tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55203211982664693612024-02-19T00:07:36.423-08:00The Cave and the CrossMusings on Philosophy, Religion, Education and the Arts.Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-22392958550055224052017-05-02T06:00:00.002-07:002017-05-04T03:23:06.159-07:00'THE LORD OF THE RINGS' in Book and Film: An Appreciation<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t quite know what inspired me to commit to reading Tolkien’s
epic again after so long. It must be over 15 years, as I don’t think I had
done more than dip into it again since the movies were released. But having now
re-read it in full, and subsequently re-watched the movie trilogy, thoughts are
swarming in my head.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Firstly, to my relief, as I got going with the novels the
magic was still there. And if some of the mystery and magic is not quite as
fresh after repeated readings (the first of which was in the summer of 1972, at
the end of my first year away at university), then there were ample
consolations. For example, I was surprised to find how much of my memory of the
books had been filtered through the movies, and to some extent I was able to
recapture the preternatural <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">largeness </i>of
Tolkien’s vision, his cosmological, historical and linguistic inventiveness,
his landscape, and (above all) his characters. How much larger they are – and how
much more striking in their grandeur and their spiritual and moral dimensions –
when stripped of the imprisoning shapes of earnest thespians, the ever-present
New Zealand skyline, and the conflict in artistic sensibilities between a 20th
century Oxford don and a 21<sup>st</sup> century Antipodean purveyor of
cinematic blockbusters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And speaking of that artistic conflict, perhaps the greatest
joy of re-reading this<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> magnissimum opus</i>
as an older and hopefully wiser man was a deeper and more nuanced appreciation
of Tolkien’s literary skills and his spiritual and moral ethos. This last
observation needs unpacking a little. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Reading the trilogy as a young man, I received it
uncritically. I was swept up by the magic both hidden and revealed in Middle
Earth, inspired by the courage and strength of its main characters, enraptured by journeys of
discovery and the comings of age that transpired, triumphant at the destruction
of bad men and creatures. Even so, I found that the Author’s sometimes
overwrought prose and lengthy poetic elaborations sometimes got in the way of
the narrative. And at the last reading, around the time of the Millennium, I
found myself disheartened by what we might call the socio-economic morality
underlying the narratives. Whether fair or not (but not, I suspect, without an element of truth),
it seemed to me that the Author spoke through his characters when they modelled
a conservative social structure: when women were expected to stay away from men’s
business, when the ordinary folk were expected not to meddle in the affairs of
their “betters”, when there could be nothing nobler than to die in a Pyrrhic
victory for the defence of a political order.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am being too harsh of course, because every writing is a
product of its era. But those thoughts along with the seeming crustiness of Tolkien’s
prose and dialogue, and the superfluous literary flourishes, were a stumbling
block at the beginning of the new millennium: a time when I was personally
engaged in a fresh journey of spiritual, moral and cultural discovery. So what had
changed by the time of this last reading?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well the world has changed, of course; reactionary and
xenophobic voices proliferate, and Tolkien’s voice speaks prophetically to our
times. But much more significantly, I feel that for the first time I had just enough
spiritual and literary depth of my own to appreciate Tolkien’s far great
spiritual and literary depth. Subsequent to the previous reading, I trained and
was licensed as a Lay Minister in the Church, experienced a wonderful second
career as a teacher of religion, philosophy and ethics, and most recently
published a novel of my own. By virtue of these successive explorations, I have
at last been able to perceive some of the stitches in Tolkien’s literary
creations: to turn a critical but appreciative eye on his storycraft and
writing technique. Most of all I have seen for myself what I had heard often
enough second hand from others: the scale not just of his skill as a novelist,
but of his spiritual and moral profundity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps the Catholicism (with a capital-C) of Tolkien’s
world-view blinded me to this before. His friend and contemporary, C. S. Lewis,
produced spiritual and moral tracts that I could better relate to, as well as novels
whose religious message accorded with my own thinking and belief. But now Lewis seems
trapped in a time-bubble of Edwardian values and expression, while Tolkien’s
more open cosmology and thematic development offer insights into sovereignty,
temptation, redemption, good, evil and loss that seem more-or-less timeless.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the key to appreciating the morality of Tolkien’s
imagined world without judging the Author is the hopeful sadness the pervades
every episode, the musical ‘dying fall’ audible in every dialogue. In Middle Earth, as
in the only sound Christian ethical framework, the supreme moral authority to
which each person must answer is the dutifully-informed individual conscience.
And salvation, while in its essence the unearned gift of a sovereign Power, can
only be truly appropriated by a sacrificial and potentially costly participation
in the outworking of that Power’s purposes in history. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so there is much in Middle Earth that should not be,
including division and social injustice. There is much heroic and dangerous work
to be done in translating the providence of that higher power into lasting
unity and justice. And in doing that work, much that is beautiful and noble in
the world will be lost forever. Hope is never far from the characters’ lips,
even some of the worst, even in extreme adversity. Yet even in triumph there is
lasting sadness at the inevitability of loss. And yet even in the face of
inevitable loss, good motives engender acceptance and healing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In short, then, while there were no surprises in the twists
and turns of the plot, re-reading the books was a joy. But what of the
cinematic project? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Long-time devotees of the novels approach any such project
with a mix of excitement and dread. On one hand, there is the hope of seeing
one’s favourite scenes cloaked in concrete imagery. On the other hand there is a
realistic acceptance that no film, even were it of unlimited length, could fully
do justice to a literary work of such size and depth. Tolkien’s descriptive
prose was of a high order, giving an auteur-director like Jackson plentiful clues
for his sets and settings but also giving each reader his-or-her own mental
pictures with which a cinematic realisation has to compete. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The best that the Middle Earth-fetishists could reasonably
hope for then, was that the movies would adhere faithfully to the main
story-line, would listen to the existing fan-network in matters of visual
design, and (perhaps above all) that all the most loved and/or hated characters
would be impersonated in a manner true to the literary originals.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the first instalment, ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’
fulfilled many ardent fans’ wildest dreams. The characterisations, and even the
majority of the casting, were close to perfection. Not everybody warmed to
Wood, Weaving or Mortensen; not everyone felt that the Elves and their domains were
beautiful or mysterious enough; and there were other niggles. Some, for
example, were hurt by the exclusion of Tom Bombadil, although how anyone thought
that having Billy Connolly or Russell Brand or similar spouting knowing
doggerel in funny clothes would have sustained the development of dramatic
tension, Galadriel only knows! In short, though, legions of viewers were given
hope. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With the second instalment, The Two Towers, the hopes of
many were dashed. It was, of course, a critical and commercial success – but strictly
as a movie on its own terms. As a translation of the novel to the screen, it
was heavily compromised. In part this was due to the underlying book. The most
demanding and least rewarding of the three novels, structurally as well as
narratively, it serves the purpose of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">recitative
</i>in an opera – functionally pushing the story-line forward and setting the
scene for the great arias of the final act. It was always going to be a tough
one to turn into a movie that would stand on its own feet, separated from the
first and third instalments by a year in each case.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And in the process of manipulating the story-line to accommodate
the main incidents from the book, while providing all that infilling plot and character
development, and while offering a decently spaced succession of cinematic
high-points and dramatic moments for the lead actors, the spirit of the
original is heavily traduced – especially in the motivations and actions of
some beloved characters. We are left with a weak and whinging Frodo; an Aragorn
who doesn’t really want to be king; a proud and cold Théoden; a remarkably
unloveable Éomer; a Gimli who provides little more than comic relief; a Faramir
who is really no more than a weaker but more disciplined version of Boromir; a
rather sparse bunch of Ents who have to be tricked by a sly Hobbit into
declaring war on Saruman; a squad of regimented Elf-solders who turn up out of the blue and are able to be felled by nothing more fell than Orc-arrows; some pretty
unthreatening Nazgûl who do little more than flap around in the sky squawking
like wounded parrots from time to time. I came away wondering whether I would
bother to watch the final episode.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fortunately, much improves in the final movie, ‘The Return
of the King’. Apart from Frodo, whose characterisation never seems to regain
the stature it lost in ‘The Two Towers’, most characters acquire greater gravitas, or purpose,
or strength or warmth or menace as appropriate. Once again a massive attempt is
being made to honour the original novel, and there are moments of great power
and pathos to trancend both earlier episodes. The most serious omission is the
Scouring of the Shire, but as with Tom Bombadil in the FotR, even there one can
see justification in keeping to a manageable overall length and preserving the
dramatic shape of the whole. At least, the final ‘dying fall’ at the Grey
Havens is handled with poignancy and dignity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The tragedy of the movies, I feel, is that a generation is
growing up that will never retain personal mental pictures of Middle Earth that
are free of Peter Jackson’s supervening imagery. I would say to anyone who still has the
opportunity: read the books first, form your own mental pictures, then let
those be the criteria by which you judge the movies. And for those denied the
opportunity to do that, do read the books in any case; there is much to enrich
your heart and mind, even if you can never read the dialogue without hearing Sean
Astin’s Californian hippy take on a rustic English drawl echoing inside your head. </div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-51545147759058273722016-08-05T06:35:00.000-07:002016-08-05T11:04:02.590-07:00THE ENGLISH WITNESS - A Brief Introduction<style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">On the 9<sup>th</sup> April 1973 (I still
have my old passport with the date stamped in it), I arrived in San Sebasti</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">án for the start of a six-month
study placement. It was a marvellous and unforgettable experience. This elegant
resort city, with its beautiful beaches, rugged hinterland and vibrant social
life, was paradise for a couple of dozen language students from a wet and windy university
campus in England’s industrial heartland. Food and drink cost a fraction of what we
were used to at home, and aside from a few hours a day studying we threw
ourselves into socialising with a vengeance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There
was a dark side to the experience, however. San Sebastián was, and is, the
cultural capital of the Basque Country – the beautiful, hospitable but
politically volatile ethnic enclave that straddles the Atlantic border between
France and Spain. In the embittered twilight years of the Franco regime, when suspected
Basque activists could disappear in the night, and where an innocent foreign visitor
could receive a police beating just on suspicion of speaking the forbidden
Basque language, the potential for dire mishap was constantly lurking in the
background. Indeed, and tragically, for decades the region was a byword not for
its beauty or hospitality but for terrorist atrocities. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And most
of us were not the types to keep at a safe distance from local preoccupations.
On the one hand, we were cultural explorers well before the age of the gap year;
we were smitten with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i> of
alien cultures and world-views, and constantly open to new ways of living. But at the same time, most of us still revelled, at least to some extent, in an awareness of our
social, economic and educational superiority over the local people (people with whom we
nevertheless forged close friendships and a great deal of solidarity). That mildly patronising attitude of which some of us were guilty – that rose-tinted perception of a rather simple Ruritanian society to whose threats we ourselves were immune – risked blinding us to the very real dangers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It was
inevitable that some of us would get close to people who were actively engaged
with the region’s deep-seated political tensions, and that one or two might get a little too close for comfort. I know that in my own case,
enamoured as I was with the local culture and not always totally at ease with my lovely colleagues and compatriots,
there was more than one occasion on which things could have taken a dangerous
turn. In later years, I reflected at length on how any one of those rash
moments could have turned out; how they would have affected my subsequent life,
and the person I might have become in one of those parallel universes of causality. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I had long fantasised about setting a novel in that beautiful but potentially deadly setting,
but lacked the literary skills to do so. But over the years business writing, public speaking, teaching, and the successive arrival of children
and grandchildren gave me the confidence to make the attempt. And so it was
that what started out as a more modest memoir and travelogue metamorphosed into
what I have described as “a tense psychological thriller with some quite nasty
bits”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Inevitably,
the traumatised protagonist of the story is largely me. Or perhaps more accurately an
anti-me – a darker, and (I like to think) more dysfunctional version of myself from an alternate reality in which the
ever-present potential for disaster has actually materialised. And the travels and casual encounters of that summer are pretty much as they happened. But at each stage I have explored
how things might have turned out, and what the short- and longer-term
consequences might have been. Strangely, perhaps, the hardest thing of all was allowing characters I had nurtured into life to be bad people and/or to get hurt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">All the
other characters and the main storyline are entirely fictional, and (in
publishing-speak) no resemblance is intended to anyone living or dead. Even certain
places and establishments have been camouflaged or anonymised out of respect
for the privacy of others. However it is possible, given the genesis of this work, that
some of those who shared the author’s real life experiences may be reminded of
real people or their words or actions. As I say in the Author’s Note at the
beginning of the book, I hope they will take any such parallels as a sign of enduring
affection and respect. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who helped to make that phase in my life so memorable, as well as those who have patiently read the manuscript at different stages and given feedback. It's far from perfect, even in my own eyes, but the next one will be better.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/ENGLISH-WITNESS-John-Bailey-ebook/dp/B01JNM8QTW/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1470406014&sr=8-7&keywords=english+witness" target="_blank">THE ENGLISH WITNESS</a> by John C. Bailey is exclusively available via Amazon's Kindle store.</span><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/ENGLISH-WITNESS-John-Bailey-ebook/dp/B01JNM8QTW/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1470404582&sr=8-7&keywords=english+witness" target="_blank">Link to Amazon UK page</a> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Other countries: please search on <b>title</b> from within the Amazon site)</span></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-11563559257047581932016-03-13T06:24:00.000-07:002016-03-20T14:03:58.719-07:00WHAT MAKES SOMEONE A CHRISTIAN?<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><b>(Philippians 3: 4b-14; John 12: 1-8)</b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">What does it mean to call yourself a
Christian? One of the biggest challenges facing the Church today is confusion
as to precisely that. It was the first question I used to ask my students when
they began the study of Christianity: What makes somebody a Christian? Is it
enough to be born in a Christian country? Does being christened as a baby make
you a Christian? Growing up in a Christian family? Going to church on Sundays?
