The 3 Questions - Question Two

Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question Two: Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?

Question Three: If you wanted to become a Christian would you know how to?

QUESTION TWO: Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?

By the time I was five, or six, my heroes were The Pied Piper, Jesus, and Winston Churchill. Not long afterward, Cassius Clay, later Muhammad Ali, would be added.

The Pied Piper, of course, is a curious choice, but the idea of a musician ridding Hamlin of the rats, Jesus ridding the world of hypocrites through love, miracles and his teaching, and Churchill standing up to and defeating Hitler all appealed to this five-year-old.

(When I was 8, I floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee and inflicted a terrible defeat on the school bully – who wasn’t a bully really. We became good friends. For 5 minutes, at break, when I took on the bully, Peter Mole, I was Ali. He had no chance! My reign was short-lived; I was beaten up by someone else a year or two later! But those moments illustrate the role of heroes, they inspire greatness in others).

What did I know about Jesus?

I knew this, that he walked up to James and John, Peter and Andrew, and Matthew and said, simply: ‘Follow me’ and carried on walking. It said of the fishermen ‘immediately they left their nets and followed him’. I remember sitting in a school assembly at the age of six, maybe, thinking ‘If Jesus walks through the door now, I would get up and follow him’. I knew enough to know that would mean not going home for tea and hitting the road with Jesus!

Comical maybe but maybe I was tapping into what makes Jesus, to this day, good box office. In our millions we turn out to watch films about Jesus:

• The Passion of the Christ 2004 Mel Gibson – cost $30 million but grossed $612 million and was the 5th highest grossing film in 2004

• Jesus of Nazareth 1977 Robert Powell – cost $45 million, film + 4 episodes TV drama, grossed $75 million

• The Greatest Story Ever Told 1965 Charlton Heston cost $20 million, grossed $35 million

The question at the back of everybody’s mind has to be ‘Is it just a story?’.

In other words, is the New Testament an accurate historical document? Or was it made-up, a literary work, no more than a mythical tale, an idealistic presentation of how things should be, could be maybe, but not as they really are?

Once one doubts the reliability of the New Testament, the gospel accounts, the question ‘Have you ever wanted to believe in Jesus?’ is bracketed with Santa Claus, Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness monster, the only difference being that the words ascribed to Jesus, his teaching, how he opposed the Pharisees, the hypocrisy of the religious leaders in Israel…does tend to get the blood moving in a way that talk of mythical creatures or Santa can’t quite match. Hence his appeal. We roar with approval for all he stood for, even though we are the very sinners he came to save, love, forgive, and show kindness and mercy to. We feel inexorably drawn to Jesus.

But we also know to follow him, whatever that means or could look like in the 21st century, is to swim against the tide, to court ridicule, and family and friends will question one’s sanity, and so on. Religion is, of course, in England, one of the conversations that are humorously banned in pubs! Sex and politics the other two.

And, of course, everything that is banned in England is precisely what many people want to talk about despite the divisive nature of the subject matter and the wisdom at times to avoid spoiling a pleasant pint!

By the time I was five, or six, my heroes were The Pied Piper, Jesus, and Winston Churchill.

But avoiding the question is not really an option for anyone who is even vaguely drawn by Jesus. If he was to say ‘Follow me’ our reasoned-secular-sceptical response ‘Hmm, not sure’ isn’t really adequate.

The fact is that despite the secularisation of English society, the drift towards a materialistic, atheistic intellectual climate that looks to science to explain our origins and likely future, many would still say they would like to have the same faith that Jesus had, or would like to see a world like the world Jesus spoke about, or, they have come to the view that the materialistic world-view is hopelessly inadequate and the spiritual realm is not only a reality but an essential ingredient in life.

Despite my personal drift into agnosticism and materialism, I, like many others, still wondered at times, whether it could be true? Surely not! But if it is…That six-year-old desire to ‘leave my nets and follow Jesus’ was lurking in all the arguments and cynicism that had attempted to fill the void.

I suspect, in fact I know, that many who live in England are in the same boat. Few have actually rejected Jesus. But haven’t a clue how to actually embrace Him as a real historical figure, or believe that he came back to life three days after crucifixion and burial.

The 3 Questions: Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question Two: Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?

Question Three: If you wanted to become a Christian would you know how to?

The following three posts will explore these 3 Questions.

QUESTION 1: Would you say you are a Christian?

Strangely even this question has fundamentally changed its meaning in the span of my working life.

The first time I completed a work application in 1975 the box titled Religion really meant ‘CofE’ or ‘Catholic’. That’s what the employer expected to read not ‘None’, or ‘Buddhist’, ‘Muslim’, ‘Humanist’…or ‘Christian’. In 1975 I put CofE as I had been brought up to attend the local CofE church on a Sunday morning with my parents. But I wasn’t a believer.

