Calling in the Night

Seeing as there was only a handful of people at church last Sunday, I thought I'd transcribe my talk on the call of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3, for the wider world to ponder.

Have you ever heard the joke about the burglar and the curiously named parrot?

A burglar broke into a house one night. He picked up a CD player to place in his sack and a strange, disembodied voice echoed from the dark, saying, "Jesus is watching you."

He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze. When he heard nothing more after a bit, he shook his head, clicked the light on, and began searching for more valuables. Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, he heard, "Jesus is watching you."

Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot. "Did you say that?" he hissed at the parrot "Yep," the parrot confessed, then squawked, "I'm just trying to warn you."

The burglar relaxed. "Warn me, huh? Who in the world are you?"

"Moses," replied the bird. "Moses?" the burglar laughed.

"What kind of people would name a bird Moses?"

"The kind of people that would name a rottweiler Jesus."

At church last Sunday we were looking at the calling of Samuel. Now Samuel held a unique position in the history of Israel; he was considered to be the last of the judges and the first of the prophets. In his adult life he would be responsible for the anointing of both of Israel's first two kings and would wield great influence among his people on behalf of God. However, the Samuel we meet is not that Samuel yet; he's only just beginning his journey and all those things ahead of him?  He probably would not even begin to conceive any of it happening. This Samuel is a mere boy who had been raised in the house of God in Shiloh ever since his previously barren mother kept a promise to dedicate her first child to the Lord 12 years ago.

I think that Christians who have been raised in a denomination that supports infant baptism can relate to that part of Samuel's story a little, because in the same way that Hannah committed Samuel to God before he was of an age to choose for himself, many of us have been the beneficiary of a similar act of commitment through baptism (albeit less drastic for our parents).

What is interesting about the first part of the passage is that even though Samuel had clearly spent  several years in the presence of God's most learned representatives; even though he has been involved in the service of God all through his childhood and even slept in the house of God, despite all these things... verse 7 tells us that Samuel still didn't know God.

Then late in the night, Samuel heard a voice calling him in the night... and it wasn't a parrot.

The first real point I want to make stems from this. Like Samuel we need to to be prepared to listen for God's voice... even if like Samuel, we don't feel we really know him ourselves on a personal level (there's no shame in admitting something like that to yourself, in fact I'd argue that it's a good, honest place to start your spiritual journey from). We are told in the passage that in that particular time in the history of God's people, it was spiritually speaking a barren and quiet time - there were very few visions and revelations. There are times when we all feel like that ourselves... you may be experiencing it in the church you worship at yourself at the moment. Yet, in a world that doesn't get any quieter and demands more and more of our time and attention, it's all the more important to find that oasis in the desert, a quiet time of contemplation where we can make ourselves available to God. Even if we can't hear him speaking consciously, it is good to build this discipline within us because God always speaks to us on an unconscious silent level too.

Samuel had his own close encounter with God during the night... so can we.

Samuel in response to what he heard, sought out Eli thinking it was he who called him. Eli, probably feeling quite grumpy about being woken in the middle of the night (an experience I'm sure those of you with children will only be too aware of), tells Samuel to "shut up and go back to sleep!" Eventually though, even Eli realises that Samuel isn't being random or annoying for the sake of it... he understands that it is actually God who is summoning Samuel.

This is the second point I want to make. We need to communicate with one another and take each other seriously when it comes to the things that God says to us and lays on our hearts. If you feel God has spoken to you or otherwise inspired you, you should take courage and share it with someone you spiritually trust and pray through it with them or a small group. Similarly if someone comes before you and is brave enough to share something they feel God has given them with you, it is important to listen... to hear them out and show respect. Let's be honest, it is not always comfortable for us to share such things, as they are often deeply personal and there is always the threat of that nagging doubt "did I make it up?" That is why it is all the more important that we treat one another with respect over such things. We need to build one another up in love.

At the end of the passage, Samuel heeds Eli's advice and responds to the voice that has been calling him... and there the reading at church stopped. However if you know this passage and you read on a little further you will know there's a little more of the tale to tell. You see Eli's sons (priests in their own right), were wicked men who had been embezzling temple offerings and prostituting the women who served at the sanctuary. Eli was the high priest and responsible for the spiritual leadership of his people. The fact that he stood by and tolerated his sons' terrible behaviour (he did criticise them but he never committed to a course of action that would have stopped them), put his whole household on a collision course with God. The message God gave to Samuel was a prophetic word of judgement on Eli's family line.

