Job 13v15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
I will surely defend my ways to his face.
One lesson I have learned in life is that some things have unexpected consequences. You take a path and it does not always take you where you expected it to take you. Another lesson that is obvious but that I struggle to learn is that even though this happens on a regular basis, I often fail to learn from it, and instead like the goldfish perpetually swimming around the same bowl, I'm still surprised.
Theology matters, by this I do not mean academic theology, but instead what we really believe about God, and what we believe we are here on earth for.
If you believe that God is a man with a big smile on his face who put us on earth to be happy, you are going to have severe problems with reality.
If you believe that God is a strict puritanical God who does not like people to have fun, and put us on earth to do worthy things then it is not likely that you are going to be much fun to be around.
If you believe that God is distant, then most likely while he is far away you are not going to take much notice of what He would think about your behaviour if He was closer by.
As human beings it is quite normal to like pleasure and want to avoid pain. Given the choice between a well paid job, a happy family, a nice house and trying to survive in a slum we would pick the former, and because we would do so we would expect that if we follow God and are obedient that God would do so to.
Solomon was a good boy and he got everything. David well, he misbehaved a bit but the Psalmist became Israel's great King, who thought he could get away with murder. Abraham was blessed materially, so was Jacob, so was Joseph (eventually).
God is nice and he likes us. All true, well depending on your definition of nice, but that does not mean he wants us to be happy - as if God's sole purpose in existing was to make mankind happy.
The problem is with this theological outlook, is that good fathers do not want their children to simply spend the rest of their lives bouncing on daddy's knees going gurgle gurgle. A good father wants them to grow up.
Perhaps I need to grow up a bit. I struggle at times and get angry with God because life has not constantly drawn me a happy lot with everything easy. Indeed trying to follow Jesus tends to make life awkward rather than easy. There are choices, there are prices to be paid, there are at times sacrifices.
And for people who have an attachment to the give away God, the idea that I might have to make some sort of sacrifice - that it might not all come easily and ready on a plate for me to bung in the spiritual microwave is a bit of a shocker. I mean Jesus paid the price to give me free entry to the party, an access all areas pass - didn't he? Isn't all I need to do is to take the pre-prepared and warm it up a bit and enjoy?
The problem is that life can be very tough and it does not always have easy happy endings. This real life, not the Waltons.
If we believe too strongly that we are meant to be happy, we can be vulnerable to the temptation that says I must find my happiness elsewhere. Therefore rather than working it through with God, we walk away to find something else to feed on.
It may be cheesy to say that what God gives us satisfies and nothing else can fit that God shaped hole, but in this case it happens to be true. There is no back-up replacement God for those times when the Almighty seems far away - indeed that is exactly what the people of Israel wanted when the demanded a golden calf.
God is a bit far away a bit distant while idolatry and temple prostitution and the like provide instant gratification. However, God is quite clear that there is no place for idols. We come to Christ, and as the famous phrase goes Christ alone. There is no place for substitutes, no easy quick fixes.
The early Christians were known as the people of the way, Jesus did not invite people to an instant destination, but to an onward journey. We are not called to love the world, not called to pitch our tent and build our castle here, we are just passing through. This is not home, this is not our comfort, we are as T. S. Elliot puts it in the journey of the magi.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
There is something haunting in Elliot's words (written following his conversion) it is a recognition that it is not all found in this world. Life is bigger than this life because God is life and He is bigger than this life.
Therefore trying to be satisfied here in the things of this world is not just missing the point, not just bad theology, but mission impossible. It is when we die that we live, it is when we give everything to God, really give everything to God, that we find what we really have - what really matters.
Christian life therefore is also Christian death - the two are not in this case different. It is through not just Christ's death that we find life, but also our own.
The problem is that without faith, without a belief in something more, without belief in God - then it is all so much hocus pocus. We are called to choose a road which is a tough road to travel, a difficult journey. We are called to walk past the thousand stalls of sin that are set to entice us and call us away, to call us to stop the journey and stay where we all - the problem being that if we do so we may never make our final destination.
We live in a world that worships pleasure, and if I am entirely honest, at times that includes me. I want happiness that is here and now, I want the sun to always shine, and I don't want any clouds to spoil it. Yet God calls me to die to self and to truly live.
It is not, in the end, all about my pleasure, though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Five loaves and two fish
You just discover that you have five thousand people turn up for lunch and all you have to offer them is five loaves and two fish.
Compared to the challenge the reality is that you have nothing to offer. Five loaves and two fish is not going to go very far.