In 1969, 3 out of the 30 in my class at school went to church…and the three of us that did in 1969, by 1975 none of us, as far as I know, continued to attend. By the time we were old enough to find other pursuits more interesting on a Sunday morning (e.g. sleeping, socialising, nursing hangovers, or sport) we had voted with our feet.

We were probably the last generation of schoolboys and girls that had the bible read to them each morning, sung hymns, and muttered Amen to prayers in morning assemblies. By the 1980s very few schools continued to have Christian morning assemblies, the bible hasn’t been read regularly and, as a result, we have become an increasingly secular society that is largely ignorant of the scriptures.

But the truth was that, even with regular bible readings, and hymn singing, very few emerged with any certainty about the historical accuracy of the Old and New Testaments, or evidence for miracles, the existence of Jesus, or the resurrection. There was little or no sign from church services that I attended of what was reported in the pages of the gospels – no miraculous healings, no presence of God, no stories of how becoming a Christian had transformed anyone’s life.

It was, therefore, no surprise that, along with the vast majority, I embraced a material scientific world-view; at best I was agnostic.

Nevertheless, to this day, Jesus is still very popular. Every twenty or so years someone produces a film about Jesus. Millions queue at cinemas. Jesus continues to be box office.

Most would readily agree that you’re not a Christian simply because you attend church, sing hymns, pray, sign your chest with a cross, are baptised, meditate, do good deeds, act in a ‘Christian manner’, try to live a good life, help others, think there’s a heaven or hell, or believe in God; I mean, Muslims, Jews, and many others believe in God but would not say they are Christians. But that leaves open the question: What does it mean to be a Christian?

Before answering that question the second question: ‘Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?’ needs to be explored.

The 3 Questions

England 2023:

• 60,000 CofE (Church of England) buildings and a similar number of other denominational buildings are scattered about in Parishes across England.

• The Coronation of Charles III at Westminster Abbey was watched and/or recorded by millions, with thousands lining the streets waving Union Jacks and cheering - with some Republican protestors present in a small minority.

• From beginning to end the Coronation was a Christian ceremony, the various articles of clothing and objects deeply symbolic of rulership and authority from a biblical perspective. The words spoken and covenants assented to by Charles III were specifically about faith in Jesus Christ, and the anointing with oil, as conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, represented the anointing of King Charles III with the Holy Spirit.

• Constitutionally, we are a Christian nation.

And yet…

If you stop the average Brit and ask the following 3 Questions, very rapidly the depth of adherence to and understanding of the Christian faith in England becomes apparent…even among the just over 5% of the population who attend church services Sunday by Sunday.

Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question Two: Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?

Question Three: If you wanted to become a Christian would you know how to?

The following three posts are my attempt to explore these 3 Questions for 21st Century England.

Why talk of the Return of Jesus Christ is so annoying…

Out there, in the pubs, at work, in the crowd cheering on Lionesses, or firefighters extinguishing a blaze, or politicians trying to extract some respect from the general population, or nurses knee-deep in people’s suffering and black humour…there is a faint echo, a ‘knowing’, still, that the Bible says something about Jesus coming back, the end of the world, judgement and so on.

In some churches, believers spend an inordinate amount of time with intricate calculus, trigonometry and guess work wondering if the wars and rumours of wars herald His return, or Climate change, or whether Putin, Trump, Macron, Trudeau, or the church down the road, is the Antichrist. (It’s a certain bet…Trudeau is my front runner!)

It’s a joke.

Firstly, because any talk about the return of Jesus to the vast majority who are really not sure about the first-century accounts of Jesus of Nazareth has to be a joke. Most of the population even in ‘Christian’ England are held in the dark, with few - including ordained priests and ministers - who can argue the case that the historical evidence for his first coming is more solid than for the existence of Genghis Khan, or Julius Caesar.

But really, it’s also a joke in church. And annoying. In church, because Jesus said ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father’, we can, with our Western mindset…which works, amongst other things, on a linear timescale and tends towards the analytical, verifiable, and rational, and dismisses subjective, intuitive, romantic thinking…go completely off-beam.

My friend Chris Welch has got a little closer, I feel, with his statement below.

A little preamble would help before the quote. ‘Church’ should be the place of communion – to use the Song of Solomon analogy – between the Beloved (Jesus) and His bride-to-be (the Church). It’s a romance. As David Pawson once said, ‘The whole of the Bible is the story of a Father looking for a bride for his Son’.

That’s why walking into a church service where there’s a musty feeling of life having departed is so utterly wrong and, rightly, the butt of jokes from Dave Allen (to show my age), Monty Python, and many others. When church meets, it’s a ‘date’. Or should be. The worship is personal. Whether people are waving their hands, dancing, shouting or sitting quietly and reverently – if it’s genuine – there’s stuff going on at the heart level that is invisible, private, and collective at the same time. It’s communion. Not the symbols of bread and wine, but the real ‘communion’ between the ‘Beloved’ and ‘His bride to be’ that, occasionally, we sometimes experience when we’re truly in tune with someone else.

