The incarnation ...

Two Blogs in One today ... Holy Land number 2 and Bible Study Chapter 5

Whilst in the Holy Land, directly after the Garden of Gethsemane we boarded the bus and headed to Bethlehem to visit the church of the Nativity.

Matthew 2: 1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
“And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” ’ Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

O God, our gracious heavenly Father, Creator and Sustainer, and yet our Father, we thank you on this wonderful day for that little child who would make us all your children. As we remember his lowly, humble birth, take away our pride. as we remember his pure life, take away our sins, as we remember how he came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, help us to serve more unselfishly, give more generously, and love more devotedly. For his sake. Amen (adapted from Leslie Weatherhead)

The Incarnation has huge implications for our lives and ministry ... A dark cave, in a far away land. The Son of God was born.

In our Bible Study this evening we are looking at what the Incarnation means to us.

JI Packer on Page 62 looks at 7 things which the prologue to Johns Gospels says about this child born in a manger

IN THE BEGINNING WAS the word

And the word was WITH God

And the word WAS God

THROUGH HIM ALL THINGS WERE MADE

In him was LIFE

and that life was the LIGHT OF MEN

The word BECAME FLESH

These few verses when we analyse them speak so much of what we believe as Christians about Jesus.

He has always been, He is in a relationship with the Father and He is God, he became one of us and he is the Life and Light for us all.

There are loads of ways to understand what Jesus did in becoming Fully Human whilst also reamining fully God. Packer in our Bible Study reminds us that he emptied himself (Kenosis) means laying aside his Glory - He voluntarily restrained his power; and acceptance of hardship, isolation and eventually death on the cross.

So what does this mean for us ?

The incarnation speaks of God's love for each and every one of us. It Speaks of God identifying with his world, it reminds us that he identified with all our failings and faults. It means that God know what it is to be tempted, humiliated .... and the rest.

He knows what it is like to mourn at funerals, to rejoice at weddings

What if God was one of us? ... actually he was!

Knowing God ... after week 2

It was great to get into more discussion about J.I Packer's book this evening at our Bible Study Group... as before these are simply a few of my thoughts please feel free to email, to comment to discuss

We discussed the purpose of Theology and why we should know even begin the journey.

After thinking about what words come to mind - many of them had negative conotations ... Professors, university, tough, closed, brainy.

The idea of simply looking at the definition of "God Talk" or "talking about God.

I love the Spurgeon sermon quoted at the beginning of the book which describes the subject of Theology

It is a subject so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects can

compass and grapple with; in them we fel a kind of self content and ho our way with the thought "Behold I am wise" But when we come to this master science , finding that our plumb line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise ... No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God ...

We also looked at the five foundation principles which form the basis of this book on page 18 (which I paraphrase here)

1. God has spoken his word to the world - the Bible is his word and contains all things necessary for salvation
2. God is Lord and Kind over all of creation - his purpose is that all things may honour and glorify him
3. God is Saviour - Jesu came to rescue and redeem us from the power of sin through the cross
4. God is Father, Son and Spirit - Three in One and One in Three
5. Our Christian lives are a response to knowing God - lived out in trust and obedience, faith worship and prayer. For a fully lived out, purpose-ful life we need to live under theguidance of Scripture in the power of the spirit.

Without the structure of theology these principles are in danger of being skewed.

Each one of us is called to share what we believe with those around about us ... the world needs to know why.

The example I shared this evening was about a police officer. When you see the uniform you expect that the person is doing what they are doing for a reason.

You expect that they have thought about the law, the common good. You expect them to behave and conduct their affairs with certain values and traits because of what their morals, theory and practice have done.

You expect them to respect those above them and those whom they serve.

The structure, the rules are there for them to follow and they do understand that.

How much more for us as Christians, we need to understand our code of behaviour, our ethics, our theology. That is what we are indeed about in this study.

The other thing that was mentioned tonight was the idea of witness, the idea that each of us are called to share what we believe with others. I have been doing a lot of thinking about this in preparation for my sermon on Sunday Morning. The Idea that we are all called to "witness" to what God is doing. My example is a local business person - I don't know if he goes to church or not but he was telling me about the amazing changes he has seen in peoples lives through an organisation which we as a church support. Christians Against Poverty ...

Take a look at just one story of a life changed by this organisation ...

Our theology has to be grounded in our walk - not being balconeers but rather pilgrims on a journey.

Wee question to ask yourself after you watch the Christian's Against Poverty Video

This is one way that the church has taken its theology, its understanding of God and made it practical in the local community ... what other things can you identify that are rooted in theology that we are doing in this church. What other things do you think we could be doing?

Knowing God - After Session 1

Tonight, our Bible Study Group got started on the J.I. Packer book Knowing God ... it was a very good session on the why and therefore of the topic.

One of the things I, as Curate love about these sessions is that I can come in hoodie and as a fellow Disciple rather as group leader ... and then listen and contribute to the group as a participant.

May I welcome those in the Bible Study to "My Wee Blog :-)" my personal wee corner of the internet which dates right back to 2005!

