Wedding prep

The royal wedding was beautiful. It brought an unexpected tear to my eye as I was reminded of the greater future wedding of the once and future King, when every eye will see him. (Broadcast entirely funded by the Father, freeview.) 

The guest list is set, though we're still waiting for everyone to arrive - coming from far more countries than the Commonwealth. It's all been catered for. The choir's booked, the anthem written, and the processional fanfare has some marvellous words. People have been lining the streets waiting for a long time. It's no secret what we'll be wearing - it's been provided by the Father of the groom!

I was so disappointed that the sermon at William and Catherine's wedding contained so much truth, but didn't point to Christ. It began well: 'You have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God, who so loved the world, that he gave himself to us in his Son.' But the general sentiment of the address seemed to be that with God's help we all evolve spiritually into the creation of the better world to which we look forward. The speaker missed why we need a self-giving God - not just as an example for marriage, but that we can't bring about a better world with just a bit of divine help. That's why Jesus died, rose and is coming again.

Hint: you know there's something skewed about a wedding address if Jesus' redemption of his bride, 

and return to consummate his new creation, is lacking. (Actually, you know there's a lot wrong with any Christian sermon if Jesus and his finished redeeming work is conspicuously absent.) 

We had the good of marriage upheld, but none of the beauty of Christ, and there's something very wrong about that. 

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. [Eph.5.25-33]

For the good of the married couple; for the blessing of every one of the x million listeners, viewers and those attending; they should have been told that it's not ultimately about them. 

• That although this day is for celebrating their union, it points to the union of Christ and his bride. 
• That although Prince William is, we trust, a future king, he is eclipsed in every way by the King of kings, Jesus. 
• That while Catherine was beautifully radiant in her dress, the betrothed of Christ is going to be spotless and peerless. 
• They have vowed to be united, 'Until death us do part,' yet there is a greater promise, which defeated death. 
• While they are caught up into each other's presence, the royal family, and the palace, there is a better presence, a greater family, and a palace beyond all imagining. 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” [Rev.21.1-4]

The crowds lining the roads merely to cheer, indicated how much we want to participate in such a glorious event. Far more can we look forward to participating gloriously in the Wedding of all history. Just make sure you don't ignore, forget or slight the invitation - or think you can get in on your own merits.

With words of Luther: 

Christ, that rich and pious husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious harlot, redeeming her from all her evils and supplying her with all his good things. It is impossible now that her sins should destroy her, since they have been laid upon Christ and swallowed up in him, and since she has in her husband Christ a righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and hell, saying, "If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned; all mine is his, and all his is mine," as it is written, "My beloved is mine, and I am his" (Cant. ii. 16).

'Please do not join our church'

'Please do not smile at strangers' - a sign posted by artists in the same style as the standard instructional signage on the subway - from the original blog. [HT: 22 Words]

So with points mostly from theResurgence.com, this is my whimsical take [not official from my church, of course] -

(If, however, you are re-born into the church, need to 'come home' to church, were born to someone in the church, or move to join our mission in Bournville with the blessing of your current church, then, welcome!)

[HT: Sammy Davies]

Quote of the day: Sad becoming untrue

'Is everything sad going to become untrue?' - Sam Gamgee to Gandalf, Lord of the Rings (Tolkein). Justin Taylor gives just a few lines to ponder, over Between Two Worlds. [Worth reading & pondering.]

Which also goes some way to explain why I can never conjure up despondent sadness for Good Friday, because that first Easter Sunday not only was the great gong sounding the candance of God's plan; it actually made Friday good.

Dan Blanche summarised it this Easter, too:

To treat Easter as a myth is to see the passage from Good Friday to Easter Sunday as a sort of re-enactment. In my case, it meant trying to find the right emotional response for each day: remorse passing into grief passing into joy. I suppose acting as if my participation made it real.

Easter is history. It happened once and for all. So, this weekend I will be remembering and celebrating, not re-enacting. 

We always remember the cross from this side of the resurrection. Of course that doesn't stop us engaging with different emotions as we remember different events, but it all happens within the bracket of 'Christ is risen', and therefore is not really mourning...

As better messengers said, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, when he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.'

After all, even the act of remembrance which Jesus instituted, was a forward-looking one: we proclaim his death until he comes again.

Anticipation

If we knew no frustration,

tied to decay in farce of autonomy

a universal word of condemnation

apple falling, stars collapsing

in on themselves

more than Newton knew

heart retracting, stony, cold

on downward course whose light is but the spark of friction;

If tongues joined in with burning orbs in chorus:

but our base noise has toned us deaf to tune,

we hide our eyes beneath blanket orange glow

shaded by our own reflection

and blind, pass buck to Orion's piercing beams.

So aberration, blot in soundscape

Man, of all things made like Word

stand vertically

silent;

If we stuck no fingers

in our ears, at Death

- children, pretending

that what they hide their eyes from, isn't there,

if could un-man ourselves, mere brutes

kill Psyche

in a fit of suicide

- homo sapiens (self-adjudged) - thus sine science

deny our soul's here now

that god may die hereafter: with effect;

Then it were no news

that God died there and then

that homo ruined edifice dei, might live again.

Then no good that stone forced back

spilt tuning power to stone in ground and sky and heart to sing.

Then no good news that first fruit risen

ascended, radiant breathing new dynamic

before whom all must fall.

Lest you burn, hide in the Sun.

- RG

Le lever du soleil

Francis Méan © 2006

Spring in Glass Houses

Extracts from 'An Easter Essay: On spring-cleaning, the breaking dawn and why terrorising chocolate bunnies is justifiable.' (I wish I'd written this essay, but am glad someone else did!)

'Whilst they have been off fighting Christmas, Easter's been left to lope into obscurity. Christians are outraged at the inconsistent noise of Christmas but silent at the absence of Easter. Is it just not important enough? Is the death and resurrection of Jesus really just an average affair? ... Easter is a mediocre affair and nobody protests.'

'This Easter God is defined not by absence, irrelevance or obscurity but by presence. In humanity, He stretched out his arms of love, dying for us on an execution tree.'

'It is time for this Easter to be brought out of exile and given a spring clean. We rebel against its fading significance and terrorise the chocolate bunnies that hide it. We simply announce that Easter is utterly relevant. And with unrelenting optimism celebrate that right in our midst Jesus is Lord!'

[From Spring in Glass Houses]

The Man born to be King

Dorothy Sayers' radio plays on the life of Christ, are currently being played on BBC radio 4 extra - an interpretation of the Scriptural gospels, a creative account. I don't really know why it was so controversial when first broadcast; I'm delighted to hear something so strongly based on the Biblical narrative. 

Herod: 'You cannot rule men by love. When you find your King, tell him so. Only three things will govern a people: fear, and greed, and the promise of security. ... Wherever I love, I find treachery. Love is a traitor, it betrays all kings. It will betray your Christ.'

The first episode is available until Tuesday 26th April: Kings in Judea.

What's in a name?

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?

I think our mind association is stronger than that. 'Rose' evokes so many things that we have no only a scent but an atmosphere, feelings, people, the breeze through the hills of the last rose garden visited, the anticipation of a roast dinner as we sit with friends in a garden after church.

I've been thinking of words and names, and how they not only communicate concepts, but at best, evoke whole pictures, feelings and associations.