The seven C's

This is useful from J.John, who was supposed to come to college lecture a few weeks ago but got stuck in the snow, so I am reading through his book: 'Breaking the News: Sharing Faith Without Fear'.

Ephesians 1:3 - 2:13

1. Creation (the relationship between God and Humanity) Gen 1:1-4; John 1:1-3; Acts 17:24-26; Col 1:15-16
2. Chaos (sin and separation) Gen 2:22-24; Is 53:5-6; Rom 3:23; Rom 5:12
3. Covenant (Covenant blessing and promise) Gen 9:8-11; Gen 15:18-21:1; Ex 19:3-6, Jer 31:31-34
4. Christ the Mediator Mark 14:22-25; 2 Cor 5:18-19; Eph 2:14-18; Col 1:19-20; 1 Tim 2:5-6; Hebrews 9:13-15; 1 Peter 3:18
5. Christ the Conqueror (Jesus rises from the dead)Luke 24:1-8; 1 Cor 15:21-28; 1 Cor 15:54-57
6. Certainty (New life by the Spirit; inheritance assured) Mat 24:13-14; Rom 8:15-17; Gal 4:6-7; Eph 1:13-14; 1 John 2:3-6
7. Completion (the rescue completed) Mat 25:31-32; Rev 21:1-2

This book is exciting because it is punchy and clearly communicated. It reads well and might help me explain faith better to those encountering Christianity for the first time.

An expensive trip to the DDO

I think what happened to me today serves as something of a metaphor for the type of person that I am.

How does one prepare to see a DDO? I ddo dunno. So... I just sat and prayed and looked over a few books at home, like 'Ministry in Three Dimensions' etc. I fed myself bits of breakfast throughout the morning and set off with just enough time to go so that I wouldn't be left to get nervous in any reception area.

But between getting out of the car and walking to the carparking ticket machine, I was in such a daze that I totally messed up my ticket, paying for half an hour when I thought I'd paid for an hour and then not having enough change to pay for a whole hour to add on, which, of course, would only provide me with another half hour, because I would have had simply two tickets overlapping for half an hour (if you're with me).

To cut a long story short the interview with my DDO cost me a £50 parking ticket, £25 with a 2.6% surcharge, if I pay over the phone tomorrow.

I think that this serves as a metaphor in two ways.

The first way - I get so excited by the bigger picture, the result, the vision, I sometimes send skittles flying right, left and centre on the way. So I do not prepare on the little things if they only affect me, I can hack it, I figure, so long as the larger goal is achieved. So I miss meals so I can be places on time. I spend money on things which I could have made or borrowed but I don't make the time to make or borrow them. I walk to interviews confused about parking tickets which I should go back and sort but don't. I hope that I can get a grip on this one because I might end up making a lot of mistakes which are costly. The little things do matter.

Secondly - ministry, in whatever form that might be, I'm to think about Pioneer ministry, is going to be costly. There are visions which will have to be compromised because they are not the visions which other people share. There will be visions for which the church has neither the finances nor the man-power. It's going to be about compromising some of my idealism, being a bit more gritty.

What is great is that it would seem that they haven't flung me out yet. It's all still to play for. I wondered if the church might think me an overly stubborn and determined creature for having got myself into theological college without their support (I'm a fee-paying independent student) but she said that this enthusiasm wasn't something that would frighten, so that's great. So I need to sort out a spiritual director - sounds exciting! And I need to fill in a lot of paper-work for three weeks time.

And it's amasing how good at their jobs these people are. Now I am a spiller, I don't hold back and I'm quite articulate and self-aware so when people ask me about myself I'm not backward about coming forward but she sussed me straight away, summed me up - had me sorted. My DDO explained how there are these two expressions within me, one child-like: enthusiatic and idealistic, the other parent-like, apologising for the excesses of the child and tempering the enthusiasm. So I might work (pray) on harmonising these two currents. This was all very illuminating.

First piece of work returned to me by theological college

Got my first piece of work back today. I'm passing, phew! It's good to know this before my meeting tomorrow, just for my own piece of mind.

My feedback highlighted the fact that I had concentrated too heavily on the Bible at the expense of other things like the Ordinal and The Rochester Report, which I should have considered in more detail for my arguments for and against women bishops. It's the Bible that I really want to understand, so I suppose this motivation cost me some marks.

I suspect that the same will be said of my ethics essay, because I couldn't learn from the first piece, which I only had back today so as to inform the second. With this I looked at homosexuality from a biblical perspective for how the Church should respond to it but I didn't look at the employment legislation which I realise now will probably cost me some marks in a similar way.

What do you do, when in comparison to the Bible, everything else ever written just seems dull and unappealing!!

What's a good evangelical to do, eh?! ;)

Better start reading some other stuff too!

Recapitulation and time

Irenaeus and Barth seem to present the incarnate Word as having taken into himself all of humanity. This is called recapitulation.

Ephesians 1:10
to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

In the Greek New Testament we have the word anakephalaiosasthai. “Ana” is prefix “re” (again), and “kephale” is head (I've looked at his before!). If we recapitulate, we sum up. In Latin we have re (again) and capitulum (head or main part). Summing up an argument under its main headings is called recapitulation.
In Ephesians, God’s plan is “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head”. Eugene Paterson puts it like this:
He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.
Irenaeus writes of how Jesus Christ, by his obdience, reverses everything which happened in Adam.
by his obedience on the tree renewed [and reversed] what was done by disobedience in [connection with] a tree. ... Indeed, the sin of the first-formed man was amended by the chastisement of the First-begotten, the wisdom of the serpent was conquered by the simplicity of the dove, and the chains were broken by which we were in bondage to death.
Therefore he renews these things in himself, uniting man to the Spirit; and placing the Spirit in man, he himself is made the head (metaphorical) of the Spirit and gives the Spirit to be the head (metaphorical) of man, ... He therefore completely renewed all things, both taking up the battle against our enemy, and crushing him who at the beginning had led us captive in Adam, tramping on his head (literal head) ...

So we are reclaimed and recreated, we are invited back into our rightful context, are collected together as words in the right chapter, under the heading of the Word, understand our origin and original to be Christ. We are recapitulated, dead in Adam but alive in Christ and this is what has been achieved for us through the 'Christ event' as Barth would put it. Barth, somehow compresses time. There was no chronological, historical order, not in the same way, linear and simple, that humanity understands time. This recapitualation has always been there in Christ. He was the first man, the first perfect man, the first man of the new creation and through him humanity is redeemed. Christ has to be fully human as well as fully divine, to be fully this alternative perfect Adam.
It would seem that this is where theological giants clash. Reformed theology has humanity created through the Logos, yes, but not 'in Christ' until they come to faith. For Barth it is as if we are all in Christ, but many of us are just unaware that this is the case. Justin Martyr seemed to teach this sort of idea too and there is something very beautiful about it:
We have been taught that Christ is the first-born of God, and we have declared above that He is the Word of whom every race of men were partakers; [many]...in hearing what was said by the prophets they did not accurately understand it, but imitated what was said of our Christ, like men who are in error...

