Psalm 96:3,7,8 'Declare his glory among the nations .. Ascribe to the Lord .. glory and strength; ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name'. While it is cold, damp and dark it is good to be reminded that there really is glory. Psalm 96 speaks of the glory of God: - in His salvation and marvellous works (v2,3) - in the creation of the heavens (v5) - in His honour, majesty, strength and beauty (v6). Plato was right. There is absolute beauty. - in His name: the name 'I am who I am'. It is a name that declares the absolute freedom of God, that he is beyond limits or boundaries, beyond space, beyond time - and yet in revealing to us His name, he enables us to call to him. (v8) - in His justice. He will judge the peoples with equity, with fairness (vv10,13) - in His appearing, His coming to us (v13) And so this season of epiphany (which means light shining on us) is the season when we look at his coming in the Lord Jesus and we see the glory of God. And the readings t...
Luke 03'15-17,21-22 From 1993 to 1995 Alison and myself were sent by CMS to build bridges with Orthodox believers in Russia. We lived in the Orthodox seminary in St Petersburg. One of the many treasures that we found were icons, and especially icons from what is called the festival row, depicting the main events in the life of Jesus. A link to the audio of the talk You were, I hope, given a card with the image frosdm a C16th fresco that can be found in the monastery of Dionysos on Mount Athos. The word above the man on the left holding out his hand is John (abbreviated), and the word above the man standing in the water is Jesus Christ. It is an iconic (literally) representation of the baptism (Greek word at top is He Baptesis – just to make sure that we know what it is) of Jesus. And I would like to spend a few minutes reflecting on this icon, because it gives some deep insights into how we might read the passages in Luke and other gospels, how we might reflect on our own ...