So the youth group I’m part of at church is now online: refwl.wordpress.com
Check it out. Especially if you’re part of FWL.
Pulitzer Photography
20 04 2007I came across the Pulitzer Prize-winning photography collections today.
The winner for this year is a black-and-white series on a boy dying from cancer. Impossible to read and not cry.
Last year’s winning entry is fascinating. It’s a look at dead marines transported back to the US from Iraq, and the funeral process their families go through. The caption on one photo says this:
Marines lift the flag off the casket of Lance Cpl. Evenor Herrera, preparing to fold it for the last time and present it to Herrera’s parents, Blanca and David Stibbs, center. After watching so many scenes of grief, the Marines involved say the cries of the family never leave their mind. “It’s almost enough to wish that you could take his place, so these people wouldn’t hurt so much,” said Sgt. Kevin Thomas.
That’s a powerful thing to say. It reminded me of another powerful statement:
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
(Romans 5:6-8 NIV)
It’s a great thing. But how do you talk about the power of death being overcome with someone afflicted so terribly by the power of death now? One part of the answer is the truth above, the other part you see in this photo series, as a man stands by and walks with a widow in terrible grief. Love and presence are powerful things.
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Categories : photo
Fetch
20 04 2007Since I’m off to Melbourne tomorrow for the National Ultimate Championships with my team Fakulti, I thought I’d post this shot. With a bunch of people from college, we were down on the Shoalhaven River for a weekend away. The shot, taken by Mike Allen (I think), captured my attempt at a game of jump-off-the-pier-and-try-to-catch-the-frisbee. It’s the sport of 2007. You heard it here first.
P.S. I’m pretty sure I dropped it.
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Categories : sport
Abandoned Warehouse
19 04 2007This is an old warehouse building about 5 minutes away from where I live. It looks great in the afternoon light.
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Categories : photo
Life is good
18 04 2007I’m having a great couple of days.
Today, I met people for coffee not once but twice. Firstly I got together with my boss and fellow student minister, so we could hammer out what we are each doing for our upcoming series through Mark’s gospels. I’m doing two talks, the first on Mark 2-3, entitled “Bigger than Jesus?”. The other is Jesus’ strange-but-true coronation at the cross. Later in the afternoon I caught up with an old friend, whom I’ve known since primary school. He’s finishing up a PhD in the area of ubiquitous computing, and is about to go over to the states for an internship with Google. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Tonight I cooked up a beautiful (if I do say so myself) African lamb stew/casserole type thing, with tomatoes and chickpeas. Had it with a glass of red wine. Yum.
Tomorrow, it’s two of my favourite things: Hebrew, and snorkelling. Both with good friends.
And to cap it off, I leave on Saturday evening to go to Melbourne, where I’ll be playing with my Ultimate Frisbee team Fakulti in the Australian National Championships.
Did I mention I’m also on holidays?
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Categories : church, old testament, snorkeling, sport, travel
Saving me the effort to type
17 04 2007Research turns up the most amazing things.
Thanks to David Ould.
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Categories : history
Tolerance in the sixteenth century
17 04 2007I’ve just handed in an essay for Church History, on the effects of English translations of the Bible in the sixteenth century (under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I). The essay is a little long to post, but here are some highlights:
- Elizabeth brought in a whole bunch of reforms when she came to power. She got rid of lots of the Catholicism of her predecessor and sister Mary I (’Bloody Mary’), re-instituted the Prayer book in churches with its public readings from English Scriptures, and made going to church compulsory for everyone. You got fined a decent amount (at least in theory) if you didn’t turn up. The upshot of this was that the culture was steeped in the Bible, and not only that, but steeped in a Bible that they could understand.
- The Geneva Bible was the first bible that people could realistically afford to buy, and practically have for their own. It was like the 16th century equivalent of a modern study bible, with a whole lot of notes in the margins to explain the text. This was a deliberate effort to get the bible into the hands of the common people, so that they could read and understand it properly. The task of interpreting scripture no longer lay with the priestly class, but God’s words could be accessed (as the reformers thought that they should be) by everyone from the Queen to the common ploughboy.
- One note of interest: Revelation 9:11. The ‘Angel of the pit’, according to the notes, was ‘Antichrist the pope, king of hypocrites & Satan’s ambassador’. The Reformers didn’t mince their words.
- The Geneva Bible was the bible of the time. Everybody had it - Shakespeare, Spenser, most probably Milton and Donne too (although the KJV would have been making inroads by this time).
Pretty cool stuff, for which I for one am very thankful.
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Categories : history, theology
