BlackPhi Webitorial Ramblings

Comment & Opinion From A Christian's Perspective

Narnia - Posted 4th January, 2006

Oh dear. This film might have been an entertaining combination of CS Lewis's ideas with the sparkle of Disney magic. Instead we have the thinness of Lewis's plotting and characterisations cruelly exposed, even exaggerated, by a poor script and very poor directing, with the plastic sheen of corporate Disney providing a tacky overlay.

Amazing special effects, exciting adventures and Christian content were promised, but are never delivered. The movie apparently cost £85 million to make: for that you get talking animals and warm frost, a cartoon Blitz and an underwhelming final battle, a far-from-awesome Aslan being browbeaten by the White Witch, and a very bored Phil Blackburn. At 2 hours and ten minutes this was far from the longest film I have seen this year, but it certainly felt longer. To me it looked as though this was envisaged as "only a children's film" so they didn't bother to do it properly.

Is there anything good I can say about this film? Yes, a bit: Georgie Henley was appealing as Lucy Pevensie; the film's Christian reputation gives churches an opportunity to talk about Jesus to movie-goers (see rejesus for example); and my nine-year-old daughter enjoyed the film enough to want to read the book. None of which is enough to alter my opinion that this is the worst film I have seen at the cinema in years.

Have you seen The Chronicles of Narnia? What do you think? Do you agree with me, or did you like it? Let me know.

The Real Meaning of Christmas? - Posted 31st December, 2005

Almost a week on from Christmas Day, and I'm just about recovered from the exhaustion of the preparations. I've not even looked at the financial hit yet, but I guess that will take a little longer to recover. A normal Christmas then. Actually, a good Christmas: I enjoy seeing the excitement of the kids in the run-up to Christmas, and on Christmas Day itself; I enjoy buying far too many presents; and I enjoy eating traditional food, and lots of it. I also enjoyed the Carol Service (in spite of quibbles recorded in an earlier post), the Nativity Play, and Midnight Mass.

Again, though, this year I am left with the feeling that I have been too busy, that I have missed out on taking time to reflect. The Midnight Mass service was the first real opportunity to take in the enormity of it all: God become man, the Saviour of the world born in a stable, the real meaning of Christmas.

Hmm, the 'real meaning of Christmas' - there's a phrase I hear a lot, in church and out of church. Sometimes the 'real meaning of Christmas' is families, sometimes it is looking after those less fortunate, sometimes it is having fun, sometimes it is following tradition. In church circles there is a recent fashion of saying that the real meaning of Christmas is Easter, sigh (yes, I can see what they're getting at, but it still misses the point).

Actually, in the traditional church calendar, Christmas is twelve days long, starting from Christmas Day. The busy time before Christmas is Advent - a time of preparing for Christmas. That makes sense to me: Christmas Day onward does give time and space to consider the Christ-child - particularly if you are able to get the week off between Christmas and New Year.

If you think about that first Christmas, surely the stress and busyness and exhaustion are actually rather appropriate. Mary and Joseph desperately trying to find shelter before the baby is born, travelling in difficult and overcrowded conditions, finally find a place to rest - even if it is only a stable - just in time for the miracle of new birth to occur. Then there is a time of quiet, a few wondering visitors, a day trip to Jesusalem, before the rush starts again as they escape to Egypt.

Maybe we shouldn't be looking for the real meaning of Christmas in "if only's", certainly not in pious platitudes, religious or secular. Maybe the place to look for the Christ-child is in the busyness and stress of our real lives. Surely that is where Jesus waits, that is when we need to invite him in.

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Taking Christ Out Of Christmas? - Posted 23rd December, 2005

There's been a lot of fuss in the media this year about bureaucrats and overly 'PC' companies supposedly banning Christmas. It seems that here in the UK this is just one of those pieces of media hype, but over in the USA it does seem to be a reality, with even President Bush sending a greeting card that omits Christmas!

What really worries me, though, is that several US evangelical megachurches are cancelling their Sunday services because it's Christmas Day! Their argument seems to be that Christmas is a family time, so they want to be at home with their families. As one responder to the blog wrote: "Whose birthday is it anyway?"

