Preaching the lectionary - and Steven Jones' 2 page lectionary resource

It has been a long day - we drove to Newcastle for a very moving funeral for the Rev Godfrey Baqwa. It is not so much the drive as the emotion of the day that has left me a little flat this evening.

However, my spirit was lifted when I came across this post from Steven Jones. I was pleased because he said a few kind things about me (wait until you get to know me Steve, you'll find that I am a lot better in text than in person!) But even more exciting than his kindness was his 2 page Lectionary resource for preachers.

Here's part of Steve's post -

[This is an extract from a little pamphlet I (Dion) wrote on exegesis]...

Allow me to make a case for the lectionary as the first port of call in the search for texts from which to preach Sunday by Sunday. There is no substitute for systematic, ordered preaching which has a long term purpose and structure to it, ensuring that the congregation becomes well informed, is exposed to the main themes of Christian belief and Christian life and, over a period of time, is guided through all the main sections of the Scriptures.

Moreover, preaching the lectionary will ensure that you are willing to wrestle with the Biblical text, rather than just choosing a few well-known passages to support your own theme. Remember that the task of the preacher or teacher is to discover and communicate God’s will and desire to God’s people, not simply to present his or her own ideas or ‘hobby horse’.

A well-coordinated preaching and teaching team can only accomplish this high calling through the use of a well-constructed Lectionary! Working to a lectionary relieves the preacher of the anxiety of deciding what to preach on. It also ensures that what is preached is indeed an exposition of the Scriptures rather than an exposition of the preacher’s favourite opinions, vaguely supported by some craftily selected Biblical texts!

Be careful of trying to find ‘proof texts’ to make a point. Rather, study the scriptures to learn everything you can about God’s character and will, and our relationship as God’s creation to this wonderful God.

The full text of Dion's exegesis notes can be downloaded here....

The Methodist Church of Southern Africa publishes each year's lectionary on its website, as well as in the Yearbook. However, their version runs to nine pages, and since I have developed an aversion to killing trees as a result of the message delivered during my trial service, I decided to put my rudimentary Microsoft Word skills to the test and see if I could reduce it to fewer pages.

I managed to get it down to two pages, which is about the limit to which one can take it down without having to resort to using a magnifying glass. If you have one of those fancy photocopiers that does everything short of making you coffee in the morning, you may be able to even print it double-sided on a single page - handy for the jacket pocket or to slot into the back of your Bible.

You can download the 2-page version of the 2008 lectionary here.

Technorati tags: lectionary, exegesis, preaching, resources

From dust you came, to dust you shall return. Turn from your sin and follow Christ.

This evening we held an Ash Wednesday service in our College Chapel.

It was a truly significant end to a wonderful day. The service itself was extremely meaningful. We used a magnificent liturgy (chosen by the students) from John van de Laar's 'Sacredise' website (he has many exceptional worship resources to aid Churches - many of them are free).

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent. It marks the start of the 40 days that lead up to Easter. In many less traditional Christian Churches these festivals in the Christian calendar are not celebrated. However, I have come to appreciate the rhythm of memory that is created by celebrating these significant events that mark important events in the life of Christ, and in the lives of Christians.

Central to the Ash Wednesday service is a moment in which one has Ash (normally from a burnt palm branch) placed upon one's head and the ministers says From dust you came, to dust you shall return. Turn from your sin and follow Christ.

It serves as a rich reminder that life is short... It cannot be wasted on inconsequential things. It must be spent in honour of Christ and in fulflilling Christ's will for your life. Life must be spent in dedicated and loving service - service of God, and service of the people whom God loves.

Today's service was significant for because since we last met in the College Chapel for this very service (Ash Wednesday 2007) I have numerous encounters with death. Tomorrow morning I shall awake at 3.45 AM to drive to Newcastle to participate in the funeral of one of the students who studied at the seminary last year, the Rev Godfrey Baqwa. He was a great student! He did 9 subjects last year, he passed them all and passed some with distinction. He was killed just over a week ago in a motorcar accident on his way back from a Church meeting - life is short.

My father passed away 4 weeks and 6 days ago. Indeed, life is short.

During last year I had to undergo surgery and treatment for cancer. It was a wake up call. Life is short.

However, the Ash Wednesday service also reminds me that life God's gift! It is a gift from God and can be given back to God as a gift!

