Heaven

You can’t read the Bible without noticing that the text alternates between heaven and earth, but our normal experience is so earthbound that we can doubt the existence of heaven.

The occasional Hollywood film depicting heaven or angels stirs within us those questions about an after-life or heaven, but when the alarm goes off in the morning, we don’t expect to sit down with an angel and talk over the day ahead; it’s a flurry of marmalade and toast, grab a coffee and fly out of the front door into the real world, or, if you’re less hurried, wfh, unemployed, on holiday, or retired: read a book, book a massage, have a swim, write a poem, meditate, go to the gym and so on.

But heaven?

A few days ago I was reading the well-known Christmas verses in Luke’s gospel, where an angel appears to the shepherds to announce the birth of the Messiah, the Christ: ‘wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger’.

The verse that really caught my attention was:

‘And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men’. So it was when the angels had gone away from the shepherds into heaven…’

These shepherds no longer believed in angels and the heavenly host, even of they had before, because of the Scriptures, or what others believed, but due to an astounding personal experience.

It is remarkable how many individuals have had experiences of angels. Some accounts are more open to a rational interpretation than others. I’ve had one like this. But there are other accounts that defy an earthly explanation. I have also had one of these.

One of the reasons I do speak about this from time to time is that I was not alone on a hillside having ingested some tasty mushrooms, or was grappling with a personal crisis, this event was witnessed by thousands at the same time. In the summer of 1978, I travelled up from Kent to Yorkshire with a group from my church to attend the Dales Bible Week. During one of the evening sessions held in the large marquee there were a few thousand of us enjoying worshipping with a large band leading the music and the singing was quite loud. As I remember it, despite the loudness, it felt a little laboured, rather than free-flowing, perhaps more from our heads or the routine ‘this is what you do in a meeting’ rather than from the heart. Eventually, however, the mood softened, and we were singing a quieter song that faded into silence but not an awkward silence. Into that silence four or maybe five voices began to sing with indescribably beautiful music and harmonies impossible to reproduce on any instrument or by any earthly choir. The angels were heard but not seen.

Luke’s description ‘when the angels had gone away into heaven’ reminded me of those moments.

From that time on I have had no doubt of the reality of heaven. It’s one thing to believe in angels and heaven and the spiritual realm having read about it in the bible or heard another’s eye-witness testimony, but quite another when you’ve had first-hand experience.

The other possible encounter with an angel is far more open to doubt, or to a rational explanation.

there is a heavenly realm that is in total harmony with itself, that exudes peace, that is untroubled

I had misjudged a sharp corner on a narrow country road at night and ended up in a ditch well below the road with my motorbike on top of me. There was no one around, it was quiet. I remember lying there, quite peacefully, realising I had to check my fingers and toes to see if I could move them, which I could. But I couldn’t shift the bike. It was too heavy. So I lay there trying to figure out what to do. It was before mobile phones, so I had no means of contacting anyone. After maybe a few minutes I heard a man shouting down from the road above me and eventually he came down and helped move the bike and pull it back up to the road. Once he had checked that the bike could start and that I was uninjured he left. The handlebars were bent at an angle, but I managed to ride it home. I have no explanation for how or why this man stopped to help. It was at night and silent. He couldn’t have seen me disappear over the edge and there were no marks on the road, no fence down, and I was not making a sound and the bike had stopped running. An angel? No shimmering white clothes, strange voices, or Star-Trek-like appearing and disappearing. But then, in the bible, there are quite a few encounters with angels that appear to be ordinary men including the incident with Abraham in Genesis 18 ‘…the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth tree…with…three men standing by Him’.

I don’t expect to have any further encounters like these. I don’t wake up any more than the next person thinking Gabriel might be waiting to see me. If I do, so be it.

But that brief encounter has left me fully believing that there is a heavenly realm that is in total harmony with itself, that exudes peace, that is untroubled, and yet engaged in some loving way with our existence on Earth.

The 3 Questions: Question Three

England 2023:

• 60,000 CofE (Church of England) buildings and a similar number of other denominational buildings are scattered about in Parishes across England.

• The Coronation of Charles III at Westminster Abbey was watched and/or recorded by millions, with thousands lining the streets waving Union Jacks and cheering - with some Republican protestors present in a small minority.

• From beginning to end the Coronation was a Christian ceremony, the various articles of clothing and objects are deeply symbolic of rulership and authority from a biblical perspective. The words spoken and covenants assented to by Charles III were specifically grounded in having faith in Jesus Christ, and the anointing with oil, as conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, represented the anointing of King Charles III with the Holy Spirit.

• Constitutionally, we are a Christian nation.

And yet…

Stop the average Brit and ask the following 3 Questions and very rapidly the depth of adherence to, and understanding of, the Christian faith in England is apparent…even among the 5% who attend church services Sunday by Sunday.

Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question Two: Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?

Question Three: If you wanted to become a Christian would you know how to?

Question Three: If you wanted to become a Christian would you know how to?

