Tag: Lectionary Ramblings

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

September 6th 2014: Acts 8:4-25

Read Acts 8:4-25 here

It’s easy for us to be seduced by the trappings of success, or to chase after it. This is what seems to happen to Simon the Sorcerer here. Having seen what has happened in Samaaria, believed and been baptised. He fundamentally misunderstands the gift of the Spirit, offering to pay to receive them. As is normal, Peter reacts gruffly, abruptly and without much grace at all. It’s easy for us to identify with him. A lot of us have known, or even been ourselves, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, someone who wants the glory but doesn’t want to make the heart commitment, or sacrifice, or suffer. We can judge them. Most of us can probably think of “celebrity pastors”. A lot of them end up falling or failing publicly. Often, I have caught myself enjoying this failure. What a terrible thing to have to admit.

Peter’s retort to Simon is that his heart isn’t in the right place, and so he has no place in the inheritance of the kingdom. How Peter is able to make such a statement with impunity I’m not sure. I don’t quite understand how his heart was in the right place and Simon’s wasn’t, but that’s probably a debate for another day. We must fight against taking the moral high ground in issues of faith, morality and ethics. Our task is to love God, love our neighbours and love ourselves, not judge or decry the lives of others.

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

September 3rd 2014: Acts 7:17-43, September 4th 2014: Acts 7:44-53 and September 5th 2014: Acts 7:54-8:3

Read Acts 7:17-8:3 here

Things move tremendously quickly in the story of the fledgling Church through the end of Acts 7 and the start of Chapter 8. Stephen’s compelling history of the people of God and the failings of the current Jewish leadership to acknowledge the Lordship of God in Christ lead to his own murder, and the eruption of a great persecution against the Church. Jesus had warned that persecution would come because of following Him, and we have already read recently of the disciples rejoicing about being deemed worthy of suffering “for the name”. Personally I wonder if persecution was inevitable, whether the authorities were merely waiting for an excuse, or whether Stephen’s blasphemous speech brought it about. I wonder if Stephen knew what he was doing when he saw Christ in heaven. Did the disciples welcome the persecution as a sign of the imminent return of Jesus?

Do we see it as a privilege to suffer? I’m not sure I do. Do we see suffering as an aspect of the Christian life to rejoice in? I’m not sure I do.

Clearly, to align ourselves with Jesus invites the potential for suffering, as well as life, hope and a future. The evident confidence and conviction of the early followers of Jesus in the truth of their cause is something we would all benefit from. How do we gain it? As far removed historically as we are from these events it can be difficult. Cultivate relationship with God. Prayer is a conversation. Scripture is there for us to dialogue with, so as to gain an insight in to the character of our God, and the character and actions desired of us. Build fellowship and community with other believers. Disagree well. Ask for wisdom to see and know God in the everyday, as well as experiencing His love and grace in the miraculous. Most of all, have faith and hope. We have a tendency to see both of these as tentative, and head-knowledge-based. Rather these are decisions of the heart. Choose to trust. Choose to hope. Whatever might come to us, whether we think it is good or bad, it is this hope that will point us towards God, who ultimately is the only sustainer.

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

September 1st 2014: Acts 6

Read Acts 6 here

My favourite verse here is verse 7. After a description of the choosing of the men among the disciples who were “full of the spirit and wisdom” to serve at table, we are told immediately, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that the word of God continued to spread and that many came to believe in the good news of Jesus Christ. It is interesting that it was not capability, but character which effected the choice of those to serve, but even more interesting for me is the idea that, having chosen and given out roles with integrity and wisdom, this had an impact on the spreading of the gospel. How often do we talk about gifts and talents, veiled language of capability and validity? We place certain roles (Preacher, Music Leader/Choir Master, Flower Rota Co-ordinator, it could be anything depending on what Church you are in) above others and honour certain types of people particularly because of what they can do, not necessarily who they are. Our Churches run the risk of being just like the rest of the world, but with prejudices legitimised by super-spiritual language. None of us are more special than any other. It is character that marks us out as having any kind of suitability, not anything else. There are more than enough skills to go round, is there enough integrity?

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August 31st 2014: Matthew 16:21-28 (Talk text)

Here is the text of the talk I gave to my Church yesterday morning, which can act as a Lectionary Rambling for that day! (I got a bit behind with being away at the end of last week and over the weekend. Many apologies!)

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I wonder, how many of us are backseat drivers? You know the sort of person. You’re being driven around, but you don’t think too much of the quality of the driving, or you see an opportunity to overtake, or you think your driver is moving too fast or too slow, or you worry about running into oncoming sheep. When I was young, my grandmother had a wonderful habit of doing this. We’d round a bend and she’d be gripping the door handle, silently praying for deliverance. I find now as I get older (having reached the grand old age of 30) that I do the same. It doesn’t matter who is driving. Nor does it matter that I can’t drive. I have a kind of messed up Spidey-sense for danger or potential difficulty. Quite often I find myself bracing, or holding the car door, or imagining some terrible thing is about to happen. But the thing is, it never does. I’m here to tell the embarrassing tale. And more than this, I’m not the one in the driving seat.

