American religious right is the relation between these two words: American, and Christian. Which one do you think should be the governing noun, and which the adjective which modifies the noun? You appear to be an American who is distinguished from other Americans by being a Christian. I have stated elsewhere that I believe it vital to consider myself a Christian who happens also to be identifiable as being American, among other adjectives. When there is a conflict between what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be an American, the Christian always wins.

One of the values of living outside of the US, and living in multi-cultural communities, is that one is constantly aware of being an American. And, there is space to learn what the difference is between being an American Christian and a Christian American.

�Maybe take your own advice at the end there and test your own spirit as well- I think you like to point out where someone else is going wrong, but don�t like to take a look at yourself very often. Come to think of it - I think that verse is used just a bit out of context�..�

This comes back to ad hominem argumentation. It goes beyond my own stridency, I fear. A couple points in response: one, of course the verse is taken out of context. But not as far as you suggest. The context of 1 John is testing against false prophets and anti-christs. If the Fox network is to be considered a safe source of a worldview for Christians, then it must be tested, or it is antichrist.

Secondly, on what basis does the charge �[you] don�t like to take a look at yourself very often� make any sense in this format? This is not an introspective blog, nor a confessional. Of course I like to point out where other people are wrong. That is one of the purposes of this site. The comment section is there for people to offer a reasoned rebuttal to my viewpoints, which may persuade me that I am poorly informed, or wrong. Sadly, this comment is not in this category. Please try again!

HOW TO VOTEA Guide to the British Election

Sun, 02 May 2010 22:21:00 +0100

The Political Dance

The Editor has lived in Britain most of the past 29 years. Margaret Thatcher was already Prime Minister on my arrival, and I watched her subsequent election victories, as well as her fascinating denouement. I watched the grey Major years from other parts of the world, and returned to the UK just three months after the sweeping New Labour election victory that brought Tony Blair to power. As an American citizen I have not had a voice in any of these elections (taxation without representation all over again�don�t talk to me about tea parties!).

Thus, I have been an outside observer to both American and British politics throughout these three decades.

The day my family arrived in Manchester in the Summer of 1981, riots broke out. The two events were not connected. At the time, the media treated them as race riots. They were not. The reasons were economic.

I was returning to a church in inner Manchester that I had first seen in the early 70s, as a student. Back then, approaching the church by bus, my wife and I saw the brick rubble of whole city blocks (in American terms) of demolished houses. The lasting impression it left was of the devastation of cities in the blitz of World War II. This was �urban renewal� in brutalist 60s fashion. All the housing stock, built in the 19th C, was condemned and knocked down so new low rent housing could be built. It was a positive response to urban decay, but a social disaster. The people in those houses were moved to a variety of locations across the city. Later, when the new houses were built a different variety of people were put into them. In one great social experiment, communities were destroyed and replaced by people with no connection to each other. Only now, forty years later, are these neighbourhoods regaining a sense of community. All largely thanks to the Marxist-leaning Manchester city council. (Yes, real socialists.)

The 80s, however, was Margaret Thatcher�s decade, and I observed first-hand the consequences of Thatcherism (so beloved by Ronald Reagan and Tony Blair). Local unemployment in our area was among the highest in the country, at about 25% - rising to 50% for under 35s. The industries that had made Manchester world-famous disappeared, leaving vast stretches of empty factories and derelict land. Manchester was a bleak and ugly place.

Thatcher�s hatred of left-wing councils, which governed all the main cities, took the form of cutting the central government funding for public services. Schools and hospitals lacked funds to maintain their buildings; salaries of nurses and teachers fell behind comparable incomes in private business. Schools sold their sports fields to property developers to maintain running costs; extra-curricular activities disappeared. Hospitals tried to keep the roofs of 19th C workhouses from leaking onto patients� beds. Meanwhile, the financial centres of the City of London built taller buildings, and the young bankers dined on lobster and champagne with their bonuses.

I witnessed this social experiment by the woman who famously declared �There is no such thing as society�. A whole generation of young people in my parish had no chance to find employment, have grown up unemployable, and now their children�having never seen their parents work�are beginning to pass their experience on to a third generation. These are the �layabouts� politicians created and now blame for the cost to the public purse.

My return residence in Britain coincides with the New Labour regime. Tony Blair represented the ejection of the socialist left-wing of the party, and the move to the centre, or �Third Way� as he called it. Not a bad thing. Part of the ethos, nevertheless, was grounded in the post-war European social democratic tradition. This little-known aspect of European politics for Americans is important to understand. It is not �socialist� in the Marxist/Leninist sense, but is what Western Europe did to reduce the appeal of that sort of socialism. It took the Marxist critique of society and addressed those issues which gave rise to two world wars and a cold war. It recognised the responsibility of the wealthy to the workers who provide them their wealth. But, all within strong democracies and market freedoms. It worked.

New Labour addressed the social inequities of the previous twenty years by pouring investment into public services. Schools were repaired and new ones built; modern, state of the art, hospitals were built. Salaries of public servants were raised to decent levels. In the 1980s my daughters went to a school made of WWII surplus material, meant to be a temporary measure. In the 2000s a new school was finally built. In the 80s my sister-in-law broke a leg while visiting us, and ended up in a Florence Nightingale ward�a work-house dormitory converted into a ward with beds lining the walls, divided only by curtains. In the 00s all trace of that era has disappeared.

Taxes rose to pay for this, but with the will of the electorate desperate for this to happen.

Then came the great bust of 2008, and the bail-out of the banks. And Gordon Brown, who was the nation�s treasurer throughout the period of growth, is given the blame by the Conservatives. And there is blame to be placed on him for the depth of the problem in the UK. But the Tories should not point the finger too readily, because the New Labour economic policy was to that of Margaret Thatcher, with increasing the role of private business in public services, and giving the market free reign. Thus, Conservative economic management has continued to govern the British economy. One can only imagine what a US Republican/UK Conservative coalition of international finance would have left us with!

