[Notes of a talk given at the Service of Thanksgiving for God’s goodness during the recent illness and ongoing recovery of Sarah Mason. Holy Trinity Norwich, at 2pm on Saturday 8th July 2023]
‘Consider it pure joy’ – Really?
James 1:2f – ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.’
Or as a well-known saying puts it:
‘God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.’…
Richard Baxter wrote about contemplation in A Christian Directory and The Saints’ Everlasting Rest.
Following Baxter distinguishes between the contemplative life and the active life:
…‘Every active christian is bound to somewhat of contemplation; and all contemplative persons are bound to obedience to God, and to so much of action as may answer their abilities and opportunities. But yet some are much more called to the one, and some to the other; and we denominate from that which is most eminent and the chief.
If George Whitefield was the great evangelist of the Great Awakening in its North American phase, then Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) was the great thinker. But he was by no means a detached analyst. This is clear from his account- especially in his Personal Narrative – of his own spiritual experience.
Like the psalmists of old, Edwards delighted in God’s handiwork in creation:
…‘I often used to sit and view the moon, for a long time; and so in the daytime, spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things: in the meantime, singing forth with a low voice, my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer.
A short, repeated, prayer which takes the form of ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’, or some reduced version of this (such as ‘Lord Jesus have mercy on me’).
It is based on the plea of the two blind men in Mt 20:30–31 and the tax collector’s prayer in Lk 18:13.
Its usage by the Eastern branch of the church dates back to the 4th or 5th century.
It has also been used in Roman Catholic devotion (often in the form of ‘Lord, make haste to help me.…
Various teachers have identified a lack of attention to communion with God in current evangelicalism. Richard Lovelace refers to a
‘sanctification gap among Evangelicals, a peculiar conspiracy somehow to mislay the Protestant tradition of spiritual growth and concentrate on frantic witnessing activity, sermons on John 3:16 and theological arguments over eschatological subtleties.’ (Dynamics of Spiritual Life, p232)
J.I. Packer agrees:
…‘When, however, experiential aspects of life in the Spirit come up for treatment (as distinct from convictional, volitional, and disciplinary aspects), it is a different story.
Stephen L. Porter writes:
…‘While Jesus, Paul, and the other New Testament writers did not utilize language of contemplation (theōria), they did make use of nearby concepts, such as “having the eyes of your heart enlightened” (Eph 1:18), “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:19), “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is” (Col 3:1), “though you have not seen [Christ], you love him” (1 Pet 1:8), and so on.
You say, ‘Eucharist’; I say, ‘Holy Communion’. You say, ‘Priest’, I say, ‘Minister’. You say, ‘Spiritual formation’, I say, ‘Discipleship’. You say, ‘Contemplative prayer’; I say, ‘Communion with God’.
Is it as simple as that? Are these just different names for the same things?
To focus the question: Is contemplative prayer compatible with (or even essential to) evangelical faith, or inimical to it? Does the contemplative life represent a departure from, or a deepening of, the evangelical life?…
The Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler, Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta, GA, preached this sermon on Heb 12:1-2.
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us, 12:2 keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.…
Towards the end of his review of Topical Preaching in a Complex World: How to Proclaim Truth and
Relevance at the Same Time, by Sam Chan and Malcolm Gill, Reginald D. Taylor makes the following intriguing comment:
‘This reviewer maintains that one can and should preach using various sermon forms in an expository manner. One can preach biographical expositions, doctrinal expositions, dramatic-monologue expositions, narrative expositions, and topical expositions.’
I shall leave it there for the moment. …
A case could be made from John’s Gospel for regarding the crucifixion as the climax of Jesus’ ministry. For it is from the cross that Jesus is recorded as crying, triumphantly, “It is finished!”
More frequently, the resurrection is placarded as marking the completion of Jesus’ work. The crucified Jesus, preaches Peter, was raised from the dead (Acts 2). Paul preached ‘Jesus and the resurrection’ (Acts 17:18). In 1 Cor 15:3f the summary of the gospel is that ‘Christ died for our sins…was buried…and was raised on the third day.’…
