A subdued Christmas – farewell to an old (not that old), wise mate

From now on I think I should beware of the second last week of December. It now has a habit of biting me just as I think I may have had a reasonably good year. Some years ago in the week before Christmas my grandfather was taken from us by DVT, while in a hospital no less. Then a few years ago other situations conspired to give me a less than ideal approach to what should be the best time of the year.

 

Now, last Thursday, I got the news that my old church minister, Gavin Wilcox, had lost a long battle with cancer. I wasn’t able to be at the funeral service today due to work but it surely must have been a sad goodbye, since as you will see from the linked article, he should have had many good years ahead of him still. I have lost friends in sad circumstances before, but it’s particularly sad to lose someone who has given full time service to God, and been a source of much wisdom that has helped me at various times of my life. All the wrong people die too soon. Echoes of Psalm 73. On one of my long walks recently after getting this news, having prayed in the past for Gav’s restoration to full health so that he could continue to be a blessing to many for a long time to come, I found as I paced along a path through parklands near a river near my home, that I was asking God a direct question to which I hoped to get an answer. Rarely does this come up in a prayer. Normally I’m either thanking him for something good or asking that he does something good. My question, more directly than ever before, was: What is the true interpretation of verses like John 14:14, 15:7, 15:16 and 16:23-24? I can say that taking them at face value has resulted in more than a few disappointments. I get tired of the standard "get out of jail free clause" responses that rely on all sorts of contrived definitions of "In my name". These are not answering the question. This may seem harsh but I am real enough to put out there that the life of faith in God is not all easy answers. I do not generally expect God will answer me in an audible voice, even when I ask a direct question, and surely enough there was no hint of an answer in any form this time. I am still waiting, though to be fair, not very long – on his time scale.

 

Gav was a mate who could relate to me as a fellow qualified scientist (that’s where the "Dr" in his name comes from) as well as a theologically trained minister, and was able to chat with me deeply about all the interesting issues that come from how these fields relate. He was, as I understand it, much of the driving force behind the original incarnation of the 5pm service at St Barnabas’, a unique and bold variation on the theme of an Anglican service with many interesting and progressive twists. He was a brilliant expositor of scripture and spoke in ways the ordinary person could understand. I remember with particular fondness how he couldn’t resist, literally at least once every 2 or 3 sermons, throwing in a reference to the world’s greatest rock band, U2, as part of his message.

 

Gavin left St Barnabas’ to become rector of All Saints Nowra before there was any hint of his illness. I find myself thinking I should have visited him there more times than I did in the years between then and now, but I do hold on to the hope of a great reunion at the final resurrection. I look forward eventually to perfect fellowship with Gav and other departed friends and family – where the streets have no name (and are paved with gold).

 

A quick break in Queensland, after a stormy arrival

This post comes to you from just north of Brisbane. I was going to spend the rest of this week in Newcastle attempting to complete hang gliding training but it didn’t work out. But since I have a week of leave I got some flights between Sydney and Brisbane. Arriving last night on a 40 minute delay, I was happy that it wasn’t any longer looking at the storms to the west as the plane landed. The drive from the airport north to Mum and Dad’s place was pretty much storms most of the way, and on arriving we sat outside for some supper, catch up talk and lightning show with a balmy wind.

I was reminded of what I probably have subconsciously thought for a while – Brisbane storms are just better! The storms in Sydney can be as destructive as anywhere in Australia, with giant hailstones and winds that rip houses to shreds, but I’m more of a lightning lover myself and the storms here have something about them in that department. Can’t quite put my finger on it but it probably has something to do with the high humidity here – the resulting thicker, bigger (taller ?) clouds and what that does to enhance the show. It’s subtle but sometimes it seems to make all the difference. There will probably be more while I’m here too. But I’m most looking forward to seeing some family and friends again.

Out on the patio, we sit
And the humidity, we breathe
We watch the lightning, crack over canefields,
And often think, ‘This is Australia’

– GANGgajang ("Sounds of Then")

Jumping the gun on Christmas

Exit Movember, and my mo. As of this morning it is gone. Maybe it will return same time next year. Hello to the Christmas season, the start of December. Well, that’s what I think anyway. There’s a time for anticipating Christmas and it is December, not Movember. But try telling Australia that. There was a big Christmas tree in the lobby of my work building several days ago. Of course retailers have been reminding us that Christmas is coming for at least a couple of months as they always do, but can’t the rest of us resist?

 

A couple of nights ago (again, still in Movember) a TV station played the Christmas movie "The Polar Express" and not having seen it in a cinema I decided I might as well watch it. It’s a bit unusual in that at least half the characters including most of the lead ones don’t have names, and they are almost all "played" (voiced?) by Tom Hanks. The animation was quite good and I thought portrayed a pretty decent concept of what one might imagine the home town of Santa Claus at the North Pole would look like, if Santa Claus was real, as well as getting behind the scenes in a humerous way of the logistics of his big annual trip. Of course there is no way to actualy make this whole story realistic short of the glib and ubiquitous get out of jail free card of invoking "magic", specifically the kind that either breaks the laws of physics completely or gets access to a pretty special space-time manifold in order to make time go at a different speed to everyone else for those that need it to. The train at the centre of the movie of course did some pretty over-the-top manouvres as you should expect of a kids’ animation, but it seemed an effort was made to make the scenery it passed quite sensible, if you’re supposed to think it’s going from the USA in winter to the north pole. Apart from a bit of a quibble, if I may, that if there’s a town at the north pole you definitely can’t see its lights from the Arctic Circle latitude! As I expected, the movie completely missed the point of Christmas and was utterly oblivious to its origins. It did have some sort of moral to it, that is "believing is seeing" (or at least "hearing" a sleigh bell), it’s just a pity that no mention was made that to be any use a belief has to actually be true, like the origin of Christmas!

 

An exception to the December rule that can perhaps be understood is my church’s international mimistry Christmas party last Wednesday night – given that a large number of participants are students who are going other places. It was particularly sad to say goodbye to a couple of them going back to their country of origin permanently.

 

Anyway, this morning just after the post-Movember shave seemed an appropriate time to bring out the Christmas tree and play some seasonal music. If you have the right browser you’ll hear the first song itunes randomly selected from my Christmas list – until I change it again.