The Bible, however, does seem to fix events in time, our creation, the fall, the incarnation and the resurrection. And to complicate matters even further, we live in the now and the not yet, in the present but in the presence of the future eschatological promise. We live in the present the reurrection life, so time does become rather a complicated thing for the Christian. Did Barth's idealism compromise othodoxy? Em...lots to think about.

Cameron's grace

Ivan

What a daft quiz

Which early church father are you?
This could be very revealing.
I absolutely fell in love with the brain of Justin Martyr when we studied him and I love Cyril for his hypostises, even if he did have a questionable temper.
So I wonder with whom my own theological convictions are most closely aligned?
Why don't you find out and let me know, so I might get to know you better?

Who are you quiz

So I am...

You’re Origen! You do nothing by half-measures. If you’re going to read the Bible, you want to read it in the original languages. If you’re going to teach, you’re going to reach as many souls as possible, through a proliferation of lectures and books. If you’re a guy and you’re going to fight for purity … well, you’d better hide the kitchen shears. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

I'm imagining a real battle between two theological giants will be taking place in my head over the next few weeks

If I'm understanding Barth correctly, I'm finding him very uplifting.

It would seem that theology, for Barth is an 'event'. It is to be involved in an ongoing dialogue about the ultimate ongoing dialogue: the one that is being conducted between God and humanity, through Jesus Christ. This is a kind of sacred speech-act of the most profound and beautiful kind. This is 'cultivated' theology and it can never be fixed. We live and add to this dialogue with prayer (about man and addressed to God) and sermon (about God and addressed to man). We participate in the sacred speech act just as we participate in the life of God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Engaging in theology must not alienate through language. We are exhorted to be inclusive. Barth's aim is always to welcome and never to reject, and if he is guilty of universalism, it is fueled by this motive too. He hopes the euangelion is just that; in fact, that we make it 'great' news not just 'good news', and we need to use a range of lexicons to do this to suit our audiences. There is an insistence that we always proclaim it in ways that are positive.

Now the Calvinists seem, and my knowledge of them is limited, to proclaim it in ways which are somewhat negative. But I'm prepared to learn that it might be otherwise. It will be interesting to find out. Peter Ould recently concluded that more people seem to be attentive to the Conservative evangelical blogs than they do to the more Open ones. He drew his own conclusions from this. I, personally, think that it is symptomatic of the human condition, or at least it is in my case. I find it quite hard to totally believe that I am perfect in God's sight, that I have been clothed with the cloak of Christ's righteousness and might really cry out to God, 'Abba' 'Daddy', knowing that I am his precious daughter. I find instead that I need to feel unworthy. It is a kind of unhealthy self-flagellation and the more conservative and Calvinistic (if that's a word), the more this strange perversion is satisfied.

Please pray for this mother...

BBC

Soon to look at Calvinism...!

Calvinism is coming up (at St John's, the teaching of) and I really want to try to grasp some of his ideas, because they seem to cause a lot of heat. I first started to consider Calvin when I began to explore Conservative Evangelicalism. Adrian Warnock has been exploring some of the TULIP doctrine ideas over at his site. My Methodist friend, Dave,at 42, Warnock by name too, but of different theological convictions, is right to concern himself over the narcissism that can sometimes, unintentionally seem to attach itself to the 'I'm saved, you aren't ' mentality. Barth was accused of Universalism, which he denied but surely we have to think of a cosmic salvation, reconciling everything and everyone, the whole of creation to God. What do you think?

still wrestling with Barth and as I am help descends

He looks like such a simple man!! (ha!)


Just reflecting on Barth again. It's difficult stuff. I keep imagining myself decades down from now, looking back on this me and reminiscing about how I just didn't get it back then in 2009!

This can happen and I remember it with such things as 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Othello', I love these plays and knew them (think I still know them) inside out because of having taught them. I would remember how I felt as a lost GCSE student at 15 so I could teach them effectively to my own classes of teenagers.

It's just that my lecturers don't seem to do this. Perhaps, they do not want to patronise us because it's easier to concern yourself over the comprehension levels of a bunch of 15 year olds than it is about a classroom of adults, some of whom are older, even twice the age of the lecturers, although not in my case, at least I can just about still get away with pleading youthful ignorance! (I was mistaken the other day by a Salesmen for a 21 year old, he was shocked as I informed him that changing the utilities provider would require a discussion at home first, not with the flatmates he assumed I was in digs with, but with my husband! How flattering!) (Perhaps it was just a sales technique!) Anyway, I digress (such a waffler).

Yes, the lecturers...

They just assume I know so much. They drop into conversation all these theologians I've only ever heard of but never read and produce reading lists as long as the books they're recommending. So anyway, here I am struggling with Barth, and unlike with the teaching of Romeo and Juliet, there's no hot-seating Barth or acting it out in modern day language, for flip's sake, he's writing in modern day language and I can better understand Shakepeare. Well, my new expression, which I must admit people don't find as funny as I thought I was when I thought I'd set it to a new context "It's all Greek to me" - is coming in very useful, when most of it is just that, or might as well be.

If I am 'getting' Barth, these are the things that I am enjoying about him.

I like his "the Godness of God." I like that he considers that what God thinks about people is more important than what they thing about God. I'm strangely comforted by his articulation of a God who is wholly other, and known only in revelation. I am so grateful that God's act is the revelation of himself in Jesus Christ and it is in Christ that we come to know God. The 'everything is about Jesus' thing has become really meaningful to me of late. Sometimes it makes me chuckle because you can be quite funny with it. I tease my husband with a stock response - 'well, it's all about Jesus' when he asks me his 'deep and meaningfuls'. As my vicar put it the other evening, amongst many profound thoughts, I assure you, as he preached on Colossians, "The reason that a duck quacks is Jesus and the reason that the moon shines is Jesus."

So tomorrow I'm Barthing it all day long, or all day 'short', in my case, while the littluns are in the care of the local educational establishment. 9am - 3pm with a lunch break gives me 5 hours so I should be able to cover a couple of Barthian paragraphs! How people ever begin CD, I just don't know. You'd have to commit yourself to a monastery or convent, to stand half a chance, I reckon.

To add, just as I was about to post on this topic tonight, a mail came in from someone else who is taking a year to study Barth. (A year! I've got 'til March 17th!) Possible God-send! Really chuffed. Reason one billion, two million and eighty-four thousand and four hundred and forty three to keep blogging!!!

