in the SON

The colour of our skin and the clothes we wear - 2

I was preparing a PowerPoint tonight for a Cafe Church event next week at the Salt Cellar (www.saltcellar.org.uk) about the time Marjorie and I spent at Hebron School (www.hebronooty.org), in India. Whilst looking through our hundreds of photos I found the one below of Marjorie, dressed in salwar, at the Taj Mahal. I thought about the recent threat to the Taj by terrorists, and it also it reminded me of a couple of stories about our preconceptions about people.

Whislt at the Taj, Marjorie sat next to an elderly Indian couple. The woman was wearing a sari and the man was in western dress. Marjorie asked them if they were local. She was amazed when the both replied with Scottish accents! They were on holiday from Glasgow where they had lived for forty years, and where they ran a fish and chip shop! It was their first visit to the Taj. 

On another occasion at the nearby Agra Fort, I was approached by an Indian man. He asked if I knew any results of matches in the Premiership (for non-UK readers that is the top football (round ball) league). I explained that I had been working in India for some time and had lost touch. I asked why he was interested and he told me he was from Manchester where he was a taxi driver and that he supported Man U. He was in India for a friend’s wedding.

Both the couple from Glasgow and the man were British. We assumed they were locals and they thought we were on holiday! Funny isn’t it in this day and age that we can still assume where people are from, because of their skin colour or their dress. 

Any thoughts?

A couple of blogs have got me thinking about a number of issues in the last few days. Vijay got me thinking about India again and my time spent working there and then Breathe Fire was discussing the plight of the poorest women and children in India and also the worrying situation where a Jordanian man was made to change his t-shirt before boarding a plane in the US. Similar situation to the 2 Asian men who were removed from a UK holiday flight because they spoke arabic and wore different clothes. All 3 of these men had committed no crime. It was just the misguided perception of what a terrorist might look like that caused them to be treated with suspicion.

The graduation photo below was taken at Hebron International Christian School in S India in 1988.It shows the girls in the dorm we looked after (and the boys in the same year) in all their finery. In the photo you can see Indians, Chinese, Americans, Canadians, Nepalese, Cambodian, British. In the school there were also Thais, Pakistanis, Australians, Sr Lankans, Germans, Swedes. Some of them were committed Christians, some were still seeking, some were not. They lived, worked and played together without any though of colour, race etc. Most times they got on well together. Now they are all over the globe.

 

 

All the boys in this photo look very respectable in their suits, but if you saw them at other times - in t-shirt and jeans, downtown at the weekend you might think differently! The girls were the same (although they might not like me saying that!).

I suppose the point that I am trying to make is that we must not judge people by the colour of their skin or the clothes they wear. We have for years been trying to break down the barriers of colour and race and now because of terrorism we are in danger of going back the other way.

A terrorist could be any colour and wearing a smart suit. Would we challenge him/her then?

Any thoughts?

Another beautiful little chapel on a rocky outcrop into the sea, near Vathi on the Greek Island of Ithaka.

A stairway to heaven?

Whilst in Kefalonia I visited a rather upmarket hotel (didn’t stay there!). It was called an ‘art hotel’, all very crisp, modern design, hi-tech, steel and wood etc. The guests are ferried around to the beach etc in golf buggies. Somehow it felt as though it could have been anywhere and was somewhat out of place in Kefalonia.

However in its grounds I found a gem. A small open sided chapel, newly built but in sympathy with the local style. It was a Sunday and I was by myself. There was no-one else around. I stood in the middle of this little chapel and His presence in the stillness was immense. I just stood in silent reflection and prayed.

 

Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here;
Come bow before him now in reverence and fear.
In Him no sin is found, we stand on holy ground;
Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here.

Be still, for the power of the Lord is moving in this place;
He comes to cleanse and heal, to minister his grace.
No work too hard for Him, in faith receive from Him;
Be still, for the power of the Lord is moving in this place.

David J Evans, Thankyou Music 1986

I have just come back from a great holiday in Kefalonia (one of the Greek Islands - photos will follow) to find the doSul album I ordered in the mail.  It is a great album and I would recommend it to you. Niza’s voice reminds me a little of Astrid Gilberto with an edge, smooth but sharp. Also some tracks remind me of Sergio Mendez, especially track 2, ‘Brasileira’. All the tracks are written by Alex McManus (and Niza) - talented family the McManus’.

Alex says on the sleeve, ‘Thanks - To the One whose rhythm resonates everywhere there is an open heart’.

This music can reach your heart and open it because it comes from those whose hearts are in tune with the ONE.

Check out www.doSul.org

Thanks Niza, Alex and doSul.

I was sitting in a church leadership meeting this evening and something
someone said set me off thinking Trinity thoughts again. I got this picture
of a wheel divided into quadrants. In three of the quadrants was Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, but the other was empty, as though the wheel was
not complete. As though God needed someone to complete the wheel so
that it can roll. Then I realised the obvious really, that the someone is U or Me.
I did this little graphic to explain it.

God wants to roll with U & Me. He wants us to be part of his wheel so that
we can help him accomplish his Kindom on Earth. Why not get on board
and roll with God!