It looks like everyone is going to have to go home hungry.
Sometimes in life we face big challenges with few resources. It is tempting to look at the problem and write it off as mission impossible without even thinking about it.
David had faced lions before but he had never faced combat with an enemy like Goliath, and Goliath could see the funny side of it and yet....
Gideon had just three hundred men and they were up against the multitudes of the Midianites, and yet....
Daniel was in a foreign land, with foreign God and the lions were feeling hungry and yet....
Miracles are possible.
Jesus manages after a hard day at work - healing and preaching, to feed the five thousand with just five loaves and a couple of fish.
David defeats Goliath.
Gideon beats the Midianites.
Daniel doesn't get eaten by the Lions.
We may not have much to offer. We may face impossible odds, except if God is on our side, the odds don't actually matter.
Five loaves and two fish is enough to feed the five thousand if that is what God intends.
The question is not what do we have, but to stand in the place of faith and hope and love, and listen as Jesus asks you the question what do you have and be prepared to be part of a miracle.
I can't help but notice that at the end their were twelve baskets full of broken pieces. At the end there were not twelve baskets of loaves and fish but of broken pieces.
There is something about miracles that changes everything and that mends that which was broken and breaks that which was not. There is change and there are often broken pieces left over.
Tomorrow we will face challenges that we may feel that we do not have the resources to face, however if God can use five loaves and two fishes to feed five thousand then he can use us and whatever resources we have to do his will.
Compared to the challenge the reality is that you have nothing to offer. Five loaves and two fish is not going to go very far.
It looks like everyone is going to have to go home hungry.
Sometimes in life we face big challenges with few resources. It is tempting to look at the problem and write it off as mission impossible without even thinking about it.
David had faced lions before but he had never faced combat with an enemy like Goliath, and Goliath could see the funny side of it and yet....
Gideon had just three hundred men and they were up against the multitudes of the Midianites, and yet....
Daniel was in a foreign land, with foreign God and the lions were feeling hungry and yet....
Miracles are possible.
Jesus manages after a hard day at work - healing and preaching, to feed the five thousand with just five loaves and a couple of fish.
David defeats Goliath.
Gideon beats the Midianites.
Daniel doesn't get eaten by the Lions.
We may not have much to offer. We may face impossible odds, except if God is on our side, the odds don't actually matter.
Five loaves and two fish is enough to feed the five thousand if that is what God intends.
The question is not what do we have, but to stand in the place of faith and hope and love, and listen as Jesus asks you the question what do you have and be prepared to be part of a miracle.
I can't help but notice that at the end their were twelve baskets full of broken pieces. At the end there were not twelve baskets of loaves and fish but of broken pieces.
There is something about miracles that changes everything and that mends that which was broken and breaks that which was not. There is change and there are often broken pieces left over.
Tomorrow we will face challenges that we may feel that we do not have the resources to face, however if God can use five loaves and two fishes to feed five thousand then he can use us and whatever resources we have to do his will.
Friday, 21 September 2007
Sheep without a shepherd (Compassion 1)
Matt 9v36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (NIV)
One of the things that is fascinating me at the moment is sight - how we see the world and how that impacts how we behave in the world. If we see the car coming we will not step into the road before it. Or if we watch our steps we will not trip on the last step and fracture our ankle, and I wouldn't be sitting her with my leg in a cast.
How we see influences how we behave.
If we see people positively we behave to them in a friendly manner, if we see people less positively then we may feel uncomfortable around them.
It says "When he [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
I wonder how we would have seen that crowd if we had looked upon them?
The crowds came because Jesus had been teaching and healing. The dead girl, the sick woman, the blind and the mute and every sickness and disease, and so the people were coming to Jesus.
It would have been easy just to see a crowd, more work, hadn't he done enough, wasn't he tired. He comments that,
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
However, this was not a moan of self-pity. The start of Chapter 10, he does something about it, he sends out the 12.
Jesus has compassion, but what does compassion mean? The word used is to have the bowels yearn, to feel sympathy, to feel pity, to be moved. The Jews thought that the bowels were the seat of sympathy. The idea is that this is not just some mental note, some thought of "Oh these poor people." Jesus was physically moved, it was so to speak a gut reaction.
Why was he moved?
He saw them as they were.
The launchpad of his mission (see Chapter 10) was his sense of compassion for the lost. He really did feel their pain, their misery, their suffering.
We see the idea of sheep without a shepherd in terms of leadership, we look at the Pharisees and we see that spiritually speaking they were blind guides and therefore they were unable to lead.
