The Uncut Project Blog

Hope, waiting, and the confident expectation

(Resound Design) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago at The Anvil we were talking about waiting.

As cliched as it may sound, we belong to a society that isn't used to waiting, and we seem to have forgotten what exactly it is.

Waiting doesn't mean doing nothing.

Waiting is preparing.

Waiting is making sure that there is space in your life for God to move.

Waiting requires the passage of time.

Waiting is a confident expectation.

The final thought, of waiting being a confident expectation, particularly stuck out to me.

When we read the word "wait", especially in the Old Testament, the original Hebrew can often be translated "hope" or "long for".

If we are to wait for something, surely we need to be certain of it? How then does hope come into the equation?

The answer is that the hope spoken about in the Bible is a far cry from the uncertain, unfounded optimism that we mean when we speak about hope.

When we talk about hope, we tend to mean things that we want to happen. We wish they would happen, but we can't be sure.

"I hope I don't miss Doctor Who"

"I hope my exam results are what I wanted"

"I hope my dog gets better"

We want them to happen. Sometimes we might really really want them to happen. But there are no guarantees.

But when God speaks of hope, and when we speak of hope in God, we do have a guarantee; God is at work.

The difficulty with hope is that it deals with things we can't see or haven't yet received, or both.

Romans 8:24-25 says;

"For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

Just because we hope for something in a human sense doesn't mean that it automatically becomes a godly hope. Just because we really really want to get 11 A*s for our GCSEs doesn't mean it's going to happen.

Worldly hope doesn't always convert to godly hope because the things we want aren't always the things that God has in mind.

Whether your hope is those perfect exam results or to have lost a few pounds next time you step on the weighing scales, you might not find that your hope has come true.

The hope that we do have though is so much better. The hope that we do have means that, even if you had an off day or you didn't revise or you lost your notes just before the exam, you haven't ruined God's plan for your life. Just because you haven't lost those few pounds doesn't mean that you are worthless. The hope you have is that God loves you, and God knows that your worth has nothing to do with your weight.

Put your trust in God and you will realise that the hope you have is not fleeting, impermanent or uncertain. It is forever and it is indestructible.

Remind yourself of God's promises. You might not find what you were hoping for, but you will find something a whole lot better.

Put your trust in God. Whilst you wait, know that God loves you. Know that God knows what is best for you. Know that God will not let you down.

Know that God keeps His promises.

DISCIPLESHIP AND THE CHURCH: 1 John 4:7-21

(Resound Design) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Our theme this morning is the church and discipleship. We have been doing a sermon series on discipleship, and I think there is a question which needs answering, a question which can be applied to both areas of the theme of our service this morning:

- What qualifications do you need to be a disciple?

- What qualifications do you need to be church?

Our reading this morning goes some way to answering both these questions, largely by stating what is obvious, but perhaps because it is so obvious we miss it; or, more likely, it all seems a bit too risky.

To be a disciple and to be church you need love: love one another, and love God as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. You don’t need anything else. And that is risky business.

Considering how long I have been formally studying theology I am very unqualified. I did three years full time for a BA in Biblical Theology, and then a postgraduate certificate for one year in Christian theology, and then have been doing, for a painfully long time, an MA in Practical Theology which is nearly finished. That’s four years full time and another three years part time, and right now the only formal qualification in theology that I have that is worth writing down on paper is a BA.

It is easier to get an honours degree than it is to love one another. I wish that the qualification for being a disciple was a BA in theology, it is much easier. What is surprising about what you need to be a disciple is not so much what you do need – love, we might of guessed as much, but what you don’t need – anything else.

Hold that thought of the qualification we need, and the qualifications we don’t need, and we’ll take a look at how risky that is.

Risky church

Church is risky because it is tough to define. Just what is church? This is a very difficult question to answer, and different people come up with different answers.

But there are a few things that I think we can say church is, I thought I would start with something a little controversial:

1) The Church is God’s agent of salvation in the world.

That sounds posh; what I mean is that the church is how God is going to save the world. Why is that controversial? – quite simply because we all know that Jesus is God’s plan of salvation for the world. The Church, at the best of times is full of broken people who make mistakes.

Salvation comes though Jesus, but the church is the Body of Christ.

