Month: February 2021

24 February 2021

Surprised by Joy

by Daniel Jacobson

This week I have been listening to I Thank God by Maverick City. I found this to be really encouraging at a time when not much seems to be going on. Listening to it brought to mind memories of what God’s done for me in the past, and encouraged an attitude of celebration of His goodness with a reminder that He is not done, but that He continues to work. It reminds me of His promise for the fullness of time, ‘to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth’ (Ephesians 1.10 ESV).

But what really stood out to me in this song is the joy that we have. Last week at Student Retreat, Andy Byers gave a talk on the fruits of the Spirit in which he described joy as the most countercultural of the fruits, but perhaps the most powerful in its effects (disclaimer: he may not have said this, but it’s what I took from the session). This led me to thinking of the place of joy in my life and the strength of this fruit in me at the moment.

I first became a Christian after reading Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. As soon as I’d finished it I got hold of all his books that I could and that led me quickly to Surprised by Joy. Before I even read it, the title jumped out at me: it was my experience. Part of what took me so long to come to Christ was a fear of rules that would take all the fun out of life. Of course, the surprise was that nothing like this occurred. The surprise was joy, a joy that started to permeate all aspects of my life.

But right now I’m not very joyful. The Christian life has became almost mundane, that’s just what I’m like now. Of course, for many people, this is not a season that we would describe as ‘joyful’. Many have suffered loss, of our freedoms if nothing else, but I have to remind myself that joy is not synonymous with happiness. After my grandad died last year we were of course incredibly sad as a family, especially as we couldn’t get together to give him a proper send-off. But sitting at home with my parents and my sister telling stories about him, whilst it was a time of great sadness, there was joy in that sadness as we remembered him and our past. That is a joy that is far more powerful than any happiness and comfort in good circumstances.

So, to conclude, I ask you to take the time to listen to ‘I Thank God’. Take the time to feel the joy that we have in Christ, to remember the ways He’s changed our past, and to look forward to what He has in store for us. And a final challenge: how can you grow the fruit of joy in your own life right now?

17 February 2021

The Cross: Mockery, Irony, and an Afterlife

by Andy Byers

‘Varus then sent part of his army through the country to search for those who were responsible for the revolt, and when they were discovered he punished those who were most guilty but some he released. The number of those who were crucified on this charge was two thousand.’

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 17.10 (LCL)

Smeared ashes are an odd adornment for human skin. The cruciform imprint is even more bizarre. Many don’t celebrate Ash Wednesday and Lent, but if you see smudged foreheads today, you will have identified someone who is choosing to pull their lives into the shadow of Jesus’ cross.

That shadow is also a shade, a place of refuge. But it shelters only after the mockery and grim irony have had their say.

Crucifixion as Mockery and Irony

Ancient Rome had a way of fulfilling the aspirations of its revolutionaries. Uprisings were met with an alternative rising up. Those who wished to be elevated against Rome were swiftly accommodated.

The scene described above by Josephus, a Jewish writer in the first century, is typical. Crosses were for those who staged revolts. Insurrectionists were elevated on a cross, strapped or nailed naked to its beams, and positioned in the public field of vision. The punishment’s creativity is as ingenious as it is sinister. The irony is savagely exquisite. The mockery is comprehensive, total.

So, you want to rise up against the Emperor…? Wish granted.

Crucifixion thus served not only as punishment but as propaganda. When the state powers sentenced ‘death by cross’, this was not a quiet disposal in a dark alley, not a stealthy silencing of an awkward voice. This form of capital punishment was not carried out in a private viewing area or in the dungeon of some imperial palace.

The cross was a public spectacle.

Crucifixion both punished and published. The message: Imperial might is unassailable. No individual or well-organised cabal can overturn the powers that forever be. The Empire is certain, sure, fixed… as fixed as two great beams by thick iron nails.

The Cross of Christ

‘It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription against him read, “The King of the Jews.”’

Mark 15.25–26

The Roman governor had placed two men of varied reputations before the crowds. One was a known insurrectionist, his record indicating he was willing to kill for the cause. This Barabbas was a typical candidate for a Roman cross.

The other man was harder to categorise. Jesus presented a case that fell outside the standard legal systems. The authorities who called for execution lacked the power to execute, and those who had that power lacked a clear case.

Barabbas was easy to account for. Jesus was not.

