the little bird and the big fire

I attended an interfaith meeting at Willow Grange - the Bishop of Guildford's residence. Only about a dozen of us. We were thinking about how we remain faithful in such troubled time ... with so many stories of conflict around the world, and so much pressure on interfaith relations in Britain

Dr Naqvi, the Imam of the Shia Mosque in Woking,  told a story about a little bird that tried to put out a fire with a  drop of water.  It became a metaphor of the small efforts we make on the local level to try and change the global picture. In the face of some many difficulties and so many negative stories, how do we maintain hope ?  by contributing our little drops in an ocean. As Mother Theresa once responded:  The Ocean is made of many drops ...... 

I later looked up the story of the little bird on the internet and found this version: 

Once there was a little bird (Ababeel) that lived during the times of Prophet Abraham (Hazrat Ibrahim AS). When Prophet Abraham (pbuh) was thrown into fire by the enemy of faith, King Nimrod, a little bird saw what happen and decide to put out the fire to help Prophet Abraham (pbuh). The little bird starts scooping up few drops of water in her tiny beak from the nearby river. The larger birds in the vicinity watched and laughed at the little bird and they said, "Where are you carrying the water?"
The little bird said, "To put out the fire around Prophet Abraham (pbuh)." The larger birds continue laughing. "How could you put out such a huge fire with such a small amount of water? It is pointless and useless."
Do you know what the little bird replied? "I am sure Allah (SWT) will not asked me whether I manage to put out the fire or not. But Allah (SWT) will ask what I have done to stop the fire."
Hearing the answer, all the larger birds are silenced.

We often think that our effort is the one responsible for our success. This is wrong way of thinking because Allah (SWT) is the One. If he says we succeeded, we will succeed. Our effort is just a sacrifice that we are willing to make. Similarly little bird knows that with few drops of water, fire will not extinguished but it is his responsibility to contribute whatever it can in anyway with his capability.

The Honest Smuggler

I love this story of Mulla Nasruddin. I found this one on a site I hadn't seen before called alhaddad
which doesn't seem active at present. Great stories though and wonderful pictures.

  

Every first of the month Mullah Nasruddin used to cross the border with thirty donkeys, with two bails of straw on each.

Each time the custom person stopped him to ask about his profession and Nasruddin would reply, “I am an honest smuggler.”

So each time, Nasruddin, his donkeys and the bails of straw were searched from top to toe. Each time the custom folk could not find anything.

Next week, Nasruddin would return without his donkeys or bails of straw.

Years went by and Nasruddin prospered in his smuggling profession to the extent that he retired.

Many years later, the custom person too had retired. As it happened one day, the two former adversaries met in a country far from home.

The two hugged each other like old buddies and started talking.

After a while, the custom person asked the question which had been bugging him over the years, “Mullah, please let me know what were you smuggling all those years ago?”

Nasruddin thought for a few seconds and finally revealed his open secret, “Donkeys.”

MOLLA NASRADDIN: The Original April Fool?

Today we celebrate April's Fool
We had a church notice mentioning a unknown crypt that had been found during renovation works on the town square
I also posted atweet about virtual communion being agreed by the Pope and ABC
Not sure many were fooled by either !

But then I came across a B&W Russian Molla Nasraddin film on YouTube.  I had to include it even if it's in Russian cos it looks wonderful. Its only 3 mins - definatley worth watching.....

In was particularly interesting in taht  Molla Nasraddin is taking to a  girl in a swimsuit!? (They don't usually go together in my mind) So I checked it out with a Russian friend who wrote back:  I wonder where you've got this piece? Fascinating! ...... Apparently Nasraddin is teaching a modern (swimsuit-clad) lady that appearances may be deceiving, how people may attribute qualities to other people or deprive them of what they've got, just because of appearance. He also rambles that Khalifs, Ghanghis Khans (the guy in a posh car) and Omar Khayyams are still living among us. He then challenges her to look for Nasraddin around, as he is still alive. He also questions the idea of building a monument to him, as he may still do something wrong and may not deserve it. His final line is about his donkey that does not want to get down: 'Ah, donkey, donkey. It's still a donkey even if it went to Mecca.'   Typical Nasraddin! So why is Ghenghis Khan riding in a posh car ?   ..... I  connected it to the donkey at the end who won't come off his pedestal? It reminded me of a joke I originally heard in Urdu    "Gaddagari aur gari men kya ferak hota hai?"    Whats the difference between a Donkey car)t) and  an ordinary car  "GaddaGari men gadda bahar hota hai!"    With a donkey car(t) the doinkey is on the outside ......1

Wrestling with Angels

'Wrestling with Angels' is the title of a book by Rowan Williams,  subtitled 'Conversations in Modern Theology' (SCM 2007  ed Mike Higton). The picture is based on one I found on the Internet, which I painted and used for an essay I wrote on 'Faith Seeking Understanding' in Summer 2006.   But the painting for me has come to symbolise theological struggle. ......

