21st Century Idols....

I must confess that I’m still in Grumpy Old Man mode.  After railing against the unnecessarily obtuse vocabulary used by academic writers yesterday I have now turned my ire towards one of the most puzzling aspects of 21^st century culture; the celebrity none entity!

I can understand why some people are celebrities, why they are well known and popular with the general public.  The great actors and iconic actors like Sir Lawrence Olivier or Sean Connery, great musicians and singers like John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley, Madonna and Cher and authors like Jeffrey Deaver and, dare I say it, JK Rowling.  They are all people who have achieved something in their chosen field of endeavour and deserve the recognition they have received.

But some celebrities?  Why on earth are they celebrities?  I hate to speak ill of the dead, but what did Jade Goody ever achieve to deserve praise and adulation?  What has Katie Price ever achieved, other than being a topless model?  I just don’t get the whole concept of people who are celebrities because they are celebrities and for no other readily apparent reason.

Maybe it all comes down to the inbuilt human need to look up to somebody, to offer somebody our praise and adoration, to worship somebody.  We were created to worship God, but many of us seem to divert that worship to other human beings who are no different or better than anybody else.  People in Ancient times did the same thing: instead of worshipping the living God they worshipped idols made of wood and stone.  It was known as idolatry and that is exactly what celebrities have become in the 21^st century, the new idols.

There is nothing wrong with being a fan of somebody.  I am a huge fan of Elvis Presley and I love his music; but I don’t worship him and I don’t try to model myself on him and be like him.  The only person I model myself on is Jesus Christ; he is the only person I want to be like.

We must put celebrities in their proper place: they are perfectly ordinary people who are no different to you or I.  Worship, praise and adoration belong to one and one only; the Living God who created and sustains our world, the God who died on the cross and gave his life that we might live; the God who lives in our lives each and every moment: to him be all praise, worship and adoration forever!

The Incomprehensibility of ‘Academic-ese’ (and Christian-ese)

Occasionally I get the urge to post about something that really, really, really annoys me.  Perhaps it’s that the grumpy old man in me needs to come out for an airing or maybe it’s just that I reach a sufficient level of annoyance about something and have to get it off my chest.

Today’s rant concerns what I have termed ‘academic-ese’, which is the pretentious, sometimes flowery and often multi syllabic language that academics of all disciplines seem to write in and which bears only a vague passing resemblance to the spoken and written English of the average person in the street.

If you’ve ever had the misfortune to have to read an academic text you’ll be aware of the sort of words I’m talking about.  Epistemological is my current favourite hate word.  It basically refers to the method by which we know things, so why not simply say so?  Why use a word many people have to look up in a dictionary?  Some academics also stick in foreign phrases that are incomprehensible to anybody who does not speak the particular language.  Why?  What on earth is the point?

Another fault in academic writing is the use of overly long and densely packed sentences that you sometimes have to read two or three times in order to even gain a vague sense of what they are attempting to say.  Again, why do it?

I’m told that academics have to write in this way otherwise their fellow academics will not take them seriously.  In any other field of writing using multi-syllable words where simple words will do is frowned upon.  The work would simply not be deemed fit for publication.  It would be considered bad writing.  Why do academics get away with it?

As I’m studying theology at the moment I have had to try and wade my way through some of this stuff.  I must admit I tend not to bother with the densely written, multi-syllabic stuff, preferring instead to read works by those who communicate with simplicity and clarity.  Occasionally I  have no choice and I am then subjected to the ordeal of slowly ploughing my way through something that is literally a chore to get through, partly because it is so dry and partly because I have to reach for a dictionary every so often.

Academics are not the only ones who communicate in a language that is only vaguely analogous to modern English; Christians can be just as bad!

For a start our traditional music and prayers are full of Thee and Thou and Art and other phrases that at best seem quaint and antiquated to the average person in the street and at worst are actually incomprehensible.  There is a perfectly acceptable modern wording of The Lord’s Prayer; why is it not used in preference to the sixteenth century version?  We use words like ‘sin’ which are often misunderstood and we never stop to explain what they mean.   We use phrases like “seeking the face of God”.  We know exactly what it means, but does the person who has come to church for the first time have even the vaguest comprehension?

