Swooning with the world

Swooning with the world

One of my morning pleasures is to arrive early at work and listen to a classical music radio station through the laptop as I settle into the day with Bible and prayer. This reverie ends with their swoon segment, about an hour into the working day, after which I switch to the job list. The swoon piece typically features an evocative romantic composition.

It’s my habit to turn away from the desk, close my eyes and retreat into a Cartesian ‘stove’ during this swoon. However, the retreat is often short-lived for the world intrudes. And so today, the noise of overheard jets, outside concrete trucks and a fire engine broke the swoon.

And so I wonder: is our calling to find retreat by fleeing from the world (if this possible) or to find retreat in the world?

Cancer in Biblical perspective

A Biblical theology of cancer

Introduction

One lay source defines cancer as follows:

Cancer is not just one disease, but a large group of almost 100 diseases. Its two main characteristics are uncontrolled growth of the cells in the human body and the ability of these cells to migrate from the original site and spread to distant sites. If the spread is not controlled, cancer can result in death.

(http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Cancer)

And another:

An abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize (spread). Cancer is not one disease. It is a group of more than 100 different and distinctive diseases. Cancer can involve any tissue of the body and have many different forms in each body area. Most cancers are named for the type of cell or organ in which they start. If a cancer spreads (metastasizes), the new tumor bears the same name as the original (primary) tumor. (http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=2580)

Cancer can occur in many parts of the body and affects all manner and conditions of people. Environmental factors and human can play a part in its occurrence (eg, the established link between sun exposure and melanoma; or between smoking and lung cancer). Genetic factors can also have impact (eg, the so-called ‘Celtic skin’ is more susceptible to cancer than other skin types). Much remains yet unknown about cancer.

The purpose of this article is to try and put cancer in perspective against the Christian Scriptures.

Creation, fall redemption

Much that can be said about disease in general can also be said about cancer, as it is located within the Biblical storyline of creation-fall-redemption.

Creation

God made humans as the apex of his ‘very good’ creation which, like God was flawless, even if nascent rather than then reaching its full potential in the original form. (Gen 1:26-27)

There was no death in Eden for death comes through sin (Gen 3:19; Rom 5:12,17).

Each of us is fearfully and wonderfully made, with God watching over our in-utero development. (Ps 139:14-16)

God made humans to exercise rule and stewardship over the creation which opens up the possibility of the sciences. (Gen 1:28)

Implications

Cancer, like other diseases, is not part of the created order. It is alien. It is an offense to God and does not belong here.

God made people with the capacity to tackle cancer, as part of exercising our delegated dominion over his creation.

Fall

The human choice to reject God’s rule while in God’s place affected everything:

• Our relationship with God was distorted by guilt and shame (Gen 3:7-8)
• Our relationship with one another is fractured (Gen 3:12; 4:5b-8)
• Our relationship with the physical creation is distorted as the once-perfect creation is subject to decay, with the result that our work of subduing and ruling over creation becomes ‘hard’ (Gen 3:17b-19)
• Death is introduced (Gen 3:17b& 22)

All imperfection in the creation (the non-good) is a result of the Fall in that the imperfection tracks back to Gen 3. In some instances, God may send disease (including cancer) to an individual as a direct consequence of their sin (eg Num 12:1-10). However this should not be assumed in any particular case (eg Jn 9:1-3; see also the whole of Job).

Sin is fundamentally parasitical - it has no independent life but comes to be as a distortion of the right creational order. It is a mutation within creation.

The original human sin spreads through the whole of later humanity in its consequences which include the reign of death (Rom 5:12-17).

Human sin affected the whole of creation which is presently in a state of groaning, futility and bondage to decay  (Rom 8:20-21).

Implications

Cancer, like all illness, is a result of the Fall.

Cancer, as an illness that involves a distortion of good cell processes, mirrors the parasitical nature of sin. Just as sin feeds on creational good, cancer feeds on healthy cells. Sin and cancer have no life of their own.

Subject to medical advances made under the creational mandate (Gen 1:28-29), cancer can be expected to persist until the fullness of redemption is seen in the return in Christ.

