Andrew Marvel, To His Coy Mistress– “Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime…. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near;”
Contrast W. E. Henley’s Invictus – “In the fell clutch of circumstance … I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul”
Ps 31:15 - “My times are in your hands”
Ps 33:10-11 – “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. 11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm for ever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”
Is 45:6b-7 – “I am the LORD, and there is no other. 7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.”
Ps 131 – “My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. 2 But I have stilled and quietened my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and for evermore.”
Jesus the Resurrection, Lord of Life & Death (John 11:1-47)
Trust in Jesus, The Resurrection and the Life, the Christ, the Son of God, the Masterà belief / faith vv25-26, 45; 20v31
… even in the face of sickness and death – vv1-2
Take your needs straight to Jesus (in prayer) – v3
… even when he seems to get things wrong – v4
… even when his timing is inexplicable or help is delayed – v6
… even when you can’t understand what he says or does, when your faith is weak or confused – vv4-6, 7-8, 11-13; Mark 9v24
… even when it means persecution and opposition and the dangerous self-sacrificial way of the cross – vv7-8, 16
… even when he seems not to answer prayer as we wanted or when it seems hopeless and too late – vv17, 21
… even in the midst of tears, real grief and pain – v19, 21, 31-33
… because of his great love, compassion, sympathy, empathy, true humanity – vv3, 11, 35-36 – Jesus knows what it’s like to weep
… because of his unique, amazing supernatural God-like Creation power, because the Father hears him – vv41-45; 1vv3-4
… because Jesus rules death – vv33, 38 - and gives new life here and now – 17v3 - death is only sleep for the Christian – vv11-13 à nothing to fear – 1 Cor 15v55; a foretaste of the Resurrection, v24
… because if you do you will see the glory of God – v4, 40 - and your faith will be strengthened, which is for your best. Jesus is in control, has a plan and knows what he’s doing
A picture of spiritual rebirth through the gospel – 3v3, 5vv24-29, Eph 2vv1-6à proclaim the gospel with confidence in Jesus’ power
Here are some jottings for some of the things I plan to say at our camp training day in the morning:
An introduction to John’s Gospel
with some learnings for Danehill 1 2010
and some things I’ve been wanting to say about Camp!
The key to John – reading the last page first – 20:30-31 – the purpose of the Gospel
Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to be one of the first disciples in that upper room…
Doubting Thomas – seeing is believing - 20:24 / reading is believing - 20:29!
John (and the Scriptures) give us “more blessed” / happy access to meeting with the risen Jesus today for ourselves – we are more privileged than the first disciples because we have a Bible!
so it is to the Scriptures we must go, and to which we must direct the Pathfinders
The purpose of John (and the Scriptures) is that we should:
(a) (begin to) believe in Jesus (for the first time) AND / OR ?
(b) go on believing in Jesus
which is our purpose for the Pathfinders – remember both:
(a) those who are not yet Christians and
(b) those who are already believers
We are about: Conversion & Discipleship; Evangelism & Nurture; Mission & Maturity
Belief / trusting Jesus brings us real “life” – quality & quantity of life, now and for ever – 10:10; eternal life, knowing God - 17:3
The authority of the Bible – Scripture cannot be broken – 10:35 – Jesus appeals to the exact words
The point of the Bible is to come to Jesus in faith – 5:39-40 – not just academic knowledge etc.
Meeting Jesus (for the first time or afresh, being transformed by him) – people who meet Jesus in John e.g. Disciples, Nicodemus, Samaritan woman, Royal official, paralysed man, crowds
A new vision of the greatness of Jesus – The Christ, The Son of God, Word (1:1), I AM (way, truth, life, resurrection, door, good shepherd, light of the world, bread of life, true vine), signs, glory etc.
