This piece from The Guardian makes interesting reading - apparently Wazza now can't do God publicly; is it because football is now meant to be our national faith? I'm tempted to say, heaven help us if so!
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Football crazy...?
Well, England are through to the last 16...and all through Jermain Defoe's goal, and he has, in the past at least been credited as having a Christian faith.
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Discipling for disagreement...
Have been thinking recently about how full the early church was of disagreement; Paul confronting Peter to his face, or falling out with Barnabas over whether to take John Mark on his 2nd trip, the seemingly constant disputes between those of Jewish and Gentile backgrounds, Paul pleading that Euodia and Syntyche should agree and so it goes on.
Which all tends to fly in the face of the idealised picture of the early church we sometimes have. At a most basic level, the fact that the New Testament is so full of exhortations to love each other, consider others better than yourselves etc is most likely because it wasn't always happening. So, how do we accept and allow for the fact that we are likely to see things differently, get frustrated with one another and at times fall out like any family without diluting the high standards for relationships between Christians that the New Testament encourages us towards? Should we be discipling one another to get hurt and get over it, and keep loving, or is that an admission of defeat? It seems to me the reason that people at times become disillusioned with church life is because it promises so much - and it's right that it should. The challenge is to allow too for our humanity and weakness, without letting ourselves off the hook too lightly.
Which all tends to fly in the face of the idealised picture of the early church we sometimes have. At a most basic level, the fact that the New Testament is so full of exhortations to love each other, consider others better than yourselves etc is most likely because it wasn't always happening. So, how do we accept and allow for the fact that we are likely to see things differently, get frustrated with one another and at times fall out like any family without diluting the high standards for relationships between Christians that the New Testament encourages us towards? Should we be discipling one another to get hurt and get over it, and keep loving, or is that an admission of defeat? It seems to me the reason that people at times become disillusioned with church life is because it promises so much - and it's right that it should. The challenge is to allow too for our humanity and weakness, without letting ourselves off the hook too lightly.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Fly the flag...?
Well, with only 3 days to go until the start of the World Cup I now have two England flags flying from my little Ford Ka, courtesy of my 2 sons. 
Can't say I'm delighted about it, but then, on the other hand, I didn't want to say no. What is fascinating is just how widespread these flags are; someone round the corner from us has handpainted his garage door as a St George's cross, which is maybe a bit extreme. I guess at one level it's all about identity and the need to belong; and let's face it we're not very good generally at generating anything like that sort of sense of community in 21st century Britain, so if football can do it in a positive way, why not? As long as we as Christians remember that ultimately our identity is formed around another cross, that transcends all national and ethnic boundaries.
Oh, and for what it's worth I reckon England will make it to the quarter finals; maybe the semis at a push. But I guess we'll know before long anyway.
Can't say I'm delighted about it, but then, on the other hand, I didn't want to say no. What is fascinating is just how widespread these flags are; someone round the corner from us has handpainted his garage door as a St George's cross, which is maybe a bit extreme. I guess at one level it's all about identity and the need to belong; and let's face it we're not very good generally at generating anything like that sort of sense of community in 21st century Britain, so if football can do it in a positive way, why not? As long as we as Christians remember that ultimately our identity is formed around another cross, that transcends all national and ethnic boundaries.Oh, and for what it's worth I reckon England will make it to the quarter finals; maybe the semis at a push. But I guess we'll know before long anyway.
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