Each Sunday the writer aims to deliver a religious teaching.
Previous writings and publications made on a previous weblog I maintained are being transferred to the word press account.
In due course, a catologue of entries should appear on this page as published on the given date, stated.
Sunday, 16 December 2007:
Ecosystem suffers from our greed:
Half a century ago, Rachel Carson altered the world to the growing ecological crisis in her book Silent Spring. Since then, we have witnessed a number of disturbing ecological imbalances. 60% of the world’s rain forests have been destroyed during the twentieth century; the UK population of countryside birds such as the song thrush has fallen by half since the 1970s; cancers, allergies and other stress and environmentally related diseases have steadily increased, while millions in the Third World have inadequate diets and polluted water.
Christians believe that the world was made and is sustained by the Christ who is our Saviour (Colossians). Human beings were given the task of caring for creation (Genesis: 2:15). Yet they have triggered an ecological time bomb by selfish exploitation, partly based on a misreading of Genesis 1:28 and often unchallenged and unnoticed by God’s people who should be among the keenest ‘green’ activists.
In his far less developed era, Hosea links fish dying in the sea with the sinfulness of God’s people (Hosea 4:3). His hearers were hardened to his message, however (5:4) and continued in their ways regardless of the environmental warning bells ringing on their shores.
We know more, but do little. If Hosea were alive today he would surely point to the dying planet and speak of God’s sorrow and judgement, of human greed, and the urgent need for us to adopt a responsible lifestyle.
Sunday, 23 December 2007:
Are natural disasters sent by God?
Joel is a little biblical book that has an importance out of all proportion to its length. It takes a literal plague of locusts in Judah as a basis for prophecies about the ‘day of the Lord’.
Some commentators, religious scholars and theologians see the swarm as an allegory for, as a little forewarning of, the invasion of Judah by Babylon or other aggressors. However, the simplest interpretation is that Joel takes the literal disaster as a general warning of worse to come.
The second half of Joel offers a promise or renewal and restoration after repentance, and was quoted on the day of Pentecost, the day that gave us all a living presence of the Holy Spirit manifested in so many different ways.
The Book of Joel uses the example of a real locust plague as a warning of God’s judgement. It calls on readers to turn to God in their hearts, not with ideologies or ritualism’s. The transcendence of Joel into modern meaning is very relevant in today’s climate of physical and evolutionary destruction.
Swarms of locusts, for instance, possibly triggered by climatic changes, have regularly devastated the Near East. They consume every green shoot leaving nothing but famine. Joel says this is God’s warning to the nation that something worse is to follow (2:2). He does not blame specific sins apart from allusions to drunkenness and materialism and mentions sexual licence.
In the Old Testament natural disasters and political oppression are seen as warnings or punishments from God on an errant Israel and Judah. But, as now, they are also part of everyday life. It is the prophetic function to interpret such historical events as conveying messages from God – which is not the same notion as the caricature of God disrupting his world by raining down vengeance.
Certain things need to be held in balance. Natural disasters are a fact of life in an imperfect world. Although phenomena such as global warming contribute in destabilising the planet, natural disasters have afflicted people for centuries. The Christian Church points to ‘the fall’, Genesis 3, which threw the created order out of perfect alignment. Jesus too explicitly ruled out the view that accidents of nature are punishments of those involved.
Judah and Israel had a unique relationship with God; they formed a political, cultural and spiritual unit called upon to be his ‘chosen people’. His dealings with them cannot be transposed to other nations much in the same way of how the Bible reminds us that God is omnipotent Judge, Master and Ruler. Disasters alert us to our mortality and the certainty that we shall each appear before God for personal judgement.
In 1998, a hurricane in Honduras and earthquake in Afghanistan each killed more than 9,000. A cyclone in India killed 10,000. In 1999 a record wind speed of over 300 mph was registered above a tornado in the United States. Recent events like the Boxing Day tsunami of two years ago that reached so much havoc and destruction, killing thousands. The frequent floods, that even in Britain, we are now witnessing despite historical assurances that our latitude greatly minimised the risk. Our proper reaction, theologically, is not to look for reasons that may well be subjective but in turning to God, as there could yet be worse in store: an eternity excluded from his presence, which the Bible calls hell.
Sunday, 30 December 2007
Grim ‘Harvest’ heralds a springtime of hope.
Harvest in most societies, including ancient Israel, is a time for celebration and thanksgiving. There is a store of food for the winter; there is fresh fruit and grain to enjoy now.
But, in the Bible, harvest is often used as a symbol for God’s judgement. The grim reaper scythes down the errant peoples. So the vision of autumn fruit here is an ill omen; the time is ripe for the inescapable divine punishment.
Some past generations of Christians have over-stressed God’s judgement and underplayed his love and forgiveness. The opposite is probably true today. Judgement is inconceivable on decent ordinary people; if it occurs at all, it is reserved for serial killers and mad dictators. So we think.
Couched in political and military terms, the promise seems far removed from contemporary spirituality. We can never tell if a society in our time gets its just deserts in such a way; that is, something hidden in God’s own diary to which even true prophets have only very limited access.
What we can know though is that there will be a harvest at the end of time. And we do know that all actions have their inevitable consequences; those who live by the sword frequently die by the sword, and what is hidden is ultimately revealed to the embarrassment of many. There are signs or foretastes of judgment around us, but we often prefer not to notice them. We cannot rest on our laurels, nor trust our luck.
However, this dark cloud has a silver lining. Teachings in Amos, for example, like most TV news bulletins, ends up on an up-note. After the war comes peace; after the invasion and destruction comes a time of rebuilding; after the earth is scorched by the angel of death, new life springs up from the charred remains.
Amos, in particular, looks forward to the day when a remnant shall return, a hope shared by his even more dismal successor Jeremiah. That remnant shall come from the southern kingdom of Judah rather than the northern kingdom of Israel, though.
God will start again, as he always does. There is hope for his world and for his people. Amos contents himself with this assurance, even though he knows that he will not live to see it personally. The gospel is a message of new beginnings, which encompass our lives but do not end with them. The conclusion of Amos’s writings reminds us that we operate in the realm of world history and even the annals of eternity, and not just of our own lifetime on earth.
Blessings of the Lord as the year approaches its end.
Sunday, 06 January 2008
‘Voice of the silent minority heard at last’
… What does the Lord require of you?
Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time can be embarrassing. Rocking the boat, setting the cat amongst the pigeons or raising needless questions or fears – children are known to do it. They do it most when you are trying to keep the peace.
The professional prophets of the eighth century were official religious advisers attached to the temple and some were consulted by kings. They were career diplomats; they knew which side their bread was buttered and, they most certainly did not rock the boat. They said what people wanted to hear at difficult and sensitive times.
But biblical characters such as Micah and others did rock the boat. Micah, and others like Amos, were criticised for refusing to toe the party line. He responded by predicting that the regular prophets would lose their cutting edge and the light of their insight would be darkened; they would become incapable of discerning the word of the Lord.
The proof that the professionals were wrong and amateurs like Micah right was found in the fruit of their ministry. It has fuelled rather than foiled social injustice. Their beliefs were held sincerely, no doubt, and were proclaimed powerfully and accepted as plausible. There was no point in arguing, but the sad effects of their work were now clearly visible.
That is why we need to judge policies and statements not only by biblical teachings by also by their practical effects. In our own day, some church leaders have questioned the unbridled market economy by pointing to its harsh effects on the poor and disadvantaged. Their criticism has been dismissed as theologically inept and economically ignorant, but the bitter fruits have not been sweetened nor the poor rescued.
Jesus reminds us that we will be able to tell whether people and policies are from God ‘by the fruit’ (Matthew 7:16). There is a time to rock the boat, to expose the empty or self-interested rhetoric by unwrapping its fruits. And therefore there is also a responsibility to ensure that we are neither fruitless altogether nor the producers of bitter fruit.
Politicians listen to public opinion but often the concerns of ordinary people are not aired strongly enough to challenge those of the powerful lobbyists and vested interests. In our own day the doubts of many about the long-term effects of genetically modified crops, and the detrimental effects of abusive elements of the Internet, are shouted down by commercial interests who have made consumer choice the first commandment.
Now and again a voice of the people rises above the babble and articulates in media-friendly terms what many have instinctively felt. Micah, again, was such a person. The condemnation thrown at him is in the plural, indicating that his was not a lone voice.
This was probably normal in Old Testament times, although we tend to assume from the narrative that the prophets were, like John the Baptist, individuals ‘crying in the wilderness’. In 1 Kings (18: 3-15) a whole band of prophets loyal to Yahweh were sheltered by a sympathiser from the evil intents of King Ahab, but it is only Elijah’s voice that we hear centuries later.
Micah repeats an oracle which is also found in Isaiah, other similarities exist in Amos. Perhaps he (or Isaiah) plagiarised; copyright law was not in place in the eighth century BC. It was more likely, however, that here are certain themes, certain turns of phrase, which were current slogans among the resistance, the ‘concerned minority’.
God’s word is worth repeating, and Micah’s similarities with others suggest that there was a vigorous minority reform movement. There were many ordinary people of good will (not least the victims of greed) who were glad that the prophets spoke as they did.
Micah provides us today with an example of someone who was unafraid to speak out against abuses he saw. We should too. Our words may never be quoted in the White House or 10 Downing Street, but if they are true to God’s concerns they will never be lost in the air. Isaiah encourages others to turn up the volume of public opinion.
Sunday, 13 January 2007
Rash vows lead to long regrets, who is to blame?
When the child of Christian parents ‘goes wrong’ – from giving up church to getting into drugs perhaps – the parents often receive criticism. Some Christian preachers declare that most of today’s problems are due to bad parenting.
The Bible will not allow such blanket judgements. It has several examples of children who rebel from godly upbringings. We can’t judge how good a father such as Gideon was. With 70 sons and a harem of wives he was hardly a model for New Testament monogamy and modern ‘new father’ bonding. The author within the Book of Judges does not consider this worthy of comment.
Gideon’s only recorded sin was to make a shrine which stimulated, but didn’t seem to have been intended for, idol worship. And, to his credit he resolutely refused to disobey God by becoming, or allowing his sons to become, king of Israel.
Abimelech, too, who was semi-legitimate and perhaps felt marginalised in the family, lusted for power and probably falsely implied that his brothers were about to set-up a power-sharing dynasty. Armed with a dubious mandate, he liquidated his potential rivals. Only Jotham appears to have inherited something of Gideon’s spirit. He hid too.
Biblically, Gideon cannot be held responsible for the actions of his adult son. Children usually rebel for a complex mass of reasons. The incident is treated by the author of Judges as a stand-alone sin and is an early example of the sense of individual responsibility which balances the more frequent biblical stress on corporate solidarity.
It was natural to Jephthah to ‘devote’ to God (that is kill) a creature as a thank offering for good success. We might promise a cheque.
He evidently never considered that a returning warrior was more likely to be met at the gate by a relieved member of his family than by a sniffling dog or scratching hen. That was his undoing; in the heat of the moment, he just did not think.
Jephthah is another ‘rejected’ person by an accident of birth. It is only when people need his skills that they ask him back. It is an ancient example of the modern vice of valuing people only for what they can do.
But God looked after him. Jephthah understands the Scriptures, and is clearly open to God’s spirit. He’s not too proud to accept the task – having made sure first that he’ll be paid for it – when some people would have refused.
His daughter’s appearance devastates him. He’s not a hard man; he’s a caring father. But he feels he can’t break a vow to God. It’s an impossible dilemma. Perhaps Jesus had this in mind when he told his disciples not to take rash oaths (Matthew 5: 33-37).
Vows used as bargaining tools (‘get me home and you’ll get this’) should not be part of our lives at all; bribing God will entangle us as it entangled Jephthah. Once the heat of the moment has cooled, we’ll probably find we can’t keep the vows. And then what will we do?
[I said I would give you a mention Kim in the lesson today. Kim is my dear cousin who remains the only established link that I have with my own roots. Blessings to you.]
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Half truths double the trouble
FEW people get through life without, at some stage, suffering some form of ill health or experiencing tragedy which is genuinely no fault of their own. It’s just one of those things; they are afflicted by ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’.
Yet, invariably we ask, ‘What have I done to deserve this? Why has God allowed it to happen to me? The unfairness of it all is made worse when we see others whose indulgent lifestyles, immorality and even lawless behaviour seem part of a charmed life which brings them health, wealth and happiness.
Such is the setting within the Biblical book of Job. The Book of Job explores the problem of why good people suffer. Job will offer Bible readers magnificent poetry but, seeking an answer to the old-age question will leave readers disappointed, although wiser. The book does not answer the question, ‘Why?’ It suggests, in fact, that this is not the right question to be asking.
Its chief point is nothing to do with Job, but his friends. Their often quotable speeches are full of half-truths. These men are neither heretics nor extremists. They live and speak within the limits of their own cultural and spiritual understanding. But they are spiritually blind, and unreliable guides.
Their half-truths only add to Job’s misery because they neither point him towards a positive answer nor offer him sensitive pastoral support. The Biblical book is for anyone who knows a suffering person: learn how not to help your friend.
