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BlogHere are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.
Thursday, September 29, 2005CCN News Today I have finished the Autumn edition of CCN news for handing out to all and sundry. Here it is for download.  There is a great little article by Catherine White on her trip to Zambia over the summer - a must read!! [The first one is here] Posted by: Mark | 1:48 pm |
Tuesday, September 27, 2005The Lord's Supper Last week I attended the Salt and Light Theological Forum. The topic this time was 'The Eucharist' - or, in fact, whatever you want to call it, given it's various names in various church traditions. So we spent a whole 24 hour period discussing the ins and outs of Eucharistic practice as rooted in the Gospels, seen in the Early church, varied through history and practiced in our churches today. To be honest, it was great! It is amazing how much ground can be covered and how much learning can take place when people share their thoughts, reading and experience and allow the conversation to develop [and disagreements to be 'worked' through!]. It could be that I also particularly enjoyed it because I presented a paper on the NT church. For the benefit of those who can't be bothered to download it here is my paper's 'conclusion': Conclusion If you are in anyway intrigued by that, then feel free to read the whole thing here: Eucharist in the Early Church.pdf So where did we get to in our conversation. Here are a couple of my highlights: - people felt that 'the Eucharist' [to keep the same terminology!!] has a woefully low place in our churches, most probably because it has lost meaning, and we have treated as a displosable aspect of our gatherings. This is in contrast to the early church [and other traditions since] who met for "the breaking of bread" [Acts] and "the Lord's Supper" [1 Corinthinans] [what those latter two mean of course will require a reading of my paper ;o)] - we have been shallow and narrow in our own understanding of the Eucharist and not taught about it/around it/on the basis of it. We add meaning to the Lord's supper by focussing on an particular aspect of it each time, constantly seeing it as a window into God's big story. - The Eucharist has a place in both large gatherings and small gatherings. The small gatherings easily function as an extended family meal [cf Passover and Shabbat]. In the larger gatherings we could focus a whole gathering around the action of taking the bread and the cup - it being the central climatic feature of a gaqtehring to which everything else builds. - This act is central to the Christian narrative, centering the community on Christ, forming the community as one people, and shaping a Christ-like community as demonstrated in the cross. This acts forms a counter-cultural community. And lots more, but this post is already too long!! Let me know what you think!! Posted by: Mark | 8:33 am |
Webstats I haven't mentioned webstats for a while, the summer has been a bit easy going on that front. I will give September's figures when it is iver but for July and August: Unique Vistors: around the 220 mark Visits: around the 700 mark Hits:a fair few Strangest search phrase that found us: "colin knottt northampton" Believe me end of Spetmeber will be more interesting... Posted by: Mark | 8:26 am |
Wednesday, September 21, 2005I think I am being a bit naughty here, but ... I saw a strange similarity between this hand....  and this hand.........  P.S. Amber, is this making up for 3 weeks of no posts!! Posted by: Mark | 8:44 am |
Tuesday, September 20, 2005National Geographic Photo of the Day The Sahara  I liked this... P.S. hey i just noticed that it is less than 100 days until Christmas :o) Posted by: Mark | 12:35 pm |
Monday, September 19, 2005The Parable of the Lost Son  [enjoy learning more about the painting here] I preached last week on the parable of the lost son. I have to confess that i thoroughly enjoyed it! I enjoyed what I learnt, and enjoyed delivering it. I wonder if that is ok?!?! I noted at the start that naming a parable is a bad start. It somehow pre-empts what youa re about to here, let's you in on the surprising emphasis, a bit like naming a, Agatha Christie novel "a story of the butler hiding in the dining room with a knife", not a great start! Worse than giving away the story [and this is normally the case], many parable titles actually mislead you, make you think you know what you are reading and therefore miss completely the surprise elements. Clearly this particular parable is more commonly know as "the parable of the prodigal son". I realised though that I did not know what 'prodigal' meant! Fortunately none int e congregation di either, so I didn't feel too stupid. Proprosal were "lost", "returning", "leaving" etc. In fact it means "recklessly wasteful". Is the Parable about a recklessly wasteful son, well yes and no... roughly the parable splits into thirds: the son asking for his inheritance and 'reckelessly wasting' it; the son being welcomed back by the father; the second son grumbling and being talked to by the father. Surprising? I thought so! The parable ends with a hanging ending - what will happen? will there be a reunion, will the older son enter the banquet or leave? This simplicit question reflects, it seems to me, Jesus rather pointed focus in the context of Luke. It is the question tot he Pharisees, who in verse 1 and 2 are said to be grumbling about Jesus apparent welcome of the tax collectors and sinners - those who were the failures, outcasts and no hopers of Israel. Why would this man who claims to be on a mission from God bother about them? If you understood anything about the heart of the father, he seems to be saying, then you wouldn't be scoffing and mumbling fromt he edges of the party, but you would be sharing in the Father's inheritance by helping him celebrate with such lavish grace. It is surely this lavish grace, that of the recklessly wasteful father that remains the heart of the parable: the parable of the prodigal father. Posted by: Mark | 12:28 pm |
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