Category: February 2016

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February 2016

February 29th 2016: Hebrews 4:14-5:10

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

It doesn’t matter how many times we read the words in today’s reading, I pray they never become comfortable to us, or the kind of words that we read quickly, pass over and move on. These are words of such immense power, such grace, such a magnitude of force that we cannot afford to treat them with anything less than awe.

Because of who Jesus is, the life he lived, what he did on the Cross, that he was able to do because of how he lived, we can approach the ‘throne of grace’, we can approach God, with confidence. Confidence! If Jesus had been someone else, or lived a different kind of life, we would only be able to approach God with trepidation. But instead, we can go to God confidently.

Do you go to God confidently? I can’t say I do that often. I approach with timidity, fear often. I remember the things I’ve done which have fallen way short of God’s glory and way for my life. I panic when I enter into prayer. Thoughts rush by as I remember all the reasons I don’t deserve to be here, in this moment, doing this thing, conversing with God. But that’s the point. I am forgiven and free. Because of Jesus. So are you. That’s it. That’s everything. End of. We’ve been invited to approach God with confidence and then to go, to go with him wherever he may send us. So let’s approach, approach boldly.

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February 2016

February 27th 2016: Hebrews 4:1-13

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

I’ve often wondered about what kind of mood the writer of Hebrews was in when this letter was written. There’s just a sense to it of negativity and worry that I don’t perceive in a lot of the rest of the New Testament. Everything is cautious, tempered, careful. And so I wonder, how does how we are feeling about things change how we talk about God? ‘Salvation’  looks very different when things are going well, I suggest, compared to  what it looks like when everything we are is threatened, even though ‘being saved’ and what that entails actually remains the same. We have an unchanging God, but our perspectives, our language, our experiences, these must change. For them to stay the same is, potentially at least, to deny that the ‘living and active’ element of his word, and his Word, Jesus. We can’t be made new, transformed by each encounter with the Spirit, and yet simultaneously remain the same. This is not feasible. Similarly, it seems to me that one of the main points of a life of faith is to be open to the Spirit’s prodding to the broadening of horizons and thoughts, so that we able to see and acknowledge more of God, his glory, and share it with those around us.

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February 2016

February 25th 2016: Hebrews 3:1-6

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

‘the builder of a house has more honour than the house itself’

It’s good when things are doing ‘right’ in Church isn’t it? You know what I mean. We’ve all been here. We’ve all been the people saying these things. Traditions upheld, prayers prayed in the right way, in the right order, with the right language, tone, sense of decorum. It’s always been done this way. Let’s keep the show on the road shall we?

Or perhaps you have been like me in thinking along these lines: the house [Church] will fall apart if it, its teachings, its heritage, are not maintained, honoured, cherished. How quickly, even in thinking that by holding on to heritage, teachings, history handed down through generations that we honour God, do we enter the realm of risk of elevating our Churches, our callings, our thoughts (I say this to myself) over God himself. God builds the house. Unless he builds it, the labourers, us, labour in vain. All the things we hold to as of crucial importance may well be crucially important, but God is the one who’s name is the name we are to honour and praise. He is the one who is worthy of it. The Church is the body. We are to love it, help it to grow ever more into the likeness of Christ, always seeking to honour God most highly of all.

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February 2016

February 24th 2016: Hebrews 2:10-18

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

‘Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.’

This follows what we were talking about yesterday. One of the many glories of Jesus is that he experienced life as we do, as every other human has done. He suffered like we suffer. In the deepest possible sense, he empathises with us as we experience pain, fear, disappointment, anger, loss, grief. In one sense, it would be of very little use to us if, when approaching God in prayer about a particularly painful issue, we had no confidence that he had any idea what that was like. But that is not the case God suffered for us, he suffers with us. He knows what it feels like. He is with us through whatever life throws at us and helps us to persist, to persevere, that we might finally be able to reach the point where we are so content and confident in our lives of faith that the things that used to distract us from walking with Jesus lose their power. Jesus experienced the full weight of everything evil could throw at him. He could, at any point, have decided to step aside from the path that God was asking him to walk down and make life more comfortable or easier for himself, but he did not. He persevered, all the way to the cross and the first glorious Easter Day so that we could have lives of hope, joy and freedom with God. One day, the sufferings of this life will be over. They will. Until then we are not alone, let’s walk this road less travelled together.