The majority of those who live in England know that they are not Christians, in the same way that they know they are not Muslims, or Buddhists, or Sikhs, or Hindus, or Communists, or Fascists. Our religious history maybe ‘Christian’ but the present age, despite State Christian ceremonies such as the Coronation, is more difficult to define.

Question Three would, therefore, be answered by the vast majority with an honest ‘No, if I wanted to become a Christian, I wouldn’t know how to.’

Why? The reason is very simple. Despite our Christian constitution, despite the historically enforced church attendance of the past, despite Christmas, Easter, christening, church marriages, church burials, hymn singing, and prayers, virtually no-one knows what a Christian is. And If you don’t know what a Christian is, there is no hope of knowing how to become one even if you wanted to!

One of the significant barriers to holding a Christian faith isn’t its unpopularity as much as ignorance.

I am a case in point.

I had perhaps a sparse knowledge of some of Jesus’ parables, his miracles, the names of some of the New Testament characters, his mother, Mary, and the disciples. I knew he had, apparently, been crucified and rose again after three days. I knew that a Christian must believe in the resurrection and a few other facts but how to become a Christian or really what is a Christian? were outside my perimeter. All I knew, or felt I knew, was that I doubted the reliability of the New Testament, and therefore doubted the resurrection. I was an agnostic who argued with God that it was fundamentally unfair of Him to judge me if the evidence of His own existence was impossible to establish…and so on.

I was typical, I think of many in England, I had great admiration for Jesus – if he existed - but left in a state of ignorance about any evidence for the reliability of the Scriptures. Consequently, there was no sound basis on which to form a reasonable opinion, let alone belief. The lack of evidence of answered prayer or miraculous healing in the church I attended compounded the problem. The only reasonable position to take was either agnosticism or atheism. I couldn’t be an atheist – for the same reason I couldn’t believe in God. There was as much a lack of evidence in there being No Creator as a Creator. Agnosticism seemed to be the only option.

But all this was to change.

I have attempted to offer these 3 Questions as a run-up to, really, the nub of the matter, the question hiding behind all these questions: What is a Christian?

What is a Christian? is the title for posts in this category on www.unlessaseed.com . Finally it’s time to nail one’s colours to the mast and actually attempt to sketch out a working answer. It’s not complicated BUT the answer really is a complete surprise to many…in the next post.

The Bicycle Poems (ii) Seven Ages of the Bicycle

Now we are six
And I am left alone
With John Newport’s bike
To fall from repeatedly
My grass-stained knees,
Well scratched,
Collecting blood and grit
But ignored and barely felt
And, before sunset,
The boy, the bike,
And the beautiful Earth
Are, at one.

Add a decade and off-balance
Is the norm, the preferred state,
Playing with the limits
Compulsory skid-turns,
Or hanging onto lorries,
Two-ups, no lights,
Hands off the handlebars
No shirt in the summer
Faulty brakes, carrying a full set
Of golf clubs, or rugby boots
Slung round my neck,
Off-balance, the norm.

At twenty-six I commute
On Arnold, a fine five-speed
Holdsworth, a smooth pedigree,
Over the hills between
Whitstable and Canterbury,
On the Winkle line. And past
Kent University built high
Above the Cathedral, like God,
On misty mornings, dark evenings
Wet, windy, and sunbaked
Tarmac-melting days,
Punctures and pounding legs
Race me home

At thirty-six Arnold is stolen
It is my fault. Left unguarded
Leaning in the garage, unlocked,
And visible from the road.
Someone else’s now.
May he discover Arnold’s
Freewheeling excellence
And the joy of the road.
I am in mourning still,
An unusual sadness
Yielded to heaven

Later, thrills aside,
Handlebars gripped
I grind into work,
In Bristol now, over the Downs
To the Gloucester Road
But not every day,
Each ride, a painful reminder of
The need for umpteen gears
Annoyed at those who glide past,
I twist my lips at electric ‘bikes’
They should be renamed
Or pelted with mushrooms.

Forgetting to retract my feet
From the stirrups, the pedals,
The bloke, the bike, and
The beautiful Earth
Head off in random directions.
It’s an abrupt landing.
Bruised but laughing,
Now at sixty-six, and
Still falling repeatedly,
Collecting blood and grit.

But may I steal a glance
Into the future? Will you
Grant me your humour still?
At seventy-six, ‘Faith,
I am competing in a triathlon’
My grandchildren can swim faster
Run further, and ride bikes
Upright, or not, for the world to see
But it is I in the saddle this day

Can I get off now?
Have I finished the race?

Written with more than a nod to As You Like It, Act 2 Sc 7 ‘All the world’s a stage…’

‘All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like a snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with a good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.’

The 3 Questions - Question Two

Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question Two: Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?

Question Three: If you wanted to become a Christian would you know how to?

QUESTION TWO: Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?

By the time I was five, or six, my heroes were The Pied Piper, Jesus, and Winston Churchill. Not long afterward, Cassius Clay, later Muhammad Ali, would be added.

