The Atheist 'Church'

A great post on this flash-in-the-pan phenomenon that has been dubbed 'The Atheist Church'.
Have a look, then have a look at a real church, like this one (others available).
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Things I love in England 2

It's time for another of these. Some of you may know I've applied with JET to be an ALT in Japan for a year. The time where I am supposed to hear from them about whether I get an interview or not is looming and therefore my heart is drifting towards Japan again, which can/has caused problems. The problem is I am here for at least another 7 months, if I even get selected (which is far from certain) and therefore although I don't want my love or passion for Japan to diminish, I neither wish for my current calling to suffer. Therefore, here is another list of things I love in England. (There may be repeats!)

Cardiff Friends

St. Peter's, Interior

1. English. Being able to communicate easily is wonderful.
2. St. Peter's, Woodmansterne. A church I love, full of people who love Jesus and have welcomed me with open arms.
3. Churches in general. There are loads of them here. Even the smallest villages tend to have churches and towns and cities have a plethora.
4. Coffee, especially Coffee#1, Costa and Neros.
5. Tea. Good in Japan too but different. 
6. Ales
7. Pork Pies
8. British TV
9. NHS and access to medicines
10. British humour
11. Queues
12. Friends (Some of them on the right)
13. Family
14. Social understanding
15. Seasons
16. Queuing
17. Relaxed hobbies
18. Cheese. As in actual cheese and not cheese flavoured rubber.
19. Not sweating 24/7 during the summer
20. The countryside

Let me know your thoughts. What is great about England? I'll even extend it to Great Britain if that makes life easier. Comment below.
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Ladies, put your testicals away in church!

Lady Gaga with testical hair. 

A really intersting concept.
Did paul mean ladies' hair was thier 'covering' or 'testicals'?
I know! Sounds mental right? Well it's from good scholars, not nut jobs.
Might be right and might not be. Have a look and decide for yourself

See this post by Richard Beck: http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/head-coverings-in-worship-why-female.html

and this short essay by Mark Goodacre:
http://markgoodacre.org/peribolaionJBL.pdf

H/T: Nearemmaus

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To learn ASAP

Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode

|--------|-/3-3-3-/3-3-3-/3-3-|-3---------------|
|----3-5-|-/3-3-3-/3-3-3-/3-3-|-3-6-5-3---------|
|-/4-----|--------------------|---------3-4-----|
|--------|--------------------|-------------5-5-|

|------------------|------------------|--------------|-3-----------|
|------------------|----3-5-3---------|----3----3----|-3----3----3-|
|-/4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-|-/4-4-4-4\2p0-----|-5b---5b---5b-|---5b---5b---|
|-/5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|--------------2p0-|--------------|-------------|

|--------------|-3-----------|----3-------5-3-|---------------3---|
|----3----3----|-3----3----3-|------6-5-3-----|-6-5-3--------3--6-|
|-5b---5b---5b-|---5b---5b---|-5b-------------|-------5-3---4-----|
|--------------|-------------|----------------|-------------------|

|---------------------|-------------|
|-5-3----3----3-------|-------------|
|-----5b---5b---5--3h4|-0-----------|
|---------------------|-------------|

||---------|---------|---------|---------|
||.3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|
||.0-0-0-0-|-0-0-0-0-|-0-0-0-0-|-0-0-0-0-|
||---------|---------|---------|---------|

 |---------|---------|---------|---------|
 |-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|
 |-0-0-0-0-|-0-0-0-0-|-0-0-0-0-|-0-0-0-0-|
 |---------|---------|---------|---------|

 |-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|
 |-1-1-1-1-|-1-1-1-1-|-1-1-1-1-|-1-1-1-1-|
 |---------|---------|---------|---------|
 |---------|---------|---------|---------|

 |---------|---------|---------|---------|
 |-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|
 |-0-0-0-0-|-0-0-0-0-|-0-0-0-0-|-0-0-0-0-|
 |---------|---------|---------|---------|

 |-5-5-7-5-|-5-5-7-5-|-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|
 |-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-|-1-1-1-1-|-1-1-1-1-|
 |---------|---------|---------|---------|
 |---------|---------|---------|---------|

 |---------|---------|---5-5-5-|-5-5-5-5-||
 |-3-3-5-3-|-3-3-5-3-|---3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3.||
 |-0-0-0-0-|-0-0-0-0-|---------|--------.||
 |---------|---------|---------|---------||

/ = slide up
\ = slide down
b = bend up
h = hammer-on
p = pull-off

Here for this tab and many more!