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February 2016

February 23rd 2016: Hebrews 2:1-9

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

Jesus was crowned with glory because of the suffering of death. Suffering of death which he chose to undertake so that people would be pointed to God and that the world might be saved through him. It’s easy to sanitise Christianity, to make it about doing good works, being kind, generous, putting others before ourselves, but it is important to remember that the heart of the Christian faith is worshipping one who suffered death, defeated it, rose again and calls us daily to carry a figurative (in most cases) cross, just like he did. Suffering of one sort or another is part of all of our lives. It will be part of the experience of being a Christian. There’s no way of avoiding it. We’re not called to suffer unnecessarily, or to seek out harder ways of living and doing things for the sake of it. When we do suffer, we can do it in the knowledge that the God who is in us, the hope of glory, has walked the path of suffering before us.

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February 2016

February 22nd 2016: Hebrews 1

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

‘Your throne, oh God, is forever and ever.’

It does us good to remember this sometimes. In the midst of the busyness of the ups and downs of life, whilst we spend untold hours and days trying to ‘understand’ God and work out what it means to follow Jesus, a verse like this can be very important. We live for God. We love and work on his behalf, perhaps. Sometimes this can take the form of it seeming as if God has delegated making sure everything goes well to us. We have the Spirit, but actually it’s about what we think, say, how we act, that’s what brings about the Kingdom of God. It’s by our efforts, rather than by our love that people will know we are Christians.

But the point is this: the one who saved us, the one who came to be one of us, who makes us new, lives within us and gives us light to shine into all the world; the throne is his, he has earned it, it belongs to him. We can worry if we like. It will do us no good whatsoever. God’s throne is his. All will, actually, definitely and once and for all, be well. Trusting God can seem like the hardest thing in the world to do. We’re always being challenged and questioned, perhaps even scoffed at, for doing so. But it is the single thing we can do which glorifies God, and empowers us, the most.

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February 2016

February 20th 2016: Galatians 6

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

‘If anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a sprit of gentleness’

This verse hits me between the eyes. I like justice. I like things done the right way, in an ordered fashion. When I don’t do things in the right way, in an ordered fashion (as has happened for most of my aware and responsible life it seems to me) I enjoy telling myself off at great length, denying all the things God wants to give me to myself and generally being miserable. For some reason I think it suits me and I deserve it.

As a Church leader, I struggle to balance the liking I have for things being done what I consider to be the right way, with being gracious, merciful and, like Jesus, abounding in steadfast love. When we’re wronged, or when our Church, our poor, our weak, our nation, are wronged, there’s a temptation to do anything but ‘restore such a one [wrongdoer] in a spirit of gentleness. We want redress. Sometimes wanting redress spills over into wanting revenge, but ‘vengeance is mine, says the Lord’ is an extremely useful touchstone to remember to hold on to.

Paul’s talking about the process of restoring a transgressor in to a Church family or fellowship here, but I think it is safe to apply the principle to other areas of our lives and work. Throughout society, there is so much corruption, so much injustice, as pockets are lined, cronies are helped and capitalism works in favour of the winners, the corporations and those in positions of authority. We can and we must, in line with Scripture, protest prophetically about this. A society is, I think, partly at least judged on how it supports its weakest or poorest members. We are not all supposed to be rich or to ‘succeed’ but there is enough for all of us. That not all of us have enough is a scandal for which history should judge us.

There are particular people, institutions and ideologies that are responsible for the inequalities in our society at present. That it seems like they don’t seek to equalise things, but instead seek to further inequality (not in word, but in deed) is, again, a scandal. So what are we to do? My temptation is to stridently stand against things, to cry out against injustie, to seek an uprising even. Perhaps at some moments those are the right responses. All the same, I’m tempered with this one verse today. These people, these institutions, these ideologies even, that make me so angry are also in need of mercy, grace, generosity, love. To show those things, at the same time as seeking justice for all, is what a Christian truly should consider their calling.

And so, through it all, I am undone and find myself once again in need of the mercy which can only be found at the foot of the cross.

