I want to break a taboo. There are so many to choose from, I know, but I want to break just one taboo. That’ll be enough excitement for the day.

But before I break it, I want to tell you about a new gadget I’ve added to my computer. They call it ‘Google Toolbar’. I’ve got an analog clock, a weather forecast for Wellington, a little box with my most recent email in (currently Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac), and news’ headlines from the major newspapers of the world, blog headlines from the feeds I subscribe to and, my personal favourite, a slideshow of photos from my computer disc and the websites I visit regularly.

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I took one of those tests on the Internet that give you a label or put you in a box. You know the ones - find out what sort of dog you would be, or what famous person, or the traditional one of what personality. Well, this one was what my theological standpoint was. There were the usual leading questions, clearly designed to bring out the Catholics or the Charismatics or the John Spong fan club. I would hardly say it was a scientific survey.

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Maybe, like me, you subscribe to “feeds”. I’m not talking about brussel sprouts and cabbage here, but the 21st-century meaning of the term: blogs and podcasts that notify you when they get updated. Increasingly I find it a remarkably varied but often worthwhile diet. So, from today’s menu, here’s a sample of some of what I’m feeding myself… Read more…

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It’s cold here now. The hot, balmy days of our long, late summer are over. Gloves are out. Jackets on. They call it autumn. But now is the winter of our discontent.

Easter comes around every year and every year it comes around faster than the year before. You can tell Easter’s coming. There are clues. There are the Easter eggs, of course. And the hot cross buns, though these politically correct days they’re just hot buns. They’re not carrying their crosses anymore.

And there’s Lent. I had a friend who gave up shoes for Lent. He gave up meat and fizzy drinks and chocolate too. But people do that. Become vegetarian for forty days and forty nights. My friend, well, he gave up shoes. I think it was probably for the fun of it. But it makes you think. About them who don’t have shoes. You don’t know a man, right, till you’ve walked a few miles in his shoes? That’s what they say. Read more…

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The morning was dark and cold. The sun was yet to rise over this fine city. There was a gentle rain in the air. And we gathered, mainly in our rain-jackets though one or two braved the weather and wore shorts, and we prayed together. About forty of us all up, celebrating this greatest of all mornings. “He is Risen indeed!” we proclaimed to one another, shaking each other’s hands. Strangers all, but fellow pilgrims on this journey. Read more…

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“Through whom we have received grace”:
Grace as the heart of the gospel of Christ in Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

March 2007
 
Introduction

To properly speak of grace, we need to place it within the story of Scriptures. We miss the specific, subversive and transformative nature of grace when we remove it from God’s work in both creating and redeeming the world. Grace is necessarily at the heart of the gospel of Christ. Present throughout the canon of Scripture, grace is there from the Trinitarian creation in Genesis to the eschatological realisation of Revelation. In this essay, Paul’s letter to the Romans frames our discussion. While Scripture should be read as a whole narrative, separating Romans from the canon of Scripture, not to mention Paul’s corpus of work, is an artificial but necessary separation for our purposes. This essay then looks at three threads of grace that run through Romans: first, the specific nature of the grace in Christ; second, the subversive nature of grace to Paul’s predominantly Jewish readers; and third, the transformative nature of grace that is particularly evident in the second half of Romans. Read more…

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