As Christians we must be careful in our communication not to use outdated and quaint language and phrases.  Our mission is to communicate Christ to the world and we cannot do that if we are talking a language the world no longer understands.

Retreating From The World?

I’ve just been very fortunate to have enjoyed a weekend retreat at Ampleforth Abbey, a Benedictine Monastery situation in the heart of North Yorkshire not far from the village of Helmsley.  The Monastery is sited within extensive grounds and as well as the main building itself which is incredibly beautiful and amazing there is a large school (Ampleforth College) and warm, comfortable guest accommodation.  Behind the Monastery in the valley are sports fields, an orchard, agricultural land and a forest.  It is an incredibly beautiful place and an incredibly peaceful place; a place where it is very easy to encounter God in a very powerful way.  It is, perhaps, what the Celtic Christians would call a thin place, a location where heaven and earth seem to be almost side by side.

I journeyed to Ampleforth Abbey just after lunch time on Friday.  Sometimes when I’m driving I can be a bit of a Jeremy Clarkson, enjoying the speed and feel of the car, testing its limits, but on Friday I just enjoyed a relaxing and unhurried drive; not being a nuisance or obstruction to my fellow motorists but not driving like I was filming a Top Gear film either.  I particularly enjoyed the drive up Sutton Bank, pausing to admire the magnificence of the Yorkshire countryside laid out before me; reminded once more of our incredible Creator God!

Arriving quite early at Ampleforth Abbey’s guest accommodation in the Grange I settled myself into a very comfortable and warm room and felt a wave of peace wash over me.

The weekend itself was a retreat for Methodist Student Ministers from the college I attend.  The theme was ‘The Kingdom of Heaven” and our first session together was based on the Kingdom being like treasure buried in a field, which a person finds then reburies before selling literally all they have so that they can buy the field.  We were challenged about what we were willing to give for the Kingdom.  Were we willing to give everything?  We should be, that is the challenge of the parable!  For people who’d already made sacrifices in order to undertake training to become Methodist Deacons and Presbyters this was a real and significant challenge and much praying went on.

Prior to the first session we’d attended evening prayer with the monks.  Even though it was in Latin and thus unintelligible to most I found it beautiful and created an atmosphere in which I could pray.  Unfortunately the incense used in the church irritated my chest, setting off an asthmatic reaction and I was unable to attend any of the other offices over the weekend.

Following a good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed with proper pillows, rather than those awful things you find in some hotels and a good cooked breakfast we had the second session on the Kingdom being like a pearl of great price.  Again this led to much personal prayer and reflection about what I was willing to give for the Kingdom.

The third session was about the Kingdom being like yeast and about half of us had a go at making bread!  This was good fun as well as being an acted parable and again gave me much to think about.  Incidentally, I was surprised by how well the bread I made turned out!

The weekend was, in many ways, a wonderful time of refreshment and relaxation; a time of careful consideration of what it truly means to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven and a person training to become an ordained minister of God’s church (by which I mean not just the Methodist Church, of course).  There were challenges and my previous blog today mentioned those, but the retreat really was a very special time of spiritual growth.

As Christians I really believe that we need to be part of the world; a church should be, in the words of Rev Martyn Atkins, General Secretary of the Methodist Church of Great Britain, ‘a discipleship movement shaped for mission’.  I also believe that we sometimes need to separate ourselves to a degree from the world and to retreat into and rest in the presence of God.

Onward Christian Soldiers……….. ? We Still Have a Battle to Win!

I can’t remember the last time I sang the hymn ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ in church.  It was several years ago I’m sure and it may well have been a service I was leading, which means that I haven’t chosen it for some time either.

There seems to have been something of a backlash against what some Christians might term the more militaristic hymns in our hymn books; we don’t sing ‘Soldiers of Christ Arise and Put Your Armour On’ or ‘Fight the Good Fight’.  Perhaps because the acceptance that the Crusades were wrong or that the church has too often used might to spread the gospel we now shy away from hymns like this; or perhaps it is because we don’t really believe that we have an enemy to fight.