Part of the problem, it seems, is that services in many megachurches are so huge and complex that they take hours to set up and take down again. Hmm, note to self: if anyway ever asks me for guidance in building a megachurch, remember to include a side-chapel for small, simple services. It is actually possible to worship God without a full, heavily-rehearsed, multi-media 'worship experience'. Honest!

You may be happy to hear that here at Caversham Baptist we will be holding a service on Christmas morning, at 10:30am. Reasonably short, cheerful and simple - a chance to remember whose birth we are celebrating. Come and join us.

Update: Terry Mattingly has presented the US megachurches' response to the criticism in his weekly column. I still think they're missing the point somehow, but maybe this is a 'real meaning of Christmas' issue; I plan to write something about that shortly. Incidentally, the CBC Christmas morning service was as promised: fairly short, child-friendly and great fun.

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Bowlderisation or Corrective Surgery? - Posted 21st December, 2005

It was a good carol service this year, probably the best for a few years, but ...

I like Mission Praise, although it is starting to show its age: I like the way it combines the best of old and new. However, at this time of year it has a problem. Some of the Christmas carols have been altered before inclusion, notably O Come All Ye Faithful. Compare the well-known version in Songs of Fellowship (click here) with the version in Mission Praise (click here and page down until you find it - Acrobat Reader needed). Then ask yourself, "Why?".

The problem is that there is an implicit agreement in a carol service: visitors get a chance to sing some well-know and well-loved songs; the church gets a chance to tell the Gospel. If carols are sung in strange versions, the church is not keeping its side of the bargain; why should visitors then listen to what we have to say about Jesus?

A short while later we came to Once in Royal David's City, and my argument breaks down. If ever a song called for severe editing, it is this piece of sentimental Victorian tosh. "Christian children all must be mild, obedient, good as He", indeed! Where in Scripture does it say that Jesus missed out on the Terrible Two's, and all the other trials of childhood? Actually, I think this song is beyond amendment. It is basically a children's song, but most children these days don't know it, so it would be better to cut it out, tear it up, burn it, scatter the ashes, and replace it with a song they do know, maybe Come and Join the Celebration.

Don't get my comments out of proportion. These are quibbles really, and there was a lot of good singing going on. There was also a good piece from a scratch four-part choir, and the music group played and sang a really good song written by our very own Martyn Strong. Nevertheless, I wonder if I am the only one who finds bowlderised versions of well-loved songs a turn-off?

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Introduction

When I started these Ramblings I was editor of the Caversham Baptist Church website, and the idea was to try to breathe a bit of life into that website by having a section of comment and opinion which was topical and, hopefully, interesting to a wider range of people than simply church members.

In practice it was felt that there were too many problems with having an opinion column associated with a church website, so the Ramblings have been separated off into my own area. Also, I have handed on editorial responsibility for the church website itself. Now the only link between these Ramblings and Caversham Baptist Church is that I am a church member at CBC. In particular, opinions expressed within these pages are purely my opinions or opinions I have chosen to include: they in no way claim to represent the views of Caversham Baptist Church itself.

So what is the purpose of these Ramblings now? I've been mulling this over whilst I have been on holiday. I still hope that they remain topical and interesting to a wider audience, and I would still encourage anyone in the Caversham or Reading area to pop in one Sunday to see us (there's a picture of me here if you want to say hello - although I'm not really that orange). But I also think these Ramblings are basic applied theology.

Within a church context it is all too easy to quote scripture and throw around churchey words and assume that we are thereby saying something meaningful about God. Too often by doing this we are simply following well-worn mental grooves and failing to engage in anything more useful than an Us and Them comfort session. If these scriptures and these ideas are real, then it should be possible to express them in plain English, at least in summary, and to apply them to topical issues and real-life situations. That, at heart, is what these Ramblings attempt to do.

Unfortunately, I am no Saul of Tarsus (aka the Apostle Paul). He wrote a big chunk of the New Testament in response to problems churches were having and practical issues they were facing. In doing so he articulated the most wonderful theology: about Jesus, about salvation and about what it means to be a church. Sadly these Ramblings have no chance of achieving those heights, but just maybe they might catch a few peoples' interest and possibly spark the occasional insight into God's work in the world and in our lives.

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