Love is...

 Our society makes much of love. But arguably it hardly knows what it means. 

All human loves are disordered. 

And my little corner of conservative evangelicalism (a bit middle class and buttoned up and so on) has perhaps been a bit shy of love. It sounds a bit emotional. So we have often wanted to say it isn't that. Or not just that. We have rightly said that love is much more than a feeling. 

In marriage, we have rightly said that love is not just about being in love. It is a promise and a commitment. 

When it comes to God, we know that love leads to obedience. Love and sin cannot properly go together. 

And when we speak of loving the church family we have stressed practical acts of service which seek the good of others.

 Secular British society could learn something, I reckon, from the preceding paragraphs. 

My bit of the church might do well to study The Song of Songs. It has much to say about the love of Christ for his church, and vice versa. And also plenty to tell us about human love. There is more longing, intensity, passion, delight than we cold fish might sometimes care to embrace. 

If we are scared to call love an emotion, call it an affection, then. That sounds a bit more 17th Century, and we like it there. Yes, love with mind, will and hand. But also with some heart. And if your heart is a little cold and you don't feel a lot of love for God or for others, that too is something to pray for and seek. It is not the only thing. It is not to be made an idol of or obsessed about. Sometimes we won't feel very loving and we still ought to love. But let us pray for a consistent heart-felt love.   

"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart."

Tom Parsons, The Radiant Dawn

Quite a few people from our benefice and from a number of local churches and chapels have been reading

 Tom Parsons, The Radiant Dawn: 25 Daily Bible Readings Luke 1-2 for Advent (10Publishing, 2018). ISBN: 9781912373918 pb, 55pp

They are very reasonably priced from 10 of Those, especially if you order them in bulk. 

Each day has a couple of pages of accessible comment on the Bible text (sometimes dwelling on a passage for a few days) with a prayer. Whilst they are oriented towards Christmas, they could be used at any time. 

Parsons originally wrote these reflections for his wife. Mrs Lloyd thought this deserved some kind of husband / Vicar of the year award.  

Parsons consistently makes good, helpful, clear points which are well applied. He writes engagingly. I was keen to keep reading each day and felt these little studies were doing good to my soul, showing me Jesus. Pretty often I thought something was especially well phrased or fresh. A number of the outlines / headings could be stolen for Christmas use. If I were preaching on these passages, I would definitely take a second look at these readings. 

Highly recommended. 

Thanks, Tom, 10 of Those and Jesus the Light! 

Always remember you're enough as you are

 "Always remember you're enough as you are"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dns5bt

Is this a Christian sentiment?

There is certainly something of the Bible about it. 

The Bible would tell us that we are more loved than we could possibly imagine. 

You are more than a chemical machine. You are not just a higher ape. 

In fact, you were made by God, in his image, to be his dearly loved child. 

Yes, God loves you as you are. 

But if we're honest we all know that how we are isn't always great. We have all messed up many times, in some big ways, in many small ways. We are messed up.  

God loves us so much he doesn't leave us as we are. He loves us in our mess. 

He comes to help and heal and transform us. He can take our mess. He can take care of it. 

We are broken gods. 

God means to fix us up. 

That's why Jesus came. And Jesus is enough. 

Left to ourselves, we can never be "enough", whatever that means. 

We can stop trying to impress others, ourselves, God. 

The world is not enough. 

There's more!

Come and welcome to Jesus Christ. In him is all the fullness of God. He is more than sufficient. He offers us an abundant overflowing life which even death cannot destroy. We can never come to the end of Jesus. And he can more than satisfy.

Forget about yourself. Always remember Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. He alone is enough. 

Merry Christmas!

You can hear Charlie Mackesy talk about the Christian faith here: https://www.eden.co.uk/blog/is-charlie-mackesy-christian-p1790477 

"Come as you are; be transformed" isn't a bad invitation. 

Parish Magazine Item for January

 From The Rectory

  

Our Diocese of Chichester has a three-year plan entitled Proclaiming the Mystery of Faith for 2023-2025.

 

2023 has been designated a Year of the Old Testament. 2024 will focus on the New Testament. And 2025 will be a year especially dedicated to the teaching of the Christian faith, as we celebrate the anniversary of The Council of Nicaea, which took place in AD 325.

 

2023: A Year of The Old Testament

 

The Old Testament is foundational to the Christian faith. It is almost impossible to understand Jesus the Christ, the Jewish Messiah, without understanding the Hebrew Scriptures which prepared the way for him.

 

And yet the Old Testament is so often caricatured, misunderstood and neglected. The Old Testament forms something like three quarters of the Christian Bible but even to regular church goers, whole tracts of the Hebrew Bible can feel like alien territory.

 

It is worth us just taking a moment to remind ourselves of the importance of the Old Testament. The picture which emerges from the New Testament is that the Old Testament is indispensable. It is very much necessary for our spiritual health.

 

The Apostle Paul tells us that the Old Testament Scriptures were written “for us”, for New Testament believers as well as for their original recipients. “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” (Romans 15). Speaking of the events of Old Testament history, he says: “These things happened to them [the church in Old Testament times] as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.“ (1 Corinthians 10). Paul presumably had the Old Testament Scriptures principally in mind when he said, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3). These are the Scriptures which Timothy had learnt since his youth. According to Paul these Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament are “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” 

 

The New Testament writers quote the Old Testament Scriptures in the most striking way as the living voice of God for us today. When they want to cite those ancient words we might expect them to say something like, “As David said in the Psalms of old….” But instead they say, “As the Holy Spirit says,…”. (Hebrews 3 and 4) The Old Testament is the Word of God, not the word of God Emeritus. In it God speaks to us today.

