21 hour working week

I am reading a report by the New Economics advocating moving to a 21 hour standard working week. Please follow the link and let me know what you think.

Halloween v Guy Fawkes: A friendly rejoinder

Good old Wikipedia!

It's interesting to compare the origins of these two festivals. But any festival can be filled and refilled with changing meanings as time and culture move forward. I suppose Christmas is a good example of a how a pagan holiday, with it's own meaning was refilled with Christian symbolism and has (arguably) now been hollowed out and refilled with shopping and 'only fools and horses'! While the origins and original purpose of each festival is important to understand, I suggest it is equally important to consider the contemporary interpretation too.

The contemporary interpretation of Guy Fawkes night (now increasingly referred to as Bonfire night) seems to me to be a family/friends/community embracing opportunity for fireworks and hot treats in what is otherwise one of the least fun months in the calendar. Perhaps the same can be said for Halloween. But the focus not simply on fantasy, but on fantasy symbolism of personified evil (witches, werewolves,devils etc), not to mention more material symbols of evil (like serial killers and assassins) surely must lead to questions about its desirability and concerns regarding it’s iconic place in our contemporary culture.

I am not suggesting that as Christians we should pretend Halloween doesn’t happen or to disengage from its reality: I’ve heard many Christians say they don’t believe in Halloween – you better believe it, because it exists! Rather I think the challenge is to engage constructively (and perhaps provocatively) with this festival: Affirming the goodness and fun of dressing up, the excitement of adopting a fantasy persona for a couple of hours, the thrill of being out on a dark night… acknowledging the symbolic struggle between good and evil, light and darkness: But without glorifying evil. I’m sure that is what our church’s party will be doing. As to your inspired choice of costume - Darth Vader, what character could better acknowledge the existence of an evil empire, while offering us all the hope of redemption and affirming the ultimate triumph of good!

Happy Halloween.

Halloween versus Guy Fawkes Night

As part of my current focus on Sabbaths and holidays as set out in Old Testament law, I have been thinking about the holidays and festivals celebrated by Christians here in the UK today.

A bigger revelation...

I 've recently written for the Missional Communities blog about "Discovering and Developing Missional Vision." Here’s what I posted…

What holds us back from discovering and developing missional vision?

Of course that's a very big question, no doubt with lots of big answers. None-the-less, I want to make just one suggestion.

The Great Financial Crisis: A Biblical Diagnosis

I came across this challenging article regarding the economic crisis and a Christian approach to finance. Food for thought...

Sabbath in the New Testament

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets: I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them” (Matthew 5:17). He then goes on to explain how laws about murder should be extended to anger and verbal abuse (the attitudes and behaviours that lead to murder in the most extreme cases) and how laws about adultery also extend to lustful thoughts. His point seems to be that it’s the spirit of the law not the letter of the law that really matters – and, if anything, the former sets the higher standards.

So what does this mean with respect to the Sabbath?

Sabbath in the Law of Moses

My blogging thus far has, by and large, followed the chronology of the Bible from creation to the exodus from Egypt, picking out stories which, in my view, have something to say about economics. I have now reached the point where God gives the law to Moses at the summit of Mount Sinai. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are chiefly concerned with setting out these laws. I will now turn my attention to the analysis of the law of Moses, as it pertains to the economic life of the people of Israel. I will take a thematic approach, assessing various elements of the law within the context in which they were given and attempting to draw out relevant applications for us today

My first theme is that of Sabbath rest. This theme centres around the fourth of the Ten Commandments: