Some of Cal Newport's ideas

 Jottings on some core ideas of Cal Newport’s from YouTube videos

 

The Deep Life

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD5e1DRkbiU

 

How to live a deep life, a life radically aligned with your values, that it might be meaningful to you.

 

Try to focus on what really matters to you so that you don’t waste too much time on what doesn’t matter.

 

“Radical” tries to capture the idea that we are hoping for big change here not just walk more and eat less meat etc.

 

Intentional

 

Identify the different areas of your life which are all important to you:

(1) Craft – work and creative leisure

(2) Community – family and friends

(3) Constitution – health, fitness, food, exercise etc.

(4) Contemplation – religion and thinking

(5) Celebration – enjoying the world with presence and gratitude – fun stuff you love

 

Warm up by developing a keystone habit in each of these “buckets” – something simple, doable, meaningful (non-trivial) in each bucket each day – do them and write down that you did them – do optional activity that is a pain

 

Dedicate 4-6 weeks focused on each bucket – clear out stuff to put in good stuff

 

By acting like this, you gain insight – self-awareness

 

Try this before making some huge radical change like moving to the woods!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOQpZlZuySE

 

Time management

 

Rules for what to do next with respect to work

 

Somehow we make this decision – sometimes not in a thought-out way

 

Capture – store all the important information in a trusted, reliable way (don’t waste brain space on remembering what you need to do), in a system you review regularly – David Allen, Getting Things Done

(1) Capture deadlines etc. and what needs to be done by when  

(2) Configure – Care more about how you organise what you capture – consolidate relevant information so you can quickly find out what you need to know – all the relevant info is there in one place when you need it  

(3) Control – don’t be reactive be proactive – make a plan for your time in advance which makes the most of the time you have available – think about the big picture not just the moment – you need to do this sort of planning on different time scales say quarterly, weekly, daily

Give your time a job

 

Some possible tools:

 

Trello – Roles – Projects

 

Google Docs

 

Time block planner - https://www.timeblockplanner.com/

 

WorkingMemory.Doc on your desktop for things you want to capture and process / action / store later

 

Calendar

 

To be processed

 

Waiting to hear back from  

 

Daily shut down

 

Weekly tidy up

 

(4) Constrain – what are you going to manage / accept onto your plate / decide how to say yes and no – what do I want to do and how do I want to do it that will help me to do it better or quicker – have a reliable process for doing it

 

Offer office hours for people who bother you! Come see me Monday 2-5pm

 

* * *

 

Slow Productivity

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZwPyB20lxg

 

cf. burn out / Exhaustion in the face of all that we have to do  

 

2019 onwards – we are tired of doing too much

 

Books:

 

How To Do Nothing

 

Do Nothing

 

Laziness does not exist

 

Can’t even

 

4000 weeks

 

Skilled and focused work at a natural pace – breaks – ups and down of intensity – never too many things at one time – this then that not 18 things!

 

Chronic overload – more things on our plate than we can easily imagine how we are going to get this done

 

We love to make a plan and complete a plan. We hate it when we can’t do this.

 

The overhead spiral – the admin that is required just to do our actual work in terms of information gathering, co-ordinating and co-operating - meetings and email add and add until they are mostly about the fixed overhead – we talk about the work rather than do the work! We have meetings about meetings!

 

Relentless pace – when do we relax? – sit in the shade in the heat of the day, nap and chat, or take the day off if its raining

 

There are always things to get done and you are always behind – no relief – 10/10 all the time, day after day

 

* * * 

 

Deep Work

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJYlhhT7hyE

 

Deep efforts often move the needle / produce the value / lead to growth, success etc. esp. in knowledge work, art, crafts etc. – adding value to information – skilled thought

 

Concentrate hard without distraction – do your underlying core activity – don’t just be busy!

 

Distraction is a problem and an opportunity – there is competitive advantage to depth in an increasingly shallow world

 

If running from a bear, you don’t have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the other runners!

 

Define your deep work, don’t just work more

 

Measure it and have goals

 

What is the ideal ratio of shallow and deep work in your role in a typical week?

