Baptism, Communion, Bible

Wow... has it seriously been that long since I was last here? Well, no, it's not. You were all denied the privilege if a highly informative post at the beginning of reading week (roughly 9th October) giving a run-down of all the vital stats, pages of books read, volume of notes written etc. With hindsight I am glad it did not work...

Currently I am in the throws of hurling myself from one mid-term to the next with attempts at research for a couple of papers due. One is a comparison of leadership structures in the Celtic church and Roman church in the 7th century, and the other is on soteriology in the early medieval church, zooming in on the role baptism played in that. Interesting...

I feel that the way in which I interact with fellow Christians has been challenged and changed when discussing issues that have tension. My stance usually was attack/defensive. But not so now, in large part because I took that up once early on in the term and feel incredibly embarrassed looking back on it. The other part is that there is a real richness in listening graciously and attempting to interact with other ideas. For example, Communion, the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper or whatever you will call it. I am unsure where I sit on this right now...but have met several people who firmly believe in the physical presence of Christ in the elements. I would have got up on my haunches previously, but this time I heard what they were saying and was really challenged as to how I view Communion. It may sounds very simple, in my description of the interaction, but to me it was very profound and one day I may even disclose further where I am with this!

One last thought. If you have never just picked up the Old Testament and read it as a narrative (using a good book to help you out with the context, "How to Read the Bible For All its Worth" by Fee & Stuart) you should DEFINITELY think about forcing yourself to do it, as big a chunk as you can manage at a time. Don't worry about the detail, don't worry about trying to find something in every verse that 'speaks' to you. Read the story and get to grips with the flow of it, God's choosing and loving and redeeming. I trust that if you do this God will speak in fresh ways. Don't hear this from a bible-college guy (I don't want to be that guy), but Iain who struggles to pick up the Bible and is more skeptical than he ever lets on.