Bethnal Green Mission Church

What are we doing this for? Public honour or hidden reward? Our inner lives and the outward actions, how do they match? In Jesus' expose of the social norms of surrounding 'righteous acts', he seems to be flipping the concepts of honour and shame. In doing so, it questions the motives behind our actions.

Who gets to be honoured? Who are we shaming? The theme of honour and shame in Romans is rarely considered as an important context to Romans. However, Paul's language is saturated with this concept as he seeks to address the identity struggles of the Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome. Can Paul's reconfiguration of the first century concepts of honour and shame help us to navigate 21st century wo...

The world of the bible authors was most often filled with struggle, turmoil and uncertainty. During this Advent, how can the words of the prophet Zephaniah help us to live faithfully during our 21st century period of uncertainly and turmoil?

Isaiah 9 is often one of the main bible passages to be read in carol services during Advent. How is this ancient text relevant to our lives in 21st century?

Paul's fascination with the word 'all' reaches a climax in his questions to the Roman church in chapter 8. The foes and forces that condemn and judge were coming from within and without the church and they were tempted to ask, 'who is our ally, who is rooting for us'? Paul's unanimous response is that in the death of Jesus, God definitively shows that he is 'for' humanity. The universal threat fro...

Paul is obsessed with the wider, deeper, broader, creation-wide, cosmic-breadth of both the problem of sin and death and God's work of salvation in Jesus. Romans 8 is a window into Paul's sense of 'all' - all creation and all things. How does the wrecking ball of evil, sin and death touch creation and how does God labour for good in the midst of its groaning?

Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount direct us to the orientation of our minds and hearts when it comes to the summary of the law. How does our interior world shape our embodied life and can we face the challenge of Jesus to love God with all our hearts and love our neighbour as ourself?

There are plenty of words and concepts that you might normally associate with Romans, but the word 'all' might not seem one of them. Paul uses the word frequently in order to convey many big theological themes, but he always uses it with the pastoral challenges of the diverse Roman church in mind. Over three weeks we will explore 10 'alls' of Romans and see how Paul's favourite word challenges our...

You idiot! It is not uncommon to hear a phrase of abuse in day-to-day life - on the streets, on social media and in political discourse. It maybe a flippant and casual form of put-down or an insult prompted by fierce anger at injustice. The Sermon on the Mount raises the bar for our interaction with people and how we treat our neighbour, whether that is a colleague, a sporting rival or political o...

Christoformity is the aim of Romans (thank you Scot Mcknight). This task is a constant renewal of our worship, our minds and our bodily posture in the world. Yet there is a Matrix, a world of schemes and patterns that seek to influence and shape our identity, which Paul's calls Christians in Rome to resist. How do we resist such schemes in 21st Century and be rejuvenated in the image of Christ?

How we live is determined by what or whom we worship. That seems to be Paul's premise in Romans Chapter 1 and 12. Paul gets physical in his understanding of worship and presents the Roman church with a vision of a radical community of living sacrifices who embody the person of Jesus. What is the shape of such worship and how is it acceptable and pleasing to God?

The Beatitudes are intended to be embodiment of God's Kingdom come - the formation of a society of peace and justice in the midst of power plays and violence. Is it possible to imagine such a world and what does it mean to be a person of Shalom?

Paul's injunction to Roman Christians to submit to the governing authorities in Chapter 13 has been misunderstood and misused for centuries. It lies in the middle of Paul's ethical instructions for behaviour and the obligation to adopt a cruciform posture of blessing and loving ones enemies. Is obedience unconditional for life under any and every sick, violent and unjust despot and tyrant or are o...

The beginning of the famous sermon on the mount steeped in Israel’s history: a statement of intent or a crash course in what it means to live in the Kingdom of God. We question who we understand the poor in spirit to be, what Jesus may be referring to in terms of mourning and what a meek person might look like. Continuing a theme from recent weeks of lived theology, we consider a calling to act an...

How can peace be established in the church of Rome that is so diverse and different? That is Paul's agenda in the book of Romans. Jewish and Gentile believers were at loggerheads over what made them the people of God, and who was 'in' and who was 'out'. Each group sought to assert the privileges and power of their specific identity markers, leading to disunity and destruction. What did Paul offer...

Paul's letter to the Roman church has been one of the most debated and argued over in the New Testament. It has given us many big theological concepts and some classic, well known verses but but it has also confused and frustrated us. We are embarking on a journey to 'rescue Romans' from the perception of it being so doctrinally dense that is has very little relevance to us. We hope to see how Pau...

Have you ever thought about having your enemies around your dinner table? In this talk James explores the power of hospitality throughout the story of scripture as well as reflecting on when tables might need to be flipped rather than set. Join us to think further about hospitality as a tool for reconciliation and bringing about the Kingdom of God.

Jesus taught us to pray to be delivered from evil. Yet how do we overcome evil if he also said, 'do not resist and evildoer'? In order to understand this question and find out how we can resist the 'unholy trinity' of evil, we need to visit a garden - Gethsemane. It is here where Jesus is confronted by the dark powers of evil in all its forms. How does his response to this assault show us the path...

The Lord's prayer places us in a battlefield where there are threats to God's Kingdom coming. For us to pray, 'deliver from evil', we need an understanding of what we are praying to resist and overcome. Evil needs to be unmasked. In the context of what has gone on in this prayer, what is this evil and how does it test, enslave, corrupt and destroy? Are there ways in which we are complicit with evi...

The phrase, 'lead us not into temptation' is a challenging one. Does God actually lead us into temptation and what is the nature of temptation? If we are to pray for God's kingdom to come, we must be aware of the tests and trials that are part of our life as Jesus's followers. Where and how does God meet us in these times?

Bread in the bible is loaded with meaning - historical, political, cultural, and theological. So bread matters. What did Jesus' disciples hear when he told them to pray, 'give us today our daily bread'? If God is the source and sustainer of all life, how can we understand this dangerous phrase? What re-ordering and new posture needs to be undertaken to sincerely and faithfully pray it?

How is God's will done on earth? How does it relate to God's kingdom and what posture should we take in seeing, praying for and acting to make God's will be done on earth?

What does it mean to pray for God's Kingdom to come? In first century Palestine, there were many different expectations - religious, cultural and political - about what God's kingdom would look like. Jesus seems to defy all those expectations and present a kingdom based around a new vision and alternative set of values. How can the church have a posture which reflects this Jesus-shaped kingdom?

Names are important. They are about the identity, character, reputation and presence of a person. What does it mean to hallow God's name? What would have Jesus' disciples heard when he asked them to address God in this way? Who are we invoking and what are we called to do and be when we this pray this?

When Peter in Acts 10 went to pray on a roof, at a regular lunchtime on an ordinary day, he couldn't have imagined that his experience would change the church forever. In an era of unprecedented change and social upheaval over the past 18 months, what can Peter's experience teach us about being led by God in a new and uncomfortable direction?