 

Schedule your deep work – don’t wait for the instinct to hit you! Get it on the plan and treat it like a commitment in the diary

 

Have rituals around the deep work that help you

 

Train – likely you are out of cognitive shape – practice

 

* * *

 

How To Read 5 Books a Month

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRBkIdc_VYU

 

Reading well is like exercise for the brain

 

Choose more interesting books! Read what you want to read not what you feel you should read. Mix it up. Choose a wide variety and switch between different styles, difficulties, audio and written etc. Have fun reading.

 

Schedule reading like you schedule exercise. Set aside half and hour or an hour to read. Don’t wait until you have time and are in the mood.

 

Put rituals around reading which make reading more enjoyable. Have a drink with your book. Read outside or in some other conducive location.

 

Do closing pushes. Work through those last 100 pages. Get it done! Sprint to the end when the end is in sight.

 

Take everything interesting (distracting) off your phone! Take a book with you / have one nearby. Read when bored / you don’t have anything else to do.

 

* * *

 

How Professional Writers Take Notes On Books

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T79wobxay98

 

Corner marking

 

* * *

 

Tips for Doing Hard Things

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv5GVT4FCvE

 

Brandon Sanderson, The Common Lies Writers Tell You (2020 talk) – you can’t do anything you want to / follow your dreams – rather, doing hard things is good, tell yourself “I can do hard things” (learn, practice, challenge yourself), and doing hard things will make me a better person whether I succeed or not

 

Have better goals – not “be a successful novelist”, set a goal which is more specific and which you can control, e.g. write X words, make your next MS better!

 

4DX – the 4 disciplines of execution – lead v lag indicators – lead indicators give you a concrete goal to focus on – you can track it and make changes etc.

 

Learn how you work – figure out what works for you to get yourself to do stuff – e.g. tracking, deadline, social pressure (tell someone what you are doing and ask them to ask you about it!), schedule, ritual etc.

 

(What has this to do with threat, food or mate? This makes it hard for us to do when it doesn’t seem an immediate survival necessity)

 

Trick yourself in to doing it

 

Break it down into manageable pieces so that you have something to go after

 

 

The temptation of Jesus

Jesus is our sympathetic High Priest and brother. He knows what its like from the inside to be tired, and hungry, and thirsty and to suffer terribly, to be rejected and betrayed, and to be tempted and tempted and tempted.

We sometimes think Jesus’ temptation can’t have been real since he is the Son of God. But he was truly and fully human. He was tempted in every way as we are yet without sin.

But never was temptation like his. No doubt the devil assaulted Jesus more fiercely than he has ever attacked anyone.  

C. S. Lewis makes the point that many of our temptations are light and momentary because we quickly give in to them!

Do you see? Yield to the temptation and it is over. It becomes a sin not a temptation.

But Jesus never sinned. He never gave in to temptation or to the devil. All his life he resisted them faithfully, standing strong against them for us again and again and again, day after day, right to the very end. So wasn’t Jesus’ temptation in fact longer and harder than ours?

 Yet Jesus proved true. He is tried and tested. There could be no better approved guaranteed authentic pure High Priest who has passed through the flames for us.

What have you found helpful in prayer?

 

We might discuss this at our Lent Course today so I’ve made some jottings. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

Having some kind of pattern / routine / habit (e.g. regular time / place) but also sometimes mixing it up

 

Regular and brief is probably better than occasional heroic setting of the alarm clock super early

 

A mixture of set or extempore prayers (see The Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship. Other resources e.g. Valley of Vision Puritan Prayers, Every Moment Holy, Daily Prayers by F. B. Meyer, Evelyn Underhill’s Prayer Book, Jonathan Gibson, Liturgy for Daily Worship through the year published by Crossway). Other favourite prayers /resources?