Youth unemployment in our area is rising to 1980s levels again. Another lost generation looms.

The third party in Britain, the Liberal Democrats, have surprised everyone by becoming genuine contenders in this election. The Liberals were the leading party of government until the rise of the Labour party in the 1920s, and this successor party has never known any form of government at national level. The polls have them even-pegging with the Conservatives ahead of Labour. The nature of the electoral system means that they could have 1/3 of the electoral vote, but still have only a fraction of the number of seats in parliament of even a third-place Labour party. There is a great desire for change of government in the UK, but much less enthusiasm for seeing it return to the banker�s friends, the Tories. At the moment, the result is wide open.

On the record of government in my neighbourhood, there is no reason to trust that Cameron�s new Tory party is any different from the old one. A Labour government that acted less Tory would be preferable to the present one. Perhaps a coalition government would offer an opportunity for politics to pull politics out of its rut.

Who would I vote for if I had a vote? In the UK one votes for one�s local Member for Parliament, not for the Prime Minister. I know my MP, having brought issues to his attention on behalf of people in the church and community. He knows his community, always responds immediately to letters, and has brought positive results to our requests. He is a consummate politician in the positive sense, able to speak off the cuff for fifteen minutes on a subject without hesitation or repetition, and bring his peroration to close with a neat tie-in to his first sentence.

I would vote for him. He happens to be Labour.

The Truest StoryEaster Reflections

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:08:00 +0100

Easter Dawn over the Mount of Olives

[Editor's Note: These reflections started from an Easter sermon from John 20, and travelled unexpected routes along the way.]

The remarkable thing about the accounts of Jesus� resurrection is how low-key they are. A Hollywood producer would no doubt prefer major earthquakes, fireworks of some sort, an angelic host of SAS/Navy Seals abseiling from heaven, armed to the teeth, riddling the guards with bullets and blasting the rock from the tomb with plastic explosives. Or, at the least, there would be eerie ethereal music playing against bright backlighting as the stone magically rises and Jesus steps out, stretching his muscles after his long nap.

In the Gospels, however, the central action takes place off-screen. At one point we are told that Jesus was put into a tomb, dead. At the next point, the tomb is found empty.

At this point we must depend on the witnesses for what details there are. Their initial reactions are not particularly helpful. For one thing, it is the word of women that we have to take. I personally have no problem with this, it was the first century world that excluded the testimony of women as incredible (I am just reporting the facts, not endorsing them). It is notable that the Gospel writers include them as credible witnesses.

Not that Mary Magdalene is particularly helpful. In the Gospel of John she reports the empty grave, but assumes Jesus� body has been stolen in a horrible act of desecration by his enemies. Simon Peter�s response is ambivalent at best. He takes in the burial cloths lying empty, and notes that the head cover was neatly folded, but we are given no indication of what he thinks of it. It is not surprising, given his shameful behaviour in the high priest�s courtyard, if he no longer believes in himself, let alone anyone else.

It is only an unnamed disciple who �sees and believes�.

The witnesses suggest the same variety of responses any one of us might have in that situation. Even Jesus� followers were slow to believe anything other than that he was dead.

After this the accounts of Jesus appearing to people come from a variety of witnesses. The four Gospels offer different slants, and different people involved. Paul lists other witnesses over the following ten days: Mary Magdalene is the first; two men from Emmaus next; then, the eleven disciples with others huddling in the room where they had last eaten with Jesus; James, the brother of Jesus is name by Paul; then a crowd on the Mount of Olives who watched him depart (Paul numbers them at 500).

This is the witness of the New Testament. Indeed, the Gospel writers specifically relate the eye-witness accounts so that disciples not there may believe. We who hear the story today either believe, or do not believe.

The focus of these reflections is not on the rational evidence for the resurrection of Jesus (which is impressive for ancient documents), but on the �truth� of the story. As Jesus said to Pilate, �Everyone who is stands for truth hears my voice� (John 18:37).

This week a documentary about the Minoan civilisation was shown on English TV, by the luscious historian Bettany Hughes. She first relates the ancient myth of the Minotaur, the half man/half bull of King Minos who was offered the virgin daughters of mainland Greeks each year. Then she illustrated the story of the discovery of Knossos, in Crete. The uncovering of this palace that pre-dates Homer by a thousand years (so, about 2000 BC) unveils the basic materials of the myth. The walls are dominated by frescoes of bulls. As Hughes describes it, one can walk the myth, room by room, and feel it to be alive.

Behind the �myth� was a true story. The creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull is a story related�in some way�to a �real� story. That is, to real time.

J R R Tolkien, in his little known academic essay, �On Fairy Stories�, describes fantasy (or myth) as images that are not, or believed not to be found in our primary world (our �real world�). In fantasy, the three �primary colours� of a story are recovery, escape, and consolation. Recovery is the regaining of a clear view of life; fantasy begins with the common, simple things of life, and places them in a fresh setting that allows one to regain perspective on the world.

Escape is not escape from �real life� (a term Tolkien disparages effectively). Tolkien contrasts the escape of the prisoner from the flight of the deserter with the example of Nazism (the essay was written in 1938). A Party spokesman, he says, may have labelled those who fled Nazi Germany as traitors and deserters, and those who remained as patriots. Contrary to desertion, the companions of Escape are often �Disgust, Anger, Condemnation, and Revolt�. Fantasy in Tolkien�s mode is not desertion of the �real world�, but seeing reality more clearly, which leads to conflict with the �real world�. Which leads to catastrophe�.

