New Zealands explaination on the BP Oil crisis management

Great Satire

Dim-Post has a nice little reflection on the political headline of today. As usual, political satire is often the best way to tell the truth in politics

Lower Hutt based Countdown retail worker Richard Loa announced today that he was deeply embarrassed by revelations that he had been taking items from the store without paying for them. 

Loa, a 41 year old checkout operator and frozen foods section assistant team leader came forward today to admit that over a period of four years working at the Wellington supermarket he had taken home bottles of wine, frozen chickens, vitamin pills and razor blades on a weekly basis
.
‘I now accept that this was wrong and I apologise for it,’ Loa said. ‘In my defense the rules around whether or not I could smuggle out bottles of shampoo in my gym bag were vague and unclear.’

It is understood that Loa came forward after Countdown management announced that they had installed security cameras in the staff changing rooms. These showed footage of Loa eating two large boxes of Lindt chocolates valued at $44 while on breaks during a busy weekend shift.

‘That’s when I decided that coming clean and explaining everything was the right thing to do,’ Loa said, adding. ‘The chocolates were consumed while I was doing my job although I concede that the security footage is not a good look.’

‘I would have paid for the chocolates myself but I didn’t have any cash and it seemed more convenient at the time to stuff them under my shirt and eat them in the toilets,’ Loa explained.

Loa announced that he would repay the value of the chocolates and other items consumed but would not be stepping down from his position as frozen foods assistant team leader.

‘I’ve made a mistake and I’ve done the right thing and fronted up to it,’ Loa said. ‘I acknowledge that it’s not a good look but frozen food placement faces a lot of challenges and I have some exciting ideas on how to tackle them so I’d like to put this whole thing behind me and move on.’

This attitude is not shared by Loa’s employer Progressive Foodstuffs who have dismissed him without notice or by the New Zealand Police who have arrested Loa on five charges of theft.

Mosaic: Originals

Mosaic is holding a artistic showcase Mosaic: Originals, on Saturday 19 June 2010.

The aim is to show off some off wellington's unknown and budding talent, and is including performances from
Andrew Fruean,
Leah Hutchison,
My Dear Watson.

The will also be storytelling, poetry and any other original pieces

Entry is free but donations towards helping Habitat Humanity in Wellington can be made at the door.

The Deets are:
Saturday 19th June, starts 8.00pm
Level 1, Student Centre, Massey University, Entrance E, Tasman Street, Mt Cook

It would be great to see you there

The Jesus Manifesto

I was lucky today to recieve an a not so advanced copy of Len Sweet and Frank Violas latest book Jesus  Manifesto (it came out on the 1st in the State). Following through with the publishers desire, I will blog a few thoughts every few days on the chapter.

The Jesus Manifesto's writers conviction is that Christology is the central to our modus operundi as communities of faith. Sweet and Viola's beleif is for communites of faith to rediscover thier purpose, they must rediscover Jesus. Sweet and Viola state that "to faithfully represent  Jesus in our time requires re-presenting him."

This idea follows through a conviction I hold dear, from some hard learned experience - for us to be faithful to the message of Jesus we must know Jesus and continue to dive into knowing who Jesus is. For us to do this, we often have to cut through layers of filth and grime, put in place by religiousity and past christianese. We often have to become like archeologists cleaning away the grime, to rediscover the beauty beneath. This is often painful. Through the expereince of trying to follow Jesus - I have learned what my prejudices are, where my selfishness plays out, and how far I will really go to care for my neighbour (often not far enough.) I have learned that I continually try to domesticate Jesus, so that I can continue living my blase life.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of this book. Should be interesting

Communication fails...

As some of you I have recently taken up playing ultimate with a group of mates regularly. Its a way to keep me fit and get to know a group of people better.

We had a game yesterday - and some interesting developments occured in this game. Our team was not doing very well and two of our players who were both passionate about the game started to try and sor the issues out. But what happened was an amazing example us failing to communicate. The two were trying to sort out the issues, but began talking past each other. Both were annoyed at each of other and thier team mates as they felt as if they were not being appreciated by the others. 

You could see both players get increasingly frustrated and angry with one another, leading to a failure in our performance as a team.

 What was interesting was how the conflict permeated through the rest of our team as we were playing. Another member of my team, who was suffering from a bad cold did something that on the face of it was small but was blown up to needing a negative remark.  Another player at the end of the game was remarking with disconcertion about the fact that everything was being blown out of proportion for what was a social game.

