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Jason has a review of John De Gruchy's new book on John Calvin over at Per Crucem ad Lucem. De Gruchy is a Reformed theologian who in South Africa experienced the best and worst of reformed Christianity as both crtigue and implicate of the social and political history of that country.

His overall portrayal of Calvin as a Christian humanist reflects a growing consensus in Calvin studies which recognise the tranformative and constructive influence of humanism in the thought and work of Calvin. Jason quotes in full De Gruchy's conclusion of six affirmations which define the vision of mature Christian Humanism. Here they are – a searching checklist of what it means in practical, social and moral terms, for Christians to take the humanity of others, and themselves, with the faithful seriousness the Gospel of Jesus Christ demands.

First, Christian humanism is inclusive in its vision of humanity. It recognises that being human is our primary identity – coming before those of religion, race, culture, social class or gender.

Second, Christian humanism affirms both the God-given dignity of being human and the concomitant responsibility of being human. Given human brokenness, it understands the gospel as God’s way of restoring human dignity and awakening our responsibility for the world in which we live.

Third, Christian humanism is open to knowledge and insight from wherever truth is to be found, but it draws most deeply from the Christian Scriptures and the long history of their interpretation through the centuries, embodied in what is called ‘Christian tradition’.

Fourth, Christian humanism insists that love of God is inseparable from love for others; that faith and discipleship belong together; that theology and ethics are part of the same enterprise, and that the renewal of church life and public life are intrinsically connected.

Fifth, Christian humanism places justice, good governance, ecological responsibility and global well-being above national and sectional interests. It is concerned to ensure that scientific and technological development serve the common good and the well-being of the earth.

Sixth, Christian humanism encourages human creativity and cherishes beauty. It insists that goodness, truth and beauty are inseparable, though distinct. Just as it places a premium on moral values and the search for truth, it also regards the development of aesthetic values and sensitivity through the arts as essential for human well-being.

Last week a parcel arrived from my friend Rev Rebecca Maccini, all the way from Henniker NH, in the US.

A supply of Constant Comment tea, available only in US, a blend mixed with spices and citrus which with a wee half teaspoon of sugar, makes this tea my default beverage.

But.

Also.

Well.

A book.

Not just any book.

But a book of Brueggemann's sermons.

And.

Inside it is inscribed to me by the Prophet Emeritus of Columbia University himself 🙂

Yes I like an author's signature in a book, especially those given me by people I know. But then there are those one or two signed books by authors I've never met. One friend brought me back one of Moltmann's books on Jesus, duly signed.

Now I have Walter's signature and good wishes. To complete this more or less holy trinity, I did actually meet Eugene Peterson in Crieff a dozen years ago and he gave and signed for me, a copy of his wee books of prayers and reflections on the Psalms. I had missed the conference he was taking due to a family funeral; I'd phoned ahead to see if he was still there and found that if I got a move on, on my way back to Aberdeen he'd hang around and I could meet him at St Ninians. We had a blether, a stroll, a coffee and a book signing all inside an hour.

But this isn't only a quite outrageous name-dropping post. I think what I'm trying to say is how such encounters occasionally come as unlooked for blessing. A Brueggemann signature and greeting, and though we will almost certainly never meet, he yet wishes blessing on my ministry; a signature from Moltmann, one of the living theologians to whom I owe most in my mature theology, and inside the cover of a book entitled Jesus Christ for Today's World a greeting; and a wee Psalm prayer book which at different times Sheila and I have both used over the years, finding there words of orientation – a term I learned from Brueggemann's work on Psalms. Oh, and today I finally, at last, after a prolonged delay, got an email from a bookseller that Brueggemann's new commentary on Psalms is ready for collection. And is now duly collected and perused and is now being read daily.

Thank you Rebecca for a gift that is its own testimony to the communion of saints, that ultimate network of relatedness, connectedness and communication, held together in the Body of Christ, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, and gathered and scattered in the rhythms of worship and witness.

Six Haiku:“On Being Good to Your Self.”

 

Lists are false charge sheets,

conferring permanence on

sins of omission.

 

No!

 

Lists are promises

of rest, laughter, gifts, and time

we make for ourselves.

……………………………….

 

It isn’t a crime,

to be towards our own hearts,

gently generous.

 

So

 

Love your neighbour; yes,

but learn to love yourself too;

be your own heart’s friend.

……………………….

 

If caught beneath an

unexpected avalanche,

you can’t move mountains.

 

Thus

 

Being overwhelmed,

trust your friends; your personal

mountain rescue team.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

This is the kind of photo I like to take when I have time to look after myself

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Captions please? This road sign is down at St Cyrus beach car park.

The Typepad platform has been down for a couple of days. Seems to be back up and running. More laster. Meantime a wee prose poem from Rebecca Elson's notebook, which currently sits between the bookends on my desk:

"We observe the universe, predict it, calculate it, expose it to rationality, we ask it carefully phrased questions. We ask the reason for the universe, and look for the answer in the state from which it came, not the end it serves…."

 

This poem by George Herbert is the best poem I know for Holy Saturday. The rich use of the stone / rock image is fully exploited in biblical image and allusion. In Helen Wilcox's magisterial edition of The English Poems of George Herbert she offers a running commentary on all of the poems in the form of Notes and review of Modern Criticism. No point in duplicating that here. If you love the poetry of George Herbert then  buy the paperback from Amazon for around £25 – 700 plus pages of literary illumination!

“SEPULCHER” – by George Herbert

Oh blessed body!  Whither art thou thrown?
No lodging for thee, but a cold hard stone?
So many hearts on earth, and yet not one
                                      Receive thee?

Sure there is room within our hearts good store;
For they can lodge transgressions by the score:
Thousands of toys dwell there, yet out of door
                                      They leave thee.

But that which shows them large, shows them unfit.
Whatever sin did this pure rock commit,
Which holds thee now?   Who hath indicted it
                                      Of murder?

Where our hard hearts have took up stones to brain thee,
And missing this, most falsely did arraign thee;
Only these stones in quiet entertain thee,
                                      And order.

And as of old, the law by heav’nly art,
Was writ in stone;  so thou, which also art
The letter of the word, find’st no fit heart
                                      To hold thee.

Yet do we still persist as we began,
And so should perish, but that nothing can,
Though it be cold, hard, foul, from loving man
                                      Withhold thee.

 

One of the stitches I learned while developing this tapestry is the crossed gobelin. The bronze circle which overshoots the frame and is therefore only partially visible is worked in various threads, and is a surrounding circle of strength which contains the background panel, worked in crossed gobelin. This background is deliberately pastel, but with some parts of it showing stranded red.

The close-up shows the crossed gobelin is exactly what it says, a stitch in the shape of a cross; and some of them coloured red. The intention is clear enough; against a background that is formed in cruciform stitches, held in the golden bronze circle of divine power, the redemptive love of the Triune God is shaped in a circle of light, creation and suffering, and at the centre the co-inherence of Father Son and Spirit, an eternal kenosis of grace and love, overspilling in creation, redemption and reconciliation.

Much of this is now interpretation of a work which at the start was developing much more naively, and yet with a repeated reading of the text, and a  continual searching for colours and shapes which conveyed the essential power of Colossians 1.15-20. From then on the work became more intentional, responsive to what was already worked, new ideas coming in the process. The blue canopy of eternal life at the top, and the foundation red of suffering love at the base, complete the imagery. It is surrounded by a ribbon of gold blocks, and a border with variations of key colours, especially blue which brackets the whole.

Today is Good Friday, when once again, we remember "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their tresspasses against them". It is a day when the historic realities in all their ugliness were on display, an exhibition of human ingenuity in the pursuit of power, self-interest and the alleged safeguarding of 'the truth', 'the nation', 'the faith'. The betrayal and the violence, the cruelty and indifference, the mob and the cowards, the political expediency and religious zeal, all the mechanisms of social organisation which crush the life and humanity out of those who dare oppose a status quo which will not be questioned. And yet…"though him the reconciliation of all things, making peace by the blood of his cross". These are words deep dyed with the blood of God in Christ. And on this day, we bow our heads in gratitude, worship, and wonder. Because in Him, incarnate, crucified and risen, "in Him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…."

The inner circle continues the Trinitarian theme but the colours take on deep christological significance. There is a liturgical ambiguity, even disagreement about purple, which when used of Advent proclaims welcome for the royal king, but also forebodes and  foreshadows the Passion. In some traditions it is more frequently the colour of Lent and therefore is an Easter pointing colour. Advent is followed by, is even given purpose by, Easter. The King born in poverty, will suffer and die as a blaspheming criminal.