My final point is this: if we feel God has laid a clear course of action before us, or placed a calling on our hearts... the just like Samuel we need to have the conviction and courage to act upon it. Samuel was a 12 year old boy who was challenging the authority of the most powerful man he knew... it can't have been easy, yet he obeyed God anyway... because having finally discovered who God was in a very real personal sense, he trusted his source.

We may question the value God places on us in a given situation. Why does he ask us to carry a particular burden? Our human frailty and insecurities can often tell us that we aren't good enough, we aren't capable of the task or journey set before us. Aren't we the wrong choice?

However the gospel and psalm readings set for the same day remind us of God's omniscience. He knows our hearts; he knows our thoughts and feelings; he knows our deeds; he knows our limitations and most of all he knows what we are capable of if we turn from our obsession with effort and rely on the abundance of his supreme grace.

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].

Philippians 4:13 (AMP)

Some questions for you...

• Do you feel God is calling you at the moment?
• How do you find time to listen to God?
• Do you often share (either listening or speaking) with others about what God is saying?

Awesome Movie Speeches #1

Over the past few weeks I've been trying to mentally put together a list of clips from cinematic history that echo sentiments that resonate with me, speeches that are moving, inspirational and/or contain nuggets of wisdom that have shaped my ideology as it stands today. I was going to make this into a list filling a single post... but then I don't think that would do the speeches justice... it would somehow rob them of power. Similarly, would anybody seriously sit and watch video clips for half an hour to an hour? I don't think so. So I've decided to segment it and periodically examine one at a time. The first clip I have chosen is Charlie Chaplin's closing speech in The Great Dictator:

Why I think it's awesome:

I think this speech sums up my own political attitude wonderfully. Chaplin described himself as a political nonconformist and eventually found himself exiled from America on account of his views. He clearly believed in a higher form of democracy with the brotherhood of man at its core. The Great Dictator was obviously made as a satirical response to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the film is a splendid mockery of Hitler's maniacal policies. This parting shot at the end of the film is also magnificent riposte to them. However, I would go much further than that though because the relevance of this speech has endured.

The speech also reminds me that democracy has to be exercised all the time... because if we do not speak up for ourselves on everything that matters to us... others will presume to do so for us and in most cases they will taint it with their own warped private agenda. The main reason I like this speech though, is that it fuses human passion, religion and reason together as allies... rather than polarising them as enemies. I truly believe that the world would be a better place if we learned to accept our whole nature rather than focusing on a single aspect of it. The brain is an instrument of two hemispheres - the logical and the intuitive. If we focus on one of these two elements, we rob ourselves of half a life.  In terms of consciousness, human beings are children of two worlds - the spiritual and the scientific; in my opinion, we should all learn to fearlessly explore both these vast territories.

Chaplin magnificently fused the realms
of the emotional, spiritual and intellectual

That said this speech is not without its flaws, it seems to suggest in places that our pursuit of technological advancement can save us. It can't. Technology is only as good as the people who develop it... and as fearfully and wonderfully made as we are... we do make mistakes and have a tendency to elevate self interest to a position that isn't healthy in a world that we share with others.

My favourite part of this speech comes when Chaplin starts to invoke John's gospel... as the camera zooms in, it feels like he is not just speaking from his heart but that he is becoming a conduit for a greater thought.

So there it is, the Barber's Speech from the Great Dictator - as universally important and relevant today as ever it was when first broadcast to the world.

• Do you have any favourite movie speeches that you'd like to recommend I watch?
• What do you think about this speech?

SOPA on a Rope.

Those of you who have gone to the effort of trying to reach pages over at Wikipedia today will have been greeted by the following lovely image:

The Wikipedia Blackout

In fact, Wikipedia were far from alone. Many major web players including Google, Twitter and Facebook have to a greater or lesser degree come out to voice opposition to the proposed SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) bills being considered by the United States House of Representatives and Senate. Scenting blood after the bills received a political setback, the web companies have united and pressed forward with an unprecedented attack in the hope of killing the bills... to hang SOPA on a rope.