The whole Bible is the story of a Father looking for a bride for his Son

Here's Chris’s quote.

“One day Jesus (enjoying church, His bride-to-be) forgets He’s not in heaven – our fellowship gets so glorious. There He is…in our midst…and forgets to go home”

That’s more like it. If we tend to go where we’re invited, made to feel welcome, longed for even…how much more must the Father be hanging on, waiting for the bride to make herself ready, as the bible says, before the day has come.

In the meantime, we are baptised in a strange society that turns out in droves to watch Jesus blockbusters. Millions, it seems, still want it to be true. There is high regard, love even, for Jesus and the way he welcomed the crowds and opposed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But in England, despite its 60,000 CofE church buildings and countless other churches, such longings mixed with an endemic ignorance concerning the strong evidence for the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, continue to leave the same millions in the dark.

I know. I was brought up to go to church. But no one, including the Vicar, offered any evidence for the existence of Jesus or the accuracy of the New Testament, or even perceived that this was required. By the time I reached my teens, Jesus had been relegated, in my mind, to join the ranks of other wonderful fictional characters such as Santa Claus, the Pied Piper of Hamlin, or Mary Poppins. And yet a residual fascination with the claims of the New Testament remained. However, once I had met a few people who could show me extensive evidence for the existence of Jesus, the accuracy of the New Testament, and compelling contemporary evidence of miracles, I was forced to re-evaluate. Eventually, I capitulated and moved house, from agnosticism to belief.

One day Jesus (enjoying church, His bride-to-be) forgets He’s not in heaven – our fellowship gets so glorious. There He is…in our midst…and forgets to go home

Yes, Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead as the Creed goes. But look again at Jesus, as written in the New Testament, and how he was with people. How he loved. How he enjoyed being amongst the people. Hardly austere. It may seem strange to think of Jesus as the Beloved and the church as his bride-to-be, but that’s what the bible tells us.

The whole of history is heading towards a Wedding; the ‘wedding feast of the Lamb’ to fully indulge in the mixed metaphors the bible itself uses to describe the consummation of all things.

Really, the big question is whether we want to be there. We’re all invited. All loved. But, like the early disciples, we have to ‘leave our nets’ and follow Him, and will if we love Him in return. We have to abandon ourselves, how we define ourselves, how we think the world is run, or how we run our lives, and lay it all down. All of it. Like brides in many Christian cultures, we give up our names, to be included in His name. Christians. Little Christs. That’s what it means.

To be one with Christ. To be in eternal, perpetual communion with Him. That’s church. And that’s what the second coming of Christ is about, He’s coming for His bride.

The Bicycle Poems (i)The Puncture

How long does it take
To mend a puncture?
To lever away
The tired beaten tread,
Rubbed raw on tracks,
Pavements, kerbs:
The world.

Image from Shutterstock

Mud, grit, and half worms
Slide onto grimy hands
Working the levers,
Separating body and soul:
The tough tyre-circle
Put to one side,
Revealing the inner tube,
Pliant and bubbling
With its last gasps,
Its wound exposed.
To be examined, gently.

Skilful, careful hands,
Clean and dress the tear:
Plasters are glued on,
Pressed hard to seal
The lingering wound,
Its memory fading
As the clock ticks.

Enfin, the tough circle,
Levered once more
And stretched to return
It to its rim,
Relaxes and sighs:
Cool air once more
Inflates the inner man.

How long does it take?
Five years longer
Than you think.

The Zebedee Files – finale

3.

I wonder, how old
Are we when we first
Let go of our own?

Until we feel that
Earthquake inside
Tearing us between

One of two secrets: to
Gain a getting, or freely
Give our light away

He knew; aftershocks
Shook them loose: two
Sons of light given

Only brief glimpses
After, of their own hearts
Discipled by another

Givers both: 153 large
Miracle fish sold
To fill the gap, the debt

Then…cold, blackest news:
Herod’s sharp sword
Taking firstborn James

Yet inscribing his
Name in a Testament
Yet to be written, and

John: Son of thunder,
Hard labour on Patmos
Staring into heaven

In the Spirit
On the Lord’s Day
Like his father of old

Zebedee, by name.

My website/blog www.unlessaseed.com has had an MOT and service and is ready to hit the road once again with some improvements

Hello!

My website/blog www.unlessaseed.com has had an MOT and service and is ready to hit the road once again with some improvements:

1. Subscribing enables you – free of charge of course - to receive regular updates via your email as articles and blogs are posted

2. Navigating from page to page, blog to blog far quicker and slicker

3. Pages: (i) What is a Christian? (ii) Book/Film/Podcast Reviews, (iii) Poetry, and (iv) Everything Else continue as before but with more focus on the ‘unless a seed’ reference (John 12v24) as a message for the here and now.

4. Writing – currently editing/re-writing an historical novel set in 1799, a children’s book set in a land further than far away…and an accumulation of poems.