After his outpourings and their platitudes, helped along by the youthful but also misguided fourth debater, Elihu, the book turns to face God. In a superb broad canvass survey of creation, God is revealed as great, just and inscrutable.
Humbled by him, we see that our questions cannot be answered because we se things from the wrong perspective. Instead, we are encouraged to press on in faithful discipleship in a world which is harassed with evil. Our exploration of God is not to be restricted to half-truths, but to trust that he is just and perfect, and that our suffering is not a sign of his personal displeasure of us.
Job’s tragedies plunge him, as they would plunge most people, into a pit of despair. We accept that life is not straightforward and has its setbacks. But when everything we have lived and worked for is smashed, then the question of whether life is worth living invariably emerges.
During these outpourings, the author does not offer any editorial platitudes. Platitudes are useless; Job is being real. He is in pain, and we are meant to hear his inner despair and grieve with him. We have no answers either: we cannot say, of course we know …
When tragedy strikes, Christians are sometimes forced into false piety. Occasionally people do receive supernatural grace to soar above their problems. But for most of us, the tragic situations are tragic, suffocating and meaningless. The sun goes out and a deep chill freezes the heart and paralyses the mind.
Even Paul experienced that; he survived, but only as one who was ‘raised from the dead’ (2 Corinthians 1: 8-11).
If you have never been there, thank God for belonging to a fortunate minority. If you know someone who is there, Job may put into words what they are feeling just now better than they can themselves. I am certain of that. Listen to him, then listen to them.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Social temperature changes go unnoticed?
It is said that if you put a lobster into boiling water it squeals, understandably. But if you put it in cold water and slowly heat it, the creature doesn’t notice the temperature change until it is too late.
The same thing happens to people as the surrounding social climate changes. We get used to it and don’t notice the enormity of the change until it is too late. It takes an outsider, like biblical Amos, to point out the obvious. Amos does so with strong language such as calling a woman a cow (4:1) and lists a variety of social sins which go unchecked and unchallenged. Amos is outspoken concerning the ‘social sins’ of his time using immoderate language to condemn them. In the context of such rebukes he was not alone in seeing them. His near contemporaries Isaiah and Hosea saw and identified with much the same thing. Social sins such as oppression of the poor, reversal of values, legal injustice and bribery, slave trading, sexual immorality, Sabbath breaking, dishonest trading and theft, murder and idolatry. The list could easily go on.
Christians applying the teachings of Amos to their own lives should look beyond the evils to the social principles they represent. Complacency, indulgence, and disadvantaged people being exploited for other’s profit and pleasure, are always common lapses. We can apply this principle also to the flaunting of racism, verbal and physical violence and vandalism, and unremitting commercial pressure on poor developing nations to produce low priced produce for Western supermarkets.
Amos should remind us that righteousness and godliness is not a matter of having a private faith, of avoiding certain sins and doing certain charitable or religious acts. It is primarily living in and ordering God’s world to reflect God’s character.
Immersed in a decadent society we soak up attitudes and absorb lifestyles so that eventually we blend like chameleons into our cultural background. When we do denounce sins, they are often taken from a selective list allowing the prevailing greed, injustice and idolatry to continue unchecked and perhaps even unnoticed.
Our own prophetic role does not begin with shouting abuse at the world. Amos was speaking to the ‘church’ of his day. We need to repeat his uncomfortable message to ourselves, set our own lifestyles and attitudes in order, and then offer the world a new agenda which we are already practising.
Amos’s teaching is of relevance today as it was during his time. He teaches, for example, that God is protecting his people through difficulties, not from them. He places warnings the cultural norms in your society may be at odds with God’s values and concerns. The spiritual life includes acting justly and seeking the welfare of all within society.
When things go wrong and normal life is interrupted, nothing it seems could be worse. Without denying the real grief and pain which we encounter, we will never actually know if it could have been worse. In other words, to suffer does not mean that God’s protective shield has been withdrawn: he could have saved us from something worse. Divine protection does not mean prevention of mishap. It is worth reflecting over.
“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24)
Sunday, 03 February 2008
God’s residence open
Many city dwelling Russians have ‘dachas’ – often no more than a wooden hut on a vegetable plot in the country – to which they retreat at weekends. In Western countries wealthier people sometimes have a holiday home. ‘Solomon’s prayer’ regards the temple as God’s second residence.
He requests that God will hear his people ‘from heaven’ when they pray ‘towards’ the temple. This sets the Israelite faith apart from the cruder and more localised religions of other tribes and nations around them at the time; God doesn’t live in houses.
The temple becomes an aid for the people’s devotion to God, rather than something which God himself needs. It symbolises God’s character and stands as a reminder of his existence.
At the end of the dedication the covenant is, in effect, renewed. God is pleased with his people’s devotion and love, but he is not bribed by it. They are still to keep his commandments, whatever good things they have done so far. The temple, like any ‘good work’ is not a capital asset which they can use to offset any debts to God they may incur through evil ways or doings.
Solomon’s thought here helps Christians today keep that difficult balance between treating church buildings with respect as ‘God’s house’ on the one hand, and as functional tools no different from anywhere else on the other.
A place dedicated to God can be a channel for his ministry and grace, and therefore be holy in the biblical sense. The places where God makes his presence felt and his voice heard are rightly thought of as ‘special’ and not to be treated lightly.
2 Chronicles 7:14 says:
“If my people … humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
This too, perhaps, suggests that one requires listening before deciding what to do. Conflicts, for instance, sometimes arise because what one person thinks another is saying is not the case. We hear selectively what we want to hear. That was the problem, for example, with Ahab, Israel’s king, whose court prophets were worse than court jesters; there was never a grain of truth in their zany predictions. When the truth is spoken, Ahab doesn’t believe a word of it and Jehoshaphat from Judah (prophets of Baal) apparently dismisses it as merely ‘interesting’ for which he is let off lightly with a later rebuke. How this analogy could so easily apply to what we do and say in this era.
Judging what is right in a situation is always difficult. It requires listening to God (often through others) before we make detailed plans. Once an idea has begun to take shape in our minds, it is extremely difficult to change it.
Blessings.
Sunday, 10 February 2008
… Is everything already decided: hold your tongue!
According to researchers, politicians and actors (among others) talk so much that they give themselves bad breadth. The Biblical book of Proverbs suggests that wisdom bites its tongue for deeper reasons.
A person who speaks rashly ‘comes to ruin’ socially if not materially, so listen before you give others the benefit of your opinion. Rash words can cause as much damage as an unsheathed sword, whereas the considered comments of a wise person are like a healing balm.
Many of our words are a waste of breath; but while the fool ‘gushes folly’ a timely word is always good. Pleasant words are as sweet to the ear and heart as honey to the taste buds.
The wise person is patient and thus calms a quarrel. Wisdom is even tempered offering gentle responses to ‘turn away wrath’ (15:1).
Lying is the height of folly and detested by God. Honesty is ‘like a kiss on the lips’. Gossip betrays confidence and breaks up relationships; we never know the damage it may cause. Foolish talk is self-indulgent and arrogant; it is just plain sin (10:19).
Usually we talk too much either because we are nervous or because we want to impress. Proverbs, in common with the rest of the Bible, suggests that as our confidence is in God there is no need to ingratiate ourselves with others. Wise people avoid those who talk to much.
Proverbs contains the sort of platitudes for which Job’s comforters were rightly rebuked. It suggests, for example, that the righteous will prosper and the wicked will be destroyed.
The serious Bible reader has to ask why such statements are included within Proverbs if they are denied (at least indirectly) elsewhere. They seem to fuel the charge that the Bible contradicts itself. The start of an answer is that God promises to correct injustice at the last day, when the wicked will indeed be destroyed. At that level, there is no contradiction, just a time lapse between promise and fulfilment.
That is not altogether satisfactory, because the Old Testament statements relate specifically to this life. While the writers had a limited concept of an afterlife, they did believe in a God of justice. They therefore projected his justice into their current experience.
Behind these claims is an inalienable principle – doing right is best in the long term for personal and social welfare, bringing a sense of well-being and encouraging, although not guaranteeing, kindness from others.
Examples of righteousness may promote respect and trust in society. Upright people may be given a greater responsibility, for the benefit of all, Jesus’ parable about the ‘honest managers’ in Luke 19 is a good example. Conversely, people’s sins may find them out and the perpetrators suffer emotionally, physically, socially or spiritually as a result.
The assertions in Proverbs are one side of the biblical coin. They are not meant to convey the whole truth. They embody a general principle, not a universal law. Proverbs acknowledges that wickedness may earn itself a fat, although deceptive, reward.
If we only had Proverbs, we might conclude that life is already mapped out for us by God. Human creativity exists only to fulfil a pre-determined plan. ‘Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails. Even the lottery is divinely rigged: ‘The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord’ (16:33).
This is close to the fatalism which is reflected today in some aspects of Islam. This is partly because the Old Testament writers are very conscious of God’s intimate involvement with human life.
But behind the assertion of guidance is the assumption of commitment. It is those who seek God’s honour and ask for his assistance in all their ways who are assured of his guiding and protecting presence, even when to human eyes chance and necessity seem to reign.
God is so perfect in understanding and powerful in his providential activity that he can weave even the activities of those who ignore him into his purposes for his people. And, of course, people without faith may also recognise and acknowledge his general care which is meant to draw them more fully to himself. Proverbs is reminding us that God is a loving father.
Sunday, 17 February 2008
Down-to-earth advice for godly living:
… “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
THE book of Proverbs is blunt, earthly and practical. It belongs to the genre of ‘wisdom’ literature which was common in the ancient world. It is not a book in which to cull theology but rather a book to show how theology can be applied.
Commentator Derek Kidner writes, “It is a book which seldom takes you to church … It’s function in Scripture is to put godliness into working clothes; to name business and society as spheres in which we are to acquaint ourselves with credit to our Lord, and in which we are to look for his training.”
Although rooted in the culture and lifestyle of an ancient world, much of its wisdom can be extrapolated into modern life. The advice to have honest scales (in which the Lord delights, 11:1) is fundamental to social order in any age, and the statement that getting drunk is unwise (20:1) has always been rued by those who ignore it.
Proverbs originates from the sayings of a class of ‘wise men’ in ancient Israel, from the time of Solomon onwards. They seem to have been given a status close to that of priests and prophets and guides of God’s people. Other cultures had them too, but we know little of how they operated.
Today, wisdom is not often praised as a virtue, but that is partly because we have other ways of describing it. Knowing what is the right thing to do; avoiding mistakes we might regret; keeping our eyes open; seeing all sides of a situation; not being driven by foolish desires.
Wisdom is the mind controlling the heart, the heart informing the mind, and both subjected to the law and leading of God. As a result, compassion, thoughtfulness and generosity are displayed in social relationships, and blind impulse gives way to far-sighted consideration.
Throughout the Book of Proverbs wisdom is lauded as something to be treasured. It produces better returns than monetary wealth (3:13), and is more attractive than a bride’s garland (1:8), it is the supreme principle of successful living. Get wisdom and you get a lot else thrown in.
Living by wisdom is living God’s way, in harmony with the rules and constraints which he built into creation. With it, we can avoid the pitfalls of sin, look forward to a rewarding life and enjoy protection from needless danger.
The author of the first section seems so carried away by his theme that he personifies wisdom, elevating it almost too divine status, but being a Jew, he cannot be suggesting that there is a real divinity named Wisdom.
Christianity sees the imagery as a pale foreshadowing of the New Testament image of Jesus as the divine ‘Word’, John 1:1. But it would be stretching the Old Testament too far to suggest that Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is an exact portrayal of the Second Person of the Trinity.
Instead, he uses a poetic image to convey a truth. In human affairs, wisdom is supreme; everything worthwhile in life depends on it, just as life itself depends on God. But the ability to live wisely as God intended does not come naturally; it has to be sought and learned, just as God waits for us to turn to him and does not force himself upon us.
The Word made flesh is the source of our wisdom is mediated through the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6-10). The New Testament agrees that to become a human trait, wisdom first needs to be received as a divine gift (James 1:5). The fact that is restrains the excesses we rather enjoy may be one reason why we don’t seek it with the same urgency as did the authors of Proverbs.
Proverbs is a book to be read in short sections, and mediated upon. It is perfectly possible to dip into it at random and gain some insight, encouragement or warning – a practice which is inadvisable for any other Biblical book.
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Humble pie nourishes spiritual growth
Uriah Heep, a character in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, exclaims ‘When I was a young boy, I ate ‘umble pie with an appetite. I’m very ‘umble to the present moment, but I have little power.’ For most of us this is the limit of humility; we will take a back seat as long as we still have a little power.
Humility is not high on our agenda. There are numerous training videos and practical manuals on how to get your own way, win more customers, make more money, and avoid being a dogsbody or an also-ran. Humility is seen as the sort of idea to leave for the monastery or retirement home.
Writing three decades after the crucifixion, Paul knew that life in Roman society was nasty, brutish and short. Babies were abandoned on the street. Public life was riddled with intrigue. Humility? Count others better than yourself? That was the quickest way to go to the wall. You needed a little power. But Jesus, he says, laid aside his power (Philippians v 7); and servants, in Paul’s day, had no power.
