Showing posts with label jesus prays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jesus prays. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

apologies from the prime minister and others


It's the month of apologies...


Tweet from Justin Trudeau apologizing to former students etc. of Nfld and Labrador residential schools.  "Today, we apologize to former students of Newfoundland and Labrador residential schools and to the families, loved ones, and communities for the painful & tragic legacy these schools left behind"


Justin didn't mince any words with his apology. Note the detail in the apology, and the language used.

Justin Trudeau apologies to the LGBTQ2S+ community, November 28, 2017.

Text link to the full apology.


And coming sometime in the future...

jesus prays, saying "Father, I pray you help me as I psych myself up to apologize for my people in the future... and inspire me with many ideas about how to make things right... (Sigh) If they would just follow my example in how to love others, I could avoid this embarrassment..."  cartoon by rob goetze


P.S. Was Justin also apologizing on behalf of Christians?

Friday, May 12, 2017

bread, stones and parents


picture of jesus praying in the garden. he prays, "Heavenly Father, I  know that St. Matthew and St. Luke will both be quoting what I said about fathers not giving stones to children who ask for bread... but will that be enough?  I fear that some who claim to follow you will in fact give stones and snakes to their very own children, all the while claiming to stand for righteousness and believing they are remaining faithful to the gospel while in fact missing me entirely." cartoon by rob goetze




Which daughters and sons are being given stones and serpents?

Which daughters and sons are being stoned 
instead of fed and nourished?



Matthew 7:9-11 (NIV)
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Luke 11:11 (NIV)
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[a] a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?




Thursday, April 20, 2017

disco spirit

jesus prays about the holy spirit. cartoon by rob goetze. image of jesus praying, with text: "Father, I have seen the future and that itty bitty red light the Anglican churches have to symbolize the presence of your Spirit. It just seems so insignificant compared to the Spirit! I'm wondering if you could lead them to use disco balls instead, to symbolize the way our Spirit is everywhere and always moving and active... and besides, I hear it might help those followers of mine from Elgibeeteacue feel more at home..."


Oh look! Jesus' prayer has come true at St. Mark's in the Bowery (NYC):

picture of disco ball above parishioners at St. Mark's in the Bowery (NYC). Photo from their FB page?
image source

Try suggesting this to your church council...

Thursday, June 04, 2015

jesus gives his life for every tribe


This may come as a surprise to some... 

but if you're looking for really good news, 

this is it:


jesus prays - confirming that he's giving his life for lgbtqia. drawing by rob g


A while back I read A Spacious Heart: Essays on Identity and Belonging by Judith M. Gundry-Volf and Miroslav Volf. In one of Judith's essays, she suggested that Jesus' sense of mission might have evolved (viz., broadened) over time and that his encounter with the Syrophoenician woman had influenced this (see Matthew 15:21 - 28 and Mark 7:25 - 30).

This cartoon is playing off of that idea, to suggest that Jesus progressively learned that he was giving his life for "his own people" and for everyone, including tribes that were not formally known of in his time. He came to understand that, in fact, "his own people" were everyone in this world his father had made.

Sadly, it would seem that since that Jesus ascended into heaven, our understanding of whom he gave his life for has devolved, narrowed, to include only those who fit our ideas of who is acceptable....

Friday, December 13, 2013

museum, hospital, or ? [pt. 1]


The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.

hospital for sinners, cartoon by robg


The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.

After hearing this saying in a recent sermon, I realized I don't like "hospital for sinners" anymore than I like "museum for saints".

But first, here's what the point of this saying seems to be: Rather than the church being for those who are perfect and do not need to change anymore, the church is for those who need God and His healing.

As Fr. Peter Daly said, "A broken world needs a place to bring its spiritual injuries. We need an emergency room more than a courtroom. We want healing more than judgment."

More on this perspective from the National Catholic Reporter.

I get that. That makes sense. So what's there not to like?

For starters, I don't like hospitals.

In fact, I don't think most people like hospitals.

And I'm not sure if people who are not part of a church culture think of themselves as sinners. (Do those who are in a church culture think of themselves as sinners? Or are sinners "the people out there?")

But more than that, while all analogies break down at some point, this one breaks down very quickly. Here's a little destruction for your day:

A hospital is run by professionals.
Professionals are not sick like you.
Professionals know what's best for you.
They prescribe medications and treatments.
They focus on the problem, not the person.
They usually don't care about the rest of your life.
There is no personal relationship between you and them.
The other patients are simply that, other patients.
There is little or no relationship between you and the other patients, unless you are in long-term care.
Once you are better, you leave, hoping not to have to come back.

