Angels in the Architecture?

 "The sacred place is one that has been singled out by suffering and sacrifice, by revelation and prayer. It is marked and because of this, is a recognisable point of meaning". Roger Scruton - The Face of God.

"The city is a dead thing - it cannot live in and by itself. Any living thing within its walls comes from outside. It does not renew itself from within, but by the constant supply of fresh blood from outside". Jacques Ellul - The meaning of the City.

"For you have come to Zion, the city of the living God". Hebrews 12:22.

This has most certainly been a week in which we have witnessed the importance of what can rightly be defined as 'civil architecture'. Not since the demise of the man known as the 'great commoner' in the 1950's have we witnessed the measure of 'pomp and circumstance' in the British isles that has been on display for over a week now.

What has been defined as 'the great loss to the community' has been adorned in the most sumptuous display of refinement that the nation could produce, but this, in and of itself, raises a question - why is this so? Why has the majority of a country's population required and responded in this fashion? What does it say about our necessity for continuity, even in the face of the abrupt ending of death?

There have been numerous attempts to speak to this in these solemn days, but none, in my opinion, came closer to grasping the vital truth beyond this moment than Dr Jordan Peterson, when, being asked a question concerning the Queen's death, he sought to look at what genuinely resided behind the death of this head of state.

Peterson rightly zeros-in on the "weight" of what is behind the monarchical system (architecture) of our society - that the office (not exclusively the person who fills it) is the symbolic repository of a far greater national legacy, dating back to the days of Alfred the Great, which was enshrined into the British constitution in 1688 following two centuries of enormous conflict and change.

This allowed the English especially to become those who would liberate so many others.

American culture is often found to be deeply devoid of this focal point, hence the 'need' to find it in First Ladies or at least via Hollywood, which is why, no doubt, it comes closest in a genuinely "good" leader or a noble story, especially when true.

What is encapsulated in the 'four-level' system of the English peoples is caution, confession, and a measure of required humility that allows for genuine pause and reflection. Of course, even the best of systems can be demeaned or ignored, as we have seen in recent times in the rush to replace this with "shot-gun" political megalomania, but whilst this depository remains, it allows room for genuine reform.

That brings us to the future.

It is already clear that there will be major change, so these more sombre days once again, give the nation a moment of pause to consider what is and what must remain if we to see true significance in our future. Perhaps this moment of transition will also, for some, become a vital moment of revelation in this respect, and allow them to recall the 'old paths, wherein lies the good way' (Jeremiah 6:16).

It is in our 'shared bonds' that our nation has been married to ways and means that are far higher and noble than our individual impaired selves. This has brought a true 'birthing' of righteousness and freedom across the globe.

The aspirations of Alfred, all those centuries ago, to see a Kingdom established on the sole foundation of 'Jesus Christ, and Him crucified' (The very Gospel of the Christian faith, in other words), has brought much fruit throughout the centuries, because it sought to root the English way of law and civil architecture into the very roots of truth, and we still have a vestment of this within and beneath our present culture.

Wisdom, as Peterson notes, would amount to our times re-discovering just how precious these 'living stones' of faith and practice can be in such a troubling day as this. We can only hope and pray that at this moment, we become a people who turn again to the one and only true source of life, who inhabits the eternal, living city above our own.

Beyond all the presumed guilt and shame of this moment, even if some of that is warranted, there is a vast treasury of wealth to do us good in respect to what derives from the actions of God amongst the men of the ages of this land, and we must come, with confidence born from that truth, to this same Almighty but gracious and everlasting King if we desire to see something truly rich bestowed upon us once again.

You're Welcome!

 One of the joys of my Christian life for nearly 40 years has been enjoying the output of a particular 'West Coast' broadcast, known as The White Horse Inn. What's great about this broadcast is not only do they cover a vast array of subjects, but they seek to do so covering a range of Reformational views on these.