Imagine that the Risen Christ is ascended into heaven. We can see this from the bottom up if we read Acts One – we are with the disciples looking up at Jesus ascend. If we want to see this from the top down then we need to look at the Enthronement Psalms, the company of heaven crying out for the watchers on the gates to look up and see the triumphant Jesus returning to heaven. In Psalm 24, “Lift up your heads oh you gates, be lifted up you ancient doors that the king of glory may come in.”

And so imagine Jesus enthroned at the right-hand of the Father. Now imagine the celebrations in heaven. Jesus has done it, it is finished, death is beaten, sin defeated. So the angels gather around Jesus and sing, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty.’ And then they do a whole bunch of hi-fives and back slapping. ‘Sweet work Jesus, I like your skills’ we imagine the Archangel Michael saying.

And then someone asks the obvious question: what next? Jesus is in heaven, and there is a lot of work still to be done on earth. So who and how is the ‘sweeping up’ going to be done. So the angels might wonder if they will be sent to do it. And the answer from the throne of God is no. So who will do it? The Church. The same church that is made up of the broken, the outcasts, those who have fallen short of the glory of God.

And I am pretty sure there is no plan B.

Church is a risky business.

The church is holy

But the church is holy. As much as we are broken and outcasts, as much as we have fallen short of the glory of God, we are also holy. We are a royal priesthood, set apart to do the work of Christ. This is how followers of Jesus are described in the Bible. The Church is called the Bride of Christ, spotless, blameless and pure. There is a Jewish custom that a bride is ceremonially bathed before her marriage to the groom. And the church is a perfect bride for Christ.

But we have all fallen short of the glory of the Lord. Look around you. Actually don’t, look at yourself. The church is not holy, not set apart, not pure and spotless.

We are an unlikely bunch. Why would God chose us to bring a message of salvation to the world, it doesn’t make much sense. It makes about as much sense as it does God revealing himself to the world in the womb of a young peasant girl living in an unremarkable, rural part of the Middle East 2,000 years ago, and by eventually dying on the cross, but that is true and so it is true that he has chosen you and us to be the Body of Christ in the world.

So we are plan A, and there is no plan B, but we don’t need to be too worried by that. We need to live the life that we have been called to live and be full of God’s Holy Spirit. God knows we need help on this one, all we need to do is be willing and live as God’s holy people.

The Church is interdependent not independent.

Disciples love God and love one another. Loving one another means being there for one another, supporting one another, building one another up.

We often think we come to church for our own benefit, to learn something about god and fall more in love with God, to worship and be in the presence of God. And that means that in our Sunday supplement, in the magazine section of the newspaper when we come across a special offer for a short weekend break, we are prone to take it. This Sunday we can miss church and it won’t have too much of an averse effect on me.

We forget that we don’t just come to church for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others, and what if they need us to be there?

I am oversimplifying a little. Of course we firstly need breaks, and secondly we aren’t just church on a Sunday morning – very far from it. But the illustration helps demonstrate my point.

The author of Ephesians begins his letter to the Christians in Ephesus like this:

‘Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithfulin Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.’

God has given us every spiritual blessing in heaven. That doesn’t mean God has given me every spiritual blessing. As Paul says in 1 Cor. 12,

‘To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another…etc. etc.’

I don’t have all the spiritual gifts. If you are in any doubt about this, let me chat to you about a pastoral problem, then you’ll know. And that means I need you because you have gifts I don’t. We need you because you have gifts we don’t.

Pause and think on that for a while.

And now let me finish by taking this one step further. But be careful, this may well mess with your head.

You are the bride of Christ. Christ is the groom.

On Thursday Zoey and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. Zoey was the bride and I was the groom. The bride needed a groom. Zoey needed someone to marry and in our relationship that continues to be true. When I am away busy with work and such like, I come home and Zoey needs a hug from me, and she sometimes get one. She needs a kiss, she needs me to show her that I love her. But I need her too, the same is true. I need her to buy me fountain pens, leather journals, and CDs of obscure indy music. That way I know she loves me.

We the church, we are a bride and we need a groom.

This is where the challenge comes. The groom needs the bride too. Jesus needs you. The Creator and Saviour of the cosmos, the Divine Logos, he who has conquered sin and death, who has risen triumphantly from the grave, needs you to be part of the Body of Christ.

Of course God needs you, that is why he paid the ultimate price to ensure that it was possible that you could turn to God and chose to love God. We are not independent, but interdependent.

