Tag: Jesus

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February 2016

February 13th 2016: John 4:43-54

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

I think it’s tough to come up with answers to the questions of why Jesus chooses to heal people in the Gospel stories. With today’s example of his healing the son of a Roman official, some might say it was because the official recognised his authority. Others might say it was he turned to him in his moment of desperation. Others still might say it was because when challenged by Jesus as to his need to see signs and wonders before believing, the official is unequivocal in his expectation that Jesus is able to heal his son, that it will happen. My thought is this: unless we were there, or better still, inside the mind of Jesus, we will never truly know, we can only speculate.

There is an underlying truth here which is crucially important, however. Not only is Jesus willing and able to heal, he is, I think, waiting for the opportunity to be generous. We’re told that God is abounding in steadfast love. To be abundant, to abound implies that there is a lot of steadfast love, compassion, faithfulness to go around. I wonder how often I limit my own sense of what God is willing to do as I bring a person or circumstance to him in prayer. God is bigger and more willing and able than I will ever be, or will be able to ask or imagine him to be. I wonder, where does that fit in to the outworking of my faith? What about yours?

Sometimes, the ‘why’ question can be deeply unhelpful. Sometimes we just have to allow ourselves to believe that God is bigger than us, our minds and our expectations, that his politics don’t line up with ours, he doesn’t read the Telegraph or the Guardian, he’s bigger than all of that. He’s in the business of healing, reconciling, of making things new. Are we?

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February 2016

February 12th 2016: Galatians 3:1-14

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

Did you get it yesterday?

One of Paul’s favourite writing traits is to repeat himself. If a point’s worth making, why not make it over, and over, and over, and over again? As one of the first great evangelistic Christian preachers, Paul wanted to leave his hearers, those who had his letters read to them, in absolutely no doubt whatsoever: the law of the Old Testament does not save anyone. It does not provide a path to salvation. It only brings the possibility of fallure, of death, ultimately. Jesus, the Way, the Truth, the Life is, in his very nature, the answer to this problem. He is where life is. He is its source, it flows from him, into the lives of all who will receive it. I’m challenged again and again in recent times, is my faith in my relationship with God, a relationship which was made possible by Jesus Christ, or is it in an idea, a set of morals, a way of living? There’s nothing wrong with living well, seeking to honour God, love others and love ourselves, but if loving Jesus and making him known is not at the heart of it, we’re the ones who are missing out. Fight against any instinct or temptation to be ensnared in law or legalism. Embrace love, embrace Jesus as he opens his arms of love to you today.

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February 2016

February 11th 2016: Galatians 2:11-21

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

If you’re a Christian, and you have been for any length of time, you’ll probably know this passage. It’s one of Paul’s most famous ‘explanations’ of the insufficiency of the Old Testament Law for salvation. I use inverted commas because his explanation is closely-argued and takes some teasing out. It’s a rich banquet of hope which reveals more and more tender morsels of delight with each fresh reading. This is definitely not a passage to skim read once and move on!

As I reflect on it today, the challenge it presents to me is this: I’ve been freed from the demands of the Old Testament law, because they were fulfilled by Jesus. I’ve been freed, made new, made alive, by the Spirit of God, which dwells within me. All things are possible with God. All things are permissible, even as many things are not helpful for me, for all people.

So, I need to stop living as if there is any other law but love. I do not benefit from exchanging one crippling law code, the one of the Old Testament, for another, the weight of expectation I place on myself and allow others to place on me. In fact I suffer. Grievously. So, more to the point, do those around me. Even more to the point, this was never, as far as I can see, God’s intention. Freedom is freedom. Freedom with caveats or constraints is no kind of freedom at all, it is the exchange of one set of barriers for another. That’s the point of the good news Jesus came to tell and to live out for us. Every barrier between God and man is now broken down. We might try and build them up again to make ourselves more comfortable – after all, most of us like to, actually, give control to others, most of us are used to and prefer to carry an element of caution in the way we live, which quickly morphs into fear and anxiety if given the chance. Freedom is freedom is freedom is freedom, is….freedom. Jesus did not die and rise that we might seek to enslave ourselves again.If our approaches to faith, the way our Churches or faith communities function, force us into a way of being and existing which stipulates the possibility of condemnation, we have missed the point. Where the spirit of the Lord, there is freedom.

Of course, we are to live responsibly in the way we love God, others and ourselves. We’re to make good use of the gifts we are given in seeking to serve others, build others up, building the kingdom of God. By no means do we have carte blanche to live just as we please to the detriment of anyone else. We are freed for lives of joyful obedience. Obedience to the law of love, to live the way of the master, the way of the cross, the way that leads to life, the way that glorifies God.

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February 2016

February 9th 2016: Galatians 2:1-10

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

As I read this passage first, it seemed complicated and convoluted. Paul, continuing to tell the story of his journey in faith and, as seems common with him, working hard to justify the vaunted position that he claims for himself as an apostle. If we were doing an in-depth, line by line study of this passage, I’m certain that there would be much for us to chew over about the claims Paul makes, what God has done for him, in him and through him, and the fruit that bore for the Church then, and continues to today.

