Today is Trinity Sunday, when the church takes a deep breath and engages with one of its most exciting ideas, that of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This falls at a really good time for me, coming as it does at following the week when I have been studying the way in which the idea of the Trinity has developed over the years and centuries.
There is no hiding from the fact that this idea is one that is difficult to get our heads round, but I think that it's really exciting because it gives us language for talking about God that allows us to say things in ways that cannot be said otherwise.
My plan for the next quarter of an hour or so is for us to explore this idea together, and by together, I mean that I am going to ask some questions, and you guys are going to chip in with some answers. I want to start with a contribution that one of my fellow students made in class when we were discussing the Trinity.
God is Womble.
Can anybody think of any attributes of Wombles that might tell us something about God?
Continued here...
Sunday, 18 May 2008
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Pentecost Water
What is it about kids and water? My four year old, Nathaniel, came home from nursery this week one day and told me that they'd had something really special that day. They'd had the water guns out. But there was one rule. No squirting people. They'd cleaned the garden furniture, sprayed the walls of the shed and watered the plants. As summer comes the plea for the paddling pool is heard once again, on every possible occasion. Kids seem to instinctively know something, that water is one of the most exciting things in the whole of the world.
Water is essential to life as we know it. It has a starring role in the first chapter of the Bible, central to the Creation of all that is, and it is also important in the last chapter, part of the description of the way in which the new creation will be. In between we find it again and again and again. It is one of the most potent images that we have for life and the life giving nature of God.
When God had called the people of God out of captivity and oppression in Egypt, they were led by Moses out in to the desert. As they travelled the horrors of the slavery, the murder of their sons, the forced labour began to fade in their memories and they began to focus on the difficulties of the journey and their fears overtook them. They missed the pomegranates and figs. They were thirsty and saw no source of water. In their lack of faith they rebelled against Moses.
Continued here...
Water is essential to life as we know it. It has a starring role in the first chapter of the Bible, central to the Creation of all that is, and it is also important in the last chapter, part of the description of the way in which the new creation will be. In between we find it again and again and again. It is one of the most potent images that we have for life and the life giving nature of God.
When God had called the people of God out of captivity and oppression in Egypt, they were led by Moses out in to the desert. As they travelled the horrors of the slavery, the murder of their sons, the forced labour began to fade in their memories and they began to focus on the difficulties of the journey and their fears overtook them. They missed the pomegranates and figs. They were thirsty and saw no source of water. In their lack of faith they rebelled against Moses.
Continued here...
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Changing Stories
Tonight we pick up the story leading up to Easter. This is Palm Sunday, named after the palm branches that the people in the crowds waved as they greeted Jesus, as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. We read and thought about that episode in this morning's service. By the time we get to the account that Matthew tells us about tonight, we have skipped forward a day. To help us get into the picture, I'd like to fill in a few of the things that have happened in the meantime.
Immediately after Jesus had come into Jerusalem he'd parked his donkey and headed for the Temple. He'd seen desks taking over the place that was meant to be available for Gentiles to come and pray. These money changers were there so that you could change your Roman money, which you had to use in the market, for special “Temple” money that had to be used to buy the sacrificial animals so that people could fulfil their religious duties. Of course, the exchange rate was pretty lousy, and the money changers took a fair creaming off the top, but the system had the dual benefit of making sure that no unholy money got into the Temple treasury and also reduced the risk of those undesirable Gentiles coming anywhere near the Temple.
Jesus saw all this, and thought it was great. He changed some money, bought a couple of doves, as his parents had done all those years before, and took them to be sacrificed.
Continued here...
Immediately after Jesus had come into Jerusalem he'd parked his donkey and headed for the Temple. He'd seen desks taking over the place that was meant to be available for Gentiles to come and pray. These money changers were there so that you could change your Roman money, which you had to use in the market, for special “Temple” money that had to be used to buy the sacrificial animals so that people could fulfil their religious duties. Of course, the exchange rate was pretty lousy, and the money changers took a fair creaming off the top, but the system had the dual benefit of making sure that no unholy money got into the Temple treasury and also reduced the risk of those undesirable Gentiles coming anywhere near the Temple.
Jesus saw all this, and thought it was great. He changed some money, bought a couple of doves, as his parents had done all those years before, and took them to be sacrificed.
Continued here...
Suspended
Tom is very excited. His dad has been away from home for what seems like forever. But, he is coming home today. All week Tom has been counting down the number of sleeps left before it will be the day that Dad is coming home. At school Tom has been telling his friends about how great his Dad is, taller than their Dads, the best Dad in the whole world, and he's coming home. In show and tell on Friday morning Tom stood up and told the whole class about how he was going with his mum to the station to meet his Dad, his Dad who is coming home.
He woke up at five o'clock this morning and has been asking every ten minutes if it's time to go and catch the bus yet. On the bus he chatters on excitedly to his mum about all the things that he and his dad are going to do now that he's coming home. The other passengers overhear and smile to themselves.
Tom is sitting on a bench, on the platform, holding his mum's hand, his feet swinging. Suddenly the train swishes alongside the platform and it's all hustle and bustle, lots of people getting on and off. Where's Tom's dad?
There's a man coming towards them, it looks a bit like his dad, but he's shorter than Tom remembers, and he's limping a bit. Tom's mum stands up, but Tom ducks behind her legs, unsure, of the man and of himself. The man comes up to his mum and kisses her, softly and so tenderly, a kiss that Tom has not seen for a long time. His Dad is home.