It is a risky business this church and discipleship. All they both needs is love and nothing more. As Augustine once said, and I paraphrase, ‘Love God and then do what you like.’

Amen.

29^th May 2011, 11am All Saints Ecclesall

Complaint Psalms - Psalm 69

(Resound Design) — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This week I was doing some preperation for somethign which involved me taking a look at Psalm 69. It let me onto an intersting thought - we should complain more.

The Psalm is written by an individual who is drowning, not literally, in hatred that comes form his enemies, his own society and even his family. He makes this situation known to God and then calls on God for help.

As we read the Psalm we begin to get a picture of what the complaint is. It would seem that this person is lamenting the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, so affected by this is he that he publically mourns for the loss of the Temple, an act which means even his community and family mock him.

This then is definitely one of those Psalms that are known as ‘complaint Psalms’ – some people hate them, the more moody ones amongst us love them.

The thought that struck me is most clearly demonstrated by a question, ‘When do you pray and spend time with God?” Those who gather together for formal worship at a gathering of church most likely and fairly easily pray and meet with God at church services and gatherings. This is one of the reasons why, as the author of Hebrews says, we shouldn’t give up the habit of meeting together: It creates a space of accountability; of mutual support; and a common desire to meet with God that makes that task easier for us all.

But many of us struggle with the complaint Psalms because we are not used to talking to God like this. This type of prayer, this type of conversation, or even song, is missing from our relationship with God.

Perhaps the reason for this is that we don’t spent time with God in prayer, or spend time with God in other ways, in the midst of an ordinary week as much as we ought. All of us have something to complain about. We are not like this particular Psalmist, no one has knocked down our place of worship, although of course that does happen in places in the world where Christians are persecuted. But we all know someone who is ill; we all struggle with our families at times; we all face issues that we are less than satisfied with.

Those of us who are more prone to inviting God into every aspect of our lives are more prone to complain. Those people don’t wait until church when they are amongst friends, clergy, and those who lead worship. They know that God is God who is in heaven, and because God is in heaven then two things can happen. God can act on our complaint and make something happen, and through praise and prayer we can find ourselves in the presence of God, and once there we look down on that which we are complaining about. This doesn’t make the sickness, the battle with life threatening disease, the gravity of collapsing relationships any less serious, but it does mean that they all look a bit different when viewed from an eternal perspective.

But God is not just God in heaven, he is Emmanuel, God with us, who took on the from of a slave, poured himself out and became nothing, obedient to death, even death on a cross. And so God is with us in the midst of our complaint.

When faced with the truth of this, as we read through the complaint Psalms like Psalm 69, then perhaps complaining to God is not such a bad thing. God is the one who can do something about it, and those who complain, believe in a God who is able to do something about it, and who is always with us even unto the end of the age. Amen.

Oysters, Liturgy, and Deuteronomy 6

(Resound Design) — Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, at something we call ‘Root Group’, which is roughly a café-styled youth church, we took a look at Psalm 105 as part of a series of looking at the Psalms. The basic theme was God’s faithfulness, even when times are tough.

The reading for morning prayer this morning was the same Psalm, along with Deuteronomy 6. That particular chapter of Deuteronomy is most well known for the fact that it contains the ‘shema’, something of a high point of Jewish liturgy. This is the prayer that is prayed daily in morning and evening prayer, and is usually taught to children before they go to sleep. The title comes from the first word, ‘shema’ meaning ‘hear’,

‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone…’

The rest of Deuteronomy 6 on the surface seems to go against the grain of a Gospel of grace , particularly verse 3,

‘Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe [the commandments] diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.’

It seems as if we need to obey in order for things to go well with us. This is a challenge to our Christian faith that often, and rightly, places an emphasis on grace. But if we believe in a Gospel of grace then surely God is with us unconditionally? Do we really need to obey before God will look after us?

A recent trip abroad involved what for me is always a unwise and tricky task of eating an oyster – I am not a fan. Sure enough a few days later I was sick (it may not have been the oysters, perhaps I am being a little unfair to the little slimy shell fish). This led to the question of if we had said grace (which I would normally do, but sometimes forget), would I still have been ill? But surely God knew that I was thankful in my heart even if I did not go through the organisational duty of expressing that thanks vocally; a day of sickness and aching seems a harsh lesson for my forgetfulness.

And I think that we are now getting close to the truth of the matter. Saying grace before a meal is similar to the command in Deuteronomy 6:7-9,

‘Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.’

