Happy Thanksgiving

To all our US friends, Carol and I send enthusiastic Thanksgiving Greetings. From many years of experiencing Thanksgiving with many of you, we know the joy of family and friends uniting for the sheer pleasure of remembering good things together. Of course, mouth-wateringly choice food piled up helps stoke up celebration, but it's the being together that is so special.

For several years after returning to the UK we replicated Thanksgiving, inviting good friends to our decorated table, complete with model Pilgrim Father and assorted figures (including a turkey), plus seasonal napkins. Such annual fun. Unfortunately, we shall miss this year owing to Carol's poor health but we have enough past experiences in the memory bank to give us good cheer today.

And to cheer me up, one of my former students sent me a surprise email. Surprise because I have not heard from him since I left the States several years ago. He is now a pastor in Washington State and he told me that this year's Thanksgiving triggered a desire to thank me for my time with him as teacher, mentor,  overseer of his internship and encourager in his first pastorate.  In particular he recalled how he and his wife hesitated about inviting us to a farewell meal when Carol and I were busy packing up to leave the country. Apparently they doubted whether we could spare time for them.  Of course we could! Yes we were physically and emotionally near exhaustion as we contemplated our major move, yet I recall vividly my gratitude and the humbling experience of seeing their desire to meet with us.  What a surprise dollop of thankfulness to hear from him again.  I hope it triggers me to some spontaneous thanksgiving today .  

Tenemos

I was back in church on Sunday after some unavoidable absences. When the service finished, a few friends warmly greeted me on my return...that's a great fellowship experience. However, one elderly man was waiting to speak to me. He worships at another church and was obviously out-of-the-loop about my situation. Hearing these warm greetings must have seemed  a tad over the top.

Nevertheless, he waited patiently and then delivered a short prepared speech. ' 60 years ago today, you were at the opening of the new Arbury Road Baptist Church. There are not many of us left'. He then listed some of the elderly compatriots from that era. I was stunned how many thankful recollections immediately came flooding back.  Since my father was minister of the church and oversaw the vision and building of the chapel, I had vivid memories about the process from an inside track. Built on the large lawn in front of the church hall, I marveled at every stage as this contemporary looking structure was constructed (it still looks contemporary) with its soaring roof, floor to roof windows, and rising wooden ceiling. Externally, its brickwork imaginatively rose to a cross at the pinnacle. I remember my father's excitement at first glimpsing the finished cross from the distance. Actually, there was so much excitement all round that the giving, vision and sacrifice of the congregation (and architect) culminated when we entered it for the official opening 60 YEARS AGO.

Sadly, some church building visions remain bound in human ego. And they can so tie up energy and resources that they push aside Christ's mission for his people and its surrounding community.  Buildings can absorb so much time there is little left for gospel matters.  Yet, 60 years on this building testifies to gospel positives right from its opening.  Oh the generations who have grown in faith and been nurtured in community under its roof.

I like the Greek word tenemos which speaks of a sacred, protected space that is specially set aside for holy purposes.  Its main purpose is to allow people to worship and belong together.  We know that God doesn't need buildings for his people to be together, But in my own story, maybe yours too, particular places on my Christian journey hold especial value, because they enshrine key personal events, baptism, marriage, funerals with people who loved God and loved me. And helped me grow in my love for them. And Arbury is a vital tenemos on my journey. I know base motives, cloaked with God talk, can lead to building empty shells. 'Unless  the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain' ( Ps 127:1). But I rejoice 60 years on for this particular church.  Perhaps you have a tenemos or two for which to give thanks? 

Which Watson?

Someone asked when I posted that I had these old preacher books about the D Watson books.  Perhaps they were thinking of David Watson (and I used to have some of his writing). But no. There are other Watsons. John B Watson (1767-1839) was a noted preacher. Not him. John Watson (1850-1907), also known as Ian Maclaren, an author of fiction. Yes, him. Beginning in the Free Church of Scotland he gained fame as a writer and preacher, especially celebrated for his Yale Lecture 1896 The Cure of Souls. I have this with two other books; The Mind of the Master, The Inspiration of our Faith.

