Category Archives: Jesus

December 12, 2007 · 9:35 am

the cast of christmas reassembles for easter

Take the wise men to the Emperor’s palace.
Wash their hands in water.
Get them to say something about truth.
Does anyone know any good Jewish jokes?
The one about a carpenterwho thought he was a King?
The one about the Saviour who couldn’t save himself?
The shepherds should stand with the chorus.
They have a big production number -‘Barabbas, We Love You Baby’.
Mary? She can move to the front.
We have a special section reserved for family and close friends.
Tell her that we had to cut the manger up.
We needed the wood for something else.
The star I’m afraid I can’t use.
There are no stars in this show.
The sky turns black with sorrow.
The earth shakes with terror.
Hold on to the frankincense.
We’ll need that for the garden scene.
Angels? He could do with some angels.
Avenging angels.
Merciful angels.
He could really do with some angels.
Baby Jesus.
Step this way please.
My! How you’ve grown!

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Filed under christmas, cross, Jesus

December 5, 2007 · 10:14 pm

christmas is really for the children

Christmas is really for the children.
Especially for children
who like animals, stables,
stars and babies wrapped
in swaddling clothes.
Then there are wise men,
kings in fine robes,
humble shepherds and a
hint of rich perfume.

Easter is not really
for the children
unless accompanied by
a cream filled egg.
It has whips, blood, nails,
a spear and allegations
of body snatching.
It involves politics, God
and the sins of the world.
It is not good for people
of a nervous disposition.
They would do better to
think on rabbits, chickens
and the first snowdrop
of spring.

Or they’d do better to
wait for a re-run of
Christmas without asking
too many questions about
what Jesus did when he grew up
or whether there’s any connection.

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Filed under christmas, easter, Jesus, poetry

December 3, 2007 · 4:17 am

the way, the truth, the life

I am the way to God: I did not come
To light a path, to blaze a trail, that you
May follow simply in my tracks, pursue
My shadow like a prize that’s cheaply won.
My life reveals the life of God, the sum
Of all he is and does. So how can you,
The sons of night, look on me and construe
My way as just the road for you to run?
My path takes in Gethsemanae, the Cross,
And stark rejection draped in agony.
My way to God embraces utmost loss:
Your way to God is not my, but me.
Each other path is dismal swamp, or fraud.
I stand alone: I am the way to God.

I am the truth of God: I do not claim
I merely speak the truth, as though I were
A prophet (but no more), a channel, stirred
By Spirit power, of purely human frame.
Nor do I say that when I take his name
Upon my lips, my teaching cannot err
(Though that is true). A mere interpreter
I’m not, some prophet-voice of special fame.
In timeless reaches of eternity
The Triune God decided that the Word,
The self-expression of the Deity,
Would put on flesh and blood – and thus be heard.
The claim to speak truth good men applaud.
I claim much more: I am the truth of God.

I am the resurrection life. It’s not
As though I merely bear life-giving drink,
A magic elixir which (men might think)
Is cheap because though lavish it’s not bought.
The price of life was fully paid: I fought
With death and black despair; for I’m the drink
Of life. The resurrection morn’s the link
Between my death and endless life sought.
I am the firstborn from the dead; and by
My triumph, I deal death to lusts and hates.
My life I no extend to men, and ply
Them with the draught that ever satiates.
Religion’s page with empty boasts is rife:
But I’m the resurrection and the life.

D.A.Carson, The Gospel According to John. Leicester: IVP, 1991: 492-3.

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November 21, 2007 · 8:48 am

total depravity

Sometimes when I read the papers, I just want to weep. I have 2 kids of my own, and they are a precious gift from God. I am well aware of the challenges of children with special needs. But I cannot fathom the heart that is capable of this:

Girl prisoner’s ‘torture’
from The Sydney Morning Herald News Headlines
Court papers reveal seven-year-old NSW girl’s “slow and torturous” death by starvation.

I read the details, and I want to be sick. I am filled with outrage. How can a human being do such a thing to another, essentially defenceless child? How do you go out at night, or sit down in front of the television, knowing that you have locked a little girl in a room for weeks on end with no food?

There are no answers to that question, it seems to me. No answers except revelation:

Rom 1:28-29 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.

Some people have suggested that we Anglicans spend too much time talking about sin. My response is, how can you not, when this is what we read in the papers? We need to be real, talk about the world the way it really is. Only then can we fully fathom the real hope that is ours in the Gospel – that Jesus has stared this depravity full in the face, and defeated it, its lord and its enslaving power.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

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Filed under death, Jesus, sin

November 14, 2007 · 10:45 pm

death in the papers

Is it just me, or has death been getting a particular run in the papers of late? It has struck me as I flick through the headlines how random and unforgiving death is. Consider the following headlines from the SMH:

Seven dead as lift plummets 34 floors
Elevator in eastern China drops 100 metres, killing seven construction workers.

Family watch deadly exorcism ritual
22-year-old mother of two drowns in her lounge as up to 40 relatives watch.

Boy, 6, killed by mystery sea beast
Boy dies after being stung by an unidentified creature off the Tiwi Islands.

Man dies during cockatoo rescue
58-year-old falls 12 metres trying to retrieve neighbour’s pet bird from tree.

Christmas party’s deadly dim sim
A 25-year-old woman dies after a violent reaction to eating a dim sim.

We normally hear about disasters and things, but more and more we are hearing about these bizarre or unusual stories of people meeting their end.

It serves to reinforce both the fallenness of this world and the finality of death that can strike at any moment, to any one, at any time.

Praise be to our Father that Jesus has taken on death and beaten it, that though it remains a formidable enemy to those who know him, yet it is beaten and holds no final power.

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Filed under death, Jesus

June 8, 2007 · 12:36 am

Making fun of Jesus?

Interesting piece of commentary from a non-Christian guy who’s normally all about pointing out stuff about men in society in a fun way. Linking to a YouTube clip of a person dressed as Jesus singing ‘I will survive’ (which, ironically, is the message of Jesus in Revelation: ‘I have overcome, I have survived, so you do the same’), he comments:

The following clip may offend if you’re a God-fearing Christian, so I’ll be interested to see if I receive any death threats from fundamentalist Catholics as a result of this post. My bold prediction? I’ll get absolutely none.
My point? Imagine if this bloke had dressed up like the prophet Mohammed instead of taking the piss out of Jesus? He’d be shivering in a cave somewhere in Montana while firemen picked through the charred remains of his torched Los Angeles apartment.
I know I’m going to hell anyway, but the fact I can even write the sentence “taking the piss out of Jesus” – let alone post this clip – without fearing for my life shows most Christians are pretty easy-going types.And I guess that’s where “the West” struggles to comes to terms with the “Islamic world”. Above all else, it just seems so rigid and stern.
I’m worried even pointing it out …

[source: http://blogs.smh.com.au/lifestyle/allmenareliars/archives/2007/06/sacrilege.html]

This guy’s on to something. Christians don’t react the same way. And its because of the fundamentally different nature of the ‘Lord’ that Christians follow.

Jesus overcomes, not by being afraid of being insulted, but by facing insults and persecutions and flogging and wrongful crucifixion head on, and defeating it 3 days later in his resurrection from the dead. He is now the powerful one who reigns over all, and who waits for the day when he will put all things to right.

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