Another list of Easter videos

which mentions some of those already cited.

http://thathappycertainty.com/2016/03/22/17-easter-videos-for-2016/

Good Friday Live Video

Modern rolling news style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1lOG-PwAns

Another Easter Video: Jesus The Cave Man

https://www.facebook.com/cccen/videos/1045162692193825/?fref=nf

The Lord's Supper as a Meal - Some sermon notes for Maundy Thursday

Chewing Over The Meal Jesus Gave Us

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

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

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

à obedience / faith / gratitude (Eucharist = thanksgiving)

Jesus the True Bread of Life (John 6:35, 51) à 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)

à 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) à 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 à work

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

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

More Easter All Age Talks / Assemblies

Naturally I took the opportunity to talk to colleagues before and after the Chrism Eucharist yesterday about their best Easter all age talks.

One person had borrowed a coffin from a local undertaker and was considering how to use it untraumatically!

A classic talk is to do with Believing The Unbelievable on the basis of Eye-Witness Evidence. This simply involves doing something unbelievable: eat a daffodil (do check on the health and safety of this), pretend to eat a tin of dog food (though this rather detracts from the point), cycle down the aisle in full regalia. A friend of mine is keen for me to pogo-stick into church. Anyway, anything unbelievable. Ask: would your friends believe you if you told them you'd seen it? We ought to believe in the resurrection because the empty tomb and the appearances of Our Lord are confirmed by honest, reliable witnesses. (We believe things on the evidence of others all the time - e.g. I have never been to Australia, but I believe it exists).

Easter Punctuation. This could be adapted for almost any Bible passage and has the virtue of being educational!
! - The shock of Good Friday
? - What's it all about?
" " - for anything anyone says!
. - It seems like a dead end / the stone over the tomb
... - Waiting while Jesus is in the tomb
! - The tomb is empty
? - What's going on?
etc. etc.
Extra points for anyone who uses a semi-colon!

Easter Hats.
A baby's bonnet for Jesus born to die.
A judges wig for Jesus' trial.
A black hat / veil / undertaker's black hat to represent a funeral.
A crown of thorns.
A real crown.
A football club or other hat to represent a fan or follower.
etc.

Easter Colours.
Large sheets of coloured card / images on the screen / bits of cloth etc. to help you tell the story:
Green (palms) / Gold (kingship) / Grey (donkey) for Palm Sunday.
During Holy Week the leaders are Green with envy. They increasingly see Red.
Red wine colour for the Passover meal.
Green for the garden. (Red for the blood of Jesus' sweat)
Silver for the 30 pieces of silver for which Judas betrayed Christ.
Black for betrayal and trickery, for the night, for the darkness of the human heart.
Jesus' purple robe.
Brown for the cross.
Gold for the title above the cross and the crown of thorns.
Red for the blood of Jesus.
Grey for the gloom of morning / confusion.
Gold for the resurrection.
White for the forgiveness of sins / the empty tomb / the grave clothes / the shinning whiteness of the angels.
Green for go follow Jesus, sent out on mission etc.
Blue for Jesus' ascension into the sky.

Tell the Easter Story with stuff in Eggs (chocolate or plastic could work): https://thevicarswife.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/resurrection-eggs-for-toddlers-sunday-school-and-busy-vicars/

The Bible Societies Easter Poem / Video / Powerpoint / script: - Easter from the point of view of Jesus' friends, Peter, Mary (and John) http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/easter-2016/

Glen Scivener's latest poem: If You Had Been Here - drawing on John 11 - http://christthetruth.net/

Or the previous Bread of Heaven one. https://thevicarswife.wordpress.com/tag/glen-scrivener/

Easter & Holy Week goodies: https://onlinepastor.org/

And no doubt there are lots of other videos in the world.

Big News: Jesus Has Really Risen

Some jottings from an all age talk given at Christ Church, Westbourne, on Easter Day 2014.

