SAINT VENANTIUS HONORIUS CLEMENTIANUS FORTUNATUS

A poet and hymn writer, this saint with a long name lived around 530-610 AD.

He was born in Italy and grew up during a time of conquest. He was well educated reading especially indulging himself in many secular poets as well as Christian ones. He wandered around northern Europe in his early adulthood composing poetry. Though he once followed the heretic, Arius, he soon saw the error of his ways and converted to the true gospel. Eventually settling in France, he was taken into church ministry.

He never gave up his poetry and hymn writing, some of his hymns were even written about other saints whom he respected! Many of his poetry were reflections on Christ’s accomplished work, as well as others that were of very ‘every day’ subjects. One of his well known and frankly excellent hymns is this one which displays his orthodoxy and profound depth in theology:

Praise the Savior now and ever;
Praise Him, all beneath the skies;
Prostrate lying, suff’ring, dying
On the cross, a sacrifice.
Vict’ry gaining, life obtaining,
Now in glory He doth rise.

Man’s work faileth, Christ’s availeth;
He is all our righteousness;
He, our Savior, has forever
Set us free from dire distress.
Through His merit we inherit
Light and peace and happiness.

Sin’s bonds severed, we’re delivered,
Christ has bruised the serpent’s head;
Death no longer is the stronger,
Hell itself is captive led.
Christ has risen from death’s prison,
O’er the tomb He light has shed.

For His favor, praise forever,
Unto God the Father sing;
Praise the Savior, praise Him ever,
Son of God, our Lord and King.
Praise the Spirit, through Christ’s merit,
He doth us salvation bring.

Fortunatus reminds us of the need to bring praise to God, and that this must be well grounded in deep truth. He also reminds us that we can be creative in our praise and expressive in our worship. To do so is simply imitating our God, in whose image we are created and who was the original artist in first creation.

Well, the straight answer is Robbie Williams, as I’ve raised in my previous post. Since that post i’ve been doing a lot more thinking about his song.

Here are those lyrics again:

God gave me the sunshine,
Then showed me my lifeline
I was told it was all mine,
Then I got laid on a lay line
What a day, what a day,

And your Jesus really died for me
Then Jesus really tried for me

UK and entropy,
I feel like its ****ing me
Wanna feed off the energy,
Love living like a deity
What a day, one day,
And your Jesus really died for me
I guess Jesus really tried for me

Bodies in the Bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
And that’s the way it’s gonna be

All we’ve ever wanted
Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it
God save me rejection
From my reflection,
I want perfection

Praying for the rapture,
‘Cause it’s stranger getting stranger
And everything’s contagious
It’s the modern middle ages
All day every day
And if Jesus really died for me
Then Jesus really tried for me

Bodies in the Bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
And that’s the way it’s gonna be

All we’ve ever wanted
Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it
God save me rejection
From my reflection,
I want perfection

Bodies in the Bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
Bodies in the bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
And that’s the way it’s gonna be

All we’ve ever wanted
Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it
So God save me rejection
From my reflection,
I want perfection

Jesus didn’t die for you, what do you want?
Jesus didn’t die for you, what are you on?
Oh Lord

One thing that’s been weighing on my mind is the meaning of the song, largely because it is particularly ambiguous. It’s obvious that the song heavily focuses upon image and identity issues, with lines like “All we’ve ever wanted is to look good naked… God save me rejection from my reflection”. Makes me wonder if Robbie’s conclusion that Jesus didn’t die for him is maybe because he didn’t feel Jesus could help him overcome body or image issues he has? Maybe I’m taking that too far.

But the main thing that I’ve been thinking about with this song is why I find it so offensive, after all he doesn’t really insult Jesus, nor say anything particularly negative about, just things that aren’t really true.

I’m not a Michael Jackson fan, but suppose I started to say something about him, like that he was a Communist (which I assume isn’t true but don’t know enough about Michael Jackson to give a definite answer). Imagine that if I had a platform for saying that how Michael Jackson fans would feel, especially those who’ve followed him for all their lives and have made it to every gig and bought every album. I’m sure they’d feel offended.

And I guess it’s the same with how I’m feeling about Robbie’s song. He’s saying things that I don’t feel he has warrant to say because (at least as far as I’m aware) he isn’t a fan or follower of Jesus.

But I guess what it comes down to is the question of who are you going to listen to about Michael Jackson, me or a Michael Jackson fan who has ’studied’ him in great detail? Of course you’ll believe the fan over me. I’d hope that anyone who was truly interested in Jesus would take the same approach and listen to the followers of Jesus rather than the celebrity who uses his name for shock factor.

The Virgin (not Mary but the business) have decided to give me 30 days of free unlimited internet access. This post is my first one written on my mobile, which is great & may lead to more mobile blog posts. What else is great is that Biblegateway have a mobile site. So for those 10 mins I spend walking to work 3 days a week, I can now use as my mobile quiet time!

I’ve just posted my review of the book, God.ol.o.gy by Christian George over on the The proGnosis.For the sake of completeness, I’ve also added it to my list of book reviews on the book review page, because I would be irritated if it weren’t! Read it in either place. I’ve now started reading Bible Overview by Steve Levy with Paul Blackham. I may review it when I’ve finished it… if I’m feeling brave and up to it!

