Parish Magazine Item for September

 

From The Rectory

 

I hope you’re enjoying our explorations in Matthew’s gospel a little bit, if not as much as I am. We recently spent three weeks in church looking at the parables of Jesus from Matthew chapter 13. One of the things that I hope the children of Dallington school have learnt is that parables are “stories with a meaning.” Jesus made up these images or tales to teach about the Kingdom of God or of heaven (interchangeable terms: likely the Jews said “heaven” as proxy for “God” so as to avoid any risk of misusing his name and so breaking one of the Ten Commandments).

 

Some people think that parables are good stuff for the kids – or perhaps for simple country folk, or the primitive people of Jesus’ day. But the Bible’s attitude is rather different. Instead of being supposedly easy to understand, Jesus’ hearers often dislike his parables. The disciples ask for them to be explained. People always want Jesus to speak more plainly, without metaphor, and he often refuses.

 

The parables communicate, certainly. But in a way they also conceal. They are hostile to a superficial interest. They almost ask to be dismissed as nonsense. But Jesus says they work rather as a test, a filter: they are like cryptic crossword puzzles for us to chew over.

 

Matthew 13 contains the following parables, some almost allegories, some a one sentence idea:

 

The parable of the Sower, the good seed and the four types of soil

The parable of the Weeds and the wheat growing together until harvest

The parable of the smallest mustard seed growing into the biggest tree in the garden

The parable of the hidden sour dough starter that transforms all the great batch of flour

The parable of the treasure discovered hidden in the field, for which one should sell all

The parable of the pearl of great price

The parable of the good and bad fish in the net which need sorting out in the end

 

And the tales are told and arranged with the complexity of a Christopher Nolan film. Sometimes they are sandwiched together with the explanation delayed. Or one flashes back to another. There are a series of pairs or even triples. What does each one add? Is Jesus merely repeating himself with different illustrations, or could there be further treasure hidden a little further down?

 

I commend to you reading and reflecting on these great stories or vignettes, which live on in our culture. But can we sum up something of the meaning in more prosaic terms?

 

The kingdom of God (his rule and reign) is powerful and productive. But it depends on a good response: on listening, and hearing, understanding and believing, putting into practice and sticking with. Much of the growth of the kingdom in hearts, churches and societies is slow and secret. We can be rightly or wrongly impatient for “justice”. But Jesus calls us to wait. Our part is to scatter the word, to fish for souls. The harvest is God’s job and awaits the final day and his alone perfect discernment and discrimination. For now, the great thing is to seek Jesus and his word. He is of infinite and everlasting value. Well, I couldn’t really do it without slipping back into the metaphors!

 

One other point worth making is that Jesus must have known these were tall tales. Some of the details are wrong – we must think deliberately so. Mustard seed: not really the smallest. Not really a tree. Not the biggest. The farming (chucking seed around with abandon) is odd. So is the gardening (Jesus hates weeding!). A large and precise amount of flour (alluding to Genesis 18): perhaps more than one woman could kneed. Maybe enough for the needs of a village. A quibble about the morality or legality of treasure trove. These things are to miss the point, as we so easily do. And the great point is to hear Jesus. His kingdom is not only remarkable but supernatural. It changes everything. He might even transform us for the better.           

 

The Revd Canon Marc Lloyd

On a Christian Nationalism Consensus?

What are we to make of so-called Christian Nationalism?

Well, we can all see some far right people waving flags and we know that we are against THAT!

But what are the in principle objections to Christian Nationalism as such?

Let us take each word in turn. 

Christian. 

Obviously some people are against Christ. 

Or against Christianity. 

Or against sharing Christ with others. 

Nationalism. 

Some people are against nation states. 

But these would be pretty extreme objections for a Bible student. 

Should nations be Christian? What would this mean? Would it even be possible?

And by what means might it be achieved?

Is Christianity only an inward personal spirituality, or does it speak to the public realm? What if the public realm listens and the PM asks the pastors what he ought to do in the day job?

Granted nations may be idols, may they also be instruments of God?

So aren't we all Christian Nationalists now? The question is what we mean by the terms. 

If, by the grace of God, the King and 95% of the cabinet and people became evangelical and reformed Christians and thought wisely about how we might apply the Christian faith to our national and collective life, would we not be a Christian Nation? Is that desirable, even if some might think it unlikley any time soon or ever. 

Granted of course we would want to give some rights to minorities etc. We might say, we are and want to be a Christian Nation, but others are welcome. No one is forced to be a Christian. You may practice your religion, but we will have a national church and pray in Parliament and crown the king with hymns and prayers to Jesus as God and so on. The King's courts will contain the words "God is my right" - by which we mean the living and true God of the Bible, Father, Son and Spirit - but all may expect even handed justice from him.  

