Gospel Debate

In the August issue of Life and Work which I received yesterday (and much enjoyed) I was much saddened to read the letter from Mr Alex Glen of Sandyford Henderson Church, Glasgow regarding what he termed ‘The Gospel of Christ’. He uses the words ‘the orthodox Gospel of repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ, whose substitutionary death on the cross atones for our sins, makes us right with God and gives us eternal life’. This view has long been held by much of the Church, especially in Scotland. It is not, however, the only reasonable interpretation of the Scriptures.

This is not the place to develop a detailed theological argument, but I am very concerned that the doctrine outlined in Mr Glen’s letter be seen both inside and outside the wider Church as an unchallengeable view of the essence of the Gospel. Careful reading of the four Gospels can lead to other interpretations.

What emerges clearly for me from such a reading is that Christ came to challenge Judaic orthodoxy, and that He was put to death in the first instance because of the effectiveness of that challenge to the religious establishment in Jerusalem.

The essence of His teaching – that we should love God, our neighbours, and indeed our enemies with our whole beings – is to my mind the real Gospel. Forgiveness of sins by the Father is in this context not conditional on Christ’s substitutionary death but as taught by Christ in the Lord’s Prayer, on our forgiving one another. What Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection, did, I believe, was to deliver a ringing endorsement of his teachings about our relationship with God the Father and with each other. The gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost provides us with the power to live as nearly as possible the life He set out in his teaching.

That is for me the redemptive power of the Gospel. John R Hume, Glasgow

Alex Glen wants the Church of Scotland to stay closer to the authentic Gospel and sums it up as “repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ, whose substitutionary death on the cross atones for our sins” (Letters, August). Although this Pauline view has helped many, it is not found in the Gospels. More than that, it is not the good news (‘gospel’) which Jesus sent his disciples out to preach. They spread the message of the Kingdom of God, calling us and breaking in upon us; an inclusive Kingdom, challenging, caring and compassionate. This Kingdom can certainly involve repentance and faith in God, as it is underpinned by the unconditional love of God, exemplified by Jesus in his life and death.

We don’t need to follow Paul in believing that, if it were not for the death of Jesus, God would have destroyed us all. Alex mentions alcohol addiction, as a particular concern. As with the Prodigal Son, salvation lies in returning to the Father, whose love is the power that saves and transforms human life. Graham Hellier (Rev), Marden, Hereford

‘New Emphasis With God’

Ron Ferguson has the habit of putting his finger on a crucial point. (July issue 2017)

Modern society is dominated by technology which consumes the time and energies of many people. But this statement hides the extraordinary hunger for meaning which also gives anxiety to mankind. With the focus on material desires, and the consumption of time, (Editorial, July issue) man has lost the ability and understanding that expresses this search for meaning. In a real sense there is a danger that man is dead!

Think of the beauty of the Psalms and hymns and the joys expressed therein and the loss from our modern culture is painful.

There is no need for this since we need to understand that God is an experience rather than an explanation as He is considered to be in the futile arguments between science and religion.

We experience God during discovery in science and during creative works in literature and the arts.

We express our discoveries in terms different from those in the hymns but the feeling of wonder is the same.

What if we live close to Christ, as Ron suggests, and see each person as a sacred and holy being and learn to bless each one as Christ did. Then we would rediscover the old forms of expression that we are losing as relevant to modern life and this will join with the new experience of God in creative work. God then inspires modern man to form communities of love which is a New Reformation and a new Christianity, and with the person of Christ at the centre.

This is a new emphasis with God discovered in the personal encounter, as emphasised in a heroic way by Franz van der Lugt. We will find that God is very much alive and can be experienced with joy and can work with us again.

John Kusel, Cumbernauld

Fringe Experience

I was very interested in your article in the August edition highlighting the links between the Church of Scotland and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

My wife and I visited the Fringe for the first time this year and enjoyed several days of varied and stimulating entertainment (chosen on impulse) at a range of venues throughout the city. It so happened that the venue for our final two performances was at the Assembly Hall on the Mound. As we entered the courtyard I was intrigued to behold the statue of John Knox on the left staring straight at the busy refreshment stall on the right – clearly eyeing up the ‘demon drink’!

Our first performance, China Goes Pop, took place in the Assembly Hall itself and featured a troupe of very talented Chinese acrobats, jugglers etc. making full use of the large semi-circular stage. At one point two of the performers were circling in great sweeps over the audience – I had this vision of the Moderator clutching on to the coat-tails of the Principal Clerk as he sailed on Cloud 9 during Assembly Week!

However, the most memorable moments were still to come. The second performance was entitled the Chamber Pot Opera and featured three female artistes singing a selection of full-on operatic arias (with altered words) in Italian – to a maximum audience size of 12 (we soon discovered why!).

We were met at the foot of the Assembly Hall steps and led inside – straight into the ladies’ loo adjacent to the Hall! Here we witnessed the entire performance jammed against one wall with three cubicles on our right and three washbasins to our left – myself and three other blokes had to stand for the entire 45 minutes!

The artistes entered singly and revealed their tales in song (with words in English projected on to the ceiling) – the first was suicidal following domestic abuse, the second was high (on Prosecco) after a first date and the third was celebrating a job promotion.

By the end of the performance all left happily to get on with life – in stark contrast to ourselves still shell-shocked from the whole surreal experience! John Knox must indeed have been ‘birling’ in his grave!

Roy Anderson, (Session Clerk at Forres: St Leonard’s Church)

Book Recomendations

On his Facebook page the Moderator of the General Assembly “highly recommended” The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World’s Largest Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian by Brian McLaren (2016), a leading figure in the emerging church movement. I most certainly agree with his opinion that it is a “terrific and challenging read”.