That is what makes Christian living so radically different – and difficult. We have to let go of self-interest. Humility is the opposite of pride; it does the servant’s job, as Jesus did at the last supper. We prefer, like the disciples, to do only that which enhances our image and status.
Humility sets aside personal interest and puts others’ interests first. It welcomes their strengths and encourages their gifts. When Basil Hume, until 1999 leader of Britain’s Roman Catholics, was a teacher he realised and always kept in mind that every child had at least one gift that was better than his own. Thinking like that is one practical way of developing humility. Everyone is unique; humility values them all and does not consider them to be rivals or threats.
Humility is essential for growth in purity and holiness. The word actually comes from the Latin humus - that vital organic material which makes soil fertile. When we lay aside self-interest and put others first, whether they are colleagues or customers, relatives or friends, then the ground is being prepared for a crop of spiritual fruit.
Keeping hold of a little power is a quick way of sterilising the soil and neutralising the witness of the church.
Sunday, 02 March 2008
Eternal life is set in physical stone and faith
NATURAL stone – textured and coloured sandstone, polished marble – is attractive and naturally strong. Peter saw some spectacular stone buildings in Rome, like the Coliseum.
Although church buildings did not yet exist in Peter’s times, the building analogy illustrates the nature of the church: it is beautiful and strong.
Its strength comes from the ‘cornerstone’, a large foundation block which defines the angle and takes the stress. Jesus defines our faith and supports our life. Without him there would be no church, because he was its Saviour, not just its teacher. People who are not built onto this foundation will sooner or later fall, for no alternative structure can stand for ever.
The stones built on the foundation combine to form a functional and attractive structure. The ‘priesthood’ of believers, called to sacrifice themselves in whole-life worship of God, are adorned with the beauties of God’s own holiness. Think about the picture the next time you see a church building.
Charles Williams wrote Many Dimensions, a complex and deeply symbolic novel about a stone from King Solomon’s crown which had mysterious powers. It could be divided without losing its mass and the new stones were used selfishly by their owners.
The original stone came to Chloe, a judge’s secretary. She had to decide whether to use it at her own behest to gratify someone else’s desire, or to let it have its way with her. She choose the later. By resigning herself to it, rather than controlling it, she became the means of bringing all the stones together again, so preventing their further misuse.
Williams is suggesting that God’s gifts are for God’s use. Peter also says: ‘our’ gifts are not ours; they are ‘God’s grace’ (1 Peter 4:10). They are expressions of his presence for him to work through, not tools for us to ‘minister’ with as we decide we would like. Only is God praised and honoured (v 11).
God’s gifts are not for self-employment – they are at his disposal alone – and for use only as your heart tells you he wishes. Wilfulness never pleases God.
According to psychologist Sigmund Freud, religion is a dangerous illusion of a sick mind. Other psychologists, including Freud’s own pupil Carl Jung, took a more moderate approach, recognising that psychology is not qualified to pronounce on the existence of God.
Peter knew nothing of ids, egos and libidos but he did know that people would attempt to dismiss the faith as an illusion. So he reminds his readers that it isn’t an invention but a revelation. He saw some of it himself, notably on the Mount of Transfiguration and in his personal encounters with the risen Lord. Christianity for us as for Peter, is based on objective facts. Scriptures relate prophecies of Christ which have been fulfilled; that could never be humanly engineered.
The Scriptures provide a strong argument against Judeo-Christianity being a human intervention, precisely because they are so wide-ranging in styles, time and concern. The unity of the message is all the more remarkable for the diversity of the writings composed of over 40 authors during a period of more than 1,000 years. Compared with the biblical faith, pagan and false religions were obvious human inventions.
When doubts occur, read the Bible narratives and see how God has woven a compelling message about himself, revealed to and through a long series of people who never knew each other.
Sunday, 09 March 2008
THE LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face towards you and give you peace.
Amen.
CHARLES Blair was the pastor of a large church in Denver, Colorado. As a result of his presumption, which he wrongly viewed as faith, he was convicted of charges of financial fraud in some major expansion programmes. During the trial, he and his wife found it increasingly difficult to face other people because of the shame they felt and the criticism they received. Once, when a commercial researcher called innocently at the door, Blair’s wife just burst into tears.
It always feels worse if, when you have been hit by some circumstantial blow (whether deserved or not), others have a good laugh or gossip at your expense. It depresses you further and makes it harder to hope for recovery. You just want to crawl away.
That is the very situation in Obadiah – the fourth of the Minor Prophets at the end of the Old Testament, after Amos and before Jonah. Judah has been attacked and decimated. Edom (or Esau) is gloating (Psalm 137:7), but the tables will be turned – Obadiah promises. Judah will be restored and Edom will be destroyed.
No one is quite sure when Obadiah worked. Jewish scholars placed him at the time of King Jehoram (c. 850 BC) making Obadiah a contemporary of Elisha (2 Kings 2-9). However, verses 11-14 are so like the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC that many scholars date Obadiah shortly after it. In that case the prophet must be a contemporary of Jeremiah.
Whatever the date, Obadiah is saying that God will one day make Judah’s (and our) opponents laugh on the other side of their faces. But that doesn’t satisfy our desire for immediate vengeance. It is, however, the standard message of the biblical prophets who recognised that God’s timescale is different from ours. God hears our cry, sees the gloating enemy, and does not forget it. In discomfort and even in disgrace, God does not abandon us. He forgives, restores and promises that those who laugh now will mourn later.
While awaiting sentence, Charles Blair began spending more time alone with God. The message he received was, ‘You caught my vision and then galloped ahead without learning how I wished to bring it about … You’ve made mistakes – that’s human nature. I’ve forgiven you – that’s my nature.’
Judah had often deserved Edom’s attacks. But God, unlike her enemies, never laughed at her discomfort but wept silently with her.
Sunday, 16 March 2008
What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6)
Amen
Edward de Bono, the twentieth-century guru of creative thinking, labels different approaches to a problem by giving them coloured ‘hats’: white for essential information, black for objections, yellow for optimism, red for hunches, green for alternatives, and blue for managing the whole process.
The Book of Nehemiah which brings us to the end of the Old Testament narrative is definitely a ‘blue hat’. He finds out the relevant data (2:11-16) and presents his plans to the workers (2:17-20). Then he organises them so that each team knows what to do and where they fit into the whole.
When the black hat (objection and opposition) is thrown into the ring, he combines yellow (optimism) and green (alternatives) to devise a practical solution!
Nehemiah, though, was also a good people manager. At the height of the work, he was with the labourers experiencing the same hardships (4:21-23). He cared about their welfare and in the midst of a hectic project he also instituted a programme of radical social reform.
The skill of managing projects (and people) is as valid in the church as in commerce. Church projects might have a different motivation, but the mechanics of executing them are similar. There is nothing spiritual about leaving business skill at the vestry door when the church council meets.
Nehemiah combined spirituality, creativity, pastoral care, practicality and personal involvement. He succeeded where others had either not tried, or failed.
Some great leaders are remembered for what they did rather than for who they were. That is certainly not the case with Nehemiah. The book named after him – drawing largely on his personal diaries – provides Bible readers with a rich character study.
Nehemiah was the quintessential spiritual leader. He earned his living as a servant, doing what he was told, rising to a position of considerable responsibility as cup-bearer (wine taster and poison tester) for the king of Persia.
Then he suddenly faced a call to a career change. Hearing that the walls of Jerusalem were still ruined almost a century the first return of the exiles, he acts, combining prayer and practical management skills with considerable determination and drive.
With his feet firmly on the ground, his eyes and ears alert to danger and opportunity, his hands willing to get dirty alongside his co-workers, and his body prepared to work round the clock, Nehemiah had his heart based permanently in heaven.
As a result, an ancient problem was resolved within a few weeks and the whole nation experienced a spiritual revival. Nehemiah the civic leader was the perfect balance for Ezra, the religious leader whom Nehemiah brought in to take the people on where he was unqualified to lead. His job done, he stepped back and supported Ezra who took over the controls.
Nehemiah is a character. He is determined, resourceful, prayerful, and humble at the same time. He sounds self-righteous, but that underlines both his humanity and his single-mindedness. He is a model for anyone to follow, whatever their calling.
- The writer was commissioned as a Boys Brigade Officer by the Rev. Robert Lynn, St. Leonard’s Parish Church, Ayr.
Easter Message from MarKat (Scotland)
Keep your hearts and minds fixed in the knowledge and love of Christ.
Amen
- Wishing all viewers and readers to MarKat Press & Journal (Scotland) a peaceful Easter.
Appendage(s):
1. ‘Thought for the day’ — Maundy Thursday Lesson, BBC Radio-4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20080320.shtml
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Refiner’s fire makes Christians glow …
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the LORD, is one.
… Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, 5)
THE first letter of Peter, in the Bible, encourages Christians to keep the faith during periods of persecution. The letter also describes how Christians are God’s people with a mission.
From needles under the fingernails to hot pokers on sensitive body parts, human beings have devised 101 clever ways of inflicting pain on each other often for no good reason except to dominate and control.
In AD 64, the emperor Nero thought up another one. He rounded up Christians (who he wrongly accused of having started the great fire of Rome; rumour had it that he started it himself) and skewered them alive on long poles. Coating them in tar, he set fire to them as human beacons to illuminate his palace gardens at night and provide char-grilled kebabs for the crowds the next day.
Peter probably wrote his first letter before that incident happened, but he could see it coming. Almost since the day of Pentecost the apostles and their converts had been arrested by authorities or lynched by angry mobs. Suffering was not a new experience, but it was starting to become institutionalised. The worst period was in the late AD 80s, under the emperor Domitian.
Such things seem far from the sanitised modern West, disturbed only by media reports of serial killers and overseas warlords with unpronounceable names. Yet, all through history, Christians have been persecuted, sometimes by each other. In our time there have been attacks on churches in some Asian countries and much personal brutality to Christians in both Asia and Africa.
It could never happen here, we think. But, Christians can be pilloried in the press, obstructed at work and ridiculed at home. That does happen here. In applying the whole letter of Peter, and especially the sections on suffering, we should recognise that while all suffering is terrible, we should keep it in perspective because we haven’t yet had to pay the ultimate price for our faith; and accept all kinds of suffering as opportunities for our faith to be refined.
Peter is thinking of gold being heated to melt off the impurities (1:7). Sometimes, suffering reduces our life to the basics. The wrappers get burned off. What’s left underneath? Is it something durable that can outlast the comforts of life? Or is our ‘faith’ dependent on those comforts for its existence?
When we focus on what is permanent, rather than on what is transient, our faith will take on a spiritual glow and we and the world will be better for it. And you don’t need to suffer to let that happen.
- The writer was commissioned as a Boys Brigade Officer by the Rev. Robert Lynn, St. Leonard’s Parish Church, Ayr.
Sunday, 06 April 2008
Get your thinking straight
… But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal … (Philippians 3:13, 14)
IT used to be called the ‘power of positive thinking’ but now it’s called ‘neuro-linguistic programming’ (NLP). This latest technique, popular in business circles, helps people to reorder their thinking patterns to maximise their creativity and productivity.
Paul says that Christians are to reorder their thinking patterns too. Philippians, letters produced by Paul, says (12:2) this re-ordering is one of the Holy Spirit’s tasks in us; here, for example, he reminds us that it requires our active cooperation. Our transformed mind is to have a positive, Christ-centred world view.
Our thinking and decision making must be governed by our knowledge of the existence, sovereignty and world-embracing purposes of God. His righteousness, justice, holiness, love and truth mould our ideas.
So, Paul says, crowd out sinful, negative and untrue thoughts by pure and positive ones. When an angry or negative thought arrives, capture it with its Christ-centred opposite. The more we feed our minds on good things, the fewer negative ones will occur to us.
This may determine our viewing and reading, or the company we keep. We are not called to join an exclusive sect, but there is no virtue in exposing ourselves unnecessarily to influences which compete with the Spirit’s renewing work.
Sunday, 13 April 2008
For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods … splendour and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
POLITICIANS rarely retire gracefully. The stories of China and the Soviet Union especially are littered with ageing leaders who clung to power and refused to step down.
In what may have been an early Christian hymn, Paul says that Jesus was just the opposite. He did not seek power, but he laid aside his majesty in order to share our humanity, because human salvation was more important to him than divine status.
Paul stresses that Jesus was fully God, but precisely what he meant by Jesus ‘emptying’ himself (‘made himself nothing’, Philippians 2:7) has caused considerable theological dispute in the past.
He does not mean that Jesus ceased to be God, but that Jesus accepted the limitations of humanity which necessarily restricted the way in which his deity could be displayed and exercised. He could not, for example, be ubiquitous or be everywhere at once.
Especially it means that he emptied out his whole life in death, as Paul goes on to stress. Perhaps he borrowed from the phrase from Isaiah 53:12, the wording is very similar. In Jesus’ crucifixion we see the true extent of his self-sacrifice. That God should allow himself to be killed in this ultimate way of ‘making himself nothing’.