 The Revd Dr Peter Adam’s Daily Prayers for Himself (July 2023) https://peteradam.org/peter-adams-daily-prayers-for-himself/

Just talk to God about whatever concerns you / the day ahead

 

Use Scripture – pray the Psalms – pray in the light of your Bible Reading

Pray the prayers of Paul / think about Paul’s priorities etc. see D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation / Praying with Paul

Some kind of structure:

TSP – Thank you, Sorry, Please

ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication

 

Pray for the world and it’s leaders

The church and her leaders

Others and ourselves – the sick and suffering and those who care for them and those who mourn

 

The Lord’s Prayer – could be said or used as a launching off point / structure

 

Lists / prayer letters / cycles of prayer – Mission Support Partners, Church Prayer Diary, Sussex Gospel Partnership Prayer Diary – Operation World  

 

Silence – space – pause – be with Jesus. Even if prayer is talking to God, you don’t have to talk all the time. You can reflect / meditate / think in God’s presence.

 

Think about your body, posture, breathing, maybe.

 

Write down distractions as a way of getting them out of your head or turn them into prayer.  

 

Write out a prayer.

 

Keep a prayer journal.

 

Pray while walking / out in creation

 

Hymns / poetry / music / singing – The Psalms, again!

 

Arrow prayers for help etc. or before a task

 

Say thank you at meals

 

Pray with others

Jottings for a brief thought on Isaiah 49v15 for Mothering Sunday

 

In our reading from the prophet Isaiah, God wants to comfort his people (v13).

They feel as if the LORD has forsaken and forgotten them (v14).

So God asks them a question, which I want to focus on for a moment, and then the sermon is done:

V15, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?”

 

What sort of question do you think that is?

Technically?

If this were a school lesson?

 

A rhetorical question.

A question asked for effect.

Not necessarily expecting an answer or seeking information.

God already knows the answer but he asks the question as part of an argument, to persuade us of something.

 

If mum was cross with you and she said:

“Do you think I’m stupid?

“Do I look as if I was born yesterday?

They would be rhetorical questions.

The question is meant to answer itself.

You’re meant to get the point, not to say, “well, mum, you don’t look that bright and you are looking quite old!”

 

So, what answer do you think God’s rhetorical question is expecting?

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?”

 

What do you think?

What answer would you give?

 

Very unlikely.

Normally not.

 

Mothers’ love for their children.

They often show amazing compassion and care.

A mother’s love is legendary.  

 

Parents normally remember their children, don’t they?

Even I can remember all of all of my four children’s names!

I remember them!

 

V15b, God says: “Though she [the mother we’re imagining] may forget, I will not forget you!”

 

Sadly, some parents do neglect their children.

We don’t always love our children as well as we should.

 

But God’s love is greater, stronger, more long-lasting even than the best mother’s love.

 

God says, even if a mum might forget her child, I will never forget my people.

 

The love divine excels all other loves.

God’s love is the best love ever:

It’s a non-stop never failing never giving up for ever and always love.

 

V16 is remarkable verse:

God says, “see, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands”

 

I sometimes write things on my hand as a reminder.

Not the best as it sometimes gets washed off!

It’s very temporary and unsure.

 

But it’s as if God has engraved his peoples’ names on his hands for ever so that he won’t ever forget them.

God’s love is permeant and sure.

 

As we think of God’s palms, we might think of Jesus dying for us.

Jesus’ love for us meant he was willing to be crucified for us.

His love for you and me takes him to the cross.

 

Let me finish just by quoting some words from Augustus Toplady’s hymn, A debtor to mercy alone:

 

Talking about God, he says:

 

His promise is Yes and Amen, And never was forfeited yet. Things future, nor things that are now, Not all things below or above, Can make Him [God] His purpose forego, Or sever my soul from His love.   Nothing could ever stop God loving us, in other words.
My name from the palms of [God’s] hands Eternity will not erase; Imprest on His heart, it remains In marks of indelible grace.

May we know God’s best of all, never failing, never giving up love. 

On Mary for Mothering Sunday

 As its mothering Sunday, I want to talk a little bit about Mary, the mother of Jesus.

I worry that some Christians might make too much of Mary. But that doesn't mean that we should neglect her.

Mary is a wonderful example to us of love and trust in her Saviour, Jesus. If Mary were here today, she would no doubt want to point us to her son.

