Week 10: The Church

To celebrate the occasion of the final week of Café Theology, we began with a lovely array of refreshments and snacks. There were also a few starter questions at the back of the church to get us thinking about our experiences of Church. Here are the questions and some of the answers:

Q1: Describe Church in a word or sentence.

Answers: Loving; Jesus’ body; Home; Body; Commitment; People; Family; Place of Worship; Fellowship; Encouraging individuals; Everywhere.

Q2: What puts you off Church?

Answers: Limited parking; Lack of inclusivity; Rotas; Chaos (e.g., some communion arrangements); Not knowing what to expect from the service beforehand; Songs lacking in meaning.

There was a particularly insightful and refreshing comment: “When put off… it’s probably not to do with Church but more to do with me”.

Q3: What keeps you going to Church?

Answers: Community; The people; Desire to learn and worship as a group; Commitment (including the rotas!); Serving the Lord; Teaching; Hearing the Word of God; Needing to be challenged.

We then came together to begin the slightly more formal part of the evening. Some further experiences of Church were shared from the front and you can listen to them here. We then thought about some of the more theological aspects of the Church. The following points were made with the help of Lloyd’s chapter and some other resources:

– The Church is where God has promised to be present (1 Corinthians 3:16; Matthew 18:20).

– The Church is where believers gather; this is how the Greek word for church, ekklesia, is generally used in the New Testament.

– Christ saves people – not the Church; but the Church is the continued fruit of His ministry.

– The Church appears in the Creeds and appears in the section on the Holy Spirit: The Spirit guides and sustains the Church.

– There are various descriptors of Church, e.g., “one, holy, catholic, apostolic” (Nicene Creed) or models, e.g., “institution, mystical communion, sacrament, herald, and servant” (Avery Dulles). It is perhaps helpful to think about the Church inwardly (discipleship) and outwardly (evangelism, mission).

We then thought more practically about the Church: its role and function, our involvement in it, and the blessing the Church can bring to those inside and those currently outside it. These were some of the key points:

– The Church is part of God’s way of changing the world – and we are part of it!

– The increasing tendency to belong to the Church before believing in God. An authentic Church with a proper distribution of gifts will be a healing community and a place where people can feel safe.

– The family aspect of Church: if Christ is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:11), then we are called to others in the Church in the same way.

–  The call to hear the Word of God, celebrate it, and bear witness: Church is a celebration of what God has already done which should relieve us of many burdens.

– The Church ought to be more about giving than receiving: and so, challenging the pervasive culture of individualism and consumerism.

– The Church depends on unity: we need one another, we need other churches and traditions to keep one another going in service of Christ.

Following these broad overviews, we spent some time in groups, thinking about these and other aspects of the Church. We then reconvened for our all-together time, which, as ever, touched on a broad and interesting range of topics. These included:

– The importance of small groups within churches – especially larger ones – as a way of staying connected, encouraged, and supported in faith.

– The early believers who shared their possessions in Acts 2: to what extent are we / should we be doing this today?

– Is the Church becoming too middle-class? Who is on our doorstep and are we making Christ relevant to them? The need to be aware of our limitations, however, and not be all things to all people: indeed, other churches might have a ministry to a group of people that we are lacking.

– The fine line the Church must tread between being including and excluding. The early Church took its catechetical elements seriously, but this is disappearing in most traditions: to what extent should we bring this back? Is there are a greater need for discipline in the Church?

– Making the most of the occasional offices (christenings, weddings and funerals) as this can be some people’s only experience of Church, as well as other functions (e.g., in St Nic’s, Newbury’s case, Newbury Spring Festival).

The evening and the whole course fittingly concluded by sharing communion together. Although we might not agree on every theological detail, we are still united in Christ, who reconciled all things to Himself by the blood He shed on the cross (Colossians 1:20). This is something we can celebrate and remember together.

Thanks to everyone who has participated in this Café Theology journey in some way!

Week 9: The Final Victory of God

Our penultimate session of Café Theology looked at Christ’s promised return at the end of the age, when in the words of the Apostles’ Creed, “he will … judge the living and the dead.” This area of Christian theology is generally referred to as eschatology, although Michael Lloyd’s chapter title, “The Final Victory of God” is certainly more hopeful and probably more helpful.