The example of Jesus sets a high standard. He himself taught that we too should lay aside claims to human status (Matthew 23: 8-12). There is to be no clinging to power in the church. Our identity and status comes from being ‘in’ Christ alone, to whom we are joined in one ‘body’.
Paul cites the self-giving life of Epaphroditus who ‘almost died for the work of Christ’ as an example of what that could mean in practice. Like Jesus, he did not cling to his life, and was willing to lose it. This is what it means to ‘bow the knee’ to Jesus and confess him Lord.
Sunday, 20 April 2008
May the Lord strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy … (1 Thessalonians 3: 13)
MASS evangelists who jet into a city, conduct a campaign, and jet out again, are often accused of leaving their ‘converts’ high and dry, with no on-going support.
Paul, on his visit to Thessalonica, may not have intended to do this but in the end had little option. He was there for just three weeks before opposition forced him to make a hasty exit.
His new converts had no trained ministers to teach and support them. They had no New Testament to learn from, and no Christian books to read. They had no established church traditions to latch onto. They didn’t even have a telephone over which to get quick advice from the apostle.
Yet, they not only survived, but grew spiritually in double quick time. They became examples of others to follow. The letters to the Thessalonians provide today’s Christians with important encouragement: When God begins to work in someone’s life, he is able to continue it even if no human support is available.
That does not excuse any lack of pastoral follow-up. Paul was anxious to provide it: the letters are one means he used; visits from his associate Timothy were another.
Despite their growth in numbers and vitality, like any other fledging church they had their problems. Not surprisingly, they had to endure ongoing opposition which raised doubts about Paul and his motives in some minds.
Others, captivated by the thought that Christ had promised to return, assumed that he was coming soon and packed in their jobs to wait for him. They present us with one of the first examples of the trend repeated later by the ‘millennium cults’. Beliefs about Christ’s return often excite as much passion now as they did then.
Thessalonians provides some simple guidelines for today. Unfortunately, because they are simple and incomplete, they have been the source of as much speculation in the centuries since Paul wrote them as was the apostle’s original verbal teaching to the church. Returning to the original simplicity is perhaps relevant.
Paul was a man of intense emotional passion who had a deep personal care for other people. His prayers and his longings set a high standard of pastoral care and give a powerful example of what ‘fellowship’ should mean.
Like a proud parent, he cannot stop talking and boosting about the Christians in Thessalonica. They are his ‘glory and joy’, and an example all should follow. But, neither can he stop worrying about them.
As he boasts and frets, so he also prays. He punctuates his letters with prayer. He thanks God always for them; he blesses them with longings for more growth and intercedes that they may persevere.
Good mentor that he is, he also encourages them to greater things. He commends them for imitating his conduct by becoming an example to others, and by showing their love for one another.
He shows, too, that fellowship is two-way. Paul is not a ‘Big Brother’ checking up on them; he is just their brother, and they are partners with him in the gospel. He treats them as adult friends and leaves yet another example for leaders to follow.
Paul’s writings in Thessalonians are as much to do with encouraging Christians to work responsibly in the world, as it is to do with practical advice on Christian living.
From Psalm 24:
The earth belongs unto the Lord,
And all it that it contains;
The world that is inhabited,
And all that there remains.
For the foundations of the same
He on the seas did lay,
And he hath it established
Upon the floods to stay.
Amen.
Dedication:
Sarah Brightman – Time To Say Goodbye (2006)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFv6Lfa1lg&feature=related
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Complacency kills
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream (Amos 5: 24)
LAMENTING the events which followed the Russian revolution, Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in The Gulag Archipelago that ‘we didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.’ Complacency set in, leaving the door wide open to communist terror.
Complacency is the most dangerous of sins. It fiddles with its toys while Rome burns. It lives in an enclosed world of self-fulfilment, oblivious to the evils and threats to freedom and dignity which parade outside the window.
Complacency has one foot in the spiritual grave. It is afflicted with tunnel vision, over-confident of its standing before God, uncritical of its attitudes and actions, and unconcerned with life beyond its narrow interests.
The complacent Israelites, lying on their ivory beds, were comfortable. All seemed well with their world. But all was wrong with it. And they deserved what happened afterwards. When the terms of God’s covenant are broken, he has no choice but to bring retribution upon his own people.
Today, our ‘punishment’ for complacency may be a spiritual ‘exile’ from the riches of God’s blessing and from the place of influence in the world which marginalises us. But even that statement might be another form of complacency; such ‘exile’ itself is relatively comfortable. Before the start of the millennium, the huge refugee crisis from Kosovo, for instance, reminded us that war and sudden poverty is never far away.
When things go wrong and normal life is interrupted, nothing, it seems, could be worse. Without denying the real grief and pain which we encounter, we will never actually know if it could have been worse. In other words, to suffer does not mean that God’s protective shield has been withdrawn; he could have saved us from something worse. Divine protection does not always mean prevention of mishap. In the book of Amos, for example, we see that God is protecting his people through difficulties, not from them.
Guidance in Amos is pragmatic for being aware of the dangers of complacency. The book highlights the need in understanding the relative nature of duty and responsibility; and indication that the cultural norms in your society may be at odds with God’s values and concerns; the spiritual life includes acting justly and seeking the welfare of all within society and, saliently, that everyone will face judgement.
Dedication:
Out of the depths Psalm 130 Scottish Psalter 1650
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yETRxtYIL-E&feature=related
Sunday, 04 May 2008
… “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [Jude v 21]
Keep the fences mended
JUDE is one of the shortest New Testament books (only one chapter) but, as the early church writer Origen said, ‘it is full of mighty words’.
Jude tells his readers in no uncertain terms to withstand false teachers and to hold fast to the apostolic faith.
As any pet owner or farmer knows, it is a chief purpose of animal life to get through fences. Rabbits will burrow under them, sheep will squeeze through them, and goats will eat them.
Jude wanted to write a letter or tract about the delights of the spiritual meadow in which the church grazed, but instead he spends his strength telling his readers to stay within the fences which surround it: the doctrines ‘once for all entrusted to the saints’ (v 3). The reason for his change is that some church members have torn down the barriers and others are in danger of falling.
They have impure motives and bad intentions. They have ‘secretly slipped in’ like enemy agents in a government department, like wolves in sheep’s clothing. They look right, and sound right, but subtly undermine faith. They also encourage immoral conduct.
To counter them, Jude says we are to stay within the boundaries of faith previously laid down. Today, these are encapsulated for us in the creeds which are based on Scripture, and in the broad but definite boundaries of conduct outlined in the historic Ten Commandments.
In an age of moral relativism, there are many voices advocating practices and beliefs which are not genuine interpretations or fresh applications of unchanging truths, but denials or distortions of those truths. We are to resist them as Jude’s readers were to resist the false teachers of their time.
G.K. Chesterton once wrote that the breaking of barriers could be the breaking of everything. The fence of faith is not a prison wall to restrict our freedom but a guard rail for our benefit and safety. And human beings are not meant to behave like animals searching for greener grass.
Amen.
Dedication:
“What a Friend we have in Jesus” – Brian Gan on Guitar
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dRk_q4lTchY&feature=related
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Love is cross-shaped: are Christians perfect?
Pentecost teaching -
… How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! [1 John 3:1]
ONE of the world’s richest men, John Paul Getty III, one said: “I’m very rude. I don’t really like people very much. Most people don’t like me, either. I don’t trust anybody in the world.” Jesus taught that love was the essence of moral and spiritual law and Paul said it fulfilled the law (Romans 13:10). Love lubricates society; without it we grab and fight.
Love is the very nature of God; everything he does is charged with love. This is expressed, not negated, by his justice and revealed through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It therefore has shape to it; it is not a sentimental feeling but a righteous force for action.
Christian love is to reflect God’s self giving love; enmity within the body of Christ is a contradiction in terms. Just as God showed his love by giving his Son, so we are to show our love by sharing our possessions, talents and skills. That becomes humanely possible only we experience God’s love personally.
Love within Christ enables God to reveal more of himself and his love to flow through us and make us effective in his service. His love banishes fear of other people, persecution and eternal punishment (1 John 4:18). It can purify our conscience and reassure us when we sin. You can’t be rude to anyone when you’ve known love like that. And money can’t buy it.
Amen.
Dedication:
Hayley Westenra – Pie Jesu (re-live)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr6ajtA5Otg&feature=related
Sunday, 18 May 2008:
Expressing grief, maintaining faith
… “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.” [Lamentations 3: 32, 33]
THINK of some of the TV pictures you have seen of refugees or survivors of a natural disaster or military attack. See children, hungry, tearful and bewildered. Women wailing at the loss of husbands and sons. Older men dazed and confused, wandering around the wreckage searching desperately for belongings, or for food and water. Such scenes are frequent and visible on an almost daily basis on our TV screens.
Historically, the architecture and technology may have been different, but otherwise that’s the type of scene, too, that you will find as you open the book of Lamentations. Indeed, things are so bad, that women appear willing and prepared to eat the dead bodies of children.
Law and order have broken down, children have to work and the sound of gaiety has been silenced. Dead bodies lie unburied in the streets. Children beg for food, weakened by famine and thirst.
The anonymous author of this heart-rending book weeps. These are his people; this is his city. In common with the Prophets, he lays the blame for the tragedy at the feet of the people of Judah who for decades, if not centuries, have refused to heed God’s warnings. But he identifies with them, rather than merely railing against them.
He has his personal griefs, too. Enemies have hounded him without a cause (3: 52). It felt like being imprisoned (3: 6-9) and being thrown into a pit from which the Lord eventually rescued him (3: 55-60). It is very reminiscent of Jeremiah’s own recorded experience (Jeremiah 37, 38).
What is new to us, perhaps, is that the author feels with and for his people. We tend to distance ourselves from our nation, our church and from those who are removed from us. We are quick to criticise and slow to empathise. We can live in semi-detachment and rarely feel the pains of others acutely.
Yet, there is a ‘brotherhood of mankind’ from which we can never be detached, whatever the causes of people’s sufferings and whatever their spiritual state. It is one of the marks of the Christian to mourn with those who mourn (cf. Romans 12:15).
But in his grief, the author maintains his faith. Here, we find the unlikely verses which inspired the hymn ‘Great is thy faithfulness’ (3: 22-24). Slap in the middle of tragedy the author affirms God’s goodness and is willing to wait for him because his love is so great.
He can even manage a prayer that God will stir himself as in days of old and rise up on behalf of his stricken people. God, he knows, keeps his covenant, and he grips hold of that truth like a drowning sailor to driftwood.
Lamentations is cathartic. Use it as an aid to express your own griefs. Use it to help you understand what grief is like. Use it to stir yourself to human sympathy when you read or hear of others’ griefs. And use it as a source of hope: God is faithful, and even if we do suffer the effects of our foolish actions, his mercies will still be new every morning.
Amen.
Dedication:
Josh Groban: ‘You Raise Me Up’
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jkZ6SmvXOEY&feature=related
Sunday, 25 May 2008
One hole can sink a ship
“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; mediate on it day and night … Then you will be prosperous and successful … Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go”. [Joshua 1: 8, 9]
THE BIBLICAL BOOK of Joshua has inspired many sermons, usually when its tales of battlefield exploits are recast in New Testament terms of spiritual warfare and the struggle between flesh and spirit. There are modern day lessons from Joshua who gives vivid examples of God’s power and justice. Typically, God isn’t fussy about the company he keeps as are some of his followers. He is more interested in what people will become than what they are like when they first encounter him.
One man commits a foul, is sent off the field, his team loses and a whole country vilifies the culprit. One man scores a winning goal and his whole country erupts in wild excitement and adulation.
We should be familiar with the concept of ‘corporate solidarity’ at this level. One person or team doesn’t merely represent ‘us’, but in a real sense is us. However, we mostly operate on the different level of individual accountability. In biblical terms, ‘the soul who sins shall not live’ (Ezekiel 18: 4).
The Bible holds both truths in creative tension. We are personally responsible for our actions; we can’t blame our genes, environment, or other people for any failings we have. But, we are also bound together in an intricate web of relationships in which each person’s action affects others.
Paul speaks of the ‘body of Christ’, the church, being a single entity so that ‘if one part suffers, every part suffers with it’ (1 Corinthians 12: 26). Achan’s greed brought the whole nation down. When Joshua mourns, he is told to stop. There is no need in crying over spilt milk, the mess has to be cleared up.
By methods which are not detailed, Achan is exposed and confesses – but he is not then restored to fellowship. He is punished. The draconian, exemplary sentence makes God’s verdict clear. A holy God cannot dwell among an unholy people. But the damage has been done. The defeat at Ai has shown the Canaanites that Israel is not invincible and their awe turns to spite.
One person’s sin weakens the whole church. We may not see the effect so dramatically, but the pain it causes, the faith it damages, the witness it destroys is often cumulative. The consequences can be beyond imagining; realising that should put a brake on personal indulgence.
Amen.
