Welcome to enCompass for April 2011. We hope you enjoy the read.

The Compass Team

Australian Office

An exciting and significant development for us this month has been the opening of our Australian office, at Emmanuel College on the Gold Coast.

David Yates and Salli Taylor can be contacted through the Compass website. If you're travelling through the Gold Coast, email them to arrange a coffee.

Yahweh in a box

Who is God? It is perhaps our fundamental question. Everything else comes from this. Who do we pray to? Who do we trust? Who do we long for? Who is it that gives being, meaning and purpose to our lives?

One of the dangers we face in asking this question is of putting God in a box. It is a human temptation, as old as idols, to make God manageable, to domesticate him. The Bible constantly works against this tendency, and one of the main ways it does this is by telling strange stories.

The Bible is filled with strange stories. Not just about the sometimes-eccentric people God chooses to know and walk with, but about God himself. The God of the Bible is a complex character, often acting in surprising ways, against our expectations. Who is this God? What can we expect from life with him?

Israel long wrestled with these very questions, and the Old Testament is, in part, a record of this wrestling. How did Israel make sense of life with this God they trusted but who would at times act in strange, unsettling ways?

The story of 1 Samuel 4-7 is about this very question. It recounts the day God was captured by his enemies. It is a profound story—at times comic, at times troubling—and it seems to be written with two themes in mind: a warning and a hope. Don’t put God in a box. Yet, you can trust God, even when he doesn’t act as you’d expect. Israel needed to hear this – so do we.

Andrew Shamy

Read the full article

Jesus Christ - Super Stir

When Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar hit the stage in 1971 (and then cinemas in 1973) it created quite a stir. One would have expected a little controversy given the name, but I don’t think even the duo anticipated the level of protest from the church community and particularly towards Tim Rice who supplied the lyrics. South Africa banned it altogether for being “irreligious.”

The musical celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year and so to mark the occasion, and because a couple of friends are BIG fans, I sat down with a bucket of popcorn last weekend and watched it for the first time.

And I loved it, just as they prophesied I would!

It wasn’t just the retro hair or Judas' emo sulking (before emo was a word) or the sweeping Middle Eastern scenery, or the flares, or the wailing guitars and synthesizers. (I am a child of the 70s – born the year of the movie’s release – so I could go on and on)

Indeed, the soundtrack is outstanding, but there was much more to it than that. The examination of Christ’s understanding of his own journey – and of his relationships to Mary Magdalene, Judas, and others – frequently got me thinking deeply about this God-Man I profess to follow. In my enthusiasm to remember his deity, I often forget or minimize his humanity.

Certainly there are inaccuracies – and if you dwell on them long enough you may find them upsetting. I do not agree, for example, with the hints that there was a romantic relationship between Christ and Mary – although that suggestion was not nearly as forceful as I was expecting after reading some of the commentary. Nor do I share the director’s opinion on the extent of Christ’s confusion as the passion unfolded – although I must confess that neither do I share some folks’ notion that he marched gaily about Jerusalem with a detailed roadmap towards his death. I think the Gospels encourage us to imagine that this was a week of considerable conflict and loneliness. And it is unfortunate, although perhaps a clever comment on the prejudices of the early 70’s, that Jesus has the lightest skin in the film – and Judas the darkest.

In spite of some historical and theological irregularities, much of Tim Rice’s lyrical material is perceptive and clever. When his disciples dreamily chant at the Last Supper in a meadow – Always hoped that I'd be an apostle; Knew that I would make it if I tried; Then when we retire we can write the Gospels; So they'll still talk about us when we've died – I realized how often my own mind drifts to ways in which I could still be technically serving God, but (more importantly) leaving my own legacy in doing so.

Pilate describes Christ as a most amazing, haunted, hunted, kind of man. And later Judas reminds him: "If you'd come today you could have reached the whole nation; Israel in B.C. had no mass communication." But the most colourful comments come from Herod, delivered in dazzling disco:

Jesus, you just won't believe the hit you've made around here.
You are all we talk about, you're the wonder of the year.
Oh, what a pity if it's all a lie.
Still, I'm sure that you can rock the cynics if you try.
So if you are the Christ, yes, the great Jesus Christ,
Prove to me that you're no fool (walk across my swimming pool).
If you do that for me, then I'll let you go free.
Come on, King of the Jews, I only ask what I'd ask any superstar.

Ouch. And not just because Herod isn’t taking him seriously. How often am I tempted to play “prove it to me” games with Jesus – treating him as I would any other superstar?

This is a great movie. If you haven’t seen it, make sure you do. I’m not promising that it won’t offend some of your sensibilities – but I am promising that it will give you something to think about.

Sam Bloore

Compass Calendar: April

April’s Bible readings are taken from the period when Israel first entered the Promised Land. After the triumph of the Exodus, the thrills and disappointments of the desert, and the death of Moses, Israel cross the Jordan River into the land that God had promised to Abraham.

But Israel’s early years in the land are not easy. They are filled with mixed success, as Israel is faithful to their covenant with God, and are blessed. But, there are failures as well, as Israel struggles to live out their calling to live as God’s people, and instead begin to adopt the way of life of the surrounding nations.

This is a very ambiguous time in the history of Israel. Led by Judges such as Samson and Samuel, beset by inter-tribal and inter-family disputes, and constantly besieged by their own unfaithfulness, the people of God flip-flop between blessing and cursing.

This month, the spiritual discipline for the Compass Calendar is community. In a culture where individualism is assumed, and where relationships have become transactional, we need to practice living well with others. This month’s theme explores how to work through the messiness, the disconnectedness, and the habitual selfishness of living with others.

Download the calendar overview

Download the April study

Upcoming Conversation Events

Perth - Thursday 14, Saturday 16 April

We're having an informal catchup for Perth alumni tonight, Dome Cafe, 20 Risely St, Applecross from 7pm.

Compass alumni in Perth are also welcome to join us for a social evening at the Western Australian Compass Schools Conference, this Saturday (16 April), at 8pm, at Swan Christian School.

Brisbane - Friday 22 April

For Good Friday, 22 April, Compass Brisbane alumni will be gathering at midday at 59, The Promenade, Camp Hill, to focus on Easter.

For more details, email qld@compass.org.au Cambridge - Thursday 28 April

Waikato Compass alumni and other interested parties will be having a shared dinner at Jeremy Suisted's place - 27 Bryce St, Cambridge on Thursday 28th April from 6pm.

Sam Bloore will be driving down for some Waikato hospitality, and to facilitate some discussion around leading faithfully in a 21st-century context.

Any wider Waikato alumni welcome.

Christchurch - Thursday 5 May

We're having a get together with dessert and coffee for Compass alumni and interested others in Christchurch on Thursday 5 May, at Roshan and Lottie's place from 7pm.

Email lottie@compass.org.nz for more details, and to RSVP.