"Jacques Ellul on division of labour and its effects on responsibility" - thirddaydawning@gmail.com

I had intended a video here of Jacques Ellul but....

This is not quite as I wanted this to be. However Jacques Ellul is a most important Christian Writer who has so much to contribute to the present as to his own era. 1930 - 1980

How it is by James Mercer

The current commission in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern is titled ‘How It Is’. Conceived and designed by Polish artist Miroslaw Balka, the exhibit is a giant grey steel structure, enclosing a vast dark chamber. Hovering somewhere between sculpture and architecture, on 2 metre stilts, it stands 13 metres high and 30 metres long. Visitors can walk underneath it, accompanied by echoing footsteps on the unyielding steel above, or enter via a ramp into its pitch-black interior.
Informing the creation of this chamber are allusions to recent Polish and European history – the ramp at the entrance to the Ghetto in Warsaw, or the trucks which took Jews away to the camps of Treblinka or Auschwitz, or the claustrophobic containers within which immigrants are illegally smuggled over national borders.
By entering the dark space, visitors display considerable trust in both the artist and his structure. Once inside the box, the visitor can see nothing. No end is insight. The walls and ceiling cannot be discerned. Only the unseen, harshly- metallic floor offers any tactile security.
Balka engineers an experience for visitors that is both personal and collective; engendering sensory and emotional experiences through sound; contrasting light and shade; individual experience and awareness of others. Fabricating apprehension, menace, excitement, intrigue.
And yet, having entered the darkness once and emerged safely from it, the consuming shadow looses its ability to terrify. To enter once and to return enables one to assist others to emerge from the incoherent void.
As we journey through Epiphany, and through Lent to the new beginning that is Easter, we journey in the company of the truly human one who was to go before us to face the darkness, uncertainty and terror of death - on our behalf. He was to absorb the shade and return. May we find in him the confidence to face towards an unknown future, secure in the hope of resurrection.
Jesus said to [Martha], ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live. John 11: 25

article from www.fulcrum-anglican.org

The FLOOD

It has been spoken about since 1974 .... Brisbane can expect another flood like 1974. Little was done to prepare. A dam was built to minimise the impact but never to prevent. This week the flood came through Ipswich and then into Brisbane. To the west Toowoomba was hit traumatically, totally unexpected, the small village of Grantham was swept out of existence by a wall of water. The whole state of Queensland has been deluged by rain and floods.
The day it hit Brisbane was a fine day for us, we put two lots of washing out on the line to dry, yet over the hill .... well that was another story. Steve and Anne's house went under, as did Cathy's , Ian and Carmen, Jacques and Pia and so many others. I include these names of friends because this story is personal, like every event like this. 1000 plus people, with names, have died at the same time in floods in Brazil, 35 plus in Sri Lanka.
There are echoes of The Flood, and every other catastrophe. In so many stories, films, poems so often they are over there or in the past and our interest is more cerebral.
With one person, a brother had been murdered six months ago and this flood compounded that sadness and added another. We cannot forget that these people were already dealing with issues, yes even the great delight in living ... all is well. .. my identity is assured with house, possessions and people.

The real test for all will come in the weeks and months ahead when the adrenalin rush of these moments will disappear.

The Torn Veil - Gulshan Esther

In the light of deaths and persecutions of Christians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and Pakistan .... [sadly all Islamic countries,] in recent days I decided to include the conclusion to Gulshan's book for a statement of Faith ... a Witness.

'Today I no longer need the Five Pillars of Islam to support my faith.

My WITNESS is to Jesus, crucified, dead and buried, then raised in Resurrection life,
and now living in his own people.

My NAMAZ is not to an unknowable God, but to one whose story is found in His own Word, the Holy Bible my most precious treasure, which is written on the tablets of my heart and mind, just as the Quran used to be.

My ZAKAT is no longer a proportion, but the whole of my income, for everything I have belongs to God. My riches are stored up in Heaven.

My FASTING is not done at Ramadan, to placate God, so that I might be sure of Paradise, but it is done with delight, so that I might know Him better.

My HAJJ is my journey through life, Each day brings me nearer my goal - to be with Jesus - my heavenly King, for ever.

"The blood of bulls, sheep and goats can never wipe away sin, but we may enter into the holiest place, in perfect acceptance, through a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His Flesh, For this man [ Jesus] when He had offered one sacrifice for sin for ever, sat down on the right hand of God" Hebrews 10: 12

Such is Jesus, Lamb of God, prophet and priest, King of kings, my Lord and my God