 

Jesus is talking about something similar in our reading today. It’s a mistake for us to think that we’re in charge, that life is all about us, that we control everything. God is in charge. He loves us. He knows what is best for us. He has offered us life now, and eternally. We can be forgiven, free, hopeful, joyful. Quite often though, we just want what we want, don’t we?

 

I don’t know about you, but I like getting my own way. I like eating the food I like, when I want to. I like watching the TV programmes I want to watch when I want to watch them. I like working hard, making my life better, getting my own way, doing my own thing, even making sure that life for Jo and I is good because I am doing well and working hard. In and of itself, working hard for my own future and for my family isn’t a bad thing, but as Jesus warns us in our reading this morning, we have to be careful. What good is it for us to work so hard that we gain the whole world, but we forget that we are made for God? What good is it for us to be “successful” or even “rich” if we lose the bigger picture of what life is about?

 

So what is life all about? Well Jesus loves us. God has had our names and our lives on His heart and mind since before eternity. We are made for Him, for His pleasure, and to love one another, as well as loving ourselves. Jesus came that we might have life and have it to the full. Jesus died so that we could be forgiven for all the ways we’ve lived and will live that don’t please God. Jesus rose again to show that He was more powerful than any power in all of creation, even death. Jesus went up to heaven to be with His Father to spend the whole of our lives praying for us, so that, when the time comes, we can join God in the age to come.

 

“Anyone who wants to follow after me has to let me lead” says Jesus. We don’t like that so much often. We think we’d be better at leading. “Self-help is no help at all”. Again, not so keen on that one. We’re told that God helps those who help themselves. This is nonsense. God waits for us to come to Him with arms wide open, to rely on Him, to trust Him. Are we willing? Are we brave enough?

 

“What could you ever trade your soul for?” asks Jesus. Well indeed. I’m not sure my soul is my own to trade anyway. That kind of thinking comes from thinking or wishing that I was in the driving seat.

 

After all, soon, Jesus promises, He will come with His angels, all will be changed, all will be new. There will be no more death, no more pain, no more tears, only freedom, hope and joy. It is something for us to hold on to hope for. How do we prepare for a life like that? We put God first in our lives. We seek to follow Him as best we can and accept His love and forgiveness when we get things wrong. We look out for others, we put their needs and what they want before what we need or want. We share, we play nicely together, we talk well of each other. We are generous, we give of ourselves, just as Jesus gave of Himself for us. The best way that we can be remembered when people talk about us is to be known as people who made sacrifices, loved God and loved people.

 

“But, Haydon” you might ask, “what difference does all that make? What should I do differently?” Well here’s what I think. This week, find ways to put other people first. Find ways to care for one another, to serve one another. Share food, share games or books. Give time to each other. Most of all, pray for each other, pray for the people you meet, that God would give you a chance to show them how much He loves them, and that he would help you to love them too.

 

So, what kind of a person do we want to be? Are you going to carry on trying to backseat drive your life, or barge Jesus out of the way to get in to the driving seat and put your foot down on the accelerator, or are you going to be content to let Him drive and enjoy the ride?

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August 30th 2014: Acts 5:27-42

Read Acts 5:27-42 here

“Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.”

“If it is of God, you will not be able to stop these men”. This is quite some wisdom from Gamiliel. Even in the midst of what amounted to blasphemy, he was able to keep his head and sense that there may have been something of God in what the apostles were doing and teaching. It is also, perhaps likely that he thought that their “revolt” would fade away just as the others he recounted had done. Whether or not he was speaking out of reverence for what God might do, or ridiculing the apostles, I do not know, but still, he hit upon something important. God cannot be thwarted. His purposes cannot be denied. We might think we’re in charge, or that we are defeating those who act in the name of God, but if people are actually working in the name of God (and who are we to tell whether they are or not?) nothing we can do will stop them from succeeding. Sometimes it is best for us to stand back and watch for signs of the action of God, particularly when God might act in a way which is beyond our usual understanding of His function. Shockingly God can act however He wants to. We would do well to remember that.

Later in the reading this morning, we see the apostles rejoicing because they were counted worthy to “suffer disgrace for the Name”. There are places all over the world where people heed this call today. Much of our teaching at the present time does not lead us to rejoice over being considered worthy to suffer because of Jesus. I wonder if our soft teaching will be challenged in the coming months and years.

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August 29th 2014: Acts 5:12-26

Read Acts 5:12-26 here

“Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy”

In today’s reading we find one of the first examples of persecution of Christians. Why does it happen? Jealousy. Jealousy is at the root of most problems in human life. We find it so hard to live and co-exist together? Why is that? I’ll never know. Is it because we don’t think we’re good enough without having power over others? Is it because we don’t like our own lives, see someone who has a life we wish we had so strive to steal it for ourselves? Is it a fear, a need to protect a truth which is more than capable of defending itself? Whatever it is, rather than casting ourselves favourably when set against the leaders depicted poorly in this story, let’s be aware that jealousy is something we all fall into and are prone to, and resolve not to be persecutors ourselves.

