If you are not sure what this says or means I shall explain a little… it is an essential song for those who originate in the county of Yorkshire. This is in fact our national anthem in preparation for the day when we can be independent from the rest of England. I shall translate at a future date….

Wheear ‘as ta bin sin ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
Wheear ‘as ta bin sin ah saw thee?
Wheear ‘as ta bin sin ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
(Repeats)
Tha’s been a cooartin’ Mary Jane
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
Tha’s been a cooartin’ Mary Jane
Tha’s been a cooartin’ Mary Jane
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
(Repeats)
Tha’s bahn t’catch thi death o’cowd
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
Tha’s bahn t’catch thi death o’cowd
Tha’s bahn t’catch thi death o’cowd
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
(Repeats)
Then we shall ha’ to bury thee
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then we shall ha’ to bury thee
Then we shall ha’ to bury thee
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
(Repeats)
Then t’worms’ll come and eat thee oop
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
Then t’worms’ll come and eat thee oop
Then t’worms’ll come and eat thee oop
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
(Repeats)
Then ducks’ll cum and eat oop t’worms
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
Then ducks’ll cum and eat oop t’worms
Then ducks’ll cum and eat oop t’worms
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
(Repeats)
Then we shall go an’ ate oop ducks
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
Then we shall go an’ ate oop ducks
Then we shall go an’ ate oop ducks
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
(Repeats)
Then we shall all ‘ave etten thee
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
Then we shall all ‘ave etten thee
Then we shall all ‘ave etten thee
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
(Repeats)
That’s wheer we get us o’ahn back
On Ilkla Moor baht’at
That’s wheer we get us o’ahn back
That’s wheer we get us o’ahn back
On Ilkla Moor baht’at

BEHOLD a new and wondrous mystery. My ears resound to the Shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody, but chanting full forth a heavenly hymn. The Angels sing. The Archangels blend their voice in harmony. The Cherubim hymn their joyful praise. The Seraphim exalt His glory. All join to praise this holy feast, beholding the Godhead here on earth, and man in heaven. He Who is above, now for our redemption dwells here below; and he that was lowly is by divine mercy raised.

Bethlehem this day resembles heaven; hearing from the stars the singing of angelic voices; and in place of the sun, enfolds within itself on every side, the Sun of justice. And ask not how: for where God wills, the order of nature yields. For He willed; He had the power; He descended; He redeemed; all things yielded in obedience to God. This day He Who is, is Born; and He Who is, becomes what He was not. For when He was God, He became man; yet not departing from the Godhead that is His. Nor yet by any loss of divinity became He man, nor through increase became He God from man; but being the Word He became flesh, His nature, because of impassibility, remaining unchanged.

And so the kings have come, and they have seen the heavenly King that has come upon the earth, not bringing with Him Angels, nor Archangels, nor Thrones, nor Dominations, nor Powers, nor Principalities, but, treading a new and solitary path, He has come forth from a spotless womb.

Since this heavenly birth cannot be described, neither does His coming amongst us in these days permit of too curious scrutiny. Though I know that a Virgin this day gave birth, and I believe that God was begotten before all time, yet the manner of this generation I have learned to venerate in silence and I accept that this is not to be probed too curiously with wordy speech.

For with God we look not for the order of nature, but rest our faith in the power of Him who works.

What shall I say to you; what shall I tell you? I behold a Mother who has brought forth; I see a Child come to this light by birth. The manner of His conception I cannot comprehend.

Nature here rested, while the Will of God labored. O ineffable grace! The Only Begotten, Who is before all ages, Who cannot be touched or be perceived, Who is simple, without body, has now put on my body, that is visible and liable to corruption. For what reason? That coming amongst us he may teach us, and teaching, lead us by the hand to the things that men cannot see. For since men believe that the eyes are more trustworthy than the ears, they doubt of that which they do not see, and so He has deigned to show Himself in bodily presence, that He may remove all doubt.

Christ, finding the holy body and soul of the Virgin, builds for Himself a living temple, and as He had willed, formed there a man from the Virgin; and, putting Him on, this day came forth; unashamed of the lowliness of our nature.