On the surface, the basic intention of the bills is to curtail piracy of US media intellectual property on foreign websites and protect the interests of the media entertainment industry... but the problem is that the legislation is just far too clunky.

While Wikipedia has gone dark for a single 24 hour period, there is a very real threat that free expression across the Internet could be at threat and the lights would go out everywhere. As far as I understand it, Web organisations would be responsible for policing their own users for infringements against the act... and preventing the use of  offending material on their websites. Taken to extremes this could very well effect everyone. Do you ever link to a video on YouTube that has not been uploaded by an official source? Everyone does, I've seen my wall on Facebook alone get flooded with unofficially sourced clips from my friends.

It doesn't matter if you are American or not, if you are using a US registered companies platform... SOPA covers you too... Could countless Facebook and YouTube users find their accounts suspended/restricted if SOPA or PIPA passed?

And what of the blogosphere?

I don't think I'd be safe... in no way do I encourage or endorse the acts of online piracy, but regular readers will know that I constantly use music or video clips to illustrate points that I make. Were SOPA or PIPA to become a reality, I have to consider that Blogger/Google might be forced to take steps to stop this kind of behaviour.

I truly believe this would drastically choke free expression and freedom of speech on the Internet. In a speech to the Leveson Enquiry this week, Ian Hislop defended the freedom of press on the grounds that politicians and commentators should balance one another out... too much power in the hands of one is bad news for society as a whole. I'd like to add another party to that concept and make it a triumvirate - the public themselves... us. We are constantly receiving messages from the media and from our leaders but we are not mere receivers of what they have to say, we are in fact transceivers. We have the ability to form our own intellectual and emotional opinions based on our own interpretation of the facts. We ourselves have a voice... a voice that has as much right to be heard as any newspaper editor, film maker, pop star or politician.

Twitter, Facebook, blogs - all of these comprise a major part of that voice... as we have seen only in the last year. When people decide to take hold of a message and spread it, nations can fall and rise again. In fact it is happening now... many thousands of people are becoming mobilised in response to Wikipedia's stance. It has become a talking point and perhaps now the real fight has begun. Were the bills to pass... a lot of the content that has motivated people could be silenced.

At best, SOPA and PIPA represent an ill thought out way of controlling a wild cyberbeast that has outgrown the entertainment industry's limited understanding and outdated business model. At worst, the bills are a cynical ploy by people behind the scenes who fear a Western version of the "Arab Spring", to put a mechanism in place that limits the online exposure of people with highly malcontent views. I'm not prepared to make a pronouncement that heavy but I do think it's worth keeping in mind.

While concluding I'd like to share a quote by Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg which has earned him in excess of 350,000 "likes" and nearly 72,000 "shares". He said:

The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet's development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet.


The world today needs political leaders who are pro-internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-internet.

Obviously as a British citizen I cannot have a direct say in US Law, but as this is is something that affects my own rights and lifestyle, I do believe I have a right to request my own MP (via Email) and Government (via this petition) do all that they can to exert pressure and express my political dissatisfaction at this move. If you believe in a free Internet and enjoy and benefit from making use of its vast resources... I strongly urge you to consider doing something along the same lines.

 

So, please let me know:

• What do you make of SOPA and PIPA?
• Do you intend to make your opinions known to your own political representative?
• Do you think the bills will pass?

Necessary Diversions

I've been thinking a lot about how some diversions can be incredibly important, even if we don't know it at the time.

Sometimes on "The Way" we have to go a bit out of our way.

Having got home from work incredibly late last night, I found my way wandering towards the supermarket to pick up something that could vaguely be described as dinner. On the way there I ran into a friend's dad who was returning from the pub. This particular friend has had a few problems and has been off radar for a while, so I decided to enquire as to how he was and chatted to his dad for a few minutes. In the course of the conversation I discovered that my friend was in the aforementioned pub. We went our separate ways and I continued to the supermarket. I was going to text my friend but in my heart I believed the right thing to do was to go and meet him. Having left the shop I made my way to the pub, found my friend and chatted to him for about an hour or so... checking up on him and putting the world to rights.

We don't live to ourselves alone and sometimes we have to accept that on our own personal journeys, situations or opportunities are going to arise that require us to go off on a tangent into unexpected places or circumstances.

