tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50133393063492041922024-03-06T08:21:06.050+10:30Classic Theology NewWarren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.comBlogger518125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-78167069455355394582022-11-17T16:52:00.004+10:302022-11-17T16:52:31.834+10:30Luke 21:5-19(36) "Teacher, when will this be ... ?" (21:7)And the first thing Jesus says is telling us not to be misled. (21:8) In response, Jesus doesn't go into a discussion about the sign of the end. He does that next, but first, he tells his disciples not to be led astray. It is only after warning us not to be misled that Jesus speaks a little about the signs. (21:9-11; 25-28) And notice that when he Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-13490796804192820522022-10-27T14:37:00.003+10:302022-10-27T14:37:43.412+10:30A Certain Ruler (Luke 18:18-30) This certain ruler must have been quite excited when Jesus said, "There is still one thing lacking." Great, only one thing! After a life of disciplined obedience to the commandments, maybe the ruler might be able to work himself into eternal life?This passage reminds me of Luke 17:5-6. "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed ... (you could do the miraculous). Just that little bitWarren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-11344627437713328322022-10-20T13:30:00.002+10:302022-10-20T13:30:42.679+10:30Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14) This parable is classic Jesus and stands as a warning to the critical spirit that lives in us and can take over if not combated. And it is entirely consistent with the biblical warning to beware the self-righteousness that can become the foundation of our identity.This parable provides us with a classic example of finding a (false) identity by not being someone else. (vv 11-12) The PhariseeWarren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-89040243165789228032022-08-25T13:14:00.000+09:302022-08-25T13:14:30.991+09:30Middle Anglicanism (Part 1)I grew up in what I call Middle Adelaide Anglicanism. This church is what I call Middle Adelaide Anglicanism. There are still lots of churches like this. And not just in Adelaide, all over Australia Anglican churches and Anglicans would see themselves as in the middle, or perhaps moderate. 'Middle' doesn't mean grey, doesn't mean wishy-washy. The middle isn't defined particularly by the Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-72864870101168459782022-06-12T07:00:00.053+09:302022-06-12T07:00:00.162+09:30Trinity Sunday Year C (Part 2)In our baptism, joined in hypostatic union with the Son who stood abandoned for us, space is found for us to regain our identity as children of God, united with the Father through the Spirit.The Gospel of John can seem a bit confusing at times. It's because the language reflects the union of the three figures of the divine story, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (You can think of God as a storyWarren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-57791296073049120522022-06-11T16:18:00.003+09:302022-06-11T16:18:56.677+09:30Trinity Sunday Year C (Part 1)Readings for Trinity Sunday (Year C) Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15. ‘He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:14-15) The strange language of the Gospel of John: the three – Father, Son and Spirit – Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-41556185728247129402022-05-29T15:05:00.000+09:302022-05-29T15:05:05.475+09:30Kids' Talk on the Ascension Today the kids and I talked about the Ascension. I had two questions.1. Where is Jesus?2. Where is God?I started with the kids. They were unsure. So we wandered around the congregation a bit and asked some people to find some answers. We had a variety of answers, ranging from 'everywhere'; 'in heaven, although heaven isn't really a place like we usually think of a place to go'; 'seated on Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-63970971518560271142022-05-29T14:54:00.007+09:302022-05-30T16:19:25.469+09:30Let's Not Reduce The AscensionIt is common for people to give up on the Ascension. ("Where did he go? There are just planets and stuff 'up' there.") But we could let the Ascension speak out of a thicker sense of reality than that, and not dismiss the ancients as pre-secientific simpletons and drongos. (For those reading from a non-Australian background, 'drongo' is an Australian term for 'fool'.)Thirty years ago I tried a Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-43247818474216122212022-04-08T23:28:00.004+09:302022-04-14T17:52:15.024+09:30Deeper into Sin to be Freed from it.Walking the way of the cross during