{"id":1375,"date":"2007-07-14T14:38:36","date_gmt":"2007-07-14T02:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/archives\/1375"},"modified":"2007-07-14T15:01:06","modified_gmt":"2007-07-14T03:01:06","slug":"1375","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/archives\/1375","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephenbatchelor.org\/other1.html\">&#8220;The Other Enlightenment Project&#8221;<\/a>, Stephen Batchelor says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nToday the force of the term \u2018agnosticism\u2019 has been lost. It has come to legitimate an avoidance of the existential questions posed by birth and death. Just as the modern agnostic tradition has tended to lose its confidence and lapse into scepticism, so has Buddhism tended to lose its critical edge and lapse into religiosity. What each has lost, however, the other may be able to help restore. In its encounter with secular culture, the Dharma may recover its agnostic imperative, while agnosticism may be helped to recover its soul.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is Walsh &#038; Keesmaat&#8217;s remix of Colossians 1:15-20:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nIn an image-saturated world<br \/>\na world of ubiquitous corporate logos<br \/>\npermeating your consciousness<br \/>\na world of dehydrated and captive imaginations<br \/>\nin which we are too numbed, satiated and co-opted<br \/>\nto be able to dream of life otherwise<br \/>\na world in which the empire of global economic affluence<br \/>\nhas achieved the monopoly of our imaginations<br \/>\nin this world<br \/>\nChrist is the image of the invisible God<!--more--><br \/>\nin this world<br \/>\ndriven by images with a vengeance<br \/>\nChrist is the image par excellence<br \/>\nthe image above all other images<br \/>\nthe image that is not a facade<br \/>\nthe image that is not trying to sell you anything<br \/>\nthe image that refuses to co-opt you<br \/>\nChrist is the image of the invisible God<br \/>\nthe image of God<br \/>\na flesh and blood<br \/>\nhere and now<br \/>\nin time and history<br \/>\nwith joys and sorrows<br \/>\nimage of who God is<br \/>\nthe image of God<br \/>\na flesh and blood<br \/>\nhere and now<br \/>\nin time and history<br \/>\nwith joys and sorrows<br \/>\nimage of who we are called to be<br \/>\nimage-bearers of this God<br \/>\nHe is the source of a liberated imagination<br \/>\na sub-version of the empire<br \/>\nbecause it all starts with him<br \/>\nand it all ends with him<br \/>\neverything<br \/>\nall things<br \/>\nwhatever you can imagine<br \/>\nvisible and invisible<br \/>\nmountains and atoms<br \/>\nouter space, urban space and cyberspace<br \/>\nwhether it be the Pentagon, Disneyland,<br \/>\nMicrosoft or AT&#038;T<br \/>\nwhether it be the institutionalized power structures<br \/>\nof the state, the academy or the market all<br \/>\nthings have been created in him and through him<br \/>\nhe is their source, their purpose, their goal<br \/>\neven in their rebellion<br \/>\neven in their idolatry<br \/>\nhe is the soveriegn one<br \/>\ntheir power and authority is derived at best<br \/>\nparasitic at worse<br \/>\nIn the face of the empire<br \/>\nin the face of presumptuous claims to sovereignty<br \/>\nin the face of the imperial and idolatrous forces in our lives<br \/>\nChrist is before all things<br \/>\nhe is sovereign in life<br \/>\nnot the pimped dreams of the global market<br \/>\nnot the idolatrous forces of nationalism<br \/>\nnot the insatiable desires of a consumerist culture<br \/>\nIn the face of a disconnected world<br \/>\nwhere home is a domain in cyberspace<br \/>\nwhere neighbourhood is a chat room<br \/>\nwhere public space is a shopping mall<br \/>\nwhere information technology promises<br \/>\na tuned in, reconnected world<br \/>\nall things hold together in Christ<br \/>\nthe creation is a deeply personal cosmos<br \/>\nall cohering and interconnected in Jesus<br \/>\nAnd this sovereignty takes on cultural flesh<br \/>\nAnd this coherence of all things is socially embodied<br \/>\nin the church<br \/>\nagainst all odds<br \/>\nagainst most of the evidence<br \/>\nIn a \u201cshow me\u201d culture where words alone don\u2019t cut it<br \/>\nthe church is<br \/>\nthe flesh and blood<br \/>\nhere and now<br \/>\nin time and history<br \/>\nwith joys and sorrows<br \/>\nembodiment of this Christ<br \/>\nas a body politic<br \/>\naround a common meal<br \/>\nin alternative economic practices<br \/>\nin radical service to the most vulnerable<br \/>\nin refusal to the empire<br \/>\nin love of this creation<br \/>\nthe church reimagines the world<br \/>\nin the image of the invisible God<br \/>\nIn the face of a disappointed world of betrayal<br \/>\na world in which all fixed points have proven illusory<br \/>\na world in which we are anchorless and adrift<br \/>\nChrist is the foundation<br \/>\nthe origin<br \/>\nthe way<br \/>\nthe truth<br \/>\nand the life<br \/>\nIn the face of a culture of death<br \/>\na world of killing fields<br \/>\na world of the walking dead<br \/>\nChrist is at the head of the resurrection parade<br \/>\ntransforming our tears of betrayal into tears of joy<br \/>\ngiving us dancing shoes for the resurrection party<br \/>\nAnd this glittering joker<br \/>\nwho has danced in the dragon\u2019s jaws of death<br \/>\nnow dances with a dance that is full<br \/>\nof nothing less than the fullness of God<br \/>\nthis is the dance of the new creation<br \/>\nthis is the dance of life out of death<br \/>\nand in this dance all that was broken<br \/>\nall that was estranged<br \/>\nall that was alienated<br \/>\nall that was dislocated and disconnected<br \/>\nis reconciled<br \/>\ncomes home<br \/>\nis healed<br \/>\nand is made whole<br \/>\neverything<br \/>\nall things<br \/>\nwhatever you can imagine<br \/>\nvisible and invisible<br \/>\nmountains and atoms<br \/>\nouter space, urban space and cyberspace<br \/>\nevery inch of creation<br \/>\nevery dimension of our lives<br \/>\nall things are reconciled in him<br \/>\nAnd it all happens on a cross<br \/>\nit all happens at a state execution<br \/>\nwhere the governor did not commute the sentence<br \/>\nit all happens at the hands of the empire<br \/>\nthat has captivated our imaginations<br \/>\nit all happens through blood<br \/>\nnot through a power grab by the sovereign one<br \/>\nit all happens in embraced pain<br \/>\nfor the sake of others<br \/>\nit all happens on a cross<br \/>\narms outstretched in embrace<br \/>\nand this is the image of the invisible God<br \/>\nthis is the body of Christ\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In &#8220;The Other Enlightenment Project&#8221;, Stephen Batchelor says: Today the force of the term \u2018agnosticism\u2019 has been lost. It has come to legitimate an avoidance of the existential questions posed by birth and death. Just as the modern agnostic tradition has tended to lose its confidence and lapse into scepticism, so has Buddhism tended to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-link","category-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}