'All we want is a service on a Sunday!'

One of the saddest things I encounter are the words above given voice by one or more members of a church's congregation. The suspicion made flesh causes the heart to miss a beat and the energy  to become dissipated and drained away through the hole the words have punched.

The reality is that, for some, all they require from their church is a Sunday morning service and that, having ticked the boxes, is the sum total of it all. And why not? After all there's loads on the TV and who would want to be in a church building when you can watch the many tempting offerings before us?

When I first became a Christian I couldn't keep out of the church building; I longed for the company of other Christians as discussions of the challenging bits the Bible and our praying together. As I grew up I found myself married and slowly and surely along came our children. We'd go to church as a family in the morning and then, leaving Wendy to look after the kids, would go back in the evening to get more of the same. Sometimes we'd switch and Wendy would go to the evening service and I'd stay at home - but the reality was that the Sunday evening slot was something special. The same was true of the various groups we belonged to during the day for Wendy and in the evening for me.

Now I'm not saying this to display my Pharisee-like observance of doing church but making the point that from the earliest days church was an opportunity to meet with other believers and sing God's praise, to hear His word and to continue my love affair with Him and those who shared my passion. My parents used to complain that I was never home for when I wasn't in church I was playing sport or woking shifts as an engineer.

'Times have changed,' people tell me when this topic arises, 'We have family and other things which crowd in and demand our attention,' and yet it was ever so and yet evening services were still being well supported!

The Christian faith is about so much more than 'just going to church'; it is about being so taken up with the love of God that you cannot wait to be with other believers and get excited about God in their company (you do get excited about God don't you?) and sing songs which put your feelings into words and excite you still further and hear words from the Big Black Book which excite you and challenge you and  . . .   Sorry, you seemed to have nodded off then!

There are many who tell me (by words or attendance patterns) that church is something that happens when there are no other distractions or demands: Church is, it seems, something we have to do rather than something we want to do!

So here is a challenge for you (and me - even though I know people tell me it's different for me because, 'I have to be in church,').

Step back for a moment and ask yourself what your church attendance looks like: Regular and frequent or hit and miss? Sitting in a pew or sat in front of the TV?

Now ask yourself when you last opened your Bible and read it; or took the sheets with the readings home and read that? Can you even find your Bible (last time I asked someone that it was under the coffee table stopping it rocking - honest!)?

When did you last spend time talking to God? What was your last prayer over (sorry, praying the person in front would get out of the way doesn't count!)?

Church attendance is a habit many of us has lost and as we allow our faith life to slow we begin a process which sees it eventually come to a halt. Just like some places and their evening services perhaps?

Dear Santa - this year I'd like (4): THE Pulpit

This is something many have wished they could have in their place of worship: THE Pulpit!

We've all been there I'm sure; that moment when you're in full swing and the Bible reference or the killer quote that would wow the congregation and leave you looking like you've actually prepared slips away from you.

just click on the image to see more

That's no longer a problem for at the touch of a button and touchscreen and that quote, or any other reference, fact or even joke, is there on the screen as you seamlessly switch from sermon to Bible to quotes and more. No longer do the prayers need to bumble around for the news can be there and the prayers are up to the minutes - you can even get sport channels (optional upgrade) and more. Internet, Freeview, satellite and more are all available at the touch of a button!

And for those people you know are asleep or playing '2048' during the sermon - now they're banged to rights as you zoom in with the crowd cam. Great for those little nudges during the sermon as you look almost into their should and heap condemnation upon them.

Order yours today - you know you want one!

Armistice Day 2014

With today's final acts of remembrance bringing the 2014 season of remembrance to and end I thought it might be the right time to remind everyone that we still have some 208 weeks (1,461 days) left before we can commemorate the centennial end to that conflict.

Can I take the opportunity to point you to the 'Active Service Gospel' produced by SGM

This wonderful facsimile of the book that would have been found in many of the pockets of those who marched away during the WWI conflict is a wonderfully effective means of grounding the Christian faith in the act of active remembrance:

Can I also encourage you to take two minutes wherever you are at 11:00 - and if possible to find a memorial or cenotaph - to remember all who have died as a result of war.

