Author Archives: admin

The man who invented Christmas

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It was the 31-year-old Charles Dickens, of course, who invented the modern Christmas.  Giving himself just six weeks to come up with Christmas ghost story that would be released in time for the holiday, he came up with A Christmas Carol.

Starring Dan Stevens as Dickens himself, and Christopher Plummer as Scrooge, The Man Who Invented Christmas tells the story of the writing of A Christmas Carol, with characters from the story interacting with the author himself and so revealing insights into both the writer’s life and his story. …

Pray to be gay?

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So The Very Reverend Kelvin Holdsworth, provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, has urged people to pray for Prince George ‘to be blessed one day with the love of a fine young gentleman’.  This, he thinks, would eventually help move the Church of England into a position where it would allow gay couples to marry (which his own church – the Scottish Episcopal Church – voted in favour of earlier this year).

The Church of England has excused itself from commenting, since Mr Holdsworth is not a member of the C of E. …

Silence!

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‘Silence is golden’, we say.  And we can agree that silence can have more eloquence than any words, serving (as Francois De La Rochefoucauld said) ‘sometimes to approve, sometimes to condemn; there is a mocking silence; there is a respectful silence.’

But what is the role and value of silence in Christian prayer and worship?

In the Middle Ages, silent prayers were added to the liturgy, and these were taken up by the Tractarians, and in the Roman Ordo. …

Did Jesus know Greek?

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‘The New Testament itself is written in a language Jesus never spoke.’

So claims Richard Rohr (The Divine Dance: The Trinity and your transformation) in a throwaway comment.  It is one of a large number of careless and inaccurate statements by this writer.

The two main languages spoken by Jews at the time were Aramaic (in everyday communication) and Hebrew (in more formal religious matters).  But what about Greek?  This language had been spoken in Palestine for several centuries. …

Me and my two left feet

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I’ve just finished reading The Divine Dance: The Trinity and your Transformation, by Richard Rohr and Mike Morrell (SPCK, 2016).

The essential message of the book is that we’ve all got it wrong about the Holy Trinity.  And, as a consequence, Christians have failed to enter fully into the life of God.  Rohr and Morrell invite us to re-think, and to re-experience, the Trinity less as personhood (noun), and more about relationship (verb).  Although the headline metaphor is that of a divine dance, Rohr continually returns to the notion of ‘flow’. …

Atheist and Christian worship: any difference?

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During a 3-month sabbatical earlier this year, Revd Canon Dr Tim Bull visited a couple of different places of worship.

One was the Sunday Assembly, a secular gathering established in 2013 by comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans.  The other was Holy Trinity Brompton.

Tim Bull was struck by the similarities between the two:-

  • Both were attended by a crowd of ‘fashionable-looking young adults’
  • Both included notices and announcements
  • Both included the taking up of a collection
  • Both offered tea and coffee at the conclusion
  • Both offered information for newcomers

And there were more significant parallels:-

  • Both had music led by a rock-style band, with words projected onto a screen and swaying and armwaving among the congregation
  • Both included a reading and a talk
  • Both included ‘prayer’ (in the Sunday Assembly it was called a ‘moment of reflection’)
  • Both included short videos, encouraging people to sign up for a motivational course (Alpha at HTB and something called ‘Retreat to the Future’ at the Sunday Assembly)

Curiously, only the Sunday Assembly included personal testimony (when someone told about the time she ‘had tried her best’)

In terms of the underlying message, the Sunday Assembly’s Sanderson Jones declared that ‘we are obsessed with helping you live your life as fully as possible’, which sounds like a distinct echo of Jesus’ words recorded in John 10:10.…

Christ our example

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ReferenceAdmonition, in substanceLink to teaching concerning Christ’s person and work
Rom. 15:2, 3Please the neighbor“for Christ also pleased not himself.”
Rom. 15:7Extend a hearty welcome to each other. (Receive one another.)“just as Christ also welcomed (received) you.”
2 Cor. 8:7–9Abound in the grace of giving to the needy“for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that through his poverty you might become rich.”
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Moral application of the final judgment

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The biblical doctrine of final judgement has several important consequence for our lives here and now.

  1. It satisfies our sense of a need for justice in the world.  There is so much in the present world which is not fair.  Good people suffer, while evil people get off scot free.  Even the judicial system itself is susceptible to bias and bribery.  The Bible tells us that there will be a final reckoning, when the ‘books’ (Rev 20:12 – symbolising God’s record of what everyone has done in this life) will be opened. 
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How to kill a small-group discussion

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Questions – and the discussions they can stimulate – are the life-blood of small-group Bible study.

However, not all questions are equal, and some can actually bring a discussion to a full stop.

Melissa Kruger cautions against the following types of question:-

1. Captain obvious.  While it can be helpful to prompt people to notice what’s actually there in the Bible text, some observation questions are simply inviting people to state the blindingly obvious.  So, suggests Kruger:-

Instead of asking, “Who are the three people Paul interacted with in the city of Philippi in Acts 16?”
…

Psa 65 This bounteous God – sermon notes

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Text: Psalm 65

‘Your God is too small’  By presenting God in his true stature, this psalm encourages us to expect great things from God, and to attempt great things for God.

May have been composed for the Feast of Tabernacles.

God is front of stage, and centre.  God is praised as the great welcomer, peacemaker, and giver.

1. God the great welcomer, 1-4

God hears our prayers, v2.  Whatever else God may be, if he were deaf to our cries, where would we be? …