knock, knock. who's there? my faith. my faith who? my faith ith thtuck in your door!

lame joke in the title? absolutely.

offensive to god? doubtful.

offensive to humour? yes.

last night we gathered to see whether or not god has a sense of humour.

we looked at some [actual] products found on line. the picture is of He'Brews Jewish Beer. don't believe it is real? check out their website

we also looked at a frying pan which burns the face of jesus into your pancakes or grilled cheese sandwich, pet baptism kits, hot air balloon jesus and a lanyard for your iPod shuffle that is in the shape of a cross. we discussed whether or not these items were funny or offensive. all of them fell into the funny category.

however, the websites that dealt with the rapture [actually, the site was about investing in stocks during the 7 years when the anti-christ is on earth to make the most money...there is waaaaaay too much there to explain right now but we all agreed a study about the end of the world would make an interesting future immersion service] or sending messages to dead relatives through people in paliative care or the other more intolerant sites were put into the offensive/blasphemous category. these sites were seen as destructive and communicative of an unhealthy and violent ideology. the basic consensus was that there is nothing funny about taking advantage of people who are grieving the loss of a loved one or manipulating a certain idea about the end times to make financial gain.

but it was the video that inspired the most passionate discussion [see video bar for the video]. this youtube vid was full of images and we watched and then wrote which ones we reacted the strongest towards.

please watch the video and do the same.

many people were deeply offended about the woman in the stain-glassed window, or the cross with the word 'ikea' written on it, or the ones mocking pope john paul II's declining health in his final days, or the pictures depicting jesus as a drug user.

we asked why these things were offensive and the main idea was that there is no longer anything sacred anymore. there seems to be a noticable disrespect for religion and a desire to profane what used to be considered holy. conversation turned to stores and bars being open on sundays and how the church is a target for hateful remarks.

but we also talked about this type of thing being a vehicle for honest dialogue. if we can get past the feelings of repulsion or anger we may be able to find someone who is lashing out because of an incident in their past when they were let down, or hurt, by the church. and that is the kind of person we want to show understanding and compassion towards. people expect a negative reaction from 'church types' when they post such images. what a wonderful opportunity to pleasantly surprise them!

what about those who post images and mock the church just because, and are just being malicious for, no good reason or because it is the popular thing to do? well, it is probably best just to avoid the situation and hope that they mature enough down the road and will become willing to engage in an intelligent discussion on the subject. or, at the very least, realize that mocking another person's beliefs-no matter how silly they may seem-is never a good course of action.

but the point that must be concluded on is this: god does have a sense of humour. it is important to see that god delights in people. it is important to see the distinction between failing at an honest attempt to please god and just mocking god. as thomas merton says: "i believe even the desire to please god pleases god."

god is a god who laughs as well as cries. god is not vengeful and waiting to smite us because we tell jokes about the faith. it is important for christians-and people of faith-to look at themselves and laugh at what is funny...we do a lot of ridiculous things in this pursurit of the Divine and it can only help to be able to honestly laugh at ourselves! plus, it probably will help us rid ourselves of the whole vengeful and grumpy god image that can haunt us and our spiritual walk.

after all, if god doesn't have a sense of humour we are all pretty much up the mighty brown creek sans paddle!

and seriously, if god doesn't have a sens of humour who can explain the platypus and teenagers?

ps: for a great website that has some hilarious church culture items check out www.shipoffools.com

o, the weather outside was frightful...

...but the worship was so delighful.

sorry for the late update, only the day before the next service, but we somewhat beholden to technology and it appears that our trusty computer is in the process of shuffling off the mortal coil! so, we have been scrambling to get a new computer to do this sort of thing as well as help with the actual immersion service.

so, enough excuses...here's what we talked about in last week's blizzard.

huddled close to each other to stay warm we continued to talk about how the bible is to be used for our daily lives. people last week were deeply offended by some of the passages that were selected [notably the ones pertaining to women remaining silent in church] and were baffled with the rules telling people not to wear clothes with two different types of material woven together.

so, how do we separate what we use from what we discard?

one of our people wrote in with the idea that we have to be careful when we use the bible literally because we run the risk of making it say something, or do something, that was never intended by the authors of the book. she spoke about myth and how stories can be used to convey deeper truths for the readers. she then added that she did not believe that the bible is untrue in any way, just that it uses literal devices to communicate deep truths to its readers. but she is also concerned that people will the dismiss any part of the scriptures that he or she may not agree with and this is just as foolosh/dangerous. the bible is not our play thing and the ultimate goal of interpreting it is not that we clarify it but that it clarifies us.

another course of argument was that the morality of the bible was okay for that time period but should be reviewed through today's lens. there was some disagreement here. one person thought that stealing to feed one's family was okay but, according to the old testament, that person should be killed. the argument was made that stealing to feed one's family is acceptable. that was countered by a soft spoken woman who thought that if we didn't steal then we opened up the door for others to help. be it aid agencies or just friendly neighbours she thought that we need to trust more in god and let him take care of us.

as you can tell there were so many points and some held that the bible is translated differently in a post-resurrection world. this brought up the question whether or not that excluded jewish people from accurate interpretation of the bible since they did not believe in jesus' divinity.

so, to wrap up, i hope this is a jarbled and passionate in the post as it was on the evening of..for many perspectives were shared and many viewpoints were explored.

at the end...well, we're not at the end and even though we are talking about god's sense of humour this week it will not be suprising to see some more of this topic sneak in.

by the way: we decided to interpret the bible through the lens of jesus...in other words: we treat women the way jesus did, we eat and live life the way jesus did [at least we try] and we understand that jesus came to show us that the faith, the bible, and everything we do, is fundamentally about a relationship with god. instead of worrying about rules and regulations we are to be concerned with people and the marginalized and look for god among them.

however, it is probably best to leave this post open for now...because the topic is still something we are struggling with so please come and join in the struggle!

breakfast for supper and helping out

well, we've got a busy week

as lent starts we want to insure that we celebrate this important part of the christian calendar.

that is why, tonight, where immersion is held there will be a pancake supper for any and all people interested

there is no charge for the meal but there will be info about the stephen lewis foundation [view their site here] as well as the chance to make a voluntary donation.

so, let's recap:

1] pancakes for supper=awesome

2] learning about stephen lewis foundation=awesome

3] info about upcoming benefit concert=awesome

4] chance to help contribute to stephen lewis' work in africa=awesome

looks like a night filled with numerous awesome opportunities!

hope to see you there.