random | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Which strand of contemporary Christianity most appeals to you?

My favourite Bill Johnson book

I was thinking about that this morning, as we’re choosing a summer conference for our family. We’ve decided on River Camp 2012.

So who do I most enjoy listening to and reading? Who opens the heavens for me? Whose teaching does my heart beat an enthusiastic Amen to? To which spiritual strand am I closest?

The answer, oddly–since I left a charismatic church in which I was very unhappy this Easter to move to a mainstream Evangelical church with just a twist of the spirit–is the Charismatic tradition.

I LOVE reading Bill Johnson’s books. The way the thinks, talks and experiences faith is similar to mine. Going to an ILSOM conference in Oxford led by John Arnott changed the way I pray. I learned soaking prayer there. I love listening to Heidi Baker, and reading her books. I am fascinated by the 24/7 prayer movement of Pete Greig. I am interested in the teaching of the father’s heart and the father’s love, as in Mark Stibbe, Arnott, Pioreck.

I also love reading John Piper, Dallas Willard and Richard Foster.

I enjoy meat, substance, things to meditate on. I love the places where theology hits life, where the Word and the Spirit meet. There one finds excitement for both mind and spirit. I think wading in the shallows (as is the case with me) or swimming in the depths of the Spirit (as I do occasionally, and want to do more of) is the most exhilarating experience there is.

How about you? Which strand of contemporary Christianity most turns you on?

A Prague autumn

By Anita Mathias

Thanks, Roy Mathias, for helping me write up, and choose photographs for this record of our brief 5 days in Prague!
And now, over to Roy:

What is the best time to visit Prague? I have no idea, but we had a wonderful five days in late October autumn. The city, being so old, is very compact; walking is easy and interesting.

The Church of Adam and Eve

The Church of Adam and Eve in Stare Mesto (the old town)

The two towers of this church are called Adam and Eve. The yellow buildings in front of the church actually touch the church, and so one can only enter the church through a small side door. Our hotel was only two blocks from the church so we frequently saw it. From the back it looks almost like Hogwarts:

Silhouette of the the towers of the Church of Adam and Eve.

InterestingWalking

Marionettes are one of Prague’s souvenirs, and Irene ended up taking home a Pinocchio.

Demonstrating how “easy” it is to make Pinocchio walk.

Everywhere you look there is something of interest:

An attractive manhole cover.

A wall plaque.

Best friends

Prague Town Hall

Prague has enjoyed many artistic styles. The most recent is Art Nouveau. Here is the town hall–which included a cafe. The guidebook told us to stop for a coffee and pastry, and not to miss the toilets!

Prague town hall

Prague Town Hall cafe — well worth a look

Alphonse Mucha

There is museum dedicated to Alphonse Mucha (24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), a leading artist in his day. No photography allowed, so here are some pictures from the web. Much of his work was work was in the form of advertising posters; like this for Job cigarettes.

Mucha poster for Job cigarettes (note the lady’s hair swirls like the cigarette smoke.)

His images are still a source of inspiration:

2010 Austrian stamp featuring Mucha’s painting of Sarah Bernhardt


A Mucha-inspired tattoo

When the German invaded Czechoslovakia during the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first to be arrested by the Gestapo. During his interrogation, he became ill with pneumonia, and died soon after he was released.

Prague Astronomical Tower

This clock tower, with the world’s oldest working astronomical clock (1410) is across the square from the Church of Adam and Eve. Every hour a crowd gathers, the clock strikes, figures move, and real live uniformed humans at the top deliver a trumpet call.

Prague lock tower by night

Two figures looking out o the little windows above the two dials of the clock. Below one sees the massed tourists.

Closer view

The very top of the tower. The trumpeteers appear in the turrets.

The Jewish Quarter in Prague

There are two outstanding attractions in the Jewish quarter. The Holocaust memorial and attached Jewish Cemetery and the fantastically ornate Spanish synagogue.

As always, the Jewish quarter was very crowded. Here we see graves one on top of another, up to 12 layers deep. The setting is a shady walled enclosure.