Jesus is the ultimate answer to all our needs and all the Pathfinders’ needs
The example of John the Baptist – The voice - 1:23; We want to cry “Behold, the Lamb!” – 1:29, 35; - Shine our little spotlight on Jesus The Light – 5:32-34 – Witness pointing others to Him - 1:7-8 – Humility - 1:15, 27, 30; - Jesus must become greater, we must become less - 1:30 – rejoice if the Pathfinders make much of Him and little of us
Humble self-sacrificial service – Jesus’ example - wash one another’s feet – 13:14-17
Love - 13:34-35; 15:12, 13, 17; mutual care, thoughtfulness, helping out, carrying one another’s’ burdens – a powerful witness – our lives must match our lips, walk and talk, words and actions
Unity in the truth – 17:20-23; 17:17 – the word of truth; “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love” – distinguish primary and secondary issues; set aside personal preferences, denominational distinctives etc. – CPAS Basis of Faith sets out some essentials
I'm not sure the good people of Holy Trinity really got it - I'd worked hard on it and I thought it deserved a bit more of a grin, or at least a grown, but:
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, knows his sheep by name (John 10:3). Whether it's Lambert, Ewan, Barbara or Shawn, Jesus relates to each of his sheep individually and personally.
There are two sacraments, true, but there is only one sacramental. The world is a sacramental, and everything in it. Grace is everywhere, and gets into everything. Faith can dig it out of anything. The grandeur of God can flame out from anything, like shining from shook foil.
If understood, this results in mediated grace for everyone who is responding to God in true faith. God does grants immediate grace in various ways, true. When He converts a soul, when He visits someone with direct blessing, when He receives our worship, the grace can be immediate. But this immediate grace is supposed to be a radiant grace, spreading out through everything else, affecting everything else, causing everything else to become a mirror that reflects the glory of God.
When the new parliament gets going, you might like to pray this prayer from The Book of Common Prayer (Prayers and Thanksgivings upon several occasions, p41):
A Prayer for the High Court of Parliament, to be read during their Session.
MOST gracious God, we humbly beseech thee, as for this Kingdom in general, so especially for the High Court of Parliament, under our most religious and gracious Queen [at this time assembled]: That thou wouldest be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations, to the advancement of thy glory, the good of thy Church, the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and her Dominions; that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours, upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations. These and all other necessaries, for them, for us, and thy whole Church, we humbly beg in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ, our most blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.
When I get the chance I'd like to listen to the rest of this lecture on What Paul Might Say Back to Tom on Justification given at Wheaton College, from the perspective of a systematic theologian. HT: Revd Dr Michael Jensen.
Dr Vanhoozer encourages peace talks between New Perspectives and Protestants. The legacy of the Reformation is at stake: is the Reformation something we must recover or something that we must recover from? Wright claims to be upholding the Reformation, of course.
The Westminster 2010 Declaration people have been asking prospective MPs to "make the pledge" that they will 'respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold and express Christian beliefs and act according to Christian conscience'. You can check out candidates in your area here.
Here's the blurb for our own constituency of Eastbourne. Waterston (Con) and Lloyd (Lib) have taken the pledge and Brinson (Lab)'s views are unknown.
Eastbourne (Held by Conservative, Majority 755, Swing required: 0.8%)
According to Jonathan Bonomo, by the end of his review of J. W. Nevin’s The Mystical Presence, Charles Hodge had charged Nevin’s system with being nearly identical to or at least tending towards the following heterodox views at one point or another:
(1) Schliermarchian Mysticism
(2) Rationalism
(3) Pantheism
(4) Socinianism
(5) Eutychianism
(6) Mothelitism
(7) Romanism
(8) Sebellianism
Of course Nevin would not have recognised this description of himself. And Bonomo suggests number of these errors are mutually exclusive. As he says, no doubt Hodge would have said that Nevin was hopelessly confused.
In the light of this onslaught of accusations, Bonomo agrees with Gerish that Hodge employed an “essentially hostile hermeneutic” Tradition in the Modern World, p62.
Jonathan G. Bonomo, Incarnation and Sacrament: The Eucharistic Controversy Between Charles Hodge and John Williamson Nevin (Eugene, Wimpf and Stock, 2010) pp93-94
Jottings towards preaching at our BCP Communion on Thurs. (The BCP epistle for 4th Sunday after Easter is James 1:17-21).
