Renew Your Mind

For a child has been born for us, a son has been given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Today in The Netherlands it is grey and miserable. It has been raining on and off all day- but every so often, an unexpected break in the clouds lets a shaft of sunlight shine through. For a few moments, the mood lifts- colours wake up, the sopping flowers seem to lift their heads again, there is hope that it is not going to rain for ever. These few verses in the middle of Isaiah chapter 9 sound a bit like that- suddenly in the middle of all the judgement, pain, destruction and indifference to truth comes a shaft of light, and glimpse of something better, a sunshine ray of hope. These are once again familiar verses, they are sung and read at Christmas clearly prophesying the birth of Jesus, but even here in Isaiah's time when nobody could guess how the story turned out, they speak of innoce...

Why do people not read the Old Testament more? I imagine it's because of passages like this one- it's full of incomprehensible Hebrew names and places, which seem to have had some sort of significance to the first people to read them, but are off-putting to us today. Is the only way to read a passage like this to get out a concordance or commentary, and work out who all these people are? Or should we just ignore the stuff we don't understand, and skip straight to a verse or two that we can make sense of? One thing that reading through Isaiah one chapter at a time is showing me, is that the second option is not a valid one. the bits we might chose to pull out rarely mean what we might expect them to. It is worth pausing and asking what message they gave to the people of the time- even if that doesn't seem to be a message that is relevant to us today. This is a book that tells us about God, not offers us a quick fix for our problems and concerns. So in the middle of this ...

So here comes one of those bits of Isaiah that we all know, because we hear it every year at Christmas time: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. This is the NRSV translation- the NIV translates 'young woman' as virgin, which is of course how Matthew chooses to translate it in Matt 1:22, when he has the angel telling Joseph that Mary's immaculate conception fulfills what the Lord has spoken through the prophets. Reading this verse embedded in the rest of Isaiah makes me look at it quite differently. Here in Isaiah the child himself is not the sign- it seems to suggest rather a time line, a hope that within the time it takes for a child to be conceived, be born, be weaned and grow to understand good and evil there will be a change in the fortunes of the people. But Matthew, and the community for whom he wrote his gospel, must have been reading the prophets like Isaiah to...

the last chapter of Isaiah I read was chapter 6, which says this... Then I said "How long, O Lord?' And he said 'Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate; until the Lord sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. Even if a tenth part remains in it, it will be burned again....' (6: 11, 12, 13) Prophecy is such a strange, disturbing thing. I hear of the cities of my home country being laid waste, and see pictures on the news of buildings burning, and can't believe what I see. And in my head echo these ancient words from a book that most people living in the UK would say has no relevance to the way they live their lives. But something important has gone wrong. I don't think solutions will be found in politics, education, tax reforms, urban planning....or any human initiatives. This is judgement of a totally self-imposed form. People who have disregarded God...

Reading Isaiah is not like any other type of reading I do. At my local library, books are helpfully given stickers to indicate genre, and I can choose 'romance', 'historical fiction', 'travel guide' etc. If I choose to read a story, then however realistic the author makes his characters and settings sound, I am aware all the time that they only exist as a figment of his imagination. When I read a travel guide, I expect that I could visit the places described and they would actually exist. Isaiah messes with my expectations of reality.The text lurches from mythical poetry, through stinging social criticism, to these first verses of chapter 6, which suddenly sound like history. We are given a date in time, the year that King Uzziah dies, which seems to point to the fact that this is going to be a serious, reliable record of events. But in verse 2, Isaiah is describing his vision of God, surrounded by six-winged seraphs. We find this so hard to understand, but who ...

The preference for poetry over prose carries on through chapter 5- it's clearly the lyrics of a song, and it's a song that moves from being a love-song in the first two verses to a lament, full of pain and regret. It's helpful to imagine it being performed as a song, by a soul singer in a dimly lit bar in a city somewhere, rather than preached as a neat three point sermon or dissected in a theology book. The song starts with a guitar picking a melody, drawing on old folk tunes to conjure up a gentle, tender feeling of delight and care for a vineyard, a people. Verse 7 shows us that "The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting." But this bucolic beginning doesn't last long- the singer's voice turns harsh, an electric guitar screams and the bass and drums sound an insistent note of decay and dissolution. The singer looks round the room at those who are attempting to drown their sorrows, and un...