I dislike cannibalizing nuggets from a man's lifetime work but it's a way of retrieving at least something from their past contribution. From his collection of sermons one is titled: Jesus' Criticism of Emotion.  Intriguing?  He focuses on Luke 9: 57-62  

This incident when Jesus refused three disciples is the most remarkable in His life....His preaching was one long invitation to enter the Kingdom of God...he would cast none out. But it is evident that Jesus on occasion could be cold in manner...They heard Jesus preach and were so moved that they resolved to join his fellowship. The first he repelled by an extreme illustration of the hardship of a disciple's lot - he would not have where to lay his head; the second he daunted with an almost impossible commandment - that he should leave without burying his father; the third he declared unfit for his kingdom - because he wished to bid his friends farewell. This was the drastic way in which Jesus dealt with three apparently honest men.

This was in perfect keeping with his attitude to mere emotion. ..Jesus was never weary of denouncing false emotion which ends with itself and he has done all he could to save his disciples from its enticing snare...There are two reasons why Jesus was so critical of emotion and so anxious that it should be rigidly tested. 1) Christianity itself is charged with the most beautiful emotion...Jesus teaching is an evangel, a revelation, a splendid imagination. When the spirit of Christianity touches our soul we must take care while we rejoice in the ideal that we lay stress on the real. It's good to magnify the cross if we are carrying our own; good to think of heaven if we have its earnest in holiness within. The soul must stand on the rock of practical obedience. 2) Emotion is so seductive. Nothing can be more agreeable...than to sing hymns of passion, to dwell on the love of God. Nothing can be harder than denying ourselves, and keeping Christ's commandment, and serving others, and submitting to the divine grace. Nothing is more severe than duty, nothing is more soothing than sentiment.  Many prefer to take their religion in feeling rather than in practice. 

Let us be more faithful with ourselves, and more suspicious of every emotion which has not been reduced to action. The final judgment of life after all is not emotion but action.  

I was greatly impacted when I first studied The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Of course he writes about this text too  He describes how in the first step of discipleship - Jesus' call cuts us off from our previous existence so that we are put in a situation where faith is possible.  Oh, so much to challenge!

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Utter bafflement

Discerning readers will has seen occasional references to Carol's declining health these last months. It's always difficult walking the narrow line between over and under-sharing. And personal over-sharing can be a killer on blogs!  However, as many local friends already know, Carol was engaged with the long- covid research team for 7 months in the early part of this year. Because brain fog and limb weakness is associated with Long Covid - Carol suffered badly from Covid early 2020 - it was thought that this could explain her condition.  But it became very obvious in the team research that something more complex was happening.

She was then transferred to the 7 month waiting list for the memory clinic. After one disappointing postponement we were given the date November 5th. Since Carol has only dressed and left the house once (briefly) since July 17th. it was agreed she should receive a home visit.  You can imagine how much I pinned my hopes on this visit that, at last, it might provide a clear diagnosis!  The nurse consultant was very thorough and impressed me by the care she took with both me and Carol separately during 90 minutes.  Carol's excessive sleeping, weight loss and memory lapses were carefully chronicled.  At the conclusion, while still in bed upstairs, Carol undertook a long memory test. And, wait for it....she answered most of the questions slickly and accurately. The consultant expressed surprise that she responded so well. So did I! . 

This cognitive display clearly puzzled the consultant. Indeed, she found the situation utterly baffling. It meant, she said, that it was impossible for her to explain this range of symptoms. She concluded that the only way for us to make progress is for Carol to receive a scan at the hospital, which will then be examined by a cross-specialism team.  I have no idea how long we wait for a scan, and you can probably sense some frustration!  I am immensely grateful for the prayers and care of so many friends and though I don't expect to have any news to share for a while, I shall pen a post when the bafflement is resolved or, at least, less baffling!

Intrigued by FP

One of my old books intrigued me by its title: Studies in the Christian Character. Written by Francis Paget (died 1911 aged 60)  a noted scholar and Bishop of Oxford , the book is inscribed :With the writer's love, January 1895.  What intrigued me was its focus on the Christian Character, which he claims receives too little contemporary attention. That's true today, too. don't you think? Which of  these characteristics which he describes as 'the coherent group of traits evinced in lives surrendered to the rule of Christ with reliance on His grace' deserves singling out ? He lists 22 possibilities though some of them are repetitions. Many you would expect to see such as: goodness (Ps 37:3), honest use of words ( Matt. 12:36), courtesy (John 2:11),  and kindness ( Lk 10: 36). 

