On not making great things small…
I recently listened to a podcast in which Fuller Seminary President Mark Labberton lamented that religions (including Christianity) have a habit of making great things small. He said he initially heard the sentiment from his father – who at best was on the fringes of faith. He hadn’t really understood his father’s point until his own God encounter when he was about 18 years. His mother, who attended church periodically, realised that her son had experienced something meaningful, and so invited a pastor to come and see him. Labberton says that the meeting felt awkward from...
Read MoreChristmas: From “for us” to “with us”…
Probably like you, I am struggling to believe that Christmas is almost upon us – but facts are facts, and December is galloping away. I have done some Christmas shopping and the family are soon due to see the Christmas lights – so it is definitely that time of the year. As I have been thinking about the significance of Christmas (and Christmas seems especially poignant after this COVID filled year) I have been struck by my favourite name for Jesus, Emmanuel – which means, God is with us. One simple thought has jumped out at me: Until that first Christmas people had a...
Read MoreQuotable and Alpha and Omega
Those who have been following this blog will know that in the lead up to Christmas, we have been looking at some questions that Jesus asked – having noted that he asked an awful lot of questions – often in reply to questions he had been asked. So here are the two questions for the 24th and 25th December. And because that will seem a little brief, I have also attached another of the Christmas meditations that have been appearing on the Vose Seminary site in the “Theologians at Lunch” section and which you might have heard on Sonshine fm – one that I wrote called...
Read MoreAnd in the Chaos, God…
With Christmas around the corner, I thought I would reproduce one of the Christmas meditations from my book Could this be God: Bumping Into God in the Everyday. It’s called: And in the Chaos, God… Did you get your fair share of nativity plays this Christmas season? I certainly enjoyed watching a host of little children wend their way through improbable presentations of pregnant Marys, dazzling angels, lofty wise men and the rest of the Christmas crew. It was the unscripted moments that produced the greatest mirth—the accusatory cry of a four year old, ‘That’s not Jesus. That’s...
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