But any claim to kingship is a threat to the reigning king. So the Roman gavel slammed hard in Pilate’s Praetorium and the ‘King of the Jews’ was sentenced to a ‘raising up’. Golgotha would suffice – there was a hill. The people could see – because the cross is a spectacle.

The mockery becomes even more biting. And the irony becomes sharper. But the irony’s direction is reversed – it is not that an insurrectionist has been raised to die along with his grandiose dreams of rising up. It is that the High King who had no ambition for worldly power has been sentenced and mangled by those who do.

‘Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.’

Mark 15.37

The Roman representative on the scene, however, is suspicious about this particular crucifixion. We hear of a centurion who watched Jesus die. The event did not culminate in what should feel like a standard Roman victory. And fabric is heard ripping apart in the Temple. Suspicions abound that protocols of Roman power have not quite unfolded as expected.

But even if the folks on the scene and in the city were spooked, the man was dead. And if dead, then the system worked.

Odd weather, though. And never did I see a man die like that: ‘Truly this man was the Son of God.’ (Mark 15.39)

The Afterlife of the Cross

As Easter approaches, Christians will take fresh delight in the deepening layers of crucifixion’s irony. Good Friday’s suspicions will be vindicated. Though the journey to the cross and the journey from the tomb are often broken up as seasons in the church calendar, the New Testament writers call us to hold them together. Cross and Empty Tomb are chained together in the life of following Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. But on the journey towards Easter, we concentrate on the cross.

And one of the ironies is that Jesus’ cross has an afterlife. The death-instrument lives on… in a way. Josephus wrote about several crucifixions. The one described above was a mass execution involving two thousand crosses.

But Jesus’ cross was different. Only the Lord of Life could endure nails and beams, take the full brunt of their force, then transform their materiality into a shape smudged on foreheads and bearing power for today.

Paul writes of the cross as a point in time to which his own life is somehow nailed (‘I am crucified with Christ’ – Galatians 2.19). But he also speaks of the cross as having an ongoing power in the life of the believer. It is still a death-instrument. Its efficacy is still for killing. For Paul, the cross is neither a relic nor a talisman nor an adornment but a symbol for the way God’s Spirit allows us to participate in that deathly work by which the insurrection within our own hearts is squelched by the Empire of God. The cross of Christ takes our sin, our disfigured passions, even our ugly record of wrongs, and deals with them the way a cross does its business. From Paul again: ‘those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.’ (Galatians 5.24)

The Cross still deals out death. It is still reserved for insurrection. But it operates under a different legal system of a different Empire overseen by a different Lord. The cross has been appropriated by heaven. And now it kills sin and death.

Ashes symbolise the fragility of human life which will return to dust. Smudged over Christian faces, they recall one particular cross that did its work of death but has now been redeployed to bring life by removing deathly things.

Ashes daubed on human flesh are ugly. But if you see them today, remember the great irony that, in the form of the cross, they are also beautiful.

9 February 2021

Who Is My Neighbour?

by Laura Harries

Nothing embodies the spirit of camping more than the camaraderie of re-pitching your tents together in the pouring rain in the pitch black. Yes, it may look sunny in that picture, but a mere twelve hours later every tent on that field was flooded or collapsed and the display of care from absolute strangers as tea was made over stoves was incredible to see. So clearly your neighbour isn’t simply a friend…

One of my placements as an Intern is helping to lead a youth group for 11-14 year olds. This term we have been looking at some of the parables Jesus used in his teaching and last week it was my turn to lead a session on ‘the Parable of the Good Samaritan’. Whilst this is a story that many of us could repeat at the drop of a hat I was deeply challenged when preparing the study at the depth of teaching these 12 verses can offer.

We can grasp the importance of loving our neighbour and that our neighbour is anyone who needs our help, even at a material cost to ourselves. Nothing embodies this better than the shared camaraderie of a campsite (especially if bad weather is involved!). When this is followed by the realisation that Samaritans and Jews really did not get along we are able to comprehend that this love can require sacrifice in the form of loving those who are traditionally our enemies.