However, if we take a step back we can see the image of a sheep without a shepherd in a different way. The shepherd that Jesus was thinking about was not the sort of one man and his dog, who drives them through the gates to try and win the points. This was the shepherd of the 23 Psalm, which we can believe reflects David's glimpse of God's longing for His people.
The shepherd who cares for the sheep who leads it beside still waters, who brings it into pasture, who protects the sheep from danger, who cares for the sheep, who is even prepared to lay down his life for his sheep. Instead these people are like sheep without a shepherd, they have no one to tell them where the water is, no one to tell them where the good fresh grass is, and no one to protect them when the wild animals attack. Therefore they wander not knowing where to go, and are picked off by the wild animals.
To be a sheep without a shepherd - to be a sheep that no one wants or cares for - is a terrible predicament and Jesus is moved to compassion. He looks at these people and sees them through eyes of love, he identifies with them, and cares for them.
The word compassion comes from the Latin which comes from com meaning together and pati meaning to suffer - therefore to suffer together, to suffer with, or to feel the pain.
As Christians we are called to feel the pain. The together element of it matters, for the first question of compassion is connection, it is a connection with the pain of others and therefore we need to be able to connect, to sense our togetherness.
In Genesis 4 we hear of Cain and Abel. Cain goes out into the field and murders Abel because he is a better man, and God asks him, "Where is your brother?" and Cain lies to God and says, "I don't know, am I my brother's keeper?"
It is the question that humanity has been asking ever since, for if we truly saw each other as brothers and sisters then we would not behave to each other in the manner that we do.
Christianity needs to be a rediscovery of brotherhood, not just of the people within the church, but of everyone. If we just see the world as us and them we will never connect and never truly have compassion.
We live in a world that has been described as tribal, with a culture that is so diverse and fragmented that the "us" in "us and them" can seem incredibly small - and we look after our own.
Jesus calls us to a totally different perspective - not of us and them, but of universal compassion, of universal togetherness.
We live in a world with sheep without a shepherd and it is easy to look at programmes, services, plans and ideas - but if we do so without compassion we have missed the point. We need to be moved by others, we need to feel it in our bowels. The world is lost, Wesley described there as being "here and about ten thousand souls going headlong into hell."
We can celebrate action, but God does not want action heroes, he wants people who see and do, people who feel and act, people who are moved. People who see the suffering around them and are changed, who become people who act. Not because they ought to, but because God's love compels them to act.
Mission begins not with meetings and plan and strategies, but a crazy little thing called love. It all starts with compassion. He took pity on them, He saw their suffering, He felt their pain, and in our disconnected world we need to as well.
One of the things that is fascinating me at the moment is sight - how we see the world and how that impacts how we behave in the world. If we see the car coming we will not step into the road before it. Or if we watch our steps we will not trip on the last step and fracture our ankle, and I wouldn't be sitting her with my leg in a cast.
How we see influences how we behave.
If we see people positively we behave to them in a friendly manner, if we see people less positively then we may feel uncomfortable around them.
It says "When he [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
I wonder how we would have seen that crowd if we had looked upon them?
The crowds came because Jesus had been teaching and healing. The dead girl, the sick woman, the blind and the mute and every sickness and disease, and so the people were coming to Jesus.
It would have been easy just to see a crowd, more work, hadn't he done enough, wasn't he tired. He comments that,
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
However, this was not a moan of self-pity. The start of Chapter 10, he does something about it, he sends out the 12.
Jesus has compassion, but what does compassion mean? The word used is to have the bowels yearn, to feel sympathy, to feel pity, to be moved. The Jews thought that the bowels were the seat of sympathy. The idea is that this is not just some mental note, some thought of "Oh these poor people." Jesus was physically moved, it was so to speak a gut reaction.
Why was he moved?
He saw them as they were.
The launchpad of his mission (see Chapter 10) was his sense of compassion for the lost. He really did feel their pain, their misery, their suffering.
We see the idea of sheep without a shepherd in terms of leadership, we look at the Pharisees and we see that spiritually speaking they were blind guides and therefore they were unable to lead.
However, if we take a step back we can see the image of a sheep without a shepherd in a different way. The shepherd that Jesus was thinking about was not the sort of one man and his dog, who drives them through the gates to try and win the points. This was the shepherd of the 23 Psalm, which we can believe reflects David's glimpse of God's longing for His people.
