When Church is Beautiful…
I don’t know if you have ever left a church service thinking, “Wow – that was beautiful – really beautiful.” Given the bad press the church often gets, I can imagine some of the cynical comments that could be forming, but why not put them on hold, and listen to the experience I’ve had the last two Sundays – when I’ve left the same smallish church both weeks thinking, “that was beautiful – really beautiful.” A quick disclaimer. I was the preacher both weeks. “Ha, ha, you say – you don’t think that might have...
Read MoreThen I remember, death comes before the rolling away of the stone
It was a throwaway line in a talk by a speaker whose name I have now forgotten: “We feel more moral, more right, more cheaply than ever before.” It was a comment on the shrill nature of much public discourse, and how easily we feel moral because we have expressed a noble sentiment, though expressing it has cost us nothing. Although not necessarily the intention of the speaker, it set me thinking about spiritual and moral formation, and how we learn and grow in life. And then I stumbled upon this magnificent conclusion to Mary Oliver’s poem At Black River “Then I...
Read MoreWhen Leaders Fall…
To be clear, this post isn’t a reaction to some new scandal and I’m not making any veiled references to some unsavoury incident soon to shock and dismay the Christian community. It is true that there have been so many moral failures that we should be disturbed – but even if you immediately attach a name to what I am about to write, I am not thinking about any one person – just a disturbing trend that impacts us all, no matter which flavour of the Christian faith you adhere to. Come to think of it, it’s not simply Christians who are impacted, for when we talk...
Read MoreJust because it’s Christmas (change the world)
Just because it’s Christmas a whole lot of things are going to happen. Many people will double (or treble) their calorie intake. A phenomenal number of gifts will be exchanged. Some will be greatly treasured, others will provoke a startled “Why would you think I would want that?”; several are likely to be in the socks and jocks category (useful though not inspiring) while yet others will be met with scepticism that will change to appreciation (“actually I really enjoyed that book I wouldn’t otherwise have read”, or, “once I understood the rules,...
Read MoreOur Responsibility to the Future…
Christianity has a 2000 year history, and it is therefore natural that we should think about our responsibility to the past, and those who have gone before us. You see this in debates about faithfulness to our heritage, or how the Bible needs to be interpreted in a way consistent with the longer term tradition of understanding its texts, as well as in efforts to keep doing things the same way as we have before. All this is understandable, and has value. However, I wonder if we pay as much attention to our responsibility to the future – to the version of the Christian faith we are...
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