The lack of cohesion in our team was a result of our lack of communication. We had no communication for most of the game. When we did communicate and talk and take stock, we played loads better and scored some great points.

Communication is so key for community, and for teams. We need to learn to be healthy communicators, this means being proactive listeners and sensitive communicators with one another.

Gulf Coast oil spill

This is a useful site for comparing the significance of the Gulf Coast disaster - 
http://paulrademacher.com/oilspill/#

I have created one for Wellington, New Zealand, my home city, here - 
http://paulrademacher.com/oilspill/#Wellington

The Challenge

Ok, I will let you, my readers into a little secret. I want to write a book, it may not be published, but I want to write a book.

I have decided I will use some of the material that I produced during my time doing lent this year.

The challenge for you is to identify which posts from the lent series were your favourite, and let me know why. You can either email me, or put your posts up on the blog.

Feel free to identify any other blogs that I have written as well.

Peace out.

Nathanael

Untitled

Look at all creation, it is good. God created it for his pleasure.

Look at yourself, past the outwards appearance, past your inward feelings of awkwardness and anxiety, you were created by a loving God, for his good purposes.

To be someone of change

You are more than just a number to God, more than just an avid consumer, to be had by the market. You are his child, to be in relationship.

God he sees past the pimples, the freckles, the blochy makeup.

God loves to see your inquisitiveness, he loves to see you create, make. He loves seeing you grow.

New eyes

I wrote this poem for an expressions session a couple of weeks ago back for Mosaic. I don't really think its that good, I was stressed and tired when I wroted this poem, and the next poem, but I thought I would share them with the world anyway.

Fresh eyes

Have new eyes – see the world through kids eyes.

When a kid views the world, they see unseen possibilies.

When an adult looks at chairs and tables, they see them as objects to sit on. When a kid sees a chair and table, he sees the possibility to build a fort to fight away his enemies, and to hang with their friends.

When an adult sees a pile of mud, they see a inconvenient pile of mud, when a kid sees this mud, he ses the ability to make mud pies.

When we see lines, we see constraints, kids don’t worry about the lines, they see the possibilities

Sexy Coal

Dismantling Me

Dismantle me Lord.
Make me new-
take the scales out of my eyes, make me see a new again
Let me have fresh eyes, for all your creative beauty

Let me not view the world through my eyes -
damaged through years of cynicism.
my eyes which have become too sensitive to your light and beauty.
replace them, be the optometrist.
give me new eyes,

Let me see the beauty in those who mourn, let me see beauty in the poor. Let me see beauty in those who long for justice, let me not see the beauty in those who long for you.
Let me not focus on the temporary, but focus on that which is last, faith love and hope

Performance - Les Murray

I starred that night, I shone:
I was footwork and firework in one,

a rocket that wriggled up and shot
darkness with a parasol of brilliants
and a peewee descant on a flung bit;
I was busters of glitter-bombs expanding
to mantle and aurora from a crown,
I was fouéttes, falls of blazing paint,
para-flares spot-welding cloudy heaven,
loose gold off fierce toeholds of white,
a finale red-tongued as a haka leap:
that too was a butt of all right!

As usual after any triumph, I was
of course, inconsolable.

from
Subhuman Redneck Poems, 1996

Reflections on a banquet meal

..."A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.'   And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'" (Luke 16-12)

Jesus once described the kingdom of God as a feast that we are invited to. At Mosaic last night we were asked to reflect on this, and write dear God responses to God on the feast. Here are my responses:

• Dear God, I find it hard to give up my own agenda, I mean, isn't this party all about me. But it isn't its about celebrating you.
• Dear God, you put so much effort into this moment, and I take it all for granted. I should be grateful that I was even invited. 
• Dear God, the food is so good, I have never had food so tasty, the ambiance is amazing. I should have invited my friends.
• Dear God, why are there so many hookers and junkies at this party, I can deal with there being respectable people. But the person over there, he was throwing up on the street last night. You deserve more than these folk. It would be easier if the person sitting next to me didn't should out obscene words every couple of minutes. I then look at myself, I am just the same, maybe I don't want to look at my own reflection. That I don't deserve this as much as everyone else in this room.

Dim Post on Daylight Saving

Danyl from Dim Post Blogs

Setting my clocks back this morning had me thinking about what a great little trick daylight savings is for maximizing use of sunlight hours, but also how impossible it would be to bring in such a scheme today: Labour would launch a protest bus tour (‘Stop the Clock!’), the Business Round Table and CIS would insist that we had to set our clocks forward a thousand hours to catch up with Australia, Herald columnists would thunder about Wellington bureaucrats kidnapping the sun for an extra hour every night, the unions would strike for the right to set their clocks back two hours. The government would compromise and set clocks back five minutes for a week in mid-June.

