Back from Spring Harvest - so cream crackered that I can barely focus!
We had an excellent, very busy week. The highlight was hearing Tom Wright (yes, that's right, the Bishop of Durham, no less) expounding the Nazareth sermon of Luke 4 in the light of its Isaianic background and fulfilment in the Acts of the Apostles ('a very buzzy book'), all focused on the Kingdom of God. It was utterly blistering!
The amazing thing was that as he came into land - and I was wondering for at least two thirds of it, how he was going to apply all this to his audience - you could sense a sudden in-take of breath all over the big top as people realised that this was about them. We all have Nazareth's in which we're called to proclaim the Kingdom of God; in some of them we'll be thrown off the cliffs by the antagonistic; are we up for it? More important, do we know the message and are we filled with the Spirit of the messenger? Amazing!
The response was big. I prayed with three or four people, two of whom were ministers going back to really difficult situations who had found Tom's message nurturing and nourishing and wanted strength for the fray.
That's why I love being on the pastoral team at Spring Harvest.
Elsewhere, I did a seminar on self-esteem that seemed to go really well - 200+ turned up for it and lots stayed around to chat afterwards. And on the final evening Jeff Lucas was the best I've ever heard him - funny, theologically deep and sharp in terms of application.
It was great to work with a group of people that Linda and I have worked with for the past six or seven years. We laugh and cry together in roughly equal measure - though a good deal of the crying is tears of laughter! We'll do it all again next year, I hope.
Now it's back to papers and emails and catching up with what's been happening here.
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3 comments:
Ooh, I would have loved to have heard that! (I've been a Luke-4-one-trick-pony for a while now.)
Did Wright talk about Jubilee and how/if it is applied today?
I completely agree with everything you said Simon. I could hardly believe that 35 mins sped by in ....seconds.....as the message gathered pace and then landed full square ..with us.....to do the things that Jesus did; to be part of the fulfilling of the kingdom.
Graham, you can buy a recording of the talk at www.essentialchristian.com. I think specifically its
http://www.essentialchristian.com/advanced_search_result.php?ali_Field2=10&ali_Field3=2008&ali_Field4=Spring+Harvest+Wk+3+Skegness&from=drill_down&categories_id=&cPath=1&sort=xa
and the talk was "Hope Where We're Known" (but check that's correct before ordering)
Yes, he did talk about Jubilee and I'm afraid that I was scribbling so fast that I didn't get all the info so I don't want to post something incorrect; hence my need to buy the recording!!
Hey Simon, Hope you are enjoying your sabbatical. Just found out that the NT Wright talk that I heard at Worship Central is online. You can listen to it here
http://www.worshipcentral.org/news/n-t-wright-live-at-worship-central
It might not be anything new to you, but just thought I'd share it.
- Shelley
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