Latest Articles at Scots
New Articles from Scots
Dr. Peter Trudinger, June 14 2009
The May 28 2009 PowerPoint from the Urban Network meeting can be found here. The Office 2007 version is much smaller... Read on >>>>
The May 28 2009 PowerPoint from the Urban Network meeting can be found here. The Office 2007 version is much smaller... Read on >>>>
Have you ever tried to scan music or text out of a heavy bound book? 
My music program has a fit when I try and scan from Together in Song. More often than not, I cannot get the page flat enough for a good scan. The binding lifts the edge of the page off the scanner. Then Vivaldi Scan can't covert the text to music. Read on >>>>
How good it is to be alive!
After the rush of Main North Road, the South Terrace parklands are a paradise.
The rain has filled the wetlands, and the air is filled with the taste of living water.
This morning the grey haired man is without his partner, but their Maltese- Shih Tzu, ever happy, still trots along side. Further along, the two women with the Jack Russell call out "Good Morning." Jack strains against the harness with his usual enthusiasm, longing for the day he can drag me off the bike.
Today it seems every young olive tree in the grove has its own ibis, wiggling worms out of the leaf litter.
A couple of nights ago, coming home, my farmer's eye guesstimated 200 ducks grazing like a tight mob of sheep, in the paddock across from the Velodrome! This morning I crossed fifty metres of duck painted path, evidence the whole raft had waddled across to the velodrome.
Even the bare, overgrazed horse paddock has turned green. The living smell of stable has replaced the dry, deathly odour of the old slaughterhouse holding cell.
As I came up to Grand Junction Road, I met another cyclist rolling across, on his way to Mawson Lakes. He gave me a grin and "G'day," as he began the race down to the wetlands.
How good it is to be alive!
Andrew
An ancient Rabbi called Simon once wrote these words:
The (convert to Judaism) is dearer to God than all the Israelites who were at (Mt) Sinai. For if those people had not witnessed thunder, flames, lightning, the quaking mountain, and the trumpet blasts, they would not have accepted the rule of God. Yet (today's convert) who has seen none of these things comes and gives (themself) to God and accepts the rule of God. Is there anyone who is dearer than this (person)?
(The Gospel According to John, The Anchor Bible, Raymond Brown vol 2 pp 1048)
Notice how this man says accept the rule of God, not believe in God. We have all sorts of misunderstandings in our culture about the biblical word believe, which meant something different in the time of John's gospel, so I am not going to use it. I will say, "follow God" or "accept the rule of God." It is sometimes hard to follow God. Currently, it's not a popular idea in our culture.
Do you wonder sometimes how we can claim to follow a loving God, (let alone Jesus risen from the dead,) when we see all the pain of the world? There seems to be so much wrong, and so much suffering. Just being alive means witnessing a constant parade of wrongs and suffering. How can we have faith in the reality of God? We didn't see the thunder and lightning with Moses at Mt Sinai. We never saw Jesus and his miracles, let alone Jesus risen from the dead.
John's gospel is written for a painful time when people really wondered about questions like these. God's holy city of Jerusalem had been destroyed decades before, in a time of terrible suffering. In the place where John's community lived, the Jewish religious leaders hated Christians with a passion. Christians had also been subjected to persecution, in some places, by the Roman authorities. The tiny, lonely churches, spread out across the empire awaited Jesus' return; he had not come yet, and life for many, was getting worse.
It's doubtful if there was anyone alive who had actually met Jesus in the flesh.
At a hard time in history, life was often even harder for Christians... Read on >>>>
Jock arrived part way through church. He was unpleasantly drunk, ranging from raucous to morose, and settled in a back pew. Dear Lynley, only twenty six, went back and sat with him. His noise continued, some of it now directed at her. Since the other minister, my wife, was leading the service, I was able to go back and sit behind them. That really annoyed Jock. "Are you her husband?" he snarled. He was belligerent to the point that I wondered how we would remove him without a brawl.
