Pilate tweets Holy Week

I came across this the other day. It’s delightfully hilarious!:

Read the rest here.

 

NRA: Nudge, nudge, wink, wink

Fred Clark is again blogging about the Left Behind series. Terrible novels, terrible understandings of what it is to be human as well as execrable theology.

But Fred’s critiques are brilliant, hilarious and right on the money.

NRA: Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Jonah, the reluctant prophet (Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, 22 January 2012)

Jonah, the reluctant prophet

Readings
Jonah 3.1-5, 10
Mark 1.14-20

Do you have a favourite book of the Bible? I do. It’s the Book of Jonah.

So I want to talk about Jonah, the most reluctant prophet ever. The Book of Jonah is only four chapters long, and only forty eight verses. Read it when you get home—it’s far more than a story about a prophet who had a whale of a time. No, the Book of Jonah is a great satire on those who can’t keep up with God; specifically, God’s superabundant willingness to forgive and heal people.

I don’t mind saying that the first time I read it in one sitting I found it to be hilarious. I laughed out loud. Don’t worry if you do too—it is meant to be funny!

The story begins with the word of God to Jonah:

Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.

Seems straightforward enough. God wants Jonah to go to Nineveh, which was situated on the edge of modern-day Mosul, the second-largest city of Iraq and the site of much of the fighting in that unfortunate country. Jonah was to cry out against Nineveh because of its wickedness.

What problem could Jonah have with that? The most obvious objection he might have had was that Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the superpower of the time. And Assyria was the enemy of Israel. Perhaps we might assume that Jonah thought he may be killed by his enemies?

Nice try, but Jonah’s real problem was somewhere else. We’ll come to it soon.

A liturgy for Uniting in Worship 3?

The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley is one of the great delights of my blog-reading life. In So like, Liturgy of Reconciliation for People with Annoying Verbal Mannerisms there is combined in one post

• liturgy (of a sort!!)
• humour (terrific!)
• comment on Australian speech (mainly in social workers, I’d say!)

Absolutely delightful!!

(I wonder if we can get it into Uniting in Worship 3?)

Keep going, “they” say…

How often does life feel this way?

From the admirable Dave Walker:

 

Oz election, Taiwan style

Amazing Taiwanese take on the Australian election today. Spot on!!

It is ironic that the video credits Rudd’s failure to implement the emission trading scheme as one reason for his plummeting popularity. But it’s highly unlikely we’ll get one out of this election…

One last post for the World Cup…

…from someone who just can’t get interested in that bike race.

Hitler again, after Germany’s loss to Spain: ‘Maybe if I was on the team I could make a difference… they used to call me the Kaka of Germany!’