Celebrate Pentecost this Sunday
Mark Woods at the Bible Society writes: "After the Ascension of Jesus, the disciples went into a strange time of waiting. All their old routines had broken down; they knew they had a message to share, but they weren’t sure what it was, and they didn’t know what was going to happen next.
"This Sunday the Church in the West celebrates Pentecost. In Acts 2 we read: ‘they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.' (The Message)
"And the rest is history."
Here are some resources for today ...
Normal People, Normal God?
‘It’s the most relatable thing I’ve ever seen.’
Such was my housemate’s review of Normal People, the BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s bestselling novel, and what finally convinced me to watch it. Twelve half-hour episodes later, I can confirm: she was right.
When I was growing up, I inexplicably longed for a film or a book or a TV series that contained no real drama. No deaths, no explosive break-ups, no extraordinary wealth or unbelievable meet-cutes… just something that showed life as it is.
This article is one in a series (Connecting with Culture) from the the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity.
Breaking Open
I was reminded, recently, of a Hasidic tale which evokes Deuteronomy 11:18, and seems especially apt for now: ‘The pupil comes to the rabbi and asks, “Why does Torah tell us to ‘place these words upon our hearts’? Why does it not tell us to place these holy words in our hearts?”
‘The rabbi answers, “It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay, until, one day, the heart breaks, and the words fall in.”’
It’s often the case that our own break-throughs seem to happen when we, ourselves, break open, isn’t it?
This article is one in a series (Connecting with Culture) from the the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity
Faith Flourishing in Lockdown
Is the nation turning to God in prayer? Well, not quite yet, but research from Tearfund has shown that prayer is more common than many would think, with just under half (44%) of UK adults saying that they pray, and one in twenty (5%) saying they have started praying during the lockdown. Daily data from Google for 95 countries corroborates this increased interest, as searches for prayer are at their highest levels ever recorded.
This article is one in a series (Connecting with Culture) from the the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity
Tiger King: Who's Really in the Cage?
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW TIGER KING
Tiger King is a bizarre show for bizarre times. The ‘true-crime documentary series’ gives a window into the peculiar ‘underworld of big cat breeding’. It opens with the shocking fact that there are more tigers in captivity in North America than in the wild globally.
At least, I found that shocking at first. Seven episodes later, someone has lost their arm to a tiger, a man has accidentally killed himself, and ‘Joe Exotic’, the polygamous, arson-committing, country-singing owner of 1200 big cats has run for president before being convicted of the attempted murder of an animal rights activist who maybe killed her husband.
And breathe.
This article is one in a series (Connecting with Culture) from the the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity
School's Out For Summer
Any other year, unexpected freedom from end-of-term lectures and exam timetables would surely be cause for celebration. But this year, many students’ terms have ended with a tremendous anticlimax.
Spare a thought for those who, whether they’re sixth-formers or prospective grads, will have no summer term, no celebration party, no opportunity to hug their friends goodbye. Many had to leave their student houses and head home suddenly, now figuring out how to complete their degrees from a distance. It wasn’t meant to be like this. And there’s nothing they can do about it, except sit in the disappointment.
This article is one in a series (Connecting with Culture) from the the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity
Taking Sin—and Grace—Seriously
Editorial Note: In this unusual season of social distancing, disruption, and deep health and economic concerns, many of us are discovering disheartening cracks in our personalities. Jokes on social media about binge eating, drinking, or series-watching make us laugh because they are so telling. News outlets report that both pornography usage and gun sales have spiked—two evidences of the unhealthy ways humans attempt to deal with boredom on the one hand and profound anxiety on the other.
On the flip side, there is also the hopeful sense that the current disruption could be a chance to reset direction or cultivate some new habits. When the online learning platform Coursera advertised a free Yale course called “The Science of Wellbeing: Psychology and the Good Life,” over 2.2 million people enrolled. There is a deep hunger to live a rightly-ordered life, and a sense that this cultural moment could be a defining one.
Dr. Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung has written helpfully and extensively on this topic.
This article by her was originally written for the Renovaré Book Club as an introduction to a six-week study on Glittering Vices (Brazos Press, 2009). This essay has been modified from its original version. Renovare.