anyone for a coffee (and tax) break?

Death and taxes. Fewer things are more inevitable, frankly spoke Benjamin Franklin. Except maybe the twins reaching the semi-finals. Yet fewer things have such a bad press (except the twins, but so they should). Now I know I’m a bit of an oddball, but I’m not much frightened of either (I am frightened of the twins. Enough of the X-Factor).

I worry about the consequences of my death; but I am not hugely frightened of death itself, most of the time. I certainly don’t avoid talking about death like many people. And perhaps more oddly, I secretly quite like paying tax. It makes me feel grown-up. It also gives me roads to drive on, infrastructure to rely on, governments to complain on, schools to compare and many other good things.

VAT nightmare?

This photo was taken at Pret a Manger, when I paid for my coffees and via VAT contributed to the infrastructure that enabled me to buy it, pay for it, drink it, and not have to wash up afterwards. I like Pret. They are fair-trade and tasty and fresh. But their attitude to VAT is somewhat negative. They encourage the view that it feels inconvenient, annoying, even an abuse of my rights to a cheap coffee. “VAT nightmare!” they scream. If you can’t read it because it’s a bit blurry (my phone was drunk) it says “We’re legally required to add on VAT when you eat in. Nightmare.”

eat my taxes

But is paying tax a “nightmare”? Really?

Why should we have everything for free? We demand, we consume, we don’t want to suffer the consequences. But surely we should be willing to pay our way, to contribute to the communal fund. To be generous.

It is unpopular to many, but our taxes allow all of us to live as we do; and allow many people to simply live, as they have no other income, no other way to pay for food or housing or a present for the kids. The vast majority of people who receive benefits are not wasters and scroungers. I want to support them. I know that is not all that taxes pay for. I know that much tax-payers money is wasted, much like my own (on a smaller scale!). I know the banking system has swallowed an awful lot of it this year and is laughing loudly whilst we squirm is disbelief. But still.

Are taxes inevitable? Yes. Are they a bit of a pain? Ok, yes. Are they necessary? Yes. Are they a nightmare? No. Do they give us a higher standard of living than so many across the world? Yes. Do they give some people life for whom everything else is only death? Actually, I think they do. Maybe we should be grateful we live in a country that can tax, unlike many where it is just a pipe-dream, so infrastructure cannot be built without bribery and corruption. Maybe we should be grateful we live in a country with a lower minimum tax threshold of 33%, like Sweden. Though they do have Volvos.

So,  hooray for taxes. And as Jesus demonstrated in the transformed life of one, hooray for the tax man.

Now I can drink my coffee without having nightmares.

the mysterious bodies of robbie williams

There is the exciting, the dramatic, the wonderful. There is the tragic, the desperate, the dangerous. Then there is the in-between. The mundane. The ordinary. Which is probably what happens to most of us, most of the time. Maybe it is what we do with the mundane that defines how we lives our lives. One thing we can do with the mundane, the imperfect, the ordinary, is to pretend it is something more. Because after all, the mundane is a bit… mundane.

Spot the hype?

The X Factor is a great example. It turns a pretty mundane singing contest into something dramatic, over-powering, so stuffed full of hype and bright lights, loud music, choreographed cheering, enthusiastic voice-overs and scripted fall-outs between the judges that it appears to be exciting – and, if you like that sort of thing, actually becomes exciting. Is exciting.

Appearing on the X Factor and performing his new single “Bodies” was Robbie Williams. I like Robbie – he is on my list of interesting people to have dinner with. The over-hyped introduction seemed pointless because he needs no hype. He is cheeky, vulnerable and likeable, a born performer, and at his best definitely has the X factor so many crave.

So what is his new single about then? Called “Bodies”, the memorable riff is the unexpected variations of questioning whether Jesus really died for me. The song itself at first seems to be a version of the X Factor skill, making the mundane seem fantastic; in Robbie’s case, make something that is meaningless seem to be profound. However, looking at it further, there is actually something deep there, something of meaning that isn’t actually unexpected, coming as it does from the tortured soul of Robbie.

The X factor

The bridge contains the key: “All we’ve ever wanted/Is to look good naked/Hope that someone can take it/God save me rejection/From my reflection/I want perfection.” The song journals his quest for purity, for peace, for a return to a “garden of Eden” or Buddhist-enlightenment-lite idealism where everything is good.

