Ek’s original, jy’s ‘n copy, ek’s ‘n flashdrive, jy’s ‘n floppy [Jack Parow]
In English, that’s:
Am I better than Jack Parow or “Die Antwoord”? (“The Answer”)
I’m original, you’re a copy, I’m a flashdrive, you’re a floppy [Jack Parow]
WAARSKU! WARNING! De-tox in progress! If you are easily offended, let what lies in shadow lie… Read the rest of this entry »
“in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea … If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” [Paul - 2 Cor 11:26, 30]
Yesterday I spent time exploring some rock pools with my girls and nephews at Betty’s Bay, Western Cape Province. My family left the cove and I stayed behind to watch the waves.
I chose a spot which looked to be as near to the water as I could safely get, and jumped down onto it. The next wave, however, crashed below me and kept on rising. About 2 feet of water swept me backwards into space.
During the surreal journey of falling while gazing skywards, I seemed to have time to ponder on how exactly I was going to land – might it be a backflip, a headfirst crash, or a broken limb?
The landing was hard, but my lower back took the brunt of it. The rest of me hit the water. Straight away, the roiling waters lifted me up and dashed me onto a rock. I couldn’t grip and was sucked out again. The next wave did the same but I managed to hoist myself over the rock. I was taken again on a sickening, scraping, helpless up-down ride but eventually clawed my way above the waterline.
No-one saw my 8-foot fall. If I had been a few inches in any other direction I may well have hit my head and drowned. Legs are bruised, hands cut, my back aches. I am thankful to be alive.
But furthermore, I am thankful to be able to count the cost of being close to nature. This discomfort is for me a blessing of aesthetisation – the opposite of ANaesthetisation – which is the way of our protective culture, with its array of barriers between ourselves and the cosmos, between ourselves and feelings, between ourselves and beauty, and ultimately between the created and the creator.
Paraphrasing an encounter over the weekend, between me in the back row and one behind a pulpit.
Pulpit – “Those who are seeking a place for their gifts need to submit to Eldership.”
Me – “Yes, I agree that discipleship is very important, but feel that the church easily misunderstands creative people. Don’t you think that there are problems with the way the church does not reach those with creative gifting?”
“No, I think people need to learn the costly sacrifice of submitting.”
“I speak for all the marginalised, and say the church has a problem with unconditional acceptance.”
“No, the people with the gifts have the problem.”
(Woman in front row jumps up, turns and practically spits this scripture at me:
Proverbs 18:16 says A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.”
Implication: standing up for the artist is siding with rebellion and selfishness.
Realising the “conversation” has run its course, I withdraw.
I now realise, too late, what the next verse says:
17 The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.
People are afraid,
afraid of silence,
afraid of asking questions,
afraid of their own demons,
afraid of trusting the unknown,
afraid of not being in submission to authority,
afraid of not justifying everything by bible verse,
afraid of the creative.
Afraid of being seen to be afraid, which makes for contradiction.
Afraid of being seen to be contradictory, which results in wrong reasoning.
Afraid of wrong reasoning, which leads to hypocrisy.
Afraid of being hypocritical, which makes for a closed set of truths the outside of which is banishment.
Banishing and not integrating, not circulating as is natural.
Buildup of toxins which are never flushed out by truth.
Toxins which kill, kill enthusiasm, “Godwithinness”, and ultimately, are killing G-d.
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning. – Psalm 130:6
Can’t get no, (da da daaa), Satisfaction … – Mick Jagger
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what was promised – Hebrews 11:39
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope. – Reinhold Niebuhr
It’s a universal human feeling to experience lack. Need, hunger, fullfillment, emptiness, desire; these are the drivers which push life onwards. Whether it is a basic drive like hunger, the persistent emotional pull of needing affirmation, the gnawing of unrequited love, or a lifelong vision for a noble truth such as justice, our lives are shaped by what draws us onwards.
What is the “opposite” of life: is it lack? Most people seem to think so. The prevailing view, at lest that perpetrated by the media and the commercial interests it represents, is that in order to experience “life” you need more. More things, more money, more time, more choice. Craving is specifically created by the materialist establishment.
