Archive for March, 2008

Good Friday

Published on March 21, 2008 in Explore. 8 Comments

As with the majority of my fellow Christian bloggers, I am going to write something about Good Friday. There are many things I could (and may) write about, however there is one thing that has bugged me about the Crucifixion story. Steve Bates pointed it out in his last post:

“He became the embodiment of sin; God himself turned away, leading to those impassioned words, eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani. I think this must have been far more painful than any beating he took that day.”

I added the emphasis on the “eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani” part myself because this is what I have a problem understanding for years. Now, disclaimers. This is not a silly attack on what Steve Bates has said. I have a lot of respect for Steve and I only use his quote because it captures everything I wanted to talk about really well. I could also get into the sticky area of doctrine here but I don’t want to. I don’t have a problem with Jesus dieing on the cross. There had to be a sacrifice and sin had to be dealt with. I’m not wanting to go down that road.

The road I want to go down is this odd Hebrew phrase “eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani” which, when translated, means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” For a while I didn’t understand this and it seemed very odd that God would turn away from something that he set up. A lack of commitment because it got to hard, like he couldn’t see it through. Also, if God turned away because there was ‘too much sin’ on Jesus, how much sin would it take for God to turn away from us? Is this right? I always saw it as God giving Jesus a raw deal. We could get into the nature of the Trinity hear and maybe that may help this understanding. But I don’t think God did ‘forsake’ Jesus. Let me try and explain why I think this.

God loves us and is love. He has said that “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” I may be taking this way out of context and please say if I am. But doesn’t seem there is a bit of a contradiction here? God promises that he will leave forsake us, and yet not only does he forsake someone, he forsakes his own son! There has been a lot of talk over the past couple years of Cosmic Child Abuse, and I am not claiming that. I’m just pointing out that this idea that God turned his back on Jesus at the cross doesn’t add up.

Maybe I don’t fully understand what is going on here but someone explained something to me which helped a lot when wrestling with this. Our troubling phrase “eloi, eloi…” is only found in Matthew and Marks gospel. This is not surprising that its in both, as Matthew uses a lot of Marks gospel as its base. Matthew, however, was written primarily for the Jewish community. The Jews at the time would of recorgnised our phrase. They don’t have the nice Chapter and Verses and paragraph headings in their scriptures as we commonly do. So instead, particularly with Psalms, they would use the first line to identify parts of the scriptures. This may or may not be a coincidence, but “Eloi, eloi…” is actually the first line of Psalm 22. Give Psalm 22 a quick read and you may also find some interesting things in there. Here are a few:

Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

Psalm 22:16-19

Now this sheds a very different light on the situation. Is Jesus reminding us what is actually going on rather than a cry of anguish? Is it actually a victory cry of what is being fulfilled? Is it a cry for help and has God, instead of turning his back on Jesus, answering Jesus’ cry and got his arms wrapped tight around him whispering “I’m not far off, my strength is here, come on Son.”?

I pray you have a good Good Friday as we remember what Jesus did on the cross. Remember though… its not over yet…

3 bands to check out

Published on March 19, 2008 in Music. 0 Comments

Here are three bands that I really like and think that you should like also!

Chaser

Chaser

I’ve known about Chaser for a couple years. Their mini album “Best Seat in the House” was played none stop when I first got it. However, they slipped of the radar a bit due to university commitments and I lost their album. But now they are back (and I re bought the album, its that good) with their synth fused indy tracks rocking the stereo. If your a fan of The Klaxons or Motion City Soundtrack you will love these guys!

Listen | Buy

The Maple State

The Maple State

Manchester have produced many a good band (The Smiths, Oasis and uh Take That) and The Maple State aim to follow suit. Having recording their EP in America and touring with +44, these guys mean business. Think The Smiths meet the Get Up Kids and your on the right lines of good guitar anthems mixed with intelligent lyrics and a touch of synth for good measure. NME has called them “faultless” and I say you should check them out! Because lets face it, my opinion is just as good as NMEs. Ooooo, he went there.