Prague’s Old Jewish Cemetery

The Spanish Synagogue is in the Moorish Revival style, and hence the name. The intriguing, though bland exterior

in no way prepares you for the interior, completely covered in rich gold, green, red, blue and black decoration.

Spanish Synagogue – view of upper gallery and ceiling from lower level

Spansish Synagogue — front where Torah Scrolls are kept–there is no “altar”.

Spanish Synagogue — looking straight yup at a skylight. The suspended lights form one of many stars of David.

detail showing unusual pattersn.

Just outside the Spanish Synagogue is a statue of Franz Kafka

The Cathedral of St Vitus — Prague

The cathedral and castle are on the opposite side of the Charles river from the center of town and the areas above. Here are a few pictures taken on the way


Gateway protecting the Charles Bridge — for centuries bridge across the Charles River.

Here are two view of St. Vitus from the Charles Bridge.

One of the many statues on the bridge.

The cathedral is still quite a walk from here — we took a taxi, and were greeted by a buskers

An areal view from a distance

The South entrance to the Cathedral is called the Golden Gate

and the whole of the South side

The West entrance is like many other cathedrals:

The central panes of the Much window

the lower part of the same window

An unusual stained glass window. It’s not the result of a shaky hand–it is really like this. I do not recall the story behind it unfortunately.

There were numerous details like this:

The nave

A view of the multitude of spires on the cathedral

The cathedral is inside the grounds of Prague Castle. Here is a a garret window in a near by building

Was your time, work and money lost or wasted? Or was it a seed?

By Anita Mathias

Look at these seeds. They will become mustard, barley, corn, wild rice, rice, red rice, wheat, lentils. And can multiply themselves indefinitely if their harvests are replanted.

Wouldn’t think that just looking at them, would you? They look hard and inert, as lifeless as pebbles.

* * *

I was thinking about an experience in my life into which I sunk much money, and much energy and effort and worry.

And what became of it?

Apparently nothing!

“Wasted” effort, wasted time, wasted energy.

Was it really?

Or was all I learned and did and experienced in the course of this experience, a seed which may bear fruit later.

· * *

Rejoice always. In everything give things. Praise the LORD at all times (Ps 34:1)

We can thank God for everything, even experiences which seems flops, wasted, failures, because you see everything that has happened to us is just a seed.

It might look lifeless, hard, dry, with no trace of softness, or green, or fruit, or flowers, or vegetables, or millions of apples or blackberries.

But give it to God, put it in his hands, this seed of sad, wasted, apparently fruitless experience. Ask him to help it germinate

A 2000 year old Judean date palm seed, carbon-14 dated, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great’s Palace in Masada, Israel was germinated in 2005. A carbon-14-dated 1,300-year-old sacred lotus recovered from a dry lakebed in northeastern China was geminated in 1995. (Wikipedia)

* * *

We can ask God to bless our experiences of the past—the false starts, the abandoned projects, the failed relationships, the years we sweated over projects which failed, all the sub-optimal years. We can consider these things—the blurred years, the treasure hunts in which we never found the treasure– not as wasted, but as seeds, which can still yield a beautiful harvest. We can ask God to bless and fructify our past, as well as our futures.

For what is our past?

Seeds. Just seeds.

Place them in the hands of the Lord of the Harvest.

Take them, Lord, bless them, germinate them, and multiply them.

Amen.

The complete Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr

By Anita Mathias

Image Credit

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

This was written by Reinhold Neibuhr who wrote, the prayer “may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don’t think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself.”(Grapevine, 1950).

I can only imagine!!

By Anita Mathias

So if Jesus were to walk into the room in which I sit typing, what would I do? We were discussing it at small group a couple of weeks ago.

What I think I would do is stare in wonder for a split-second, and then run up and give him a big bear hug. I have longed for him so long that’s surely what I would do.

That is what Mary did, when she saw him in the garden, so much so that he tells her, Noli me Tangere. Do not touch me.