The shepherd who cares for the sheep who leads it beside still waters, who brings it into pasture, who protects the sheep from danger, who cares for the sheep, who is even prepared to lay down his life for his sheep. Instead these people are like sheep without a shepherd, they have no one to tell them where the water is, no one to tell them where the good fresh grass is, and no one to protect them when the wild animals attack. Therefore they wander not knowing where to go, and are picked off by the wild animals.
To be a sheep without a shepherd - to be a sheep that no one wants or cares for - is a terrible predicament and Jesus is moved to compassion. He looks at these people and sees them through eyes of love, he identifies with them, and cares for them.
The word compassion comes from the Latin which comes from com meaning together and pati meaning to suffer - therefore to suffer together, to suffer with, or to feel the pain.
As Christians we are called to feel the pain. The together element of it matters, for the first question of compassion is connection, it is a connection with the pain of others and therefore we need to be able to connect, to sense our togetherness.
In Genesis 4 we hear of Cain and Abel. Cain goes out into the field and murders Abel because he is a better man, and God asks him, "Where is your brother?" and Cain lies to God and says, "I don't know, am I my brother's keeper?"
It is the question that humanity has been asking ever since, for if we truly saw each other as brothers and sisters then we would not behave to each other in the manner that we do.
Christianity needs to be a rediscovery of brotherhood, not just of the people within the church, but of everyone. If we just see the world as us and them we will never connect and never truly have compassion.
We live in a world that has been described as tribal, with a culture that is so diverse and fragmented that the "us" in "us and them" can seem incredibly small - and we look after our own.
Jesus calls us to a totally different perspective - not of us and them, but of universal compassion, of universal togetherness.
We live in a world with sheep without a shepherd and it is easy to look at programmes, services, plans and ideas - but if we do so without compassion we have missed the point. We need to be moved by others, we need to feel it in our bowels. The world is lost, Wesley described there as being "here and about ten thousand souls going headlong into hell."
We can celebrate action, but God does not want action heroes, he wants people who see and do, people who feel and act, people who are moved. People who see the suffering around them and are changed, who become people who act. Not because they ought to, but because God's love compels them to act.
Mission begins not with meetings and plan and strategies, but a crazy little thing called love. It all starts with compassion. He took pity on them, He saw their suffering, He felt their pain, and in our disconnected world we need to as well.
Saturday, 8 September 2007
Mercy street
I read in the news today of some women accused of prostitution who had been beheaded in Pakistan by Islamic militants.
When Jesus was confronted with the woman caught in adultery, he said let him who is without sin cast the first stone. The crowd melted away. For they saw in the woman something of themselves, they had all been caught may be not so publicly as the woman they all deserved judgement, they all needed mercy.
Normally I presume that this encounter with Jesus was life changing for the woman. She met Jesus, she was shown mercy and she did leave her life of sin. However, the Bible does not cosily tell us how she gave up her sinful life and lived a saintly life from then on.
We think surely if people encountered the love of God, the mercy of God, then they would change - but that is not always the case. For we have encountered the mercy of God, and how much have we changed?
The truth about God's mercy is that it is based on unconditional love. Jesus showed love not because He was an optimist who thought that every individual who met Him would be changed, but because God shows mercy to sinners with His eyes open - and He gives us the opportunity to change.
Mercy is truly mercy, because it is not based on some certain formula that says mercy means change, mercy is shown to sinners that they might have the opportunity to change - but God knows that does not always happen. God shows us mercy as sinners, far off, dirty, gritty, sinful, and He loves us.
Our faith needs to have a gritty realism to it that faces the reality of life on earth. Jesus came he showed perfect love and yet we crucified Him. He showed mercy and forgave those who sinned against Him, and some were impacted and changed, but some went on to try and destroy His followers.
Some of our ideas of mercy are skewed by images of merciful gods that are not really that merciful. However the facts challenge this, God offers forgiveness and mercy to even those who crucify Him, and He knows full well that they are not all going to suddenly change. Some will, but many will not.
We need to face our own sinfulness, and then receive mercy and the church needs to become a place of mercy. We are called to offer mercy to the perishing - many of Jesus warns will continue to perish and some of whom will persecute us for giving them the good news.
The church needs to become a mercy street, and it is there the reward is - lend and don't expect to get it back. We will have our reward in heaven, mercy often does not get a reward on this earth.
As we are confronted by those whose need for mercy is particularly evident, we need always to remember, as Jesus reminded the crowd, that we are not the morally superior looking onto the inferior but that we are all sinners. We show mercy as people who have been shown mercy. Everyone needs mercy.