J. R. Miller has left a new comment on your post "Karl Barth?":

Hi,
I started a series in January titled, "One Year With Karl Barth"

I am reading through the CD and posting my thoughts and conclusions. I am new to Barth, but would love to have some interaction from those who are more experienced readers.

The serious irony here is that he is attempting CD and supposes I'm more 'experiencd' - oh dear, sorry to disappoint you Mr Miller!

Ministry in different shapes and sizes

The outsider's view of theological college might be of an establishment full of the educated sons of cleric fathers, highly educated and very middle class but it couldn't be more different. God uses such ordinary people, (how very biblical!) the old and young, male and female, the sons and daughters of just anybody, those sons and daughters having had very different backgrounds, some having come to faith quite late in life.

Richard Turnbull's speech to the Derbyshire Reform conference in 2006 seemed very critical of the part-time theological student in training. But training has adapted to suit the dictates of a modern age where men and women share career and child-care responsibilities and thank goodness it has. As a result ministry is so diverse. This morning's service at my church was led by two women, three in total, if you count the person delivering the intercessions (me) and none of us are paid, one is an assistant minister NSM and also a primary school teacher, the other is part-time and the stuff I do is on a voluntary basis. It would seem that the idea of a full-time, male, public-schooled minister is something of a caricature, although, of course, many exist and do a sterling job.

Bishop Alan describes how one of the reasons for Church decline way back was when in the nineteenth century resident gentlemen clergy moved into 'big Georgian rectories' and 'out went peasant curates who were less learned and often part time, but radically incarnational in village life.'

We must look to our ministers these days in all their various shapes and sizes and not think that we are doing something radically different. Perhaps we are reviving the part-time parson, incarnational in village life, town life, city life! Perhaps these part-time 'parsons' are each a part of a team, a community of the spiritually mature leading people into closer relationship with Christ.

In 2007 a butcher became a minister (ordained in Derby Cathedral ,2007) and so he feeds his people each week day with literal meat and with the spiritual meat of the gospel at the weekends and probably in big heaps with the sausages and chops over the counter every day too.

We need ministers that we can relate to.

I met a newly ordained minister at college, attractive, trendy in her striking red shirt, describing how she is involved just as much in ministry when she stands chatting in the playground as she picks up her children, as she is when she in her church on a Sunday. This is perhaps that incarnational ministry which at one time we had nearly lost and is now very much alive and being encouraged.

I hope I get to be part of a team in an ordained capacity one day just like I'm in teams today as a volunteer. My greatest fear is getting into a situation where I'm going it alone or I've not delegated enough responsibility away.

Derbyshire ordinations 2007

Gary Dundas, 50, will be an NSM in Stanton by Dale with Dale Abbey and Risley as well as continuing to run the two butchers shops that he owns with wife Diane. Gary runs his Draycott butchers shop, while his Breaston shop is run by his brother, Alastair. Gary has lived in Draycott all his life and started working in the Draycott shop as a boy in 1969 delivering orders on a bicycle.

He said: "I was born on St Mary's Avenue, near St Mary's Church, and when I started my career as a butcher, St Mary's actually moved next to the butchers on Victoria Road. So I feel my business has a close affiliation with church life. I do share my faith with my customers and I'm open to questions and conversation about it, so it is also part of my ministry in this village. I had been a Reader in the church since 2001, but I wanted to be ordained because there are limitations to the role of a Reader and I want to be able to give people more. There is sacrifice involved in the ordained ministry, but a great deal of satisfaction too."

Can't get no sleep...

I am having some very weird dreams at the moment which are leading to a lot of waking up, especially after the crunch period of a dream. Last night I woke up saying 'I choose Jesus'. By the world's standards this would be a sign that I perhaps need locking up and actually that is kind of the theme of my dreams - there are lots of voices asking me to follow them instead, last night I was being offered a really rich and luxurious life and being told I was going through some phase. But I was kind of glad to wake up with those words on my lips - 'I choose Jesus'. I was being really tested but I was becoming aware of an inner strength and an ability to argue my way through and that's what I was doing as I woke up.

The night before I was being offered a peach bag that smelt of the nappy sacs which I used to wrap my children's nappies up in. (They were perfumed but what happened is the smell of the nappy sac, even without the contents, soon came to be so heavily associated with the contents, that any smell similar to the smell of a perfumed nappy sac would remind me simply of poo.)

So, anyway, there I was with another woman who was wearing a dog-collar and black shirt and together we gladly reached out and accepted the bag, swearing to carry it, whatever the consequences and I knew that I was accepting the office but disliking it all at the same time.

I think I feel a bit lost, like how did all this come about and why can't I just keep house and go on the annual package deal and kind of get by, you know, with a regular life? I sometimes see myself five years down the line, shattered and overworked and oppressed by the responsibility of it all and tired and doubtful, wondering whether the Church of England and ordained ministry really was the right vehicle through which to connect people with the almighty - oh yiex!!

At other times it feels so inevitable, it's like I have no control over it at all, which for a person like me, who likes to be in control, is really rather annoying. So I have to go through this but perhaps they will all just say, no, dear, you've got it all wrong, not you, go on have your regular, normal life and maybe just maybe I'll get away with it and I'll be let off the hook, it won't be my fault, it will be theirs, you know those higher echelon C of E people, the ones who make all the decisions and they won't want me. Oh dear, oh dear, what's a mixed-up kid to do? :)

This is all because of a certain meeting on Friday with a DDO and already I'm imagining all the possible reasons why I should not or can not go.

Book recommendation by Gill

See Crunch on Women in Ministry

Dwelling on the feminine side of God this Mothering Sunday...

Isaiah 66:12 For thus says the Lord, ‘ . . . you shall be nursed, you shall be carried on her hip, and be trotted on her [God’s maternal] knees . . .’

I'm not actually responsible for the sermon on Mothering Sunday but if I were I would dwell on scripture's portrayal of the mothering God!


This is what I'm hinting at in the poster I've created for the service. Creating the church's posters, as well as being great fun, can lead to some interesting reflections. (pic by eldest daughter when she was four - ahhh!)

Trumpets, cracked pots and flames...or whistles, playdough and flags

Exhausted! Delivered holiday club for the under 5s today. (Gideon) We watched bubbles come to rest on a fleece and then on the floor, thought about superheroes like Sporticus and Tommy Zoom (CBeebies, if you're unfamiliar) and charged around the church with pots containing playdough, flags, pom-poms and toy whistles to scare aware the imaginary Midianites.

Kids ministry is great but it doesn't end because you then return home to minister to your own kids who are on half term - need feeding, playing with, fetching drinks for, (possible but hard work)and need the ways of the world, God and all things visible and invisible explained (impossible but great).

