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All I Want For Christmas Is... a Trebuchet!

I'm normally at a loss about what I'd like for Christmas. A good mp3 player would be nice, as long as it works with Linux. Maybe some of the books on my Amazon Wish List. A new computer to replace my ageing laptop. More book shelves to create room for the books on my Amazon Wish List. A bicycle for touring (so I can get in training to do Land's End to John O'Groats sometime in the next 10 years).

But now I've found my dream present. Not only lots of fun, it would be an excellent aid for men's ministry and youth work. A combination of physics and history. I present to you...

The FAT3000.

That's right. I would like a trebuchet. I want to throw things a long distance, and break other things in the process. Here's a picture of the beauty:

This is a modern day version of the ultimate in medieval war machines. For a cheaper and more 'authentic' model visit here. And here's some video, although not of these models (much bigger ones!).


P.S. Did I mention my Wish List?

The Humility of God

Thanks to Byron (via Glen) I found an awesome quote I've been looking for for some time.

But it needs some introducing. A vital question in theology is this: does Jesus accurately reveal God to us?

Obviously: yes! After all, in Jesus Christ "the fullness of deity lives in bodily form." (Colossians 2:9)

But so many theologies actually assume that Jesus is kind of "God-lite" - a diet version of God - all the taste but 95% power reduced. You see it whenever people say that Jesus' humility / weakness / sorrow / emotional-life is only true according to his human nature... because God could never be humble / weak / emotional / etc.

Whenever you see this you should ask, "Okay - but how do you know this? How do you know that God could never be such things?" It's the problem of deciding what God is like (based on what is reasonable) before actually approaching the One who is God Revealed.

Karl Barth argued passionately that this approach is wrong. We must let God speak first - because he has in fact spoken first. We must let Jesus define what God is like.

When we do this, we realise that the true God is utterly different from all false gods. All false gods are a projection of our own ideas. The REAL God is proved real because no human would ever imagine a god like him. No human would imagine a Creator God who stoops to be born as man, a man who would glory in the cross. So Barth writes:

What marks out God above all false gods is that they are not capable and ready for this [humility]. In their otherworldliness and supernaturalness and otherness, etc., the gods are a reflection of the human pride which will not unbend, which will not stoop to that which is beneath it. God is not proud. In His high majesty He is humble.

- Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics IV/1, 159.

Christmas is approaching - and we remember the King of the world born in humility: Jesus - the most humble man ever to live (Daniel 4:17).

(For another good quote, try here, and spend some time at Christ The Truth also.)

A Remembrance Day Sermon

Earlier this month I preached on Remembrance Day (which was a Sunday). My text was Amos 5:24 "But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

It was part of a series on Amos, otherwise the passage isn't the most obvious choice!

You can find it here courtesy of Google Docs.

A New Blog in Town - Christ The Truth

Head over to christthetruth.wordpress.com for a chance to worship God with your mind. You will find some awesome theology to get you thinking and get you praising! It's written by Glen Scrivener, one of my best friends since we lived and worked together at All Souls, Langham Place back in 2000-2001.

The name of the blog - "Christ The Truth" expresses its core conviction: that Jesus Christ IS The Truth. Just as there is no Way to God outside of Jesus, and we cannot experience the Life of God outside of Jesus, so also we do not know the Truth about God unless we begin with Jesus Christ. Yet very often we use the G word: G-O-D as if by simply using it everyone knows who we're talking about. This is not the case. If I were to say I enjoyed watching 11 men kicking a leather ball around a pitch, and you said the same, it could be that we support the same team but more likely we don't! It's the same in theology - which is to say it's true for all of life - the true meaning of G-O-D is discovered as the Spirit brings us into union with Jesus the Son of the Father.

So go and have a read. As you'll discover, one obvious point of relevance is in the whole issue of inter-faith dialogue, which I wrote about here.

More free Christian Audio

Hurry hurry over to Christian Audio - you have three more days to download one of 6 books for FREE using the code THANKS2007. (It's a special Thanksgiving offer.)

I still haven't decided, but I'm tempted by John Piper's biographical-sermon of William Wilberforce. You may have seen the film "Amazing Grace" but that won't have told you just how evangelical Wilberforce was. While he is famous (rightly so) for fighting against slavery, he knew full well that only the gospel of Christ crucified and justification-by-faith could change the country.

An intro to Leviticus

A bonus for those who came to "Foundations for Life" - here is a very good introduction to Leviticus. I'll quote a little bit, but go to David Field's blog for the full piece.

With the building of the tabernacle, a new stage of God’s dealings with his people arrives. It’s like a new world – which is why there are “sevens” everywhere and why the tabernacle is like Eden in many ways. And at this point God has come to live nearer to his people than before – which is both wonderful and dangerous. Leviticus is, therefore, a book of house rules for God’s young children at that stage in history and it teaches them how to keep clean and tidy and how to grow in character like their father.

