Is the C of E out of touch on gay marriage?

 BBC Radio 4 Any Questions asked if the Church of England is out of touch on gay marriage.

The answer is undoubtedly yes, in the sense that the church's official traditional teaching differs from the prevailing attitudes of society.

But the same is also true regarding heterosexual marriage and sexuality in general.

And indeed with respect to the creation of the world, miracles, the divinity of Christ, the resurrection, heaven and hell.

The thing is that if the church merely reflects the prevailing attitudes of society there is no need for society to listen to the church. It will have nothing distinctive to say.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001h614

 Discussion from 19:38

Parish Magazine Item for February 2023

 

From The Rectory

 

I wrote last month about the Diocesan Year of the Old Testament. As part of that, some of us have been spending some time in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis. These ancient texts are in many ways strange to us. We come to them, perhaps, with a whole host of modern scientific questions, which I guess never really entered the minds of their first readers. Whatever we think the Bible means to assert about such questions as when the earth come in to being, it seems to me obvious that Genesis means to tell us, above all, about God, his creation, and humanity’s place within it.

You might think that Genesis takes some believing in 2023. It’s not at all obvious that modern atheists have better answers about the origins and significance of the universe. As someone has said, Christians believe in the virgin birth of Christ; atheists believe in the virgin birth of the cosmos. In a way, atheists embrace a bigger miracle: something out of nothing, order out of chaos, apparent beauty, truth and goodness without any objective basis for these things.

 

If we think for a moment only of Genesis chapters one to three, we can notice at least five great truths which give a radical basis for a Christian understanding of life on planet earth, and which go on to shape human history and biblical theology. 

 

(1) God created the world. Therefore the world belongs to him. And is accountable to him. It does have meaning and purpose. And a God given destiny. Life is more than random chance. You are more than a chemical machine. You have enormous dignity and significance.  

 

(2) God created the world good. The ancients were sometimes very suspicious of matter. And Christians too have had their issues with the stuff of life and of sex. But the bible teaches the original goodness of the created cosmos. And holds out hope for it. Our bodies and this world are gifts to be enjoyed, to be received with thanksgiving. When our hearts stir at a sunrise, the intuitions we have of being a small part of some grand design are true.

 

(3) God made men and women to live in the world under his loving rule. Genesis gives us a delightful picture of harmonious relationships between God and humanity, human beings and the world. We were intended to be stewards of the creation, in friendship with God and with one another. And yet we know that we live in a far from perfect world. The Bible can explain all the brokenness and pain we see around us:

 

(4) Human beings rejected God’s loving rule. All of us, in one way or another, want to live in God’s world, and receive his good gifts, but to please ourselves. At the heart of the human problem, is the problem of the human heart. We don’t want God as our God. We would rather be our own gods, decide for ourselves, or invent gods we can control, who won’t trouble us too much. Human beings fight with God and with one another. We see the battle of the sexes. And the abuse of the created world.

 

(5) God goes on loving human beings. God doesn’t give up on us, or the world he has made. If we looked at the detail of Genesis chapter three, we could see the judgement of God, certainly, but also his mercy. The Bible doesn’t end after three chapters. Yes, the good world has gone wrong, but God means to put it right.  

 

These five points, then, set the scene for the coming of Jesus. The world was made through him. And he came to redeem his own. He always lived under God’s perfect loving rule. And he takes all our mess and confusion on himself. He undoes the consequences of human rebellion and failure, so that God’s plans for the world can at last be fulfilled. Jesus means to bring us back to a new and better Eden. The Bible begins with a garden; it ends with a garden city. In a way it is a love story: it begins with the marriage of Adam and Eve and it ends with the marriage of Christ and his church. Jesus is the true faithful human being, the only perfectly good person. We can know the love of God, for which we were made, by trusting in Jesus.

 

These great principles, this story line, could transform how we think and live. God invites us to live as part of this story of his rescue and renewal of our fallen world.

 

Why not take some time this month to read and reflect on Genesis chapters one to three? You can easily find them in a modern translation online at biblegateway.com, if you don’t have a bible handy. These few pages of Scripture, if we took them to heart, might transform everything.

 

The Revd Marc Lloyd

TSP prayers

 

Teaspoon TSP Thank you, Sorry, Please Prayers

January 2023

 

In our church primary school collective worship this week, we reflected on prayers we knew: The Lord’s Prayer, Our School Prayer, the grace we say before meals (and the school birthday song).

 

We can use set prayers written by others or we can talk to God anytime, anywhere in our own words.

 

If we don’t know what to pray, we might use “teaspoon” prayers as a guide, drawing on the abbreviation “tsp”, thank you, sorry, please, thinking of things to talk to God about under each heading.

