Warm Spaces Dallington Deanery, Heathfield etc.

 Here are some Warm Spaces (or similar) I am aware of being offered by local churches: (for further details please check with individual providers)

Coffee and Company (Warbleton Parish Church) Osborne House, Rushlake Green (opposite the shop) 10-12 on a Thursday

Heathfield Benefice: St. Richard's Church Hall every Friday from 10.00 to 4.00

Union Church, Heathfield in the church hall every Wednesday. from 10.30 with simple lunch and pudding at noon.

Union Church 'Take a break' community coffee morning every Thursday from 9.30 to ll.30

Union Church also provides 'Tuesdays Together' on alternate Tuesdays from 2.00 to 4.00 (alternating with the Lunches Together lunch club)

St. Bartholomew's Cross-in-Hand, in the Alleluia Room every Monday from December 5th (excluding Dec. 26th, Boxing Day) from 10.00 to 4.00

The church halls at Christ Christ, Horam will be open and warm, with hot drinks and biscuits, every Friday in December between 10.00am-4.00pm (all free of charge).

Hailsham Methodists - Saturday morning weekly

See also: https://www.warmwelcome.uk/
https://warmspaces.org/

Dr Peter Williams on The Preaching of Jesus

 Dr Peter Williams' Martyn Lloyd-Jones Lecture "The Preaching of Jesus". 

One of the things he has made me think about is how the paragraphing of Greek New Testament Manuscripts might be relevant to the interpretation of the text (on Mark 4, listen and behold). 

Cf. Tyndale House Greek New Testament Introduction on paragraphing p512. 

Dirk Jongkind, An Introduction to the Gk NT p36. 

And lots of other interesting stuff. 

Jesus' use of Greek e.g. "hypocrites", no work in Hebrew or Aramaic as no theatre but a theatre less than 4 miles from Nazareth. 

  https://vimeo.com/774751295...

He's interesting on the carefully crafted Greek of the Beatitudes (and elsewhere) with their alliteration (p, di, k, a), sounds, structures and verb endings.

See further Tyndale House Magazine Ink, Issue 7, free online "Did Jesus Speak Greek?" pp18-21 https://tyndalehouse.com/ink.../ink-issue-7-winter-2020/

Jesus' preaching was brilliantly crafted and designed to be memorable. It seems quite likely that at least sometimes he taught in Greek so we need not assume that the brilliance of Jesus' teaching actually comes from the Greek-writing evangelists rather than Jesus. 

And a close look at the parable of the prodigal son as brilliant story telling. 

A man with just two sons. The younger son goes off into a far country after cheating the older brother out of his inheritance. Staying at home. There's an angry "man of the field" "dying of hunger". Goats! Robes. Draw near. This is the story of . Running, embracing and kissing unique in the OT: Esau greeting Jacob! 

cf. also Laban, singing, dancing, labour for a father figure for years, devouring your property / eating up. 

cf. Joseph, the ring and the robe. Rags to riches. Feeding. Far country. The father thinks him dead and he is alive again. Forgiveness. 

cf. Friend, goat and prostitute - Genesis 38. Sexual behaviour or misbehaviour at home or away. 

cf. Abraham. Father (Luke 16 - 3x). Lazarus the brother?! "Quick" - Genesis 18v6 - prepare the food / party! A speech. A fatted calf. First runner, first hospitality, first quick, first fatted calf. An old man who runs! Abraham gave away his inheritance while living! 

Despising a celebration for a younger brother - Ishmael mocks and loses his inheritance. 

cf. Cain and Abel - brother conflict, field, animals, anger, envy of the younger brother

Forgiving. Welcome. 

All the Bible's greatest hits in a three minute story! Some references may be weak, but there is a strong allusion every 20 seconds. This is a genius story by someone who knows the Old Testament very well. Jesus also manages to speak wonderfully simply so that the common people here him gladly. But is there not also wonderful fascinating profundity and depth.   

Wow at the teaching of Jesus! Look at Jesus' words more closely. He is the best ever teacher. 

The Parable of the Prodigal Son must have been composed as an integrity in Greek! 

The longest and shortest parable - The parable of the leaven - Matthew 13v13, three satas of flour - Genesis 18v6 - “get three seahs[b] of the finest flour

Divine Persons: What is a "person"?

