Category Archives: Uncategorized

Born of the Virgin Mary

December 25, 2014UncategorizedChristmas, Karl BarthMichael O'Neil

“Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary”

At the heart of the Christian faith is the mystery and miracle of Christmas, the miracle of the virgin birth testifying to the mystery of the incarnation (Barth). God has come to us as one of us. The birth of Jesus is the beginning of the new creation, the turning of the ages. It is wholly a work of grace, a work of God, a sign and a miracle of new life.

The miracle and the mystery continues in our life as well. Just as the Holy Spirit came upon and overshadowed Mary bringing forth a new and miraculous life, so the same Spirit of grace visits us, “for with God, nothing shall be impossible; be it unto me according to your Word” (Luke 1:37-38).

The grace of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you this Christmas and always.

Heaven Sent…

December 22, 2014UncategorizedChristmasMichael O'Neil

Last week was tough – Sydney, Cairns, Peshawar – tragic and terrible events which left me angry, sad, praying “Come, Lord Jesus…”

At the same time I have been listening to some Christmas albums, including one recorded by the talented crew at Lesmurdie Baptist a few years back entitled Heaven Sent. That is what Christmas is all about – about the gift heaven has sent to us. So much of what happens in the world cries out that God is absent, God is un-real, God does not care. Yet Heaven Sent God’s own Son, Emmanuel, God-with-us.

These carols, so familiar that we are tempted to neglect their incredible claim, remind us that God has not forsaken or forgotten us, but has come to us, forgiven us, made promise to us.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight …
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel

The Worldly Barth

October 17, 2014UncategorizedKarl BarthMichael O'Neil

By his mid-forties Barth was beginning his Church Dogmatics, watching the dissolution of the ‘Dialectical Theology’ group and the rise of National Socialism in Germany. In the midst of it all, Busch (220) notes:

Nevertheless, despite everything he always found time to join in playing Mozart string quartets – ‘discreetly in the background as a viola player.’ At the same time he ‘began to see e.g. Goethe in a new light, to read numerous novels (including many excellent examples of more recent English detective stories), to become a bad, but passionate horseman, and so on.’ ‘I cannot remember having lived so purposefully and so enjoyably in the earlier decades of my life – although these were very hard years.’ Indeed, he believed that ‘during these years I became simultaneously both very much more a man of the church and very much more worldly.’

Sheldon Cooper’s Fun with … Words

October 6, 2014UncategorizedMichael O'Neil

One website I find useful and sometimes visit just for interest or “fun” is dictionary.com. I keep the link in my toolbar because I often need to check the meaning or pronunciation of a word. The audio pronunciation function is a particularly useful feature. Sometimes, though, I go to check the meaning of the word and find this:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epexegetical

Annoying!

In this case I know what the word means in a periphrastic (use the dictionary!) kind of way, but wanted a clear, concise definition. What I got was the word as its own definition. As I said: Annoying!

At least with “periphrastic,”

a) I get a sufficient definition, and
b) there is an example to illuminate the use of the term.

But – fun with words – click on the definition where it says “like an epexegesis” and, Bazinga!, a better definition of sorts shows up.

Ignatius of Loyola on Unity

September 26, 2014UncategorizedIgnatius of Loyola, UnityMichael O'Neil

I liked this quote when I came across it recently during my devotional time. It is a little neo-Platonic, perhaps, but full of godly exhortation for all that!

“The most wonderful thing is unity with Jesus and with the Father. In him we shall partake in God if we firmly resist and flee all the arrogant attacks of the prince of this world. Unity of prayer, unity of supplication, unity of mind, unity of expectancy in love and in blameless joy: this is Jesus Christ and there is nothing greater than he. Flock together, all of you, as to one temple of God, as to one altar, to one Jesus Christ, who proceeded from the one Father, who is in the one and returned to the one.”

Ignatius of Loyola, cited in Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, 443f.