Easter is traditional. You can do it in Jerusalem (the via dolorosa), or closer to home you can do it at your local church. We are invited to 'walk' the path of the saviour each time we read the story from Gethsemane to tomb in dramatic form. I like the latter best when we (the congregation) take all the parts other than the role of Jesus. We walk the road fromWarren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-16389596793741417152022-04-01T23:11:00.000+10:302022-04-01T23:11:07.623+10:30John 12:1-8 Mary, Jesus, and that Perfume “As the best thing is love itself, not the benefits which it confers, there must be no censure of its lavishness as disproportionate.” (William Temple, Readings in St John’s Gospel, p. 191.) Imagine your brother has just died and three days later Jesus turns up. Jesus does miracles. “If you had been here he would not have died.” (Jn 11:32) That’s Mary of Bethany. She then goes Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-49130832427178841442022-02-08T14:40:00.001+10:302022-02-08T17:13:28.139+10:30Is it all over for the traditional church? We are living through an intense period of cultural self-flagellation, or, in other words, a cultural moment of criticism (directed at self and others), purges, confessions to all manner of 'sins', and virtue signalling. The gospel speaks directly to such cultural moments with its message of grace not works, universal sin, forgiveness, beauty and goodness (not perfection). But that is for Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-77538470206948722782021-12-23T21:35:00.000+10:302021-12-23T21:35:11.684+10:30Thin Experiences and the Virgin BirthI remember someone who told me that they had been surprised by gratitude. Not that they were ungrateful before. Perhaps they could be characterised as someone who found meaning without transcendence, without mystery, without anything more than what can be explained by science for example, that is, without God. A flattened reality, but as it turned out, a flat reality haunted by transcendence and Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-79230325980869307002021-12-04T17:09:00.004+10:302021-12-04T17:10:41.025+10:30The Surprising Mediator Between God and HumankindThis is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Forthere is one Godthere is also one mediatorbetween God and humankindChrist Jesus, himself human,who gave himself a ransom for all. (1Timothy 2:3-6)The baptism by John in the Jordan evokes some of the great moments in Israel's history, of failed covenantal Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-8557163034281649102021-11-24T14:17:00.004+10:302021-11-24T14:17:59.827+10:30In Jesus we see that God is not a monster of our imaginationsWhen bad things happen it is easy to say something like, "What did I do to deserve this?" Probably nothing in the sense of the question above. God isn't punishing us when bad things happen. Of course, if we play with fire we get burnt, that is true. But that is not the same as saying that God is the author when bad things happen. This is so important. 'The gods' did bad things, just read Greek Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-83641767711685489622021-10-30T19:00:00.002+10:302021-10-30T19:02:07.103+10:30The Lord our God, the Lord is One (Mark 12:28-34)South Australian Year 12 school exams are just around the corner. When I sat for my Year 12 final exams over 40 years ago the outcome wasn't particularly noteworthy. I had already peaked at school, a year or so back. The problem for me was that I couldn't see the point of what I was doing. Not that the benefit of schooling was lost on me. And I could see possible pathways ahead. And there wasn't Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-70906484145076115452021-09-02T15:14:00.007+09:302021-09-02T15:14:45.004+09:30On God’s Love, Spiritual Discipline, and the Freedom of PatienceIn Jesus and the Spirit the Father has shared with us God’s (the Holy Trinity’s) own life with us. Not just that God loves us, but much more than that. God is love, and we live in that love. There is not another face of God inconsistent with the face of Jesus. The Breath/Spirit of God is the Spirit of that Jesus shared with us. What we see in Jesus – this is what God is, really. Moreover, there Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-55326987787109826862021-08-28T15:57:00.004+09:302022-04-07T11:39:19.059+09:30Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God.Create in me a clean heart, O God. (Psalm 51:1) [And that is exactly what God has done in Christ.]God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Rom 5:5) In a particularly difficult time in my life I had a dream that I