Jesus is all you need

Following on with the theme of 'measured and balanced responses' I'd like to touch on an issue that is beginning to trouble me as increasingly I hear people preach a theology that says, 'Jesus is all you need.' The problem is that I totally agree with the words and yet the reality that is seeks to deliver causes me problems - and that's where the problems begin.

I believe that Jesus is 'all we need' but when people preach that when we speak of  then 'Word of God' we means Jesus and Jesus is all we need so the Bible is secondary to our faith. Extend this further and consider some of the sermons I have heard where the words, 'Jesus is all we need and He tells us to love everyone regardless of who, what or how they live! We don't need the old laws and traditions, we just need to love and accept everyone.'

One of the problems with this sort of error is that it takes words or concepts and deviates, corrupts, adds or diminishes that which is solid and secure so that to disagree is to end up saying, 'I don't believe Jesus is all-sufficient!' Now that's something to leave you labelled as someone who is not quite right and this is their intention, because then that which is wrong appears right and those who are right appear wrong. Now whose works does this sound like I wonder?

Discussing this with a colleague (and friend) their response was that this was a response to the Bibliolatry that is found these days. Indeed it appears to be a reactionary move to move away from the reliance on, and pointing to, the Bible on a number of issues. The many people who engage in the terrible art of prooftexting and those who seek to do more than point to the truth contained within in it (or decide to ignore it) all leave the word of God impotent and abused.

Jesus IS the Word of God (Logos) and the Bible is the word of God (logos) and we need the latter to illuminate the former (Jesus) as fully man, God, Christ and Messiah and to proclaim His message of love and His reconciling and atoning act that is the cross, His ascension and the coming of His Holy Spirit. I don't believe you can fully look to Jesus as being all-sufficient and not want to find out more about Him and God's dealings with people as found in the written word and without the written word cannot understand or follow the true Jesus but end up with a Jesus made in your own image (or worse still, in the image of someone who, puppet like, gives approval to that which it is obvious Jesus never approved of).

Jesus came to fulfil all the law and the prophets - this doesn't mean that having come these can now be binned in a 'job done' sort of way. It means that Jesus kept the laws and upheld the moral values and teaching of the Old Testament and to distance Him from the Bible is to create error.

It's as foolish as those who tell us that we can never 'outgrace' God so why try to live by foolish teachings and philosophies (from the Apostle Paul and others) when instead you can live under Grace and 'live life to the full'

I am reminded of the words from Godspell:

'After you've got your converts you make them. Twice as fit for hell! As you are yourselves!'

Beware the Blind guides and the blind fools!

The Bible: Inerrant?

 'You don't believe the Bible is true do you?'

And it was with those words that our conversation begun - and what a conversation it was - and the day became just a little more interesting. After all, who believes the Bible is anything more than a collection of good thoughts and some wisdom wrapped in a bit of poetry that might help us to live a bit better? It's not like it is the actual word of God is it?

Now before I go any further I think I should let you know my convention regarding Bible and 'word'. Bible is 'word' and Jesus is 'Word' - that is  logos and Logos - the written word and the living Word. Simple innit?

The conversation spun a bit and there were two words that kept coming up, from them not me I hasten to add, and these were: inerrant and infallible. So I let them talk to (for that read 'at') me for a bit and kept smiling - and they talked and I smiled, I smiled and they talked and . . .

Well actually before we get to the 'and' let's freeze frame and think what the two words mean first shall we, because (to be brutally honest) most of the people I find using them rarely have a consistent or even accurate definition to inform or legitimise their views. The problem is that (like sex and gender) the two words are used interchangeably and (as Alice in Wonderland shows) words can mean whatever you wish them to mean (and perhaps not mean too)!

I realise that within the time I have I can only do one word a day and so, if you're sitting comfortably, the words is:

Inerrant: Has no errors - does not 'err' (have error) or wander from the truth or facts. It is what the Bible is - that is not just 'not wrong' but 'unable to be wrong either - I liked the thought that it is not, and cannot, sin! In a nutshell - it is Truth.