We can never go back in time or repeat history. And it would be undesirable to do so. 

Christendom had many problems, but many triumphs and treasures. 

On this Lesser Festival of Oswald, King of Northumbria and Martyr, died 642, might we not dare to pray for some kind of Chistendom 3.0 a few thousand years from now?

I think we can get behind a proper minimalistic Christian Nationalism and perhaps discuss next steps / hopes and dreams from there. 

But maybe you'll correct me! 

On style

 The kids are sometimes encouraged to use WOW words in their writing. And of course a rich and varried vocabulary is a wonderful thing. 

Though sometimes they over reach. And the writing can be a little sophomoric. And some writers never grow out of this. 

After all, what is the point of the writing? To impress or communicate?

Big or unusual words can be splendid, but you want to know exactly what they mean and how they feel. What will their effect be? If you are not careful, you might pen an unitentional parody. Deliberately using a word in an unusual context can be show stopping or show stopping. 

In general, it is better to try to write as simply and plainly as possible, and then embelish. If you know exactly what you want to say, there is plenty of scope for thinking about how you will say it well. But maybe start with the Anglo-Saxon and let it flower from there. 

If you are just throwing a thesaurus at it (or indeed putting in any big words you can think of) it might not go so well.  

The minister's working week

 There was an old adage, perhaps especially in free church circles, that the minister should be never out of his study in the morning and never in it in teh afternoon. 

Probably he was also expected to have several meetings in the evenings, but that's another story. 

And the idea was that in the morning he would write his sermons, and in the afternoons he would visit his people. 

He would preach twice on a Sunday and he would lead the mid week meeting. 

And he should have a day off. 

So he has five mornings for study and preparation. Say 9 am to 1pm. Four hours per session. Perhaps two sessions each for the Sunday sermons. And one for the midweek meeting. Or manybe three for Sunday morning and one for the midweek meeting and one for Sunday evening (when he may re-use material), or something. Or perhaps one session is given to more general background study. The exact division might depend from week to week and doesn't matter too much.

The pastor thus gives the bulk of his best time to study. 

Maybe there are night owls, but I know I find it hard to study say, 7pm - 10pm on a Thursday after a full week, though I can find the energy to go out to PCC, weirdly! 

Sometimes, of course, the pastor might mix it up. After all, not all his people are free at 3pm on a Wednesday. 

Did this pattern basically hold in 1980 before the days of mobile phones and emails? Could the Vicar give an hour a week to his correspondence?  

And today, the pastor would ask, I guess, is that how we think of his role today:

(1) Study to preach and teach

(2) Pastor and evangelise when you can

Today we would add admin and leadership. 

When does the Vicar sort out the church building, and do his online safeguarding training, and the return to the diocese about net zero and...? 

Is the life of the Vicar just one thing after another and think about your sermon on the way to church, or can we say what healthy patterns would be between morning and evening prayer? 

On preaching preparation

Certainly the preacher should prepare. 

He (or she) should prepare himself. He should pray. 

He should prepare his material. He should study God and his gospel, and the texts, and his people. He should know the big idea(s) and the aim(s) of his sermon.

Should he prepare his manuscript? 

And if he does should he read it out?

If you write a dull text and read it dully that's a double disaster. 

For some, there will be a great gain from in the moment spontaneous natural communication. 

For some, there will be great gain from the telling well contructed headings and phrases over which you sweated. Preparation may allow for conscion, and light and shade. 

Perhaps the ideal is some kind of half way house:

Prepare your material, but also prepare some of your matter or manner of delivery. 

Know how you will begin and end. 

Have some things that you will put pithily. 

Have that word play or alliteration, sometimes. 

What are your main points and how do you go from one to another?

Maybe even write a full manuscript, but try not to have to read it.  

What would your sermon look like on one usable page of A4? It might be a useful test as well as a help to delivery. 

In All Things Thee To See: A Devotional Guide to Selected Poems of George Herbert - by Stephen Witmer

 

In All Things Thee To See: A Devotional Guide to Selected Poems of George Herbert

Stephen Witmer

Crossway, 2026 (ISBN: 9798874900748 hb, 126pp)

 

I feel I’ve got some catching up to do it art, music and poetry appreciation. And I found this attractively produced book enjoyable and edifying.

 

With a brief introduction and conclusion, forty poems from “The Church” section of Herbert’s The Temple series (1633 edition, retaining the order), are considered favouring shorter more accessible poems (with language “lightly modernized” and American spelling). The text is from CCEL. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/herbert/temple.

