On Saturday 26th January 1788 an advance force of Royal Marines and other naval personnel from the United Kingdom of Great Britain invaded the country of the Eora (Cadigal) People. A prison was established at Cadi and within eighty years much of the continent to which “Sydney Cove” belongs had been stolen and settled by further waves of British people and their invited guests.
Is this what “Australia Day” celebrates?
As an Australian of English and convict descent I hope for more from my national day. I feel shame for the treatment of our land’s first people: appalled by the near genocide of the Palawah people of Trowenna, disgusted by the mass murder by the gun/fire/rope/knife/club/sneeze and the poisoned blanket/grain/waterhole, and dismayed by the conditions endured by some of the Koori, Palawah, Lia Pootah, Yolngu, Anagu, and Nunga people with whom I have lived and worked. Reconciliation is necessary; indeed conciliation might be a better word (since there never was a right relationship to break in many places). Let us indeed finish what we started, but not just because Marcia Hines told us to on the tele.
Yet still I hope for more, because I see “Australia Day” akin to “Christmas Day”.
Jesus was not born on December 25th, yet on that day the miracle of Emmanuel is celebrated by billions of people across the world. Many in Australia worship the child, even if only for a dew-eyed moment amongst the tinsel and the paper, when “the true meaning” is referenced. A man who is named otherwise by those who stub a toe or hammer a thumb is remembered on that one day. Jesus was not born so that the Eora would decorate fir trees on Saturnalia, and no-one considers it so.
Australia was not founded on Australia Day, Sydney was. It is a fact of history than on one January evening a foreign flag was planted and a foreign king was toasted as a gaol was established while the indigenous population watched from close by. Australia Day does not celebrate the dispossession of the Eora and the “manly” Dhuwal Peoples, although that particular anniversary is used.
Australia Day is more about 01/01/1901 and 25/04/1915 than about 26/01/1788. Australia Day celebrates the mud armies of Brisbane, and the waist-deep people of Victoria who say “yeah it’s tough mate but Kwoinslan has it worse.” It celebrates the brave people of Christmas Island who risked their lives to save “illegal immigrants” and then wept at their partial lack of success. It celebrates brave diggers who charge Taliban machine-gunners in defence of their mates because “greater love has no man”. It celebrates lonely teenagers facing huge white waves in tiny pink boats. It celebrates people who leave lucrative private sector jobs so as to devote their time and talents to compassionate acts of charity.
And Australia Day is Survival Day. You came, you stole, you conquered. You did not wipe us out.
Australia Day is a date chosen from our pagan past to celebrate our national, holistic future.
It is a day for black arm bands, but also those in green and gold. It is a day for flags bearing the emblems of an empire past, a pugilistic marsupial, and a golden sun above a dark skinned people proud upon a red soil.
In courage, let us all combine to pray and work towards the advance of our fair Australia. (May she and we never be unfair again.)
Wednesday 26 January 2011
Friday 21 January 2011
An Act of God
God of the sunburnt country,
Lord of flooding rains,
Sketcher of raging creeks,
Filler of swollen dams;
Sustenance of country communities,
Father of coastal cities,
Architect of mountain ranges
Painter of native wildflowers,
Australia cries out to you for relief.
Our land is drowned Lord,
The ground is flooded and saturated.
Our energies are spent Lord,
The people are exhausted; wet and disheartened.
Father, the “Acts of God” are what The Church does
In the aftermath of a natural disaster.
You were still God after “the tsunami” and “the cyclone”,
“the storm”, “the earthquake” and “the fires”.
You reign when it hails, and you rule when it bakes.
Remind us, God who is known in the world by the compassion of your family,
That the Act of God is our responsibility.
By your Holy Spirit lead your Church in Prayer;
Guide your Church in service with shovels and excavators;
Sustain your Church in encouragement with tea-cups and fresh blankets;
Protect your Church in all places that remain treacherous and unstable.
We pray for all state governors, state premiers, and state parliaments.
We pray for our Queen, our Governor General, our Prime Minister and our federal parliament.
We pray for all local councils, especially for mayors and shire presidents.
We pray for local churches, for priests, pastors and ministers, elders, deacons, and the individuals who make up congregations. We pray also for bishops, presidents, and those who have care for the wider Church.
We pray for the emergency services, for managers, officers and cadets. For Police, Fire, Ambulance, and the SES, both metropolitan and rural.
We pray for hospitals and medical staff; morgues, coroners, and mortuary staff.
We pray for schools, service clubs, sporting clubs, and all of those places where people find community.
We pray for all people who have lost.
Those who have lost loved members of their family or friendship groups;
Those who have lost treasured possessions, entire houses, complete histories, heirlooms and mementos;
Those who have lost hope, peace, confidence, heart;
Those who have lost faith.
Our land is drowned Lord,
The ground is flooded and saturated.
Our energies are spent Lord,
The people are exhausted; wet and disheartened.
But we know you are the God of Noah,
and we believe your promise never to destroy the Earth with a flood.
We are not destroyed, but we are distraught.
And we know you are the God of Lazarus,
and we believe that you weep with us even as you know the restoration that is to come.
We are distraught, but we are not destroyed.
Amen.
Lord of flooding rains,
Sketcher of raging creeks,
Filler of swollen dams;
Sustenance of country communities,
Father of coastal cities,
Architect of mountain ranges
Painter of native wildflowers,
Australia cries out to you for relief.
Our land is drowned Lord,
The ground is flooded and saturated.
Our energies are spent Lord,
The people are exhausted; wet and disheartened.
Father, the “Acts of God” are what The Church does
In the aftermath of a natural disaster.
You were still God after “the tsunami” and “the cyclone”,
“the storm”, “the earthquake” and “the fires”.
You reign when it hails, and you rule when it bakes.
Remind us, God who is known in the world by the compassion of your family,
That the Act of God is our responsibility.
By your Holy Spirit lead your Church in Prayer;
Guide your Church in service with shovels and excavators;
Sustain your Church in encouragement with tea-cups and fresh blankets;
Protect your Church in all places that remain treacherous and unstable.
We pray for all state governors, state premiers, and state parliaments.
We pray for our Queen, our Governor General, our Prime Minister and our federal parliament.
We pray for all local councils, especially for mayors and shire presidents.
We pray for local churches, for priests, pastors and ministers, elders, deacons, and the individuals who make up congregations. We pray also for bishops, presidents, and those who have care for the wider Church.
We pray for the emergency services, for managers, officers and cadets. For Police, Fire, Ambulance, and the SES, both metropolitan and rural.
We pray for hospitals and medical staff; morgues, coroners, and mortuary staff.
We pray for schools, service clubs, sporting clubs, and all of those places where people find community.
We pray for all people who have lost.
Those who have lost loved members of their family or friendship groups;
Those who have lost treasured possessions, entire houses, complete histories, heirlooms and mementos;
Those who have lost hope, peace, confidence, heart;
Those who have lost faith.
Our land is drowned Lord,
The ground is flooded and saturated.
Our energies are spent Lord,
The people are exhausted; wet and disheartened.
But we know you are the God of Noah,
and we believe your promise never to destroy the Earth with a flood.
We are not destroyed, but we are distraught.
And we know you are the God of Lazarus,
and we believe that you weep with us even as you know the restoration that is to come.
We are distraught, but we are not destroyed.
Amen.
Monday 17 January 2011
Convers(at)ion
In his book “A New Type of Christian” Brian McLaren writes that he would like to shift the focus of “evangelism” in the Christian Church from counting conversions to counting conversations. The saving message of God revealed in Jesus Christ should not be reduced to an annual profit/loss equation defined by a series of “my personal decision” events. Christians in conversation open up a way towards forming genuine relationships, which in themselves will lead to conversions.
