Dear all,

 

A very warm welcome to our new priest for Middleton, Egglestone and Forest & Frith - Christopher Elliott and his wife Mickey. Chris was officially licensed and welcomed at a service at 3pm in Middleton on Sunday. Bishop Mark presided. Our Deanery, in terms of ordained clergy is now at full strength. Thanks are due to everyone, both lay and ordained, who kept the worship life of the churches going during the long interregnum and to everyone who planned the licensing and provided the food afterwards.  

Quote of the day was a description of the weather in the upper Dale - Six months of bad weather........followed by six months of Winter!

 

It was the New Testament reading I found the most interesting. Like most people, I can read something and there will be one idea or turn of phrase that sticks out and I can barely bring myself to look any further. In the Corinthians reading today I was struck by the following;

 

(1 Corinthians 10:4 -The rock is referring to the episode in Exodus 17:6 and Numbers 20:11 when Moses brought forth water from a rock)

 

Fascinating! I looked at a few commentaries and none of them seem to expand at all on the phrase "and the rock was Christ". They obviously don't think it very important so I'll try and address it myself! In approaching the question "How was Christ present to the Jewish people in the wilderness a thousand years before Jesus was born?" we enter a theological minefield and are immediately embroiled in questions about the nature of both God and humanity. We are also embroiled in potentially confusing questions on the difference between Jesus the human being - and the risen Christ.

When talking about the pre-existence of Christ as in "In the beginning was the word etc..." I find it very helpful to emphasise Jesus as the wisdom of God made flesh. Indeed this is exactly how John's gospel introduces Jesus. Seeing Jesus as the "Wisdom" of God is a terribly important and insightful way of seeing Jesus. It's one of the ways of describing Jesus in the New Testament and is very strong in early Christianity (The main Church in all Christendom was called the haghia Sophia - the Holy Wisdom  - in Constantinople) that should stand alongside the more well known phrase "Son of God".  Wisdom was with God in the beginning. I'm certainly not saying it is not true to call Jesus son of God, but I'm saying that there are other ways of describing him that can expand our understanding. Referring routinely to Jesus as "Son of God" and therefore implicitly the second person of the Trinity can be a real source of confusion because it can lead us to think that somehow a first century Jewish carpenter is eternally present in creation rather than the eternal wisdom of God being eternally present.

 

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To say that eternal wisdom was at the beginning of creation with God, or that the eternal wisdom of God was with the Israelites in the wilderness, and that same eternal wisdom was in Jesus actually makes much more sense to me than trying to fathom how a human being, a Jewish carpenter called Jesus (well Joshua actually) was present at the dawn of creation or in the Sinai wilderness.  

 

Wednesday - Today. - An ecumenical Lent lunch at 5, Tees View Gainford starting at 12 Noon. All proceeds go to charity.

This evening (7.30 - 9pm) the second lecture in the Barny URC church in Hall street. The subject is "The canticles in Luke" given by the Dean of Durham cathedral.

Thursday 4th March at Middleton school (ground floor) the Big read continues at 7pm.

 

Friday. It is women's world day of prayer. The service has been prepared by the women of Cameroon. In St. Mary's Gainford the service will start at 2pm and the guest speaker is my predecessor here, Rev. Maureen Alderson. - (Men also welcome!)

 

Next weekend there is a mission initiative in Cockfield, Evenwood and Lynsack. There is lots going on, starting with a youth event on Friday night at Woodland church from 7.30-9.00pm called the "Gathering", a men's breakfast at the Lipscomb Hall on Saturday from 9.00 - 10.30 am, and in the afternoon, Tea and chat in St. Paul's church Hall in Evenwood at 3pm. That same evening a "Family party and games night" 7.00 - 9.00pm in Woodland village Hall. And on Sunday evening it is topped off with a celebration service in St. Mary's Cockfield at 7pm. For more information on any of the above contact Rev. Jane Grieve (01388 - 718447) or Rev. Emma Johnson (01388 - 834594)        

 

An article in the Times said that while all the talk at the moment is of Anglicans who might go over to Rome, the reality is that the traffic is mainly the other way. On average, six Roman catholic priests become Anglicans every year. The point was made that the Anglican Diocese of London ordained more priests last year than the Catholic church did in the whole of France.

 

There was another interesting article written by Lord Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford, who said that he admired many facets of the Roman church and could have been tempted to go over, but the reason he remains a steadfast Anglican is that in his estimation the Anglican church is the one that is open to the future rather than preferring to live in the past. 

 

This may be obvious but worth stating anyway. Jesus was not called Jesus! His name was Joshua.  Jesus is the Greek translation of his name. Whether he would have answered to the name Jesus is an interesting point. In Arabic Jesus is called Isa and also commonly known as Ruh' Allah - Spirit of God.

 

One of the problems facing modern society has been how to balance rights and responsibilities. How far do we delegate responsibility for a child's education, welfare, health, to the state (and expect them as our right) and how much is our own responsibility.

Last week a couple were charged with manslaughter for starving their daughter to death in Handsworth, Birmingham. The biological Father appeared on TV berating the social services for lack of action and accusing them of effectively allowing his daughter to die. But I am sure I wasn't the only person who asked the question "But where were you, when this was all happening??" Did the natural father not have a greater responsibility towards his own daughter's welfare than an overstretched welfare department? What really stuck in my throat was the assumption that the life of his daughter was totally the state's responsibility - not his. He was simply a consumer, expecting a service from the state.

And while I am on a rant, since when did we all become, not citizens, not people, but just a collection of economic units - consumers? The de-humanisation implicit in that term is symptomatic of a very unpleasant cultural shift that has taken place in Britain over the last few decades. I have been desperately trying to pinpoint why I have felt so ill at ease in the UK since I returned and this, together with the infantilisation of politics, and the degradation of popular culture to the worship of celebrity itself, certainly all contribute to my sense of alienation.

The consumerist mentality has infected all areas of life including faith. Using this consumer model of religion, religions are like firms selling a product - a service - in the market place to consumers and so our focus is naturally mainly on marketing the Sunday product. If a consumer likes the product they may buy it occasionally when they think they need it. The church becomes just a service provider, in every sense of these words. This mentality is evident within the church as well. We all too easily see ourselves as religious consumers, consuming a product without committing to anything deeper or life changing. Ministry then becomes no longer a joint enterprise but something that is bought so we can talk in terms of "value for money". How the institution and the people in the pews relate to each other becomes more like service provider and consumer rather than being one church, bound together by the Holy Spirit ; the way - in which we all have responsibilities to each other to nurture growth in love and trust. Changing our mind set and moving from one model (Consumer) to the other (Community) is a vitally important task for the British church as I see it. 

 

The Prayer for today is actually a poem for the day and was written by that visionary William Blake. While not strictly speaking a prayer I hope that reading it would lead to prayer. It is called The Divine Image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love and Peace,

 

Martin