Books by Ian Rogers
Books by Ian Rogers
I don’t know who first said the quotation that is my title but I was going to commit this alleged offence in my talk at our Christmas Day family service. It is a delightful, short, simple service in which children (and adults) are encouraged to ‘bring and show’ one of their presents. I intended to make the point that not only is Jesus God’s present to us, but we also are presents through Jesus to God and that He is overjoyed to receive us. So far so good; I think this thought has a good scriptural basis. I was hoping to use Ephesians 5 v 26 and 27 and Jude v 25 as the talk’s basis. They say: “… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to present her to himself… radiant… and blameless.” and “To him who is able to keep you [safe] and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy… ”. I thought I could paraphrased them as “Jesus loves us and came to us so that he could present us as perfect gifts to his Father in heaven who is overjoyed to welcome us into his kingdom”.
Did you notice what I did there? I drew a parallel between us receiving presents [noun] and ‘he is able to present [us]… ’ [a verb]. Of course, people present [verb] medals and awards to people and such nice things could be called ‘presents’. ‘So what’s the problem?’ I hear you ask. The problem is one of Biblical accuracy. I did a fair amount of research and found the most useful source on this occasion was www.bibleref.com. This commentary suggested that in Eph 5 v27 the phrase ‘he might present’ could be better rendered ‘he might prepare’, referring to Jesus making us - his church - into a pure and acceptable bride. Also that only he could bring the bride forward to be married i.e. ‘present’ us to himself. Not quite what I needed for children aged from 2 to 12! Jude 24-5 was a bit simpler. Apparently a ‘doxology’ like this is always addressed to God the Father so ‘to him’ in v24 means ‘to God’ and in v25 ‘God our Saviour’ doesn’t mean Jesus but means God who is our saviour because he sent Jesus (if it makes any sense to split up the trinity at all!). ‘To… God our Saviour… through Jesus Christ’ isn’t the weird repetition that it seems, it means that prayers to the Father are ‘sent’ through Jesus. So here in Jude, unlike in Ephesians, it is God who is making us perfect and bringing us into his presence i.e. into the kingdom of God. Not only did I need to sort out my own confusion but I thought it wrong to combine two verses that had a similar content but where one was Jesus-centred and the other was God-centred. Fortunately my wife saved me but making an alternative and much simpler suggestion. We hope to a involve everyone in a brief and humorous nativity sketch based on a story from a book my son had as a young child. Hooray! I am left wondering - am I as petty and restricted about the use of Bible verses as the English language pedants are who object to nouns used as verbs? Any answers can be emailed (verb from noun) to me but please don’t rubbish (verb from noun) the whole blog (noun or verb depending on context).
May we all Christmas with joy and peace, yours, Ian.
<< Next Archive Previous >>