A friend shared with me the concluding stanza of the poem September 1, 1939, by W. H. Auden. Here it is: Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, …
The Church is Boring, You Say?
There is a false and pernicious idea that Liturgy is boring; that church is boring and irrelevant; and that is why people, especially young people, are staying away. Personally, I've never been convinced of that argument. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Perhaps people find church and Liturgy boring because they are bored, …
Perfected in forgiveness
As I think upon the Cross of Jesus Christ today, I remember the first words that Jesus spoke on the Cross: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” Forgiveness, the hardest thing for human beings to do. Yet, the thing most characteristic of the one who was God and Man! …
Solidarity and love
Excellent commentary in the Guardian newspaper in the aftermath of the Brussels terrorist attacks. The key paragraph is near the end: The biggest nightmare for Isis was how some European countries, such as Germany, welcomed Syrian refugees with open arms. The solidarity shown by thousands of citizens from Greece to Sweden harmed Isis. It cannot …
The evils of rigidity
As the world is once again shocked by another brutal terrorist attack - this time in Brussels - I want to quote some words written by the late, great French theologian and philosopher, Jacques Ellul (1912-94), in his book Living Faith. He wrote of the connection between rigidity and violence, and thus the two faces of violence …
Blessed are the persecuted
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness/justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10) Blessed are YOU, when when people revile you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. (Matthew 5:11) Eight Beatitudes were spoken in the third person plural …
After a Billion Years…
The anticipation has been building the last few days that a big announcement would be made today, and sure enough it came this morning. Gravitational waves have been detected for the first time, the result of two black holes colliding and merging a billion years ago. Einstein predicted their existence a hundred years ago when …
A Burning Love for Christ
And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. (Acts 6:5) These were the first deacons of the church. Stephen was a deacon in the original sense of the word. He served, he ministered …
Trinitarian Community
We are living in treacherous and confusing times. In a recent book, I read the following: “the growth in Muslim populations across Europe since the mid-twentieth century runs parallel to secularization or, perhaps more aptly, de-Christianization. As Muslim populations grow and assert their religious identities in the public sphere, Christianity’s public role and influence fade. …
Life is the Politics of Jesus
It's now a week since the Paris attacks and it has been a tense week, with hateful rhetoric flaring up in France and Europe, and the US. I continue to have reservations about Islam and its compatibility with our western values, but I am dismayed by the level of hate speech that has contaminated our ability to look at the world …