The story is related in the Genesis narative:

Then Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. (Gen 32:24-30)

So much theology can be sterile abstraction. ‘unfruitful, abstract theology that gets lost in a labyrinth of academic trivialities’  Karl Barth paraphrasing AMOS  ‘ I hate, I despise your lectures and seminars, your sermons, addresses and Bible Studies…When you display your hermeneutic, dogmatic, ethical and pastoral bits of wisdom before one another and before me, I have no pleasure in them… Take away from me your …thick books and ,,, your dissertations…your theological magazines, monthlies and quarterlies.’ (Barth ‘Evangelical Theology’ 120 in  Migliore, Daniel L. Faith seeking Understanding : An introduction to Christian Theology  2^nd edition Erdmanns 2004 p6) 
  

Anselm coined a phare, a slogan: ‘fides quarens intellectum’  ‘faith seeking understanding’,

FAITH  

‘I pray, O God, to know thee, to love thee, that I may rejoice in thee’  Anselm

Faith is itself an engagement with the Divine Other.  Faith is engaging with the living God  - entering the ‘mystery of God.’  Theology is not about solving issues and discovering truth. It is about discovering God. Gabriel Marcel suggests  ‘unlike a problem which can be solved, is a mystery which is ‘inexhaustible’  Migliore/ p3   (Eph 1:19)

SEEKING

Christian faith prompts enquiry, searches for deeper understanding, dares to raise questions’  (Miglore  p2)

‘Searching the Scriptures’  is a key part of the seeking after God (Jn 5:39).  Perhaps our greatest struggle is with the text of Scripture itself and understanding in what way it is the ‘word of God’. The two extremes of liberal rationalism, which seems to leave little room for divine inspiration and conservative evangelical ‘Biblicism’, (McGrath  p 177 explores the Old Princeton School and the origin of concept of absolute Biblical infallibility) which appears to leave no room for human fallibility. The struggle with understanding the relationship between divine inspiration and the human fallibility of Scripture is as complex as seeking to understand the divinity and humanity of the Son of God!

 UNDERSTANDING

‘Christian faith asks questions, seeks understanding both because God is always greater than our ideas of God and because the public world that faith inhabits confronts it with challenges and contradictions that cannot be ignored’ (Migliore pg 4)

The idea that somehow ‘truth’ can be ‘possessed’ seems almost an anathema. Faith must be  always seeking, always searching, always desiring. The ultimate goal is God. (Ps 42:1)

So is theology rationally ‘thinking’ about faith?   Or is it more ‘faith’ doing ‘the thinking’? The dominant question in the New Testament  is still  ‘what must I do to be saved’, rather than ‘what must I know.’ It is not information about God but ‘the life-giving and salvation-bringing self-disclosure of God’ (McGrath 201) Revelation does not abolish the mystery of God, but is its starting point. Thinking is but one part of the outworking of this mystery. ‘faith sings, confesses, rejoices, suffers, prays, and acts’ (Migliore 7)  Faith is relational as well as rational. Experience is the starting point. The outworking, practical application, and relevance of the Gospel - the Good News of Jesus Christ - is in the transformation of human lives (including mine). 

FAITH SEEKING UNDERSTANDING

The dominant image I am left with is of WRESTLING, particularly wrestling with words. Jacob wrestling with the ‘man’ becomes a metaphor of theological struggle – desperately seeking after God  - wrestling - and afterwards trying to understand the meaning of the encounter  ‘you have striven with God and men and have prevailed’

I particularly like the final picture because it is overlaid with words and part of our struggle is with words and ideas, trying to find language to describe the indescribable.  And the apparent theological impossibility of being succinct!

It is a struggle with others (‘God and man’) over meaning, but ultimately a struggle alone (Gen32v24).  It is a ‘laming-naming’ experience in that the ‘battle’ results in both ‘bruising or brokenness’ (Gen32v25), as well as the ‘blessing’ of a new identity (Gen32v28).  Any theological encounter should have a similarly profound effect on each of us.