I like this way of thinking. My work as a Christian involved in Pastoral Support is conversational. I talk to people. More often they talk to me and I listen. I know that people are being lead to Christ by this: to the Christ who sat by the well in Samaria and talked to a lonely, ostracised woman in direct affront to both social conventions and the unwritten rules of “shun”. You can’t trust Jesus as saviour until you know him as friend, and the best way to make friends with Jesus is to make friends with one of his friends.
I am a friend of Jesus, his best friend actually, and I love talking about him. But I also love talking like him to people who have yet to speak with him personally.
Sometimes I struggle with this. As a school chaplain I am pressured from opposite ends of the scale. Some non-Christian teachers are suspicious of me because I represent “church and rules” in a supposedly secular environment. They appear concerned that I am there to judge or change children against their will. Yet at the same time some local Christians are suspicious of me because I am a “social justice advocate not interested in souls”. I am interested in souls, but I believe, as I am certain Jesus did, that souls come attached to stories.
The conversations of Jesus always hit the nail on the head. He got to the heart of the matter with patience and love, but without distraction. The work of God in an unbeliever’s life is more than just the decision to believe, (although such a decision is an important one). Unbelievers on both sides of the point of conversion need more of God than the cross. They need the man sitting beside the well, they need the man weeping at his friend’s tomb, they need the man turning water to wine to hide their embarrassment, they need the man who calls them out of their isolation and invites himself home for dinner.
They need the man cooking a fish breakfast on the beach.
The Pharisees hated Jesus because he came eating and drinking. He spent time with outcasts, “quality” time over meals and flagons. Jesus was a mate to many before he became the saviour of all.
As a “Christian” Pastoral Support Worker, how can I be any less?
I like this way of thinking. My work as a Christian involved in Pastoral Support is conversational. I talk to people. More often they talk to me and I listen. I know that people are being lead to Christ by this: to the Christ who sat by the well in Samaria and talked to a lonely, ostracised woman in direct affront to both social conventions and the unwritten rules of “shun”. You can’t trust Jesus as saviour until you know him as friend, and the best way to make friends with Jesus is to make friends with one of his friends.
I am a friend of Jesus, his best friend actually, and I love talking about him. But I also love talking like him to people who have yet to speak with him personally.
Sometimes I struggle with this. As a school chaplain I am pressured from opposite ends of the scale. Some non-Christian teachers are suspicious of me because I represent “church and rules” in a supposedly secular environment. They appear concerned that I am there to judge or change children against their will. Yet at the same time some local Christians are suspicious of me because I am a “social justice advocate not interested in souls”. I am interested in souls, but I believe, as I am certain Jesus did, that souls come attached to stories.
The conversations of Jesus always hit the nail on the head. He got to the heart of the matter with patience and love, but without distraction. The work of God in an unbeliever’s life is more than just the decision to believe, (although such a decision is an important one). Unbelievers on both sides of the point of conversion need more of God than the cross. They need the man sitting beside the well, they need the man weeping at his friend’s tomb, they need the man turning water to wine to hide their embarrassment, they need the man who calls them out of their isolation and invites himself home for dinner.
They need the man cooking a fish breakfast on the beach.
The Pharisees hated Jesus because he came eating and drinking. He spent time with outcasts, “quality” time over meals and flagons. Jesus was a mate to many before he became the saviour of all.
As a “Christian” Pastoral Support Worker, how can I be any less?
Wednesday 12 January 2011
Why the football doesn't matter, but The Cats losing at it does.
Saturday 27th September 2008 was one of the saddest days I care to remember: the day the Cats lost the AFL Grand Final after being the best team in the country all year. It was a disappointing end to the season, and was particularly sad for my family and me as we have been Geelong supporters for all of our lives. Geelong Australian Rules Football Club is part of my family inheritance; indeed the city itself is our ancestral town in Australia, so there is quite a bit of "rip and tear" when they lose; especially as they had been such red-hot favourites that year and had won 23 out of 24 games in 2008 going in to the Grand Final, and 24 out of 26 including the premiership (by a record score) in 2007. It's one of those times when you've done all the hard work and have met 98% of the requirements for completion, but then you fall over and it's all wasted.
Our tribe was in mourning, and feeling very short-changed as well.
This is a truth that Christians need to get, even amongst themselves. Of course there is no satisfaction like the love of God, but in this world there is pain and there are other loyalties. These are not conflicting loyalties, it’s not unchristian to follow the AFL, they’re just not church groups.
Our generation is a tribal generation. Australia is a tribal nation. We have always been a people who like to form groups around the things that define us in society: be that States of Origin (to various degrees, and not limited to sport) along with Ford vs. Holden, AFL vs. NRL (and the sixteenths within). These are the denominations of the world: not “of the Flesh” per se, after all when did Anglican vs. Roman Catholic be a different form of loyalty, but of the way we think as men and women on this side of Heaven. It was on this basis that my tribe entered a time of mourning. "Sorry Business" ensued and as a group we commiserated together before gathering ourselves around our faith and looking to 2009, as we had looked to 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996 of recent memory, with renewed hope.
Christians need to remember that Earth is a tribal place and those coming in to the church still belong to other groups. We are in the world, but not of it, but in the world there are circles and we are still very much a part of those circles; indeed it is where our ministry lays. It is not enough to say “bah but it is only football and as Christians we have a higher calling”. Yes, we do have a higher calling, but not to the exclusion of our friends and to what is important to us. Some do not like football, and that is fair enough, but those people I am sure belong to other tribes, be they other sports, or other interests. One of the men I know from church, who supports the team which defeated Geelong on that day of blessed forgetting, consoled me that he knew how I felt as whilst he is not as devoted as I to his chosen sports he “felt strangely mournful” at the dumping of the New Zealand All Blacks from the IRB World Cup in 2007. Why should it matter so much that your national rugby team loses? Simply because it is “the team", “our team”: there is a real belongingness in that and it isn't just about the vicarious nature of following the ball in play. The team is “us out there” and we are a part of each other. Australasians are a sporting tribal people: to minister to us is to minister in and within the culture of belongingness: we must not forget that to reach our “unreached” we must be sympathetic to their cries: and we must allow ourselves to feel it when our own tribes are saddened in the fight.
I have belonged at various times to parishes of the Anglican and Uniting Churches, and in England I belonged at my local Parish Church and then to Hillsong Church London. In terms of residential identity I have been a Victorian, a Tasmanian, and a Territorian. I've lived in Kent, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire; and always specifically not in London as is the local sensitivity of the Home Counties. I'm both Australian and English by heritage and have supported both nations (one at a time) in the Rugby World Cup, even supporting England against Australia when they won in Sydney in 2003. I will always support England in the cricket unless it's The Ashes. But I have never been anything other than a Geelong supporter. It's the only thing I have always been apart from a Christian, distinct from the changing denominational labels.
Yet I am all about Jesus: but I'm still in the world. The Cats is a part of the world I am pleased to be in.
I am a Christian. Not “a Christian first” as there is no comparison between my belonging to Christ alone and to my other allegiances. Neither am I “a Cat second” as there is much of higher importance in my life than my sporting tribe: however at one level I am a “Cat”, and my family (to whom I belong more than my team) are Cats too. On Grand Final day I was sad, and my family and I were sad together, especially as we were physically separated by half of the span of the Earth. On that day we found ourselves in genuine need of ministry in a way that “look to the cross” could not fix.
We got over it, it was only the end of the season and not the end of the world, but maybe in the pain we discovered an insight into how our generation works. Don’t disparage the shared culture of society’s smaller groups...much rides on the fortunes of the men on the field and we must remember as light to the world that we have a duty to weep with those who weep.