 As her cousin Elizabeth says, Mary is indeed blessed amongst women (Luke 1:42): uniquely blessed to have God the Son in her womb and to give birth to him. But particularly blessed, according to Elizabeth, because she believed that what the Lord had said to her would be accomplished (Luke 1:45).

 According to the Angel Gabriel who announces Jesus’ forthcoming birth to Mary, Mary is highly favoured (Luke 1:28). She is the recipient of God’s grace, his undeserved love. God is being gracious, kind towards her. We can well understand that Mary would be greatly troubled at the angel's words and wonder what kind of greeting this might be (Luke 1:29). When she hears she is going to give birth to the Son of God, well might she ask, “How will this be?” (Luke 1:34). And yet, Mary humbly believes this impossible life-up-ending thing. She responds to the angel: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” That’s amazing faithful obedience.

In her famous song, The Magnificat, Mary praises and glorifies God for all that he is doing as her Saviour in exalting the humble and keeping his covenant promises (Luke 1:46-55).

When Jesus is born and the Shepherds come to see him, Mary treasures up all these things and ponders them in her heart (Luke 2:19). She had so much to think about! And so do we, of course, as we read the gospel accounts. The example of Mary ought to encourage us to prize these things and to reflect on them prayerfully.

When Mary and Joseph present Jesus in the temple, Simeon prophesies that “this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign to be spoken against.” And then, movingly, he says to Mary: “a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:35)

 It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like for Mary to watch her son attracting large eager crowds, and then being rejected, betrayed and crucified. Jesus spoke tenderly to his mother as he died (John 19:26). It seems Mary was unique in being there at Jesus’ birth and death.

 It is understandable that Mary and Joseph were sometimes astonished at Jesus. When he was twelve years old and stayed behind in the Temple, Mary asks why Jesus has treated them like this. They did not understand that Jesus had to be in his Father’s house (Luke 2:48-50).

At the wedding at Cana, Mary points out to Jesus the wine crisis and his response to her is a bit enigmatic, perhaps off-putting. Literally, he says something like: “What [is that] to you and to me woman? My hour is not yet come.” It might even seem rude but Mary doesn’t seem offended or discouraged. She gives the servants excellent advice, which we would do well to listen to also: “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:1-5)

(If we think that Mark 3:21 refers to Jesus’ family[1] and includes his mother, this would represent a crisis of understanding and faith from which Jesus’ relatives recovered. It seems as if, at one stage, they might have thought that Jesus was out of his mind and needed them to come and take charge of him.)

We might agree with the woman who cried out to Jesus: “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.” But notice how Jesus redirects our attention: ““Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11:27-28) That’s a blessing in which we can all share!

Jesus referred to those seated in a circle around him listening to his teaching and said: “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:34) We’re invited into Jesus’ family by hearing and obeying his word.

---

[1] οἱ παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ para plus the genitive, those of him, from, indicating source or origin, rather than his friends (KJV) / associates / envoys / followers / companions / those with him. Consider the Markan sandwich (Edwards, Pillar, p117, house, crowd, vv20, 32, kratein, kalein, ze_tein) with v31 referring to Jesus’ mother. Doesn’t this make it more likely that the same group of people are in view in both sections? On kinsmen or household see the references in France NICGNT p166. Some Greek manuscripts (D W OL) and other witnesses have “the scribes and others” coming to seize Jesus. Metzger, Textual Commentary suggests that hoi par’ autou “apparently proved to be so embarrassing” that it was altered. France calls 3:20-21 bristling with difficulties but eventually supports the traditional interpretation that we have Jesus’ family offensively repudiating him here. Despite the problems France calls this “the least unsatisfactory solution to an exegetical conundrum” (p164, 6).  France also notes H. Wansborough’s view that Jesus followers go outside to calm down the crowd in v21 (165f). Some want to make elegon impersonal: “people were saying” Jesus was insane. Existe_mi (Mk 5:42; 2:12; 6:51; 2 Cor 5:13) does seem to mean out of his mind / one’s senses rather than amazed here (France, p167). Cf. also Ps 69:8. See John 7:3-10 on the unbelief of Jesus’ brothers. Lane thinks “it is unnecessary to suppose that Mary also suspected that Jesus had lost his grip upon reality. Her presence with Jesus’ brothers in Ch. 3:31, however, indicates that her faith was insufficient to resist the determination of her sons to restrain Jesus and bring him home.” (NICNT, p139).  Jerome refers to Jesus’ kinsfolk desiring to bind him as one of weak mind. Letter 108 to Eustochium.