But what about loving our neighbours who we just find a little bit annoying? Or our neighbours who we find just a little bit more challenging to love? Do we truly apply this teaching from Jesus in these circumstances to our neighbours? Or do we assume that Jesus’ command was somehow conditional, or that someone else will love them for us, someone for whom it will be easier…

In that case, who in the story do we become like? Unfortunately, I think we can probably all think of far too many examples of times where we have behaved more like the priest and the Levite; too wrapped up in our own holiness to risk loving a neighbour when it could get messy. Thankfully, God has grace for us in these situations and there is the opportunity to try again. And we can do better: Jesus ends this section of teaching with an instruction about how to love our neighbour that is so simple it almost seems impossible:

‘Which of these three, do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ The lawyer said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

Luke 10.36-37 (emphasis added)

In the youth group we used this command from Jesus to pray about someone we each personally struggled to be a neighbour to, in order to ask for God’s guidance in how we can show mercy and kindness to them. Maybe God has placed someone on your heart whilst reading this?

3 February 2021

Hearing Psalm 119 as an English Acrostic

by Mark Bonnington with the KCD Staff & Trainee Team

Psalm 119 is famous as the longest chapter in the Bible. Not many of us really read it right through in one single sitting as we usually do the rest of the Psalms. And if we are honest we are less than familiar with most of its content too. Verse 105 is the best known: ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path’.  After all, Psalm 119 is also pretty repetitive ⁠– stuck in a single groove as people used to say in the days of gramophone records. It is an extended meditation hammering away its celebration of the value of God’s way for his people which God has set out in his commandments (laws/statutes/promises/words/precepts/rules/testimonies etc.). 

Psalm 119 is organised in twenty-two sections of eight verses each made up of a pair of lines ⁠– 176 two-line verses in all. Twenty-two ‘stanzas’ because there are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the eight verses in each stanza begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This one form of what is called an acrostic poem ⁠– a poem where the opening letters make up a word which is the subject of the poem. In Psalm 119 it’s not a word that is spelt out but the whole alphabet ⁠– running from Aleph to Tav, the first to the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This is equivalent to A to Z in English and Alpha to Omega in Greek. Psalm 119 is not the only acrostic in the Bible: for example, there are twenty-two verses on the virtuous wife in Proverbs 31.10-31, also beginning Aleph to Tav, as well as acrostics in Lamentations and a number of other Psalms.

Before we had SatNav the best selling street maps of British towns were the A-Z series. Part of the message was: you can find every street with any name beginning with any letter in this street atlas. If the street exists you will find it in here. Now we use Google Maps. Psalm 119 has exactly the same message: God’s word covers the whole of life in every way. The experience of reading the Psalm all the way through in one gives you that sense of comprehensiveness: God’s ways are uniquely and comprehensively valuable in the life of faith. But the acrostic form that hammers this home is usually lost in English translation. Many modern bibles now indicate the alphabetic acrostic form by leaving gaps between each eight verse block and sometimes by putting a Hebrew letter heading above each of the twenty-two eight-verse sections. What does your version of the Bible do? These headings highlight the original form (tick) but they don’t reproduce the reading experience (cross).

In our weekly team prayers our devotional reading was a different Psalm each week through the autumn of 2020. For the week on Psalm 119 each person took one stanza of eight verses each and turned it into a English A-Z acrostic (cropping our alphabet down to twenty-two letters by leaving out letters like X). So Psalm 119.1-8 were to begin with letter A; verses 9-16 with B; 17-24 C and so on. We’ve reproduced the combined results here. It’s long. It took us well over ten minutes to read out to one another at the end of our prayers together. The result is an attempt to get across a little of the reading experience of the original and to hammer home the comprehensiveness of the wisdom of God’s ways in his word. Try it out. If you can, at one sitting. Try to forget the awkwardness of some renderings (and the impressive slickness of some others!) and hear in it the word of the Lord.

1All those whose way is blameless are blessed,
    who walk in the law of lord!
2Approved are those who keep his testimonies,
    who seek him with their whole heart;
3Anyone who does no wrong,
    but walks in his ways,
4And you command your precepts
    to be kept carefully.
5Ah, that my ways may be steadfast
    in keeping your statutes!
6Among my detractors I will stand,
    having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
7Acclaiming you with an upright heart,
    I learn your righteous ordinances.
8As I keep your statutes,
    do not utterly forsake me.

9By what means can a young man keep his way pure?
    By guarding it according to your word.
10Being wholehearted in my seeking,
    I still need your help to stick to your commandments!
11Building a store of your word in my heart
    helps ensure that I do not sin against you.
12Blessed are you, O LORD;
    teach me your statutes!
13Boldly my lips declare
    all the ordinances of your mouth.
14Before all the world’s riches,
    I value the way of your testimonies.
15Brooding on your precepts,
    I fix my eyes on your ways.
16Because I delight in your statutes,
    I will not forget your word.

