Thought for the Day
Rob Marshall: 27th June 2009
Good morning
Yesterday I listened to the Michael’s Jackson’s earth song, over and over again: “What about the sunrise? What about the rain?
What about all the things, that you said we were to gain….
What about killingfields, is there a time?
What about all the dreams, that you said were yours and mine?
And I realised, perhaps for the first time, how the combined weirdness and brilliance of Michael Jackson’s life was rooted in a child-like innocence
and that the world really wasn’t that bad – apart from the damage that human beings created around themselves.
Touched by genius, a music purist – a composer, writer, performer and superb dancer – Jackson’s dense creativity manifested itself in truly bizarre ways. Criminal proceedings only added to a mist of unease and mystery which often swirled around him.
Jackson’s undoubted artistic genius was rooted in his desire to withdraw from celebrity mainstream culture to be a recluse – and to imagine an unreal world where priorities are more focussed and reality is only a haze in the distance.
So that when he did burst out onto the stage – his contribution was at least thoughtful, often charged, sometimes sublime – and not least because whilst living in the world – he did not always want to be part of what he saw and witnessed. And the result only added to a sense of confusion and raised more questions.
Michael Jackson’s passing shows how massive a part music plays in many people’s lives. There is a profoundly spiritual aspect to the music that you and I love – marking rites of passage, present and former relationships, cadences in our lives that we might want to celebrate again and again – or quite simply forget – until we hear the tune. Thomas Beecham said that good music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and quits the memory with difficulty.
It is quite clear that Michael Jackson wrestled as a recluse, with the world, with man, with God and with himself. He saw humanity as flawed and lamented his role in it. In another of his songs, Heal the World, Jackson described love as a place of the heart where in making a little space for ourselves – we could make the world a better place: he writes:
If You Want To Know Why; There's A Love That Cannot LieLove Is Strong; It Only Cares For Joyful Giving.
But it’s the Earth Song, with which I began, which reinforces Jackson’s belief, through music, that however flawed our starting point, we all need to take a little time out to ask some profound and even theological questions:
He sings: What about the man? What about the crying man ?What about Abraham ? What about death again ? Do we give a damn?
The answer, I think, is that in his own unique way, he did.
Saturday 27 June 2009
Sunday 21 June 2009
In and out of University
Good morning.
It’s been an equally bad week for new graduates and prospective students this week.
As unemployment levels continue to rise thousands of students who have just finished finals are seriously struggling to find their first serious job.
Whilst figures suggest that record numbers of young people are seeking fewer places at universities and colleges and so it’s a double whammy of bad news for these young people.
Of all the people affected by the economic downturn, it’s this fresh batch of young people for whom we should feel particularly concerned.
Many of those graduating have significant loans and debts, they have newly found knowledge and skills for a non existent work place and, in many cases, no hope of making that first, bold move towards independence as they have no choice but to move back home with their parents.
Those wanting a place at university and not succeeding because of a shortage of places quite simply have very few places to go.
This demoralising and depressing landscape for many of our young people should be a key priority not only for our politicians but for all of us working in communities up and down the country.
My own two children are currently at university and you can sense not only their hopes and aspirations for the future being affected – you can also see them and their friends asking deep and meaningful questions about the future.
It’s been an equally bad week for new graduates and prospective students this week.
As unemployment levels continue to rise thousands of students who have just finished finals are seriously struggling to find their first serious job.
Whilst figures suggest that record numbers of young people are seeking fewer places at universities and colleges and so it’s a double whammy of bad news for these young people.
Of all the people affected by the economic downturn, it’s this fresh batch of young people for whom we should feel particularly concerned.
Many of those graduating have significant loans and debts, they have newly found knowledge and skills for a non existent work place and, in many cases, no hope of making that first, bold move towards independence as they have no choice but to move back home with their parents.
Those wanting a place at university and not succeeding because of a shortage of places quite simply have very few places to go.
This demoralising and depressing landscape for many of our young people should be a key priority not only for our politicians but for all of us working in communities up and down the country.