For it was to Him no lowering to put on what He Himself had made. Let that handiwork be forever glorified, which became the cloak of its own Creator. For as in the first creation of flesh, man could not be made before the clay had come into His hand, so neither could this corruptible body be glorified, until it had first become the garment of its Maker.

What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infants bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness.

For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit, that He may save me.

Come, then, let us observe the Feast. Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the Nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused, and spreads on every side, a heavenly way of life has been in planted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and men now hold speech with angels.

Why is this? Because God is now on earth, and man in heaven; on every side all things commingle. He became Flesh. He did not become God. He was God. Wherefore He became flesh, so that He Whom heaven did not contain, a manger would this day receive. He was placed in a manger, so that He, by whom all things are nourished, may receive an infant’s food from His Virgin Mother. So, the Father of all ages, as an infant at the breast, nestles in the virginal arms, that the Magi may more easily see Him. Since this day the Magi too have come, and made a beginning of withstanding tyranny; and the heavens give glory, as the Lord is revealed by a star.

To Him, then, Who out of confusion has wrought a clear path, to Christ, to the Father, and to the Holy Ghost, we offer all praise, now and for ever. Amen.

Zephaniah 3:14-20; Titus 1:1-16; Luke 1:1-25.
Philip McAlister is the Nazarene Field Coordinator in Northern Europe, he has been a PE Teacher and is a Pastor at Carrick Fergus in N. Ireland.

Anyone for golf?
He had served his denomination with integrity for forty years as a pastor. Every year he concluded his pastor’s report with a joke. Some were better than others. All reflected his philosophy on life and ministry. He stood before his peers and delivered his final report with this joke: an Irishman was walking with his friend. In the distance he saw some men hit a small white ball with a stick. ‘What are they doing?’ he asked. ‘Playing golf’, was the reply. His friend tried to describe the intricacies of the game, an almost impossible task. They decided to follow the golfers. One man hit his tee shot into some trees. ‘He’ll never get it out of there’, the Irishman said. He watched in amazement as the golfer hit his ball out of the trees, and he followed it as it ran into a deep bunker. ‘He’ll never get it out of there’, repeated the Irishman. Again, in utter disbelief, the Irishman watched the golfer play a chip shot onto the green and he watched as the ball rolled into the hole. The Irishman shouted. ‘Well there’s one thing for sure, he’ll never hit it out of there!’

It was not one of his better jokes. His captive audience laughed in the right place to humour the old preacher. Then he made his application of the story. ‘There have been days in my ministry when I have been in the trees and I thought, “I’ll never get out of here”. Other days I was bunkered and again I thought, “I’ll never get out.” Today I play my final hole. My ball goes into the 18th hole but my ministry is not over. Today I will take my ball out of the hole and will place it on to the first tee and will watch a young man drive it straight down the centre of the fairway. If he will let me, I want to be his caddy.’

For the remaining four years of his life he walked with that young pastor. He assisted him in getting out of some tight situations and advised him on how to avoid some awkward traps. The young man did not always hit the ball down the centre of the fairway, but he always had his caddy to help him in the rough.

Paul saw something worthwhile in a young man called Titus. He referred to him as ‘My true son in our common faith’ (Titus 1:4), and he poured his life into him. He helped Titus to be a good worker for Jesus Christ. Who are you helping to become a better player in the kingdom?

–
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars…. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
Martin Luther King Jnr.

Rethinking the Tradition

Originally published in For All the Saints? Remembering the Christian Departed. 2003 London: SPCK; Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse.

Resurrection still future

I begin at the end. The bodily resurrection is still in the future for everyone except Jesus. Paul is quite clear in 1 Corinthians 15.23: Christ is raised as the first-fruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ will be raised as he has been raised. The ‘coming’ of which Paul speaks has not yet happened; therefore, clearly, the dead in Christ have not yet been raised. This is actually the official view of all mainstream orthodox theologians, Catholic and Protestant, except for those who think that after death we pass at once into an eternity in which all moments are present — a quite popular view but one which contains many serious difficulties. I do not know whether Paul knew about the strange risings from the dead reported in Matthew 27.52-3, but had he done so he would certainly have seen them as peculiar signs and foretastes, not people actually being transformed into the likeness of Christ as he predicts in passages like Philippians 3.20-21 and 1 Corinthians 15 itself.