Trying to be a good person? Or is it a matter of what you believe? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">There was little agreement among my
students, and there’s little more among adults – not just outside the Church
but within its ranks as well. And I must be sensitive in what I say, because
people can get quite defensive if their views on a question like this are
challenged. But when St. Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, he was quite
specific as to what it meant to him to be a Christian. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">By way of background, Paul was writing to a
young church whose confidence in their status as authentic Christians had been
badly shaken. They’d come under fire from a group of aggressive “Judaizers”: campaigners
who were trying to draw them back into the caste divisions and the legal and
ritual observances of traditional Judaism. Paul’s method of defence is (predictably enough)
to go on the offensive. He systematically dismisses the grounds on which these
people claim to be holy. And he does so by pulling to pieces his own past life
as a fine upstanding member of the religious establishment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Let me summarise his words, and then we can
look briefly at each phrase in turn: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I
was circumcised on the eighth day, </i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">of
the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. In regard
to the law, a Pharisee. As for zeal, persecuting the church; as for
righteousness based on the law, faultless.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s look at each of these claims:<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span><span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB">He was circumcised as an infant </span></i><span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-GB">(he had undergone the Jewish equivalent of baptism).</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He was of the people of Israel and the tribe of
Benjamin<br />
</span></i><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(he was born into both a holy nation and an important religious clan).</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He was a Pharisee </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(Pharisees had advanced theological
training and an intensely pious lifestyle).</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As for zeal, persecuting the church; as for
righteousness based on the law, faultless</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(speaks for itself).<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In short, Paul pigeon-holes his
younger self as one of the ultimate religious elite. If anyone could ever be a
holy and righteous member of God’s people based on race, nationality, family ties
or religious zeal, then he was that man. But he
goes on to say to savage all these claims (I am abbreviating his words here): <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I consider all these things…a loss compared
with the supreme worth of knowing Jesus as my Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I consider them garbage, that I may
gain Christ…not through any righteousness of my own that comes from the law,
but through faith in Christ.<sup> </sup></i>And he goes on to describe exactly
what that faith in Christ will involve: he wants not just to live like Jesus, but
to experience the same kind of sufferings as Jesus, to undergo the same kind of
martyr’s death as Jesus, and ultimately to experience the same resurrection
from death.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is challenging,
isn’t it? Paul is using deep theological language that may be unsettling to
some people. I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but if I were to ask how
many people here would be happy with a martyr’s death, I wouldn’t expect to be
trampled in the rush. So let’s get one thing straight before we go any further:
only a tiny minority of Christians are ever called to be actual martyrs. And the
real essence of what Paul is calling for, can be summed up in one word: identification. For Paul, only one thing ultimately qualifies somebody to be called a Christian:
a whole-hearted identification with Jesus – not just believing things about
him, not just doing the kind of things he did, but living his life and letting
him live through us, regardless of the cost.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m not
at that point - not by a million miles. Even Paul himself found it an
impossibly tall order. “Not that I’ve already obtained all this,” he admits. “I
haven’t yet arrived at my goal.” But he points to what he can do and what we
can all do: “O<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ne thing I do,” he says. “Forgetting
what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, <sup> </sup>I press on
toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in
Christ Jesus. </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-GB">So what does this mean for us? What makes us Christian? Do we need
to reject our country’s Christian heritage, our parenting, our religious life,
as Paul seems to do in this passage? Certainly not. We’re not engaged, like Paul was, in bitter
controversy for the soul of the infant church. We can be
humbly thankful for the Christian values enshrined in our national and family
history and in our churchmanship. But we don’t have to depend on those things
for our sense of Christian identity. For that, Paul’s words give us a vital
road map: Identifying with Jesus. Forgetting what’s behind. And pressing on
towards the goal – the goal of union with Christ. That is Paul’s roadmap for
living as a Christian, for calling ourselves Christian. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Part of a teacher’s job is coaching students whose motivation is
flagging. And the most important coaching question is this: Where do you want
to be, what do you want to be doing, in 5 years’ time? And the follow-up
questions, once they’d articulated their hopes for the future: What would you
need to do to get there? What weaknesses do you need to address? What obstacles
do you need to overcome now, to get to where you want to be in the future?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I wonder how St. Paul would have answered those
questions. What goals do you think he would have set for himself 6 months or a
year or five years ahead? What would he have seen as the steps he had to take,
the obstacles he’d have to overcome? [...] </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">And what about you and me? That’s a more sensitive
question. But could I ask you to think for a moment? (nobody’s going to ask you
to share your thoughts). What would you wish for yourself a few months or years
from now, particularly in relation to your spiritual life? Perhaps you’re happy
with things the way they are. But I wonder if anyone here senses a hunger or
thirst for something more: for a closer walk with Jesus, a deeper understanding
of God’s purposes, a more prayerful or disciplined life […]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">And then there are the follow-up questions:
How might you get there? What might you need to do? What obstacles might you
need to overcome – things or attitudes that get between you and Jesus? [...]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I’m going to leave you with those
questions. But a word of reassurance before I finish: There are no right or
wrong answers. Thinking back to our reading from John's Gospel, perhaps (whether male or female) you’re
like Mary: someone who loves nothing better than to rest in Jesus’ presence and
express their love for him. Or perhaps you’re more of a Martha, always busy,
always making yourself useful in practical ways. Either way, you are who you are and who
God made you to be. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">But sometimes God sets us to questioning
what we do, as a way of calling us on to new things. And if questions like
these intrigue you, then don’t grapple with them alone. [Our pastoral team]
love to have conversations about things like this, and they can help in all
sorts of ways as you plan your spiritual journey in the months ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Let’s bow our heads in prayer…</span></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-10712428872068668412015-12-03T04:50:00.001-08:002015-12-04T01:26:06.554-08:00BOMBING SYRIA: A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE<style>
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The first thing I had to learn as a trainee teacher is that to
plan anything without a clear set of intended outcomes is a recipe for
disaster. It is a universal truth. Unfortunately, the tendency in politics and increasingly in business is to decide
what you want to do and then see where it leads.</div>
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<br /></div>
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And so, if you want my opinion, the parliamentary decision
to commence bombing in Syria was an error of judgement – an uneasy political
fix driven largely by domestic pressures and short on both strategic and
tactical thinking. </div>
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<br /></div>
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However, that is just my view. The decision has been made
and is already (with a speed that suggests the result was a foregone conclusion) being executed. How should Christians react? Here are
some reflections:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>We should pray. On one level, of course, that’s
stating the obvious. But we need to pray in breadth as well as depth. The
object of prayer is transformation, and our prayers at this time need to be
informed by a knowledge of national and international affairs as well as by our
experience of God’s love and mercy. We should bring to Him not just our fears
but our hopes, not just our people but all people, not just the sins of the
world but the self-centred feelings and desires within ourselves that are part
of the problem. Any transformation of the world has to start within each one of
us.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>As already suggested in the preceding paragraph,
we need to keep ourselves informed. That means watching the news, dipping into a
range of newspapers in print or on line (rather than sticking to the one that
tells us what we want to hear) – in short, digesting a variety of different
interpretations and opinions. This will be precious ballast for our prayer, but
also our armour against the slanted interpretations that we can expect to hear
from politicians, media pundits and religious commentators. It has been said
that the first casualty of war is the truth, and it is only by opening our ears
to different and possibly conflicting versions of the truth that we may grasp
the bigger picture in all its complexity.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>We need to be politically engaged. That message
has not always been popular with Christians, but in this age of moral
relativism we are uniquely equipped and called to be the conscience of the
nation. We may, and indeed should, differ amongst ourselves, but we share a
body of revealed spiritual and moral truth that (like it or not) forms the
ethical foundation of our polity and still permeates the fabric of our society
and governance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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That does not mean, I hasten to add, that
secularists and other faith communities may not equally share in this calling.
In an important sense those voices should function as the Church’s conscience.
We will always have a distinctive viewpoint, and our conscience must be
primarily informed by our own understanding of ultimate truth. However, we have
no right to be tribal about the truth. And every occasion on which we find
ourselves at odds with others of manifest good-will is a prophetic opportunity
to reflect on whether we are still being honest to God. </div>
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<br /></div>
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What might political engagement mean in
practice? While blocking our ears to the siren-call of class, political and cultural
loyalties, we have a duty to make our Voice heard and to call our political
class to account. For now, the die has been cast, but opportunities will arise
in the coming months to assess the viability of our military undertaking and to
challenge our elected and unelected leaders on their conduct. In the meantime
we have a core duty to show Christ’s love to everyone regardless of their faith
or politics. To do less is to abdicate the responsibility we share as part of
God’s incarnate presence in the world.</div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-82899665180831781252015-11-22T05:16:00.000-08:002015-11-22T11:29:21.938-08:00Christ the King: What does Christ's "kingship" mean in an upside-down world?<i>(Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37)</i><br />
<br />
I can’t recall who it was or when it was, but I clearly remember somebody once saying to me - in a somewhat aggrieved tone of voice - “The world is going to hell in a handcart.” I can’t even remember what sequence of world events it was that prompted his outburst. But I’m pretty sure that they didn’t match the horrors that have hit the headlines over the past few months.<br />
<br />
Of course, in one sense people of my generation and later have had it easy. Anyone who can remember the World Wars of the 20th century has lived through horrors on a larger scale than anything that has beset Europe in the 70 years since the fall of Nazi Germany. Four years ago I had the painful privilege of visiting Auschwitz, and that brief exposure to the pitch darkness at the heart of modern European history has left a permanent mark on me.<br />
<br />
Even so, compared with anything experienced since then, and beginning with the horror of the World Trade Centre, events in the news have been so dreadful as to shake some people’s confidence in world order as we know it. How can world peace be maintained, people are asking. In the global village that we all inhabit nowadays? How can the peaceful nations of the world avoid getting sucked into the orbit of regions where there seemingly no hope of peace? How can governments - not least our own government - be expected to steer a wise course between the interests of their own citizens and the harsh realities of the international situation?<br />
<br />
There is hope, however. There was a glimpse of hope just in the eruption of sympathy and resolve that followed the recent atrocity in Paris. But above all, there is hope in the interwoven patterns of divine promise and the human history that we find in Scripture. Indeed, much of the Bible was written in response to times in which it seemed even then the world was going to hell in that proverbial handcart. And as always in Scripture, that offer of hope comes bundled with a challenge to each one of to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Our two readings from Scripture this morning encapsulate both the promise and the challenge extremely well.<br />
<br />
Our first reading came from the book of Revelation, the series of dramatic visions that constitutes the Bible’s grand finale. It’s a difficult book to decode, full of complex symbolism and cataclysmic pictures of the world’s end that there isn’t the time to unravel here. But the author himself was a political prisoner, a victim of persecution. He was writing to giving his readers assurance in a world that seemed to be going to hell in a handcart. And the statements and promises in this passage bear directly on our fears about the present time:<br />
<br />
Firstly, in wishing his readers the grace and peace of God, the author refers to Jesus Christ as the ruler of the kings of the earth. And in the context of the times, the message is clear: However crushingly powerful earthly rulers may appear - and however indecisive, corrupt, even downright evil - they (like us) have a king whose name is Jesus. They will ultimately be accountable to him. And in an age when it’s so unfashionable to believe in a God who intervenes in human affairs, the passage gives us a much needed boost. Indeed, the coming season of Advent isn’t just about remembering the first Christmas; it’s just as much about the Second Coming of Jesus - the time when he will establish his kingdom fully here on earth. <br />
<br />
Every eye will see him, the author promises. All peoples on earth, even those who have been in denial of his authority, will submit to him. For as the passage reminds us, God is the Alpha and Omega of the universe. Or as we would say, the A to Z. The beginning and the end and everything in the middle. There is nothing that escapes him, and it’s through the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations of human history, that God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year. <br />
<br />
The message of Christ’s kingship was driven home further in our Gospel reading, where we hear the words of Jesus himself. He is on trial for his life before Pontius Pilate. “Are you the King of the Jews?” asks his inquisitor. And what a rich question it is - it’s a double edged question. On the one hand, Pilate is asking if the Jews owe Jesus their loyalty - and if so, why are they so keen to bring about his death. And on the other hand the question deals with Jesus’ relationship with the Roman authorities whom Pilate himself represents - is this man an enemy of Rome, to be dealt with as a threat to law and order? <br />
<br />
Jesus’ reply speaks volumes about what is happening in the world, both then and today. And it can be summed up in just seven brief words: “My kingdom is not of this world,” he says (repeat). And in case we miss the depth and richness of Jesus’ responses to Pilate’s interrogation, let me paraphrase them: <i>“You have to see things in their proper perspective, Mr. Pilate. No, I cannot rely on the loyalty and submission I deserve, even from my own people. And neither am I trying to whip up a rebellion against the Empire. Because I am working on a completely different level. Ultimately, you will see that all power and sovereignty is vested in me. But for now, caught as I am in the power vacuum between your people and mine, I am a powerless thing in your hands.” </i>So much depth of meaning in such a simple statement. And that explains a lot. It explains why earthly powers manifest at the best weakness and self-interest, and at worst monstrous barbarity. It explains why all that is allowed to go unchecked. Because we are in a transitional period. Like the people of Middle Earth in the classic Lord of the Rings saga, which was firmly based on a Christian understanding of history, we are living in a time of weak, untrustworthy stewards. We are still waiting for the Return of the King. For a while human weakness and even outright evil have free reign. But the King is coming back. He will appear without warning. And all mankind will see him, in the words of Revelation, even those who pierced him.<br />
<br />
All that is embedded in today’s place in the church calendar - the feast of Christ the King. In another week we’ll reach Advent, a season of repentance and hope when we remember the Lord’s first coming as a powerless servant and look forward with fear and excitement to his return as conquering king. But for now, in this, the last Sunday before Advent - which is also the last Sunday of the church year - we think of Christ as the king who has not yet been fully unveiled in the sight of all the world. But let there be no mistake on the part of his faithful people or on the part of those who deny his lordship. The kingship of Christ will be revealed and established in the sight of all the world. To those of us who are appalled at the ways of the world, it is a comfort but also a challenge. Are we going to be part of the problem, or will we be part of the solution?<br />
<br />
As Pope Pius XI declared at the establishment of this feast around 90 years ago (abbreviated): <i> </i><br />
<i>The faithful, by meditating upon these truths, will gain much strength and courage… If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth…and if this power embraces all men, (then) it’s clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds…He must reign in our wills… He must reign in our hearts… He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments…of justice unto God.”</i>Let us pray…. Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-6785288642063850212015-05-17T04:37:00.000-07:002015-05-17T04:37:28.701-07:00GROWTH IS IN THE CHURCH'S DNA (Easter 7)<i><span style="font-family: Arial;"> (Acts 1: 15-17, 21-26; John 17: 6-19)</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Yesterday, between 30 and 40
of us from across the three parishes came together for an open strategy day
here in church. The main item up for discussion was the future of the Church of
England and our own benefice in particular. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I wonder what you think,
particularly those who couldn’t be here yesterday. How do you imagine our
benefice and the wider church will look in 5 or 10 or 20 years’ time? How many
members will we have? How will we be organised? Will we survive at all in our present
form? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">These are big questions, and
there’s little agreement on the answers. But our local and national leaders are
all too aware that the average age of regular churchgoers is rising steadily.
In their minds (and the logic is difficult to argue with) if our church doesn’t
learn to recruit and retain younger people and families, it could disappear within
a generation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Put in those terms it’s a rather
dispiriting picture. But I believe that history and our Bible readings tell a more
encouraging story – a story not just of survival but of renewed growth. I want
to make three points this morning: </span></div>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">T</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">o express confidence that in God’s good time the
Church will return to growth;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">Based on today’s Gospel reading, to explain and
justify that confidence.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">An</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">d finally, I want to report on an exciting new
initiative to promote growth in our church, in our time.</span></li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I'm confident that the Church will return to
growth. </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The Christian movement started out pitifully small.
Once Jesus had ascended into heaven and the remaining disciples had had a
chance to take stock, our reading from Acts tells us that they numbered about
120. On one level, that’s impressive growth – a tenfold increase on the
original 12 disciples. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">But think of the odds stacked against them: Just 120
people in an isolated backwater of the vast Roman empire, harassed by the
Jewish community from which they’d come, and about to be brutally persecuted by
the Roman authorities. Yet we know that just a few days later on the Day of
Pentecost, the number rose by 3,000. We know that within a generation there
were pockets of Christian belief and worship throughout the Roman Empire. And in
less than three hundred years, Christianity had become its official religion; so
robust that when the Empire finally collapsed the Roman church was left
standing – and it’s still there fifteen centuries later. Christianity is the
biggest mass movement in human history, with total numbers estimated at close
to 3bn - getting on for half the population of the world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">What of more recent times? In the industrialised
west, numbers regularly attending church are at their lowest ebb in history.
But it is church attendance that is ailing, and enormous numbers still see
themselves as Christian. And in other parts of the world, the picture is much
more positive. In Africa, the church has grown colossally, to the point where churches
are sending out missionaries to Europe and America. In China, Christianity was
almost extinguished during the Cultural Revolution, but recently it’s been growing
faster than anywhere in the world. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">In short, growth is deeply embedded in Christianity’s
DNA. And one thing that we can be sure about - sure from history, and sure from
God’s promises in Scripture - is that his Church will keep growing. Not necessarily
in out time, of course, and not necessarily in our neck of the woods; but then
again, perhaps sooner and closer to home than we dare to hope or expect. We
live in a time of searching: searching for faith, for hope, for meaning. The
church has been slow to adapt to the changing needs of the society in which we
live, but as I’ll tell you shortly, there are signs of change.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Why am I so confident that the Church will return to
growth?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Why should this ancient, sprawling, error-prone organisation,
actively disliked as it is by some people, have been able to cheat extinction
with such regularity? We see hints of an answer in our reading from John’s
gospel, where Jesus prays for the church </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I’m sure you didn’t find the passage easy to follow –
I certainly didn’t. But it makes one thing very clear: As the church, we are
something unique, something different from anything else that has ever been. Jesus
prayerfully tells his Father, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me
out of the world.” In other words, although we may be fallible human beings and
the Church has made some dreadful mistakes, the reality is that God has actually
taken us out of the world and given us to Christ. And twice more in this
passage, Jesus declares explicitly of us, “They are not of the world any more
than I am of this world”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Going a stage further into Jesus’ prayer, he makes it
clear over and over again that his followers have a unique relationship with
God:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">”You gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.”
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">Again, “I gave them the words you gave me and they
accepted them.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">“They knew that I came from you, and they believed
that you sent me.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">And last but not least. “As you sent me into the
world, I have sent them into the world.” </span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> That final statement is key. In short, we are here
for a purpose. We are no longer OF the world, but we have been sent back into
it as an integral part of God’s mission to the world in Jesus Christ. And
whatever ups and downs we may go through, as individuals or collectively,
growth is in our DNA.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">3. How can we encourage Church growth here and now</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The Bible and history give
us every reason to hope that the Church will continue to grow. And we’ve spent
some time reflecting on why that should be the case. But we know that the
church can experience setbacks. We‘ve seen it happening violently in Syria and
Lebanon; it has been going on quietly in this country over several decades, to the
point where some have questioned whether a large, broad institution like the
Church of England can survive for much longer. Is there anything we can do to
turn the tide, to restore our church to growth?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The Church of England has
been developing a strategy to address precisely that question. Just a few
days ago, Bishop M. launched a new diocesan initiative designed to promote
church growth, to secure our future in a changing world. And a presentation by
Revd P. on that initiative was at the heart of yesterday’s discussions. There
isn’t the time right now to discuss the contents in detail, and in any event
they will be launched formally in a week’s time at Pentecost. But I can say this much: the
new strategic vision will challenge us, it will challenge every parish in the
diocese, but it will give us the resources, to do several important things: </span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">To take stock of all the things we’re
good at;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">To use the resources we have
more effectively;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">To reflect on how we come
across to the wider community; and </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">To develop fresh ways of
reaching out to them.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The outlook is challenging
but exciting. Far from threatening us with unwanted change, the new strategy
offers us the tools to do what we already do more effectively, to be more truly
ourselves, and to attract new blood. Growth is embedded in the church’s DNA. We
are at last taking coordinated steps to reverse the decades-long decline with
which we’re all too familiar. Over the coming months, we hope to see that growth
potential converted into reality. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Let us pray: Father, as we
prepare to embark on this new journey of discovery…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-83230937980987026362015-04-18T08:59:00.000-07:002015-04-18T08:59:26.692-07:00VOTING WITH OUR FAITH (Easter 3: Luke 16.19-end)<style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve been following the general election campaign very
closely, and simultaneously I’ve been watching developments in the USA as
would-be presidential candidates throw their hats into the ring.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are many similarities politically between the UK and
the USA, but these are eclipsed by enormous differences in both style and
substance. And the biggest difference in my eyes is the role played by
religion. In the USA, the religious right wing constitutes a solid
political bloc. Christian leaders exert immense public pressure on elected
officials and voters. And politicians in turn ignore religious concerns at
their peril.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think our system is safer. With rare exceptions, our
politicians are very coy about their personal beliefs; they know that they have
more to lose than to gain by taking any sort of theological stance; that any
advantage they might gain with one segment of the population by invoking the
name of God, they are likely to lose more ground with another segment. So how should Christians approach voting in an election?
