Scorpions in Rugby

Mel and I went for a walk round our estate the other day and saw what looked very like 2 scorpions on our journey. About 2-3cm across, complete with raised stinger thing.

I looked it up and apparently the British ones don't sting very often. I was surprised to find out that we had them at all.

The Joys of Scrumping

Being Yorkshire I've always been keen on free stuff, especially food. Today Mel, Mum, Dad and I managed to grab an assortment of blackberries, crab apples, sloes and elderberries, to make enough jam and crumbles to last us until Christmas, and festive drinks to go beyond it.

Here's to the Great British footpath and all the joys it yields.

Ontological Change

Since being ordained I have
- Become, on the whole, much better at remembering people's names
- Had sweaty pits much more often

Bit of a curate's egg, that.

All fall down

Yesterday, in a lecture about death, stood in front of a class of 25, in apparent comedy timing, I inexplicably blacked out. The first thing I said when I came to 20 or so seconds later and realised what had happened was "That's so embarrassing."

I hope it doesn't happen again.

Kettle's Yard

As one of the many things we're trying to cram into our last few weeks in Cambridge, we visited the art gallery cum house Kettle's Yard last Friday. I didn't enjoy all the art but what I did like was the relaxed atmosphere of home mixed with art, which the one time owner Jime Ede had as a philosophy. The leaflet says:

"At Kettle's Yard Jim finally realise dhis vision of art as part of everyday life, alongside natural objects and household items. He hoped that in the house people would 'find a home and a welcome, a refuge of peace and order, of the visual arts and music...a continuing way of life...in which stray objects, stones, glass, pictures, sculpture' are arranged 'in light and space'."

Quite inspiring, really.

2 down 1 to go

Nice feeling to hand in 12,000 words yesterday. A 'no but just' job as my mum would say, though. Handed in at the last available moment, as always.

The next and final major one is due in in 2 weeks - postmodernity and ethics. I'm watching the Jeremy Kyle show as research for it - honest!

What is emergent?

Nicely done 10 minute overview of the emerging church (above).

What do I think of all things 'emergent'. My short answer at present is that I don't know. I've heard and read some inspiring things - particularly about effective ways of reaching young adults beyond the church - but I've also heard a few wishy washy, theologically lazy things as well.

People from a more 'conservative' background, like Don Carson and John Piper, have been trying to define and critique the movement, largely as a threat, and in some cases they may have a point. But I worry that this sense of needing to have two neat boxes to put everything into - 'sound' or 'dodgy' - is kind of missing the point a bit.

I rejoice when I see Christ being preached in ways that relate well to people, and I draw inspiration (and nick ideas) where I can, but I don't agree with everything I hear. People who have been put off by a negative experience of church might need a label like 'Emergent' to run to, but I hope after a while people can learn to stop defining themselves by what they're not, and that goes for everybody.

Alun Weel!

Last Friday two things happened. One, I braved my first trip to a scrap yard, and two, I saw Alun Cochrane at the Junction. As is often the case with comedy, the second experience interpreted the first pretty well.

Alun introduced us to the concept of 'twat tax', the levy self-imposed by doing something incredibly stupid. In his case this was filling a diesel people carrier up with unleaded petrol. The result: £188.50 in 'twat tax'. In my case it’s usually getting parking tickets through losing track of time, but recently it was skidding my car in the snow and buckling a wheel.

Last time I there was something wrong with the car I was annoyed to find it cost over £100 for something I could probably have done myself if I’d been a bit more of a man. This time I decided both to invest in manly qualities and try to get a ‘twat tax’ reduction by going to a scrappers.

Strange place, really. A farmers field in a village in the fens, with tractors and mud and all, only full of cars rather than cows. I managed to pick up a new wheel with a good tyre for a tenner which was a pretty good result all round. It left me thinking how much other car-related stuff I could spend less on if I invested a bit more time and interest into things mechanical.

For example, my Dad says servicing your own car is a doddle if you know what you’re doing, and would probably save me about £100 every six months or so. Over a few decades that kind of money mounts up.

But what about the time involved, to learn as well as do? And will I turn into one of those blokes who’s permanently tinkering around in the garage rather than watching TV or writing my sermon? Back to Alun Cochrane, whose mate’s catchphrase is ‘you can do it yer sen!’ Why pay a decorator, a Corgi approved engineer or a man in a boiler suit when you can do it yer sen?

Where there’s muck there’s brass, they say – the question is how mucky do I want to get?

Beat Box Chef - who's the funk daddy?

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Holiday-ay

It could be, it could be so nice. Well it could have been, if it hadn't been so flippin freezing. Mind you, who goes to Clacton on Sea in March anyhow? In fact who goes to Clacton on Sea at all?

Actually it was a nice break, all the better that Mel's parents paid for a free upgrade from tent (which was going to be our residence) to hotel. It might be warm this week, but last week was still hat scarf gloves waether even when the sun was out. Nice to visit one of Mel's old childhood haunts, too.

A week of nostalgia all round, as it happens, as I went to a corridor reunion at Warwick Uni - the last event no less before they knock the place down. Nice to see everyone, catch up and down my first strawpedo in nearly a decade (actually I had 3 - didn't know they still sold Reef.)