So my youngest was the mummy and I was the 'sister' in our game, but when she put me to bed for the night on the sofa with her blanket and a rag-doll, I fell asleep, even though her real big sister was thumping an eclectic tune at the piano and various brightly-coloured plastic toys were playing strange sound effects. It was a good job daddy was home.

It was less of a good job daddy was at home, when he decided his daughters could have a sleep-over - like big girls do - two small giggly, over-tired children in a single bed. Great! He gets to go out then for two hours, to footy and the pub, leaving me to keep running up the stairs every few minutes and deal with exhausted children the next day. As it turns out he ends up pacifying the children who can't understand why they are now not allowed a sleep-over (kill-joy mummy) after all and mum and dad end up very cross with each other - family life eh!

Breathe...take stock...receive light

Here

Doesn't it all sound ugly?

CEN reports how
MEMBERS of Forward in Faith are set to hold a special one-day national assembly in London tomorrow (Saturday) immediately after the closing of the
General Synod in London today. The traditionalists, fiercely opposed to women’s ordination, will debate their next moves against female bishops in the light of
this week’s decisions at the church’s parliament.

I suppose the language with which the opposition is described doesn't help. I do understand the male headship thing - you have to sit fairly and squarely under the authority of scripture in order to understand some people's misinterpretation of those problem passages. I think I can almost recognise that point of view as having some integrity. The integrity lies in the fact that those opponents sincerely hold their beliefs - this is a decision that they have made from the way that they read scripture and they are sticking to it. I can, with a stiff work-out of my empathy muscles, understand their point of view, even if it is not my point of view. But what it must look like to the world...well, quite frankly it must look absolutely ridiculous. How could it not otherwise. That some clergy and lay people do not think that a woman can be ordained or consecrated, that they are somehow not a legitimate expression...well...it can't be doing much to help spread the gospel to the unchurched. Jesus' ministry was so radical for being so inclusive. He suppered with thieves and prostitutes, served the diseased and the demon-possessed, allowed himself to be anointed by a woman, have his resurrection body be witnessed by women and chastised Martha who wanted her sister to help her in the kitchen rather than assume the position of a student learning from her rabbi. If Jesus came back today, I'm pretty sure he would be the first to accept the bread and wine of the love feast from a woman. Why can't all those who object simply ask themselves WWJD? It could all be that simple.

I am aware that the image is a strange one, Jesus, THE body and blood, eating 'the body and blood' - it woudn't need to happen if he actually came back, but you know what I mean....

It might happen though, afterall, he was baptised so maybe he'd allow himself to be fed with the eucharist too..(.just thinking aloud...)

Penal substitutionary atonement

Well I'm going for the biggie - I want to write a defence of Penal Substitutionary Atonement in the light of current criticism as an academic exercise, do I hold to this doctrine? I don't know yet. But I'll know soon. So I aim to read Mike Ovey et al 'Pierced for our Transgressions' and 'Consuming Passion' by my Ekklesia buddies Bartley and Barrow - the Mennonites. I also want to read 'The Mystery of Salvation' which I should read before seeing the DDO, anyway. I'll also read 'The Atonement Debate: Papers from the London Symposium on the Theology of Atonement' by David Hilborn (Editor), Justin Thacker (Editor) and Derek Tidball. I'll also read 'The Wondrous Cross: Atonement and Penal Substitution in the Bible and History' By: Stephen R. Holmes. I also better read Tom Wright's reply to Mike Ovey's book at Fulcrum

So it's all going to be fairly intense and it's taking me into territories, church thinking and approaches to the gospel which seem to be at odds with each other - it is the conservative evangelicals and the open evangelicals in debate again and that is partly, I'm sure why I find the whole topic interesting.

Making some progress with the Barth (Pronounced Bart) not Simpson, just a little more profound.

Thinking of giving up TV for Lent but at this rate, I'm going to have to give it up anyway so might have to find another challenge. I'm not 'religious' about Lent but I like to see what with prayer, my will power/prayer power I can achieve. So last year I gave up tea and coffee for 40 days and suffered a three day headache as a result. This year I'm after a challenge and it needs to be the 'giving up' rather than the 'taking on' variety of challenge. Giving up TV might be too easy but then again I would seriously miss Eastenders. I'll have think of something.

Live blogged women bishops synod decisions

See here for the download on what happened this morning in Synod - grab a cuppa for the reading, it takes a while...
See here

In for a transformative Easter

I've got a feeling that this Easter will have more of an impact on me than perhaps any other.

One such Easter I've had already was when a very good friend of mine lost his wife to cancer on Good Friday. It was the first time I had been close to an untimely death, having only ever before lost people from my life who had been elderly. I experienced a very significant period of angst, even rage and then a strange kind of peace which took a long time to come through many conversations with God and much ink-stained paper as I rattled off my thoughts in a letter which I didn't end up sending to the bereaved friend because it ended up being a very different kind of letter.

There was then a spiritual landmark experience where something seemed to snap as I heard a sermon at her funeral on Rev 21 and 22; a conversion moment in terms of what it would mean I would decide to do with the rest of my life. The friend is not aware of the significance of this moment because there is something that I find very difficult and embarrassingly egocentric in any imaginary conversation in which I discuss the death of his wife as the period of my spiritual awakening. It seems almost awful and awe full to make his period of pain into my discernment of the joy of God, it seems wrong and it seems to take the focus away from her and onto me, I want the focus to be on God but I don't trust my ability to explain the event in a way that will elevate it to what it is. I fear I will sound foolish and pollyannerish. I will fail because I will be explaining it as the experience of me (a human being)coming to know God quite suddenly when I want to take me out of the equation but I don't know how. I can't take me out and make myself 'other'. Anyway I digress...

By the way, just before I return to my initial train of thought re this Easter and why I think it will be transformative, my 4 year old today articulated something so profound...

She said 'mummy, you are not me, I am me, you are yourself and you do not know how I am feeling, only I know that...' Now this was because I simply suggested that from the look on her face (you can imagine) she needed the toilet, and actually I was right .... in the end...but wow - she's only 4 years old.

Anyway this Easter, yes. Well, it's all because we start a college module tomorrow called 'The Work of Christ' so we will be studying theories about the atonement and the teaching will finish at Easter. I wouldn't need to think myself capable of prophesy to predict that I think this is all going to be truly profound and very emotional. I might need some prayer ... oh and any suggestions for resources...whenever I'm not cooking, sleeping, eating, kiddie-stuff etc I'm cyber-searching or reading relevant stuff so let me know...and I need to work up to the more highbrow stuff after the foundational stuff so nothing too difficult please.

I keep falling out with him...

