White Magnum

21st May 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

No, not the Walls one, this one’s a Dodge. But pretty tasty! It was supposed to be a Chevrolet compact, but …

It goes like this. I was just congratulating myself that we had planned our itinerary pretty well, when it went (a little bit pear shaped). It was Monday. We had spent the morning at Union Station – amazing building – and the afternoon at the Zoo watching the Orang utan – amazing animal.

The plan was this. Hop on the metro at the zoo, go to the Arlington Metro stop, and find the car rental place, which is on Davis Jefferson highway – which is the same street as the Arlington Cemetery.

So we emerge from the Arlington metro station, and discover that Jefferson Davis Highway is … well … a highway … that is, like a motorway. So finding the car hire place was not going to be easy. Plus, I had forgotten what number jefferson David Highway!

We decided to take a taxi, got in, and then after being assured by the driver that he knew the car rental place we wanted to go to, discovered that he didn’t! Quick exit from the taxi. back to the hotel where our luggage (and free internet) is … and find out that the car hire place is actually Ronald reagan Airport.

Eventually arrived at Ronald Reagan Airport, (which is where the car rental place is) and after a long walk, found the car rental desk.

They had no record of us! Then the car rental computer went down! Then he found us on the system, but not at Ronald Reagan Airport, but at their Jefferson Davis Highway branch.

Confused? Don’t worry. He found us a car, and got us on the road, 2 hours after we had planned. But the outcome of all this was that we ended up with the Magnum!

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Today

19th May 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Today just an update on our travels. Having had three fantastic, entertaining and informative days in D.C. we are now in Luray, small town in the Appalachian mountains. Today we went white water rafting, and shot the rapids down the Shenandoah River! saw an eagle, a couple of otters, a crane, a kingfisher, loads of turtles, a buzzard, and some unidentified jumping fish. Tomorrow we plan to hike in part of the Shenandoah National Forest … the weather is great – around 80 degrees, but will be a bit cooler up in the mountains tomorrow.

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Meeting

18th May 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Today, here in Washington, Barack Obama will meet with Benjamin Netanyahu. Yesterday, we visited the excellent and moving Holocaust Museum here in Washington. From the early days of Nazism, through the rise of Hitler all the way through to the post war era, the museum shows in powerful ways what it meant to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.

In some of the ghettoes, Jews were separated from the rest of the population by high walls and barbed wire. Their movement was restricted, and they had to go through checkpoints and show papers to move around the city. Does that remind you of anywhere in the world today ?

Later on in the day we visited the museum of the American Indian, where we learnt about the ways of Native Americans, from Peru in the South, to Inuits in the north. Today, after many years of being oppressed and marginalised, Native Americans are speaking with a more confident voice, rediscovering their roots and ensuring that their culture survives into the future.

Early in the 19th century, European settlers encountered what they saw as an obstacle to their safety and freedom, the existence of Indian communities (who of course had been there for many centuries). President at the time, Andrew Jackson pursued a policy of moving the Indians westward, so that the settlers could live in safety.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html

Does that make you think of anything that has happened in the recent past (Think 1948, and Jewish Settlers forcing out Palestinian communities)

We have more in common than we realise! Whether it is in the Warsaw Ghetto, or the Indian Reservation, or the Palestinian towns separated by the wall, or the segregation experienced by the African Americans in the 20th century, we have this common history, and maybe realising this may help Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu find common ground

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Tax Collectors and Sinners. Mark 2:13-17

18th May 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Mark 2:13-17

Here Jesus asks Levi (a tax collector) to follow him, and he does. Later, at Levi’s house, there are clearly many other ‘sinners and tax collectors’ who are also following Jesus. The scribes ask Jesus’ disciples why Jesus will eat with ‘these people’ (my phrase).

There are six references, (direct or indirect) in these 5 verses to the ‘tax collectors and sinners’. They are people who are attracted to Jesus, so much so that they are desribed as followers. Reading these verses, my question is this. If Jesus had come today, who would be the equivalent to the ‘tax collectors and sinners’ ? Would they be mostly people who are in our churches ?

And where would Jesus be ? (a la What Would Jesus Do?!). Maybe we could have some wristbands made up! WWJB.

The question for the church is – how can we be a presence in the same way that Jesus was ? Sitting in the same house with ‘tax collectors and sinners’ and ‘scribes of the pharisees’

Washington D.C. is a good place to look because it is THE centre of power in the world, and is at the same time a city of great need.

Whilst staying here in Washington, we have been about 10 minutes walk from the White House, the centre of executive power of the only global superpower, and at night, we can hear the sirens of the emergency services at regular intervals. (D.C. has, or at least has had in the recent past, the highest murder rate in the USA). It’s a city of contrasts.

In 1947, Gordon and Mary Cosby started The Church of the Savior’, an ecumenical Christian community here in DC …

http://www.inwardoutward.org/?page_id=7

From those early beginnings, others have taken inspiration from the Cosbys, among them Jim Wallis, spokesperson for the Sojourners Community, and leader of the ‘Evangelical Left’ inthe USA. Today the life of the Church of the Saviour is expressed in 7 separate communities … Along with Sojourners Community and many others, the Church of the Saviour is setting out to do what Jesus did, a to be where Jesus was … both engaging with the powers, and sitting with the powerless.

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Gran Torino

16th May 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

The film Gran Torino was showing on the plane on the way over. There’s no sex, a little violence, and some fairly rich language (mostly the F word). If you can cope with that, see the film.