I have recently been wrestling with the text of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). In this text Martha is engaged in work. She is preparing a meal for Jesus who is visiting her house. Her sister Mary is washing the Lord's feet. Martha complains to Jesus that Mary is doing nothing. Jesus tells her "Mary has chosen what is better, and it shall not be taken from her".

I was struck by a few things in this narrative.

1. Neither Mary, nor Martha, are going against Christ's will! Both know the needs of Jesus (for Mary it is to serve and worship him, for Martha it is to serve and care for him).

2. However, while both KNOW the Lord's will, only one of them seems to UNDERSTAND the Lord's desire. Only Mary knows that Jesus needs, what he truly needs.

I have spent the last few years like Martha - very busy. I have been engaged in ministry (ministry of oversight, education, and care within the Church). However, I have often felt like Martha, worn out, tired, abused, and neglected. I have faced incredible challenges and pressures... I know it is God's will that I work hard, work creatively, work diligently, and work well. But, I think have been misunderstanding what God may be wanting for my life...

This lent I realised that I need to do more than just KNOW God's will, I must UNDERSTAND it, and in doing so, I must serve and bless the Lord.

This was the third thing I realised:

3. Do you realise that this is the ONLY account in the New Testament of anyone serving Jesus? I mean, there is no other account of anyone sitting down to bless the Lord. Jesus is normally the one who does all the blessing.

I want to bless the Lord. I have come from dust, and to dust I shall return. Now, I shall turn to follow Christ more faithfully.

It is Lent. I shall remember that Christ's journey for my life was a journey of struggle, hardship and pain. But beyond the crown of thorns is a crown of life!

A blessed Lent to all.

Today was special for another reason. I had the great chance to meet with two new friends, Andy and Glen, both elders at the 3Ci Church (Capitol City Christian Church) in Pretoria. They are oustanding guys! I first met Glen when Liam was in hospital last year and Glens daughter was also there (Chloe). She is doing great! Andy and Glen came and prayed for us in a time when we truly needed care.

Today I got to visit them and find out about their incredible ministry and their passion for Christ. They are doing great work, Gospel work! I look forward to seeing them again.

11 T-Shirts that only Geeks and Nerds would wear!

I'll confess... I have at least one of the T-Shirts on this list.... (click the link if the pictures don't load on my page - I've noticed that they don't load all the time).

1. MySpace Junkie
   
   There is probably an inverse relationship between the number of friends one has in reality to the number of friends one has on Myspace. So, for all of you Myspace friend adding psycho’s out there, this one is for you.
2. WordPress Blogging Platform
   
   I’m not sure how ecstatic a person could get about their word press blog. I mean, unless you’re making tons of money off of advertising like Perez Hilton, I can’t see you running out to buy your spanking new “WordPress” t-shirt.
3. Librarian Bust
   
   Remember back in the 80’s when you had to do research for a paper and you would actually take “trips” to the library? It’s obvious that with the advent of Google and how it transformed the search for information, that same paper that may have taken you 10 hours to research and write may now only take you 5! It’s great for the researchers but horrible for traditional librarians!
4. RTFM
   
   There seems to be a cleaver relationship between the geek phrase “Read the Effing Manual” and the Red book that was endorsed by the former chairman of the communist part of China, Mao Zedong. I could just see Mao right now yelling to his deprived nation, “RTFM!!!”
5. PWN3D
   
   For all of the gamers and other competitive nerds, this one’s for you.
6. Graphic/Web Designers
   
   If you think you’ve got a “sixth sense” for criticizing graphic design, you should probably own this one. If you often feel there could be something added to the space and the pixels “just aren’t right”, you should own this one too!
7. Wireless Frequency Network Nerds
   
   Everyone knows that the universal frequency for a wifi signal is 802.11, why not wear it? Does this shirt somehow imply that you’d like others to connect to your “personal” network? Hopefully your network isn’t password protected or you’ll probably be having a night alone.
8. All your base are belong to us!
   
   So, this is a mash-up shirt that combines common hex values and the Zero Wing arcade game.
9. Programming and Computer Languages
   
   
10. PTOE T Shirt
    
    Just in case you’re really into chemistry and you haven’t already memorized each element in the Periodic Table of Elements, you can refer to your shirt—I’m sure this guy does.
11. SYN - Denial of Attack
    
    I’m not sure who this guy is sending his SYN packets to, but I hope it’s not our server!

Technorati tags: geek, nerd+fashion, facebook friends, facebook vs myspace, geek t-shirts, SYN, pwner

'Why I am an abortion doctor'

Abortion is a highly contested and emotive issue, and particularly so among Christians.

