Archive for March, 2005
Friday, March 4th, 2005
People need more than bread for their life;
They must feed on every word of God.
Matthew 4:4 (New Living Translation)
God’s… gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need.
Acts 20:32 (The Message)
This is one day’s reading I’m not going to find easy to write up. I clearly am coming from a different place than Rick Warren when it comes to thinking about the Bible. But I’m sure we have a lot in common still.
Like many Christians around the world, Rick directly equates God’s Word with the Bible. Like many Christians around the world, I don’t agree with that simple equation, “God’s Word = Holy Bible”.
I don’t believe the Bible is alive. It is not the fourth member of the Trinity. But I passionately and thoughtfully believe that the Holy Spirit is alive, speaking to us in so many ways. And I believe that the Scriptures are used by the Holy Spirit to guide us, motivate us, and give us hope. Above all, they are used by the Holy Spirit to help us connect with Jesus Christ, the Word of God - the one through whom God communicates with us.
Rick says we must accept the authority of the Bible rather than basing our choices on unreliable authorities such as culture, tradition, reason or emotion. All four are flawed by the Fall, he says.
Hmmm. From what I can see as I read the Bible, the stories described within and the ways in which they are written up reflect cultural perspectives, the passing on of tradition, the development of thought about God, as well as a lot of emotion. On top of that, we use all those as we read and interpret the Bible. I agree - these are all flawed by our limited experience as well as our tendency to deceive ourselves. I think the writers of the material put together in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, as much as they were inspired by the Spirit, were flawed and limited.
I think we should read the Bible with humility, listening carefully to the insights we bring with us from culture, tradition, reason and emotion.
Rick says I must assimilate the truth of the Bible. This is done by receiving God’s Word and accepting it with an open, receptive attitude. It is done by reading the Bible daily - so that we get to read of all of it often. It is done by researching or studying the Bible. It is done by remembering the Bible - memorising parts that will help us. It is done by reflecting on the Bible - meditating on it.
Hey I’m committed to the same principles, though I have found that legalism or driven attitudes around them do not bring life. I place my life under the authority of Jesus. I know that he doesn’t rule my life with a list of ‘must do every day’ tasks. His agenda for my life spans days, weeks, months and years.
The opening verse makes sense to me when I read it as:
“Jesus Christ can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need.”
Rick says I must apply the principles of God’s Word. I like his suggestion that we write down an action step after reading the Bible. An action step that is personal (involving me), practical (something I can do), and provable (with a deadline to do it). That would be a useful tool to use in reading the Bible. It certainly helps avoid just growing in understanding without any application in real life.
Rick’s final question is helpful.
What has God already told me in his Word that I haven’t started doing yet? If I read “his Word” as Jesus Christ, it would become: “What has God already told me in Jesus Christ that I haven’t started doing yet?”
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Friday, March 4th, 2005
On the PostKiwi blog I’m writing up my literature review of Hugh Mackay’s book, “Generations”. So far, I’ve written up the author’s context and a precis of the chapter on the Lucky Generation, born in the 1920s, now 75 to 85 years old. This was my parent’s generation, though being farmers they didn’t get to live in the suburbs like many of their peers.
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Friday, March 4th, 2005
Hugh Mackay’s Generations was published by Pan Macmillan Australia in 1997. It’s now out of print but is in most Australian libraries. In this research-based book Mackay gives us three slices of Australian life by describing the ‘Lucky’ Generation - born in the 1920s, the ‘Stress’ Generation - born in 1946-1955, and the ‘Options’ Generation, born in the 1970s.
In this post, I am engaging with the second chapter on the ‘Lucky Generation’ - the tribal elders.
A word of caution right from the start. This is a slice, not the whole cohort. What about the people born in the 1930s and 1940s? Mackay acknowledges right at the start (pp. 3-4) that he has narrowed down 25 years into ten years. These smaller cohorts, Mackay writes, are symbolic of the changes in Australian attitudes.
To compare Mackay’s analysis with the Meredith and Schewe’s schema, the Lucky Generation would correspond with the World War II cohort, coming of age during the war years, but too young to serve overseas. Missing in the Mackay approach is a whole cohort who came of age in the late 1940s and 1950s. It could be argued that the ‘missing cohort’ did not have a binding experience to differentiate them from the ‘lucky’ ones and so tended to reflect the values of their elder ‘brothers and sisters’.
Mackay starts with the meaning behind his description:
Lucky - charmed - because of timing of each of the phases of their journey through the life cycle. Their lives begin in hardship (childhood), but blossom during their middle years.