I hope to provide a wee account of the sessions we have covered - with questions which have arisen as well as charting our journey through the book Knowing God.

I promise to those who come along on a Wednesday night that no names will be used.

We began at the very beginning ... a very good place to start ... when you read you begin with ABC, when you read a book you begin with the front cover! :-)

We were challenged to look at the cover and see what we could come up with meaning -

• For me Road conjures up journey, with life and adventure
• Cloud - thinking about guidance, glory God?
• Horizon - the unknown as well as the expected

It was a very good place to start

We then got talking about Christian Basics the principles, the non-negotitables about who God is and what he has done for us.

When we talk about who God is we are limited to language - how do you describe the indescribable? - It is difficult! however we must do something! if we are to get to know God we must use words to describe him.

We looked at what he is ... and what he isn't

immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light, in-accesible, hid from our eyes ...

one hymn writers example of who God is!

As I write this I also wonder how you would describe God? ... here is one preacher's summary (without notes!)

We had a great discussion about the question:

Do we need theology?

My Lecturers in the past, fellow ministers as well as our Bishop will be glad to know that we came up with the answer "Yes" however it was after a bit of discussion about complicating something which is in essence simple.

We looked at how we could get to know God - the image I used was the idea that if we were to go to the International space station we would catch glimpses of the Globe - we would never see the whole earth because of the size and shape of it but we could build up a picture of the globe by taking snapshots of it!

The same with God, we get we bits and pieces - we can concentrate on one picture (attribute) but one is not all of God we need know that there is more to God than simply one wee picture - God is Love yes! but he is also Just, he is forgiving and he is father ... we could go on and on!

In the theology we also looked at the idea that there are Big Questions which the world is throwing out to Christians today and we need to be able to give some sort of answer, some sort of thought out rebuttle to the questions which society is asking.

No longer can we simple "hide under the duvet" but rather we need to be in the marketplace discussing why we believe what we believe. Theology gives us a framework, a way to discuss these things - and that is exciting as well as Challenging.

Theology is challenging because we might get asked difficult questions, our own faith may be stretched bit as we hear others opinions, we may have to stand up for some of the fundamentals of our faith.

We do come as fellow travellers, not as those who stand aloof - as one member of the group reminded us, that we need to grow as disciples. Keeping to, and always returning to the basics but also having our minds stretched by the God who is Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.

It is an exciting journey, a journey which hopefully will make us more aware of why we believe what we believe :-)

During the Study we were chatting about hymns which meant so much when we talk about God, for some it was the focus on the cross ... for me it has to be this one ...

Before we ended there was reassurance that even after 3 years of studying theology there are many many many questions still unanswered and will remain unanswered but as I said before we all can get to know God better and step forward on the journey.

I Look forward to next week and chatting more about God ... as ever if there are others in the parish who would like to join us on our journey of knowing God ... you would be more than welcome - chapter 1 next week :-)

Bible Study Group ... Now looking at "Knowing God"

Our parish Bible Study Group which meets on a Wednesday Night is looking through the J.I. Packer book ... Knowing God

Trevor (our study leader) comments "Knowing God follows on naturally from our last study on prayer. In prayer we make room in our lives to spend time to talk or have dialogue with God. We get to know him and invite Him into our lives. We pray His will be done so that his wishes for his world and all that we do in ours should become one and the same.

This study 'Knowing God' over the next months will deepen this relationship and help us know God's will so that we serve him more faithfully and transform every task we do to ensure that it is done for his glory. Trevor"

Over the next few months I hope as part of my preparations for it to add a few thoughts, questions and general observations before and after the studies. Please do feel free to add comments on the Blog or on my facebook page or email me! I hope that this will also provide a way into the book for fellow group members who are finding it tough going.

Here Goes:

Chapter 1 is entitled - The Study of God

From the opening quotation we see that the study of God, for the Christian is so vitally important, to get to know our Father. It is such an enormous subject. The more we know the more we don't know - the more we struggle with studying God the more our minds are able to cope with other things. The Study of God is the study of creation, of reality of everything.

Who needs theology?
Theology conjures up, certainly when I started in Dublin ... Dusty Books, old professors and the weighty tombes of long forgotten theologians.

Packer reminds us that it is however -"the most practical project anyone can engage in. It is crucially important for the living of our lives". Theology gives meaning to our lives.

We need to be clear why we want to know about God - Gaining theological knowledge can't be the end in itself ... NOPE! Our aim has to be to get to know God better.

We need to turn Knowledge about God into Knowledge of Him.

So often in Church we hear but don't take to heart
we know the stories but don't make the journey from the head to the heart

As we go through this study of Packer's Book may we remember that theology - "God Talk" is all about talking about our Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and how he interacts with the world and the implications of that for us today.

Questions from the Back of the Book (paraphrased)
1. What comes to your mind when you think about Theology
2. What does a person mean when they say - "there is no pathway to know God"
3. How Comfortable do you feel about the 5 Themes?
4. what should be our ultimate aim in studying God
6. What does it mean to meditate on God

Why is the study of God important?