The Pied Piper, of course, is a curious choice, but the idea of a musician ridding Hamlin of the rats, Jesus ridding the world of hypocrites through love, miracles and his teaching, and Churchill standing up to and defeating Hitler all appealed to this five-year-old.

(When I was 8, I floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee and inflicted a terrible defeat on the school bully – who wasn’t a bully really. We became good friends. For 5 minutes, at break, when I took on the bully, Peter Mole, I was Ali. He had no chance! My reign was short-lived; I was beaten up by someone else a year or two later! But those moments illustrate the role of heroes, they inspire greatness in others).

What did I know about Jesus?

I knew this, that he walked up to James and John, Peter and Andrew, and Matthew and said, simply: ‘Follow me’ and carried on walking. It said of the fishermen ‘immediately they left their nets and followed him’. I remember sitting in a school assembly at the age of six, maybe, thinking ‘If Jesus walks through the door now, I would get up and follow him’. I knew enough to know that would mean not going home for tea and hitting the road with Jesus!

Comical maybe but maybe I was tapping into what makes Jesus, to this day, good box office. In our millions we turn out to watch films about Jesus:

• The Passion of the Christ 2004 Mel Gibson – cost $30 million but grossed $612 million and was the 5th highest grossing film in 2004

• Jesus of Nazareth 1977 Robert Powell – cost $45 million, film + 4 episodes TV drama, grossed $75 million

• The Greatest Story Ever Told 1965 Charlton Heston cost $20 million, grossed $35 million

The question at the back of everybody’s mind has to be ‘Is it just a story?’.

In other words, is the New Testament an accurate historical document? Or was it made-up, a literary work, no more than a mythical tale, an idealistic presentation of how things should be, could be maybe, but not as they really are?

Once one doubts the reliability of the New Testament, the gospel accounts, the question ‘Have you ever wanted to believe in Jesus?’ is bracketed with Santa Claus, Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness monster, the only difference being that the words ascribed to Jesus, his teaching, how he opposed the Pharisees, the hypocrisy of the religious leaders in Israel…does tend to get the blood moving in a way that talk of mythical creatures or Santa can’t quite match. Hence his appeal. We roar with approval for all he stood for, even though we are the very sinners he came to save, love, forgive, and show kindness and mercy to. We feel inexorably drawn to Jesus.

But we also know to follow him, whatever that means or could look like in the 21st century, is to swim against the tide, to court ridicule, and family and friends will question one’s sanity, and so on. Religion is, of course, in England, one of the conversations that are humorously banned in pubs! Sex and politics the other two.

And, of course, everything that is banned in England is precisely what many people want to talk about despite the divisive nature of the subject matter and the wisdom at times to avoid spoiling a pleasant pint!

By the time I was five, or six, my heroes were The Pied Piper, Jesus, and Winston Churchill.

But avoiding the question is not really an option for anyone who is even vaguely drawn by Jesus. If he was to say ‘Follow me’ our reasoned-secular-sceptical response ‘Hmm, not sure’ isn’t really adequate.

The fact is that despite the secularisation of English society, the drift towards a materialistic, atheistic intellectual climate that looks to science to explain our origins and likely future, many would still say they would like to have the same faith that Jesus had, or would like to see a world like the world Jesus spoke about, or, they have come to the view that the materialistic world-view is hopelessly inadequate and the spiritual realm is not only a reality but an essential ingredient in life.

Despite my personal drift into agnosticism and materialism, I, like many others, still wondered at times, whether it could be true? Surely not! But if it is…That six-year-old desire to ‘leave my nets and follow Jesus’ was lurking in all the arguments and cynicism that had attempted to fill the void.

I suspect, in fact I know, that many who live in England are in the same boat. Few have actually rejected Jesus. But haven’t a clue how to actually embrace Him as a real historical figure, or believe that he came back to life three days after crucifixion and burial.

The 3 Questions: Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question Two: Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?

Question Three: If you wanted to become a Christian would you know how to?

The following three posts will explore these 3 Questions.

QUESTION 1: Would you say you are a Christian?

Strangely even this question has fundamentally changed its meaning in the span of my working life.

The first time I completed a work application in 1975 the box titled Religion really meant ‘CofE’ or ‘Catholic’. That’s what the employer expected to read not ‘None’, or ‘Buddhist’, ‘Muslim’, ‘Humanist’…or ‘Christian’. In 1975 I put CofE as I had been brought up to attend the local CofE church on a Sunday morning with my parents. But I wasn’t a believer.

In 1969, 3 out of the 30 in my class at school went to church…and the three of us that did in 1969, by 1975 none of us, as far as I know, continued to attend. By the time we were old enough to find other pursuits more interesting on a Sunday morning (e.g. sleeping, socialising, nursing hangovers, or sport) we had voted with our feet.

We were probably the last generation of schoolboys and girls that had the bible read to them each morning, sung hymns, and muttered Amen to prayers in morning assemblies. By the 1980s very few schools continued to have Christian morning assemblies, the bible hasn’t been read regularly and, as a result, we have become an increasingly secular society that is largely ignorant of the scriptures.

