Algemene gesels

As jy lus voel om oor enige ander onderwerp iets op die tafel te sit, pos dit hier.  As daar genoeg reaksie is, maak ons dit ’n aparte gesprek.

Gesels gerus saam.

 

 

Spreekbeurte

Die tegniese kwaliteit van Annelise Wiid se video spreukbeurt Sondag-oggend was uitstekend. Knap gedaan Burgert en Annelise.

A Spirituality of the Road

Ek lees onlangs weer hierdie stuk van David Bosch uit sy boek: A Spirituality of the Road. Op sy besondere manier herinner hy ons aan wat dit beteken om die dissipelpad te loop. Nie onttrekking uit hierdie wêreld nie, maar juis gestuur na die wêreld toe.

 

“Spirituality or devotional life seems to mean withdrawal from the world, charging my battery, and then going out into the world. The image is of an automobile which runs on batteries only. The batteries are charged for so many hours during the night and then the automobile runs so many miles during the day until the batteries become too weak to pull the car. For more mileage one would have to charge the batteries for a longer period of time. Transferred to the spiritual sphere, this means: so many minutes of spiritual exercise will give me so much mileage for the day that follows.

And if I find that I am run down before evening, this simply means that I have to spend more time in the morning charging my spiritual battery. In this view, then, my "true" Christian life consists of those so-called spiritual moments, away from the hustle and bustle of ordinary life. To be sure, all that hubbub is actually anti-spiritual, because it taps my stored-up spiritual resources, it drains my spiritual power away, it is a threat to my spirituality. I would, therefore, much rather live on angels' food only and have as little as possi­ble to do with the things of this world…

Lesslie Newbigin has called this view the "Pilgrim's Progress Model": the emphasis is on a decisive break with the world and a flight from the "wicked city." In this model the world is primarily seen as a threat, as a source of contagion from which the Christian must keep himself free. To be saved means, in essence, to be saved from this world; spirituality means otherworldliness. The basic problem with this view of spirituality is that it is docetic. It is based on the idea that matter is essentially evil. We could also call it monophysite be­cause the Christ of this spirituality has only one nature, the divine…

Fundamental to any definition of spirituality is that it can never be something that can be isolated from the rest of our existence, as the battery-operated car metaphor suggests. "Flesh" and" spirit" in the Bible do not refer to two segments of our lives, the one outward and worldly, the other inward and otherworldly, as though we are spiritual when we pray and worldly when we work. No, flesh and spirit refer to two modes of existence, two life orientations. Being spiritual means being in Christ, whether we pray or walk or work. Spirituality is not con­templation over against action. It is not a flight from the world over against involvement in the world. The "Pilgrim's Progress Model" therefore does not adequately describe what spirituality means because its point of departure is non-involvement, escape from the world. It has to be supplemented by what Newbigin has called the "Jonah Model": not fleeing from the city but being sent by God into the heart of the city and its turmoil…More precisely, it is not a case of one model supple­menting the other, for the two are absolutely indivisible. The involvement in this world should lead to a deepening of our relationship with, and dependence on God, and the deepening of this relationship should lead to increas­ing involvement in the world.” (David J. Bosch, A Spirituality of the Road (IMER 2004), p. 3-11)

 

 

Jesus se dissipelskapskool

Ons het Sondag in Helderberg begin met ’n opwinde nuwe reeks. Vir 14 weke gaan ons in al ons eredienste Lukas 9-19 deurwerk en saam deel wees van Jesus se dissipelskapskool. Dit is 'n besondere skool, want eintlik is dit 'n skool op pad.

Kom reis saam
Ek wil jou nooi om jou tassie te pak en saam met ons te vertrek vir ’n reis saam met Jesus deur Samaria na Jerusalem. Jy het nie veel in jou tassie nodig nie. Behalwe ’n goeie stuk opgewondenheid en ’n Bybel in die hand het jy nog twee dinge nodig: ’n Oop gesindheid om te hoor wat die Here vir jou sê, en die bereidheid om daaroor te praat. Met mekaar, buite die kerk, in die motor, op hierdie blog. Want dan gaan ons almal die meeste uit hierdie pad kry.

In Lukas 9:51-19:27 kry ons die verhaal van Jesus se laaste reis na Jerusalem met sy dissipels. Lukas beeld vir ons die reis uit as ’n laaste voorbereiding van die dissipels om die kerk op aarde te wees. Ons gaan hierdie pad stap om vir dieselfde taak toegerus te word.

Dit val op dat Jesus se dringendheid Hom nie haastiger of besiger maak nie. Inteendeel. Dit is asof Hy rustiger en meer intens in gesprekke betrokke raak by die kleiner groep volgelinge om Hom. Die reis van Galilea na Jerusalem sou onder normale omstandighede slegs 3-5 dae te voet neem. Hulle neem egter ooglopend baie langer om die afstand af te lê.

Daar is groter fokus, maar Hy pas nie druk op hulle toe om vir oulaas iets in hulle koppe te kry nie. Hy gee meer persoonlike aandag aan hulle. Die verhale en gesprekke berei hulle voor om as sy navolgers voor te gaan in die kerk. Hy doen dit in vyandelike gebied (Samaria), wat op ’n manier simbolies is vir die plek waar mense tot vandag dissipels moet wees.

'n Verbintenis (commitment)
Aan die begin van die reis is daar 'n paar insidente van mense wat Hom wil volg, maar nog nie mooi die koste bereken het nie.
Jesus maak dit duidelik dat die pad van dissipelskap eise stel en ons maklik verskonings soek om nie nou dadelik die pad te loop nie. Dit klink baie radikaal, maar Hy wil dit duidelik maak dat die pad van dissipel wees 'n baie sterk "commitment" vra.

Die Latyns Amerikaanse teoloog, Jon Sobrino, het ’n interessante vraag gevra: “Is jy besig om Jesus te volg of net te glo in Christus?” Weet ons nog wat dit kos om Jesus in hierdie lewe te volg?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer skryf aangrypend in sy Cost of Discipleship “We have gathered like eagles around the carcass of cheap grace, and there we have drunk of the poison that has killed the life of following Jesus.”