Football itself if not so big a deal of course, it's just that I suddenly found a point of intersection between Emergent Church thinking and something in my own, personal, day-to-day world. Until Heaven even solid Christians will have "lesser loyalties" to their tribes; yet not necessarily divided loyalties as we remember that Jesus is not in the same plane. When the tribe is defeated then we have a duty to mourn with those who mourn, not that it's a duty as we are often capable of feeling sad and disappointed all by ourselves. For Geelong in 2008 it was so near yet so far; all but undefeated all year, and indeed ahead for the first twenty-two of eighty minutes. Sometimes life sucks and as Christians it's good to be reminded of that.
As I often say about my own life just because I am handling this well doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. There but for the grace of God: it's good to be reminded of the grace of God so that we CAN minister to those who don't know what we do. I sincerely hope that The Church in Geelong was down at Kardinia Park on Sunday September 28th: not all of them, but some as a sign of "this is our town too, and we are sad along with you because we are part of you."
So let us be clear; to be sad about a defeated football team does not make someone less a believer in the grace of Jesus Christ: neither does it make the League (or the Game) his or her "god". There is a call for compassion to those even within "The House" who have tribal loyalties: as an Aussie bloke my key one is my football team, but we as The Church (and as local churches) must engage in the world. We are not of the world, but we are in it, and we are in it with those who are of it. We must engage with them and that will cause us pain: but pain is good when pain is shared.
There are many for whom football is their god, but from whom are they more likely to hear the grace behind the words of Jesus Christ? We who also feel sad at the events of a Grand Final day, or the well meaning (and I'm sure they are) legalist who denies the existence of football as a source of anything?
We may not subscribe to their tribe, (by which I mean the sport rather than the team: for example I could not care less for Rugby League), but there is nothing in the gospel that allows us to discount their pain. I know there were sad people in Melbourne even as there was rejoicing Manly after the NRL premiership, even as I care little for the game itself. I have seen what an England or local club loss does to the soccer fans in London, even in Hillsong Church. I believe this grieving to be a genuine and acceptable thing. "Sorry Business" in its original, indigenous form is both corporate and communal; and if a local church is indeed local then it should at the very least seek to engage in it, even if it shouldn't be immersed in it.
Our tribe was in mourning, and feeling very short-changed as well.
This is a truth that Christians need to get, even amongst themselves. Of course there is no satisfaction like the love of God, but in this world there is pain and there are other loyalties. These are not conflicting loyalties, it’s not unchristian to follow the AFL, they’re just not church groups.
Our generation is a tribal generation. Australia is a tribal nation. We have always been a people who like to form groups around the things that define us in society: be that States of Origin (to various degrees, and not limited to sport) along with Ford vs. Holden, AFL vs. NRL (and the sixteenths within). These are the denominations of the world: not “of the Flesh” per se, after all when did Anglican vs. Roman Catholic be a different form of loyalty, but of the way we think as men and women on this side of Heaven. It was on this basis that my tribe entered a time of mourning. "Sorry Business" ensued and as a group we commiserated together before gathering ourselves around our faith and looking to 2009, as we had looked to 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996 of recent memory, with renewed hope.
Christians need to remember that Earth is a tribal place and those coming in to the church still belong to other groups. We are in the world, but not of it, but in the world there are circles and we are still very much a part of those circles; indeed it is where our ministry lays. It is not enough to say “bah but it is only football and as Christians we have a higher calling”. Yes, we do have a higher calling, but not to the exclusion of our friends and to what is important to us. Some do not like football, and that is fair enough, but those people I am sure belong to other tribes, be they other sports, or other interests. One of the men I know from church, who supports the team which defeated Geelong on that day of blessed forgetting, consoled me that he knew how I felt as whilst he is not as devoted as I to his chosen sports he “felt strangely mournful” at the dumping of the New Zealand All Blacks from the IRB World Cup in 2007. Why should it matter so much that your national rugby team loses? Simply because it is “the team", “our team”: there is a real belongingness in that and it isn't just about the vicarious nature of following the ball in play. The team is “us out there” and we are a part of each other. Australasians are a sporting tribal people: to minister to us is to minister in and within the culture of belongingness: we must not forget that to reach our “unreached” we must be sympathetic to their cries: and we must allow ourselves to feel it when our own tribes are saddened in the fight.
I have belonged at various times to parishes of the Anglican and Uniting Churches, and in England I belonged at my local Parish Church and then to Hillsong Church London. In terms of residential identity I have been a Victorian, a Tasmanian, and a Territorian. I've lived in Kent, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire; and always specifically not in London as is the local sensitivity of the Home Counties. I'm both Australian and English by heritage and have supported both nations (one at a time) in the Rugby World Cup, even supporting England against Australia when they won in Sydney in 2003. I will always support England in the cricket unless it's The Ashes. But I have never been anything other than a Geelong supporter. It's the only thing I have always been apart from a Christian, distinct from the changing denominational labels.
Yet I am all about Jesus: but I'm still in the world. The Cats is a part of the world I am pleased to be in.
I am a Christian. Not “a Christian first” as there is no comparison between my belonging to Christ alone and to my other allegiances. Neither am I “a Cat second” as there is much of higher importance in my life than my sporting tribe: however at one level I am a “Cat”, and my family (to whom I belong more than my team) are Cats too. On Grand Final day I was sad, and my family and I were sad together, especially as we were physically separated by half of the span of the Earth. On that day we found ourselves in genuine need of ministry in a way that “look to the cross” could not fix.
We got over it, it was only the end of the season and not the end of the world, but maybe in the pain we discovered an insight into how our generation works. Don’t disparage the shared culture of society’s smaller groups...much rides on the fortunes of the men on the field and we must remember as light to the world that we have a duty to weep with those who weep.
Football itself if not so big a deal of course, it's just that I suddenly found a point of intersection between Emergent Church thinking and something in my own, personal, day-to-day world. Until Heaven even solid Christians will have "lesser loyalties" to their tribes; yet not necessarily divided loyalties as we remember that Jesus is not in the same plane. When the tribe is defeated then we have a duty to mourn with those who mourn, not that it's a duty as we are often capable of feeling sad and disappointed all by ourselves. For Geelong in 2008 it was so near yet so far; all but undefeated all year, and indeed ahead for the first twenty-two of eighty minutes. Sometimes life sucks and as Christians it's good to be reminded of that.
As I often say about my own life just because I am handling this well doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. There but for the grace of God: it's good to be reminded of the grace of God so that we CAN minister to those who don't know what we do. I sincerely hope that The Church in Geelong was down at Kardinia Park on Sunday September 28th: not all of them, but some as a sign of "this is our town too, and we are sad along with you because we are part of you."
So let us be clear; to be sad about a defeated football team does not make someone less a believer in the grace of Jesus Christ: neither does it make the League (or the Game) his or her "god". There is a call for compassion to those even within "The House" who have tribal loyalties: as an Aussie bloke my key one is my football team, but we as The Church (and as local churches) must engage in the world. We are not of the world, but we are in it, and we are in it with those who are of it. We must engage with them and that will cause us pain: but pain is good when pain is shared.
There are many for whom football is their god, but from whom are they more likely to hear the grace behind the words of Jesus Christ? We who also feel sad at the events of a Grand Final day, or the well meaning (and I'm sure they are) legalist who denies the existence of football as a source of anything?
We may not subscribe to their tribe, (by which I mean the sport rather than the team: for example I could not care less for Rugby League), but there is nothing in the gospel that allows us to discount their pain. I know there were sad people in Melbourne even as there was rejoicing Manly after the NRL premiership, even as I care little for the game itself. I have seen what an England or local club loss does to the soccer fans in London, even in Hillsong Church. I believe this grieving to be a genuine and acceptable thing. "Sorry Business" in its original, indigenous form is both corporate and communal; and if a local church is indeed local then it should at the very least seek to engage in it, even if it shouldn't be immersed in it.