On the 9th of the 9th month on the 9th year of this millennia, The Leadership Network asked a bunch of church leaders in America to share in 9 minutes what they really wanted to share with church leaders. The result is 77 Youtube videos, some done webcam stylee and others high-level production stylee, including leaders such as Dan Kimball, Alan Hirsch, Rick Warren, Neil Cole, John Ortberg, Brian McLaren, Ed Stetzer, Leonard Sweet, and that bloke what runs Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

They look like a really good resource and if you can spare a quick nine minutes then give one a watch. Heck, if I can spare nine minutes at the moment then so can you! You’ll find all the videos here: http://thenines.leadnet.org/

SAINT JULIAN OF NORWICH

Though identified with a boys name, Julian probably wasn’t her real name but she took it from her church in Norwich.

Born November 8th 1342 and dying around 1416, we don’t actually know all that much about the life of Julian of Norwich, at least not before she got severely ill.

Everyone thought she was on her deathbed, until she received sixteen revelations of Christ, centering upon the cross narrative. She lived much longer and spent the rest of her life in a flat attached to the church building, meditating upon this and offering pastoral counselling. During this time she wrote down her revelations which can be read here.

Her works are intimate devotional writings that are also theologically deep and profound. They focus much upon the love of Christ and of the Godhead, but that this love is not at all disconnected from the cross. She also focussed upon the incarnation and dual nature of Christ as well as the nature of the trinity. She also had a strong awareness of the dislocating effect that sin causes between humankind and God. But all this while acknowledging that she was “a simple creature.”

Julian’s model of profound truth married with experience led devotion is remarkable and one for us to imitate. We must certainly be aware of and grow in knowledge of profound doctrines. But this knowledge must drive us to worship and adoration as well as service and devotion. In seeing the death of Christ, Julian died to herself and gave herself over to knowing him more in more in living out the cross.

Born on Saturday 26th September was our baby girl, Jessie Morgan Raine. Caz, my wife, did a wonderful job on delivery using only gas and air! When she was out, I was overcome with emotion and shed a few tears! She and the wife are doing marvellously and we’re all at home now figuring out this parenting malarkey!

Here’s a little gallery, click for bigger pics:

Oh and apparently I’ve become a paedo-baptist:

Two days ago (Tuesday 22nd September) was the due date of our baby. Nowadays babies are classed as full-term (i.e. not premature) at 37 weeks and can be expected to normally come between then and 42 weeks.  As the old phrase goes, “It’ll come when it’s ready.” You never know which day it’ll come, though there may well be signs, you’ve got to be ready at all times.

So 3 weeks ago we started travelling in a car with a baby seat and no baby, because the hospital won’t let you out without a car seat! I packed a bag around that time with clothes, nappies and food etc, only to have Caz re-pack it afterwards! You’ve got to be ready because it could come any day!

It has struck me how alike it is to waiting for Christ’s second coming, or at least alike how it should be. We’re to be expecting the day of the coming of Christ on all occasions and anticipating that he could come on any given day. Some speak of indicating signs of his coming, but I’m not entirely sure what they look like exactly!

Of course I’m not the first to come up with this comparison. Have a look at what Paul said:

Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don’t really need to write you. For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape.

But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief. (1 Thess. 5:1-4 NLT)

Our baby will be along before long. We know that it’ll be here within the next 12 days, whether naturally or by medical induction, but Christ will come God knows when, so we’ve got to be ready.

Aspen trees, members of the Salicaceae family and of the popular group, are quite a special breed. You see, a whole forest of trees can actually be a single organism connected through the roots. Though the individual stems can have only existed for a matter of 150 years or so, the single organism can have existed for thousands and thousands of years. Protected underground this species can even survive forest fires.

Have you seen the point of illustration? The interconnectedness and unity of saved individuals in the church. The ultimate connectedness in Christ that spans the two thousand (plus) years. The safety of the church by its connection to Christ.

A useful illustration to remember next time we’re preaching on the unity of Christians in Christ in the church.

When I was preaching through Ecclesiastes 9:13-10:8, I mentioned that I’d written a poem and had someone read it out at the start of the meeting. The poem reflects on how when we’re younger we try to grow up too fast, but then when we’re older we’re trying to cling on to youth.

Here is the poem:

For how long am I young?
Is it when my life’s begun?
When I start to speak and walk
On independence I embark
Is it now I’m no longer young?

For how long am I young?
Is it when I cease my fun?
When parks and games stop for me
Embracing teenage identity
Is it now I’m no longer young?

For how long am I young?
Is it when my education’s won?
Results to prove that I’m no berk
And it’s off to face the world of work
Is it now I’m no longer young?

For how long am I young?
Is it when I’m no longer one?
When I take for myself a spouse
Mortgage repayments give me a house
Is it now I’m no longer young?

For how long am I young?
Is it when I have children?
With offspring running round my feet
Taking care of their every need
Is it now I’m no longer young?

For how long am I young?
Is it when my kids have run?
Retirement dreams I face instead
With grey hair yielding upon my head
Is it now I’m no longer young?

For how long am I young?
Is it when my life is done?
With all my loved ones gathered round
They rest my body in the ground
Is it now I’m no longer young?

When I once was young
To Him I should have clung
To know my life in his embrace
Enjoying the wealth of all his grace
For I am no longer young

Feel free to use it. I’d say the last verses is optional depending on the context.