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Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong passed away this week. In his honour here are two lesser known facts:

1)He was a Ukulele player and requested one to be left in quarantine to pass his time. (See photo)

2)He was a Christian. He and Buzz took communion before emerging from the Pod.
 
Till Next Time!

H/T GOT A UKULELE

I Won't Be Lazy - A Parody of 'Call Me Maybe' by Carley Ray Jepsen

A song for Woodmansterne primary school. It was performed on the last Tuesday assembly of the Summer term. It reminds us that holiday is not so we can be lazy but to have fun, help others and serve our family. Lyrics and chords are below (as well as the original and Cookie Monster Version videos)

G Em* C D

I threw my bag on the floor,
ain’t got to work now at all
I kicked my shoes off my feet,
And now I’ll watch T.V

My Mum is whinging at me,
”Do chores and turn off T.V”
but it’s my holiday time,
I turned the volume up.

Wait! What am I doing?
getting fat with all this chewing
lawn is needing mowing.
Should I help my parents, maybe?

CHORUS
Hey, it’s the summer,
And I feel lazy,
playing consoles,
and watching T.V.

It’s time to do right,
stop thinking of me,
start helping others.
I won’t be lazy!

Hey, it’s the summer,
go and climb trees
play some football
swim in the sea

I’ll use the body
that God gave me
for fun and service.
I won’t be lazy!

I’ll go out, have some fun,
not sit all day on my bum,
I’ll use my holiday time,
to play out with my friends.

I’ll clean the table at home,

I’ll wash the dishes with mum,

I’ll do whatever I can,

to love my family.

Great, we’re doing better
loving one another
Love like Jesus loves us.
I want to be more like him, today!

 CHORUS 

 

BRIDGE
C G
When I live just for myself
D
my life is so bad
C
my life is so bad

D C
my life is so, so bad

But when we live for someone else
and live for Jesus
His love completes us
and makes us so, so glad.

CHORUS 2 G Em* C D
I’ll use the body
that God gave me
for fun and service.
I won’t be lazy!


It’s time to do right,
stop thinking of me,
start helping others.
I won’t be lazy!

Hey, it’s the summer,
go and climb trees
play some football
swim in the sea



BRIDGE 2
C G
When I live just for myself
D
my life is so bad
C
my life is so bad

D C
my life is so, so bad

But when we live for someone else
and live for Jesus
His love completes us D G
I won’t be lazy!

---------------------------------------

G - 0232

Em* - 0402

C - 0003

D - 2220

In case you've not heard it before, here is the original

and here is a(nother) brilliant parody!

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Lectio Divina

Scripture knowledge today, even among Christians, is poor. I Have been a student of scripture most of my life and I still find my knowledge lacking, and even more the living out of the message. One great way to help us engage with scripture is Lectio Divina. You may have heard the phrase before. Here is a fantastic introduction by Dr. Joanne Jung to what it is and how to do it. Give it a listen, give it a go and see what God has to say and have you do today.



Courtesy of Biola. Check them out!

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Some Guidelines for Reading Old Testament Narrative

In the west we are often more comfortable with the New Testament as it fits into the Hellenistic framework we're used to. The Old testament can sometimes feel puzzling and even when we read commentaries it can sometimes be hard to see how they came to that conclusion. Here are 10 principles copied from Julian Freeman which can help us interpret Old Testament narrative passages.

Heart Shaped Tattoo

Many of you will already know James Hill. I love his song 'Heart Shaped Tattoo' and so spent this eve working out the chords and tabs for it. I think its pretty good but I'll let you decide for yourself. Download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u825sjayvdu7jug/Heartshapedtattoo.pdf
For now here is the original for your enjoyment:

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The Ukuleles on BBC Breakfast this morning

The imaginatively names 'The Ukuleles' were on BBC Breakfast this morning. Go here to check it out.
or if you're outside the UK, check this video out:

Till Next Time!
H/T

Light

What follows are the two short talks from my brothers baptism on 08/07/12.

