The Meaning of 'God'

Does the word 'God' refer to a being beyond the universe? Another being in addition to the universe?

Or does the word 'God' refer to a sacred presence all around us?

If we go for the second of these ideas, can we account for the relationship with God that Christian faith invites us to have?

The Word of the Lord

Is it helpful, or even truthful, to follow a reading from the Bible with 'This is the word of the Lord?' Clearly, it would not be any better to say 'This is not the Word of the Lord', so we're not in an argument about whether or not the Bible, or any part of it, is actually given to us by God. To re-use an analogy I first heard from Athol Gordon ( a lay reader in Dundee during the 1980s and 90s), the thing to remember about the Bible is that it's gift-wrapped. As a result, we need to know how best to unwrap it.

Last Wednesday in the Inn, we tried and failed to identify what is said after readings in the New Zealand Liturgy. I've now downloaded the relevant texts, and can reveal that the practice is as follows:-

       The appointed readings follow, the reader first saying

       A reading from … (chapter … beginning at …)

       Silence may follow each reading.

       The reader may say

       Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

       Thanks be to God.

Does that seem like an improvement? And would you prefer the silence or the response?

What is our faith?

In the gospel, we find Jesus calming a storm at sea. Did he really? Does it matter if it’s really just a story’? It’s about a massive uncontrollable threat that Jesus, somehow, does control. After the event, he seems to imply that the real problem is lack of faith.

Is this any help today? Can faith disperse threats and dispel fears for us? What sort of faith are we talking about?

Christ is risen indeed!

Try playing with different tones of voice as you think about it.


Some beliefs refer to facts (or to theories that explain facts), others to hopes, and others to matters of principle. Does belief in the risen Christ fall into one of those categories, or some other?

Prayer - an extract from Tim's sermon (5th February)

Prayer begins in reverent attention to something that isn't yourself. It begins when you concentrate on something beautiful that lies beyond your own petty concerns, something perhaps that is quite irrelevant to them, and are caught up in self-forgetfulness because you are focused on that. All you can see is the beautiful picture, or the image of someone else's generosity to someone else, or whatever it may be that you're focusing on. And this attention to something other than yourself has set you free from what Iris Murdoch called “the fat relentless ego”: it's enabled you to get beyond yourself. There is a curious paradox in the fact that the only way for us to make sense of ourselves is for us to learn to forget about ourselves and start focusing on something else. But like many other paradoxes, this one is true.

Do Jonah's three days in the belly of the fish pre-figure the three days between Jesus' death and resurrection? The author of the Jonah story could hardly have thought so, but what did Jesus think?

Jonah thought of himself as a sacrifice to appease an angry God. What did Jesus think about his own sacrifice? He doesn't seem to have thought that God was angry with him, but there is a rather odd idea in some parts of the New Testament that the crucifixion was a punishment for the sins of the world.

The idea is odd for two reasons. One is that the idea of a scapegoat had been rejected centuries previously, and replaced by the principle of individual responsibility. The other is that Jesus' own understanding of his approaching death seems to have been based on the Passover sacrifice, which has nothing to do with punishment but everything to do with liberation.

So what are we left with? The idea that Jesus died to set people free, certainly, but we need to be very clear what from and what for.

Hi Everyone,

This is just a test post to revive this blog which has been dormant for 3 years !

Tim, Ashley, anyone please respond !

Cheers,
Jim