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Preach this Christmas

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Ian Paul has commented on the thoughts of David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, about the distinctive needs of occasional church attenders (i.e. those who might attend an annual carol service, but not much else).

In addition to some sensible, if unremarkable, suggestions (stick to traditional words of carols, mention other events coming up in your calendar, and so on) David Walker offers the following advice:-

If there is to be a sermon (and at carol services, it really is not a good idea)…

Ian Paul rightly asks, Why?…

Mk 11:6; 15:13 – “Hosanna!”, “Crucify!” – one crowd, or two?

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When preachers compare the response of the crowd on Palm Sunday (“Hosanna!”, Mk 11:9; Mt 21:9; “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”, Lk 19:38) to that of the crowd just a few days’ later (“Crucify him!”, Mk 15:13; Lk 23:21; Jn 19:15) they often explain this in terms of fickleness (“How quickly they change their minds about Jesus!”).  I’ve done it myself.

So also in the hymn ‘My Song is Love Unknown’:

Sometimes they strew his way/And his sweet praises sing…Then “Crucify!”…

Downton: a God-free zone

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Alistair Bruce, the person responsible for historical accuracy in the ITV series Downton Abbey has said that he was forced to leave out religious references in the show for fear of offending viewers.  The show was set between about 1910 and 1925, and at that time Christianity would have had a key role in British social life – especially that of the aristocracy.  They would have attended church, and they would have said grace before meals.  …

Godly blogging

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I’ve said before that this blog is nothing if not up to date.  So I guess that makes it nothing, then.  Because I want to go right back to 2008 (when I was just a blogger-in-arms), and the ‘Ten Commandments’ for bloggers proposed by the Evangelical Alliance:-

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity.

2. You shall not make an idol of your blog.

3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin.…

The domesticated Bible

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Going back over some back issues of Third Way magazine, I came across a piece by Stephen Tomkins in which he takes some of the more awkward bits of the Bible and compares what it actually says with what we would like it to say.  Of course, issues of genre, idiom, culture and so on come into play here.  But it’s a good reminder to read and interpret the Biblical text with integrity, facing up to its challenges and not wishing them away.…

The land: fulfilled in Christ

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As with the Temple and Israel itself, ‘the land’ points to something beyond itself and to a greater reality than a mere piece of real estate.  Just as God’s presence could not be confined to a single building, so his blessing could not be restricted to one parcel of land.

Fulfilled in Jesus

We should not be surprised, then, to discover that God’s promises relating to the land find their fulfilment in Jesus (and not in a literal future return of the nation of Israel to the land).  …

The people of God: fulfilled in Christ

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One of the central themes of the Bible is God’s promise that he would make a great people for his praise, and the fulfilment of that promise.  Key Scriptures are Gen 12:1-3 (God’s promise to Abram), and 1 Pet 2:9f (the declaration that the followers of Jesus constitute ‘a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession…the people of God’.

Back in Gen 1-2, God’s purpose for his people was ‘be fruitful and multiply’ (Gen 1:28), to ‘rule’ and ‘subdue’ the earth (Gen 1:28) to ‘cultivate’ and ‘keep’ the garden (Gen 2:15), and to live in community with one another (Gen 2:18-25).  …

The temple: fulfilled in Christ

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All God’s promises (including those relating to the temple, the people of God, and the land) are fulfilled in Jesus, 2 Cor 1:20.  It is in him that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, Col 2:1-3.  It is this which gives a reliable hermeneutic for understanding the entire Bible.  We are not at the mercy of idiosyncratic interpretations of individual verses.

How are we to understanding Christ as the fulfilment of the Bible’s teaching about the Temple?…

More urban legends of the New Testament

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I have previously listed and summarised the forty ‘urban legends’ discussed by David A Croteau.

Here are some more New Testament passages that are frequently misunderstood or misapplied:-

1. ‘Going the second (or ‘extra’) mile’ (Matthew 5:41).  When people are willing to make an effort above and beyond the call of duty, they often refer to this as going the second (or extra) mile.  This is not a complete misapplication of the text, but common usage does tend to mask its radical nature.  …

What did Jesus look like?

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Jesus appearanceRecently, British scientists have teamed up with Israeli archaeologists to construct what is believed to be the most accurate representation of what Jesus looked like.  The final picture was put together by Richard Neave, forensic anthropologist from Manchester University.

The reconstruction was based on the assumption that Jesus would have looked like an ordinary Jew of his day, in terms of skull shape, eye colour and hair colour and length.  They concluded that he would have been bearded, again like most other Jews at the time.…