Trinitarian & Perspectival Ministerial Formation

The so-called Hind Report into ministry training in the Church of England championed the overall concept on Ministerial Formation which has 3 components:

(1) spirituality and character

(2) theological knowledge

(3) ministerial competence

Each of these 3 is an aspect of ministerial formation and they are not quite 3 "parts" of it. They are related and there must be integrity between the 3.

Categories such as insperable operation and mutual indwelling may help to articulate this.

Each of the 3 aspects must be distinguished but not separated.

They may also be perspectivally related. (2) theological knowledge may be the normative perspective. (3) ministerial competence may be the situational perspective. (1) spirituality and character may be the existential perspective.

We may relate theological knowledge (2) to God the Father, the one known and revealed, the covenant Lord. We may relate spirituality and knowledge to Christ, the Word incarnate and made flesh, lived-out, our example and prototype. The Spirit may put this into action in the world (3).

Each component is "equal" and indispensible. There is a case for starting with Christ / charcter / spirituality / disposition / being before doing or even knowing. But arguably, the components would be best re-orderd so that theological knowledge (which is more than theoretical knowledge) takes a kind of prioroty. Who we are and what we do arises out of who God is.

Or maybe something like some of that!?

Ooops

If you see my car keys anywhere, please would you let me know? They are our only set and I'm not quite sure what we should do. We've searched high and low, retraced our steps and been down the nick and they told us to keep calling in.

Update: the car's been towed off to a Fiat dealer's now so on second thoughts it might be kinder to quitely drop our keys down a drain somewhere if you come accross them.

Ordination Vows

I must check the exact terms of the vows I made when I was ordained deacon in Chichester Cathedral last Petertide, but can anyone tell me, were the vows made for life, untill retirement, untill further notice, till I've served my title or something else?

For example, now that the government wants me to be a wonderfull well payed rewarded low work and stress free teacher, do my diaconal vows prevent me switching jobs?

Teaching Needs Me

Graham Holley, the chief executive of the tda has written me a very nice letter to say that they need me and my teaching skills back in the classroom.



Apparently its lovely to be a teacer now, there is more pay and less work and you get helpers.



I'm not sure the staff and students of Westcliff High school for boys (where I used to teach) would agree that I'm quite so essential to the teaching profession, but I must say that the rose-tinted-spectacles and the glossy government propaganda brochure did give me pause for thought!

New biblical songs for today's church

http://www.songsfortoday.com/index.php

The Significance of the Resurrection

In our central mid-week Bible Study yesterday we treid to consider the significance of the resurrection. Here are the jottings from my handout:

§ A neglected subject?

- the centrality of the cross (cf. 1 Cor 15:3-4; Acts 4:2, 33)

- busy defending the empty tomb

Past Event

§ Evidence that Jesus was who he claimed to be

§ Shows there is life beyond the grave (1 Cor 15:12)

§ Shows that Jesus’ God is the living and true God

§ Shows God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice – his death was effective

§ Death defeated (Rom 6:9; 1 Cor 15:54-57; Acts 2:24)

§ Jesus’ vindication / justification and ours (Rom 4:25)

§ Jesus is enthroned as Lord of all (Acts 2:32,36)

§ Jesus is the Son of God in power (Rom 1:4)

§ A man on the throne of the universe – New Adam (Ps 8; 1 Cor 15:44b-49)

§ The New Creation / New Age has begun

- Firstborn from among the dead (Col 1:18)

- Firstfruits (1 Cor 15:20, 23)

Present Effects

§ Jesus is alive – we can know him personally

He is with us (Mt 28:20)

§ Jesus our permanent High Priest lives to intercede for us (Heb 7:24-25; Rom 8:34)

§ We have new birth into a living hope through the resurrection (1 Pet 1:3)

§ We are made alive and raised with Christ (Eph 2:5-6; Col 2:12-13; 3:1-3; Rom 6:4-5; 8:11)

§ The power of the resurrection is at work in us (Eph 1:19-20; Phil 3:10-11)

§ Our labour in the Lord is not in vain (1 Cor 15:58)

Future Hope

§ We will be raised (1 Cor 6:14; 1 Thess 4:14)

§ Jesus will judge all people (Acts 17:31; 10:40-42)

§ We will receive transformed physical bodies (Phil 3:21; 1 Cor 15:42-54)

§ Hope for creation / physicality (Rom 8:18-22)

The Difference the Risen Jesus Makes

My Easter Sunday sermon on John 20 can be listened to here.

