The Postbox

Nantwich Town promoted!

Nantwich Town have been promoted to the Unibond league for the first time in their history! With the top 3 going up, today they needed an equal or better result than Salford City, who lost. Nantwich drew away from home, but in the end it was enough - with one game still to go, we can look forward to being in a new ground in a new league next season!

NORTH WEST COUNTIES FOOTBALL LEAGUE
SEASON 2006-2007
    LEAGUE TABLES
Up to and including Saturday 21 April 2007

Division One
		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	PP
1	FC United	40	35	3	2	148	32	116	108	114
2	Curzon Ashton	39	29	6	4	107	33	74	93	102
3	Nantwich Town	41	28	8	5	106	40	66	92	95
4	Salford City	41	26	9	6	102	53	49	87	90
5	Trafford	40	24	9	7	89	41	48	81	87

Views of the Bible

A couple of conversations this week about how we use the Bible have reminded me that one of the gifts of postmodernity (it's not from the devil it's just describing a cultural phase you know...) is to recover the sense of Bible as narrative... A wonderful story of God, His people, His world, His interaction with people and creation.

Some who claim to hold the Bible in high regard actually do it a huge injustice by seeing it solely as a guidebook for life. This view seems to follow the car manual line - if there's something wrong with my car, I'll look it up in the car manual, which tells me how to fix it... If there's something wrong with my life, I'll look it up in the Bible, which tells me how to fix it.

We must realise how much this view is deeply influenced by modernity, and seeing the Bible through that cultural perspective. Modernity looked for rules, for certainity, for left-brain perspectives. And this view worked within that culture - and it is still valid - to some extent... But only to see it like that is actually not to hold the Bible in very high regard at all. It does it a huge disservice by missing out on the narrative, the mystery, so much more that the Bible is beyond just a guidebook/manual... Let's never think we have it pinned down, and let's recover a high regard for it in seeing it in all its breadth, depth and many colours

Nantwich Town FC - farewell Jackson Avenue

I love local football! Went to see Nantwich Town's final game at Jackson Avenue on Saturday - the ground at which it has played since 1884. It has a long history - from 1892 when Liverpool played their first FA Cup match at the ground, through being managed by Alan Ball Senior in the 1960's to winning the FA Vase in 2006 - undoubtedly the club's biggest honours achievement to date. A convincing win on Saturday witnessed by a crowd of 1,000, saw them move into 2nd place, strengthening their chances of promotion with only 3 games to go... Chant highlight of the day was undoubtedly 'How wide do you want the goal?' after the opposition missed a free-kick golden opportunity at 3-0 down!
Next season, the good news is they'll be playing literally 2 minutes walk from our house at a brand new swanky ground (see pictures etc here). Let's hope they stay up!

Brief and to the point

What more do I need to say...

Jewishness & heritage

Easter this year in the Etherton household has been quite Jewish... We started on Maundy Thursday sharing a Passover meal here in Nantwich with some friends. It was a really special occasion and there was something quite profound about celebrating something that's been celebrated for thousands of years in the context of us trying (as many would see it) to create Christian community in a 'new' way. And on Easter Day itself, Liz and I had a 'sunset' service... Not least because I love the Jewish way that the day starts in the evening - beginning with rest, family and socialising, then sleep, before the work at the end of the day... (I have a Vicar friend who actually takes his day off in this way - from one evening until the following evening). So there was something quite important about starting Easter Day evening with worship - especially as I'm not enough of a morning person for a sunrise service!!

I think one of the questions after all the Drama of Easter for the disciples was 'what next?' They must have wondered where the rollercoaster was going! And so often we're looking forward, sometimes quite anxiously. But everyting we do is part of a bigger historical context, and we need to place what we do within that... I know that Giles Fraser has written much this Easter about the need to recover some of our Jewish heritage... And he puts it much better than I - You can read a thought-provoking article by him here

I read a book by Nick Spencer recently ('A parochial vision').While much of it is aimed at re-creating models within inherited church, he makes the cultural observation that one of the reasons that the parish church model is failing so badly is that 21st century Britain resembles 8th century Britain more closely that medieval/16th century Britain, within which the parish system became most effective.

Tradition has become such a dirty word, especially in some 'contemporary church' circles. But we need to link in with our heritage, and acknowledge and celebrate the way it has shaped us a people of faith - otherwise the danger is all we are left with is superficial consumerism... When tradition is tradition for its own sake, it does lose meaning and vitality. When it becomes a living, breathing link with all that God has done in the past, and is still yet to do in the future, it's the most enlivening experience

Obsessed with dates/1 year blog

I used to be quite attentive to dates, anniversaries etc... And they do mean a lot still... But I'm not obsessive as I used to be - hence my lack of posting earlier this week (though this post is somewhat of a contradiction) marking an anniversary - I have been blogging a year! However, this does not apply to birthdays, wedding anniversaries etc - any excuse for parties and presents!!!

Creativity

I read an interview with Matt Redman recently, where he spoke about a song he wrote a while ago, that he now wishes was different, and that he could change... Respectfully, I think he's wrong. I've written music that will probably never again see the light of day, but I accept that at the time, at the moment of creation, it meant something - there was something in that moment that inspired me to create in that way, however rubbish it might seem now... Yes, we can all look back with regret on things we've created, things we've done, saying now that we'd do things differently, that we'd make changes - hindsight is a wonderful thing!

But it doesn't actually change anything - those of us who are fortunate enough to be 'artists' (in the broadest sense of the word) can of course change our creations - however, some things need to be left - we need to move on from & leave, accepting we'd do things differently now (which means somewhere we've learnt something or changed), but that at the time we looked at our creation we could say 'It is very good'.

I wonder how often God wishes he could start over again?...