Skip to main content

Round Robin Religion



It's confession time again. Yes... I publicly admit it. Every year at Christmas my wife and I add to the unnecessary slaughter of trees by sending round a circular letter to all the people we haven’t managed to catch up with the previous year… We’re not the only ones who do it. I’m sure you send or receive them yourselves. Well last Christmas, someone (perhaps as a form of revenge) bought us Simon Hoggart’s book entitled “The Hamster that Loved Puccini” (Don't ask...), a second volume of extracts from Christmas Round Robin Letters… Extracts that do not show such letters in a very good light… And which reveal how much many of their recipients dread them landing on their doorsteps in the run-up to Christmas.
It has made me seriously rethink sending ours again this year… especially when I read the chapter devoted to specifically Christian round-robin letters. Full of pious platitudes and glib answers to difficult questions, the examples quoted from do not reflect the proud tradition of Christian Circular letters begun by people like Paul and his New Testament epistles.
But Simon Hoggart’s correspondents reserved their most bilious attacks for those who use these letters to tell all who will read them of the wonderful achievements of the writer’s children… These are, without exception, grade A academics, concert quality musicians, gold medal athletes, and thoroughly good eggs. So, at just that time of year when your own children are nagging you for the most expensive Christmas presents possible, you have just read their school reports which are less than glowing, and you are facing the traumatic experience of having all the family under one roof for 3 whole days… these letters illustrate just how imperfect your home and family are.
Martyn Atkins in his recent pastoral address at the Irish Methodist Conference, when he wass speaking on "Faith Sharing in the 21st Century", suggested that there is an extent to which we in the church can tend to paint an unrealistic picture of Christian life to people outside the church… We talk about how wonderful the Christian life is… All the great things that God has being doing in and through us… But this does not encourage others to come check out what Christ has to offer them. Rather, they can tend to feel inadequate… Or else write Christians off as smug so and so’s who (hopefully) are headed for a fall.
But the fact is, as revealed in Paul’s round Robin letter to the church in Rome, we are all inadequate, with no reason for feeling smug… We’ve all fallen well short of God’s standards, and it is only through the help of his Spirit that we can be anything like the people he created us to be… Children that our heavenly Father can be proud of.Counters

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the ...

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that ...

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65