But then I read it again, and my heart soared. I actually found myself rejoicing. Here is Paul, a pillar of the faith, discussing Peter, the rock on whom Jesus said he would build his Church, and other early followers of Jesus, and what are they ultimately doing? They’re trying to work out what it means to follow Jesus, to be the Church, where they find themselves. They were in at the beginning of the Church, before structures and traditions had taken hold, and they didn’t know what to do. However much we look to them as people who set the tone for the life of faith and were examples to follow, and they were, these were not faultless perfect people who never made mistakes, said the wrong thing at the wrong moment, or dishonoured God. These were broken, honest, real people, called by God to follow him, lead his people and give their lives for his good news, just as he asks us today. As we try and work out what it means to follow Jesus, be comforted that none of us has ever done it perfectly before, but we are still beloved, called, equipped and sent, just as Paul was.

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February 2016

February 5th 2016: Matthew 28:1-15

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

Imagine being a guard of the tomb of Jesus on the day of the resurrection. Imagine experiencing this entirely unforeseen event. You’re supposed to be in control. You are the sign and outworking of the total and utter authority of the occupying power. Your way is the right way. In fact, guarding the tomb of a dead man is probably quite a boring, if not pointless, exercise. Why bother?

And then there’s something like an earthquake and the stone you’re guarding is rolled away by an angel. Do angels even exist? And then this angel, who perhaps you thought doesn’t exist, appears to some women. Why talk to them and not you? And he tells them that their Lord and Messiah has risen from the dead. What? Well, it does seem like he’s not here anymore. But you’ve been diligent in the discharge of your duties. Somehow or other this does seem to be true, it does seem that what is being talked about is what has happened. This is a problem. This means trouble, big trouble. Probably for you. Confirmed by what happens when you report what’s happened and are told to hush it up and lie, blame his disciples. It was always on the cards they’d steal the body anyway. What difference does it make?

Except you’re pretty certain they didn’t steal it. You’re pretty certain that something highly unusual has happened. If anything that’s even more scary. Control and order need to be restored, maintained, tightened if anything. We can’t allow people to think that God might have broken out of the bounds of accepted social and religious order and structure. The agreement is he stays in his box, his house, his temple, and the rest of us get on with things the way we want to, the way we know, the best way. Sometimes it helps to invoke the name of God. It enthuses some and frightens others in to line, but really, the power is ours, and we like it that way.

Except this time it seems like God has found a way to be stronger than us. What do we do now?

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February 2016

February 4th 2016: Matthew 27: 57-66

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

The chief priests and the Pharisees were scared. My reading is they were scared in case the disciples played a trick, pulled a fast one, as it were, and made it seem like Jesus had risen. It is interesting that they clearly knew the stories Jesus had been telling about what was to happen. I do wonder though if, somewhere deep down, hidden away there was the thought in some of their minds ‘what if it actually was true, what he was saying? What if he is who he said he was?’ I suppose when false messiahs are two-a-penny (as they remain today in different ways) a deal of weary cynicism must be at play. Of course Jesus wasn’t the Messiah. Of course he wouldn’t rise from the dead, but just in case, best make sure.

For me, as I read, the challenge is stark. Do I continue to think, trust and live that Jesus did break free from the tomb, having defeated death? Do I really? Sometimes I wonder if I’d rather Jesus did not keep breaking conventions and finding ever more exciting ways to show that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, here, today. If I can just control God for long enough to be able to fathom him out and communicate him, introduce him to others, then I can have the kind of Church and faith experience I was taught was the right one, things will be the way they were supposed to be. Sounds comforting doesn’t it.

Except that isn’t it. At all. This time the Messiah did in fact rise from the dead, break free from the tomb. Nothing could deny it. And nothing we do to try and make the life of faith more in line with how we think it ought to be can constrain our God. He will have his way. It is for us to get in line, not as dogmatic robots, but needing to follow the spark of the Creator as he redeems and reconciles in places, situations and ways we never previously thought possible. All for his glory.

When you think about it, we’re not much different from the chief priests and Pharisees after all.

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February 2016

February 3rd 2016: Matthew 27:45-56

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

I’ve often wondered which of the things in today’s reading actually caused the Centurion to utter the now immortal line ‘truly this man was the Son of God’, as Matthew records it. Ultimately though I’m not sure it really matters. The point is, a combination of circumstances caused Jesus to be recognised for who he was, by the very last person who should have been doing so, a member of the occupying force who had just put him to death.

As with all the readings I look at here, there’s lots we could delve into, and should, if we were trying to teach or preach on this passage, either individually or as a part of Matthew as a whole. Do take the time to look into it deeply, there’s lots to find. The challenge here is, I’m deliberately trying to see what particularly pricks my mind as I read rather than providing a grand exposition. On this occasion it is this thought:

In the excitement of being invited to live with and know Jesus, to follow his way, take on board his teachings, even move in power because of his name, am I, are we, in danger of losing sight of just how wonderful, powerful, victorious our God was on the Cross and is today? He is the Son of God, more than an impossibly good man full of good intentions who delivered on his promises. He is God. What difference will that make to how we live our days today?