The Mountaintop in The Valley
What an awesome privilege it is to worship God at any time of the day or night. Here I am in worship on my futon in the middle of a wet November day and experiencing the awesome power of God’s Holy Spirit present in my life when all the darkness is seen to blow away. Here in what should have been one of the lowest and most helpless periods of my life is God present and abundant in His grace and favour towards me. Never again will I doubt my confidence in God, and never again will I doubt my confidence in my confidence in God because He is mighty and awesome to save and I have experienced it and been able to step up and seen Him do it, to see Him in this place and to know that I am big enough in His strength to allow Him to do this through me.
The Intercessory Power of Worship
I have a theory, and that theory is that many local churches are free of all the stuff that Warfare Intercessors think they need to bind and cast even though these congregations do not bind and cast. I believe that this is because our worship is powerful and effective in sending the demons packing.
James wrote that the fervent prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. But what about the fervent praise (and worship) of the righteous?
My local church is, in context, a powerful and effective local Church.
• In March 2007 it has somewhere in the region of 8000 participants across five service times in three locations and two countries, as well as its weekly social (connective) events.
• In the calendar year of 2006 it saw over 6000 decisions for Christ, both first time and recommitment.
• It has raised the identity of Christ and His Church across both the Christian and secular communities of Europe, impacting leaders in many spheres of business, finance, education, health and service industries.
• It directly supports social and community work among some of the poorest people of Mumbai (India) and Kasisi (Uganda), along with work in the United Kingdom and special projects across the world.
• It prays weekly for the needs of its people, and has heard reports of the effectiveness of those prayers in healings from cancers and many other physical and mental illnesses, release from financial distress and debt, and provision of employment/housing/visa/friendship for its contingent of young visitors from the Commonwealth.
• It continues to expand, and has a vision for new endeavours: empowering individual Christians to influence their own spheres and championing the cause of the local church across Britain and Europe.
We proclaim a gospel of grace, of a righteousness accredited to individual Christians because of their acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. We are saved by grace, and out of that grace we do works; but our righteousness is that of Christ by virtue of divine exchange.
So, how does a local church which does not wave banners and march around its streets, does not have all-night prayer vigils, does not have “prayer warfare” or “prayer counselling” or “deliverance ministry” teams, manage to be so effective in the face of demonic opposition? Christ tells us we are righteous, our world sees us as powerful and effective (in context): yet this takes place without what some would describe as “fervent” prayer.
Repentance is the first place of revival. Revival planning is not about casting and loosing powers over Norwich, but about humility and contrition in the Church. God commands a blessing when the church is united. Hillsong is a place of humility, contrition towards grace (and confidence beyond it), servant-heartedness, and unity behind the cause of Christ.
Bridal forms of Intercession.
In late 2002 and early 2003 I had the privilege of joining with a small group of strategic-level prayer warriors in East Anglia, living on site with them and travelling with them to various parts of the East of England to take part in local, strategic warfare. During this time we became aware of a move in prayer circles that God was revealing a new form of intercession, which was to be known as “Bridal Intercession”. The word came from God that it was time for the intercessors to come down off the ramparts and to come into the throne-room of God: the time for battle was at an end, the time for intimacy with the victorious Lord was beginning. (In no way was this a suggestion that “the War” was over because only the return of Christ as King of Glory will ultimately bring destruction to the reign of satan on Earth.) Prayer was to move away from “pulling down strongholds” and shift instead to “calling down Heaven”. The Bride was to take off her boots and put on her slippers.
The idea was circulated that when a stronghold is pulled down, the demons are sent to the pit and the Church stands victorious in the rubble. When Heaven is called down, the demons flee from the presence of the Living God under their own conviction, and the Church stands victorious in the Shekinah. In both cases the work of satan is utterly destroyed, but only Brides get to spend time with the King in His glory, the warriors just get to step across the rubble and go home. God was bringing refreshing to His armies, stepping in as He did in the days of Israel and Judah to glorify His own Name and accept the praises of His people, (or His People.)
It is my view that my local church is such a People, a company of worshipping Brides who celebrate their love by the Husband in their songs of worship and their lives of utter submission to the Cause of Christ: to love God and to love people. We don’t require a company to march around our house on a Sunday, any power or authority that will not submit to God is blown away by the power of the worship of the house: not the music, the worship. The heart-attitude of the believers in Christ in the House brings glory to God and He delights in this praise: not for the sake of “doing Bridal Intercession”, but simply because that is who we are, as the Church of Jesus Christ we are the Bride of our beloved Lord and Saviour and we delight to have him come to visit. When he does, the adversarial forces run away.
James wrote that the fervent prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. But what about the fervent praise (and worship) of the righteous?
My local church is, in context, a powerful and effective local Church.
• In March 2007 it has somewhere in the region of 8000 participants across five service times in three locations and two countries, as well as its weekly social (connective) events.
• In the calendar year of 2006 it saw over 6000 decisions for Christ, both first time and recommitment.
• It has raised the identity of Christ and His Church across both the Christian and secular communities of Europe, impacting leaders in many spheres of business, finance, education, health and service industries.
• It directly supports social and community work among some of the poorest people of Mumbai (India) and Kasisi (Uganda), along with work in the United Kingdom and special projects across the world.
• It prays weekly for the needs of its people, and has heard reports of the effectiveness of those prayers in healings from cancers and many other physical and mental illnesses, release from financial distress and debt, and provision of employment/housing/visa/friendship for its contingent of young visitors from the Commonwealth.
• It continues to expand, and has a vision for new endeavours: empowering individual Christians to influence their own spheres and championing the cause of the local church across Britain and Europe.
We proclaim a gospel of grace, of a righteousness accredited to individual Christians because of their acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. We are saved by grace, and out of that grace we do works; but our righteousness is that of Christ by virtue of divine exchange.
So, how does a local church which does not wave banners and march around its streets, does not have all-night prayer vigils, does not have “prayer warfare” or “prayer counselling” or “deliverance ministry” teams, manage to be so effective in the face of demonic opposition? Christ tells us we are righteous, our world sees us as powerful and effective (in context): yet this takes place without what some would describe as “fervent” prayer.
Repentance is the first place of revival. Revival planning is not about casting and loosing powers over Norwich, but about humility and contrition in the Church. God commands a blessing when the church is united. Hillsong is a place of humility, contrition towards grace (and confidence beyond it), servant-heartedness, and unity behind the cause of Christ.
Bridal forms of Intercession.
In late 2002 and early 2003 I had the privilege of joining with a small group of strategic-level prayer warriors in East Anglia, living on site with them and travelling with them to various parts of the East of England to take part in local, strategic warfare. During this time we became aware of a move in prayer circles that God was revealing a new form of intercession, which was to be known as “Bridal Intercession”. The word came from God that it was time for the intercessors to come down off the ramparts and to come into the throne-room of God: the time for battle was at an end, the time for intimacy with the victorious Lord was beginning. (In no way was this a suggestion that “the War” was over because only the return of Christ as King of Glory will ultimately bring destruction to the reign of satan on Earth.) Prayer was to move away from “pulling down strongholds” and shift instead to “calling down Heaven”. The Bride was to take off her boots and put on her slippers.
The idea was circulated that when a stronghold is pulled down, the demons are sent to the pit and the Church stands victorious in the rubble. When Heaven is called down, the demons flee from the presence of the Living God under their own conviction, and the Church stands victorious in the Shekinah. In both cases the work of satan is utterly destroyed, but only Brides get to spend time with the King in His glory, the warriors just get to step across the rubble and go home. God was bringing refreshing to His armies, stepping in as He did in the days of Israel and Judah to glorify His own Name and accept the praises of His people, (or His People.)
