To use an analogy, I’m like a lump of coal that’s been out of the fireplace for a while. Apart from church on Sundays, I haven’t attended any classes for the last few months. My prayers and resolutions for this year are to find myself more time to focus on what is important.
Thus, I decided to reschedule my car servicing this morning (it can wait another week) and attend a talk by Right Reverend Dr Paul Barnett. Hope I got all his titles right! He has his own brief Wikipedia entry! He gave a talk on Luke and how it was pieced together based on others’ testimony and historical fact. Even secular and anti-Christian historians acknowledged the existence of the state of affairs at the time, i.e. the names of the rulers and the persecution of Christians later on.
I learnt that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were to a good extent based on the first Gospel, of Mark. The Gospel of John is an entirely different matter. Curiously, Rt Rev Dr Barnett also mentioned a possible ‘Q’ draft gospel which the Gospels of Matthew and Luke could have made reference to. However, he clarified that he wouldn’t stake his life on it. Some preliminary research I’ve done on the net, also points to the same conclusion.
After the talk, I was approached by a member of the Worship team who’s been asking me to play for them again. I feel pretty bad because I’ve been turning down his requests for the past year. My existing commitments at work and my jazz band make me feel like I’m already taking on too much. The other issue is that the worship practice clashes with my jazz piano lesson which is difficult to reschedule. Still, I feel called to return to the team and will probably do so one day.
In the meantime, I will continue serving through the website team and by reading passages occasionally. My next reading may be on 15 April, if I replace the original person who is currently unwell. That is when our former Discipleship minister and fellow blogger David Ould is preaching, so that may be a nice arrangement!