We should remember especially that the use of the word ‘heaven’ to denote the ultimate goal of the [21] redeemed, though hugely emphasized by medieval piety, mystery plays, and the like, and still almost universal at a popular level, is severely misleading and does not begin to do justice to the Christian hope. I am repeatedly frustrated by how hard it is to get this point through the thick wall of traditional thought and language that most Christians put up. ‘Going to heaven when you die’ is not held out in the New Testament as the main goal. The main goal is to be bodily raised into the transformed, glorious likeness of Jesus Christ. If we want to speak of ‘going to heaven when we die’, we should be clear that this represents the first, and far less important, stage of a two-stage process. That is why it is also appropriate to use the ancient word ‘paradise’ to describe the same thing. I have written about this in more detail in the book referred to in the Introduction.

The rest of this excellent article can be found here

Genesis 3:8-15; Revelation 12:1-10; John 3:16-21
David Rainey was my Theology lecturer, and I enjoyed every single lecture he gave over my 4 years at NTC. He has been a Pastor and Prison Chaplain in his time, so we have something in common. He likes to give a range of answers to a question instead on just one, he wants you to think and develop your theology. He originally comes from Canada, and he uses anecdotes about Ice Hockey which are generally entertaining but quite puzzling to many Brits with no clue about the sport!

He came to heal us from the fall.

Following the Sunday morning service which I had led, a visitor approached me. Why, he asked, had we repeated the statement, ‘Lord have mercy’, so often in the worship service? The person had never encountered this type of worship. The actual statement in the service was, ‘Lord, have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord, have mercy’. What seemed obvious to me appeared unusual and, perhaps, unnecessary to him.

In the Scriptures for today we begin to understand the meaning of asking Christ to give us his mercy and love. The Genesis reading is the follow-up to the story of the temptation in which Adam and Eve fell from the mercy and grace of God. It was the fellowship with God that preserved their lives in the Garden. But now everything had changed. Now, instead of independently standing up to God, they hid themselves from God’s presence. Along with the hiding came the blaming; each blamed someone else. The narrative reveals the seriousness of the problem; the lesson is clear. Sin has a devastating effect on our lives. Life now enters into a prolonged death experience and there is no way out!

But the story does not end in hiding, blaming, and, ultimately, in despair. The story moves to reveal another, continuous event, ‘God so loved the world’. The problem of the serious devastation of sin has not been left to our floundering, feeble efforts. From the beginning God loved creation and humanity. Even if humanity had severely ‘messed up’, God offers a deeper sense of hope and confidence. God not only loved the world, God sent his only Son.

The anticipation of the Advent Season is one of hope and celebration. The Son has entered into our human condition to restore and heal our broken lives. To paraphrase the idea offered by the second century theologian, I=ranaeus, he went through every stage of our development in order to heal us at every stage of our development.

So we can say, ‘Lord, have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord, have mercy’. In his mercy and love he entered into our lives to restore and heal us from the devastation of the Fall.

Zechariah 8:9-17; Revelation 6:1-17; Matthew 25:31-46

Today, we have James Paton. Associate Lead Pastor at Foothills Alliance Church, Calgary, Canada.

Seeing Jesus in the eyes of others.
We’d rather not think about final judgement and grim predictions about the fate of others. It doesn’t sit well with our notions of a loving God, certainly not at Christmas.

We can easily figure out who Jesus is referring to when he mentions sheep and goats. Some people choose to extend kindness while some get caught up in their own agendas. We see it every day. Sometimes, we’re even guilty of it. But, given harsh imagery surrounding this rather homely reminder of kindness, is there more going on here? I tend to think there is, and uncovering it is almost like peeling an union – there are layers of meaning.

We begin by seeing Jesus in others. It seems fairly obvious that as Christ followers we have an obligation to those in need. After all, that’s what Jesus did. Yet, it’s not just caring that matters to Jesus – it’s the reason why. It is easy for us to see the other person as an embodied need; to pity them, rather than to come alongside them. When we adopt a stance of superiority we can easily make the other feel inferior. That’s not the way of Jesus.