It is great to announce that thanks to the support generosity of its supporters, the broadcast is now being made available to everyone for free! They have just started a new season with a deep dive into Genesis chapter one, so click on this link to tune in and engage with some really helpful theological thinking.

Enjoy!

The Hard Winter

"Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people'. People say different things - so do instincts. Our instincts are often at war.

If it is held that the instinct for preserving the species should always be obeyed, from where do we derive this rule of precedence?" C S Lewis - The Abolition of Man.

"They then became filled with all manner of evil - envy, murder, pride, deceit... ruthless inventors of wickedness" Paul -Romans 1.

"Where did it all go wrong?" is a question as apt today as ever. We ask it in the hopes that we re-trace our steps back to the moment of failure and then, perhaps, amend the situation so we can commence a better time. The problem, of course, is that when it comes to the greater troubles we face, it isn't just our own actions that are in question - contributive though these may be - but those of everyone over each and every generation.

The modern world derives its 'drive' from the Victorian marriage of 'science' with the necessity for a 'better story' about ourselves, hence the birth in that age of Marxism, Freudianism, and Darwinism - supposedly contemporary 'myths' which would allow a launch into strident modernism, but they are not so. The likes of Nietzsche and Wagner understood that these notions are found much earlier - in the driving myths of both the Greeks (Epicurus) and the Romans (Lucretius), and given their full voice in the bloody streets of the French Revolution, where man's own definition of himself verifies the particular, supposedly righteous cries of the Enlightenment. Notice, however, how all these sentiments marry to a far earlier diagnosis of our estate - that referred to in the quote above by the Apostle Paul in the opening chapter of the book of Romans.

The tragedy is that we are a generation birthed in a sea of death that has been seeded continually in each age, but especially since the rise of modernism - ours is now a world literally killing itself in respect to any persons right to life.

The consequence of the expectancy of a golden age at the end of the 19th century was the worst age of war in human history, but that was just the beginning of the 'birth pangs' of our contemporary demise. After the horrors of global conflict, atomic weapons and the Cold War, we are now destroying ourselves entirely, murdering any semblance of civil society and order and replacing this with a rage against the very notion of 'normal' life and behaviour. We have reached a point where even those in leadership wish to exterminate any and all attitudes and activities that would have been deemed as appropriate and healthy a few short years ago.

Our instincts, noted Paul, lead to our own destruction. Left unchecked, they will doom us to become so inverted that we can no longer even consider something better than our own selfish ends - that is the tragedy of unending death.

If we are to become more, then we have to look elsewhere.

This is a most helpful saying, noted Paul - Christ came into the world to save sinners.

That is indeed where we should turn our gaze.

S E V E R A N C E

 "How can you turn back again to the weak and impoverished assumptions of this barren world?" Galatians 4:9.

Leaven , when poisoned, can destroy with no compromise.

Some of you may know of the case of Anglican Minister Dr Bernard Randall. Two years ago, he was fired from an Anglican school teaching C of E children in respect to  dealing with the challenges of our present culture, and suggested that this would be especially difficult in respect to seeking to educate in relation to a "Protestant and Evangelical background". He was fired for making such a suggestion, and has remained unemployed in respects to ministry ever since, but this week, he discovered a far worse resolution may now be reached in respect to the future position of the church that ordained him.

In papers released in relation to the case, it has been revealed that not only is Dr Randall viewed as a 'safeguarding threat' in respect to educating young people, but the reporting officer in his case also states that the very position and teaching of the church itself may also fall under that very same danger. The reason provided for this conclusion is made clear - certain 'scriptures' and 'teachings' contained in canon law should be viewed in the light of this case as risks to 'safeguarding' the awareness of young people - in other words, Christian teaching that affirms what Dr Randall views as correct are to be uncoupled from the church's belief and practice.

Notice the direction of travel here.

A policy that is supposed to be used for genuine good in the church - safeguarding - is being turned into a device which requires the expulsion of any views or beliefs which argue with current prevailing narrative in respect to what is socially 'normal' for young adults.

