Christmas reading

The Christmas story is so familiar that I feel I have to present a new angle each year in order to keep people's attention, let alone move them on in their faith. So I usually find myself doing a lot of reading in October and November as I start to plan the Christmas preaching themes. Books I've looked at this year include:

The Liberation of Christmas by Richard A. Horsley (New York: Continuum, 1993). A radical re-reading of the infancy narratives in a social context. To give you a flavour: "The Magnificat and other poems in the lucan birth narratives are not so much pious prayers as they are revolutionary songs of salvation." (p107) It's a thought-provoking read, and I'm not sure if I want to turn my congregation into Che Guevaras just yet, but it's well worth the £5 I spent on a second-hand copy. I believe a newer edition is available.

The Birth of the Messiah by Raymond E. Brown (Doubleday, 1999) is yet another comprehensive Brown masterpiece. I am constantly amazed by the breadth of Brown's knowledge and the depth of his insights. At 752 pages this is hardly a quick read, but it presents the infancy narratives - and the attendant problems - in a way that single-gospel commentaries, anxious to move on to Jesus' adult ministry, seldom achieve. A third of the book is taken up by the appendices, dealing with issues of historicity, such as Jesus' Davidic descent, and the place of birth. Brown is very readable, and I was easily sidetracked even as I was looking through the book to write this blog!

I'm using the lectionary for the first time ever, starting this advent, so I purchased a copy of Jane Williams' Lectionary Reflections: Year A (SPCK, 2004) to help me make some connection between the readings. The book is just what I was looking for, giving me ideas without writing my sermons for me. It's helped me see the value of the lectionary cycle.

Reaching older people

One of my passions is reaching that neglected age group, the over-65s. I get very wound up - for a number of reasons - when people say things like, "the church will die unless we get more young people". Churches that swallow this line almost always end up providing less for a vulnerable group who need more, which is way off the gospel that I know. The basic premise that a church "dies" this way is completely illogical; did you ever see a block of retirement flats going out of business because the residents died or left? Of course not, they just fill the rooms with more elderly people. We need to do the same in the church.

I went to an Outlook Trust conference last month and networked with some like-minded people. Talking with various groups, I was amazed by the lack of resources for this age group. There is a tiny fraction of books compared to those about youth work, and "post-modernism". Nor do the denominational bodies offer much help or support. It seems that old people just aren't trendy.

I did pick up a couple of books which I would recommend to others.


Three Score Years - and Then? How to reach older people for Christ by Rhena Taylor is an encouraging, inspiring book, first setting out the challenge, then providing lots of ideas. I would say this is a "must read" for every church serious about the gospel.




The Bible Speaks to Third and Fourth Agers by Richard L. Morgan is a series of 120 Bible reflections on the theme of ageing and the challenges faced. I bought this book to use as a resource, perhaps for very brief sermons at care homes, but I soon found myself being challenged by the content. It is not deep, each reflection is typically a couple of pages, but it is thought-provoking, and gives new angles on familiar passages.

Barbarism to decadence

Gen. Musharraf, having imposed a state of emergency and suspended the constitution in Pakistan, asked other nations whose own form of democracy had evolved over centuries to be patient.

It doesn't take much imagination to realise that he was thinking of the USA when he said that. He could have been harsher with a little research, and mentioned Oscar Wilde's comment that "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilisation in between."

Ein-upmanship

Hmmm. My revered NT tutor Sean Winter is so fired up about the latest issue of Biblica, and the immensely interesting articles therein, that he cannot resist mentioning them on his blog. His review of one article states (in part):

"After a brief sketch of the recent scholarly discussion, the article gives an overview of ancient conceptions of the hereafter (or their lack, respectively) as the cultural background of the potential reception of the idea of the parousia in Thessalonica. Then the identity building force of this idea as part of the missionary preaching becomes discernible: a Christian identity constituted by a separate hope of life after death and a critical distance to the socio-political reality."

There was plenty more where this came from, so I followed the link in order to read the article myself, only to find that it was in German, and therefore even less intelligible than Sean's summary. Can Sean actually read German, as well as Greek and Hebrew? If so, this is definitely a case of "ein-upmanship".

A Nice Buffet

I received an invitation to an ordination this week. Anyone who has been to an ordination service will know how deadly long and boring they can be. Don't misunderstand me, I believe ordination is a highly significant event in a minister's life and look forward to my own. It's just the way they do them.

Part of the point is tell the story of the ordinand's "journey" and calling, so a succession of people will take the stand and say how they were involved. At a minimum, this is usually the ordinand, the minister of his/her "home" church, someone from the college where they trained, and the secretary of the church calling him/her to be their minister. There may be others too. Each wants to make the occasion special and to offer some encouragement, so a simple "he passed his exams" will not do. Add to that a certain degree of rivalry in demonstrating skills in public speaking/oratory/rhetoric and it can all become very lengthy.

As if length was not sufficient torture, many of the speakers feel compelled to include humour, as if they were the father of the bride or the best man at a wedding, or, even worse, to offer advice. The advice is probably the worst bit for both the ordinand and the audience. At least the audience can react honestly, albeit discreetly; the ordinand has to look attentive and grateful for their wise words, even nodding to show that they accept the advice humbly and have every intention of following it diligently. The advice, of course, is usually utter hogwash, hackneyed phrases about "striving", or "trusting", and praying, as if these concepts were (a) completely new to the ordinand, and (b) could be expounded satisfactorily in two or three sentences. On the rare occasions that the advice is worthwhile, one wonders why it has been held back until now, kept secret through three or four years of college.

At the end of all this, the leader asks the ordinand a series of questions which boil down to, "are you a Christian?" and, "are you sure you want to be a minister?". Of course, they don't really need to ask these questions, things would not have got this far if the answer was "no". But it has to be done. But then, the actual act of ordination takes place, and everyone gets excited, because this is what they came for. But their jubilation is quickly quashed as the prayers begin. Believe me, these are lengthy. And there is still a sermon to come...

Is it any wonder that people's minds are so numbed that afterwards, the comment heard most frequently is, "it's a nice buffet"?