texting habakkuk

You are a runner and I am my Father's son. Come, run the miracle mile with us, run the but-if-not, run the come-what-may, run the race marked out, run London.  07729056452

Ha1 Prophets major and minor manifest an v2-4 honesty before God, a holy grumpy complaint to God the best friend, which at the same time is v12 surrender submission to God the sovereign... v5 'you will be astonished at what you see. I am going to do something that you ill not believe when you hear about it.' Yes to receiving this word, to turning it over in my heart, and to declaring it over the situations we find ourselves in, as a declaration of faith in the name of Jesus. Praying this over household transitions, over parents, griefs, seasons and over my own transformation. I believe you, God.

Ha1 At the end of Habakkuk's second complaint 'I will take me stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me' v6 I am raising up the Chaldeans .. all their faces forward … they laugh at every fortress' v6 'I am raising up the Chaldeans .. the pile up earth and take it … they gather captives like sand' v6 'I am raising up the Chaldeans … their horses are swifter than leopards … that bitter and hasty nation' Who had God rasied up? A bitter and hasty transnation? 'I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will asy to me' (why do you idly look at wrong?)

 Ha2 v2 Prophetic running. Olympians, why do they do it? One can run-from, as Elijah Runs (1Ki19v3) which would make sense given the woes that follow in Na2. Or you can run-to, as to the name of the Lord is a strong tower. Or you can run-with, as Liddell run-to-feel-His-pleasure. Or you can run-for-a-reward, as 1Cor9v24-7. Or you can run because of the urgency of prophetic proclamation. This is a Prescottian running-for-archbishop (.co.uk) running with the beautiful feet (Ha3v19) on the mountain to bear good news Is52v7. We. Are. Heralds. And. Time. Is. Short. #RunLondon. .. v6 Please pray for my house. .. v11! Architectural life-verses! Sermons in Stone! By comparison to Lk19v40's stones which worship, these stones here offer a dialogical lament. Awesome. The very components of the building speak their unjust means of production, exploitatively extracted elements. Combined with v6's 'heaping up...' What is a 'heap' and what is 'not your own' in this world? The glass on glass of plundered gains and the conspicuous disparity of wealth heaped up on SE1's skyline? .. Contrasting v14's 'knowledge' with v19's 'teach'. Our knowledge of God is Polanyian personal knowledge, storied, living and active. Our knowledge of God is a Word who wants to make Himself abundantly known, in a flooding filling washing over sort of living water to be drunk with and in and swallowed by and soaked in. Enjoy, surf it, share it. .. Lastly, of the Habakkukian confidence in God, we have this triplet of assurances:1v5 an astounding work unseen; 2v3 an answer worth waiting for; and 3v18 (as Dn3v18) a but-if-not. These are uniquely Christian confidences, and they are why we can speak joy in funerals, when there is no earthly reason to rejoice, but God has been our salvation.

Ha3 v2 We have heard what you have done, at a distance, in the past, over there, but I need you here and now God, we need you now to be miraculous mighty & merciful. Please please, that we might be able to say that Jb42v5 no longer do we know you because of what others have told us, but that we have seen you with our own eyes, touched and tasted you. Jesus, be the cornerstone captone of all our stories, all of our own stories. Asking for these things of you God, with fear and trembling, and yet, and yet remembering that we are already v19 safe. This is the word we need as we v16 wait. Already safe in the face of death and expectation and the unknown and the worst of ourselves, we are already safe. Mercy is the first and best miracle which makes this possible (hallelujah.) So our 3v18 but-if-not come-what-may of marriage to this God, which is JOY. I feel it wash over me, the painful surrender of being turned inside out that is still the sweetest joy. I'd rather be here than anywhere, this is the miracle to pray from.

Ha3 'To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments' v17 'Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will tak joy in the God of my salvation.' v19 'To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments' v16 'I ehard and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.' v19 'To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments' v19 'God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he make me tread on my high places.' v19 'To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments' (my high places?)

texting nahum

Using war and past injury as my metaphor and simile. Text lifestyle applications into me, before the deadline. 07729056452.

Na1 This morning was a funny one. While trying to construct something out of this woe-filled war poetry I had just scribbled that the night of these minor prophets is darkest before the NT dawn, and Jeff approached me at Camden Lock. Asking for money he offered that Ps52 'Darkness has been my closest friend' was a verse close to his heart. (maybe 42v3?) This darkness (v4), even as the consequence of general brokenness, drunkenness v10 and misdirection, if not the darkness of explicit judgement, is the experience of so many so much of the time. God, I want to see Jeff again, to speak v7 refuge and v15 peace feasts. I want to be good news. Hear our prayers.

