A Providential Polyphony: January 2006

Rachel and Michel

Tea-drinking

Yi and Evelyn

Mark/Hamlet with orange

Natalie with orange

Natalie with red eyes

Felicity and Annie

Natalie

Laughter in the inner sanctum

Steve and Felicity

Jonathan with birthday cake

Happy new year!

Today is the Chinese New Year. After church I went with Yuan to see a performance to mark this in the Grafton Centre. This involved the lion dance among other things. This was fairly colourful, with many performers in red, but I am informed that the authentic version in China is much more spectacular.

Pope Benedict XVI has issued his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est, with some very interesting reflections on love.

I've had a mostly fun week apart from work, which is frustrating because I don't really know where I'm going with my project. Anyway, apart from that I've eaten in three restaurants, watched one and a half films and attended three 21st birthday parties. These were all really nice in their own way, so I offer here a couple of randomly selected highlights from each one.

Ruth's (Saturday):
Sampling Jens's classic hot chocolate.
Managing to divert saying Happy Birthday into a half hour debate on the interpretation of Genesis.

Tim's (Sunday):
Getting Claire to melt an ice cube on her hand.
Watching the Wallace & Gromit film.

Jonathan's (Thursday):
Reading Jonathan's Genesis in Lego book (is there a theme coming through here?)
Classic quote from Mark - “These Doritos taste like the smell of burnt transistors.”

On Friday I was signed up to go to formal at Jesus College with Harry's people, but since there were not enough tickets I couldn't go. However, I hosted an overflow party chez moi with pizza and tea. We also played the International Opinion Game.

This evening HT students went to Teri-Aki, a Japanese restaurant which I last went to in the summer just before graduation. Tonight HT booked out most of the restaurant, with over 50 students. I ate thick noodles with bits and pieces and a side dish of spicy mushrooms.

Going to so many birthday parties lately reminds me of the wise words of Larry Lorenzoni:

"Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest."

Silliness, Seamus & Sleepiness / The Passing of Professor Grierson

To complete my run of doing silly things last week, on Sunday I killed my phone by dropping it down the toilet - I retrieved the phone, but it displayed "No SIM present" for a few hours before the screen went dead entirely. However, on Monday I retrieved from Caius the two bags I lost last week so hopefully it's an upward trajectory from there.

Today I went to a lecture/reading by Seamus Heaney (an Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize for literature a few years ago). I'm afraid that due to sleepiness I didn't concentrate on every word he said, especially when he read his poems, but it was a relaxing experience since Seamus has such a nice soothing Irish voice.

Professor Philip Grierson of Gonville and Caius College died last week. According to the obituary in the Daily Telegraph, "Professor Philip Grierson, who died on January 15 aged 95, was a medieval historian, a leading numismatist [expert on coins], and a symbol of continuity at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was a resident fellow for 70 years."
There is also an online obituary from The Times. I think he's the man I spoke to at the bus station in September - while he didn't give me his name, he meets the description. Strangely, he died the day before I ate at Caius (and left my work there). Apparently the Caius students got to toast his 95th birthday last November in hall. It's also a bit surreal that someone I spoke to for several hours without really knowing who he was is no longer with us. Although he told me he was a professor of medieval history, he didn't mention that he was a world expert in medieval coinage. He left behind a collection of 20,000 medieval coins which he bought with his own money. Philip Grierson was at Caius from the time he arrived as an undergraduate in 1929 aged 18 until his death last week. I don't anticipate staying in Cambridge that long (at least in one continuous stretch), but I guess Professor Grierson embodied an era of lifelong bachelor scholarship which is passing.

Richard, Ed & Alex

Richard & Alex

Jonny

Coursework, Costa Coffee's Conquest of Cambridge, Cappuccino Culture, Clumsiness & Carelessness

Today I handed in my coursework essay, which was a relief. After walking back to town with Trudy and Steph, I ate lunch at Caius with Serita and Trudy. We then went to Costa Coffee to have a post-deadline gathering, to which Serita, Trudy, Tessa, Caro and myself turned up. Costa Coffee seems to be trying to take over Cambridge. This branch, in Sidney Street, has recently opened, despite the fact they already have an outlet in the bookshop next door and three other branches in Cambridge.

Here is an educational extract from the Daily Telegraph: "Academics at Glasgow university spent £140,000 on a study of 'the cappuccino culture' which concluded that people went to coffee shops so that they could enjoy meeting their friends. Women with young children preferred coffee shops to pubs, claimed the report, which also revealed that when customers did not like the coffee a particular chain served, they would stop going there." Well, you learn something new every day.

After this I went back to Jesus Lane, only to find I was locked out. In the morning, before I went to hand my essay in, I checked I had everything with me; the one thing I forgot was my key. I also discovered I no longer had with me my two carrier bags continuing my files and notebook. I'm not sure where I left them - possibly Costa or Caius. Oh well, these things tend to happen when I get tired. I'll try to get some sleep.

Chinese Customs and Catching up with Christendom

Among the Angku people, who live in Laos, Myanmar and China, "Most Angku women are fond of chewing betel nut which blackens their teeth and gums. Stained teeth are considered a mark of beauty among Angku women. Since the betel juice only stains temporarily, some women use black dye to artificially stain their teeth." Among the Ami, who live in Taiwan and the Fujian Province of China, "Some Ami believe men should only eat male fish and women should only eat female fish. They believe a woman who eats a male fish might fall sick and die." I read these bits of information shortly after reading Mr Zealey's talk on China. I also read a BBC article on interesting names in the Philippines (highlights are a politician named Joker and a family whose children are called Candy, Caramel, Cookie, Peanut and Popcorn) - you can also listen to the progamme in various audio formats.