Dedication:
Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman: ‘Time To Say Goodbye’
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp0ccQVy1og
Sunday, 16 December 2007:
Ecosystem suffers from our greed:
Half a century ago, Rachel Carson altered the world to the growing ecological crisis in her book Silent Spring. Since then, we have witnessed a number of disturbing ecological imbalances. 60% of the world’s rain forests have been destroyed during the twentieth century; the UK population of countryside birds such as the song thrush has fallen by half since the 1970s; cancers, allergies and other stress and environmentally related diseases have steadily increased, while millions in the Third World have inadequate diets and polluted water.
Christians believe that the world was made and is sustained by the Christ who is our Saviour (Colossians). Human beings were given the task of caring for creation (Genesis: 2:15). Yet they have triggered an ecological time bomb by selfish exploitation, partly based on a misreading of Genesis 1:28 and often unchallenged and unnoticed by God’s people who should be among the keenest ‘green’ activists.
In his far less developed era, Hosea links fish dying in the sea with the sinfulness of God’s people (Hosea 4:3). His hearers were hardened to his message, however (5:4) and continued in their ways regardless of the environmental warning bells ringing on their shores.
We know more, but do little. If Hosea were alive today he would surely point to the dying planet and speak of God’s sorrow and judgement, of human greed, and the urgent need for us to adopt a responsible lifestyle.
Sunday, 23 December 2007:
Are natural disasters sent by God?
Joel is a little biblical book that has an importance out of all proportion to its length. It takes a literal plague of locusts in Judah as a basis for prophecies about the ‘day of the Lord’.
Some commentators, religious scholars and theologians see the swarm as an allegory for, as a little forewarning of, the invasion of Judah by Babylon or other aggressors. However, the simplest interpretation is that Joel takes the literal disaster as a general warning of worse to come.
The second half of Joel offers a promise or renewal and restoration after repentance, and was quoted on the day of Pentecost, the day that gave us all a living presence of the Holy Spirit manifested in so many different ways.
The Book of Joel uses the example of a real locust plague as a warning of God’s judgement. It calls on readers to turn to God in their hearts, not with ideologies or ritualism’s. The transcendence of Joel into modern meaning is very relevant in today’s climate of physical and evolutionary destruction.
Swarms of locusts, for instance, possibly triggered by climatic changes, have regularly devastated the Near East. They consume every green shoot leaving nothing but famine. Joel says this is God’s warning to the nation that something worse is to follow (2:2). He does not blame specific sins apart from allusions to drunkenness and materialism and mentions sexual licence.
In the Old Testament natural disasters and political oppression are seen as warnings or punishments from God on an errant Israel and Judah. But, as now, they are also part of everyday life. It is the prophetic function to interpret such historical events as conveying messages from God – which is not the same notion as the caricature of God disrupting his world by raining down vengeance.
Certain things need to be held in balance. Natural disasters are a fact of life in an imperfect world. Although phenomena such as global warming contribute in destabilising the planet, natural disasters have afflicted people for centuries. The Christian Church points to ‘the fall’, Genesis 3, which threw the created order out of perfect alignment. Jesus too explicitly ruled out the view that accidents of nature are punishments of those involved.
Judah and Israel had a unique relationship with God; they formed a political, cultural and spiritual unit called upon to be his ‘chosen people’. His dealings with them cannot be transposed to other nations much in the same way of how the Bible reminds us that God is omnipotent Judge, Master and Ruler. Disasters alert us to our mortality and the certainty that we shall each appear before God for personal judgement.
In 1998, a hurricane in Honduras and earthquake in Afghanistan each killed more than 9,000. A cyclone in India killed 10,000. In 1999 a record wind speed of over 300 mph was registered above a tornado in the United States. Recent events like the Boxing Day tsunami of two years ago that reached so much havoc and destruction, killing thousands. The frequent floods, that even in Britain, we are now witnessing despite historical assurances that our latitude greatly minimised the risk. Our proper reaction, theologically, is not to look for reasons that may well be subjective but in turning to God, as there could yet be worse in store: an eternity excluded from his presence, which the Bible calls hell.
Sunday, 30 December 2007
Grim ‘Harvest’ heralds a springtime of hope.
Harvest in most societies, including ancient Israel, is a time for celebration and thanksgiving. There is a store of food for the winter; there is fresh fruit and grain to enjoy now.
But, in the Bible, harvest is often used as a symbol for God’s judgement. The grim reaper scythes down the errant peoples. So the vision of autumn fruit here is an ill omen; the time is ripe for the inescapable divine punishment.
Some past generations of Christians have over-stressed God’s judgement and underplayed his love and forgiveness. The opposite is probably true today. Judgement is inconceivable on decent ordinary people; if it occurs at all, it is reserved for serial killers and mad dictators. So we think.
Couched in political and military terms, the promise seems far removed from contemporary spirituality. We can never tell if a society in our time gets its just deserts in such a way; that is, something hidden in God’s own diary to which even true prophets have only very limited access.
What we can know though is that there will be a harvest at the end of time. And we do know that all actions have their inevitable consequences; those who live by the sword frequently die by the sword, and what is hidden is ultimately revealed to the embarrassment of many. There are signs or foretastes of judgment around us, but we often prefer not to notice them. We cannot rest on our laurels, nor trust our luck.
However, this dark cloud has a silver lining. Teachings in Amos, for example, like most TV news bulletins, ends up on an up-note. After the war comes peace; after the invasion and destruction comes a time of rebuilding; after the earth is scorched by the angel of death, new life springs up from the charred remains.
Amos, in particular, looks forward to the day when a remnant shall return, a hope shared by his even more dismal successor Jeremiah. That remnant shall come from the southern kingdom of Judah rather than the northern kingdom of Israel, though.
God will start again, as he always does. There is hope for his world and for his people. Amos contents himself with this assurance, even though he knows that he will not live to see it personally. The gospel is a message of new beginnings, which encompass our lives but do not end with them. The conclusion of Amos’s writings reminds us that we operate in the realm of world history and even the annals of eternity, and not just of our own lifetime on earth.
Blessings of the Lord as the year approaches its end.
Sunday, 06 January 2008
‘Voice of the silent minority heard at last’
… What does the Lord require of you?
Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time can be embarrassing. Rocking the boat, setting the cat amongst the pigeons or raising needless questions or fears – children are known to do it. They do it most when you are trying to keep the peace.
The professional prophets of the eighth century were official religious advisers attached to the temple and some were consulted by kings. They were career diplomats; they knew which side their bread was buttered and, they most certainly did not rock the boat. They said what people wanted to hear at difficult and sensitive times.
But biblical characters such as Micah and others did rock the boat. Micah, and others like Amos, were criticised for refusing to toe the party line. He responded by predicting that the regular prophets would lose their cutting edge and the light of their insight would be darkened; they would become incapable of discerning the word of the Lord.
The proof that the professionals were wrong and amateurs like Micah right was found in the fruit of their ministry. It has fuelled rather than foiled social injustice. Their beliefs were held sincerely, no doubt, and were proclaimed powerfully and accepted as plausible. There was no point in arguing, but the sad effects of their work were now clearly visible.
That is why we need to judge policies and statements not only by biblical teachings by also by their practical effects. In our own day, some church leaders have questioned the unbridled market economy by pointing to its harsh effects on the poor and disadvantaged. Their criticism has been dismissed as theologically inept and economically ignorant, but the bitter fruits have not been sweetened nor the poor rescued.
Jesus reminds us that we will be able to tell whether people and policies are from God ‘by the fruit’ (Matthew 7:16). There is a time to rock the boat, to expose the empty or self-interested rhetoric by unwrapping its fruits. And therefore there is also a responsibility to ensure that we are neither fruitless altogether nor the producers of bitter fruit.
Politicians listen to public opinion but often the concerns of ordinary people are not aired strongly enough to challenge those of the powerful lobbyists and vested interests. In our own day the doubts of many about the long-term effects of genetically modified crops, and the detrimental effects of abusive elements of the Internet, are shouted down by commercial interests who have made consumer choice the first commandment.
Now and again a voice of the people rises above the babble and articulates in media-friendly terms what many have instinctively felt. Micah, again, was such a person. The condemnation thrown at him is in the plural, indicating that his was not a lone voice.
This was probably normal in Old Testament times, although we tend to assume from the narrative that the prophets were, like John the Baptist, individuals ‘crying in the wilderness’. In 1 Kings (18: 3-15) a whole band of prophets loyal to Yahweh were sheltered by a sympathiser from the evil intents of King Ahab, but it is only Elijah’s voice that we hear centuries later.
Micah repeats an oracle which is also found in Isaiah, other similarities exist in Amos. Perhaps he (or Isaiah) plagiarised; copyright law was not in place in the eighth century BC. It was more likely, however, that here are certain themes, certain turns of phrase, which were current slogans among the resistance, the ‘concerned minority’.
God’s word is worth repeating, and Micah’s similarities with others suggest that there was a vigorous minority reform movement. There were many ordinary people of good will (not least the victims of greed) who were glad that the prophets spoke as they did.
Micah provides us today with an example of someone who was unafraid to speak out against abuses he saw. We should too. Our words may never be quoted in the White House or 10 Downing Street, but if they are true to God’s concerns they will never be lost in the air. Isaiah encourages others to turn up the volume of public opinion.
Sunday, 13 January 2007
Rash vows lead to long regrets, who is to blame?
When the child of Christian parents ‘goes wrong’ – from giving up church to getting into drugs perhaps – the parents often receive criticism. Some Christian preachers declare that most of today’s problems are due to bad parenting.
The Bible will not allow such blanket judgements. It has several examples of children who rebel from godly upbringings. We can’t judge how good a father such as Gideon was. With 70 sons and a harem of wives he was hardly a model for New Testament monogamy and modern ‘new father’ bonding. The author within the Book of Judges does not consider this worthy of comment.
Gideon’s only recorded sin was to make a shrine which stimulated, but didn’t seem to have been intended for, idol worship. And, to his credit he resolutely refused to disobey God by becoming, or allowing his sons to become, king of Israel.
Abimelech, too, who was semi-legitimate and perhaps felt marginalised in the family, lusted for power and probably falsely implied that his brothers were about to set-up a power-sharing dynasty. Armed with a dubious mandate, he liquidated his potential rivals. Only Jotham appears to have inherited something of Gideon’s spirit. He hid too.
Biblically, Gideon cannot be held responsible for the actions of his adult son. Children usually rebel for a complex mass of reasons. The incident is treated by the author of Judges as a stand-alone sin and is an early example of the sense of individual responsibility which balances the more frequent biblical stress on corporate solidarity.
It was natural to Jephthah to ‘devote’ to God (that is kill) a creature as a thank offering for good success. We might promise a cheque.
He evidently never considered that a returning warrior was more likely to be met at the gate by a relieved member of his family than by a sniffling dog or scratching hen. That was his undoing; in the heat of the moment, he just did not think.
Jephthah is another ‘rejected’ person by an accident of birth. It is only when people need his skills that they ask him back. It is an ancient example of the modern vice of valuing people only for what they can do.
But God looked after him. Jephthah understands the Scriptures, and is clearly open to God’s spirit. He’s not too proud to accept the task – having made sure first that he’ll be paid for it – when some people would have refused.
His daughter’s appearance devastates him. He’s not a hard man; he’s a caring father. But he feels he can’t break a vow to God. It’s an impossible dilemma. Perhaps Jesus had this in mind when he told his disciples not to take rash oaths (Matthew 5: 33-37).
Vows used as bargaining tools (‘get me home and you’ll get this’) should not be part of our lives at all; bribing God will entangle us as it entangled Jephthah. Once the heat of the moment has cooled, we’ll probably find we can’t keep the vows. And then what will we do?
[I said I would give you a mention Kim in the lesson today. Kim is my dear cousin who remains the only established link that I have with my own roots. Blessings to you.]
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Half truths double the trouble
FEW people get through life without, at some stage, suffering some form of ill health or experiencing tragedy which is genuinely no fault of their own. It’s just one of those things; they are afflicted by ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’.
Yet, invariably we ask, ‘What have I done to deserve this? Why has God allowed it to happen to me? The unfairness of it all is made worse when we see others whose indulgent lifestyles, immorality and even lawless behaviour seem part of a charmed life which brings them health, wealth and happiness.
Such is the setting within the Biblical book of Job. The Book of Job explores the problem of why good people suffer. Job will offer Bible readers magnificent poetry but, seeking an answer to the old-age question will leave readers disappointed, although wiser. The book does not answer the question, ‘Why?’ It suggests, in fact, that this is not the right question to be asking.
Its chief point is nothing to do with Job, but his friends. Their often quotable speeches are full of half-truths. These men are neither heretics nor extremists. They live and speak within the limits of their own cultural and spiritual understanding. But they are spiritually blind, and unreliable guides.
Their half-truths only add to Job’s misery because they neither point him towards a positive answer nor offer him sensitive pastoral support. The Biblical book is for anyone who knows a suffering person: learn how not to help your friend.
After his outpourings and their platitudes, helped along by the youthful but also misguided fourth debater, Elihu, the book turns to face God. In a superb broad canvass survey of creation, God is revealed as great, just and inscrutable.