But the truth was that, even with regular bible readings, and hymn singing, very few emerged with any certainty about the historical accuracy of the Old and New Testaments, or evidence for miracles, the existence of Jesus, or the resurrection. There was little or no sign from church services that I attended of what was reported in the pages of the gospels – no miraculous healings, no presence of God, no stories of how becoming a Christian had transformed anyone’s life.

It was, therefore, no surprise that, along with the vast majority, I embraced a material scientific world-view; at best I was agnostic.

Nevertheless, to this day, Jesus is still very popular. Every twenty or so years someone produces a film about Jesus. Millions queue at cinemas. Jesus continues to be box office.

Most would readily agree that you’re not a Christian simply because you attend church, sing hymns, pray, sign your chest with a cross, are baptised, meditate, do good deeds, act in a ‘Christian manner’, try to live a good life, help others, think there’s a heaven or hell, or believe in God; I mean, Muslims, Jews, and many others believe in God but would not say they are Christians. But that leaves open the question: What does it mean to be a Christian?

Before answering that question the second question: ‘Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?’ needs to be explored.

The 3 Questions

England 2023:

• 60,000 CofE (Church of England) buildings and a similar number of other denominational buildings are scattered about in Parishes across England.

• The Coronation of Charles III at Westminster Abbey was watched and/or recorded by millions, with thousands lining the streets waving Union Jacks and cheering - with some Republican protestors present in a small minority.

• From beginning to end the Coronation was a Christian ceremony, the various articles of clothing and objects deeply symbolic of rulership and authority from a biblical perspective. The words spoken and covenants assented to by Charles III were specifically about faith in Jesus Christ, and the anointing with oil, as conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, represented the anointing of King Charles III with the Holy Spirit.

• Constitutionally, we are a Christian nation.

And yet…

If you stop the average Brit and ask the following 3 Questions, very rapidly the depth of adherence to and understanding of the Christian faith in England becomes apparent…even among the just over 5% of the population who attend church services Sunday by Sunday.

Question One: Would you say you are a Christian?

Question Two: Have you ever wanted to believe in Christ?

Question Three: If you wanted to become a Christian would you know how to?

The following three posts are my attempt to explore these 3 Questions for 21st Century England.

Why talk of the Return of Jesus Christ is so annoying…

Out there, in the pubs, at work, in the crowd cheering on Lionesses, or firefighters extinguishing a blaze, or politicians trying to extract some respect from the general population, or nurses knee-deep in people’s suffering and black humour…there is a faint echo, a ‘knowing’, still, that the Bible says something about Jesus coming back, the end of the world, judgement and so on.

In some churches, believers spend an inordinate amount of time with intricate calculus, trigonometry and guess work wondering if the wars and rumours of wars herald His return, or Climate change, or whether Putin, Trump, Macron, Trudeau, or the church down the road, is the Antichrist. (It’s a certain bet…Trudeau is my front runner!)

It’s a joke.

Firstly, because any talk about the return of Jesus to the vast majority who are really not sure about the first-century accounts of Jesus of Nazareth has to be a joke. Most of the population even in ‘Christian’ England are held in the dark, with few - including ordained priests and ministers - who can argue the case that the historical evidence for his first coming is more solid than for the existence of Genghis Khan, or Julius Caesar.

But really, it’s also a joke in church. And annoying. In church, because Jesus said ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father’, we can, with our Western mindset…which works, amongst other things, on a linear timescale and tends towards the analytical, verifiable, and rational, and dismisses subjective, intuitive, romantic thinking…go completely off-beam.

My friend Chris Welch has got a little closer, I feel, with his statement below.

A little preamble would help before the quote. ‘Church’ should be the place of communion – to use the Song of Solomon analogy – between the Beloved (Jesus) and His bride-to-be (the Church). It’s a romance. As David Pawson once said, ‘The whole of the Bible is the story of a Father looking for a bride for his Son’.

That’s why walking into a church service where there’s a musty feeling of life having departed is so utterly wrong and, rightly, the butt of jokes from Dave Allen (to show my age), Monty Python, and many others. When church meets, it’s a ‘date’. Or should be. The worship is personal. Whether people are waving their hands, dancing, shouting or sitting quietly and reverently – if it’s genuine – there’s stuff going on at the heart level that is invisible, private, and collective at the same time. It’s communion. Not the symbols of bread and wine, but the real ‘communion’ between the ‘Beloved’ and ‘His bride to be’ that, occasionally, we sometimes experience when we’re truly in tune with someone else.

The whole Bible is the story of a Father looking for a bride for his Son

Here's Chris’s quote.

“One day Jesus (enjoying church, His bride-to-be) forgets He’s not in heaven – our fellowship gets so glorious. There He is…in our midst…and forgets to go home”

That’s more like it. If we tend to go where we’re invited, made to feel welcome, longed for even…how much more must the Father be hanging on, waiting for the bride to make herself ready, as the bible says, before the day has come.