Does one party more fairly represent Christian ethical concerns than another? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think that our reading from Luke’s Gospel gives us a clue.
It’s a disturbing story: one that culminates in a poor man going to heaven and a
rich man going to hell. And it’s been widely misunderstood. Jesus certainly
wasn’t saying that the amount of money we have will determine our eternal
destiny.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what this story does do is stress that the Christian
message has an ethical dimension. It doesn’t just illustrate the social values
that Jesus set out in the Sermon on the Mount; it goes further. It makes clear
that our attitude to the poor and needy, both as individuals and collectively as
a society, is a central aspect of our relationship with God. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Does that truth
imply a responsibility on the part of Christians to vote for a specific
political agenda? Definitely not, and we should not trust anyone who tells us
the contrary. The House of Bishops of the Church of England recently issued
a pastoral letter offering detailed guidance in the run-up to the election.
Even they don’t presume to tell us how to vote, but they make clear what as
Christians we must expect our national leaders to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The letter poses a number of crucial questions:
not just about individual issues but about the kind of country and the kind of
world we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in. <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">To sum up their arguments, they quote this brief passage
from the Letter to the Philippians: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-left: 21.3pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">‘Whatever
is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever
is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there
is anything worthy of praise, think about hese things.’ (Philippians 4:8) </span></span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span></span></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What can we glean from this guidance for our own decision in
the coming election. My conclusion is that our Christian faith rules out three
approaches that I’m afraid are very prevalent in our society: </div>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Our faith doesn’t allow us to be apathetic: to take the
view that our vote is meaningless or that all politicians are interchangeable.
And our faith certainly doesn’t require us to put ourselves above political debate. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Our faith doesn’t make a virtue of voting tribally, as
though we owe a particular party our loyalty through thick and thin, regardless
of their policies or their historical actions. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Our faith certainly doesn’t grant us the luxury of
voting for the party that will do most for folks just like us. We have a duty to vote knowledgeably and for the common good.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In short, our Christian faith cannot tell us which modern political
theory or economic model will ultimately result in the fairest society. But it
does demands that we vote for those we honestly think will do most for the sake
of the common good. And it demands that we call our leaders to account for
their performance in delivering social justice. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s bow our heads, and I will say the prayer from the
Bishops’ pastoral letter</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "SinkinSans","serif";">Lord, we
give thanks for the privileges and responsibilities of living in a democratic
society. Give us wisdom to play our part at election time, that, through the
exercise of each vote, your Kingdom may come closer. Protect us from the sins
of despair and cynicism, guard us against the idols of false utopias and
strengthen us to make politics a noble calling that serves the common good of
all. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-65675845831591887992015-04-01T15:52:00.003-07:002015-04-01T16:25:02.339-07:00JESUS AND SAME-SEX WEDDINGS<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-shore/what-would-jesus-do-if-in_b_480013.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-shore/what-would-jesus-do-if-in_b_480013.html</a><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
When four-and-a-half years ago I shared the above link ("What Would Jesus Do If Invited
To A Gay Wedding") on my Facebook page, there were two swift responses.<br />
<br />
The more dramatic and consequential response was that I was presented by church leadership with an ultimatum that resulted in my withdrawal from preaching and music ministry. Normal service would be resumed in a another town and a more inclusive church a year or so later, but my rejection of the conservative evangelical hermeneutic is now more or less complete.<br />
<br />
The more immediate and less disagreeable response was a gracious and intelligent attempt by a respected Facebook friend to challenge the underlying article. Ultimately I had to reject his conclusions, but he pointed out a rather simplistic aspect of the
author's Christology: The Huffington Post article states that Jesus
said nothing about homosexuality. However, if Jesus is God and if God
authored the Scriptures (both assertions that many Christians
accept) then by a simple syllogism Jesus authored the scriptural
passages that appear to condemn homosexuality along with all other sin. I
have to say that I found this argument itself rather simplistic; it
disregards the wide diversity and the integrity of the many individual
biblical voices. But my friend's next point was harder to dismiss.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
My friend went on to point out that Jesus certainly <span class="text_exposed_show">gathered
together with sinners, but also dealt with their sin. So, in response
to the question whether we should accept an invitation to a homosexual
wedding, he responded that we should do so, as long as our goal is to
love people and share the mystery of the gospel with them. This is a
very sound and reasonable principle, but his practical application was
quite disturbing: "Telling people about their lostness is really the
most loving thing we could do." </span>This was intended, of course, as
a loving application of sound doctrine, and to some extent it tackles
the stereotypical view of an Evengelicalism more concerned with slavish
adherence to rules than with sharing the love of Jesus.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="text_exposed_show">However,
in my view there would be nothing loving about going to someone's wedding and
using it as a means to an end - to preach to them about the sinfulness
of what they are doing - which is what my friend's hermeneutics
ultimately came down to. And it is not just pastorally insensitive but
in my view theologically erroneous.Muslims
regard the Qur'an in Arabic as the perfect word-for-word recitation of
God's word to humanity, to the extent that even the best translation
into another language distorts its intended meaning. In the late 19th
century, initially in the USA, some Evangelicals over-reacted to the
twin-pronged assault on their faith of socialism and liberal theology
and developed a quasi-Islamic insistence on the literal truth of every
jot and tittle of the Bible.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="text_exposed_show">This
was not the view of the early Church Fathers or the original
Evangelical Reformers. Luther believed that parts of the Bible
(especially the wonderful Letter of James, which he dubbed 'a right
strawy epistle') were the result of errors by the early Councils that
selected the canonical books. Saint Augustine of Hippo (the original
source of the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith and the
Calvinist doctrines of predestination and perseverance) believed that
passages of scripture can have up to five levels of figurative, symbolic
and allegorical meaning. I actually think Augustine's approach is
excessively influenced by Greek philosophy, but it helps us reflect on
what Scripture is and what it isn't. To the writers of the New
Testament, there is only one Living Word of God, i.e. Jesus. We have to
regard the whole Bible the way they regarded the Hebrew Scriptures, i.e.
as a divinely inspired but brutally honest, mistakes-and-all record of
how the People of God heard and responded to the presence of God in
their midst in various times and cultural settings. It is precisely in
that light that the N.T. most clearly represents continuity with the
O.T.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
As
far as biblical morality is concerned, most modern Evangelicals accept
that there are both permanent and culturally contingent law<span class="text_exposed_show">s
in the Bible, including both the Torah and the N.T. (for example, few
Evangelicals today would support stoning adulterers to death, although
in some parts of the Middle East this is still the cultural norm).
Clearly, the crucial question is how you differentiate the permanent
from the cultural. And there are two common approaches that in my
opinion are equally flawed: </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">
</span></div>
<ul>
<li>One common approach is to say (as some liberals do, even in quite
serious pamphlets) that since we no longer have a taboo on eating pork
or shellfish, we can no longer support a taboo on homosexuality. This is
simply puerile: it patronises LGBT relationships and cultural identity
in putting them on a par with dietary restrictions and discredits the
strong theological cause that it claims to support. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The other approach is to create an arbitrary distinction between
moral laws (universally binding) and religious ritual laws (only binding
on a particular community, e.g. food taboos). I believe this is
patronising to the coherence and integrity of the Mosaic Dispensation,
and dangerously conducive to eisegesis (i.e. reading one's own beliefs
and prejudices back into one's interpretation and application of the
text).</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span data-jsid="text"><span class="text_exposed_show">Some
kind of ordering of the various laws and moral teachings of the Bible
is essential if we are to use it as a moral guide. But any such ordering
has to do justice to a number of different claims: the philosophical
unity of the Hebrew revelation; the related but distinctive integrity of
the Christian revelation; not least the overarching message of the
Bible as a whole, and the amazing oneness it builds out of seemingly
conflicting themes (e.g. holiness/liberation, unity/diversity,
tribalism/universalism, love/anger, justice/mercy).</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span data-jsid="text"><span class="text_exposed_show"><br />
</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span data-jsid="text"><span class="text_exposed_show">We
each have to make an informed and prayerful judgement on this, but I
believe that one possible starting point is the oft-quoted and widely
misunderstood Galatians 3:26-29.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span data-jsid="text"><span class="text_exposed_show">
</span></span></span></div>
<blockquote>
You are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor
Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs
according to the promise.</blockquote>
The crucial question is,
which of the actions condemned as an abomination in Leviticus are
actually sins, and which are simply social conventions (albeit useful
ones in their original context)? Some are clearly based on moral or
spiritual repugnance (killing, marital infidelity, blasphemy) while
others (e.g. frequent washing, with a taboo on potentially unsafe foods
like pork and shellfish, and a prohibition on non-generative sexual
lifestyles) are based on the needs of the early Yahwistic community in
its historic context. A tiny community of freed slaves in a hostile
environment needs massive social cohesion, a high birthrate and a
healthy populace. In other words, although I bridle at equating
shellfish with Gay love for the reasons set out above, I do not accept
that either is a sin but fully understand how they could have been seen
as a threat to growth, prosperity, security or social harmony in
post-Egyptian Israel.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span data-jsid="text"><span class="text_exposed_show">In
conclusion, while accepting that adultery and promiscuity are
intrinsically sinful regardless of gender (involving as they do betrayal
of trust and the use of other people as a means to an end rather than
an end in themselves), I believe that intolerance of stable, socially
integrated LGBT relationships needs to be consigned to history along
with many other (not just ritual) evils tolerated or even commanded at
various points in salvation history, including slavery, genocide, blood
feud, polygamy, the treatment of women as mere chattels, and the ban
on commensality.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span data-jsid="text"><span class="text_exposed_show"><br />
Finally, while proudly upholding the truth that Jesus is God, we must
remember that the Holy Spirit is also God, and I am personally
convinced (although each person has to make his or her own prayerful
judgement on this) that the prevailing attitude of acceptance regarding
Gay Christians is His doing. We tend to think of the individual as the
basic building block of society. The Jewish and Christian communities of
the Bible saw not the individual but the family as that basic building
block, and would have seen the breakdown of family life today as the
cause rather than just a symptom of the wider social collapse. We have
to ask ourselves, are same-sex family units part of the collapse of
family life, or a powerful restatement of family values at just the time
when they are most needed? I think the latter, and I would gladly
accept the invitation to a Gay wedding, not just to share the Gospel but
also to receive it and to join in their rejoicing along with the
Trinitarian God in whom all joy and peace and fellowship have their
source.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-83338224647093367582015-03-15T12:31:00.000-07:002015-03-15T12:31:18.280-07:00"A SWORD WILL PIERCE YOUR HEART" - Mothering Sunday <div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Exodus 2: 1-10 Luke 2: 33-35<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">It took me a long time to realize that not everyone finds Mothering
Sunday an easy or uplifting time. As a child I used to enjoy making my mum a
card in class, and taking home a little bunch of daffodils from Sunday school.
And as a parent with a young family I loved seeing our own children do the same
for their Mum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">I didn’t begin to see the challenging side of this celebration until I became
a form tutor at a secondary school. For a small rural community college we had a surprising number of children whom “Mothers’ Day” left feeling marginalized or
excluded – not just those whose mothers were deceased or absent, but less
obviously the unhappy few whose relationship with their mother was a source not
of warmth and comfort, but of grief and insecurity. And it worked both ways,
because at almost every parents’ evening I would get a least one mum pouring
out her anguish over her child’s approach to life and agonizing that she must have done something wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">So working with children was an eye-opener. But it wasn’t until three
years ago, when my own mother passed away, that I experienced the poignant
aspect of Mothering Sunday at first hand. I still love it when our
granddaughter goes forward to collect flowers for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">her</i> mum, and I very much appreciate the opportunity to remember my
own mother prayerfully and with gratitude. But it has become a poignant time,
and I can no longer forget the many others for whom today is accompanied by
feelings of loss or grief or even anger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">And so Mothering Sunday isn’t just one of the hardest of days on which
to go to church; it’s also one of the hardest days on which to stand here in
the pulpit and find a message to deliver that will offer something for
everyone: a word of healing for those whose family relationships or memories
are clouded, but above all a word of affirmation and thanksgiving for mothers,
motherhood and parenting in general. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Our Bible readings this morning offer us two possible starting points, rooted in the stories of Moses and Jesus and their
respective mothers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Imagine the horror for Moses’ mother as a slave woman: giving birth to a
son at a time when Egyptian guards were under orders to throw any Jewish boy-babies
into the Nile. She manages to keep him hidden for three months, but she knows
that she can’t keep him safe for much longer. And so, desperately entrusting his
future to God, she lets him go. Fashioning a tiny floating basket, she hides him
in the reeds at the water’s edge. There he is found and rescued by Pharaoh’s
daughter, who unwittingly employs the baby’s own mother as a royal nanny to
raise him to adulthood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">How painful it must have been for the natural mother, when the boy was older, to take him to the princess to be formally adopted as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">her</i> son. But by letting go and trusting
God she had seen him grow up into a young adult. And none of those involved can
have foreseen the consequences: how a mother’s trust and a princess’s kindness
would produce such a powerful leader: one who would be God’s agent in securing
the release of his people from slavery; indeed, a leader who would lay the
foundations not just for Israel’s future, but for the future of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Our short second reading tells us what happened when Mary and Joseph
took the baby Jesus to the Temple for his dedication. It’s nothing like as
dramatic as the story of Moses’ childhood, but the day doesn’t seem to go quite
as expected. It was the equivalent of a modern christening – it ought to have
been a pleasant family event that they would look back on with affection and
pride for years to come. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">But in the event, something unexpected happens. They get accosted by a
couple of elderly prayer warriors – the kind you sometimes find loitering in
cathedrals today. These old people immediately discern that Jesus is someone of
unique importance. One of them begins prophesying about the tribulations that
lie ahead for the little one. And finally he turns to Mary and says, “And a
sword will pierce your own heart also”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">As I read that last sentence, I thought it wouldn’t make a bad title for
this sermon. “A Sword Will Pierce Your Heart”. For many, perhaps most of us,
parenthood will have proved a joy and a blessing – for mums, for dads, and
especially for the children. But for everyone who ever tries to start a family
– whether or not they succeed in their efforts - there’s a health warning on
the side of the package that says, <i>“A Sword Will Pierce Your Heart”. </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Mary herself experienced the agony of watching as an actual spear entered
Jesus’ side, and it must have felt as if her own heart was being pierced. When
we start a family, we can’t predict what form that spear might take for us,
whether it will involve loss, sickness, alienation, or simply the cumulative
impact of a thousand lesser anxieties over health, schooling, family
relationships, career choices, and all the other ups and downs of life parents
and children go through together. And however good our intentions, all parents make mistakes, some of which will haunt them for years. We can only put our
trust in God, and hope for the best.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">For others the pain may come when their efforts to start a family are
unsuccessful, or when they realize that they have missed the opportunity to try. In a perfect world, Mothering Sunday would be a day on which every
single person present is able to join together in giving thanks. But real life
is more complicated than that, and it’s probable that for some people here
today this is difficult territory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">If that describes you, then it’s our prayer that today will be a day of
healing – a day when you feel able to do what Moses’ mother did, when she handed
over to God the things that she could not accomplish by herself. And any
feelings we may be carrying of hurt, of regret, of failure, of unforgiveness, may God take those things into himself and grant us
peace. May you leave here this morning relieved of some of that burden.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">In contrast, for many people here, today will be a day of joy, an
opportunity to count our blessings, to give thanks for those who have loved and
nurtured us, for those who have given us hope and a sense of belonging. In most
cases, those will be our natural parents, especially our mothers. But I’ve
known a number of people who owe their sense of wellbeing to someone else: a grandparent, or an
unrelated person who has been there for them in the long term, supporting and
guiding them through the ups and downs of life. For such people as these, this
is also an opportunity to give thanks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">And that’s the cue for a final challenge to all of us. Remember,
Pharaoh’s daughter became a mother to Moses, and shared all the joy and grief
of his tumultuous coming of age, through nothing more than the kindness of her heart
and the mixed blessing of having been in the right place at the right time. Similarly,
when Jesus was dying on the Cross, he saw his mother Mary and the Apostle John standing
there together, and he encouraged them to act as a mother and son to one
another. Similarly, part of the wonder of this extended church family is the
opportunity we have to act like family to one another: like parents, like grandparents, like children or like siblings; to accept our differences and support one another
through life’s ups and downs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-15662566806015813892015-02-14T05:57:00.000-08:002017-08-06T03:58:36.544-07:00The Mountain and the Desert: From Transfiguration to Lent<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Have you ever had a moment in your life when all the things
going round in your head have just fallen into place? When you’ve seen your
life in a fresh light, and all your old ambitions and expectations for the
future have been turned on their head? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I experienced something like that many years ago, when I had to deliver
a long and complex presentation to senior executives of the company I worked
for. I’d never done anything remotely like that before, and I was expecting it to be professional suicide on a grand scale.