Signs, Sermons (discourses) and I AM sayings in John's gospel

 

New Testament words for miracles:

 

Mighty works / works of power - δύναμις (dunamis) 'power' (120x)

 

Signs - σημεῖον (sēmeion) 'sign' (78x)

John 2:11; 4:48, 54; 20:30: “signs” – significant – have a meaning – point beyond themselves

Not just displays of power or magic tricks but speak about Jesus and the salvation he brings – foretastes of the kingdom of God in all its fullness

 

Some have suggested that John’s gospel may contain seven (or more) signs, possibly with associated discourses and I AM sayings.

 

The following is neither original nor neat. Maybe you have a better scheme to offer?

 

(1) Changing the Water into Wine (2:1-11) - The New Birth (3:1-36)

(2) Healing of the Nobleman's Son (4:46-54) - The Water of Life (4:1-42)

(3) Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1-9) - The Divine Son (5:19-47)

(4) Feeding the Multitude (6:1-14) - The Bread of Life (6:22-66) - I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35)

(5) Walking on the Water (6:15-25) - The Life-Giving Spirit (7:1-52)

(6) Healing the Man Born Blind (9:1-8) - The Light of the World (8:12-59) - I am the Light of the World (John 8:12)

(John 8:58 - before Abraham was, I am)

(7) Raising Lazarus from the Dead (11:1-46) - The Good Shepherd (10:1-42) - I am the Door (John 10:9)

 

I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14)

I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25)

I am the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)

I am the Vine (John 15:1,5)

 

Also ? cross, resurrection, miraculous catch of fish as signs.

 

The most important sermon of all time - every week!

The preacher ought to preach the good news of the Lord Jesus every week. 

Yet his sermons should avoid being same-y. 

He should live with the Bible text or texts for a week or more and seek to get them into his bones. He wants his own heart and mind and will to be moved, and he wants to do the same in his hearers. 

We don't want to hear from a preacher who has a moderately important message to which you probably ought to pay due regard. 

Some preachers will be really good at preaching the passage to themselves and will be moved to feel that this Bible text is the most important thing ever. We may get exited by new things we have seen in the text. 

So every week we get more exciting new discoveries and most important things ever! 

In addition to all the most important things we had last week. 

It could all be a bit exhausting and overwhelming. 

There are weightier matters of the law. Some things are more central and more important and clearer than others. Sometimes it will be right to deal with things that are, in the grand scheme of things, not of absolutely central earth-shattering importance but which still matter and are meaningful to us. For example, God's care for the cattle is perhaps not in the top three Biblical truths, but as part of the larger Biblical whole, it is something probably worth touching upon in the course of a fifty year ministry. 

Over time, ideally, we want all Bible truth in Biblical proportions from all the Scriptures, which are all profitable and necessary. And we want them in Christ through the lens of the gospel, applied to us and our circumstances. 

And indeed we want these things with an appropriate mood and atmosphere. Sometimes joy, sorrow, exulting, rebuke, correction, encouragement and so on. We need to know ourselves and our people: what are we tempted to see or feel or overlook? And what do they need?

All of which is to say that the preacher has a great and weighty task which requires lots of wisdom, skill, prayer and grace. We look to the Spirit to help us do this as well as we can alongside all our other responsibilities, always knowing that there are no perfect preachers and no perfect sermons but that God is powerful and gracious and can use mightily even our most week and feeble efforts. 

The danger of a quiet week

 Earlier this year I had a couple of quieter weeks. I could catch up on some of the long and never finished to do list. I could think a bit more about the sermon. And read. If I were more godly, I could have prayed more. 