This is largely via sexual desire, as a world weary Joni Mitchell remarked “Sex sells everything, sex kills”. However to target sexuality as the problem will miss the fact that it is part of an overarching materialist “purpose”. This is the battle waged by the corporate powers for the hearts and minds of consumers. It offers a vision of power, independence and wealth, together with the illusion of sustainability and immortality. It is the battle for short term profit at any cost, the cost, not least, of the Planet, and also dignity, and ultimately our hearts, for “what does it profit to gain the whole world but lose your own soul?”.
I have been moving towards the view, however, that the real opposite of life might just be the lack of lack. Firstly, too much of anything does not give satisfaction, but satiation. Eating too much of a great meal, for example.
And secondly, if we never experience lack, we will not have the space in which to appreciate what we do have, and to understand our drives so as to make choices that will sustain us. The space created by longing is a very pregnant one.
One of the key things to grasp regarding any lack concerns the “time to fulfillment” of that lack. A rule of thumb here is that the shorter the time to fulfillment, the less appropriate, or worthy, that lack is, to life.
To get to the synonyms proposed at the start, short term lack, we can call craving. And long term lack, longing (or yearning). It is no semantic co-incidence that longing describes the long term.
Examples of craving are drink, and food. Other examples include a variety of addictions: alcohol, sex, drugs, television. It is obvious that the cycle between need and fulfillment is short, only a number of hours in some cases.
A satiated society does not yearn, it craves. Over stimulation, over consumption drive out the space inhabited by Spirit.
In Maslow’s well known “Triangle of Needs”, he describes a continuum from the more basic Deficiency needs: Physiological (water, air, food), then Safety (security, health), then Love/Belonging (friendship, intimacy, family), then Esteem (respect and self respect); through to the Growth needs; Self-actualization (the instinctual need of humans to make the most of their unique abilities and to strive to be the best they can be) and Self-Transcendence (Spiritual).
What is clear from this analysis is that the “lower”, or deficiency needs, can be filled quickly, and will appear again just as quickly. The “higher” needs can go unnoticed for most of our lives, and can take our lives to fulfill.
What of longing? Without getting technical by setting up some sort of rule about where craving stops and longing begins, let us rather observe that the longest longing extends beyond death, bringing us into the realm of the eternal. Obviously other longings are intermediate, the dream to start a business, start a family, take on a big project. Maybe they concern becoming a certain type of person, generous, wise, loving, for example.
A long term drive does not however automatically sanctify that drive. Deep feelings of revenge can swallow up ones whole life, and even be passed down from generation to generation. Institutionalized customs are often tied in closely with religion and tribe. Ongoing enmity between Shias and Sunnis, Catholics and Protestants, Hutu and Tutsi, lead to very deep wounds which are near impossible to extricate. These toxic traditions are possibly harder to escape than any short term addiction.
You told me your name; if I could just remember it then maybe I could frame the life you laid at my feet. No meat, no bread, nothing to eat, your system is no longer accepting nourishment. I gave you water. I gave you clothes that you could sell to earn your ticket home. Or maybe, just the memory of home.
You said, “Maybe you are lucky to help me.” At first I read arrogance but upon reflection, you were so right. Fortune was finding a way to my heart, finding me via the way of your abject misfortune.
Your clothes were clean and ironed; i saw your pride in life in the face of its demise. And you are as thin as a sword and just as upright. Yes, righteousness itself flashes from the shook foil of your emptiness. Your story overflows, but there is no self pity, just the welling waters of the acceptance of your mortality.
No self pity, perhaps, but there was panic. The panic of a soldier about to mount a final charge over into no mans land. Metallic, hard, the flavor of machinery. I tasted it too, but the lingering tang was simple Rightness, and thanks to you, I tasted my own true place in things.
You show me the doctor’s letters, your anti-retrovirals. A small purse, a small collection of artifacts. It may be all you own. But this predicament, is not yours alone, we all return to dust and we all face our Creator. And at this moment in time, here on a sidewalk, this is hallowed ground. Our feet are unshod, my brother, we both see the consuming fire. I feel your panic, but I also feel the birthpangs of your freedom. You are unfettered by illusion, sojourning as you are through leafy, vacant suburbia, you have no attachments.