remembered the next morning. In the dream I was in a large gathering, robed, and in the Gospel procession to the middle ofWarren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-22484741286551025922021-08-21T23:35:00.007+09:302021-08-27T09:15:33.789+09:30The Epithet of Sinner (John 6:56-69)In today's Gospel reading (John 6:56-69) those who follow Jesus are being pared back. They are a remnant of what they were. Jesus collected quite an array of followers, but over the course of his ministry they disappeared. The righteous are being thinned out. Today, they are thinned out because of his teaching about the bread of life and consuming him for eternal life. And in the end Jesus Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-59878338678732469552021-07-17T00:46:00.003+09:302021-07-19T10:27:30.578+09:30Crucifying the Dividing Walls of HumanityI know that the obvious boundary in the Bible is Old/New Testaments. I prefer to make the split Genesis 1-11 and the rest. Genesis 1-11 contains those stories we might say are universal. I read them and understand that I am being described, as is the world, and our universal, human predicament. (E.g. Noah and the flood, here.) God's response we read about from Genesis 12. (Here.) The Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-25018130007832108712021-06-26T16:04:00.001+09:302021-06-26T16:09:24.810+09:30Virtual Choirs, Perfection, Clay Jars, and Making Space for Each OtherRecently I listened to a choir conductor explain the process of creating a virtual choir performance. It requires skill, but also a sensitivity to the human because the best virtual choir performances won't be 'perfect' if they are to sound beautiful. Perfection, when put together by a computer program will sound robotic and manufactured. In creating a virtual choir performance slight 'Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-11255944200298672312021-06-18T23:59:00.002+09:302021-06-22T15:41:42.651+09:30Who is this? Mark 4:35-41 Without the cross, the answer to the question (about Jesus) "Who is this?" pops out wrong. But with the cross and the resurrection of the crucified, the answer is Christianity. Because of the cross and the resurrection of the crucified:1. Christianity has a sensitivity to the voice of the victim and the human tendency to scapegoat. Where Christianity has taken root in a culture so too has Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-66595260494374945152021-06-12T16:08:00.011+09:302021-06-12T16:19:14.696+09:30The Kingdom of God is Like a Weed Jesus likens the kingdom to a weed. (The mustard seed grows into a weed.) So the kingdom isn't the project you are doing in the shed, it is to be found behind the shed in the unkempt part of the yard not usually visible from where all the action is happening. That's funny. It must have provoked at least a little snigger amongst some, while others may have been a little offended.These days Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-52836244387951842092021-06-07T15:16:00.003+09:302021-06-07T17:01:56.125+09:30Satan Casting Out Satan When the opponents of Jesus turn up accusing him of being in league with Satan (Mark 3:22) he doesn't so much as deny it as play with it. It is not the ones we humans expel as evil/immoral/ etc who are in league with Satan, but the accusers (who believe themselves to be righteously casting out Satan) who are in league with Satan, the great accuser: Satan casting out Satan. (3:23)This Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-11027076110651847602021-06-03T17:11:00.003+09:302021-06-19T00:06:37.941+09:30Am Important Detail at PentecostActs 2:1-12 tells the story of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the disciples after the Ascension of Jesus. It is easy to miss the significance of a small detail embedded in the story. It is crucial that the disciples are given diverse tongues rather than the hearers enabled to understand the (single) dialect of the disciples. Imagine if it were around the other way, with the listeners enabled to Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013339306349204192.post-27778892086685082742021-04-17T08:00:00.001+09:302021-04-17T08:00:00.209+09:30Glorified Wounds Jesus is the Lord who came to save us by dying for us on the cross. The wounds in Jesus' glorified body remind us of the way in which we are saved. But they also remind us that our own wounds are much more than roadblocks on our way to God. They show us our own unique way to follow the suffering Christ, and they are destined to become glorified in our resurrected life. Just as Jesus was Warren Huffahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06641632471131333680noreply@blogger.com0