I keep falling out with Karl (Barth), wanting to throw him across the room (almost) because I do not know what he is going on about. Then I get a grip, soak the brain cells in more caffeine and wait expectantly for amazon angels to bring me literary deliverance in the form of the Cambridge Companion (still waiting) or evangelical interpretations (still waiting) or The Armchair theologians version (Arrived!!!).

So I read a bit of the primary text and then a bit of the Armchair theologian's guide and even if I totally mess up this book review, I'm learning something and it is how to find words to express my own theology, which is going to be important as I see the DDO later in the month.

So currently I am much enamoured by a description of the theology of the Blumhardts for it helps me to articulate my own viewpoint:

They were dissatisfied with the focus on the salvation of individuals for a heavenly future that had been the characteristic of the tradition. They maintained that the message of the gospel and the early Christians was not the promise of salvation in some other world, but rather the coming of God's new creation to the present world. This led to a deep conviction concerning the social embodiment of the gospel. The Christian message did not simply promise a future life in another world, but made a profound difference in present circumstances through its announcement of the coming of the kingdom of God to the earth. The focal point of this movement was hope in the possibility of a visible and tangible appearance of the kingdom of God and the lordship of Jesus Christ in the world.

(Barth for Armchair Theologians J. R. Franke, p. 24)

So absorbing Barth's thinking is all good for the results, even if his prose continues to be impossibly turgid.

This social embodiment of the gospel, for Barth, seems not to advocate any type of palagianism, it is not about us. Instead, the eternal life of God has been revealed in the resurrection of Christ and we can no longer live thinking that we can change the world for God or on his behalf but in the assurance that he is overcoming and transforming the world and bringing in his kingdom, despite our very bad attempts at partnering him.

Karl Barth?

I've chosen to write my theological college book review on Karl Bath 'The Kingdom of God'. If anyone has any tips for this or recommended reads which will help me to understand this book, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

This is stimulating stuff from Wikipedia. I know nothing about Karl Barth so far but perhaps I'll like him which sounds facile, I know, but it can help, I've got to spend the next month getting to know him, only well enough for 1500 book review though.
Wiki

Election

One of the most influential and controversial features of Barth's Dogmatics was his doctrine of election (Church Dogmatics II/2). One thread of the Reformed tradition, following one interpretation of its most influential thinker, John Calvin, had long argued for so-called double predestination: that God chose some humans for salvation through Christ and others for damnation. These groups were sometimes called the "elect" and "reprobate." This choice (or "election") was made by God and was the result of God's "absolute decree," a mysterious and fundamentally inscrutable decision which, though it was a decision of ultimate consequence for the individual human, was fundamentally inaccessible and unknowable to him or her. God chose each person to be saved or damned based on the divine will, and it was impossible to know why God chose some and not others or whether God had elected or rejected oneself.

Barth's doctrine of election involves a firm rejection of the notion of an absolute decree. In keeping with his Christo-centric methodology, Barth argues that to ascribe the salvation or damnation of humanity to an abstract absolute decree is to make some part of God more final and definitive than God's saving act in Jesus Christ. God's absolute decree, if one may speak of such a thing, is God's gracious decision to be for humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. With the earlier Reformed tradition, Barth retains the notion of double predestination but makes Jesus Himself the object of both divine election and reprobation simultaneously: Jesus embodies both God's election of humanity and God's rejection of human sin. While some regard this revision of the doctrine of election as an improvement on the Calvinist doctrine of double predestination, critics have charged that Barth's view amounts to a lax universalism.

I'm quite attracted by this too which I've been wondering about lately, so much so that I'm not sure if the word 'evangelical' actually describes me anymore. 'Post-evangelical?

Wiki

Some fundamentalist critics have joined liberal counterparts in referring to Barth as "neo-orthodox" because, while his theology retains most or all of the tenets of their understanding of Christianity, he is seen as rejecting the belief which is a linchpin of their theological system: biblical inerrancy. Such critics believe the written text must be considered to be historically accurate and verifiable and see Barth's view as a separation of theological truth from historical truth.Barth could respond by saying that the claim that the foundation of theology is biblical inerrancy is to use a foundation other than Jesus Christ, and that our understanding of Scripture's accuracy and worth can only properly emerge from consideration of what it means for it to be a true witness to the incarnate Word, Jesus.

Once a young student asked Barth if he could sum up what was most important about his life's work and theology in just a few words. The question was posed even with gasps from the audience. Barth just thought for a moment and then smiled, "Yes, in the words of a song my mother used to sing me, 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.'"

See also Centre for Karl Barth Studies

See also

And

If you support women bishops...

Please pray Wednesday morning.
GENERAL SYNOD
February Group of Sessions 2009
Timetable
Sitting hours: 9.30 am to 1 pm and 2.30 pm to 7 pm, except where otherwise stated

Wednesday 11 February
9.30 am Holy Communion
Women Bishops legislation: First Consideration

RANDOM

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE...LOVE BIG, LOVE BROADLY, LOVE BOTTOMLESSLY...
LOVE FATHER SON & SPIRITEDLY

Thank you oh my Father, for giving us your Son and leaving your Spirit 'til the work on earth is done!

Time to refresh my blogroll...

I need to keep challenging myself and so I am going to hop in more often on people who challenge me and people who will make me think. I am going to cut back on some of the American blogs I call in on and focus more on the peculiarly Anglican expressions of the faith and faithful. I will also remove some of the names of people who have kept me company along the way but who are now moving on to pastures new like Molly and Communion in Conflict. I am going to take on Peter Ould and Bishop Alan and a few of the other recommended sites at Gen synod blog, see how these voices shape me...it's all good fun...

The declaration of assent to proclaim the gospel afresh in every generation

The conference was quite good, although in some ways Christian conferences about Fresh Expressions could do with their own Fresh Expressions make-overs. Noisy kettle urns boiling up every five minutes interfered with our ability to listen, tea without fresh milk, no biscuits and seriously uncomfy plastic chairs. Also I must admit to being a bit cheeky and testing out really whether these people practice what they preach. At coffee break I sat alone and stared into space wondering if anyone would start up a conversation with me, you know do that whole welcoming, hospitality thing us Christians are supposed to be so good at - 5 minutes went by - nothing, 10 minutes, still nothing, I gave up. I grabbed my bag and moved 10 chairs down to sit right next to an American women, to ask her which church she came from and what she hoped to learn from today.

Anyway, never mind. Bishop Alistair said some good things, about how new clergy, in their declaration of assent, promise to proclaim the gospel afresh in every generation and how we have to use the things of our culture to reach the people of our culture with the message of Jesus Christ. He spoke of the 'screen and soundbites' generation and whist this can be effective, it mustn't mean we compromise on depth. He also spoke about how we are a post-modern society desperate for significant relationships at a time when family and community are breaking down (or manifesting themselves in new ways. We network now and technology can bind us together but separate us too.)