5. Links – links to other sites that have caught my eye such as daughter Rachel Stevens’ podcast Believingin interviewing a wide range of friends, colleagues, family members about their beliefs…a cocktail of Christians, Muslims, Atheists…with Rachel’s twist of Christian lemon.

But mostly, I hope that you will at least test-drive the blog, enjoy the content, subscribe, and leave comments!

A quick note about Facebook. Links to www.unlessaseed.com blog posts, poems, and so on, will mainly be made, not on my personal FB account, but on my Christian Writer page: Facebook

And lastly…apologies if you’ve received this message from various sources (email/FB/blog) and are feeling nagged. If so, rather than grumble, please make contact and there’s a pint, coffee and cake, or a glass of wine waiting for you as an apology.

Hope to find you at some point here on www.unlessaseed.com

John

Rachel Stevens’ Interview podcast

Rachel Stevens’ Interview podcast - a proud plug! https://believingin.buzzsprout.com is a must. Daughter Rachel interviews friends, work colleagues, and family members about their beliefs, and about love and purpose. Thus far guests have included Muslims, Atheists, and fellow Christians.

It’s a lively, fun, and serious mix of responses to some set questions…and Rachel gets to add to this cocktail with her own twist of Christian lemon.

Dad’s a fan - biased of course but it’s make your own mind up time!!

The Zebedee Files

2.

Barely a poem, more a
Reading between the lines
First stop: the mother
Kneeling in the dirt
Grubby dress
To ask of who?
Whom did she see?

After the top jobs
For her boys
Chancellor perhaps
Home secretary
It’s comical. Do any
Of us know more than
The Jerusalem donkey?

The sons of thunder
Squirming under
Their mother’s thumb
Her love too strong
For her to see
Beyond their peering
Eyes and strong limbs

James and John
Also on their knees
Held down by her
Version of the future
There was only one
Perhaps who knew
Of no earthly glory

Zebedee, by name

Return to Writing

Tuesday 1st August 2023

The long-awaited First of August. Earmarked for at least two months as the ‘Return to Writing Day’

when ‘writing’ really means finishing a children’s book, ‘The Tear Collector’ and a historical novel,

‘Thomas J. Philpott’.

You find me at Coffee #1 with the requisite Flat White and Biscoff cheesecake, gentle foot-tapping music, and the general hubbub of milk frothers, rippling conversation, dull traffic outside, and plates, mugs, and cups colliding. Sunshine is pouring through the glass frontage and the steam, rising up from the coffees of those sitting by the window.

A perfect setting to lose myself in whatever writing is; the internal mystery that impels someone to write. To attempt to say something in words on a page. I hadn’t completely abandoned writing in my sabbatical. Poetry, for example, had not abandoned its own capability of putting its hooks in my distracted self, and drag me out of various reveries to let the words pour out. But the attempt to prepare for A-Level English Literature exams put paid to the level of attention required to push on with the books.

After the exams in June the priority shifted to neglected chores and preparing for a kitchen make-over. I had hoped this phase to be complete by July 31st but it will linger on.

Meanwhile, the writing starts today.

This blog post is just a warm-up.

A perfect setting to lose myself in whatever writing is; the internal mystery that impels someone to write

I’ve left the books for so long now I will need to re-read both for some time to be re-absorbed in their narrative before editing the grammar and considering more wholesale changes…not necessarily in that order.

Let’s see. How long should that take? I’ll give myself to the end of September. Included in that will be gaining some advice about how to approach publishers. The holy grail still seems to me to be when someone else sees something in your writing worth publishing. Worth the financial risk.

Is that too constricting?

I close this post with that question not only hanging in the air.

The Zebedee Files

1.

A few soothing notes
Disturb the oars
Unfolding nets
Boats overturning to
The music of the morning

The early rays soften
Already soft greys
Overlaid with dawn fire
Woodpigeons - such
Unspectacular greeters

Moving three fishermen
Bed to bread to boat
Skins leather-tanned
The hue of hull timbers
Slatted and daubed

Against the Galilean
Storms. One stands,
Eyes closed, breathing in
The air, his habit; his heart
An ear, listening

Waiting for news; of a
Heavenly music beyond
The liturgical score; his
Synagogue stacked with
Dry wood, but no fire

Rumours from the Jordan.
New notes. Whispers of
A conflagration to come;
That’s all it took
To pull two sons away

From the boats, from a
Father who freely
Gave his only sons into
A baptism of fire to ignite
The dry ones of Israel

His sunset-soft grey hair
Now overlain with
Heavenly flames
His heart, an orchestra:
Zebedee, by name

The Tap. The Funeral.

You will have seen this:
A tie loosened; eyes unblinking
The suited man barely managing
To burrow his way out
Out. Outside. To breathe

Felled by an image, or
The pure notes of a Spanish guitar
Or its fiery rasps. Or the image
Of someone he once knew.
Or Belsen

Or a woman presumed dead, yet
Singing hymns,
Looking at her wristwatch
Scratching her itching ear
Like she used to

Shock when it comes, propels us
First inside, then out.
Outside. To breathe.

