the virtual sol cafe: June 2006

notes from a pilgrimage

On June 18, the sol cafe gathered at Cafe Dabar for a slide show and update from sol cafe regular Kevin G. on his latest adventures. His spring was spent in Europe on pilgrimage, and he provided quite the slide show and food for thought.

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Art and other impacts on the world

Two big items for June 11!

From 1 pm to 5 pm, sol cafe resident sculptor, Rob Willms, was presiding at the opening reception for Big Things 4, an outdoor sculpture exhibition on the front steps of the Royal Alberta Museum. Get more information by clicking here, here and here. A number of the sol cafe crew were there to check things out, and we all recommend everyone make some time this summer to visit these works in person.

But wait! There's more!

Then the sol cafe cohort met at Cafe Dabar to welcome back two sol cafe pioneers, Ryan and Shelley, here for a long-overdue visit from Malaysia. Their review of their past two years was an eye-opener. We closed by praying for their next year in Malaysia, and the future beyond that... and a challenge to ourselves to make our next year as involved in making an impact on where God has placed us.

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Was the manager shrewd or dishonest?

From Shirley and Dave:

We had a great, yet difficult, discussion June 4 on the parable of the "Shrewd Manager" (Luke 16). Thanks so much Dave for leading the discussion.

One of the verses that was looked at was verse 9: "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."

Christ doesn't say money is evil, as expected, or even the root of all kinds of evil, but rather a method to earn rewards in heaven if we use it as shrewdly as the worldly people use it. Christ doesn't even say here (not that I disagree with the concept) that money is not ours but rather God's and we are the stewards. There is some implications of that, but is it simply just a means put into our hands, one that can be used to serve God (or earn his favor, as this parable implies), or one that can be used to just accumulate more money?

Was Christ commending the manager?
Was Christ denouncing having money?
Does God decide who is rich and who is poor?
Is it easier to be rich and do God's will, or poor and do God's will?
How can we be shrewd or street-wise about "our eternity"?

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