 

I invited our church primary school to write some ideas for prayer in groups of three. Some staff and parents took part. And my input may have had some influence. I said they could write anything they wanted, but also that they might think about what Jesus might want them to ask for. I encouraged people not to write anything they wanted to keep private. I thought you might like to see the responses (in so far as I could read them):

 

In no particular order:

 

Thank you for…

 

Family (10)

Mummy / Parents

Friends (6)

Amazing people

For people who play with me

Food (13)

Water

Air

Cool toys

Life / my life

All life on earth / the world

For happiness

Our school (2)

Football and farming

Football (2)

Dogs and cats

Rabbits

horses

Pets

Beds

Home

PS4

Dr Who DVDs

Brighton 3 – Liverpool 0

Looking after the world

Every day which comes along – it is a blessing

Yoghurt

Games

Sports

For Christmas presents (3)

For parrot painting

Books

Farming (2)

Lack of struggles

For all good things (2)

For people who love me

Chocolate (2)

Prayer

Harvest

Cake

Good health

For always caring

Everything

 

Sorry…

 

Sins

Bad behaviour

For eating my Dad’s chocolate

For being naughty (3) / unkind / mean (2)

For upsetting other people / hurting people’s feelings

Doing something wrong / my wrong actions

For pushing people

That sometimes we can’t do it

For not saying thank you

We didn’t win the Premiership football

For not believing in you

When I have been rude or lied

Rudeness

Hate

Stealing

Lying

Cheating (3)

For doing bad things

Fulham 2 – 1 Brighton

For being grumpy at times as I should think that there are a lot of people worse off than me

For greed

Bad language

For being very annoying

For things that are bad for animals or life

For eating too much sugar

Being ungrateful

For not being patient

Fighting with my brother

Going to bed late on a school night

That some people have no food

Not phoning my family more

Selfishness

Global warming

 

Please… (things we might ask God for, for ourselves or others)

 

Help us to stay safe and warm during the winter

A good life for all my family

Good health (2)

I pad

Can I be a millionaire farmer

1, 000, 000, 000 and a PC

Billionaire

A million dollars

Pasta

Enough money to go to Texas

A millipede

A new wardrobe

Help us to stay helpful and healthy

A racing car

Can you help me to be the best footballer ever when I am older

Please can I have enough money for football stickers, chocolate bars and food

A really nice Pokémon card

Hamster

A dog

My hamster to get better

House

Can England win the world cup (3)

Pet unicorn

New Brighton Hove Albion football kit

Help me in school on topic, maths, science and English

Help me to be good / kind

More playtime (and less “lurning” (sic))

More friends

A big TV

PS5

Putin dies

Money (2)

End war (4)

Peace (3)

Hyperjar

Go pro

TV

Gaming chair

Dirt bike

Help me to be more helpful (2)

A big chocolate bar every day / infinite amounts of chocolate

Help us to work with other people

Help us to enjoy life

Safe journeys

Stop all the rain

Fun

Help me to be happy and nice everyday

More snowmen

Please help me to mend the roof

“Please can I not go to school for the rest of my life and be a million air!”(sic)

 

+ / ? – anything else?

 

Love mummy

I am looking forward to my friend’s party

 

Some people also contributed pictures

On writing and sermons

We sometimes speak of writing sermons. 

But sermons are primarily spoken. Better to prepare to speak. 

Many will do this by writing the sermon out in full. And some will then read it out. 

Writing a sermon is very unlike writing a novel. A serious novel takes at least a year to write. Probably two or three years. 

The best sermons have something poetic about them because the best sermons and poems both seek to speak of the infinite. 

The preacher must have something to say every week. In this he is like the newspaper columnist. Both have their deadline and a typical word limit. 

Both preacher and writer will probably want to draft and re-drift. They must both afix themselves to their study chairs until their work is ready for the public.

Likely the preacher and the newspaper man both want some angle, some way in, some conclusion. Both will give attention to form and structure. They will want to say their piece as well as they can - colourfully, memorably, movingly. 

Does the columnist seek to educate, inform and entertain? Perhaps he wants to persuade? He wants people to read him. He wants his fee. 

The preacher too hopes to command interest. But his aims are rather different. He speaks for the glory of God. To convert, to edify. And he has a text or texts from which he ought to speak. His message is not his own. He speaks as one speaking the very words of God. 

For all the similarities between writers and sermoners, it is perhaps worth dwelling on the differences. 

Plough Sunday

 One of my parishes tends to observe Plough Sunday on the second Sunday in January. 

I have often been off for the first Sunday in January, so it might be my attempt at New Year in church. It is a kind of Back To Work Sunday. The Baptism of Christ also connects up to the idea of the beginning of a great work and to vocation. 

We ask God to bless our agricultural and other work. 

There are many Bible passages one could choose which have something to do with farming or growing. 

One way to preach is:

(1) Our Work - the hard working farmer, the necessity of sowing etc. 

(2) God's Work - the power of the seed which grows in secret whether the farmer wakes or sleeps he knows not how and produces a crop 30, 60 or 100 times what is sown

These lessons relate both to our material and spiritual life. We work for both, but both are utterly dependent on God's work. We cannot make ourselves live for another second and neither can we make the spiritually dead live.