In Drama this is called Tragedy. Fantasy, however, offers consolation, or the �happy ending�. Tolkien calls this �the good catastrophe� (coining a term from Greek, eucatastrophe). This is not to deny the existence of sorrow and failure, but, �it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will), universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.� In the fairy tale, the happy ending is �a sudden and miraculous grace; never to be counted on to recur�.

The use of the word �evangelium� is pertinent here�the gospel is �good news�. And Tolkien approaches the Christian Story from this perspective. Here is what he wrote:

The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels�peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving; �mythical� in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world�The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy�There is no tale ever told that men would rather find true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits�To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath�But this story is supreme; and it is true�Legend and History have met and fused.

It is this truest story of the unique event of history�one particular man raised to life�that has become the lens through which �reality� is discerned. This is the primary world of the Christian. The invitation to belief is not a call to abandon reason in favour of a Disney World fantasy. It is, rather, the compelling glimpse of the central truth of life.

Jesus is risen.

Jesus is risen, indeed.

Good Friday MapsThe Death of Jesus

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 23:12:00 +0100

The Vial Dolorosa Early Good Friday

The pilgrims� map of Jerusalem on Good Friday is of narrow limestone-paved streets crowded with a cacophonous mixture of local Muslims and Jews and Christians from around the globe. They will walk the centuries old, worn stone pathways, stopping at each Station of the Cross. Many will weep; most will be in awe; few will leave unmoved.

The Via Dolorosa bears no physical relation to the path Jesus took from Pilate�s judgement hall to Golgotha. The Roman path which preceded the present Ottoman city, and now lies three meters below the Old City streets, ran from South to North, not East to West, from the Cardo of the Jewish Quarter and the Souk of the Muslim Quarter to the Damascus Gate. And that street lay atop the rubble of the destruction of the Jerusalem streets Jesus walked on that sad Friday, which more probably ran from the West, in what is now the Armenian Quarter, to the barren (not green) hill now subsumed inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter.

Jerusalem, Madaba Map, 6th C

These maps are not of utmost importance, other than the fact they take in every part of the Old City. The modern streets, with their throngs, offer sufficient backdrop to grasp the normal human chaos of festivals, and the absurd normality that accompanies events of greatest importance. It is the Gospel map which matters today, as Christians inhabit the sacred space of Jesus� death within the walls of their churches. From the high ritual of the great cathedrals to the simple piety of believers gathered between simple borrowed walls, the truest story is retold of the unjust arrest, trial, and execution of a Galilean Jew in a remote corner of the world. The story is recited, re-enacted, and re-imagined. A particular death in the Judea of Roman history reverberates with urgency. And outside the walls where Christians are gathered, a world remains indifferent to momentous events.

Why? Because this death matters more than others. And his death is not the end, but the fulfilment, of the purposes of the God and Father of Jesus: �God so loved the world that he gave his son, that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life� (John 3:16); �Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends� (John 15:13).

Palms in LongsightA Reflection

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:25:00 +0100

There are many maps of Jerusalem. I have walked with the throng of pilgrims in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, waving my palm branch with thousands of Christians from around the world, following the path from Bethphage to Stephen�s Gate of the Old City.

We could not start in Bethany because of the Separation Wall. Today, Jesus would be fenced out of Jerusalem unless he took the detour to the security crossing that connects Jerusalem with the illegal settlement city of Ma�ale Adummim. We cross over the ridge of the Mount of Olives, beginning our descent by the Holy Land Hotel (formerly Seven Arches Hotel, birthplace of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation), down past the ever-expanding tombs of rich Jews who have paid well to be among the first to rise at the great resurrection, and Dominus Flevit�the chapel built to commemorate Jesus� tears on looking over the city from this place.

This modern map, never far from the signs of contemporary conflict, is far different from the mental maps pilgrims bring. We come with pictures of the Holy Land painted on our minds by pastel drawings from Sunday School, felt figures of people in pyjamas set on brown and blue backgrounds devoid of vegetation. And the expectation of feeling the holiness of the place, just because this is where the Bible happened.
When the real gets in the way of the ideal, the result is either rejection of the real or disillusionment. Sometimes, revelation.

Today, in Longsight, our procession huddled under blustery Manchester skies and before the indifferent gaze of passers-by, holding (sometimes waving) palm crosses, as we entered the gates of the church, a la Psalm 118 (�This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!�), singing �All glory, laud, and honour, to Thee Redeemer King!�, and manoeuvred our way to our seats. Our map of Jerusalem consisted of stolid late-Victorian houses standing coolly undisturbed, dogs walking their sleepy owners unheeding of us, and a breeze which could in no way be called balmy�all suggesting nothing in common with Jerusalem at all. Certainly not the one from 2000 years ago.

This is the thing about Jerusalem maps�they seldom have much to do with the dirt and stones, and the people, of the place in Israel. I have seen many pilgrims come and go from Jerusalem, their mental maps intact. They have seen what they were looking for, and blocked out that which did not fit. And returned to their homes glowing with the joy of �walking where Jesus walked�. Like me, they simply passed by the inconvenient bits.

Today, however, Longsight mapped on to Jerusalem. Real streets heard hosannas from disciples of the King. The world around barely paused to recognise her Redeemer. But salvation came to Longsight.