And then there are bigger words, like power and privilege.

Hospitals are built on them.
And therefore, hospitals are othering.

No thanks.



[part 2]

Monday, November 04, 2013

the homeless are not human

Jesus prays about his Medial Prefrontal Cortex, cartoon by rob g

If you haven't heard about the Medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC for short), here's a quick explanation followed by the disturbing results of an experiment:

According to Psychology Today, the mPFC "activates when people do things that involve perceiving and relating to other people, such as recognizing and distinguishing between faces and empathizing." This means that it activates for your mother and your partner, but it does not activate when you see the sandwich your mother made for you or the sweater your partner gave you (no matter how tasty the sandwich or lovely the sweater).

homeless not humanIn their experiment, researchers Lasana Harris and Susan Fiske showed pictures of specific groups of people and measured the response of the mPFC. Here's what they found:
Images of all other groups besides the homeless activated the mPFC. This suggests that the homeless are not recognized as human relative to other groups. They actually are perceived, at least in this area of the brain, more like objects, such as tables.

The cartoon above is suggesting that Jesus' mPFC was malfunctioning, as he saw the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, as people. Of course, it wasn't malfunctioning -- he was correctly functioning in seeing everyone whom God has made. So the questions I have are:
  • If the study was done among the religious in Jesus' day, would it have had similar results?
  • If this study had includes homeless persons among the subjects, would their mPFC activate when shown images of homeless people? (I'd assume "yes," but there could be other variables involved).
  • Some non-homeless people do see homeless people as people. Why is this different for them?
  • Can we use our mPFC as an excuse for ignoring some people?
Some words from Jesus:
 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’" Matthew 25:37-40 NIV


Read more about mPFC studies.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

loving strangers

strangers = neighbours

"I used to think that the greatest command in the Bible was "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." I was wrong. Only in one place does the Bible ask us to love our neighbour. In more than thirty places it commands us to love the stranger. Don't oppress the stranger because you know what it feels like to be a stranger--you were once strangers in the land of Egypt. It isn't hard to love our neighbours because by and large our neighbours are people like us. What's tough is to love the stranger, the person who isn't like us, who has a different skin colour, or a different faith, or a different background. That's the real challenge. It was in ancient times. It still is today."

Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks (quoted on pp 101-102 of Just Hospitality).
jesus prays for future disciples, cartoon by rob g


In Jesus day, weren't strangers simply people you were not acquainted with? In the Jewish towns and villages, there would have been the people you knew, and the people you didn't know. And for the most part, while the latter were strangers, they weren't particularly strange. There would have been exceptions, of course. Some lepers may have seemed pretty strange as a result of deformation and loss of limbs. Those possessed by demons would have been strange. But generally, most strangers looked fairly normal.

In one famous story, Jesus tells of a despised foreigner -- a Samaritan -- helping a stranger who had been robbed and left to die at the road side. There were significant religious differences between them, but otherwise, not that much was strange about the stranger. Jesus told this story of loving a stranger, in response to someone asking, "who is my neighbour that I'm to love?"

Fast forward to today. For the conservative person, there's a whole world of strangeness out there. Goths and punks, transgender people and drag queens, and much more.

But one thing hasn't changed: God's love for everyone, no matter how strange someone might seem to us.

Read True Biblical Hospitality: Loving Immigrants, Strangers, and Enemies at sojo.net.

Friday, September 27, 2013

jesus prays for his future

"jesus prays for his future" cartoon, by rob g

Thanks to A. for suggesting a lighter, more hand-written font style...

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

jesus prays for a homosexual


Is it true that anyone who has read the Gospels will know that this is not the real Jesus? Or are there some people who would like nothing better than having a Bible passage about Jesus rejecting a gay person? After all, that's only a small step further than Jesus telling the woman caught in adultery to "go and sin no more", isn't it?

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may have seen some of my previous "western jesus" cartoons.

This label is used for cartoons which show a Jesus who acts the way that many contemporary North American Christians tend to. This "western jesus" idea and theme came out of reading Richard Beck's book unclean, taking some of the concepts from it and applying them to Jesus. In other words, if Jesus was the way we who are North American Christians often tend to be, how would he have acted in the situations he found himself in?

This is the third of the new set of western jesus "jesus prays" cartoons...