Mark Keown

One dimension I absolutely adore in Philippians is the love Paul expresses for his converts. Some people think Paul is a hard man, that he is anti-woman, that he had an anger problem etc. Look more closely and you see that is not the case. The only time Paul really gets aggressive is with false teachers who are plundering his flock. Take 2 Cor 10-12, Galatians and Phil 3:2, 18 and you will see these examples. He becomes a shepherd defending his flock, and calls people angels of Satan, dogs, evil workers, mutilators etc., and even tells them to emasculate themselves. Tis true in 2 Corinthians he gets quite sarcastic with his opponents, and that there are texts that appear anti-women; yet, on closer analysis one finds Paul to be utterly counter cultural in regards to his language. Leaving aside the issue of women and Paul, look at Philippians his language. We see Paul the shepherd, Paul the pastor. In 1:2 he does what he always does one way or another, and prays a blessing o...

I have been re-reading Mark's Gospel against the backdrop of Jewish expectations of the Messiah. There was at the time a range of expectations. Some did not have a theology of a Messiah (e.g. Sadducees). Some believed in two Messiahs (Essenes: priestly, royal). The dominant view was of a Messianic deliverer, a descendent of David, spiritually powerful, born in Bethlehem, who would lead the overthrow of the Gentiles (Rome!), would establish God's reign on a renewed or new earth centred on Jerusalem, Zion, temple and law. All would submit to the Torah, and tribute would flow to Jerusalem. The Messiah then would be a military man, a spiritually empowered David like figure. So when you think of this, the whole of Mark comes to light in fresh ways. When Jesus calls out 'the kingdom of God is near' many perceived that the physical overthrow of Rome was coming. When he began to gather disciples, did miracles, fed the crowds, etc., he was doing the stuff of a prophet, but one...

I hear it is official, Mary MacKillop is to be declared Australia's first saint ( http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10616660 ). Pope Benedict 16 is to declare this in March. This has been received with great joy in Australia. She certainly seems to have been an amazing women, healing lung cancer and leukaemia, a founder of the Catholic order of the Sisters of St Joseph in Penola, South Australia in the mid 1900's. She was a caring women, staying strong in the faith, helping people until her death. Apparently Garry McLean, who runs the Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre, is relieved that at long last Australia has a saint. He is on record as saying, 'it's fantastic for a country to have its first saint.' Now I don't want to demean her legacy at all, she certainly deserves honour for her great achievements. Indeed, she most likely deserves her status as a saint. But the problem is, that the whole canonisation, saint-thing, stands i...

I am currently reading through the Bible again, to keep it fresh and allow it to speak into my life and teaching. It is a good thing to do every year to. I am amazed at the astonishing ability it has to speak freshly. Reading the latter portions of Exodus and Leviticus brought this thought to me, what a job it was to be a priest! The instructions concerning the Tabernacle and its implements, and the complicated Levitical laws would have made priestly living extremely complex. It must have been an astonishingly messy job. In the Middle Eastern heat, constantly sacrificing animals, circumcising boys, and ensuring that the huge array of legal requirements for each sacrifice, the challenge of priesthood would have been extreme. It would have been dirty and smelly, like a meat works. It would have been extremely challenging psychologically, seeking to get things right, to ensure God was pleased with the ministry and sacrifice. To put it bluntly, thank God that Jesus has come and completed...

It seems that every few years on planet earth, whether it be a tsunami, an earthquake or some other disaster, something terrible happens. Haiti is another example. At this stage we don't know how many will die, it seems somewhere between 50 and 500,000 people! Whatever the number, this is a catastrophe. If one life is precious as I believe it is, this is a horror! This will also decimate a nation. According to http://www.haiti-micah.org/haiti-facts.html Haiti, even before the earthquake, is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Its unemployment rate before the quake was 80%. More than 50% lived off less than a dollar a day. The infrastructure was totally inadequate with few paved roads, an inadequate water supply and few utilities. 60% of the population lived in abject poverty! Less than 20% of Haitians over the age of 15 could read and write. Less than 75% of Haitian children attended school. The health care system before the disaster was already patently inadequate w...

A friend of mine has asked my opinion on the challenging theological question of the relationship of predestination and free will. That is, if everything is predestined it is predetermined, and if it is predetermined, then there is no such thing as freedom. On the other hand, if there is freedom in the sense of alternate possibilities, then there is things are not determined. The issue is complex and in my view there is no definitive solution. Here is my take on this issue. Rather than go through the whole thing, I will suggest some ideas I use to deal with the issue. 1. The Bible Affirms God's Knowledge of the Future and Thus, In One Sense, All is Predestined. As I read the Scriptures, the Bible affirms that God knows all things, that is, he is omniscient. We see this at work in predictive prophecy, where Jesus for example, can know that Judas will betray him, and that Peter will deny him. There are also a range of OT prophesies which are fulfiled in the NT indicating God's...

We all wonder how we will react when one of those moments in life comes along. I had one last night. I picked up the girls from the airport after a trip to Timaru. It was midnight when we drove into the car park of our church, which adjoins our house. As we were getting out of the car, my daughter Annie heard a noise coming from the church. I thought, 'not again!' You see, the church has been burgled twice recently and I wondered if it was nos 3. I ran into the church, unlocked it, only to come upon a burglar. It was nos 3. He did a runner, heading to the foyer of the church. I raced after him and had him cornered. Now this was the moment when I could be hero or zero. I should have hit him with one of my famous crash tackles, well famous 20 years ago when donning the orange and green of Pakuranga. I did chase him and did grapple with him. He had a crow bar thing, which I wrestled off him. But then he broke free and headed for the door at the other end of the church. He was to...