17Cover me, your servant, with your abundant grace,
    so I can walk the way of your word.
18Clear my sight,
    let me see the beauty of your law.
19Caverns have been my resting place on earth;
    let me discover in them your commandments!
20Consumed with desire is my soul
    for your divine order every hour.
21Chastise the insolent and abominable
    who turn a blind eye to your decrees;
22Cease their scorn and contempt
    for me who keep them.
23Conniving swirls all around me from princes,
    but your servant will meditate on your statutes.
24Counsel and delight
    I find in your testimonies.

25Dust is the home of my soul;
    revive me according to your word!
26Divulging my ways to you meant that you answered me;
    teach me your statutes!
27Disclose to me the way of your precepts,
    and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
28Downheartedness makes my soul melt;
    strengthen me according to your word!
29Dispose of my false ways,
    and graciously teach me your law!
30Determined to take the way of faithfulness,
    I set your ordinances before me.
31Don’t let me be put to shame, O LORD;
    I cling to your statues!
32Deepen my understanding
    so that I can run in the way of your commandments.

33Every law you must teach me, O LORD,
    so that I can keep it all my life.
34Even my whole heart will observe your law,
    so give me understanding to keep it.
35Escort me on the path of your commandments,
    because I delight in it.
36Encourage my heart to look to your statutes,
    and not towards selfish gain.
37Encourage my eyes away from selfish things,
    and give me life in your ways.
38Everyone who fears you are your servants,
    fulfill your promises to them.
39Evade me from the disgrace I dread,
    because your laws are good.
40Every one of your precepts I long for!
    In your righteousness preserve my life.

41Fast your love is holding me,
    for you have saved me.
42Fiends have taunted me but I will answer,
    for I trust your word
43From my mouth take not the word of truth,
    for my hope is in your decrees.
44Forever I will keep your law,
    for ever and always
45Free I will walk,
    for I have sought your precepts
46From my mouth I will proclaim you before kings,
    I will not be put to shame,
47for I find my delight in your commandments,
    which I love.
48Forever,
    I will meditate on your statutes.

49God, I remember your word to your servant,
    in which you made me hope.
50Grief stricken, I find comfort in your word,
    that your promise gives life to me.
51God, I keep my face toward you and your law,
    though the arrogant deride me.
52Gladly I dwell on your ordinances of old;
    I take comfort in them, O LORD.
53Great resentment seizes me because of the wicked,
    those who forsake your law.
54God, your statutes have been my songs
    wherever I make my home.
55Gripping to your name and your law,
    I remember you in the night.
56Grace and blessing has fallen to me,
    for I have kept your precepts.

57Happy am I because you are all I need LORD;
    I have vowed to obey your laws.
58Have mercy on me because of your promise,
    because I am seeking after you.
59Humbly, I have reflected on my ways;
    in repentance I am turning to follow your ways.
60Hurrying, I am not holding back 
    from obeying your commands.
61However the wicked entangle me in their snare,
    I will not forget your law.
62Hymns of thanks I will sing to you at midnight,
    because of your wonderful laws.
63How I have befriended all those who fear you
    and follow your ways!
64Heaven and earth are full of your love;
    teach me your decrees.

65I consider your justice and goodness to me,
    according to your word.
66Instruct me in good judgement and wisdom,
    for I trust your commands. 
67I once was afflicted and went astray,
    but now I walk in step with your word. 
68In you and from you is all that is good;
    teach me your ways. 
69I keep your precepts with all my heart,
    though the godless spread lies about me.
70Insensitive and cold are their hearts,
    but I delight in your law. 
71It was good for me to be afflicted,
    so that I might learn your decrees. 
72It is better for me to depend on the law of your mouth
    than on all the deceptive riches of this world.  

73Judiciously have you made me;
    give me understanding also that I may learn your commandments.
74Joy will come to those who fear you and see me,
    because I have hoped in your word.
75Judgments from you, O LORD, are true,
    and I know that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
76Just as you have promised to your servant,
    let your steadfast love be ready to comfort me.
77Judge me not as I deserve, that I may live;
    for your law is my delight.
78Jeering is the reward for the godless, because they have subverted me with trickery;
    as for me, I will meditate on your commandments.
79Jointly, may those who fear you turn to me,
    that they may know your testimonies.
80Justify my heart, O LORD, in your statutes,
    that I may not be put to shame!

