WordPress 2.5 has just been released, as I get back from holiday. What a nice greeting on my return, something to play with while I recover from three days of walking around Rome!
Monthly Archive for March, 2008
On Sunday I preached on the final day of the college mission to Larkhall, Bath. The text of the sermon can be found here.
Rather than preach directly from a passage, I preached on the meaning of Jesus' bodily resurrection, both for life in the future, and life here and now.
Since working at A Rocha two years ago, I have become more and more aware of how important it is that a) Jesus was incarnated, b) he spent three years preaching and healing the sick, c) he was raised bodily from the dead.
All these things amount to a wholehearted affirmation of God's good creation. Many evangelicals seem to be drifting to an almost gnostic position, hugely prioritising the 'spiritual' over the 'physical'.
We must remember that when God's kingdom comes, we will not be living in a vacuum, floating on clouds in the sky, but on this earth, transformed. Heaven comes down to earth, not the other way round.
A further thing I have often wondered is if we should translate 'spiritual' in the New Testament as 'Spiritual', i.e., of the Holy Spirit. I'm sure someone has thought this before!
This week I have been on a mission in Bath (I am currently on my day off!). One of my primary roles has been to go into the Junior School for assemblies and class visits.
For the assemblies we made up some dramas, and read out some stories from the Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago. The Amazon page has a couple of critical reviews, but we found the stories really very good, and the illustrations too.
One of the main criticisms of the book on the Amazon page is that it downplays sin and judgement. I disagree. The section on the crucifixion (called 'The sun stops shining') tells the real story:
Even though it was midday, a dreadful darkness covered the face of the world. The sun could not shine. The earth trembled and quaked. The great mountains shook. Rocks split in two. Until it seemed that the whole world would break. That creation itself would tear apart.
The full force of the storm of God's fierce anger at sin was coming down. On his own Son. Instead of his people. It was the only way God could destroy sin, and not destroy his children whose hearts were filled with sin.
Now, of course it isn't perfect. No translation is perfect, and this isn't a translation, or even a paraphrase. It's a way of telling some of the main stories in the Bible. It will only 'do much harm' (again, from the Amazon reviewer) if it is used as the only way of telling Bible stories to children.
We used it in our assemblies as the frame for telling the stories. Some of the phrases are brilliant, like this one:
And Peter told them the wonderful Story of God's Love – God's Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.
What the book does best of all is show how Jesus is at the centre of the whole Bible, how 'every story whispers its name' (the tagline from the book cover).
I would recommend this book, especially if you do children's work and can use it in assemblies.
I was rather shocked on Sunday morning to hear that one of my Dad's churches has burnt down. The blaze was so fierce, all that's left are the stone walls. At its peak, there were fifty fire-fighters trying to bring the fire under control.
Fire destroys Radford Semele church
The fire services are still investigating how the fire started, and haven't yet ruled out arson.
I was disappointed to see today that the ban on Manhunt 2 has been overturned:
Ban on 'sadistic' video game overturned
The game publisher's argument is that the violence is no worse than, say, a Quentin Tarantino film, or some of what goes on in the TV series 24. Therefore, they say, an '18′ rating is sufficient.
However I question this. First of all, I find the violence in Tarantino's films completely over the top. I have never managed to see one of his films all the way through, because of the violence.
Second, there is an important difference between watching violence, and performing it yourself, as you do in a video game. I enjoy playing video games, but I find that they affect me far more than violent films, because you are, literally, more involved in what's going on.
Third, a violent film might last two hours (during which time, even in Tarantino, there is respite), but video games are far longer, and it seems Manhunt 2 has little respite:
In its original decision, the BBFC said that Manhunt 2 was distinguished by its "unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone" and that the game "constantly encouraged visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing". "There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed," the BBFC said.
I would argue in support of BBFC, that violence in video games is different to films, and that the length of time involved, and the lack of respite makes it far worse.
I'm not sure if this is very funny or extremely sad, but I found a video of a Baptist preacher preaching talking about the phrase 'pisseth against the wall' from the King James.
Baptist preaches on KJV "him that pisseth against the wall"
This is the verse he preaches from:
Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam,
and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against
the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take
away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till
it be all gone.1 Kings 14.10 (KJV)
From this verse the preacher's message is that real men (as opposed to 'males') urinate standing up. The problems in America are caused, it seems, by men urinating sitting down. How he manages to ignore the fact that in the context of this verse is that urinating standing up is not a good thing: doing it will get you 'cut off' from the people of God. I don't claim to understand what's going on here, but I'm pretty sure it's not what this guy says!
He also uses manages to rant about how the King James is better than all other translations, for saying 'males', editing out 'Hell' and 'Jehovah' (which is the name of God). From a bit of research on the internet it seems that this isn't the only strange thing this guy has said.
Evangelicals need to approach their theological formulae with more humility than in the past. It is the scriptural word that is infallible, not our ever imperfect attempts to restate it in appropriate contemporary ways.
Ronald J. Sider, 'Evangelism, salvation and social justice: definitions and interrelationships,' International Review of Mission 64 (1975): 267.
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