"Can human folly harbour a more arrogant or ungrateful thought than the notion that whereas God makes man beautiful in body, man makes himself pure in heart?"
Augustine.
It's almost here once again - that moment when people rush into the mode of thinking in which they resolve all will be improved in the next 12 months if they fervently keep to their decision to (insert your resolution here).
I don't make such promises.
Ambrose Pierce defined heathenism as the notion that we benighted creatures worship what we see and feel - but the problem is what that veneration denies us from seeing about the violence we thereby do to ourselves.
We can rise or fall, get by or make it, but there are two irrevocable truths that tether us however we choose to twist and turn.
The first power is the violence we all carry. Paul outlines this so well in respect to the 'norms' of human life in his letter to the Romans (chapters 1-3) and in respect to the Christian in Romans 7. We never have the natural resources to change this, because this is the cancer that now defines human nature, and it leads directly to our second manacle - death. Whatever we busy ourselves with now, this tyranny is close to us, and there is, again, no way in which we can escape our inevitable final moment.
We live in the shadow of this twin volcano, but we cannot often bear to look upon the truth of its hold, because when we do, we see all that we are melt before its hold and rule - there is no strength in us against this.
Christ alone can end our delusion that the powers arrayed against us from within and outside will not erupt. He alone can extinguish the power of these evils by drawing their sting into His own death and resurrection and ending their strength in His triumph for us.
In Christ, both sin and death are trumped by a far greater power - of unceasing, unrelenting love, that will have us overwhelmed by an exquisite mercy that heals and will finally make us whole, come the day of resurrection.
In Christ, life now becomes more than a pretence or a struggle with our futile realities - we can begin to see and live anew.
The options are there.
We continue, as we have always done, stumbling around until sin and death overwhelm and drown us out, or we trust in the one who gives Himself as our remedy, and begin to discover a life that far exceeds our troubles.
That is the possibility this New Year.
Saturday, 28 December 2019
Sunday, 22 December 2019
Renew!
"The Sceptre (of royal authority) shall not depart from Judah,
Nor the lawgiver (the ruler's staff) from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes,
And to Him shall the gathering, the tribute and obedience of the people be". Genesis 49:10.
A couple of things have really struck me this Christmas.
The first is that Gabriel comforted Mary's distress at his visit by speaking about the Lord's promise to establish a reign over the house of Jacob that will never cease (Luke 1:33), hence the promise above, and that God prepares the way for this in bringing about the same manner of miracle He had used to bring about the very birth of that house thousands of years before.
Mary is overshadowed by God to bring Shiloh to the world, but notice what accompanies this - a relative who was incapable of child bearing is made fruitful and will give birth to a boy who will bear witness to Mary's son (Luke 1:12-18). The man who receives word of this particular miracle is literally dumbfounded, because, like us, he cannot wrap his thinking around what is taking place.
All of this reverberates with the events that occurred in the life of Abraham and Sarah - how God used an identical barrenness to bring life from death and raise up a family that would become the forbears of offspring as many as the stars in the sky.
We tend to look at this time of year just like the man who was made mute whilst going about his regular duties - just another week to get through, but in history, in prophecy, in the most real of human experience, we find something extraordinary unfolding...
and what about in us?
Can we allow something this astonishing to break into our darkness, our chaos, our futility?
Find somewhere this week that can help you see a little more of this wonder.
Happy Christmas!
Nor the lawgiver (the ruler's staff) from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes,
And to Him shall the gathering, the tribute and obedience of the people be". Genesis 49:10.
A couple of things have really struck me this Christmas.
The first is that Gabriel comforted Mary's distress at his visit by speaking about the Lord's promise to establish a reign over the house of Jacob that will never cease (Luke 1:33), hence the promise above, and that God prepares the way for this in bringing about the same manner of miracle He had used to bring about the very birth of that house thousands of years before.
Mary is overshadowed by God to bring Shiloh to the world, but notice what accompanies this - a relative who was incapable of child bearing is made fruitful and will give birth to a boy who will bear witness to Mary's son (Luke 1:12-18). The man who receives word of this particular miracle is literally dumbfounded, because, like us, he cannot wrap his thinking around what is taking place.
All of this reverberates with the events that occurred in the life of Abraham and Sarah - how God used an identical barrenness to bring life from death and raise up a family that would become the forbears of offspring as many as the stars in the sky.
We tend to look at this time of year just like the man who was made mute whilst going about his regular duties - just another week to get through, but in history, in prophecy, in the most real of human experience, we find something extraordinary unfolding...
and what about in us?
Can we allow something this astonishing to break into our darkness, our chaos, our futility?
Find somewhere this week that can help you see a little more of this wonder.
Happy Christmas!
Sunday, 15 December 2019
Taken for granted?
A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots".
Marcus Garvey.
"Where there is no vision, the people perish".