When Jesus was confronted with the woman caught in adultery, he said let him who is without sin cast the first stone. The crowd melted away. For they saw in the woman something of themselves, they had all been caught may be not so publicly as the woman they all deserved judgement, they all needed mercy.
Normally I presume that this encounter with Jesus was life changing for the woman. She met Jesus, she was shown mercy and she did leave her life of sin. However, the Bible does not cosily tell us how she gave up her sinful life and lived a saintly life from then on.
We think surely if people encountered the love of God, the mercy of God, then they would change - but that is not always the case. For we have encountered the mercy of God, and how much have we changed?
The truth about God's mercy is that it is based on unconditional love. Jesus showed love not because He was an optimist who thought that every individual who met Him would be changed, but because God shows mercy to sinners with His eyes open - and He gives us the opportunity to change.
Mercy is truly mercy, because it is not based on some certain formula that says mercy means change, mercy is shown to sinners that they might have the opportunity to change - but God knows that does not always happen. God shows us mercy as sinners, far off, dirty, gritty, sinful, and He loves us.
Our faith needs to have a gritty realism to it that faces the reality of life on earth. Jesus came he showed perfect love and yet we crucified Him. He showed mercy and forgave those who sinned against Him, and some were impacted and changed, but some went on to try and destroy His followers.
Some of our ideas of mercy are skewed by images of merciful gods that are not really that merciful. However the facts challenge this, God offers forgiveness and mercy to even those who crucify Him, and He knows full well that they are not all going to suddenly change. Some will, but many will not.
We need to face our own sinfulness, and then receive mercy and the church needs to become a place of mercy. We are called to offer mercy to the perishing - many of Jesus warns will continue to perish and some of whom will persecute us for giving them the good news.
The church needs to become a mercy street, and it is there the reward is - lend and don't expect to get it back. We will have our reward in heaven, mercy often does not get a reward on this earth.
As we are confronted by those whose need for mercy is particularly evident, we need always to remember, as Jesus reminded the crowd, that we are not the morally superior looking onto the inferior but that we are all sinners. We show mercy as people who have been shown mercy. Everyone needs mercy.
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Peer Pressure
Cheshire Chief Constable Peter Fahy spoke about the alcohol related problems that led to the death of Gary Newloves. He decries the alcohol culture of young people and how this leads to anti-social behaviour. He proposes more expensive alcohol, more restraints on the sale and consumption of alcohol.
As a nation we are being changed by circumstances. While some of the suggestions sound very sensible and the call for a national debate is wholly to be welcomed, in that debate some difficult questions need to be asked.
Why is it that our young people go out and get drunk. I was discussing this with my wife. What is it that makes people follow their peer group and what is it that makes them rebel against it.
I was talking about how on alcohol and other matters I rebelled against peer pressure and how can I teach my children to do so, and why did I?
We have a tendency to want to please the people that are important to us. That is what drives children to drink, they want to be seen as someone. They want to be accepted by their peer group.
Why then did I not?
One answer is thatI did. I wanted to be admired by the people who were important to me. The question is who was important to me.
Of course, I could say that God was important to me, and that would be very true. I read the Bible regularly and in that and in prayer I met with God. It was about a personal encounter with the divine who loved me and understood me in a way no one else every could or ever would.
I was accepted, I was forgiven, I was loved. That gives us an incredible freedom, and the power to walk away when everyone else says go.
However, if I was going to say the people who matters to me who I wanted to please it was not those my age at school. I belonged to a loving Christian community who I wanted to please.
Now of course they never saw what went on when I was out with my friends, but they had the Holy Spirit, and I wanted God's blessing on my life. I knew that if I wanted God's blessing then I was not going to get it by doing the things that displeased Him.
When tempted to walk away I thought where do I want to be, where do I want to go. I met wonderful older people who were more alive not just to God but to life, than many of my contemporaries. I met few others who really drew me.
You want to please who you love. If we love God we want to please Him. However the church has a really important role to play as well if we love and we respect each other we can provide tangible encouragement to people not by moaning or decrying but just by loving people and believing the best - by being grace in action.
Perhaps what people need most is people to love them and believe in them, and then they will respond to the power of love, rather than the pressures of the world. The problem is that we need the power of God if we are going to be really effective in standing against the pressures. Of course our love can point people to that source, can point people to God.
As a nation we are being changed by circumstances. While some of the suggestions sound very sensible and the call for a national debate is wholly to be welcomed, in that debate some difficult questions need to be asked.
Why is it that our young people go out and get drunk. I was discussing this with my wife. What is it that makes people follow their peer group and what is it that makes them rebel against it.
