Month: December 2005

How Can We Sing?

The Revd Saundra L Washington blogs on the above topic here, arguing that American Christians are now in an ‘exile’ experience, much as I have in sermons. She contends the Christian church has always had to sing the song of an exile. Perhaps it would be better to say that largely that is what we should have done, but much of Christianity is still hiding behind the Christendom model, treating it like the emperor’s new clothes, fearful of what reality is when her nakedness behind such a hopeless disguise is exposed.
 
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A Scholar’s Assessment Of ‘The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe’

New Testament scholar Ben Witherington has a penetrating reflection on the Narnia film here. Note his spotting of biblical allusions, especially from John’s Gospel, and this final paragraph:

A long time ago a newspaper man was fired from the Asheville N.C. newspaper for doodling– drawning little pictures of mice and ducks and dogs. This man was Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a man with a remarkable imagination, like C.S. Lewis, and he put it to good use. There was something redemptive about even his most frivolous cartoons. Let us hope the post-Walt Disney will learn something from the response to this film and make more like it, stories that do have “some redeeming value”. If so, it will be a return to form and Walt would be thrilled. In this post-modern age the rebirth of imagination is what we should expect and what the most Creative One of all would want.

 
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A Scholar’s Assessment Of ‘The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe’

New Testament scholar Ben Witherington has a penetrating reflection on the Narnia film here. Note his spotting of biblical allusions, especially from John’s Gospel, and this final paragraph:

A long time ago a newspaper man was fired from the Asheville N.C. newspaper for doodling– drawning little pictures of mice and ducks and dogs. This man was Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a man with a remarkable imagination, like C.S. Lewis, and he put it to good use. There was something redemptive about even his most frivolous cartoons. Let us hope the post-Walt Disney will learn something from the response to this film and make more like it, stories that do have “some redeeming value”. If so, it will be a return to form and Walt would be thrilled. In this post-modern age the rebirth of imagination is what we should expect and what the most Creative One of all would want.

 
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Taking The Clocks Out

If you ran a bank and the customer queues engendered complaints, what would you do? Deploy more staff so customers waited shorter times? Not if you’re my bank, NatWest, you wouldn’t. You’d remove the clocks. Spokesman Ronan Kelleher said with classic ‘spin’ (or more likely, doublespeak) that customers didn’t think clocks would ‘enhance their banking experience’. Well, all suggestions here for schemes that would – ahem – enhance our banking experience.
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The Father Christmas Costume

My first visit to the Parent and Toddler group was its Christmas party yesterday. Arriving a few minues after it had begun, my Anglican colleague Jane was relieved to see me. “Good, you can be Father Christmas rather than me,” she said. And so I took on a rôle I have never performed before, yet another part of the minister’s duty that theological college never prepares you for.
 
The trousers were made for someone with the girth of Bernard Manning, not me. But I pulled them up and then tightened the elastic string that substituted for a belt. I had put the trousers on the wrong way round, but I was blowed if I was going to take them off and mess around again. I put on the jacket, which had not buttons, nor any Velcro to fix it. I then juggled the combined hat and beard, and put my glasses back on, which began to steam up.
 
I awaited my call and went into the hall dutifully telling all the children they had been good. I don’t have the deep voice to do the ‘Ho, ho, ho’ routine too convincingly, but it all seemed to go well enough, and I made my cheery exit.
 
It was then that Jane told me that as I left the trousers had fallen around my ankles. I hasten to add I was fully clothed beneath the costume: otherwise perhaps I would have been alerted to the calamity earlier.
 
I think you have two choices with this story: either you can use it as an illustration of some profound thought (perhaps about the way we cover up our real selves).
 
Or you can just laugh.
 
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