Jesus encapsulates this need in two commands: love God and your neighbour as yourself and Fresh Expressions is all about loving God through our demonstration of love to our neighbour, to neighbours (strangers) who do not yet know God's love.

He also spoke about how we are obsessed today with measuring everything - pay-packets, the economy and church numbers. This draws what church is about to a superficial level but mission is instead about bits of leaven in a huge amount of bread and it's about scattering seeds. We need to look to the quality of our discipleship further and wider and make the gospel fresh to those in this generation.

We looked at messy church and late night church, cafe church and youth church and the work of street pastors and churches which catch tired and hungry clubbers with their open doors and cups of tea and sausage rolls. It was church that was meeting people where they were at. It was missional.

I didn't really find out anything new and certain things won't work in Allestree - we won't catch the clubbers who are all in town. We will offer messy church though this summer which will be brill. I had a few ideas for how to extend our service to the under 5s and their families this summer which I'll share when I've thought it through some more, and it was encouraging to hear other people's stories with their youth groups, and how it can be a hard slog and can take ages before unchurched youth are ready to go deeper. So this has allayed a few worries and refocused my energies and my commitments because I need to be prepared to be in it for the long haul.

All in all a good day - just could have done with a biscuit or two to keep us going.

Also whilst looking up 'declaration of assent' and what it entails for this post, I discovered this website which looks really good:
http://www.churchnext.net/index.shtml

An invitation from The National WATCH Executive Committee

AN INVITATION TO PRAYER AND FASTING

WEDNESDAY, 11th FEBRUARY 2009

You are invited to join in a day of prayer, meditation and fasting as General Synod debates the draft legislation and code of practice for women bishops.

On the morning of Wednesday 11th February, the General Synod will be giving first consideration to the draft proposals which will open the episcopate to women and which will also include arrangements for those who remain opposed to women's priestly and Episcopal ministry in the Church of England.

The General Synod will have to decide whether or not to commend the draft proposals to the revision stage, where further work will need to be done. There are difficult decisions to make on the proposals for women bishops, and we wish to support members of General Synod and one another as we join with the wider church community to pray for God's wisdom and guidance during this continuing process.

Whilst many of us look forward with eager longing and expectation to the day when women and men together will share in the Episcopal ministry in the Church of England, we acknowledge that some do not share in our confidence and joy. We do not seek to disregard or dismiss our differences and we trust that, through ongoing prayer, we may all receive healing of our hurt and pain and a renewed vision of God's will for our Church, as together we seek new ways to express the unity to which Christ calls us.

We believe differences on women's ordination and on other issues must not be allowed to obscure the faith we share: our utter dependence on and acceptance of God's unconditional love, our interdependence as members of Christ's body, and our calling to care for one another and the world in which we live. We remain committed to working with our sisters and brothers in Christ, regardless of our differences, to the glory of God and to the furtherance of the Kingdom.

The National WATCH Executive Committee

Finally a conference I actually get to go to...

Conference wish list success
This sounds good...and I get to go too

CEN reports:

All churches in Derby diocese have been invited to an event organised by Fresh Expressions tomorrow, described as a day of exploration and debate. Taking place on Saturday, February 7, Vision for Growth will be led by the Fresh Expressions team, under Rachel Jordan, and is aimed for clergy and lay leaders. The Bishop of Derby, Dr Alastair Redfern, has welcomed the team. He said: “We are looking forward to what Rachel and the team have to share with us and to discussing many different aspects of mission on what is an important day for us in this Diocese.” After the bishop’s address there will be a presentation from the Fresh Expressions team followed by case studies of growth. The whole event will be held at Lady Manners School, Bakewell, following on from the Derby Diocesan Synod meeting.

Break bread together

It was good to read in The Church Times that the Bishop of the Australian diocese of Canberra & Goulburn has no problem with women bishops. He would not hesitate to consecrate a woman bishop “if our needs are such, and our finances are such, and if God raises up a person who has the appropriate gifts and talents and abilities, and also happens to be a female”. In his diocese, 40 per cent of clerics are women. He is “orthodox” on sexuality but would not refuse homo­sexuals holy communion. “Anybody who names the name of Christ... is welcome at the communion table.”

See Church Times for full article

Aching all over...

Yesterday's weather was a bit of a surprise. The day became complicated. I walked the children three miles to school and back and then I dug out the private road we live on from top to bottom with a big red spade so that I could get the car down. I drove to college but all the lectures and seminars I was attending were canceled and before I could drive back home I had to be pushed out of the carpark snow I had become stuck in. Just journeys yesterday...journeys which took all day long.

And today just aching muscles from all the digging and walking but journeys lasting minutes rather than all day.

Jainism and Sikhism's emphasis on equality

Around the World in Eighty Faiths is on. The faiths which the Anglican priest is exploring tonight are interesting. There is austerity as well as joy and a respect for the equality of all peoples under God. They are monotheistic religions and very different to Christianity, there is no sense of a triune God but perhaps Jainism and Sikhism are not so different for some of the principles which lie at the heart of the faiths. The Indian people perhaps have a sense of community and love for one another that we have lost in secular Britain.

My teenage years and God

At twelve I muddled through. I disliked my old-fashioned middle school in the rural village we had moved to and I was different, with a different accent and a different attitude. All the other children seemed so confident but I felt like I had landed on another planet, not just in another county. I went on to become a rather confused teenager. When I was 14, my mum and dad had their fourth child, my gorgeous baby sister Sophie. At home, I kind of tried to disappear. My dad worked long hours and my mum had a little baby to look after, as well as two other children, besides me. I felt that compared to the innocence of this new-born baby, I presented a less than attractive option. I was awkward, self-conscious, confused and probably a little lonely. My family were more distracted than they had been and I missed the deep and meaningful conversations I had always had with my parents. I also found my school friendships a little too claustrophobic. My best friend was too possessive and boys presented a confusing option. I disappeared into soul searching and diary-keeping and buoying up a sense of self-worth.

Our vicar, who had been brilliant, moved on to pastures new and took with him the potential role models who had been his vivacious, Christian, older teenage daughters. Where was I to turn? My sister of two years younger I had left behind, she seemed so young and girl-like, whilst I was left to cope with emerging woman-hood on my own. I felt like I had to just get on with it as best as I could, there was no-one around for advice. I dwelt more often at this time on the baby that my mum had lost before having me, I was sure that she would have been my big sister.

I clung on to my dad's praises and my mum's story of my birth, where she describes how she couldn't believe that the little baby she looked at was hers. She always describes the baby that was me as beautiful and a fighter because I was an awkward delivery but very strong. I clung onto that and my dad's positivity (when I saw him) but it didn't seem to be enough.