In the Methodist Church of Southern Africa we have adopted the position that abortion is not part of God's perfect will. However, there may be some necessary health concerns that will necessitate an abortion (at certain very early stages of pregnancy). These cases could be considered to be part of God's permissive will (in other words in a perfect world God would not choose it, but, in some circumstances God will make some allowances).

I have personally had opportunities to work with women who are filled with remorse and sorrow at having an abortion, and others who have expressed gratitude and thanks to God for saving their lives (such as women with ectopic pregnancy).

If you're interested to read why one abortion doctor chooses to place himself at the centre of this heated and contested issue please read this report. It made me think... If one were to outlaw all abortions that would have grave and serious consequences (forcing some persons to take routes that are both dangerous to themselves, and even more unethical).

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

So, why do men shave!? Interesting facts, history, and insight...

I hate shaving! But, I do it every day (well, once a year a take a few days off and grow a beard, much to Megie's disgust!) I HATE SHAVING! I have to shave twice on a Sunday (once in the morning when I am preaching and once in the evening when I am preaching).

I shave because my wife prefers me clean shaven... It also makes me look neat... Why do some of the other guys out there shave (and ladies, why do you want your significant other to shave)?

Here's the story:

I don’t know about you, but every morning I see my boy friend shave. It’s a ritual — shower, comb hair, shav­e, brush teeth, dress. For some unknown reason I once asked him why does he shave? “Why? I don’t know, Youthfulness, shaving presents a clean face to the onlooker, conversant.”

Showering is easy to understand. If you don’t shower, you start to stink. Combing the hair is easy to understand too, because it would be a mess if you didn’t comb it. If you don’t brush your teeth, they rot and fall out. And dressing, obviously, is a necessity.

Shaving is the removal of body hair, using a sharp blade known as a razor or with any other kind of bladed implement, to slice it down to the level of the skin. Shaving is most commonly used by men to remove their facial hair, and a man is called clean shaven if he has had his removed totally.

Men have been shaving forever. Cavemen probably shaved with stone knives, and there’s some suggestion that they may even have trimmed their hair with fire. Beards can be uncomfortable, and they easily get nasty because they trap food.

But why is it that, for a majority of men, all facial hair must be removed? There certainly isn’t any health reason to shave it off. Why would we spend the time and money to go through this ritual each and every day?

Among the many reasons I found while doing some research men began shaving in Stone Age times were:

- To reduce the breeding grounds for lice, fleas and small rodents.
- To eliminate the beard as a place for an enemy to hang on during combat.
- To make it easier to eat.
- Superstition associated a heavily bearded man with old age and death, in addition to the superstitious belief of spirits which entered the body through hairs on the head.

“The word “barber” comes from the Latin word “barba,” meaning beard. It may surprise you to know that the earliest records of barbers show that they were the foremost men of their tribe. Medicine men and the priests. But primitive man was very superstitious and the early tribes believed that both good and bad spirits, which entered the body through the hairs on the head, inhabited every individual.

Alexander the Great never lost a battle, not to the Persians or to anyone else. But he did order his men shaved so that their beards could not be grabbed in battle. Same for the Romans.

Yet you find many men who support a beard and I am sure there are a variety of reasons for that too, but I am not getting into that right now. I must admit though that a beard or a moustache alone on some men look very graceful.

Now its your turn to talk, why do you shave guys?

Teaching the Bible... Well, maybe not. Early 20th century charts and visual aids for teaching the Bible.

Here are some amazing, and extremely interesting, charts and visual aids that reflect how early 20th century Biblical teachers (not necessarily Biblical scholars) sought to teach their understanding of the content and message of the Bible.

In the early 1900s, Baptist pastor Clarence Larkin (1850-1924) created large wall charts to help teach the Bible. He called these charts "Prophetic Truth." The topics range from "The Seven Thousand Years of Human History" to "The Failure of Man" to "The (Spiritual) Underworld," seen above. Link (Thanks, Mike Love!)

Technorati tags: Bible teaching, visual aids, 19th Century Baptist, weird, History of Biblical teaching

The sacrament of Holy Communion as an act of radical protest and subversion!

This morning, as we do at the seminary every Tuesday morning, we celebrated the sacrament of holy communion. Among Methodists this sacrament is regarded as a tool of creating a visible reminder of the Lord who died, and of the Kingdom that he desires for all persons.

