Is it more blessed to give? 3 Oct 10
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Is it more blessed to give?
Did you work out who said this? It was Jesus, but the quotation is not found in the gospels. It is quoted by Paul, but not in any of his letters. It occurs in a very interesting place.
Paul was on his way back to Jerusalem from Greece and had stopped over at Miletus in order to meet briefly with the elders of the church at Ephesus. Luke tells the story in Acts 20.17-38. Paul reminds the elders of the church how he had declared the whole purpose of God to them, warning, proclaiming, teaching – for three years.
And he did not do it in order to get something back. He told them the gospel free of charge. For Paul this meant that he refused the reciprocal side of gift-giving. He did not want them to think he was in it for the money, like many itinerant teachers and philosophers of his day.
When is a gift not a gift? 26 Sep 10
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
When is a gift not a gift?
- When it is left in its wrapping paper?
- When it is described as an achievement and not a gift?
- When something is given in return?
- When an obligation is implied?
- When it is regarded as a right?
When it is a reward? - When it binds the giver and receiver together?
- When it is misused?
- When it is refused?
- When it is payment?
- When it is an inducement?
When is a gift really a gift?
- When it is not required?
- When it is unmerited and undeserved?
- When there is no obligation to give it?
- When it is received as a gift?
- When it benefits the receiver?
Is it more blessed to give or to receive?
Why?
Who said this?
Dale
Key Builders of the Church – 4. Thomas Aquinas
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- Written by: Dale
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Key Builders of the Church – 4. Thomas Aquinas
Born in 1225 near Aquino in Italy, Thomas studied at the University of Naples and became a Dominican friar at the age of 19. Soon after he went to Paris where he spent most of the rest of his life teaching theology.
Unlike Augustine he turned away from the traditions of thought that had developed from Plato and joined the growing group who looked to Aristotle for help. Aristotle’s influence was partly due to his rediscovery as a result of European interaction with Islam.
Thomas developed a detailed and closely argued system of explaining Christian theology that depended on observation and understanding of what God has made known – through creation but also through revelation, reason and the teaching of the church.
Too crowded? 12 Sep 10
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Too crowded?
Joy and I have just got back from a holiday in Coral Bay - where they had sunshine. We camped in a tent in a camp ground that must have held 500 people. Noise travels a long way at night so there were a few nights when various disputes broke out about who should be quiet.
Living with other people is often a strain, and camp grounds show the good and the bad of living at close quarters. Ordinary homes are similar although usually relations are helped by the mutual family love that keeps the family together.
Having a boarder or sharing a flat is different. In the absence of family love a bit more effort seems to be required to be together in a small space.
Love is one of the motives that leads people to want to live together, and the thing that sustains such living. Amazingly, it is a motive that God admits to. Imagine God needing to live with humans. No that is too hard to imagine. God doesn’t need humans.
Key Builders of the Church – 3. Anselm 29 Aug 10
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Key Builders of the Church – 3. Anselm
Anselm was born in Italy in 1033, moved to France for his education and entered a Benedictine monastery under a Prior named Lanfranc who later became Archbishop of Canterbury.
Anselm succeeded him as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093, although he spent some years in exile due to disagreements with William II (about the royal seizing of church lands and other matters) and his successor Henry 1. He rejected Henry I’s claim to be able to appoint bishops. This struggle between church and crown reached a climax some years later in the time of Archbishop Thomas Becket, although it was not finally resolved until the time of Henry VIII.
Anselm was one of the great thinkers of the medieval church.
What have you become? 22 Aug 10
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What have you become?
There is a scary verse in the Psalm we read last week (115.8), “Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” It’s talking about idols of course. The Psalmist says people who trust in idols that can’t hear or speak will become like that themselves.
But what about the people who serve only the Lord God? Does the same apply to them? Moses is the great example. His trips up the mountain to meet with God resulted in his face becoming so radiant that it spooked the Israelites who demanded he cover it up (Ex 34, 2 Cor 3).
A future like this awaits God’s children.
Key Builders of the Church – 2. Augustine 15 Aug 10
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- Written by: Dale
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Key Builders of the Church – 2. Augustine
In Milan, around 386, a confused teacher of philosophy was struggling with his sensuality and sin, trying to work out answers to the problem of evil, and wrestling with an internal conflict as to whether he was willing or not willing to become a Christian.
His mother Monica had prayed for him all his life, and had urged him to follow what he had heard as a child. But his life to this point had moved away from Christianity to the philosophy of the Manichees that tried to explain good and evil as two opposing principles of “light” and “darkness”. This did not satisfy and he moved towards Neoplatonism which asserted there was only one principle from which everything else emerged.
His contact with Ambrose, bishop of Milan, gradually moved his thinking back towards the Bible. But he was still unhappy and unsatisfied, especially as to how he could live a life free from his sensual lusts.
Read more: Key Builders of the Church – 2. Augustine 15 Aug 10
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