Here’s a quick catch-up from Australia.
Life imitates art.
I remember that workshop being done as part of an LGBT group meeting. I was slightly skeptical about it in the beginning, but ended up getting a lot out of it and thinking about God in ways that I hadn’t consciously before.
FWIW, in order to dot some `t’s and cross some `i’s, my sensibly heretical book The Five Gospels colours all the speech black apart from the saying about women grinding corn (which merits a grey, at best). Ie, none of the text goes back to any historical Jesus, with the apocalyptic context added by the gospel authors; the `thief in the night’ is an Christian saying of the early churches (witness other epistles, written before Matthew, where the image appears) and therefore probably planted, in that order, in Matthew.
I guess taking what you most charitably will out of the passage is entirely reasonable, then. ๐
(I had to read that, and a bit from Romans at church up here, too… was “interesting” turning a blind eye to it. ๐
Thanks for that Kelvin. When I read that Gospel at the 8:30 service, i remembered the severe fundamentalist church I was brought up in as a child, and it made me uncomfortable. Reading your comments, I remember my first few visits to an Episcopal worship service and remembering how joyful and non-scary it was, and being amazed by the fact that I didn’t have to be afraid of God. Thanks for the reminder.
A soundbite from John Riches’ sermon this morning has stayed with me through the day: “Be like God … become human.”
Spotted an excellent sign along the road: No Dogs Allowed (includes Cats)
Well, the frantic work put in by so many people over the last couple of weeks paid off and a good Christmas time was had by all at church. The nine lessons and carols brought in a big crowd, despite it being at 1830 on Christmas Eve. They got some fine music, including a positively…
Tonight, let this be the stable. Let us close our eyes to the gothic cathedral in which we sit. Let us see the stable, not the soaring gothic arches. Tonight, let us listen again anew to the story. Tonight, let us look again into the manger and see for ourselves that the good news is…
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