I was talking about how on alcohol and other matters I rebelled against peer pressure and how can I teach my children to do so, and why did I?
We have a tendency to want to please the people that are important to us. That is what drives children to drink, they want to be seen as someone. They want to be accepted by their peer group.
Why then did I not?
One answer is thatI did. I wanted to be admired by the people who were important to me. The question is who was important to me.
Of course, I could say that God was important to me, and that would be very true. I read the Bible regularly and in that and in prayer I met with God. It was about a personal encounter with the divine who loved me and understood me in a way no one else every could or ever would.
I was accepted, I was forgiven, I was loved. That gives us an incredible freedom, and the power to walk away when everyone else says go.
However, if I was going to say the people who matters to me who I wanted to please it was not those my age at school. I belonged to a loving Christian community who I wanted to please.
Now of course they never saw what went on when I was out with my friends, but they had the Holy Spirit, and I wanted God's blessing on my life. I knew that if I wanted God's blessing then I was not going to get it by doing the things that displeased Him.
When tempted to walk away I thought where do I want to be, where do I want to go. I met wonderful older people who were more alive not just to God but to life, than many of my contemporaries. I met few others who really drew me.
You want to please who you love. If we love God we want to please Him. However the church has a really important role to play as well if we love and we respect each other we can provide tangible encouragement to people not by moaning or decrying but just by loving people and believing the best - by being grace in action.
Perhaps what people need most is people to love them and believe in them, and then they will respond to the power of love, rather than the pressures of the world. The problem is that we need the power of God if we are going to be really effective in standing against the pressures. Of course our love can point people to that source, can point people to God.
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Grace and Ungrace
How do we deal with imperfections and failure? It seems to be that there are various different methods but they can be classed in one of two camps grace and ungrace.
When we encounter failure we can take over. We can give the message it is okay, I'm here, I'll make sure it is okay. I know what I am doing. The problem is that rather than helping others to discover their potential we instead paralyse them into believing that they cannot get it right. I have worked for bosses who believed that everything I did was wrong, after a while you end up paralysed and doing silly things because it undermines your self worth and your confidence in making a decision. You refuse to ask a perfectly sensible question because you know that it will just receive that sigh and that look, and therefore because you did not ask the perfectly sensible question you flail and fail because you cannot read minds. One person's view of perfection can be incredibly subjective.
I am conscious as I write this that I am writing about other people and other situations and circumstances, and in some ways it can be good to look at other people's faults - if and only if - we realise that we have faults that we are as unconscious of as them. We can be blind to our own faults. Have I made other people feel like a failure because they have not lived up to my standards? I am very conscious that in the past I have. There was no choice of another path, they did not go "God's way*" (*as defined by me) and therefore they went the wrong way - and there is probably some truth in that, but making a big issue out of it probably does not really help, and from based on the evidence it does not seem to have helped.
This can lead to another approach to failure a kind of dejected acceptance. I fail, you fail, we all fail, and we forget to look up at the sky and we forget to believe that God can actually change lives because we all fail. Failure does not have to be the whole story. We do have choices, choices that we can make for good or for evil.
I have been through that phase. Well I fail, I am imperfect, look at the Bible, we all fail and you focus on the failure. It is the response of disillusionment. Things should be better, things could be better, but in reality (we say) we are always going to fail. Maybe we have tried hard and still failed.
Jeff Lucas comments in today's (26 July) Lucas on Life, "To err is human but not to learn from the errors of our ways and so continue in destructive patterns is madness."
We are not perfect, but that is the message of the cross. We fail, but Jesus can save us, and that is why He died. He died not because He believed that we were perfect, and nor did He believe that we would become perfect in these earthly days. He was not just the Son of God, but He had walked this earth for his 3 and 30 years (give or take a year or two) and He had spent three year's travelling with a group of men who were far from perfect and one of which was to betray Him. Jesus was not blinded by Peter, and yet to the man who was going to deny Him, the guy who would continue to make mistakes, He said, "You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."
There is grace for sinners, and grace is not simply a sticking plaster for sin, or some divine blotting paper, it is about power to change.
God does not come to us and say you have failed against you snivelling little humans, God does not come to us and say you've failed again accept it you are a failure, God does not come and say, let me do it all. God comes with grace.
The issue of Christianity is not that we can believe in God, but that God believes in us. Despite the failures and the difficulties, despite the apparent reasons for throwing in the towel, God has not given up on humanity. He still believes, He still hopes, because
1Co 13:7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1Co 13:8a Love never fails.
