What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Sermon preached on 4 August 2013

    I used to work in a church with murals. Well one mural. It wasn’t this church and it wasn’t these glorious murals. It was somewhere else entirely.

    (By which I mean Edinburgh).

    Throughout the late fifties, the sixties and early seventies, a sustained period of liturgical reform had happened. The altar had been pulled away from the wall. The priest now faced the people. The peace was shared and communion started to happen every Sunday. Those of you who have been around for a bit might remember that story from all kinds of contexts. Those who are new to Episcopal worship might be surprised to learn that how we do things is not in fact as old as the hills at all.

    Anyway, these liturgical reforms in this church had left a big space to fill. Somewhere along the way, the East Window had been bricked up and whitewashed over and now there was a giant wall to fill.

    And, of course, just as we can be sure that someone was heartily trying to encourage the congregation to sing Kum By Yah. so, inevitably, someone got to paint a mural.

    Unlike Gwyneth Leech’s paintings, which surround me here in this church. this was a rather less successful piece. (more…)

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One response to “You’ll have had your apocalypse”

  1. AndyB Avatar
    AndyB

    I always think that the point about Jesus’ return is that we may well live to see it, but on the other hand, we might be killed in a road accident this afternoon. That is the urgency of following Jesus.

    I think that a Rapture is possible, but firstly very unlikely (the Biblical interpretation that leads to such a conclusion seems rather far-fetched), and secondly, escapist. It is already a blindingly obvious statement that in 2013, people are already under serious threat of arrest, torture and death for their faith in some parts of the world. There is no guarantee for any Christian in the comfortable West that they will not face such persecution or worse, whether Jesus returns in their lifetimes or not.

    Reply

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