 

Footnotes explain obscure phrases. Each poem is followed by a short section on “Savouring the poem” and then a pastoral application called “Shepherded by the poem.”

 

Suggestions for further reading are also given.

 

Person and Scripture index.

 

Witmer sometimes refers to line numbers, so it would have been helpful to have had a guide to these printed alongside the poems.

 

Recommended.  

Jesus' Strategy

Surely we want to minister the gospel wisely. 

There may even be a place for some sort of strategy and efficiency in the church. 

But may the Lord deliver us from worldly wisdom. 

Rowam Williams has (I paraphrase) suggested that there may be a wiff of sulphur about too much love of strategy. 

What was Jesus' strategy? 

We could say many things. To call ordinary people. Some odd bods. Some outcasts. Some people with a history. Not the most promising set of people. Not many of them were wise, or learned, or rich, or powerful or...  

And to send them out in pairs with nothing as a training exercise. 

Jesus' startegy headlines would be: preach, die, rise, Holy Spirit, Bible, prayer, persecution. 

Today I am, God willing, preaching on the Parable of the Sower. 

What is the startegy here?

Just to scatter the seed. To preach the Word. To sow the gospel of the secret of the Kingdom. 

Sow, sow, sow, sow, wait, trust, Great Results!. 

And to sow liberally. Even profligately. Wildly. 

We don't know the yield rate. In 75% of the locations, the seed fails. Does most of the seed fall on good soil? Maybe. But the sower is okay with seed on the path, and amongst the thorns, or on the rocky ground. We hear nothing of an attempt to avoid it or to control who hears. 

The good sower of the good seed on the good soil gets a yield of 30, 60 or 100 times what is sown. 

Does he know in advance which seed will be effective? Could be sharply deliniate the locations? If so, he would surely do more to keep off the path? But what if in avoiding the path some good soil is missed?

No, Jesus' strategy seems to be to preach the Word to anyone who might listen, even if only briefly and superficially. And to continue to preach the Word. To sow liberally in hope. There will be a great harvest. 

The strategy is the full and free offer of the Gospel whenever and to whomsoever. 

Let us put this in our Mission Action Plans and Five Year Strategies! 

Parish Magazine Item for August

 I allowed myself to write at enormous length:

So far I’ve been very much enjoying re-engaging with Jesus for this Diocesan year of focus on Matthew’s Gospel. I hope those who have to sit through my sermons have found it, on the whole, a useful exercise.

 

I think it’s possible for us to have just enough religion to inoculate us against Jesus. We have a vague impression of him from school chapel or assemblies, from RE lessons, perhaps from Sunday School, or just from the general cultural milieu. Maybe we have a picture of him in our mind’s eye. We might remember a story or a saying or two. But it’s always good for us to go back to the sources – to the four Gospels we have in our New Testament.

 

For me it’s endlessly fascinating to engage with the real Jesus of the Bible. Even after many years of reading and studying the Gospels, I feel that somehow Jesus still has the ability to surprise me. He seems to surpass categorisation. He walks off the pages of the Bible afresh to meet us.  

 

It’s been interesting to look again at Matthew’s Gospel chapters 10 and 11. I try to ask three questions:

 

·       Who is Jesus? What do we learn here about his identity?

·       Why did he come? What can we tell about his purpose and mission?

·       So what? What response does Jesus call for? What would it mean to follow this Jesus as his disciple?

 

Jesus’ message is radical stuff. For example towards the end of Matthew 10 he said:

 

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,
  a daughter against her mother,
  a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
  a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

 

Of course Jesus wants us to love our families. But he actually demands our first allegiance. He claimed, in effect, to be God come in the flesh, and so we must have no other gods before him. If he is not absolutely Lord of all, then he is not really Lord at all. The real Jesus can’t be a hobby or an interest. Not really. It is well and good to respect Jesus and so on, but if we are to relate to the real Jesus of the Bible, it must be on his terms not ours. As the Lutheran Pastor martyred by the Nazis, Deitrich Bonhoffer, said, “When Christ calls a person, he bids him come and die.”[1]

 

That’s what it means to take up our cross. It was a brutal instrument of humiliating, agonising execution fit only for slaves and foreigners. And yet we say things like, “We all have our cross to bear. Poor aunty Mable, she’s a martyr to her bunions.” I’m not sure these day-to-day trials are really what Jesus principally has in mind. Perhaps we would get more of a sense Jesus’ meaning if we imaging him saying, “Who ever would come and follow me must head with me to the gallows.” Or, “Come follow me, and take up your electric chair.” Making it unfamiliar helps us to see what a shocking invitation it really is.