There is a struggle here for the Bible is seen as a mirror to who, and what, and how, God is. If He is Truth (and 'All-knowing truth' at that) in all its forms - then that which comes from Him and reflects Him and speaks for Him and (well, I'm sure you get the picture) has surely to be true also. If it's not then conversely neither can God be. If it's a light to our path (psalm 119) then it's a true light and if not then it is surely a stumbling block and needs to be consigned to 'literature'.

Break the mirror and you only see fragments of God*

This is a real biggy when you think about it because taken to it's ultimate consequence we can but see God disappear in a puff of self-serving, God-crunching, pronouncement.

Our first problem is that we can translate stuff wrong (through ignorance and by design) and this can have a great impact on what is written and how we understand it.

The second problem is that we can take things out of context and apply our own assumptions (like 'they're primitives and we are sophisticated') which colour the way we interpret it - after all, most I find with a view on something in the Bible hold that view to deny something others or permit themselves to act under the warrant of the very same Scripture they would otherwise deny.

Indeed the Simon and Garfunkel gene is active and virulent in Christian world - so many of us hear what we want to hear and disregard the rest!

But we have a high degree of confidence in the manuscripts - and many who will tell me they were deeply edited and added to to sell 'Coca Cola' and support political and cultural views and are totally untrustworthy. There is a chasm extant between the word of god and the way we interpret it - one is 'holy writ' and the other (at times) is more like 'Holy Cow!' One is to be considered inerrant and the other just ain't and this is where the 'Let's revise the Bible for today's language, culture, and [implied greater] more sophisticated society' tumbles into error - for the Bible becomes 'Bible Lite' rather than the 'Full Fat' version that is inerrant.

When I posed this I was asked whether I believed 'Each and every word in the Bible was true?'

My response was that every word was true, because it is after all just a word. The question of truth only becomes valid when we put words together because it is the construction, materials, attitudes and the like that make the untruths appear. It is the heart and the intention that chooses the words rather than the words themselves.

'I do believe that sentences and clauses, when read and taken contextually point to truths (even when we don't want them),' was my summation. Something which was not as well received as I might have hoped! In fact it brought back the response, 'So you take it all literally?'

This in an invitation to greater joy in that in those few words more doors are opened, and even more lunatics enter, to make the circus just that bit more fun. The reason for this is that I don't take it all literally and, if Donald Guthrie (whose every word I used to hang on) is to be believed, we shouldn't! It is true in that it is true when I say I boil an egg for three minutes I am not employing a scientifically, to the millisecond, timing but what I say is indeed true. It isn't 'literal' but it is correct and this is where I find myself with the Bible.

Creation: Years, days or what - I know there are in the narrative distinct periods and these 'aeons' might have an arbitrary delineation and yet the delineation exists (and don't get me going about the order because I go from bang which would be light followed by sound and struggle from there depending on what book I've read!).

Literal or accurate: two sides of extremely different coins I would have to say and struggle to examine, critique, define and pack away everything and you end up with something as clumsy and confusing as the Athanasian Creed ;-). There's a middle of the road approach (but then again being part of the 'via media' that is the Church of England I would say that wouldn't i?).

Being Christian is about brains, faith, reason and tradition too (we call this 'orthodoxy') for we need to read the Bible contextually with regard to the author and the focus of His dealings (us) and to reduce it to equations, rigid 'literal' stuff is to make a sterile and impotent thing of the Bible. Conversely, to read it with stalled breath and hushed tone - as if each word itself was made of crystal and needed kid gloves and falling on the knees would be to render it overwieldy and underimportant.

Emphasis, context and balance - that's the way to do it (who let that parrot in?).

Seems to me that in the final analysis the problem is that some of the stuff in it we just don't want to understand, accept or live by - do we?

*discussion for another day - debilitating or delivering?

