Happy Christmas all!
The Christian account of the birth of Jesus, and its celebration at Christmas, has to be one of its greatest contributions to the world. Continue reading
Christmas present
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Uncrossing the finishing line
Staying with a musical theme – on a train journey listening to my iPod the other day, I had two versions of the same song serendipitously shuffled one after the other. The song is I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2, which is a favourite from a few years back. Or at least it was nearly a favourite.
Bedknobs and Brooding
Yesterday I was waiting in the car with Harry strapped into his carseat, and found a CD of Disney classic songs which I hoped (correctly) would pacify him. There were some crackers on the album (I’d forgotten how good Circle of Life is). Then all of a sudden a song began to play that made me do another double-take.
Soapsuds and sacredness
I’ve had two magic moments this week. On both occasions I made it home after a long drive to find my 15-month son Harry still awake (and in time to finish his bath and put him to bed). I’d expected to be too late to see him, but thanks to some delaying tactics by his mother and clear motorways, I caught a magical 20 minutes. Both were unalloyed joy, an eruption of sheer delight that proved infectious as Harry and I laughed and jostled. Moments you wish you could bottle.
Blogging with a limp
The Twitterverse/blogosphere is an odd place to be if you’re a numb, faithless washed-up believer who’s gone a week without so much as an inspired moment. There are too many others (some of whom are my friends) whose output is not only prolific but just so damned upbeat. Maybe this is Christian propaganda at work – emphasise the thrilling, joyous reality of life in the Spirit and maybe others will want what we have. But there’s a good chance many of these happy souls are genuinely enjoying a faith that’s meaningful, clear and uncomplicated. Is it right (or even polite) to wish that they feel otherwise? Continue reading
Wise Cracks
I’m in the middle of reading Peter Rollins‘ excellent book How (Not) to Speak of God. Pete is maddeningly good at this stuff (one can almost hear his soft, intense Belfast voice reading the text) and his thoughts on Scripture voice with eloquence so many of my instincts. Continue reading
A matter of life and death
I awoke a few minutes ago with death on my mind (again). Strange though it may sound, Steve Jobs’ life and death have been haunting me for weeks now, and makes me reflect on the significance of a public death, and (naturally enough) to Jesus’ death. Continue reading
God channelled
The rant-inducing episode on the God Channel in my last post was thrown into sharp relief when, at the weekend, I watched the film The Way starring Martin Sheen.
Raging bull(****)
I have a confession to make. Late at night, if I am sprawled in front of the TV, I occasionally flip over to the God Channel with the sole purpose of making myself angry. It’s a somewhat bitter and mean-spirited hobby, to be sure, but one that generates a perverse pleasure. And sometimes it seems a useful way to jolt me out of a numb theolethargy into sharper thinking. Continue reading
The big fish and the wiggly worm: Part two
The more I read Jonah, the less like a historical account it seemed. The tie-in between ‘Jonah son of Amittai’ of this book and the individual in 2 Kings 14:25 was not necessarily conclusive; the height of Nineveh’s power came a century or so after the events of 2 Kings 14, and the book could easily have used Jonah pseudonymously. Moreover, the events were so melodramatic – the lament from inside the fish, the repentance of an entire capital city overnight (even the animals wore sackcloth!) and the miracle of the rising and dying plant – that they seemed almost theatrical. Maybe the Book of Jonah is, in fact, a play; a sharply satirical parable belonging more to Wisdom literature than Prophetic. Continue reading