I quickly worked out that the best way to get the attention that I craved was from boys and my teachers. So I worked incredibly hard at school. I always chose the brightest boy in the class and attempted to match his grades. I fell short but I never looked to the girls. I never really understood myself as a girl. Boys my age, unless academic, always seemed immature. Girls seemed for the most part a little silly. So I was stuck somewhere in between, as competitive as any boy, full of drive and ambition and determination and outwardly rather girly with my fashion phases and make-up. Of course, I generalise, but I grew up a 1970s kid when nurse/secretary girls and footballer/policeman boys was the story sold to you by the TV. In the 80s, the shoulder-padded business women had presented too much of a contrast to my stay-home-mum. I didn't believe that these kinds of 'go-getting' women really existed outside of Dynasty or Dallas which we all sat glued to in the eighties.

Between the ages of 14 and 21 I was 'boy-mad' like a lot of my friends. What I needed, looking back on it, was a greater sense of self-worth and a desire to protect my own feelings rather than always worrying that I might hurt people's feelings because this motivation caused me trouble. For example, I once said that I would 'go out' with a boy but really it was only because I felt sorry for him (how patronising!), but then I didn't show up and so in vengeance he phoned up my parents (out at the time) and reached the babysitter to inform him that I had been arrested for delinquent behaviour and needed to be brought home from the police-station. I was, in actual fact, only at a friend's house of mine for tea, but this one phone call caused no end of trouble, which I probably deserved for standing him up. A search party was launched for me and my parents returned frantic from their evening out.

I didn't learn my lesson for a long time and always chose interesting people to go out with. At 14, a boyfriend was a 'Born Again Christian' and I attended his church for a 'slain in the spirit' experience but this only left me wondering at the time if I really understood Christianity at all. That relationship finished, much to my parents' relief, for no matter how much I pleaded with them 'but he's a Christian', they thought he came from a rough area.

I had worked out that the world organised its people according to gender, I was now working out that it also arranged them according to class.

At 16, I had a black boyfriend, it was almost as if I wanted to understand all of the world's categories. This was a fun relationship until he told me stories about the trouble he was in which I was too naive to believe but which were actually true, and lies about the GCSEs he had recently excelled at, which I believed, but turned out to be a lie. I couldn't trust him and so I split up with him. I was beginning to understand that I had it within my power to avoid trouble. I was finding ways to be a little stronger.

At 16, I went to Italy for a month as an au pair to two children in the mountains. This was my Maria (Sound of Music) experience. I grew up a lot, did a lot of thinking and lot of walking in star-lit forests in the dark. I was only released from my duties for 2 hours between 9 and 11pm. On returning home, it was hard to adapt back to reality but I sunk into GCSE revision. I was happy with my results, things were coming together.

At 17, I met my husband and my life started to change. He accepted me and seemed to love me for who I was, even the bits of me which made me self-conscious. It was all so freeing. Here was this person with whom I could just be myself. He was very unworldly and I found this attractive. He was very genuine and when I first met his family, and visited his home, I can only describe it as 'that coming home' feeling which I have when I am in church or in prayer. He believed in God and above the fireplace in his front room there was this glow in the dark Jesus crucifix on the wall - some Catholic iconography is a little lacking in the taste department, I know, but this meant a great deal to me.

We then had a few rocky years as we both went off to different universities. I allowed myself to become too defined by popularity or academic success. I didn't quite fit any of the groups. I was certainly no Jock, the Christian group seemed a bit too cheesy with its guitar-strumming leader and my prayer-life was very hit and miss. I didn't have the financial security of the 'Ralph Lauren wearing' placement-sponsored engineers and athletes and I think that I confused the voice of God with the voice of my 'sane mind'. I had read and reread the feminist writer Erica Jong, who describes the voice of her sane mind in her rather daring novels.

One of my lecturers was very influential though, and he was a Christian and I started to read the Bible a little for the way that it could inform my essays. But I was very much groping around really. I was always constantly broke, ate very badly, became very skinny and really most of the time, didn't feel too well which was difficult. But I loved the reading and the writing.

At 21, I decided it was time to take stock of my life and make my mind up on a few things. I knew I wanted to teach and I knew my boyfriend 'from home' would one day become my husband so it was time to remain faithful to all my callings, to him, to God and to the plans for my potential career. No more would I be buffeted and blown around by people's estimations of me - good-looking or not good-looking, there was always a range of opinion on this one, bright or just rather average, again opinions have ranged, a Christian, yes but sometimes I revealed more the uncertainty of a soul searching than someone sure that they were loved by God.

At my 21st birthday party, there was this boy pestering to dance with me (don't presume from all this male attention that I was something special, it had more to do with the fact that I went to a university with an 11:4 ratio of men to women, or so the story went, and many of the women were rugby-playing engineers, so as a petite, English student, I was something of a novelty). Anyway, I said no, I don't want to dance with you, I've got a boyfriend and it felt great. His feelings didn't matter for once (although I was polite about it), I was going to do the right thing by me. I was a new person. I got my degree and was accepted on a PGCE course and my husband and I started to plan our future together. We admitted to each other all our indiscretions. And I laugh now at the irony of me nearly throwing up when he admitted to me that he had given in to one or two temptations along the way, which he had hidden from me. This was very painful but it also helped, to share our sins with one another and apologise for our faithlessness. We had both made mistakes, not just me, we had met so young and had needed to grow up so much and neither of us had understood quite the extent to which we were loved by God. We had not internalised his odinances and statutes. I wish it had been otherwise, but it wasn't.

So these were my restless years.

Regrets - some. I wish that I had known God then like I do now. I wish I had had his laws written in my heart because I realise now that if I had lived according to his statutes I would have been able to love myself a little more, hurt myself a little less and have had an easier pathway to navigate. I'd have had a spiritual home to rest back in when I felt homeless and I would have had that confidence which comes when you really know that you are totally loved by God.

Realisations - lots. Growing-up is hard. Teenage girls need strong role-models. The world tells them that they are not pretty enough or thin enough or clever enough. The world tells them strange things about the way that they should relate to men. The world has them value themselves for all the wrong reasons. I've also learnt that no matter how great you think you are as a parent (my parents were great parents, affirming of me and good listeners), you will always mess up your children in some way.

Hopes - that my own girls grow up knowing how loved they are by God; that they can pull comfort from biblical truths as opposed to the messages of teen magazines and television. That they know they are beautiful for who they are and for the ways that they can contribute to the Kingdom, no matter what their role in life; that they have choices and they are not to be defined by their peers, other men or other women. Life is an adventure and the seas are not smooth but God is with us throughout and even when we feel far off, sinking in the deep, grabbing onto whatever floats by to buoy us up, there is a rock nearby to which we can cling, we think we are dragging ourselves up and onto its shores but we are being lifted, ever so gently by the hands of someone offering us rest, blissful and tender rest.

