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.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
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.
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Dark Nights of the Soul
Psalm 22:1-31
There is a short story in the Bible, a story of thirty-one verses. This story begins with the words My God, my God why have you forsaken me?, goes on to say I am thirsty and ends with it is finished. Any ideas what that story might be? Of course we instantly recognise what that story is; it is the twenty second psalm. (Did you think I was going to talk about Jesus on the cross?)
Psalm 22 is a familiar story, but not just because it is the story of six hours one dark Friday. The Son of God is not alone among the daughters and sons of men in going through a time of seeming isolation from his God, his mates, and his senses. Abandonment, confusion, embarrassment and doubts assault each of us at times. A recent example of a seemingly God-forsaken people came to my mind this week because last Wednesday marked the International Day of Reflection on the genocide in Rwanda. I’m sure you are all aware that fifteen years civil war broke out and visited atrocities upon that African land. Wednesday was also World Health Day, and again a reminder to pray for all who are sick and sad, many of them alone, many without the hope that the messages of Easter bring.
Let’s look at the psalm...
Do you see the “it is finished” at the end there? The Lord has done it: it has been accomplished long ago and we will keep telling it.
This is a very private psalm, in scholarship terms it is referred to as a personal lament, more plainly it is one person’s whinge against the world. But we have all been there, even Jesus: this is a sulk with good reason.
The biggest question this psalm asks is in verse eight, which the Good News Bible translates as if the Lord likes you, why doesn’t He help you? (Aren’t you the Messiah? Come down off the cross then!) A good question: one I have asked on my own behalf many times. Just because God was silent when Jesus was on the cross doesn’t mean I have to like it when I am feeling tired and emotional. Indeed I remember asking this question in the company of my minister at a time when I was feeling like this, and he told me that it was a season of the Spirit which is sometimes called “the dark night of the soul”. How many of you have heard that term before? It comes from St John of the Cross and his book The Ascent of Mount Carmel. But in actual fact, this dark night is not about being abandoned in blackness; as we have seen in the second part of this psalm God is, and always was, there. The darkness is not about spiritualised depression; rather it is the steeping beyond the known and through the darkness of what is unknown to come to a new knowing. Teachers know about that, this is the journey we guide our students along all the time; but it’s a lot scarier when God is doing it to grown-ups. This process has more to do with Proverbs 3:5-6 and relying solely on God, and Psalm 23:4 and trusting God in the valleys of the shadows, than with our sins separating us from God. In the Contemporary English Version verse 21 says don’t let lions eat me. There’s no point saying that unless you think someone stronger than you is with you where the wild things are.
It is easy to feel confused and overwhelmed, I am sure that Jesus did. But what we go through in these times of darkness is like driving at night along an unknown road, (or even a known road in a rainstorm), rather than choosing to sit the darkness out. We can act in faith, and with conviction sourced from the deep roots of God’s record in our history. Darkness is mysterious, but that is the reality of our mysterious God. Faith is hope without sight: blessed are those who have believed without seeing, as Jesus told Thomas.
We come to understand, when this psalm turns in verse 22 from a lament to a song of deliverance, that the night is darkness in which a person may appear lost, but which actually leads them to the place in which they will find themselves. This darkness is a way of progress, the tunnel at the end of the light that leads to even greater light. It is sad that so often we try to find a refuge from the darkness, and way of avoiding it, rather than learning lessons of faith by walking with God through the valleys of the shadows.
In this week following Easter, and the first week of the season between the rising of the Son and the descending of the Spirit we remember that our nights of faith are not a phase or a season, they are a metaphor for Christian life. Now we see dimly, then we shall see clearly. We live all our lives in the time between times; but we also know that these dark patches come in bouts, and the more we are growing and wanting to learn the more often the bouts will come. It is scary, but like the wildest of rollercoasters it can also be fun when we remember that in God’s hands we may be spinning and ducking, but we are not crashing and burning. When we are out of control, God is fully in control: and that is a good thing. That is the confidence that lead Jesus to stand up in Gethsemane and greet Judas rather than scramble away to hide at Mary and Martha’s place until the soldiers had gone.
The light of God is the only true light. Sometimes God uses the darkness we have taken ourselves into rather than leading us into a dark place Himself. We learn that where He is there is light; false lights will lead us astray. I have heard it said it is better to be in God’s silence, than in the world’s violence; even if the world at least has neon and noise.
Life with God is thrilling: Easter and Pentecost show that, and as Christians we know it ourselves. The God of the gentle whisper that Elijah heard is also the God of the cloud of fire and smoke that Moses saw; so why can’t He also be the God of absence that Jesus experienced on the cross? Easter Sunday reminds us that God always comes through when all hope seems lost and only He can do it. That’s the testimony of my life: regardless of the tuneful talents of fat ladies I have learned that nothing is over until God proclaims it finished. It is finished when God has accomplished all, and that goes as much for His plans for our life and our church as for His plans for universal salvation through Jesus Christ.
What is achieved in darkness will be proclaimed in the light, forever.
Amen.