In the first verse he has seen the good things, and they have been taken away. In the second verse he is enjoying “living like a deity”, and he is not sure if it is anything to do with Jesus or not. The chorus refers to the Bodhi tree, sacred in Buddhism as the tree of enlightenment that the Buddha sat under. Then comes the bridge, about wanting to look good naked. I think Robbie has always wanted to be accepted for who he is; he has that need we all have for unconditional acceptance. He wants perfection; he wants his reflection to be perfect. Not ordinary. Not mundane. But perfect. His reference to Jesus dying for him is about that – he doesn’t feel healed, perfect, restored, so what was Jesus’ death all about?

compost of transforming life

Did Jesus die for him? I would say: of course he did. He would love to take and transform Robbie’s life – and ours – turning the mundane and ordinary, the painful and the tragic into something that is good, perfect – in religious language, sanctified. That does indeed come through Jesus death, and his resurrection. Not that we live like a deity; not that we reach some sort of divine enlightenment under a Bodhi tree; not that we become a part of God. But that we have the Spirit of God living in us, who transforms our lives like the gardeners compost, turning the dead and decaying into fresh, new life. Not raptured, as he sings in verse three, but transformed. That happens only as we also sacrifice, as we take up our cross and follow Jesus. In the Bible, it is called dying to self. It cannot come simply by wishing it to be true, but by earthy, sacrificial living. Then we can show off our beautiful new transformed and renewed bodies. In the power of the Spirit, that is true life.

Let’s hope this goes to number one – profound questions like these, mysterious as they are, should feature more often in our mundane and ordinary music charts.

rants in your pants

X Factor

There was a bloke on the X Factor yesterday who suggested that despite the name of the band being Triple Trouble (or something like that), he wasn’t the kind of’ ‘hoodie’ who caused trouble, but just liked singing and making music. I wasn’t sure I believed him (call me a cynic), and then when it turned out his primary talent is about as far from singing as Simon Cowell is to a counsellor, and chose to tell him, he reacted angrily, demonstrating that perhaps “Triple Trouble” was the correct name after all (and I had a self-righteous moment).

BBC News

More reflections on the X-Factor to come, especially with the new format adding, I think, to the confrontational and ‘freak show’ element…  however, this time it was the reaction I was interested in. It is amazing what a sense of injustice can make us do, how quickly it can change our mood. From being cut up in the car, or someone stealing ‘our place’ in the check-out queue (‘our place’ – hehe we humans are so possessive!), to bigger things, like the banks making new money whilst others lose thier livelihoods or  this situation about the release of  Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, (dodgily convicted) suspect of the Lockerbie bombing. When things go wrong, how we rant, how we get angry – sometimes, sometimes, with justification.

Where do we rant? Anywhere. The US Government is ranting in an unprecedented way at Scotland (see Nick’s blog for reflection on that); the X-Factor blogs are full of rants about the justices and injustices or judges decisions and the format of the show. Tabloids are full of rants, blogs are full of rants ( am I ranting?), the Psalms are full of rants. The what? The Psalms? In the Bible?  I thought that was all safe and harmless, religious stuff? And I thought you were going to tell me ranting was wrong?

No, no. God is constantly on the end of rants from men and women unhappy at the injustices going on in the world, unhappy at his perceived inaction in the face of it; he is not a God we are afraid to face with our anger. Do not be afraid to face him with your anger.

He is not, though, happy with the kind of rant we might blog, under a pseudonym, venting our frustration in words we wouldn’t use if people knew who we were or could answer back; he is interested and yearns for us to express our anger passionately and vehemently, and (just about!) controllably. A man called Bill Hybels once said that if you discover what makes you angry, you discover your passion. What makes you angry? Is it injustice, inequality, unfairness, gossip, bitterness, poverty? Is it words, is it music, is it the very meaning of life itself? Turn that anger into holy passion and, as Hybels said in Courageous Leadership, the local church is the hope of the world.

Sometimes though prayer can seem so very diluted, weakened (especially, I should know, in churches), when it should be passionate, colourful, angry. Instead of beginning “Dear Lord…”, maybe we should begin “For crying out loud! Aaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I wrote this about prayer once.

a gentle clearing of the throat

prayer is like a gentle clearing of the throat
a careful excuse me
ignoring the ‘do not disturb’ sign
but only to slip a note
or a gentle clearing of the throat
to draw attention
without causing tension

but prayer feels like it ought to involve
more shouting
some shoving and
some flouting of the rules
some yelling because we should be telling it like it is
not quietly murmuring
but loudly stirring
earnestly yearning for God to hear
to act
to reach from his pedestal
to change all that is cruel and heartless and human
inhuman
inhumane

because his name means God with us
because prayers mean God help us
our cry us say something to us

yet in this moment of tension
and pleading
we pause…

and in faith are conceding, of course,
to hear
we must listen.

© Kevin Lewis 2007