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February 2016

February 19th 2016: Galatians 5:16-26

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.’

I’ve known for a long time what the fruit (singular) of the Spirit is, as contained in today’s passage. It’s another of those elements of Scripture that gets drummed in to you as you grow up in Church and are encouraged towards maturity in faith. It can be used as a measure of ‘how you’re doing’,or something used to hold you accountable. These can be great, loving, generous, kind and so on, or can be used as instruments of judgement, either by others against us, or for us against ourselves. If we’re not showing enough patience, kindness, gentleness and so on, we can make ourselves think that we don’t have enough of the Spirit, that God is disappointed with us, or even that the Spirit has given up on us and left. We can be convinced that this is entirely justified. It is highly possible to enter in to a cycle of transactional faith and failure where we welocme God in to our lives, then fail and fall, let him down, lose him and then the whole thing starts again. Some of our pastoral care structures can actually exacerbate this. I’m convinced that, actually, some of us prefer this highly emotive way of doing faith. It gives us something to focus on (our failings) and makes it more about us than it is about God.

But, the fruit of the Spirit is the Spirit’s fruit. It is the Spirit’s to give, to nurture and to see to fruition. We live in partnership with God because he invites us in to that place, but the Spirit can give its fruit to whosoever it wishes, at whatever time it wishes. All of us, if we’re honest and self-aware, should have no trouble coming up with reasons why God should not bless us, but that’s the point of the gospel. According to our standards, no-one should be loved by God, but by his, everyone is. So don’t let the disappointments of life distract you. God is continuing to plan seeds in your life that will grow in to full bloom.

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February 2016

February 18th 2016: Galatians 5:2-15

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

‘…but through love become slaves to one another.’

It’s a big challenge this one. I’ve been wondering recently, how much of a sacrifice for the sake of the Church I’m part of leading is enough? Would it be where I live? The hours I put in? The parts of my life which shrink to accommodate it? The songs I lead? The things I teach on and the things I don’t?

And then a sentence like this one pops up.

We’re not called to relationship with God and one another for anything other than to serve one another. I am to serve the people I lead, as I seek to serve God, giving back to him from the abundance that he gives to me. That, as they say, is the whole ball game.

Not to say I don’t have to look after myself. Members of Emmanuel have been telling me for quite some time now that I need to look after myself, take care of myself, but I am also called, by Love, to do the sacrificial things, the difficult things, the frustrating things, as well as the joyful, the life-giving and the exciting things, that best serve my community, as the transforming power of the Spirit works in me, just as it does in others.

 

 

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February 2016

January 17th 2016: Galatians 4:21-5:1

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

I’m not very good at memorizing passages or phrases from Scripture. I don’t know why. It’s just never worked for me. One of the few I have managed to commit to memory though is contained in today’s reading. The trouble is, it’s all very well saying to myself over and over again ‘it’s for freedom that Christ has set us/me free’, but if I’m actually not willing or able to accept that freedom, then I am the one who loses out. So, here it is, I’m not a slave to sin anymore. Jesus took the consequences of sin on himself. They are not mine to carry any longer.

I’m someone who cares a lot about justice, about doing the right thing, about having the right thing done to me. I very often don’t manage to hit the mark. This causes me a lot of problems. I worry endlessly about problems I have caused for others too. Often I worry about permutations of problems that may well not even exist. I don’t think I should be allowed to live in freedom, at the same time as I spend a large amount of life trying to convince myself and others that this is exactly what I have, because of Jesus, not because of me. It is exhausting.

There are a great many days, a very great many, when I feel far from free. I’d almost rather I be enslaved, this seems fair to me (I mean this in a spiritual sense). I know this is wrong and contra to the life and teachings of Jesus, but there we are. The gospel is such foolishness, even to me, someone who is being ‘saved’. It is unfair. It is so much more than any of us deserve, but there’s the ever-present worry of becoming complacent or too comfortable with the whole deal that we don’t acknowledge the sheer wonder, grace and abundant generosity of it all. I am not better. I am not superior. I am freed, by Jesus, to be a voice, and an activisit, in freeing others by pointing them to him and extending his invitation to life and love.

What do you think?