Dr Randall, who is facing a hearing on the whole matter this week, has spoken of how although his personal faith remains strong, his relationship with the church itself has been almost surgically extracted from him in a fashion to someone seeking to remove vital organs and then expect him to remain unchanged.

Such "objectives" are an illness amongst us, as violent as the social mania of the likes of Me Too, Extinction Rebellion or BLM. They are as corrosive as the impositions, as one minister reminded me, of "Political Medicine" - an evil upon us all.

M a l a d y

"Even an invisible man has a socially responsible role to play" - The invisible man by H G Wells.

In another item, I found a perfect analogy for what has befallen the likes of English Anglicanism (and society in general). Writer Samuel Kronan suffers continually from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, commonly referred to a chronic fatigue syndrome. In this brilliant piece, he seeks to allow us some insight into what that really means in respect to health, activity, medical analysis and social attitudes, all of which clearly miss the mark in providing the manner of penetrating insight necessary to even begin to wrestle with the nature of what it is actually like to continually live with such a trial. What I found especially striking was Samuel's description of the total dysfunction of even his most basic bodily actions and functions this malady creates, and it is here we find a perfect analogy of what has befallen our society.We now seek to percolate everything down to the 'myths' of our own devising, and then presume all can be adjudicated by means of these notions, even though we feel entirely at liberty to change them as we change. Reality then becomes as fluid but equally as dysfunctional as CFS, never allowing us to even consider our actual potential, because the only encounters with something 'healthy' are when such a realm is being countered and dismissed by our delusional beliefs. There is no health in such a 'body', no means of recovery. 

D e p l e t i o n

 "The only way to end this nest of snakes is from the inside". Chief Anderson - Mississippi Burning. 

 We have witnessed the tearing down of every ideal that seeks to convey a statement in respect to goodness and virtue. Films and shows which once were deemed as purely for entertainment now carry this manner of standard Disney productions warning: 

 "This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together".

This continued 'hollowing out' of the past is essential to now, because only when such mediums are well and truly emptied (or better yet, entirely expelled), can we gain a 'vehicle' that reflects the void of the obsessed observer - that nothing is allowed to disturb or challenge their particular required standard.

D e e p  I m p a c t

"Sometimes, I see flashes of light - you know, like colours. I fall asleep. I dream, but now, there's part of me that's always awake. I'm seeing things differently". Astronaut Owen Morash - Deep Impact.

The experiences of both Dr Randall and Samuel Kronan tell us something key about this present moment. All of us will suffer, and all of us can either seek to destroy as a result of that trial, or we can seek to learn through it, and lead some around us to value something from that.

We are living at a moment of momentous change, filled with problems - so what is the lesson?

Perhaps it something as simple, as exquisite, as what is touched on in this scene, which spoke volumes to me.

God is in the business of restoring the dignity, majesty and beauty of what we have defiled. Let us seek to work, pray and minister in such a fashion that such splendour is once more evidenced in our day, that the astonishing Lordship of Jesus becomes the fragrance of our benighted realm.

People of the Book

 "Please bring me the books, and especially the manuscripts".  2 Timothy 4:13.

2022 has been a year of social and media surprises.

The end of the pandemic crisis has allowed actual hard data to begin to surface in respect to many troubling issues that the mandates either entirely suppressed or marginalised, and woke-ism has found itself being robustly challenged by the return of popular entertainment that has tapped in to what people actually want, rather than the politicisation of films and shows.

A great example of the sea-change has become evident in the last few days.

Mega-company Amazon has invested vast amounts of money into a new production, supposedly 'adapted' from the classical works of JRR Tolkien, but as the first two episodes were circulated for public viewing this week, it was clear that their total sacrificing of anything actually derived from the works of this writer in favour of their 'diversity is all' messaging fell entirely on stoney ground, as the mainstream response, let alone of fans of the books, was that the result was abysmal.