But it is tempting to think, "Oh, I have a bit of spare capacity." Maybe I should launch a new initiative. Or I could take on a new commitment. 

Now it is Lent, which comes with an extra course. I have two funerals in the works. I am going to see two couples about baptisms. There are various other meetings in the diary. Easter is looming. And suddenly the next couple of months look pretty busy. 

And nobody wants a frazzled stressed pastor. 

It is just not possible to say, "I'm sorry, your relative may be dying, but the diary is full and I am tired so I might be able to see her in two weeks on Tuesday at 4pm". 

This is all by way of stating the obvious that there are ebbs and flows for most of us in what we have to do when. You need a bit of slack in the system at times. And you need to be flexible. 

A diary too full of important urgent things is a recipe for stress. Take on too much and you might do none of it well. You and others will be frustrated. We want to know what is essential and to make sure we don't neglect that for the sake of the many other good and attractive options.  

And neither do you want to be chronically under occupied or engaged. 

Wise not to take on too much and to have a couple of things in the background that one might do one day if one has a moment. 

A blessing and a curse of ministerial life is that there is always more one could do better, and we have to make our peace with that.  

Ash Wednesday Sermon 2024

 

Ash Wednesday 2024

St Valentine’s Day

14^th February

 

Readings:

1 John 4:7-end (p1227)

Matthew 22:34-40 (page 991)

 

In the name of the Father…

 

So here we are again for Ash Wednesday on St Valentine’s Day.

I hope you’ll forgive me a little calendar geekery.

The Ash-Valentine’s mash up is pretty rare.   

It last happened in 2018 and it will happen again for the final time this century in 2029.

Similarly it happened only three times in the 20^th Century.

So we ought to make the most of it!

Well done for being here and not in some wonderful restaurant.

As it happens we do have candles and a meal to look forward to!

 

In fact, according to the C of E, Ash Wednesday is a Principal Holy Day, so it trumps all other celebrations which might come on the same day.

You could have saved on the flowers and chocolates this year, perhaps, if you were brave.

 

But the day does give us an opportunity to think about love and lent, love and holiness – not, perhaps, things which we usually associate together.

 

If we allowed ourselves to caricature for a moment:

Love, well, that’s lovely.

All kind of fluffy and nice and kind.

Ah!

Who could be against love?

 

And holiness, well, we know that’s good and necessary, but it’s a bit like eating your greens.

Maybe it’s a little bit other worldly and spiritual – a kind of far away look in the eye.

Or maybe in its Lent iteration its very austere and frugal:

Self-denial, which may seem hard or strange when we’re so often told by our society that we ought to love ourselves.

 

Does anyone love lent?

 

But for God and for us, love and holiness ought to go together.

Maybe getting love and holiness together could refine and expand our vision of both.

We could seek a lent which is both loving and holy, holy and loving.

 

Let’s think, then, about God and then about ourselves in relation to holiness and love.

 

God is holy, holy, holy.

The most holy: the holiest, supremely superlatively super holy.

God is holy indeed and the source of all holiness.

 

The basic idea of holiness is separation, specialness, distinctness.

God is set apart.

He is unique.

And in particular he is set apart from all evil and wickedness.

He is perfectly good and entirely holy.

His eyes are too pure to look upon wrongdoing.

 

But God’s holiness is not only separateness but also expansiveness.

It is a spreading holiness:

A holiness that can make holy.

The Holy God is light.

God’s holiness shines forth.

It scatters the darkness.

 

God is love.

He is the loving fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He made us from love, in love, for love.

God loves and loves and loves.

He is an inexhaustible fountain of love.

He is love all the way down.

 

God is rich, overflowing, abundant, generous love.

The Bible is a love story:

God is the husband; we are the church he pursues to be his bride.

Jesus our champion kills the dragon and gets the girl.

 

God’s love is holy:

He loves what is good and right and pure and healthy.

 

And God’s holiness is loving.

God’s holiness is not a cold light but a warm light:

A fire which both purifies and welcomes us in.

The light not only of the operating theatre but of the family hearth.  

 

So as the people of God we are called to be godly, to be like God in our own creaturely way.

