TURN

Here’s a prayer framework I used recently.

Toy cars were set up to look like they were on the road, heading in the same direction, on a two lane high way. They were little Matchbox type cars of all types including an ambulance, a dump truck, a crane, a police car, a forklift, a kombi, a sports car, a family wagon, a four wheel drive safari jeeep etc.

People were invited to pray, asking God to help us be like one of the vehicles in terms of our ministry. It seemed to really capture people’s imaginations. The prayers kept coming with this group of young adults and mature adults.

Please God, help us to be like Kombis, picking people up along the road and inviting them to share on our journey towards you. Please God, help us to be like cranes, helping people to build their dreams. God, make us like that little tank there, when it comes to fighting against injustice. Lord, we have friends who are hurting. Please help us to your agents of healing like the ambulance…

The little cars were a great prompt for this sending out prayer time.

Tom Kerr

John Bell, songwriter and leader from Iona Community, Scotland, will be leading workshops on worship, spirituality and ecology in Brisbane, 25th – 27th May.

The workshops, sponsored by Moreton Rivers Presbytery, will be held at Chermside Kedron Uniting Church, corner of Rode Rd and Gympie Rd, Chermside, Brisbane.

25th May Friday evening

Session 1 (7pm-9pm)
The purpose of singing in worship: Practical and informative session for worship leaders, Worship leaders, Choir Members, singers, musicians, or people who just love singing.

[Read more →]

On Sunday, Jan, her husband Theo, and the children went to church and during the prayers of intercession, Jan asked for prayers for her family as they worked through their response to a diagnosis of ADHD for their son.

After church Jan’s elder offered to come around that afternoon for a chat.

When the elder arrived at the house, Jan made a cup of tea while the elder sat and watched the kids playing in the back yard.

“Is Theo around?” she asked. “He had a call from a client.” said Jan.

“He’ll be back as soon as he can. He works such long hours – he is really doing his best, he wants to create a great life for us and I really love him for it.”

“It seems like you were pretty busy in the last week too,” said the elder.

“Yes” sighed Jan, “We are always so busy, and with the extra time needed to deal with this ADHD stuff , I am finding it really difficult.”

“So you do most of the stuff when it comes to the kids?” asked the elder.

“Yes” said Jan, “Theo’s business is starting to take off and I want to support him as well as the kids.” The elder said, “I have been thinking lately about the way we order our lives, and as Christians I wonder if we do the family/ work thing well at all. Our faith is about mutual relationships and honouring and respecting each other, but we still tend to fall into traditional roles.”

“Tell me about it,” said Jan.

“But I am seriously considering giving up the teacher aide position. Even though I love it, I cannot fi t everything into my life at the moment. I could just do the book work at home for Theo and have more time for the kids. I was also thinking of giving up leading Girls’ Brigade on Friday nights.”

“Have you talked about this with Theo?” asked the elder.

“The decisions Theo makes about his work also affect you all as a family.”

At that moment Theo arrived home. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you arrived, he said, “It is just that some things are really urgent.”

To most people ‘theology’ sounds like an academic exercise with little relevance to everyday life. However we all do theology in some way. Our assumptions about God, the world, and how we interact with each other are all interconnected.

The conversation between Jan and the elder is encouraging reflection on their assumptions. The elder’s questions are encouraging Jan and Theo to look at the systems under the surface in their relationships with each other, with their son, with their church and ultimately with God. We could call this ‘systemic theology’.

On Saturday Jan took her son to his soccer match, part of the Christian Soccer Association fixtures. During the match he played as he normally did, boisterously! The half time whistle went and the children came off the field to get a half time snack. Jan quickly approached her son and reminded him, “You remember that we talked about eating oranges instead of the jelly snakes for energy – they are here next to your water.” Her son complained and looked wistfully at the other kids eating the glucose snacks, but ate his oranges and drank his water.

After the children had gone back on, some of the mums came to Jan and “We noticed you brought oranges today – is everything OK?”

“Well” Jan explained speaking to the group, “We’ve been to a psychologist recently about a concern that perhaps he has ADHD. So one of the things we are doing is modifying his diet. No more sugary snakes I am afraid. I am just so worried about him and don’t really know which way to turn.”

The parents nodded. They had watched Jan’s son over the year and were aware of some of his behaviours. However, one of the mothers said, “You have to be a bit careful about diagnosing ADHD. I know that you go to church – are you asking your church community to pray for you? The Bible does say ‘Ask and it will be given to you.’