In the meantime, we are baptised in a strange society that turns out in droves to watch Jesus blockbusters. Millions, it seems, still want it to be true. There is high regard, love even, for Jesus and the way he welcomed the crowds and opposed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But in England, despite its 60,000 CofE church buildings and countless other churches, such longings mixed with an endemic ignorance concerning the strong evidence for the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, continue to leave the same millions in the dark.

I know. I was brought up to go to church. But no one, including the Vicar, offered any evidence for the existence of Jesus or the accuracy of the New Testament, or even perceived that this was required. By the time I reached my teens, Jesus had been relegated, in my mind, to join the ranks of other wonderful fictional characters such as Santa Claus, the Pied Piper of Hamlin, or Mary Poppins. And yet a residual fascination with the claims of the New Testament remained. However, once I had met a few people who could show me extensive evidence for the existence of Jesus, the accuracy of the New Testament, and compelling contemporary evidence of miracles, I was forced to re-evaluate. Eventually, I capitulated and moved house, from agnosticism to belief.

One day Jesus (enjoying church, His bride-to-be) forgets He’s not in heaven – our fellowship gets so glorious. There He is…in our midst…and forgets to go home

Yes, Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead as the Creed goes. But look again at Jesus, as written in the New Testament, and how he was with people. How he loved. How he enjoyed being amongst the people. Hardly austere. It may seem strange to think of Jesus as the Beloved and the church as his bride-to-be, but that’s what the bible tells us.

The whole of history is heading towards a Wedding; the ‘wedding feast of the Lamb’ to fully indulge in the mixed metaphors the bible itself uses to describe the consummation of all things.

Really, the big question is whether we want to be there. We’re all invited. All loved. But, like the early disciples, we have to ‘leave our nets’ and follow Him, and will if we love Him in return. We have to abandon ourselves, how we define ourselves, how we think the world is run, or how we run our lives, and lay it all down. All of it. Like brides in many Christian cultures, we give up our names, to be included in His name. Christians. Little Christs. That’s what it means.

To be one with Christ. To be in eternal, perpetual communion with Him. That’s church. And that’s what the second coming of Christ is about, He’s coming for His bride.

The Bicycle Poems (i)The Puncture

How long does it take
To mend a puncture?
To lever away
The tired beaten tread,
Rubbed raw on tracks,
Pavements, kerbs:
The world.

Image from Shutterstock

Mud, grit, and half worms
Slide onto grimy hands
Working the levers,
Separating body and soul:
The tough tyre-circle
Put to one side,
Revealing the inner tube,
Pliant and bubbling
With its last gasps,
Its wound exposed.
To be examined, gently.

Skilful, careful hands,
Clean and dress the tear:
Plasters are glued on,
Pressed hard to seal
The lingering wound,
Its memory fading
As the clock ticks.

Enfin, the tough circle,
Levered once more
And stretched to return
It to its rim,
Relaxes and sighs:
Cool air once more
Inflates the inner man.

How long does it take?
Five years longer
Than you think.

The Zebedee Files – finale

3.

I wonder, how old
Are we when we first
Let go of our own?

Until we feel that
Earthquake inside
Tearing us between

One of two secrets: to
Gain a getting, or freely
Give our light away

He knew; aftershocks
Shook them loose: two
Sons of light given

Only brief glimpses
After, of their own hearts
Discipled by another

Givers both: 153 large
Miracle fish sold
To fill the gap, the debt

Then…cold, blackest news:
Herod’s sharp sword
Taking firstborn James

Yet inscribing his
Name in a Testament
Yet to be written, and

John: Son of thunder,
Hard labour on Patmos
Staring into heaven

In the Spirit
On the Lord’s Day
Like his father of old

Zebedee, by name.

My website/blog www.unlessaseed.com has had an MOT and service and is ready to hit the road once again with some improvements

Hello!

My website/blog www.unlessaseed.com has had an MOT and service and is ready to hit the road once again with some improvements:

1. Subscribing enables you – free of charge of course - to receive regular updates via your email as articles and blogs are posted

2. Navigating from page to page, blog to blog far quicker and slicker

3. Pages: (i) What is a Christian? (ii) Book/Film/Podcast Reviews, (iii) Poetry, and (iv) Everything Else continue as before but with more focus on the ‘unless a seed’ reference (John 12v24) as a message for the here and now.

4. Writing – currently editing/re-writing an historical novel set in 1799, a children’s book set in a land further than far away…and an accumulation of poems.

5. Links – links to other sites that have caught my eye such as daughter Rachel Stevens’ podcast Believingin interviewing a wide range of friends, colleagues, family members about their beliefs…a cocktail of Christians, Muslims, Atheists…with Rachel’s twist of Christian lemon.

But mostly, I hope that you will at least test-drive the blog, enjoy the content, subscribe, and leave comments!

A quick note about Facebook. Links to www.unlessaseed.com blog posts, poems, and so on, will mainly be made, not on my personal FB account, but on my Christian Writer page: Facebook

And lastly…apologies if you’ve received this message from various sources (email/FB/blog) and are feeling nagged. If so, rather than grumble, please make contact and there’s a pint, coffee and cake, or a glass of wine waiting for you as an apology.