If we look at the Bible there are plenty of examples of this. Some come through an act of God, others come through consequence and still others come through a conscious decision. To quote just a few of these examples: Joseph was diverted from life at his father's side by his brothers' choice to sell him into slavery; Moses was diverted away from Egypt and into Midian after he beat an Egyptian oppressor to death; Elijah was diverted to Mount Horeb after pronouncing judgement on the prophets of Baal; Jonah diverted himself when God called on him to preach to the Assyrians in Nineveh... and the apostle Paul was diverted to Macedonia by the Holy Spirit, when he tried to get to Bithynia.

In each of the situations listed above, God uses the traveller's change of direction to bring about a change in their character or their calling... or to directly benefit the lives of the new people he encounters. Joseph ascended to  position of power where he became an instrument of salvation both for Egypt and his own people. Moses was brought to a place where his fugitive self would dwindle as he learned how to become a shepherd... first merely with sheep... but later a shepherd of Israel. many generations later, Elijah found himself at the exact same spot - both geographically and emotionally. Elijah had just witnessed the might and power of God manifested in an awesome public display, he had every reason to feel confident; yet he found himself fleeing in terror at the threat of repercussions to his ministry. How many of us have experienced that very same emotion? How many of us have ridden the crest of a spiritual wave and felt overexposed, naked and vulnerable when the momentum has ebbed away? I would wager it happens to a great many people.

Jonah's notorious disobedience resulted in an arguable enhancement of his prophetic ministry. When God called him to account and caused him to end up inside the belly of a great fish, Jonah found himself stewed in its gastric juices. He repented, was delivered and became the inheritor of a literal "big fish" story. The city he was being sent to (Nineveh), was a centre of Dagon worship at the time. Dagon was to all intents and purposes a manfish god. Imagine how much his gastric bleached appearance coupled with his bizarre account would have amplified his message and ministry.

When Paul tried to travel from Mysia to Bithynia, we are told the Holy Spirit would not allow him to cross the river Rhyndacus (which served as the border). We are not told quite how that worked... but the subsequent vision that Paul received led him in the direction of Macedonia instead... which led to a series of eventful stories from his ministry... not least of which was his miraculous "non-escape" from jail. 

However, my favourite diversionary story comes from the ministry of Jesus:

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.”  Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.  A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.  Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

Mark 4:35-5:19

Most people treat these two stories above as separate isolated incidents. I find this strange as the narrative clearly indicates that the stories flow into one another. I have long held the belief that Jesus got in the boat and faced the fierce squall because he was travelling to meet and release the Gerasenes demoniac. Not only that, but it appears this was also the one and only reason he did it... because no sooner had he driven Legion out of his victim, he was back off in the boat again to raise Jairus' daughter on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

I think this is fantastic because it demonstrates that there are no mathematics, numbers or equations in God's compassion. Everything Jesus does is motivated by love - amor propter caritatem (love for love's sake). Whether the cause is one person... or the entire human race, the cost is never too high. Jesus put himself and his apostles in harm's way, for the benefit of one individual (at least I'm sure that's how the apostles saw it at the time).

The needs of the many...

In Star Trek, there is a wonderful philosophical revolving door that mirrors this concept. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Spock lays down his life to save everybody aboard the Enterprise. As his body begins to fail due to being saturated with radiation poisoning, he presses himself up against the glass partition that separates him from Captain Kirk and points out that he did it because "the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few... or the one". It's a touching and very sad scene and the philosophy behind it has caused the line to be quoted frequently ever since.

The needs of the one...

However in the very next film in the series - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, this very concept is turned completely on its head as Captain Kirk and the rest of the main characters risk their careers, the USS Enterprise and their very lives in a desperate bid to recover Spock's body and reintegrate it with his katra (soul), which is residing inside Doctor McCoy. When the resurrected Spock asks Kirk why he did it, Kirk replies "Because the needs of the one, outweigh the needs of the many".

One of the great traps religions often fall into is a focus on the collective at the expense of the individual; this leads to a bureaucratic form of management that is more suited to machinery. On the other hand, other religions fall into the other pitfall of focusing on personal enlightenment and development which can become a form of isolationism if done out of context.