Humbled by him, we see that our questions cannot be answered because we se things from the wrong perspective. Instead, we are encouraged to press on in faithful discipleship in a world which is harassed with evil. Our exploration of God is not to be restricted to half-truths, but to trust that he is just and perfect, and that our suffering is not a sign of his personal displeasure of us.
Job’s tragedies plunge him, as they would plunge most people, into a pit of despair. We accept that life is not straightforward and has its setbacks. But when everything we have lived and worked for is smashed, then the question of whether life is worth living invariably emerges.
During these outpourings, the author does not offer any editorial platitudes. Platitudes are useless; Job is being real. He is in pain, and we are meant to hear his inner despair and grieve with him. We have no answers either: we cannot say, of course we know …
When tragedy strikes, Christians are sometimes forced into false piety. Occasionally people do receive supernatural grace to soar above their problems. But for most of us, the tragic situations are tragic, suffocating and meaningless. The sun goes out and a deep chill freezes the heart and paralyses the mind.
Even Paul experienced that; he survived, but only as one who was ‘raised from the dead’ (2 Corinthians 1: 8-11).
If you have never been there, thank God for belonging to a fortunate minority. If you know someone who is there, Job may put into words what they are feeling just now better than they can themselves. I am certain of that. Listen to him, then listen to them.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Social temperature changes go unnoticed?
It is said that if you put a lobster into boiling water it squeals, understandably. But if you put it in cold water and slowly heat it, the creature doesn’t notice the temperature change until it is too late.
The same thing happens to people as the surrounding social climate changes. We get used to it and don’t notice the enormity of the change until it is too late. It takes an outsider, like biblical Amos, to point out the obvious. Amos does so with strong language such as calling a woman a cow (4:1) and lists a variety of social sins which go unchecked and unchallenged. Amos is outspoken concerning the ‘social sins’ of his time using immoderate language to condemn them. In the context of such rebukes he was not alone in seeing them. His near contemporaries Isaiah and Hosea saw and identified with much the same thing. Social sins such as oppression of the poor, reversal of values, legal injustice and bribery, slave trading, sexual immorality, Sabbath breaking, dishonest trading and theft, murder and idolatry. The list could easily go on.
Christians applying the teachings of Amos to their own lives should look beyond the evils to the social principles they represent. Complacency, indulgence, and disadvantaged people being exploited for other’s profit and pleasure, are always common lapses. We can apply this principle also to the flaunting of racism, verbal and physical violence and vandalism, and unremitting commercial pressure on poor developing nations to produce low priced produce for Western supermarkets.
Amos should remind us that righteousness and godliness is not a matter of having a private faith, of avoiding certain sins and doing certain charitable or religious acts. It is primarily living in and ordering God’s world to reflect God’s character.
Immersed in a decadent society we soak up attitudes and absorb lifestyles so that eventually we blend like chameleons into our cultural background. When we do denounce sins, they are often taken from a selective list allowing the prevailing greed, injustice and idolatry to continue unchecked and perhaps even unnoticed.
Our own prophetic role does not begin with shouting abuse at the world. Amos was speaking to the ‘church’ of his day. We need to repeat his uncomfortable message to ourselves, set our own lifestyles and attitudes in order, and then offer the world a new agenda which we are already practising.
Amos’s teaching is of relevance today as it was during his time. He teaches, for example, that God is protecting his people through difficulties, not from them. He places warnings the cultural norms in your society may be at odds with God’s values and concerns. The spiritual life includes acting justly and seeking the welfare of all within society.
When things go wrong and normal life is interrupted, nothing it seems could be worse. Without denying the real grief and pain which we encounter, we will never actually know if it could have been worse. In other words, to suffer does not mean that God’s protective shield has been withdrawn: he could have saved us from something worse. Divine protection does not mean prevention of mishap. It is worth reflecting over.
“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24)
Sunday, 03 February 2008
God’s residence open
Many city dwelling Russians have ‘dachas’ – often no more than a wooden hut on a vegetable plot in the country – to which they retreat at weekends. In Western countries wealthier people sometimes have a holiday home. ‘Solomon’s prayer’ regards the temple as God’s second residence.
He requests that God will hear his people ‘from heaven’ when they pray ‘towards’ the temple. This sets the Israelite faith apart from the cruder and more localised religions of other tribes and nations around them at the time; God doesn’t live in houses.
The temple becomes an aid for the people’s devotion to God, rather than something which God himself needs. It symbolises God’s character and stands as a reminder of his existence.
At the end of the dedication the covenant is, in effect, renewed. God is pleased with his people’s devotion and love, but he is not bribed by it. They are still to keep his commandments, whatever good things they have done so far. The temple, like any ‘good work’ is not a capital asset which they can use to offset any debts to God they may incur through evil ways or doings.
Solomon’s thought here helps Christians today keep that difficult balance between treating church buildings with respect as ‘God’s house’ on the one hand, and as functional tools no different from anywhere else on the other.
A place dedicated to God can be a channel for his ministry and grace, and therefore be holy in the biblical sense. The places where God makes his presence felt and his voice heard are rightly thought of as ‘special’ and not to be treated lightly.
2 Chronicles 7:14 says:
“If my people … humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
This too, perhaps, suggests that one requires listening before deciding what to do. Conflicts, for instance, sometimes arise because what one person thinks another is saying is not the case. We hear selectively what we want to hear. That was the problem, for example, with Ahab, Israel’s king, whose court prophets were worse than court jesters; there was never a grain of truth in their zany predictions. When the truth is spoken, Ahab doesn’t believe a word of it and Jehoshaphat from Judah (prophets of Baal) apparently dismisses it as merely ‘interesting’ for which he is let off lightly with a later rebuke. How this analogy could so easily apply to what we do and say in this era.
Judging what is right in a situation is always difficult. It requires listening to God (often through others) before we make detailed plans. Once an idea has begun to take shape in our minds, it is extremely difficult to change it.
Blessings.
Sunday, 10 February 2008
… Is everything already decided: hold your tongue!
According to researchers, politicians and actors (among others) talk so much that they give themselves bad breadth. The Biblical book of Proverbs suggests that wisdom bites its tongue for deeper reasons.
A person who speaks rashly ‘comes to ruin’ socially if not materially, so listen before you give others the benefit of your opinion. Rash words can cause as much damage as an unsheathed sword, whereas the considered comments of a wise person are like a healing balm.
Many of our words are a waste of breath; but while the fool ‘gushes folly’ a timely word is always good. Pleasant words are as sweet to the ear and heart as honey to the taste buds.
The wise person is patient and thus calms a quarrel. Wisdom is even tempered offering gentle responses to ‘turn away wrath’ (15:1).
Lying is the height of folly and detested by God. Honesty is ‘like a kiss on the lips’. Gossip betrays confidence and breaks up relationships; we never know the damage it may cause. Foolish talk is self-indulgent and arrogant; it is just plain sin (10:19).
Usually we talk too much either because we are nervous or because we want to impress. Proverbs, in common with the rest of the Bible, suggests that as our confidence is in God there is no need to ingratiate ourselves with others. Wise people avoid those who talk to much.
Proverbs contains the sort of platitudes for which Job’s comforters were rightly rebuked. It suggests, for example, that the righteous will prosper and the wicked will be destroyed.
The serious Bible reader has to ask why such statements are included within Proverbs if they are denied (at least indirectly) elsewhere. They seem to fuel the charge that the Bible contradicts itself. The start of an answer is that God promises to correct injustice at the last day, when the wicked will indeed be destroyed. At that level, there is no contradiction, just a time lapse between promise and fulfilment.
That is not altogether satisfactory, because the Old Testament statements relate specifically to this life. While the writers had a limited concept of an afterlife, they did believe in a God of justice. They therefore projected his justice into their current experience.
Behind these claims is an inalienable principle – doing right is best in the long term for personal and social welfare, bringing a sense of well-being and encouraging, although not guaranteeing, kindness from others.
Examples of righteousness may promote respect and trust in society. Upright people may be given a greater responsibility, for the benefit of all, Jesus’ parable about the ‘honest managers’ in Luke 19 is a good example. Conversely, people’s sins may find them out and the perpetrators suffer emotionally, physically, socially or spiritually as a result.
The assertions in Proverbs are one side of the biblical coin. They are not meant to convey the whole truth. They embody a general principle, not a universal law. Proverbs acknowledges that wickedness may earn itself a fat, although deceptive, reward.
If we only had Proverbs, we might conclude that life is already mapped out for us by God. Human creativity exists only to fulfil a pre-determined plan. ‘Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails. Even the lottery is divinely rigged: ‘The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord’ (16:33).
This is close to the fatalism which is reflected today in some aspects of Islam. This is partly because the Old Testament writers are very conscious of God’s intimate involvement with human life.
But behind the assertion of guidance is the assumption of commitment. It is those who seek God’s honour and ask for his assistance in all their ways who are assured of his guiding and protecting presence, even when to human eyes chance and necessity seem to reign.
God is so perfect in understanding and powerful in his providential activity that he can weave even the activities of those who ignore him into his purposes for his people. And, of course, people without faith may also recognise and acknowledge his general care which is meant to draw them more fully to himself. Proverbs is reminding us that God is a loving father.
Sunday, 17 February 2008
Down-to-earth advice for godly living:
… “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
THE book of Proverbs is blunt, earthly and practical. It belongs to the genre of ‘wisdom’ literature which was common in the ancient world. It is not a book in which to cull theology but rather a book to show how theology can be applied.
Commentator Derek Kidner writes, “It is a book which seldom takes you to church … It’s function in Scripture is to put godliness into working clothes; to name business and society as spheres in which we are to acquaint ourselves with credit to our Lord, and in which we are to look for his training.”
Although rooted in the culture and lifestyle of an ancient world, much of its wisdom can be extrapolated into modern life. The advice to have honest scales (in which the Lord delights, 11:1) is fundamental to social order in any age, and the statement that getting drunk is unwise (20:1) has always been rued by those who ignore it.
Proverbs originates from the sayings of a class of ‘wise men’ in ancient Israel, from the time of Solomon onwards. They seem to have been given a status close to that of priests and prophets and guides of God’s people. Other cultures had them too, but we know little of how they operated.
Today, wisdom is not often praised as a virtue, but that is partly because we have other ways of describing it. Knowing what is the right thing to do; avoiding mistakes we might regret; keeping our eyes open; seeing all sides of a situation; not being driven by foolish desires.
Wisdom is the mind controlling the heart, the heart informing the mind, and both subjected to the law and leading of God. As a result, compassion, thoughtfulness and generosity are displayed in social relationships, and blind impulse gives way to far-sighted consideration.
Throughout the Book of Proverbs wisdom is lauded as something to be treasured. It produces better returns than monetary wealth (3:13), and is more attractive than a bride’s garland (1:8), it is the supreme principle of successful living. Get wisdom and you get a lot else thrown in.
Living by wisdom is living God’s way, in harmony with the rules and constraints which he built into creation. With it, we can avoid the pitfalls of sin, look forward to a rewarding life and enjoy protection from needless danger.
The author of the first section seems so carried away by his theme that he personifies wisdom, elevating it almost too divine status, but being a Jew, he cannot be suggesting that there is a real divinity named Wisdom.
Christianity sees the imagery as a pale foreshadowing of the New Testament image of Jesus as the divine ‘Word’, John 1:1. But it would be stretching the Old Testament too far to suggest that Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is an exact portrayal of the Second Person of the Trinity.
Instead, he uses a poetic image to convey a truth. In human affairs, wisdom is supreme; everything worthwhile in life depends on it, just as life itself depends on God. But the ability to live wisely as God intended does not come naturally; it has to be sought and learned, just as God waits for us to turn to him and does not force himself upon us.
The Word made flesh is the source of our wisdom is mediated through the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:6-10). The New Testament agrees that to become a human trait, wisdom first needs to be received as a divine gift (James 1:5). The fact that is restrains the excesses we rather enjoy may be one reason why we don’t seek it with the same urgency as did the authors of Proverbs.
Proverbs is a book to be read in short sections, and mediated upon. It is perfectly possible to dip into it at random and gain some insight, encouragement or warning – a practice which is inadvisable for any other Biblical book.
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Humble pie nourishes spiritual growth
Uriah Heep, a character in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, exclaims ‘When I was a young boy, I ate ‘umble pie with an appetite. I’m very ‘umble to the present moment, but I have little power.’ For most of us this is the limit of humility; we will take a back seat as long as we still have a little power.
Humility is not high on our agenda. There are numerous training videos and practical manuals on how to get your own way, win more customers, make more money, and avoid being a dogsbody or an also-ran. Humility is seen as the sort of idea to leave for the monastery or retirement home.
Writing three decades after the crucifixion, Paul knew that life in Roman society was nasty, brutish and short. Babies were abandoned on the street. Public life was riddled with intrigue. Humility? Count others better than yourself? That was the quickest way to go to the wall. You needed a little power. But Jesus, he says, laid aside his power (Philippians v 7); and servants, in Paul’s day, had no power.
That is what makes Christian living so radically different – and difficult. We have to let go of self-interest. Humility is the opposite of pride; it does the servant’s job, as Jesus did at the last supper. We prefer, like the disciples, to do only that which enhances our image and status.