As children of a loving and holy Father, we are to bear something of the family likeness.

God says to us, “be holy as I am holy.”

And he also says, “love one another as I have loved you.”

 

Holiness was at the heart of the Old Testament law.

But that holiness of the law is truly summarised by the first commandment to love God and the second, which is like it, which is to love our neighbours.  

 

Jesus will ask the repentant Peter three times: “do you love me?”

That’s the great question!

 

Love is the greatest virtue:

The bond of all the virtues:

The more excellent way.

There could be no true holiness without love; no true love which is not holy.

 

Holiness, it seems, is not only separate from evil, it reaches out to the world in love.

 

The two or three historical Valentines, and indeed all the martyrs, give us a picture of holy love.

They have a love stronger than death.

They love something even more than their own lives.

Theirs is a holy love which warns against contamination and compromise.

They tell us that love and holiness are worth living and dying for.

That there is a sense in which we cannot both love the world and love God:

We must choose love.  

 

If we want to know what a holy and loving life looks like for a human being, of course, we must look above all to the Lord Jesus Christ.

His love and holiness were often misunderstood and maligned.

He ate with sinners in a way that scandalised the holiness police.

He didn’t keep the sabbath rules in the way that the church wanted, so who knows what he might or might not have done during Lent if it had been invented then.

 

But Jesus wasn’t just in to love and neglectful of holiness.

He said that his followers would need a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees:

A holiness not only of appearances, but of the heart.

Jesus would have us tithe our herbs, but also attend to justice, mercy and faith.

We need not only to white-wash the outside but to let the light into the murky depths of our souls.

 

Jesus calls us to a real and deep repentance – to turn from sin back to love.

 

Jesus shows us what true love and holiness mean and look like.

 

This is love:

Not flowers and chocolates and bad verse, but that Jesus loved us and gave his life for us, an unholy people, to make us holy.

Greater love has no man than this, that he lays down his life for his friends.

Indeed, Jesus goes further: he dies for his enemies, for the unlovely to make them lovely.

 

Love did not simply overlook sin: it was too holy for that.
Love required atonement – at one ment.

Sin estranges us.

It harms love and holiness.

It pollutes.  

We needed to be reconciled to God and God to us.

God the Son was the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation for our sins.

God Himself absorbed and spent his holy anger, his wrath, which is itself an aspect of his love, that we might enjoy his holy love.

 

May God grant us a loving holiness and a holy love.

Let us pray this Lent for a more perfect love which drives out fear that we might love God and love our neighbour with the love which comes from the God who is Love.   

 

And so to God the Father…  

 

* * *

 

https://marclloyd.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-homily-on-love-and-duty.html

 

Simon Vibert - https://metamorphe.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/asceticism-or-amore/?fbclid=IwAR3ahUV6-qRgkflPi8yLHAfmVip3IRbBUUaARK2W4hOLWH8SKYOm6JQbfQ0

An All Age Talk on Jumpers for the Diocesan Year of the New Testament

 

Old and New Testament Jumpers and Key Gospel Truths

Old Testament jumpers – no mixed fibres, holiness, separateness

Leviticus 19:19 - “You shall keep my statutes…. You shall not you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.

Deuteronomy 22:11 - “You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.”

 

The basic idea of holiness is separation, distinctness, to be set apart as special, separate from all sin

 

It was never about jumpers that God was principally concerned!

 

The clothing is a picture of the people of God.

 

The holiness and purity of the people of God.

 

New Testament jumpers

 

New Testament: ceremonial law abolished (Jesus declared all foods clean, for example. The curtain in the temple torn in two by God, the temple destroyed in AD 70 etc.)

 

Of course the church must continue to be distinct and holy (salt etc.)

 

But your jumper can now contain mixed fibres!

 

And likewise the church contains people of every tribe and language and people and nation made one by faith in Christ and set apart from the world.

 

In the New Testament there is a new welcome, a new radical inclusion in Christ who makes us holy and overcomes our divisions. This multicoloured, variegated church of black and white, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, etc. etc. displays the manifold wisdom of God.

