Ranting Repent

Yesterday morning, I really enjoyed preaching about John the Baptist from Matthew 3. There's plenty about John that's disturbing -  not least his choice of clothes and food. Most people's mental picture is probably of someone slightly deranged, or perhaps someone rather like the ranting kind of street evangelist that you cross the road to avoid.

But I think it's not doing John justice to dismiss him that easily. He's not a finger-pointer, wanting to highlight faults, dish out condemnation and generally make people feel worse about themselves. He's a man on a mission, and a very single-minded man.

The clue is in the text itself. All the condemnation language is aimed squarely at the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Although the two groupings were at odds with each other, they both represented religious and moral pride. John blasts them about depending on their heritage to make claims upon God, rather than living lives which bore fruit fit in keeping with someone living a life changed by God.

For everyone else, John gives a call to repent. Repent is one of those words which has been much misused and maligned. The Greek word for repentance, metanoia, means change of mind, or change of thinking. It's about turning, changing direction. For me, that's an incredibly hopeful and positive concept. Change is possible. This isn't "the end of the world is nigh, and everybody is going to die" of the street ranter; this is good news that the kingdom is near and it's changing the world.

Naughty Sermon

That got your attention, didn't it. No, I didn't swear, endorse smoking Marlboro in a Job Centre or even raise the question of the legitimacy of Gene Robinson's consecration. I have received some correspondence about my Sunday sermon from one of the more conservative members of the congregation where I preached on Sunday night.

I have been asked to introduce the New Testament over two weeks as part of a series we are doing as a lightning tour of the Bible. To get people to think, I opened up some of the issues of the "Synoptic problem" - the fact that we have three similar, but not identical, accounts of the life of Jesus. My thrust was that we can't deny the variations, so we need to look at the texts as sermons - proclamation - which is sensitive to, and tailored for a particular audience. This can actually open up insights about who Jesus is, and what his life means.

It was a bit tricky, but with a handout and a bit of multi-media, I'm told I kept it reasonably interesting, and there was a lot of positive feedback from people who actually want to think. Inevitably, some people were probably a little more rattled, including my correspondent. However, I stick by the case I put (drawing heavily on Prof Jimmy Dunn's Evidence for Jesus, an easy and accessible introduction, now out of print).

Update: US edition is available new at the link above, and here

We need to rescue Scripture from fundamentalists and destructive sceptics, and the only way that can happen is by engaging with the text properly, rather than denying the issues. Otherwise we end up arguing the equivalent of 1 + 1 = 3.

King Herod

Saw the story on the BBC website that it is believed that King Herod's tomb has been found (the one at the time of Jesus' birth). Apparently it's a complex site, which was damaged by jewish rebels around 70AD as he was viewed as a pro-Roman. However there seems to be enough there to indicate with certainty that it is his tomb.

Read more from the Hebrew Univerisity (in English!) here

Lent Blog: stardate supplementary

I have to prepare a Holy Week meditation today. We're working through a sequence of characters who are bit parts in the Gospel of Mark. I have a bit of flexibility as I can do anything on a soldier. I am even allowed a composite character

Thinking of doing something on the way that when the soldiers treat Jesus badly, they dehumanise themselves, based on Mk 15:16-20. Looking to use some war imagery to suggest that the same pattern occurs again and again. Society requires men to switch off part of their humanity in order to do a job on our behalf. Trying to put some Vietnam images together and maybe even use some 60s music. The war looks modern enough to be close, but is enough in the past to avoid the meditation becoming highly politicised.

Just wondering about 'Universal Soldier' by Donovan as the piece of music.