blog
sensible & serious
More Willimon
Sunday 30th May 2010 @ 12:00 am / sensible & serious / 0 comments
Cruciform Preaching: Inglorious Talk - more wisdom from Will Willimon
A cruciform faith in the God who reigns from a cross requires a peculiar way of preaching that is foolishness to the world. When the speaker points to Jesus hanging helplessly on the cross and says, "Jesus Christ is Lord!" the predictable audience reaction is, “Why? How?”
Then the speaker is tempted to offer assorted evidence for such a patently ridiculous claim: citations from religious authorities, illustrations from everyday life, personal experience, and connections with the presuppositions of the audience. Classical rhetoric said that there were three ...
Happy St Patricks Day
Tuesday 17th March 2009 @ 9:00 am / sensible & serious / 0 comments
Amusingly, Patrick was not the first Christian in Ireland ...
He probably wasn't even the first Bishop - that honour seems to belong to Palladius.
Even more amusingly he wasn't even Irish. Welsh/Anglo is a much better bet ...
But he was quite a guy.
Leave aside the mystical fairytale stories - eg, it is true Ireland has no snakes (except I don't think this is true I think we have wee grass snakes in a few places), but the reality that Ireland probably never had any snakes - leaving aside the nonsense, he was incredible.
He came to Ireland at first as ...
Sad but necessary?
Saturday 28th February 2009 @ 9:24 am / sensible & serious / 2 comments
Crooked shore posted recently pointing to this article about cycling - and some of the tragic circumstances - around Dublin. Of course the tragic circumstances can happen anywhere ...
As someone who cycles in and out of Trinity most days, I was struck in particular by the statistic that 75% of cycling related fatalities are caused by lorries turning left.
This is something easily fixed for us cyclists. Do not expect a lorry, car or bus to see you. I myself often (actually, on reflection, very often - at least once a week) will choose ...
You go Jack
Thursday 26th February 2009 @ 10:19 pm / sensible & serious / 0 comments
President Taylor
“How am I supposed to know where your loyalties really lie?”
Jack Bauer
“With all due respect madam President, ask around”
I dream of this.
Not being Jack Bauer – although it would be nice to be so fearless.
I dream of being someone who stands on a positive reputation.
It’s almost as clear as yesterday.
“You know me?”
“Well – your reputation goes before you.”
She was a cook in a summer SU camp. I was 11. I remember being quite pleased – but confused. ...
Contemporary Worship & change
Saturday 21st February 2009 @ 9:38 am / sensible & serious / 0 comments
This is an insightful blog from a wise and intelligent American Methodist Bishop ...
sign of the times
Thursday 12th February 2009 @ 8:47 am / sensible & serious / 0 comments
I have been 'instructed' that 'we' are not doing Valentine's presents this year ...
I should be gutted ... but hey, it'll save a tenner!
I can't quite decide however if this is a genuine beautiful moment when retailers are taking a breath in the midst of global crisis, and honestly want to do something kind for people caught in horrible situations. Or if it is just another merciless and shameful attack on our consumption appetite ... which, I would have thought in current economic realities, is something that has been shown not to have worked for us as a ...
Australian destruction
Tuesday 10th February 2009 @ 7:23 pm / sensible & serious / 0 comments
I have been in contact with a few friends in Australia over the last week ... my heart goes out to their country as they go through devastating destruction in various parts of their land ...
This last one says a lot ... those affected are real people, whose real lives have been met with enormous and unexpected ruin ... some have literally lost everything they could not fit into a bag or two. And they don't want to be an exhibit.
One ...
top of a mountain
Tuesday 3rd February 2009 @ 2:50 pm / sensible & serious / 0 comments
Jut noticed this tucked away in Exodus 24 ...
It happens just as God has finished giving the law, and there is a HUGE ammount of pomp and liturgical ceremony - including Moses throwing blood over the people - and then this ...
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; ... I thought Rick did rather well on the inauguration? No? Oh well. I thought he was sincere, intelligent and grown up. I also thought, however, that some of the phrases used and the way he used them were glaringly politically correct ... he very obviously had to think very carefully and plan pretty much exactly what he was going to pray ... in fact, he may well have had to 'check' with the Whitehouse people just what he was allowed to say ... ... and when you get to that level of operation, something of the soul slips away. It might be subtle and ... Just one quick thought ... I was a teenager during the Thatcher_Reagan years of political dominance in the west. Those years are now generally recognised as years of YUPPI advancement and political manipulation, to the extent that unemployment in Britain could reach 3 million in the early 80's ... the economy was strengthened, but at the cost of the poor - who found themselves farther removed from economic stability than ever. The gap Thatcher-Reganomics created remained a major problem well into the 1990's - indeed, it still remains a problem. She privatised state-owned industries and utilities, implemented strict trade union restrictions, ... This is just amazing ... and I imagine will be used by every preacher who reads it as a sermon illustration before too long! A very happy and sincere new year to all who pass this way ... And as I begin to reflect on the year that has just gone, and build hope and anticiption for the year ahead, my mind floats over a few highlights of what has been a year of momentous and often unbelievable change ... A few of the posts that have come at the memorable and sometimes momentous hinges of the year ... some may be sad, some happy, some will never be forgotten some have been forgotten already ... Heath Ledger takes to a new stage Changes in the ... Here is a wonderful blog which draws on the wide and ever-varied blogging community, and invites participation in the themes of Advent ... visit it every so often and allow it to seep through ... Last week I said I would write more about Obama ... sorry I have not done that yet! But here are my two central thoughts on what has been a very historic moment in world history ... Many thanks to virtual methodist for pointing cyber-dwellers toward this ... there are not many things in this world that I personally describe as an abomination ... but when the central location of Christian heritage in the world descends into violent mayhem because of the various christian groupings present ... then this world is in more trouble than I suspected... rick the warren
Thursday 22nd January 2009 @ 8:55 pm / sensible & serious / 0 commentsBye bye Bushee, bye bye III
Saturday 17th January 2009 @ 3:28 pm / sensible & serious / 0 commentswow
Tuesday 6th January 2009 @ 1:44 pm / sensible & serious / 0 commentsAu revoir 2008
Wednesday 31st December 2008 @ 11:57 am / sensible & serious / 0 commentscheck this out
Thursday 4th December 2008 @ 7:32 pm / sensible & serious / 0 commentsObama II
Wednesday 19th November 2008 @ 10:00 pm / sensible & serious / 1 comment
Firstly, he won. And he won very well. In fairness this US election was always one for the Democrats to lose rather than the Republicans to win ... if he had lost, it was going to be because his campaign had no discipline ... and thankfully quite the opposite is true. Obama and his team acted ... oh dear ... again
Monday 10th November 2008 @ 10:30 pm / sensible & serious / 3 comments
Archive
Categories
bible
arts - movies, books, theatre ...
fun stuff
kingdom stuff
sensible & serious
random life
what I'm learning
stuff I've written
Reality Bytes
Reality Bytes Back
Reality Bytes Again
Just Thinking
All available from Decent Bookshops - especially Edgehill Resource centre