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Light to walk in

John 8 v.12

                    There once was a mole boy who lived in a mole hole in the mole ground with his mole family. He ate all the best grubs and the slimiest worms. It was very, very dark underground, too dark to use his eyes, so he never even opened them. Instead he felt where he was going with his nose and whiskers, and sensed things move in the soil around him. One day he remembered what his granddad told him about this place called ‘the Outside’. He was told that it was a very scary place but he was far too curious to not go so he started digging up as fast as he could. He reach the point where there was no more soil to dig. It felt like a cave but bigger, and there was a warm breeze through the air. “This must be the outside!” he thought and started exploring around. He walked a little then fell over something hard and round. He stood back up and started walking again until he walked into something tall and covered in bark. “My granddad was right, this is scary”, he thought. He stood up again and started walking again but this time he tried to be very carefully but suddenly he fell into a big puddle of water. Something grabbed him and pulled him to the side. “Ribbit” said the stranger “What did you jump into my house for?” “I’m sorry” said the mole. “I didn’t mean to. There’s no mud around me to feel so I don’t know where I’m going.” The stranger laughed, “Silly mole! Open your eyes. It’s not dark like in your home, there is light everywhere!” As he did he could see everything. The rock he fell over, the tree he bumped into, the pond he fell into and the helpful stranger, Mr. Frog. Suddenly the outside wasn’t odd and scary anymore but was exciting and wonderful. All because he opened his eyes to the light and saw everything in a new way.

We can be a bit like that mole can’t we. Feeling out through our lives, not really knowing what to do or where to go. Life can seem a bit like finding our way in the dark, falling over thing we come across. Jesus said that he is the ‘Light of the world’. No longer do we have to go through life in darkness, instead Jesus brings us light and guides us where to go. All we have to do is open our eyes to him and follow. He shows us how to live, worshipping God and loving one another, and leads the way. No longer do we have to stumble on our own because Jesus, the light, will lead us if only follow.               

You are the light of the world!

Mathew 5 vv.14-16

(Set up lamp under bucket) It’s getting a bit dark in here isn’t it? It’s making it quite hard to read the service sheet so I’ve decided that I’d bring along my lamp to help us all see. Isn’t it wonderfully bright?! (Await response) It is on, so why can’t we see the light? (Await response and remove bucket). Well that’s much better now isn’t it! I suppose lights are only useful if we can see them aren’t they. It’s a bit silly to have a light and then hide it away.

We’ve already looked this morning at how Jesus said that he was the light of the world but now we have heard something else Jesus said, that we are the light of the world. Light can be catching. If we follow Jesus then we start to shine light just like he does; we start to do what he does, to love good and shun evil, to worship like he does. Therefore our lives shine out into the world like a light in the darkness.

It’s infectious to others around us too. When people see how God’s family live and the light that we show, it shines on them too. It shows how wonderful and good it is to below to God and shines light on those things we do wrong so they can be made right. It’s attractive and draws people into God’s marvellous light. It would be odd then wouldn’t it to hide this light away, like hiding a lamp under a bucket. Instead we should shine the light we received from Jesus to all around us by the way we live, act and speak. Instead we let our light shine all around so that others can see and start to follow God too.

It’s a bit like the Olympic torch. (Help: torch + 3 candles and Jason)  It is said that there is one flame in Greece that a torch is lighted from, which lights the next torch and the next and the next until they spread all across the world. God is that one flame, that one light. Jesus shared that with his followers, who told others who told other until we get till today where Jason has taken up the light which he will let shine out to share with others.

So then friends, see the light that Jesus shines and then follow him like Jason has begun to do. Catch the light yourself, live a life pleasing to God and attractive to those around you, then shine it for all too see that they too can follow and shine too, pleasing their Father in heaven. Shine as a light in the world to the glory of God the Father. Amen               Pray

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Parable of the Mole

There once was a mole boy who lived in a mole hole in the mole ground with his mole family. He ate all the best grubs and the slimiest worms. It was very, very dark underground, too dark to use his eyes, so he never even opened them. Instead he felt where he was going with his nose and whiskers, and sensed things move in the soil around him. 

One day he remembered what his granddad told him about this place called ‘the Outside’. He was told that it was a very scary place but he was far too curious to not go so he started digging up as fast as he could. He reach the point where there was no more soil to dig. It felt like a cave but bigger, and there was a warm breeze through the air. “This must be the outside!” he thought and started exploring around. He walked a little then fell over something hard and round. He stood back up and started walking again until he walked into something tall and covered in bark. “My granddad was right, this is scary”, he thought. He stood up again and started walking again but this time he tried to be very carefully but suddenly he fell into a big puddle of water. 

