Bridge of Reason

A Weekly Bible Reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – The Law Falls Short of God’s Ideal (Mark 10:1-16) The law is a useful thing to have by you at times of compromise and accommodation. When you’re in a tight spot a good lawyer can make the law say all sorts of things that those who originally drafted it never intended. Socrates was dead set against writing things down for that very reason. He argued that writing conveyed content without context and can therefore, in a different context, mean something quite other than what was intended. We see this at play in this passage. The Pharisees were trying to catch Jesus out on a subject about which he had already said a good deal. Each of the gospel writers reports Jesus’ teaching on marriage so his views must have been well known. This works out rather similar ...

This is Nick the White Mormon. He just stands there and doesn't know why. There is an important point here and he is not being mocked. Like the man said, pray for Nick and all those who do things for no other reason than that they have a good feeling about it.

A Weekly Bible Reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – Greatness and Servanthood (Mark 9:33-50) During his ministry in Galilee Jesus lived in Capernaum (Mt.4:13), probably in the house belonging to Peter and Andrew (Mk.1:29) and in this passage we witness the small talk and speculations people indulge in on their way home after a busy time. The subject under discussion had been who was the greatest among the disciples. Jesus knew this but still asked the question, “What were you arguing about on the road?” In this way he invited discussion and created a teaching opportunity. How often do we ask questions as we witness? Or do we rush in to tell the other person how we see things? Questions serve to demonstrate our interest and not just our ignorance and can create all sorts of opportunities to discuss the ki...

C4 Sunday 16 August 2009 7pm Revelations: How do you know God exists? Written and produced by Anthony Thomas An arresting opening image: a burning effigy on a busy western city street. We try to figure out what it is- some religious protest against the Mohammed cartoons, perhaps? As it turns out, it's a model of a banker. In commencing his contribution to the Revelations series, Anthony Thomas may be trying to show how materialism has failed as a concept, and that as western capitalism turns on itself, religious solutions to man's dilemmas may begin to reemerge. Thomas chooses five leaders from major world religions (Judaism, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism and Hinduism) to explain to him and the viewer how they know there is a God. The five men (and they are men, as my wife dryly observes) are Jonathan Sachs (chief rabbi of Orthodox Jews in the UK), Rowan Williams (Church of England Archbishop of Canterbury), Vincent Nichols (Catholic Archbishop of Westminster), Tari...

A weekly Bible reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – Citizenship  (Matthew 16:17:14-27) Jesus, Peter, James and John came down from the mountain where kingdom glory had shined so fully and were met with a scene familiar enough to us even today; a dispute over religion. Mark tells us that a large crowd had gathered and the teachers of the law were arguing with the disciples. A possessed young man had been brought to them to be healed and they had failed to do it; a practical problem that ‘religion’ had failed to solve and an ensuing argument about why. How embarrassing and how all-too-typical! “If you have faith...” These words of Jesus can, and often do fill us with guilt for being faithless. When things don’t go well for us, prayers are not answered, answers don’t seem to come we look inward and qu...

The August 2009 edition of the official Mormon Ensign magazine emphasises prayer and it would be ungracious not to recognise the wise counsel to set aside time to pray regularly, to make prayer a discipline and to approach it in a spirit of humility; surely advice with which all Christians can agree. Yet it demonstrates something Christians often notice about the Mormon ethos, which is that it is based on Joseph Smith and not Jesus Christ, whose church Mormons claim to have restored. In an article entitled Opening the Heavens Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchu of the Seventy asks, “ Do you want to feel the love of God powerfully in your life? Do you want to feel more in tune with His Spirit? Do you want to have the heavens opened to you daily?” He goes on to let us in on the secret of achieving these things using examples from the life of Joseph Smith. Like Joseph, we must take ourselves apart to spend time with God. Like Joseph, we can expect God to answer. Like Joseph, we can have o...

A weekly Bible reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – In His Royal Dignity (Matthew 16:28) At the end of chapter 16 of Matthew’s gospel Jesus makes a puzzling statement. “Some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” This is not a reference to the Second Coming, the date of which is known only to the Father (Mt.24:36) and therefore couldn’t be indicated by Jesus. It is believed by some to refer to the Transfiguration that happened witnessed by Peter, James and John six days later, while some believe it refers to the events of Pentecost. The word translated “kingdom” in our Bibles can mean “kingship”, “royal reign”, or “royal dignity” and the passage could be translated as referring to “the Son of Man coming in his royal dignity.” In his prayer in...

A weekly Bible reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – A Suffering Saviour, and a Called Out People (Matthew 16:13-28) This is a key passage in helping us understand the purposes of God in Christ and in his disciples. Until now Jesus has preached the message of the kingdom, demonstrating its presence by his teaching, healing and casting out of demons (Luke.11:20). Now he had established his identity among his closest followers he began to emphasise the Cross as the way he must go in order to establish this kingdom (Mt.16:21). Peter’s confession marked a turning point after which Jesus more clearly taught about the principles on which the kingdom was to be established and the role of the called out people of God in advancing it. There has been much controversy over what was meant when Jesus spoke of the foundation of...

The Big Questions , Sunday 2 August 2009, third question. A growing number of Britons say they are certain there is no God - but how do they know? Professor John Adams of the North Yorkshire Humanist Association begins by asking theists what evidence they have for their beliefs. Paul Woolley of Theos continues by pointing out Richard Dawkins description of faith as a 'virus', and the appalling track record of atheism in the 20th Century, as spearheaded by Pol Pot and Stalin. Chloe Clifford-Frith of the Humanist and Secular Students Society contends that Stalin did not do the things he did because he was an atheist, but because he was evil. Paul Woolley rejoins that atheists are trying to have it both ways when they claim that religion is the cause of evil, but refuse to acknowledge the ideological impetus of atheism when it comes to many evil acts. Mao and Stalin both replaced God with the State - a 'religious' manoeuvre. Rev Alistair Rycroft of St Michael Le Belfrey Ch...