81Longing for your salvation,
    my soul hopes in your word.
82Looking for your promise with my eyes,
    I ask, “When will you comfort me?”
83Like a wineskin in the smoke I have become,
    yet I have not forgotten your statutes.
84Lengthening days question me: how long must I endure?
    When will you judge those who persecute me?
85Lawless, godless men have dug pitfalls for me,
    men who do not conform.
86LORD, your commandments are sure;
    they persecute me with falsehood; help me!
87Light is nearly extinguished; they have sought to end me,
    but I have not forsaken your precepts.
88Let your steadfast love spare my life,
    that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.

89Maker of all, your word
    is firmly fixed in the heavens.
90Measureless bounty flows from you to all generations;
    the earth you established stands fast.
91Marching at your command,
    all things are your servants.
92Meditating on your law with joy
    sustains me in my affliction.
93Mindful of your precepts, I know
    that through them you have given me life.
94My God save me;
    for I have pursued your precepts.
95Mockers wait to destroy me;
    but I meditate on your testimonies.
96Measuring the limits of human perfection is easy,
    but your commandment is exceedingly broad.

97Never have I loved your laws more
    as I think on them through the day!
98Nefarious people lose out
    because your words are always in my mind.
99None of my tutors understand as much as me
    because I know your deeds.
100Nor can the elderly match my insights
    because I am obedient to you.
101Nimble are my steps to avoid eviL,
    and keep up with you.
102Nothing and no-one can tempt me
    from living out your instructions.
103Nectar is sweet to the bee,
    but your words are sweeter even than treacle tart!
104Numinous is the truth I receive from you;
    nauseous to me are the falsehoods of men.

105Only your word lights my feet
    and illuminates my path.
106Oaths I have sworn and confirmed,
    to keep your righteous rules.
107O LORD, I am severely afflicted,
    give me life according to your word!
108Offerings of praise I freely give you, O LORD;
    teach me your rules.
109Obstinately I hold onto your law,
    though I hold my life in my hands.
110Only your precepts keep me safe
    from the snares laid for me by the wicked.
111Overjoyed is my heart at your testimonies;
    they are my heritage.
112Ordered is my heart to perform your statutes,
    forever, to the end.

113People who are double-minded, I hate;
    but your law, I love.
114Protect me, LORD, my hiding place and shield;
    in your word, I hope.
115Prevent me not, you evildoers,
    from keeping the commandments of my God – be gone!
116Persist in your promise to me, that I may live,
    and let me not be put to shame in my hope!
117Protect me Lord and ensure
    that I love your commandments, by holding me up.
118Pretending won’t do – you despise those who reject your law,
    their clever schemes are futile.
119People who are wicked you count as rubbish;
    therefore I love your commandments.
120Perpetually trembling I come before you in fear,
    and I am afraid of your judgements.

121Quiet my fears, LORD, for I've tried my best to do the right thing, 
    so please don't leave me alone with those who put me down.
122Quickly come, for with you I know I'll be alright, 
    but with the arrogant I'll be squashed and trampled.
123Quench my thirst, I'm looking so hard for you because you've promised to be with me and you always keep your promises, 
    but I can't see you.
124Qualify your laws to me, teach me how to follow you and glorify your name, 
    show me by your love. 
125Questions haunt me, I want to serve you but there is so much I don't understand and so much I still get wrong, 
    give me discernment so I can understand. 
126Quick, LORD, now is the time to act, for you are holy and just and good, 
    and your laws are being broken. 
127Quantity loses meaning, 
    when your word in my life is more precious than anything else could be, so
128Quitting the darkness, I will follow where you lead, 
    and in you, I will find my life.

129Reading your statutes
    renews my obedience.
130Researching your word
    enriches the simple.
131Ravenous for truth,
    I long for your regulations.
132Regard me with grace,
    as you do for the righteous.
133Reinforce my resolve
    to resist all temptations.
134Remove all restrictions
    from keeping your rules.
135Reveal to me your radiance
    and teach me your requirements.
136Remorse overwhelms me
    when your laws are rejected.