Perhaps unfortunately, only the opening three minutes of the talk are preserved in the recording, although, here is a transcript of the talk: Talk Final Victory of God Week 9; and here is the handout: Week 9 Final Victory of God Handout.

In summary, we recognised that, on one hand, the Scriptures deter us from thinking too much about what happens at the end, since it is the Father alone who knows the day and hour; but, on the other, we are called to be prepared and there are several sections of Scripture which deal with the final judgement and victory of God. Humility is required, however, since it is obviously all in the future. The apocalyptic writings in the Bible (e.g., Revelation, Zechariah, 2 Peter, Daniel 7-12) are filled with insight but are notoriously to interpret, so it is right to be somewhat cautious in what we say about them. This might explain why they are relatively infrequently preached, although we should remember the reality of judgement as a necessary means of purging what is bad. Subsequently, judgement can become a hopeful concept: even good news.

Our group discussions led us to think about a few different areas, including:

·         What heaven might be like: not forgetting the food which will be consumed – whether it is meat or not, it will surely be a better banquet than we can imagine…!

·         The notion of time: Lloyd makes a strong case for time and history being linear in Christian theology; but to recognise that many (secular) historians might find this simplistic – history can repeat itself, after all…

·         What exactly happens to our humanity – including our sinfulness – between now and the new creation?

·         The meaning of the repeated phrase in Matthew 24:40-41 (cf. Luke 17:34-5), “one is taken and the other left”, at the end of time. What effect does this have on the new creation: how do the new heaven and the new earth come together? What of meeting the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17)?

Overall, there was plenty to think about but few simple answers. We ended, however, with a short time of reflection on a particularly challenging sentence from Lloyd’s chapter:

“The amount that we long for the appearing of Christ is probably the amount we oppose evil.”

We should occasionally ask ourselves whether we are truly longing for Christ’s (re)appearance, and to think about how we are preparing for it by confronting the forces of evil: individually and corporately as the Church.

Week 8: Trinity

Following a slightly later start to allow people to attend the “Thy Kingdom Come” prayer gathering, we launched into our evening’s reflections on the Trinity. A few technical difficulties contributed to our failing to record the presentation, but here is a transcript of it: Trinity Week 8 JM

As ever, we split into groups as we sought to think more about how the doctrine of the Trinity works and how it impacts our lives. We reconvened for a slightly shorter feedback time than usual, but with some very thoughtful questions and observations. The topic of what Person(s) of the Trinity we address in prayer had clearly been much discussed. We thought about whether Scripture provides any direct evidence of praying to all three Persons of the Trinity, and whether we receive different things from each Person (i.e., does the Father give X, the Son Y, the Spirit Z?). There was also discussion as to the unity and diversity within the Trinity, particularly concerning Jesus’ praying to the Father in his earthly ministry. Rather than representing hierarchy, we saw that the Trinity is more about mutual deference and self-emptying. Nevertheless, there is room for us within the Trinity as shown by Rublev’s icon The Trinity (a.k.a. The Hospitality of Abraham).

Although we struggled to give an answer to our final question[1] – what will the Trinity look like in heaven? – it was perhaps a convenient segue into this coming week, neatly termed by Lloyd as “The Final Victory of God”.

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For more on the Trinity and particularly about how we address the three Persons and how they co-operate, these resources are quite helpful:

Some thoughts from John Piper (thanks, Nikki!):

https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/does-it-matter-which-person-of-the-trinity-we-pray-to

A prayer of John Stott’s:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/john-stotts-morning-trinitarian-prayer/

A very good GodPod (ft. Michael Lloyd himself!) on how the Trinity work together at the cross:

https://sptc.htb.org/node/4

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[1] At this point, we thought about how theology (talking about God, especially His nature) is sometimes apophatic; i.e. we are often restricted to talking about what God isn’t. The opposite of this (what we can say about God) is cataphatic theology.

Week 7: Spirit

Our second session after Easter followed hot on the heels of the previous week’s. This week, our main topic was the Holy Spirit. Michael Lloyd’s chapter offered no fewer than eighteen perspectives about the Spirit. Such breadth and diversity led to comments that the chapter was more of a state banquet than a café, and an encouragement to treat it more like a tapas menu (i.e. select a few items for special digestion)!