Reflections of Jesus' Feetwashing

John 13:4-5

…[Jesus] got up from the table, took off
his outer robe, and tied a towel around
himself. Then he poured water into a
basin and began to wash the disciples’
feet and to wipe them with the towel
that was tied around him

I got to admit, the story of Jesus washing his disciples is pretty weird to me. To a western christian who lives in the west - why was the experience of washing feet so important, and what does it mean for me today.

Unlike today, feet in Jesus's time were the prime mode of transport, particularly for peasants living in the backwater part of a backwater country in the Roman empire. Jesus and his band of disciples would have spent all day walking down the roman roads, in only their sandles.

The muck the disciples received on thier feet represented the journey they had been on during the day, the collection of activities they had been in, both the good and bad. In this act, Jesus connected personally with the past journey of the disciples, and served them in an intimate way.

I wonder if the closest thing to this in our day to day life, would be going to each of our neighbours, and serve them by putting thier rubbish out. Collecting the materials and rubbish that they have collected on thier journey and serve them, in such connecting intimately with them.

All I know, is that people struggle with being served, it strikes at our autonomy as people, especially in the west. We personally beleive that we can get on on our own, and that also other people can cope on thier own as well.

Peters reaction was the same, he remarked - Rabbi, do not clean my feat. One because he thought it was below Jesus to do so, but also because he was embarrased at what Jesus would discover in cleaning his feat. In doing so Jesus intimately connected with his servants and actively showed that to be a follower we are to serve those around us humbly.

In serving, we intimately connect with the needs of those around us. We show people that they have worth in thier humanity. Serving is an act of love that brings shalom to those around us.

Take time to look, and take in. What are the needs that people are facing around you, how can you serve your neighbours. Maybe the first act is to introduce yourself to your neighbours?

What would be an act in our time, similar to cleaning the disciples feet? 

Those who understand grace are full of grace...

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the
home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman
came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume,
made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the
perfume on his head. Some of those present were
saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste
of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a
year's wages and the money given to the poor." And
they rebuked her harshly.

"Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering
her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor
you will always have with you, and you can help them
any time you want. But you will not always have me.
She did what she could. She poured perfume on my
body beforehand to prepare for my burial." (NIV) 

As a young kid, I remember looking forward to the gifts that I got for christmas and birthday, I remember looking forward to getting a electronic brick game, which I cherished for years after, or when I got my first bycicle. I remember being blown away by these presents, as a result I wanted to cherish the joy with a freinds and family, sharing the expereince with others.

When we read the story of the women who anointed Jesus, we often focus in on her and her possible trangression. But we fail to see the heart of the story. This women notices Jesus is the ultimate gift to humanity, and comes to show the whole room who is in the midst.

This lady, who we think is involved in a form of dodgy vocation, notices something that none of the religious people in the room notice, that Gods agent salvation is in the room, and he is offering a gift for anyone who comes and takes on his new way to live.

The women is grateful and shows her gratefulness through pooring expensive purfume on Jesus's feet and washing his head. The lady recognises that Jesus is someone special and shows her gratefulness to him through the ultimate act.

I beleive that Gracefulness results from understanding grace, taking the time to realise our brokeness, excepting it and then being thankful for it, and acting on it.This may mean doing something crazy to show our awe at what was done on the cross. But, "As a writer of an artical I was reading confesses ... "I am not so sure I am that guy. When I read about the actions of this unnamed woman in Mark 14, I find it easy to wonder about the fiscal responsibility of her actions..." I am too focused on my needs, I do not comprehend the fact that my father in heaven did everything he could do for me, so that I could find shalom. I often think I am alright, that I can rely on myself at best, often I forget the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made by dying on a cross for the whole world.

Take some time to think about the salvation act this easter and allow yourself to take some time to be thankful. Do something crazy to show your thankfulness.

Reading the Paper is painful

I read the paper last night and it had the stories of the hardship that people are facing in the depression. According to the media, Wellington's food banks are running bear and there is increasing pressure on this.

I can't help but get upset about this. I can not get upset at the New Zealand government, its not just thier responsiblity to deal with social issues, but I do get upset at myself, for being apathetic to the pain people face in thier life.

I make excuses not to engage all the time, I don't have the time resource, money. But in reality, I am a lot richer than most people, I just prioritise my resources in a way that bring benefit to what I see as most important.