Then back to St Paul's on the Sunday - nice to see lots of new faces among the familiar ones. Not long now before the return to Warwickshire.

Here Beginneth Phase 2

...thinking it might just have been an internet fad, but...

...keep thinking of things I'd like to put on here...

...has to be a more worthwhile use of time than Age of Empires, Ebay and cricinfo...

More about Hell

Actually "More about Hell" is a lie, because I've not blogged about it before - Jon Potts has.

Mark Wood (recently married - yay!) emailed me a link to the website helltruth.com and asked for some comments on it. Basically it's a really cheesy site (plus online pamphlet) talking about the "biblical truth" about hell in a pretty fundamentalist fashion. However what's really interesting is that it opposes the idea of hell being a place of everlasting torment, arguing instead that "the bible says" it's only heaven which is eternal.

I can think of 4 pretty distinct positions you can take on hell:

1. Ultra-Liberal: hell is a made up place as is heaven - Christianity is about transformation in this life, which is all we have
2. Universalist: Jesus' redemption was for the whole of humanity, and therefore we all join him in heaven
3. Mediaval Catholic: Hell is a place of everlasting torment for those who have been particularly bad, or for the unevangelised. Most people get to have but have to work pretty hard after death to get there.
4. Evangelical Protestant: Hell is a place of everlasting torment for those who have not accepted Christ as personal saviour
5. Annihilationist: God judges us all, but the punishment of those who have not accepted Christ is eternal death, i.e. they cease to be.

There's also the question, of course, about whether you get any influence in where you go after death, but we'll leave that for another day. 1 we can reject if we call ourselves Christians. 2 is a possibility, but it doesn't seem to do justice to the need for justice with God. 3 and 4 are pretty similar in some ways, but if we look at somewhere like Britain today it's way harsher for most people! 5 is what the website is advocating. It doesn't do it in a very convicing way, but that's the one I'd go for.

Here's what I've been thinking. Greek thought thought of body and soul as separate things, the first temporal, the second eternal. When you die, the soul becomes free from the body, but cannot cease to exist as it is eternal - it has to go somewhere. The church eventually took this thinking on board and came up with "the great divide", some going to eternal punishment, others to eternal bliss.

This doesn't seem to be there very much in the bible. There is very little mention in the OT of heaven or hell – it seems that before Jesus immortality and eternity are things which distinguish God from humanity. Eternal life is something which comes as a promise with Jesus, inviting us to participate in the life of God. Instead of being created immortal, we are created with the potential to become immortal, which is realised fully through faith in Christ. Christ thus both models our ascent to God and makes it possible through the resurrection. I think this is what Paul is going on about in 1 Cor 15:42-57.

That still leaves a few difficult passages in the gospels to have a think about, but it seems there is a path between forgetting God's judgement completely and damning everyone to eternal torment. Hurrah for that!

Rich is...

...pondering why he really can't be arsed with blogging at the moment, but is sure he'll rediscover his interest the next time he gets really narked off about something.

I guess that means things are generally ok in the Burls camp.

Good old summer festivals

V or Leeds, Leeds or V? In years gone by V festival and Leeds/Reading were quite similar kettles of fish. Whilst at one extreme V would have the odd Kylie or Dido, and at the other Leeds would make up for it with Marilyn Manson or Nine Inch Nails, in the middle all the bands were pretty similar.

This year, having seen who was headlining, we decided to go for Leeds, but once the full rockin' line-up was announced we realised we might have made a bit of a mistake. Since I last went the dance tent has become a hardcore punk tent, and, avoiding everything emo and nu metal (obviously) the only thing left to watch seems to be a relentless list of guitar bands which all sound the same.

Key V. Whilst for someone reared on Britpop the idea of watching Ocean Colour Scene, Jarvis Cocker, Happy Mondays and Primal Scream consecutively on the same stage sounds fun, some of the best new bands are there as well, plus a bit more variety, with Corinne Bailey Ray etc for Mel too.

What I want to know is - which line-up would you plum for? Am I just getting old and middle of the road, or has Leeds/Reading gone a little bit too far this year?

Click below for more details:

Leeds or V Stafford?

Balti with the Burleys

Boring post, but potentially useful for Cambridge dwellers:

Since coming to Cambridge, in a sort of quite geeky way, Mel and I have been on a mission to eat at every curry house in the city. There's 3 we haven't got to yet, and 14 we have (I think).

For anyone who's interested these are the best and the worst:

Top 3:

1. Curry Garden (Regent Street, on corner near Catholic church)
2. Curry Queen (Mill Road)
3. Pipasha (Newmarket Road, opposite football stadium)

Bottom 2:

1. India House (it's near to Ridley but going somewhere else is worth the effort)
2. Nirala (city end of Milton Road)

What was particularly fun was going to Nirala and Curry Queen within a few days of each other and ordering the same dish. One genuine Nagpur, the other authentic Netto's.

Thou Shalt always Kill - Dan Le Sac VS Scroobius Pip

Paddy showed me this at the weekend. Quality!