 

Now, I expect few if any of us in 21^st Century England will literally die for Jesus, although of course many have and will around the world, though history, today and tomorrow. But Jesus is saying that we must in principle give up our lives for him and to him. We must give him our all. We must die to sin and self that we might live for Jesus. Yes, Jesus’ way of the cross is a way of death. But we also know the end of the story. The cross leads to the resurrection. The way of the cross is actually the way to life – life with and for God for ever, which even the grave can’t destroy. Jesus’ call is to death but also to life, perhaps to suffering, but also to joy and peace, to meaning, purpose and glory.  

 

Jesus’ call, “Come to me and die”, may not seem very attractive. It reminds me of the advert which  Ernest Shackleton is said to have used to seek volunteers for his 1914 Endurance expedition, aiming to cross Antarctica by land:

 

Men wanted for hazardous journey.

Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness.

Safe return doubtful.

Honour and recognition in event of success.

 

He was said to be overwhelmed with applicants.

 

In Matthew Chapter 11, Jesus makes a rather different appeal. He says:

 

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

 

Jesus offers rest. But it is not as if the Christian life is an endless holiday. Jesus’ yoke implies labour. Is this yoke simply the one which Jesus gives, or is it also the one Jesus himself wears with us? Does Jesus imagine us strapped to him, like a team of oxen ploughing a field, walking together?

 

The rest of the Bible would tell us that the Christian life is not always exactly “easy”. The point, I think, is that unlike Satan and Sin, or even self, Jesus is a good, kind and wise master. Jesus loves and he knows what he’s doing. We can trust him. His way may not be easy or nice all the time, but it is best.

 

Perhaps I might end with two further preachers’ greatest hits quotations. The first is from C. S. Lewis’, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Aslan, of course, is the Christ figure.

 

“Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion."

“Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"...

"Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

 

And then from what turned out to be the last ever sermon of the great 19^th Century Baptist preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon:

 

What I have to say lastly is this: how greatly I desire that you who are not yet enlisted in my Lord's band would come to him because you see what a kind and gracious Lord he is!  Young men, if you could see our Captain, you would [go] down on your knees and beg him to let you enter the ranks of those who follow him. It is heaven to serve Jesus. I am a recruiting sergeant, and I would fain find a few recruits at this moment. Every man must serve somebody: we have no choice as to that fact. Those who have no master are slaves to themselves. Depend upon it, you will either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the Saviour. You will find sin, self, Satan, and the world to be hard masters; but if you wear the livery of Christ, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was his like among the choicest of princes. He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in him. These forty years and more have I served him, blessed be his name! and I have had nothing but love from him. I would be glad to continue yet another forty years in the same dear service here below if so it pleased him. His service is life, peace, joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day! Amen.[2]

 

The Revd Canon Marc Lloyd

---

[1] The Cost of Discipleship. Writing around 1937, Bonhoffer actually said “a man” but we know what he meant!

[2] Preached on 7^th June 1891. The Bible text was 1 Samuel 30:21–26.

 

Jesus (Matthew 10 - 11)

 

The real Jesus of the Bible is endlessly fascinating.

 

Have you read one of the Gospels (the short accounts of his life) from the New Testament for yourself as an adult?

 

What do you make of this Jesus? What’s your response to him?

 

In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus calls people to come and follow him and die. That seems pretty hard.

 

In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus calls people to come to him for rest, but not the rest of death, a kind of rest which goes with work, which he calls easy and light.

 

Also in Matthew 11, Jesus criticises a childish fickle fault-finding with him. Either Jesus is too austere for us or too indulgent. We’re not really sure who he is or what we want from him. And yet Jesus says that God the Father loves to hide things from the learned and reveal them to the little children. Jesus is not for the childish but for the child-like who will humbly receive him.

 

We can’t really suss Jesus out or fully grasp him. You don’t master Jesus. You trust him as your good Lord and your loving Saviour. You receive the real Jesus by faith. And you find that he confounds your expectations. But that he meets all your ultimate deepest needs perhaps in ways you hadn’t imagined.   

Matthew 9v35-10v23 - a handout / outline / headings

 

KING JESUS AND HIS MISSION

Matthew 9:35-10:23 (p974)

 

It is always good to ask what does this passage tells us about Jesus?

·       Jesus’ identity: who is he?

·       Jesus’ purpose / mission: why did he come?

·       Jesus’ call / discipleship: how should we respond to him?

 

Jesus is:

 

§  The King bringing good news (9v35; 10v7)

 

 

§  The Shepherd seeking the lost sheep of Israel (9v36; 10v6)

 

Ezekiel 34

 

 

§  The Farmer looking to an ultimate harvest (9v37-38)

 

Judgement – separation (10v15)

 

 

§  The Messiah creating a new people of God (10v1-4)

 

12 founding fathers

 

 

… and he sends his people to continue his mission (10v5-)

 

 

è Receive this Jesus!