A Holy Week InvitationFrom a Palestinian Christian

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 22:11:00 +0100

As Holy Week begins, the Gazelle offers these words for meditation--from a respected Palestinian Christian church leader from Jerusalem:

I wish you every blessing as we turn our faces towards Jerusalem during the coming week, remembering that at the heart of our liturgical celebrations this week is the acknowledgement that human beings deny and kill the truth and the goodness of God when it comes among us, for it subverts our ways of doing and arranging our world. We do not like it when there is an Oscar Romero around, or a Martin Luther King. They tend to challenge our norms of doing things and thinking about our 'security', so we resort to killing them. It is in this sense, that we say, Jesus died because of our sin, for we simply do not want his truth, He literally died because we do not like him - that is our sin. And yet God in his mercy, forgives, and accepts us even before we have confessed our wrongdoing: 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do'. Jesus intercedes for our forgiveness even before we have asked for it, reflecting the nature of the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, who accepts the son before he even began to speak.

We know not what we do. And in our mutual relations, and the destructive relations between nations, we tend to expect and seek flippantly for retaliation in first. Jesus, on the other hand, gets his forgiveness in first. How shocking? We do not know that we hurt ourselves too when we do not seek mutual healing from others. Jerusalem does not know what it is that provides for its peace. But, it is made possible, and is revealed to us to be God's gift always, in the history of Jesus. In his God-sized Resurrection that cannot be assessed or defined in human terms we have God's yes to us. As it is a God-sized event, it has made the history of Jesus of Nazareth not limited to one time and one place, but to all the places and even the darkest corners of the earth; for now we know that even death is invested with God's mercy. May we grow to accept that gift, and always seek to forgive one another as God forgave us in Christ, accept one another as God accepts us in Christ, and love one another as God loves us in Christ, and in no other way. And may this especially be the case in Jerusalem, which seems to refuse God's presence at all times, as the two peoples of Israel and Palestine refuse to look each other in the face, and see their goodness there. We too need to look Jesus in the face, and see our victim there; but, in that gazing into our victim, we do not find a request for revenge, or retaliation, and even reparation, but sheer grace to release us and sustain us anew at all times.

Preparation for the PassionA meditation in preparation for Holy Week

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:11:00 +0100

Based on today's lectionary Gospel reading.

John 12:1-11

1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.

An observant Jew, Jesus arrives in Bethany from Galilee a week early to assure ritual purity for attendance at the festival. The village sits just over the last rise from Jericho, a twenty minute walk from Jerusalem, a hostel town for pilgrims. Jesus, with other pilgrims, comes to prepare himself for the coming Passover. In more than one way.

We are invited to prepare with him.

The story actually begins in Ch 11, where we are introduced to Lazarus, Mary and Martha. In that story, Lazarus is ill, and dies. Jesus hears of the illness, but rather than rushing to heal his friend, waits for him to die, because, he says, �this illness does not lead to death, rather it is for God�s glory�.

Lazarus, of course, dies. Jesus reports this plainly to his disciples when it occurs. �Lazarus is dead.� Even though he had told them a day or two earlier that Lazarus would not die. (That is what it sounded like).
Jesus does not leave him in his stinking shroud. He calls him out of his tomb, saying, �I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, though they die, will live.� That�s what he says to Martha, asking her to believe in him.

Martha, we are told, is the sister of Mary who now prepares the a dinner in Jesus� honour, and serves Jesus personally.

We are introduced to Mary with foreshadowing: she is the one �who anointed the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair�.

The Fragrant Room

3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus� feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

This is an act of extravagant and expensive love. Nard was a perfume imported from India, and 300 denarii amounts to a year�s wages for the common working man. (Half a litre of Chanel No 5, at a going rate �326, doesn�t begin to compare in value.) This spontaneous act come from the joy of resurrection, of a brother restored; of Jesus in the midst of the family gathering.

The room is filled with the fragrance of the gift.

The Fly in the Nard

4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5�Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?� 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7Jesus said, �Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.�

Now there is an insertion of foreboding. The story seems marred by the Judas narrative, a souring of the fragrance. A cash value is placed on the gift in the name of compassionate ministry. In the midst of celebration of life a shadow falls at the mention of the one who �was about to betray him�.

Jesus� reply is full of Johannine irony. Irony is hard to spot in printed text, and detecting it requires more than a predilection for literary techniques to show it. What seals it here is recognition that Jesus is quoting Deut 15:11 � �There will always be poor people in the land�. This is a marker to listeners who know their Scriptures (which few Christians these days do) to recall the context of Deut 15.

The command begins in Deut 15:4, �There will never be any poor among you.� It is a call to God�s people, blessed with riches, to assure that everyone in the nation is cared for, including foreigners (read it!). It is tempting to suggest that even Moses is being ironic, when he ends the section with the words Jesus cites. Even when he commanded it, Moses knew it would never be obeyed.

Even if we should read the quote as belonging within parentheses, it is useful to note the rest of the text Jesus quotes: �I therefore command you, �Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land�.�

Jesus� words here are a rebuke that rings down the ages for those who excuse themselves from compassion for the poor on the basis of these words.

Preparation

Mary�s act of pouring costly perfume on Jesus is a celebration of life�of the fulfilment of the promise of resurrection. Jesus, preparing himself for the days ahead, calls it a preparation for burial. Judas reduces it all to monetary considerations.

The beauty of Mary�s extravagant action is in its affirmation of God�s power over death, which becomes a preparation for the death which brings resurrection.

Attention on Judas� cleptomania, however, tends to obscure the power of Jesus� rebuke of Judas and of all who separate their own spirituality from the life-giving purpose of Jesus� death and resurrection�he will die, not only for �my� sins, but for the poor and needy neighbour.

On a day in which the US congress votes on health care for millions of their neighbours, it is not a little ironic that so many Christians stand in opposition.

TRUE CAPITALISMLogical Extension of Anti-Socialism

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:15:00 +0100

It appears that Colorado Springs, Colorado, is applying market capitalism in pure form[link]. If you support government funding for any of these areas that are being cut, then you are a pinko communist. (Yes, you read it in an American newspaper!]

