Happy Easter!

An Easter Song, in my opinion, never improved upon in all contemporary Christian music.

Holiday Pics - No 2 The Old Country

The weather isn't very British; the shrubs aren't very British; but what's that?  Nothing could be more British than a red telephone box!

I saw this one in Malta and there were plenty of others there - here's two . . .

Of course we still see them in Britain.  Occasionally.  They are strategically left for tourists to take pictures of them, or rather of themselves beside them.

Perhaps it is a strange thing that places that in other ways have gladly shed their connections to Britain have kept connections with things that Britain has itself abandoned.  If it isn't the telephone boxes it is a random London red double-decker of a kind almost untraceable in London today.

It illustrates how differently we choose to keep rooted or at least referenced.  In London we don't keep red telephone boxes or open back buses, in former connected countries they don't keep the Queen's head on stamps and currency.

In church worship you are more likely to sing an old evangelical hymn during a High Mass or prior to a liberal Bible-denying sermon in a church that kept the hymnbook but gave up trust in the Bible than you are to sing such a hymn in churches that have kept their simple trust in the Bible but given up the hymnbook.

Heat

There must be many places to be on a 95 degree day, but London certainly isn't one of them. 

 

I feel strangely satisfied sitting in my study before doing an afternoon visit.  I've just been on the phone to someone who, it turned out, was answering their phone from Hampton Court Garden Show.  Far from feeling jealous I felt sorry for my friend.

 

The atmosphere changes everything, doesn't it?  Ordinary places become extraordinary on an unusual weather day.  I find myself paying attention to shaded streets so I can walk comfortably, minimising my time outside, closing my curtains.

 

A song that is a few steps past my current church's style but which I love is the only one I know with the word atmosphere in.  It's a reminder that although we have meetings that try to change things, the only really big change comes when God turns up the heat.  Then nothing is the same.

 

 

A December 6th Moment

Thomas was certainly clever.

Very few preachers, theologians or philosophers will have failed to mention him a few times.  But even if they choose to leave him in what they think is medieval history he will find them anyway if they are engaged with the Western world at all for his writings are that foundational to the history of thought.

 

 

 

Yet Thomas Aquinas's masterwork, his epic summary of theology, was never really completed.  Though it has shaped so much directly or indirectly it was put into best perspective by its author himself.

 

In early December of the year before he died he was in worship (a Mass of course, it being the medieval era) when he suddenly said that he would write no more.  His personal experience of God in that place on that day had left him lost for words.  All his writings, he estimated (in a way that even the militant atheists might hesitate to concede) were as straw.

 

As I watch a thousand texts being texted and blogs blogged and 'friends' messaged I cannot help thinking that every Christmas and every Advent is another opportunity to be lost in wonder that is lost in writing.

 

We can only ever know God when we stop and realise how little we have grasped of Him so far and how beyond words he and his love is.

Young

Yesterday we had an Evening Service where the average age of the participants was under 20 years old.  And no-one was as old as half my age.  I like that.



I thought about it when I read about the UK Youth Parliament.  I think that is a great idea too.  But what I noticed about that is that it is three days - not three full days mind - in the summer hols.  I am confident no young person I have met even knows it exists.  I am not entirely convinced that most politicians know it exists.

Here's the blurb: 'For the last ten years MYPs from all across the UK have come together to take part in workshops, debates, and develop the UK Youth Parliament’s campaigns for the year ahead at our annual summit.'

Laudable, but definitely not powerful.

When young people - indeed when children - lead times of worship and reflection on the much greater things of God the amazing thing is this: they are often more able and powerful than adults.  And certainly, as heaven looks down, heaven does not think,

'Oh, it's just a Youth-led Service tonight'

Never Once

Time

The British (though strangely no individual Briton I have met) are quite keen on ancient peculiarities.  We had a dose of them at the Royal Wedding recently when the Archbishop, dressed in finery that threatened to outshine the bride but bespeaking some other century, led the couple in thees and thous, past a betwixt and a wedlock and generally reminded us of the glories, if such they be, of ancient Church of England liturgy. 