But as I stood in front of that intimidating wall of charcoal pin-striped
suits, in a way I can’t adequately describe or explain, everything came
together. And while they didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm for the business plan I was proposing, it emerged (to my own enormous surprise) that the presentation itself was one of the most effective they’d
seen. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This relatively
undramatic event turned my life plans on their head. Because I couldn’t escape the
conclusion that God had unlocked this hidden skill for a purpose – with the intention that it should be used in his service.
And that realisation was the first step on a journey that led to a major career
change and to the ministry it’s my privilege to have now. The journey is
ongoing, and only God knows where it will lead in the future. But whatever
happens, it’s radically different from anything I had ever imagined before that one pivotal
day in 1993.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mark’s Gospel recounts a much more dramatic moment in the
lives of Peter, James and John that similarly changed their life priorities. Jesus
takes them on a hike up a mountain, where something happens that they can’t
adequately describe or explain. The way they tell it later, Jesus is
transfigured; his appearance changes. For a moment his physical presence seems
to be eclipsed by the dazzling, divine radiance from within. And that’s not the
end of the strangeness. They’re joined by Moses and Elijah, two of the key
figures from the Old Testament: the Lawgiver and the archetypal prophet respectively. Predictably enough, Peter does what he often seems to do
at important moments – he talks nonsense. And he’s rebuked by nothing less than
a voice from Heaven. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What can we say about this magnificent and mysterious experience?
Theologians have been grappling with it for all the centuries since, with little
agreement on exactly what it means. But the first question people tend to ask today is
whether things can <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>really have happened quite
the way the Bible describes them. Or whether there’s a more natural, human explanation
for the story that’s come down to us. And it’s a good question – a legitimate
use of the rational, scientific brains that God gave us, and the sort of
question that religious leaders refused to contemplate for much too long, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In fact there’s compelling evidence that something truly
unique and mysterious did happen up there. But it’s possible for us to look
past the supernatural elements of the story. And far from losing the wonder of
the moment, it helps us see all the more clearly what’s going on in the minds
of Jesus’ companions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Remember, these are men who’ve been following Jesus for
months. They’ve come to love and respect him. They’re in awe of his wisdom and
goodness. And in the case of Peter, he’s already accepted Jesus as the Messiah –
the godly king whose coming was foretold in the Old Testament. But there’s no
clear evidence that James and John are as advanced as Peter in their thinking. And
even Peter himself has yet to grasp fully who and what Jesus is. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All that’s about to change. Because up there on the remote mountaintop they have one of those life experiences that I described at the beginning
– a psychological moment that turns their life and everything they’ve ever
stood for on its head. And what happens in essence is that, for the first time,
they see Jesus in proper context. So far, they’ve seen him as a spiritual
master, a freedom fighter, and perhaps a national leader in waiting – that much
is clear from the Gospel accounts. And they’ve taken pride, not always of the
best sort, in their own status as his inner circle of trusted lieutenants. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But now something happens to make those blinkers of cliquish
pride and self-interest fall from their eyes. And in that moment of blinding vision,
they understand that Jesus is nothing less than the culmination of Israel’s
history: that God is now present in a way that the Law of Moses could only hint
at; present in a way that the great prophets like Elijah always looked forward
to. And in that same moment, they perceive the revised life plan to which God
is calling them: no longer just minions of a regional cult figure, but Apostles
who will carry this astonishing and universal truth out into the world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, if we could look back in time, what would we see happening? A true miracle visible to anyone in the vicinity? Or
three men lost in the throes of a mystical vision? Or was it simply a psychological quantum
leap recounted in religious language? Opinions differ. But whichever view we
take, supernatural or mystical or scientific, the Transfiguration has a vital
relevance to the weeks ahead of us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This coming week sees the beginning of Lent – the weeks
of spiritual preparation leading up to Easter. For many people it will involve
making some kind of sacrifice. This has traditionally taken the form of fasting,
but I know people whose Lenten devotion involves giving up alcohol or smoking
or television or the use of their mobile phone or even social networking sites
like Facebook and Twitter. The point is that for a few weeks we give up
something that makes us feel satisfied, something we have come to depend on for
our comfort and relaxation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we do
our best to replace that familiar source of comfort with something more
reflective and life-enhancing. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In fact it’s not what we give up that matters, but what we
take on in its place. It might involve coming to the Lent course that we’ll be
running once again. Or it may be prayer, or some spiritual reading, or just a
few minutes each day to be ourselves, to look for the face of Christ and listen
for his voice in our own lives. But whatever we choose to do in Lent, we
are symbolically following Jesus out into the wilderness of temptation to share his struggle against the
incessant self-serving demands of our human nature. It can be uncomfortable at
first, as we become more aware of our weaknesses and failings. But for
countless people Lent has changed the whole way they see the world and their
place within it for the better. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And in a real sense, the desert of temptation and the
mountain of transfiguration go together. We spend so much of our lives on
autopilot, getting on with business as usual, that we become blind to Christ’s
transforming presence in our lives. But as our reading from 2 Corinthians
reminds us, God is always ready to<span class="text"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> give us “the light of the knowledge of his glory displayed
in the face of Christ”. </span></span>And it’s in making the space to reflect
and pray that we open ourselves up to a fresh vision of Christ and new
possibilities for our own future. <span class="text"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This may take the form of a dramatic spiritual experience.
More often it involves some very natural event such as I experienced two
decades ago – something that takes us off autopilot for just long enough to </span></span>hear
see and hear things that we’ve been failing to notice. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And one of the most glorious aspects of this story is that
we too are being slowly transfigured – the divine spark that lives in each of
us will become ever more clearly visible as we follow in his footsteps. And it’s
my prayer that this year, Lent will help many of us find the space to discover meet
with Jesus in a fresh and life-enhancing way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-43873957823459186242015-01-30T04:03:00.001-08:002015-01-30T04:24:44.967-08:00Music Review: Stacy Grubb's "From the Barroom to the Steeple"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpPWDPGIYpm4jSCaTwJzqQe0wsG1pOJ8DCllPJRFT6dc36SOzhyNcMKRFT-iD6kbzoosS3uiP6Srhc-r5-1TAyaHbhhsMZ980q6MiVxZnMkF1mXPyNfQZhRJQ7kzJxWaQrwMi6eZb8T49X/s1600/sgbs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpPWDPGIYpm4jSCaTwJzqQe0wsG1pOJ8DCllPJRFT6dc36SOzhyNcMKRFT-iD6kbzoosS3uiP6Srhc-r5-1TAyaHbhhsMZ980q6MiVxZnMkF1mXPyNfQZhRJQ7kzJxWaQrwMi6eZb8T49X/s1600/sgbs.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
It<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> is 5
years almost to the day since I reviewed Stacy Grubb's debut album,
'Hurricane'. "Behind
her pert image and vivacious personality," I wrote, "lurks a deep
Christian thinker, a gifted song-writer, and an outstanding singer who is
already able to command studio support from ace musicians and backing
vocalists. The end result is a perfectly balanced album: thoroughly informed by
bluegrass without being a slave to it. By turns haunting and exuberant, it is
sonically beautiful from start to finish."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Five
years of intense commitment to family life later, Stacy has released a new
album: 'From the Barroom to the Steeple'. The arrangements and production are
deliberately more stripped down but still gorgeous, the songwriting more
assured but still deeply personal, and the style a little closer to pure
bluegrass but still pleasantly inclusive.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Above
all, time has addressed the few flaws in tone and phrasing that were audible on
the debut album, and personal experience of adversity has helped to develop a
deeper spirituality in Stacy's lyrics as well as a more searching and
adventurous melodic scheme. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Stacy's music is not corporate 'product' with vast marketing muscle behind it, but it's available from iTunes and other online retailers and deserves a wider audience.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Thoroughly recommended. </span></span><br />
<br />Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-68680280435753510682015-01-13T05:39:00.002-08:002015-01-15T01:48:42.140-08:00BREAD - All-Age Talk (KS2 and up)<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><b>Resources:</b> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>A small table covered by a white cloth, bearing a plate, a glass and two securely mounted candles</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Bread roll</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Some reddish liquid in a bottle or carafe</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><b>Notes:</b> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The science, history and theology are a little simplistic, but sound in outline. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>There are a few slightly more complex words and ideas that younger listeners may not get. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The interactive questions are optional. Feel free to adapt. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Above all, make it lively.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I wonder if you can guess what I'm going to be talking about. I'm going to give you some clues. As soon as you think you know the answer, put your hand up but don't shout out. (Emphasise the underlined words in the clues):</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">You start
by gathering seeds from a special kind of <u><b>grass</b></u> whose scientific name is
Triticum.</i></li>
<li><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">You grind
up the seeds into powder, then you mix it with <b><u>water</u></b> and a special type of
<b><u>fungus</u></b>, to make a sticky paste. </i></li>
<li><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">The fungus converts the natural sugars in the
paste to <b><u>gas</u></b>, and the mixture swells up with a mass of tiny <b><u>air bubbles</u></b>, becoming soft & spongy.</i></li>
<li><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">Finally,
you put the mixture in a low <b><u>oven</u></b> for an hour or two. Then you <b><u>eat</u></b> it. </i></li>
<li><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">But most
people don’t bother with all this. They just buy it from a <b><u>shop</u></b>.</i></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>Get them to chorus the answer, then put the bread roll on the plate, and light the candles on either side of it.</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Question: Who likes bread? What are some of the ways we eat it? (Optionally prompt for favourite sandwich fillings and related products like pizza and pasta. Be sure to show appreciation for all answers.)<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me tell you something about bread. It’s the most common
kind of food there is. But bread is more than just the world’s favourite food.
It’s nothing less than the foundation on which modern civilisation was built. Does that sound crazy? Let me explain.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before humans discovered how to grow wheat and make bread,
they lived in tiny wandering tribes. It took all their time and energy just
finding enough food to stay alive. But once they knew how to grow wheat and make bread, they
began to settle down, to plant crops, and to build permanent towns. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over time the towns grew into cities. It was no longer
necessary for everybody to spend their time gathering food. The cleverest people had time to gather
knowledge, to research more efficient ways of farming and organising the
community. The long term results of that were science and technology and law and schools…and
us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, bread is so much more than just the world’s favourite food.
Bread was the great invention that allowed lots of other inventions to take place and made a global civilisation possible. It's no surprise then that bread is an important symbol to people. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Question: Can anyone think of a Bible story concerning bread?.... (Feeding the 5000, Temptations, Last Supper, etc.)<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me tell you what I think are the two most important
Bible sayings about bread. The first is where Jesus says: “I am the Bread of
Life”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all I’ve said about bread, about it being the foundation on which everything was built, don’t you think that is a remarkable thing for someone to say? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Question: What
do you think Jesus might have meant by that?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then on the night before he died, at the meal known as
the Last Supper, Jesus told his followers something very surprising: Whenever
you eat bread or drink wine, he said, I want you to think of me. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the night before he died, he took the bread and broke it <b>(tear the roll into several pieces and hold it out)</b> saying, "This is my body, broken for you." <b>(Put the pieces of bread back on the plate, then pour the 'wine' and hold it out) </b>Then he passed the wine round the table, saying, "This is my blood, poured out for you." Then he gave them a command: "Whenever you meet together, do this as a way of remembering me." <b>(Put the glass back on the table)</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just like there are many different types of bread, there are many different types of Christian around the world. But there's one thing we all have in common: When we meet, we still follow Jesus' last command: we share bread and
wine together to help us remember all that Jesus said and did for us – especially
his dying on the Cross. It’s our way of saying, "Jesus, you are the Bread of
Life: the foundation on which our lives and our society are built. You’re as
important to us as food and drink. We worship you and want to follow your
teachings."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And there’s one particular teaching of Jesus that’s really
important to Christians. As you all know, not everyone around the world gets all the food they
need to stay healthy and happy. In fact, thousands of children like you are
dying from hunger every single day from hunger. And Jesus says, if you care
about me, you’ll care about the poor. You’ll make sure they have enough to eat,
enough clothing and shelter to keep warm and dry. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Wouldn’t it be great if every time we ate bread, we
remembered something: It’s not just our bodies that need feeding. We need to
feed our minds and our hearts. For Christians, a big part of that is learning about Jesus and talking to him in prayer. But for all of us, whether or not we're religious, the key thing is to care for one another. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Let's bow our heads in prayer...</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Backup question (if there is time in hand): What sort of things can we do to help people who don’t have enough
to eat?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-86089669325452000872014-11-02T05:23:00.003-08:002014-11-02T05:23:39.206-08:00WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BLESSED? (The Beatitudes/All Saints/All Souls)<style>
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<i><b>(Matthew 5:3-10, Luke 6:20-26) </b></i><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">One of the little thIngs I love about the Church of England is the Lectionary – the schedule of appointed Bible readings for each week of the
year. At a previous church I attended, the Vicar chose the principal readings himself; some favoured passages came up over and over again, while others were never given
an airing in all the years I was there. The Lectionary ensures that over time
we hear the whole Bible on its own terms. That, to my mind, is a good thing. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">All the same, I’m sometimes surprised by the choice
of readings at important church festivals. This weekend is a case in point. However
much it may be overshadowed by the over-commercialised monster-fest that is
modern Halloween, this weekend we are celebrating the important festivals of All
Saints and All Souls: giving thanks for those who have gone before us – the
saints and martyrs, the pastors and teachers, and most especially our own
ancestors and departed loved ones. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">I can think of some admirable Bible readings to
mark the occasion, but this morning the Lectionary takes a different tack: our main
reading was from the Beatitudes: the opening section of the Sermon on the Mount
in which Jesus - rather surprisingly - tells some very unhappy and afflicted
groups of people that they are blessed. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">There is a connection to this special season of the year, but it needs a little digging for. And over the next few minutes, I want to tackle the
following questions:</span><br />
</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">What does it mean to be blessed? </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">What sort of people does Jesus call blessed?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">What might Jesus’ words mean for us,
particularly as we celebrate All Saints and All Souls? </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">So, what does it mean to be blessed? It’s an
important question, because while the word has distinctly religious overtones, most
people (even Christians) use it in a very indistinct sense. When we say “bless
you”, what are we expecting to happen? When we say that something we’ve
experienced was a blessing, what do we mean? </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">In the Bible, the world blessing most commonly denotes
a very specific and elusive kind of happiness: a 360-degree sense of wellbeing
and fulfilment that can only be experienced when certain very specific
conditions are met: </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- when you
and those around you are prospering both materially and spiritually, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- when
you’re living at peace with one another, </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- and when
you and your community are in tune with God’s purposes.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">It’s similar to what philosophers have called the eudaimonia
or the Highest Good. It’s the state of mind and being that God repeatedly promises
to those who obey his commands. It’s the universal goodwill conveyed in the
Middle Eastern greeting of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shalom or
salaam: </i>peace be with you: peace with God, peace with yourself, peace with
others. And while that’s not the only way the word blessing is used in English Bibles, it
is clearly this traditional idea of blessedness that Jesus expected his
listeners to have in mind as they digested his words. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">So, if that is blessing, who can consider
themselves blessed? Jesus took a view that was radically different from that of
his contemporaries. The Temple authorities taught that if you were under God’s
blessing, then it would show in material ways. So if you were successful,
healthy and prosperous, that was proof that you were blessed. If in contrast you
were poor, hungry, diseased, disabled or a victim of misfortune, that was a
sign that God was looking away from you – and that could only mean that you had
been disobedient to his laws. You were excluded from the spiritual life of the
nation.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">All the power structures in Jesus’ society were
built on this precept. Power and holiness were validated by health and wealth.
Jesus’ words and actions were thus political dynamite. No wonder he was seen as
a threat to the established order; he was declaring God’s blessing on those
whom the authorities declared unclean – and by a clear implication pronouncing a
curse on the ruling classes. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Some commentators have made too much of the
differences between Matthew’s account of Jesus’ words and Luke’s. The picture
Luke paints of Jesus <u>is</u> more radical: “Blessed are you who are poor;
Blessed are you who are hungry…” And he utters the curse on ruling classes that
Matthew’s version only hints at: “Woe to you who are rich; woe to your who are
well-fed.” By comparison, Matthew’s version can seem generally less political,
more about people’s spiritual state: “Blessed are the poor <i>in spirit</i>... Blessed
are the humble... Blessed are those who hunger and thirst <i>after righteousness</i>.”