Proverbs 29:18
One of the things I'm looking forward to this winter is sitting down and watching The Man in the High Castle. The story picks up a popular idea often employed in fiction - what if something crucial had happened differently. In the case of this story, writer Phillip K Dick asks what if the allies had lost the second world war. The picture provided of America in fascist hands is awful, but what is really fascinating is what generates hope amongst the resistance, where they have evidence of an alternative reality in which these relentless enemies were vanquished, and life and liberty were secured and enjoyed across the free world.
My first encounter with the shock and possibilities of these ideas came in seeing a legendary Star Trek episode in the original series (By the way, if you enjoyed this Trek story, the STC team created a superb follow up episode that is essential viewing).
Fiction serves us best when it allows us to consider our own stories - the why of things in our current world, and that's essential.
As I noted recently, Tom Holland's latest work,Dominion has shown that the reason we live in such a caring and tolerant society in the West is because Christianity has saturated so much of what we take for granted that the very way we think and often feel about so much is because of the impact that this message has had and continues to have upon our world.
The problem, it turns out, is not the truth of that fact, but the present attitude of denial towards it.
The verse above from Proverbs is an interesting one. The word "perish" derives from a Hebrew word which means 'to loosen' (as in a woman untying her hair) - to create an environment where things are left unconstrained. It's when we leave ourselves in such a realm, as Marcus Garvey notes, that we truly can become lost... and perish.
The reason why we think it best to sideline thoughts about Christianity is that we (our culture) have been undergoing a process of seeking to untie ourselves from it for a lengthy period of time. Since the 18th century, there have been numerous attempts to 'enlighten' us away from the "tyranny" of religion, but they all share a common trait - the anti-theism that they have all sought to establish as an alternative is marked by evil. Look at the blood shed in the French Revolution, The Russian Revolution and under Stalinism, the holocaust in China under Mao, the extermination of the national socialists in Germany or the Killing Fields in Cambodia.
When we seek to adhere to a lie concerning our nature and thereby our ability to determine what is right, we enslave ourselves to a far more terrible and frightening tyranny than what has bountifully enriched our world because of the hope found in the Person and actions of Jesus Christ.
What is true politically or ideologically, is also true socially and individually. The West has undergone so many deaths and the impoverishment of so many because it sought to marginalise the Christian message about our value as those made in God's image.
When a culture seeks to empty itself of what is good, we become tethered to what is worst about us.
In this season of hope, of good will, of heavenly intrusion, let us reflect on this, and return to the place where Christ is given for the sake of our broken world. God gave Him to rescue us from this very misery so we would not perish. That is the joy of this season.
Marcus Garvey.
"Where there is no vision, the people perish".
Proverbs 29:18
One of the things I'm looking forward to this winter is sitting down and watching The Man in the High Castle. The story picks up a popular idea often employed in fiction - what if something crucial had happened differently. In the case of this story, writer Phillip K Dick asks what if the allies had lost the second world war. The picture provided of America in fascist hands is awful, but what is really fascinating is what generates hope amongst the resistance, where they have evidence of an alternative reality in which these relentless enemies were vanquished, and life and liberty were secured and enjoyed across the free world.
My first encounter with the shock and possibilities of these ideas came in seeing a legendary Star Trek episode in the original series (By the way, if you enjoyed this Trek story, the STC team created a superb follow up episode that is essential viewing).
Fiction serves us best when it allows us to consider our own stories - the why of things in our current world, and that's essential.
As I noted recently, Tom Holland's latest work,
The problem, it turns out, is not the truth of that fact, but the present attitude of denial towards it.
The verse above from Proverbs is an interesting one. The word "perish" derives from a Hebrew word which means 'to loosen' (as in a woman untying her hair) - to create an environment where things are left unconstrained. It's when we leave ourselves in such a realm, as Marcus Garvey notes, that we truly can become lost... and perish.
The reason why we think it best to sideline thoughts about Christianity is that we (our culture) have been undergoing a process of seeking to untie ourselves from it for a lengthy period of time. Since the 18th century, there have been numerous attempts to 'enlighten' us away from the "tyranny" of religion, but they all share a common trait - the anti-theism that they have all sought to establish as an alternative is marked by evil. Look at the blood shed in the French Revolution, The Russian Revolution and under Stalinism, the holocaust in China under Mao, the extermination of the national socialists in Germany or the Killing Fields in Cambodia.
When we seek to adhere to a lie concerning our nature and thereby our ability to determine what is right, we enslave ourselves to a far more terrible and frightening tyranny than what has bountifully enriched our world because of the hope found in the Person and actions of Jesus Christ.
What is true politically or ideologically, is also true socially and individually. The West has undergone so many deaths and the impoverishment of so many because it sought to marginalise the Christian message about our value as those made in God's image.
When a culture seeks to empty itself of what is good, we become tethered to what is worst about us.
In this season of hope, of good will, of heavenly intrusion, let us reflect on this, and return to the place where Christ is given for the sake of our broken world. God gave Him to rescue us from this very misery so we would not perish. That is the joy of this season.
