co-operation

All posts tagged co-operation

Day 37 of 40…Partnership

Posted by David Ward on 17/03/2016
Posted in: Bible, Lent, Mission, Personal thoughts, Relationships. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

“For whatever reason, since humankind showed up on the scene, God does nothing without a human partner.” —Bishop Desmond Tutu —

quoted in “A more Christlike God-a more beautiful Gospel” by Brad Jersak

fish-n-breadTake a walk through the Bible and you see the truth of it.

From shy, tongue- tied Moses following God’s initiative to rescue the people of Israel from captivity in Egypt to an arrogant, anti-Christian Pharisee called Saul who worked with God to free people everywhere from the chains of sin and self-centredness. Some joined in willingly, some had to experience the equivalent of being knocked off their horse by a blinding flash that temporarily blinded their physical eyes so they could catch a glimpse of the way things really where.

And, right through history, God has gone on inviting people to work with him in the great ‘project’ of redeeming and restoring people and the world to the way it was meant to be. God rarely chooses to step in and sort things out directly…he chooses to mediate his grace, healing and forgiveness through us.

Jesus who, among other things, walked among us to show what a life lived in partnership and loving relationship with God could look like, is our prime example.

Brad Jersak comments, following an exposition of Acts 2: 2, “When Jesus performed miracles, he didn’t turn on his ‘God switch’ for a few moments, then turn it back off when he went for lunch.Rather, in his humanity, he modelled the life of a mediator who emptied himself so that the power of God’s love could work through him.” (From “A more Christlike God” chapter 8)

God chooses to work in the world through people like you and me, who are prepared to ‘empty themselves’, making whatever sacrifice it may take, experiencing the joys and sorrows of being part of God’s mission in the world.

MIOtesToday’s reading from Luke’s Gospel is about a bunch of people who appeared to give an enormous amount to God but we’re actually working on a more personal project…their own image and prestige. Then, in contrast, there is a poor woman who thinks she has nothing to offer, but gives it all anyway, demonstrating a love for God and a trust in him that marks her out as one in partnership with God.

[1] As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. [2] He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. [3] “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. [4] All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on .”

Luke 21:1-4 NIV

The question today, I think, is not about ‘what am I giving to God’…it’s more about who am I investing my time, my money and my life on. Am I busy building my own world or have I truly become God’s partner at work in the world, the cosmos, that he loves through me?

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Challenging Dangerous and Dominating Ideas…

Posted by David Ward on 17/02/2014
Posted in: Books/Articles, Personal thoughts, Spirituality. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

TudgeWhyGenesOne of the most helpful books I have read recently is Colin Tudge’s “Why Genes are not Selfish and People are Nice – Challenging the Dangerous Ideas that Dominate our Lives”.

Tudge is a biologist, science writer and broadcaster, educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, the author of numerous books on food, agriculture, genetics and species diversity.

His basic premise is that many politicians, bolstered by their attendant academics and scientists, have bought-in to the dangerous and scientifically suspect dogma of the Neo-Darwinists that life is all about survival and competition and nothing else.

He refutes the myth that science and transcendence/metaphysics must always be at odds, and challenges the received wisdom in politics and other public spheres of life that competition is the only way for humanity to get ahead.

He does not belong (he is quick to point out) to any one manifestation of organised religion, but is equally quick to comment on the helpful dialogue and discussion he enjoys with theologians and philosophers from a wide range of spiritual backgrounds. From that standpoint he challenges materialist prejudices and argues that metaphysics are essential to our practical enterprises.

As Sir Crispin Tickell (environmentalist and academic) comments, “This book more than lives up to its subtitle. It does indeed challenge big bad ideas, whether they be about the natural world, the human condition within it, or our habits of thought and behaviour, and suggests some bigger, better ideas for the future. In short, replace the conventional wisdom. All this is laid out in easy but scholarly fashion, and the conclusions are a personal testament. Think differently is the message. We are now better able to do so.”

My personal response to the book is born out of the way it speaks into my own life situation…a person of faith with a scientific background. It articulates some of my own struggles with the either/or mentality of both fundamentalist atheists and Christians alike, my sense that God is so much bigger than all our attempts to define or constrain him and that one of the defining features of humanity is a sense that the material cannot be all there is. Sometimes I lose the plot and swing too far way to one of the extremes. This book is a sensible and challenging corrective.

As one who is totally disillusioned with the failing attempts at government based on competition all over the world, I find that the book also presents the possibility of a rebirth of co-operation as the foundational principal of government, and suggests ways that this might be achieved.