Jesus, the new and better Tabernacle

Some jottings for our Marquee Service:

Readings:

Introduce OT reading

Marquee – tent - tabernacle

Ex 40

Sermon series there – year of Bible studies, symbolism – not today’s sermon!

Introduce NT reading

John 1:1-18

Jesus made his dwelling among us – pitched his tent among us, tabernacled among us

Jesus is the new and better tabernacle

(1)   God wants to meet with his people

He didn’t need to

God a happy and holy fellowship

He wasn’t lonely!

God overflows with love for the world

God acts and reveals himself and provides for us to know him

Need to be introduced to the Queen

(2)   God is on the move with his people, leading them to the Promised Land

God is always with us

Pilgrim

Journey of life

The promised land of the New Creation not ancient Israel

(3)   If you want to meet with God, come to Jesus, the new and better tabernacle

Not Tabernacle, Temple, Jerusalem, Holy Land or church but Jesus

Jesus is with us here just as much in a tent on the green as in a 13^th C building on a hill.

In Jesus the fullness of the deity dwells in bodily form

Jesus reveals the glory of God; Jesus is the glory of God

God’s glory is the shinning forth of his greatness

Jesus is the outgoing God, God to the rescue

(4)   Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice for sin, the new and better altar, sacrifice & priest

Jesus is our only ultimate unique high priest

Jesus is the only and all sufficient sacrifice for sins

The blood of sheep and ghosts…

Jesus God and man

Jesus the spotless lamb of God

Mad, Bad, Son of God / Liar, Lunatic, Lord

This blog is largely intended for me. One of its main purposes is to help me find stuff again later. I am surprised that I appear not to have blogged this from C S Lewis before. Again, I might quote it today:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God."

One Solitary Life

This is all over the internet in different versions. I might quote it today:

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

Preach to the mind? heart? person?

I have heard that it is said, "to preach to the heart, preach to the mind. We reach the heart through the mind."

Now, it all depends what this means.

In the Bible, the heart seems to be something like the whole person's control centre. We might call this the mind. Indeed, every thought and emotion is a chemical reaction in the brain.

So do we go for the emotions (the heart) via the thoughts (the mind)?

And what of the will?

Or you might want to talk of the affections?

And what role the body and actions?

I am not so sure we can slice it up quite so neatly or quite like that.

My problem is not always that I need better information or even to be persuaded (logically or rationally).

I think my best stab would be to say preach to the heart / mind / person. We certainly do not aim simply for the brian or the emotions or even the emotions via the brian.

It seems to me that this anthropology stuff matters for the sake of ministry.

Marriage - what next?

(1) All people have the right to express their legitimate sexuality through marriage
(2) Bisexual sexuality is legitimate sexuality
(3) Bisexuals must be allowed to express this sexuality through marriage
(4) A man must be allowed to marry both a man and a woman if he is bisexual

What is wrong with that argument? Why aren't bisexuals demanding marriages of 3? Or maybe they are? Or maybe they will?

Mark 8:27-end

The centre and summary of Mark's Gospel:

(1) Who is Jesus? - His identity - He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of Man

(2) Why did he come? - His mission / purpose - He came to die in our place to pay the price for our sins so that we might be forgiven

(3) What does it mean to follow him? - Discipleship - He calls us to die to self and live for him and for others

Baptism is like the EMA entry badge

At the Evangelical Ministry Assembly, they give you a badge with your name on which you must wear at all times. You can only get in if you have one on. It has programme and the instructions on the back.

Baptism has been classically described as a badge. It's especially like the EMA name / entry / instructions badge.

It gives us a new name and idenity: it marks us out as a Christian, we carry the Triune name.

Baptism permits us entry to the church and to the Lord's Table.

Baptism implies the whole programme and our instructions.

Of course, it is possible to steal someone elses' name badge. Some people had swapped badges. Wearing Marc's badge does not make you Marc nor does it prove you are Marc - but it gets you into the EMA / church, if not to heaven. You can get into EMA if you are neither an evangelical or a minister but you would be an oddity.

And Baptism is normally invisible to us as such. We see it taking place, we have a certificate and a register but we need to live out our baptism moment by moment in word and deed that our Christian profession may be seen. Love, good deeds and witness to Christ as Lord are the badges of the baptised.

Apprentice kit list

You will need:

A Bible
A driving licence
A car
A laptop
A printer
A memory stick
A mobile phone
A landline phone
A diary
A notebook
A biro
A watch
A stop watch
A pair of heavy duty gardening gloves

Anything else?

You may also need some kind of filing system / cabinet

Forgiveness

It seems to me that even nice, kind, decent people are not always very good at forgiveness.

