Bishop John

I received a beautiful gift from my daughter-in-law recently; tapestry bookmarks with paintings of and quotes from some of the greatest evangelists and witnesses of the gospel throughout history. The tapestries were designed for the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College (Wheaton, Illinois, USA).

I hope you are as encouraged by the words as I am:

“If Jesus was only a teacher, then all he can do is to tantalise us by erecting a standard we cannot come anywhere near. But if we know him first as Savior by being born again from above we know that he did not come to teach us only. He came to make us what he teaches we should be.”

– Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), educator and author

Many more encouraging quotes to come!

Quotes taken from Tapestry Bookmarks from The Billy Graham Center (Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, USA)

Rediscovered among my ‘notes’ of 2002: from picturesque Stanley in North West Tasmania, a church organist’s prayer –

Even before…..

This note was taped on the organ at St. Paul’s Anglican Church Stanley by the organist as a reminder and encouragement to herself of God’s purposeful loving presence.

The organist said the prayer before each Worship Service and had found God’s help over many years of playing the church organ.

It was also a wonderful encouragement to me! I had noticed the piece of paper attached to the organ as we were talking prior to the Service and had asked her what it said and why it was attached to the organ. What a rich reward for a little curiosity! (Mrs. Meg Elridge is still the organist today and is over 90 years old. She still uses this prayer.)

What prayers do you treasure and why?

What prayers do you keep visible and where?

This study book, “Out of the Depths” by Helen Rienits, may not be at the top of the list for many small group leaders – but that would be a mistake.

There are probably more people than we are aware of who suffer from various degrees of depression. In addition, others struggle with anxiety, stress, or insecurity. These studies are written for these people, and for those who seek to care for them.

It is also a great resource for addressing the struggle of living in a world that includes suffering, and how it fits with the character and acts of God. As such, it can provide Christians with a biblical framework for talking to friends who aren’t Christians and lament the harshness of life.

The book includes eight studies on topics such as:

• Where am I? What’s wrong with me?
• What happens if I can’t cope anymore? Will God forgive me?
• Why don’t others understand me?

Helen Rienits, an Aussie general practice doctor, includes helpful hints for running the group, notes for the study leader, and a bibliography with additional reading material. This means that a Christian can feel confident about using this book with a group of people.

The studies are very comprehensive, including medical information, well crafted discussion questions, encouragements, and practical suggestions. Importantly, each study is based around a passage from the Bible which participants look at together and discuss. It is very accessible, yet also addresses to the main issues in an approachable way.

I found the book to be stimulating, challenging and informative for my own life. I would be excited to explore it with a group of people, and see how God might work through it to bring about transformation in people’s lives, and build a healthier, more loving, church.

It is available from Acorn Press.

Book review by guest blogger, Kate Harrower.

Letter to the Editor of The Mercury, December 28th 2011:

Ad in tacky taste

In relation to Christmas tackiness I thought I had seen it all.

But I must admit to being blown away by St David cathedral’s advertisement in the Christmas services guide(Mercury, December 24).

While the Pope warns Christians to look beyond the Christmas glitter, the Anglican Church of Tasmania looks glitter square in the eye and comes off second best.

How crass can it be for a church to make use of a well known supermarket’s advertising campaign to spruik attendance for its own supposedly otherwordly Christmas celebration.

St David’s, and all who sail in her, would do well to meditate on Christ’s driving of the money changers out of the temple.

I wonder if the supermarket will sue or if they’ll just thank God for the free advertising.

Greg Mansell, Ulverstone

Reply from The Dean:

I am sorry that Greg Mansell (Mercury, December 28) found the Cathedral adverstising crass but it is far more worrying that he thinks that Christmas is an otherworldly celebration.

The Christian Christmas message is that in Jesus God became this worldly, that Down Down our God came Down.

That is what we celebrate at Christmas and should impact our lives throughout the year.

He came down into this crass world of advertising, politics and need, which should transform how think about this world, each other and particularly those in need, like asylum seekers.

This message of God’s free self giving also fundamentally undermines the selfishness of consumerism, hence the parody of the ad where everything is free.

If consumerism has stolen Christmas we were in our small way trying to steal it back.

There is more information in my Christmas Day sermon at http://www.stdavidscathedralhobart.org

God bless

Richard Humphrey, Dean of Hobart, St. Davids Cathedral

FOR CONVERSATION:

Is the Cathedral’s use of an advertisement a good example of meaningfully communicating the Gospel of Christ in a local context?

or  Has the Cathedral lost the Gospel in its attempt to communicate relevantly in its cultural context?

– Tacky Taste or Gospel Engagement?  – What thinks thee?

NOTE: Contextualising the Gospel is a challenge. See, What is Contextualisation? my Address for BCA Mission Australia 2001.

Contextualisation is “the various processes by which a local church integrates the Gospel message (the “text”) with its local culture (the “context”)”. The text and context must be blended into that one, God-intended reality called “Christian Living”.

Culture Missiology makes use of cultural anthropology to elucidate culture defined as, “a dynamic system of socially acquired and socially shared ideas, according to which an intersecting group of human beings is to adapt itself to its physical, social and ideational environment”.

 [Louis J. Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology, Orbis, New York, 1988, p. 69 and 74.]

Yesterday I lost a dear friend from this earthly life and while I await the new dawn of life in the resurrected Christ I mourn our earthly loss and in grief and assurance of emancipation look to the ultimate dawn of the coming Son.

This hope amidst grief is poignantly captured in the closing paragraphs of the extraordinary South African novel, Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.

In the novel the father, an Anglican priest, holds on to this assurance of a new dawn, an emancipation, in the midst of his grief at the execution of his adult son.

The father has risen before the dawn and in the darkness awaits the time when his son is to be executed. The depth of the Christian images captivate me. Their meaning and comfort are for the father – and for us also.

I continue to reread this passage with thanks to God for the love of God in Christ, for authors such as Alan Paton and for beloved friends who die in the faith of Christ and whose emancipation is sure and secure in Him. My tears flow even as my grief is assuaged .

The final paragraphs from Cry, The Beloved Country: a story of comfort in desolation Alan Paton, Penguin 1944 p. 236

He (the father) looked out of his clouded eyes at the faint steady lightening in the east. Be he calmed himself, and took out the heavy maize cakes and the tea, and put them upon a stone. And he gave thanks, broke the cakes and ate them, and drank of the tea. Then he gave himself over to deep and earnest prayer, and after each petition he raised his eyes and looked to the east. And the east lightened, till he knew that the time was not far off. And when he expected it, he rose to his feet and took off his hat and laid it down on the earth, and clasped his hands before him. And while he stood there the sun rose in the east.

Yes, it is the dawn that has come. The titihoya (bird) wakes from sleep, and goes about its work of forlorn crying. The sun tips with lights the mountains of Angeli and East Griqualand. The great valley of the Umzimkulu is still in darkness, but the light will come there. Ndotsheni is still in darkness, but the light will come there also. For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing. But when the dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret.

Our final emancipation is founded in Jesus Christ who promises that those who believe in Him will live, even though they die. The Gospel according to John 11:23-27,

²³Jesus said to her (Martha of Bethany), Your brother will rise again.

²⁴Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

²⁵Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

²⁶and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

²⁷ Yes, Lord, she told him, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.

See newspaper notice, Note on a friend’s death.