It is holy because it takes ordinary elements of creation, bread and wine, and setting them aside from common use for this act of gracious memory.

The American Methodist theologian, Stanley Hauerwas, speaks of this sacrament as an act of radical protest. Sharing in communion together is indeed an act of radical protest! It is a protest against the exclusion of the world, since at Christ's table all persons are welcome, young, old, black, white, male, female, straight, gay, rich, and poor. All are equaly part of God's gracious Kingdom, under God's gracious rule, and open to God's tranforming grace. None is excluded. All are welcome... The invitation to the table that we used to says...

... Come, not because you can, but because you must. Not because you are worthy, but because you are invited. Come not because you are righteous, but because you desire to be true disciples of Jesus. Come, not because you are strong, but because you are weak; not because you have any claim on heaven's reward, but because in your frailty and sin you stand in constant need of God's mercy and help.

This is radical! It subverts the dominant culture of our age. It confronts self sufficiency, individualism, arrogance, pride, power, wealth, prejudice and many other false values.

So, today we engaged in an act of Radical protest, we recalled that God's Kingdom is a Kingdom of God's mercy and grace! We recalled what reality informs and shapes our choices, our very lives.

Thanks be to God for God's grace!

So, what computer do you think evolutionary biologist (aka 'The God delusion') Richard Dawkins uses?

Richard Dawkins' MacBook Pro!
Originally uploaded by hellochris.

Blogged from Flickr:

Richard Dawkins, the famed evolutionary biologist, spoke this week at the University of Hawaii at Manoa!

Professor Dawkins had some problems setting up his presentation on the projector....which afforded me a look at the messy desktop of a scientific super-genius!

Here's what I have ascertained:

(1) Dock is always visible, on left side of screen!
(2) No special background image for the desktop!
(3) Installed OmniPage Pro for the Mac!
(4) Downloaded Installer for Windows Media Player
(5) Professor Dawkins is a Mac user, but then, we knew that!

Comments:

hellochris Pro User says:

From the lecture, Richard Dawkins' reply to a question on the potential that computers may one day replace humans:

"...You have a new hardware device such as the mouse which opens up new software possibilities. As soon as you've got a mouse you can redesign the whole of your software to use resizable windows and pull down menus and all of the things that we now find indispensable. And I suppose once that software advance occurs, that then that triggers a new possibility for hardware advances, which would have never had occured without the software advance being made in the first place.

And so one can imagine an escalating...'arms race' is not quite the right word...co-evolution of software and hardware in the computer world to parallel that in the biological world that I speculated might have fed the blowing up like a balloon of the human brain. And I think what your asking for is some kind of co-evolution - a third wave co-evolution - between biology and silicon technology, including software.

And yes, I mean, I think we're seeing something of it. One can interpret the internet as a sort of beginning of that. One can imagine, in a science fiction mode, a future in which us soft, squishy biological things become pretty redundant and a silicon form of life takes over. Even perhaps, in a far distant future, looks back on the dawn of history and speculates that once upon a time, before the world of silicon, that there might have been some other kind of life, that was perhaps based on carbon. Who knows what happened in those far off, dawn ages?"
Posted 12 months ago.

sennmen says:

Richard Dawkins in an article on Apple: www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1131129,00.html

The stuff of dreams... Praise the lord and pass the twostroke!

52
Originally uploaded by Bella_modernist.

Yup, this is the stuff of dreams! I am CERTAIN that there will a 1952 Vespa just like this one when I get to heaven!

My good friend Dr Bentley bought me a model of this EXACT Vespa the other day! It is on my desk.

Lovely!

Mildly profane... BUT true nonetheless....

Whether you love President Bush, hate him, or are somewhere in between, you have to appreciate the, shall we say, effectiveness of this particular placard.

(Photo by Fred Melmoth).

Sorry, I couldn't resist (this comes from here).

I have given back my Doctorate... I realised it was useless. I need one of these...

Yes, I have realized the error of my ways...

Years of study, late nights, early mornings. Typing until my fingers were nothing more than bloody little stumps, and what for!? It is all in vain! All those years of labour are worthless. After all, the only thing that I could do as a Doctor is to help a person whose one leg is 450 something pages shorter than the other to stand up straight by putting my thesis under the shorter leg ;-)

I never realized have grave my situation was until I saw this sing speaking of the wonders that Dr Juma (no that's NOT Jacob Zuma) can perform!