Values learnt from a depression childhood
Loyalty
Saving
The work ethic
Sense of mutual obligation
Patriotism
Values learnt from a wartime adolescence
Strong community spirit
National identity - linked with ‘Britishness’
Pride in Australian capacity to take its place in the war
Values lived out in the Post-war Boom
Optimism - hope for a new egalitarian middle-class Australia
Openness to new immigrants based on expected assimilation
Early marriage
Demand for new housing - in new suburbs
Parenting the Boomers
Mackay tells us that his focus groups of ‘lucky’ Australians felt good about progress in parenting. It was because they didn’t have to work so hard to make a living - they had more time for family in the suburbs. Parents, more educated now, were less rigid and authoritarian. Societal attitudes towards children rewarded parents who valued their children as people. Mackay inserts a rider provided by the Boomer focus groups who felt that it was they who made the real progress as parents. ‘Lucky’ parents look back and wonder if they over indulged their children, succumbing to an emerging materialism.
‘Lucky Women’
Mackay points out that it was possible for women to leave paid employment at the birth of their first child, and never to go back. This was an exciting development for the Lucky generation who had gone through an unstable decade of economic turmoil in which ’stay at home’ mums would have been working without technological aids to make ends meet. In their latter years, the women of the Lucky generation have to grapple with the independent approaches of the Boomer women. On the one hand they are glad that their daughters have a greater capacity to negotiate the terms of their marriages and leave them if need be. But the complexity and stress linked with unclear gender roles seems to puzzle many of the older generation.
Society seems to be deteriorating
At the turn of the twenty first century the Lucky Generation report a sense of insecurity.
Lack of physical safety - linked to fear of going out at night
Disappointment - uneasiness about the loss of integrity in society, loss of shared moral values, loss of sense of belonging to a community.
Three Biggest Changes
Television - most were already raising a family when they bought their first TV.
Widespread Car Ownership - symbolic of a general shift from public to private space, the rise of the individual and the extraordinary emphasis placed on travel in the last quarter of the 20th century.
Kids Living Together - Mackay reports that his focus groups were proud of the fact they had been able to develop a generally tolerant attitude toward sexual liberation among their own children and grandchildren. This is alongside their pride at their own more solemn approach to marriage. But yet they are still critical of the concept of instant gratification.
Warnings for the future
Mackay finishes with a few warnings from the Lucky ones:
- Too many values have evaporated in the face of relentless materialism
- Too many working mothers are neglecting their children and destablising both family and the labour market
- The idea of self-sacrifice has been lost
- Technology is clever but hardly likely to be our salvation
- Instant gratification is a dangerous trap
The chapter finishes with a reference to two spokesmen for the Lucky Generation of Australia.
Ronald Conway, author of “The Great Australian Stupor: An Interpretation of an Australian Way of Life”, suggests that this no-nonsense, self reliant generation may be the last of the ‘bed-rock’ generations on which something distinctive and enduring can be built.
Donald Horne is author of “The Lucky Country”, first published in 1964 and revised in 1998. Horne warns his own generation that their prosperity has been more to do with luck than with good management or enlightened thinking. His book provides a radical critique of the philistinism, provincialism and dependence of Australian society.
Mackay remarks on the fact that this generation have benefited from low taxation when raising their own families, and are now the generation who enjoy the provisions of a generous age provision.
Recognition
Mackay had the privilege of sitting with these tribal elders. We have the privilege of having their insights passed on to us. Even though I grew up in New Zealand, I recognise much of the portrait of the Lucky Generation in the lives of my parents, both of whom were born in the 1920s. The only remarkable difference would be the absence of Holden as an icon of widespread car ownership.
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Friday, March 4th, 2005
Up in the Highlands of NZ’s Southern Alps - at the age of 30. If my memory serves me right, this is looking down on the Matukituki Valley, a detour off the Rees and Dart Valleys circuit. I vividly remember sitting there eating a swiss bread sandwich I’d made with sliced apple to make up for the lack of moisture. To my right, out of the photo, was Don McConnochie, fellow theological student from Dunedin.
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Friday, March 4th, 2005
This blog arises out of a conversation with my 15 year old daughter, a dedicated Live Journalist. It was a conversation had in real time during a walk in our actual neighbourhood by the way.
Where do I put the parts of my life that don’t fit with TV adverts, my reading, my professional work? What about reflections on the day? What about what I’m listening to? Who I’m talking to? Where do my various blogs meet each other?
I went back to my first ever blog - which lasted a day by the way - deleted it and started it over again. So ‘Pacific Highlander’ lives again!
Why the title? Obviously “Highlander” fits in with the TV series, starring Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod, a 400 year old immortal. There are six series, all available now on DVD. ‘Pacific’ refers partly to where I live, near the Pacific Ocean. Also to the meaning of ‘pacific’ which is peaceful or peace making. ‘Duncan’ means ‘brown warrior’ or ‘brown leader’. I’m a member of Pacific Parks Uniting, a network of house churches on the Gold Coast.
Enough for just now. Need to go and fix up the template.
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