Ecclesiastes 11/12
Final section of Ecclesiastes
1. Latin of the Greek phrase Qoheleth - gatherer, teacher, preacher;
2. Genre - that of wisdom
3. Post exile - Persian period/date 450-300 BC/last book of OT Canon
4. Language is late/not elegant/contains many Aramaic words
5. Author - possibly Solomon - but highly unlikely- teacher/wisdom/
6.Context radically different/ from Orthodox Jewish teaching
Overview of the teaching:
dismal outlook
vanity/emptiness/worthlessness 0f life
Persian influence - money/possessions lead to false security
Main Thrust
on our own we are useless: scholar A Philips
Life is capricious - best bet is to be on good terms with God
God is supreme
Intense belief in God of the writer
A book for the 21st century
Monday 26 October 2009
25th October Unity: St Mary Abbots
I am going to talk a little bit tonight about the news story we raised at Wednesday's breakfast re the Vatican overture.
My headings for tonight include insights of three recent ABC's on the question of Anglican/Roman Catholic unity.
Heading being: future of our Church and Communion again in news focus
What does history teach us?
Current situation: Archbishops' Council, House of Bishops and General Synod all picking their way through the question of women in the episcopate.
Roman Catholic Church makes overture
Consequent questions raised again about "state" of the CofE and CofE/RC relations
---
Tomorrow (though terribly missed off our church calendar!) we remember Cedd of Lastingham
After a Pope from Rome sent Augustine to convert the English - there were controversies and disagreements amongst all the commonality across the Christian Church in Bede's well attested world.
Cedd joined in the debate: urged the Irish and Roman ways to co-join
Recent Archbishops have all had their unique way of dealing with the dilemma which is the main news story of the weekend re our Church
Owen Chadwick - in his book - Michael Ramsey (A Life) found a welcome not as a stranger
"Pope Paul VI included this general sentence as Ramsey arrived: "as you cross our thresh hold we want especially to feel that you are not entering the house of strangers, but that this is your home, where you have a right to be".
Robert Runcie saw the quest for unity not in terms of supremacy - but humility - agreeing with Gregory the Great.
"An Archbishop of Canterbury cannot but have respect for the Pope who sent Augustine to England,a Pope who exercised the sort of Primacy that ARCIC commends to us today. Gregory the Great asked for 'no honour which shall detract from the honour of belonging to my brethren' and believed that it was through 'himility rather than supremacy that the unity of the church is preserved.'
Ended with Rowan Williams
uncomfortable, at the centre of another story on the unity front:
it is his conviction (writing in The Truce of God) that "a catholic church is one whose loyalty is to a vision of humanity as a single , though endlessly various, whole, a single pattern centred on Jesus."
My headings for tonight include insights of three recent ABC's on the question of Anglican/Roman Catholic unity.
Heading being: future of our Church and Communion again in news focus
What does history teach us?
Current situation: Archbishops' Council, House of Bishops and General Synod all picking their way through the question of women in the episcopate.
Roman Catholic Church makes overture
Consequent questions raised again about "state" of the CofE and CofE/RC relations
---
Tomorrow (though terribly missed off our church calendar!) we remember Cedd of Lastingham
After a Pope from Rome sent Augustine to convert the English - there were controversies and disagreements amongst all the commonality across the Christian Church in Bede's well attested world.
Cedd joined in the debate: urged the Irish and Roman ways to co-join
Recent Archbishops have all had their unique way of dealing with the dilemma which is the main news story of the weekend re our Church
Owen Chadwick - in his book - Michael Ramsey (A Life) found a welcome not as a stranger
"Pope Paul VI included this general sentence as Ramsey arrived: "as you cross our thresh hold we want especially to feel that you are not entering the house of strangers, but that this is your home, where you have a right to be".
Robert Runcie saw the quest for unity not in terms of supremacy - but humility - agreeing with Gregory the Great.
"An Archbishop of Canterbury cannot but have respect for the Pope who sent Augustine to England,a Pope who exercised the sort of Primacy that ARCIC commends to us today. Gregory the Great asked for 'no honour which shall detract from the honour of belonging to my brethren' and believed that it was through 'himility rather than supremacy that the unity of the church is preserved.'
Ended with Rowan Williams
uncomfortable, at the centre of another story on the unity front:
it is his conviction (writing in The Truce of God) that "a catholic church is one whose loyalty is to a vision of humanity as a single , though endlessly various, whole, a single pattern centred on Jesus."
