| Rory Shiner In the modern world, many things have fallen by the wayside. The horse and buggy have been replaced by the car; the landline by the mobile phone; the type-writer by the computer. We may live to see the end of cars driven by humans, computers with keyboards, and supermarkets with human staff. But the modern world is also a story…
'The Cross' Tagged Posts
| Rory Shiner “It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterward were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.” (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit) In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins must…
Rory Shiner The vast majority of churches celebrate a meal variously called “the Lord’s Supper”, “Holy Communion” or “the Eucharist”. Having in the previous article made a study of the Last Supper, what bearing might this have on our understanding of the Lord’s Supper? Covenant Renewal Many of the debates around the Lord’s Supper focus on the question of elements themselves.[1] Is the…
| Rory Shiner “This is my body, which is for you”—Jesus on the death of Jesus Ty Treadwell’s book The Last Supper is a record of the final meals chosen by inmates on death row. Victor Fugeur (hung 1963) chose for his last meal a single olive. John Wayne Gacy (executed 1994) choose a bucket of Original Recipe KFC, deep-fried prawns, chips, and a punnet…
Rory Shiner Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. (1 Corinthians 1:22-23) The crucifixion of Jesus didn’t come to Jew or Greek as an empty vessel, waiting to be filled with meaning. It meantsomething already. For the Jews, said Paul, the cross was “a stumbling block.” For the…
Rory Shiner BIBLE & THEOLOGY Why did Jesus die? This series is entirely given over to exploring answers to that question. It’s an odd question to ask in some ways. What sort of question are we asking? It could, of course, be a medical question. History tells us Jesus died by crucifixion, but a coronial inquest might want to go into exactly how crucifixion brings about…