Then the return…to the funeral
His enclothed collectedness:
Tie straight and
A face that belies no truth
A steady hand for the champagne

A necessary pretense
Until a light tap on his shoulder…

…together they exit
Outside to breathe,
To treat the past with
Oxygen and a cigarette.

Faith in Christ or Faithfulness of Christ? A new way to resolve this argument.

In recent years there has been fierce debate about how to translate pistis Christou; whether as ‘faith in Christ’ or ‘the faithfulness of Christ’, which, depending on your disposition, may have intrigued, dismayed, or troubled you…or passed you by.

Can this be resolved?

When such disagreements arise, it can be an indication that the underlying theology may be at fault, and alternative renderings are, in fact, a red herring. After all, it seems likely that St Paul’s use of pistis Iesou Christou made perfect sense to him and arose seamlessly from his understanding of the gospel.

When we encounter apparent ambiguity rather than clarity, it is time to inspect the foundations.

NT verses that are often quoted in this debate include Romans 3v22 and Gal 2v16:

‘the righteousness of God through (pistis Iesou Christou) faith in/the faithfulness of Jesus Christ’ Rom 3v22

‘…a man is not justified by works of the law but by (pistis Iesou Christou) faith in/the faithfulness of Jesus Christ’ Gal 2v16

When we encounter apparent ambiguity rather than clarity, it is time to inspect the foundations.

If, as is the case in many churches, our underlying understanding of the gospel is that the death of Christ was a substitutionary sacrifice – He died for me, in my place, took the punishment I deserved – then both translations are plausible. Whilst ‘being justified through the faithfulness of Jesus’ may seem unfamiliar and a categoric error (the subject being the believer's faith rather than Christ’s faithfulness), the Greek allows for either, so ‘faithfulness of’ cannot be dismissed simply because we are more familiar with ‘faith in’.

The debate rumbles on! NT Wright, for example, errs towards ‘the faithfulness of’ but concedes that ‘faith in’, as preferred by most bible translators, makes more sense in other passages such as Rom 5 v1,2. Others are firmly camped in either of the opposing camps.

But if we consider Galatians 2v20 we find that the gospel is not simply substitutionary but is inclusive as well. It is not my experience that the inclusive nature of Christ’s death is believed or being taught.

But Paul clearly viewed the crucifixion of Christ as inclusive as well as substitutionary:

‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ NKJV, RSV, NIV

Comparing with other translations:

‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ KJV, NRSVUE, ASV

Understanding the crucifixion to be inclusive as well as substitutionary, inevitably translators will view the Greek with slightly altered lenses.

Tucked away within substitutionary sacrifice theology is a continuation of a disunity between the believer (who has to believe to contact Christ) and Christ (who through his faithfulness reaches believers). The following examples are commonly used phrases that express the disunity:

Righteousness is credited to the believer. Sanctification is a process by which the believer progressively becomes more Christlike. The saved sinner is covered over with a robe of righteousness. When God looks upon the saved sinner, He sees the blood of Jesus. If Christ is ‘in’ the saved sinner, the work of the saved sinner is like John the Baptist who stated that ‘I must decrease and He must increase’. The saved sinner didn’t die when Jesus died but he/she has to ‘die to’ sin in order to follow Christ.

Paul clearly viewed the crucifixion of Christ as inclusive as well as substitutionary

But Galatians 2v20 (and Romans 6 v 6 and Col 3 v 3) states that we died when Christ died, that we have been crucified with Christ. If so, then, surely, the argument that it is ‘my’ faith that is in question in the above passages Rom 3v22 and Gal 2v16, is rendered obsolete? If we have died, salvation cannot be based on ‘my’ faith. Paul states that ‘It is not I who live but Christ lives within me’. Once we see ourselves included in the death of Christ, and raised in Christ, then ‘my life’ is indistinguishable from His; as Paul argues elsewhere, I have become ‘one spirit with the Lord’ (1Cor6v17). Now, since everything comes from His life, including His faith, the translation ‘I live by the faith of the Son of God’ is consistent with a theology that is based on inclusion as well as substitution.

In Mark 11v22 Jesus is teaching the disciples after the incident when Jesus cursed the fig tree. Peter, typically, expressed what must have been passing through the other disciples’ minds: ‘Look…the fig tree you cursed has withered’ to which Jesus replied ‘Exete pistin Theou’ ‘Have the faith of God’ often translated ‘Have faith in God.’

But Jesus was not operating from Himself: ‘Truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do’ John 5v19. If Jesus did not operate from his own resources, including His own capacity for faith, then neither do we, so, rendering exete pistin Theou as ‘Have the faith of God’ makes sense, as the little word ‘of’ in English refers to the source, faith located in God, but also contains the meaning ‘out from’ i.e. not garrisoned in God but His faith flowing out from Him in us.

