Met Tab School of Theology

I got myself down to the Metropolitan Tabernacle this week for some of the Summer School of Theology as I usually do. I managed less than half the sessions (7 out of 18 or 20) this time round and heard most of the main speakers only once so I can’t give a proper assessment of the conference. It did strike me, however, that the speaking roster was rather top heavy age wise. I also thought the theme of the working church has been well explored over the years. As with the EMA which always falls the week before, there are things I like (Reformed, Baptist, straight, good ethnic and cultural spread) and don’t like (the sometimes negative tone, singing the same song at the end and they don’t stock my books either!). Like all conferences there is development (but not too much). Perhaps Dr Masters is more relaxed and more willing to indulge in a little humour than in past.

Anyway, this year I caught Robert Reymond twice. Dr Masters was effusive in his introduction and clearly Dr Reymond is a gifted and able theologian. His manner of reading his papers more or less word for word and his almost pedantic repetition of certain phrases does not help the listener, however. His first two papers were on Christ’s example, his final paper on Paul’s example. He made 10 useful points there.

American James Grier, a Tab favourite, is always worth hearing and his closing address on the new heavens and the new earth was fine. I also heard Dr Masters himself on Goals for Office Bearers and Members but this seemed very similar to other messages in the past. Sometimes it is difficult to know the targets for his attacks too. Who are the Reformed men who are going to liberal colleges for degrees?

I missed Roland Burrows and Vernon Higham. Jack Seaton’s opener on God’s Sovereignty and the Church’s Work and Chris Buss on Nehemiah with his nice old illustrations were okay. I really enjoyed Nigel Lacey’s second message, however, on Hindrances to the Concept of the Working Church. Despite the negative title this was a really winsome and challenging message. He spoke firstly of the need for thorough Bible teaching, with unction, realism (no attempts to lump over past glories), leadership, gospel preaching, care over other commitments and certainty about calling. Then about how members can be discouraged, sinful, lacking in faith and vision, tacitly believing that the work is to be done by the few; divisive and pre-occupied with other things.

Bloggy Special 14

Short Poem 26

It is sometimes suggested that the parson was a Lollard. Sounds like.

The Canterbury Tales povre persoun of a toun by Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400)
A good man was ther of religioun,
And was a povre PERSOUN OF A TOUN,
But riche he was of hooly thoght and werk.
He was also a lerned man, a clerk,
That Cristes gospel trewely wolde preche;
His parisshens devoutly wolde he teche.
Benynge he was, and wonder diligent,
And in adversitee ful pacient,
And swich he was ypreved ofte sithes.
Ful looth were hym to cursen for his tithes,
But rather wolde he yeven, out of doute,
Unto his povre parisshens aboute
Of his offryng and eek of his substaunce.
He koude in litel thyng have suffisaunce.
Wyd was his parisshe, and houses fer asonder,
But he ne lefte nat, for reyn ne thonder,
In siknesse nor in meschief to visite
The ferreste in his parisshe, muche and lite,
Upon his feet, and in his hand a staf.
This noble ensample to his sheep he yaf,
That first he wroghte, and afterward he taughte.
Out of the gosple he tho wordes caughte,
And this figure he added eek therto,
That if gold ruste, what shal iren do?
For if a preest be foul, on whom we truste,
No wonder is a lewed man to ruste;
And shame it is, if a prest take keep,
A shiten shepherde and a clene sheep.
Wel oghte a preest ensample for to yive,
By his clennesse, how that his sheep sholde lyve.
He sette nat his benefice to hyre
And leet his sheep encombred in the myre
And ran to Londoun unto Seinte Poules
To seken hym a chaunterie for soules,
Or with a bretherhed to been witholde;
But dwelt at hoom, and kepte wel his folde,
So that the wolf ne made it nat myscarie;
He was a shepherde and noght a mercenarie.
And though he hooly were and vertuous,
He was to synful men nat despitous,
Ne of his speche daungerous ne digne,
But in his techyng discreet and benygne;
To drawen folk to hevene by fairnesse,
By good ensample, this was his bisynesse.
But it were any persone obstinat,
What so he were, of heigh or lough estat,
Hym wolde he snybben sharply for the nonys.
A bettre preest I trowe, that nowher noon ys.
He waited after no pompe and reverence,
Ne maked him a spiced conscience,
But Cristes loore, and Hise apostles twelve
He taughte, but first he folwed it hymselve.