...

The uncleanness laws of chapters 11-15 relate to death and the curse. It is not that uncleanness is itself sin but rather that God gave his children a picture system to teach them how to make distinctions. This would help them grow to be like their Father who also makes distinctions (as in Genesis 1). Clean animals, in chapter 11, are those which keep away from death and curse-dirt by wearing shoes and by digesting their food extra-thoroughly. Chapter 12 talks about childbirth and chapters 13 and 14 about 'leprosy'. Chapter 15 shows that what comes out of us is death until we are made new in Jesus.

Listen to Jonathan Edwards for free!

Every month the good people at Christian Audio release one of their books as a free download. This month the download is Jonathan Edwards' classic "The Religious Affections". Click here to order it and enter NOV2007 at the relevant stage to get it for free. You will have to register as a customer. Bear in mind that the download is 12 files, most of which are 35MB, so you're looking at over 400MB to download. Not one for dial up users! Quite helpfully each section will, when converted, fill an audio CD that could be played on a regular CD player.

But what a great offer - a chance to listen to a hugely important book. Section One is brilliant because it shows how important the affections (think emotions but deeper) are for true religion (by which Edwards' means true Christianity of course). Many Christians are divided into "lots of emotions but not much truth" vs. "lots of Bible truth but we never appear happy"! Okay, it's a caricature, but you may recognise the problem. This classic book is a never-bettered study on what does and does not constitute true religious affections.

Whether you download it or not, make a mental note to check Christian Audio each month for their latest offer.

We do what at church?

It's always a favourite conversation among church leaders - what do we think about Baptism (infant or otherwise), the Lord's Supper (how often, at what age) and liturgy (why having it is wrong, even though we do everything the same way each week...). This post here - "Conversations with Nathan" - is a fantastic read - a true conversation between a teenager and father who visited one particular church in America. Even if you disagree with the teenager's point of view you will enjoy it.

A sample:

Nathan: Why are they so afraid of liturgy? We could explain that it isn’t hard to mean it when you say it.

Papa: But they won’t want to do it anyway. They want to be different every week.

Nathan: Really? Different every week?

Papa: Yes.

Nathan: What do they do differently? Do they sometimes take the offering at the end of the service instead of in the middle?

Papa: No. That’s always at the same time.

Nathan: Do they sometimes have the preaching at the beginning?

Papa: No, that’s at the same time too.

Nathan: Then what do they do that’s different?

Papa: They sing different songs.

Nathan: So does our church.

Papa: Well, it really comes down to the fact that they don’t have prayers and responses for the congregation to read.

Nathan: Why not?

Papa: They think that reading prayers and responses keeps people from worshiping.

Nathan: Really? What do they think the people should do instead?

Papa: Just sit there and do nothing.

The Cross and other religions

Last Wednesday I attended some lectures about the challenges and opportunities of Christian Mission to the Muslim and Hindu communities in this country. It was a useful reminder that Christians should be engaging with these communities, showing friendship and hospitality, listening to what they believe (not just what we think they believe!) and also listening to their fears. For example, I didn't know that the Hindu community currently feel very marginalised: both government and Church are bending over backwards to engage with Muslims (for obvious reasons) but very little is heard about making such Hindus have their say.

However, as with many things Church of England, there was a rather obvious lack of engagement with the main questions:

Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? The speaker said yes. He mentioned one 'faithful Muslim' who loves going to Taize services - a display of unity despite 'doctrinal differences'. It seemed to be taken for granted that Muslims at least partly honour Jesus by declaring him a prophet.

Is there revelation outside Christ and the Bible? The speaker said yes, in response to a question which insisted we shouldn't ignore books such as the Bhagavad Gita. He mentioned approvingly church services in which there had been three readings: Old Testament, Gospel and Bhagavad Gita, although acknowledging that this would be difficult for some.

Although these main questions were touched on, as the examples show, there was no theological engagement with them.

One of Luther's best contributions to the Church was his distinction between a "Theology of Glory" and a "Theology of the Cross". Put simply, if we hold to a theology of glory we imagine God is rather like we think him to be. We claim to know intuitively what "strength" and "glory" and "power" are, and imagine God to be the most strong, most glorious and most powerful. (See here for a better, but still short, summary.)

Luther, like the apostle Paul (see e.g. 1 Corinthians 1-2), thought differently. Sin has darkened our minds so that we do not think straight. What God is like is not what we think him to be like, but he is as he has revealed himself, and this most clearly at the cross. God's true strength, glory and power are revealed in the weakness, shame and humility of the cross.

