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NOTES
FROM
AN ORDINAND
- AUGUST
2008
I can't quite believe that I have just finished the second year of my training for ordination
and that I now have a few weeks free of directed study and assignment deadlines. I'm looking forward
to relaxing and not spending quite so much time in front of computer screens. One of the tasks
we have to do at the end of each term is to complete an evaluation form covering not only what
we have been taught and have learnt but also to reflect upon what has challenged or affirmed our
faith during the course of our studies. I've just spent a term looking at Church History and learning
a lot more about the various strands of the Anglican faith - the Anglo-Catholics, the Evangelicals,
the Non-Conformists and even Dissenters. I've been thinking about what is a Christian and why
there are any differences in what and how we believe about God.
That leads me very neatly onto a book that I want to read properly this holiday. It was a book
that had caught my eye some months ago and one that I had put aside for more careful rereading
when I had time. It is called Simply Christian by Tom Wright the current Bishop of Durham. [ISBN
978-0-281-05481-7]. It is written in an easily readable style and is in no way a learned or
"scholarly" book - just about right for my tired old brain cells!
It is a simple but clever format that starts from exploring four areas in the modern world where
we all feel that things are not quite right. These are
- Our longing for justice (think Sudan and Zimbabwe)
- Our quest for spirituality (think of all the various non
Christian organisations)
- Our hunger for relationships (think of single parents,
broken homes, lonely people)
- Our delight in beauty (just look around our own village,
the common and our gardens)
and Bishop Tom uses these to pose the questions that remain unanswered for a lot of people.
A second section lays out the central Christian beliefs about God. As Christians, we believe that
God, revealed in action in Jesus, called the Jewish people to be his agents in setting forth his
plan to restore and reshape his creation. The section is linked back to the first as the reader
is led to reflect on the Creator God who longs to put his world to rights; on the human being
called Jesus who announced God's kingdom, died on a cross and rose again; and on a Spirit, who
blows like a powerful wind through the world and through human lives.
The third and final section describes what it is like in practice to follow this Jesus, to be
energised by this Spirit and above all to advance the plan of this Creator God. By drawing our
attention to worship, prayer and Scripture the reader is encouraged to think about "the church"
as the company of all who believe in the God we see in Jesus and who are struggling to follow
him.
It's a good book, in fact it's better than that. It invites you to look at what the church is
there for and argues that the nature of Christian hope is that it plays back into the present
life. With this understanding of Christian hope, the reader is taken on a journey looking at new
ways of approaching various topics, not least prayer and Christian behaviour. The reader has now
been taken full circle and these are identified as the key elements of the Christian calling to
work for his kingdom within this world as we follow Jesus and are energised by the Holy Spirit
to advance God's plan for our world.
This is an exciting book. The questions posed in the first section are becoming more and more
important in this world today. As Christians it is our joy to study the Bible - our sacred text,
Scripture, God's word. The more we know about Jesus, the more we discover God's passion to put
the world to rights and that realisation takes us back to prayer, worship and Christian behaviour.
It is a book I am reading with great interest not least because I continue as a committed Christian
to be intrigued by the claims about the place of justice, beauty and love in our daily lives.
It's not only about the bigger picture; it is also about the smaller picture and how and where
we can have influence and make a difference. I commend it to you as good holiday reading. Enjoy
your summer too!
Peter Muir
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