Christmas Books 2021

Around this time of the year I like to mention the books that I have been given for Christmas. This varied bunch is from my sons, my wife and my father-in-law. The one on the Universe accompanied a beautiful gemstone collection representing the planets of the solar system. I have read that now and started on the Cromwell biography and the book of Paul McCartney. The one on the Heath is about nearby Hampstead Heath by Hunter Davies, while the other two (Christmas Carol and The Great Gatsby) are novels in the beautiful Chiltern series.

Lord's Day December 26 2021

We had two services as usual on the Lord's Day. Attendance was down, however, especially ion the evening. We again sang a capella and were okay in the morning but by the evening a small number and the unfamiliar tunes combined with the appearance of a cat that lives next to the church  in the second hymn finished us. We recovered for the other two hymns. By December 26 Christmas is officially over but I thought the texts I chose were about right for the occasion - Revelation 12:1-5 and Galatians 4:4 where I pointed out eight ways in which the set time had come.

Christmas Day Service 2021

We must have been around thirty on Christmas morning thanks to relatives and so on. I like to take a text on such occasions and newly discovered 2 Corinthians 15:19, which I have never preached. We sang three hymns a capella (there being  no pianist). It was lovely to have some children there.

Midweek Meeting December 22 2021

We were on zoom again on Wednesday and quite a small number. It was good to go on with John 1, however (1:11-13) and to pray - lots to pray about at the moment.

Lord's Day December 19 2021

Last Lord's Day we had our first Christmas sermons of the season. Because we were starting so late I plunged straight in with the shepherds and the wise men. I prepared fresh sermons on the familiar passages. I took particular note of the structure of the passages. We were a decent turn out morning and evening, supplemented by family members. We had communion in the evening. A man who has come more often recently was there morning and evening. Not sure if he has got beyond his need for money yet.

10 Christmas Day Texts

It is my pattern to preach a text on Christmas Day at our special morning service. Since 2007 I have done this ten times. Two of these Christmas Days were Sundays so there was no special service and once I preached in Aberystwyth and someone else was here. I preached Luke 2:19 on two occasions. These are the ten

1. Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
2. John 17:18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
3. Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
4. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
5. 1 John 1:1-3 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched - his we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
6. Luke 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.
7. Job 42:11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
8. Hebrews 1:1-4 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
9. Philippians 2:6, 7 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
10. John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

(Before 2007, I also preached Titus 3:4, Luke 2:30, Hebrews 2:10-18 and Luke 2:14)

Midweek Meeting December 14 2021 (sic)

Things were a little different this week in that we were hearing a report from the work of Noor Ministries in the Indian Subcontinent from Sajida Iqbal. To add to the difference we were meeting on Tuesday night rather than a Wednesday, as usual. We had hoped to have an in person meeting but that proved not to be possible and so although Sajida had come a long way she still ended up several miles away in east London from where she broadcast. This is I think Sajida's third visit and every time she has good news of progress in the education of poor people from a Christian background but the potential is still very great. It is a privilege to hear of this work.

10 Ingredients and more in a Christmas fruitcake as told by Truman Capote

In Truman Capote's short story Buddy makes fruitcakes with his cousin and best friend. He likes the buying part best and lists the ingredients.

1. Cherries
2. and citron
3. ginger
4. and vanilla
5. and canned Hawaiian pine-apple
6. rinds
7. and raisins
8. and walnuts*
9. and whiskey
10. and oh, so much flour, butter, so many eggs, spices, flavourings: why, we'll need a pony to pull the buggy home.

*This looks like a slip as they spend time hunting for pecans earlier on.

Lord's Day December 12 2021

Sunday was a little different in that I was preaching elsewhere, down in Halland Chapel, E Sussex. I've got to know the pastor Abe Thomas a little but it is the first time I have preached in the little independent chapel with its wooden pews. It took less than two hours do get down and another to get back. Satnavs are a mystery. Getting there involved quite a bit of cross country but coming back via M23 and M25 was pretty easy. I preached two recent textual sermons from Proverbs 28:13 and 1 John 2:1,2. If I have any skill at all it is being short and simple. Had a nice time in the afternoon with Abe and his wife and a few others. We must have been around 40 in the chapel in the morning but down to about 12 in the evening. It would have been similar here, I guess, where two seminary students kindly preached.

10 Things Buddy's cousin did according to him (& Truman Capote)

In the Truman Capote short story "A Christmas memory" Buddy says of his older cousin and friend
"Here are a few things she has done, does do:

1. killed with a hoe the biggest rattlesnake ever seen in this county (sixteen rattles),
2. dip snuff (secretly),
3. tame hummingbirds (just try it) till they balance on her finger,
4. tell ghost stories (we both believe in ghosts) so tingling they chill you in July,
5. talk to herself,
6. take walks in the rain,
7. grow the prettiest japonicas in town,
8. know the recipe for every sort of old time Indian cure, including a magical wart remover." We know too
9. she always spends thirteenths in bed and
10. puts whisky in her cakes

10 Things Buddy's cousin did not do according to him (& Truman Capote)

In the Truman Capote short story "A Christmas memory" Buddy says of his cousin and friend

1. In addition to never having seen a movie,
2. she has never: eaten in a restaurant,
3. travelled more than five miles from home,
4. received or sent a telegram,
5. read anything except funny papers and the Bible,
6. worn cosmetics,
7. cursed,
8. wished someone harm,
9. told a lie on purpose,
10. let a hungry dog go hungry.

10 Puritans with Names not in the Bible

Wenceslaus Hollar, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1. Christopher Love
2. Cotton Mather
3. George Swinnock
4. Henry Smith
5. Oliver Heywood
6. Ralph Venning
7. Richard Sibbes
8. Robert Traill
9. Lewis Stuckley
10. Walter Marshall

10 Puritans with New Testament Names

 

Gustavus Ellinthorpe Sintzenich, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1. Joseph Caryl
2. Matthew Poole
3. John Eliot
4. Nathaniel Vincent
5. James Janeway
6. Thomas Case
7. Philip Henry
8. Stephen Charnock
9. Paul Baynes
10. Timothy Rogers

10 Puritans with Old Testament Names

Thomas Athow, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1. Isaac Ambrose
2. Benjamin Keach
3. Samuel Bolton
4. David Clarkson
5. Jonathan Edwards
6. Solomon Stoddard
7. Jeremiah Burroughs
8. Ezekiel Hopkins
9. Daniel Dyke
10. Obadiah Sedgwick

Midweek Meeting December 8 2021

I decided to zoom from the chapel this week as I wanted to see if a hybrid meeting is possible. It didn't go very well using basic equipment so that needs to be rethought. We looked at the next bit in John 1 (verses 6-10). Numbers were down for some reason. We had a time of prayer to follow.