Thursday 27 July 2006

Unknown categories

Piper on Rom 12.2 and Athanasius [warning: mp3 file]
We must not preach only in the categories that are present in our listeners' minds when they come. If we do, we betray the gospel, and conceal the glory of God.
Hmm...

7 comments:

Ant said...

That's a great quote. THanks. And like the new look blog. Spooked me slightly - you get used to knowing what will pop up when you click. Good to hear you're going to be back doing some good stuff in the Midlands again!

étrangère said...

Thanks Ant, I got bored of the green so played around with the html for an hour or so! I want a banner though, which I haven't worked (/played) out how to do yet - or thought out what I'd put.

The Athanasius talk is well worth listening to if you have a spare hour sometime (sorry, does that cue holy laughter?) He really gets stuck in when it comes to drawing out lessons for today: that quote was just one of his points.

It will be nice to be back in the Mids again! Talking of the Midlands, I'm glad that Andy's going to be apprentice-ing with you... As he's one sterling WarwickCUite I'm tempted to say see you treat him well or I'll be comin up from Brum offering some North Belfast knee cappin's, but a) I'm sure the gospel's a better motivation than knee-cappin's and b) I'd never take on Big Mike.

Anonymous said...

Haven't you been chided enough for this nonsense about knee-capping and what not?

The meaning of "categories" can be quite varied. I'm not sure I know what he means without the context of the quote. I'm not sure I want to give an hour to listen to this. Is is *really* worth it?

étrangère said...

Troy, good to hear from you again. And well, you might take the Belfast girl out of Belfast, but you can never take the Belfast out o the girl. It's the Norn Irish sense o humour, strange as it may be. We joke not so much about the serious and violent things themselves as about everyone's perceptions of us - I would never jokingly threaten a knee-cappin' within Norn Iron: it's for the benefit of the English who sometimes give impression that they're scared all Norn Irish are about to produce a petrol bomb from under their jacket and come from a background of dodging bullets en route to school. This perception amuses us, as bad as the violence was/is. And I fully acknowledge the gospel to be the only serious motivation that I actually use.

It is worth listening to. However if you don't want to listen for an hour, there is the script you can read - the quote is from point 6 in the second half (applications). It's worth reading it all though :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the link. I'm glad to see that I can actually understand it. :) I agree that we must not be ensnared by the classifications our mind derives from our environs. (How's that for total failure to pontificate profoundly?)

Thank you for the welcome. I do occasionally get the opportunity to read all the back postings I've missed during the semester. At such busy times, I barely have time to reply to all the "are you dead?" e-mail. I would have more time to write about important things if people would stop inquiring as to my vital signs. Thankfully, I have only 272 days (or fewer) until school is a memory. Mais qui compte?

As an American with an (Americanized) Irish last name, I can't relate a bit to joking about threating violence. We threaten lawsuits. As it were, I'm rather pleased to know the difference betwixt (The United Kingdom of Great Britain and) Nor(ther)n Ireland and Ireland proper. :)

étrangère said...

Haha, congratulations on being an American who knows what's what with UK, GB, NI & Ireland! Impressive indeed.

Unknown said...

if u want a hand with the banner i'm happy to try something.