Week 9- God at the Crossroads: A Postcolonial Reading of Sophia- Mayra Rivera

November 24, 2007 by davidpham

I wish to have an opportunity to have someone to explain to me what Mayra Rivera’s article is all about. It is too confusing for me. I try to read it to find out who Sophia really is, but I cannot figure it out. The more I read it the more I get lost. Well, I still have some other articles to read and blog. Hopefully I will find the explanation for this article some time soon. Being an accountant, playing with numbers is my daily chore, but not this kind of sophisticated reading.

Week 9- Maori “Jews” and a Resistant Reading of John 5:10-47- Huie-Jolly

November 24, 2007 by davidpham

Evangelism by life, word, deed and sign is the holistic way to witness to our Lord Jesus. If our deed is contradictory to our word, it will destroy our creditability to witness to God. I feel sorry for those pioneer English missionaries from England to New Zealand to share Jesus’ good news with the Maori while their own country dominated, oppressed, and confiscated the natives’ lands, stealing their livelihood from them. So it is not surprised me at all when the Maori read and understood John 5:10-47 as a message of the oppressors instead of its true message of Jesus as the Son of God who loved and died for sinners, including the Maori, on the cross.

Week 9- Mission of the Church- Fuellenbach

November 24, 2007 by davidpham

Fuellenbach realizes that globalization “has a negative impact on the poor and disadvantaged in all societies and creates great problems that are contrary to the whole gospel message”(p168). In this article Mission of the Church, Fuellenbach recommends the church to focus its ministry on helping the poor and the marginalized more to make its closer to Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God which is good news to the poor. Fuellenbach’s idea is that we should apply the method of “inculturation and solidarity with the poor to the process of globalization” (p221). I wonder if my church has ever thought or focused on this important message? If not, “it has betrayed the very purpose for its existence,” according to Fuellenbach. I pray that God will help the leadership of my church to change its status quo and reach out to help the poor in its community.

Week 9- Wednesday Reflection

November 21, 2007 by davidpham

This afternoon we continue to learn more about the emerging church. I love the first definition that defines “the emerging church as those who take the life of Jesus as a model way to live.” I wish that everyone of us must ask the Holy Spirti to guide us to be able to live our lives the Jesus’ way: caring for the poor, the marginalized, the orphan, and the oppressed, and inviting them to enter the kingdom of God to receive God-given shalom.

Week 9- Monday Reflection

November 19, 2007 by davidpham

It is interesting to learn several new ideas of the emerging church today. I like the idea of home group church model where several small groups of christians get together in different places during the week, worshiping, studying the Bible, sharing their God-given gifts with one another, sharing meals, caring for one another, building their faith in Christ together; and then on Sunday all these groups go to church to worship together and celebrate their blessings. This is the better way to get all the members of the church involved in something and no one comes to church lonely or being isolated.

Week 8- The Body in the Library: Identity, Opposition and the Settler-Invader Woman- Tiffin

November 19, 2007 by davidpham

In this article Helen Tiffin introduces the colonizer’s deadly weapons that kill or disable the colonized from fighting back are those “invisible bullets” which are the colonizers’ text books, and education systems being used effectively by the European colonizers to erase the cultural identities of the colonized (p375). How are these “invisible bullets” used? They are used to “foster Empire loyalty, lauded the superiority of the mother country in terms of everything from military might to artistic taste; and as well as being actively colonialist” (p 375-6). The same way the ancient Greek Empire used its language as a powerful weapon to rule their subjects several thousand years ago.

Week 8- Two Models for the Future Church: Basic Ecclesial Communities and a Contrast Society- Fuellenbach

November 19, 2007 by davidpham

I love the idea of the Contrast Society Model in which the poor, the voiceless, the marginalized who cannot compete will be regarded first as brothers and sisters in a society in which the ultimate values will be compassion and justice (p205). This church model embodies the value of the kingdom of God that will not compromise with any other values of the globalization system that excludes the poor and marginalizes the powerless.

Week 8- Out of the Center: Thoughts on the Post-Colonial Literatures of Australia and New Zealand- Crane

November 18, 2007 by davidpham

Reading through this article whatever I see from the writers of Australia and New Zealand is that they all try to rediscover their true identities. Identity is so important that people have to spend too much of their time to search for the right one. But these people forget one thing that they cannot do it by themselves. There is only one way for these people to regain their true identity is to accept Jesus as their personal Savior. Being God’s children is their true identity. The long-lasting-heavenly identity.

Week 8 -Tyranny, Boundary, and Might: Colonial Mimicry in Mark’s Gospel- Liew

November 18, 2007 by davidpham

The Gospel of Mark shows us the two opposite kingdoms. Firstly, the kingdom of man eitherJewish or Roman applies the so-called “sacred” or the violent system to rule the people. A kind of kingdom that “hates your enemies”and excludes the powerless (p206). Secondly, the kingdom of God that applies love and inclusiveness to govern its people. This kingdom of God is very unique. It teaches its citizen to love the enemy instead of hating its enemy. Satan is the only one this kingdom of God considers as its enemy. Satan will be destroyed when Jesus, the king of God’s kingdom returns to govern the new earth with his godly citizens.

Week 8- Mark and Empire: “Zealot” and “Postcolonial” Readings- Moore

November 18, 2007 by davidpham

Reading the Gospel of Mark through the lens of postcolonial readers is a new learning experience for me. The colonized Israelite readers consider a reading of Mark as an anti-imperial resistance literature (p196) is understandable because the Gospel of Mark is not their Bible. Militarily they could not liberate themselves from the Roman rulers, so they had to use some other way even through their imagination to do it in order to keep their hope alive to wait for a better day to fight back.   As a Christian I never read God’s Word in Mark or any other books in the Bible that way because I don’t believe that is the right way to read the Word of God.