My own two children are currently at university and you can sense not only their hopes and aspirations for the future being affected – you can also see them and their friends asking deep and meaningful questions about the future.
Father's Day
The other day I had a conversation with my 21 year old daughter. “Speak soon then,” I said to her. “Well we’ll speak on Sunday because it’s Father’s Day,” she said in a wonderfully innocent way.
The cynic in me was completely disarmed. I was unwittingly reassured that the marketing nonsense of greetings cards, cheap bottles of supermarket whisky and boxed DVD sets isn’t really what Father’s Day is all about. Her reassurance of a simple phone call tomorrow gave me a temporary selfish glow that I hadn’t got being a father completely wrong.
This week I heard about a new film called the evolution of dad. Based around a series of interviews with fathers, it suggests that men have travelled a long way towards parity with women when it comes to parenthood, earning potential and forward planning. Such equality may be anathema in some countries and frowned on in others but in Britain and the United States the father’s role within the context of the family has changed and is changing.
All of this means a fundamental reassessment of the role of men and women in British society from an anthropological and sociological point of view. But I want to argue that it doesn’t fundamentally change anything theologically.
The spiritual notion of Fatherhood in the Christian tradition is rooted in the concept of God himself. If the Old Testament is a fascinating concoction of how the father deals with his erring creation, the New Testament brings the notion of fatherhood to a new level.
Many modern theologians have argued that God is as much mother as he is father. I am happy to consider that as long as it in no way diminishes the impressive explanations of Jesus throughout his ministry as to how God as Father introduces us to vulnerability and openness; to responsibility and love.
Vulnerability - because a Father can only go so far in directing his children: the rest is up to them:
Openness – because true Fatherhood seems to be rooted in the notions of honesty and giving direction without control or condition
Responsibility because, well what is being a parent, if it’s not ultimately being responsible?
And Love – because love is where it starts, and also where it ends.
These notions of Fatherhood are both my experience as a Christian and my aim as a dad. They are not always easy to achieve.
If ministry has taught me anything, it has underlined the diversity of human relationships right across the social spectrum. Some are wonderful. Others found wanting. Whilst many people are truly happy, others sense only failure and rejection. And how such relationships are, partly conditions the type of person we become.
Devoid of tacky cards and exorbitant gifts, Father’s Day is a true opportunity, first, to think of yourself as someone’s child and especially this weekend, for all who are fathers, not to take for granted the unique, and they are unique, opportunities which the gift of fatherhood brings.
The cynic in me was completely disarmed. I was unwittingly reassured that the marketing nonsense of greetings cards, cheap bottles of supermarket whisky and boxed DVD sets isn’t really what Father’s Day is all about. Her reassurance of a simple phone call tomorrow gave me a temporary selfish glow that I hadn’t got being a father completely wrong.
This week I heard about a new film called the evolution of dad. Based around a series of interviews with fathers, it suggests that men have travelled a long way towards parity with women when it comes to parenthood, earning potential and forward planning. Such equality may be anathema in some countries and frowned on in others but in Britain and the United States the father’s role within the context of the family has changed and is changing.
All of this means a fundamental reassessment of the role of men and women in British society from an anthropological and sociological point of view. But I want to argue that it doesn’t fundamentally change anything theologically.
The spiritual notion of Fatherhood in the Christian tradition is rooted in the concept of God himself. If the Old Testament is a fascinating concoction of how the father deals with his erring creation, the New Testament brings the notion of fatherhood to a new level.
Many modern theologians have argued that God is as much mother as he is father. I am happy to consider that as long as it in no way diminishes the impressive explanations of Jesus throughout his ministry as to how God as Father introduces us to vulnerability and openness; to responsibility and love.
Vulnerability - because a Father can only go so far in directing his children: the rest is up to them:
Openness – because true Fatherhood seems to be rooted in the notions of honesty and giving direction without control or condition
Responsibility because, well what is being a parent, if it’s not ultimately being responsible?
And Love – because love is where it starts, and also where it ends.
These notions of Fatherhood are both my experience as a Christian and my aim as a dad. They are not always easy to achieve.