Another little extra thought.
Have you ever spun a spectrum (r,o,y,g,b,i,v) colour wheel really fast?
http://physics.kenyon.edu/EarlyApparatus/Optics/Newtons_Color_
Wheel/Newtons_Color_Wheel.html
If you have you will know that the colours merge together and
become white. So if we are truly part of God’s colour wheel we can take
on His light and spread it where ever we roll, knowing that He’ll always be
there with us. He’s our Rock - so come on and
Rock & Roll with God!

I haven’t posted since February for one reason or another, however as it is Trinity Sunday this weekend I thought I might post something. Some of you will know my interest in communicating things Trinitarian in relation to God’s world around us and also our made world - triangulation etc (see my early posts last year at www.xanga.com/intheson ).

Well I was looking through some of my slides about our Creator God and found this list of words from Roget’s Thesaurus all under the heading of Designer.

DESIGNER
The Creator
founding father
planner
originator
author
mastermind
producer
planter
grower
farmer
sheep farmer

And the sheep farmer of course is the
Shepherd

Last year I wrote a series of blogs (www.xanga.com/intheson) in which I suggested visual images/objects/architecture etc in relation to communicating the abstract concept of the Trinity to young people and the unchurched. The discussions on Sam Radford’s site have made me return to the subject .I know that some people have a problem with relating God to images in this way, but I thought I might re post some of them here on VOX.

This blog is the start and relates how I got to thinking about the Trinity in this way, so you can see why its so important to me and where I coming from.

In ‘99, when I was teaching at Hebron International Christian School, Ootacamund, S. India, I was asked to do a school assembly, but I had no theme. A couple of weeks before the assembly I went for a walk by a river with a staff friend who taught Biology and Botany. Whilst walking he found some plants which had triangular stems - Sedges.

Immediately I started thinking about how God had created them, and the triangular stem seemed to symbolise His wholeness - the Trinity. Around the stem there were three long leaves reaching out in long arcs. I noticed that the leaves wrapped around each other as they formed on the stem.

  

I just could not get this image out of my mind, that the three parts of God were the three leaves and that I was in the middle being protected by them - by HIM. God in 3 persons all around me keeping me safe. I picked a bit of the plant and kept it - I still carry it in my bag to remind me.

As soon as I got back to school I knew what my assembly was about - the Trinity. It was quite daunting, as a relatively new Christian in a Christian school with mature Christian staff, to talk about the Trinity. How could I do it? How could I get it over to the students in a way which was relevant and meaningful? I have been in design education all my working life so I got to thinking of the
                                                         Greatest
                                                         Of
                                                         Designers

God as the Creator - the Designer of everything, and how man has used God’s natural designs and developed them. I looked at plants, at the eye of a fly, at honeycomb (not triangular but hexagonal - 6 equilateral triangles). I looked at bridges, at triangulation, at Buckminster Fuller’s domes etc etc. (Some of these ideas I have already used in my blogs).

But it’s the Sedge that really plays a big part in my Trinitarian experience. A few months after seeing the plant in India I was staying at the Christian Guest House in Bangkok. Whilst I was doing some drawing in the garden I was suddenly aware of a larger version of the Sedge in my field of vision. I was amazed and excited - this plant that reminded me so much of God, was actually growing in the garden of the Christian Guest House.

On our way home from India we travelled via Australia and the USA where we stayed with a pastor friend just south of San Francisco. One day I went for a walk with him in the hills south of Monteray and he was asking me about Hebron. I was telling him the story above and as I got to the point about the sedge in Bangkok, I looked down to see a large version of the plant right there by the edge of the path. It stopped me in my tracks. We looked at it and looked for others like it but there were none. Writing this now is making the hairs on my arms and neck stand up!

So I had seen this plant three times, in three different locations, all three having a Christian connection of some kind. The plant with a triangular stem and three leaves. Some people would say that that was coincidence but I know it was God speaking to me, encouraging me to use the gifts he has given me for His glory.

In the assembly to the young students that I finally did at Hebron (and on one of the ‘Trinity’ blogs  www.xanga.com/intheson?nextdate=8%2f24%2f2005+15%3a50%3a46.460&direction=n) I tried to get over the abstract concept of Trinity and used an image of  Father, Son and Holy Spirit related to a triangle. God’s all around us and He can be regarded as having a 3-Dimensional (or even 4) quality! We are made in His image and we too are 3-dimensional. I used a Tetrahedral form (4 triangular sides) as an image which visually unites all the elements of God + man.

 

Three of the sides can be regarded as Father, Son and Holy Spirit leaving the one remaining triangle to complete the form. God wants US - YOU and ME to be that side, to complete the form. He wants to work together with us in unity. He gives us His Word, He gives us gifts and He wants us to use them to reach out and build bridges for the Kingdom.

‘Christians are called and gifted by God and, through His authoritative Word, and a personal (intimate) relationship with Jesus, are empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve the Body and seek the Lost through local and global evangelism.’ (after MOSAIC)

I have recently been introduced to a series of short DVD presentations by Rob Bell under the heading of NOOMA. The only two that I have actually seen so far are RAIN and RHYTHM, but I am excited about seeing more.