Cafe Agape
9th April 2010
There is a short story in the Bible, a story of thirty-one verses. This story begins with the words My God, my God why have you forsaken me?, goes on to say I am thirsty and ends with it is finished. Any ideas what that story might be? Of course we instantly recognise what that story is; it is the twenty second psalm. (Did you think I was going to talk about Jesus on the cross?)
Psalm 22 is a familiar story, but not just because it is the story of six hours one dark Friday. The Son of God is not alone among the daughters and sons of men in going through a time of seeming isolation from his God, his mates, and his senses. Abandonment, confusion, embarrassment and doubts assault each of us at times. A recent example of a seemingly God-forsaken people came to my mind this week because last Wednesday marked the International Day of Reflection on the genocide in Rwanda. I’m sure you are all aware that fifteen years civil war broke out and visited atrocities upon that African land. Wednesday was also World Health Day, and again a reminder to pray for all who are sick and sad, many of them alone, many without the hope that the messages of Easter bring.
Let’s look at the psalm...
Do you see the “it is finished” at the end there? The Lord has done it: it has been accomplished long ago and we will keep telling it.
This is a very private psalm, in scholarship terms it is referred to as a personal lament, more plainly it is one person’s whinge against the world. But we have all been there, even Jesus: this is a sulk with good reason.
The biggest question this psalm asks is in verse eight, which the Good News Bible translates as if the Lord likes you, why doesn’t He help you? (Aren’t you the Messiah? Come down off the cross then!) A good question: one I have asked on my own behalf many times. Just because God was silent when Jesus was on the cross doesn’t mean I have to like it when I am feeling tired and emotional. Indeed I remember asking this question in the company of my minister at a time when I was feeling like this, and he told me that it was a season of the Spirit which is sometimes called “the dark night of the soul”. How many of you have heard that term before? It comes from St John of the Cross and his book The Ascent of Mount Carmel. But in actual fact, this dark night is not about being abandoned in blackness; as we have seen in the second part of this psalm God is, and always was, there. The darkness is not about spiritualised depression; rather it is the steeping beyond the known and through the darkness of what is unknown to come to a new knowing. Teachers know about that, this is the journey we guide our students along all the time; but it’s a lot scarier when God is doing it to grown-ups. This process has more to do with Proverbs 3:5-6 and relying solely on God, and Psalm 23:4 and trusting God in the valleys of the shadows, than with our sins separating us from God. In the Contemporary English Version verse 21 says don’t let lions eat me. There’s no point saying that unless you think someone stronger than you is with you where the wild things are.
It is easy to feel confused and overwhelmed, I am sure that Jesus did. But what we go through in these times of darkness is like driving at night along an unknown road, (or even a known road in a rainstorm), rather than choosing to sit the darkness out. We can act in faith, and with conviction sourced from the deep roots of God’s record in our history. Darkness is mysterious, but that is the reality of our mysterious God. Faith is hope without sight: blessed are those who have believed without seeing, as Jesus told Thomas.
We come to understand, when this psalm turns in verse 22 from a lament to a song of deliverance, that the night is darkness in which a person may appear lost, but which actually leads them to the place in which they will find themselves. This darkness is a way of progress, the tunnel at the end of the light that leads to even greater light. It is sad that so often we try to find a refuge from the darkness, and way of avoiding it, rather than learning lessons of faith by walking with God through the valleys of the shadows.
In this week following Easter, and the first week of the season between the rising of the Son and the descending of the Spirit we remember that our nights of faith are not a phase or a season, they are a metaphor for Christian life. Now we see dimly, then we shall see clearly. We live all our lives in the time between times; but we also know that these dark patches come in bouts, and the more we are growing and wanting to learn the more often the bouts will come. It is scary, but like the wildest of rollercoasters it can also be fun when we remember that in God’s hands we may be spinning and ducking, but we are not crashing and burning. When we are out of control, God is fully in control: and that is a good thing. That is the confidence that lead Jesus to stand up in Gethsemane and greet Judas rather than scramble away to hide at Mary and Martha’s place until the soldiers had gone.
The light of God is the only true light. Sometimes God uses the darkness we have taken ourselves into rather than leading us into a dark place Himself. We learn that where He is there is light; false lights will lead us astray. I have heard it said it is better to be in God’s silence, than in the world’s violence; even if the world at least has neon and noise.
Life with God is thrilling: Easter and Pentecost show that, and as Christians we know it ourselves. The God of the gentle whisper that Elijah heard is also the God of the cloud of fire and smoke that Moses saw; so why can’t He also be the God of absence that Jesus experienced on the cross? Easter Sunday reminds us that God always comes through when all hope seems lost and only He can do it. That’s the testimony of my life: regardless of the tuneful talents of fat ladies I have learned that nothing is over until God proclaims it finished. It is finished when God has accomplished all, and that goes as much for His plans for our life and our church as for His plans for universal salvation through Jesus Christ.
What is achieved in darkness will be proclaimed in the light, forever.
Amen.
Cafe Agape
9th April 2010
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