New Zealand is following other countries in having an “atheist bus campaign”.So, in summary, let’s not react against these ads – they are a wonderful opportunity not only to deepen our own reflection, but to clarify the misunderstandings between us. Atheists can be prophets, challenging the idols that Christians present.Also see the TVNZ interview
The lyrics tell the apocryphal story of a poor young boy who, unable to afford a gift for the infant Jesus, plays his drum for the newborn with the Virgin Mary's approval. Miraculously, the baby, although a newborn, seems to understand and smiles at the boy in gratitude.
man cave n. A dedicated area of a house, such as a basement, workshop, or garage, where a man can be alone or socialize with his friends.
A man cave is loosely a male-only space to retreat to, watch sports matches, or play video games. According to psychiatrist and author Scott Haltzman, it is important for a man to have a place to call his own, referring to a male area to retreat to. Some psychologists claim that a man cave can provide refuge from stressful surroundings and be beneficial to marriage.
Some men have a workshop, some a shed, others a music room or shed. It's a place to hang out, a real my-space. Today I suggested to my family I might convert the garage into a man cave just for the summer. Let's just say that no-one was enthusiastic.
Exclusion has become the primary sin, skewing our perceptions of reality & causing us to react out of fear and anger to all those who are not within our (ever narrowing) circle…
& challenges us to
… take the costly step of opening ourselves to the other, of enfolding him or her in the same embrace with which we have been enfolded by God.
In looking at the central place of Jesus on the cross Moltman suggests that : the sufferings of Jesus on the cross are not just his sufferings they are the “sufferings of the poor & weak, which Jesus shares in his own body & in his own soul, in solidarity with them.”
As followers of Jesus this is a model for us: to have compassion and show solidarity with the marginalised in our society & around the world. But how do we do that when the marginalized are often the ones we are most scared of falling victim to?
Jesus’ death on the cross is also an act of atonement: to make the sinner at one with God. (Volf) “… Like solidarity with the victims, the atonement for the perpetrators issues forth from the heart of the triune God, whose very being is love… God does not abandon the godless to their own evil but gives the divine self for them in order to receive them into divine communion through atonement, so also should we – whoever our enemies”
Who is God calling us to embrace today?
I was speeding on the subway
Through the stations of the cross
Every eye looking every other way
Counting down ’til the train would stop
At the moment of surrender
Of vision of over visibility
I did not notice the passers-by
And they did not notice me
All Lyrics
Very spiritual, very realistic, very deep: quintessential U2