</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">But it’s in taking the two versions together that
we see the true horror of life in Jesus’ time: The people Jesus was reaching
out to were poor in spirit because they were poor; their poverty precluded any hope of
education or spiritual development. They were hungry for justice because they
were unjustly hungry. They were denied comfort because they were disabled, disfigured or in mourning. In each case, their practical hardships excluded them
from the community of faith. And Jesus’ message was, “Come to me. I will give you
the spiritual connection you so urgently need. I will build you into a
community in which together we can tackle your material hardships.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Thus, for Jesus, to bless others is not just to
wish them well but to draw them in: to help them experience the warmth of God’s
love, to include them, to help them meet the practical needs that are prevent
them from seeing God’s purpose fulfilled in their lives. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">And it is in the process of blessing others we are
ourselves blessed. How can we be more blessed? Certainly in praying and reading
the Bible and coming to church; all of these we know already. But surely the
greatest blessing we can experience is in following Jesus’ own example: in
feeding the hungry (e.g. volunteering in a foodbank, sponsoring a child), in liberating the oppressed (e.g. joining justice & peace or advocacy group), in reaching out to the lonely (e.g. hospital or prison visiting), and in
providing companionship to those who are in mourning.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The giving and receiving of blessings takes on a
special meaning as we celebrate All Saints and All Souls. At our All Souls
service this afternoon we will celebrate and give thanks for the blessings that
our departed loved ones have been to us, and recommit ourselves to passing the
same blessings on to new generations. It </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">will be an emotional time for some of those present,
but it was Jesus himself who uttered the words “Blessed are those who mourn”. And
as we join together in thanksgiving and remembrance, many people will find it a
blessing as they have done in the past.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Let us pray…</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
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Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-75902313176451211932014-10-15T16:15:00.003-07:002014-10-15T16:16:29.916-07:00FRIEND, GO UP HIGHER: Pride and Humility<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><b><i>(Luke 14:1-11, Ephesians 4:1-6)</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">My wife and I don’t get to fly very
often, and when we do we book as far ahead as possible - in the hope of getting
decent seats. Of course economy class is much of a muchness wherever you sit.
But on a long, cramped flight just a couple of inches extra legroom, or an
aisle seat, or being able to sit together makes all the difference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">We’ve had our reservation messed around
once or twice, but we’ve never had the experience of someone I know: getting to
his seat only to find it occupied by somebody else – and that someone was very
reluctant to move. If that had happened to me I don’t know how I’d have
reacted. But my friend didn’t hesitate: he doggedly ploughed his way up the
aisle against the tide of struggling humanity to speak to the cabin staff. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">And of course, once he’d done that, the
issue was speedily dealt with. A large and slightly intimidating flight
attendant bore down on the culprit and said, “Excuse me, there seems to be some
confusion over seating. May I see your ticket, please.” And the interloper was
on his way in seconds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">I’d like you to try and imagine it’s you
in the wrong seat. Imagine the impatient flight attendant standing over you.
Picture your fellow passengers craning their necks to see what’s going on as
you gather your bits and pieces together, grinning as you get your bag and coat
down from the overhead locker and shuffle your way back to your allotted seat.
Humiliation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Jesus painted a similar word picture for
the ambitious socialites at a banquet he attended. He saw them jostling for position
at what we’d call the top table, and he gave them a very shrewd piece of
advice: If you really want to impress, don’t make a beeline for the top. Sit
somewhere lower down the pecking order. Then, when the final seating is sorted
out, rather than being evicted from somebody else’s place, everyone will see
you promoted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Good social advice, but is there
anything else to it? After all, it’s not particularly punchy as parables go. In
fact, if the Gospel writer hadn’t said ‘he told them this parable’, then I
wonder how many of us would have noticed that it was one! On the other hand, there
is a twist at the end – just enough of a twist to make clear that this is about
more than just etiquette: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">”For all those
who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be
exalted”.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">And yet, even that seems a rather commonplace
thought, doesn’t it? A thought that’s expressed more punchily elsewhere in Scripture.
“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pride comes before a fall” </i>or “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blessed are the meek”.</i> It’s such a
familiar idea that we could easily miss just how pointed and punishing Jesus’
words are in this particular setting. And in order to see that, we need to go
back to the beginning of the episode.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The story starts when Jesus goes to
dinner with a senior religious leader on the Sabbath. He knows they’re watching
for things they can pick him up on, and no doubt he’s looking for a chance to make
a statement about his priorities. As it happens, there’s a man there with a
distressing medical condition. Jesus knows how rigid his fellow-guests are
about working on the Sabbath. So he asks an outright question. It’s effectively,
“OK, what should I do here guys: follow the rules or do good for somebody.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The sad thing is, when he puts it like
that, he meets a stony silence. In their hearts, they almost certainly know
what’s right. But no one will risk being the first to say it in front of their
peers. So Jesus goes ahead and heals the patient. And can’t you just see them exchanging
smug glances. “Hah!” they’re thinking. “We can tell he’s no holy man.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">So Jesus begins to reason with them. “Come
on,” he says. “There has to be a limit. Suppose you saw a child fall down a
well on the Sabbath, would you leave her there to die for the sake of your
rules.” The answer is obvious, of course. But they can see that this is the
thin end of the wedge, so again they stay silent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">And that’s the point at which Jesus
draws attention to their jostling for the best seats. But it’s not the jostling
itself he focuses on, so much as the pride and self-importance that drive it. Remember,
he’s still tackling the misguided leaders who put rules before people. And here
is what Jesus is saying to them: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">You
are so proud of your ancient traditions that you’re neglecting the amazing
things God is doing right in front of your eyes. A time will come when the
things of which you’ve been so proud will be revealed as worthless, and you
will be humiliated. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In contrast, those
who have humbly embraced what God is doing will be seen as the really important
ones – the true heirs of God’s promises.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">I wonder if Jesus sees a similar inversion
of his priorities in the disagreements shaking the church apart today – the
splits over worship styles, gender, sexuality and so on. He certainly valued the
law and his people’s traditions, but not when they got in the way of healing
and justice. And he demands that our first allegiance should be to him in
person. He won’t accept second place to our religious or ethical traditions. He
won’t be coopted by either traditionalists or reformers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">His words challenge us to think deeply
about whom we are hurting, whom we are oppressing, whom we are excluding, and
what it’s doing to our relationship with God, when we put our causes and
traditions before him and before other people. And whatever we see as our
justification for doing so, whether it’s Scripture or Church tradition or the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, or an exalted view of human rights, we can expect
to look back on our words and actions with shame when we see at last what our
Lord and Saviour is really like.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The Apostle Paul cuts to the heart of
the message in our reading from Ephesians, when he calls us to live in a manner
worthy of our calling. Be humble and gentle, he wrote; be patient. Live in
unity and peace. Because there is one body and one Spirit, one hope for all of
us; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Medium"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue Medium";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-47325218845990626282014-07-13T05:33:00.001-07:002014-07-13T05:34:54.723-07:00WHY "DOUBTING" THOMAS IS SUCH A GREAT ROLE MODEL<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">(John 20:24-29)</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">These aren’t easy times to be a Christian. Of
course, they’re hardly the worst of times, in this country at least. Unlike
earlier generations of British Christians, we don’t face the risk of being imprisoned, tortured, even
burned at the stake for our faith. Nonetheless, even in this relatively safe
country, we do face risks. Plenty of people have paid the price for their
Christian faith in the workplace, their social lives, even their family
relationships. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The pressure on Christians comes from two
angles: firstly from outside. It seems that one of the few things that unites the
secular establishment with some of the diverse micro-communities that make up
modern Britain is their shared antipathy to Christianity. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But for most Christians in our culture, the
most disturbing attacks on our faith are those that come from the inside: the
doubts, the questions, the uncertainties; the cumulative effect of
pronouncements by scientists, philosophers, theologians, historians (sometimes even those within the church); attacks that are not always content with
questioning the existence of a supreme being, and all too often challenge the
intelligence or moral fibre of those who continue to believe. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">What makes matters infinitely worse is the
tendency of some churches to treat honest questions and doubts as a sign of
weakness – something you should be embarrassed about, keep to yourself, or at
best keep on a one-to-one basis with a trusted spiritual adviser. And the upshot?
Large numbers of people are left with a burden of guilt, each asking themselves
why everybody else seems to have so much more faith. I spent many years in an
environment like that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Good reason, then, to give thanks for the
Apostle Thomas – an important figure in the early church to whom popular
history has been rather unkind. Calling somebody a ‘doubting Thomas’ has come
to have quite negative connotations – overtones that Thomas himself does not
deserve. For few if any of us will ever be called to follow directly in the
footsteps of Peter, or Paul, or John, or Stephen. But we could all do worse
than follow the example of Thomas.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And the first thing we learn about Thomas
from this story is that he thinks in a surprisingly modern way. Remember, he
wasn’t around when the risen Jesus first showed himself to the astonished
disciples. And when he hears accounts of the resurrection, he reacts in a very modern
way. Coming back from the dead simply isn’t consistent with his world-view.
It’s easier for him to believe that the other disciples are deluded or perhaps
even lying than to rethink his understanding of the universe so drastically.
And just as scientific modernism has conditioned us to do, he demands first
hand experience as the price of belief.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The second thing we learn about Thomas is
his courage and honesty. He doesn’t go along with the crowd. It would have been
so easy to cover up his doubts for the sake of solidarity or for fear of
rejection. But his integrity is such that he’d rather be disrespected, even </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">ostracised, than live a lie</span><span lang="EN-US">. We’re not told if the others do in fact hold this against him, but
it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that when Jesus appears again, he
gives Thomas the evidence he’s demanded. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And the third and most important thing we
learn about Thomas is his obedience and willingness to change when confronted
by the truth. There’s strong historical evidence that he spread the Gospel as
far eastwards as India, where a community of people known as St. Thomas
Christians still survives to this day. There are differing accounts of his
death, but the most plausible versions have him being martyred around the year
72AD – a faithful disciple to the end.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">However, a question may be going through
some people’s minds. Was Jesus happy with Thomas’ demand for evidence? Or when the
Lord says, “Because you’ve seen me you have believed; blessed are those who
have not seen and yet have believed,” is it some kind of rebuke?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The commentaries I’ve consulted are pretty
much unanimous. There’s no criticism of Thomas here. In fact he’s no weaker
than his colleagues, all of whom owe their belief to an earlier encounter with
the risen Jesus. And it seems that for serious students of Greek, which I’m
not, the emphasis is clearly positive: Something that we could paraphrase as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">”Now you’ve seen me you’ve become believers,
and that’s great in itself, so think how much more blessed all the future
generations will be when they believe without the physical evidence you’ve had.”</i>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">God certainly wants us to be assured in our
faith; that’s why he sends the Holy Spirit. And for all I know, there may be
people here who are hardly ever troubled with doubts and questions. But for the
rest of us, as long as we’re sensitive in our choice of words, we can be open
about our struggles without undermining the faith of others. In fact in my
experience, honesty is the first step in receiving assurance; it will often
help others be open about questions they are already struggling with, and that
can be an important step forward. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Secondly, when we get a fresh insight into
the truth as Thomas did, it’s up to us to respond as he did. We must be
prepared to change our minds and our life goals. Of course we’re not going to
see Jesus in the flesh – at least, not until we get to Heaven – and the kind of
evidence we can expect to receive in this life will be persuasive rather than
conclusive. All the same, God is amazingly generous in showing us his love and
power, and it’s impossible to explain away the evidence that accumulates year
after year in the life of even the most cautious believer. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And here’s the crunch. If we have the right
to be honest about our doubts, we equally have a duty to be forthright about
our certainties. Whatever lingering questions we may have, when the cumulative
evidence stacks up to the point where we are convinced of some great Christian
truth, we mustn’t let the doubts of others reduce us to silence. The response
of Thomas to overwhelming evidence was “My Lord and my God”, and his obedience
to the risen Lord drove him eastwards into adventures that the written records
only hint at. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Jesus response to him was “Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet believe”. His response to us might well be,
“Blessed are you who now believe – go out and make disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-1971541937858328182014-07-13T05:06:00.001-07:002014-07-13T05:06:57.402-07:00PRESENT SUFFERING AND FUTURE GLORY
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>ROMANS 8: 18-23,
35-39</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching RE and
philosophy was educating children about the Holocaust – the dark period in
recent European history in which some ten million people (more than half of them Jewish)
were systematically eliminated.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was what my students gained during these lessons, rather
than the grim subject matter, that made it such a rewarding experience for me
and for them. They were regularly torn between horror and anger, but what
invariably triumphed was an uplifting sense of the goodness and courage and
endurance of which ordinary people are capable under the most terrible
circumstances. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The point is that we focused not so much on the processes
and statistics of genocide – that would indeed have been horrific – but rather
on the quiet heroism of so many people caught up in the horror. Anne Frank,
Oskar Schindler, Maximilian Kolbe… all these stories filled my students with
awe and admiration. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the most powerful resource, and the one that always
affected them most deeply, was “The Hiding Place” – a movie based on the
autobiography of Corrie ten Boom. It offered little of what would normally
appeal to teenagers in a movie – it’s a rather dated production with few action
sequences, little explicit violence and no special effects. But the story and
the leading characters gripped everyone regardless of academic ability or disciplinary
record.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the story opens, Corrie is working alongside her father
and her sister Betsie in the family business – a watch and clock repair shop in
the Dutch city of Haarlem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the Nazis invade the Netherlands and start rounding up
the Jews for deportation, the family’s Christian faith leads them to work with
the Resistance, using their home and their many contacts around the city to
smuggle Jewish fugitives out of danger.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course the Ten Booms know from the outset that it will
only be a matter of time before they are caught, and that in all likelihood
they will die at the hands of the Nazis. And indeed they are quickly betrayed,
and those who survive the raid on their home are taken off to concentration
camps. By the end, every member of the family apart from Corrie herself has paid
the ultimate price.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the amazing thing about this story is that even young
people come away from it challenged and uplifted. Because while it does have
harrowing moments, it’s a story not of defeat but of victory; not of despair
but of dynamic, life-transforming hope even when things seem hopeless. And the
key to the film, the recurring message that comes through time and time again,
is the passage from Romans that we have heard read to us this morning. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These exact verses are part of the Bible reading to which the
family is listening at the time of their arrest. As a squad of soldiers pulls
up outside their home, the camera cuts to the family gathered around the dining
table with their heads bowed. The elderly father, Caspar ten Boom, begins to
read aloud: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I consider that our present
sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”</i>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He continues, all unaware of what is happening out in the
street, and it is just as the front door is smashed in that he reads the famous
words of comfort from later in the chapter: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“In
all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Corrie and her sister Betsie need to keep this magnificent thought
with them as we see them in Ravensbruck concentration camp: intimidated, frozen,
starved, beaten, and in Betsie’s case worked to death from exhaustion and
illness. But the miracle is that the more they suffer, the more in Christ they
are convinced that there must be a higher purpose and a good end to their
suffering. And their hope rubs off onto others, expanding the borders of the
Kingdom of Heaven, as coincidence after apparent coincidence reinforces the
evidence that God is at work even in the hellish confines of a Nazi concentration
camp.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are at least three levels on which these awesome words
in Romans were given meaning in the story of the Ten Boom family: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Firstly, it was this knowledge of the
unconquerable love of God in Christ Jesus that challenged them to risk their
lives for others, and should likewise challenge each one of us to show his love
to others in our homes and workplaces. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Secondly, they took to heart the luminous
promise that opened the reading this morning: that our sufferings in this
present existence are not worth comparing with the glory that we can look
forward to. This confidence endured through all that they suffered, and gave
them a sense of peace and a purposeful attitude that transformed the experience
of those around them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>And thirdly, this self-same acceptance of
suffering and loss as an inevitable part of our present existence enabled
Corrie to look back on her ordeal without bitterness. Over the rest of her long
life she travelled the world, visiting over 60 countries, preaching a message
of hope, trust, and (incredibly) forgiveness. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As we kneel together at the altar rail on this “Sea” Sunday,
focusing our minds on Christ’s body broken for us, and his blood spilled for
us, it’s fitting to hope that may we be given the strength to endure the storms
and billows of life in this suffering world. But may we, like the Ten Boom
family, also be inspired to help others and freely forgive as God has forgiven
us. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And finally, if anyone finds these words an encouragement,
then God grant that we may tell others. Our stories of the power of the living
Jesus to change lives have extraordinary power to draw people towards a saving
faith of their own. It was Betsie’s dying words that inspired Corrie to take up
her ministry of peace and reconciliation after the War: “We must tell people
what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that
He is not deeper still.” And the final whisper: “They will listen to us…because
we were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">here</i>."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-63490665046560149442014-06-22T05:20:00.001-07:002014-06-22T05:20:31.763-07:00JESUS' BAPTISM AND THE HOLY TRINITY<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-US">SERMON FOR A BAPTISMAL SERVICE ON THE 1st SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>(Matthew 3: 1-2, 4-6, 13-17)<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This ought to have been a difficult sermon
to write. Our theme for today - the Holy Trinity – is a notoriously challenging
subject to preach on. And this is a baptism service – a time of celebration in
which people don’t expect s lot of dry theory but a lively message with some practical
bearing on their lives. Fortunately, the Bible contains a story tailor-made for
an event like this. It’s the story of Jesus’ own baptism, which was read to us
earlier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">My starter question is this, and I’ll give
you a couple of moments to think about it before I carry on: How many
characters are involved in the story?.....<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Let’s go through the possibilities in order
of appearance:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ol>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">First, there’s John the Baptist
– a hermit who lived out by the river Jordan – someone to whom the confused
people of the day were coming in droves to feel the touch of the sacred and to
find peace.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">Secondly, there’s Jesus – a
carpenter from Nazareth, struggling perhaps with his own destiny, but soon to
build up a following of his own.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">Thirdly, there’s something
referred to as <i>the Spirit of God</i> – a mysterious presence sensed floating down from
Heaven and settling on Jesus almost like a dove.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">Then, finally, there is God as
people traditionally imagine him, a disembodied voice from heaven, proudly declaring
Jesus to be his Son.</span></li>
</ol>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Four main characters. Four players, in a
story that records the first Christian baptism…or so it would appear. But, I
want to put a different interpretation to you. I want to suggest that in
substance there are only really two players in the story: firstly John the
Baptist, and secondly God. That the main point of the story is not the first baptism,
but the first revelation to humanity of God as three distinct Persons: Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It would take a much later generation of
Christians to develop the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as we know it today. But
even as the very first generation of Christians wrote the Gospels, they were
understanding God in a new and radical way, in a total break with the past: not
as a distant, solitary, unknowable ruler, but as a complex interplay of
personalities seeking to draw humanity itself into their loving circle of fellowship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It’s impossible to overstate how novel and
politically dangerous this vision was. According to the Jewish religion in
which Jesus grew up, God is One in every sense of the word: solitary, unique, inaccessible,
and dangerously holy. Again and again in the OT, God is depicted as so holy
that just to glimpse him results in instant death. Such was their fear of this awesome<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>being, they did what you would do if you
found an exposed live wire in your house. They insulated themselves against it,
representing his presence on earth with a tiny, secluded shrine, surrounded
with stone walls and guarded by an all-powerful priesthood. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Then Jesus appeared, and he was like nobody
the people had ever met before. And as they felt his love and power moving in
their lives, they had an extraordinary realization. Meeting Jesus was
indistinguishable from meeting God. The divine presence that had been hidden away
for so long was out in the open, accessible to everybody, welcoming rather than
threatening. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Then when Jesus finally left them, they experienced
the most remarkable thing of all: they felt the Spirit of God come down on all
of them at once – in much the same way as it had descended on Jesus as he stood
in the river for baptism. It was like being set on fire by a supernatural force.