Remembering A Remembrance Day Homily

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:48:00 +0100

On 11 November, 1918, the guns fell silent on what had been the bloodiest war in human history. From November 1919 until today the moment that the guns stopped, on the 11th hour, has been the moment for everyone to stop and remember the cost in human lives, and to vow, �Never again!� The horrors experienced led those who had experienced it to hope that by remembering the cost, it would have been �a war to end all wars�.

Some 16 million people died, and another 21 million were wounded, in that war�37 million people. In the destruction, nearly 7 million civilians were killed. (Information on casualties for WWI and WWII is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org)
The remembering did not have its desired effect then, as perhaps even now. Only thirty years later the Second World War began. No one knows just how many died�estimates vary between 50 and 78 million, perhaps up to 52 million of them civilians.

[How can we fathom such numbers of dead? We have become numbed to the deaths of others. An American study recently reported that �the average child will watch 8,000 murders on TV before finishing elementary school. By age eighteen, the average American has seen 200,000 acts of violence on TV, including 40,000 murders.� British viewing figures may be lower, but Britain is the gaming capital of the world, and games such as Grand Theft Auto and Modern Warfare probably make the American number of simulated deaths witnessed pale into insignificance beside the more exciting prospect of killing virtual people in true Rambo fashion.]

How can we gain perspective on how many real people died? Imagine the entire population of the UK being wiped out over the period of six years.

The Cost

It is worth considering why those who lived through The Great War hoped it would be the last of all wars. From the British perspective, the Battle of the Somme provides the key. The battle lasted from 1 July to 18 November, 1916. 58,000 British troops were killed or injured on the first day alone�the equivalent to a full complement of Manchester United supporters at Old Trafford. When the offensive was called off after 4� months and a net gain of 8 miles of ground, there had been 420,000 British, 200,000 French, and an estimated 500,000 German casualties�1,120,000 dead and wounded.

The longest battle of that war was the Battle of Verdun, which started on 21 February, 1916, and ended 18 December. The battle began with a German bombardment along 8 miles of the French lines from 1,400 guns pouring out 100,000 shells each hour. French casualties during the battle were estimated at 550,000 with German losses set at 434,000. Half were fatalities. The front line did not move, but it was called a French victory.

The dead in just these two battles is equivalent to the population of Greater Manchester.

The Verdun Ossuary

In the summer of 1978, laid up for over a month with a kidney infection, I set about reading a five-volume history of the Great War that I had bought in 1967 for the great sum of $3.50. The first four volumes were published by 1917, the last within weeks of the end of the war. The tale of these two battles filled half of Volume Two, and the Battle of Verdun has long stood out in my memory, both for its length, and for the interminable agonising tedium of the report of death and mayhem. So it was that when my wife and I decided to visit the battleground in 2001 it was the fulfilment of a long-standing desire to see the setting, and to try to grasp something of what happened. Most of the battle-site is wooded now; the trenches are visible in only a few places. Small cemeteries sprinkle the area. But the Ossuary is the heart of the memorial. A long, low building (about 500 meters long) with a tower in the middle, stretching some 40 metres skyward like a missile, contains the remains of 130,000 unknown French and German soldiers.

Inside the building there are 18 alcoves, each containing a pair of tombs. On the wall above each tomb there is an inscription showing the area of the battlefield from which the bodies or bones were recovered. Each tomb covers an 18 cubic metre vault. There are two additional vaults at each end of the building, each 150 cubic meters, containing the remains from areas of such carnage that the numbers of bodies could not be housed in the tombs. 948 cubic metres of space�1,139 square yards�contain the unidentified fallen. The names of the missing are inscribed on the walls. The Ossuary is surrounded by a cemetery which contains the graves of 15,000 named French dead.

I shall not forget entering the Ossuary building. I did not expect the visit to be more than another stop on my educational pilgrimage. But, I was immediately struck by a deep sense of hallowedness. It was as quiet as a church, which was to be expected; but I was overwhelmed by a sense of awe and of sorrow. There is a Christian altar there, and I prayed.

My 1978 reading had driven into me the senselessness of that war, of the horrible sacrifice of lives to so little purpose, which counted for nothing within a generation of the killing. In the presence of the dead, I could only weep; but it was beyond my tears.

I have stood in churches in remote villages of Germany, and cenotaphs in remote villages of Scotland, and read the long lists of the dead in each. The prime of a generation, reaching into every village and hamlet, was lost.

Who can not have been moved, recently, by seeing and hearing Harry Patch, the last British veteran of that war who died just this past Winter, speaking out of his experience at last, tell us that war is a waste of young lives. And must be the last resort of politicians.

We remember

Now, we pause to remember these fallen while young men�and now, women�are dying in two wars. And to remember the suffering peoples of these countries.

Since 2003, 4677 Coalition soldiers have died in Iraq; 179 of them British. Documented Iraq civilian deaths in the same period are between 93,793 and 102,330.

Since 2001, 1506 Coalition soldiers have died in Afghanistan; 229 of them British. 11,152 Afghan troops have died; 7,589 Afghanistan deaths are documented. Another 53,435 have been injured.

This, of course, is in response to the attack on the US on 11 September 2001, where 2,993 people died, including the hijackers of the airplanes.

Apology necessary

I do not apologise for this litany of numbers. If we are going to remember the purpose of this day, we need to grasp the enormity of the human cost of war. And, we need to grasp the futility of waging war to bring about peace. Every war sows the seeds of the next.