While Jesus could be referring to the biological siblings, he really has something else in mind. In Matthew 12:50 he said, ‘Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’. In other words, how we take care of other Christ followers matters. It’s about seeing Jesus in our family – our church family.

There is another layer to peel off here – to recognise the weak and broken person within all of us – to see Jesus in myself and my needs and frailties. It is easier to see that in another person than to see it in myself. Can we learn to discover more of Jesus in those moments when we feel weakest?

Hebrews 12:2 reminds us, ‘Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith’. Do you see Jesus when you look into the eyes of those who need you? And do they see when they glance back at you?

Zechariah 7:8-8:8; Rev 5:6-14; Matthew 25:14-30

Practising what we are professing.

James Petticrew is a Minister in the Church of the Nazarene, and we have quite a lot in common. He is an ex-Policeman like myself, and he is involved in ‘Mosaic’, a cafe church in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is also the Mission Officer for the Scottish Episcopal Church. We tend to have plenty of banter  as he is very much in favour of Scottish independance and I am half Scottish[(the bigger half of me ]. He is very committed to new expressions of church that is Christ centred, holiness and compassion. He is a big fan of Italian road bikes,Scottish Rugby and all things Scottish.

Practising what we are professing.

One of America’s greatest athletes, Marion Jones, said in her 2004 autobiography, ‘I have never taken drugs and I never will take them’. In 2007 she was exposed in court as a drug cheat. There is something deeply disappointing about people who don’t practice what they profess.

I now mix with more ‘unchurched’ people than ‘churched’. Their main objection to Christianity is that we are like Marion Jones; we don’t practice what we profess. That’s a gross generalisation and not the whole story, but we must admit that it is part of the story. Maybe, it’s always been so. God complains through Zechariah (Zech 8:9-11) that his people were not practising what they were professing. The people of Israel weren’t living out what they said they believed about Yahweh.

Jesus’ main point in this parable in Matthew 25 seems to be that those who join his revolution can’t be passive. His disciples have a responsibility to put their faith into action and grasp the opportunities that confront them. Both passages remind us that authentic faith in the God we encounter in Scripture is never just about intellectual belief; it always expresses itself in concrete ways through our behaviour.

I know of no clearer reminder of this than the ‘Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne’ who confronts us in Revelation 5. Jesus is presented as the messianic king because he had been faithful to his calling as the Lamb of God. What Jesus professed, he practised. He believed he was the Suffering Servant and embraced the way of the cross it entailed. In Advent we remember we are waiting for Christ to return but these passages remind us that we are not to wait passively but actively by putting into practice what we profess. Today let’s look for those given God-given opportunities to express our belief in concrete ways through our behaviour. Let’s follow the example of Jesus Christ rather than Marion Jones. Revelation’s lesson for us is that Christ’s way results in a glory that will never tarnish.

Thur Dec 17

Zech 4:1-14 Rev 4:9-5:5 Matt 25:1-13

Trevor Hutton is a very enthusiastic person, especially when it comes to evangelism. He specialises in Church Planting as an academic subject at NTC and plays the piano badly – especially Beatles songs!!

Not despising the day of small things.

God has a way of taking the seemingly insignificant and making it into something momentous. Throughout the Bible we see countless examples of insignificant people, objects and places that become significant to the story of God. Isn’t it the elderly Abraham and Sarah that produce the heir through whom all nations will be blessed? Isn’t it the unlikely shepherd crook of Moses that becomes the ’staff of God’ through which God performs His miracles to lead His people to freedom? Isn’t it in the Judean wilderness that the voice heralding God’s imminent arrival is heard?

In Zechariah 4, we encounter Zerubbabel, a man charged to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. The first temple was built in glory, celebrated with fanfare and was forever associated with the great kings, David and Solomon. But now returning exile in Babylon, with no royalty, no flourishing nation, no fanfare, and no grand opening, the task of rebuilding the temple is left to a Persian appointee. The occasion was deemed inconsequential and peripheral. What should have been a momentous day of ‘great things’ was in fact deemed a day of ’small things’… but not to God. ‘Who despises the day of small things? People will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel’ (Zech 4:10). In the story of God the second temple became a crucial centre of worship, work and witness and features prominantly in the pivotal purposes of God despite its humble and small origins.