The Fifth Day of Christmas - the Pentateuch

Having encountered the first four books of the New Testament yesterday - today's gift relates to the first five books of the Old - the name coming from the Greek, Penta (five) Teuch[os] (volumes, vessels or containers) - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Originally found as one volume (as it is in Jewish bookstores today) it was probably Ptolemy Philadelphus and his seventy translators of the Hebrew Bible into Greek that split them into five separate volumes (I'll cover Philadelphus sometime today) and formalised the names according to that which is contained in them:
Genesis - Beginning (because it starts with 'in the beginning') through to the Patriarchs and exile
Exodus - The departure from Egypys and the journey through the  wilderness to Mount Sinai
Leviticus - The Levites were the Priests and is all about what they, and the people, do to serve God
Numbers - Takes it up from Sinai to the very edges of Canaan, the 'Promised Land'
Deuteronomy - originally thought to be the Words of Moses to the Jews on the Plain of Moab before heading into the 'Promised land'

In both Old and New Testaments the Pentateuch is a single entity and it is important - something that the way in which it is regarded by both clearly demonstrates:

The Law - Joshua 1.7; Ezra 10.3; Nehemiah 8.2,7,14; 10.34,36; 12.44; 13.3; 2 Chronicles 14.4; 31.21; 33.8; Matthew 12.5; Luke 16.16; John 7.19
The Book of Moses - Mark 12.26
The Law of Moses - 1 Kings 2.3; Daniel 9.11; Malachi 4.4; Luke 2.22; 24.44; John 7.23
The Book of the Law - Joshua 1.8; 8.34; 2 Kings 22.8; Nehemiah 8; Galatians 3.10
The Book of the Law of Moses - Joshua 8.31; 23.6; 2 Kings 14.6; Nehemiah 8.1
The Law of God - Nehemiah 10.28, 29
The Law of the Lord - Ezra 7.10; l Chronicles 16.40; 2 Chronicles 31.3; 35.26; Luke 2.23,24
The Book of the Law of God - Joshua 24.26; Nehemiah 8.18; 
The Book of the Law of the LORD* - 2 Chronicles 17:9; 34.14
His (Moses’) Writings - John 5.46

Divisions within the Pentateuch
Beginnings: Genesis 1 - 11
Patriarchal Narratives: Genesis 12 - 50
Oppression and deliverance of the Jews: Exodus 1 - 19
Camped at Mount Sinai: Exodus 20 - Numbers 10
Wandering in the wilderness: Numbers 10 - 21
Getting ready for entry into Canaan: Numbers 22 - Deuteronomy 34

The Pentateuch is rightly found at the beginning of the Torah (Jewish Bible if you like) and the Christian Bible because it is the foundation upon which the rest of the Old and New Testament stands. It outlines the very beginnings of all that is; the 'people of God' (the Jews) and God's interaction with all of humanity. It is generally fair to say that everything before it might be regarded as before history (and is therefore 'prehistoric!'). It is the source of Jewish theological thought and forms the basis for civil, moral and religious laws (theirs and ours today to a great extent).

Not an easy read in parts, but truly and essential read: Enjoy

*LORD = YHWH (Yahweh - The God)

ps. Someone remind me to explain JEDP some time in January ;-)

Things I struggle with (3): The exclusively KJV position

Stopping at some traffic lights recently and as I looked around waiting for them to change I happened to spot a church's wayside pulpit (AKA 'a poster') asking the question 'what think ye of Christ?*' and it got me thinking - which has to be good!

My first thought was not concerned with Christ but why one earth anyone would seek to portray the Church as something firmly entrenched in the early 1600s? Change? Well the traffic lights did but the Church, if we advertise like the one I was rapidly moving away from did, appeared not to be... And that got me thinking (always dangerous).

I think the King James Version (KJV) and the New KJV are excellent reads and have an honoured and well-deserved place on my bookshelves but I have to say that when it comes to using it as an everyday source, I think there are issues. Issues in terms of accuracy and legacy issues and in terms of currency and the message it communicates to those outside of the Church.