 

è Share this Jesus!

 

Jesus' people

Parish Magazine Item for July

 From The Rectory

I don’t know if you’ve ever had that sense of finding your people, a tribe or individual with whom you particularly connect. Maybe at school your group were all into the same music. Or you feel a great bond with those who follow your sports team. In The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis wrote about friendship arising when two or more people discover “that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one."”

Perhaps we might ask, who were Jesus’ people? He came to his own people, the people of Israel. And he would send his disciples to all the nations, to all sorts and conditions of people, to “whomsoever” would believe in him. He calls us all. 

But whom did Jesus seek out in the Gospels? Who sought him out? If we ask these questions of Matthew chapter 9, we find, perhaps, some surprising answers. 

Jesus calls Matthew, a tax collector. Now, I don’t suppose most of us love paying taxes. But two issues make this particularly surprising. One, Israel was occupied by the Romans. To be a tax collector was to be a collaborator. And perhaps all that contact with Gentiles would make tax collectors ritually unclean. Likely, it at least made them questionable. And, two, tax collectors seem to have been corrupt. They seem to have overcharged and exploited people. And yet, Jesus calls Matthew to come and follow him. Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners. The strict, devout, sound, religious Pharisees don’t like it. Jesus is compromising. Lowering the tone. Selling out. What’s he doing? These are not the right sort of people at all. But Jesus says God desires mercy. He is a doctor who has come for people who know they are sick, not for the stuck up who think they are doing perfectly well without Jesus, thank you very much. 

And then, a bit later in the chapter, two people reach out to Jesus. A synagogue ruler whose daughter has died. And a woman who has had a flow of blood for 12 years. Again, perhaps both of these involve ritual uncleanness (because of the association with death and blood). Jesus calls both the woman and the little girl “daughter”. The ruler and the woman seem very different. She’s shy. He’s respectable. But both of them are desperate. Both of them bring their need to Jesus. They come asking for mercy. They know they need a doctor, a Saviour.  

Who are Jesus’ people? Men and women. Younger and older. Important and overlooked. The in-crowd and the outsider. Anyone in fact who will come to him with their need, anyone who will answer his call to follow him. Jesus welcomes us all to his table to come and eat with him. And he renews and transforms us. We can come to Jesus as we are, and he will make us whole and new. He will draw us in to his people and encourage us to welcome others in, to show to them the mercy we have been shown. Jesus’ people are, or should be, a surprising bunch, of needy repentant sinners who know his kindness and generosity to the desperate and undeserving.  

The Revd Canon Marc Lloyd

Matthew 28v16ff - a handout / outline / sermon headings

 Matthew 28:16-end (p1001)

The Great Commissions 

 

(Notice all the alls)

 

ALL FOR JESUS ALWAYS!

(Matthew 28:18-20)

 

Basis:                                All authority has been given to Jesus (v18)

 

Mission:                           Therefore go, disciple and baptise all nations (v19)

 

    Teaching them to obey all Jesus’ commands (v20)

 

Promise:                          And Jesus is with us always (v20)

 

Parish Magazine Item for June 2026

I am trying to always mention Matthew's Gospel this year as it is a diocesan focus.  

From The Rectory

 

Sunday 31^st May this year is Trinity Sunday. Each year this comes after Pentecost or Whitsun, when we remember Christ sending the gift of the Holy Spirit on the fledgling New Testament church. On the Feast of the Ascension we thought about the crucified and risen Christ returning to the glory of heaven and enthroned as the God-Man at the right hand of the Father. So the drama of Pentecost, like all of salvation, is Trinitarian in shape. The Father and the Son send the Spirit. The Son’s saving work is complete and the Spirit is sent to be God’s presence and power with the disciples to equip them for their great work of mission. The Spirit sends them out to proclaim Jesus that people might be brought back to the Father.

 

This year we’re focusing on Matthew’s Gospel. And one of the readings for Trinity Sunday is the very end of Matthew’s Gospel, from chapter 28, verse 16. The disciples worship the risen Christ and he says to them:

 

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

 

Jesus won’t be with them physically any longer, but by his Holy Spirit.

 

And when people believe, they are to be baptised in the Triune name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Not three names but one name. As the church would later go on to say, the name of the one God who is three Persons.

 

When Matthew was writing, the technical definitions of the Trinity had still to be worked out. Even the word “Trinity” doesn’t come in the Bible. But the essential teaching is there. Jesus is worshiped as God. The Spirit makes Jesus present. There is obviously a profound unity between Father, Son and Spirit. Not three gods.