There have been a number of significant/interesting developments in the Christian world of late, some more positive than others. Here is a selection:

John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in the USA and prolific Christian author (and something of a hero to many in Cambridge), has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. In his letter to his church he both asks his people to pray for his healing and sees this as a "light and momentary trial" out of which God can bring glory to himself. This is a theologically thorny area, but Piper is seeking to combine his deep conviction of the sovereignty of God in all things and his belief in God's supernatural intervention.
Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a friend of Piper's, comments on how remarkable his sermon of New Year's Day was, given that Piper (though not yet his congregation) knew his medical condition, speaking about how our prayers participate in the victory of Christ won on the cross . On January 8th, following the diagnosis being made public, he related his condition to 1 Corinthians 15, which teaches that because our future destiny of being raised physically from the dead with new resurrection bodies is guaranteed by Christ's past victory over death, we are free in the present to "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain". There are some amazing passages in both sermons:

The third danger would be indulgence in self-pity. How pleasant it would be for the sinful ego to exploit this moment to try to awaken sympathy or admiration. You may recall from Desiring God that self-pity and boasting are both forms of pride. Self-pity is pride posing in the demeanor of weakness. And boasting is pride posing in the demeanor of strength. Both are pride and both are sinful.

[...]

On December 21 when the urologist said, “Your prostate feels irregular, we need to do a biopsy,” and left me in the room alone to get ready, a stab of fear went through my heart. I had no Bible with me, but I had my memory. I prayed and called to mind the promises of God. And Christ came by his word with the sweetest peace, and I almost fell asleep on the table before the doctor came back.
And that’s the way we have walked together since then. Word, prayer, peace. He has come to me in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” Among the thousands of good things God is doing through this cancer, I know one of them beyond the shadow of a doubt: it is to make me rely less upon myself and more upon God. That is crystal clear. I thank God for this mercy.

My aim is not to burden you. My aim is for you to feel the liberating, energizing power of seeing your all-consuming problems in connection to God’s global victory. God cares about your marriage, your kids, your singleness, your health. But these only have their greatest meaning in relation to the victory of God. I promise you it is not oppressive to see the littleness of your life in connection to the largeness of God’s victory. Every just war that has ever been fought for a great ideal has given meaning to the loneliness, and the amputations, and the widowed moms.
The connection that I want you to see today between your life and the victory of God is the connection of prayer. Your prayers are God’s way of accomplishing the victory of Jesus Christ over this world. I know that for many of you this is way beyond what you usually pray about. I think God wants to change that. I hope that praying for the victory of God in this world will become part of your life. Don’t object by saying, “I’m too small. I’m unsophisticated. I’m not educated. I’m just an ordinary, simple person.” God chose a simple, peasant virgin to bear his Son. And he chooses simple people of faith to bring his victory by prayer. O don’t rule yourself out of this great calling.

[...]

The great battle today is fought not with swords but with the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. It is fought for the souls of men. It is fought in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is fought with words of truth and deeds of love and justice. And all of that backed by prayer. The victory will come and will come by prayer.
Therefore, in this new year, pray for the victory of God. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Send forth laborers, O God. Open a door for the gospel. Give boldness to your people. Save the peoples, O Lord. Vindicate your elect who cry to you day and night. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Bob Horn, former secretary of UCCF and influential British evangelical leader, has died. Bob Horn spent a lot of his earlier ministry in Cambridge and is co-author of the book From Cambridge to the World. He also served in east and central Europe. The UCCF press release says, "Bob Horn will be remembered not only for his significant contributions to the Church, but also for his very gracious manner and warm smile. We thank God for a man who led with humility. " There are some reflections on Steve Palfryman's blog.

I did a quiz on Are you a heretic?, which aims to diagnose various historic heresies. I came out as 92% Chalcedon compliant (that means I came out OK). I have to admit that I answered some of the questions based on knowing what the right answer was without really knowing why.

In my world, I handed in a PhD proposal today and am due to hand in a coursework essay tomorrow. I have just been to a Harry's team meal. It was good to have some new team people. Good night.

Return to the Fray

Hello again. I'm back in Cambridge and have just emailed an essay to my supervisor on rhetoric in Sidney and Milton. I had a relaxing break over Christmas, which I needed, and am feeling a lot more refreshed for the new term. We had some snow, as you can see below. Though I was only home for a couple of weeks it gave me some time to catch my breath. Christmas was mostly family stuff, though our gatherings on Christmas Day are not quite so big as they used to be, now that married siblings have their own family franchise elsewhere. On Boxing Day we had a family convergence on Peterborough with 17 of us. Other than that I caught up with a few friends and suchlike. We watched A Walk to Remember as a family and my sister called me hardhearted for failing to cry.

It's been good to catch up with returnees, particularly on Sunday, when I spent the day quite sociably with HT people in different assortments (+ some StAGites at the end of the day). We ate pizza chez Chris & Tim & co for lunch and tried to sort out the dilemmas of the world of education for the 101 trainee teachers present, after which I attended the international tea hosted by John and Jeni Cooper. We walked to and from this occasion in the rain, and I think this was a factor in there being fewer people present than normal, but it was eminently pleasant as always. We concluded that the latter rain was friendlier, more refreshing and less wet than the former rain (does this point to Latter Rain Revival?). In the evening 7 of us (a perfect 7 ...) converged on Nando's where we bumped into a StAG contingent also in pursuit of post-church cuisine. Some of this assembled company then crashed a Jesus college house kitchen (is that too many qualifying nouns in a row) where we chatted and played video games on a temperamental TV. Since then I've been alternately working and failing to work.

It's good to be back.