Legacy - Good
Now I have to say whilst I am totally enamoured with the poetic nature of the KJV and love the fact that this is THE source of so much of the richness that is the English language. Influenced the Bard (and so many other literary greats during the golden age of English) and is wonderful for being the source of such expressions as:

scapegoat  Leviticus 16.8

out of the mouths of babes and sucklings Psalm 8.2

long-suffering Psalm 86.15


A fly in the ointment Ecclesiastes 10.1

casting your bread on the water  Ecclesiastes 11.1

No peace for the wicked Isaiah 57.21

Wheels within wheels Ezekiel 10.10

Feet of clay Daniel 2.33

The blind leading the blind Matthew 15.13

Turning the world upside down Acts 17.6

The powers that be Romans 13.1

Filthy lucre 1 Timothy 3.3


So there we are - I do like the KJV and value, respect and enjoy its beautiful language. BUT

Legacy & Accuracy - Bad
I an rather tired of having to defend my corner because despite the inspired translation of the extant texts before the KJV crew, the somewhat limited language (English) and the tools they had do lead me into places that eventually become just a little tiresome in their apologetical demands. A for instance here is to be found in Exodus 20.13, which goes like this:

Thou shalt not kill.

Now as one who works with members of the armed forces from time to time I have to say that this causes grief for those who join and for those who love and care for them. 'You can't be a Christian and be in the army,' they cry, 'Because the Bible says 'you shalt not kill!'

Actually, the demands of Exodus 20.13 is that 'You must not commit murder,' that is to say that you must take life feloniously (that is 'against the law') which means that killing a combatant in a war setting is exactly that - killing - as is engaging in capital punishment. The exodus passage goes a little further (as I understand it) to tell us that manslaughter, causing death by poor and shoddy workmanship and other acts which take life are also considered 'murder'.

This is just one example but I think it will suffice for now (unless you want the prooftexters dream passage where 'for the lack of a vision the people perish' but only in the KJV - but hey, that's the same for every version - there are always passages that read better (meaning the way you want) in other versions).

Currency and Communication
I have strong recollections of a committed and perhaps just a little mad person who would walk up and down outside Liverpool Street Station (along Bishopsgate) with a sandwich board upon which appeared a variety of KJV passages. The general populace assumed he was a bit strange and oddly, so too did most of the Christian I knew too!

One day I stopped the bloke and engaged him in conversation regarding his choice of version and his reply was, 'The King James' is the original Bible'! Oddly, I meet many who seem to think it is the version that Jesus used as a lad and they continue to promote it because it's the version Calvin (before he met Hobbes I presume) used too. The problem is that the Thee's and Thou's, as cool as the language is (and don't forget I'm a bit of a Shakespeare fan too), don't hang too well with the people around us today.

I love the KJV and whilst these days I will look to the ESV (English Standard Version) for accuracy and the NLT (New Living Testament) for accessibility and readability, I will always find myself coming back to the KJV and NKJV for the poetic.

But please - think about how we communicate to those who struggle to get by with an average reading age of a nine year old (God bless you Mr Gove, you're a toff) and realise that some of the stuff we have in our big black books (yours is black isn't it - it has to be black and have the word 'Holy' written on it  - I'll tell you the story some day soon) is pretty hard to gasp in accessible language and cloaking it in archaic, barely post-Elizabethan, language and portraying it as the 'only' authoritative version is totally unhelpful (about equal with people who claim Darwin was an ex-Christian or Galileo was punished by the Church because of his belief in science and his discoveries).

So there it is - I'm sure I'll make few friends with my views - but then again it's integrity that counts, especially when coupled with facts - and the fact are, I think, present!

Pax



*Matthew 22:42 KJV

Do you have a Bible?

Weirdest question of the day thus far has to be that used as title for this post!

The reason they wanted to know was that they have been told that the Bible doesn't say that 'God helps those who help themselves,' and they thought I might know because I probably 'have a Bible!'.

I have to say that like the quote that proclaims: 'A man who defends himself in court has an idiot for a client!' the Bible says of those who seek to 'help themselves' (Prov 28:26) that, 'He who trusts in himself is a fool!' This doesn't mean that self reliance is wrong, but the rock on which we stand should not be of our own making, intellect or assumed authority.

So the simple answer to the question is: No the Bible does not say that!

And do I have a Bible?

Yes - one or two!

How to cut the crime rate at a stroke!

A few years back I wrote an essay which saw me quite ferociously attacked for the position I took and yet the conundrum it presented is surely before us today if conversations I have had are anything to go by!

