NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

We are all familiar with the saying ‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ Matthew 6:24 {KJV] Mammon in the New Testament is commonly thought to mean money, material wealth, or anything that promises wealth, and is associated with the greedy pursuit of gain. [adapted from Wikipedia] Two of the major preoccupations in today’s society are money and religion. Money is viewed i n today’s society as having real value, despite the fact that it is flat currency, not backed by anything. So we have people saying that they would prefer to use ‘real’ money over a debit card, when in fact both are equally ‘real’. God is seen by many [especially in the Christian Right] as an old man in the heavens sitting on a throne, who intercedes in our affairs if we ask nicely, go to the right church or belong to the right religious sect. If God doesn’t like what we are saying, or if we don’t ask often enough, then our prayers aren’t answered. Illnesses and freak weather occurrences all come fro...

“money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised.” ― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind I was thinking about the renovations we have done recently and how money has replaced the goods that the barter system would have required in the past. We were fortunate in being a position where we had the money needed to make the exchange of skilled labour for currency.  My friend prefers using actual money to using her debit card. She says it is because spending it is real. While I tried to persuade her that using a debit card is every bit as ‘real’, she remains unconvinced.  In neither of these cases does the money itself have any value other that what we and our society has given to it. ‘Today, all currencies around the world are fiat currencies, and not one single currency is backed by gold or silver … a fiat currency is a piece of paper with a number and two signatures. The faith of the people give it its real va...

“Imagine you are going on a journey across the continent.…All you know is that the journey will be long and arduous…Some things you are sure you will need, other things you think you might need, and still other things are packed because you cannot bear to leave them behind. At the start of the journey, you are not certain which is which.…The baggage you load for the journey includes many values…Some are clearly shared by everyone in the group. Others are not. Some are so important to an individual, that, unless everyone shares that value, they cannot be part of the group… Only the journey itself can test which values are most important to all.” [© 2009 Thomas G. Bandy – www.ThrivingChurch.com - tgbandy@aol.com Based on the book Moving Off the Map (Abingdon Press)] When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" John 1:38 Both of these two quotations, written over 2000 years apart, are really asking us the same question: What...

Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 The Message (MSG) As we enter into Lent, I have been reflecting on the passage above often known as 'The Great Commission', not only on the challenges that it presented to the disciples, but also the challenges it poses for us in 2017, and how those challenges might be answered. I learned how to drive in the winter of 1961-62. There were no drivers' schools around way back then, and so  my fiancé bravely took it upon himself to teach me. I didn’t get instruction in many of the challenges that new drivers day do. In fact, I didn’t even realize at...

‘The season of Lent is traditionally understood to be a time for reflection, contrition, and consideration of the sacrifice Jesus undertook for our sins. … all that is contingent upon a belief in the atonement theory of the crucifixion by which we accept that Jesus died to save us from our sins and bring us into eternal relationship with the divine being, God. If our belief in that story has cracks in it, the idea of Lent can become nonsensical.’ Gretta Vosper [progressivechristianity.org] This post made me angry; angry because it lacked the depth of  the response that is sometimes needed to make sense out of long-standing traditions.  As Diarmaid MacCullough states in ‘Christianity: the first three thousand years” [2009] when talking about the catechumens [those who had not fulfilled the requirements for baptism and were still under instruction ( catechesis )] ‘It was the perfect time of the liturgical year for the catechumens to spend a last rigorous preparation befor...

“There is a built-in danger in old age which, if we give in to it, makes aging one of the most difficult periods of life, rather than one of the most satisfying - which it should be. The danger of old age is that we may start acting old.”  - Joan D. Chittister February is my birthday month, and so I received a birthday card in the mail. Nothing strange or odd about that! What does strike me as different though is that I was bothered by that card and its message ' The secret to staying young? Lie about your age.'   [In fact it bothered me so much, it almost ended up in the recycling with its envelope.]  So I asked myself, ‘Why?’ In retrospect, I have had a good life, with many positives to look back on. But I have no desire to become that person again. And this I think is why this unfortunate choice for a birthday card had such a negative effect on me. Our culture today seems to revere the young. Yes, they do have more energy, more vim, vigour, and ...

As I was sitting in my chair this morning, finishing the first cup of coffee for the day, I was feeling sorry for myself. After all I had gotten up extra early when the alarm went off at 7:30 am, because service men were scheduled to arrive sometime between 8:30 and noon. They were coming to fix a ‘first world’ problem, the remote control was no longer ‘talking’ to our fireplace.  Poor me!!! Of course we weren’t without the auxiliary heat the fireplace provides in our apartment on the lower level of the house. I could still turn it on and off manually. As I said, it was a first world problem! This quote from the poem ‘Home’ by Warsan Shire, a London-based Somali writer, poet, editor and teacher, first came to my attention when the picture of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy of Kurdish ethnic background who drowned on 2 September 2015 in the Mediterranean Sea. He and his family were Syrian refugees trying to reach Europe amid the European refugee crisis.  “you ...