 Augustine famously said that when we ask what a divine person is, "human language labours altogether under great poverty of speech." We speak of "three persons, not that it might be [completely] spoken, but that it might not be left [wholly] unspoken." (On The Trinity 5.9).

Boethius said a person is "an individual substance of a rational nature." (Contra Eutychen 3).

Here's D. Glenn Butner Jr.'s attempt:

"A divine person is a unique subsistence of the singular and rational divine nature that is distinguishable from yet inseparably united with the other divine persons by the divine relations. The divine persons do not posses different natures, bodies, or material forms from one another, nor are they distinct centers of consciousness, willing, or knowledge. Rather, the fullness of the divine nature is hypostatized in its entirety in each person, indivisibly without splitting the divine nature into parts and irreducibly in a threefold relation.

Divine revelation refers to the fact that each divine person is a unique subsistence that is determined entirely by how that person eternally is ordered toward the other persons by the divine processions. Traditionally, the Father is distinguished by the relations of paternity to the Son and active spiration to the Spirit, the Son by filiation to the Father, and the Spirit by passive spiration to the Father." (Trinitarian Dogmatics, p127)

Parish Magazine Item for December

 From The Rectory

 

For many of us, December is the busiest month of the year. There are Christmas presents to worry about, feasts to prepare, family commitments and parties jostling in the diary. It’s easy to be frantic and distracted.

 

For the church, this period is not only the build up to Christmas but “advent”, a word which means “coming” or “arrival”. Of course during this time we prepare for our celebration of the birth of Jesus (his first coming) but in particular we also look forward to the Second Coming of Christ. In the Nicene Creed we confess that Jesus who is now enthroned triumphant in heaven “seated at the right hand of [God] the Father … will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” Traditionally the four Sundays of Advent might be given over to considering the so-called “Four Last Things”: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.

 

 Some of us (and indeed some at some other local churches) are reading a little book this Advent by Tom Parsons called The Radiant Dawn (10 Publishing) available from:

10ofthose.com/uk/products/25292/the-radiant-dawn and elsewhere. The book gives a daily reflection from chapters one and two of Luke’s Gospel.

 

For many the Christmas story might seem like a fairy tale – make believe for the children, some glitter and sparkle in our gloomy winter. But for the Bible writers, Jesus is the Light of the World stepping in to his creation. He is God made flesh entering history. When he writes his gospel, Luke is aware of other accounts of Jesus and he tells us he has carefully investigated everything from the beginning and has checked his facts with the original eye-witnesses. He has written an orderly account of the things which have been fulfilled, he says (see chapter 1 verses 1-4). He has become convinced that God has acted in history. The ancient promises of God have at least come true. And Luke wants his readers to have certainly about these things. When he comes to speak of the birth of Jesus it is not “Once upon a time…” but “in the days of Caesar Augustus” when “Quirinius was governor of Syria” (chapter 2 verses 1-2). Luke is presenting evidence on which we can depend.

 

In his opening chapters, Luke repeatedly tells us of good news to sing about. Mary, the mother of Jesus, asks “how can this be”? And well she might. But she comes to rejoice in God her Saviour. She sings of God’s mercy and rescue: that he is going to bring down the proud and raise up the humble. She treasures up all these things and ponders them in her heart.

 

The angels bring a message of peace to the shepherds. At last the Messiah, the long-promised rescuer-king has been born. People can know God’s favour. They go and check it out and they find it to be just as the angel had told them, and they return glorifying and praising God. 

 

We’d love to see you at some of our Christmas services and events, details of which are given later in the magazine and at: warbletonchurch.org.uk/whatson/dec-christmas-services/

 

May we follow the example of Mary and of the shepherds in believing this good news this Christmas. Perhaps this advent we might take some time to reflect on these things, maybe with the help of Luke’s gospel and with Tom Parson’s little book. Beyond all the food and tinsel of this festive season, the first coming of Christ makes all the difference to The Four Last Things of Advent. By responding rightly to the first coming of Jesus with joyful repentance and faith, we can be ready for his second coming with confidence. 

 

A very happy and peaceful Christmas to you and your family.