You’ve gone, but you won’t go away…
You have already gone through the loss of your very self. No friends in this city, no more work, no more strength to work, your father, mother and grandparents, no more. And you, man in what may have been your prime, have not had the privilege nor earthly honor to have a family of your own. Ah to hold my babies, to hold my loved ones; but you, life has torn through you
like a devouring scourge.
And yet you believe, you look at me a stranger and honor me with the title “Brother, my brother.” Will I ever have the purity of your knowledge, the depth of your worship? There was an ocean of words someplace, just waiting in the wings, ready to issue forth, but all I could muster was muteness.
The closest you could come to locating yourself in a history was your uncle. Not that he could support you in your hour of need, having no work himself, nor even a room for you. But he is your connection with a time spend on Earth, he is Blood. You needed an insurmountable sum for transport. It’s yours, take it.
It was 10 minutes cutting into my day but I was staring into a great fissure in time and space, I was staring into Eternity. All I can say is, go well my unnamed brother, go well, and think of me when you reach paradise.
You’ve gone, but you won’t go away…
Practices, tools, technologies and roles
“Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel … its arrangement, its exits and entrances — its whole design and all its regulations and laws … This is the law of the temple: All the surrounding area on top of the mountain will be most holy”. Ezekiel 43:10-12 (NIV)
What I have attempted to do thus far is to present a re-envisioning of the concept of Worship. This has been an exercise in faith-imagination, and up to now, it remains theoretical. We have specifically tried to pull back from specifics, so that we can get away from habit, cliché, or tradition, into a space of imagination, in order to re-envision who G-d is or may be. This means forgetting worship as an activity or a form, for a while, so that we can attempt to get to its essence. Then charged by faith-imagination we can come to it anew.
I feel a little nervous, it must be said, coming down from this tower of Ivory, into the real world. I feel like the pure and philosophical is going to be tarnished with the prosaic and the practical. But then I think of the magnificence of the Incarnation, where G-d who is all-poetry, all-truth, chose to be born man and enter history, where Love could be put to the real test of living, to be tempted by all things, boredom, change, suffering, rejection. So with a deep breath, here goes…
Liturgy
A good word to introduce here is Liturgy. This means “work of the people”, and might be the perfect way to describe the creative, the sacred and the communal all in one. Of course, to most people it smacks of religiosity, so we must note that we are trying to reclaim its meaning anew.
I’d bet that most people would consider Liturgy to be the work of the Clergy. As such their view of how to do worship will be pretty religious, and most lightly pretty boring. So, firstly we need to affirm that liturgy is what people, the laity, the proletariat, you and me, do. It does not need to be a formula, but can mean how we apply our imaginations to life.
Liturgy then is about the whole of life. (Repeat this three times, light the candle, then hit the gong to move on…). What follows however, pertains mostly to meetings, and in fact to church meetings, although these give only one model of how to express worship creatively. Activities of organisations like The Cosmic Mass are examples of liturgy re-interpreted. What characterises a meeting of this nature is community and people who are willing worshipers.
The Space
To honor space, it might be best to clear an area of chairs and pews. However, for hospitalities sake, seating should be available (I do like a good retro pouf) … There will always be a mix of participators and spectators.
Consider removing the pulpit in order to devolve the sense of structure and authority into the community. Musicians should also be free to roam, and placed if possible in such a way as to integrate with the non-musicians. Worshipers need to be free to face any direction. Directional exercises such as speaking to the four winds will help people to visualize a G-d who is omnipresent. Dance and movement are core to this worship, and the space should be determined accordingly. Dancers should be given preference to non-dancers. Water should be made available for rehydration, preferably served with ice and lemon or lime slices in fine crystal flutes.
The beauty of a building or its décor is important, and attempts to maximize a creative atmosphere in a space (normally drab and functional if rented) should be made. Flowers, plants and greenery, together with interesting objects, sculpture and artwork, will enhance the atmosphere immeasurably.
Sound and its arrangement are vital to the spatial planning – see the section on technologies later on.
Activities
All modes of expression should be considered.
Tools/Technologies
We might define technology as that which amplifies the natural human experience. It means that we can project sound and vision so that many people can access what is happening. The use of technology is taken for granted but needs to be used with caution. Marshall McLuhan pointed out that new technology whilst extending or amplifying our abilities also amputates other abilities.