What is fascinating here is that those who have held this massive production to account since day one are the countless millions of Tolkien fans who have resolutely affirmed from the start that if this production cannot be faithful to the source material (something it actually has very limited access to), then it cannot be, in any true fashion, a tale of the saga of middle earth. Sadly for Amazon, many reviews have already noted that in aiming to aspire to something of that nature, it has produced, at best, a very mediocre fantasy, plagued by it's P C messaging in the manner that the characters (portrayed by some dreadful acting) engage with the tale.

It has certainly been quite something to see just how many have made it plain to this apparently all-wise company that they were not prepared to sit back and allow something so cherished to be trashed - it reminded me of the campaign in the 60's to keep Star Trek renewed (when it was worth keeping - the present incarnations, which have also produced the 'writers' for Amazon's miss-fire - are equally dire). There is, clearly, in Tolkien's works, a "Lore" and a meta narrative to maintain in respect to the essential nature and character of the work, and to seek to mis-appropriate or dismiss such fundamental tenants is to regale and deny the inherent integrity of the entire cannon.

Clearly, there are some vital parallels here for Christians in respect to the scriptures, which must be our map and guide in respect to what is inherently true about the nature of things. Like the fans so passionately speaking out to uphold all that was good in the realms of their book, we should also seek to earnestly contend for the validity of the faith - the good news of the Gospel - that has been passed along to us in this present evil day.

As our realms literally begin to spew hateful, divisive dicta against each other, and the spheres of society melt and dissolve before our eyes, it is imperative that we say that what is better eternally remains, and seek to point this falling generation to the one who made us all, who sits on an eternal throne purchased by His redeeming blood.

The days around are filled with trouble, but Christ will bring a new day, so let us hold out that splendour amidst this hour of trial.

G R A C E

 The beauty of the Gospel, with Ted and Rod Rosenbladt.

Beyond Caesar's Coin

 "And they sought to trap Him with their words... Is it lawful?". Mark12:13-17.

It seemed perfect to those seeking to maintain the status quo. Put before Jesus an issue that will mean He has to upset the authorities in one way or another, then we can rid ourselves of His naked display of something we cannot control.

It seemed perfect, but even as they became staggered, again, at the wisdom of HIs words, they still failed to see what was implicit in His answer to them.

It's not just about throwing a few pieces of metal back to someone who believes he owns them - it's about what that truth actually states.

Men and Woman have an 'image' - a nature and status that isn't meant to be ruined in the furnace that the Caesar's and sanctimonious of the world want to feed us to continually. The very fact that these men and women were inhabiting a realm filled with all manner of inventive splendours, including currency, bountifully conveys the marvel of the inter-action between men and nature the Lord above provides to facilitate our well-being and development. Though marred by our fall, the vital image of our profound worth is clearly expressed in these gifts, and they are not to be taken lightly.

The reading of the law common amongst the religious leaders of that day had made people less than animals, and the imperious bonds of the empire equally demanded allegiance to all manner of errors, but amidst all this, Jesus points us to a far deeper truth - that men are only free when God is allowed to be vitally good amongst them; to restore what we have so readily smeared.

Like the ancients, we still fumble around with our home-spun "virtues", seeking to compress and reduce everything to that image, especially when it comes to our religious and/or social morality.

The blunt truth is only in the beauty and radiance of this Jesus do we inhale the fragrance of true Godliness and true humanity - here is the genuine currency of the transcendent, and the full verification of unspoilt humanity.

Such considerations bring us to the confession that what we need is "not more conferences or programs, or celebrities... but a living communion with this Christ, day by day, helping us escape our momentary 'google' attitudes. A fellowship radiant with crucifixion mercy, which is the touchstone of our actions. Such a gospel is more than enough - it is everything. The church needs this singular gift to be reaffirmed as the power for our day". (Michael Horton and Chad Bird).

We can either live 'under the mark' of laws and requirements that dictate endless repression of the truth, or we can be free to live well before God's abounding grace and care.

The choice is ours.