Saturday, 7 December 2019
Its all bad
"True nobility is being superior to your former self". Ernest Hemingway.
"God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was born on Christmas Day,
To save a soul from Satan's power, when we were gone astray,
Oh tidings of Comfort and Joy, Comfort and Joy,
Oh tidings of comfort and joy!"
This week I received a message from the World Transformation Movement. Started by Biologist Jeremy Griffiths several decades ago, it sees the real trouble we have as human beings is the inner conflict we carry between instinct and intellect, caused around 200 million years ago when we developed larger brains.
The solution is therefore pretty straightforward - we simply have to accept what kind of creatures we are, keep our darker instincts in check by applying our intellect well and live decent, happy lives until we... die.
That's all folks.
It all sounds fine, if you think the only thing going on here is some accidental biology caused by some accidental chemistry caused by a cosmological hiccup.
Humanity is just the result of its natural circumstances, so let's get over it and move on, right?
It all sounds pretty reasonable if you don't look too closely at the fine print, because once you do, you find that it's not instinct that's the problem any more - it's intellect using that annoying thing often called reason that makes the alarm bells start ringing real loud.
I saw a great example of this yesterday. In a debate with A C Grayling, historian Tom Holland showed how slavery was finally deemed evil not by the likes of Plato or Aristotle, but by Christianity, which looked at the whole matter through both faith and reason and thereby was convinced of its atrocious nature.
That's just the tip of the ice berg. Earlier this week, I watched another fascinating discussion with the brilliant Dr David Berlinski, who has just written a book on the vast subject of human nature (my light reading for Christmas!). He shows that seeking to give a merely biological (evolutionary) answer to the enigma of who and what we are is way too simplistic, and touches on how the Judaeo/Christian perspective on our natures being fallen has a great deal to say.
That's the nub of it.
If we cannot explain away our troubles, what do we do with them? We can seek to bury them, evade them, pretend they're not that relevant, but they don't vanish if we do.
Christmas, we're often reminded, is about light piercing the darkness, but it's done in the most shocking way - God amongst us, as one of us, nursing at a mother's breast, growing into a man who would allow Himself to be brutally executed... for our condition.
If you unwrap one thought this festive season that's spiritual in nature, consider that man - does it surprise or shock you, causing you to reflect on your need for that kind of help?
That's exactly why the gospel, after some 2,000 years, continues to be really good news. The answer to our wickedness, our broken condition, our deaths, lies beyond - outside - of us, and like the best gift ever given, is waiting for us to receive its splendour.
That's the transformation of the season!
"God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was born on Christmas Day,
To save a soul from Satan's power, when we were gone astray,
Oh tidings of Comfort and Joy, Comfort and Joy,
Oh tidings of comfort and joy!"
This week I received a message from the World Transformation Movement. Started by Biologist Jeremy Griffiths several decades ago, it sees the real trouble we have as human beings is the inner conflict we carry between instinct and intellect, caused around 200 million years ago when we developed larger brains.
The solution is therefore pretty straightforward - we simply have to accept what kind of creatures we are, keep our darker instincts in check by applying our intellect well and live decent, happy lives until we... die.
That's all folks.
It all sounds fine, if you think the only thing going on here is some accidental biology caused by some accidental chemistry caused by a cosmological hiccup.
Humanity is just the result of its natural circumstances, so let's get over it and move on, right?
It all sounds pretty reasonable if you don't look too closely at the fine print, because once you do, you find that it's not instinct that's the problem any more - it's intellect using that annoying thing often called reason that makes the alarm bells start ringing real loud.
I saw a great example of this yesterday. In a debate with A C Grayling, historian Tom Holland showed how slavery was finally deemed evil not by the likes of Plato or Aristotle, but by Christianity, which looked at the whole matter through both faith and reason and thereby was convinced of its atrocious nature.
That's just the tip of the ice berg. Earlier this week, I watched another fascinating discussion with the brilliant Dr David Berlinski, who has just written a book on the vast subject of human nature (my light reading for Christmas!). He shows that seeking to give a merely biological (evolutionary) answer to the enigma of who and what we are is way too simplistic, and touches on how the Judaeo/Christian perspective on our natures being fallen has a great deal to say.
That's the nub of it.
If we cannot explain away our troubles, what do we do with them? We can seek to bury them, evade them, pretend they're not that relevant, but they don't vanish if we do.
Christmas, we're often reminded, is about light piercing the darkness, but it's done in the most shocking way - God amongst us, as one of us, nursing at a mother's breast, growing into a man who would allow Himself to be brutally executed... for our condition.
If you unwrap one thought this festive season that's spiritual in nature, consider that man - does it surprise or shock you, causing you to reflect on your need for that kind of help?
That's exactly why the gospel, after some 2,000 years, continues to be really good news. The answer to our wickedness, our broken condition, our deaths, lies beyond - outside - of us, and like the best gift ever given, is waiting for us to receive its splendour.
That's the transformation of the season!
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