New Roles
There are a number of roles I would like to highlight as being key to Doing Worship. These are the DJ, the VJ, MC (Master/Matron of Ceremonies) and Installation Curator.
My reflections above are just the start. I ask you the reader to add ideas and comments to this list. What do you do or would you like to do, to appropriately and worthily worship a Living God?
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” – Paul (1 Corinthians 2:9) 
We all love drama. From the stories told us as children, to books we learned to read, to an appreciation for the theatre, to the sensory fullness of film, to virtual reality computer games, the insatiable appetite for news stories, to the voyeuristic pleasure we get from gossip, we all love drama. In fact, we seem to need it. There is after all no worse fate than boredom.We human beings are in fact, creatures of drama.
Some of us will have realised that our own lives, too, are suffused with all kinds of unexpected twists and turns, full of surprise, if we have taken the opportunity to read them. It is often when we allow ourselves to be read by others that we discover them. If we take the time and care we will see no end to the drama in the lives of others. But the pleasure of these readings will not come without hard work and often, excruciating pain. There are many who never have and never will, discover the exquisite narratives of their own lives. There is no cheap way to enter into these less obvious dramas.
And yet I suspect that these Hidden Dramas are in fact the real story. They are what we ought to be focusing on. But in order to appropriate this, we shall need to take a hard, critical look at the claims of the more obvious stories which claim our allegiance day in and day out. We are in context discussing Worthy Worship. By this we mean first and foremost having a view of the object of our worship that does not devalue it.
So here is an assertion: as worshipping beings, we worship a Dramatic God. It is appropriate then that our work of worship be filled with drama. It is inappropriate that what we call worship is in any way bored, dull, tedious, devoid of depth. And yet so often it is. Let us try then to define what makes up this drama. To start, what is it not, or what prevents us from perceiving it. I suggest 4 possibilities:
First, just like the poetic does not mean poetry, drama is not synonymous with theatre. It is much broader than that. I am in no ways against Film and Theatre, in fact I deeply respect these arts and their practitioners, but we need to be wary of seeing drama as being the domain of specialists, for in so doing we rob ourselves of our role in the drama of life. Drama should be entertaining, yes, but it is not about entertainment, but participation.
Secondly, drama is not sensationalism. When we call something dramatic, it’s usually used as “A dramatic turn of events” in the context of a media news item, or “Don’t be so dramatic” when talking to a petulant child. The establishment has commoditised the dramatic so that it has become something we are fed by CNN or Sky, by Disney or Universal, by any printed or published media concern who needs to hold our attention for their very survival. At worst, tabloid publications deem themselves to hold the moral high ground on the tackiest of topics, in the most expedient and whimsical ways so as to assuage their readership’s gaping lack of personal responsibility, morality or creativity. In both of these ways, the effect of defining drama as theatre or film, and of commoditising it, means that the view that we do not partake in it is reinforced. They are the actors, the anchormen, the journalists, or authors, and we, the passive consumers.
Thirdly, anthropomorphism, human centric ideas of time and space, will rob us of most drama. We only sense a very limited range of frequencies, for example light and sound waves. Our natural facilities in themselves will not perceive all that is going on. Certain technologies and sciences like astronomy and quantum physics help us to view events on a scale altogether different to what is available to the natural eye or ear. Viewing galaxies colliding millions of years ago. Or observing how unpredictable sub atomic particles can be.
Forth, and perhaps the single most limiting factor preventing us from entering into the drama of Life, is the absence of imagination and faith in transcending our human-centric points of view. Without imagination we can never tap into the bigger picture. One of the most profound writings on this comes from the unknown writer of Book of Hebrews: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
One comment that needs to be offered is that it is important for us to see that although the universe was “Formed at God’s command”, this does not preclude the fact that creation continues; all creation accounts have a beginning point, but many also have an end point in the past. It is my belief that the word “Creation” is a verb in the present tense, not a noun.
So the ultimate drama, then, is this: the ongoing act of creation. The one whom we worship is not merely creative; G-d is the Creator from whom all emanates: the whole universe, all life and creativity. There is infinity of dramas, if only we could apprehend them. The story of the Earth, what the ants are doing on a branch, how a relationship changes over the years, how communities come together and are torn apart, how my inner journey has progressed when I look back on it… these are the dramas to which I allude.
