The parabola is the path, neglecting air resistance and rotational effects, of a projectile thrown outward into the air.
Short, fictitious narrative by which moral or spiritual relations are set forth.
Thus the Encyclodedia Brittanica tells us about a parabola and a parable.
This week we begin a year-long focus on the parables of Jesus and we begin with the parable of the Sower as described in the Gospel of Mark (chapter 4). Perhaps Mark knew something we don’t know: did he intentionally provide to us a story, a narrative, an illustration in which parable and parabola are so beautifully intertwined?
We see the woman or man out in the field with the collection of seed for sowing. In gentle,… click here to read more
Promises of Stars
Pius Mau Pialiug, a master-navigator, died on 12 July, aged 78.
Few, if any of us, will have heard his name. He was a Micronesian and in 1976 he sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti, 2500 miles in open sea. Without a compass, without any mechanical assistance for navigation. From the earliest age he was introduced by his grandfather into the means of navigating with all that nature had given us. His grandfather held his tiny body in tidal pools so he could learn how waves and wind blew differently from place to place. He soon learned other lessons. He could read how far he was from shore and its direction by the feel of the swell against… click here to read more
Why didn’t God create a better world?
A question posed by a member of the congregation. Tempting as it is to respond with a Gallic shrug and say, ‘Ask God’, a response (not an answer! too presumptuous!) is required.
Let’s look at the texts for the day. A description of the Fall in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve want to be like God: knowing good and evil, eternal life. They take the fruit and eat. Then, banishment from Eden and so much that follows stems from that fateful decision. Original sin often is mentioned and sin is often seen as the focus on the self, cutting oneself off from God. The middle letter in ‘sin’ is ‘I’. Me first.
Genesis… click here to read more
Who made God?
Thus asked a member of the congregation and I wasn’t quite sure how to take it. Was it serious? Was it a bit flippant or tongue-in-cheek?
Let’s assume in the first instance that the person was serious. In Christian theology God is unmade. God simply is. God existed before anything was and will be there when all things draw to a close. Something like Aristotle’s unmoved mover.
The question may have been an expression of perplexity. We cannot conceive of anything like this. We cannot imagine something, a being, an essence, God which exists for all time and all eternity. Something that jut is. It goes beyond one of my favourite illustrations. The Hubble telescope has sent… click here to read more
ST. PHILIP’S E-NEWSLETTER
21 MAY 2010
COMMENTS FROM THE EDITOR
Your editor caught a few bits of the opening ceremony of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Lots of pomp and circumstance.
Now that that’s over, there’s some work to do.
And lots of decisions to be made about ministers and buildings.
Perhaps we should combine the two: sell the ministers?
But who would buy them?
THOUGHT
Whilst visiting the General Assembly your editor succumbed to the clarion call of the book shop.
However, your editor managed to limit purchases (retail therapy?) to one book. It’s a new one by Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopalian priest in the US known for excellent sermons, and it caught… click here to read more
Can we balance Genesis and Darwin?
We continue our series in which the congregation poses questions for the minister and the minister attempts to respond. The congregation quite clearly enjoy hearing the gears in the minister’s brain grinding. Not to a halt, I hope.
However, the question posed above is merely the shorthand for the actual question posed by a member of St. Philip’s. The actual question was this:
Could you marry the first Genesis with Darwin’s theory and second Genesis when God entered the hearts and souls and lives of his people?
‘Genre’ comes to mind immediately. In what sense does Genesis pretend that it is scientific in the sense that we would define it? Certainly those who wrote… click here to read more
ST. PHILIP’S E-NEWSLETTER
14 MAY 2010
COMMENTS FROM THE EDITOR
Your editor wondered if this e-newsletter should be coloured red, yellow or blue this week. What do you get when you mix a bit of yellow with blue? Apart from a coalition cabinet, something a bit green.
A green revolution?
THOUGHT
Your editor read something recently by a woman named Grace Davie, a sociologist who has done extensive work on religion in the contemporary European and North American context. Within her work are such useful concepts as ‘believing without belonging’ (and for our Scandinavian friends, ‘belonging without believing’); vicarious religion, felt by many in Europe; and the shift from a culture of obligation to a culture of consumption. Within a… click here to read more
The question posed by a member of the congregation this week:
What relevance does Christianity have in 2010?
Worldwide: one could suggest that worldwide it has huge relevance. Christianity is the largest religion with the most adherents. It is prominent in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the US. World leaders have Christian backgrounds: Obama, Gordon Brown (son of the manse) and Tony Blair as immediate examples. Charities such as Christian Aid, TearFund or Cafod do fantastic work around the world. We could point to present day saints: Tutu, Bishop Romero to name a couple.
Let’s focus the question a bit more:
What relevance does Christianity have in Scotland and Western Europe in 2010?
A very fair question. Recently the Church… click here to read more
Should we as Christians commit ourselves 100% to living and spreading the Gospel message? That is, give up our jobs, stop worrying about money and spend all our time helping others?
Our season of questions continues with the question offered above.
It reminds me firstly of some comments offered by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his book To Heal a Fractured World.
He mentions some thoughts provided by the great Jewish thinker Maimonedes. He draws a distinction between a sage and a saint. ‘Walking in God’s ways’ means involvement in society and that is why the sage is actually greater than the saint. ‘The sage is concerned with the perfection of society. The saint is concerned with the perfection of
… click here to read more
The set text for the Second Sunday of Easter is the story of doubting Thomas (John 20.19ff). Thomas, who would not believe until he had seen and touched the risen Christ.
A couple of weeks ago I went to see the new Tim Burton movie ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It was a fantastic romp of the imagination. Alice is poised on a gazebo of a lovely, rambling English country house and, with many family and friends about, receives a proposal of marriage from a person who is emphatically portrayed as an upper class twit. She sees a rabbit in the hedges, follows and disappears down a rabbit hole. Thus begins a bizarre series of adventures that culminates in her defeat of the… click here to read more