It is my view that my local church is such a People, a company of worshipping Brides who celebrate their love by the Husband in their songs of worship and their lives of utter submission to the Cause of Christ: to love God and to love people. We don’t require a company to march around our house on a Sunday, any power or authority that will not submit to God is blown away by the power of the worship of the house: not the music, the worship. The heart-attitude of the believers in Christ in the House brings glory to God and He delights in this praise: not for the sake of “doing Bridal Intercession”, but simply because that is who we are, as the Church of Jesus Christ we are the Bride of our beloved Lord and Saviour and we delight to have him come to visit. When he does, the adversarial forces run away.
The Handwriting of God
God writes the first 10 commandments on stone.
God writes on the plaster wall at Belshazzar’s feast.
Jesus writes in the dust.
Where else does God WRITE in writing in the Bible: and what does it mean?
God writes on the plaster wall at Belshazzar’s feast.
Jesus writes in the dust.
Where else does God WRITE in writing in the Bible: and what does it mean?
Things Damien learned at Hillsong Servant School
The challenges that God has placed upon my life in the past six months, both within and without Ministry School, cannot be adequately summed up in typed words: His grace and favour to me have been beyond anything I have experienced so far in my life, and that extends to the things He has allowed me to learn.
In limiting myself to a page of typed summary I have chosen to focus on the one key thing that “pings at me” the most as I review my notes: I need to get started so that God can take what is in my hand and use it to His glory. He did this with Zerubbabel (Zechariah 4.6), He did in with Paul (1Corinthians 3.6), and He did it with Jonathan and the anonymous Armour-Bearer (Numbers 14). It is this last story that has most impressed me as it was the understanding that Gary Clarke brought out of this text, that God can use me mightily even when I am anonymous and “hidden” to the peripheral world (and even the Church), which was the thing I most needed to hear.
• God will increase what I do: if I do nothing then He has nothing to multiply, if I am nothing then He has no-one to replicate.
• Action with sacrifice gets God’s involvement: I need to be prepared to risk God not acting so that I can give Him something to use when He does come through for me. (I come through for Him by taking the initiative, either in the role of Jonathan and getting out from under the tree of boredom to act, or in the role of armour-bearer by committing “heart and soul” to the initiative of my leader.)
At present I am serving on two teams in the life of Hillsong Church London: New Christians-Discovery, and Because We Can. In my life beyond Church I am in transition in a number of ways, but in all of these (and at Church) I have taken the wisdom of God and the college to “just get in there” and am seeing Him begin to move in what I have already commenced.
Away from this key message I am constantly reminded that leadership is about servanthood, and that its main task is people-development. Servanthood is about serving people, the Greek words used in the New Testament refer to the role of leaders (diakone and episkope) as servants. Indeed everything is about people, God’s answer to every need in the church was people (Acts 6) and it still is today: indeed, as Mark Wilkinson spoke into Hillsong at a Sunday service in 2003, God’s treasure is people (Matthew 6:21).
The task of God’s leaders, whatever their role in the life of the congregation, is to connect people with the cause and focus of God Himself: the cause of Christ. His own life’s purpose was to show the Father to the world, John 14.31(msg), and the focus of his ministry was people themselves. Our motivation comes about through these two things, a deliberate focus on people and the cause of getting them connected to God and His Church. As Christians it can be nothing less.
Beyond that is the message that I am wonderful (Psalm 139 as read to us by Martin Houghton-Brown), and that I need to back myself, believe in myself, and get over myself. Once I am out of the way then it is easier for me to focus on other people, and to begin to do something that will bring glory to God and fulfilment to my spirit: I am free to get better at relationships, and be better set up to handle the twists and turns of life with my scenario-planning Father. It’s much easier to do “Selah, then move on” when my focus is on God’s wonderful and fearful creation, and not on my own shyness or the events of my life at work. This is both liberating and empowering: I’m ready to get on board with God and trust Him to see this through until the end.
27th March 2007.
In limiting myself to a page of typed summary I have chosen to focus on the one key thing that “pings at me” the most as I review my notes: I need to get started so that God can take what is in my hand and use it to His glory. He did this with Zerubbabel (Zechariah 4.6), He did in with Paul (1Corinthians 3.6), and He did it with Jonathan and the anonymous Armour-Bearer (Numbers 14). It is this last story that has most impressed me as it was the understanding that Gary Clarke brought out of this text, that God can use me mightily even when I am anonymous and “hidden” to the peripheral world (and even the Church), which was the thing I most needed to hear.
• God will increase what I do: if I do nothing then He has nothing to multiply, if I am nothing then He has no-one to replicate.
• Action with sacrifice gets God’s involvement: I need to be prepared to risk God not acting so that I can give Him something to use when He does come through for me. (I come through for Him by taking the initiative, either in the role of Jonathan and getting out from under the tree of boredom to act, or in the role of armour-bearer by committing “heart and soul” to the initiative of my leader.)
At present I am serving on two teams in the life of Hillsong Church London: New Christians-Discovery, and Because We Can. In my life beyond Church I am in transition in a number of ways, but in all of these (and at Church) I have taken the wisdom of God and the college to “just get in there” and am seeing Him begin to move in what I have already commenced.
Away from this key message I am constantly reminded that leadership is about servanthood, and that its main task is people-development. Servanthood is about serving people, the Greek words used in the New Testament refer to the role of leaders (diakone and episkope) as servants. Indeed everything is about people, God’s answer to every need in the church was people (Acts 6) and it still is today: indeed, as Mark Wilkinson spoke into Hillsong at a Sunday service in 2003, God’s treasure is people (Matthew 6:21).
The task of God’s leaders, whatever their role in the life of the congregation, is to connect people with the cause and focus of God Himself: the cause of Christ. His own life’s purpose was to show the Father to the world, John 14.31(msg), and the focus of his ministry was people themselves. Our motivation comes about through these two things, a deliberate focus on people and the cause of getting them connected to God and His Church. As Christians it can be nothing less.
Beyond that is the message that I am wonderful (Psalm 139 as read to us by Martin Houghton-Brown), and that I need to back myself, believe in myself, and get over myself. Once I am out of the way then it is easier for me to focus on other people, and to begin to do something that will bring glory to God and fulfilment to my spirit: I am free to get better at relationships, and be better set up to handle the twists and turns of life with my scenario-planning Father. It’s much easier to do “Selah, then move on” when my focus is on God’s wonderful and fearful creation, and not on my own shyness or the events of my life at work. This is both liberating and empowering: I’m ready to get on board with God and trust Him to see this through until the end.
27th March 2007.
Oracle
I want to speak as an Oracle of God, not asking him for stuff but instead speaking His word into the situations in my world. Like Peter is Acts 3 I want to command the lame man to get up and walk, not command the Lord to heal: nor to inquire of Jehovah Ropheka whether healing is His will. (It is more than God’s will it is God’s nature.)
To be an Oracle of God I need to walk closely with Him, to know His will by knowing His word and His nature: these done by prayer and study. I want to be the light and salt: to reflect and infuse into the peripheral world what Jesus has directed into me.
An Oracle declares the divine will of God. As a Christian I can do this as overflow and output of my personal intimacy with Him: my union with His will and purpose.
To be an Oracle of God I need to walk closely with Him, to know His will by knowing His word and His nature: these done by prayer and study. I want to be the light and salt: to reflect and infuse into the peripheral world what Jesus has directed into me.
An Oracle declares the divine will of God. As a Christian I can do this as overflow and output of my personal intimacy with Him: my union with His will and purpose.
Imagine a world...
Imagine a world lead by a nation with:
The global influence of today’s USA
(or the “global” influence of UK in 1887 and Rome in 150: the conquest and rule of the known world and with forays into the fringes)
And the wealth of OPEC
And having held these things continuously since 1400 BC
And lead by rulers under the Abrahamic Covenant and motivated to honour the promise of God to this nation and then on to ALL NATIONS through this one nation.