So based on these cosmic assertions, what are the implications for us mortals, bound up as we are in the 21st century with all our tiny woes and concerns? Drama involves characters, situations and narrative. If we can extend the notion of the “priesthood of all believers” we can also say the “dramatic company of all believers”. Like the clergy-laity dualism which was exploded but not destroyed by the work of those such as Martin Luther, we are in a position to tear down the dualism that exists between Actors and Audience.
It is not wrong to at times be in the audience, for observing is a key discipline. Watching or listening can be every bit as active as performing. But it would not be becoming to a Dramatic God or a Creation suffused with Drama to always be on the sidelines. A key to being an Actor on the stage of creation is that an incarnation is taking place. Unlike a Moviegoer or Virtual Reality user, the drama takes place both in and around the Actor.
The best attempts by Film, Game or Theatre to envelope the audience with the sensory will never bring that consumer into the Drama of Creation in any profound way. Even radical attempts to interact directly with the neural networks in the brain via implanted electronics or psychological drugs, will forever fail to bring the user-consumer into the presence of G-d. Of course this is an interesting discussion which should be ongoing, and a talking point on the leading edge of biotech and information technology, but my personal view is that these paths do not lead us to the essence of being, or to G-d.
It can be said that the Central Drama of Creation is the Eucharist. Here is the story of the Creator of the Cosmos coming to earth as human, willingly dying to meet the law of God, and defeating death. If it wasn’t for the tremendous weight of habit, prejudice and Christian malpractice, everyone might agree that the story of the Incarnation is the greatest, and possibly, the original story of our lives. Yet so few do the story of God in Jesus justice, for they are waylaid by the very things we have discussed above in what inhibits us from truly entering the Creation’s great and enduring Story.
The word epiphany has a special, sacred significance. It is a fundamental revelation, a change of awareness in ones life which might only come but a few times to us during our lifetimes. One of the most drama-filled epiphanies we know of is the conversion of Saul, captured in the 1601 painting by the Italian master Caravaggio pictured on the right.
But let us with seemingly lesser tales of encounters with truth take heart, we can all in our own way enter the divine drama. The Dramatically aware worshiper is one who will do justice to a Dramatic Creator and a Dramatic Creation. They are best placed to explore the Incarnation, and the infinity of possibilities lying around and inside them. So long as they really believe, that “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”, to mean, not that we cannot know what is prepared for us, but that it is so vast that none will be able to exhaust the generosity and scope of its offering.
How am I going to spend Eternity?
Why does this question plague me so?
Is it because there IS no life after death, so the question is non-sensical?
Is it because I fear damnation, so it’s going to be a pretty unpleasant experience?
Is it because I lack faith, and cannot imagine endless eons?
No, no and no.
I believe in an afterlife, in fact I believe more accurately in a prelife, because this material mortal coil is but a prelude to a more real life which will be revealed.
I have no fear of “hell”, because G-d’s Grace is all conquering.
I can imagine, “through a glass, darkly”, living in Light for age upon age.
So WHY does the question vex you so much?
This is why – I FEAR BOREDOM.
I fear being boxed into orthodoxy for ever. I fear the rehashing of the known, the perpetuity of the passé. I fear the monotony of the predictable. I fear the dishonoring of the Great Creative Spirit, cast in stone. I fear the droning on of mediocrity, and the eventual drowning in cliché. I fear that we will for ever only use less than 10% of our brain, that we will only ever love a little, give a little and live a little.
I fear Vivaldi in the elevator shaft, being blessed by George Bush, Reverent Lovejoy acknowledging the reality of 1 billion Hindus by saying “That’s super”, E minor guitar chords, having “a nice day”, the pink soma fed to the proletariat in Orwell’s 1984, I fear being rooted to the spot in a pew, I fear being locked in a church away from the soil, the wind, the sky.
Mother, I am filled with fear.
I fear an eternity without passion, without imagination, without generosity, caring, or the joy of the privilege of co-creating with G-d. I fear that I will have to worship for ever in the way I have worshipped during this lifetime.
This fear then is the starting point for a journey to discover a worship worthy of the Creator G-d.
Seal said, “We’ll never survive, unless we get a little crazy, unless we get a little big.”
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