Often it is my need for pleasure, I need to dress well, eat well, be happy with the way others see me, and in the way I do so, I show that I am more important than others around me. Rather than giving up my resources, I can often desire to put myself first above others.

I need to engage in dealing with the poor and the lonely, to bring health to my own life, my modus operandi cannot be myself, but always looking to bring redemption to those on the outter.

Reflections on the peacemaker

Tonight, my friend Phil told the story of a freind of his who works in the field of brokering peace in some of the worlds most troubled hotspots. In the story, the person gave himself up to say that spy to stop a town from being masecred by a genocidal regime as it was the only way to save the town. As a result he was held captive and tortured.

To save this town, he had to sacrifice himself.

Our sacrifice for peace is not often like this, but it will be costly, it may be giving up time to help a signgle mother, it may be spending time with refugees, it may be stepping out and confronting a bully who is bullying our best mate, it may just be taking in orphans and treating them as our own. But it will be costly.

Phil told another story, of how his mate was arrested for armed robbery, and asked him to journey with him in his healing process. Phil reluctantly agreed to journey with him through a five year painful process while he was in prison, while the painful mending process occured. Phil knew that the time would be a sacrifice and costly, but also wanted to love his friend.

Redemption is costly, Jesus showed this by the most epic example of sacrifice and love through going through death on the Cross.While it is costly, it has eternal conssequences, the healing act of redemption has greater returns than the cost ever has.

some views from a conversation on money

Today I had an interesting conversation with a flat mate, it was interesting how quickly both of us took positions on the subject, the subject was money and the use of money by the flat. I got defensive and went about taking a position, which I wanted to argue was right no matter what.

I realised after this conversation, how big an issue we can make the issue of money in our lives, I think most of the time I have a healthy view of the subject, but I realised from the conversation, that my view still needs work and needs to change.

Money is a taboo in our culture, we don't talk about it openly. It is interesting whenever I hear a subject on finances from anyone, I often get agitated, and defensive. We are often individualistic about money, viewing it as "ours" to be used for our own pleasure.

Living in a flat or community, you come onto the conundrum - how do you view the resource as needing to be used for the benefit of the community, how do you use it, and how are you a good steward of that money?

Forgiveness is healing

Forgiveness to me is an essential part of peace making, because it is the medicine to our pain.

I beleive that forgiveness is key to healing both the pains in the human journey, but also in criminal law national conflict and internation conflict.

Many people have believe that Justixe can only happen through retributive means - people beleive that the one who does, I beleive that the justice to be truly justice has to be restorative rather than purely about punishment for ones actions. The type of justice Jesus promotes in the scriptures in one that says, yes you are broken, yes you  have done wrong, there are consequences, but I will do all I can to show you that you have worth, that you can recieve restoration.

I think one of the most powerful examples of restorative Justice was the truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa. The commission was set up at the end of te brutal  unjust era of racism in South Africa, and was the brain child of the leader Nelson Mandela and one of the great peace activists, Desmond Tutu. One of the stories was how a lady confronted a secret police officer, who had killed her family members. In response to his brutality, she responded by saying that she would treat him  like family, and show him love and forgivenss. This story made me cry when I first heard it, and showed me that while we need to confront violence and brutality, we also need to allow for redemption as well.

My freind  recently told a story at Mosaic of how him and his brother got caught shoplifting when they were overseas. They were arrested and taken to the jail for thier actions as little kids. They waited for the grilling of thier parents. Thier father came and signed the papers and took them home. On the ferry home, they waited for the oncoming judgement. Their father opened his mouth, and told them how he too had been caught shoplifting and he had to deal with the shame of being caught. He finisehd by saying "lets not tell your mother about this." His act was an act of grace to these two boys, and showed redemption. He confronted the issue, but allowed for wholeness and forgiveness to reign.

Too often we stew, we beleive that punitive action is the best way forward, we do need to confront injustice, and the pain caused by selfishness, greed, wrongdoing, but we have to do it in a way that is understanding, and is forgiving, allowing the person to confront the wrong they have done, but also moving on, showing grace.

This is harder said than done, as I said, I often get caught up on the small things, and let those wrongs stew, I don't know how it would be to forgive a murderer. But I realise the cry of Gods heart is that we forgive and show redemption. This is the only way we can find healing ourselves.

How many conflicts in the world could have been stopped if the injustice was confronted gracefully, realising it is wrong, but also pushing for redemption? How do we confront the wrongs in our lives with grace and long? What resentment do I need to face in my live.