THAT is God’s intent for the world.
God’s promise to His people is that they will ALWAYS be:
The Head and not the Tail.
The Front and Not the Back.
The First and not the Last.
The Top and not the Bottom.
Jesus advised the church to be as innocent as DOVES and as wise as SERPENTS. Imagine the Church with more:
money than Bill Gates.
influence than the EU/US/UN/(USSR).
people than China.
ingenuity than Japan/Korea.
That was what lay before the Hebrews as they walked out of Egypt behind Moses. God had promised them a land 3 times the size of the greatest extent of Israel. They could have been there in less than two weeks of walking. They would ALWAYS and FOREVER be the best nation on Earth and the means by which God would bless the whole planet.
This was what was sacrificed:
At Sinai with the Law.
When they settled for “enough” under Joshua.
When they failed to heed God’s continued calls through the prophets until Jerusalem fell in 598BC
And has never been recovered by God’s people.
It is still God’s intent for the world.
The global influence of today’s USA
(or the “global” influence of UK in 1887 and Rome in 150: the conquest and rule of the known world and with forays into the fringes)
And the wealth of OPEC
And having held these things continuously since 1400 BC
And lead by rulers under the Abrahamic Covenant and motivated to honour the promise of God to this nation and then on to ALL NATIONS through this one nation.
THAT is God’s intent for the world.
God’s promise to His people is that they will ALWAYS be:
The Head and not the Tail.
The Front and Not the Back.
The First and not the Last.
The Top and not the Bottom.
Jesus advised the church to be as innocent as DOVES and as wise as SERPENTS. Imagine the Church with more:
money than Bill Gates.
influence than the EU/US/UN/(USSR).
people than China.
ingenuity than Japan/Korea.
That was what lay before the Hebrews as they walked out of Egypt behind Moses. God had promised them a land 3 times the size of the greatest extent of Israel. They could have been there in less than two weeks of walking. They would ALWAYS and FOREVER be the best nation on Earth and the means by which God would bless the whole planet.
This was what was sacrificed:
At Sinai with the Law.
When they settled for “enough” under Joshua.
When they failed to heed God’s continued calls through the prophets until Jerusalem fell in 598BC
And has never been recovered by God’s people.
It is still God’s intent for the world.
Brightly
The brighter the light the more fun you can have.
If you have huge stadium floodlights you can play football at night or hold a concert for 25,000 people or stage an Olympic Games.
If you have a flashlight you can usher one person to a seat, or perhaps walk single file several people along an easy path.
If you have a bonfire you can watch it and toast marshmallows.
If you have a solitary birthday candle you can blow it out.
The same amount of darkness, but depending how much light you have you can bore one person or entertain 100,000.
Let your light shine brightly before all men...
If you have huge stadium floodlights you can play football at night or hold a concert for 25,000 people or stage an Olympic Games.
If you have a flashlight you can usher one person to a seat, or perhaps walk single file several people along an easy path.
If you have a bonfire you can watch it and toast marshmallows.
If you have a solitary birthday candle you can blow it out.
The same amount of darkness, but depending how much light you have you can bore one person or entertain 100,000.
Let your light shine brightly before all men...
Tetris
Church is like Tetris: if you don’t make adjustments (or you don’t make them regularly or quickly enough) everything tends to pile up and become overwhelming.
In a church like Hillsong Church London where every teaching is a meaty one, it is important to apply things straight away: use the teachings of past weeks as foundation to build upon this week.
If you don’t, (as I haven’t been) then you get a “glut”, and the quantity builds up like too much food leading to sickness (two exits, no waiting) and lethargy. Christmas Afternoon and all are asleep on the couch. As a church, as “The Church” we don’t have time to be asleep on the couch.
In a church like Hillsong Church London where every teaching is a meaty one, it is important to apply things straight away: use the teachings of past weeks as foundation to build upon this week.
If you don’t, (as I haven’t been) then you get a “glut”, and the quantity builds up like too much food leading to sickness (two exits, no waiting) and lethargy. Christmas Afternoon and all are asleep on the couch. As a church, as “The Church” we don’t have time to be asleep on the couch.
A sadness about the peripheral world
13th December 2006
I am continuing to feel a sadness about the peripheral world – ever losing faith in it. I suppose “faith in the world” is self-evidently stupid for an Evangelical Christian anyway, but it just seems like the failings of the alternative system of Men have become so obvious, plan to see, that I despair for a world without God. I know there is some good in this place, a portion of glory in the law like a warm afterglow of a godliness long since passed – but it seems so apparent to me that ultimately, even presently, (and at present: immediately) there is no hope outside of the Church.
So what is to be done about it? I do have faith, in God and His Church, so this is no maudlin suicide note where “all is lost” and “there is no hope” – because all is found and restored by the grace of God in Jesus. But how do I go about telling others about it?
How do we establish a world based on Acts 2:42 without becoming a cult or something peripheral? We are not supposed to “do community well” off to one side: that is not “well”, and it is true that the eyes of the world are focussed in the wrong direction, looking intensely at the peripheral and seeing the centre with a side-ways glance.
Help me to be inventive and prophetic Father, without it being about “who can I get to pay me for this?”
Confident that God is my provision:
1. I don’t want to squander this wealth, but choose instead to learn how to honour God with every penny. (Proverbs 3.9)
2. I want to continue to seek after His truth in knowing what the centre looks like and how to point people towards it. To bring people to Jesus and also connect them to His Church.
I need to be connected to His Church.
I need to be brought closer to Jesus.
Then others can come with me.
I am continuing to feel a sadness about the peripheral world – ever losing faith in it. I suppose “faith in the world” is self-evidently stupid for an Evangelical Christian anyway, but it just seems like the failings of the alternative system of Men have become so obvious, plan to see, that I despair for a world without God. I know there is some good in this place, a portion of glory in the law like a warm afterglow of a godliness long since passed – but it seems so apparent to me that ultimately, even presently, (and at present: immediately) there is no hope outside of the Church.
So what is to be done about it? I do have faith, in God and His Church, so this is no maudlin suicide note where “all is lost” and “there is no hope” – because all is found and restored by the grace of God in Jesus. But how do I go about telling others about it?
How do we establish a world based on Acts 2:42 without becoming a cult or something peripheral? We are not supposed to “do community well” off to one side: that is not “well”, and it is true that the eyes of the world are focussed in the wrong direction, looking intensely at the peripheral and seeing the centre with a side-ways glance.
Help me to be inventive and prophetic Father, without it being about “who can I get to pay me for this?”
Confident that God is my provision:
1. I don’t want to squander this wealth, but choose instead to learn how to honour God with every penny. (Proverbs 3.9)
2. I want to continue to seek after His truth in knowing what the centre looks like and how to point people towards it. To bring people to Jesus and also connect them to His Church.
I need to be connected to His Church.
I need to be brought closer to Jesus.
Then others can come with me.
Sunday 9 January 2011
The Beloved of God
Isaiah 42:1-9, Matthew 3:13-17
(Epiphany 2: The Baptism of Jesus)
When I was working at a Behaviour Support Centre in England, I used to visit local high schools to provide 1:1 assistance to boys who were in danger of being excluded from school. The Headmaster of one of our local schools, a Church of England operated school within the State system, was named “Mr Wellbeloved”. I have always thought that to be a fantastic name, almost Dickensian. It’s a great name for a Headmaster, don’t you think? Mister Wellbeloved. That is a family that must have had a great sense of personal esteem, and a history of being favoured by their neighbours. Mr Wellbeloved’s first name is Andrew, and according to the school’s website he is still Headmaster at that school today, six years since I was last there.