Listen | Buy

Kill The Arcade

Kill The Arcade

I first heard of these guys when Liv put a gig on for them with Look Left. As usual, I was on the door but was drawn into the main hall when this band started playing. This band have been around for a couple years and have pretty much not stopped touring. With their EP “An Impostor in the Family”, released on Tree Brain Records, filled with energetic and high-powered melodic songs, this band could go places.

Listen | Buy

A year in the Exec

Published on March 6, 2008 in Explore and General. 1 Comment

I am coming to the end of my ‘time’ in the CU exec as Evangelism Secretary. Its been a good time. Sometimes frustrating, sometimes a real joy. Last week was our AGM and for it we had to write a report for how the year had gone, so instead of re writing that for a reflection on this blog I’m just going to copy and past it! So here it is:

I’m sitting in Dolche Vita after just finishing off a cup of Spicy Parsnip soup staring at a blank document thinking “How do I start this summary?” I’ve set myself a slot to write this (which I will blatantly not stick to) and it’s not happening! Even after some encouraging words from Jeremy, who popped in to grab a sandwich, I am still drawing blanks.

As with most stories, I guess its good to start at the beginning. While I was praying about what to do for my time on the exec I really felt God showing me how everything fits together. That evangelism, discipleship, social action, prayer, etc are not separate boxes on a tick list of things to do to be a follow of Jesus. Nor are they unattached entities with which you do evangelism one day and discipleship in a bi-weekly two hour meeting.

After many God inspired conversations with Joel and Martin, we drew up a new way of doing CU that incorporated this idea. This model, while not the be all and end all, was not really anything different to what had been done before. The biggest, and exciting change about it was how everything linked together. We felt that while all the various parts of the CU where good, everything seemed a little disjointed and the only thing connecting it all together was that most of it happened on a Wednesday!

The biggest change with the evangelism side is that it teamed up with the small groups, renamed CORE groups. These CORE groups became the main focus of the CUs mission. Through these groups there would be (roughly) an hours worth of evangelism training encouraging people to live as Jesus would in whatever situation that came their way.

Over the two terms that we have been running training through CORE group we have looked at various aspects of evangelism. We started with talking with our friends about what think about Jesus. After that we looked at the Holy Spirits role in the process and how we are collaborators with him, working on what God is already doing in people’s lives. We looked at how prayer plays a part, and how our stories can engage with people on a different level. We investigate what makes up the gospel and how the Kingdom of God fits into that.

There are many models, tracks and material for evangelism, These are great, and we had a look at a few over the year, but they are only tools. Tools to enable people to start to explain God’s love to people. Jo Blower said to me once “the best way to get people to evangelise is for them to fall more in love with God.” This is why it was so great to have the training linked with the bible study, that after we have learnt more about God and his plan of restoration for us and this world that we would learn of ways to get this across to our friends.

It has been a great couple of terms. While there are many things I would of liked to of done, such as more Big Issues and Acoustic nights, I’ve been really happy with the way things have gone. God has been good and with all new things, there is that element of apprehension but it has been a really blessing to see people who have and haven’t got experience in evangelism really blossom and just be Jesus to their friends.

I really want to thank all the Agape and UCCF staff, Martin and Joel have been amazing in supporting me and preparing material for us. I also want to thank the rest of the Exec, particularly Rach as I did make her job twice as big concerning the CORE groups! And also, without wanting to sound cheesy, I want to thank everyone in the CU. Ultimately, it was you guys who have been bringing the Kingdom of God to where you are. My job was to encourage and facilitate the CU in evangelism and, quite frankly, you made my job a heck of a lot easier!

God has been brilliant this year. I have certainly fallen more in love with Him. He has been at the centre of this whole CU since the beginning and has continued to express his love to more and more people. He has continued to use us to bring his restoration and will continue to be the primary witness in whatever Pete does next year and onwards.

And I didn’t stick to my time slot. Not at all. Failed by 5 days.