Articles
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Lowly friends?
“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet...”. So many things in the Bible are told us by way of pictures and drama.
Here is a humiliating drama. Peter was offended and embarrassed by Jesus’ actions. The rest of the disciples, presumably, were dumbstruck. They didn’t know how to respond to this gross breach of decency and respect.
Washing feet was for slaves. Jewish slaves were not permitted to do it. It was for the very lowest. So why did Jesus do it?
Was it because he couldn’t stand their smelly feet any longer? Did he have an obsession about cleanliness? Or was this an acted drama pointing to something else?
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Preparing for what?
Lent is catching on in all kind of churches these days. Of course what that means varies quite a lot. The common theme, I suppose, is getting ready for the celebration of the death of Jesus.
Celebrating Jesus’ death seems a bit strange. Death is usually something to be mourned. But Jesus’ death is a grief-removing death. It is the Great Humanity Death. It is the means by which humans can escape sin and judgment. It is the death that frees them from everlasting death.
So it is an event to be celebrated. It is what we do every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. As Paul said, “... whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Cor 11.26). Proclaiming his death may be a better way to say it.
If you wanted to proclaim the death of Jesus, I suppose Good Friday would be as good a day as any. On the other hand, every day would also be a good day. And if we wanted to get ready for such a proclamation, what would we need to do? What preparation would fit the bill?
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Who leads the church?
Is it the Archbishop? Is it God? Is it the Rector? What about the Church Council and the Churchwardens? Perhaps all of the above. Even if it is possible that they might be leading off in different directions.
Or perhaps not leading anywhere. Or like the people lost in the bush, leading us so we say “We’ve passed this place before.” All churches have leaders: people who help the church go in a certain direction. These leaders don’t always have official jobs. Sometimes they have never been on a Church Council but they nevertheless exercise powerful leadership.
Some don’t even recognise that they are leaders. Others see themselves more as protectors than leaders, but the result is the same. Some lead from the rear. Others are encouragers and make the bullets that others fire.
There are two kinds of leaders.
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Welcome to the Big Autumn Count Down.
In the religious world Lent is the period leading up to Easter. In different times and places it has been of a different length. It gradually grew to be 47 days. At first it was a one week preparation period for the Easter Baptisms. Fasting was part of it – again there were different patterns and traditions. The “40 days” are the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Eve excluding the Sundays.
Will it make any difference to your following of Christ if you “observe Lent”? I suppose it depends what you do and why? Some traditions are meant to help us examine ourselves in the light of God’s word and repent and seek change and renewal.
Some traditions provide a kind of scaffolding or structure that aims to order and channel our life into a better way.
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Have you got any shroves?
Do you know where we can get some shroves? It seems they are quite hard to obtain nowadays. Even our customer caring supermarkets don’t have them on sale. Chocolate E**ster eggs, Hot cross (shouldn’t that be crossed?) buns, chocolate festive rabbits have all been there for ages – but no shroves.
I heard a rumour (but didn’t believe it) that some churches have shrove processions. They gather up all the shroves and put them in a paper bag and burn them. Seems a waste.
Actually I have never seen a shrove, but it would be good to get some for Shrove Tuesday. Otherwise all we will have are pancakes. Mind you the pancakes here are very good. Or at least the fillings are. Can you fill a pancake? You can cover it, swamp it, drown it, I suppose. Get your fingers, face, shirt all covered with yummy runny... what do you prefer on your pancakes? Sweet sickly treacly honey? Spicy scary chilli mince? Warm watery fishy dishes?
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
God will... 2
Does it make a difference whether people are won for Christ or not? Does it matter? Does it matter to them? To God? To us? The answer we give to those questions depends on whether we believe God. But the true answer itself depends on God.
Beyond the Judgment Day it will matter a great deal to them since the only way to get the verdict on that Day is to depend on Jesus and his death for us. To depend on God’s grace and mercy, in other words. In the present it will matter a great deal when someone turns to Christ. They will be so grateful that no more of their life was wasted apart from Christ.
For the people we know, it will matter a lot to us that they are won for Christ. There is no greater good we can desire for our friends than that they know the Lord Jesus Christ and trust him to forgive their sins.
And for the people we don’t know?
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
God will...
In 1807 Robert Morrison, a Presbyterian Scot, landed in China. He had travelled via America because the British East India Company was continuing its anti-missionary policy and refused him a berth on any of its ships. While in New York he was taken by his host to a shipowner to arrange passage to China. The shipowner said to him, “And so, Mr Morrison, you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese empire?”. Morrison replied, “No, Sir. I expect God will.”
By 1823 he had translated the whole bible into Chinese (as well as writing a Chinese grammar and Chinese-English dictionary). In 1824 (China was still officially closed to foreigners) he wrote, “What, then, do the Chinese require from Europe? – Not the arts of reading and printing; not merely general education; not what is so much harped on by some philanthropists – civilization: they require that only which St Paul deemed supremely excellent, and which it is the sole object of the Missionary Society to communicate – they require the knowledge of Christ.”