Saturday 3 October 2009
Thought For the Day 3rd October
Thought for the Day
Saturday 3rd October
Rob Marshall
Good morning
So now we know. London will hand over the Olympic torch to Rio De Janeiro as the host city of the 2016 Olympics.
How contrasting was the euphoria of the first South American city to host the games and the disappointment of Madrid – and the surprise and excitement of when London won 2012 came flooding back.
Just before yesterday’s vote, one IOC representative briefed the media saying :”if they win, they will be under pressure for seven years until they deliver the games.”
London will be able to give help and advice as the reality dawns as to what lies ahead for Rio: as TS Elliot warns us –“Between the idea and the reality; between the motion and the act, falls the shadow” and that shadow is all those things which we simply can’t possibly take into account when with every good intention – we agree to take something on.
A bishop who I once worked for used to say to me with increasing regularity – “why on earth did I agree to do this? Why did I take this on?” And, in the cold light of day we all have those times, when we look back at the moment when we accepted responsibility for something and then realised that the delivery of it might just be a little different to what we had imagined.
Unfortunately, for some people, this happens with a new job. Others find that a property they have bought was too big, too large. Even more emotionally and spiritually draining is a relationship, taken on without really thinking about what the long term effects might be.
When Huxley said “Hell isn’t merely paved with good intentions, it is walled and roofed with them” he confirmed lots of pastoral conversations I have had as a priest with people and with organisations.
The books of both the Old and New Testaments form a framework for my own understanding of human nature and this crucial idea of good intention, wanting to succeed and win, often in the face of unimagined and surprising obstacles figures prominently in Christian theology.
St Paul sums this up in Olympic fashion, urging people to live as if they are running a race – but sticking rigidly to pre-set goals of faith and hope whatever stumbling blocks come their way.
The main thing to avoid is cynicism: it’s too common and too easy to say “I told you so” when we see other people’s dreams collapse and the grandest of schemes fail.
It is a very human thing to want to succeed, to win the prize. The reality of experience is that the delivery of the goods is rarely without fraught moments and disappointments.
This is where faith in human nature and in what we ultimately believe in, comes to the rescue even if what we are really feeling is “why on earth did I agree to take this on?”
Copyright BBC
Saturday 3rd October
Rob Marshall
Good morning
So now we know. London will hand over the Olympic torch to Rio De Janeiro as the host city of the 2016 Olympics.
How contrasting was the euphoria of the first South American city to host the games and the disappointment of Madrid – and the surprise and excitement of when London won 2012 came flooding back.
Just before yesterday’s vote, one IOC representative briefed the media saying :”if they win, they will be under pressure for seven years until they deliver the games.”
London will be able to give help and advice as the reality dawns as to what lies ahead for Rio: as TS Elliot warns us –“Between the idea and the reality; between the motion and the act, falls the shadow” and that shadow is all those things which we simply can’t possibly take into account when with every good intention – we agree to take something on.
A bishop who I once worked for used to say to me with increasing regularity – “why on earth did I agree to do this? Why did I take this on?” And, in the cold light of day we all have those times, when we look back at the moment when we accepted responsibility for something and then realised that the delivery of it might just be a little different to what we had imagined.
Unfortunately, for some people, this happens with a new job. Others find that a property they have bought was too big, too large. Even more emotionally and spiritually draining is a relationship, taken on without really thinking about what the long term effects might be.
When Huxley said “Hell isn’t merely paved with good intentions, it is walled and roofed with them” he confirmed lots of pastoral conversations I have had as a priest with people and with organisations.
The books of both the Old and New Testaments form a framework for my own understanding of human nature and this crucial idea of good intention, wanting to succeed and win, often in the face of unimagined and surprising obstacles figures prominently in Christian theology.
St Paul sums this up in Olympic fashion, urging people to live as if they are running a race – but sticking rigidly to pre-set goals of faith and hope whatever stumbling blocks come their way.
The main thing to avoid is cynicism: it’s too common and too easy to say “I told you so” when we see other people’s dreams collapse and the grandest of schemes fail.
It is a very human thing to want to succeed, to win the prize. The reality of experience is that the delivery of the goods is rarely without fraught moments and disappointments.
This is where faith in human nature and in what we ultimately believe in, comes to the rescue even if what we are really feeling is “why on earth did I agree to take this on?”
Copyright BBC
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