You’ve got to love the language of the Prayer Book and the King James Bible, haven’t you?
Here’s our old friend “the superfluity of naughtiness!” (James 1:21).
You don’t need me to tell you. I’m sure, that “superfluity” means a superfluous amount or nature of something, so James is saying there’s more than enough naughtiness, naughtiness that is needless and redundant, superfluous.
For “superfluity of naughtiness” the NIV has “the evil that is so prevalent”.
I’m tempted tell Jono next time he’s misbehaving that, “we’ve has a “superfluity of naughtiness” already, thank you very much!”.
The point is there’s a surplus or abundance of evil in our world, and who could disagree with that?
You don't need me to prove to you that our world is full of filth and evil and wrong.
Whether or not you agree with David Cameron that we live in Broken Britain, we know that we live in a broken world, don't we?
Everywhere there is injustice, suffering and pain.
Our epistle gives us some insight into the source of evil and it's solution.
So first of all, the source of evil: where does it come from?
First of all, certainly not from God!
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
God is the Father of light, pure and radiant.
He is the giver of every good and perfect gift.
He is utterly consistent in his moral perfection.
No, the problem is not God but you and me.
At the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.
James hints at this when he tells us that "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God".
Jesus tells us in the Gospel (John 16:5-15) of the Holy Spirit's work:
"And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment"
We're such inveterate sinners that we can't even recognise our own sin!
We need the Holy Spirit to open our blind eyes so that we can recognise not only the evil in the world around us, but the evil within each of us.
So what's the solution to evil? What's the answer to all that's wrong in the world?
It won't surprise us to discover its neither Brown, Cameron nor Clegg, nor any of the other parties standing for election today.
The power comes from God alone:
"Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
We need to be born again by the Word of God in the power of the Spirit.
We are to "receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save our souls".
We depend on Jesus' saving work and we need him to send us his Spirit that we might receive his word.
So, by the power of the Spirit, will you "lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls"?
I've been preaching my way through John's gospel for a while, and I'm thinkimg of doing some edited highlights for the leaders on camp this summer. There are, of course, a number of ways of doing this, including:
I am sayings Signs Farewell / Upper Room Discources The Cross & Resurrection
Today I bought a book which looks at Lives Jesus Changed from John's Gospel. Revd Dr Simon Vibert invites us to meet Jesus and learn lessons about life by considering Jesus' encounters with:
John The Baptist The Disciples Nicodemus The Woman of Samaria The Royal Official & the Paralyesed Man The Crowds The Jews The Adulterous Woman The Man Born Blind Mary, Martha & Lazarus The Greeks Philip Mary & Mary John Thomas Peter
God-willing we'll be having Bible studies and talks from Mark's Gospel this year on our camp for 11-14 year olds (Danehill 1). Here are some resources I'm thinking of recommending to our leaders. Are any of these rubbish? Is there anything else you'd recommend?
Paul Barnett, The Servant King: Reading Mark Today (Aquila)
Peter Bolt and Tony Payne, Mark: News of the HourTen Interactive Studies for small groups and individuals (Matthias Media)
Tim Chester, Mark 1-8: The Coming King The Good Book Guide to Mark 1-8 Ten Studies for individuals or groups (Good Book Company)
Tim Chester, Mark 9-16: The Servant King The Good Book Guide to Mark 1-8 Ten Studies for individuals or groups (Good Book Company)
R. Alan Cole, Mark Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (IVP)
Phil Crowter, Preaching Mark: Talk Outlines For The Gospel of Mark (Good Book Company)
Dick France, Mark: The People’s Bible Commentary (Bible Reading Fellowship) – he also wrote the big fat New International Greek Testament Commentary on Mark as R. T. France (Eerdmans / Paternoster)
William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark: The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Eerdmans) – fat
Tom Wright, Mark For Everyone (SPCK)
Christianity Explored and CY (youth version) material are also (largely) based on Mark’s Gospel (Good Book Company)
In church on Sunday we are encouraging people to sign the Westminster 2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience. You can find details and sign the petition here.