Naturally, our discussion was far-ranging. You can find the evening’s talk on the St Nic’s website. We were encouraged to think about the nature of God and, consequently, the Spirit, before thinking about the Spirit in the Scriptures (Old and New Testament) and the differences between the creeds regarding the Holy Spirit.

Our plenary discussion at the end covered several areas, including:

• The creativity that the Spirit gives and allows within the Church. This led us to think about the reformers’ iconoclasm: that, in many senses, it was a necessary corrective; but that it may well have contributed to the stifling of creative, artistic inspiration in the Church.
• Why did Jesus need to be baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit, if He was already part of the Godhead?
• Our different responses to the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is aware of our personalities – whether, for example, we are more emotional or more cerebral – and often meets us accordingly.
• How are to receive the Holy Spirit and to carry on being filled with the Holy Spirit? There was a helpful analogy that we are not colanders when we receive the Holy Spirit: we do not get filled then lose everything; instead, we often need to reconnect.

Being mindful of the Spirit’s presence during the evening, and generally, in guiding, helping us to live and experience transformation, we had a short time of meditation at the end, listening to the Spirit to help seal our evening’s reflections.

We shall no doubt continue to think about the Spirit in our next session when we move onto the topic of the Trinity.

Week 6: Resurrection and Ascension

After a six-week break over the Easter period, we happily reconvened to embark on the second half of Café Theology. Having thought about the Atonement prior to Easter, it was appropriate that we should think about the Resurrection and Ascension following Easter.

You can find the introductory talk on the St Nic’s website here and the handout from the evening here: Week 6 Handout Resurrection and Ascension

The discussion groups and the plenary discussion led us to think about the resurrection and ascension from several angles, including:

• The importance of the events of Holy Saturday. What happened when Jesus descended to the dead (or Hades/Sheol)? Were the events more passive or active: what did it mean for Jesus to defeat death? Some groups thought about Christ’s “proclamation to the imprisoned spirits” in 1 Peter 3:19-20 (an insightful but challenging verse to interpret). We also heard about John Chrysostom’s Paschal Homily which has a strong message of Christ’s defeat of death.
• The ramifications of Christ’s vindication and, consequently, our vindication because of the events of the resurrection.
• The fact that if the ascended Christ remains fully human and fully divine, then there is an element of humanity in the Godhead.
• Our relative lack of focus on the Ascension. Could we do more to embrace and celebrate it? Some of us were challenged to reflect on its importance: how does Christ’s ascension impact us?

As ever, we touched on other areas of Christian theology and even thought about why we are doing Café Theology. In particular, we began to think about the role of the Holy Spirit. Conveniently, the Spirit is the topic for our next meeting.

Comments and questions welcome below!

Week 5: Atonement

We continued our journey through Café Theology by thinking about the atonement: everything concerning Christ’s death on the cross, which enabled the restoration of the relationship between God and humanity. You can find the helpful summary presentation here.

Like many topics in Christian systematic theology, this one is especially broad and led us to touch on several different areas, such as: the vital Old Testament background of sacrifice, sin and the Law; how Christ’s death on the cross (and life of suffering in general) highlighted his status as fully human and fully divine; the reasons for some of the differences between the Passion narratives in the four gospel accounts; Jesus’ becoming (or being made) sin (see, e.g., 2 Corinthians 5:21) and how this shows him to be a substitute for human sin, as well as the one who enables humanity to separated from sin; and other things besides.

At one point in the chapter, Michael Lloyd mentioned the theological notion of recapitulation, which was new to many of us (and on a second reading, something that had to be dredged up from his memory, see p.188!), but is well-summarised in that section as Jesus’ ability to sum up all the experiences of humanity, so that he “sid[es] with the sinful [and] … the sinned-against” (p.189).

There is no shortage of resources on the atonement. As was said on the night, John Stott’s The Cross of Christ (IVP, 1986) offers an outstanding traditional evangelical perspective, which is well worth reading in whole or in part.[1]

The evening fittingly concluded with a time of communion, one of the finest means of appropriating the death of Christ for ourselves, as Lloyd helpfully sets out at the end of the chapter. We have a month or so’s break now until next term, when after Easter on Monday 23^rd April, we’ll be picking up with chapter 6: Resurrection and Ascension.

