Critic Cal

'While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.  '“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”' ( Mark 14:3-9 ) MEMO   Do not break this thing, Do not waste that; Do not let down your hair and weep and make a scene....

A poem that I wrote for the Sophia Network blog around this time last year... REHEARD The witnesses were inadmissible: Gossips; pedlars of idle tales; Adam's deceivers ever since the Fall; The first found weighed and wanting in the scales. It's true they'd been around, had followed close Upon the tear-stained heels that later bled; They'd even put up funds and played as hosts, As students, too, and filled each little head. But his appearing to them? — deeming they Should greet the new dawn first, and first be sent! And yet, this was — had always been — his way. The case submits it was no accident That, at the crux where all things re-began, Believing women brought good news to man.  Carolyn Whitnall, 2016. Variously culturally stereotyped as hysterical, manipulative, ignorant and/or irrational, women at many times and in many places have faced a disproportionate  struggle to be taken seriously . Female experts experience greater scrutiny of...

early one morning Life surprised us, as promised; a second first day. The occurrence of the Resurrection ‘on the first day of the week’ (see, e.g., Matthew 28 ) suggests a parallel with the Genesis 1 creation account. Many Christians understand it as the beginning of New Creation, the ‘now and not yet’ fulfilment of God’s promise to deliver Israel and, ultimately, humankind. But although the promise can be traced throughout the Hebrew scriptures (which have been retrospectively interpreted with Jesus’ life and death and life in mind), that first Easter morning was not necessarily what those hoping and waiting had thought they were hoping and waiting for. Even Jesus’ disciples — whom he had explicitly prepared for the event (see, e.g.,  Mark 8:31 ) – were taken by surprise. As for me … Lent is never long enough, or I am never quite intentional enough in observing it, so that Easter always seems to come ‘too early’. Then again, I’m not sure that I ever could (or am supposed...

nothing could be done; it was too late, or too soon. unrestful Sabbath. Holy Saturday ... or 'Liminal Saturday', as Mr. W and I have taken to calling it in recent years. Surely the oddest day in the church calendar ... and perhaps the one that resonates with me the most. Jesus is dead. He told his disciples this would happen. He also told them he would rise again ... but that's a lot to take in at the best of times and, right now, all they know is ... he is dead. And Jewish law obliges them to do ... precisely nothing: it is the Sabbath. ( Luke 23 :56b). And so they wait ... for what? To carry out the usual burial rites, and move on with their lives? ( Luke 24 :1) Gear themselves up for fishing for fish again like they used to? ( Matthew 4 :18-20) With hindsight, we glibly reassure them (and ourselves) that everything is about to change, for the better and forever ... they stand on the threshold of God's New Creation! But they, that weary, crushing Sabbath, ...

from a tiny seed to a tree, rent and flowing; self-emptying Love.  This year (2016) Good Friday falls on the 25th March – the day when traditional churches usually celebrate the  Feast of the Annunciation , remembering the angel Gabriel's appearance to Mary ( Luke 1:26-38 ). Most Western churches move the Feast to avoid the clash with Holy Week, but I find the juxtaposition thought-provoking. Both the conception and the crucifixion of Jesus can be viewed as gestures of ' kenosis ' – self-emptying, prompted by God's love for humankind: …though he was in the form of God, [Jesus] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ( Philippians 2 :6-8) I'm also reminded of a metaphor that Jesus uses to prepare his disciples for what lies ahead – both ...

Just when mum and dad thought they could safely stop worrying about my little sister leading me astray, said rebellious sibling gets me into Buffy -- a program most decidedly  not featured in the authorised version of the Radio Times when we were growing up. I guess I've long-since graduated from the target demographic. Still, I can easily see why it got so successful. It has everything a high-school horror comedy romance drama series should: the jocks, the geeks, the cheerleaders, the teachers who are out to get you (slash eat you) ... undead overlords, seductive arthropods ... friendship, unrequited love, parental run-ins, the older (but only by a couple-a hundred years, though) guy ... peer pressure, bullying, internet demons ( not the 'background process' type) ... the general, over-arching challenges of trying to balance a social life around schoolwork around slaying ... Sure is a tough gig being the Chosen One: [Buffy defeats vampire/demon/human-animal hybr...

Having become greedy for  Tolstoy  after a few appetising short stories, but not feeling quite hungry enough to stomach all 560,000 words of  War and Peace , I settled on  Anna Karenina  as a middle course. I'm about halfway through, and there's this scene which nicely sets the, er, scene for my latest attempt at some calendar-specific reflection: Country land-owner Levin is preparing for his long longed-for marriage to Kitty. He has cheerfully parried all of his bachelor friends' jibes about the hindrances and botherments of wives, and, left alone, muses peacefully on his future happiness, until...   'But do I know her ideas, her wishes, her feelings?’ some voice suddenly whispered to him. The smile died away from his face, and he grew thoughtful. And suddenly a strange feeling came upon him. There came over him a dread and doubt—doubt of everything.   ‘What if she does not love me? What if she’s marrying me simply to be married? What if ...

On the subject of unsubtle Christological allusions in contemporary culture: Sherlock . No prizes for guessing where I'm going here... At the end of Season 2, Sherlock dies -- under dramatic, self-sacrificial circumstances. John Watson sees the whole thing, and is devastated. There can be no doubt: in order to save his friends from Moriarty's malevolent scheming, Sherlock throws himself off the roof of St Bart's, where John is (almost) the first on the scene of his lifeless corpse, and even checks his (absent) pulse before the hospital staff intervene and carry the body away. The episode ends with John and Mrs. Hudson standing sorrowfully by the grave, longing (but with no cause to hope) that it might not be so. Two years elapse before the start of Season 3, and John has returned to his old life. He no longer lives at 221B Baker Street, and has lost touch with Mrs. Hudson -- not through lack of affection, he just can't stand to be reminded. He has dealt with ...

It's been a few years since I last watched The Matrix but Switch's quietly horrified "Not like this" is a long-running household meme for reasons which I have entirely forgotten. The line is from the scene where Cypher exposes himself as a traitor to the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar and, having liaised with the Agents to set up a trap, and shot Tank and Dozer on the ship, begins to pull the plugs on those who are still inside the Matrix. Trinity, on the other end of the phone line, watches helplessly as her friends drop down in front of her... "By the way, if you have something terribly important to say to Switch, I'd suggest you say it now," he taunts. All this, in exchange for the promise of a life of blissful ignorance inside the Matrix. As it does many other aspects of the Christian 'story', the film captures the gut-wrenching bleakness of betrayal pretty poignantly: one of their own ...one with whom they have lived and eaten and bravely co...

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and...