I rest....

and with thanks to God

...for pulling me relatively unscathed out of the teenage-angst years and for having me sit on that swing, that particular lunch hour on that particular school day in the park to be whistled at by that boy from the Catholic school who would go on to become a husband to a girl he loved despite the fact she had braces on her teeth and there were things that that awkward teenage girl didn't like about herself...

...on to the me that grew-up...next post...

Rod Thomas and his use of Ephesians 5: 22-33 and 1 Timothy 3

Gospel calls for solidarity with opponents of women bishops - wow - what a huge claim to make.

Ephesians 5: 22-33 and 1 Timothy 3

Do these verses really prohibit women bishops?
What if a female bishop is not a wife, what if she is single?

22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing^[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."^[b] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Interestingly, he doesn't include Eph 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

1 Tim 3
1Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer,^[a] he desires a noble task. 2Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) 6He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.

8Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. 9They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. 10They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.

11In the same way, their wives^[b] are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

12A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well. 13Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.

14Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, 15if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. 16Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great:
He^[c] appeared in a body,^[d]
was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.

The Greek is

faithful the saying if anyone (not aner or andres) supervision is craving ideal work they are desiring; must then the supervisor irreprehensible to be…

There is no Greek word for “male” found there and the passage speaks of supervisory roles not specifically the role of a bishop. The phrase “of one wife the husband”, simply meant “a faithful spouse” and is found on the graves of both men and women. It would have been presumed that women of the day were faithful and so Paul did not need to remind them that this should be the case but men in supervisory roles would have needed to exhibit faithfulness in their relationships, since men at that time had many affairs without this seeming untoward.

Rod Thomas in insisting that it is a gospel imperative that young evangelicals stand firm against women bishops is doing the right thing if it is important to him to be loyal to the broad sweep of the church's history and its interpretation of the bible which has been patriarchal. He is wrong if he thinks that his point of view really has more biblical validity. Surely, evangelicals place the authority of scripture more highly than the church's customs but it would seem, in his case, they will pick and choose when it suits them.

Celebrate ... exams over...

Your grace is enough!

The Resurrection

It does feel very good to now be this side of that Church fathers exam.

We looked at Christology from above and Christology from below today and it has helped me to understand some of my own church experiences of recent years. Christology from below looks to the historical Jesus. It looks to scripture and behind scripture to context. Christology from above starts with dogma and faith and then to scripture to support the dogma. These are very different approaches and both seem to have their merits. I would have been far more comfortable with Christology from below before my study of the church fathers but I found my experiences dwelling on their thinking to be so spiritually satisfying, that I find I can now be more attentive to dogma and doctrine than I might have been a few years ago.

Tom Wright's Christology from below seems rather daring at times and I can see why opinion is split over his methods in evangelical circles but his 'The Resurrection of the Son of God' is interesting and he has this way of communicating which is fresh and yet erudite at the same time.

I love the way that he explains the resurrection and why we should believe that it has a legitimacy in terms of a historicity. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 fails to mention the empty tomb. He has two reasons for this perhaps. Primarily there was no need to mention it, it would be like mentioning that it was your feet that you walked on as you walked to the shops, the feet we take for granted and they do not need stating. Similarly, the empty tomb did not need mentioning because with a resurrection, the assumption would have been made by 1st century Jews that this meant a tomb was empty. The first century Jews did not conceive of the idea of resurrection without it being a full bodily resurrection. They did not separate the body and the soul as we are prone to do in our culture. There was no separation - only a complete person dead and then a complete person resurrected.

The other reason why Paul failed to mention the empty tomb was because the first witnesses were women and he didn't fail to mention them because he was necessarily a product of his patriarchal culture, although he must have been to an extent but because his audience were conditioned by a patriarchal culture. The witness of a woman would not have been believed and it took two women to bring a charge against a man and the testimonies of women did not stand up in the courts of the day and so Paul knew that it would not help to deliver the message of the resurrection convincingly if he talked about these first witnesses being women.

That the resurrection actually happened is made even more convincing for us considering that the gospel accounts are about women witnesses, for surely if something like this was going to be made up, the last thing that would have been included in any retelling would be the stories of women, considering this culture's belief in the validity of women's testimonies.

So just some thoughts there on the resurrection. I have been trying to explain my belief in Christ's resurrection over at Pluralist blog but I feel I am failing in my apologetics to convince him. At the end of the day there is of course no concrete historical or scientific evidence that the bodily resurrection happened. There were certainly witnesses still alive when Paul penned his letters and Jesus appeared to more than 500 people but faith is what makes the resurrection real, I believe it happened, I can not recreate the events in a test tube. The thing is people are quite prepared to have faith in other things - the big-bang theory etc but can't prove this scientifically either. I will never be able to talk someone into believing in the resurrection because it would seem that there is much more to it than that. Talking and understanding is one thing but knowing and believing is perhaps another.

My 6 year old seemed to get 'mission' tonight - she said 'I see, so you know about Jesus and God and then you pass it on and on and on and on...'She is having some very deep thoughts and is interested particularly at the moment in the story of Mary and Martha and Jesus' cross. It was with a bit of horror tonight as we looked together at her Children's Bible that she realised that it was in the plan of God the father that Jesus should die. Grasping that Jesus is also God helped to some extent. It's a bit awkward when as you talk things through with your children, you also become conscious of the possible heresies you are falling into expressing as you grapple with words for how best to explain it all to them.

This time tomorrow the exams will be over...

Hooray - this time tomorrow, I'll be on my way back home - exams finished. I dislike the pressure but whatever the result, I've actually had a lovely few days contemplating the trinity and the Christology of Philippians 2 5-11: the kenosis and the hypostasis, understanding how our faith as Christians came to be articulated and expressed in the creeds and liturgy which we recite on a Sunday morning. The words of the creed had been becoming more and more significant to me over the last few years but I think I will be able to say them now, attending more carefully to their words, in awe and wonder at their expression of the inexpressible, of how the impassible God suffered through the Word incarnate for our sake and our reconcilation with Him.

It is such pleasure, spending the day working on just two sentences (albeit very long ones) from The New Testament. If someone had told that in my thirties, it would make me happy to stay in all day alone at my kitchen table, contemplating two sentences from the Bible, I would have laughed at them, imagining that that was highly unlikely. Funny how life turns out.

Also heard from my DDO this morning. I was constructing an email to her and the phone rang and somehow I knew it would be her and it was so I look forward to a meeting soon and talking things through about how the Church might want to use me in the future in some capacity, in hopefully a teaching, preaching capacity because it's to that I feel I am called.

' Been a good day.