In other words: a god without the cross is not the True and Living God. Muslims claim to honour Jesus while denying that he was crucified, but this is to deny all that Jesus stood for. It is in fact to mock and dishonour the true Jesus who came, he said, to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Similarly, while the Bhagavad Gita may contain some nice stuff, it does not reveal Truth because it never takes us to Christ and him crucified.

Self-delusion

Christianity does not sit well with self-belief. No religion or faith or philosophy is quite so negative about humanity's propensity to be self-deluded, deceived, or just plain wrong!

"The heart is deceitful beyond all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" says Jeremiah 17:9

Occasionally, this is noticed by others. Here's an article from www.lifehack.org saying "The Brain is not your friend". A sample:

A mind is a terrible thing. Whether because of the brain’s internal structure or the way social and cultural pressures cause our minds to develop and function, in the end the result is the same: minds that are not only easily deceived and frequently deceptive in their own right, but when caught out, refuse to accept and address their errors. If you have a mind — or even half a mind — you might be best off losing it entirely. Barring that, though, there are a few things you should know about the enemy in your head. Before it hurts someone.

The article ends up a bit positivistic - thinking we may be able to fix it. The reality is we might be able to tweak ourselves, but only Jesus Christ can really sort us out. A life-time task completed only at the resurrection, I might add!

You know you haven't been posting when...

You know when you haven't been posting entries to your blog when you start typing your blog URL into your web browser and it doesn't auto-complete for you.

I'm determined to post a bit more frequently. Like the fact that I got ordained a few weeks ago...

Church is more exciting than you think!

Many local churches have their share of people who turn up on Sunday, slip away before coffee and are not seen until next week. There may be all sorts of reasons for this, good and bad. Maybe one reason is because people have not caught a vision of what the Church is called to be. Is is simply a feeding-station as we wait for heaven? Or a place to carry out our religious duties?

Ephesians is possibly the book to read to get a fantastic vision of the Church. Time would be well-spent simply pondering the different titles and descriptions we are given, such as 'saints' or 'God's household'.

A verse that continues to amaze me is Ephesians 3:10 -

God's intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms...

It takes a bit of digging around Ephesians to work out what this means, but basically it is saying that as the church demonstrates the unity we have in the Spirit (a unity of different races and backgrounds) God's wise plan (of bringing all things under Christ, see 1:10) is made known to the evil spiritual rulers and authorities (see 6:12). Go here to read a sermon by John Piper on this verse: it will transform the way you understand the purpose of church!

An unusual place to practise my caving

In moments of vanity, I'm sure we have all googled our name at some point. Searching mine found an article and photo of me hanging around inside a church bell tower in Galmpton, South Devon. It's taken from sometime in my first year at University, judging from the bad glasses and bad hair...

Read the original article (and why I'm doing it!) here (you'll need to scroll down a little bit).

N.B. It talks about going up and down the rope in safety. Well, I managed to forget all my knot tying methods as I was setting the gear up, so I did an unsuitable knot lots of times. I'm sure it was safe. Honest.

The beauty of lives changed by Jesus, changing other lives

Here's another link to Kaleo Church. It's the account of how God changed the life of a woman and is now using her to share the love of Jesus with others. Go and read it.

This is why I want to be ordained and serve as a minister/vicar/elder (pick your favourite jargon!). To see changed lives changing the lives of others. This woman (no name is given) was a keen Christian but needed to rediscover what grace meant. Her description of the change in her life is a joy to read:

About a year ago I lived in a really amazing place. I loved it there! Life was good... and then one day I found this random door, this strange door that I had never noticed. I opened it up and was astonished at what I saw. That whole time I had been living in a tiny bathroom and on the other side of that door was a huge house... the rest of God's house. Since then I have been running from room to room, jumping on the beds, sliding down the banister and exploring every nook and cranny, fumbling around as I try to take it all in. I know that I will never get to every room, but I am so blessed by what I have seen. God used Kaleo to open that door for me... a door to show me just how much I didn't know or understand and how much there was to discover in Christ.

N.B. You don't have to be ordained to see lives changed - but I get paid for the privilege of sharing Jesus with others!

Kaleo San Diego: A Church that knows why it exists

I'm a big fan of goodmanson.com and enjoy the occasional visit to the website of the church in which he is a pastor: Kaleo San Diego Church. They have recently updated their website - go take a look!

Central to the page are four tabs: 'Blog', 'Message', 'Motivation' and 'Mission'. You should read the last three because:

• It shows a clearly thought out reason for the church's existence;
• The theology is great!
• I want to use these myself one day.

Many churches blunder along, never sure of what they are doing and (more importantly) why they are doing what they are doing. Go and take a look and get excited about what God is calling you to do.