The science that leads to advances in cancer prevention, detection, management and cure may be matched by rising incidence of cancer as the Fall spreads its fruits yet wider in a world under rebellion to God.

A particular case of cancer (or other illness) is not necessarily the result of particular sin. More commonly, some cancers may be the result of folly rather than sin (eg unprotected sunbaking by a fair-skinned person).

Every incidence of cancer (like all illness) is an offense against God’s glory, a reminder of a Fallen world and a cause to pray for the fullness of redemption.

Redemption

In Christ the promised kingdom has come, but, until he returns, it has a ‘now but not yet’ nature (Mrk 1:14-15).

In Christ, believers now start to experience the new life of resurrection (Rom 6:1-14; Col 3:1-2).

However, the present remains a period of struggle as the work of sanctifying renewal persists (Rom 7:14-25; Col 3:10).

Christ is yet to come (1 Cor 15:20-24; 2 Tim 2:17-18) and when he does the fullness of his reign will be established. All will be restored and renewed to be as it should always have been in the creational good. This includes the banishment of every disease and all death (1 Cor 15:24-28; 50-54; Col 3:4; Rev 21-22).

Until the return of Christ we see personal decay and death, coupled with the hope of what will be (Rom 8:23-24; 2 Cor 4:16 - 5:5). Likewise the whole creation groans, awaiting its freedom for the present decay (Rom 8:20-22).

In his earthly ministry Christ exercised mastery over disease and death as part of his demonstration of the kingdom (eg Mrk 5:21-35). None should doubt that God is still able to do that which we reckon to be impossible (Mrk 10:27).

In this present ‘now but not yet’ of the kingdom, believers continue to suffer the fruits of the Fall. However, even here God works all things for the good of those who love him and makes them more than conquerors through the trials of this yet-imperfect life (Rom 8:28-39).

Implications

We should expect cancer to persist until Christ returns and disease and death is banished.

It is right to pray, with faith, that God will heal cancers without medical means and that he heals them through medical means. He is able!

As part of regaining the creational order as a present expression of creational dominion and of redemption, it is right that believers join with others in the pursuit of means to control, manage and treat cancer.

Cancer, like all disease and like death itself, does not have the last word. God, in his returning Christ, will banish this parasite in his new creation.

10 pastoral implications for patients and their loved ones

1. Be angry that the cancer is a parasite on God’s good creation and an offense against his glory.

2. Be worshipful, as you ponder the wonder of how cancer fits into His larger story of creation-fall-redemption.

3. Be comforted that cancer is within God’s lordship.

4. Be hopeful of the banishment of cancer in the new creation.

5. Be patient in the present, knowing that cancer will have its end.

6. Be enquiring of how God is working for the good of this person.

7. Be compassionate as others suffer, showing the love of Christ to those who were ill.

8. Be as helpful as you are enabled to be.

9. Be silent when your words are uncertain, rather than join the vexatious friends of Job.

10. Be prayerful, knowing that God is able to deal with cancer.

The last word

Someone wrote these good words at the end of a spiritual retreat during which they were diagnosed with cancer:

Appropriately, the retreat concludes with the new creation in Rev 21-22.

Cancer is not the last word.

Independence and compliance

I observe a continuum between independence and compliance.

At one end of the scale, the strongly compliant person is highly accommodative and adaptive to circumstances and people. In extreme forms, this may produce blind loyalty and compliance such that the person loses individual identity and the capacity to take their own decisions. Such characteristics help this person be a big contributor to group harmony, but limit their contributions to a group. They may not question bad ideas or add fresh insights.

At the other end of the scale there is the strongly independent person. This person has their own ideas about right and wrong and pursues them irrespective of others. In extreme forms it can produce such independence of action as to undermine a team and bring a fragmented disunity. This person's team strengths are to be an independent voice questioning what others take for granted and contributing fresh insights.

There is no best place to be on this continuum.  Note, however, that it will probably be a rare occasion that either extreme is appropriate. As with most continuums, it's usually a matter of a balance between the extremes. Different people, at different stages of their life and in different contexts may appropriately be on different parts of the scale. For example, a man may be somewhat compliant towards his boss in the workplace but move towards the independence end of the scale as he leads his family at home.