 

Jesus’ own baptism, right at the beginning of his public ministry, which Matthew records (3:13-end), powerfully portrays the Triune God in action. The voice of God the Father says from heaven about Jesus: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” And God the Holy Spirit comes down on God the Son in the form of a dove. There’s the Trinity!

 

It’s easy for us to feel rather baffled by the Trinity. Thinking about it can make our brains hurt. But it’s not surprising that God is incomprehensible to us. We can know God truly, but not fully. A God we could have all pinned down and sorted out wouldn’t be much of a God. Yes, he’s revealed himself, but he also remains a Mystery – perhaps rather in the way that Elsie the Dog, I trust, knows and loves me, but I like to think there are hidden depths to me that she has not yet plumbed!   

 

Theologians have insisted that everything God does is Trinitarian because that is who God is. And the Trinitarian formula at baptism puts the Trinity right there at the beginning and centre of the Christian life. Of course the Trinity can rightly be the subject of many tomes of profound dogmatics. But Jesus intentionally includes it in the essential basics of Christian initiation. The church thought it really mattered that Jesus and the Spirit were really God so that we could really be saved by God alone, and know that God is really with us and for us.

 

If you’re interested in thinking more about this, you might enjoy the 3, 2, 1 Course from Speak Life: 321.speaklife.org.uk/course/321. It’s a free online video-based course that helps you explore life according to Jesus, with space for reflection. One of the sessions focuses on God’s three-ness – his tri-unity. As ever, I’m always keen to hear from parishioners who’d like to talk further about this stuff. Happy Trinity Sunday and season to you!                              The Revd Canon Marc Lloyd

Revelation 4-5

 I'm thinking of plagiarising this (based on our jottings) for our benefice prayer meeting this evening

The Revd Canon Vaughan Roberts at Bible By The Beach 2026

Something like: 

Endure patiently (1:9) as you see God’s big picture

  

Revelation  4-5

 

(1) LOOK UP to see the big picture (4:1)

  

The throne: there is a “pilot” (4:2)

 

The scroll: there is a plan (5:1-3)

The Lamb: there is a pioneer (5:6-10) 

(2) BOW DOWN in obedient awestruck worship (4:8-11; 5:11-14)

1 Peter 2:2-10 outline

 I'm not sure I would have chosen the same unit boundaries as the Lectionary, but for what it's worth, here are some attempts at headings. Alliterations aidful art slightly eluded me so please do improve on these. 

3 pictures of God’s people:

 

We are or ought to be like:

 

(1) BABIES / NEW-BORNS: New born babies craving pure spiritual milk to as to grow (vv2-3)

 

(2) BUILDING / STONES / TEMPLE: Living stones being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood (vv4-8)

 

(3) BROTHERS  / NATION / PEOPLE: A chosen and holy people to declare God’s praises (vv9-10)

 

The Letters to the 7 Churches

 

in Revelation. Vaughan Roberts at Bible by the Beach. 

How Adam Broke Each of The 10 Commandments

Butner (Christological Dogmatics, 104) follows Edward Fisher (Marrow of Divinity, 36) in showing how Adam broke each of the commandments.

 

Adam:

 

(1) Treated the Devil as God

 

(2) Idolized his stomach

 

(3) Bore God’s name in vain by failing to believe and worship God rightly

 

(4) Did not rest in his assigned estate and therefore violated the spiritual significance of the sabbath

 

(5) Did not honour God his Father

 

(6) Committed self-murder since when he ate the fruit he would surely die and he caused the death of all his progeny

 

(7) Committed spiritual fornication being unfaithful to his relationship with God

 

(8) Stole the fruit

 

(9) Bore false testimony against God by treating him as a mean liar

 

(10) Coveted the fruit, knowledge of good and evil, and the status of God

Acts 2v42-end handout - A Model Church

 

Acts 2:42-end (page 1094); John 10:1-10 (page 1076)

A MODEL CHURCH

 

v42: Devoted… KJV / AV: “continued steadfastly in” – v46

 

Evidence? E.g. diary, bank account

 

A model church (though not a perfect church e.g. chs 5 & 6)

 

 

(1) … to the Apostles’ teaching

 

One who is sent out e.g. on a mission – authorised representative

 

John 14:25-26; 16:12-15

 

(v43 - 2 Corinthians 12:12)

 

(2) … and to the fellowship

 

Communion / participation / partnership / sharing something in common – similar word in v44 - v44-45; 4:32

 

(3) … to the breaking of the bread

 

v46

 

(4) … and to the prayers

 

3:1

 

And the consequence was… esp. vv46-47

 

How are you, your household, small group, our church doing in these areas? One or two practical steps?