I must, nevertheless, apologise for the Euro/North Americo-centric nature of this litany. There is no catalogue of the wars that simmer out of our sight because our news moguls do not deem them important enough to be reported (because we want to know who is the winner on the latest �Idol� programme); where the criterion of �news� is �was there a British national involved; was there an American involved?� So it is that the sad death of one Brit in a bar in Texas is granted equal time to the slaughter of 13 American soldiers by one of their own. What of the fallen of the Congo? Of Sudan? Of Columbia?

What are we sowing? Why do we not remember?

The Vision of Peace: Isaiah and Revelation

We are gathered in Christian worship. This is not a political gathering; we pay tribute to those who have given their lives in service to their countries, for their self-sacrifice. But, we do so under the hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ; and this demands that we try to hear the Word of the Lord in the midst of our days.

The readings from Isaiah (2:2-4) and Revelation (21:1-5) present together a vitally important picture of God�s purposes for humanity, locked into its culture of violence and strife.

The Peaceable Kingdom

Isaiah presents a beautiful picture of what has been called �the peaceable kingdom�, looking forward to the day when wars cease forever. It is a remarkable vision for any time; it stands as a stark rebuke to humanity that such a picture of beauty might still be termed a fantasy after the passing of 2,500 years.

These words were not spoken by someone with reason for optimism. To the contrary, the prophet-poet can, perhaps, best be compared to a current resident of East Jerusalem, watching his land be taken first by the ruling class of his own people, then by the marauding soldiers of a great superpower. Who can be an optimist when surrounded by walls and guns? When I read this, I think of my Christian brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.

Yet, those brothers and sisters today look to the same vision. Beyond the present oppression and bloodshed, and out of that very bleakness, the Lord God promises to establish his kingdom of peace. In the centre of strife will be placed a school for teaching God�s ways: he will not send experts to train armies and police, but will teach the settling of disputes, the cultivating of gardens.

Everything made new

The vision of John the Seer is no less sweeping in its grandeur. He sees the time when this present order, based on violence and hatred, will be wholly replaced by an order, a new creation, with God in the midst. On this earth, there is no death, no mourning. Only peace.

It is difficult to get such a picture in our minds; we can only catch a glimpse by analogy to things we know�thus the strangeness of some of the pictures of Revelation. What we need to grasp, if only we can just a little, is that which is common to both these texts: God�s purposes in creation have always been the peaceable kingdom. From the garden in Eden to the city of trees in Revelation, his purpose has been the life of peace for all of creation. His action in Christ Jesus is consistent with this grand purpose. Jesus did not die merely that some of us might find forgiveness of our sins and so look forward to a life of bliss one day. The life and death of Christ marks the beginning of the new creation. He lives for the �healing of the nations� (Rev 22:2); �no longer will there be any curse�.

Life out of death; peace out of violence

It is no accident that both these visions of peace flow from tales of violence. Modern sceptics read the bloodshed of Revelation and interpret it as a call to violence and bloodshed. Sadly, for too long too many Christians have done the same. The visions of Revelation are not a timetable to Armageddon to be counted down with relish; those who look forward to such a battle worship a parody of the truth. The realistic vision of both Isaiah and Revelation is that human violence is so deep-seated, and human power so antagonistic to the vision of peace, and knows only violence as a solution (from the yobo on the street corner with his knife, to the war master in the incident room with his unmanned drones, violence is the primary tool), that the course of human history can only end in Armageddon.

The Present Reality

We find ourselves, in our present reality, living the Gospel reading from Matthew 24. Wars multiply; nations rise against nations, tribes against tribes. But this is not Armageddon. It is human reality. It is the birth-pains of the new creation. The human order grinds inexorably to a violent end.

But the Christian vision in the midst of this is, �the good news of the kingdom of God will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come� (Matt 24:14). Not long ago I was told of some people who read this verse as condition for Jesus� return, and so hope to hasten this day by flying to every country of the world to stop off in the airport and preach a sermon, so �the end� will kick in�as though this word were a determinism, a box to be ticked along the way.

What is offered here, however, is an alternate ending to the story�an �end�, a purpose, which comes through witness to the peace of God in the here and now; in which the people of Jesus Christ go out to teach gardening and conflict-resolution, not waiting for all the nations to come to the new Jerusalem.

It is a hopeless vision!

But, it once came near to reality. In the last years of the 3rd C AD the Roman Empire had become so permeated by Christians that emperors began to fear they could not wage war any longer�Christians from one part of the empire would not fight against Christians in another part of the empire.

In the year AD 286, this reached a vivid climax; a legion of soldiers in Egypt, consisting of over six thousand six hundred men, consisted wholly of Christians. The Theban Legion was made up of what are now called Christian Copts. This legion was commanded to go to Gaul (modern France, as known by all Asterix readers). There they were commanded to wipe out the Christian barbarians. The Thebans refused. The emperor commanded their execution for this insubordination. In groups of 600 they were sliced down, to give opportunity to the rest to recant. Not a single soldier recanted. All died rather than kill fellow Christians.

The beloved patron saint of England, St George, was also martyred in this period for refusing to assist in persecution of fellow Christians.

No empire can long survive such behaviour. Constantine realised this some 30 years later, when he took the symbol of Christianity as his banner in the battle that secured his rule. He could only maintain authority by subverting the symbol of the peaceful kingdom.

[The unwillingness of Christians who were loyal Roman citizens to fight against or kill fellow Christians of other nationalities is not unlike that of Muslims today�this week�s killings at Fort Hood in Texas. There is a notable difference, however, that the early Christians preferred to die to taking the lives of others�]

What do we remember

In our worship, we remember the cost of war, whether or not that war is fought for a just cause.

We regard the shedding of the blood of the young, and of the innocent, as the ever present sign of this present order, and we pray for the peaceable kingdom.

We honour those who have made the supreme sacrifice; we grieve for those who appear under the heading �collateral damage�.

