I have sinned...

Baxter part 2

Here is a poem from Autumn Testament that I find striking:

He Waiata
Mo Te Kare 5

No rafter paintings,
No grass-stalk panels,
No Maori mass,

Christ and his Mother
Are lively Italians
Leaning forward to bless,

No taniko band on her head,
No feather cloak on his sholder,

No stairway to heaven,
No tears of the albatross.

Here at Jerusalem
After ninety years
Of bungled opportunities,
I prefer not to invite you
Into the pakeha church.

(James K Baxter, Autumn Testament, 1972, Price Milburn and Company: Wellington, pp. 2).

Baxter part 1

The other week I happened to come across a copy of James K Baxter’s ‘Autumn Testament’ (in Hamilton of all places!). This is the last volume he wrote before his death in 1972. This is my first encounter. I have long been intrigued by Baxter’s reputation and by other people’s response to his work but have never felt particularly compelled to read it. I have scarcely been able to put it down.

What follows is a section of prose from Autumn Testament. Feel free to post or email any thoughts. If I am not too lazy I will post more Baxter and other interesting stuff I come across. ;o)

Enjoy.


Under the cold high stars here at Jerusalem it is not easy to recall the mood of rage and rock-bottom frustration that led me, in the town, to think for several months that I was becoming a Marxist. It is difficult to go back in spirit to that claustrophobic labyrinth. Yet all experience asks to be understood.
B- made a good comment this morning, referring to my stay at Macdonald Crescent. ‘It must have been a very barren time for you, Hemi,’ he said. ‘But those experiences often turn out to be the most fruitful in the long run.’
He could be right.
Depersonalisation, centralisation, desacralisation, the three chief scourges of the urban culture. One has to look squarely at the Medusa’s head that turns so many into stone before one can even begin to smile again. But one has to do it without anger. Otherwise the light of the Holy Spirit is excluded from one’s meditation and darkness conquers the soul.

(James K Baxter, Autumn Testament, 1972, Price Milburn and Company: Wellington, pp. 5-6).

P.S: The Wikipedia article on Baxter is a concise and helpful introduction to Baxter.

Kia tau te rangimarie (let peace reign)

My Summer Foray into Beer Tasting

As you probably know (or can imagine) I’m more of a merlot drinker than a beer connoisseur, however when the weather reaches a certain temperature beer seems much more suitable, and there is nothing worse than an overly warm merlot. With Richard’s encouragement this year I have discovered that beer can actually be quite tasty, and has a complexity that I had not appreciated before. Mike and I had a lovely holiday in Napier where we visited the Filter Room. The Filter Room is a brewery and cider house, and you can do a brewery tour as well as tastings and purchases. The ambience is lovely, it is slightly out of town in the orchards, and it has a café attached, where you can order food to go with your beer. They offer a tasting rack which is great as you can try a little of everything (including cider and non-alcoholic options). Here are some thoughts on the 6 beers and cider that I tried:

Kingston Premium Cider – The tasting notes describe this as a medium dry cider, with a full-bodied English style. I enjoyed this cider and at only 5% alcohol it is very drinkable. If you have been put off cider by the apple flavoured lolly water available in supermarkets, this may convert you. I found it very refreshing and thankfully as cider should be, you can taste the apple without being too sweet. Mike said “yum”.

Perry (pear cider) – Tasting notes say this is a light sparkling sweet cider, made from pears. This is much sweeter than the Kingston, I was disappointed that the flavour of the pears was not stronger, and found it a little lacking in character. It’s as easy to drink as a soft drink but at 5% alcohol it’s not advisable. Mike said “too sweet”.

Force premium Lager – The tasting notes describe this European in style, clean crisp and fresh tasting. I found it light and refreshing, although not overly interesting in flavour. Mike said “its nice” and had another when we returned with friends (some days later).

Pure Draught: Pure 100% All Malt. – This is non-pasteurised, with no ‘added’ sugars. Compared to the others we tasted I thought this lacked flavour. It may be unfair to compare such different styles against each other. In my opinion it was plain and is probably for the non-adventurous beer drinker. It has the slightly beery bitterness that I personally dislike about beer. Mike said “ its ok”.

Special Reserve: The tasting notes describe this as citrus flavoured ale infused with honey and cinnamon. Developed with dining in mind and an especially good compliment to spicy food. This was my favourite and the one I drunk again when we returned (and bought a take home pack of). I enjoyed the subtle citrus flavour, and it was not bitter. It has complex layers of flavours that make it a pleasure to drink, very interesting and enjoyable. Mike says “mmm”.


Force Premium Draught – This is described as seductive in appearance and forceful in taste. I did enjoy it better than the Pure Draught it had a much smoother mouth feel with less bitterness. Mike said, “burp.”

The filter room can be found online at www.thefilterroom.co.nz

Not Much Beer Here....Recent Reviews

I've noticed that we haven't really mentioned beer quite yet here, since its meant to beer + theology let me discuss one of God's good gifts and pleasures he has given humanity through his providential care and gracious provision of beer and suitable ingredients. 've recently tried a few new beers, some which were exceptional, some were good, and one which was horrible in every kind of way.