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August 28th 2014: Acts 4:32-5:11

Read Acts 4:32-5:11 here

“Al the believers were one in heart and mind”.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been in a Church, or a community, like that! Sometimes we look wistfully at the stories of the early Church in Acts and imagine that they had something special which made them more likely to love one another, love God, be sacrificial, serve one another and so on. Aside from proximity to the events of the life of Jesus, I can’t see anything else. These men and women were still more than capable of making a mess of things, as we see towards the end of today’s reading. At the same time, they were still able to live “with one mind”. Wouldn’t it be great if we made a concerted effort in our Churches to work out what God was asking us to do, and committed to pursuing that, entirely together? It’s not as unrealistic as it might sound. They managed it in Acts 4.

As for each of us as individuals, we have a role to play in deciding to journey through life with people with whom we can be of one mind, as we love God, our neighbours and ourselves. Even as we sometimes disagree, we can set our mind on things of God, those around us, and things of eternity and contend that we will not let petty squabbles, selfishness and our own desire for recognition get in the way of the life to which we are called, and the love which it is our privilege to share.

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August 27th 2014: Acts 4:13-31

Read Acts 4;13-31 here

What must it be like to pray, to finish, and then have the ground shake? What must it be like to have so much integrity in the expression of your faith that those who accuse you don’t know what to do with you? They know they disagree with you, they think you might be quite dangerous even, but they are at a loss, unable to completely deny the truth of what you are saying?Wouldn’t it be great to have a faith like that, a life like that? Wouldn;’t it be astonishingly exciting to be the kind of person who is so open to the Spirit of God that you can quiet a fevered room with the loving wisdom and authority of the prophetic voice God has given you? I think it would certainly be intriguing!

Before he had such experiences and such a voice, Peter didn’t think much of himself, as we’ve discussed previously. He was an “average” bloke, something of a failure. He was someone God called, called in much the same way as many people are today. He was someone who was willing to trust and obey, to the best of his ability, even when it meant reaching the limits of his ability and getting things, seemingly, disastrously wrong.

Are we willing to put ourselves in a similar position to Peter where rather than relying on ourselves, or constantly berating ourselves over failure and weakness, we instead make ourselves available? God loves us all the same way He loved Peter. He wants a relationship with us all the same way He did with Peter, pursuing him constantly throughout his life, and He longs for us to be willing and available so that we might live in such a way as the ground might shake when we pray.

Continue reading “August 27th 2014: Acts 4:13-31”

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August 26th 2014: Acts 4:1-12

Read Acts 4:1-12 here

Perhaps unsurprisingly, healing and proclaiming so forthrightly in the name of Jesus lands Peter and John in trouble. Luke would have us believe it is because the Jewish rulers were deeply troubled. No wonder1 This was a time of huge upheaval and social unrest. Whether it be true or not, any claim such as this that could incite people to riot was to be quashed as quickly as possible, for the good of all concerned. It is easy for us to look down on the Jewish leaders as misguided or worse, with the benefit of hindsight, but it is hard not to have some sympathy with them here. Jesus had proved pretty awkward, and now His followers were proving equally troublesome, just when it was thought they should have been crushed and would disperse quietly, as usually happened when false “Messiahs” were dealt with.

But this time it is different. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit (a key detail) claims that Jesus’s is the only name under heaven by which people can be saved, bold, certainly. We’ll have to return tomorrow to see what the upshot of it is, but there’s no denying the bravery and intensity of Peter’s defiance. He now appears to have an unshakeable belief in the “right” of what he says about the power and story of Jesus Christ, only a few short days after denying Him, and being certain that he, Peter, would be rejected permanently by his Lord. What had happened to bring about this tremendous change? Jesus’s acceptance of him over breakfast certainly helped, but I would wager that as well as this, seeing 5000 men flock to the cause of Christ as he preached in His name might have bolstered Peter’s confidence a bit too! We know that he wasn’t an eloquent speaker, but he did make himself available to God for use as God saw fit. Are we willing to do the same today?

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August 25th 2014: Acts 3:11-26

Read Acts 3:11-26 here

As we’ve seen in the previous post, Peter and John have just undertaken a great healing work in the Colonnade, in the sight of many people. Now we see Peter’s opportunism at work, as he is able to give a powerful lecture in historical theology to explain the purpose and context of this miracle – it is complete healing brought about by faith in Jesus, and for HIs glory, much more so than simply for the good of the man himself. The onlookers, and the readers/hearers of the story from Luke Acts, are to be in no doubt, it is not Peter’s ministry of healing that has brought this about, it is God’s ministry of salvation and reconciliation, which will not be thwarted by anything, least of all, the inadvertent killing of the Messiah.

This, to me, is a comforting story. God is in control, He has the power and all the cards. I don’t have much power in ministry, and if I ever get too far ahead of myself, I just have to look at a story like this. Peter is quick to point to Jesus as the source of healing and salvation. It is important for us as people, for the integrity of our witness to the gospel, and for the growth of mature Christians and strong, unified Churches, that we take the same line when taking about the power and the glory of life and ministry.