Neither of these concepts really match the one that the Church was modelled on. As a Christian, I believe the great thing about a relationship with Christ is that value is place on the individual as well as the collective. The model the Church is supposed to follow is that of the body. As Paul so eloquently demonstrated in his first letter to the Corinthians, though we make up one body we equally have our place and have our own value. If one part suffers or has a need, the rest of the body suffers or shares that need. If you injure your leg,you will shift the weight of your entire body to ease the burden on that leg.

We are not machines and we are not amoebas. If we are truly serious about being a body... a family, then we need to accept that we too will sometimes have to "shift weight". We can't always go our own way and do our own thing. Yes, we may have a certain calling or way of doing things... but being a Christian means accepting that we can be diverted from these things for the sake of Christ.

I'd love to hear any thoughts you may have... specifically with regard to (but not restricted to) the following questions:

• Have you ever been significantly diverted by God in your Christian life?
• Do you have any personal examples of "The needs of the many are greater than the needs of the few"?
• Do you have any personal examples of "The needs of the few are greater than the needs of the many"?

Pillow Talk!

Last month I had the privilege of playing a part in my first flash mob.

It was an event organised by the RSC and the production company Dusthouse, to help in the making of a trailer to promote the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's forthcoming production of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

The basic idea of the trailer would be to illustrate the central theme of the battle of the sexes by way of allowing volunteers to indulge in a pillow fight. I caught wind of the details via the Internet during a Friday lunch hour and with very little time to organise myself, I ran off to BHS, purchased my weapon of choice (a fairly plump and sturdy pillow), and after work had finished, made my way to the "battlefield", or as it is more commonly known... The Royal Shakespeare Theatre".

The Gathering

When you are doing something that seems a little nuts, there is always a gut wrenching fear that you will be the only person who shows up... and that even if you do, you will be the only person above a certain age with the audacity and level of shamelessness required to make a very public fool of yourself. I needn't have worried, as I turned the corner from Bridge Street into Waterside I observed a whole host of people starting to gather outside the theatre as the allotted time drew nigh. 

Apparently even the carefree and playful tradition of the pillow fight is not immune to the banal, frustrating red tape and bureaucratic spectre of health and safety; names were taken and pledges not to hurt anyone (much), were made. We also signed our lives away... if someone took our head or arm off in mortal combat, the RSC would not be legally accountable. Having said that, the bureaucracy did enable us to tally the number of combatants... which apparently exceeded 100.

The Face Off

It wasn't just a free-for-all and obviously we needed to be organised in such a fashion as to create a narrative for the trailer. We all arranged ourselves in a semicircle and looked on with several of the supporting cast as the fog of war descended and the two lead actors - David Caves and Lisa Dillon, scowled at each other menacingly one on one in a high noon fashion.

Once the main shoot concluded, we were promised several minutes of man versus woman unbridled chaos... but in true Monty Python fashion... not until the director blew his whistle. We seized the opportunity with both hands as the raw footage in the video below more than adequately demonstrates. At one point I found myself fending off four girls at once... something I never thought I'd say in life (heh heh). The feathers flew as blow after blow were traded and the mist blew in across the field of battle... well, dry ice anyway! Once the whistle sounded everybody jubilantly threw their pillows in the air in celebration... and then strolled off in unison to grab a well earned beverage.

The event received coverage in several major media outlets including BBC News and The Spectator. One photo in particular had the image of a very familiar figure clumsily throwing his weight around whilst berserking with his pillow. Yes if you glance over to the left, that is indeed me looking like a London rioter and locked in mortal combat.

So why am I blogging about this now? Well, The Taming of the Shrew is due for release at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre on January 19th; the trailer has been uploaded and you can now see our handiwork and polished fighting skills in glorious technicolour. The finished article is available to watch below:

If you are interested in booking tickets to see the play, you can do so by following this link. If you are interested in knowing more about the production,  member of the cast has taken to blogging her own experiences behind the scenes and you can read her thoughts here. I should add that I am not an employee or in any way affiliated with the RSC... I just wanted to give back a little in the way of recognition, following an event that gave me a ridiculous amount of fun... and a great way to offload the stress of the working week on a Friday night. Personally I think we should do these kind of things in life more often.

So, when was the last time you took part in a pillow fight?

What would it take to get you involved in one?

What crazy unexpected promotional  things have you found yourselves involved in?

If you have an answer to any of the above, or if you want to pass a comment on the gratuitous violence... do share it with me and send me a comment.