Na2 Initially confused by this passage who it is to and what causal links are being made and why, then struggling with the violent images, unsure how to let them shape our day. The esv tells us Nahum speaks this to Ninevah with sarcasm, I don't know how much this helps... Oh but I want Jesus to break the barriers that keep me from him, those I don't even know about and those I do. Jesus, please hear our fumbled prayers and break in upon with force. I pray that you are powerful against that which comes to rob steal and destroy, commiting to you particularly this morning, your servants R and T. Please Lord God, undo strongholds and overcome darkness. We think of Jeff, please overcome his darkness with your light. 

Na2v11 “Where is the lions' den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lions and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb? The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh” .. went far beyond need and built silos for himself thinking 'I am safe' “Fool! This very night” getaheadofthegames.com, but these are not games. v13 “I will cut off your prey from the earth” … If only the earth could be cut off from their (our) prey.

Na3 v7 Who will grieve? As Pure's ungrieved (ungrievable?) death of a prostitute, there is no love lost in the market economy, no bond, no affection, no kissing, no grief. We who live by the sordid, die by the sordid, alone, in the comfort of our graceless compartmentalised monetised ways. .. v15 Multiply, as Gn1v28 Ps127v5. Here invoked sarcastically, but Nahum assumes a principle of numbers in a context of spiritual war that we forget. See v16 know that the enemy, his bankers and civil servants are looking to multiply. You cannot stand still, the Kingdom cannot be sleepwalked into v18. As John Peters will tell us apocalyptically, evangelism would do well to be motivated by basic self-interest in the face of the illegalisation of Christianity in the UK. Do not allow your zeal to be contracepted by naïve non-violence, by irresistant passive resistance which is passivity. .. Remembering Na1v7, God make me bold.

found flowers: 015

indescribable uncontainerabled.

found flowers: 014

Rose from the dead? Blessed are ye who pun in the name of the Lord.

found flowers: 013

He lifted me out of the skip and..

texting micah

Mercy, and just us on 07729056452 - but you are always welcome to pipe up.  [For those synchronising, we are 2ch/day generally, unless a minor prophet is 4 chapters or less, then 1ch/day. Love.xx]

Mi1-2 1v5 High places and transgressions. Urbanism according to Jacques Ellul (and Batman's Henri Ducard) sees cities as the highest sins of a nation, and accordingly they should expect capital punishment. So London, so Gotham, so high buildings and high streets, so a whole city getting high on the weaponised hallucinogen of the market economy – a weapon that also trades in fear (Eisenstein: anxiety, scarcity, competition) .. Relatedly, 2v2 Covet. Piper, speaking on gay marriage a few weeks ago observed that, as Christians, we don't generally seek legislation against covetousness. It is interesting then to observe that impeding the regeneration of Vauxhall are the billboards on the roundabout island which earn somebody £1million each year. .. 1v7 All Samaria's wages. For the wages of wages is death? This, again Eisenstein, if you are being compensated for your job by wages, you may already be dead. .. v7 Prostitute. The sin is not so much getting adulterous action, as making a financial transaction, the goods-and-service-ifying of a gift. Flee from that. .. v6 Vineyards. Our God is a reagrifying God, the God of food sovereignty and Wendall Berry. .. 2v12-13 The gospel according to Batman Begins. “You are not beyond saving” “ There are good people in this city” God does not leave his sheep in the madness of the v11 strong drink, he acts to save unto pastures v12, he gathers v12 (=church), and he then sends into battle v13 (=mission). So we, if we have hopes to be Rachels/Gordons in an exciting counter-cultural remnant, must first be inoculated against the mad virus of the market economy. The antidote comes from Morgan Freeman, though his son Bruce, almighty.

