Not long ago, in this post I wrote about how it's only human beings - those made in the image and likeness of God, who can sing, everything else in creation only speaks.
So when I was sitting in our church meeting this morning and we read Rev. 5:6-12, I found myself feeling uncomfortable and somewhat exposed when it said that all the angels and that lot sang and a nervous undertone of: Am I going to need to do a screeching public u-turn here? sat with me as I listened in.
This afternoon, I thought I better double check. Now I am no Greek geek, but looking at the Greek word lego that the NIV translates sang in v12-13 and you'll see no hint of it meaning "sing".
So why is it rendered sung in the NIV? I don't know. Maybe if someone in the NIV Translation Committee were to pass by this blog, they could soon shut me up. But for now I feel relieved and vindicated.
By the way, Sean's sermon was a cracker. Pick it up here when it's uploaded later this week.
On another note, if you have ever wondered what God was up to before they actually created everything, here's a clue. Be in awe. :-D
I love my brother. Not only is he a technogeek. He has good social skills too! Here is an ad he put together for his school's Christian Union Christmas Meeting:
At my school, we are preparing for the annual carol service, which has a big input from us in the Christian Union and, whilst voluntary, is surprisingly well attended.
If you know Jesus and can spare a prayer for these events we would be most grateful. All we want is to bring honour to Jesus and open the eyes of many to the true meaning of Christmas.
If you love Jesus, you can sing along by opening this cheezy link to some organ playing in a new window and running it in the background! (I couldn't find a video that wasn't cheezy in one or other way). Alternatively, just read and meditate.
I cannot tell why He Whom angels worship, Should set His love upon the sons of men, Or why, as Shepherd, He should seek the wanderers, To bring them back, they know not how or when. But this I know, that He was born of Mary When Bethlehem’s manger was His only home, And that He lived at Nazareth and laboured, And so the Saviour, Saviour of the world is come.
I cannot tell how silently He suffered, As with His peace He graced this place of tears, Or how His heart upon the cross was broken, The crown of pain to three and thirty years. But this I know, He heals the brokenhearted, And stays our sin, and calms our lurking fear, And lifts the burden from the heavy laden, For yet the Saviour, Saviour of the world is here.
I cannot tell how He will win the nations, How He will claim His earthly heritage, How satisfy the needs and aspirations Of East and West, of sinner and of sage. But this I know, all flesh shall see His glory, And He shall reap the harvest He has sown, And some glad day His sun shall shine in splendour When He the Saviour, Saviour of the world is known.
I cannot tell how all the lands shall worship, When, at His bidding, every storm is stilled, Or who can say how great the jubilation When all the hearts of men with love are filled. But this I know, the skies will thrill with rapture, And myriad, myriad human voices sing, And earth to Heaven, and Heaven to earth, will answer: At last the Saviour, Saviour of the world is King
Yesterday saw me attending the wedding of my cousin Jonathan in Nottingham. Finally at the age of 46, he has met a woman who has been able to reel him in, (in a good way!). Roxana is lovely. Boy done good.
Jonathan has always been one with a dry sense of humour, able to say the most outrageous things and keep a straight face. So it should not have taken me by surprise at all, but it did, when at the beginning of the reception meal, in front of the hundred or so guests, he asked me to stand up. I obeyed nervously, wondering why I had been singled out for such a "privilege." Was he going to introduce me as the last remaining bachelor in the Walker family and that interested parties should see me after the meal? If he had said this, then publicly I would have been mortified, but if the truth be known, deep down, I would have relished the attention. Any publicity is good publicity - I think... I hope...
As it was, all he asked me to do was thank God for the food, which I joyfully did, not only cos it's good to thank God for all his tender mercies, but also because that was all I was standing up for.
It's good to be put on the spot. We can all prepare when we know what's coming. However, what you do when caught off guard is the measure of who you really are. Reactions to the unexpected or unwanted things of life are a great thermometer for gauging the relational temperature of our heart towards Jesus.
My brother and I once toyed with the idea of "dropping each other in it for Jesus" on the tube where unexpectedly one of us would stand up and say. Ladies and gentlemen, lend me your ears as Richard here, tells you about Jesus! We never did do that. But I'd hope that were my brother, or anyone else for that matter, to do that to me, I would always have something fresh in my walk with Jesus, worth hearing; not just from the head, but from the heart.
Being ready to give an answer for the hope that you have, is not first and foremost about being stoked up on apologetics as many Christians seem to interpret this verse. Rather, it's about being ready to say how awesome and trustworthy Jesus is, even when you are suffering intensely and unjustly, when life throws things at you that you had neither seen nor prepared for.
It's at times like that, when you really know what the soil of your heart is like.
I want to be caught off guard lots, not because I've been negligent, but because I want to be able to truly and not just theoretically cast myself onto the real care of my heavenly father.
As I turn 32, the temptation to manage my life more and more so that I can predict its outcomes and buffet myself from the unexpected, as well as discomfort, distress and disappointment, gets stronger and stronger. I have to put myself constantly and consciously in a place where I don't just dress my own selfish agenda up in the kind of religious language that makes me look really good and holy, but rather put myself in a place where I can honestly say - God you told me to do this, and if you don't come through for me now, I am totally hosed.
