The effect of hearing the story of Jesus’ transfiguration this morning — just before Lent — has the effect of framing the whole of Lent between two parallel stories. A story of Jesus going into a lonely mountainous place to pray, attended by his three closest friends: Peter; James; and John. A story in whichContinue reading “Rowan Williams on the Transfiguration”
Tag Archives: Rowan Williams
The clutching hand of the baby
Christmas is one of the great European exports. You’ll meet Santa Claus and his reindeer in Shanghai and Dar-es-Salaam; a long way from the North Pole. More seriously and less commercially, the story of the Nativity is loved even in non-Christian contexts (I discovered that one of the best and most sensitive recent film re-tellingsContinue reading “The clutching hand of the baby”
An indestructible energy making for love
At the heart of the desperate suffering there is in the world, suffering we can do nothing to resolve or remove for good, there is an indestructible energy making for love. If we have grasped what Jesus is about, we can trust that this is what lies at the foundation of everything. Rowan Williams, TokensContinue reading “An indestructible energy making for love”
What Christians can expect each other to take for granted
[The Creed] sets out what Christians can expect each other to take for granted. You might even say that it tells us why we can trust each other in the Christian community. We’re looking in the same direction, working with the same hopes and assumptions. Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust, p. 7
Where I find the anchorage of my life
‘I believe in God the Father almighty’ isn’t the first in a set of answers to the question, ‘How many ideas or pictures have I inside my head?’ as if God were the name of one more doubtful thing like UFOs and ghosts to add to the list of the furniture of my imagination. ItContinue reading “Where I find the anchorage of my life”
He believes; he has confidence
In John’s Gospel (the ninth chapter), Jesus asks the blind man he’s just cured whether he ‘believes’ in the Son of Man. He’s certainly not asking (as he might about the Loch Ness monster) whether the man is of the opinion that the Son of Man exists; he wants to know whether the former blindContinue reading “He believes; he has confidence”
He speaks to God, His Father, in a human voice…
Jesus takes our human nature—yours and mine—to the heart of God and he speaks to God his father in a human voice. In heaven the language they speak is human (not just angelic). Our words (human words) are heard at the very centre of the burning heart of reality. The Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams, sermon forContinue reading “He speaks to God, His Father, in a human voice…”
To Live a Forgiven Life
So to live a “forgiven” life is not simply to live in a happy consciousness of having been absolved. Forgiveness is precisely the deep and abiding sense of what relation—with God or with other human beings—can and should be; and so it is itself a stimulus, an irritant, necessarily provoking protest at impoverished versions ofContinue reading “To Live a Forgiven Life”
Locus Communis 