It’s set in mid west America, is about the relationship between Walt Kowalski, a Korean veteran, and the Vietnamese (?) family that are living next door. Right at the beginning of the film Walt’s wife has just died, and the opening scenes show the funeral and the wake.

A teenage boy living next door is under pressure to join his cousin’s gang, but does not want to join. As the story progresses, there is a triangle of relationships between Walt, the next door neighbours, and the gang, and Walt’s preconceptions about this Asian family are challenged. But for Walt, the heart of the story is about the burden of guilt that he carries from Korea. The big question for Walt is – can violence be justified to solve things ? I won’t say any more on this post … but I may add another post about – don’t read it if you want to see the film.

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We’re Here

15th May 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Well, we’ve arrived in Washington D.C. Matt kindly drove us to Manchester Airport, picking us up at 4.15, bang on time. Flight was good, all running to time, and arrived at D.C. 4 pm local time. That’s 9 pm in English money.

Saw a couple of films on the flight, Gran Torino and the Reader, both great films in different ways. More about Gran Torino another time, because it fits in well with my earlier post about the myth of redemptive violence.

Long queues at immigration, with fingerprints and photographs taken … to see if we are on any databases of undesirables ?

My previous experience of USA has been largely very positive, and that was reinforced by two very helpful people getting us sorted it out with where/how to get the tickets for the bus from the airport to D.C. The guy at the hotel where we’re staying was also very helpful … Good Vibrations.

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BFN

13th May 2009 Jonnyfun.E1 Comment

Bye for Now. I won’t be putting anything here for a few days as tomorrow I’ll be watching the first day of the second test (Cricket), and the next day we fly to Washington. So I’ll be back in a couple of days

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The Road to Compostela

13th May 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Yesterday, I met two women, both Methodist ministers, who have walked the road from St Jean Pied de Port to Compostela. It’s a pilgrim route, 500 miles long.

http://www.santiago-compostela.net/frances/index_cf_en.html

They walked it last May, taking everything except a tent with them, and it took them 5 weeks. They described the hardships of the walk: blisters, tiredness, the weather (torrential rain), lack of food. It wasn’t as if there were supermarkets to shop in. Sometimes they just went without food if there was no shop in the village where they slept. They stayed in hostels, in rickety bunk beds, surrounded by snoring travellers. (Germans and Koreans were the worst offenders). Hostels sometimes offered food, but you get fed up with steak and chips after a few days. On one occasion, tired at the end of the day, and with no food, a local family gave them some bread and a bottle of wine.

I get the feeling that walking the pilgrim route in this way would be incredibly challenging. You cannot book a bed ahead of time at these hostels, so you just have to hope that there is a bed when you get there. If someone passes you on the route, you ask yourself if they will get the last bed in the hostel, which is an encouragement not to slow down too much.

I said to them ‘After all these hardships, you must have had a great sense of satisfaction when you finally arrived at Compostela’

They answered that it was not the arriving, but the journey that was important. The first morning after they arrived at Compostela, they felt like they should be walking again. Having spent 5 weeks walking day after day, it didn’t seem right not to walk. They even described a feeling of bereavement having finished the pilgrimage.

Another reflection that they shared with me was this. For many Christians, faith is about arriving at our final destination (heaven) – We are saved for heaven. The Christian message is often explained in terms of having sins forgiven so that when we die we can go to heaven. For them, the pilgrimage made them realise that however important the destination is, it’s the journey that teaches us and shapes us. Being ‘saved’ is about life and living, here and now.

Thanks to Sue and Bev

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The Scribes Mark 2:6-12

13th May 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Mark 2:6-12

‘The Scribes and the Pharisees’ will appear more and more as Mark’s Gospel continues. But this is their first appearance, and it’s the first sign of conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. We had a hint in an earlier incident, when the people in the synangogue comment that Jesus is not like the scribes (the scribes were the acknowledged experts in the religious law).

In this exchange, the scribes object to Jesus telling a paralysed man that his sins are forgiven. (Only God can forgive sin) Jesus responds by healing the man, as if to say – ‘You want to know if I have authority to forgive sin, well yes I do!’

The scribes thought that they knew what religion was all about. Thier job was to know the scriptures and to interpret them. But for them it had become a set of rules to follow rather than a relationship to grow in. When religion has become just a set of rules or rituals, rather than a relationship, then we have lost it.

It happens in all areas of life, not just religion. And some people stick to rules not just for themselves, but so that they can control others. But it is especially dangerous when people use God, or rules about religion, to exercise control over others.

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Wilberforce Way

12th May 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

During the 2007 celebrations that marked the 200th anniversary of the passing of the Slave Trade Act, a waymarked path was established linking Hull (The birthplace of William Wilberforce) to Pocklington (Where he went to school) and then on to York. (Wilberforce was an independent member of parliament for Yorkshire)

The Yorskshire and Humber Faiths Forum organised three days of walks along the Wilberforce way this week, and I’ve just been on day two, a nine mile circular walk around the Market Town of Pocklington, North Yorkshire.

It was an amazing day for me, with so many links to things that are buzzing around in my head. I’m going to save the detailed posts for another time, but I learned some interesting facts about modern day trafficking, and cities of refuge; met two people who did the Compastela pilgrimage last year, 500 miles in five weeks; heard about a modern day presentation of the Passion that took place in Malton, North Yorkshire, learned some things about being an army chaplain; chatted with a bishop, and ended the day with a tour of the Buddhist Centre in Pocklington, complete with meditation and soup.