What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Carols at the Tron

    The Presbytery of Glasgow are having a Carol Service in St George’s Tron on Sunday afternoon.

    Details below
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    Please support this if you are able. From the Presbytery Clerk of Glasgow.

    I am pleased to say that a Presbytery Carol Service will be held in St George’s Tron Church of Scotland, Buchanan Street on Sunday 23rd December at 3pm. The guest preacher will be Rt Rev Albert Bogle, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. I would appreciate it if you could publicise this service as widely as possible, by written and verbal intimation (suggested wording below),
    encouraging members of your congregation to come and share in this service.

    It would be good to show that the living church has not left the building as the former Tron tried to publicise but that the living gospel is alive and well all over Glasgow.

    Very Rev Bill Hewitt
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3 responses to “Power needs to be baptised by love”

  1. Robin Avatar
    Robin

    A very good and thought-provoking sermon. I’ve always thought of the Ethiopian eunuch as a man of great power and authority, and of great learning and devotion too, which points me to your third interpretation. But what startles me about the story – partly because of my thinking of the eunuch as someone of great power and authority compared to Philip, and partly because of a tendency on my part to be dogma-bound – is the sheer simplicity of how Philip welcomes him into the Church.

    There is no complicated initiation process. There are no doctrinal tests. The eunuch sees water, and asks Philip in a businesslike way if there’s any reason why he shouldn’t be baptised. Philip’s answer couldn’t be more direct and straightforward: “If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptised.” And the eunuch’s response couldn’t be more direct and straightforward either: no lengthy creed, no question and answer interrogation, but simply, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

    No doubt the eunuch continued his studies after his baptism, being that sort of man. But in a complicated world and (sometimes) a complicated Church I often turn to this passage for reassurance that it needn’t always be so.

    Reply
    1. Father Ron Smith Avatar
      Father Ron Smith

      Thank you, Father Kelvin. What a lovely and refreshing new insight into the identity and provenance of the ethiopian Eunuch! Philip’s acceptance and Baptism of the Eunuch reflects the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 19:122, where he speaks of 3 types of eunuch; made so by others (the Ethiopian, castrati); those who become so for the sake of the Kingdom (monks, nuns, celibate clergy);
      and then, of course; those so ‘from their mother’s womb’ (intrinsic Gays).

      Reply
  2. Aleks Avatar
    Aleks

    Really profound. You’ve given me a lot to think about.

    Reply

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