It seems to me that the Christian has a wonderful opportunity to be distinctive here. We know we have been forgiven much and therefore we are able to forgive. Only if we forgive do we show that we have recieved the grace and mercy of God's forgiveness.

Train travel

The last couple of days I have commuted up to the big smoke and back.

Day 1:

A man returned a whizzy left behind mobile phone to its owner

A nice chap at Stonegate station asked me if I wanted a lift back to Rushlake Green

Day 2:

The woman sitting opposite we had 2 mobile phones, a tablet and a laptop with her

Shall we say The Lord's Prayer?

Miss Lloyd (2) loves to say the Lord's Prayer.

But that's not as easy as it sounds.

The good old C of E has 2 authorised forms of the Lord's Prayer: traditional and more contemporary (leaving aside for a moment the 2 different versions in the Bible and Prayer Book).

So that the kids might better understand it, and in accordance with the practice of the church we belonged to at the time, we have learnt the modern version.

But our new churches and the kids' C of E primary school use the traditional version.

Confusion reigns.

In any case, Daddy is inclined to muddle up the versions!

Legal Arguments with the kids

This morning I was thankful for my 7 years of full-time theological education as I had to mediate between:

Miss Lloyd (2): "It is mine!"

The Biy (4): "I had it first"

Miss Lloyd won, of course, but with the advice that:

(1) it would be nice to share

(2) if she doesn't want it stolen it should be kept hidden somewhere safe.

Parenting is not a simple business.

A Mission Action Plan Prayer

Why not pray this prayer once a week:

Father God, thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and the good news about him.

Please help me to follow Jesus and to encourage others to follow him.

Please help me to live in such a way that others are helped to come to Jesus, and please give me opportunities to speak about Jesus and the right words to say.

Please bless my friendships with:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Please show me ways I could help them to follow Jesus and give me the courage to do so.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

A day in the life

The fixed points in my day today are:

8:15am BCP Holy Communion at Dallington Church

9am take Church Primary School Assembly at Dallington Church on "Achievements (Sports Week)"

Take the boy who is attending assembly to church toddler group at Warbleton

1pm conduct a funeral at Warbleton Church

5pm & 6pm, Church Primary School Governors' Meetings at Dallington School (durring which eat a packed supper)

7:30pm Deanery Synod at All Saints, Herstmonseux, durring which I am asked to give a 10min report on the parishes I serve and what we are up to

Tommorrow I'm getting the train to the big smoke for The Evangelical Ministry Assembly.

Baptism

Well, the bible says some dangerous things about baptism if baptism means baptism.

Baptism does not save
The Bible is true
The Bible says baptism saves
Baptism cannot mean baptism

(Let the reader understand!)

Graham Daniels Supper

A Talk by Graham Daniels (Director of Christians in Sport)

You are warmly invited to join us on

Saturday 7th July

7pm for 7.15pm

Warbleton Church Rooms

Supper choices:  Fish & chips, chicken & chips, or veggie option & chips

Bring your own drinks

Cost: £7.50

Graham (known as Danno) is an engaging Welshman with a cheeky sense of humour. He played football for Cardiff City, Cambridge United and Cambridge City before managing Histon and Cambridge City. He currently plays for Cambridge Veterans and manages his village football team, Hardwick, in the Cambridgeshire League.

For more information or for booking (with meal choices) contact:

Andrew Russell 01580 201953

andrewnrussell@o2.co.uk

Local Exploits

More Rushlaske Green & Warbleton Jubilee & Churh Hill Challenge photos: http://www.rushlakegreenvillage.co.uk/

Photos of Warbleton & Rushlake Green celebrating the Jubilee

with some excellent shots of the Rectorial tummy and dog.

General Purpose Tract of Choice?

Do you have a general purpose tract of choice what you always keep in stock and give out to all and sundry?

Whenever I see people re weddings, baptisms, funerals etc. I normally give them a gospel, a parish magazine and a tract.

Normally I dish out 2 Ways To Live.

I'm wondering about giving this a try - Jesus: who, why, so what? from Christianity Explored / The Good Book Company a go.

Village Websites

As well as the Warbleton parish council website, and the Rushlake Green village website, I'm not sure I've ever linked to the Punnett's Town Village website (part of Punnett's Town is in the ecclesiastical parish of Warbleton), or to the Dallington Village website (there are plans afoot to add Dallington to our benifice). There appears to be a gap in the market for a Bodle Street Green village website (though it is part of the civil parish of Warbleton (see above), but not the ecclesiastical parish - only part of the benifice of Bodle Street Green and Warblton - confusing, isn't it?!)