In the 1850s Charles Blondin strung a tightrope across Niagara Falls. A crowd gathered as he made his way across the falls. Then he issued a challenge: "Who here believes I can cross over Niagara Falls again, but this time pushing a wheelbarrow? The crowd began shouting, "We believe you,’ Blondin pushed the wheelbarrow successfully across the Falls and back. Then issued a further challenge: "Who here believes I can cross over Niagara Falls but this time with a man in the wheelbarrow?" When the crowd cheered, Blondin replied, "Ok, then who will be my first volunteer in the wheelbarrow?"

Silence. Until one man walked out of the crowd and was carried across - and back safely.

Did the man have faith ‘in’ Blondin? Of course. But where did that faith come from? You could equally say it was located in Blondin. Blondin believed he could take the man across and return safely, and Blondin’s faith became the man’s faith, he was ‘living by the faith of Blondin’.

This is consistent with the promises in the New Covenant to Ezekiel and Jeremiah:

‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and cause you to walk in My statutes’ Ez 36 v 26, 27

‘I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will out my laws in their minds, and write it on their hearts…they shall all know me from the least to the greatest’ Jer 31 v 31-34

Viewing the gospel as an individual ‘over here’ putting his or her faith in Christ ‘over there’ is a false distinction. There is no separation or disunity maintained as a consequence of the gospel. Through the New Covenant God has brought about a Spirit-spirit fusion, in which all things, including His life and His faith, resonate with our spirit.

True Christianity turns out to be a Spirit-spirit operation.

Referring to the question above – can this be resolved? – the answer is Yes.

Once we grasp that the gospel is inclusive as well as substitutionary, we see that we have been made one with Christ. and, in union with Christ, everything that is in Him is mine, including His faith.

‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’

Blog Subscription Test Post 3 Wednesday 27th July 2023

This is the third such short message intended to test the ‘Subscribe’ function to determine whether it’s working and is sending out daily email notifications as intended to subscribers.

Thank you

John

Film Review - Indiana Jones, Dial of Destiny

Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride!

A hugely enjoyable film, if quite lengthy. An orgy of chases, intrigue, Nazis, gun-fights, understated humour…the whip, the explorer’s wide-brimmed hat…and Harrison Ford at his AI-enhanced best.

If you’re in the mood for fictional fun…cash in your Oppenheimer ticket and plump for Dial of Destiny.

If this is Indiana Jones's final imprint on our craving to do the impossible and overcome the ravages of time – and time itself – then so be it. But Indiana Jones hasn’t bowed out gracefully, he’s still believable and possesses a level of violence, will, and youthfulness of a much younger explorer. He’s gone out still swinging that whip and makes an appearance as a cranky old man at the same time.

Locations: Morocco, Sicily, London, New York, Germany

Archimedes, b, 287BC, from Syracuse, Sicily, the great inventor and mathematician is a constant presence throughout the film.

Cast includes Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as Helena Shaw; Toby Jones (Tinker Taylor, Soldier, Spy - and Detectorists) as Basil Shaw, and John Rhys-Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark and as Gimli in Lord of the Rings).

Finally, if you have an abiding affection for impossibly narrow and people-littered back-street car and tuk-tuk chases, Dial of Destiny will not disappoint.

If you’re in the mood for some fictional fun rather than telling historical drama, cash in your Oppenheimer ticket and plump for Dial of Destiny.

Rant: very annoying words & phrases

So… Ignoring, dismissing the question and carrying on with own message

Up it Instead of increase it

Amount Baby language instead of length, volume, mass, weight, number…

Bigger/big Baby language instead of larger, fuller, heavier, significant, telling etc

It is what it is Empty of meaning, unnecessary phrase

There is lots No distinction made between one and many, singular and plural

Them When it is 'those' e.g. "them players" No! No! No!

Medal i.e. 'to medal' No! You win a gold medal you don't medal a medal - rediculous

"He played brilliant" You can say 'he played brilliant chess' or 'he played brilliantly'

"I'm good" No! 'I'm well' perhaps. Good is too vague. Good at what? Morally good?

Match up Just 'match' will do, or contest

Ongoing An oldie…unnecessary words e.g. ongoing problem = problem

Top of the programme Just say 'the start'

Optics O dear! Words fail me. Say what you actually mean. Too obscure.

Lean into What? Commit maybe? You can lean or lean on something…forget 'lean into'

Reach out Ask

Referenced Referred to…he didn’t ‘reference Shakespeare’ he ‘referred to Shakespeare’

To 'source' as a verb Find or buy. Source is a noun - a source - not a verb. Resist this.

Heads up Remove this from your sentence and nothing changes

Going forward Ditto

I hear you Usually condescending…you don’t fool the speaker or the audience.

Call out I loathe this. It is judge & jury instead of ‘accuse’.