Hope to find you at some point here on www.unlessaseed.com

John

Rachel Stevens’ Interview podcast

Rachel Stevens’ Interview podcast - a proud plug! https://believingin.buzzsprout.com is a must. Daughter Rachel interviews friends, work colleagues, and family members about their beliefs, and about love and purpose. Thus far guests have included Muslims, Atheists, and fellow Christians.

It’s a lively, fun, and serious mix of responses to some set questions…and Rachel gets to add to this cocktail with her own twist of Christian lemon.

Dad’s a fan - biased of course but it’s make your own mind up time!!

The Zebedee Files

2.

Barely a poem, more a
Reading between the lines
First stop: the mother
Kneeling in the dirt
Grubby dress
To ask of who?
Whom did she see?

After the top jobs
For her boys
Chancellor perhaps
Home secretary
It’s comical. Do any
Of us know more than
The Jerusalem donkey?

The sons of thunder
Squirming under
Their mother’s thumb
Her love too strong
For her to see
Beyond their peering
Eyes and strong limbs

James and John
Also on their knees
Held down by her
Version of the future
There was only one
Perhaps who knew
Of no earthly glory

Zebedee, by name

Return to Writing

Tuesday 1st August 2023

The long-awaited First of August. Earmarked for at least two months as the ‘Return to Writing Day’

when ‘writing’ really means finishing a children’s book, ‘The Tear Collector’ and a historical novel,

‘Thomas J. Philpott’.

You find me at Coffee #1 with the requisite Flat White and Biscoff cheesecake, gentle foot-tapping music, and the general hubbub of milk frothers, rippling conversation, dull traffic outside, and plates, mugs, and cups colliding. Sunshine is pouring through the glass frontage and the steam, rising up from the coffees of those sitting by the window.

A perfect setting to lose myself in whatever writing is; the internal mystery that impels someone to write. To attempt to say something in words on a page. I hadn’t completely abandoned writing in my sabbatical. Poetry, for example, had not abandoned its own capability of putting its hooks in my distracted self, and drag me out of various reveries to let the words pour out. But the attempt to prepare for A-Level English Literature exams put paid to the level of attention required to push on with the books.

After the exams in June the priority shifted to neglected chores and preparing for a kitchen make-over. I had hoped this phase to be complete by July 31st but it will linger on.

Meanwhile, the writing starts today.

This blog post is just a warm-up.

A perfect setting to lose myself in whatever writing is; the internal mystery that impels someone to write

I’ve left the books for so long now I will need to re-read both for some time to be re-absorbed in their narrative before editing the grammar and considering more wholesale changes…not necessarily in that order.

Let’s see. How long should that take? I’ll give myself to the end of September. Included in that will be gaining some advice about how to approach publishers. The holy grail still seems to me to be when someone else sees something in your writing worth publishing. Worth the financial risk.

Is that too constricting?

I close this post with that question not only hanging in the air.

The Zebedee Files

1.

A few soothing notes
Disturb the oars
Unfolding nets
Boats overturning to
The music of the morning

The early rays soften
Already soft greys
Overlaid with dawn fire
Woodpigeons - such
Unspectacular greeters

Moving three fishermen
Bed to bread to boat
Skins leather-tanned
The hue of hull timbers
Slatted and daubed

Against the Galilean
Storms. One stands,
Eyes closed, breathing in
The air, his habit; his heart
An ear, listening

Waiting for news; of a
Heavenly music beyond
The liturgical score; his
Synagogue stacked with
Dry wood, but no fire

Rumours from the Jordan.
New notes. Whispers of
A conflagration to come;
That’s all it took
To pull two sons away

From the boats, from a
Father who freely
Gave his only sons into
A baptism of fire to ignite
The dry ones of Israel

His sunset-soft grey hair
Now overlain with
Heavenly flames
His heart, an orchestra:
Zebedee, by name

The Tap. The Funeral.

You will have seen this:
A tie loosened; eyes unblinking
The suited man barely managing
To burrow his way out
Out. Outside. To breathe

Felled by an image, or
The pure notes of a Spanish guitar
Or its fiery rasps. Or the image
Of someone he once knew.
Or Belsen

Or a woman presumed dead, yet
Singing hymns,
Looking at her wristwatch
Scratching her itching ear
Like she used to

Shock when it comes, propels us
First inside, then out.
Outside. To breathe.

Then the return…to the funeral
His enclothed collectedness:
Tie straight and
A face that belies no truth
A steady hand for the champagne

A necessary pretense
Until a light tap on his shoulder…

…together they exit
Outside to breathe,
To treat the past with
Oxygen and a cigarette.

Faith in Christ or Faithfulness of Christ? A new way to resolve this argument.

In recent years there has been fierce debate about how to translate pistis Christou; whether as ‘faith in Christ’ or ‘the faithfulness of Christ’, which, depending on your disposition, may have intrigued, dismayed, or troubled you…or passed you by.

