The difficult Jesus and the fermented brain 6 Mar 11
- Details
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
The difficult Jesus and the fermented brain
One of the things that strikes you about Jesus is his radical intention to change the way people relate to God. He does not negotiate with those who have their own agendas or traditions about how they should relate to God.
He offers no hint of approval to the religious leaders, no suggestion of a possible compromise. He gives them no room to move. He wants them to abandon their old ways and follow him. He does not offer them a parallel track. Nor does he give any hint of a (lower) secondary level of discipleship.
Even the disciples, who seem to be less caught up in the traditions, have trouble coming to terms with what he says.
Is it because his teaching about the kingdom is new? It turns out that he is merely restating what was there in the Old Testament all along. He keeps talking like one of the prophets of old. It is old stuff.
Read more: The difficult Jesus and the fermented brain 6 Mar 11
How does the church get money? 27 Feb 11
- Details
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
How does the church get money?
Different churches get money in different ways. Here are a few choices:
Duress: or pressure, haranguing, brow-beating and nagging.
Guilt: based on various kinds of legalism, the guilt of the wealthy, the needs of the poor, or just general feelings of guilt.
Offers-too-good-to-be-true: the more you give the wealthier you will become
Tradition: such as tithing
Duty: you ought to do this
Fear: or anxiety about money (or the lack of it) and what might happen if ...
Seduction: you can become a famous/respected/ spiritual Christian if you give a lot.
Need: Easily manipulated in the interests of those making the appeal. More about this below.
Look to outsiders: get people outside the church to give to us
Start a business: or something that will provide an income stream. This has some merit when it relates to helping people finding employment and becoming self-providing – see below.
Ask for help: from richer churches. A very tricky matter. See John Rowell: To Give or not to Give?
Get a subsidy: related to the previous method. Research suggests that subsidised churches develop as weak churches (including those that live off an investment).
And no doubt there are more non-biblical ideas...
In the Bible? What does it have to say? Something simple (as you might expect):
What’s God been doing? 20 Feb 11
- Details
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
What’s God been doing?
Think back over the last few months or so and remember the things that have happened to you. Some of them have been welcome happy events, others have been difficult and hard to cope with. And most have seemed minor and neither especially good or bad. But how many of these events have been crucial in God’s great purposes?
A silly question perhaps since we only know the broad outline of God’s great purposes. And we don’t usually know the longer term outcomes of recent events anyway. But we might want to say that in all these things God was at work for good. Although in the case of the difficult events it might be difficult to see where the good was being worked.
Messing with evil 13 Feb 11
- Details
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Messing with evil
"What business do you have, Jesus, Son of the High God, messing with me? I swear to God, don't give me a hard time!" so said the out-of-control man to Jesus (according to The Message translation).
Does it sound familiar? “What business is it of yours to mess with me and start telling me about your God?”
“Who said you could try to ram your religion down my throat?”
“Leave us alone and don’t disturb us with any of that Christianity nonsense.”
And so on. The man in the story found his territory invaded by someone much more powerful than himself and responded quite aggressively. His aggression was partly sparked by fear. His space was invaded not just by a stronger person but by one with very great authority. So much so that he knew he had to kneel in front of Jesus to acknowledge it.
But he didn’t want his world messed up.
Praying for what? 6 Feb 11
- Details
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Praying for what?
This week I have been preparing some guidelines for our Intercessors about the kinds of things we should pray for in our common prayers in church. It is worth being reminded about our heritage as Anglicans. This is the intercession prayer from the original 1662 Prayer Book Communion service. Notice the kinds of things that are prayed for.
Dale
Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here in earth.
Old wine? 23 Jan 11
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Old wine?
“No one puts new wine into old wineskins.” So Jesus said in answer to a question as to why his disciples didn’t fast. The main reason was that they couldn’t fast while the party was raging – at least while the bridegroom was present. Him, that is. Something new was under way. But what was new?
It is easy to think of the new as a replacement for the old system of Jesus’ day – a new version of essentially the same sort of religious practices. Just the latest vintage of the same crop. The church did not take long to develop an orderly and established way of doing things that resembled old Judaism, but with a kind of Christian focus.
However it is just possible that Jesus and his apostles did not intend that.
The Great Disaster 16 Jan 11
- Details
- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
The Great Disaster
So many disasters heaping one on top of another. The forces of the natural world so powerful and frightening. A creator so mighty as to build into such a simple thing as water such enormous power. And fire – so powerful. What an amazing creation.
Humans have many parts to play in disasters of course. Wilful evil in some cases, selfish or poor policies and planning in others. If one wants to apportion blame there are plenty of targets.
And we do seem to like to blame someone. We want to hold people accountable for their actions. Sometimes this is right and proper to a civilised society. In other cases it may be a way of diverting attention away from our own responsibility.
Is God to blame as well?
Page 100 of 111