 

The Lord Jesus Himself submitted to the Old Testament Scriptures. He frequently quoted them and treated them as a final court of appeal in controversy. He said they must be fulfilled. And could not be broken. And that not the least pen stroke would pass away before heaven and earth passed away. And that they were written to testify about him that we might come to him in faith and find life. In fact, when he rose from the dead he took the time to hold an Old Testament Bible Study with his disciples, showing  them how all the Scriptures were fulfilled in him. “He opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures”, we’re told. (Luke 24). We might pray that he would do the same for us. We could use one of the Collects from The Book of Common Prayer:

 

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

The Diocese and the Cathedral will be offering various Unpacking The Word seminars looking at the whole story of the Old Testament and focusing on particular books such as the Psalms, Song of Songs and Isaiah.

 

A Lent Course will be available looking at Mary as a New Eve, Melchizedek and Christ, Joseph (of Technicolour Dream Coat fame), Moses and the Queen of Sheba.

 

Further details will be available on the Diocesan website at: chichester.anglican.org

 

I’d particularly like to invite you to this, which I’ll be running:

 

Diocesan Online Group via Zoom: Reading Genesis and Exodus as Christian Scripture for the Church Today

 

You can join us either in the afternoon or the evening. Sessions will be led jointly by me and by The Revd Thomas Pelham (Rector of Burwash, Burwash Weald & Etchingham, who is part of the podcasting team at Irreverend: Faith and Current Affairs).

 

We will aim to read these books with and for the church, seeking to encounter Christ and consider the New Testament fulfilment of these texts, as well as their contemporary relevance. These sessions will enable participants to engage deeply with these seminal books by looking at the big picture and reading key passages closely.  There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.

 

This group will take place through the year on Zoom at approximately fortnightly intervals (excluding Lent, August and Advent). Sessions are from 1:30pm to 2:45pm and 7:45pm to 9pm on Wednesdays.

 

Each session will include a set Bible text, which participants are asked to read and think about in advance. No further reading will be required but suggestions will be available.

 

Anyone is welcome at any session, and of course you may not be able to make every one, but we hope as far as possible to have a settled group for the sessions on Genesis or Exodus or both. 

 

Genesis sessions: 11^th Jan (Invitation, introduction – Jesus quotes the Torah – Matthew 22:23-40); 25^th Jan; 8^th Feb; 19^th April; 3^rd May; 17^th May; 7^th June; 21^st June; 5^th July; 19^th July.

 

Exodus sessions: 6^th Sept; 20^th Sept; 4^th Oct; 18^th Oct; 1^st Nov; 15^th Nov; 29^th Nov.

 

Zoom meeting details – “Genesis Exodus Reading Group”

Join Zoom Meeting - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84828857268

Meeting ID: 848 2885 7268

To dial in by phone - find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbrHmx8FeX

 

I hope you’ll consider joining us. And that somehow 2023 might be a year in which you get to grips with the Old Testament Scriptures, and Jesus our Saviour, whom we can encounter there.

 

A happy, blessed and biblical 2023 to you all! 

 

The Revd Marc Lloyd

A biblical case for bishops

 Evangelical Anglicans normally hold that bishops are for the well being of the church and are not of the essence of the church. One can have a church without a bishop. 

But that need not mean that the case for bishops is merely historical, traditional or pragmatic. 

Dr Martin Davie has written over 800 pages on bishops. Bishops Past, Present and Future (Gilead Books Publishing, 2022). He makes a biblical case for bishops.

It is worth pointing out that this is not an argument from New Testament terminology. The words presbyter (elder) and episkopos (overseer, bishop) are used interchangeably in the NT. (It is in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch (died c. 108/140 AD) that we first find the word episkopos clearly used for a single individual who exercises oversight).

Jesus is the chief pastor / bishop / overseer. 

Yet from an early date we can see the apostles and their successors fulfilling the role of senior presbyters or chief pastors under Christ, which we would call bishops today, with oversight of more than one local congregation and with the role of appointing other elders. 

On the Apostles as bishops see Davie p43, Hooker, Laws, VII.iv.1 p336, Cyprian, Epistle LXIV

James the brother of Jesus seems to have functioned as the Bishop of Jerusalem. Acts 12:17; 15; 21:18; Gal 1:18f; 2:9, 12; James 1:1. See Davie pp44-51.

Timothy was the first bishop of Ephesus. 1 Timothy 1:3-4. 

Titus was the first bishop of Crete. Titus 1:5.

On Timothy and Titus see Eusebius, Jerome, Ambrose, Chrysostom etc. The evidence is given in Davie pp57-58.

The stars / angels (= messengers) of the churches, to whom letters are written by Christ, in the book of Revelation 1-3 are plausibly understood as the bishops of those cities, responsible for several house churches. See Davie p63ff. Writer who shared this traditional interpretation or something like it include Augustine, Jerome, Gregory the Great, Bullinger, Beza, Bede. Davie p64f.

This interpretation of the New Testament data seems to have quickly established itself and was universally accepted until the 16th Century.  

Davie summarises the sub-apostolic evidence: "... from the very start of the second century until its end the threefold order of bishops, presbyters and deacons was in existence across the Christian world. There is no church we know of where it does not seem to have existed.... 

... during the second century the term bishop (episkopos) was used exclusively to refer to a single individual who had ministerial oversight over the elders, deacons and lay people of a particular church. Furthermore, all the writers who comment on the subject see episcopacy as apostolic in origin with writers such as Hegesippus, Irenaeus and Tertullian testifying to unbroken lists of bishops in the churches going back to apostolic times." (p115)

For a discussion of this, see the Church Society podcast: https://www.churchsociety.org/resource/podcast-s09e10-more-and-better-bishops/