In it I suggested that one of the ways the world, and the Church too, looked to reduce the numbers of people who were considered to be outside of the law (man's and/or God's) was to remove the status of being 'wrong' (or unacceptable) from certain acts (the world and Church using terms like  'illegal' or 'sinful' respectively).

If we no longer considered the use of certain drugs to be illegal, we could cut the number of criminals in our society at a stroke; these were the words that those who sought to decriminalise Cannabis used at the time. They, and others, continued along the tack that by removing an act or attitude from the statute books then we no longer have people who are guilty of doing whatever the issue is and we don't need to pay to police that area, or inform opinion and work on prevention and, therefore, everyone is a winner. Less crime, less expenditure and less people stigmatised by the label 'criminal'; This I argued was what the path to damnation and the destruction of society and the rule of law; the eroding of moral standards and the decline of society.

Today I have heard someone who has taken the very acts and attitudes I criticised and made them reality and somehow many are shocked and affronted by this. Sadly, others are, apparently, not (and I am stunned in equal measure at both of the groups! The changing the boundaries and modifying attitudes to permit those who have acted wrongly to become right is a step too far and makes me question the moral, not the professional, judgement of Barrister, Barbara Hewson.

I have never been one for 'witch hunts' (my first exposure to this as an art form came in the form of the McCarthy trials) as they invariably leave me feeling that many are the victims of something worse than that of which they are accused; and yet, whilst I understand the desire for some balance and compassion regarding some of the 'old men' she speaks of, caution has to be exerted as we try to balance the scales of justice and walk that very thin line that brings justice and mercy into being.

The problem is that those who speak of justice invariably seek revenge and those who call for action do so as long as it neither visits them or their own. What we need is not a process that causes our justice system to produce 'scapegoats' to satisfy some weird form of bloodlust but one that deals rightly with the sins of the past; this surely is what we, the public really deserve.

The real issue comes down to this: People knew what was going on and they stood by and let things happen and then covered it up.

These same people are those who appear shocked and appalled as if they didn't know what was happening.

Galatians calls those of us 'who are spiritual' to act when they see people who are 'caught in sin' and act accordingly to correct and restore them. If we do not do this then the very people who are 'acting wrongly' are joined by those who have stood by and turned their blind eyes and deaf ears on the situation. But the same passage (chapter six) also warns us that we can fall into error if we are not careful - and this is the reality before us tonight!

Perhaps the real issue is that there aren't enough of those people 'who are spiritual' these days (or then as the many excesses in the world of entertainment and the Church seem to imply) to address the wrongs as they occurred and deal with them.

The Bible has it right, for the desire is not only to prevent people being wrongly acted against but is also to bring about the 'restoration' (we call it rehabilitation these days) of the offender too!

All of us can make a wrong judgement call, this is human. The problem is that some, as operation YewTree has discovered, have been wrong is a serial setting and the response needs to be wider than just acting the people who have been caught, it needs to ensure that it won't happen again.

So let's not seek to satisfy the calls for revenge or the lowering of age limits, removal of laws and the like; let's work together to maintain the laws and set the conditions for the police to police them, for they police by consent not force, in ways that bring about right and proper societal standards.

This has been a tough post to write because the line that needs to be trod is so thin as to almost be non-existent and the cry for vengeance appears to be louder than that for justice.

A couple of Bible explanations . . .

Which really made me smile:

'Jesus made the lame walk'
'Stopping to think of that statement for a moment I realise that's not really news, after all London Transport do that on a daily basis!'

'Jesus only had male disciples'
'Reason: Jesus found it really tough to get women to go along with Him, after all, most men they meet think they're God's gift to the world!'

And then they made me think:

About the lack of ability to smile, laugh or otherwise enjoy themselves that some Christians have.

I once remarked, in a service, that I thought the swallowing camels and straining at gnats was one of the funniest things Jesus could say to the stiff, hard-line, Pharisaical types and after the service, the same people Jesus was talking about came up and gave me some stick:

'Jesus wasn't a comedian, he didn't tell jokes and make funny comments! . . . .  There's nothing funny about being a Christian (well, not in your church, that's true!) . . . . There's no place for being 'funny' in church . . . . ' and on they went, confirming the very first impression I got when I entered.

