Saint’s Stories #10

SAINT VENANTIUS HONORIUS CLEMENTIANUS FORTUNATUS

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

Who says Jesus didn’t die for me?

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.

Saint’s Stories #9

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.

Awaiting the Day

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.

Apparantly, Jesus Didn’t Die For Me

Robbie Williams has arisen on the third year from the grave (that is the grave of washed up expired pop stars). His latest album includes the single which he will be releasing, Bodies. At best this song makes Jesus out to be someone who made a good effort in dying for humankind who lived like a deity. Right at the end of the song, Robbie says, “Jesus didn’t die for you.”

God was Homeless for 300 Years

The other evening, I heard someone in our church talk about the building as the “House of God.” Clearly this is wrong. Amazingly, in God’s providence, I’m preaching this Sunday and one of my points in the sermon I’m re-using is on how we turn God into a pagan deity by saying that “we’re going to church to meet with God” which is essentially the same sort of point. In fact, if church buildings are God’s House, then that means that in the 300 years before God’s people started building church buildings, God was homeless!

Twelve Years

The other Sunday, we came onto the stories of the dead girl and the bleeding woman in Luke 8. You know the story I’m sure, where Jairus comes up to Jesus and says, “Help, my daughter is dying.” And then whilst Jesus is going a woman who’s been bleeding for ages reaches out and gets healed. In the meantime the girl dies and then Jesus goes and brings her back to life.

Recapturing the Beauty of the Cross

I watched Bridge to Terabithia the other night because it only cost me a penny on Virgin OnDemand! It was a pretty cool film though obviously intended to appeal to the younger market as well. The storyline goes like this: you’ve got this boy called Jess who’s a bit of a supressed artist and is coping with his dad telling him to get his head out of the clouds and be realistic and practical in life. A girl, Leslie, moves in next door who’s the daughter of two creative writers and she helps Jess to recapture his creative imagination in a ficticious world they invent together.