And amazingly, they found that they no longer needed the physical presence of
Jesus any more than they had needed the Temple when he was with them. In the
power of this Holy Spirit, in order to find God, all they had to do was look
into themselves or across at one another. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This discovery was dynamite in the first
century – it turned the world upside down. And it’s dynamite for us today. It
tells us that Jesus is unlike any other mystic or religious leader in history. The
truth we in the Church celebrate and safeguard is this: the God of Eternity has
personally come to dwell with and within the human race. It started with the
person of Jesus, who came to earth and left us with the perfect example of how
to live lives pleasing to God. But as we’ve seen, that was only beginning. When
we turn from our past lives to follow Jesus, when we submit to the waters of
baptism, the same Holy Spirit of God that descended on Jesus comes down to take
up residence in each one of us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Heaven knows we’re not worthy of him.
Heaven knows the church has been going through tough times. It consists, after
all, of weak, fallible human beings who rarely if ever live up to Jesus’
teaching and example. But here is the crunch: If you want to see God, look
around you. Look one or two of your fellow worshippers in the eye…God’s
presence is as real as if the person sitting next to you was Jesus himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">[Names of baptismal candidates]: In baptism
you are uniting yourself not just with a lot of beautiful old buildings, not
just with a group of well-meaning but flawed people, not just with a social
cult built on old hymns and rituals. You are uniting yourself with the
historical Jesus of Nazareth, and with the Spirit he left behind when he
returned to heaven. In short, you yourselves in baptism are becoming vessels
for God’s transforming presence on earth. We hope that over time you’ll join
with us in exploring what that means for the way we live our lives, but above
all we hope you’ll enjoy being part of this enlarged Christian family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s bow our heads in prayer…</div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-1909790671182649852014-04-18T04:00:00.000-07:002014-04-18T04:07:09.996-07:00PALM SUNDAY? SO WHAT?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Matthew 21:1-13</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">21 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of
Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">2 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">saying
to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey
tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">3 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he
will send them right away.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">4 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">This
took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">5 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">“Say to Daughter Zion, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Courier; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Courier; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">and on a colt, the foal of a
donkey.’”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">6 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">The
disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">7 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them
for Jesus to sit on. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">8 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">A
very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches
from the trees and spread them on the road. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">9 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">“Hosanna to the Son of David!” </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord!” </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">10 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">When
Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">11 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">The
crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">12 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and
selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches
of those selling doves. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">13 </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">“It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will
be called a house of prayer,’</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">[<span style="color: #510c01;">e</span>]</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"> but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm;">
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">What I'm about to say is a sad reflection on the
churches I attended earlier in my Christian life. But I have to confess that I reached my fifties - even completing my training as a Lay Minister - without having more than a
vague idea of what Palm Sunday is really about.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">I knew the Bible story, of course: Jesus entering
Jerusalem riding on a donkey, the crowds scattering palm fronds along the road
and shouting 'Hosanna'. And I knew that by coming Jerusalem he was effectively
sealing his own fate. But I never had a chance to think about what those events
really meant for Jesus, for the Church, and for me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">Part of the problem was that the churches I went
to wanted to safeguard a very supernatural view of OT prophecy. When we read a
prophecy like Zechariah’s…</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold,
your King comes unto you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding
upon a donkey…</span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">...we wanted to be swept off our feet by its accuracy
as a prediction of the future. We were closed to the idea that Jesus might have
been savvy enough to read the OT for himself and deliberately model his actions
on them – and in the process we closed our ears to the message Jesus wanted people to hear.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">Prophecy is certainly God-breathed, but its relationship to Jesus' earthly ministry was nonetheless bi-directional in nature. In other words, the Old Testament prophets were inspired to reveal something of how God's plan would unfold. But when Jesus came he understood the old writings in a unique way, and he modelled his teaching and actions on them. And what becomes clear when we look at Jesus’ words and actions is
the astonishing clarity, and the penetrating wit and intelligence, with which he
communicated his agenda—by </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">drawing on the stories and symbols and imagery in
which his Hebrew listeners had been immersed since birth.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">And what is startlingly clear from the story of the 'triumphal entry' to Jerusalem is
that Jesus was setting up a crisis in the lives of all who saw and heard him –
especially the self-styled men in authority. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">First, everyone would have recognised the message
wrapped up in the donkey procession: Jesus was declaring himself as a scriptural
king, entering to take possession of the city that was his by right. It was a
brilliant, subversive statement about the illegitimacy of the political and
religious elite who governed the holy city.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">But then, what was his first action after the
triumphal entry? No one could fail to grasp the point of his physical and
verbal assault on the corrupt Temple establishment. The overturning of the
tables is an integral part of the Palm Sunday story. It’s almost always left
out of our seasonal pattern of readings. But to separate the two halves of the
story is to miss the meaning of the whole narrative. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">Jesus is presenting the leaders and people with a
stark two-way choice: Accept me or kill me. And in that ultra-sensitive
political environment, we can be sure there was no third alternative. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">In short, he was challenging the political and
religious establishment head-on. And as I’m sure he expected, the authorities
clung to their rarefied, privileged status. They inevitably took what seemed the
easy way out and sought his death.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">In so doing, they sidelined themselves from God’s
plan for humanity. But unwittingly, they also aided and abetted Jesus’ master
plan. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">For in the years following his death, we see the
Temple itself – the supreme pre-Christian symbol of God’s presence in the world
– become an irrelevance. The vessel for God’s presence on earth is no longer to
be seen as a building of wood, metal and stone, but a living body: initially
Jesus’ own, then after Pentecost the entire spirit-filled people of Christ.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">Stepping forward two thousand years to the
present day, Jesus presents the world with the same two-way choice. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In five days’ time, on Good Friday, we
mournfully reflect on the consequence for Jesus: his agonising death on the
Cross. Then, two days later, we celebrate the victory and vindication of those
who made and who continue to make the right choice – accepting Jesus as king
and joining him in his exaltation to eternal life. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">And the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">deep message of Palm Sunday is a
challenge to accept him as king. For let us make no mistake, the choice
confronting the world now is as stark as that which faced the people of Jesus’
own time. Now, as then, he comes to us as our rightful king, and no less a king
for all that he presents himself in humility. And the choice is the same: to accept
him as king, or to be accessories in his unjust suffering and death.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">This year, as every year, we’re likely to see new
faces in church over Easter. For some of those new faces, this will be a
one-off event; others may start to come regularly. And all will receive a warm
welcome. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">But let us not forget what is going on in the
lives of these visitors. They are being brought to a place in their lives where
the road ahead of them divides. There is no third way ahead: they are faced
with a choice of accepting the rule of Christ or rejecting him.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course, everyone travels at their own pace,
and some who walk away from Jesus this year may embrace him next year or next
decade. But let us think solemnly of the crisis of identity that looms over
everyone of those visitors. And let us commit ourselves to two goals:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">To reaffirm our own
acceptance of Christ as Lord and King.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
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<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">To live up to his teaching,
so that no one hovering on the brink of turning to Christ may be put off at the
last minute by our un-Christ-like behaviour.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-39625175344922152882014-01-05T07:50:00.004-08:002014-01-05T07:50:58.059-08:00ALL AGE EPIPHANY TALK WITH EASTER EGGS
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I’m hiding something in my pocket as a visual aid for what I
have to say. It’s only small, and you may find it rather surprising, but it’s
particularly apt for today: the twelfth and final day of Christmas and the Eve
of Epiphany. Epiphany, remember, is when we remember the Three Wise Men and
their gifts, and when we celebrate the truth that Jesus is God in human form.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I'll reveal my secret object in a minute or two, but first let me run
through three things that you may <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wrongly</i>
be expecting me to bring out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Firstly, I won’t be holding up a lump of gold. Of course, that
would have been a great visual aid. Gold was and still is the gift of kings. And
when the Wise Men held out their gift of gold to Baby Jesus,
they were saying something very special: “However tiny you are, and however wrong a place this filthy stable is for you to be, you are a true king, and you are worthy to receive this gift of kings.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second, I’m not carrying any myrrh. That too would have been
a brilliant visual aid and a fragrant one as well. Myrrh is an aromatic potion
that was used to prevent the spread of infection and mask the smell of death
and decay. And by presenting Jesus with myrrh they were symbolically anointing
him for death and burial.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And finally, it’s not frankincense. That would have been another
great visual aid, because for thousands of years and in many different cultures
across the globe, incense has been the traditional offering to a deity. And in presenting
the infant king with such a gift, the Wise Men were saying, “You are are not
just a king; you are God himself come to earth in human form.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, if it’s not gold, myrrh or frankincense, what have I got
in my pockitses? Well, today we do celebrate the visit of the Wise Men. And
tomorrow is Epiphany, when we celebrate the central truth of Christmas – the
truth to which their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh bear witness: the
truth that Jesus is God come to earth to live and die as one of us. But the real message comes down to this: The party’s over.
It’s time to take down the decorations, vacuum up the pine needles, consign the
turkey leftovers to the freezer or better still the dustbin, and let the Baby
Jesus grow up into a man. And here at last is the little epiphany – the word
means revelation – that I promised earlier </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Speaker holds up a chocolate egg (I bought 15 Cadbury's Crème Eggs from the supermarket at 3 for £1).</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A friend of mine has been complaining bitterly that Easter eggs
are already in some of the shops. Actually, I think that’s quite helpful symbolism.
Of course, there’s nothing exclusively Christian about chocolate eggs, but they do symbolise new life. And they do help us remember that once Christmas is
over, Easter is (theologically as well as on the calendar) just around the
corner. And as Christmas makes way for Epiphany, this is the point where we have to leave our mental pictures of
Baby Jesus behind and focus afresh on the grown-up God-Man who died
to bring us new life. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are enough of these in a bowl at the back for each of the children to
take one, and perhaps a few left over for grown-ups. And as you eat them, please remember the truth they represent: that the Christmas story
ends with Easter. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-70484814662884620522013-12-01T10:10:00.001-08:002013-12-02T03:28:47.882-08:00ADVENT: IT'S ABOUT MORE THAN CHOCOLATE CALENDARS<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This year, for the first time in many years,
Kate and I have had the joy of taking a toddler out shopping in the run-up to
Christmas. And mostly it really has been a joy – there’s nothing in the world
quite as photogenic as a two year old with her eyes wide with fascination at
all the festive shapes and colours and lights of a shopping mall in full
seasonal swing. On the other hand, it’s not so nice seeing their excitement and
expectations manipulated to fever pitch when Christmas is still two months
away. It makes for a very long autumn!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">At last, thankfully, we’ve arrived at the
First Sunday of Advent. That doesn’t help to offset the sheer tackiness of the
commercial build up to Christmas - indeed to our granddaughter it's mostly about opening the windows on her chocolate Advent calendar. But, let me hasten to add, her calendar has a Nativity theme - not Santa Claus, not Walt Disney, not The Simpsons, but Jesus. And the start of Advent does give us as Christians the moment to
assert some kind of ownership of the season: To visibly and publicly prepare
for our own Christmas, and to remind the world that Jesus is the Reason for the
Season. Jesus, not Santa Claus, not Walt Disney, not Coca-Cola or John Lewis, not the winter solstice, and certainly not the
corporate profit and loss account.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">So, Advent has officially begun. But what
does that mean for us? By the time I’d been a regular churchgoer for a few
months, Christmas and Easter and Pentecost and even Lent all meant something to
me. But it was years before I cottoned on to the meaning of Advent. Of course I
knew it was a time of looking forward to Christmas, but it’s also a time of
looking backward. In fact, if we really want to get the full flavour of Advent
we have to do one of those double-takes so beloved of cartoon artists: Forward-Backward-Forward
is how it goes. Confused? Let me enlarge on that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The obvious starting point <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> that we’re looking forward to
Christmas. And today, with or without the aid of a chocolate Advent calendar, we start the countdown: 24 days during which we prepare to
celebrate the birth of Jesus – the stupendous event in which the infinite and
eternal God broke into our space-time universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And Christmas certainly needs preparation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Firstly, practical preparation. Nobody has
found this an easy year financially, but most of us will do what we can to
decorate our homes and churches and work places, to send greetings and possibly
buy gifts, and maybe to turn up our socializing a notch or two. So a lot of
physical preparation is called for. But Christmas also requires spiritual
preparation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a dimension that can
easily get lost in the hustle and bustle, but for Christians the build-up to
Christmas has always been about spiritual growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a time to repent of our past offences
and commit ourselves afresh to living as though God really was about to come
into our world for the first time. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">So the first thing we do in Advent is to
look forward to each Christmas and make preparations. But we also have to look
backwards – not just to the events of that first Christmas 20 centuries ago,
but to the centuries of Jewish dealings with God that led up to it. How can we
grasp the life-changing, world-changing impact of Christ’s birth if we don’t
reflect on what it meant to his contemporaries? And so, over the next few
Sundays we’ll be looking again at the ancient teachings, especially the
majestic Old Testament prophecies that foretell and explain the coming of the Messiah.