Weekly Proverb 18

Not a contadiction but a way to respond 26:4, 5 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself comm Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes comm
Here is a classic case of what appears to be a contradiction. However, it is hardly to be believed that the writer did not notice it! Rather these adjacent proverbs bring out both the limitations of any given proverb and the dilemma we face when reasoning with the unreasonable. Sometimes it is better to veer towards the Scylla of simply saying nothing. At other times it is better, indeed necessary, to head toward the Charybdis of reasoning with such people. Part of wisdom is the skilful application of the right method at the right time. On one hand, we want to avoid becoming fools ourselves by answering foolish questions. A Jewish proverb says that when a wise man argues with a fool then two fools are arguing. On the other, sometimes the fool has to be taken on at his own game or he will never see his error. For example, when the so-called Jehovah’s Witness knocks at your door do you spend time speaking to them or not? Pray for wisdom. If we see something blasphemous on television or in the newspaper, should we always respond? How should we deal with people who appear to be wasting our time? Open-air workers are always wrestling with the problem of how to deal with hecklers. Like the Lord Jesus we must avoid using the fool’s methods and repaying insult with insult (see 1 Pet 2:23, 3:9) and we must sometimes answer their foolish questions and accusations with great wisdom (see Matt 12, 15, 21, 22).

Marcus Loane Biographer

When I was at the Banner Conference in Leicester in the Spring I picked up a copy of their reprint of Archbishop Marcus L Loane's They were Pilgrims. It contains four biographies of short-lived missionaries. I knew about Brainerd, Hugh Martyn and M'Cheyne before but Ion Keith-Falconer (1856-1887), the amazing Arabist who became a missionary in Aden on the Gulf, was new to me.

Last week at the EMA I noticed that Christian Focus have republished Loane's Oxford and the Evangelical Succession (1951) and Cambridge and the Evangelical Succession (1952). The first looks at Whitefield, Newton, Thomas Scott, Richard Cecil (1748-1810) and Daniel Wilson (1778-1885) who became Bishop of Calcutta. The latter two are just names to me and so I'm finding their stories very interesting. The second book looks at Grimshaw, Berridge, Venn and Simeon.
Somewhere I'm sure I have Masters of the English Reformation - Yes, there it is, an ex-library copy in hardback from 1955. It looks at Bilney, Tyndale, Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer.
Born in 1911, Loane is a good writer and the biographical sketches (about 40 pages each?) are a good length. I notice he also has books on Bunyan, Baxter, Rutherford and Alexander Henderson (Makers of Religious Freedom in the Seventeenth Century also known as Makers of Puritan History) Robert Barnes, John Bradford, John Frith and John Rogers (Pioneers of the Reformation in England), Martyn, Zinzendorf and J B Lightfoot (Three faithful servants), Archbishop Mowll, H C G Moule and J C Ryle, etc. This is quite apart from his many other books.

More here.

Lennon McCartney

This week (July 6) sees the 50th anniversary of the day that Paul McCartney met John Lennon. It was at a church, of course. This Radio 4 programme is an interesting one on it. As for the Christian input the two knew see Steve Turner's very interesting book The Gospel according to the Beatles. Also see here. I also note that there is a book here. It's amazing how popular culture can produce such an item, documenting as the book does a rather minor event in terms of world history. Fascinating nevertheless.

Airborne Calvinist Warning

From Tom in the Box, of course.
Tominthebox

10 words beginning with 'K'

1. Kamikaze - A. Japanese pilot trained in WWII to make a suicidal crash attack, especially upon a ship. B. An airplane loaded with explosives to be piloted in a suicide attack. 3. Slang An extremely reckless person who seems to court death. (Japanese, divine wind (from the legendary name of a typhoon that in 1281 saved Japan by destroying the Mongol navy).

2. Kanji - A. A Japanese system of writing based on borrowed or modified Chinese characters.
B. A character used in this system of writing.

3. Kanzu - A long, usually white garment worn by men in Africa (Swahili).

4. Kapok - A silky fibre obtained from the fruit of the silk-cotton tree and used for insulation and as padding in pillows, mattresses and life preservers (Malay).

5. Kitsch - A. Sentimentality or vulgar, often pretentious, bad taste, especially in the arts. B. An example or examples of kitsch.

6. Knobkerrie -A short club with one knobbed end, used as a weapon by warriors of certain South African peoples (from Dutch).

7. Kohl - A cosmetic preparation, such as powdered antimony sulfide, used especially in the Middle East to darken the rims of the eyelids.

8. Koto - A Japanese musical instrument similar to a zither, having usually 13, but sometimes as few as 1 or as many as 17, silk strings stretched over an oblong box.

9. Krummhorn - A wind instrument of the Renaissance with a curving tube and a double reed.

10. Kymograph - An instrument for recording variations in pressure, as of the blood, or in tension, as of a muscle, by means of a pen or stylus that marks a rotating drum.

More on EMA

See here for a good intro.

Check this too

Another interview here of someone moving in the right circles. Thanks Guy and Alan. Cymru am byth.

Scientists catching up

See here for news that will surprise no-one with good theology.

10 words beginning with 'Q'

A random list of 10 words beginning with Q

1. Quadriga - A two-wheeled chariot drawn by four horses abreast.

2. Quadrille - A. A square dance of French origin composed of five sections and performed by four couples or Music for this dance in 6/8 and 2/4 time. B. A card game popular during the 18th century, played by four people with a deck of 40 cards.

