It’s true – there IS a God!

This is demonstrated by my wife’s against-the-odds pregnancy. God told us to have a baby, we did what we needed to do and despite the doctor’s mockery and cynicism [and after a long slog and much doubt] the baby is now on its way.

But, as described in my previous posts, we want this baby to be a gateway to areas of service.

Now, in our church we are currently doing Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Community for lent. (By the way, see Kyle’s excellent discourse on lent here.) Part of the lesson is to make the most of every opportunity to speak to people, breaking out of our normal circle of friends. So when my dear wife was at the school gate waiting for our kids, she saw a couple to whom she was once introduced but has not spoken to since. So, obedient to the church’s teaching, she approached them and made polite conversation. This developed into a deeper conversation about children, which lead on to her telling the story of our near-miraculous conception. And as part of that, my young-looking wife admitted her true advanced years, and the woman gasped, and threw her arms around my wife.

It turns out that many years ago she had a sterilisation, of which she now repents, but being in her thirties though that it was now too late. Obviously I am skimming over the story here. But the upshot of it is that my wife’s obedience has resulted in her speaking God’s words into that couple’s life: that they too can (and should?) have another baby.

Doesn’t it scare the pants off you when God transforms from an abstract concept into a real being who DOES things?

Christian Calendar

I have always been brought up with a non-conformist view that much of the so called Christian calendar revolves around the Christianisation of pagan festivals. As Christianity expanded and pagans were converted, they needed a substitute for their pagan days, and something to celebrate when their still-pagan friends were having fun and revelry. I thought that the church took the pagan festivals and applied Christian meanings to them. My parents took a quasi- Jehovah’s Witness position that we really shouldn’t do these things at all, but I have moved away from it saying that the Kingdom of God is advancing and taking ground form the Kingdom of darkness, and I’m not going to let the Devil keep any of it, least of all the fun bits. However, this weekend, while reading the Church of England newspaper, my position has changed again. It was an article regarding the dating of Christmas, which pointed out that neither the winter solstice (21 Dec) nor the Roman Saturnalia (17 Dec) fall on December 25th. The article went on to say that the date of Christmas was derived very early, and was based on an idea prevalent at the time that the OT prophets died on their birthdays. Therefore, having evaluated the date of the crucifixion to be 25th of March, Jesus would also have been born on 25th of March. But since Jesus was a special case. It was his incarnation ie conception that was counted, rather than emergence form the womb. Thus, 9 months later, he was born on 25th December. Now I still think that the fundamental premise about the prophets dying on their birthdays is almost certainly flawed, but it is good to know that the date of Christmas was set based on theological thought rather than simply adopting a pagan festival.

Easter

I am away on Holiday for a week, so you can all have a break from me adding irritating comments to your blogs.

What does Easter mean to us?

I have never really been one for celebrating the church calendar. In the 1980s My Aunt once called me "Godless" because my church at that time didn't have a service on Good Friday. In turn I diapproved of her attention to such ritualism with its 'pagan' connotations. I am happy to sing about the Incarnation (Christmas carols) in summer. The death and resuurection of Christ is of equal importance to me throughout the year - it is not less important in winter than spring. I tend to see the faith in terms of lifestyle, holiness, witness, walk with God etc, which are not measured in terms of days of the week or year any more than you can measure sound with a theodolite.

However, as part of my training and particlarly through reading Kyle's 'Vindicated' blog, I have come to appreciate the value of a calendar, re-enacting the faith, as a form of witness. And Easter does have important cultural links to the wider society to help us present the message of the cross. also, although I very much doubt that Jesus was born on 25th December, Easter does have some chronological relevance to the events it commemorates.

So, we don't want to be enslaved by a calendar (Gal 4v9-10), but we are perfectly entitled to use one where appropriate and desirable (Rom 14 v5-7).

Therefore, whether you celebrate your freedom in Christ by spending time with your family or by vestments and insence in a decorated church, I pray that you will both experience and share the blessing of being found in Christ at this time.