Like many school children in this country during October (Black History Month) our three daughters heard about, wrote about, read about and talked about people like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali. They listened to the 'I have a dream' speech and they wrote their own speeches...
Several weeks later our six year old was walking past the book case in our bedroom and caught a glimpse of Mandela's autobiography 'Long walk to Freedom' - in particular she recognised his photo and asked if that was Nelson Mandela's picture. She told us what she had learnt and was interested to hear about our visit to Robben Island and the actual prison cell where he had been kept for so many years.
Today on the way to school I told her that Nelson Mandela had died last night. "Was he the man who gave the speech?" "No, you're thinking of Martin Luther King - although Nelson Mandela did make lots of speeches". The conversation that followed included, "what about that lady who sat on a bus, whose name began with R" [Rosa Parks] and "Muhammad Ali was a boxer who beat the other man because he was too fat but Muhammad Ali could float like a butterfly".
One of the things that I love about the girls' school is how diverse and multi-cultural it is. Our daughters struggle to imagine what racial segregation must be like. "You mean - I couldn't go to school with 'J' or 'K'? But that's not fair. Some people are so mean."
We talked about what's fair, what's right - and how sometimes you have to fight for what's right - even if the government and the police are against you - "but aren't the police supposed to help the people?" - even if that means going to prison for a long time.
"How did he die?" So we talked about how Nelson Mandela was 95 and had been ill for a while. "He did well to get into the 90s - some people don't even make it to 80."
I don't know what other Learning Objectives 'S' will have for today but I doubt any of them will be as important as some of the stuff we talked about on the walk to school this morning.
I'm guessing that there is some dispute over what Paul means when he talks about 'disputable matters' in Romans 14.
On Sunday we finished our morning series looking at the second half of Romans - so it is about time I caught up on here.
Reading between the lines of Romans 14 there was obviously some disagreement in the church that Paul was writing to. It may have been between those Christians from a Jewish background and those from a Gentile background - but not necessarily. And it seems as if there were those who thought that eating meat was OK and those who thought that eating meat was not right for a Christian. Maybe the issue was whether it was kosher or not; or maybe it was about meat that had been sacrificed to idols - but we don't get that much detail. But what we do know is that Paul didn't think there was anything wrong with what either group were doing - except that the attitudes of some on both sides of the argument were wrong.
For Paul there was nothing inherently sinful with eating or not eating meat. For Paul the over riding issue was their wrong attitudes, the damage that was being done to relationships within the church, and the harm that could be done to people's faith.
For Paul maintaining loving and peaceful relationships with others inside the church was much more important than who was right and who was wrong. Building others up in their faith is more important than standing on the rights and freedoms that I may have.
One question I didn't really explore on the Sunday we looked at this - which was quite a while ago now - was how do we decide what is a 'disputable matter'? From Paul's wider writing it is clear that there are times when he came down very strongly against certain types of behaviour, and warned the church to have nothing to do with people (in the church) who were behaving in a particular way. So Paul is not saying, anything goes - and get along with each other whatever. He is not saying that anything goes and you must never challenge 'wrong' behaviour.
For Paul a 'disputable matter' seems to be one where it no longer matters whether a person does or doesn't do something. And Paul's list of what no longer matters may be different to mine, which may be different to yours. The trouble is that there are no easy answers - it's not simply a case of looking up a verse in the Bible - if it was that simple then we wouldn't be disputing what is disputable.
So what do we do? I think we prayerfully wrestle with the Bible - with both sides of the disagreement. We remember that those we disagree with are people who are loved by God and we treat them accordingly - we don't see them as enemies - and we don't go out to win the argument. We make sure that our behaviour isn't damaging the faith of others or harming the reputation of the church.
Today I have been challenged, encouraged, stimulated, stretched and fed (plus more) at an event called Catalyst Live which was organised by BMS World Mission. Its format was likened to flicking through a magazine - lots of short features - one after the other. Each one could probably have filled the whole day in itself.
Contributions ranged from Prof John Lennox answering the question, 'Should Christians fear science and the new atheism?' with a resounding 'No' to A Rocha's Miranda Harris getting me to see the importance of buying a new dining table when we move house (I haven't told my wife about that yet - I'll see how long it takes her to notice it on here!)
Then there was ethnomusicology, poetry and art.
We looked at earthquakes, volcanos and floods; as well as scrolls, books and iPads.
The author of the Royal Navy Leadership manual spoke, but it was another speaker who told us about three boats that set sail…
We looked at the question of suffering; and then we heard from a Palestinian Arab Israeli Christian, sharing his perspective on events in Jerusalem.
And then there was theologian Jurgen Moltmann…
A brilliant day - which I will take a few days to digest - but hopefully I'll find the time to write something more about each session.
At the moment it feels a bit like the world is spinning far too fast, there is too much going on in my life, and I would just like an extra week or so to catch up and get back on track…but we all know that's not going to happen any time soon.
A while ago when wrestling with the deep question of how best to sign off emails - just my name; yours sincerely / faithfully seemed a little formal; God bless… - I was reading through the New Testament and noted that Paul often uses the phrase 'Grace and peace' in his introduction to a lot of his letters. I thought that this was a great phrase - both a reminder of God's grace and peace, but also a prayer that goes with the email that the recipient would know God's grace and peace - particularly relevant with some emails that I send.
But in the middle of all the busyness and stress of these last few days it has been a real encouragement and also a challenge for me to write those words. Whatever is going on we believe that God is in control, that he is working out his plans and his purposes, and he has promised that he will be with us. It's great to be able to remind others of God's grace and peace in what they're going through. Sometimes I need to be reminded that this applies to me too.
