Monday, April 02, 2007










Saturday I planned to attend an event which was at a fab venue - HMS President - moored on the North Side of the River Thames in central London - right opposite the OXO tower .........

I wanted to take in as I am always giving out .........

I was feeling flat as mentioned in the blog below - the Friday reflection.

I went and loved the venue
I left early
It was a powerpoint lecture by some guy who I guess was a Cambridge Professor
Subject 'Entrepreneurship' - and the subject interests me
But
Felt it was swinging towards 'God will make you rich if you do ....... etc.'
Prosperity stuff?
There was a few verses floated quoting 'He will give of his riches .......... etc.'
A few words about 'trickle down' ........
No mention of 'He who was rich became poor ............ etc.'

Maybe I was on the wrong boat ?

Working in the inner city with the poorest and those at the bottom with nothing - bar some anger ......
I see/feel that help the poor and give to the poor and do things for the poor ...... that is not just good enough ...... I feel an anger surge myself ......... now ......... etc.

This, the above, can be just paternalistic, it seems to me.
To do 'for' is the language and actions of the oppressor.
To do 'with' ............ is the language of the liberator.
To give of our riches ............. is oppression
To give from our poverty is the language and actions of the liberator.
He who was rich - became poor .............

God did not stand on a cloud and shout down about his love .......
He poured all his love into one human body ...........
He came down
- incarnation - he became one of us, especially the poorest of us .........
....... he had meals with 'publicans and sinners' ............

What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us ........................ ?

So often I have seen Probation Officers, and Social Workers, commuting in to a poor area, for a few hours, to do good and just being resented by local humans.

I see few Christian, only a few, who are called by God to go and live amongst the poorest ......... and yet so many who are called to live in their normal middle class communities, and ideally upwardly mobile, to an even better house and better job .......

I once saw a cartoon with a man praying - asking God to send him out as a Missionary .......
out of the cloud there was a bubble and God saying
"Go to Liverpool ....."

Maybe I was having a bad day and the tide was rising and I got the wrong message ........?

The day before this - I had been leading a training course about understanding and working with 'Gangs'.
I concluded that there is no other way than being alongside young humans as they grow up in these tough urban areas ........... and through those established authentic relationships ...... seeking first the Kingdom ....

The only other 'preventative' measures are with 'force' ....... the Police Force and the resulting containment in Prisons which, most thinking humans conclude, does more harm than good.

You can tell - I have al-sorts of feelings about this issue ............ and most of them not worked out
not sufficiently thought out
not
boxed
gift wrapped
concluded
I am glad to say

I want to retain my anger
some would name it
Justice
others
vulnerability
and you ..................... ?


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