But we live to bear witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ�the healing of the nations.

SHOCK: Provincial American Newspaper Calls for More Socialism!

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:15:00 +0100

A small-town newspaper in the state of Colorado has called for more socialism in its editorial column.

"Colorado needs a health care funding solution"

"The cost of public health care at any of the state�s hospitals should be affordable to patients, and the public health care they receive at a Colorado hospital should be top-notch.

If we believe both of those statements are true, Colorado must overhaul its budget process. Both quality and affordability in public health care require substantial investment, which is hindered by the state�s budget system during financially lean years.

Health care is one of the only areas of discretionary spending in the state budget. State sentencing laws require a certain amount of spending for prisons; a constitutional requirement protects funding for K-12 institutions; and federal requirements for Medicaid eat up another large portion of Colorado�s general fund. When those budget items must grow, but the state budget cannot, that squeezes public health care.

There are reassurances that health care funding isn�t on the chopping block for next year. Boulder Rep. Jack Pommer, who will head the Joint Budget Committee, said last week health care funding won�t face cuts in 2010 because the state must maintain a certain spending level to receive federal stimulus funding."

Is this the beginning of the end of American capitalism as we know it?

[NOTICE: Yes, the article is actually talking about higher education. The Editor has exchanged 'higher-education' for 'health care'. If one is socialist, so is the other.]

Moral Values War on Terror, War on Drugs

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:52:00 +0100

Crackdown on Drugs

The War on Terror is nearing its ninth year, with neither indication that an end to this war is possible, nor any way of knowing whether the expenditure in bombs and lives has had any effect whatsoever on the intentions of those who use the methods of �terror�.

The news this week of the US �crackdown� on the Mexican drug cartel, La Familia, offers a fitting comparison to the nebulous war declared by George W Bush. It was another Republican president, Richard Nixon, who declared a �War on Drugs� in 1969 (this date from that impeccable source, Wikipedia, fits with the Editor�s memory). This �war� is still being fought forty years later.

It is being fought in Mexico, Columbia, and Afghanistan, to name but a few places. Immense resources are dedicated to the battles by Western nations to try to stop the flow of the drugs that reach our streets and decimate succeeding generations of youth. This does not include the cost in lives of innocent people at every stage of production and consumption�the producing countries enduring drip-feed wars between drug-lords, militias, and governments, each seeking leverage for more power, all terrorising the local populations; the consuming countries enduring the crime perpetrated by the addicts, and the gang violence that goes with selling of the drugs, which still does not compare to the loss of lives, break-up of families, rehab and medical costs, and, not least, the lost potential of thousands of people�s lives.

One phrase of the news report of the US crackdown, which took place across 19 states, and cities from Seattle to Boston, stood out. According to this report, 80% of the drugs produces or trafficked through Mexico go to the US, �to feed the insatiable appetite for illegal drugs�.

One more battle in the War on Drugs. Who is winning? Who is winning the War on Terror?

Meanwhile the Church worries about creeping socialism, homosexual marriages, and woman bishops, while bored young people stand on the street corners of cities and towns across the country with nothing better to do than sink into chemical induced forgetfulness, and over-bonused financial wizards and over-paid celebrity �heroes� snort cocaine.

Neither war can be won. Terror and drug-use, alike, are symptoms of the ills of our society. Until we address the causes, we will make no progress against the symptoms.

The causes of each are not wholly unrelated. Each might be seen as expressions from those marginalised by societies which value personal comfort without thought to the cost of that comfort�cost to the societies from whom the wealth is taken; cost to the societies who live in comfort, but are empty at the centre.

The Religious �Right� and Fox News Fiction

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:11:00 +0100

It has become a common-place to hear testimonials to the Fox News (aka Fiction) Network from Christians of the Religious Right. They will make clear that it is the only news they follow because, they will say, it is unbiased (meaning, it tells the news as they wish it to be), in distinction to all other news providers which are run by godless liberals.

This trust in Fox is bemusing. Clearly none of these family-values, high morality believers has asked themselves the question as to what interest Fox has in their support, and what Christians actually get in return.

Has anyone asked who Rupert Murdoch is? And what might be behind his control of major networks in every English-speaking country, and newspapers in every major city? And his efforts to reduce the competition? Or, how much his influence on heads of state, who woo him, matters for Christian concerns?

In the UK, his empire is currently attacking the BBC�s public funding support. Free-market ideologists in the US may have no trouble with this, but then, you have become used to 20 minutes of commercials in every hour. The BBC continues to show its lack of bias in reporting by virtue of the unhappiness with every government with its reporting. Murdoch�s newspaper has begun a campaign for the Conservatives already. As they say on Fox: 'Fair and balanced'.

Right wing Christians are deluded if they think the Fox Network cares �beans� about them beyond their money, and readiness to vote the way they recommend.

As for support for Evangelical values? The Editor monitors a wide variety of news websites, including Fox. One UK paper (The Daily Mail) outdoes Fox in confusing entertainment with news. Here are the headlines from the last couple days of logging on to �Fox Breaking News�:

Simpsons' Playboy Pictorial: Marge is naked in Playboy, and FOX News.com has learned Hef may be courting even more cartoon cuties (link)

14 Baseball-Loving Ladies: Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio, and famous women haven't stopped since. Here are 13 more celebs who love their ballplayers... (link). (Don�t miss the cover photos.)

Pastor Benny Hinn: Charlatan or Man of God? (link) What? An expos�? No. But, great concluding soundbite! (No place for lofty theologians on Fox. Guess Rupert won't be phoning me.)

Praising Unnatural Beauty: Contestants show off breast implants, nose jobs and face lifts as Miss Plastic Hungary 2009 promotes benefits of all things fake (link) Most uplifting! (Any Christian TV hostesses included?)