The Resurrection of Jesus (Mark 15:33-16:8)

Jesus had really died
(1) 15:40-41 - The women who knew Jesus well saw it happen
(2) 15:44-45 - An expert confirmed it
(3) 15:47 - The women saw where Jesus was buried
(4) 16:1 - The women expected to find a dead body

Jesus has really risen
(1) An angel tells them that Jesus has risen
(2) The tomb is empty
(3) Later they will meet the risen Jesus

Jesus' resurrection confirms all that he taught, who he was, why he came and the effect of his saving death

What are you going to do about it? How will you respond?

Mark shows us a sandwich:
The women (15:40-41)
Joseph (15:43-46)
The women (15:47-16:8)

He wants us to compare the women and Jospeh.

(1) Joseph responds with faith.

(2) The women respond with fear: (a) they are afraid, (b) they flee and (c) they fail to say anything to anyone.

What will you do?

(I think you could find the video here: http://www.christchurchwestbourne.com/resources/listen-to-recent-talks/)

An All Age Talk For Easter Sunday

Taken from Christ Church, Westbourne, Easter Day 2013 (to which a friend kindly pointed me, adapted a tiny bit):

The Rising of Jesus (Matthew 28:1-10)

Teaches us 2 things:

(1) Jesus wins (vv1-4)

Matthew shows us 4 signs of Jesus' victory

Jesus is victorious over his enemies

Jesus is victorious over death

Are we Jesus' friends or his enemies?

(2) Jesus is truthful (vv5-10)

He rises from the dead just as he says he would

This all calls for 2 responses from us:

(1) Tell others

(2) Worship Jesus

I think you could search for the video here:

http://www.christchurchwestbourne.com/resources/listen-to-recent-talks/

What is Christianity?

Shedd says:

Christianity, in the last analysis, is Trinitarianism. Take out of the New Testament the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and there is no God left. Take out of the Christian consciousness the thoughts and affections that relate to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and there is no Christian consciousness left. The Trinity is the constitutive idea of the evangelical theology, and the formative idea of the evangelical experience. The immensity of the doctrine makes it of necessity a mystery; but a mystery which like night enfolds in its unfathomed depths the bright stars--points of light, compared with which there is no light so keen and so glittering. Mysterious as it is, the Trinity of Divine Revelation is the doctrine that holds in it all the hope of man; for it holds within it the infinite pity of the Incarnation and the infinite mercy of the Redemption.

Introduction to Augustine, On The Trinity, p11, Fig Books edition

http://mb-soft.com/believe/txue/august40.htm

Augustine's style

Shedd is quite rude about it:

Literary excellence is not the forte of the patristic writers. Hardly any of them are literary artists. Lactantius among the Latins, and Chrysostom among the Greeks, are almost the only fathers that have rhetorical grace. And none of them approach the beauty of the classic writers, as seen in the harmonious flow and diction of Plato, and the exquisite finish of Horace and Catullus.
Augustin is prolix, repetitious, and sometimes leaves his theme to discuss cognate but distantly related subjects. This appears more in the last eight chapters, which are speculative, than in the first seven, which are scriptural. The material in this second division is capable of considerable compression. The author frequently employs two illustrations when one would suffice, and three or more when two are enough. He discusses many themes which are not strictly Trinitarian.

Introduction to Augustine, On The Trinity, p10

Shedd surely can't be right that Augustine cared 'nothing for elegance in diction'? (p11) Having said that, it is high praise to call it one of the most pregnant and suggestive of all theological treatises.

Self-consciousness and Trinity

Discussing the Trinity, Shedd argues that self-consciousness is necessarily triadic as it requires (1) the mind (2) to contemplate itself and (3) to perceive that the contemplating subject and the contemplated object are one and the same being or essence.

Introduction to Augustine, On The Trinity, Fig Book edition, p8

We may term these subject-ego, object-ego and ego-percipient. (p10)

Reading in the age of Augustine

Shedd points out that in Augustine's age there was little to read other than the Greek and Roman classics and Scripture itself. Arguably, therefore, the Father's gave a more sustained attention to the Scriptures than in subsequent ages and were forced to interpret Scripture by Scripture.

Introduction to Augustine, On The Trinity, p5, Fig Books edition

Subordination

William G. T. Shedd rejects the view of some scholars including Neander (II.470, Note 2) who said that Augustine's doctrine of the Trinity 'kept at a distance everything that bordered on subordinationism.'