 

https://nuakh.uk/2024/02/05/mixed-fibres/

 

On Asylum Seekers and Christianity

 

 

The controversy about asylum seekers claiming to be Christians is fascinating in a number of ways.

 

(Readers might also recall a relevant West Wing episode!)

 

On why one might claim to be a Christian

 

The pendulum has swung on this throughout church history. From persecuted and misunderstood minority, Constantine took Christianity mainstream. A profession may be advantageous. For some roles it was required. But the long death of Christianity has seen the social cache of the church decline. Observant nominalism is probably pretty rare these days, perhaps except among the elderly. Nowadays, bible believing Christians might again be seen as weird, foolish or even bad. So the asylum seeker may have unusual and particular motives.

 

On what is a Christian

 

And how one might be recognised. And who is to judge?

 

By their fruits shall ye know them. But is this really a matter for the courts?

 

Normally, we would expect a certain amount of knowledge, of intellectual commitment, of heartfelt trust, of changed life.

 

1 John might give tests of doctrine, conduct and love.

 

A Christian is one who trusts in Jesus and Lord and Saviour. But so many are unclear on this.

 

How many professing Christians would pass these tests with flying colours?

 

As the old poster put it, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict?”

 

We can easily try to apply faulty criteria. It is tempting to give asylum seekers a quiz on the names of the Apostles or the books of the New Testament, but this tells us little about the heart of the matter, which is a matter of the heart.

 

On baptism policy

 

In the C of E, anyone living in the parish has a right to be baptised after suitable preparation and other things being equal. It is ultimately for the candidate to make the promises and declarations and for the priest to exhort them to do so thoughtfully and sincerely. There is no theology exam.

 

It now seems that some sections of the press would like the clergy to make jolly sure that asylum seekers pass the ten-week Christianity Explored course with flying colours and serve on the coffee rota for a few months. I wonder if they feel the same when their grandchild is up for baptism in the pretty parish church.

 

On the relationship between state and church

 

The C of E has rightly pointed out that it is not its job to police asylum claims.

 

The church can too easily be claimed to be the reactionary traditional conservative Tory Party at prayer and to have been captured by Guardian reading prelates. Whilst being responsible citizens, the church must absolutely live by the standards and values of a different Kingdom.

Essentialism: The One Necessary Thing

 

I have been reading a business book by Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Virgin Books / Ebury Publishing / Penguin Random House, 2014). McKeown describes two experiences that caused him to rethink how he was living. As a young man, he sat down with a blank sheet of paper and brainstormed for twenty minutes about what he might like to do with his life. He had filled the paper. But he noticed that nowhere did it say “Go to Law School.” Which he says was awkward, as he was currently pursing legal studies.

 

Second, he tells of an email which he received from his boss while his wife was pregnant. It said, “1-2pm on Friday would be really bad time to have this baby.” He sort of assumed it was a joke. But sure enough the baby was born on Friday. After being with his wife in the hospital, McKeown headed off to the supposedly crucial client meeting. His boss claimed the client admired him for being there at such a time, but he wasn’t sure he did. And in fact nothing ever came of the meeting, even though McKeown had managed to upset his wife by going to it.

 

McKeown points out that for 500 years the English word “priority” was only ever used in the singular. It meant the prior, the first, thing. But since 1900 we can speak of “priorities”. He describes working for a company which listed its ten top priorities. Of course, if we are trying to focus on ten first things, it is very hard to do any of them really well.

 

We would each do well, perhaps, to pause and ask what few things really matter to us the most.

 

Jesus in fact once said that only one thing was needful. Martha was busy and distracted, anxious about many things, serving, working hard, getting things ready. Her sister, Mary, sat at Jesus’ feet listening to him, in the classic position of a disciple (a learner or apprentice) attending to a Master-Teacher (a Rabbi). Jesus says only a “few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

 

Whatever else we do, may we take the time and space we need to listen to Jesus, to receive his words and to put them into practice.   

Prayer as Sacrament

According to 'Practicing the Way', John Mark Comer, the Jesuit spiritual director Jean-Pierre de Caussade called prayer "the sacrament of the present moment".