But what particularly struck me was how he began. Did he rate this as the most significant of all?

Safeguard of judgment (The spiritual person makes judgments about all things ,1 Cor. 2:15). He wonders whether in this verse the apostle Paul is startling the Corinthians with their petty conceits 'that if they had seen the intrinsic greatness of being Christians they would have been ashamed to care so greedily for little things, such as agitated those who did not know Christ.' That they should see 'more of all that is in their reach...the distinction and dignity of their calling. Living in the power of the world to come, and conversant already with its glory,.... (the Christian) confronts this world as one who grasps the right standard of all things with a resolute and certain hold; he can scan, examine, scrutinize, and try things with the independence of one who stands on surer ground than this world knows; his is the quiet and lowly courage that springs from the sense of relation and communion with transcendent greatness; he holds his own through all glamour and confusion...for his heart stands fast and believes in the Lord.' 

I know it's 1895 language but what an arresting way to begin listing aspects of Christian character. How as spiritual people we should not respond in petty and superficial ways with knee-jerk reactions. Later he warns of he dangers of living as a thriving earthworm who misses out on the glory of  the high calling of one who see things differently because they share in the mind of Christ. Which is never petty nor superficial.  Let's resolve not to be thriving earthworms!

JHW (2)

Just a last look. I know the language is dated and of its time, with rhetorical flourishes uncommon today. And it has very high expectations.  But I have gained much from its seriousness and urgency. 

For example, in an address titled:  'Believing is Seeing ' Jowett reflects on the divine promise given to Abraham, described in Romans 4. How God's call came in such negative circumstances. Common experience was against it. Common sense was against it. But faith is a finer sense than common sense. It's not 'seeing is believing' but 'believing is the only true seeing'! Even when the world around rejects it. Focusing on the verse Rom 4:20 'He staggered not...through unbelief' he talks about our living in circumstances of unbelief.

We have heard the divine word but...common sense is very aggressive, and it rears itself against the promise of our God. Our material setting is unfriendly. Carnal forces are ironical in their easy triumph. And we begin to look foolish in our simple faith. And, God help us! sometimes we begin to feel foolish, and we are tempted to make obeisance to the kingdom of the apparent and to bow down and worship it. Never was there greater need of deep-living men and women who will confront the proud and massed 'unlikelies' with the spoken promise of our God. Never was the need more urgent that we should confirm ourselves in the promise amid the loud and blatant taunt of our foes. We must wear the word of the Lord like an athlete's belt! 'Having your loins gift about with truth!' These are the men and women who remain victors on the field at the end of the long and bloody day. At the beginning of day theirs is the faith which gives substance to things hoped for; at the end of the day the things hoped for have become their eternal possession. 

Yes, God needs deep-living men and women. Elsewhere he also writes about us being people of inclusive sacrifice.

Now this is the secret of the Christian life, to make the inclusive sacrifice. Religious life is inevitably tedious when it consists of a conscious yielding of our small things and a withholding of our central strength. If our self is kept back from the Lord, our religion will be a procession of reluctances and irritations. every circumstance will present a separate problem instead of being caught up in the sweep of a mighty consecration. And that is the trouble with a great many people. They try to be religious in smaller surrenders,  while the great surrender has never been made. And these small surrenders encounter curbs and restraints and the soul is annoyed and discordant. The large surrender brings us into God's large place. We pass into the glorious freedom of God's children and His statutes become our songs. 

So much to ponder from an old preacher. Thank you JHW. 

Where are they going?

To interrupt JHW and answer the query raised by the last post about my books. Well, it's mostly about where my books have gone. A substantial part of my library was left in the US - particularly the  large academic collection extended while teaching there.  Returning to the UK, another very substantial part of my library went to a seminary in India.  I was left with a strange mixture of old theological classics, biographies and those collections of sermons which did not have an immediate appeal.

So I have collections still of  Beecher, Boreham, Brookes, Fosdick, Gossip, Inge, Morrison, Parker (actually an almost complete set of his NT sermon commentary), Shepherd, Stewart, Thielicke, Watson. This isn't a complete list but it gives a good idea of the kind of stuff!

I still have some Spurgeon volumes that I want to go to a good  home!

If this stirs up any interest - please let me know!