Journey Geography usurped by emotion

Gifted As in 'he gifted me with a…' No! it's 'gave'. Adverb not a verb: 'gifted drummer'

Issue Problem

Train station ‘Bus station' is used to distinguish it from a railway station which is a ‘station’

Takeout Take away

Acclimate Ugh! It is acclimatise

Drill down Please don't

Signage Just 'sign' or 'signs' putting -age on the end doesn't make you look clever

I broke a mug

I broke a mug and
It broke me

I didn’t know it contained so many
Gasps and repeated Oh Nos!

Stunned for those ten or twelve seconds
I bent down and cradled each piece

Each coffee and tea-stained fragment
A personal decade-long history

From allotment shed, a gift,
To kitchen…all those sunrises…

“Days of miracle and wonder
Don’t cry baby, don’t cry”

I broke a mug and
It broke me

It didn’t let the light out
Through the cracks

That’s not how it felt
Light, I find, is a heavy thing

It pours out like lead
In the furnace of sorrow

Watch now as I piece together
The jigsaw with glue

The grave can wait a while
You have more coffee to carry

I broke a mug and
It broke me

Book Review: Act of Oblivion, Robert Harris

This an exciting book to read now that we’re settling into the reign of Charles III.

The previous two King Charles were controversial. Oliver Cromwell and a collection of Parliamentarians signed the death warrant of Charles I, who was beheaded in Whitehall on Saturday 30th January 1649.

When Charles II was restored to the throne in May 1660, he wasted no time agreeing to the Privy Council’s demand that those who had signed the death warrant – the ‘regicides’ – should be hunted down and executed.

The Act of Oblivion passed by Parliament in 1660, pardoned all except the regicides.

Robert Harris’ book traces the chase between Richard Nayler, a member of the Privy Council, and two regicides, Colonels Whalley and Goffe as they sought refuge in America, in New England.

The book is an historical fiction, a gripping read, that will take you into the convictions that divided England at the time, and the reality of the early settlers and New England colonies who were fiercely Protestant and republican by nature and yet ruled over by King Charles III, our relations with the Dutch, and with native Indians in New England.

Robert Harris’ book traces the chase between Richard Nayler, a member of the Privy Council, and two regicides, Colonels Whalley and Goffe as they sought refuge in America, in New England

It’s a page-turner with a helpful cast list at the front full of historical figures. Only two characters are fully fictional. Harris keeps close to the actual events and those who acted out the twists and turns of the Civil War and its after-effects.

Podcast Review: How to Fail with All Black Dan Carter

How to Fail is an excellent podcast. Elizabeth Day interviews individuals well-known for their success and achievements in a wide range of human endeavours: media, writing, sport, technology…

This morning I got myself organised for a longish early morning walk through Blaise to Kingsweston to start the day. It’s a lovely route, approximately 10K, avoiding cars and, early in the morning, all but a few dog walkers. Ideal to listen to a podcast.

 I had intended to listen to Unlocking the Bible, an excellent podcast of the late David Pawson’s series of introductory talks on every book in the bible, but the bottom of my iPhone screen was scrolling ‘How to Fail with Dan Carter’, and that was that.

 The title of the podcast, of course, gives the game away…the guests talk about three failures they have experienced and how they have reacted to failure. Dan Carter’s account of his early childhood rugby ambitions, how they went off track, how he dealt with injuries and disappointments, and how that has affected his attitude to life after retiring from playing rugby is well worth a listen.

 As is the podcast How to Fail generally.

Three Things in the background, easily missed

Three Things:

1. John chapter 3 – what really mystified Jesus about Nicodemus

2. John chapter 14 – when maths is reduced to the number 1

3. Luke 14 – the spotlight falling in an unexpected place

John 3 – famous for three interrelated high-tide marks. It’s the chapter that contains John 3v16 famously daubed on rocks, on posters, car bumper stickers, or on placards at the Olympics. Also, it’s the Born-Again chapter, the meaning of which has, perhaps, been obscured by unattractive personality politics from across the pond. And lastly it is famous for an encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, a Pharisee, who was too fearful to show his interest in Jesus and so came to him at night.

(May I suggest there are millions of ‘Nicodemus’s’ in Britain today who would talk to Jesus privately, away from public gaze?)

In this encounter in which Jesus tells Nicodemus he has to be born again (v3) the line that often goes unmentioned is verse 10:

‘Jesus answered and said to him ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and yet do not know these things?’

I suppose you could take this as Jesus gently mocking his night-time visitor, a form of verbal jousting or friendly banter, but if you take it at face value Jesus was incredulous that this man – a Pharisee and a ‘ruler’ of the Jews i.e. a learned, rich, and prominent man in Israel had failed to see what true faith’s starting position even though he would have been steeped in the Scriptures from his youth.

It’s the same in Britain with all our church steeples, Christian traditions and Christian history, and all our literature that refers to the bible time and again, or music that refers often to the New Testament, sayings of Jesus, art, poetry and so on…and yet if you say to anyone in Britain ‘you need to be born again’ you discover just how many Nicodemus’s there are. I know, I was one. I was taken to church as a child. The bible was read in morning assemblies at school, I even read the Gideon New Testament from cover to cover as an 11-year-old, but, despite all this, I had no notion at all about true Christianity, about the starting blocks, about being born again.