May I, in turn, suggest to Dr Browning that he tries to find time, in this most busy of years, to read Days of Awe And Wonder: How to be a Christian in the twenty-first century by Marcus Borg (2017) the late New Testament scholar, progressive theologian and author. I seriously believe that if read widely these books of McLaren and Borg could make a significant contribution to the urgent task of changing the way the faith is perceived and understood in the 21st century, surely the most significant challenge facing the Church in the years ahead. McLaren suggests that “unsettling but needed voices are arising – prophetic voices, we might call them, voices of change, hope, imagination and new beginnings.”

We must listen to these voices, Borg and McLaren prominent among them.

John Milne. Uddingston

The recent republication of Roger Penrose’s Roads to Reality is to be welcomed by all interested in the religion and science debate. Along with a brilliant illustration (God as old man with flowing beard!) he demonstrates with powerful academic reasoning how some pretty intricate engineering had to happen to produce the very special Big Bang we know about.

Those who wrestle with the traditional proofs for the existence of God will be grateful for this very convincing demonstration of the Creator at work.

The Rev Andrew McLuskey. Staines

Cartoon: Bill McArthur

Clerical Collar Debate

Can someone tell me why most of the present ministers of the Church of Scotland do not wear clerical collars any more? Are they afraid of being recognised and spoken to?

Even at really special occasions – weddings and funerals – if one does not know the minister personally, there is no way of picking him or her out as one.

Margaret Bennett, Birsay, Orkney

‘One and Only’

In response to the letter ‘End ‘Demon Stigma’ in the June issue, as a pastoral care visitor who has experienced mentall illness, I have the privilege of being alongside others and listening to their stories.

I don’t tell them mine, or say that I know how they feel. The church has some good talkers, but when the church goes to the people, what she needs the most are good listeners.

There’s still a stigma surrounding people with mental illness, it’s just fear and ignorance, ignorance is coming out of the shadows, but fear still lurks behind. Chesney Hawkes had a one-hit wonder with ‘I am the one and only’. If you’ve ever heard it or read the lyrics, you won’t wonder why.

To a Lord that loves each and every one of us, as though there was only one to love, we are His one and only.

Heather Kirkpatrick, Dalry, Ayrshire

Pleasure of Bells

Bells have always been a part of the Church.

How in many a village, town and city the bell or bells ring from clock tower and steeple.

How I love to have heard the bells of historic St John’s Kirk in Perth or listening to the sound ring out over the River Tay in Dunkeld from the Cathedral; how Kirk bells play such a a part in the life of a community.

For many it is the sound of home, especially in a village and, on various occasions the bells added to the celebration.

In past times the kirk bell would solemnly peal at a funeral when the cortege passed the cemetery gate and, in happier times, welcoming the bride to the kirk door.

But how we in Bankfoot miss our bell after the former parish kirk fell victim to fire and the bell was heard for the last time as it fell amidst the flames.

The church centre at Tullybelton, which replaces the former kirk, is minus one addition and that is a bell. Indeed for so many the sound of a bell or bells is important.

Thomas Brown, Bankfoot, Perthshire

Luther Anniveresary

Mindful of the upcoming Martin Luther anniversary on October 31, I hope this St Andrews-centric chronology for the aftermath may be helpful. 95 theses in Wittenberg in 1517 initiated a cocktail of responses, some violent, some divisive, some destructive and some constructive.

In 1525 John Major (Mair) left St Andrews for Paris as did his star pupil George Buchanan (1506-1582). Major returned to St Andrews to serve as Principal of St Salvator’s College (1534-1550). In 1523, Patrick Hamilton was martyred in St Andrews. In 1538, Marie de Guise married King James V in the Cathedral, still decorated and roofed in Scotland’s ecclesiastical capital.

George Wishart was martyred in March 1546, followed by the murder of Archbishop David Beaton after protesting nobles occupied his castle in May 1546. John Knox joined them in the spring of 1547. Loyal Scottish forces failed to recapture the castle although a mine and counter-mine were excavated. The tower of St Salvator’s was used as a cannon emplacement. The castle was taken by a French fleet in July 1547. John Knox was then a galley slave for two years In England, Henry VIII died in 1547. In July 1548, Mary, Queen of Scots, sailed to France from Dumbarton Rock.

John Knox returned to Scotland briefly in 1555, leaving for Geneva where in 1558 he published ‘the First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women’. In England Elizabeth I reigned from 1558, after Edward and Mary Tudor. Knox returned to Scotland in 1559. In 1571 he taught at St Andrews. His pupils included James Melville, nephew of Andrew Melville, the great reformer of both church and universities. Knox died in 1572.

Meantime in Europe, George Buchanan tutored Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) who was a student in Bordeaux for six years from 1539. From 1548, Hugenots became established and numerous in France. Their first stranger church was established in London in 1550. Montaigne, with estates and vineyards from 1568 was a loyal catholic and joined Royalist forces in 1572 for two years. Rouen in Normandy had been retaken from the Hugenots. The St Bartholomew’s Day massacre took place on August 24 1572. Montaigne published his voluminous essays in 1580 and promoted them on a European tour which included a meeting in Rome with Pope Gregory XIII.

George Buchanan, after moving around Europe and having a brush with the Spanish Inquisition, returned to Scotland in 1560 with the court of the widowed Mary, Queen of Scots. Moderator in 1567, the year of her deposition, he served as Principal of St Leonard’s College, St Andrews, from 1566 to 1570, resigning to tutor the very young King James VI in Stirling Castle for eight years.

On Sunday October 1 2017, St Columba’s Pont Street makes its contribution to ‘A year of Reform in London’. On October 31, Westminister Abbey hosts an ecumenical service at noon. There is also a special service in St Andrews.

J Michael Buchanan, London

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