But it depends on the guise in which he appears. When he appeared to John, his eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵ his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶ His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

And John falls at his feet “like one dead.”

If he comes in glory, I too would fall at his feet, in worship and awe.

Moses was told he could not see God: the glory would kill him.

When Isaiah has his joyful vision of the Lord seated on his throne with the train of his throne filling the temple with glory and of the seraphim around the throne, singing Holy, Holy Holy is the Lord God of Hosts, the whole earth is full of glory, he is quite undone. “Woe is me,” he says. “For I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

So much depends on the aspect in which Christ will show himself to us. Will he be like a humble gardener, whom Mary attempts to bear hug? Or he his face be shining like the sun as the apostles saw him at the transfiguration so that even the brash Peter fell face down to the ground, terrified.

What will we do? We can only imagine.

I saw a documentary on Christian history in the well-done Christian theme park in Florida, The Holy Land Experience. It concludes with the Parousia, in which, one by one, people from every race and tongue and people and nation walk towards Jesus, absolute joy on their faces. I looked around me, and I saw people there in the audience, from every race and tongue and people and nation. It was a fore-glimpse of heaven. My eyes filled with tears of joy.

I love this life, but I so want to see you, Jesus, in the midst of it. And as for then, when I really see you, well, I can only imagine.

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side

I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

[Chorus:]
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I
fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

For him to see me mended I must see him torn, Mary’s Song by Luci Shaw

By Anita Mathias

Mary’s Song

by Luci Shaw

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast

keep warm this small hot naked star

fallen to my arms. (Rest

you who have had so far to come.)

Now nearness satisfies

the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies

whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps

whose eyelids have not closed before.

His breath (so light it seems

no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps

to sprout a world. Charmed by doves’ voices,

the whisper of straw, he dreams,

hearing no music from his other spheres.

Breath, mouth, ears, eyes

he is curtailed who overflowed all skies,

all years. Older than eternity, now he

is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed

to my poor planet, caught

that I might be free, blind in my womb

to know my darkness ended,

brought to this birth for me to be new-born,

and for him to see me mended

I must see him torn.

A caterpillar in a ring of fire: Martin Luther on Grace

By Anita Mathias

Brunnhilde in the Ring of Fire, Arthur Rackham

The wonderful seventeenth century theologian, Philip Melanchton and Martin Luther and Philip Melanchton debate grace.

Melanchton says grace is like one parent helping a wobbly toddler across the room to the other parent who crouches down with an apple.

Luther says No, it’s more than that!! We are caterpillars in a ring of fire. Our only hope is that someone from above will rescue us.

So, when you feel there are impassable rings of fire around you, obstacles which seem impossible to overcome, don’t look at them, and be afraid. Look at the hand above, ready to rescue you.

Luther probably got the ring of fire from the Nibelungenlied in which Siegfried leaps over the ring of fire to rescue the beautiful Brunnhilde.

Jesus is our Siegfried.

Redeemer, redeem my heart again.

The Bitten Apple, the Great iAm, and his iWord

By Anita Mathias

I first went to America in 1987 as a graduate student in the Creative Writing Masters programme at Ohio State University. I supported myself by teaching a class in Freshman Composition (i.e. writing).

Well, Macs were relatively new then, and looked like this. And Apple had given Ohio State 20 of them on condition that freshman in the Writing Classes were taught to compose directly on the Mac. It’s second nature now, but, believe me, 24 years ago, it was a paradigm shift to do your first draft on the computer. Older writers then claimed first drafts turned out better if you physically wrote them out, pen on paper. (Which is, of course, BS.)

Well, so these 20 new computers arrive, in an Apple funded Mac lab, and they ask for volunteers to teach the classes. Which, it turned out, involved teaching the students to use the computers, as well as to write.

The bonus was you’d have 20 students, instead of 24, and one hour less of teaching. In its place, you just sat there and baby-sat them as they typed their drafts, forgot to save, lost their drafts, cried, then retyped it, now instinctively saving after each sentence, as I still do.