Mi3-4 4v3 In heaven there will be plowshares but no swords, there be always be cake at the back of church but no violent car chases or gratuitous explosions. Christ Jesus, fit us for heaven, that we might walk in a manner worthy of this calling. Fit us for the call by showing us how not to be 3v5 Christ's fairweather friends, how not to v2 hate good and love evil, both in ways we are misguided, pursuing the ways of the badie with a misaligned purity, and ways that we compromised and akratically are aligned with evil. Thank you that in dying with you, you are able to make us a new creation. Let us sit, to quietly confidently thankfullyknow it in this moment. Thank you that you are working this salvation in the here and now. Thank you that you are redeeming all of creation, including human beings, the crown of your creation. Thank you that you save us in a way that befits us, that because we are complicated, there is a sense in which you save us in complicated ways. There are so many layers to our lostness, as 3v6 we are dark dark houses, on a dark dark night. Thank you that you peel us back and restore us in such intricate nuanced ways, and that you commission Christian philosophers and psychologists accordingly. Thank you for a right 4v7 liberation theology, that you transgress our boundaries and categories, as our Acts11 reminder, the lame will become the remnant and we are never to be too comfortable. Thank you, Holy Spirit, that you teach us ever-new ways, and we want to tell you that we want to seek your teaching, we want to climb the mountain, to go to the specirfic place where we will be taught. Thank you God, for the richness of the bible and the gift of sacred texting, for the imagery & metaphors (there are so many, israel both 3v8 male and 7v8 female) Thank you God.

Mi3-4 “is it not for you to know justice? ... The sun shall go down on the prophets ... Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins ... and peoples shall flow to it ... nation shall not lift us sword ... I will assemble the lame ... you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued ...” Like Boromir, safe, though stung by many arrows.

Mi5-6 The JWs who visited us on Saturday asked me to read Ps37v9-10 to them. Whatever is aberrant in their faith, speaking the promises of God boldly on the doorsteps of strangers is a good. So Micah promises us the shepherd-King. Promises me a king who cares enough, promises me a shepherd who is strong enough to make good on his promises, strong enough to be our v5 peace of mind and peace on Earth. How is your peace? Who is your peace? Who needs your peace? And what must you do/be so to be made a channel of God's peace for them? The 6v7 'fruit of our body' is given up not to earn forgiveness but because we already are: all of life is a chain of kidney donations, flowing from the one who already gave his body up for us and thus, knowing we have had a shepherd-King, and because He was caring-enough, strong-enough to be our sufficient peace, we can proceed wedwards fretlessly, as Ps37v1,8.

Mic7 If my desire to taste a fuller sense of what it is like to be a new creation comes from anywhere, it comes from knowing v18 in my bones. God's v9 mercy justice is a mercy that triumphs over judgement, pardonning iniquity, passing over transgression, and reducing the old self to rubble in the process..for this mercy leaves nothing to assert over the other in power. My transformed identity comes in remembering the v1 first-ripe fig that my soul desires, my Rev2v4 first love. Knowing that v7 God is my sufficiency, before work home church, God is enough. It is God I will look to. Jesus, you both v8 are light, and you v9 bring us to the light – please be light to our spiritual eyes, that we may see where we do not yet see.

Mi7 Overheard in town yesterday “No-one is selling, the city is in nervous breakdown”. v2 '..they all lie in wait..each hunts the other with a new...' “No-one is selling” v1 'Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered' “The city is in nervous breakdown” v3 'Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well' But as for me? v7 'I will look to the Lord' v9 'I will bear the indignationof the Lord' v9 'I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him' v19 'You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea' Headline over there “Shackled Batman suspect”

200words: serpentine pavilion 2012

 "He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.” Psalms 7v15

The silly season is upon us, seen in the Olympic language games and Herculean contrivance of the Designer's Statement where Herzog, de Meuron and Ai have been tasked with issuing an answer to a question that cannot be found. Why is this pavilion here? Wherefore the vanity of follies, folly of vanities, is there some clue in the name? Do you not know? Have you not heard? Life is meaningless struggle, labour in the pit, a striving in search of past times? No? “Like a team of archaeologists” in a present-tense continuous searching for the bones of God, these designers have found only the origin of specious argument; in the bottomless pit of architectural post-rationalisation, they are excavating nothing but solipsistic justification and the lies that lie beneath. This need not be. Happy the children of Hyde Park, haptically ecstatic the lounging lovers of Kensington Gardens, the Kingdom belongs to such as these, and this structure is perfect for an all-weather summer. Witness toddlers toddling amongst the giant champagne corks of our wedding feast existence. See them bodily engaged, lifting, rolling their movingly moveable environment, oblivious to grown-up competitive comparative architectural angst. For those with eyes to see, come and play.

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/
Designer's Statement