I've been on holiday, and instead of reading Isaiah I read Lord of the Rings. Maybe because Isaiah was on my mind, there seemed to be a lot of parallels. As I picked up Isaiah again and came to chapter 4 v.2-6, it sounds just like something Tolkein might have written. It's not that long, so here it is in full:   In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel.     Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem.     The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit   of judgment and a spirit   of fire.     Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory   will be a canopy. ...

I approached Isaiah chapter 2 as an intellectual, theological puzzle and struggled to find any answers- and then read chapter 3, which is pure poetry. Not pretty, sentimental rhyming type of poetry, but words used as art in the best sense, to tell truth. Bruggemann talks about how we live in a prose-flattened world, where we expect truth to come in scientific, logical, rational or mathematical ways and are losing the ability to see truth in art. My daughter and I watched part of King Lear yesterday, and she commented how, compared to drama and film of today, Shakespeare takes so long to say anything. Characters have speeches lasting for pages, where they find multiple ways of essentially saying the same thing- but Shakespeare knew something about writing that today's scriptwriters, political speech-makers and twitter users have lost. So perhaps we should try reading Isaiah chapter 3, which really extends until verse 6 of chapter 4, as poetry. Listen to the cadences of the roll ca...

I visited the Mauritshuis in The Hague yesterday with a friend, and what made the trip especially enjoyable was the audio guide we used, which explained the story of each painting, pointing out details we would have missed without it and explaining the meaning of the symbolism in each picture. What I would like is an audio guide to Isaiah chapter 2. It seems, at first reading, to be a bit of a jumble, containing hope and terror, worship and idolatry, cedars of Lebanon and a few rats and bats thrown in for good measure. What is going on? Does Isaiah really believe that there will come an actual time in history when nations 'never make war or attack one another'? (Is 2:4) Or is this just a pretty piece of poetry? Verse 11 and 12 sound a lot like the song Mary sang when she realised she was to be the mother of Jesus, but his coming was nothing like the terrifying scenes that Isaiah describes: 'You had better hide in caves and holes- the Lord will be fearsome, marvelous and g...

Isaiah 1 The book of Isaiah begins by telling us that Isaiah was the son of Amoz, and that he wrote during the time of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah who were kings of Judah. The academic theologian in me wants to stop right there, and get out my commentaries, so I can find out at what point in Israel's history this was, who those kings were, if the name Isaiah referred to a real person or was a pseudonym for some other author, and what were his motives for writing. But I have to acknowledge that a lot of that stuff is an avoidance tactic to hearing God's word. Reading the Bible is a funny process- rather than read it as any other kind of literature, Christians read it because we believe something supernatural about it- we believe that it is the word of God. Now we interpret that in all sorts of ways, but it must mean that by reading these words, written many years ago to a people and a context that is far removed from mine, I expect to encounter God. Find out who He is? ...

My friend Charlie preached today about the importance of reading the bible, and made the point that the first step is just to open your bible and get on with it... good advice, which needs saying not because we don't know it, but because we don't do it. So, I started to think....where to start reading? The obvious, and appealing choice, is one of the gospels. Why? Because they are narratives, and stories are easy to read, they have a natural flow and momentum, we want to know what happens next. Also, for Christians, the gospels have the huge appeal of Jesus. Of the Trinity, he is the one we find it easiest to understand....which was the point, I suppose. Second best must be a tie between Psalms, which come in handy bite-size portions, and can usually be relied upon to say something inspiring and easily applicable to whatever situation we find ourselves in- or one of the epistles, which funnily enough have the same characteristics to recommend them. So why not try someth...

a friend gave me Frederick Buechner's book "Telling the Truth" last week, and I found this great comment about preaching: Drawing on nothing fancier than the poetry of his own life, let him use words and images that help make the surface of our lives transparent to the truth that lies deep within them, which is the wordless truth of who we are and who God is and the gospel of our meeting.

One of the criticisms levelled at Rob Bell's book 'Love Wins' is that of universalism- that is, the idea that in the end, everyone will be saved. He seems to argue most strongly for this position in chapter 4 "Does God get what God wants?", where he quotes (among others) 1 Timothy 2:3,4, which he translates as 'God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.' (p. 97)  On reading the whole of chapter 2, it seems that Paul ( or the writer of 1 Tim)  backs up this verse by referring to Jesus, who 'Gave himself a ransom for all' 1 Tim 2: 6. So I was really interested to look back at Mark 10:45, where Jesus himself is reported as saying 'For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.' Did Jesus give his life for all, or for many? Why did Paul choose to write 'all', and Mark choose 'many'? Are these two writers trying to make different points, for differe...