You can get an ancient peculiarity daily in Oxford Cathedral (which, were I an Anglican, would be my diocesan mother church).  For Oxford cathedral keeps Oxford time, not Greenwich Mean Time or British Summer Time like the rest of the nation.  So the 11:00am service starts at 11:00am Oxford time, which was five minutes later than London.  So, unless you've adjusted your watch, it will be 11:05 to you.

It's all a bit of odd fun, isn't it?

Mmm.  Yet in the field of human life there are few things more important than than marriage, the public commitment of a man and a woman to stay together faithfully until parted by death.  If there is something more important it might be a service of worship at which humans gather to address, and be addressed by, their God and Saviour.  So why, I wonder, are these things the ones that are anachronistic?  Why make these the museum pieces?

Although, of all the things that happen in Oxford, only the worship of almighty God is stuck in this time warp the real peculiarity is this - that worship of almighty God is the only thing happening in Oxford that will also happen in a New Order of things when time itself is history . . .

Happy Easter!

Not me

Uncomplicated

You may, of course, not believe it.

Just stay sitting down then.  Because if human beings haven't a way of getting past death successfully they certainly don't have anything to stand up and sing about.

Happy Valentine's Day!

'Valentine' comes from the word for 'worthy'. Many of the first Christian martyrs had this name, and it is a reasonable guess that they earned the name for their bravery before they were put to death. St Valentine's Day celebrates martyrs of that name.

What has that to do with Jack and Jill giving each other kisses and chocolates?

Not much perhaps. But love and worthiness (or 'worship') go together quite well when focused in the right place . . .

Revelation Song

Kari Jobe's song is the worship song of the moment so I thought it ought to reach my blog.

Having lived the Texas life in the past I had a smile when I found out that Kari's church has a Senior Pastor. And it has an Executive Senior Pastor. And it has several Associate Senior Pastors. Goodness knows how far down the chain a mere 'Pastor' is!

Calvin (2)

What might happen if Calvin's theology was wedded to the Holy Spirit's work in Britain today?

It looks something like this . . .

Servant

My friend Richard passed away on Tuesday. Some of you knew him too. He was a servant of the Servant King. This was his favourite song, and I post it in his honour and memory.

This song always reminds me that the Christian life is work as well as inspiration. Not only because of the meaning of the song words themselves but because Graham Kendrick wrote it not in some great flash of inspiration. Instead he grafted away with studies and commentaries to prepare a song for Spring Harvest 1984, an international Christian Conference with the theme that year of 'The Servant King'.

Sometimes our perspiration can become someone else's inspiration!

Risen!

Don't miss this reflection too! This is an all-or-nothing day.

While it's great for a Christian preacher to have the rest from preaching that a sabbatical brings this is a frustrating day to keep silent. But I point you to this sermon as an inspiration.

Everything

After a few weeks reading and hearing depressingly vacuous accounts of the origins and meaning of the natural world I've become more convinced than ever that we must learn to love God in order to appreciate the world and ourselves!

Indescribable

Laura Story's amazing song, Chris Tomlin's worship passion with a great pictures as an accompaniment.

Vacation

Holidays, vacation times, are great. And one of the joys is seeking out churches at which to worship. Though I must confess that has been a disappointment more often than a joy.

Never more so then when, on a visit in Catholic Europe we finally traced the location of an English-speaking and Protestant church. Or at least the place where it was to meet. After a long walk we met this notice in the window.

The Priest in Charge of this church has resigned without warning or due notification. The Bishop of the Diocese has suspended the Parish without warning or due notification. For those reasons Anglican Church Services are no longer held in this church.

We were not the only ones on vacation! It was very vacated indeed.

I figured the following;

• Now I know why I don't believe a Priest is essential to a church, still less a Bishop. After all, whatever their issues they had conspired to deny us a group of believers with whom to share worship in our language. If a congregation had turned up, I'd have happily led the service!
• If you are going to put a notice in the window it either needs to say more than this - something positive perhaps? - or less. I thought this was probably the most woeful church notice I had ever read. And THAT is saying something!

Meanwhile, the world continued to pass by the busy street while the ecclesiastical wheels remained stuck in the ecclesiastical mud.

May God grant us some vacationing fellowship to celebrate.

Stunning

Just sometimes you have to praise God for technology. Here is a stunning Norwegian choir singing in a Dutch church (St Jan's Gouda) in English a song written by an American!

It's my daughter's favourite, and she has good taste!