Tim Plyming writes:
Pop Goes The Bible! – the name of a documentary you can catch this Saturday morning on BBC Radio 4; from Bob Dylan to U2, Paul Gambaccini explores pop songs inspired by the Bible.
The documentary will round off a week where there have been quite a lot of Christian themes popping up, a week where the search for the ‘God Particle’ has been making headlines again. Does it ever strike you that folk may be more interested in Christianity that we are told they are in this ‘secular’ age?
In the last week the BBC News website also published an article on the history of the phrase ‘What would Jesus Do’ - many of us find those four words a very powerful intervention in hectic lives. The period of preparation we are in at the moment, Advent, is a time when we can spool that question back one notch, ‘What Would God Do’. Dig through the tinsel, holly, LED lights and there beneath is the most exciting thing that has ever happened in human history. A little over 2000 years ago God had decided to pay a visit to earth – born as a fragile baby. On earth it didn’t seem very glamorous but we are told in the Bible that Heaven couldn’t contain its excitement. His ministry and his teaching would show and tell us what we needed to know about the character of God.
As one year closes and a new one begins let’s take encouragement from the interest there is in all sorts of unexpected place in this story of God, Jesus and salvation for all time for all people. Let’s pray about the situations God will put us in next year to share the excitement of Heaven of this boy... of this man... of this Christ.
Tim Plyming is Project Executive, Digital & Editor Live Sites, BBC London 2012.