Conclusion: A Personal Response I identify myself as a feminist theologian for several reasons. Firstly, I believe that God is good news for women [1] . When God created human beings in his image, he created them to be male and female (Genesis 1: 27), and when He saw them He pronounced them ‘very good’ (Genesis 1: 31). Despite what Church History may have taught, I believe that God delights in both His sons and His daughters. Secondly, I believe that Christianity offers the only hope of a redeemed humanity. Paul’s great statement of equality in Galatians 3:28 points to the re-institution of the equality of relationships present at creation: ‘There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.’ Thirdly, I believe that the church needs theologians of both genders to see more clearly the injustices of the past, to begin to redress them, and to move forward to a future where the church can truly be a ...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Easter Sunday April 24 th On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!                   Luke 24: 1-7 Luke began his gospel with women, and with the story of their impossible conceptions. Here we come to the tomb with women again, only to find the impossible has happened again- the place of death has become a place of life, the tomb of sorrow has become a garden of hope, ...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Saturday April 23 rd Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man,   who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.  The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.                            Luke 23: 50-56 When Pharoahs died, their bodies were laid in a...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Good Friday April 22 nd It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.  The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.                                     Luke 23: 44-49 It is Good Friday today- for some places, a public holi...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Thursday 21 st April The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”  The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”  There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.  One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”                                     Luke 23:35-39 If truth doesn’t fit into our worldview, we try our best to neutralize it. Sometimes this is by direct confrontation, as Herod and Pilate tried. This is the stuff of playground battles- ‘My Dad’s car is better th...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Wednesday 20 th April Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.   Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Tuesday 19 th April Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”  But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.  A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”    “Man, I am not!” Peter replied.  About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”   Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Monday 18 th April While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus said to him, ‘Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?’                                              Luke 22: 47-48 Jesus’ journey to the cross is nearly over. It’s as if we are watching the final scenes of a play, and what began as a sprawling story, rambling over the hills and beaches of Galilee with eager crowds of five thousand, now narrows in focus and intensity. The stage is black, and a spotlight highlights the action. In the action, and actors, of Jesus’ final hours, this spotlight will reveal truth and deception; men cl...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus It’s the weekend- Saturday 16 th and Sunday 17 th April An enormously complex web of engagement is behind, underneath and around even the simplest meal we serve or that is served to us. The preparation, serving and eating of meals is perhaps the most complex cultural process that we human beings find ourselves in. It is a microcosm of the intricate realities that are combined to form the culture that gives meaning to the daily lives of us all: men, women, and children- and Jesus. The meal is a focal practice for re-enacting in our dailiness all that is involved in the Eucharistic meal in which we participate in the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the world.                            Eugene Peterson ‘Christ Plays in a Thousand Places’ It is only a few hours before Jesus would be betrayed, tri...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Friday 15 th April In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!” They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.                                              Luke 22: 20-23 We are so familiar with this story, that I wonder if we stereotype all the characters into good and bad? Judas, of course, comes top of the bad list- his name has become a byword for a traitor, and no-one would name their new baby ‘Judas’. Pilate, Herod, the Pharisees….we dismiss...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Thursday 14 th   April When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”                            Luke 22: 14-16 When times are dark and life is hard, it is difficult to see to the end of each day, let alone to imagine a time when the struggle ends. Suffering has a way of expanding until it is all we can focus on. Jesus knew he faced suffering- but he was able to look beyond it, to see a time when all that needed to be done had been fulfilled, and there would be feasting in the kingdom of God. If you are struggling today to see any light ahead, ask God to let you catch a glimpse of this kingdom persp...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Wednesday 13 th April Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.  Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”                                  ...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Tuesday 12 th April One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”   He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?”  They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”   So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”   Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”                        ...

A Pilgrimage to the Cross Walking through Lent with Jesus Monday 11 th April After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.                            Luke 19:28 As the story of Jesus unfolds in the gospels, it becomes increasingly clear that he is Lord- Lord of the wind and the waves, Lord of sickness and disease- and also Lord of time. He is never in a hurry, never late, never with time on his hands. He is in control of time, and his journey proceeds on schedule. Sometimes his use of time puzzled those around him, who considered that he wasted time on those who did not deserve it, or he was not aware of the time when thousands of people started to get hungry listening to him. But even in these cases, in turns out that Jesus was in control of time all along, and using it to show those present some new truth about the kingdom of God. As w...