Can this be resolved?

When such disagreements arise, it can be an indication that the underlying theology may be at fault, and alternative renderings are, in fact, a red herring. After all, it seems likely that St Paul’s use of pistis Iesou Christou made perfect sense to him and arose seamlessly from his understanding of the gospel.

When we encounter apparent ambiguity rather than clarity, it is time to inspect the foundations.

NT verses that are often quoted in this debate include Romans 3v22 and Gal 2v16:

‘the righteousness of God through (pistis Iesou Christou) faith in/the faithfulness of Jesus Christ’ Rom 3v22

‘…a man is not justified by works of the law but by (pistis Iesou Christou) faith in/the faithfulness of Jesus Christ’ Gal 2v16

When we encounter apparent ambiguity rather than clarity, it is time to inspect the foundations.

If, as is the case in many churches, our underlying understanding of the gospel is that the death of Christ was a substitutionary sacrifice – He died for me, in my place, took the punishment I deserved – then both translations are plausible. Whilst ‘being justified through the faithfulness of Jesus’ may seem unfamiliar and a categoric error (the subject being the believer's faith rather than Christ’s faithfulness), the Greek allows for either, so ‘faithfulness of’ cannot be dismissed simply because we are more familiar with ‘faith in’.

The debate rumbles on! NT Wright, for example, errs towards ‘the faithfulness of’ but concedes that ‘faith in’, as preferred by most bible translators, makes more sense in other passages such as Rom 5 v1,2. Others are firmly camped in either of the opposing camps.

But if we consider Galatians 2v20 we find that the gospel is not simply substitutionary but is inclusive as well. It is not my experience that the inclusive nature of Christ’s death is believed or being taught.

But Paul clearly viewed the crucifixion of Christ as inclusive as well as substitutionary:

‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ NKJV, RSV, NIV

Comparing with other translations:

‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ KJV, NRSVUE, ASV

Understanding the crucifixion to be inclusive as well as substitutionary, inevitably translators will view the Greek with slightly altered lenses.

Tucked away within substitutionary sacrifice theology is a continuation of a disunity between the believer (who has to believe to contact Christ) and Christ (who through his faithfulness reaches believers). The following examples are commonly used phrases that express the disunity:

Righteousness is credited to the believer. Sanctification is a process by which the believer progressively becomes more Christlike. The saved sinner is covered over with a robe of righteousness. When God looks upon the saved sinner, He sees the blood of Jesus. If Christ is ‘in’ the saved sinner, the work of the saved sinner is like John the Baptist who stated that ‘I must decrease and He must increase’. The saved sinner didn’t die when Jesus died but he/she has to ‘die to’ sin in order to follow Christ.

Paul clearly viewed the crucifixion of Christ as inclusive as well as substitutionary

But Galatians 2v20 (and Romans 6 v 6 and Col 3 v 3) states that we died when Christ died, that we have been crucified with Christ. If so, then, surely, the argument that it is ‘my’ faith that is in question in the above passages Rom 3v22 and Gal 2v16, is rendered obsolete? If we have died, salvation cannot be based on ‘my’ faith. Paul states that ‘It is not I who live but Christ lives within me’. Once we see ourselves included in the death of Christ, and raised in Christ, then ‘my life’ is indistinguishable from His; as Paul argues elsewhere, I have become ‘one spirit with the Lord’ (1Cor6v17). Now, since everything comes from His life, including His faith, the translation ‘I live by the faith of the Son of God’ is consistent with a theology that is based on inclusion as well as substitution.

In Mark 11v22 Jesus is teaching the disciples after the incident when Jesus cursed the fig tree. Peter, typically, expressed what must have been passing through the other disciples’ minds: ‘Look…the fig tree you cursed has withered’ to which Jesus replied ‘Exete pistin Theou’ ‘Have the faith of God’ often translated ‘Have faith in God.’

But Jesus was not operating from Himself: ‘Truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do’ John 5v19. If Jesus did not operate from his own resources, including His own capacity for faith, then neither do we, so, rendering exete pistin Theou as ‘Have the faith of God’ makes sense, as the little word ‘of’ in English refers to the source, faith located in God, but also contains the meaning ‘out from’ i.e. not garrisoned in God but His faith flowing out from Him in us.

In the 1850s Charles Blondin strung a tightrope across Niagara Falls. A crowd gathered as he made his way across the falls. Then he issued a challenge: "Who here believes I can cross over Niagara Falls again, but this time pushing a wheelbarrow? The crowd began shouting, "We believe you,’ Blondin pushed the wheelbarrow successfully across the Falls and back. Then issued a further challenge: "Who here believes I can cross over Niagara Falls but this time with a man in the wheelbarrow?" When the crowd cheered, Blondin replied, "Ok, then who will be my first volunteer in the wheelbarrow?"

Silence. Until one man walked out of the crowd and was carried across - and back safely.