In the stories we read this morning we are told that there are many people who are beloved of God: a whole tribe of Mesdames and Messieurs Wellbeloved. They are the favourite daughters and sons of God, the truly well beloved or perhaps the very well beloved. In London people may say of them “they is well beloved, innit?”
I have always been interested that God’s voice is heard by John heralding Jesus as “my beloved son in whom I am well pleased” just as Jesus is walking out of the water. After all what had Jesus done to deserve such love, such pride in his father’s eyes to warrant this praise? He had yet to do anything distinctly Messianic. He had not yet been through the temptations and had not yet been to Cana to turn water into wine. He had yet to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and hadn’t healed, restored, raised or forgiven anyone. All he had done up until that point was breathe, eat, drink, and be a carpenter.
So what is God saying? God is saying “I love you son, I love you just because you’re mine.” Those are the words that every child wants to hear from her or his father, no matter how old that child. My dad still sends an occasional SMS to my brother, sister and me that says “Love my kids, proud of my kids”. We three know it is true, we laugh about it amongst ourselves and with him and mum, but we treasure it. The thing is, my dad has been saying that for years, even before he had anything to be proud of; and in spite of the many things he had to not be proud of. My dad loves me because I breathe air, and there is nothing I can do about it.
It is a great word, “beloved”; it refers to a sense of intimacy, care, and deep affection. Isaiah wrote it as “whom I uphold”, “in whom I delight”, “in whom my soul delights”, and “with whom I am well pleased”. God is the “I” in all of those verses, and the beloved is the servant of God. Apart from the stories of Jesus’ baptism the word is used in Luke 20:13 where the owner of the vineyard sends his beloved son to negotiate with the wicked tenants. In I Corinthians 4:17 Paul uses the word when he is talking about Timothy as his beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and in Ephesians 5:1 Paul commends his readers to be imitators of God as beloved children.
So how do we know that we are the beloved of God? How can we be imitators of God as beloved children? Well according to Isaiah and repeated by Luke the first sign that we are favoured by God is that we obey God. Did you get that? Obedience is the sign, which means that it actually comes second. Favour precedes obedience, or in simpler terms because we are loved then we obey. Jesus was already loved by God, and because he knew that Jesus chose to obey God. Matthew 3:15 tells us that Jesus was baptised by John because it was the right thing for him to do. Jesus acted a certain way because he desired to please God, knowing that God was already pleased with him.
The second sign of God’s favour is also seen in this episode of Jesus, and also in the story of Peter and the Gentiles in Acts 10. The descent of the Holy Spirit was a visible and practical sign of God’s favour on Jesus and upon the household of Cornelius. Peter, who had walked with Jesus, saw that God was displaying the same favour of the baptism of Jesus in water and the baptism of the disciples in fire on the day of Pentecost upon a room full of non-Jews. The favour of God is upon all whom God loves, and that is seen by their obedience and the presence of God’s Spirit.
So, we know we are not only loved by God, but we are also the Beloved of God, if we obey God and if the Holy Spirit is upon us. Does that describe you? It describes me, and I have much cause to rejoice knowing how much my God loves me and how much “in favour” of me God is. God is in me, and God is with me, but now I realise that God is for me as well.
The apostle John described himself as “the disciple that Jesus loved”. He is the only one who did that; no-one else called him that, only John. And no-one else described themself in that way. Everyone knew that Peter was really named “Simon”, and it seems that all of them came to recognise Peter as the leader in some way. That name change and status change was accepted despite the several occasions where the twelve had argued who was the greatest. Paul later described himself as being the property of God when he referred to God as “the God whose I am”; but only John claimed the status of “the one Jesus loved”. Jesus didn’t give him that title, he gave himself that title. But I think he did so knowing that it was an identity that Jesus was pleased with. I am also the disciple that Jesus loves. I know this. I have no doubt that I am God’s favourite child: I so am! I live to worship and serve God and the Spirit of God is upon me, but I also know that that is the case for many of you too.
But it is not enough to simply accept this beloved status. I can do nothing to earn it, or lose it, but what am I supposed to do with it? Well according to Isaiah, and this is also quoted by Luke, the job of the beloved is to bring justice. This is the action of obedience in response to our being so loved, and the reason why we need to be upheld. Justice, and our doing it, is what gives God delight and causes God to take delight in us.
Jesus came to save, not only from sin but the effects of sin: the effects of injustice, poverty, and sickness. Jesus death dealt with the punishment for sin, but his life was a model to show how the church is to deal with the consequences of an unfair world. This is why he is so great a king, worthy not only of our praise but of our emulation. This is what we imitate as beloved children of God: Jesus’ upholding and care of the world. What God loves we love. As we are beloved of God so we need to “belove” or “be love to” the world as God loved us. This is the care for orphans, widows, sick, lonely, afraid, and abused which is a thread from Genesis to Maps.
As an example think of Jesus and Lazarus. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead for two reasons. Reason one: because Lazarus was dead, and being dead is not good. Reason two: because Mary and Martha were sad about Lazarus being dead and sadness is not good. John wrote that Jesus wept for the sisters; he grieved with his friends even though he knew what was coming. Jesus brought hope because he had hope. Jesus knew how beloved of God he was; therefore he was able to act in obedience to the God he loved out of the love that God gave to him. We are in the same position.
The love we have from God is for ourselves first, make no mistake, but it does not stop there. The measure of God which is shaken down and flowing over is how the beloved children of God live their lives. They are so full of the love of God that they leak, overflow, and spill all over the people they are near to. God healed people who came into contact with Peter’s shadow, and with handkerchiefs that Paul had touched. If God can do things like that through stuff like that, through people like that, then what can God do through the actual hands and feet and mouths and arms of Christians who are bubbling over with the joy of salvation and a heart for the world? Jesus answers that, “greater things than these”.
We have been promised that we will be upheld, that is what the word beloved means. God promised through Isaiah that [we] will not grow faint or be crushed until [we] have established justice in the earth. We are being upheld until such time as God’s work is completed. Now I don’t think that God will then withdraw the hand and we will be allowed to faint and die, rather this promise is that God loves the work of justice and promises strength for all who will undertake it. The coastlands wait for God’s teaching, says Isaiah, and [we] have been given as a covenant to the people and the light to the nations. God has chosen us to be the fulfilment of the promise made to all of creation.
We are loved, we are accepted, we are upheld, we are favoured, and we are chosen. We are The Beloved of God: so let us be loved by God, and be love for God.
Amen.
(Epiphany 2: The Baptism of Jesus)
When I was working at a Behaviour Support Centre in England, I used to visit local high schools to provide 1:1 assistance to boys who were in danger of being excluded from school. The Headmaster of one of our local schools, a Church of England operated school within the State system, was named “Mr Wellbeloved”. I have always thought that to be a fantastic name, almost Dickensian. It’s a great name for a Headmaster, don’t you think? Mister Wellbeloved. That is a family that must have had a great sense of personal esteem, and a history of being favoured by their neighbours. Mr Wellbeloved’s first name is Andrew, and according to the school’s website he is still Headmaster at that school today, six years since I was last there.
In the stories we read this morning we are told that there are many people who are beloved of God: a whole tribe of Mesdames and Messieurs Wellbeloved. They are the favourite daughters and sons of God, the truly well beloved or perhaps the very well beloved. In London people may say of them “they is well beloved, innit?”
I have always been interested that God’s voice is heard by John heralding Jesus as “my beloved son in whom I am well pleased” just as Jesus is walking out of the water. After all what had Jesus done to deserve such love, such pride in his father’s eyes to warrant this praise? He had yet to do anything distinctly Messianic. He had not yet been through the temptations and had not yet been to Cana to turn water into wine. He had yet to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and hadn’t healed, restored, raised or forgiven anyone. All he had done up until that point was breathe, eat, drink, and be a carpenter.