They had joy, but it was buried so deep down under ritual and appearance and structure and . .  well I'm sure you know what I mean (because you've either experienced it or are it!); and this is the problem for so many people outside the Church too. They come into contact with a bunch of joyless, lifeless and hopeless (aside from the that one eternal hope of course) people and don't come back.

Mind you, a few years back I mentioned that I liked to keep the baptism services light and free-moving. The response to this (from someone who surprised me with it) was, 'Oh, you're one of those 'Gameshow Host' clergy who are there to entertain rather than act as a Priest then are you?'

The words wounded, for I was not, and am not, one of them at all (but I now know some who are and so can understand his views!!). To write off everything that I was doing in the baptism so easily and so lightly started a journey that took just about every bit of respect I had for the man as I saw him sweep away the legs of some he was supposed to be mentoring time and time again. So I watched him and realised that when the internal pain was high, so too was the pain for others. His verbal scything of others was merely a reaction to his own pain and lack of progression and soon led me to a place of prayer and sadness for him.

The reality was that in being welcoming and making the 'domestics' light, telling families not to fight with their children during the service; that some noise was inevitable and all the other stuff was the right way - a draconian set of instructions and and an unwelcoming first impression would have set the scene for the rest of the service.

The fact that I explain that baptism is more than a wet witness and explain the place and purpose of oil, water, flame and the Jewish and Jesus links to it: This is right and fitting, for we probably engage with more unchurched and dechurched people in the baptism service that any other occasional office we have.

If we can't make church fun without losing the story, Jesus the man and people *the Church) in context then we have become extremely sad indeed. If there's no joy in our services and no laughter in our sermons, then the game is up and all we are doing is looking after buildings until such time they can be made into carpet warehouses and heritage centres.

If we don't have love and life in all it's fullness;

If we are not partying regularly and living as family;

Then we are doomed - because it's not just what we say but the way that we say it!

A final comment that made me smile (and can be adapted for any place or people group - also works well with Australia and France ;-) (Sorry Marty)

'Yorkshire - A county so beautiful that God filled it with Yorkshiremen to make people feel so much better about living somewhere else'

Happy Sunday - He is Risen!

The Bethesda Boy

If you knew how many days, weeks, months and year;
How many people, with their friends, who made it into the pool.
How the bottom falls out of your guts,
every time you realise you've missed out again.

Bethesda, just up the road from the Sheep Gate,
the House of grace, pity, mercy -but only, it seems, if you've got friends.
All I needed was a friend - one would do.
Then up comes this bloke who asks, 'Do you want to be well?'
I ask you, is the Chief Priest a Jew?

'Sir,' says I, 'That's what I'm here for,
Been waiting thirty-eight years for
(used to call me the 'Bethesda Boy' when I started you know).
what do you reckon?'

'Best get up, roll up your mat and walk then,' he says.
And you know what? That's what I did - got up, rolled it up and went home,
Walking on my own two feet for the first time, ever.
And as I did, you wouldn't credit it, but I got stopped by the religious police!
It was the Sabbath you see - against the law to work - and that's what carrying your mat was.
I hadn't been cured for more than five minutes and I get done for 'working on the Sabbath!'

So I tells them me story, about how the bloke what healed me told me to do it.
'What man? Who is he, and where is he now?' they ask me.
But I didn't know who he was nor where he'd gone - he was just a bloke.
And they let me go with a warning as it was me first time;
Think they missed the point a bit myself.

But being the Sabbath, I take myself off to the temple and who do you think I bump into?
Yes, you're right - it's the bloke that healed me - Jesus, it's Jesus,
The rabbi people have been teaching about!
And he says to me, 'Now you're well stop sinning or next time . . . ,'
But there ain't going to be a next time - I'm gonna live right with God from now on.
And then I pop back to tell them I've found out who healed me,
Told them it was Jesus - and they didn't look too pleaded
So I chucked the mat and legged it - after all, I could, couldn't I?

John 5. 1 - 15

Thought for the day

This sign on London's Underground system says it all:

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These Bibles are a fantastic gift for the schools (and others( that we serve.

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Pax