Christianity – Page 30 – all said and done

Published May 25, 2007 by Rebecca Matheson

With regards to Schubert

Our Wednesday night homegroup has been and gone and clearly a lot of people put more effort into it than I did because it turned out to be quite a fascinating evening that procured some depth of thought and a wealth of openness.

Here’s what we were initially presented with: Come next week with something, (Music was identified, but not mandatory) that describes either: where you are currently at with God, an understanding of God, or anything else remotely relevant.

That’s when I Schubert’ed it up and took the lazy option of ‘explaining later’.

Now is later.

Why Schubert? To be honest I know absolute zip about Schubert. I grew learning in detail about Vivaldi, Beethoven, Mozart and Bach but somehow missed this guy. Bit of a pity. A very quick wiki search has informed me that he requested to be buried next to Beethoven when he died and seemingly got his way. It’s not very relevant, but there you go – some musical trivia to amaze your friends – the ones interested in that kind of stuff…

Now, heres where you have to go listen to the piece or things mightn’t make sense.

Undercurrents.

The past month and a half for me have been insanely busy. Not just a little busy, but more the – I think I’ve had a night home by myself maybe twice in the past month. The days are filled with homework… I could go on and whinge, but I won’t.

There’s this thing in being a Christian where you get this funny old sense of obligation. I’m slowly learning to let it go because I don’t think that God allows us to be bound by laws and constraints. Some of which I’m sure are totally self imposed.

Read your Bible, pray every day, pray every day, pray every day, read your Bible pray every day and you’ll grow, grow, grow.

The short 5 minutes of justification prayer and reading before bed don’t quite cut it, it doesn’t meet the desire that is there but not often strong enough to enforce itself over the other busy and sometimes needless time fillers.

In this busyness it seems that God has put a few hmmm, lets call them safe guards – or helpful things in place.

Vocare has assisted in asserting some kind of ‘you must sit down and do this’. Take that time.

I know this Christian thing isn’t all about prayer and Bible but it is about being in tune with God. This is an easy thing to let slip.

How does this work with Schubert.

I love the constancy of God, the reminders of his reality and his hand in things. I love watching him ‘pull strings’ so to speak. I love that every time I sit down to be intentional that he shows up in some kind of way – even if it’s just a way that I get, due to some obscure wiring.

There’s this lovely undercurrent of God that runs through my life. Not because of anything I do and I sometimes forget to look for it but he reminds me.

Art by Cathy Nichols

Christianity Church Life

Published May 19, 2007 by Rebecca Matheson

Schubert and how things are

I have given a little thought to something I need to have ready for Wednesday night. Last Wednesday at homegroup the idea was put forward to bring song/piece of music/movie clip etc. that explained where you are currently at with God. Here’s what I’ll probably use.This happens to possibly be my most favourite piece of classical music. This is slightly slower than usual and I’m only sharing the YouTube version because it is easiest.

Schubert Impromptu in G flat Major D899 No.3

I first heard it in the movie Gattaca, and given the right emotional potency, it probably makes me cry. I’m not sure whether it is because it can be perceived as quite a sad piece or simply because it is so beautiful.

Explanation to come.

Christianity

Published May 10, 2007 by Rebecca Matheson

Judgment and Perspective

I learnt a few new things tonight.

The first being that there is this little suburb near Richmond called Cremone. Killer location. I like Richmond.

This evening Geoff and I went to visit our friends Andy and Ros who used to be at our church until they moved. We went to join-in for the evening with their very new homegroup (currently mostly made up of housemates).

It was beautifully refreshing. I dislike the word refreshing, but it needs to be used.

We had dinner together, made faces at their cats, one of who had a strange fascination with candles hence singed whiskers, competed with a car alarm, had a really real worship (music) time and dug deep into Romans 2:1-16.

God’s judgement. Not so light stuff.

What resulted was a very interesting conversation around conscience, God’s impartiality ie. no favourites, moral obligation, faith and works, works and faith, consequences, ‘being in sin’, the law and grace in a new dimension.

There’s a lot of worth to be found in thrashing out something a bit familiar – or not so familiar – with a few heads, particularly when you’ve got the variety of a caterer, accountant, historian, database administrator and communication designer (In various stages of expertise). This kind of stuff thrills me to bits and it’s something I find quite difficult to do on my own.

Do bother taking a bit of extra time now and then to truly consider context, other parts of the Bible and what the heck God is on about with our lives.

It made me think hard about how I judge others, replacement theories and the evidence of grace in my own life, establishing and enforcing that I really can do nothing off my own bat.

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” – Romans 2:1-4

Christianity Church Life Relationships

Published May 1, 2007 by Rebecca Matheson

Peace to all

I am bumbling along with Vocare, not really in the happy-bee state. I had a less than definitive beginning with the readings not being posted which meant that I strolled off on my own tangent and wound up reading Zachariah on the 22nd, something else before that, missing the week after and hoping to ‘double up’ to catch up this week. I love the 20 minutes. Time gets shorter as you get older. It’s not a long time. It is long enough to properly stop.

To say the past week and half have been calm, relaxed and well managed would be about the biggest lie I could tell. Between getting engaged which is rather a large distraction, and being sick, there has been no remotely conducive environment for study, or stopping.

I’m managing with uni. So well so, that I’m wagging today as I don’t have any class preparation done and am still not fully better. I’ll get more done at home.

I am managing with uni.

My morning began as it should at 6:00am. My alarm went off and I had a huge internal debate as to whether I should go into Prahran or not.

Here is my theory: Wagging uni is like understanding how sin often plays out. It’s a whole lot easier to reason with the, “No I’ll stay home today.”, because it is nicer and it is easier and it is where I am, despite it being better that I do go. My resolve the night before – to just get on with it, was weakened by being in the moment, in the place, in the choice where ‘comfortable’ is already present. Sin is a harder pattern to get out of it you’re lying in it.

I stayed in bed.

This morning I tackled another slot of Vocare. I wanted it. God has only been getting the few minutes before bed recently.

Luke 2:1-20 The Birth of Jesus & The Shepherds and the Angels

Having the luxury of being the only one around, I started reading it out loud. I hit verse 14 and had to stop. “Peace to men on whom his favor rests”(NIV) or “Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.”(MSG)

And further on, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told“. God doesn’t muck around, he is clear, he is unchanging, he is truth.

Peace to all men and women on whom his favor rests. No lies.

Part of Vocare is periodical reflection on the Prayer of St Francis. I was sitting there with my Bible in the sun and thinking that maybe there’d be somewhere that the prayer talks about peace – I should remember these things as I’ve had it stuck on my wall for a long time, but I didn’t. So I open the page and there it is,

Lord make me an instrument of your peace.

The first line. Beautifully in my face.

I stopped there. I didn’t need to look at the rest of it. It is a hard thing to live out sharing God’s peace -something I’m still working out – when you’re so caught up in everything else that is going on regardless of whether that means the ‘caught up’ is mostly too big in your head or too big on paper or in action.

Christianity Life Uni Vocare

Published April 16, 2007 by Rebecca Matheson

Must

Tonight I caught up with some YITS people. Some big stuff was shared by someone and a call was made by one of us to really seek God on it – not just ‘pray for the person’, and he came through. We finished up with praying and I felt this almighty urgency to do it all again – really, really strange as this is not something I would normally do and would at least have given it the ‘should I – shouldn’t I’ treatment, so I told Elyce – I couldn’t not tell someone. We ended up praying again and God had more to say, it was important. The whole thing was very strange indeed. I am still not sure if I was motivated primarily out of fear of stuff shared or it was just all God, perhaps it can be both?