As ever, thoughts and reflections welcome below.

[1] There are, of course, other perspectives, which ought to be considered. Here is one informative (although quite technical) article on some of the arguments for seeing the cross more as expiation than propitiation: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2012/06/22/the-wrath-of-god-satisfied/

Week 4: Incarnation

Although the reasonably heavy snowfall from the previous week in Newbury had mostly melted by Monday, it was wonderfully coincidental that our session on the Incarnation, described by Karl Barth as the “Mystery and Miracle of Christmas”, should take place amid these wintry conditions.

As ever, Michael Lloyd’s chapter provided a helpful stimulus for further discussion. A number of areas were touched on, especially the all-important Christian understanding that Jesus was fully human and fully divine. Some groups thought about this in terms of Jesus’ childhood: was he a normal child?[1] Some groups thought about what this means in eternity – is the Jesus, now seated on the throne, still fully human and fully divine? The pastoral implications of the Incarnation were also highlighted: because Jesus Christ enters our “lostness” by coming alongside us, this offers us a template for supporting those in need. We also touched on other topics such as what it means to imitate Christ’s humility and whether the Incarnation would have happened without the Fall or not.

For the summary talk of the chapter, see here. As ever, any other thoughts and comments on this week’s material are welcome below.

[1] For an entertaining – although slightly spurious – perspective from the early Church, one can read the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Here is an up-to-date website from scholar, Tony Burke, with a translation: http://www.tonyburke.ca/infancy-gospel-of-thomas/the-childhood-of-the-saviour-infancy-gospel-of-thomas-a-new-translation/

 

Week 3: Providence

This week saw us explore an important, but perhaps, less-known area of Christian theology: the doctrine of Providence, which concerns God’s continued involvement in creation and His foreknowledge and foresight – although not in ways that are fatalistic or purely down to chance or luck. Instead, the doctrine of Providence allows for human co-operation and participation with God.

Naturally, this led us to think about the predestination versus free-will debate, and the question of whether God changes his mind. We touched on Scriptures such as God hardening Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus and how we might handle passages such as these. Among other things, it became apparent that: God’s providence leaves room for prayer and that prayer remains necessary; and that God is gracious in allowing second chances to respond to Him – as Michael Lloyd neatly says: “we are not on the scrapheap”.

For this week’s presentation, please click here.

If you have any other thoughts, comments or reflections from this week, please share below.

Next time, we shall be thinking about the Incarnation.

 

 

Week 2: Fall

Despite the best efforts of the church fire alarm, we had a fruitful and thought-provoking second week at Café Theology looking at the theme from the second chapter of Michael Lloyd’s book, Café Theology, on the Fall.

If you couldn’t make it or would like to listen again, the talk for this week is up on the St Nic’s website, here.

We discussed a number of issues in our small groups and all together at the end. A number of good points were raised including: the doctrine of the Fall providing hope and an opportunity to respond to suffering; and biologically, death being natural and necessary – but not, Christians believe, ultimately the end …  what else?

We spent a bit of time thinking about the position Michael Lloyd offers as an explanation of the Fall: the “Fall of the Angels Hypothesis”. Various aspects of this were challenged – particularly the scriptural basis. Here is one take on it; it would be interesting to hear others.

If you have any thoughts or comments, whether you were around on Monday or not, please feel free to share them below.

Week 1: Creation

Café Theology got off to a very encouraging start, with nearly forty people present on the opening evening. After an introduction to the course and Christian theology more generally, we started with the first chapter of Rev. Dr. Michael Lloyd’s book, Café Theology, on Creation. This generated some lively discussion on the science versus faith debate, how creation took place, and the function of divine revelation in creation, among other areas.

The presentation from the evening will appear here in due course: https://www.st-nics.org/Media/AllMedia.aspx.

You can also find the handout from the first week here too:

CT week 1 handout

Please feel free to share any further thoughts or reflections in the comments below.

If you attended, has anything else come to mind over the week that you wish to discuss?

If you couldn’t attend, but have read Lloyd’s chapter or have perhaps pondered aspects of the doctrine of Creation, what most strikes you about this area of Christian theology?