The headings are:

Mary Magdalene: Bewilderment (vv1-2) and tears (v11, 13, 15) to testimony (v18)

Disciples: Fear (v19) to peace (v19, v21, v26) and joy (v20)

Thomas: Unbelief (v25) to worship (v28)

The Meaning of the Resurrection of the Son of God

In his 800 page The Resurrection of the Son of God (London, SPCK, 2003), N. T. Wright concludes that for the New Testament writers, the resurrection of the Son of God means that he is the Messiah, the Lord of the World and God the Son.

(1) Messiah

“The first level of a ‘son of god’ understanding of Jesus’ resurrection can therefore be summarized as follows. Jesus is Israel’s Messiah. In him, the creator’s covenant plan, to deal with sin and death that has so radically infected his world, has reached its long-awaited and decisive fulfilment.” (p728)

(2) Lord

“This then is the second level of meaning. The resurrection constitutes Jesus as the world’s true sovereign, the ‘son of god’ who claims absolute allegiance from everyone and everything within creation. He is the start of the creator’s new world: its pilot project, indeed its pilot.” (p731)

(3) God

“… the fact that this Jesus had been raised by this god… drew from the early Christians the breathtaking belief that Jesus was the ‘son of god’, the unique ‘Son’ of this God, as opposed to any other… … he was the personal embodiment and revelation of the one true god.” (p731)

“The resurrection … declares that Jesus really is God’s Son… in the sense that he is the one in whom the living God, Israel’s God, has become personally present in the world, has become one of the human creatures that were made from the beginning in the image of the same God.” (p733)

“… this resurrection [of this ‘son of God’] … was the public announcement, by the one true God, that this Jesus really was, and had always been, his son in this full, self-revealing, self-embodying sense.” (p734)

Chewing Over The Meal Jesus Gave Us

At our agape supper on Maundy Thursday I tried to give some reflections on the Lord's Supper considered as a meal. Here are some jottings from my handout:

The Lord’s Supper in the context of a meal (1 Cor 11)

The Last Supper a Passover Feast (Mk 14:12,16; 1 Cor 5:7)

Early Church: “breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42, 46); agape, love feast (Jude 12)

Man as a needy, dependent, hungry creature fed by God

--> receive with humility not a meritorious good work offered to propitiate God

Cf. eating in Eden (Gen 3) and at Lord’s Supper

--> obedience / faith / gratitude (Eucharist = thanksgiving)

Jesus the True Bread of Life (John 6:35, 51) --> satisfaction and eternal life from Him

Communion (sharing / fellowship) with God

God invites us and offers us hospitality (Ps 23:5)

We are at peace with God and enjoy his company

Jesus’ guest list: eats with sinners and outcasts (Lk 15:2)

We are Jesus’ friends (Mt 11:19; John 15:12-15; Rev 3:20)

--> flee idolatry, shun the table of demons (1 Cor 10:14-22)

Communion with one another

We have Jesus in common – we all participate in him (1 Cor 10:16)

“Com-panion”s – lit. one who breaks bread with another

The family meal – table fellowship, Jews and Gentiles (Gal 2:12)

A sign of unity (1 Cor 10:17) --> table manners (1 Cor 11:20-21, 33): love, sharing

Food & drink – complete provision

Bread – basic staple, essential, satisfying nourishment, strengthens us for service; affirms creation; God uses us --> work

Wine – not water, party drink for glad celebrating (Ps 104:15)

--> Looking forward with hope the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Mt 26:29; Rev 19:9; 1 Cor 11:26)

Form for Excommunications

Calvin's Form for celebrating the Lord's Supper includes the following general excommunication:

We have heard, brethren, how our Lord makes his Supper among his disciples, and thereby shows that strangers - in other words, those who are not of the company of the faithful - ought not to be admitted. Wherefore, in accordance with this rule, in the name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, I excommunicate all idolaters, blasphemers, despisers of God, heretics, and all who form sects apart to break the unity of the Church, all perjurers, all who are rebellious to parents and to their superiors, all who are seditious, mutinous, quarrelsome, injurious, all adulterers, fornicators, thieves, misers, ravishers, drunkards, gluttons, and all who lead a scandalous life; declaring to them that they must abstain from this holy table, for fear of polluting and contaminating the sacred viands which our Lord Jesus Christ gives only to his household and believers.