Where we are on the scale may be influenced by the inheritance from our genes, rearing, life experience, social context and immediate circumstances.  These factors may predispose us to a default position on the scale.  Analysis of these factors is useful for self- understanding, including awareness of what imbalance we need to be constantly watchful for. However, rather than being paralysed by a deterministic sense of why we are who we are, it is more useful to understand where we now are on the scale and where it is appropriate to be.

The following questions are a prompt to this process:

Where am I on the independence / compliance scale in this stage and situation?

What is the appropriate place to be?

What can I do to move from where I am to where I should be?

The colour chart of Australian politics

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The colour chart of Australian politics

Australian politics are a colourful affair.

We have the red team. It officially stands for the working person and is against big business. In recent years it has also claimed to adopt environmental agendas and has cuddled up with the green team (see below).

Then there’s the blue team. Historically this team stands for the wealthy end of town and holds the view that what is good for business is good for the country. They are also sceptical about environmental issues.

The browns are allied to the blues and stand for the man on the land.

A more recent entry is the green team – well, really a green-pink mix. They stand for the environment, income redistribution and ‘progressive ‘ social causes such as easing drug policy, abortion and same sex marriage.

At the last election the blue team defeated the red team by saying the red team had messed up the economy and also by promising no new taxes.

So now we have the first budget of the blue team.

The blue team (remember: ‘big end of town’ and ‘no new taxes’) wants to impose a new tax (sorry ‘levy’) on the big end of town and also revive an old red-team measure to index taxes on fossil fuels.To make it more confusing - it was a past leader of the blue team who had ended the indexation.

The brown team is not happy with the fuel tax indexing.

The green team is against the blue team's indexed taxes on fossil fuels and making high-income earners pay more income tax.

The red team is against the blue team’s revival of the red team’s indexing of fossil fuel taxes. They are also against the blue team’s proposal to put a new tax on the big end of town.

Clear? If so, please explain it back to me!

(Un)healthy habits in prayer

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(Un)healthy habits of prayer.

Like many, I maintain a prayer journal.

I do it to maintain a discipline in my prayer life, and especially with respect to ensuring a God-sized horizon and a breadth in my prayer life.

My prayer diary is a soft file in table format. At the top is a Bible verse or two and a schedule that on certain days I pray for certain people and works of God. I have columns from left to right for ‘near and dear’; my work; God’s kingdom; myself and ‘other’. On a daily basis I populate this table.

So far so good. A prayer diary is a healthy prayer habit and I commend it to others.

However, I notice the ease with which an unhealthy habit creeps in. I am diligent to populate the table daily. My unhealthy tendency is to act as through the mere writing of the prayer list is the same as praying.

Compare my unhealthy habit with the following:

·      Col 4:2:  Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.

·      Col 4:12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always wrestling in his prayers on your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured in everything that God wills.

·      1 Thess 5:17: Pray always

And compare with the master’s example:

·      Mark 1:35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

·      Mark 14:32-38 ³² They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ ³³ He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. ³⁴ And he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.’ ³⁵ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. ³⁶ He said, ‘Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.’ ³⁷ He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? ³⁸ Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’

Writing a shopping list is not the same as buying the items. Likewise with a daily work plan or even new year resolutions.

Writing a prayer is not the same as praying.

Mandela: just a man but what a man

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Mandela: just a man but what a man

Cyberspace and the airwaves are today (6 Dec 13) buzzing with the death of Nelson Mandela.

Much of the commentary is adulatory (eg I have seen references to him as a Christ figure). In response, some push back with respect to his embrace of violence in the ANC armed struggle against apartheid.

I want to make a quick Christian comment under two headings.

1. Mandela; just a man.

Nelson Mandela was born with the creational greatness of every person of every colour. He was made in the image of God - and that is greatness (Gen 1:16-17).

But he was just a man. This showed in his creational limitedness, most recently visible in his aging, illness and death. It also showed in his sinfulness, for he too was part of the ‘all’ referred to in Rom 3:23. This showed in things like his initiation of the ANC violent struggle and the depths of that violence. It also showed in his part in a publicly dysfunctional marriage and family life.

