The clouds have changed, but it’s not raining here. Judging by the fire crews congregating at the Bottoms environmental centre, the fire on the moors is still going on its fifth day.
I’m just starting to read a book about neurotheology. I’ve always wondered does religion trump science or does science trump religion? I reckon it must be both. For a person of faith like me, the study of nature is part of wanting to get to know what the Creator is like. Also there is the ethical question – so how do we decide what to do with our knowledge? Plus there are also ethical questions about the getting of knowledge itself. But OTOH, faith is also a phenomenon within nature, and a legitimate object of study … just don’t be like those patronising so-and-sos who don’t want to deal with the content of faith.
As for the Lectionary, Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep…” I don’t know how well that metaphor stands the test of time. I think I know what that is like, but I have a picture in my head of a bloke standing between two hurdles with a stick in his hand to make himself look bigger, derived from distant memories of ‘one man and his dog’. And I’m not sure that picture really applies to first century Palestine. And what will a twenty-third century shepherd be like? The question then must’ve been something like, “who is the true shepherd?”, “who is the real prophet?” – and that question hasn’t gone away. Whom do we trust with our lives? Is the real Jesus to be found in churches? Do we hear the real voice of Jesus in the pronouncements of church, and are its leaders to be trusted as ‘shepherds’? Speaking as a someone who’s just retired from being a minister – i.e. a leader in the church, I think these are real questions.
Also from Acts 2:44f… “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” This doesn’t seem to have been adopted as a model by the majority of churchgoers (including me); so the right wing can sleep easy in their beds. This seditious literature is not going to be a danger to twenty first century capitalism. But deep inside somewhere, I wish it could be.