Something grabbed him and pulled him to the side. “Ribbit” said the stranger “What did you jump into my house for?” “I’m sorry” said the mole. “I didn’t mean to. There’s no mud around me to feel so I don’t know where I’m going.” The stranger laughed, “Silly mole! Open your eyes. It’s not dark like in your home, there is light everywhere!” As he did he could see everything. The rock he fell over, the tree he bumped into, the pond he fell into and the helpful stranger, Mr. Frog. Suddenly the outside wasn’t odd and scary anymore but was exciting and wonderful. All because he opened his eyes to the light and saw everything in a new way.

What Did I Do That For?! - Sermon

 Here follows the sermon preached at 6:30 on 24th June 2012 (an abridged version was preached at the 10:30 Baptism service.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What did I do that for?!

Passages: Romans 7:15-8:8 / John 14: 15-27

This morning is confession time. For the last month or so I have been on that thing we all hate: a diet! That however is not my confession. Salads and red-top milk now lace my fridge and meat has become an absent friend for the most part. Treats are supposed to be low-fat which often seems to be a synonym for tasteless or salty. It means trips to the gym although on the plus side that also means trips to the sauna. Believe it or not I do want to do this: to improve my health, improve my stamina, sleep better and so on. Here is my confession: I am an awful cheat. 

Despite wanting to loose weight it seems that I want crisps, cream cakes and fast food too. I am my own worst enemy. I have a constant internal battle between what I want to do and what I seem to do. I nearly always immediately regret when I cheat and yet I keep doing it. It’s a self-destructive cycle that I don’t seem to be able to escape from.

Life can be like this, can’t it. We set ourselves goals, we set ourselves morals to live by: to do good and avoid evil. We set out with genuine intentions to do these things and often start out well. To be more patient with our families, to smile more at work, to be more generous with our money or to look after our money better, to stop smoking, to put others first, to look after our health, the list goes on and on. Sometimes we manage this yet after a while we fall back into those old patterns to self and want, then the whole process starts over again and again. All too often it seems impossible to escape and if we do then we are one of the few that manage.

In our reading today Paul was thinking some very similar thoughts. He was in despair. All those good things God said to do like loving God first, putting other before himself, loving everyone, working on his temper, not worrying so much, he constantly kept failing at. And all those things God said not to do like breaking promises, hurting others in words and actions, being selfish and loosing our temper, these he just kept on doing. Its not like he wanted to be selfish, yet if he looked at his actions that’s what he kept doing. Why was it that even though he always wanted to be good that he kept failing. It didn’t make any sense. He wanted to obey God and follow his ways and yet too often he simply followed his selfish nature. It is the human condition and has plagued us, and every other person in history, for our whole lives. We seem like a people torn in two directions and that is exactly how Paul sees it. On the one hand he desires to do good and to follow God, yet on the other hand he keeps doing evil, the thing we call sin; those things that ignore God and neighbour and focus only on ourselves. 

God calls us to be perfect just as he too is perfect. A holy God that calls us to be holy. He wants us to come to him, to love him and follow him, to enjoy being known as his. He desires for us to be whole, to be the people he made us to be and to know the immense love that he has for us and yet he cannot have a hint of sin in his presence, not even an inkling. It’s like having a knife you’ve used to spread marmite then wanting to use it to spread butter. Not matter how much you scrape it on the toast there is still some marmite the gets into the butter and corrupts it. It seems hopeless, even impossible, especially if we look to our past. None of us can honestly say that we have lived a perfect life so far, nor can we envisage it in the future no matter how hard we try. It can often feel like locking the gates after the horse has bolted. Perhaps we find ourselves echoing the language that Paul uses, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” The system we are trapped in, this system of sin that leads to death, needs to be broken and yet our attempts to break it simply drive us deeper into that very system. 

It is like an old clay-bottomed well. Over the years the well has all but dried up. The only remains of water is the wet clay at the bottom. One day a boy walks past this well with his father and the father warns the boy sternly, ‘you must never go near that well. It is very dangerous’. The next day, enticed by the well, the boy returns on his own and leans over to look how far the well goes down and why his dad thinks it’s so dangerous. At that moment he slips and falls to the bottom. As he sits the bottom his feet get stuck in the clay and not wanting to get in more trouble he tries to get out himself. The problem is that the more he struggles the deeper into the wet clay he sinks. Every wiggle and jump he uses to get out simply drives him deeper and deeper into the clay. It seems like there is no hope.