A Sunday Prayer

September 14, 2014UncategorizedPrayerMichael O'Neil

Eternal God and Father, by whose power we are created and by whose love we are redeemed: guide and strengthen us by your Spirit, that we may give ourselves to your service, and live this day in love to one another and to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(From: An Australian Prayer Book, 89)

Morning Prayer

August 15, 2014UncategorizedMichael O'Neil

I found this beautiful prayer in Isaiah 33:2 the other morning, and have prayed it each morning since:

O Lord be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.

Verses 5-6 of the same chapter have the following exhortation:

The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is His treasure.

New Creation – Part 2

June 23, 2014UncategorizedBirth, CreationMichael O'Neil

Judah - One week old in a bear hat — Boy and Bear. Judah, one week old and very, very special!

A few weeks ago I celebrated the birth of six cygnets in the pond outside our home in a post called New Creation. The cygnets are doing well; we thought we had lost one in the first couple of days, but discovered it was simply hiding out on mother’s back. Now they are growing quickly, people stop to ooh-and-ahh, and their little necks are beginning to lengthen.

Two weeks ago an even more wondrous birth occurred: that of Judah Alexander, our new – and first – grandson.

In that earlier post I cited from Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places; let me do so again (pp. 58-59):

God is the Creator and his most encompassing creation is human life, a baby. We, as participants in creation, do it too. When we beget and conceive, give birth to and raise babies, we are in on the heart of creation. Every birth is kerygmatic. There is more gospel in all those “begats” in the genealogical lists of our Scriptures … than we ever dreamed. … Birth, any birth, is our primary access to the creation work of God.

I was a latecomer to this firsthand experience common to most fathers today and common to the human race as a whole. Does anyone ever get used to this? I was captured by the wonder of life, the miracle of life, the mystery of life, the glory of life. … Nowhere I have ever been and nothing I have ever done in God’s creation rivals what I experienced in that birthing room. The setting was austere – antiseptic and functional – but the life, the sheer life, exploding out of the womb that night, transformed it into a place of revelation.

Welcome, Judah Alexander; you are very welcome indeed. May you be blessed of God all your days, and your parents with you.

New Creation

June 6, 2014UncategorizedCreationMichael O'Neil

These six little cygnets showed up in the pond outside our window this morning.

They are a reminder of the glorious beauty and bursting life of creation, a reminder of the goodness and hopefulness of creation. Of course, if I took Mr Cotton Socks, our equally grey and white and fluffy cat, down to the pond, we might see a different side of creation. Actually, our cat is such a scaredy-cat, the swans would probably chase him off…

Eugene Peterson writes in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, 51-52:

“Gratitude is our spontaneous response to all this: to life. Something wells up within us: Thank you! … The sheer wonder of life, of creation, of this place where we find ourselves alive at this moment, requires response, a thank you. … Wonder. Astonishment. Adoration. There can’t be very many of us for whom the sheer fact of existence hasn’t rocked us back on our heels. We take off our sandals before the burning bush. … Wonder is the only adequate launching pad for exploring a spirituality of creation, keeping us open-eyed, expectant, alive to life that is always more than we can account for, that always exceeds our calculations, that is always beyond anything we can make.”

This Week’s Web

April 4, 2014UncategorizedRoger OlsonMichael O'Neil

You’re Free to Toke Up, But…
The March editorial in Christianity Today acknowledges that the legalisation of marijuana in Colorado means that Christians can now choose to legally smoke the drug. But should they?

We at Christianity Today believe Christians are absolutely free to use marijuana (where legalized). And, when it comes to pot in our particular cultural context, we think it would be foolish to use that freedom.

When Jesus Said “Follow Me” Did He Mean “On Twitter”?
A lecture on Ethics and Social Networking by Roger Olson:

Like all technology, social networking technology, henceforth “SNT,” raises questions about what it means to be human, to be persons, to be good persons. The paradox of SNT is that it has the power to enhance community and to destroy community…. The ethical problems with SNT, including Facebook, lie not in the technologies themselves, of course, but in their subtle tendency to provide substitutes for real community and hospitality.

The Church and Civil Marriage
From First Things: Eight scholars and writers discuss whether religious institutions should get out of the marriage business.

Theology and Church

Scripture, Theology & the Obedience of Faith