"In Him was life, and the life was light of humanity….the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it" Purple merges into gold, and from the Passion comes the light of life. The resurrection is too easily eclipsed by the sorrow of Good Friday; theologically the resurrection is the completion of Good Friday, the triumph of God, Christus Victor, "light and life, to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings…"

Green completes the circle, linking the lifegiving risen Christ and the crucified royal redeemer. Green is the colour of creation, the masterpiece of the God whose eternal communion of love overflows in love, bringing into being all that is. "All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made". John's great hymn echoes throughout Colossians, whether Paul knew of this tradition or not. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all thinmgs in heaven and on earth were created….".

Holy Week is the time when the Church remembers the Passion and the Resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel narratives give historical witness to events of eternal significance, freighted with vast theological realities. During Holy Week, Christians rehearse and re-live the story of creation, incarnation, redemption, and resurrection, as these are held within the life of the Triune God. God the eternal communion of love is the Creator whose love ever overflows in reconciling grace, whose holiness finally judges sin and redeems and renews a fallen creation, and whose life and light come to us as the promise of the future in God of all that is.

"For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or heaven, making peace through the bloos of the cross."

One further thought for Maundy Thursday. A friend pointed out something unseen and unintended by me. The topmost blue image in the centre hints at a chalice.

"All things were made through him and for him…in him all things hold together…"

The trinitarian structure of the central circle moves from blue to a kaleidoscopic effect merging the colours but with three discernible colour groups. I decided when doing this central panel that this beautiful shade of blue, chosen to convey trinitarian and christological significance, would be woven throughout the centre circle. Nearly every stitch in this section has one strand of blue in every six…"in him all things hold together". This was one of those decisions made after reading the text, and recognising that though not every stitch shows its blue strand, it is there, woven throughout. If I may dare say so, an attempt in art to suggest something of the mystery and beauty of perichoresis. The purple red and green are conjoined by this strand into a theological unity of creative love, mutuality and redemptive purpose.

Holy Week rightly focuses on the passion of Jesus. But the Christian tradition of  Trinitarian Christology sees in the specific, particular events of the Passion of Jesus, the eternal kenotic and passionate love of God. In other words, the Passion story of the death of Jesus, tells of events in history by which the broken heart of God reaches out in holy love and merciful judgement to redeem, reconcile and renew a recalcitrant, rebellious and ruined creation. Salvation is by the grace that gives itself in Christ; redemption is through the love that surrenders the Son; reconciliation is being called into the fellowship created by the Holy Spirit.

When we say "The Grace" in worship, therefore, it is not, manifestly not, a way of reminding us to be nice to each other. Grace, Love, and Communion are the defining theological realities of the Christian understanding of God. They are words of grateful wonder to the God who is an eternal communion of gracious and loving fellowship, reaching out in creation and redemption to fulfil the eternal purposes of Holy Love, by which all things exist, subsist and persist. Such I think is the theology that is woven through the Colossian hymn, with its climax that through Christ God is reconciling all things to Himself, making peace by the blood of His cross."

Sitting at the end of the living room with the patio doors, I can hardly see the computer screen for the early morning sunshine. My face is warm, eyes are dazzled and my instinct is to move across the other side where I can write more easily and see without squinting.

Last night I read one of Miroslav Volf's essays where he tells of his fascination for the phrase "the Lord make his face to shine upon you". That is enough of a reminder of how the sunshine is one of the great metaphors for the delight and grace of God. "He makes his sun to shine one the righteous and the unrighteous…." "From the rising of the sun, to the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised…"

So rather than seeing the dazzling sunlight as a nuisance to be avoided by migrating to the far end of the room, instead of putting on sunglasses indoors which would look ridiculous rather than cool, I stay and enjoy the sunlight, and let the brilliance of light and the radiance of warmth on my face, bathe me in awareness. So I sit here writing this, nearly blinded by morning sunlight and say the Aaronic blessing.

The Lord bless thee and keep thee

The Lord make his facce to shine upon thee

And be gracious unto thee

The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee

And give thee peace.

It's Holy Week. When Christians can become morose and solemn, thinking more of shade, shadow and darkness than the searching, life-giving brightness of light. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not comprehended it; has not overcome it; has not, and will not extinguish it. Yes this week leads to the cross, when once again darkness was upon the face of the deep. But it ends in a new beginning, "Early in the morning, as the sun was rising, they came to the tomb….."