3. Quadroon - A person having one-quarter Black ancestry.

4. Quaff - To drink heartily.

5. Quale - A property, such as whiteness, considered independently from things having the property.

6. Quango - An organisation or agency that is financed by a government but that acts independently of it. (Qua(si) n(on-)g(overnmental) o(rganisation)).

7. Quark - A. Any of a group of six elementary particles having electric charges of a magnitude one-third or two-thirds that of the electron, regarded as constituents of all hadrons.* B. A soft creamy acid-cured cheese of central Europe made from whole milk.

8. Quena -A recorderlike Andean flute having a notched mouthpiece.

9. Quidnunc - A nosy person; a busybody (Latin What now?).

10. Quondam - That once was; former.

*Word History: "Three quarks for Muster Mark!/Sure he hasn't got much of a bark/And sure any he has it's all beside the mark." This passage from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, part of a scurrilous 13-line poem directed against King Mark, the cuckolded husband in the Tristan legend, has left its mark on modern physics. The poem and the accompanying prose are packed with names of birds and words suggestive of birds, and the poem is a squawk against the king that suggests the cawing of a crow. The word quark comes from the standard English verb quark, meaning "to caw, croak," and also from the dialectal verb quawk, meaning "to caw, screech like a bird."

It is easy to see why Joyce chose the word, but why should it have become the name for a group of hypothetical subatomic particles proposed as the fundamental units of matter? Murray Gell-Mann, the physicist who proposed this name for these particles, said in a private letter of June 27, 1978, to the editor of the OED that he had been influenced by Joyce's words: "The allusion to three quarks seemed perfect" (originally there were only three subatomic quarks). Gell-Mann, however, wanted to pronounce the word with (ô) not (ä), as Joyce seemed to indicate by rhyming words in the vicinity such as Mark. Gell-Mann got around that "by supposing that one ingredient of the line 'Three quarks for Muster Mark' was a cry of 'Three quarts for Mister . . . ' heard in H.C. Earwicker's pub," a plausible suggestion given the complex punning in Joyce's novel. It seems appropriate that this perplexing and humorous novel should have supplied the term for particles that come in six "flavours" and three "colours."

Short Poem 25

Man Ray, Public domain USA, via Wikimedia Commons

Dr William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
was an American poet. Red Wheel barrow is his most anthologised. Both poems are examples of imagism. More on WCW here.

Red Wheel Barrow by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

This is just to say by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Hymn of the Week 10

Jonathan Martz, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons

We sang this hymn from the Strassbourg Psalter of 1545 yesterday. It's a great hymn. It was written in French and translated in the 19th Century by an American lady called Elizabeth Smith (1817-1877). It's a great hymn and is often attributed to Calvin himself. Someone has commented 'One of the primary reasons for not attributing it to Calvin is that the hymn is not found in any of the later psalters. Plus, the basis of the hymn does not come from any Psalm text. But, regardless of the hymn writer, it is a solid hymn that has much to say to today's culture.' The tune is Toulon.

I greet Thee, who my sure Redeemer art,
My only trust and Saviour of my heart,
Who pain didst undergo for my poor sake;
I pray Thee from our hearts all cares to take.

Thou art the King of mercy and of grace,
Reigning omnipotent in every place;
So come, O King, and our whole being sway;
Shine on us with the light of Thy pure day.

Thou art the life, by which alone we live,
And all our substance and our strength receive;
Sustain us by Thy faith and by Thy power,
And give us strength in every trying hour.

Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness,
No harshness hast Thou and no bitterness;
O grant to us the grace we find in Thee,
That we may dwell in perfect unity.

Our hope is in no other save in Thee;
Our faith is built upon Thy promise free;
Lord, give us peace, and make us calm and sure,
That in Thy strength we evermore endure.

Swastika

We had an interesting after church update on work amongst Asians in West London last night from our friends Robin and Muno Asgher. He also spoke a little about Hinduism and mentioned the swastika as one of Hinduism's symbols. Thanks to the Nazi party most people have forgotten the history of this symbol. As a boy I remember that my grandfather had a swastika on his watch fob (he always wore a waistcoat with his watch in a pocket). My instinct was to think it was German war memorabilia but in fact it was the symbol of his regiment in the Great War. That might seem strange but what about this 1921 quote from Robert Baden-Powell?

" ... as you know from the account of the Swastika Thanks Badge which I have given to you in Scouting for Boys, the symbol was used in almost every part of the world in ancient days and therefore has various meanings given to it.
"Anyway, what ever the origin was, the Swastika now stands for the badge of fellowship among Scouts all over the world, and when anyone has done a kindness to a Scout it is their privilege to present him or her with this token of their gratitude, which makes him a sort of member of the Brotherhood, and entitles him to the help of any other Scout at any time and at any place.
"I want specially to remind Scouts to keep their eyes open and never fail to spot anyone wearing this badge. It is their duty then to go up to such a person, make the scout sign, and ask if they can be of service to the wearer."

See this fascinating page here. Also see a good article here.