So, I have decided to send back my doctoral degree and work towards one of these!

PS. notice (both from the sign's appearance, and what he advertises) that spelling and sign writing are not among his specialties.... Perhaps we could offer him some assistance in that regard?

Does religion REALLY matter!? A debate on blasphemy between Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens

The story at the end of this post gave me some cause for concern. It was Arcbishop Desmond Tutu who once commented that the problem with us 'religious' types is that we tend to give answers to questions that people aren't asking!

Heck, I have certainly been in a few service where I heard someone preach and asked the question "now what the heck was that about!?" Yup, it is a sad reality of 'naval gazing', we do tend to get so caught up in our own worlds that we forget that there are 'other worlds' out there that on a completely different track!

Of course, as I think about it, the very best of Church leaders, and Christ followers, are those who bring God's love, grace, justice, and mercy to bear on the real concerns and struggles of secular humanity. It's not that secular society sets our pace (as if our pace is something truly different from what the rest of the world is having to deal with). Rather, it is that [and here's the bit that may surprise some of us Christians] God actually cares MORE about the needs and concerns of the world than God may care about the Church!!!! (for those who need to proof text this idea please see Jesus own parable of the lost sheep - , Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:3-7 , Jesus leaves the 99 'found' sheep to go and find the one 'lost' sheep).

Yes, it just may be that God is more concerned about starving children, abusive systems of government, people who are dying of diseases that are treatable because they cannot afford medicine... And a myriad of other concerns. And, that God is less concerned about whether gay people are allowed in Church, and whether only men should preach..... Sadly, some of the most VOCAL 'answerers' in the Church are also those who embarrass us most... Take a look at this guy... Parking his Christian construction company truck outside the adult bookstore, I wonder what Adult, XXX, porn DVD he wanted to view (of course as a source to inform his prayers...) ... Mmmmm.... Sad really.

Brian Mclaren tells of a magnificent realization that he encountered when leading a Youth camp. He was asked to lead a camp for a group of evangelical youth... They expected him to deliver a 'pep rally' of feel good messages... However, what he did was he got them to work in groups and list some of the world's major crises, struggles, and problems on large pieces of paper.... Then he got them to list the things that THEIR Church of faith community was most concerned about.

Amazingly he discovered that they teens had an awareness of things like global hunger, human rights abuses, inequity in global economics, the effects of consumerism on the environment, the devastation of dissease... (the list goes one). Yet, when they listed the concerns that occupied their Church's agenda it had to do with things such as what type of Music God preferred (hymns or contemporary music - as if God has a preferential taste!) Their Church was concerned about fellowship meetings and Church growth...

Mclaren asks the question 'which church would you rather have your children belong to? The Church that seeks to address what the world most needs, or the Church that is simply looking after itself and its own innane concerns?' [this is a rough summary by the way, so please don't quote him on this!]

Well, I can tell you which Church I long to belong to! I want to belong to a Church that answers the questions that the world is asking... NOT because the world should set the Church's agenda BUT BECAUSE the world IS GOD'S agenda, and so should be the agenda of the Church...

Does that make sense!?

Anyway, what got me thinking about this was a rather offensive, and telling debate, between two prominent public figures on blasphemy (please be warned that this contains profanity). However, their need to become to vile, beligerent, and dismissive of religion (and to tackle the subject of blasphemy) my just be because WE ARE SO BLASPHEMOUS! We blaspheme against the God who cares about the world and its needs when we get so caught up on our own little agendas...

Here's the story:

Listen to Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens debating blasphemy at last year’s Guardian Hay Festival - blogs.guardian.co.uk: One of the most talked-about events at last year’s Guardian Hay Festival was the Blasphemy Debate, chaired by Joan Bakewell and inspired by the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill, which had been announced in the Queen’s Speech the previous month. The speakers at the debate were the actor and writer Stephen Fry and the journalist Christopher Hitchens, and their frequently heated discussion covered issues of freedom of speech, religious tolerance, multiculturalism and orthodoxy. It was a fascinating, though-provoking and - as you’d expect from two such consummate orators - extremely entertaining event, and as a warm-up to this year’s Hay Festival, the good people at Radio Hay, the festival’s online broadcaster, have kindly allowed us to offer you the chance to hear it for yourself. Click here to listen to the debate on your computer (MP3; 78mins).

Warning! coarse language.

Technorati tags: irrelevant religion, Desmond Tutu, What God cares about, debate on blasphemy, lost sheep