Donkeys

 

This year we journeyed through Easter in our church services with Matthew’s Gospel.

 

I’ve mentioned here before something about the similarities and differences between the four Gospels which we have in our New Testament, and some of the theories about their relationships.

 

In my opinion, all four gospels are harmonizable and complementary. The early Christians who first collected these four Gospels together obviously thought so. But even if some of the Gospel writers knew one another’s works, they each provide a somewhat independent witness to Jesus. They don’t read like police notebooks which have been carefully cooked up to tell an agreed story. Their harmony is sometimes that of different eyewitnesses who notice, mention or emphasise different things. They each write with a purpose and an agenda.  

 

All four Gospel writers tell us of Jesus’ so-called Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21; Mark 11; Luke 19; John 12). All four Gospels tell us that Jesus rode on a donkey. Mark and Luke say the donkey was a “colt” “which no one had ever ridden”. What’s the point of this detail? Does it suggest Jesus’ uniqueness: he alone rides on this donkey? I know nothing about horses and so on, but presumably riding a donkey that no one has ever ridden may not be easy. The colt needs to be broken in and trained. Jesus seems to have no problems. Does this point to Jesus’ rule over creation? Jesus is the new and better Adam, to whom the creatures readily submit. Just as the wind and the waves obey Jesus, does the young donkey do better than many of the religious leaders and recognise his Maker? Jesus is the King even of unruly colts.

 

Matthew alone tells us in fact there were two donkeys: a she-ass with her colt. Some sceptical readers have cried, “Ah! A contradiction! Come on! Was there one donkey or were there two?” Of course, saying there were two donkeys includes saying there was one! Talking about one donkey doesn’t exclude the fact that there were two. If the other Gospel writers knew of both donkeys, perhaps they didn’t think it worth mentioning. They simplify the tale. Perhaps they also emphasise Jesus’ power and control by only mentioning the previously unridden donkey. A couple of parishioners have pointed out to me that if you are going to ride on a previously unridden donkey it makes sense to take its mother with it. Both animals are likely to be much happier with sticking together, apparently.

 

Some sceptical scholars have said that Matthew was misreading Old Testament prophecy. Zechariah had spoken of the king coming to his people “gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” One can’t really ride two donkeys at once. Not without getting into a mess, anyway. And Hebrew poetry loves what’s called parallelism: saying the same thing – or similar, or contrasting things – twice or more. This parallelism is like our rhyming, a “rhyming” of ideas. Some people say Matthew has misread Zechariah. Zech is speaking of one donkey, a foal, poetically. Matt has missed the point and assumed there must be two donkeys, so that’s what he put in. Unfortunately this theory falls down, in my view, because it assumes Matthew is stupid and we are cleverer. I’m sure Matthew knew what he was doing.

 

A donkey is not a war horse. Jesus comes humble and gentle and riding on a donkey.

 

But Old Testament kings did ride on donkeys at times. But Jesus’ humility is especially emphasised by his riding on a colt. Jesus is a striking combination of kingly authority and of peace, humility, gentleness and service. Jesus shows, as the modern hymn has it, “meekness and majesty, manhood and deity.” He is the king, but the servant king who has come to die.  

 

Perhaps it’s worth having more than one Gospel. And worth reading them closely, attending to their details and their differences, as well as to their powerful and profound agreement. Donkeys, even foals, speak to us still today.

Metrical Psalm Singing Resource

 Free Church of Scotland The Scottish Psalter and Sing Psalms https://freechurch.org/praise-resources/

Psalm 121 - a 2 minute mini introduction / exposition

 

It might be good advice for us to lift up our eyes.

 

Perhaps the pilgrims sang this Psalm as they went up to Jerusalem, heading for Mount Zion.

Maybe the ancient hills pointed them to heaven and to their creator.

But maybe it was also a difficult journey.

Maybe as they looked up they saw dangers amongst the hills.

Perhaps we can imagine a robber lying in wait.

Or an enemy coming over the horizon.

 

Perhaps we can think of many things which threaten us.

 

So, the Psalmist asks us, where does your help come from?

Where will you look for safety and security?

 

And the Psalmist’s answer is clear:

My help comes from Yahweh, the LORD, the covenant keeping personal God of the Bible who is who he is.

 

Yahweh the maker of all things.

The one who made the hills.  

 

He is the God who keeps, or watches or guards.

In our version of the Psalm we have some form of that word “keep” 6 times.

Our keeper does not sleep.

He keeps us day and night – 24 /7 from all evil.

