Seeing the Forest… from the trees

My mate Kamal has got a full article in the paper today! Check it out here.

Goodwork Kamal!

As someone who teaches the Bible in schools I am conscious that many now know nothing about it. Scott Monk gives us some good things to reflect on.

Here is a great article in Quadrant Magazine by Scott Monk.

Justin Taylor has put out a summary of some Bible reading plans to kick off 2010.

Check them out here.

Also check out the ESV Bible Reading page here.

Here is a great article from The Age that faces some of the awkward parts of the Christmas story.

Here is a great interview from Sunrise on Tony Abbot’s comments that we ought to teach the Bible in schools.

Check it out here.

I was amazed when watching compass on Sunday to find a refreshingly down to earth assessment of the issue of Evolution and Christianity.

You can watch it here.

On a personal note, I have not been blogging as much due to moving house with a wife who is very pregnant, 4 weeks until no.4! God willing I will have some more time for this site. Thanks for reading.

Brett

A short drive from me is a church that advertises itself with the slogan ‘Church has changed!’ I find this worrying, partly because I think that it targets disgruntled Christians more than anyone else, it seems to communicate ‘this church is better than yours.’ It may be aiming at those leaving churches rather than looking to present the good news of Jesus to all the people they are in touch with.

Christianity Today has posted this interesting article; The great Evangelical Anxiety’ by Mark Galli. The issue I think behind this is how Christians are to live in western society which is becoming more and more pluralist. Do we seek to be more contextually relevant or do we seek to find the next spiritual program that will improve things? While neither of things things may be necessarily wrong they do seem to miss the core of the issue. It is easy to forget that the heart of the Christian message is not exercises, methods or programs but the good news of Jesus.

While Mark Galli may not give many answers, or even practical solutions he does point to the need to remember that the heart of the Christian message is nothing more than the amazing news of what Jesus has done.

Great Bible software, Check out Cal.vini.st

Seeing the hype around the death of Michael Jackson I am reminded again that death is not natural.

Death is something that we all fear, sometimes subconsciously. We would do well that death was not part of God’s creation in Genesis 1 and 2. Death comes in Genesis 3:19 after humanity rebels against God.

While we do not like to reflect on death, it is an undeniable future for us all.

Death is always a sad parting, we feel the scandal of death, it always feels like an unnatural end. We feel the discomfort of the judgment of God. Luke 13:1-5 reminds us that death is supposed to remind us to turn to God, our only hope.

We rightly grieve when we lose people we know and death’s can bring back memories and emotions for other people we have lost.

If only we could use these events to reflect on their mortality and find true hope in Jesus Christ.

Having recently joined the Anglican diocese of Melbourne, which has diversity of belief as one of its stated attributes, I have cause to wonder, how much diversity is enough?

It seems to me this is one of the questions that are presently plaguing the Anglican Communion at present. 

Matt Stone noted this article on an Agnostic Anglican Bishop. 

At least here the Bishop is not practicing, he has an honourary position rather than one with direct oversight. 

For most people they see it as reasonable that if you do not subscribe to fundamental truths that you ought not hold positions in the Church, yet the debate is always what these truths are. 

With the onset of postmodernism many now reject foundationalism of any kind, which then assumes that pluralism is the fundamental truth. To speak of all paths being equally valid is nonsense in practice, some are always inherently better than others. But what this does do is acknowledge that the concrete reality in front of us is diversity and we must somehow come to grips with that. 

My take on this is, I am skeptical of foundationalism, where humans set the ground rules and then construct the ‘right’ interpretation of reality. Rather, I think it is God alone who may set the ground rules of reality, he is the creator after all.  While it is a Christian duty to attempt to express the truth of what God has done (and is still doing), we ought always do it humbly acknowledging our place before God. We find God’s revelation of himself in the entirety of the Bible, and in that most clearly in the man Jesus Christ. In my work of preaching I certainly aim to speak for God and do speak with the confidence of ‘thus saith the Lord’, yet I am always aim to be open for critique and feedback, and if necessary to acknowledge my mistakes. 

This framework is by no means a final answer, but for me it is a work in progress. I realise that there are many, even in the Anglican church, who do not see the Bible as the answer. But what would be more helpful is if people would take the time to articulate what they think the answer is, at least then we can begin to work out where we stand. My fear is that many are no longer interested in God’s truth and are happy with their own agenda, it is certainly cause for prayer. 

When we can understand the diversity better and appreciate it we can even begin to look for a way forward.