Here's what Jesus said:

‘Most assuredly, Nicodemus, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’

And the famous John 3v16 verse:

‘For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’

When I was confronted with the challenge in my later teens to read the New Testament with fresh eyes, I was more like Nicodemus, wanting to find out if this was all real or make-believe. One of the many things that struck me was the choice that love offers. God, it seems, SO loves us. But it’s no good coming to Jesus in the shadows. The day comes when we have to go public. That was as scary for me as it is for anyone. Britain is pretty hostile to public demonstrations of personal faith in Jesus. It disturbs our ‘Englishness’ where we avoid religion, sex, and politics if at all possible and prefer to never talk about the things we ponder on privately.

John 14 v 6 is almost as famous as John 3v16. It’s a favourite preaching verse as it seems to focus everyone’s attention on the exclusive nature of the gospel:

‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No-one comes to the father except through me’

There it is. Jesus is, it seems, the only turnstile to heaven, to God the Father. I’m not going to get into the normal debate/interpretation about this except to say this Jesus is describing ‘religion’ as a restored relationship between God, who turns out to be our heavenly Father after all, rather than an effort to conform to a set of moral values, virtues, and norms. That must be important.

No, I’m not looking at the bluntness of the apparent exclusivity of the verse, but Jesus’ repeated use of the number One. Preachers often concentrate on THE Way or THE truth, rather than THE Life.

How many Jesus? The life?

‘Surely’, we say, ‘what you meant to say was true faith is when Your life touches My life? I mean, I’m an autonomous being with choices. If I choose to follow you, that’s my choice, right? And if I turn away, that’s my choice as well? After all, it’s my life and I can do with it precisely what I want’.

But Jesus said ‘I am…THE life’

One of the ways to unravel this is to return to John 3 when Jesus tells Nicodemus: ‘that which is born of flesh is flesh (i.e. organic life, body and soul) but what is born of the Spirit is spirit’

Christianity has less to do with musty hymn books and old pews - or hand-waving rock band worship – or ‘good works’ - than an invasion of the Holy Spirit bringing ‘the life’ of Christ into our being. You can’t fake it. Well, maybe you can try, anyone can attend church, sing hymns, pray even, or wave their hands around, but it won’t last. The invading Life resides as our life in us and, yes, bringing with it a new spirit in union with His Spirit from which our souls and bodies are animated in a completely new way.

‘The wind blows where it will, you the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit’

Jesus’ words to Nicodemus.

Luke Chapter 15

The three parables of loss and being found in Luke 15 are so vivid, especially, the parable of the prodigal son, it’s difficult not to believe that the father with his two sons were fictitious. Henry Nouwen (a Dutch Roman Catholic priest) wrote a superb book The Return of the Prodigal Son as the result of being transfixed by Rembrandt’s painting of the same name.

I don’t need to repeat the whole parable, but the turning point comes in verse 17: ‘But when he came to himself he said ‘how many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare…?’’

It dawned on him, having wasted everything that his father had given him that he’d be better off as one of his father’s servants than on his own trying to eek out a living eating from the bins as a tramp.

Our attention in the story, of course, is taken up with the Father, the prodigal, and the prodigal’s older brother…and in doing so we miss what is in the background…deliberately put there by Jesus…I think with a chuckle ‘I wonder if anyone will see them’. By ‘them’ I mean the servants.

Our attention in church sermons is often taken up with Sonship, inheritance, forgiveness, restoration, the love of the father towards both his sons…and with good reason. But the servants? It turns out that what is in the background, was in the foreground in Jesus’ thinking:

‘And the father said to the servants ‘Quickly, bring out the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and put sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it – let us eat and be merry.’

‘Now, as the older son came near, he heard music and dancing…’

Who did the will of the father? The servants. Who found the robe and dressed the son? The servants. Who prepared the food and the drink? Who dusted off their musical instruments? Who sang? Who was dancing? The servants.

Who was Jesus?

Yes, the Son of God but also the one who washed His disciples feet as an example to us.

‘Christ Jesus, being in the form of God, made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of men’ Philippians 3 v 5-7

Somehow in the miracle of God we end up doing and being things that can’t be replicated on Earth. Way back, I watched every episode of Upstairs Downstairs and other similar period pieces, even Westerns like The Virginian. In them you could either be a Son living upstairs or in the big house, or a Servant living downstairs or in the bunkhouse with the horses, but not both.

But our true identity in Christ, now born in us, is as sons and servants – simultaneously.

It’s the servants in the parable that had all the action, all the fun. The family was there, of course, working out their complexities and relationships, but all the while the servants were feasting, singing and dancing…full of the father’s joy over The Return of the Prodigal Son.

Now, as the older son came near, he heard music and dancing