Salvation came in the form of Doug Mills, Lynley's grandfather. Doug was in his eighties, but he still stood six foot two without a stoop. He was a big man, and a local legend, on account of the size of his enormous hands... Read on >>>
In this story of Peter in the courtyard of the house of the High Priest the tragedy of the disciples’ failure and misunderstanding of Jesus reaches an excruciating climax. Three times Jesus talked to his disciples plainly about his destiny as the ‘Son of Man’. Three times they missed the point. (Mark 8:31-33; 9:30-31; 10:32ff). Three times Jesus asked Peter, James and John to stay awake with him as he faced his destiny in the garden of Gethsemane, and three times he found them sleeping (Mark 14:32-42). Now Peter, who had insisted that he would never abandon Jesus under any circumstances, denies three times that he is one of Jesus’ followers, and with a curse, declares that he doesn’t even know this man from Nazareth.
He was in the courtyard of the High Priest because he had promised in all sincerity to follow Jesus to the end (14:29-31; 54). Standing out in the cold, warming himself by the fire, a young servant girl recognises him and says, “You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.” Peter dismisses her, claiming he has no idea what she is talking about, and retreats to the gateway, ready for a hasty exit if things get too hot. Not to be silenced, the servant girl follows him and begins to say to the others gathered in the courtyard, “This man is one of them.” Peter again refutes her claim, broadening the circle of those who witnessed his denial that he was in any way associated with the man being interrogated by the High Priest and the council upstairs... Read on >>>>
Lenten Study Four: Jesus has been arrested and the disciples have all fled. He is now falsely accused and condemned to death while outside his most ardent follower, Peter, denies ever knowing him.
Mark divides Peter's denial into two episodes and inserts this appearance of Jesus before the Council between them. This ‘sandwiching’ or ‘bracketing’ of events both inside and outside the high priest's house is one of Mark's favourite literary tools (film-makers make good use of it too). Juxtaposing the two contrasting scenes heightens the suspense and highlights the difference between them. Jesus is inside boldly announcing what he's been saying all along … and being sentenced to death for it. Peter is outside going back on all that he had said … and saving his life.
From beginning to end the whole ‘trial’ is a charade. The charges against Jesus are ludicrous and inconsistent. The deep and tragic irony of this trial is that these religious accusers who are so intent on keeping the law are actually in breech of one of the most sacred commandments;: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour" (Exodus 20:16). According to their ancient scriptures, it was the priests and judges who were supposed to make sure false witnesses were exposed in order to protect the innocent! Read on >>>>
Think about the Gospels. In Mark, the Gospel for this year, we have a very human Jesus. God chooses him from those who come to John for baptism. By the time Matthew and Luke we have birth narratives, which introduce Jesus the man, born as the Son of God. But in John, we find a Divine Son of God, so close to God he sometimes seems ethereal. The week three reading for Lent is from the Gospel of John.
When it came to Temple sacrifices, there was a highly developed procedure in being faithful people of Israel. Animals were available for sale in the large forecourt of the Temple. They could only be purchased in the Temple's own currency. So the sacrificial system meant the Temple forecourt combined money changing and animal sales. It is likely there was corruption based around the inflation of prices.
Jesus is recorded coming into the temple forecourt in each gospel, and clearing it out. The word John uses for this driving out is the same word that was used for exorcism! Jesus exorcised the "rip-off" merchants.
The story is near the end of the other gospels. It was one more event which drove the authorities to arrest and kill him. From their point of view, he was making a direct attack on a key part of the religion. The Temple system was part of the glue that held their society together.
In John, the cleansing of the Temple is at the beginning. It is the same attack on the status quo, but John drags it back to the beginning, to set the scene. It colours the picture of everything that follows. In this Gospel, Jesus' outburst is a sign of what is to come.
Welcome to Scots Church
We the Uniting Church people of Scots Church on North Terrace are called by God to be a faithful, worshipping community growing in faith, visible and positive, so that we can be channels of God's love through whom others in the community recognise the God who welcomes them.
-
Morning Worship is held at 10.30am Sundays at 237 North Terrace, Adelaide. This is the corner of Pulteney Street and North Terrace.
-
Parking is provided, but please follow the link for instructions.
-
The sanctuary at Scots is open for quiet contemplation Tuesday to Thursday from 10am - 2pm.
-
Office Hours are Monday - Friday 9.10am - 3.00pm 08 8223 1505
_________________________________
Theology Feed...
This feed is from a church (re)Wired
30 June, 2009
30 June, 2009
29 June, 2009
29 June, 2009
29 June, 2009
29 June, 2009
15 June, 2009
10 June, 2009
10 June, 2009
10 June, 2009
10 June, 2009
10 June, 2009
10 June, 2009
Next page: Worship