Humility sets aside personal interest and puts others’ interests first. It welcomes their strengths and encourages their gifts. When Basil Hume, until 1999 leader of Britain’s Roman Catholics, was a teacher he realised and always kept in mind that every child had at least one gift that was better than his own. Thinking like that is one practical way of developing humility. Everyone is unique; humility values them all and does not consider them to be rivals or threats.
Humility is essential for growth in purity and holiness. The word actually comes from the Latin humus - that vital organic material which makes soil fertile. When we lay aside self-interest and put others first, whether they are colleagues or customers, relatives or friends, then the ground is being prepared for a crop of spiritual fruit.
Keeping hold of a little power is a quick way of sterilising the soil and neutralising the witness of the church.
Sunday, 02 March 2008
Eternal life is set in physical stone and faith
NATURAL stone – textured and coloured sandstone, polished marble – is attractive and naturally strong. Peter saw some spectacular stone buildings in Rome, like the Coliseum.
Although church buildings did not yet exist in Peter’s times, the building analogy illustrates the nature of the church: it is beautiful and strong.
Its strength comes from the ‘cornerstone’, a large foundation block which defines the angle and takes the stress. Jesus defines our faith and supports our life. Without him there would be no church, because he was its Saviour, not just its teacher. People who are not built onto this foundation will sooner or later fall, for no alternative structure can stand for ever.
The stones built on the foundation combine to form a functional and attractive structure. The ‘priesthood’ of believers, called to sacrifice themselves in whole-life worship of God, are adorned with the beauties of God’s own holiness. Think about the picture the next time you see a church building.
Charles Williams wrote Many Dimensions, a complex and deeply symbolic novel about a stone from King Solomon’s crown which had mysterious powers. It could be divided without losing its mass and the new stones were used selfishly by their owners.
The original stone came to Chloe, a judge’s secretary. She had to decide whether to use it at her own behest to gratify someone else’s desire, or to let it have its way with her. She choose the later. By resigning herself to it, rather than controlling it, she became the means of bringing all the stones together again, so preventing their further misuse.
Williams is suggesting that God’s gifts are for God’s use. Peter also says: ‘our’ gifts are not ours; they are ‘God’s grace’ (1 Peter 4:10). They are expressions of his presence for him to work through, not tools for us to ‘minister’ with as we decide we would like. Only is God praised and honoured (v 11).
God’s gifts are not for self-employment – they are at his disposal alone – and for use only as your heart tells you he wishes. Wilfulness never pleases God.
According to psychologist Sigmund Freud, religion is a dangerous illusion of a sick mind. Other psychologists, including Freud’s own pupil Carl Jung, took a more moderate approach, recognising that psychology is not qualified to pronounce on the existence of God.
Peter knew nothing of ids, egos and libidos but he did know that people would attempt to dismiss the faith as an illusion. So he reminds his readers that it isn’t an invention but a revelation. He saw some of it himself, notably on the Mount of Transfiguration and in his personal encounters with the risen Lord. Christianity for us as for Peter, is based on objective facts. Scriptures relate prophecies of Christ which have been fulfilled; that could never be humanly engineered.
The Scriptures provide a strong argument against Judeo-Christianity being a human intervention, precisely because they are so wide-ranging in styles, time and concern. The unity of the message is all the more remarkable for the diversity of the writings composed of over 40 authors during a period of more than 1,000 years. Compared with the biblical faith, pagan and false religions were obvious human inventions.
When doubts occur, read the Bible narratives and see how God has woven a compelling message about himself, revealed to and through a long series of people who never knew each other.
Sunday, 09 March 2008
THE LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face towards you and give you peace.
Amen.
CHARLES Blair was the pastor of a large church in Denver, Colorado. As a result of his presumption, which he wrongly viewed as faith, he was convicted of charges of financial fraud in some major expansion programmes. During the trial, he and his wife found it increasingly difficult to face other people because of the shame they felt and the criticism they received. Once, when a commercial researcher called innocently at the door, Blair’s wife just burst into tears.
It always feels worse if, when you have been hit by some circumstantial blow (whether deserved or not), others have a good laugh or gossip at your expense. It depresses you further and makes it harder to hope for recovery. You just want to crawl away.
That is the very situation in Obadiah – the fourth of the Minor Prophets at the end of the Old Testament, after Amos and before Jonah. Judah has been attacked and decimated. Edom (or Esau) is gloating (Psalm 137:7), but the tables will be turned – Obadiah promises. Judah will be restored and Edom will be destroyed.
No one is quite sure when Obadiah worked. Jewish scholars placed him at the time of King Jehoram (c. 850 BC) making Obadiah a contemporary of Elisha (2 Kings 2-9). However, verses 11-14 are so like the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC that many scholars date Obadiah shortly after it. In that case the prophet must be a contemporary of Jeremiah.
Whatever the date, Obadiah is saying that God will one day make Judah’s (and our) opponents laugh on the other side of their faces. But that doesn’t satisfy our desire for immediate vengeance. It is, however, the standard message of the biblical prophets who recognised that God’s timescale is different from ours. God hears our cry, sees the gloating enemy, and does not forget it. In discomfort and even in disgrace, God does not abandon us. He forgives, restores and promises that those who laugh now will mourn later.
While awaiting sentence, Charles Blair began spending more time alone with God. The message he received was, ‘You caught my vision and then galloped ahead without learning how I wished to bring it about … You’ve made mistakes – that’s human nature. I’ve forgiven you – that’s my nature.’
Judah had often deserved Edom’s attacks. But God, unlike her enemies, never laughed at her discomfort but wept silently with her.
Sunday, 16 March 2008
What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
Amen
Edward de Bono, the twentieth-century guru of creative thinking, labels different approaches to a problem by giving them coloured ‘hats’: white for essential information, black for objections, yellow for optimism, red for hunches, green for alternatives, and blue for managing the whole process.
The Book of Nehemiah which brings us to the end of the Old Testament narrative is definitely a ‘blue hat’. He finds out the relevant data (2:11-16) and presents his plans to the workers (2:17-20). Then he organises them so that each team knows what to do and where they fit into the whole.
When the black hat (objection and opposition) is thrown into the ring, he combines yellow (optimism) and green (alternatives) to devise a practical solution!
Nehemiah, though, was also a good people manager. At the height of the work, he was with the labourers experiencing the same hardships (4:21-23). He cared about their welfare and in the midst of a hectic project he also instituted a programme of radical social reform.
The skill of managing projects (and people) is as valid in the church as in commerce. Church projects might have a different motivation, but the mechanics of executing them are similar. There is nothing spiritual about leaving business skill at the vestry door when the church council meets.
Nehemiah combined spirituality, creativity, pastoral care, practicality and personal involvement. He succeeded where others had either not tried, or failed.
Some great leaders are remembered for what they did rather than for who they were. That is certainly not the case with Nehemiah. The book named after him – drawing largely on his personal diaries – provides Bible readers with a rich character study.
Nehemiah was the quintessential spiritual leader. He earned his living as a servant, doing what he was told, rising to a position of considerable responsibility as cup-bearer (wine taster and poison tester) for the king of Persia.
Then he suddenly faced a call to a career change. Hearing that the walls of Jerusalem were still ruined almost a century the first return of the exiles, he acts, combining prayer and practical management skills with considerable determination and drive.
With his feet firmly on the ground, his eyes and ears alert to danger and opportunity, his hands willing to get dirty alongside his co-workers, and his body prepared to work round the clock, Nehemiah had his heart based permanently in heaven.
As a result, an ancient problem was resolved within a few weeks and the whole nation experienced a spiritual revival. Nehemiah the civic leader was the perfect balance for Ezra, the religious leader whom Nehemiah brought in to take the people on where he was unqualified to lead. His job done, he stepped back and supported Ezra who took over the controls.
Nehemiah is a character. He is determined, resourceful, prayerful, and humble at the same time. He sounds self-righteous, but that underlines both his humanity and his single-mindedness. He is a model for anyone to follow, whatever their calling.
- The writer was commissioned as a Boys Brigade Officer by the Rev. Robert Lynn, St. Leonard’s Parish Church, Ayr.
Easter Message from MarKat (Scotland)
Keep your hearts and minds fixed in the knowledge and love of Christ.
Amen
- Wishing all viewers and readers to MarKat Press & Journal (Scotland) a peaceful Easter.
Appendage(s):
1. ‘Thought for the day’ — Maundy Thursday Lesson, BBC Radio-4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20080320.shtml
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Refiner’s fire makes Christians glow …
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the LORD, is one.
… Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, 5)
THE first letter of Peter, in the Bible, encourages Christians to keep the faith during periods of persecution. The letter also describes how Christians are God’s people with a mission.
From needles under the fingernails to hot pokers on sensitive body parts, human beings have devised 101 clever ways of inflicting pain on each other often for no good reason except to dominate and control.
In AD 64, the emperor Nero thought up another one. He rounded up Christians (who he wrongly accused of having started the great fire of Rome; rumour had it that he started it himself) and skewered them alive on long poles. Coating them in tar, he set fire to them as human beacons to illuminate his palace gardens at night and provide char-grilled kebabs for the crowds the next day.
Peter probably wrote his first letter before that incident happened, but he could see it coming. Almost since the day of Pentecost the apostles and their converts had been arrested by authorities or lynched by angry mobs. Suffering was not a new experience, but it was starting to become institutionalised. The worst period was in the late AD 80s, under the emperor Domitian.
Such things seem far from the sanitised modern West, disturbed only by media reports of serial killers and overseas warlords with unpronounceable names. Yet, all through history, Christians have been persecuted, sometimes by each other. In our time there have been attacks on churches in some Asian countries and much personal brutality to Christians in both Asia and Africa.
It could never happen here, we think. But, Christians can be pilloried in the press, obstructed at work and ridiculed at home. That does happen here. In applying the whole letter of Peter, and especially the sections on suffering, we should recognise that while all suffering is terrible, we should keep it in perspective because we haven’t yet had to pay the ultimate price for our faith; and accept all kinds of suffering as opportunities for our faith to be refined.
Peter is thinking of gold being heated to melt off the impurities (1:7). Sometimes, suffering reduces our life to the basics. The wrappers get burned off. What’s left underneath? Is it something durable that can outlast the comforts of life? Or is our ‘faith’ dependent on those comforts for its existence?
When we focus on what is permanent, rather than on what is transient, our faith will take on a spiritual glow and we and the world will be better for it. And you don’t need to suffer to let that happen.
- The writer was commissioned as a Boys Brigade Officer by the Rev. Robert Lynn, St. Leonard’s Parish Church, Ayr.
Sunday, 06 April 2008
Get your thinking straight
… But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal … (Philippians 3:13, 14)
IT used to be called the ‘power of positive thinking’ but now it’s called ‘neuro-linguistic programming’ (NLP). This latest technique, popular in business circles, helps people to reorder their thinking patterns to maximise their creativity and productivity.
Paul says that Christians are to reorder their thinking patterns too. Philippians, letters produced by Paul, says (12:2) this re-ordering is one of the Holy Spirit’s tasks in us; here, for example, he reminds us that it requires our active cooperation. Our transformed mind is to have a positive, Christ-centred world view.
Our thinking and decision making must be governed by our knowledge of the existence, sovereignty and world-embracing purposes of God. His righteousness, justice, holiness, love and truth mould our ideas.
So, Paul says, crowd out sinful, negative and untrue thoughts by pure and positive ones. When an angry or negative thought arrives, capture it with its Christ-centred opposite. The more we feed our minds on good things, the fewer negative ones will occur to us.
This may determine our viewing and reading, or the company we keep. We are not called to join an exclusive sect, but there is no virtue in exposing ourselves unnecessarily to influences which compete with the Spirit’s renewing work.
Sunday, 13 April 2008
For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods … splendour and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
POLITICIANS rarely retire gracefully. The stories of China and the Soviet Union especially are littered with ageing leaders who clung to power and refused to step down.
In what may have been an early Christian hymn, Paul says that Jesus was just the opposite. He did not seek power, but he laid aside his majesty in order to share our humanity, because human salvation was more important to him than divine status.
Paul stresses that Jesus was fully God, but precisely what he meant by Jesus ‘emptying’ himself (‘made himself nothing’, Philippians 2:7) has caused considerable theological dispute in the past.
He does not mean that Jesus ceased to be God, but that Jesus accepted the limitations of humanity which necessarily restricted the way in which his deity could be displayed and exercised. He could not, for example, be ubiquitous or be everywhere at once.
Especially it means that he emptied out his whole life in death, as Paul goes on to stress. Perhaps he borrowed from the phrase from Isaiah 53:12, the wording is very similar. In Jesus’ crucifixion we see the true extent of his self-sacrifice. That God should allow himself to be killed in this ultimate way of ‘making himself nothing’.
The example of Jesus sets a high standard. He himself taught that we too should lay aside claims to human status (Matthew 23: 8-12). There is to be no clinging to power in the church. Our identity and status comes from being ‘in’ Christ alone, to whom we are joined in one ‘body’.
