The road is not finished yet

Week 2 of our holy::ground online Lent retreat, using Brian McLaren's book: ‘we make the road by walking. Chapter 28: A New Path to Aliveness, based on Matthew 5:17-48 about Jesus not abolishing but fulfilling the Law and prophets.  I was struck by one image ....

If tradition could be compared to a road that began in the distant past and continues to the present, Jesus dares to propose that the road is not finished yet. To extend the road of tradition into the future – to fulfil its potential – we must first look back to discern its general direction. Then informed by the past, we must look forward and dare to step beyond where the road currently ends, venturing off the map, so to speak, into new territory. To stop where the road of tradition currently ends, Jesus realises, would actually end the adventure and bring the  tradition to a standstill. So faithfulness doesn’t simply allow us to extend the tradition and seek to fulfil its unexplored potential; it requires us to do so   (p163)

I have been on a fairly long journey this past week. Sunday Flight from London to Manila, via Singapore.  Then Monday a flight to Roxas in the north of Panay Island (Western Visayas) Then on Wednesday, a  6 hour journey in a van to Cataclan   the North West tip to catch a Catamarang to Boracay where we held our three day Tearfund workshop at the Eco Village Conference Centre near Puka Beach  in the north of the island.

On Saturday afternoon we went back to Tambisaan Jetty and a boat to Caticlan.   We then embarked on a 8 hour van journey to Iloilo City,  where we stayed overnight  and continued on Sunday morning to the Port to catch a FastBoat to Bacolod and then a van to Cadiz  in the North of Negros Occidental. (arriving about 4pm). I took a number of (instagram) pictures on the journey and have been meditating on them in relation to the passage.  

PICTURE ONE: St Catherine's Church, Mambusao  

 On the road from Cataclan to Iloilo, we stopped at a small town called  Mambusao and I had a brief reflective moment walking around the Town Square and standing outside St Catherine’s church. The cement was decomposing, the paintwork peeling, but the most heavenly music was coming from within, behind closed doors  …. elusive  hymns at twilight  

Maybe the church symbolises the traditional institutional approach to religion – outwardly strong, steadfast certain    but as you approach you realise it is crumbling and inaccessible. Moral certainly and a universalising theology looks initially attractive and clear, providing solid certainty in an unstable world. And it has an other worldly sound to it   But the walls are crumbling and the future uncertain….. and the doors are locked to strangers. Life seems to be happening in the Town square 

And the road goes on to new places and new experiences….. 

PICTURE TWO:  Boat on the Sibuyan Sea

I had another reflective moment on the fast boat to Bocalad. On the waters of the Sibuyan Sea  where everything was more fluid, unstable and fast-paced.  You can watch a clip on Facebook here  

Morality does seem to be changing so rapidly and feels unstable. My colleague was sitting inside the boat feeling nauseous in the choppy seas. Faith and certainly seem to be at sea in a postmodern world. Morality is more fluid, more liquid. Remember Don Cuppit’s  ‘Sea of Faith’ ?    or some would suggest that it’s more ‘faith at sea’ these days…. It's certainly more liquid...

PICTURE THREE: Motor Tricycles in Cadiz  

Traveling in a small Tricycle a colourful motorised motorcycle and sidecar in Cadiz.  They carry visible signs of faith   ‘God Is great’  Jesus is Lord, ‘Trust in God’  ‘God will provide’ …..  bumper sticker theology.

But I like these local, contextual, colourful forms of transport – each region has their own like the local Jeepneys…. Converted from jeeps after WW2, they make for an exhilarating ride.

I’ve been reading a book as I travel on Contextual Theology by Clemens Sedmak  Doing Local theology: a Guide for Artisans of a New Humanity (MaryKnoll, 2002) 

All good theology is contextual:   Theology is done locally. In order to be honest to the local circumstances theology has to be done as local theology, as theology that takes the particular situation seriously. Local theology can be done with basic theological means. It can be done by the people, and it is done with the people.’   (p3)

Very little theology is universal and good theology demands local application. It goes beyond book knowledge  and is based on real, every day experience.  

That makes theology local, colourful adventurous. It lives in the vernacular,  like  ‘treasures in earthen vessels’  always based on the somewhere we are living and embedded in the here and now.

PICTURE FOUR:  eating Balut in Cadiz

In holy::ground we do what we call kitchen table theology, where we discuss scripture around the table.  Anyone can contribute. This is part of  'extending the road of tradition into the future'.  Sedmak talks about the need for ‘little theologies’ (not just 'bumper sticker' theology) and describes a model of local theologian as 'village cook'.   Doing local theology is like cooking with local ingredients. In Cadiz we were invited to try the local delicacy in the market where the locals eat Balut - steamed Duck Embryo – I decided to give it a miss…….. not all local theology can be stomached by outsiders.  

a new kind of hero

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Jesus ….turned our normal status ladder and social pyramids upside down. He advocates an identity characterised by solidarity, sensitivity and non-violence. He celebrates those who long for justice, embody compassion and manifest integrity and non-duplicity. He creates a new kind of hero, not warriors, corporate executives or politicians, but brave and determined activists for pre-emptive peace, willing to suffer within the prophetic tradition of justice (Brian McLaren  We make the road by walking p 158-159)   

Today I met some of these heroes as we been visiting the Tearfund team in Roxas, Philippines

The team was set up in the wake of  super Typhoon Haiyan (the local name is Yolanda)  which cut a path across eastern and central Philippines on Nov. 8, with some of fastest wind speeds on record. It killed or left missing more than 5,000 people and displaced an estimated four million. A major international relief mission helped survivors, many of whom would remain dependent on aid for months….

Now a year on we were meeting the team of Community Enablers, the ‘foot soldiers’ of Tearfund's disaster response team, who present the rebuilding  programme  to the community ,  and help identify the neediest. They do lots of technical project management stuff to do with base surveys and validation  and implementation and monitoring and evaluation. They keep an eye on the quality and quantity of the work.  

Mixing ‘professional excellence’ with ‘spiritual passion’, they are the hands of the Tearfund team, the relational bridge between ‘donor’ and ‘beneficiaries’.      

They listen to the stories of devastation and heartbreak and turn them into slow painful action to rebuild what has been broken. They are nearly all women. ‘We are good listeners’, says Ann one of the more experienced Community Enablers ….‘and sometime good advisers’

A team of 10 who go out in pairs as good news bringers to each sector or ‘Barongai’ where Tearfund has decided to work (a bit like the short term mission in Luke 10).  ‘Following Jesus where the need is greatest’ 

They are helping to reconstruct CORE housing  -   270 houses in total. We saw a half dozen buildings in various stages of construction and met some of the beneficiaries and their family members who were helping the construction.  It’s a team effort 

These community enablers, what Paulo Freire called ‘animateurs’ or informal educators and social activists,  are indeed ‘living boldly and freely in this new identity as salt and light’ (McLaren p159)

 photos by Patrick Goh