So what is God saying? God is saying “I love you son, I love you just because you’re mine.” Those are the words that every child wants to hear from her or his father, no matter how old that child. My dad still sends an occasional SMS to my brother, sister and me that says “Love my kids, proud of my kids”. We three know it is true, we laugh about it amongst ourselves and with him and mum, but we treasure it. The thing is, my dad has been saying that for years, even before he had anything to be proud of; and in spite of the many things he had to not be proud of. My dad loves me because I breathe air, and there is nothing I can do about it.
It is a great word, “beloved”; it refers to a sense of intimacy, care, and deep affection. Isaiah wrote it as “whom I uphold”, “in whom I delight”, “in whom my soul delights”, and “with whom I am well pleased”. God is the “I” in all of those verses, and the beloved is the servant of God. Apart from the stories of Jesus’ baptism the word is used in Luke 20:13 where the owner of the vineyard sends his beloved son to negotiate with the wicked tenants. In I Corinthians 4:17 Paul uses the word when he is talking about Timothy as his beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and in Ephesians 5:1 Paul commends his readers to be imitators of God as beloved children.
So how do we know that we are the beloved of God? How can we be imitators of God as beloved children? Well according to Isaiah and repeated by Luke the first sign that we are favoured by God is that we obey God. Did you get that? Obedience is the sign, which means that it actually comes second. Favour precedes obedience, or in simpler terms because we are loved then we obey. Jesus was already loved by God, and because he knew that Jesus chose to obey God. Matthew 3:15 tells us that Jesus was baptised by John because it was the right thing for him to do. Jesus acted a certain way because he desired to please God, knowing that God was already pleased with him.
The second sign of God’s favour is also seen in this episode of Jesus, and also in the story of Peter and the Gentiles in Acts 10. The descent of the Holy Spirit was a visible and practical sign of God’s favour on Jesus and upon the household of Cornelius. Peter, who had walked with Jesus, saw that God was displaying the same favour of the baptism of Jesus in water and the baptism of the disciples in fire on the day of Pentecost upon a room full of non-Jews. The favour of God is upon all whom God loves, and that is seen by their obedience and the presence of God’s Spirit.
So, we know we are not only loved by God, but we are also the Beloved of God, if we obey God and if the Holy Spirit is upon us. Does that describe you? It describes me, and I have much cause to rejoice knowing how much my God loves me and how much “in favour” of me God is. God is in me, and God is with me, but now I realise that God is for me as well.
The apostle John described himself as “the disciple that Jesus loved”. He is the only one who did that; no-one else called him that, only John. And no-one else described themself in that way. Everyone knew that Peter was really named “Simon”, and it seems that all of them came to recognise Peter as the leader in some way. That name change and status change was accepted despite the several occasions where the twelve had argued who was the greatest. Paul later described himself as being the property of God when he referred to God as “the God whose I am”; but only John claimed the status of “the one Jesus loved”. Jesus didn’t give him that title, he gave himself that title. But I think he did so knowing that it was an identity that Jesus was pleased with. I am also the disciple that Jesus loves. I know this. I have no doubt that I am God’s favourite child: I so am! I live to worship and serve God and the Spirit of God is upon me, but I also know that that is the case for many of you too.
But it is not enough to simply accept this beloved status. I can do nothing to earn it, or lose it, but what am I supposed to do with it? Well according to Isaiah, and this is also quoted by Luke, the job of the beloved is to bring justice. This is the action of obedience in response to our being so loved, and the reason why we need to be upheld. Justice, and our doing it, is what gives God delight and causes God to take delight in us.
Jesus came to save, not only from sin but the effects of sin: the effects of injustice, poverty, and sickness. Jesus death dealt with the punishment for sin, but his life was a model to show how the church is to deal with the consequences of an unfair world. This is why he is so great a king, worthy not only of our praise but of our emulation. This is what we imitate as beloved children of God: Jesus’ upholding and care of the world. What God loves we love. As we are beloved of God so we need to “belove” or “be love to” the world as God loved us. This is the care for orphans, widows, sick, lonely, afraid, and abused which is a thread from Genesis to Maps.
As an example think of Jesus and Lazarus. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead for two reasons. Reason one: because Lazarus was dead, and being dead is not good. Reason two: because Mary and Martha were sad about Lazarus being dead and sadness is not good. John wrote that Jesus wept for the sisters; he grieved with his friends even though he knew what was coming. Jesus brought hope because he had hope. Jesus knew how beloved of God he was; therefore he was able to act in obedience to the God he loved out of the love that God gave to him. We are in the same position.
The love we have from God is for ourselves first, make no mistake, but it does not stop there. The measure of God which is shaken down and flowing over is how the beloved children of God live their lives. They are so full of the love of God that they leak, overflow, and spill all over the people they are near to. God healed people who came into contact with Peter’s shadow, and with handkerchiefs that Paul had touched. If God can do things like that through stuff like that, through people like that, then what can God do through the actual hands and feet and mouths and arms of Christians who are bubbling over with the joy of salvation and a heart for the world? Jesus answers that, “greater things than these”.
We have been promised that we will be upheld, that is what the word beloved means. God promised through Isaiah that [we] will not grow faint or be crushed until [we] have established justice in the earth. We are being upheld until such time as God’s work is completed. Now I don’t think that God will then withdraw the hand and we will be allowed to faint and die, rather this promise is that God loves the work of justice and promises strength for all who will undertake it. The coastlands wait for God’s teaching, says Isaiah, and [we] have been given as a covenant to the people and the light to the nations. God has chosen us to be the fulfilment of the promise made to all of creation.
We are loved, we are accepted, we are upheld, we are favoured, and we are chosen. We are The Beloved of God: so let us be loved by God, and be love for God.
Amen.
Thursday 6 January 2011
Tall Poppied
I feel as though we have been tall poppied, cut down because we were too successful.
I don’t know whether we really were seen as a shining light or a jewel in the crown, or even as a threat to the capital. What had we done that was great? Who was proud of us? Who was threatened by us? Who wanted us “changed” for the better, to either release us to grow in a new direction, like a tomato plant newly tied to a tier, or who needed us cut down like a weed in their garden so that they could shine without us blocking their light to others.
I don’t know. Was there a conspiracy? I really don’t know.
But what about inside? Were we becoming too successful for your own good? Did the new team put the old teams to shame? Did the previous generation think that they were going to be shamed by the “greater things than these” than were the “greater glory of the new house”? Perhaps so, and that one I am more confident to suggest. We thought we were the next leg in the relay, carrying the baton on toward the finish line that had been carried so faithfully by those running before us. They thought the race had already been won when they entered the change-over box, and were then confused when they saw us starting a another race, and race to which they had not been invited.
It was the same race.
It was the same Church.
It is the same Lord.
We were not tall poppies, we were lilies of the field, but we have been mown down.
I don’t know whether we really were seen as a shining light or a jewel in the crown, or even as a threat to the capital. What had we done that was great? Who was proud of us? Who was threatened by us? Who wanted us “changed” for the better, to either release us to grow in a new direction, like a tomato plant newly tied to a tier, or who needed us cut down like a weed in their garden so that they could shine without us blocking their light to others.
I don’t know. Was there a conspiracy? I really don’t know.
But what about inside? Were we becoming too successful for your own good? Did the new team put the old teams to shame? Did the previous generation think that they were going to be shamed by the “greater things than these” than were the “greater glory of the new house”? Perhaps so, and that one I am more confident to suggest. We thought we were the next leg in the relay, carrying the baton on toward the finish line that had been carried so faithfully by those running before us. They thought the race had already been won when they entered the change-over box, and were then confused when they saw us starting a another race, and race to which they had not been invited.
It was the same race.
It was the same Church.
It is the same Lord.
We were not tall poppies, we were lilies of the field, but we have been mown down.
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