So has God abandoned us to failure? No, and that is the good news; God has come to redeem us. He has not left us but rather has come to rescue us and all we have to do is accept that. Much like that boy in the well. If he decided to continue trying to rescue himself then surely he would be trapped forever, but instead he realised that he needed help. The clay was too much for him to deal with and needed someone outside the well to rescue him. So he called out to his Dad “I’m sorry, please help”. Hearing his son’s cried he ran to the well with a rope, tied one end around a tree and threw the other end down the well. He climbed down the rope, reached out his hand for his son to grab and pulled him out. We too needed someone not trapped in the system of sin and death that we are trapped in and so God came down the rope into our well, the world, to rescue us in Jesus. That sin we commit; ignoring God, his law and our neighbours, our selfish ambitions needed to be dealt with and so Jesus did, by dying on the cross then rising to life again 3 days later. The penalty of death paid on our behalf. All we have to do, like with any gift, is to accept it and say to God, like the boy to his dad, “I’m sorry, please help”. That is why Paul, after his declaration of despair suddenly busts out into, ‘Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ The question begs to be asked then. A question that we all must ask, young and old. Have we called out to God, rejected our selfish ambitions and accepted his rescue? My friends, don’t do what that boy did and struggle in the clay but call out to your heavenly father to pull you out.

The wonder is then, that if we have accepted God’s rescue then we are out of that system. No longer are we stuck in that clay of sin binding us to death. That depressing cycle that leads us to despair, guilt and condemnation is made powerless to us for we are now part of a family with God as the head leading the way, the church. That’s all well and good you may say, God has pulled us out of the clay of sin but what keeps us from falling back into it again? Well, God doesn’t leave us to struggle alone, nor simply pat us on the back and wish us luck. If we were left to our own devices we’d simply fall back into that well of sin over and over again, in fact that was the problem in the first place. Paul puts it like this in verses 5-8, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires…The mind governed by the flesh is death…The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” Now here ‘flesh’ doesn’t mean our physical bodies as if they were evil, far from it, as God has created us, rather it is a shorthand term used to mean the sinful things we do and think that has permeated our very nature, the corrupted nature that we have come to live-by. If we carry on living as we have always done, by the ‘flesh’ then we will fall back into sin as we have before. It’s a basic principle of life. If we do the same things over and over again then we should expect the same outcome over and over again. To change an outcome the process must be changed. The ‘flesh’, Paul says, is hostile to God: by it’s very nature it seeks self, it seeks gratification, it seeks glory. No wonder then that it is hostile to God and to his laws, his ways because that would mean acknowledging our weakness, our need for rescue, that God is greater then we are, that his ways are greater then our ways. Those that live like that cannot please God then, it is the natural conclusion that we must come to. No matter how much good we do, no matter how much we come to church or partake in the sacraments, we still have a nature problem of ‘flesh’; we ultimately will reject God for self and can never reach him.

There is another way though for those that accept that rescue God offers. A complete change of mind is offered to remove us from the perpetual cycle of sin. Later in Romans Paul puts it like this, ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.’(Rom 12:2) So how then do we transform our minds? It is by receiving the Holy Spirit. When speaking of his death and ascension Jesus told the disciples not to worry because he’s not leaving them alone, rather he is sending us the Holy Spirit who will ‘teach [us] all things and will remind [us] of everything [Jesus has] said to [us].’ We must allow the Holy Spirit to change us, to transform us, to teach us of God’s ways and to strengthen us to live that way. As Paul says in verses 6-7, ‘those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires…the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.’ It means living differently, seeking what the Holy Spirit wants and desires, dying to our old ways of self and want and finding life in him.

When we seek to be physically stronger we lift weights, we train, we stretch. This principle is true for spirituality too. We must stretch out spiritual muscles, training ourselves in righteousness and holiness. Learning to listen as the Holy Spirit convicts, teaches, comforts and guides. To make time each day to pray and to read the bible, and meet regularly with other Christians to share what God is saying by his Holy Spirit and to spur one another on in holiness. To choose each day to reject self and follow him, and to keep the promises we have made.Is this easy, no but it is certainly worth it. It is also why we make promises to support one another and to meet together. God has given us the church for a reason. So let’s listen to his voice, let’s look for his guidance, let’s forget the flesh and set our minds on the desires of the Spirit to find life and peace. Amen

Pray

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Till Next Time!

