Various in-depth spiritual thoughts

Skip over this post if you don’t want any profound analysis. Thank you.

1 Chocolate Jesus
Some of the catholics are grumpy because someone has made a chocolate Jesus. I was thinking about this this morning and then Kester wrote it better than I was planning to:

I’ve obviously not seen the piece properly, but my sense is that it looks like a wonderfully cheeky critique of the saccharine nature of modern Easter-tide. I wonder if those in the Catholic League would normally purchase chocolate eggs for their children around this time? Are we not all guilty of sweetening the impact of Christ’s death?

2 The three quarter labyrinth
The labyrinth is a sort of a maze thing you walk around in a prayerful manner. It is all very well, but it can be a bit dull and prescriptive for those of us who like to wander off and do things our own way. Perhaps Real Live Preacher’s three quarter labyrinth is the answer:

…you might find a shortcut and get to the center quickly, or you might never arrive at all and spend an entire afternoon endlessly circling. Who knows what would happen.

In my experience, that’s a pretty good description of praying. You pray. You don’t know why, exactly. You’re hoping some things, I guess. You don’t know if praying will be a journey with any end at all. I know people who have prayed for things their entire lives. Or who knows, you might get a miracle right away. I don’t know about this stuff. It makes me nervous making claims about prayer one way or another.

3 Liturgy isn’t everything
Some interesting words from Joel, the director of the Evangelical Alliance. This is taken from an Ekklesia news item entitled “Africans and Caribbeans ‘alienated’ by Westminster Abbey slavery service, say evangelicals“.

“The Church of England needs to learn how to be the Church for England,” he said. “There should have been some space to depart from the script and speak the unscripted language of the heart.

“The protest was a master-stroke of opportunism, but, as we experienced a beautifully choreographed act of worship, it was an important reminder that pain cannot be choreographed,” he said.

Right, these uplifting thoughts were part of a plan to get me into the right mood for work.

Note to self: Get on with it.