Palm Sunday and Peace

Here is a link to my sermon for Palm Sunday.

I don't know if this sermon would qualify as a sermon on the subject of peace, but I think that it gives some insights as to why I think that peace is at the heart of the Christian faith.

The story of Jesus is the story of someone who turned upside down all of our usual values. In Holy Week, I think that we see this very starkly. Jesus could have been a conquering, military hero.

But, had he chosen this action that the world would have considered good - we love heros and hate wimps after all - there could have been no forgiveness. You can't forgive someone and crush them at the same time.

If we think that Jesus primary raison d'etre was forgiveness, then peace comes as part and parcel of that forgiveness. Not just the sort of preace that refrains from violence, either. But an all-encompassing peace. Shalom. The peace of God that passes all human understanding.

This is why I cannot separate "peace issues" from Christian theology.

Sermon - Prodigal Son

I've just posted last week's sermon on The Prodigal Son.

I didn't have to preach today! I took part in the monthly United Service at my Methodist / Anglican partnership church and the vicar preached a cracking good sermon. I was grateful for the refreshment of not having to prepare this last week. It's given me a bit of energy in the run-up to Holy Week.

Book Blog

I have started a book blog, which I hope might be a place where interested parties can discuss theology books of various kinds. If the blog gets a decent quorum of readers, it might be an idea to allow a number of people to originate posts.

At the moment, I'm going through Miroslav Volf's book "Free of Charge" chapter by chapter. You can find a discussion of the first chapter here.

Computer back home :-)

My computer is back home from the Computer Hospital and is more fit and well than when it went in.

Little niggly things that had not been working right for ages have been fixed as well! All for what I think was a fair price.

So thanks to DSI Computers of Kidderminster (moving to Bromsgrove this coming Monday!). They don't appear to have a website, but they did a good job.

Injured Computer

I'm writing this from Wonderful Husband's computer....

My computer currently has a major injury and I cannot use it. Anyone who knows me In Real Life and who reads the blog, please don't expect me to answer emails as quickly as I usually do.

What happened? "£*&%$"! Norton AntiVirus. Tried to install the new version (because the new version was cheaper than just paying for the virus updates.) It's erased a vital file from the computer so that it won't start. It did this AFTER erasing "Go Back". Of course.

I want to spit.

All I can say is thank goodness it didn't happen just before I needed to print out a sermon or a service.

Sermons - Trust in God / Repentance & Forgiveness

Catching up on sermon links:

Sunday 4 March 2007 – Trust in God
Sunday 11 March 2007 – Repentance and Forgiveness

A Thought for the Day

I'm currnetly making a detailed outline of Miroslav Volf's book, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace .

In this book, Volf puts forward the idea that "Questioning God's giving" is a sin. He then elaborates that "questioning God's giving" consists of believing that God's intentions toward humanity are not all good.

This hit home because, as many who know me will be aware, I grew up believing that God's intentions towards humanity were not oriented toward the good of humanity, but that they were oriented toward the preservation of God's own honour and righteousness. I grew up believing that God was quite prepared to hurt, torture and eternally damn anyone who failed to "honour" him properly.

It's an interesting idea that Volf thinks that such a belief about God is "sinful".

I don't want to bore for England on this subject. I do know that there are still many people who believe as I did and I hope that it's liberating to think that we are "supposed" to believe that God's intentions for us are good.

Joyfully accept all the gifts that God gives to you and then don't try to hold on to them - pass them on!

And woe to those who place before others the stumbling-block idea that God is more concerned with his own honour than he is with the good of his creatures.

Moderation Enabled

I've enabled comment moderation as I've received a "SPAM" comment (I mean a genuine, gibberish SPAM, not simply a comment I didn't like).

I've had moderation off on the basis that free commenting enables conversation and under the apparently mistaken notion that, as 'owner' of this board, I had the ability to remove comments.

For some reason, some of my posts seem to allow me to remove comments and others do not. So I will leave moderation on for awhile and see what happens. Apologies to those who comment here.

Listophobia?

I hate, loathe and despise making lists. I have no idea why.

In the last month, I've had three church council meetings plus two committee meetings. Each meeting has meant that I've gone away with about ten things on a 'to do' list. I have no alternative but to write all these things down, so I don't forget them.

I know that lots of people say that they love making lists so that they can cross each item off as they do it. Lists have the opposite effect on me. I find them massively depressing; I have idea why.

Between all these "to do" items, plus writing and studying for the Probationer's Committee next week, I've not had much time for blogging and that's felt like another thing on an oppressive "to do" list.

So, I apologise. Normal blogging will resume at some point when I get a life. After Easter???