For many, many years I would have expressed the view, if asked, that there is no such entity as Satan (or the Devil, if you prefer).  I would have claimed that it was once reasonable to believe in a personal embodiment of evil, but that now we know better!  Despite the witness of scripture, despite the fact that Jesus, Paul and Peter all saw Satan as very real I would have argued against his existence.

I now know better!  Experience has taught me that Satan is very real, the embodiment of all that is evil and twisted and selfish and sinful; a very real enemy who desires to lead Christians away from God and to prevent people becoming Christians in the first place.

I first came to this knowledge last year when student ministers and ordinands from college were preparing for a faith sharing weekend at four relatively local churches.  One by one problems emerged.  Several people had unexpected problems with family members that came out of the blue, as it were.  Several students were struck down by a variety of unrelated illnesses.  I myself was suddenly subjected to nearly crippling back pain.  Far too much happened for it to just be coincidence and several of us realised that we were being subjected to an attack by the evil one.

Again this weekend and in the weeks since term started our Methodist community has seemed to be under a sustained assault from Satan.  Again there have been family stresses that could not be predicted nor really accounted for by normal reasoning.  People have been struck by serious illness and relatives have been sick.  All this as we are trying to form Christian community of those studying together and sharing together; all this in the lead up to and actually during our weekend retreat to Ampleforth Abbey.

Again some of us realised what was going on and we had a prayer session where we asked God for protection of our community as a whole and for healing and comfort for those who needed it.  As we prayed God gave me a picture of hundreds of figures in white robes descending a golden staircase and I took it as a sign that God was sending his angels to watch over us, protect us and drive Satan and his diabolical servants far from us.  As I prayed I certainly felt as though I was engaging in spiritual warfare and was remarkably tired afterwards.

To realise we have an enemy who hates us and who hates to God who loves us is disturbing; but we must remember that Satan is a defeated foe.  God is infinitely more powerful than Satan and he is our shield and protection.  He will not allow Satan to do anything to us that we cannot cope with.  Satan is truly a defeated enemy; Jesus sacrifice on the cross dealt Satan a fatal blow; he is just taking a long time dying!  We must be aware of him, but we must ever remember that if we rely on God he will give us the power we need to resist the devil and stand against any attack.

We need to sing hymns like ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ because they express the reality of part of our lives as Christ’s faithful servants.  We need to sing them because they remind us of the victory we have in Christ.  When Christ is for us, and he surely is, then none can stand against us!

“Your enemy the devil prowls about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” (1 Peter 5:8-9, NIV)

Further Reading

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
I Believe In Satan’s Downfall by Michael Green

The Difficulty of Giving Away Free Chocolate

Yes, you did read the title correctly!

Yesterday myself and two fellow student ministers (well, one was an Anglican Ordinand, which is the same thing) went down into Durham Market Square to give treats to anybody who was there.  We chose a tin of Cadbury’s Heroes, thinking that would give plenty of choice, and set off.

The reason behind our mission was that yesterday was, of course, Halloween and as Christians we are not at all happy with the idea of ‘trick or treat’ because of the fear it can cause to the elderly and to those living alone.  Instead of ‘trick or treat’ we thought we’d just do the treat bit.

Many people were quite happy to receive a treat from us and liked the reason we were doing it.  One lady even came out of the pub to find out what we were up to and went back inside with a handful of chocolate.

Some people were on diets, or at least they said they were, and refused our offer.  Others actually steered around us.  Some just refused, not believing that we were simply handing out treats without any ulterior motive!  When did society become so suspicious?

Refusing the free offer of chocolate is one thing and it actually caused some amusement to the three of us.  What I find difficult is that people refuse the free offer God makes to us all.  His Son, Jesus, died on the cross in our place and all we have to do to claim the forgiveness of sin and restoration to relationship with God that he brought us is to confess and repent of our sins and accept him as Saviour and Lord.  It is an amazing free offer of grace from a God who loves us more than we can ever know or understand, yet some people refuse.

It doesn’t matter too much if people refuse a free chocolate treat, but to refuse God’s free offer of grace can have eternal consequences!