Day Conference on Lament (London)

This looks amazing. Hope you agree.

































Thanks To Robin Parry at Theological Scribbles
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10 Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained For Ministry

At the moment I am going through the process of being ordained in the Anglican church. Then my Rector (that's vicar with an weird historical name) passed this on to me. I wont take it personally!:


10 Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained For Ministry

Thanks to Eugene Cho  who wrote the post over at Soujouners and to Mick Hough who tipped me off on Facebook.

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Superglue

A wrote a song. It's childish and gross, but them so am I. Enjoy....if you can!



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The fate of post-enlightenment mankind

To reject God is to reject our source.

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Maundy Thursday Reflection

What follows is the Maundy reflection delivered at St. Peter's Woodmansterne by Rev. Art Baron. Enjoy

Philippians 2.1-11 and John 13.1-17; 31-35

An old Doctor friend of mine had a favourite story which he used to tell his medical students with only a moderate degree of approval.

It was a particularly busy day at the Pearly Gates, following  something of a minor disaster on earth, with a large crowd of people queueing to get in to heaven when somebody strolled up from the back of the queue and was immediately let in by St Peter. ’Who does he think he is?’ mumbled the crowd. ‘Oh, that’s God, somebody said, ’but sometimes he thinks he’s a Doctor!’ As you might imagine some of William’s students did not get the joke. And in fairness most of the Doctors I know do not fit the description in the joke.

In our reading from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi we are told that Jesus knew he was ‘in very nature God,’ but ’did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing’ emptied himself, became a servant, a mere slave.     

Many years ago in a small town in Russia, according to legend, there was a rabbi who disappeared each Friday morning for several hours. His devoted congregation, young and old, boasted that during those times, their rabbi went up to heaven and talked to God!

One day a stranger moved into the town and, to say the least, was sceptical about these claims. So, he decided to check it out for himself. Late one Thursday night he hid himself somewhere in the rabbi's house and waited and watched.

He saw the rabbi get up, say his prayers, and then dress in peasant clothing. Then, the rabbi grabbed an axe, went off to the nearby woods, and cut some firewood, which he then carried to a shack on the outskirts of the village. There, an old woman and her sick son lived. The rabbi left the wood, enough to last a week, and then sneaked back home.

Having seen the rabbi’s actions, the newcomer stayed on and he too, became a member of the congregation and a disciple of the rabbi. Whenever he heard one of the villagers brag, “On Friday morning our rabbi ascends all the way to heaven,” the newcomer would maintain a discreet silence.

On the first Maundy Thursday, some two-thousand years ago, another rabbi (a title that means teacher), a rabbi Who also claimed to be the visible, physical, tangible, human incarnation of God Himself, not only took the form of a servant but sacrificed his own life for the benefit of others including you and I.

On the night before His arrest and subsequent trial and  crucifixion, Jesus took off his outer clothing, wrapped a towel  round his waist, poured water into a basin and, no doubt on his hands and knees, bent over and washed the dirty and calloused feet of his disciples, including the one who he knew would betray him. Peter, who was probably the most vocal of his disciples, objected, saying ’you shall never wash my feet.’  This was the work of a servant, Peter thought, not of his Lord and Master.

Jesus, in effect, told Peter that the Saviour is a servant. The human race could only be saved from the sin that otherwise kills us by a Saviour so humble that He is willing to serve the lowest of the low and even die for the worst sinner who ever lived.

After washing the feet of all twelve of His closest followers, even the one He knew would soon betray Him to the Jewish temple police and the Roman soldiers, Jesus put His outer clothing back on, resumed His place at supper, and no doubt with all eyes fixed on Him, spoke:

“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call Me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”

Jesus is saying that like Him, we should serve each other and others. Jesus says that when we serve others in His Name, we do more than make them feel good. We give them a glimpse, a window, into the Kingdom of God. He then in effect says, “Do this. Be a servant like me.”

Jesus also said that we should take up our cross, whatever that may represent for each one of us, and follow him. The famous German theologian and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that when Christ calls a man he bids him come and die, which in his case literally meant execution at the hands of the Nazis. It is in serving others that we should die to ourselves, to our own needs, our own wants, our own desires, and our own selfish ambitions.

Today, Christians of all denominations and none, followers of Jesus from around the world, celebrate Maundy Thursday. Maundy is an Old English word from the Latin mandatum, which means mandate or commandment. On that first Maundy Thursday, after washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus gave them a new commandment. He told them to love one another.