Centuries later, born under Roman occupation, in an obscure inn, placed in a cattle trough by his teenage parents is Jesus Christ, seemingly insignificant of all. God has a way of breaking into human history in unlikely ways, at unlikely times through unlikely people. And so let us learn not to despise the day of small things… small acts of random kindness, small faithful ministries and churches, small gifts of time and generosity, for in God’s ongoing story the small may yet be revealed as the most significant of all.

Wed Dec 16

Zech 3:1-10 Rev 4:1-8 Matt 24:45-51

Just to show that the world does not revolve around the Nazarene Theological College in Manchester, today’s thoughts are from a person by the name of Ayo Adewuya who is the Professor of New Testament at the Pentacostal Theological Seminary in Cleveland, USA.

Worship and praise of the Holy God.

In the fourth vision of Zechariah, Satan lobs an accusation against the high priest Joshua, probably to symbolise the uncleanness of the priesthood and the people of whom Joshua was representative. God has saved his people from captivity but the restored nation had to be cleansed if it were to be established. God’s people are to walk in his ways and keep his commands (Zech 3:7). These are unchanging conditions for our acceptance and for God’s continued blessing upon our ministries. Joshua, the leader of the community, is a type of the Messiah whose first coming we celebrate at Christmas. Zechariah’s vision ends with a peek at the coming Messianic age when Christ returns to establish a kingdom that is characterized by peace, justice and security.

John saw a little more than Zechariah did. He is ushered into heaven ‘in the Spirit’ where he saw the events that would take place when Christ returns. The twenty-four elders, who, probably, are representatives of the redeemed of the Old Testament and New Testament, join together in the worship of the God of glory. Together with the four living creatures, they offer continual praise to God. They do not cease night and day from singing the praise of God (Rev 4:8). Their song begins with the threefold, ‘holy, holy, holy’ (Isa 6:2,3), thus signifying that the holiness of God must be central in acts of worship and praise. God is holy in all aspects – in his majesty and moral excellence.

Given such a great privilege awaiting us, how then should we live? Christ’s return demands faithfulness by his followers. The call to faithfulness is accenuated in Matthew’s parable of the faithful servant. Hence he warns us to be faithful and wise, not to grow lax or presumptious as we wait in the event that he does not come when we expect him to (Mt 24:48). We must be ready, not in terms of sitting and quietly waiting, or indulging in selfish exploitation, but being involved in the service of others. We must also remember that God will be the determining judge of our actions (v 51).

Tue Dec 15

Zech 2:1-13 Rev 3:14-22 Matt 24:32-44

Alison Yarwood is the Registrar at NTC, and very committed to social justice and the how the Gospel speaks into those situations historically and of course in todays age.

It’s about how we live here and now.

As a young Christian I was scared by the ‘Left Behind’ stories that were being promoted at the time. These were based largely on the verses from Matthew 24 about there being two people in the field and one would be taken and one left behind. What I had failed to grasp from these verses was the much deeper and richer lesson that Jesus was trying to give: that what is important is what we are doing with our lives and how we are living here and now. At Advent we reflect with joy and hope on the great truths that Christ will come, Christ comes and Christ came. We live the ‘in-between times’; the time between Christ’s first and second comings. No one knows when that day will come – not even Christ – but how we live now is hugely important. What are we doing to reflect kingdom values in our lives and in the life of the Church?

A favourite image of mine as a young Christian was the picture of Christ from Revelation 3, knocking on the door of our heart to gain entry. But again is there not a deeper theme here? The Laodiceans are accused of being ‘lukewarm’. They think they are doing fine but in reality they are anything but fine. Christ requires faithful living; those who are fully committed to him. He disciplines those he loves because he desires us, his people, to lead holy lives. The discipline comes in the context of Christ coming to have fellowship with us, to eat with us. One day when Christ does come again that fellowship with him will be complete. We will have a Christ and in a wonderful sense the prophecy that Zechariah gave to the returning exiles to Jerusalem will be fully realised: ‘Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord’ (2:10).

This Advent time, as we think about Christ’s return in glory, may that hope spur us on to live faithful, disciplined lives until he comes.