Virtual Methodist

This is the pre-recorded Thought for the Day that should have gone out this morning on Radio Ulster. Not sure what time it was broadcast at as the schedules are all over the place with the holidays, but I'm sure you can find it on iplayer under Good Morning Ulster.  For those who have been around this blog for a while you might recognise part of it as I shamelessly cannibalised an earlier post for it... Happy New Year! No I haven’t lost the plot. Over 400 years ago, when they changed over from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, they moved the New Year from the beginning of April and spring, to the beginning of January. And those who refused to change were treated as fools. They were invited to non-existent parties and other pranks were played on them, and it’s thought that this may be one of the origins of April Fools’ Day. But actually all around the world, in many different cultures there are light-hearted festivals at this time of year celebrating the change from win...

Yet another reblog ... But I've put it up here again as a number of people asked me for a copy after a brilliant performance of it, at short notice, by Sharon Thompson during our service this morning... It is based on John 8: 1-11 , exploring what happened to the woman "taken in adultery" after her encounter with Jesus. I suppose I was looking for love, but I got more than I bargained for. Everyone talks about love... But there’s precious little of it about. When I was a kid, my Mum and my Dad both called me “Love...” “Love, would you give me a hand to set the table...” “Would you run down to the market for me, Love...” “Look love, would you clear off and give my head peace...” It’s an easy word to say... its not so easy to find. And let me tell you I’ve looked. I’m not blaming anyone else... I made my bed, and I lay in it... The only trouble was I lay in it with someone else’s husband. He told me he loved me... he promised he would divorce his wife, but of course that ...

With Holy Week fast approaching many ministers and worship leaders are flailing around trying to find resources for a plethora of services. Readers of the Methodist Newsletter will find some short pieces I wrote ages ago for such an eventuality, and if you go over to twelvebaskets you will find other stuff that I've written, together with masses of material by other (better) writers. But as a wee taster, here's one of the pieces available there. Its based on a range of gospel passages including Matthew 8: 5-13; 27: 54; Mark 15: 39; Luke 7: 1-10; Luke 23: 47 and parts of it were originally included in New Irish Arts' "I Witness"  event in Belfast Waterfront about 10 years ago. I’m just one link in a chain of command… I receive orders and I give them… My name is Marcus Antoninus Proclus, senior centurion of the Tenth Legion of the Imperial Army of Rome. Normally I would never order anyone else to do something I was not prepared to do myself… So I would us...

I'm not a fan of John Lennon. I know that is almost a stoning offence in this season where people have been remembering the 30 years - yes 30 - since he was killed, but I just don't... I like him marginally more than Paul McCartney... particularly the Paul McCartney that keep on showing up on live shows to sing badly with people who could be his grandchildren... but I was never really a fan of the Beatles full stop... Anyway, with that admission out of the way, the one track by John Lennon that I do quite like, and actually bought at one point on vinyl... is "Happy Xmas (War is Over)". My liking of it is slightly diminished by the fact that it is now on that continuous loop of non-religious Christmas songs that plays in every shop from mid-November until Christmas Eve, but it is still better than most of the other musical tinsel... And a few years ago I devised a mime with it as a backing track, which, in the 3 minutes 34 seconds it allows, tells the story of the reco...

At first glance this is one of the least profound of Jesus’ “words from the cross." After losing a large quantity of blood through his flogging and crucifixion, Jesus was bound to have experienced extraordinary thirst. So it is not surprising that Matthew and Mark record, along with John, that somebody offered Jesus some sour wine in a sponge (see Matthew 27:48; Mark 15:34). But its only John that notes Jesus’ simple statement of need (John 19: 28). We on this island have so much water to spare (especially given the downpours of the past few days) that few of us have ever felt REAL thirst… perhaps coming round from an anaesthetic or after a tough sporting event… But few of us will have experienced the same level of physical thirst as Jesus has… However, around the world, then and now, real life-threatening thirst is a daily human experience. We barely noticed the loss of millions of gallons of water from a leak in the Mourne reservoirs last week, yet across the world 1 billion peo...

Though most of the men who followed Jesus deserted him at the cross, his female followers remained to observe his death. All four gospels mention this striking fact (Matthew 27:55-56; Mark 15:40-41; Luke 23:49; John 19:25) despite the fact that this would have been seen as discrediting Jesus and his mission as being "only for women." Some things never change! Only John specifies that Mary, Jesus’ mother was among the women who remained near him until the end. Perhaps this is because he is the “disciple whom Jesus loved” who appears time and again in this gospel account, including at the cross. He writes: Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing near by, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 19...

Just finished reading another of the books chosen for our church's "Good Book Group": " Jesus - The Final Days ." It must be said that one of the deciding factors was the fact that it was relatively short, and at little over 100 pages its a quick read, but contains a lot of scholarship within it. It's essentially 3 lectures looking at the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, with Craig Evans covering the first 2 and Tom Wright dealing with the third (does anyone else write about the resurrection from an evangelical perspective these days, and indeed, does Tom Wright write about anything else without bringing the implications of the resurrection into it?). Whilst the scholarship is rigorous, the writing style is accessible and, especially with Wright's section, engaging. So if you're wanting to read something relevant over next weekend, or indeed if you're a preacher panicking about their Good Friday/Easter sermons, then you could do worse tha...

After posting the previous rant in the middle of the night, I came across this quote whilst catching up on some of my filing... its from a certain Michelangelo Buonarroti, who probably knows more about religious art than I do. He apparently got a bit indignant with his fellow artists who were forever depicting Christ dead on the cross. he said: "Paint him instead as Lord of life. Paint him with his kingly feet planted on the stone which held him in the tomb!" OK... Michelangelo didn't necessarily follow his own advice (which of us does), but it is a useful corrective! Shalom

I come from a church tradition that doesn't often have crucifixes with figures of Jesus on them, preferring an empty cross (whether that be because of an emphasis on the completeness of the atonement, a wariness of breaking the second commandment, or a simple tendency to be different from the Catholics... actually, even a cross is at times regarded as a wee bit "papist"... I am told that when our current church building was erected only 40 years ago there was a resistance by some to having any cross inside the sanctuary or outside the building). With that in mind I am wary of criticising Rev. Ewen Souter, the Vicar of St. John's Church, Broadridge Heath in West Sussex, who recently had the figure of Christ removed from the cross outside his church to avoid putting off people coming inside or frightening children, a story which has been picked up on elsewhere (including here , and in limerick form here ), and which, doubtless, will be keeping right wing copywriters in...