The issue is not that we believe in God, but that God still believes in us.
God does not come with a big stick, or a to nullify us and to take over, God comes with the open arms of love, because in the end it is love that changes people not big sticks or big change.
Grace gives us the chance to work it through, to deal with the issues, to start again, and we want it for us, but the challenge is we need to give it to others as well. We want a chance, but we need to be people who give others a chance.
Grace tells me that I do not have to live in the never never land of sin and guilt, grace tells me that tomorrow can be different, that I can be different. Grace tells me that because Jesus died I live in a world of endless possibilities, Grace tells me that I am free. I can make the choices, the chains are broken, I can leave the prison. I can taste the sunlight.
The challenge is that we need to believe that this is true not just for us, but for everyone who lives in darkness who needs to see the light.
This summer it seems that it has been raining and pouring, we have seen the floods, and we have seen little of the sun. We have been living in darkness but we believe that the sun can shine.
We live in a people walking in darkness, and yet the Son of God has shone upon us. We need to accept the Son into our lives for He can drive the darkness away. The light has dawned, and the new age of grace has dawned, free and abundant and available to all that will come, but we need to take hold of the fact that it is not just for us, it needs to be for the world.
When we encounter failure we can take over. We can give the message it is okay, I'm here, I'll make sure it is okay. I know what I am doing. The problem is that rather than helping others to discover their potential we instead paralyse them into believing that they cannot get it right. I have worked for bosses who believed that everything I did was wrong, after a while you end up paralysed and doing silly things because it undermines your self worth and your confidence in making a decision. You refuse to ask a perfectly sensible question because you know that it will just receive that sigh and that look, and therefore because you did not ask the perfectly sensible question you flail and fail because you cannot read minds. One person's view of perfection can be incredibly subjective.
I am conscious as I write this that I am writing about other people and other situations and circumstances, and in some ways it can be good to look at other people's faults - if and only if - we realise that we have faults that we are as unconscious of as them. We can be blind to our own faults. Have I made other people feel like a failure because they have not lived up to my standards? I am very conscious that in the past I have. There was no choice of another path, they did not go "God's way*" (*as defined by me) and therefore they went the wrong way - and there is probably some truth in that, but making a big issue out of it probably does not really help, and from based on the evidence it does not seem to have helped.
This can lead to another approach to failure a kind of dejected acceptance. I fail, you fail, we all fail, and we forget to look up at the sky and we forget to believe that God can actually change lives because we all fail. Failure does not have to be the whole story. We do have choices, choices that we can make for good or for evil.
I have been through that phase. Well I fail, I am imperfect, look at the Bible, we all fail and you focus on the failure. It is the response of disillusionment. Things should be better, things could be better, but in reality (we say) we are always going to fail. Maybe we have tried hard and still failed.
Jeff Lucas comments in today's (26 July) Lucas on Life, "To err is human but not to learn from the errors of our ways and so continue in destructive patterns is madness."
We are not perfect, but that is the message of the cross. We fail, but Jesus can save us, and that is why He died. He died not because He believed that we were perfect, and nor did He believe that we would become perfect in these earthly days. He was not just the Son of God, but He had walked this earth for his 3 and 30 years (give or take a year or two) and He had spent three year's travelling with a group of men who were far from perfect and one of which was to betray Him. Jesus was not blinded by Peter, and yet to the man who was going to deny Him, the guy who would continue to make mistakes, He said, "You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."
There is grace for sinners, and grace is not simply a sticking plaster for sin, or some divine blotting paper, it is about power to change.
God does not come to us and say you have failed against you snivelling little humans, God does not come to us and say you've failed again accept it you are a failure, God does not come and say, let me do it all. God comes with grace.
The issue of Christianity is not that we can believe in God, but that God believes in us. Despite the failures and the difficulties, despite the apparent reasons for throwing in the towel, God has not given up on humanity. He still believes, He still hopes, because
1Co 13:7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1Co 13:8a Love never fails.
The issue is not that we believe in God, but that God still believes in us.
God does not come with a big stick, or a to nullify us and to take over, God comes with the open arms of love, because in the end it is love that changes people not big sticks or big change.
Grace gives us the chance to work it through, to deal with the issues, to start again, and we want it for us, but the challenge is we need to give it to others as well. We want a chance, but we need to be people who give others a chance.
Grace tells me that I do not have to live in the never never land of sin and guilt, grace tells me that tomorrow can be different, that I can be different. Grace tells me that because Jesus died I live in a world of endless possibilities, Grace tells me that I am free. I can make the choices, the chains are broken, I can leave the prison. I can taste the sunlight.