Calvin's Tracts, vol 2, trans. Beveridge p120


The BCP also directs the curate that "Briefs, Citations and Excommunications" should be read after the Creed and before the Offertory in the Communion service.

Calvin's Grace

I sometimes feel the need for something other than the usual, "Father God, thank you for this food. Amen." so here's Calvin's grace. It's a bit long especially for hot food, perhaps, and I'm not so sure about the "frugal" bit, but...:

BLESSING AT TABLE

All look unto you, O Lord; and thou givest them their meat in due season; that thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, and they are filled with all things in abundence (Ps. civ.27.)

O LORD, in whom is the source and inexhaustible fountain of all good things, pour out thy blessing upon us, and sanctify to our use the meat and drink which are the gifts of thy kindness towards us, that we, using them soberly and frugally as thou enjoinest, may eat with a pure conscience. Grant, also, that we may always both with true heartfelt gratitude acknowledge, and with our lips proclaim thee our Father and the giver of all good, and, while enjoying bodily nourishment, aspire with special longing of heart after the bread of thy doctrine, by which our souls may be nourished in the hope of eternal life, though Christ Jesus our Lord. AMEN.

Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth from the mouth of God (Deut. viii.3.)

Calvin's Tracts, Volume 2, trans. Beveridge p.97

Anti-Abortion Petition

You can sign the Alive and Kicking anti-abortion petition at:

http://www.aliveandkickingcampaign.org/petition/

Background

Since 1967 there have been almost 7 million abortions, now 200,000 a year, with one in four pregnancies ending in abortion. The 1967 Abortion Act is open to amendment during the passage of the current HFE Bill, so there is now a genuine opportunity to reduce abortion numbers. We must be alert as well to the agenda of the pro-choice activists, abortion providers and some MPs who will push for further liberalisation of the law.

Petition

We believe that 200,000 abortions a year in Britain is far too many. We urge Parliament to SUPPORT amendments to the Abortion Act which will reduce substantially the 24 week upper time limit, end discriminatory abortion of the disabled up until birth, and provide balanced evidence-based information, independently of the abortion service, that gives women a properly informed choice, along with the offer of counseling.

We also urge parliament to REJECT proposed amendments seeking to liberalise the abortion law further such as ending the requirement for two doctors' signatures, allowing nurse-led medical abortion in GP surgeries with completion at home, barring pro-life doctors from seeing women with unplanned pregnancies and extending the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland.

Foetal Communion

Revd James B. Jordan argues that "those who believe that children do not belong at Jesus' table should excommunicate all pregnant women during the terms of their pregnancies."

Jordan sees in Judges 13:7, 14 evidence that symbolic or quasi-sacramental food eaten by the mother applies to the unborn child since Monoah is to observe the Nazarite food regulations until Samson is born.

The Sociology of the Church: Essays in Reconstruction (Eugene, Wipf and Stock, 1986) p249

Preaching and Homegroup Plans (May-Aug)

When we finish 1 John in homegroups we're going to study 2 & 3 John in a session each. Then I'm thinking of 4 sessions on Ruth.


Here are my Sunday preaching plans for May - Aug:

Continuing through John's gospel in the evenings.

It has been "famous texts from the BCP" in the morning. Not quite sure what next.

Sun 4^th May PM – Water into Wine (John 2:1-11)

Sun 18^th May AM – The Trinity (John 17:1-26)
(Trinity Sunday)

Sun 15^th June PM – The Cleansing of the Temple (John 2:12-25)

Sun 22nd June AM - BCP Communion using lectionary (Ps 84:8ff; 1 Kings 19:19-21; 1 Peter 3:8-15a; Luke 5:1-11) at St Nicholas, Pevensey

Sun 6^th July AM – Let the nations rejoice (Psalm 67)

Sun 20^th July AM – Family Service

Sun 10^th August PM – You must be born again (John 3:1-21)

Sun 17^th August AM – The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15)

I'm thinking of doing a couple of sessions on the Lord's Prayer. I believe there are some sermons by Rev'd Matthew Mason one could plagarise.

After that I'm wondering about a series on the 10 commandments. Would I have plenty to say on each one? And would it be a bit samey?

Bible By The Beach

A new Bible Festival for all ages is being planned by Bishop Wallace Benn for Eastbourne (based at the Congress Theatre), 1st -4th May 2009.

Mrs Lloyd can offer excellent b&b for one lucky couple!