So of course, I volunteered to teach in the Mac Lab. All I wanted to do then was read poetry, and write poetry. Less teaching: great!!

Of course, I had only been on a computer for a few hours before at that point. Somerville College, Oxford did not own one, and I used to cycle down to the Daily Information Offices to work on my graduate school applications and my magazine submissions. Odd how things have evolved in 25 years!

* * *

And Apple’s brilliant bit of marketing worked with me, at least. When I graduated two years later from the Masters programme, I bought my first computer, a Mac. The computer, keyboard and printer cost $3260, which was almost exactly half the money I then had in my bank account. That tells you how much I loved the Mac!

And I’ve had Macs for the last 22 years, moving to Mac laptops when I was first pregnant and too tired to walk to my study, but able to work in bed. I now have a MacBook Pro.

I’ve also acquired a series of iPods, a convenient way to listen to books while doing housework, and an iPhone, which I thought was the niftiest, most brilliant and indispensable piece of technology ever invented, until the iPad came along, which is even better as one can compose long blog posts or emails on it pretty much wherever you happen to be, as well as handle blogs, twitter, facebook and the through-the-day exchange of ideas, information, inspiration and cheerful banter which have become so part of my modus vivendi.

* * *

Intuitive Macs, iPhones, iPads: sheer genius. Their cleverness and capabilities are astonishing and delightful. The bitten apple continues to tempt.

Will they be supplanted? Within the decade, probably, just as blogs, facebook and twitter, this little Bermuda Triangle I so enjoy didn’t exist ten years ago, and so will conceivably be supplanted by the wannabes nipping at their heels. How? I have no idea, but a whole breed of hungry venture capitalists and geeks over in Silicon Valley are no doubt betting on it.

So invest in the things of this earth with caution. Both money and your heart’s affections.

· * *

And incidentally, Steve Jobs did not change the world, though he is a role model in making beautiful, brilliant things beautifully. He invented nifty cool, overpriced toys, which have greatly improved the lives of those who can afford them.

His rival, Bill Gates, may, however, change the world in a more profound way. He is investing the bulk of his fortune in philanthropy. Eliminating malaria, among other things. He is inspiring others to do likewise. He said, that if one came up to him with an idea to make a billion in coffee shops, he’s say, “Good,” but not interested. On the other hand, if you went up to him with a viable idea on how to cure malaria, he’d talk.

* * *

Good for Bill Gates. As our little publishing company steadily grows, Roy and I sometimes discuss the best uses of a possible financial surplus.

The best investment of a surplus for a Christian is to give it away. And I’m not being airy-fairy. It is truly an investment, if one believes Jesus (“Give and you shall receive, full measure, pressed down, flowing over.) And, again and again, I’ve observed “give and you shall” receive is true, and a sound financial principle.

And the second best investment of money, I think, is in health. Starting with one’s own health!!

· * * *

And the best use of time? Tough one. We are made of four components—bodies, minds, emotions, and spirits, and should perhaps invest in all these.

The spirit is the most important, since it brings healing to the body, light to the mind, and sanity and wisdom to one’s emotions and relationships.

* * *

Vacare Deo. Make space for God.

For the great iAm.

And his iWord.

* * *

Simon Ponsonby, author of More writes,

We live in the age of the IPod, IPad, IMac, IPhone, ITunes. Psychologists talk of an IGeneration, those whose lives are inseparably integrated with these technologies. But have you ever thought what the “I” before pod, pad, phone, etc stands for? Some suggest “Interactive” or “Intelligent”, others claim it is named after the initial of the surname of Apple designer Jonathan Ive. Actually the I means Internet. In practice, the I becomes the personal pronoun: my/I phone, my/I computer, my/I music, connecting me to my world.

Have you ever thought of your Bible as your iWord? Kierkegaard said ‘When you read God’s word, you must constantly be saying to yourself “It is talking to me and about me.” The Bible is God’s iWord to you. It’s your portable heaven-wide-web, where God meets you, speaks to you, challenges you, equips you, and through you, can connect and communicate with the world.

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