So much to write...so little energy!!
Wow...there's loads of stuff I want to blog about so going to have to do it a little bit at a time! So lets start with...The Miracles of Jesus!
This series with Rageh Omaar I'm finding intriguing at the moment! I'm not sure if i'm enjoying it yet though! There seem to be so many issues that as a Theology student i'd like to take issue with, some of the reactions that Jesus has to people and events, even how some of the events are portrayed I find questionable. Let me explain. One of the first things to hit me in the initial episode was the way in which the crowds were portrayed to be hassling, quite violently, for Jesus to feed them, whereas I, and other Christians I've spoken to, agree that Jesus did the feeding of the 5000 miracle as an act of compassion, not because He was pressured into it. Again, I and a friend questioned the thought that Jesus might collapse after raising someone from the dead, from the sheer physical, spiritual and emotional drain of it all.
Now despite the obvious brilliance that, well, at least they are discussing this stuff on relatively primetime TV, and on the whole, not doing too bad a job of it, something that I had been thinking about in the course of my research came to light here. It struck me that really, the things I found most at fault here were those that made me think, "I never imagined it to be quite like that!" I, as many, have been brought up with very traditional sunday school teaching, never really having to think about the nature of Jesus for myself, as i've always been told what it is! So now I would question, to what extent have my experiences and teaching, built up a concept of how I think things would have happened? Yes, maybe most of those are based on good historically based research, but we are creative and imaginative human beings, has my imagination made up for what my brain did not know or learn!?!

Our esteemed Principal at Cliff, Martyn Atkins, in his lectures on Preaching uses the term palimpsest. This is simply where a manuscript or artwork has been written on more than once, therefore the original is obscured, as preachers we must work through the layers of our own perceptions, our congregations perceptions, even history's perceptions, to get down to what the original scripture is trying to tell us. Maybe the same has happened here? My perceptions of how Jesus would look, act and react to situations are to some extent the result of palimpsest, and hence I have this reaction when I see something that doesn't necessarily sit right with me!

Well, the series has yet to finish, and it will be interesting to see the conclusion Rageh Omaar reaches, including considering his upbringing as a Muslim...we shall see!

R x