John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

Get Carter - mp3 available now!

Delighted to see that Greenbelt have today released the mp3s of the 2014 talks. My collaboration with Harry Bird and the Rubber Wellies, Get Carter, is downloadable here. You even get to listen to a one minute extract free!

The Parable of the King Who Failed to Keep Forgiving, or ‘What if the Messiah Came and Nothing Changed?’

The Parable of the King Who Failed to Keep Forgiving, or ‘What if the Messiah Came and Nothing Changed?’ - my talk today, in consideration of the people of Scotland this week making decisions about their political future; in rememberance of the complex life and leadership of the Reverend Ian Paisley; with thought for all those in our country who are saddled by debt, and the political arrangements which keep them there; in considering those nations we know who are ruled or threatened by unrestrained autocrats today ... Matthew 18.21-35 (without Matthew's commentary) has it all.

On crime, punishment, and the cross

... the most notable criminal in scripture is Jesus himself. That's always worth remembering in a religion which at times, tries to look so respectable that it obscures the truth at its heart. 

We might think that Jesus had done nothing wrong - but the authorities of his day did, and they criminalised him by holding a show trial - a trial held in public which wasn't intended to ensure that justice was done, but was intended to influence public opinion, to persuade the people that Jesus was a heretical troublemaker who threatened national security and who should be killed.

[This] brings us back to the heart of Jesus, who went to the cross as an act of love for us, to show the world that we are unconditionally loved and forgiven - whatever we do to God or to each other, to put an end to the power of sin in the world and in our lives. As a very old prayer goes, 

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you; Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Notice the major difference between sin and judgement, repentance and forgiveness, before and after Jesus. The old law says repent, so that you may then be forgiven; Jesus says you are unconditionally loved and forgiven - and knowing this may cause you to repent. ...

- from today's talk, On crime, punishment, and the cross.