Neither sun nor moon can strike us.

He keeps our going out and our coming in, and presumably also everything in between, now and for ever.

 

Our life is hidden with Christ in God.

 

There is no better keeper, no surer guard, no more vigilant watcher, no more reliable help. 

In a scorching land, Yahweh himself is a shade right there at our right hand.

 

And so indeed glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

 

Let’s sing his praises with happy, confident, secure hearts.

 

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 - An Outline

 If you are coming to church tomorrow, you may wish to look away now:

 

How was Abraham justified? (v1)

(And how are we justified?)

 

Justified by:

(1) Faith not works (vv2-3)

(2) Gift / grace not obligation / wages (vv4-5)

(3) Promise not Law (vv13-15)

 

SUMMARY:

Justified by:

Promise

Faith

Grace / Gift

(v16)

 

è TRUST GOD!

No boasting (v2);

New Family; New Life / Identity (v17)

Reformed Priorities for Prayer

Although they will sometimes use other metaphors like “prayer is the breathing of the soul”[1] or prayer as “a letter we send to” God[2], for the Reformed prayer is normally talking to God. Prayer is “an earnest talk with God.”[3] The Bible is God speaking to us; in prayer we speak back to him. Thus our relationship with God is a kind of dialogue, a conversation, as we respond with words to his written Word. Cyprian of Carthage said: “in prayer you speak to God; in reading God speaks to you.”[4]

 

Matthew Bingham identifies three priorities for Protestant prayer:

 

(1) Prayer must be thoughtful. Prayer normally consists of thoughtfully chosen words. God is a speaking God and he wants us to speak to him. Which is of course not to say that our prayers must be eloquent for God to hear them. And when we do not know what to pray for as we ought, the Spirit graciously helps us in our weakness (Romans 8:26f).

 

(2) Prayer must be heartfelt and sincere.

 

(3) Prayer must be tightly tethered to Scripture.

 

Bingham, A Heart Aflame (Crossway, 2025) esp pp175-190

---

[1] Thomas Blake, Living Truths in Dying Times, p100-1; Bingham p167

[2] Matthew Henry, Directions for Daily Communion with God; Bingham p173

[3] Thomas Beacon, the first English Protestant to write a treatise devoted to prayer, in his catechism on 1548. Ryrie, Reformation Britain, p99. Bingham, p171

[4] Bingham, p179 citing Marian Raikes, A Step Too Lar: An Evangelical Critique of Christian Mysticism (Latimer Trust, 2006), p41

A Puritan Guide to Meditation

Matthew Bingham tries to distil some of the practical advice which the Puritans and similar writers gave for Christian Meditation (that is, purposeful thinking about God and his Word for the sake of personal application and stirring up of love towards God etc.). In doing so, he notes that the Puritans (with their Sola Scriptura principle) were reluctant to give extra-Biblical rules which might bind the conscience. Nevertheless, here are some guidelines:

 

(1) Hold meditation and Scripture closely together. Reflect on some Bible passage and think about other related passages. Bible reading and meditation will naturally also lead to prayer. One may also reflect from a Biblical point of view on one’s own life, giving thanks for blessings, sorrowing over sin, noticing God’s providential leading and marvelling at the glory of God revealed in creation.

 

(2) Distinguish between “settled” and “occasional” meditation. It is good to have some set time of reading the Bible, thinking it through and praying. But in addition to such deliberate, solemn and settled meditation, it is also good to have sudden, occasional, extemporal thoughts of God throughout the day. Short spontaneous godly musings, thanksgivings etc. are to be encouraged. When you get dressed, you might think on being clothed in the righteousness of Christ or putting on the armour of God.

 

(3) Grab hold of a thought and don’t let it go. Think closely over the words and sentences of Scripture from all sorts of different angles. And think about related Scriptures. Don’t just glance at the building, explore the whole house of a text or truth. Contemplate the colours and shades of a landscape as an artist might. Thomas Watson thought that even just fifteen minutes a day would “leave a mighty impression” but the key is to “meditate so long till thou findest thy heart grow warm.” (Heaven Taken by Storm; Discourses 1:254)

 

(4) Apply God’s truth to yourself. This requires scriptural knowledge and self-knowledge. Aim to feel the truth and make it part of your being so that it transforms you and affects your experience. Treasure the truth and stir up godly affections.

 

(5) Don’t overthink it. There is no secret special technique, mysticism or magic involved. Read the Bible. Think about it. Pray. Slow down and digest what you read. Allow the word of Christ to dwell in you richly (Col. 3:16).

 

Bingham, A Heart Aflame (Crossway, 2025), pp146-159