Shedd identifies three kinds of subordination:

(1) the filial or Trinitarian
(2) the theanthropic
(3) the Arian

He says that 'the first is taught, and the second is implied in the Nicene creed. The last is denied and excluded."

... dogmatic historians... contend that the Nicene creed, in affirming the filial, but denying the Arian subordination; in teaching subordination as to person and relationship, but denying it as to essence; enunciates a revealed truth, and that this is endorsed by all the Trinitarian fathers, Eastern and Western. And there certainly can be no doubt that Augustine held this view. He maintains, over and over again, that Sonship as to relationship is second and subordinate to the Father; that while that while a Divine Father and a Divine Son must necessarily be of the very same nature and grade of being, like a human father and a human son, yet the latter issues from the former, not the former from the latter.... [Augustine calls the Father the beginning of the Son] Augustine employs this term "beginning" only in relation to the person, not to the essence. There is no "beginning," or source, when the essence itself is spoken of. Consequently, the "subordination" (implied in a "beginning" by generation and spiration) is not the Arian subordination, as to essence, but the trinitarian subordination, as to person and relation.

(Shedd's introduction to Augustine, On The Trinity, Fig books edition, p3)

http://mb-soft.com/believe/txue/august40.htm

Natural religion

William G. T. Shedd begins his introduction to Augustine, On The Trinity by claiming that:

The doctrine of the Divine Unity is a truth of natural religion: the doctrine of the Trinity is a truth of revealed religion.

This might seem obvious to Shedd (who wrote in 1887) but there are still plenty of atheists and polytheists in the world who might dispute it. Maybe the idea of many competing gods comes pretty naturally to humanity.

And indeed we might argue that there are traces of the Trinity, or at least of the one and the many, unity and differentiation, in the world (and perhaps especially in the image-bearers) that the Triune God has made.

Back to "basics"

Theology proper, the Trinity and Christology can seem like difficult, esoteric, academic subjects. The Christian might not actually see the priority and practicality of giving them much sustained thought. And the busy pastor might think there are more urgent and useful things to do.

But what could be more important than contemplating God and God in Christ? Everything in the Christian life comes back to Him. Our praying, our worship and all our thinking and living are affected by God and how we speak of him. In him we live and move and have our being. Loving God with our minds means that we work hard to understand how he has revealed himself and to think of him obediently.

We are, probably, ignorant of much of the great Christian tradition. We may have ticked off Theology, Trinity and Christology lectures at college but how much do we really understand the traditional confessional language and are we going to say any more about Jesus than "one person, two natures"? When we begin to probe, questions will come to us and many of these have been addressed by the great doctors of the church. Often there is a consensus that we ought to know about.

Our speaking about God will always be limited and imperfect. But it is easy for our preaching to become skewed. For example, have we heard sermons which tell us that the Trinity was ruptured as Jesus was forsaken by his Father at the cross? Are we holding together an intimacy with God and a sense of his transcendence? Are the risking losing sight of the Oneness or the Threeness of the Trinity?

We must not let fear of heresy paralyse our preaching, but we ought to know what the church believes and why. Sometimes we might speak rather loosely, or figuratively. Always we will speak analogically. But we do well to know what we are doing. We should not always use technical theological language, but if our manner of speaking is not precise that should not be from laziness nor ignorance but because there is some truth that we mean to communicate by a more poetical or paradoxical idiom.

(I owe some of these thoughts to reflecting on Mark Smith's SEMS talks on Christology on Monday) 

A Good Friday Hour At The Cross Service

Any ideas for this type of service?

Although the cross is inexhaustible it is a challenge to come up with a fresh angle each year.