Starting with the good:

On friday night i tried a lovely beer called Rodenbach Grand Cru. Grand Cru is a Flemish Lambic Beer, that is one brewed with natural yeast from the air. You might have tried a fruit beer like Bellvue Kriek or Timmermans, which is a similar sort of thing but it has fruit added. Basically Lambic beers are sour, tart ales with quite intresting and suprising flavours for a beer! Their sourness tends to be why they are sometimes brewed with fruit.

The Grand Cru was incredibly drinkable, nice and tart and sour with an interesting malty, fruit flavour underneath. Complex and tricky to describe, but very tasty. An excellent pre dinnder beer, that i think both staunch beer drinkers and beer skeptics should be able to enjoy. I'm fairly sure its available at regional wines in wellington and at gailbraiths in auckland.

I recently also managed to try some of the new Croucher craft, courtesy of Stephen Bier who had visited the brewery while back in Rotorua. The north of new zealand is a little starved for decent craft beer compared to further south, so its nice to have another brewery around. The range was pretty good overall, and did a very good job of producing beers faithfull to their description and type.

First, the hoppy Pale Ale. This beer is a particularly hoppy and powerfull pale ale that seems more like an American/IPA crossover beer than a purist pale ale. It has a particularly strong and pleasant hop aroma, although perhaps not as distinctive or fruity as some other exponents of this style like Epic or Emerson's IPA, or Little Creatures from Perth. The flavour is obviously particularly hop driven and is particularly fruity, although not nearly as subtle or distinctive as some other i've tried like the those brewed by Emersons. The description claims it has notes of passionfruit, lychees and a "stonefruit overtones" but i found it tasted simply like a very well hopped, good pale ale. Occasionaly it seems like the hop content overshadows the malt and it could be better balanced. Overall, a good beer with decent flavour and one i would happily drink again

The next beer i tried was the Hef. This is a German style weizenbeer and it would probably be my pick of the range. Its basically a very faithfull version of the style with plenty of nice yeasty, wheaty flavours and the classic spicy clove and vanilla flavours. Actually quite similar to the Tuatara Hefe. Very refreshing and much nicer than many of the more expensive imported beers like Hoffbrau. Johannes from beer and bible study gave it a big thumbs up and so do i, although again its not quite as brilliant as the almost untouchable Emersons weizenbeer. Would be an excellent beer for brunch or breakfast (as they do in Bavaria) or hot summer day.

The last beer of the croucher range we tried was the Pilsner. I wasn't as impressed with this beer as the other two, but it was still a particularly solid and faithfull interpretation of the style. New Zealand pilsners and largers have begun to develop a particularly distinctive and interesting take on the pilsner style, with the incredibly fruity and very kiwi beers like Emersons (probably still my top kiwi beer) , the Three Boys Pilsner and Macs Wicked Blonde, Reserve and Hop Rocker. These beers tend to diverge from the traditional, dry bohemian pilsner style with much more fruit flavours and very different hop characters. It's here where the Croucher is a bit different and seems to me to taste far more continental, despite using kiwi hops and slightly different varieties. For a start, its a very malty pilsner...nice and slightly sweet, and its hop characer and bitterness reminds me more of czech beers than kiwi ones. The hop character is more simple and less complex than many other similar kiwi beers. Not as brilliant as a beer like Pilsner Urquell, but a good, dry and bitter tasting pilsner that has some decent malt character. Reminds a bit of Gailbraiths very czech tasting Bohemian Pilsner.

The last beer i will review is particularly sad. It is made by a top Belgian brewer that makes the weird almost rose tasting Delerium. However, in attempting to be more popular perhaps the brewed the horridly titled "SEXY LAGER". One of our beer and bible atendees Jamie decided to purchase a bottle perhaps for a laugh, i will never know quite why...the horror!

As you can see, the manufacturers have decided to try and sell this dreadfull product by having a range of different pinup girls on the front! As decidedly crass as that is it gets worse; they have scratch of bikinis like you get on instant kiwi tokens....and if you're really feeling dirty and depraved you can collect the whole set....Not even Lion Red or VB markets beer that badly and distastefully! And it comes from belgium...the place that supposedly brews some of the best

The beer itself tastes what imagine export gold would be like if you added a couple of teaspoons of sugar. It also had something floating in it that looked like orange pith or what you might see in lemon juice. It would probably appeal to the same sort of people who consume things like Mash Energy Lager and bad RTD's. Absolutely foul in every kind of way! It isn't sexy at all, nor will it make you feel sexy! Avoid at all costs!

Jesus

Hi
Sorry that the questions I shared last time were just way to hard to think about (thats why I shared them I needed help!).

Another thing I have been thinking about is Jesus.
If we are saved we are in Christ and are working to become Christlike. Why do we as Christians find it so difficult to identify with Jesus in the stories of the bible. (for example if you lead a meditation on Jesus performing a healing the Christians will on the whole identify with the person needing healing rather than the Jesus. Also does this inability to identify personally with Jesus impact on us and our understanding of mission. Is it due to the Kiwi tendency to not be arrogant?, is it because we focus too much on the divine elements of Jesus, is it because we are encouraged to think of ourselves as sinners who need Jesus?

Well enjoy thinking!

Christina

Mission

Hi
On Thursday I went to a church planting day. I thought maybe some questions we talked about there would help start some thinking and discussing here.

We started with Who is Jesus?
then What does it mean to be human?

Then we talked about the implications from our answers to those to how we do mission.

Any thoughts welcome.

Christina