Paul cites the self-giving life of Epaphroditus who ‘almost died for the work of Christ’ as an example of what that could mean in practice. Like Jesus, he did not cling to his life, and was willing to lose it. This is what it means to ‘bow the knee’ to Jesus and confess him Lord.
Sunday, 20 April 2008
May the Lord strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy … (1 Thessalonians 3: 13)
MASS evangelists who jet into a city, conduct a campaign, and jet out again, are often accused of leaving their ‘converts’ high and dry, with no on-going support.
Paul, on his visit to Thessalonica, may not have intended to do this but in the end had little option. He was there for just three weeks before opposition forced him to make a hasty exit.
His new converts had no trained ministers to teach and support them. They had no New Testament to learn from, and no Christian books to read. They had no established church traditions to latch onto. They didn’t even have a telephone over which to get quick advice from the apostle.
Yet, they not only survived, but grew spiritually in double quick time. They became examples of others to follow. The letters to the Thessalonians provide today’s Christians with important encouragement: When God begins to work in someone’s life, he is able to continue it even if no human support is available.
That does not excuse any lack of pastoral follow-up. Paul was anxious to provide it: the letters are one means he used; visits from his associate Timothy were another.
Despite their growth in numbers and vitality, like any other fledging church they had their problems. Not surprisingly, they had to endure ongoing opposition which raised doubts about Paul and his motives in some minds.
Others, captivated by the thought that Christ had promised to return, assumed that he was coming soon and packed in their jobs to wait for him. They present us with one of the first examples of the trend repeated later by the ‘millennium cults’. Beliefs about Christ’s return often excite as much passion now as they did then.
Thessalonians provides some simple guidelines for today. Unfortunately, because they are simple and incomplete, they have been the source of as much speculation in the centuries since Paul wrote them as was the apostle’s original verbal teaching to the church. Returning to the original simplicity is perhaps relevant.
Paul was a man of intense emotional passion who had a deep personal care for other people. His prayers and his longings set a high standard of pastoral care and give a powerful example of what ‘fellowship’ should mean.
Like a proud parent, he cannot stop talking and boosting about the Christians in Thessalonica. They are his ‘glory and joy’, and an example all should follow. But, neither can he stop worrying about them.
As he boasts and frets, so he also prays. He punctuates his letters with prayer. He thanks God always for them; he blesses them with longings for more growth and intercedes that they may persevere.
Good mentor that he is, he also encourages them to greater things. He commends them for imitating his conduct by becoming an example to others, and by showing their love for one another.
He shows, too, that fellowship is two-way. Paul is not a ‘Big Brother’ checking up on them; he is just their brother, and they are partners with him in the gospel. He treats them as adult friends and leaves yet another example for leaders to follow.
Paul’s writings in Thessalonians are as much to do with encouraging Christians to work responsibly in the world, as it is to do with practical advice on Christian living.
From Psalm 24:
The earth belongs unto the Lord,
And all it that it contains;
The world that is inhabited,
And all that there remains.
For the foundations of the same
He on the seas did lay,
And he hath it established
Upon the floods to stay.
Amen.
Dedication:
Sarah Brightman – Time To Say Goodbye (2006)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFv6Lfa1lg&feature=related
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Complacency kills
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream (Amos 5: 24)
LAMENTING the events which followed the Russian revolution, Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in The Gulag Archipelago that ‘we didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.’ Complacency set in, leaving the door wide open to communist terror.
Complacency is the most dangerous of sins. It fiddles with its toys while Rome burns. It lives in an enclosed world of self-fulfilment, oblivious to the evils and threats to freedom and dignity which parade outside the window.
Complacency has one foot in the spiritual grave. It is afflicted with tunnel vision, over-confident of its standing before God, uncritical of its attitudes and actions, and unconcerned with life beyond its narrow interests.
The complacent Israelites, lying on their ivory beds, were comfortable. All seemed well with their world. But all was wrong with it. And they deserved what happened afterwards. When the terms of God’s covenant are broken, he has no choice but to bring retribution upon his own people.
Today, our ‘punishment’ for complacency may be a spiritual ‘exile’ from the riches of God’s blessing and from the place of influence in the world which marginalises us. But even that statement might be another form of complacency; such ‘exile’ itself is relatively comfortable. Before the start of the millennium, the huge refugee crisis from Kosovo, for instance, reminded us that war and sudden poverty is never far away.
When things go wrong and normal life is interrupted, nothing, it seems, could be worse. Without denying the real grief and pain which we encounter, we will never actually know if it could have been worse. In other words, to suffer does not mean that God’s protective shield has been withdrawn; he could have saved us from something worse. Divine protection does not always mean prevention of mishap. In the book of Amos, for example, we see that God is protecting his people through difficulties, not from them.
Guidance in Amos is pragmatic for being aware of the dangers of complacency. The book highlights the need in understanding the relative nature of duty and responsibility; and indication that the cultural norms in your society may be at odds with God’s values and concerns; the spiritual life includes acting justly and seeking the welfare of all within society and, saliently, that everyone will face judgement.
Dedication:
Out of the depths Psalm 130 Scottish Psalter 1650
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yETRxtYIL-E&feature=related
Sunday, 04 May 2008
… “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [Jude v 21]
Keep the fences mended
JUDE is one of the shortest New Testament books (only one chapter) but, as the early church writer Origen said, ‘it is full of mighty words’.
Jude tells his readers in no uncertain terms to withstand false teachers and to hold fast to the apostolic faith.
As any pet owner or farmer knows, it is a chief purpose of animal life to get through fences. Rabbits will burrow under them, sheep will squeeze through them, and goats will eat them.
Jude wanted to write a letter or tract about the delights of the spiritual meadow in which the church grazed, but instead he spends his strength telling his readers to stay within the fences which surround it: the doctrines ‘once for all entrusted to the saints’ (v 3). The reason for his change is that some church members have torn down the barriers and others are in danger of falling.
They have impure motives and bad intentions. They have ‘secretly slipped in’ like enemy agents in a government department, like wolves in sheep’s clothing. They look right, and sound right, but subtly undermine faith. They also encourage immoral conduct.
To counter them, Jude says we are to stay within the boundaries of faith previously laid down. Today, these are encapsulated for us in the creeds which are based on Scripture, and in the broad but definite boundaries of conduct outlined in the historic Ten Commandments.
In an age of moral relativism, there are many voices advocating practices and beliefs which are not genuine interpretations or fresh applications of unchanging truths, but denials or distortions of those truths. We are to resist them as Jude’s readers were to resist the false teachers of their time.
G.K. Chesterton once wrote that the breaking of barriers could be the breaking of everything. The fence of faith is not a prison wall to restrict our freedom but a guard rail for our benefit and safety. And human beings are not meant to behave like animals searching for greener grass.
Amen.
Dedication:
“What a Friend we have in Jesus” – Brian Gan on Guitar
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dRk_q4lTchY&feature=related
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Love is cross-shaped: are Christians perfect?
Pentecost teaching -
… How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! [1 John 3:1]
ONE of the world’s richest men, John Paul Getty III, one said: “I’m very rude. I don’t really like people very much. Most people don’t like me, either. I don’t trust anybody in the world.” Jesus taught that love was the essence of moral and spiritual law and Paul said it fulfilled the law (Romans 13:10). Love lubricates society; without it we grab and fight.
Love is the very nature of God; everything he does is charged with love. This is expressed, not negated, by his justice and revealed through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It therefore has shape to it; it is not a sentimental feeling but a righteous force for action.
Christian love is to reflect God’s self giving love; enmity within the body of Christ is a contradiction in terms. Just as God showed his love by giving his Son, so we are to show our love by sharing our possessions, talents and skills. That becomes humanely possible only we experience God’s love personally.
Love within Christ enables God to reveal more of himself and his love to flow through us and make us effective in his service. His love banishes fear of other people, persecution and eternal punishment (1 John 4:18). It can purify our conscience and reassure us when we sin. You can’t be rude to anyone when you’ve known love like that. And money can’t buy it.
Amen.
Dedication:
Hayley Westenra – Pie Jesu (re-live)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr6ajtA5Otg&feature=related
Sunday, 18 May 2008:
Expressing grief, maintaining faith
… “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.” [Lamentations 3: 32, 33]
THINK of some of the TV pictures you have seen of refugees or survivors of a natural disaster or military attack. See children, hungry, tearful and bewildered. Women wailing at the loss of husbands and sons. Older men dazed and confused, wandering around the wreckage searching desperately for belongings, or for food and water. Such scenes are frequent and visible on an almost daily basis on our TV screens.
Historically, the architecture and technology may have been different, but otherwise that’s the type of scene, too, that you will find as you open the book of Lamentations. Indeed, things are so bad, that women appear willing and prepared to eat the dead bodies of children.
Law and order have broken down, children have to work and the sound of gaiety has been silenced. Dead bodies lie unburied in the streets. Children beg for food, weakened by famine and thirst.
The anonymous author of this heart-rending book weeps. These are his people; this is his city. In common with the Prophets, he lays the blame for the tragedy at the feet of the people of Judah who for decades, if not centuries, have refused to heed God’s warnings. But he identifies with them, rather than merely railing against them.
He has his personal griefs, too. Enemies have hounded him without a cause (3: 52). It felt like being imprisoned (3: 6-9) and being thrown into a pit from which the Lord eventually rescued him (3: 55-60). It is very reminiscent of Jeremiah’s own recorded experience (Jeremiah 37, 38).
What is new to us, perhaps, is that the author feels with and for his people. We tend to distance ourselves from our nation, our church and from those who are removed from us. We are quick to criticise and slow to empathise. We can live in semi-detachment and rarely feel the pains of others acutely.
Yet, there is a ‘brotherhood of mankind’ from which we can never be detached, whatever the causes of people’s sufferings and whatever their spiritual state. It is one of the marks of the Christian to mourn with those who mourn (cf. Romans 12:15).
But in his grief, the author maintains his faith. Here, we find the unlikely verses which inspired the hymn ‘Great is thy faithfulness’ (3: 22-24). Slap in the middle of tragedy the author affirms God’s goodness and is willing to wait for him because his love is so great.
He can even manage a prayer that God will stir himself as in days of old and rise up on behalf of his stricken people. God, he knows, keeps his covenant, and he grips hold of that truth like a drowning sailor to driftwood.
Lamentations is cathartic. Use it as an aid to express your own griefs. Use it to help you understand what grief is like. Use it to stir yourself to human sympathy when you read or hear of others’ griefs. And use it as a source of hope: God is faithful, and even if we do suffer the effects of our foolish actions, his mercies will still be new every morning.
Amen.
Dedication:
Josh Groban: ‘You Raise Me Up’
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jkZ6SmvXOEY&feature=related
Sunday, 25 May 2008
One hole can sink a ship
“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; mediate on it day and night … Then you will be prosperous and successful … Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go”. [Joshua 1: 8, 9]
THE BIBLICAL BOOK of Joshua has inspired many sermons, usually when its tales of battlefield exploits are recast in New Testament terms of spiritual warfare and the struggle between flesh and spirit. There are modern day lessons from Joshua who gives vivid examples of God’s power and justice. Typically, God isn’t fussy about the company he keeps as are some of his followers. He is more interested in what people will become than what they are like when they first encounter him.
One man commits a foul, is sent off the field, his team loses and a whole country vilifies the culprit. One man scores a winning goal and his whole country erupts in wild excitement and adulation.
We should be familiar with the concept of ‘corporate solidarity’ at this level. One person or team doesn’t merely represent ‘us’, but in a real sense is us. However, we mostly operate on the different level of individual accountability. In biblical terms, ‘the soul who sins shall not live’ (Ezekiel 18: 4).
The Bible holds both truths in creative tension. We are personally responsible for our actions; we can’t blame our genes, environment, or other people for any failings we have. But, we are also bound together in an intricate web of relationships in which each person’s action affects others.
Paul speaks of the ‘body of Christ’, the church, being a single entity so that ‘if one part suffers, every part suffers with it’ (1 Corinthians 12: 26). Achan’s greed brought the whole nation down. When Joshua mourns, he is told to stop. There is no need in crying over spilt milk, the mess has to be cleared up.
By methods which are not detailed, Achan is exposed and confesses – but he is not then restored to fellowship. He is punished. The draconian, exemplary sentence makes God’s verdict clear. A holy God cannot dwell among an unholy people. But the damage has been done. The defeat at Ai has shown the Canaanites that Israel is not invincible and their awe turns to spite.
One person’s sin weakens the whole church. We may not see the effect so dramatically, but the pain it causes, the faith it damages, the witness it destroys is often cumulative. The consequences can be beyond imagining; realising that should put a brake on personal indulgence.
Amen.
Dedication:
Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman: ‘Time To Say Goodbye’
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp0ccQVy1og
the sundayteachings are awesome. i luv that of 9 march 2008.though just my 1st time of seeing the site i think i will visit it more often.
Emmy,
Thanks for your remarks.
Sunday Teachings are due to appear each Sunday morning.
Best wishes, Mark
In regard to Dec 16th,07’s post,’The Love of money IS the root of all evil’.Enjoyed the site. Cheryl