Ah, yes. Fox is clearly targeting the Evangelicals!

[�Test the spirits to see whether they are from God�, 1 John 4:1]

A Very Philippine Response to the Typhoon

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:26:00 +0100

Over the past week the Asian Pacific has born the brunt of disasters of nature. The tsunami in Samoa and the earthquake in Indonesia followed hard on the devastating typhoon that hit Manila. The nature of 24-hour news coverage�endless repetition of the non-news until major events occur, then saturation coverage until the next event�with its short attention span, means the Manila disaster was quickly forgotten. Tsanumis are fascinating; earthquakes give opportunity for Western rescue teams to rush off to save lives. Flooding offers neither.

Having lived for some time in Manila, and having experienced one �super typhoon�, this story is not only more personal, it offers opportunity to offer a local perspective on the clean-up. These countries cannot handle such over-whelming disasters alone, but they do not simply stand around waiting for salvation.

The seminary campus where I taught for two years sits on two hills divided by a normally lazy and languid stream, above the city of Manila in the suburb of Taytay. The Guardian published pictures from the neighbourhood:

The swollen creek inundated the seminary chapel:

The squatter community next door was less fortunate, lying lower to the water. Two children perished. The campus became a refuge for nearly 300 people, as the students and faculty opened all buildings for people house them, cooked meals, and donated dry clothing. One student with medical training treated minor injuries for 150 people. Each family was given a �Crisis Care Kit�.

When the water retreated, the students set to clearing the knee-deep mud from the chapel, and then worshipped together.

After three days, the government was able to relocate the refugees to temporary housing. How long that lasts, is to early to know. But it is certain the students will be involved in helping the displaced to rebuild when they are able to return. Hopefully, the squatters will be able to build on safer ground, with more substantial housing. That is the next stage of the story�and another matter in its own right.

When the Politics of Hate Goes Too FarCondoning the Idea of Assassination

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:54:00 +0100

This observer has been disturbed by the level of hatred and vitriol directed at President Obama, which bears no relation to anything he has actually done, let alone proposed. And with the willing endorsement of those who call themselves Christian. And not just Christian, but true, born-again genuine-as-opposed-to-liberal-nominal-call-themselves-but-really-are-not Christians.

Thomas L Friedman, of the New York Times, has just written an editorial which expresses what has disturbed me (link). Sadly, I am aware that the above mentioned Christians will dismiss Friedman out of hand because he writes for the NY Times. Such people need to read this. And consider where their hatred is leading them. And consider what such hatred has to do with Jesus Christ.

The War on Terrorand the Cycle of Revenge

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:56:00 +0100

News from Somalia, confirmed by US officialslink, reports the death of a leading Al Qaida figure by missiles fired from an American helicopter. The embattled government of Somalia is delighted. The insurgent group, unsurprisingly, vows revenge on America.

The cycle of violence continues:

Firstly (as far as we can say at this moment), certain Islamist groups, particularly Bin Laden�s al Qaida, take issue with the West, particularly the US, and the result is 9/11.

In response, the West, particularly the US, respond with decisive action in Afghanistan, ousting the Taliban and sending Bin Laden running for the hills.

In response, Saleh Ali Nabhan carries out the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as a hotel in Mombasa.

In response, the US tracks Saleh down in the wastes of Somalia, and take him as he drives along in a car. They take his body with them.

In response, al-Shabab (Nabhan�s group) vow revenge.

And, in response�?

The endless cycle escalates, drawing more and more actors into the violence. Civilised Moderns find the biblical �An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth� to be a barbaric relic of a primitive past. But it was, and is, a restraining influence on an unlimited cycle of revenge. Who will hear?

What has been accomplished in these eight years? How many dead? How much closer to peace? How much more do the combatants understand each other now, beyond the refining of the techniques of killing?

In the aftermath of 9/11 the Editor suggested that a response to the atrocity might be to engage with poor Muslim countries to address their poverty rather than to bomb them (see The Daily Gazelle archives for September 2006). It was considered then, and no doubt will continue to be so considered, �airy-fairy� thinking.

But, has the policy of bombs solved the problem? The present US administration may have dropped the name �War on Terror�, but the policy has not changed.

The cycle continues.

The First Gardener

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:57:00 +0100

Gardening is a respected British occupation. It is not a pastime. England�s �green and pleasant land�, in fact, is a garden. Anyone who has flown over the countryside on a clear day has marvelled at the patchwork parcels of fields, the work of millennia of farmers working the land.

In 2000 we moved, for the first time in our lives, into our own house; and I became a gardener. At one time I thought I would log the hours I spent on the garden. But, before the three years of clearing out the jungle and rubble to reach ground zero were complete I lost track. In the fourth year the joy of creating something new out of nothing began with the planting of a lawn and the first bushes.

This Summer, following two drenched Summers, the back garden attained the level of maturity which has allowed me to sit and enjoy the form, colour, and chaos of my English garden.

One afternoon this week, just home from the day at the desk, as I sat taking in the view, with the late sun casting shadows through the leaves of the western bushes while setting the eastern blossoms afire; and, wondering at the transformation of this small patch of earth from nine years ago; I was struck by the recollection that God was the first gardener; the first to set apart a space of order in the midst of the chaos of creation.

Jews and Christians praise the God of creation, in wonder at the diversity and beauty of �nature� formed by His Word. At the same time, that creation left alone is either jungle or desert. But, the Human in service of the earth has repeatedly wrestled the ground into form and patterns of beauty, too.

According to Genesis 2, God himself set the Humans in his garden as gardeners, to take part in his creative work. Even my paltry effort at an English garden is a partnership with the Creator in creation. In some way, his work is not complete without Human involvement.