Did the man have faith ‘in’ Blondin? Of course. But where did that faith come from? You could equally say it was located in Blondin. Blondin believed he could take the man across and return safely, and Blondin’s faith became the man’s faith, he was ‘living by the faith of Blondin’.

This is consistent with the promises in the New Covenant to Ezekiel and Jeremiah:

‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and cause you to walk in My statutes’ Ez 36 v 26, 27

‘I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will out my laws in their minds, and write it on their hearts…they shall all know me from the least to the greatest’ Jer 31 v 31-34

Viewing the gospel as an individual ‘over here’ putting his or her faith in Christ ‘over there’ is a false distinction. There is no separation or disunity maintained as a consequence of the gospel. Through the New Covenant God has brought about a Spirit-spirit fusion, in which all things, including His life and His faith, resonate with our spirit.

True Christianity turns out to be a Spirit-spirit operation.

Referring to the question above – can this be resolved? – the answer is Yes.

Once we grasp that the gospel is inclusive as well as substitutionary, we see that we have been made one with Christ. and, in union with Christ, everything that is in Him is mine, including His faith.

‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’

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Thank you

John

Film Review - Indiana Jones, Dial of Destiny

Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride!

A hugely enjoyable film, if quite lengthy. An orgy of chases, intrigue, Nazis, gun-fights, understated humour…the whip, the explorer’s wide-brimmed hat…and Harrison Ford at his AI-enhanced best.

If you’re in the mood for fictional fun…cash in your Oppenheimer ticket and plump for Dial of Destiny.

If this is Indiana Jones's final imprint on our craving to do the impossible and overcome the ravages of time – and time itself – then so be it. But Indiana Jones hasn’t bowed out gracefully, he’s still believable and possesses a level of violence, will, and youthfulness of a much younger explorer. He’s gone out still swinging that whip and makes an appearance as a cranky old man at the same time.

Locations: Morocco, Sicily, London, New York, Germany

Archimedes, b, 287BC, from Syracuse, Sicily, the great inventor and mathematician is a constant presence throughout the film.

Cast includes Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as Helena Shaw; Toby Jones (Tinker Taylor, Soldier, Spy - and Detectorists) as Basil Shaw, and John Rhys-Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark and as Gimli in Lord of the Rings).

Finally, if you have an abiding affection for impossibly narrow and people-littered back-street car and tuk-tuk chases, Dial of Destiny will not disappoint.

If you’re in the mood for some fictional fun rather than telling historical drama, cash in your Oppenheimer ticket and plump for Dial of Destiny.

Rant: very annoying words & phrases

So… Ignoring, dismissing the question and carrying on with own message

Up it Instead of increase it

Amount Baby language instead of length, volume, mass, weight, number…

Bigger/big Baby language instead of larger, fuller, heavier, significant, telling etc

It is what it is Empty of meaning, unnecessary phrase

There is lots No distinction made between one and many, singular and plural

Them When it is 'those' e.g. "them players" No! No! No!

Medal i.e. 'to medal' No! You win a gold medal you don't medal a medal - rediculous

"He played brilliant" You can say 'he played brilliant chess' or 'he played brilliantly'

"I'm good" No! 'I'm well' perhaps. Good is too vague. Good at what? Morally good?

Match up Just 'match' will do, or contest

Ongoing An oldie…unnecessary words e.g. ongoing problem = problem

Top of the programme Just say 'the start'

Optics O dear! Words fail me. Say what you actually mean. Too obscure.

Lean into What? Commit maybe? You can lean or lean on something…forget 'lean into'

Reach out Ask

Referenced Referred to…he didn’t ‘reference Shakespeare’ he ‘referred to Shakespeare’

To 'source' as a verb Find or buy. Source is a noun - a source - not a verb. Resist this.

Heads up Remove this from your sentence and nothing changes

Going forward Ditto

I hear you Usually condescending…you don’t fool the speaker or the audience.

Call out I loathe this. It is judge & jury instead of ‘accuse’.

Journey Geography usurped by emotion

Gifted As in 'he gifted me with a…' No! it's 'gave'. Adverb not a verb: 'gifted drummer'

Issue Problem

Train station ‘Bus station' is used to distinguish it from a railway station which is a ‘station’

Takeout Take away

Acclimate Ugh! It is acclimatise

Drill down Please don't

Signage Just 'sign' or 'signs' putting -age on the end doesn't make you look clever

I broke a mug

I broke a mug and
It broke me

I didn’t know it contained so many
Gasps and repeated Oh Nos!

Stunned for those ten or twelve seconds
I bent down and cradled each piece

Each coffee and tea-stained fragment
A personal decade-long history

From allotment shed, a gift,
To kitchen…all those sunrises…

“Days of miracle and wonder
Don’t cry baby, don’t cry”

I broke a mug and
It broke me

It didn’t let the light out
Through the cracks

That’s not how it felt
Light, I find, is a heavy thing

It pours out like lead
In the furnace of sorrow

Watch now as I piece together
The jigsaw with glue

The grave can wait a while
You have more coffee to carry

I broke a mug and
It broke me