More information is promised soon at:

http://www.biblebythebeach.org/

Calvin's Spoof Proofs

Henry Beveridge describes the Articles agreed upon by the Faculty of Sacred Theology of Paris, in reference to matters of faith at present controverted with the antidote [1542] by John Calvin :

The object being to expel every man whose convictions would not allow him to subscribe, care was taken to exhibit the most obnoxious tenets of Popery in the strongest terms in which it was possible to state them, and thereby render evasion impossible. The effect has been to give an air of absurdity to the gravest of their statements, and make it difficult to treat them with seriousness. To this circumstance, the form which Calvin has given to his Antidote is probably to be ascribed. He first gave an Article, and immediately subjoins what he calls the Proof. You accordingly begin to read, never doubting that the Proof is from the pen of the Sorbonnist who framed the Article, but soon meet with arguments, which, though very much in the manner of a Sorbonnist, tell most powerfully against him, and reveal the fact, that what purports to be a Proof by the Sorbonist is indeed a proof – not, however, of the thing said to be proved, but of its opposite; in other words, is a Reductio as absurdum by Calvin.

This mode of refutation probably told better in Paris than the most solid discussion would have done; but Calvin, apparently aware that ridicule, especially in matters of religion, is a dangerous, and from its very nature an imperfect weapon, fitted only to demolish error, and not to establish truth, immediately subjoins what properly forms the Antidote, viz. a clear statement of sound doctrine, confirmed by passages of Scripture, and supported by numerous quotations from the Fathers.

(Calvin, John, Calvin’s Tracts 3 volumes Calvin Translation Society Translated by Henry Beveridge Edinburgh 1844 (Eugene, Wipf and Stock, 2002) Volume 1, Preface, ppvii-viii)

A Spotlight on the True Light

Here's the text of my handout for a sermon about John the Baptist and Jesus from John 1:6-8, 15, 19-34. More jottings in a Word document here.

1. John the Spotlight (5:35)

v6 - God chooses to use people. He might even use us

v7, v31 – John’s purpose is the same as John’s (20:31)

John’s “testimony” (v19, v32) is about Jesus not about himself

The messenger is not the message (v8, v20)

v21 – John and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11; Mal 4:5; Lk 1:17; Mk 1:6; 2 Kings 1:8; Mt 11:14); The Prophet like Moses – Dt 18:15; cf. Acts 3:22-23

John the Voice (v23)

--> watch out for gurus / “Popes” / personality cults / preachers who are too full of themselves

--> humility (Mt 11:11 yet v15; v27; v30; vv35-37)

--> faithfully play your God-given part in God’s purposes (3:27-30)

--> point others to Jesus

2. Jesus the True Light (v9)

--> it’s possible to be religious and spiritually privileged yet in the dark (vv19-28)

v15, v30 – pre-existent / eternal (v1; 8:58)

v23 – Is 40:3 – “the LORD” – return from exile

v29 – the Lamb of God (Ex 12; Gen 22:8)

v33 – baptises with the Holy Spirit (Ez 36:24-27)

--> Look to Jesus!

Righteous Indignation

Tedd Tripp defends the idea of “righteous indignation”, but he adds this helpful and memorable caution:

People tend to think, “I am right and I am indignant, therefore this is righteous indignation.”

No doubt there are all sorts of considerations and distinctions such as, am I proportionately indignant with the right people for the right reasons?

Here’s how Tripp spins it:

The difference between righteous and unrighteous indignation is illustrated by asking, “Whose honor is being preserved?” If I am angry because God has been dishonoured and that vexes me, I am probably exercising righteous anger. If my anger is the garden variety, “I can’t believe you’re doing this to be, who do you think you are, you little brat,” it is probably unrighteous anger. That kind of anger will muddy the waters of discipline.

Tedd Tripp, Shepherding a Child’s Heart 2^nd edition 2005 (Wapwallopen, Shepherd Press, 1995), p108

Striking Sermon-heading Award

I'd like to nominate Rev'd John Cheeseman for point 3 of "5 Lessons on the Nature & Effects of Sin" from 1 Kings 21:

• Sin will turn a man into an unprincipled moral jelly-fish.

The youth group wanted to challenge the curate to include various other creatures in his sermon headings next week, but thankfully the moment passed.

Holy Trinity Eastbourne Online

Check out our new and improved church website at:

www.holytrinityeastbourne.org.uk

MP3 sermon files to follow soon, we hope.

(We're going to phase out the .co.uk address.)

We were helped on this by Hugh Bourne of Web4Christ, who did indeed give us "honest internet services".

Any feedback welcome.