Today I'm running a session at the Sussex Coast Ministry Training Course for my little preaching group to tee up our term's work on preaching the Psalms. I've grandly entitled my jottings:
APPRECIATING, APPLYING & PREACHING PSALMS
Here's my handout:
All the usual things to think about when preaching / speaking plus:
The 5 books of the Psalter – cf. 5 books of the Law – significance?
The Context of the Psalms
-original historical context – how important? the importance of the superscriptions (original) – sometimes unknown - speculation
-original / early use of Psalms e.g. in gathered corporate worship, Psalms of Ascents pilgrim festivals
-in a cycle / group of Psalms, the book of Psalms, in Psalms as a whole – e.g. Ps 1 & 2, 42 & 43
-in the Bible / salvation history – the Psalms as a Christian book
This might make an illustration for my sermon on Ecclesiastes 2 tomorrow where I'll talk about the difference death makes to life. There are no pockets in a shroud and you can't take your stuff with you. 1 Timothy 6:7
While we were on holiday I enjoyed reading Peter Hitchens' The Rage Against God (Continuum, London / New York, 2010) - 168pp, which is a response to the New Atheists (Dawkins et al) including Hitchens' own brother, Christoper, who wrote God is Not Great.
The book is very engaging and readable. Interestingly personal without being egotistical or gushy.
As I remember it, some of it read like a hymn to a forgotten England, an England which was the product of Christendom, the Bible and The Prayer Book and so on.
Peter Hitchens was more or less brought up as a Christian but rejected the faith as a teenager. He is particularly revealing on the cultural atmosphere that encouraged him to do so and perhaps some of the corruptions of Christianity such as baptised patriotism or a cult of Churchill that he was reacting against. Hitchens describes how he thought himself too clever to believe and especially how attractive it was to embrace atheism, since at a stroke duty and accountability were gone. Without God there can be no real should or ought.
Hitchens cites W. Somerset Maughan's hero, Philip Carey, in the autobiographical novel Of Human Bondage. On his denial of God, we read of Carey:
He was free from degrading fears and free from prejudice. He could go his way without the intolerable dread of hell-fire. Suddenly he realised that he had lost also that burden of responsibility which made every action of his life a matter of urgent consequence. He could breathe more freely in a lighter air. He was responsible only to himself for the things he did. Freedom! He was his own master at last. From old habit, unconsciously, he thanked God that he no longer believed in him. [quoted in Rage, p8]
Hitchens says:
... my excitement was undimmed. There were no more external, absolute rules. The supposed foundation of every ordnance, regulation, law and maxim from 'don't talk after lights-out' and 'give way to pedestrians on the Zebra crossing' to 'Thou shalt not commit adultery'. 'Thou shalt do no murder', 'Honour thy father and thy mother' and 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me' was a fake. ...
Enlightened self-interest was the evolutionary foundation of good behaviour. I did not have to [do] anything I did not want to do, ever again. I would therefore be 'happy' because I was freed from those things whereof my conscience was afraid. My conscience was in any case not to be relied on where my desires were stronger, or my fears greater than my promptings. I could behave as I wished, without fear of eternal consequences, and (if I was cunning and could get away with it) without fear of earthly ones too. And I could claim to be virtuous. Unlike Philip Carey, I did immediately recognise that some of the virtues could now be dispensed with, and several of the supposed sins might turn out to be expedient if not actually delightful. I acted accordingly for several important and irrecoverable years. (p9)
God-willing, I'm going to share some thoughts on preaching the Psalms with my little preaching group at The Sussex Coast Ministry Training Course on Tues 27th. All hints and tips gratefully received.
I am a Bible believing Christian, husband to Mrs Lloyd, father to four children.
I am the Rector of Warbleton, Bodle Street Green & Dallington and Rural Dean of Dallington, Diocese of Chichester. I also edit the book reviews for The Global Anglican.
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