There is a good reason Jesus linked servant hood and love in the way that He did that night. Servant hood in Jesus' Name is so extremely powerful because it is the most profound, meaningful, and practical way we can fulfill His command to love others.

And God knows that in this upside down, morally bankrupt, selfish, war and riot torn world, a world full of disease, famine, and earthquakes, we desperately need to love each other. The love of Jesus, really and truly lived out by Christians in the guts of everyday life, makes a difference in this world and to the lives of ordinary, and not so ordinary, people! In Proverbs chapter 29 verse 18 we read “Where there is no vision the people perish” or “where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.” Let us play our part in helping to restore that vision of which the writer of proverbs speaks and in the love we show and the service we render to others that demonstrates His presence in our lives.

We all have our own agendas and often put our own selfish desires before the needs of others. We build walls between ourselves and God, and between ourselves and others. We can begin to think that we’re somehow entitled to being first. And when the world refuses to bend to our wills and preferences, we may dig our heels in and we may even become angry and bitter at not getting our own way.

Our lives make a lot more sense once we embrace the simple insight that the world doesn’t revolve around us, but around God. When we dare to serve others as Jesus has served us, we give Him an opening that He fills with His love and his grace and his peace. It is the servants who follow Jesus who show us all what the Kingdom of God is really like.

Just as amazingly, like that rabbi who sneaked away on Friday mornings to serve without recognition, those who serve others in the Name of the God made known through Jesus Christ., get to feel what heaven is like themselves!

Speaking for myself, I’m praying this Maundy Thursday that God will keep making war on my ego and that as I surrender my life to Him, Jesus will make a willing servant out of me because I love experiencing what heaven is like and I love sharing it with others!

When I was a child at school in the days when hymns were sung and prayers marked the beginning and the end of the school day we often said the prayer of St Ignatius of Loyola which was one of the headmasters favourites. It was a prayer which influenced me greatly and ironically a catholic prayer which  probably gave me my protestant work ethic, and I should like to finish with it now:

Dearest Lord,
teach me to be generous;
teach me to serve You as You deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labour and not to ask for reward
save that of knowing I am doing Your Will.

Amen

Till Next Time!

Easter Youth Talks

There are a lot of talks to do over Easter. It can be hard to find inspiration and even harder to find brilliant talks that are pretty much ready to use. Here then are a couple of links I've find whilst planning for an Easter Youth talk this week.
Hope they help you as much as they did me:

1) We all need a saviour - Talk based on a clip from Superman Returns. Whether we think it or not, we all need a saviour and that is Jesus.
2) Washed Clean - A talk telling the gospel using a heart shaped cloth and chemicals. Sin makes our heart dirty, Jesus cleans it.

Till Next Time!

Saviour - An Easter Parody

Saviour - An Easter themed Parody of Jessie J's Price Tag.
It's been written for school assemblies to teach a little about the real Easter story.
Please feel free to use it if you'd like it but obviously don't make money from it
as you'll get us all sued! Chords and lyrics below.

Till Next Time!


F Am Dm Bb (alt Capo 5th Fret C Em Am F)

Seems like everybody’s got it wrong,
Will anybody get it right?
When the myth comes first,
And the truth comes second,
Just stop, for a minute and Smile:)

Everyone’s so articulate
About an egg of chocolate
A burrow of bunnies
A nest of chicks
That you don’t even know what’s
Right.


Pre-chorus:

Everybody look to their left (yeah)
Everybody look to their right (ha)
Can you feel that (yeah)
He paid for our sins, that’s right.


Chorus:

It's not about the bunnies, bunnies, bunnies
We don’t need no bunnies, bunnies, bunnies
Wanna hear the world roar!,
It’s all about the saviour

Ain't about the (ha) T-tweet T-tweet.
Aint about the (yeah) S- sweet S-sweets
Wanna hear the world roar!,
It’s all about the saviour.


I need to take you back in time,
When on that cross Jesus died
When he paid for our sin and made love win.
This news is going worldwide

Why you looking so depressed?
Jesus rose up from the dead.
Just three days down risen up now.
Sat down by his Fathers
Side


Pre-chorus

Chorus

Bridge:

Lala-Lala-Lalala hey!
Lala-Lala-Lalala hey!
Lala-Lala-Lalala hey!
Saviour! [X2]


Chorus