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By the way, CARE have asked Christians to write to their MPs regarding the Equality Bill, passing through Parliament this Wednesday. If you to know more or want tips on how to write to your MP on this issue, click here.
Did I enjoy the film? Well, to be honest, I felt more like I'd been hit by a fast moving freight train! It churned up a whole lot of responses in me, and I feel like I'm only just beginning to get a handle on them.
What follows, is not well thought out argument, just reactions and thoughts I'm trying to process/analyse. Please feel free to correct me, if some of my interpretations are wrong/unfair, it helps me hugely. I don't want to live in Cuckooland.
On a personal level, it hit me hard, because my parents were in South Africa for a large portion of the 70's. They spent nearly 6 years helping to pastor a church in Durban and my big sister was born out there.
We returned for a family holiday in the Dec of 1982 when I was 5yrs old. Whilst memories are hazy, I do recall, amongst other things, learning to swim and losing my first tooth. (I accidentally swallowed it whilst tucking into some corn on the cob, only noticing after it was all over. Those of you who know me, will not be surprised.)
It felt like (although I am probably romanticising it), the educated, white middle class Woods family of Cry Freedom, could so easily have been my family, with it's sun-bleached-blond-haired and blue-eyed kids, just like we three Walker sprogs were. Watching it gave me butterflies in my stomach as I felt I was connecting with something of my past (as it could have been) even though I wasn't even born then!!
Suddenly, I wanted to know what my parents experienced and how they view it in hindsight.
Dad said that there was a huge amount of passive acceptance of the status quo of Apartheid, including in the church. The most he ever got involved in challenging the injustice was when Albert, one of their church cleaners, had his residence raided at 4 in the morning by the police, for no apparent reason, other than the usual excuse - looking for drugs/alcohol/women.
When Albert went to see him the next morning, dad said he had never seen a black man look so ashen and frightened. He promptly went to complain to the police. It took him a while to locate exactly which branch of the SA Police was responsible. When he did, sharp words were exchanged on both sides, much heat and not a lot of light. In essence, Dad was told to keep his little do-gooder pastor's nose out of it!
So given that my dad had now been exposed to the true and ugly face of Apartheid, how had they managed to live with it peaceably up to that point?
Back in the late 60's, early 70's, the Cold War was still at its height. People were still recovering from the experience of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when, only a few years earlier, the human race almost brought about its own nuclear annihilation in that great stand off between the USA and the USSR, as the Soviets threw a hedgehog at Uncle Sam's pants.
No national consciousness recovers from traumas like that quickly. So it only added to Western alarm when in post colonial Africa, many of the new Black African leaders and "Freedom Fighters" were happy to embrace Communist ideology along with the Soviet made guns and bombs with which they could obtain/maintain power.
With the spectre of Communism still looming large in many parts of the world and indeed looking to spread in sub-Saharan Africa, dad took the view (before he got to SA) that it was OK not to raise too many questions with the South African government about Apartheid if it meant keeping South Africa as an ally in the fight against Communism. To coin the proverb: "My enemy's enemy is my friend."
Dad has since unreservedly renounced that point of view.
When you watch racism played out in glorious cinematic technicolour like in Cry Freedom, it's so obvious, how unjust it all was; so easy to think we knew what should have been going through their heads and to point the finger at our white forebears asking what were they doing?!!
But if, as my good friend Sitho pointed out, we were to turn that question back at ourselves and ask what systemic injustices and evils our children and grand children will look at us aghast over, wondering how on earth we slept at night knowing that ... was going on and we did nothing about it??!...
I wonder what those things that would shock them would be...
If you're like me, permeated with a Western philosophical mindset which likes to look at everything (including good and evil) in abstraction, that's to say, independent of the context in which those things are embedded, then you will be as surprised as I was to discover the following...
One of the Hebrew words we translate as "Salvation" is Yeshua. Yeshua is the Old Testament version of the name Jesus. (It's where we get Joshua from)
This word is used many times in the Old Testament. One of the best examples is Isaiah 12:3
We've translated it: With joy you shall draw water from the wells of salvation. Literally it would be from the wells of Yeshua - Jesus.
Jesus identifies himself directly to this when he calls all who are thirsty, to himself. It's not so much that Jesus offers us salvation, in the Western philosophical sense, something abstract and separate from himself to be received from him like an extravagant birthday present which is taken off and played with in another room, but rather to receive salvation is to receive him.
To get technical for a bit... when we're talking about the origin of salvation we can of course say it's from Jesus, but when we are talking about what salvation is, what it's like to experience, we can only say that it is Jesus, we cannot divorce the work from the person as we are so want to do!!
Have a look at those references and each time you come across the word salvation or deliverance, replace it with the name Jesus. It doesn't always work, but you'll be surprised at how many times it does. It also helps to show that those who, like Abraham, were of the true faith in the Old Testament, looked for exactly the same person (that is Christ) as we now do.
Not long ago, in this post I wrote about how it's only human beings - those made in the image and likeness of God, who can sing, everything else in creation only speaks.
