SpoonfulOfDreams

Christians don't have a monopoly on the view that Christmas has become too commercialised. Nor do they have a monopoly on a yearning for traditional values or the sentiments of joy, goodwill and peace that are central to the Christian, Christmas message. Many of us, lemming like, run headlong over the cliff of common sense to over indulge, overspend and generally mortgage the oncoming January in the pursuit of short lived and sometimes dubious pleasures of the Christmas season. The Queen's Speech invariably turns to the central message of Christ's incarnation just over 2000 years ago but I doubt that message has a major impact on her audience beyond the possible warm glow which may owe some to the imbibing of alcoholic beverages before, during and after dinner. So when Christians wish to put Christ back into Christmas what are they envisioning? I suspect that if Christmas were a largely religious event its appeal would be somewhat limited to the general public. If you want ...

In a previous post I asked, "Who is Jesus?" I'm not sure that I really answered the question, rather that I questioned our answers. Young children disregard those around them as they play or interact with their friends or immediate family. They have no thought about how they appear or relate to strangers. When asked a question they often simply hide, stare or offer an answer that doesn't relate to the question at all. They first must establish a context in which the conversation is taking place. If the question doesn't relate to the child then its irrelevant and meaningless and who the person is, is also irrelevant until the child can build a framework in which that person has meaning. One of the greatest challenges for a Christian (or any person of faith) is prayer. Formal prayer is easy because it's very much like sending a letter to Santa. You simply need to know that your god has the position of 'God' then your letter will arrive at the right place...

There is no question that Jesus was born a Jew but did he live as a Jew? Jesus came to fulfil the Law so he had to be the perfect Jew, better than the Pharisees or any Jew before him. The question we then need to ask is, did he dispense with his Jewishness once he had completed his ministry and, in a sense, he did because he broke down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. Paul says, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. The important thing is that He made peace between the two. Crucially, Paul says that the Jews own the legacy and only when they are brought into the fold will the Gentiles have the full measure of the truth. Rediscovering the Jewish Jesus clearly gives us a fuller picture of who the historical Jesus was and what he meant by what he taught. It seems to me that Paul translated the Gospel into 'Christian' beautifully as did the other letter writers but Jesus, in the Gospels, was speaking to Jews as a rabbi, not to Christians as a pastor. Much of Christi...