137So righteous and pure are you, God,
    you always say what is right.  
138Statutes and decrees that are yours
    are righteous and steadfast.  
139Such is my passion for you,
    but others turn against you.  
140Stable and steadfast is your promise,
    it brings me deep joy.  
141Slight, small and insignificant am I,
    but I cling onto your Word.  
142Surely your righteousness will endure forever;
    Your Word will never fail.  
143Suffering and trouble are mine,
    but I find joy in your Word .
144Stories of you are always right,
    they give me wisdom and life itself.  

145Together with my whole heart I cry; answer me, O LORD!
    I will keep your statutes.
146To you I cry, save me,
    that I may observe your decrees.
147The day begins and I have already risen to cry for help;
    I put my hope in your words.
148To meditate on your promise,
    I am awake before each watch of the night.
149Take in what I say in your steadfast love;
    O LORD, in justice preserve my life.
150Tormenters with evil purpose are drawing near;
    they are far from your law.
151Though you are near, O LORD,
    and all your commandments are true.
152That you established your decrees forever,
    I learned a long time ago.

153View my affliction and deliver me,
    for I do not vacate your law.
154Vouch for me and vindicate me;
    give me vitality according to your promise.
155Villains venture far from salvation,
    for they do not value your statutes.
156Vast is your mercy, O LORD,
    give me vitality according to your justice.
157Vengeful adversaries of mine are many,
    but I do not veer from youR testimonies.
158Visualising the faithless is vile,
    because they violate your commands.
159Verify my love of your precepts!
    Preserve my vitality according to your steadfast love.
160Vitally, the verity of your voice is invariable,
    and every one of your virtuous ordinances endures forever.

161Without cause powerful people persecute me,
    but my attention is still captivated by your words.
162Wealth and treasure found by chance
    would give as much joy to me as your words.
163Wicked lies I hate,
    but your law I love
164When could I ever stop praising you
    for your righteous ways?
165Wretched worries will not weigh me down, because wonderful peace is possessed by those who love your law;
    nothing can make them stumble.
166Waiting faithfully for your salvation is my only hope, O LORD,
    while I keep your commandments.
167With my inmost being I keep your testimonies,
    I love them very much.
168Wholly I obey your precepts and testimonies,
    for all my ways are before you. 

169Yelling from me will pummel your ears, O LORD;
    give me understanding according to your word!
170Yearning from me will enter your ears;
    deliver me according to your word.
171You teach me your statutes,
    so my lips will pour forth praise.
172Your commandments are right, every one of them,
    so my tongue will sing of your word.
173Your hand is ready to help me,
    for I have chosen your precepts.
174Your salvation is what I long for, O LORD,
    and your law is my delight.
175Your praise is what my soul lives for,
    with the help of your ordinances.
176Your servant has gone astray like a lost sheep;
    seek me, for I do not forget your commandments.

1 February 2021

Against Complexity

by Tom Grendon

Reflecting on the last week of this most unusual of years, the thing that stands out most for me was being involved in the family worship service. For those who don’t know me, choosing to don a hideously bright yellow t-shirt and dance around in the chilly Appleby Rooms on a Thursday afternoon is a long way from my standard idea of fun. I would normally be much happier reading a book, trying to write a bible study or, come to think of it, a whole host of other normal things. For those who do know me, you can be rightly shocked that I was there. But there I was anyway.

On Saturdays this year, I am trying to go on walks outside of Durham, to somewhere new each time. Recent highlights have included the very well-hidden Brancepeth Castle, Quarrington Hill and a couple of walks near Sunderland Bridge – I would highly recommend. It has been refreshing to see more of the scenery around this city that I have called home for 4 years, and a needed break from the necessarily higher than normal screen time.

Both of these have in common something that I have been thinking about for a while now, namely that a lot of the most important things that we come across in life are actually a lot simpler than we like to make them seem. Whether it may be marvelling at a creation so intricate and so vast and a sense of the simple perspective given on all that we busy ourselves with doing, I think that we (or maybe just me – that’s up to you) hide behind complexity in many aspects of life. Likewise, with faith. There is value in our theories on theological issues, debates going back and forth, and I am not one to ignore the deep insights that can be found there, but they do have their place. When the disciples were discussing which of them was the greatest, and asked Jesus for his thoughts, he didn’t give them a treatise on the meaning of greatness, or begin a discussion about the future nature of resurrection bodies. Instead,

“He called a child…and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’”. 

A child does not stay awake into the night wondering about what it means to be a child, or about the moral integrity of their parents. They simply love the parent who gave them life, and trust them. Maybe we need to be more childlike.