So, Mandela had feet of clay like the rest of us. That’s no surprise to those who read their Bible, but it is worth mentioning on this day when hagiography abounds.

2. Mandela: what a man.

Jesus tells his people not to retaliate against their enemies but to bless them (Matt 5:38-47). The later Mandela embodied this to a remarkable degree and with far reaching global impacts.

From his birth in 1918 until about 1990 Mandela lived with the stigma of being a black man in a racist society.  This mean separate and unequal treatment, in which he was subject to deprivation and to the depravation of institutionalised white supremacism.

His moment of greatness came in association with his 1990 release from prison and his subsequent election as President of South Africa. Power was now his. However, this was an hour of grace and reconciliation not revenge. That is remarkable considering his sufferings under apartheid and his previous involvement in the armed struggle. It is also rare in a world where the ‘lest-we-forget’ way of the Balkans and the Middle East is expressed in endless cycles of hated and payback violence.

Mandela: indeed just a mortal and sinful man, but what a man in his generous grace.

Hosting a visiting gospel worker

Hosting a visiting gospel worker

The preacher was already away from home and had been in two beds over three nights. He had preached that morning and sat through a lengthy congregational meeting. Ahead of him was an evening sermon and then an hour's drive to another new bed and another new group of people. The hostess invited him (with others to lunch).  When he entered her home she showed him the bathroom and a spare room, commenting that she expected he would want an afternoon nap. Her family was introduced and a generous meal provided - with the invitation that he eat only as he desired and feel free to leave the table for the spare room whenever he desired.  The visitor's heart was warmed and he was well-rested to preach that night.

The Scriptures speak of the gift of hospitality as being important (Heb 13:1) and it is especially singled out as a quality of church leaders (1 Tim 3:2).

These passages have wide implications. For now I want to focus on the ministry of hosting at travelling gospel worker. In doing so, I note the words addressed to such people as to how they should receive hospitality (eg Lke 9:1-5). Put simply: the visitor should stay where they put and be content with what is provided.

I write as one who has often been a visitor in people's homes and churches and who is grateful for the hosts who make a thoughtful ministry from the act of hospitality. Of course, the Scriptures also give many examples of this ranging from the widow who housed Elijah (1 Kng 17:8f), to Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:2-3), the mother of Rufus (Rom 16:13) and not to forget those who received the Lord himself such as Mary, Martha and Lazarus (Jn 11:1-5).

The following points are derived from my experience. Each needs to be adapted to circumstances and some may just not be possible.

·       House the worker in just one home during a visit. Moving from home to home can be draining especially if the schedule is heavy and the guest is a more retiring type.

·       Provide a private room in a quiet part of the house with a clean bed and bedding.  If possible include a comfy chair and table where the visitor can sit to pray, chill out and work. Include hanging space and somewhere to hang clothes.

·       Offer clothes washing facilities - depending on length of stay.

·       If you have it, offer wireless facilities so your visitor can hook up to family, work and the wider world. Likewise for printing facilities.

·       Provide a door key and local information so your visitor can come and go as desired and explore the neighbourhood.  Can you include a travel card for local services?

·       Don't provide a different venue for every meal. Pity the worker who goes to a different place for every meal. Not only is the succession of new people to engage with tiring, but each host may act as though this is the only meal that will be eaten all day and provide meals whose richness and quantity leave the visitor gasping.

·       Ask about any dietary restrictions and honour them. Ensure good balance in healthy and tasty foods. Travelling can be a health hazard in more than one way!

·       Give your visitor the opportunity to sleep when wanted and be careful of late night conversations immediately after travel or ministry - or just before ministry.

·       If you are responsible for setting the schedule, include times of rest especially for extended visits.  Take are in adding extra ministries at the last minute and check that your guest is up to them.

·       When there are down times, ask your visitors what they would like to do and give a range of choices.

·       Include the visitor in family activities to the extent that they wish it.  Some will delight in engaging with your (grand)children and pets. Others may not.

·       Pray for your visitor and offer to pray with him or her.

Finally, on behalf of myself and other travelling gospel workers, I thank you for receiving us in the Lord's name.  Your service is not just a functional necessity but an echoing of God's hospitable gospel and a vital ministry in bringing it to others.