One such passage is the reading from Isaiah we heard earlier (Isaiah 2:1-5). It
looks forward to a time scarcely imaginable to the pre-Christian world: where
God will once again be present on earth. In that day, his Law and his glory
will be revealed not just to a single chosen people but to all the world, and
all the world will experience a new era of peace and goodwill to all humanity
under the Messiah’s banner. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Sadly though, when we look around the world
we don’t see the reign of peace of goodwill. Rather, we see a world
characterised by conflict, suffering and greed. And so, it’s not enough to look
forward to Christmas, or back to the Nativity and the glorious promises in
Scripture. We have to look forward again, not just to next Christmas or to
Christmasses future, but to the time known only to the God the Father at which
Christ will be sent back into the world to put it right. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And fittingly, Advent has always been a time
for thinking about the Second Coming of Christ.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Bible passages about the Second Coming are invariably
difficult - full of dense symbolism, and I’m not going to fall into the trap of
trying to unpack them in detail. However, I can make two brief points with
confidence:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Firstly, the Bible makes clear when Jesus
comes again, it will be utterly unexpected – so unexpected that not even Jesus knows
when it will happen. And to convey just how unexpected and shocking it will be,
he uses some vivid and slightly unsettling illustrations. For example, people
don’t expect their houses to be broken into. We normally lock up at night, of
course, and most of us insure our possessions, because we don’t take our
security for granted. But an actual burglary always comes as a surprise and a shock
to the victims. And in our Gospel reading this morning (Matthew 24: 36-44), Jesus
says that when he comes again it will be as unexpected and shocking as a thief
in the night. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And here’s another thing we can be sure of about
the Second Coming: it represents a challenge to the way we live out our faith here
and now. Two thousand years ago, Jesus came for the first time, inaugurated a
new heavenly kingdom on earth and empowered the Church to carry on his work. We’ve
had two thousand years in which to build on the foundations he laid, and in
spite of some key advances the world is still a mess. Perhaps we have another
two thousand years, or for all we know Christ could come again any day now. And
he has promised that he will come not as a vulnerable infant but as a
conquering king, to eliminate conflict and suffering from the world and establish
his kingly rule forever. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When Christ comes again, whether it’s not
for five thousand years or whether it’s tonight, what will he find? All our
work will be seen for what it is. How much of it will prove good enough for him
to build on? How much will be blown away like chaff? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And so, at Advent we look forward and
backward and forward again. We reflect on our past successes and failures, both
as individuals and as the church. We look forward to tasting again at Christmas
something of the joy and excitement of Christ’s first coming. And we commit
ourselves once again to pushing out the boundaries of his kingdom in the light
of the glory that will be fully revealed only when he comes again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As Christmas draws ever nearer, may the
excitement and the joy and the peace and the challenge of the season fill our
hearts, and may we commit ourselves afresh to doing Christ’s work in the
challenging months ahead.</span></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-84113336443121665642013-11-03T04:47:00.002-08:002013-11-03T05:36:58.404-08:00THE HOPE TO WHICH HE HAS CALLED US (All Saints & All Souls Day)<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><i>(Ephesians 1: 11-23)</i></b></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I wonder how many people here know that Thursday this week (31st October) was Reformation Day. It’s not called that in the Church of England calendar. It’s officially the festival of Martin Luther – the German monk whose protests against the Church of Rome in the 16th century sparked off the Protestant movement. But in the Protestant churches of continental Europe and the USA, Reformation Day is a major event, and in parts of America it offers a lively alternative to the big secular spookfest that is Halloween.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here in the Church of England (and Chichester Diocese in particular) the <i>historical</i> Reformation (with a capital R) has not been seen as quite such an unalloyed blessing. But Anglicans of every persuasion can join together in celebrating the theme of reformation and renewal as ongoing processes in the church and in individual lives. It’s a time to think about the changes God is able to bring about in us through the Gospel and inner work of the Holy Spirit.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This reflection on inner transformation is timely, because it helps prepare us for the deeper meditations of All Saints and All Souls that we have been observing since the beginning of November. Firstly, this is a time when the worldwide church thinks about itself and its place in history. Some find it helpful to meditate on the difference between the church as we see it (sometimes referred to as the Church Militant) - struggling with persecution, apathy and its own internal human failings - and the church as God sees it: the triumphant and resplendent bride of Christ. But more importantly for us here today, the conjoined festivals of All Saints and All Souls provide an opportunity to bring those loved ones who are no longer with us reverently, affectionately and prayerfully to mind.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When St. Paul wrote to reassure and encourage the Christian community he had planted in Ephesus, he addressed both aspects - the struggling church and the problem of human suffering and loss. There’s not time to go through this morning’s entire reading from the letter to the Ephesians, but we can look at the centrepiece of Paul’s exhortation: the concise and eloquent prayer in which he asks God to give his people a deeper understanding of just what they have inherited as members of the Church of Jesus Christ:</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know (1) the hope to which he has called you, (2) the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">and (3) his incomparably great power for us who believe.” There are three things there that Paul prays for God to implant firmly in people’s minds. Let’s look at each of them in turn and apply them to our own situation.</span></i></b></blockquote>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Firstly, Paul wants us to know the hope to which God has called us. </b>Now "hope" may sound a bit wishy-washy, but that’s just the way we tend to use the word in modern English - for a vague wish that is probably going to end in disappointment: "I hope it doesn’t rain at the weekend," or "I hope your Auntie Mabel isn’t coming for Christmas dinner again." But the word the Bible writers use indicates something quite different: When they talk about hope, they mean a <i>confident expectation</i> based on past experience. And in the case of God, past experience shows that he is unfailingly faithful to his promises in Scripture. God never promises that we will not suffer tragedy or loss, and when it happens, he never promises that it won’t hurt. On the contrary, God himself in the person of Jesus weeps when confronted with the death of his friend Lazarus. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">And yet God does promise comfort. He does promise that we will eventually come to discern and rejoice in his wisdom. Above all, he promises that all things will work together for good in the lives of those who trust him; he promises that good can ultimately come of tragedy, even as it did for humanity in the aftermath of Jesus’ own suffering and death. So, in summary, Paul wants us to know the confident hope to which God has called us.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>S</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>econdly, Paul wants us to know the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in us, his holy people. </b>Getting to grips with their inheritance was crucial for the Ephesian Christians he was writing to, because so many of them were Gentiles who had come into the Church with no awareness of the hundreds of years of God’s gracious dealings with the nation of Israel before them. Put simply, they didn’t know God’s track record: all the love he’d shown to his people, the crises he’d faithfully brought them through. And we too, regularly, blind ourselves to God’s track record by ignoring our inheritance as the church. It’s easy to miss the relevance of Christian art, music and writing to our modern lives. But if we do set aside all that: the stories of saints and martyrs, the poetry and paintings, the music, the philosophical and devotional writings - we cut ourselves off from the testimony our ancestors have left behind to the saving and live-giving activity of God down through the ages. By ignoring the riches of this glorious inheritance, we impoverish and weaken ourselves when it comes to dealing with adversity and loss. But to look on the positive side, we need do no more than scratch the surface of that inheritance to find overwhelming evidence of God’s faithfulness in transforming the direst of situations.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Thirdly and finally</b>, having reminded us of the hope to which we’ve been called and the riches of our inheritance, <b>Paul wants us to know God’s incomparably great power for us who believe.</b> And he goes on to characterise and give the measure of that power. Imagine, he says, the kind of awesome power it took to raise the crucified Jesus from the dead and seat him in Lordship over the universe. That, he says, is the same power God exerts in the lives of those who believe: to renew them, give them new life, reconstruct them when life’s adversity has left them feeling destroyed. If the horrific suffering and death of Jesus - the very creator of the universe - can be the gateway to new life and hope, is there any situation imaginable that can’t be rescued from despair by the working of that same resurrection power?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">In conclusion, </span><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">while nothing can assuage the grief of those who have lost a loved one, we in the </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">worldwide Christian family </span><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">have this season of reflection every autumn. We try to turn our backs on the cheap, commercial flurry of monster costumes and fireworks, and to focus on the real meaning of death and loss and hope and new life. We give thanks for those we have loved and see no more. We meditate on the hope to which God has called us. We embrace the God’s promises in Scripture and the astonishing faithfulness to which the cultural inheritance of the church bears witness. And we await the reworking in our own lives of the mighty resurrection power that brought Jesus back from the dead to place him in sovereignty over the universe that was created through him. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This afternoon at 4.00pm, there will be a service here in church at which we remember our departed loved ones by name, and we hope many will come to share the celebration of their memory. But in the meantime, whether you are still grieving the loss of loved ones, or are now at a stage where you can give thanks with peace in your heart for all they meant to you, you can be assured that across the world right at this moment there are millions of Christians standing alongside you in prayer…. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Let’s bow our heads in a prayer of our own….</span></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-11142411696706376022013-10-19T06:52:00.000-07:002013-10-20T12:14:49.037-07:00THE PUSHY NEIGHBOUR (drama sketch)<style>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">THE PUSHY NEIGHBOUR (Luke 11:5-13)</span></u></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Characters:</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Narrator</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> (in pulpit)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- The Father </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(Zack. Could also be mother, e.g. Rebecca, depending on gender of actor)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- The Neighbour </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(David, speaks from offstage. An Eric Idle type, wheedling
and a bit nerdy)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Several children </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(mostly non-speaking extras, names intercheangeable)</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Props: </span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Sleeping bags or duvets on the
floor beside the organ or other obstruction.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">_______________________________________________</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Scene: A tiny one-bedroom
flat. Sleeping bags litter the floor.</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Enter the Father, visibly weary as he gently ushers in a number of
children. As the Narrator sets the scene, they make their way to the bedding,
where the Father starts getting the children into bed.</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Narrator: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is midnight in Zack’s tiny
one-bedroom flat, and he and his children are very, very tired. It’s a hard
life for a single Dad. He’s been at work all day and half the night, earning
money to feed them. And he’s already had a rocket from the child-minder for
picking them up so late. </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Narrator sinks down into the pulpit. (An older or less flexible person
could alternatively turn 180 degrees so that his/her back is to the
congregation.)</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Father:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[Tiredly]</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Come on all of you. No, nothing more to eat, Joshua,
it’s bedtime now. No, you’ve had a drink, Mary. Oh, Daniel, do you really have
to? Go on then, but be very quick.</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One of the children goes round the corner for a few seconds while Father
gets the rest settled and lies down himself on the inside, right against the
organ. The child returns and gets into bed on the outermost side.</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Father: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Did you remember to wash your hands…
Well done. Be sure to switch the light out. Night night everybody. Sweet dreams.
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[Children
can optionally reply.]</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There is silence for a few seconds. Then there is a loud knock on the
door. Nobody reacts, and after a few more seconds the knock is repeated. When
there is still no answer, the Neighbour shouts out.</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Neighbour: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Come on Zachary, I know you’re at home; I saw
you come in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">[Pause]</i>. It’s me, David.
You know, your friend from next door <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">[Pause].
</i>Look, I need a favour.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Father: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[In a loud stage whisper] </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">What do you want, David?
Look, it’s way after midnight. Why don’t you come back in the morning?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Neighbour: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s no good, I can’t wait till morning. I
need something now! Go on, mate, it won’t take a minute.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Father: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Come on David, be reasonable. I’ve
only just got the children to sleep. You’re going to wake them up in a minute!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A Child: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[Wailing, half asleep] </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">D-a-a-ddy?!</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Father:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[To child]</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Shhhh. It’s OK, Danny, go back to sleep.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Neighbour:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Zachary, are you still there? I need
something. My brother’s turned up after a long journey, and I haven’t got any
food in the house.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Father:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For goodness sake, keep your voice
down. If you pop round first thing in the morning I’ve got some bread and stew
you can have.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>But we’re in bed and
I’m trapped on the inside. I couldn’t get up even if I wanted to.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Neighbour:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He hasn’t had anything to eat all day.
He’s feeling faint from hunger. Please help us. You’re my only friend in the
street.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Father:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[Coming to a decision and getting up
onto his knees]</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">No surprises there,
if this is how your friends get treated. But I guess you’re not going to be
quiet and let me get to sleep until I’ve sorted you out.</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Father begins to pick his way over the children, who begin to stir and
sit up and ask questions.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 78.0pt; text-indent: -78.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Narrator: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[Drily, after popping up in the
pulpit] </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And so, not for the sake of friendship, but simply to shut the pushy
neighbour up and get his family back to sleep, Zack gives in and goes to the
door. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -2.0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -70.9pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">All freeze
for a few moments, then exeunt.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Sketch to be followed with Bible reading and a brief explanatory talk.</span></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-11607384038057762352013-10-19T06:35:00.000-07:002013-10-20T10:29:12.386-07:00THE PERSISTENT WIDOW (drama sketch)<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">THE PERSISTENT WIDOW (Luke 18:1-8)</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Characters:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- The Judge </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- The Woman </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- The Clerk of the
Court</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- Two guards
(non-speaking)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Props: </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Table, chair, carafe, glass, black robe, wig, gavel, whip.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">_______________________________________________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Scene: A courtroom. Table up
on chancel steps. A chair behind it facing the congregation. On the table, a
flask of water, a glass and a gavel.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 78.0pt; text-indent: -78.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Clerk: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All be upstanding for the Judge…
etc. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Clerk runs up and down aisle
as necessary, continuing to instruct everyone to stand and making sure everyone
does so.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Enter Judge at rear of
church. He makes his way to the front with a swagger. Sits down on the chair
and raps the gavel.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 78.0pt; text-indent: -78.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Be seated. The Court is now in
session.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Waits for everyone to sit,
pours a glass of water, takes a swig direct from the carafe, burps loudly, then
jadedly sweeps his eyes over the congregation. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 78.0pt; text-indent: -78.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Condescendingly)
</i>Ah, the usual scruffy rabble, I see. What’s it going to be today? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Imitates whiny voice of a supplicant) </i>“Please,
your Honour, me neighbour won’t cut his hedge.” And “Please, your Honour, the…”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge is interrupted by a
woman shouting from the back row:</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 78.0pt; text-indent: -78.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Woman: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Please, your Honour, me Landlord’s
stolen me goat. I’m just a poor…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge cuts her off with a rap
of his gavel.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 78.0pt; text-indent: -78.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Silence in court! So, what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have </i>we got on the agenda today?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 63.8pt; text-indent: -63.8pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 78.0pt; text-indent: -78.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Woman: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I tell you ‘e’s taken me goat. I’m
just a poor widow…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 78.0pt; text-indent: -78.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Raps
gavel) </i>Silence in court! I won’t warn you again, Madam. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Clearly irritated by now) </i>Can we have
the first case, please! Some time before Christmas would be good if you can
manage it!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Guards drag someone out of
the congregation and frog-march them up to the front… this should be improvised
based on those present. The following exchange is just an example. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -70.9pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Clerk: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Your Honour, this [man] was seen
during the hours of daylight [wearing an offensive waistcoat calculated to
induce eye-strain and nausea on the part of innocent bystanders. It is further
alleged that he did....</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> .....occasioning emotional trauma to
some of those present].</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0cm; text-indent: -2.0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -70.9pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Have you anything to say before
sentence is passed? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Leaving no time for
an answer) </i>No, I guessed not.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> (To
guards) </i>Take him away and flog him.] </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Guards hustle the accused
away. Judge picks up the glass and takes a swig, then looks at the contents
with disgust.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -70.9pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge:<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Isn’t there anything
stronger in the cupboard?...No?...Hmm, pity! What next?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -70.9pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Woman: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Still
shouting from the back) </i>I was just a week behind with me rent, an’ ‘e took me
goat. And now I’ve paid up…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -70.9pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -70.9pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Bangs
gavel) </i>Guards, remove that woman from the Court.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -70.9pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Guards go and firmly escort
the woman out to the porch. All the time she is protesting:</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -70.9pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Woman:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s not fair… I demand justice… He took
me goat. I’ve paid him now, but he won’t give it back. And I’m just a poor
widow…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The door is shut firmly, and
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of water and looks scornfully at the contents.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 70.9pt; text-indent: -70.9pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Clerk to the Court, are you sure there
isn’t anything a little stronger? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Pause)</i>
No?... Guards! Take him away and flog him! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.0cm; text-indent: -3.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Woman: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Bursting
in at the back and shouting) </i>I saw that! What kind of judge are you? You’re
supposed to care about justice. I….</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Bangs gavel). </i>Silence, woman! Approach the bench. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(She does so, and stands with her head bowed
at the foot of the steps with her back to the congregation) </i>Justice? Don’t
talk to me about justice. My job is to keep the peace, not to worry about what people
like you think is fair or unfair. For two pins I’d have you taken out and
flogged as well. But I’m sure you’d soon be back shouting the house down. And
you’re giving me a headache already. Guards!... Guards!...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">After a moment, one of the
guards comes running, still carrying a whip.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.0cm; text-indent: -3.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Judge:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Guard! Go with this woman and
find her landlord. Get her goat back. And give him a flogging for the sake of
the headache she’s given me. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Bangs
gavel. Picks up the carafe and waves it at the congregation) </i>The Court is
in recess while I go and find something a little stronger.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.0cm; text-indent: -3.0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Exeunt.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.0cm; text-indent: -3.0cm;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.0cm; text-indent: -3.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">To be followed with
a reading of the Bible passage and an explanatory talk.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-30037823908987166432013-10-19T06:19:00.000-07:002013-10-19T06:19:42.728-07:00WRESTLING WITH GOD
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">What
might it mean to </span><u style="font-family: Verdana;">wrestle</u><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> with God? To me as a young Christian, the very
thought would have seemed bizarre, even inappropriate. I grew up as part of a
church where the leader was seen as having the power to interpret scripture,
and expected everyone else in the congregation to live by his teaching from the
pulpit. There was no room for wrestling with his interpretation, let alone with
God.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And
yet in the OT reading today we see Jacob, one of the three great Hebrew
patriarchs, physically wrestling with God. And this story’s by no means unique.
