Went to Winnipeg today and during the trip there and back listened to a couple of fantastic N.T. Wright lectures downloaded through iTunes University. They were:

 

– Decoding the Da Vinci Code: The Challenge of Historic Christianity to Post-Modern Fantasy

– The Christian Challenge in the Post-Modern World

 

Both excellent lectures. For those of you who are not aware there are some pretty amazing lectures available through iTunes. You need not own a Mac or an iPod, the software is free and the lectures are free as well. Simply download iTunes and search for your favorite author, speaker, theologian etc or browse the courses available via iTunes University.

 

On another note spent some time wandering St. Mary’s Catholic cemetary in Winnipeg during the time between things and found it fascinating. It is old. Very full and was a grand mix of cultures – Italian, Irish, Polish, Russian, etc. It would be interesting to do a demographic survey of the cemetary and note the different cultures, birth and death dates and do all kinds of corelating (yes – sadly this is my idea of fun).

 

Where Is God: Finally I began to meditate on the silence of God. Lately (and for some months now) God seems quite distant and silent to me. I am variously frustrated, angry, and puzzled by this and today a new thought came to me. I was told by someone that the silence of God in the intertestamental period was a puzzle for them…some 400 years between Old and New Testaments. While no answer was forthcoming from said person their observation did trigger in me memory of another vast period of God’s silence recorded in Scripture.

 

The son’s and daughter’s of Israel had been in bondage to Egypt for more than 430 years. Naturally they began to doubt whether He was there or what was happening with their prayer. So the question then was – where is God? What is He doing in the intervening silent years? The answer is found in Exodus 3:7:

 

 

These words have been something of a salve to me. I have not been waiting on God for more then 430 years and I cannot imagine what that would be like however my own wait has been dark and quiet and full of questions like "what is God doing in this bleak and silent time?" The words of Exodus 3:7 have helped me frame something of an answer –

 

God has been listening.

 

He hears my cries and prayers. He sees my struggles. In the intervening time of silence when it seems my own voice echoes back to me I am reassured by Israel that God is listening and this is no small comfort to me as I dwell upon it. I must learn to trust that – I am heard; I am seen; I am loved….even in the dark.