Michael Jackson
The last couple of nights I've stayed up way too late watching James May and others talking about the 1969 moon landings. Like all kids of that era I remember the tension and mystique, waiting to hear if they made it into orbit, waiting to hear if they landed, waiting to hear if they made it round the dark side of the moon and were heading home or – horror of horrors – might disappear forever into eternity.
1969 was a great year. J5 suddenly were everywhere with I want you back, and Michael Jackson was absolute dynamite, and all that apparently effortless talent grew into a startling career in his early adulthood. Who can even begin to wonder about the source of all the strangeness that followed. But I hope people will remember the talent and not let the wierd stuff eclipse it.
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
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I remember years back hearing someone say that faith is spelt ‘R I S K’. I spoke about risk, darkness and uncertainty in one of my Lent studies ‘Fleeing Jesus’ (if anyone’s interested the notes and podcast are on the website). It was interesting to note the reaction of folks when I suggested that Jesus risked himself to God not being certain of the outcome – I think we have to do the same . . . . .
Surely this Gospel is about us reaching out to all not in the fold and not excluding them. We take the risk of rejection, but Jesus was rejected in his time, but maintained the inclusiveness of his message. We need to bear in mind this Gospel in all of our dealings with those, not yet in the fold.
I think risk can be complex theologically and personally. There is always the call to respond to, the “beyond” to perceive and search out. Yet there is also the promise that in God there is security, protection and firm foundation.
I think calling people to “risk” is sometimes easy in management-speak terms – risk sounds so sexy and great whereas those propounding it are often actually doing risky things with other people’s lives and then claiming to have done something risky themselves.
However I realise that I do like worship to have something of risk in it, an edge somewhere. Without that for me it doesn’t really work.
As I type I’m listening to a radio 4 programme about UA FAnthorpe – how she dared to leave her safe job and become a hospital receptionist. Without that risk her poetry might never have developed.
So I suppose I’m in two minds about risk but I absolutely love the quote from Winterson about the light being in the place between the interior and exterior darkness. Thank you for that.
thanks, Hadge – i really enjoyed your Lent series, great stuff!
I agree, Ernest, it is about that too. One of the things I love about the Bible, and especially the words of Jesus, is that there are multiple layers of meaning. Every time I read it there is something else there i didn’t see before. Sometimes those meanings can co-exist. Sometimes you end up arguing with yourself, or someone else, about the meaning. That’s part of what makes it a Holy Book.
“…calling people to “risk” is sometimes easy in management-speak terms – risk sounds so sexy and great whereas those propounding it are often actually doing risky things with other people’s lives and then claiming to have done something risky themselves…”
Good point, jane! Paradoxically the Good Shepherd is also a statement about security…