The challenge is that we need to believe that this is true not just for us, but for everyone who lives in darkness who needs to see the light.
This summer it seems that it has been raining and pouring, we have seen the floods, and we have seen little of the sun. We have been living in darkness but we believe that the sun can shine.
We live in a people walking in darkness, and yet the Son of God has shone upon us. We need to accept the Son into our lives for He can drive the darkness away. The light has dawned, and the new age of grace has dawned, free and abundant and available to all that will come, but we need to take hold of the fact that it is not just for us, it needs to be for the world.
Sunday, 15 July 2007
Understanding why we do church as we do church
Years ago people lived in communities (some of which were probably quite dysfunctional) but the masses were not educated. Therefore church had quite an educational feel and tended to be driven from the front.
Today people are educated (though whether mass education today challenges people to think for themselves enough is another question) but most people do not live in communities. Therefore churches today have house groups, and often the stopping for a coffee is seen as important as the service itself.
Our environments effects how we do church, and that is an advantage rather than a reason for concern. Just like the Sabbath was created for man not man for the Sabbath so church was created for man not man for church.
Life is different and therefore people's needs are different, and therefore how we do church will be different. Church must meet people where they are, and church must reflect the environment that it is in.
The problem is that often we try to reflect the world in matters that really only scratch the surface (music style etc.) rather than understanding the drivers and the deeper issues. For instance we live in a more emotional age and therefore you might say that we should be more emotional to follow the style of the age. However, we need to ask deeper questions. An over emphasis on the emotions and on feelings is dangerous in all walks of life. The approach to marriage that says it's all over because I don't feel anything any more is worrying and applied to Christianity as dangerous as it is as applied to the rest of life. We need to exercise discernment in our interaction with our culture.
In a world of feelings then our worship may be more emotional, because that is where we are. However we need to be careful about the dangers that brings about and steer clear of emotionalism. We also need to look at why we are becoming more emotional and address that. Are people looking for something more, are people dissatisfied with cold science and longing for something more - of course they are. We need to recognise we were created to be more than just rational machines! I also think that there are tensions within society that cause cracks and these are shown by a greater amount of emotional expression.
Princess Diana died and the reaction was worrying, but that was ten years ago, and there is a greater awareness today that perhaps we got a little carried away, there is a move towards greater conservatism (though that could prove to be temporary - the exuberant Blair has been replaced by the dour Brown). In the church we too often respond to what has happened, rather than what is happening, we need to be prophetic rather than just historic.
The church needs to meet people where they are, and meet the needs of the contemporary world remembering that the greatest need we have is for God.
Today people are educated (though whether mass education today challenges people to think for themselves enough is another question) but most people do not live in communities. Therefore churches today have house groups, and often the stopping for a coffee is seen as important as the service itself.
Our environments effects how we do church, and that is an advantage rather than a reason for concern. Just like the Sabbath was created for man not man for the Sabbath so church was created for man not man for church.
Life is different and therefore people's needs are different, and therefore how we do church will be different. Church must meet people where they are, and church must reflect the environment that it is in.
The problem is that often we try to reflect the world in matters that really only scratch the surface (music style etc.) rather than understanding the drivers and the deeper issues. For instance we live in a more emotional age and therefore you might say that we should be more emotional to follow the style of the age. However, we need to ask deeper questions. An over emphasis on the emotions and on feelings is dangerous in all walks of life. The approach to marriage that says it's all over because I don't feel anything any more is worrying and applied to Christianity as dangerous as it is as applied to the rest of life. We need to exercise discernment in our interaction with our culture.
In a world of feelings then our worship may be more emotional, because that is where we are. However we need to be careful about the dangers that brings about and steer clear of emotionalism. We also need to look at why we are becoming more emotional and address that. Are people looking for something more, are people dissatisfied with cold science and longing for something more - of course they are. We need to recognise we were created to be more than just rational machines! I also think that there are tensions within society that cause cracks and these are shown by a greater amount of emotional expression.
Princess Diana died and the reaction was worrying, but that was ten years ago, and there is a greater awareness today that perhaps we got a little carried away, there is a move towards greater conservatism (though that could prove to be temporary - the exuberant Blair has been replaced by the dour Brown). In the church we too often respond to what has happened, rather than what is happening, we need to be prophetic rather than just historic.
The church needs to meet people where they are, and meet the needs of the contemporary world remembering that the greatest need we have is for God.
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