Another mum said, “You could bring him to our church on Sunday. Every week we see Jesus’ healing power change the lives of people just like your son. ”

“You must be feeling pretty stressed at this stage,” said another. “These things are often sent to try us, to help us re-evaluate our lives. We’ve just done the Purpose Driven life and Rick Warren explains that life on earth is a test. This might be part of the test.’

“I’m not so sure about that,” said another, “I believe that God is compassionate and maybe you have already found the answer to your prayers with the psychologist who is obviously giving you some direction. We can see God working in all those who help us on our life’s journey.”

Another mum declared, “I’ve never thought about the impact of the jelly snakes. I’m going to have a look for some snacks that don’t have the same effect. Until then we could all go back to oranges”.

There was a general murmur of agreement from the group and Jan thanked them. “I really didn’t want this to be such a big issue, but thank you so much for understanding” she said.
Later as Jan and he son drove off (they’d lost by one goal in the second half) Jan struggled with the idea of life as a test. She wondered who the test might be for, herself, her son, her husband or the whole family.

Who would have thought theological reflection would be done on the soccer field sidelines? Last month, in the home group Jan’s friends helped her reflect through the telling of stories. This time her friends are responding to psychology and medicine through their ‘confessional perspectives’. Some are drawing on the resources of their traditions, including teaching at church and popular books.

McFague’s seminal approach to narrative theology was laid out in 1975 in her book, “Speaking in Parables: A Study in Metaphor and Theology”, published by Fortress Press.

She was until very recently Dean of the Divinity School and the Carpenter Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. Although she’s retired, she’s become Distinguished Theologian in Residence at Vancouver School of Theology.

In “Speaking in Parables”, McFague lays out an approach for intermediary or parabolic theology: theology which relies on various literary forms – parables, stories, poems, confessions – as a way from religious experience to systematic theology. McFague brings a commitment to bringing the Word to life for ordinary people, grounded in an existential, personal and sensuous reflection on life.

McFague refers often to poetry (Gerard Manley Hopkins), stories (Tolkien) and parables (such as those written by Kavka).

McFague reminds the theologian that metaphor and symbol should be used as food for thought – contemplated, probed, reflected upon, rather than manipulated, translated and reduced. Theologians, she says, need to learn to express insights in autobiography as much as in systematic propositions.

Speaking in Parables has recently been republished by SCM, 2002, but the 1975 version is also available online at Religion Online:
Speaking in Parables: A Study in Metaphor and Theology: Online

McFague’s later books include: Metaphorical Theology: Models of God (1997), The Body of God: An Ecological Theology (1993), and Super, Natural Christians: How we should love nature (1997). Her most recent book is Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril (2000)

Jan is a working mum who has three children. Her husband is very busy in his own sign writing business and works long hours during the day and in the evening finishing work for his customers. Jan works part time as receptionist and book keeper for the business and also part time as a teacher’s aide at her children’s school.

She is strongly involved with her local church, and leads Girls’ brigade every Friday. During the week nights she plays squash once a week and ferries the kids around to soccer practice for the local Christian soccer club. At soccer practice she talks to other mums who come from a variety of other Christian churches in the area

Jan’s youngest child has shown behavioural problems since he was a small child. In kindy there was an understanding that he needed to be watched all the time as he would push other kids off the slide and disrupt the sleep time. He has not grown out of this behaviour, and now, at primary school the teachers are suggesting that Jan’s son has ADHD.

Jan is devastated by the news that this could be the reason for her son’s behaviour. She had been hoping and praying that he might just grow out of his boisterous behaviour. But this diagnosis affects her profoundly – what might this mean for her family and her child? Is she a failure as a mum? How should they manage the situation? Does God have something to do with this? Isn’t her son just being who he is and what right do they have to think of medicating him?

When we are faced with situations in our day to day lives we often don’t think that the way we respond to a situation may involve “Doing Theology”. And yet, for most Christian people, doing theology is part of their everyday lives.

In the following few weeks we are going to follow Jan through her story and make some commentary on how she “does theology” in her situation. We are going to travel a while with Jan as she discusses her news with the other soccer mums, her home/bible study group, the school counsellor, and an elder at her church. As part of this we are going to point out different styles of theology that arise as part of her journey.