In different passages of the Bible we see Abraham arguing with God. We see Job
in his agony challenging God’s idea of justice. We see Jonah calling God's judgement into question. We see the writers of many of the Psalms crying out in
despair at a God who doesn’t seem to be living up to his promises. We see Jesus
himself, in agony on the cross, echoing the words of the 22<sup>nd</sup> Psalm:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Of
course, in every case there is a point to the story. In each case the person
crying out in anguish eventually sees and submits to God’s wisdom. But in
each case their cries of anguish are an indispensable part of their journey to
understanding. And there is no reticence on their part, no sense of impropriety
in pouring out their questions, their arguments, their challenges. Neither is
there any sense of disapproval on the part of the Bible authors who recorded
their words and actions. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">And
I can’t think of a single case in the Bible where God himself shows anger or
contempt for honest questions and doubts. Even when people, to use that
rather appealing modern phrase, really throw their toys out of the pram. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Jacob’s
story is a case in point. Remember that the Hebrews have an age-old taboo
regarding the face of God. From the earliest days, they’ve believed that seeing
God face to face results in instant death. And yet in this very ancient story,
Jacob not only meets God face to face but touches him. Not only touches him but
fights him. Not only fights him but wins – at least until God kind of cheats by
disabling him. Do you remember this from the reading earlier?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">It says that Jacob is
left alone, and a man (who we are given to understand is God in human form) wrestles
with him all night. When God see that Jacob isn’t going give up, he dislocates
his hip, but still Jacob won’t release his grip. “I’m not letting you go until you’ve
blessed me,” he insists. God asks, “What’s your name?” Then he says, “Your name
will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you’ve struggled with God and
humans and have overcome.” And lest we are in any doubt that this is God
speaking, the story ends with Jacob saying in wonderment, “I’ve seen God face
to face, and lived to tell the tale.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">So what can we learn from
this? Do this story and the others like it give <u>us</u> permission to
question, to challenge, to struggle with God?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">We have to be careful in
answering a question like this. God <u>is</u> God. He is holy, perfect in
wisdom and righteousness. Our most basic duty as Christians is to submit humbly
to his will. And yet many of us, at some point in our lives, will face
situations in which we really cannot understand what he is doing. Some-times we
can’t feel his hand on our lives even when we know as an abstract truth that he
is there. Sometimes, even as we acknowledge his supreme wisdom, we can feel
angry at what he has allowed to happen: the loss of a loved one, a large scale
loss of life somewhere in the world, or the relentless grind of poverty and hunger
and oppression in which the poor continue to suffer and the guilty never seem
to get punished.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">And then, I believe, God
is pleased for us to be honest, to cry out to him, to ask him what on earth he
was doing allowing such and such to happen. To admit that we don’t understand.
To confess that we are angry. To plead with him time and time again to show us
the love and power that we associate with his name.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">This morning, the
children in the 10.30 congregation are thinking about the lovely parable of the
persistent neighbour: the pushy fellow who keeps hammering on a neighbour’s
door in the middle of the night shouting, come on, open up, I need a favour. He
goes on and on, ignoring the householder’s pleas to be allowed to go back to
sleep. Until in the end, Jesus says, the disgruntled householder gets up and
gives the pushy neighbour what he wants. Not for the sake of friendship, Jesus
adds, but for the sake of peace and quiet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Jesus tells this story
with his tongue firmly implanted in his cheek, of course. The grumpy householder
is meant to represent God. But Jesus isn’t saying that God is like a grumpy
neighbour who gives us what we ask for just to shut us up. He’s making a more
subtle point: If a grumpy human neighbour will get up in the middle of the
night to help you just because you keep on nagging him, how much more will our
loving father God respond to those who keep on and on talking to him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Thus it’s not just in the OT
that we see people being persistent in their dialogue with God. Jesus himself
gives us permission to keep on and on asking for what we need. He never
promises that God will give us exactly what we ask for. I’ve know so many
people ask God for cars, exam passes, freedom from the consequences of their
actions… God will not automatically grant our precise requests. But where Jesus
does give us assurance is that if we carry on talking to God, if we carry on
putting our case, if we ask God searching, honest questions and go on and on
asking for the things we need, two things will reliably happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Firstly, he will give us
what he knows in his wisdom that we need. Secondly, in the course of that open,
honest dialogue with him, we will come to understand his purposes, We’ll see
answers to prayer in ways and places we never expected. And above all, we will
feel his hand, his peace, his blessing on our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 16.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">Let’s bow our heads in
prayer….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5520321198266469361.post-84767437945471592452013-10-07T01:56:00.002-07:002013-10-07T01:58:36.074-07:00WHAT IS FAITH AND HOW CAN WE HAVE IT?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<i>These are the notes for a recent Alpha Course session, based on the corresponding chapter from Nicky Gumbel's study book "Questions For Life" but adapted for the more open theological context of a typical parish church. The session lasted just over an hour and a half including time for prayer at the beginning and end.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>I value Alpha, but feel that the material as it stands is too heavily oriented to the needs of middle class urban Evangelical churches (not unlike HTB itself). I personally think that the following approach offers enquirers and new believers a more accessible and encouraging action plan than sticking closely to the original.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>Setting the Scene<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>Brainstorm<i><o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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Think of a one-word synonym – a different word as close as possible in
meaning – for <b><i>faith</i></b>. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Come</i><i> back here at the end of the study, and see if
you have changed your mind.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>Silent
reflection<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Let me stress right away that there’s no right or wrong answer to this next
question, but here goes: Can you say that there was a certain moment in your
life when you <u>started</u> to be a Christian? You may not be able to remember
the specific date and time, but was there some moment in the past <u>before</u>
which you didn't see yourself as a Christian, and <u>after</u> which you did? <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Of course, you may be one of those people who can’t remember a time in
their life when they weren’t Christian. Or perhaps you know for sure that you
are not a Christian. Then again, you may be one of the countless people who are
unsure whether the word Christian applies to them or not.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Either way, think about your answer and in particular think how you feel
about it. As I said before, there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer, but is your
answer reassuring to you personally, or does it cause you some kind of
discomfort. Don’t be afraid to discuss your thoughts with someone trustworthy.<i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u>Puzzled With Faith
(a personal testimony)<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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What I’m going to say may sound strange, because we
encounter so many church-people who are assertive about their beliefs to the
point where they can make us feel uncomfortable. But I think one of the biggest
problems facing the Church is that it is crammed with people who are uncertain
as to whether they’re really Christians at all. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Let me introduce you to Gladys (an imaginary person). She goes
to church regularly. She reads the Bible. She prays. And she has a desperate
urge to belong. But then every Sunday she looks around St. Ethelburga’s or
wherever it is she goes, and she sees others who are so much more involved than
she is, so much more on fire with their faith, seemingly so confident and assured
and at peace. And every week she thinks, “Am I really a Christian? Am I really
saved? Do I really believe enough of the right stuff? Am I <i>doing</i> enough of the right stuff?” The problem is, Gladys has never
heard anyone else express the same doubts and questions that go through her mind,
and as long as she thinks she’s the odd one out she’s never going to step out
in faith.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This was very much my own early experience of faith. There
was definitely a time before which I wasn’t a Christian at all, at least not what
I now think of as a Christian. But even after my conversion experience, I simply
didn’t feel as if I had any real faith. I wanted to believe all the
supernatural stuff. Sometimes I almost convinced myself that I did; more often
I didn’t. But I never let on because no one around me seemed to share my doubts
or questions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i>Can you
identify with that feeling? Or can you remember being made to feel that way in
the past?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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The question for this study is, “How Can I Have Faith?” And
that’s a critically important question,
because the church is crammed with people struggling to feel as if they really
belong. And being assured that we belong to God and one another is the
birthright of every Christian.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i>Read 1
John 5:13 – then see if you can state John’s reason for writing this letter in
everyday English.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We should aim to go away from this discussion with a clearer
idea of what real faith looks like and feels like. Then we should be able to recognise
and give thanks for the faith we already have, and also have a clearer idea of
what to aim for in the months and years ahead. We need to have some idea of the
strategies for growing our faith. And our starting point has to be thinking
about what faith really is. That’s the cue for a thinking question:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i>The great
religious reformer Martin Luther intensely disliked one particular book of the
Bible: the Letter of James (to be found near the end of the New Testament).
Indeed, he went so far as to question whether it should ever have been included
in the Bible. And most of his dislike came down to one particular verse.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>By way of explanation, Luther had
single-handedly rediscovered the great doctrine that salvation is based on faith
rather than on being a good person. He’d taken massive personal risks to spread
his teaching. The political repercussions of his work were so devastating,
there were calls for him to be put to death on sight. He could not afford for
his protectors and patrons to waver in their support for him. And yet there in
the Bible was a passage that seemed to directly contradict his teaching. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>Have a look at the two short passages from the
NT attached as an appendix (one from Ephesians which sums up Luther’s view, and
one from James) and see if you think there is really a contradiction.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u>What is ‘Faith’
really about? <o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the Alpha course book, “Questions of Life”, Nicky Gumbel
takes care to explain that being assured in our faith is like a tripod – a
tripod whose three legs are the three members of the Trinity: God the Father,
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Firstly, the work of God
the Father.</b> <o:p></o:p></div>
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Nicky explains that if you were to ask him for evidence that
he’s married, he would show you the documentation, i.e. his marriage
certificate. And if you asked him for evidence that he was a Christian, he
would similarly reach for documentary evidence – in this case the Bible. He goes on to remind us that our knowledge of
God is based not on feelings but on facts. And the key facts are God’s promises
scattered throughout Scripture. Our feelings are deceptive, treacherous even; they
go up and down according to our moods and all the things going on in our lives.
In contrast, the promises of God are unchanging from day to day and from age to
age. We can spend a lifetime exploring and claiming God’s promises in the
Bible, but Nicky points to one famous quotation as really summing up what they
are all about.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i>Read Revelation
3:20 – what is being promised here? <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once you know you’ve said Yes to God, you can be sure that
you’ve have inherited all God’s promises regardless of whether your feelings
back you up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Secondly, the work of
Jesus, God the Son. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is Jesus’ role in giving us faith and assurance? Going
back to the marriage illustration, Nicky says that if his marriage certificate
wasn’t good enough for you, he’d refer you to the historical events of his
wedding day. In <i>my</i> case that would be the
25<sup>th</sup> May 1991, when several dozen people witnessed Kate and me
saying ‘I Will’. Several of those people recorded the event in photos, videos and
written messages at the time. And most of them are still around to act as
witnesses to what actually happened.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Similarly, our faith is based on actual events that took
place in the past. Like our wedding, those events were witnessed by real
people, some of whom were still around decades later to answer questions and
correct any misunderstandings. Christianity
is an historical faith, based on historical facts. And one verse above all sums
up what was going on.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i>Read John
3:16 – what is being stated here?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What it boils down to is that God offers peace and belonging
as a free gift to anyone who will accept it. The central truth about Jesus is
that in Him, God himself was coming down to experience human life and absorb the
consequences of human rebellion. Faith properly understood is not struggling to
believe unbelievable stories as a way of trying to <i>earn</i> a place in Heaven. Rather, faith begins when we accept that Christ
<i>has already done</i> everything necessary
and we choose to live our lives in a fitting way. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s the importance of what James writes in the Bible.
Just <i>believing</i> something doesn’t necessarily change our behaviour or our
relationships or our status in God’s eyes. One of the Bible authors points out
that demons have no trouble believing the truth about God, but it doesn’t do
anything for them – it simply makes them shudder. <i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, believing the claims Jesus made for himself <i>is</i> important. But <i>learning to believe</i> is
part of our journey of faith. And getting us demoralised over the parts we
can’t believe at this point in time… that’s one of the ways in which the Devil tries
hardest to undermine our faith. The confusion that so many people experience is
due on a mis-understanding of what the
Bible authors meant by belief, and we’ll come onto it in a minute. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Thirdly and finally,
the work of God the Holy Spirit.</b> In talking about the evidence that he’s
married, Nicky Gumbel referred firstly to the documentation and then to the historic
events of his wedding day. And finally, for anyone demanding yet further
evidence, he talks about his <i>experience</i>
of being married, of living with his wife and being in a special relationship
with her. And the final pillar of faith and assurance is similar: the experience
shared by countless Christians of knowing God personally through the Holy
Spirit living inside us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In simple terms, from the moment we say Yes to Jesus, we
carry a spark of the divine right within us. And according to St. Paul we can
be certain that we have that seal placed upon us because no one can say yes to
Jesus without the Spirit’s prompting. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Holy Spirit makes his presence felt in two particularly
important ways:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->He transforms us from the inside, making us grow
more and more like Jesus. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i>Read
Galatians 5:22-23 and think about this: Why are these ‘fruits of the Spirit’ such
reliable evidence of faith?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
We should start seeing some of the fruits of the Spirit as soon as we
place trust in Jesus. It doesn’t mean that
we immediately stop doing wrong, but as time goes on we experience a growing
appetite to learn more about God and get more involved in his work. And in a
similar way the Spirit will prompt us to take more interest in other people for
their own sake; to seek peace, to relieve suffering and challenge oppression
and injustice. If you see any of this happening to you, even in a modest way like
coming along to a study group, you can be sure that it’s the Holy Spirit
working in your life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The Holy Spirit brings us an inner experience of
God. He allows us to directly experience his presence, and gives us fresh insights
into areas that would once have been closed to us. Sometimes he endows us with
gifts and skills that we were never aware of having in the past. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
To give a personal example, I was a Christian for decades before I had
the slightest inkling that I could stand up and speak in front of an audience.
I was too self-conscious, too tongue-tied to even consider it. Then, just as Kate
and I were settling down together and looking for a new direction in our lives,
I was sent on a long management course at the end of which we would each have
to give a forty minute presentation judged by a director of the company. I was
anxious for weeks leading up to the big event, but on the day I just found
myself in the zone, and nobody was more surprised than I was when mine emerged
as one of the slickest performances of the whole two-day event. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
This wasn’t just a new skill; it was part of a conversation in which God
answered my questions as to what I should be doing with my life. I began exploring Christian vocations, and
that process has eventually led both Kate and me to where we are now. Most
importantly of all, it was the point at which I finally accepted that God
really did have a purpose for my life. That was assurance. That was faith. But
by that time the most important question was no longer “Does God really exist?”
but “What does He want me to do?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b><u>Is Faith the Same as Belief?</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
Nicky
Gumbel is very keen to drive home one particular point: There is nothing
arrogant about being sure that we belong to God and his church. Assurance is no
more than a humble recognition of what God has promised, what Jesus died to
achieve, and what the Spirit is doing in our lives. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
But
in spite of all these sources of assurance, we can still get hung up on that
issue I mentioned earlier. If salvation is for those who believe, what does it <i>mean </i>to believe. I’ve known people
certain that there’s a God but tormented with the fear that they don’t believe firmly
enough to be saved. In contrast, I’ve known people desperate to follow Jesus, who despaired of
ever being able to accept the reality of anything invisible or supernatural,
much less a God or an afterlife.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
And
the problem people face is precisely this: The 19<sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup>
centuries have conditioned us to use the word <i>belief </i>in a sense that would have been unfamiliar to the Bible
writers and the great Christian thinkers of history. To the modern scientific
mindset, we can only know something if we have physical evidence for it. And in
the absence of physical evidence there is no such thing as half-knowledge, no
such thing as a safe assumption. Faith and belief are increasingly dismissed by
our society as primitive, immature, even irrational, even to some people (e.g.
Richard Dawkins) actually immoral.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
But
the Bible writers rarely if ever stopped to ask, “Is this true? If so, what’s
the evidence for it?” Of course they experienced times of questioning and doubt
– the Psalms are full of it. But when the Bible authors talk about <i>believing</i> in Jesus, when they call on
people to have faith, they’re addressing a completely different issue: not one
of evidence but one of commitment and trust. Not “How can you eliminate doubts
and questions?” but rather this: “How do you show your commitment to the truths
you have decided to live by?” or this: “What does trusting that Jesus has done
everything necessary mean for the way you should live your life?” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
Do
you see how this take on belief and faith is profoundly challenging but at the
same time profoundly reassuring?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
It’s
challenging because it doesn’t leave us free to sit on our backsides ignoring
the needs of others while we take refuge in our so-called religious beliefs. As
the epistle of James so shrewdly puts it, it calls us to action.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But
at the same time it’s reassuring, because it doesn’t require that we sit
agonising over which bits of theology we accept as factually true – the very
issue that’s the biggest stumbling block for most modern people. It simply
says, accept that you’re a Christian and get on with acting like one. And the
beautiful thing is that the more you act like a Christian, the more you get
involved in his work, the more you step out in trust that God has a purpose for
your life, the more you find yourself believing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i>Imagine
someone who is in the position I was a few years ago: wanting to be a Christian
in the fullest sense of the word, but struggling to believe all the details in
order to feel certain of being saved.
Come up with three practical suggestions that will help their faith to
grow.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">APPENDIX: </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MARTIN LUTHER AND THE LETTER
OF JAMES</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“</span><span class="text"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For it is by grace
you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God—</span></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<span class="text">not by works, so that no one can boast.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span> (Ephesians 2:8-9)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“What
good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no
deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without
clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and
well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the
same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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(James
2:14-17)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Areopagushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06735297725137100289noreply@blogger.com0