James's Weblog

This follows on from my previous post: The Gerasene Demoniac: Prior Context.

The story of the Gerasene demoniac is followed by the integrated accounts of the raising of Jairus's daughter to life, and the healing and cleansing of the woman with a long-standing haemorrhage. These two accounts appear to be unrelated to each other, although the fact that Mark has interwoven them tells us that he sees a connection. Mark always weaves stories together for a reason.

So what is the story of the Gerasene Demoniac (Mark 5:1-20) doing in Mark's gospel?

The key, I believe, is the context.

I'm not sure how it's passed me by in the two year's it's been in existence, but I've just discovered Christian Concern for our Nation.

In the words of their About Us page:

Christian Concern for our Nation (CCFON) is an organisation that exists to serve the Church by providing information to enable Christians to stand up publicly against a tide of unchristian legal and political changes in the United Kingdom. It brings together focused legal, policy and media expertise and strategic intervention in order to secure favourable legal and political outcomes in areas of concern. In addition, the organisation acts as a rallying point for those concerned with these issues and a place where individual members of the public and organisations will be able to seek assistance and advice.

I'm sure all this is old hat to most regular readers of this blog, but I thought I'd pass it on just in case anybody else has missed them.

Mark 4:10-12 falls between the telling of the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-9) and its explanation (Mark 4:13-20).

In these verses, Jesus explains why he used parables to teach. Parables act as a filter, because the amount gleaned varies according to whether the hearer wishes to put the teaching into practice or not. Merely listened to with disinterest, they will remain at arms length; however, the person who wishes to live out what Jesus teaches will understand them enough to do so.

The parable of the sower, whilst cautioning that the responses to the word will vary, is overall designed to encourage us to expect a good response.

I've noted before that the word for "seed" in Mark 4 is singular in verses 4, 5 and 7, but plural in verse 8. This is all the more striking when you consider that "seed" is a collective noun in Greek as much as in English, "seeds" is bad grammar. Seed may fall on the path. Seed may wither in shallow soil. Seed may be choked by weeds. But seeds will flourish.

Anyone wanting to learn how Anglican Chant works as a musical style for the Psalms could look at a couple of introductory webpages.

There is a helpful one on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A15716595.

There is a helpful one on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglican_chant, where I particularly like the example given - with a colour-coded musical stave that can be matched up to the text of part of the Magnificat printed in the same colours. Nice.

Steve's Jeffery charts a helpful course through the most common objections to preterism.

So, if you don't know what preterism is, or if you're unsure as to whether there's something inherently dodgy in that view known as preterism, or if you have friends who are in one of those boats, I would recommend reading his post.

G'day everyone!

Many readers of this blog will already be familiar with the Aussie Christian children's entertainer / singer / song-writer Colin Buchanan. We possess 4 of his CDs in this house, and enjoy them regularly.

Well, Colin's heading over to Blighty to go on tour, so there is a rare opportunity to take the children in your family / church to go and hear him live. (And if you are an adult who wants to go, but doesn't have any children in your church or family, you must know someone to go with, surely - if not, I'd go anyway!)

David Jackman is spot on in his analysis of 1 John 4:13-21. In his commentary in The Bible Speaks Today series, the penultimate paragraph discusses the notion that we can love God, and yet not love our Christian brothers and sisters. He says this:

Is this not one of our greatest sins as Christians today? We may talk a lot about loving God, we may express it in our worship with great emotion, but what does it mean when we are so critical of other Christians, so ready to jump to negative conclusions about people, so slow to bear their burdens, so unwilling to step into their shoes? Such lovelessness totally contradicts what we profess and flagrantly disobeys God's commands. It becomes a major stumbling-block to those who are seeking Christ and renders any attempts at evangelism useless. In many churches and fellowships we need a fresh repentance on this matter, a new humbling before God, an honest confession of our need and a cry to God for mercy and grace to change us. (Pages 131-132)

They are not uncommon metaphors in the Psalms, but one after the other they offer a wonderful barrage of imagery portraying the security, shelter, help and support that God's people can find in their God. This was the shelter that Jesus availed himself of, first and foremost, and by extension is available to all who are in Christ.

• Rock
• Refuge
• Tower
• Tent
• Wings

Psalm 61:2-4:…
2. From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,
3. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
4. Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah

Actually, I think all of those images are Exodus metaphors. I'm not sure about refuge, but the others are certainly images that God used of his protective relationship with his people in the wilderness. So these are not abstract, but concrete pictures, and they are pictures that are rooted in salvation history.

Anyway: Read. Chew on. Enjoy. … Oh - and take refuge!