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February 2016

February 1st 2016: Matthew 27:11-26

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

I talk too much. Especially under pressure. Especially when I’m under pressure and I think that the pressure being placed upon me is unjust, or has put me in danger, even the kind of danger that will end up with me looking stupid. I’ve never been in the position of having to defend myself for the sake of saving my life. I’ll be bluntly honest here and say I hope I never will be either. I can’t even begin to imagine what that would be like. Much is made of Jesus’s silence as he stands before Pilate here. He gives nothing away. He does not identify himself, he is not charged with anything, he does not accept or deny anything. He just is. In this moment of almost complete powerlessness, when the very real temptation to seek a way out must have been somewhere nearby, light shone simply by accepting what was to come.

What can I learn from this? I want to be less defensive. I want to be more positive. I want to be more aware, more confident in who I am, because of who God is and what Jesus did in going through this event and what was to follow. I want to keep things simple. I want to think and worry less. I want to be where I am and let God bring about what God is bringing about, even if it’s only through my obedience.

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January 2016 Lectionary Ramblings

January 11th 2016: Matthew 21:1-17

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

Yesterday, I led a service at our Church called iPraise. iPraise is designed to be a family time. I suppose it could be called all-age, although phrases like that carry connotations and expectations with them which I find deeply unhelpful. Wouldn’t it be better if all of our life together as Church counted as a whole? Some times would specifically help younger, some older, but we live and learn best when we’re together, and when the older are willing to learn from the younger, and vice versa. All of which to say, around half way through the service, whilst people were sharing prayer requests in groups, one of the younger members of the congregation came to me and asked if he could help to lead the congregation through the Lord’s Prayer, which we were shortly to say. I was keen. Our Church is the kind where unexpected things like this can happen often. It’s good to encourage them. It keeps us from sterility. He asked me to test him to make sure he remembered it correctly and then, as he and I spoke it out together he delivered it faultlessly, not even noticing, I don’t think, that the words were on the screen behind him, should he have needed them. He didn’t. I found it very powerful as, for a brief moment, this young man led the whole of our Church family in worship.

As I read the latter part of today’s reading, this fresh memory returned to my mind. It would have been easy, perhaps even ‘right’ in certain circumstances, for me to dismiss this request out of hand. I’m the leader of the worship. I’m trained. I know things. I’m called and equipped to lead worship, to lead in prayer and to teach (although, before you get too concerned about my humility, I have a lifetime’s worth of learning to do about all of those things). But to assert my authority wrongly in this moment would have been to miss the prophetic voice of the child singing, in effect ‘hosanna to the Son of David’ in our temple.

It’s easy for us to get sophisticated in our faith and our expression of worship. Technology helps with this. Screens, video, new songs and forms of worship being presented all the time as ‘the fresh way to worship God’ can all aid us. So can traditional expressions, established prayer books, scripture in beautifully prosaic language which seeps in to the bones and takes a lifetime to build to fruition. What we need most of all, though, are lives fixated on Jesus, so trusting and confident in him that what we really want is to pray and praise without ceasing, wherever we are and whatever that looks like. Simple faith is not simplistic faith. Simple faith is a faith which is just as real as one honed at the academic coal-face, or hewn from the rocks thrown at us by the trials of life. But if, somewhere along the way, we’ve lost the simplicity which causes us to want to speak out praise, unreserved and unashamed, simply for the sake of it, then it’s us, like the temple priests in our reading today, who are ultimately the poorer for it.

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

September 9th 2014: Acts 9:1-19a

Read Acts 9:1-19a here

“why do you persecute me?”

Jesus doesn’t ask Saul why he is systematically hunting down and killing his followers. He asks why Saul is persecuting him, personally. When we face trials and troubles for “the sake of the name” it is easy for us to take them personally, to ask God to strengthen us that we may endure/succeed/overcome/be victorious. Ultimately though, Jesus’s question here is instructive and crucial. Just as we have seen earlier in Acts that the disciples were thankful for being counted worthy to suffer (something many of us find it hard to understand from the comfort of our cushy Western lifestyles) so we see here that persecution isn’t just about silencing the followers of a faith, it is about trying to stamp the faith out itself. Saul may well have thought that if enough Christians were dispatched, the fledgling faith would fizzle out. When he is faced with Jesus, however, the fruitlessness of the aim of persecution becomes obvious. This is not a man-made faith dreamed up and lived out in a fantastical fashion. This is the clearest and truest reality there has ever been. Jesus, the very God takes Saul’s persecution personally, and acts to show its futility. The future of the Church would never be the same as a result.

Many people face pressure for their faith. Even as people seek to stamp out Jesus by crushing his followers, history tells us that this will never truly work. If you find yourself facing trouble today for the sake of Jesus, rejoice (if you can, it’s hard!) in knowing that fear leads people to seek to stamp him out, and that he won’t be defeated, whatever any of us think. Know too that he has promised to be with you, right until the end. You can do this, because he has done it all.