If ministry has taught me anything, it has underlined the diversity of human relationships right across the social spectrum. Some are wonderful. Others found wanting. Whilst many people are truly happy, others sense only failure and rejection. And how such relationships are, partly conditions the type of person we become.
Devoid of tacky cards and exorbitant gifts, Father’s Day is a true opportunity, first, to think of yourself as someone’s child and especially this weekend, for all who are fathers, not to take for granted the unique, and they are unique, opportunities which the gift of fatherhood brings.
Thought for The Day 20th June
The North Korean national football team have qualified for the 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa. Only 6 sides have guaranteed their place so far (England still need at least a point) and North Korea’s early success is already causing their autocratic regime several major headaches.
The players will be heavily controlled; few fans from North Korea will be able to support their team and there is even a question as to whether or not the matches will be televised. No home fans. No TV. It will be down to Twitter then.
Watching the other qualifying match in that group this week – Iran against Saudi Arabia – the green arm bands on the wrists of some Iranian players in support of democracy back home- were more important than the result of the game.
Sport frequently manages to provide an arena for international dilemmas to be seen in the cold light of day. It’s often the case: one tournament – different continents, many nations – but what a varied backdrop is provided by the lives and experiences of each of the participating teams.
Indeed, the qualification of North Korea highlights how absolutely different life can be for people taking part in exactly the same event. Contrast the reality of life of, say, a North Korean defender with the puffed up somewhat ridiculous extremes of some European and South American footballers also taking part. It’s the parallel universe syndrome: how can that be? We are here, and so are they, but perception through participation is staggeringly different?
Putting that taking part in an event into the context of life back home is even more challenging in a repressed society if sport provides only a fleeting glimpse of equality and that level playing field– it is but a mirage, a temporary reprieve from the oppression and injustice to which participants must then return.
The communications revolution, as we have seen this week in various parts of the world, gives dictators fewer places to hide. This is an age of opinion, update and messaging. And it is all of our responsibilities to believe that sharing and openness might ease the path to freedom; that our perception and experience of life need not be so different even at the same event.
Who is to say what is right? Who can define what real freedom is? All we know is that human beings crave the opportunity to be free to believe that they have the ability to make choices.
Having faith in any such ability means believing sometimes in that which is not tangible: St Augustine of Hippo said that faith is to believe what you do not yet see:” but if you have such faith and persist – he goes on – one day you will see what you believe.
The players will be heavily controlled; few fans from North Korea will be able to support their team and there is even a question as to whether or not the matches will be televised. No home fans. No TV. It will be down to Twitter then.
Watching the other qualifying match in that group this week – Iran against Saudi Arabia – the green arm bands on the wrists of some Iranian players in support of democracy back home- were more important than the result of the game.
Sport frequently manages to provide an arena for international dilemmas to be seen in the cold light of day. It’s often the case: one tournament – different continents, many nations – but what a varied backdrop is provided by the lives and experiences of each of the participating teams.
Indeed, the qualification of North Korea highlights how absolutely different life can be for people taking part in exactly the same event. Contrast the reality of life of, say, a North Korean defender with the puffed up somewhat ridiculous extremes of some European and South American footballers also taking part. It’s the parallel universe syndrome: how can that be? We are here, and so are they, but perception through participation is staggeringly different?
Putting that taking part in an event into the context of life back home is even more challenging in a repressed society if sport provides only a fleeting glimpse of equality and that level playing field– it is but a mirage, a temporary reprieve from the oppression and injustice to which participants must then return.
The communications revolution, as we have seen this week in various parts of the world, gives dictators fewer places to hide. This is an age of opinion, update and messaging. And it is all of our responsibilities to believe that sharing and openness might ease the path to freedom; that our perception and experience of life need not be so different even at the same event.
Who is to say what is right? Who can define what real freedom is? All we know is that human beings crave the opportunity to be free to believe that they have the ability to make choices.
Having faith in any such ability means believing sometimes in that which is not tangible: St Augustine of Hippo said that faith is to believe what you do not yet see:” but if you have such faith and persist – he goes on – one day you will see what you believe.
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