Continued here...
He woke up at five o'clock this morning and has been asking every ten minutes if it's time to go and catch the bus yet. On the bus he chatters on excitedly to his mum about all the things that he and his dad are going to do now that he's coming home. The other passengers overhear and smile to themselves.
Tom is sitting on a bench, on the platform, holding his mum's hand, his feet swinging. Suddenly the train swishes alongside the platform and it's all hustle and bustle, lots of people getting on and off. Where's Tom's dad?
There's a man coming towards them, it looks a bit like his dad, but he's shorter than Tom remembers, and he's limping a bit. Tom's mum stands up, but Tom ducks behind her legs, unsure, of the man and of himself. The man comes up to his mum and kisses her, softly and so tenderly, a kiss that Tom has not seen for a long time. His Dad is home.
Continued here...
Hezekiah
Last week we met Hannah, a woman who was desperate for a child. A woman who, in some senses, was a symbol of the fruitless life that the people of God were living. A woman who came to the place of worship, poured out her distress to God, and received the promise of God with faith.
We left Hannah as she departed the temple, trusting God for a son that she had earnestly prayed for. That son, Samuel, was born, and dedicated to the service of the Lord. That son was a prophet of God. Through him God answered the cry of the people for a King, and after the first King, Saul, came David, the touchstone example for all Kings of the people of God.
David died, and Solomon came to reign, building a temple for God in Jerusalem, a focus of worship for the nation. The nation seemed set on the road to greatness, but....
Continued here...
We left Hannah as she departed the temple, trusting God for a son that she had earnestly prayed for. That son, Samuel, was born, and dedicated to the service of the Lord. That son was a prophet of God. Through him God answered the cry of the people for a King, and after the first King, Saul, came David, the touchstone example for all Kings of the people of God.
David died, and Solomon came to reign, building a temple for God in Jerusalem, a focus of worship for the nation. The nation seemed set on the road to greatness, but....
Continued here...
Tabernacles
I don't know if this ever happens to you, sometimes I get home from an evening meeting and my wife will be sat watching the TV. Now, if it's Casualty, then it's fairly straightforward. I know basically who everybody is, the plot is fairly predictable and so, if I wanted to, I could pick up what's happening and sit and watch it. If, however, it's an adaptation of a Jane Austin novel that I haven't read then it might take me a bit longer, and a few questions, to work out what's going on and who everybody is.
Sitting down to read this passage made me feel a bit like I was walking into the middle of a story, and quite a complex one at that. There's lots of characters, there's a whole cultural, historical, and religious context that I'm not that familiar with, and there's obviously some more immediate stuff that's been going on that I'm not aware of.
So, what I'd like to do tonight is to go through this passage and fill in some of the background, identify the actors and work out what's going on and what themes we can take and use to shed light on our own lives.
The setting is the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the feast of the Tabernacles. This is a major, 8 day, festival in the Jewish calendar when the people remembered the tabernacles, or tents, that they lived in the desert following the flight from Israel. What is important for us is that this was a feast of pilgrimage. Lots of Jews from all over the known world had come to Jerusalem for the festival.
Continued here...
Sitting down to read this passage made me feel a bit like I was walking into the middle of a story, and quite a complex one at that. There's lots of characters, there's a whole cultural, historical, and religious context that I'm not that familiar with, and there's obviously some more immediate stuff that's been going on that I'm not aware of.
So, what I'd like to do tonight is to go through this passage and fill in some of the background, identify the actors and work out what's going on and what themes we can take and use to shed light on our own lives.
The setting is the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the feast of the Tabernacles. This is a major, 8 day, festival in the Jewish calendar when the people remembered the tabernacles, or tents, that they lived in the desert following the flight from Israel. What is important for us is that this was a feast of pilgrimage. Lots of Jews from all over the known world had come to Jerusalem for the festival.
Continued here...
Community in Kindness
This week we continue our series of services on the theme of building community. Each week we have been looking at the ways in which the work of God, the Holy Spirit, can be seen in the building up of our community. We have looked at love, joy, peace, and now we come to kindness.
When I was preparing for this morning, I did what all good sermon writers do when preparing sermons and went on the Internet. I can tell you now that if you Google, “kindness” you get lots of stuff, especially quoteable quotes from famous writers. I am also pleased to report that kindness is widely seen as a good thing.
This, however, is not the most important thing that I want to say today. The most important thing that I think that we need to get hold of this morning is that God is kind. Everything else that I say this morning flows out of that one, key, fact. God is kind.
Is it just me, or does that sound like a bit of an odd thing to say? I was thinking about what I was going to say this morning, and why it was that this sounds like a bit of an odd thing to say.
Continued here...
When I was preparing for this morning, I did what all good sermon writers do when preparing sermons and went on the Internet. I can tell you now that if you Google, “kindness” you get lots of stuff, especially quoteable quotes from famous writers. I am also pleased to report that kindness is widely seen as a good thing.
This, however, is not the most important thing that I want to say today. The most important thing that I think that we need to get hold of this morning is that God is kind. Everything else that I say this morning flows out of that one, key, fact. God is kind.
Is it just me, or does that sound like a bit of an odd thing to say? I was thinking about what I was going to say this morning, and why it was that this sounds like a bit of an odd thing to say.
Continued here...
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