Keep the children amused during summer

The excellent Lifehacker website is generally most useful when it comes to using computers, internet etc to actually make life easier. But they are not limited to all things geekery. These two links may give some ideas for keeping the kids amused during the long summer weeks.

10 Cheap things to do with young children

Make your own Flubber (or follow the links for play dough, silly putty and more!)

Do you know any other good resources?

Broadband has arrived!

Finally, broadband has arrived, my WiFi card is working and I can now connect online at home. What a relief. Hopefully this will mean an increase in posting levels, once I finish my Genesis 27 sermon and come back from Keswick.

Thank you Pope Benedict

Pope Benedict 16th recently clarified the Catholic view that other (non-Roman-Catholic) churches are less than full churches. As might be expected, this was received by howls of protest. But Albert Mohler, a senior figure in the Southern Baptist denomination, is actually grateful for the Pope's clarity. A long quote is worthwhile:

It all comes down to this -- the claim of the Roman Catholic Church to the primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the Pope as the universal monarch of the church is the defining issue. Roman Catholics and Evangelicals should together recognize the importance of that claim. We should together realize and admit that this is an issue worthy of division. The Roman Catholic Church is willing to go so far as to assert that any church that denies the papacy is no true church. Evangelicals should be equally candid in asserting that any church defined by the claims of the papacy is no true church. This is not a theological game for children, it is the honest recognition of the importance of the question.

The Reformers and their heirs put their lives on the line in order to stake this claim. In this era of confusion and theological laxity we often forget that this was one of the defining issues of the Reformation itself. Both the Reformers and the Roman Catholic Church staked their claim to be the true church -- and both revealed their most essential convictions in making their argument. As Martin Luther and John Calvin both made clear, the first mark of the true Church is the ministry of the Word -- the preaching of the Gospel. The Reformers indicted the Roman Catholic Church for failing to exhibit this mark, and thus failing to be a true Church. The Catholic church returned the favor, defining the church in terms of the papacy and magisterial authority. Those claims have not changed.

I also appreciate the spiritual concern reflected in this document. The artificial and deadly dangerous game of ecumenical confusion has obscured issues of grave concern for our souls. I truly believe that Pope Benedict and the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith are concerned for our evangelical souls and our evangelical congregations. Pope Benedict is not playing a game. He is not asserting a claim to primacy on the playground. He, along with the Magisterium of his church, believes that Protestant churches are gravely defective and that our souls are in danger. His sacramental theology plays a large role in this concern, for he believes and teaches that a church without submission to the papacy has no guaranteed efficacy for its sacraments. (This point, by the way, explains why the Protestant churches that claim a sacramental theology are more concerned about this Vatican statement -- it
denies the basic validity of their sacraments.)

I actually appreciate the Pope's concern. If he is right, we are endangering our souls and the souls of our church members. Of course, I am convinced that he is not right -- not right on the papacy, not right on the sacraments, not right on the priesthood, not right on the Gospel, not right on the church. The Roman Catholic Church believes we are in spiritual danger for obstinately and disobediently excluding ourselves from submission to its universal claims and its papacy. Evangelicals should be concerned that Catholics are in spiritual danger for their submission to these very claims. We both understand what is at stake.

The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, responded to the press by saying that the Vatican's "exclusive claims" are "troubling." He also said, "what may have been meant to clarify has caused pain."

I will let Bishop Hanson explain his pain. I do not see this new Vatican statement as an innovation or an insult. I see it as a clarification and a helpful demarcation of the issues at stake. I appreciate the Roman Catholic Church's candor on this issue, and I believe that Evangelical Christians, with equal respect and clarity, should respond in kind. This is a time to be respectfully candid -- not a time to be offended.

Diocese of Lichfield and leaders who grow churches

Okay, so being back online hasn't yet produced a flurry of posts. Bear with me!

Yesterday I met the other prospective deacons from Lichfield Diocese, who like me will be ordained 30th September at 10am (you are invited!). One of the highlights was hearing Archdeacon Bob Jackson speaking about the Diocese's commitment to growth, rather than organized retreat. He said that this extended to looking for vicars and curates who will lead churches into growth. It was very exciting to hear of official structures looking to see mission high on the priority, and not simply affirming this without practicing it!

A favourite website of mine is goodmanson.com, named after a church planter / leader at Kaleo Church, San Diego, and part of the fabulous Acts 29 Church Planting Network. Go check it out! If you want fresh biblical thinking about how to lead churches that proclaim the gospel and transform the world, here is a good place to start.

Bob Jackson said that the Church of England was slowly realising that we are not a pastoral institution caring for a Christian country, but a missionary church in a post-Christian culture. This needs to affect the priorities that church leaders have, and the following two posts will help:

Leading a Movement not an Institution
Eldership that leads a transformational community