In the past it seems like I have done:

2015: Little mini talks based on Lee Gatiss' book, The Forgotten Cross

2014: The cross from the perspective of different characters in the passion narrative. (Of course there would be scope for some variety in this / a theme, especially if one looked beyond the accounts of the crucifixion. A friend kindly suggested looking at the women who are featured: the woman who caused Peter to betray Christ, Pilate's wife, Jesus' mother, the other women at the cross and the women at the tomb)

2013: Reflections based on When I Survey The Wondrous Cross

2012: Christ's words from the cross

2011: The cross from some Old Testament passages (e.g. Gen 3, 22; The Passover, Ps 22; Is 53, there are lots of obvious choices, of course)

Matt Searles has written some reflections on the Psalms that were used at Passover time, which likely our Lord sang on Maundy Thursday: http://www.mattsearles.org.uk/easter-meditation-psalm-113/

On approach might be: 'Cross words': justification, redemption, propitiation, atonement, ransom etc.

Models of the atonement (e.g. exemplary, propitiatory, satisfaction, victory).

One could just do some passages from one of the gospels - though Bodle Street & Dallington will have read through one of the gospel accounts of the crucifixion on Palm Sunday. If you don't use them on Palm Sunday, dramatized readings might work well for Good Friday.

The cross in a particular Bible book or author - e.g. Mark excluding the passion narrative.

Texts where Christ "looks forward" to the cross.

It might even be worth reflecting on some depictions of the cross in art?

Is there another hymn I could do? (e.g. O Sacred Head, It Is Finished! The Messiah Dies, My Song Is Love Unknown. The possibilities here are endless really)

Or another book that is worth plagiarizing? Stott, The Cross of Christ. Leon Morris.

Some variation of the traditional Stations of the Cross?

Sometimes we've included a poem or had a piece of music played.

One of the Valley of Vision prayers might be useable as part of the service.

It could be an occasion for a kind of litany.

Christology from...

Some scholars advocate Christology from above (starting with God and asking how he became man) whereas others advocate Christology from below (starting with the human Jesus and asking how he was God). At SEMS today Mark Smith suggested a Christology from within the Scriptures that begins by asking how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament expectations about him, a Messianic Christology. He said, 'Christ comes not as a thunderbolt from a clear blue sky, but as the culmination of God's promise of salvation (Heb. 1.1-2)'. As we read the Scriptures we seek to tune in to 'the kind of person we are expecting - someone with both 'God' and 'man' qualities.'

The greatest miracle?

Gregory of Nyssa wrote:

that the omnipotence of the Divine nature should have had strength to descend to the humiliation of humanity, furnishes a clearer proof of that omnipotence than even the greatness and supernatural character of the miracles....  it is not the vastness of the heavens, and the bright shining of its constellations, and the order of the universe and the unbroken administration over all existence that so manifestly displays the transcendent power of the Deity, as this condescension to the weakness of our nature; the way, in fact, in which sublimity, existing in lowliness, is actually seen in lowliness, and yet descends not from its height, and in which Deity, entwined as it is with the nature of man, becomes this, and yet still is that.

God's great power is seen in that he can become a weak human being and yet continue to be Almighty God.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205.xi.ii.xxvi.html

NPNF2-05. Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, Etc.

Chapter XXIV.

(Quoted by Mark Smith at SEMS today)

A conservative theologian?

At SEMS today, Mark Smith suggested that in a way perhaps the arch-Heretic, Arius might be thought of as a conservative theologian because he resisted the innovation of using non-Biblical language to define orthodoxy. When both sides swap Bible verses which they give their own spin, confessional language is sometimes needed to safeguard the truths of Scripture.

Apprehending the beach ball

The Revd Mark Smith had some good analogies at SEMS today.

He suggested that the doctrine of the Incarnation is a bit like a beach ball. We might not fully comprehend it (get our arms around it) but we can apprehend it (play with it etc.).

Heresy sometimes attempts to puncture or deflate the beach ball to make it more comprehendible.

I also enjoyed the suggestion that Nestorianism fails to give a proper account of the unity of the humanity and divinity in Christ: it is as if the natures are 2 cricket balls cellotaped together.

Green grass / pasture

The Revd Mark Smith very tentatively suggested at SEMS today that Mark 6:39 might allude to Psalm 23:2, suggesting that Jesus is the shepherd who feeds his people. This seems pretty plausible to me. It's not just the greenness of the grass. Lying and sitting down might correspond too.