It is liturgy. Liturgy is public worship, worship changes us not God. Obeying the commands is worship too. If we obey the commands and if we worship God it does not change God it changes us. Our lives are shaped by the liturgy.

Food poisoning does not mean that it did not ‘go well in the land’ (we had a great time); and there is a difference between going through tough times but walking in obedience with God, and going through tough times without God.

As we allow the liturgy to shape our lives we find that we are more and more walking with God, and I guess the beauty of the received liturgy (apart from it being 99.9% the Word of God) is that it reflects this previous paragraph: it is not just about the good times, but about the tough times too, and celebrating God with us. So perhaps it is not that surprising, that someone raised in a Pentecostal church as I was, does find myself turning to the liturgy and appreciating it. It does not depend on my circumstances or my emotions (unlike some charismatic worship). My circumstances change, my emotions change, but God does not change. Therefore what we say about God does not change, the words we say don’t change and the fact that we say them does not change God…but it does change me.

It is hard to say the liturgy when a close family relative is diagnosed with an incurable disease, when you fail an exam and don’t know what the future holds, or when you lose your job. We know the truth of this if we read the Psalms and reflect on the laments and complaints we find there. But I will praise the Lord, for the Lord my God is the only Lord. And He is faithful.

Sermon: "Making Decisions."

(Resound Design) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

MAKING DECISIONS: Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 and James 4:13-17

9^th January 2011, The Anvil

This evening was supposed to be the time that we looked at the vision of Uncut. This is something that I always struggle with: we are a church, our vision is Jesus, we want to see His kingdom come and His will done on earth as it is in heaven. Do we need to get more specific than that? Well some people would say yes, but let’s not get into that right now.

Instead, I think that if each of us decided to live for God, each of us lived as Christians and disciples to the extent that it affected each and every decision that we made, that it impacted our whole lives, and if each of us took that responsibility, then as a community we would have a vision and a communitas. Communitas is that sense of belonging together, of being in this together, on the same team, facing the same things. And I think that that is as exciting and more exciting than me telling you what I think God is telling me is the vision for us.

And this thought led me to thinking about how we make decisions.

Decisions that seem to be important but which probably aren’t that important

And I am not talking about those decisions which really seem to matter, but which really don’t. Shall I be an orthodontist or a vet? Shall I change jobs so that I get paid more, but leave behind a job that I am really enjoying now? Shall I go to the University of Warwick or Birmingham?

Don’t get me wrong, God cares about all aspects of our lives. God wants us to be happy, to live an abundant and full life, and these decisions do have an influence on this, but God has given us a brain. John Wesley is alleged to have said that the vast majority of time God spoke to him through his common sense. Sometimes we pray prayers like, “God should I do physics or biology A-Level?” and I think God’s response is, “Do what you like. No really, do what you love.”

I think we sometimes pray prayers like, “God do you want me to talk about you with my friends?”, as if we imagine God turning around and saying, “No, whatever you do, don’t do that.” Of course God will not say that. A lot of decisions are no-brainers.

Now this belief that we should use the common sense that God has given us, and that we can trust the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us sometimes seems a bit extreme when I employ it. So I wake up one morning and announce to my wife that I am going to get ordained in the Church of England, she understandably wants to know at which point we discussed this and when did I pray about it. To which I respond that I can do it, that it is right there in front of me, that it seems like it would be fun, so why shouldn’t I?

Of course, there needs to be a balance, but in the Bible, James reminds us that we can’t say for sure what we will do tomorrow. We are not sure what the future holds for us, life is fragile, which of course is a recurring theme of Ecclesiastes which we looked at in a sermon series not so long ago. But what we can be sure of is right now.

Let’s hear from John Wesley again. He was once asked what he would do differently if he knew that Jesus was coming back at the end of the day. He replied that he would do nothing differently. He was living his life as if this was the last.

So how do we make those decisions – who to marry, what job to do, whether to go to University, which one and to do what, whether to buy a house or continue renting, which GCSEs to do, whether to retire early, etc. etc.?

I think it goes like this:

Trust God and His guidance. If you really want to do the right thing, the chances are you will. If you want to live your life for God then He will lead you and guide you. For some people this seems to be just a little too risky, and in some ways it is. You have to trust the Holy Spirit, but hey, that’s what faith is all about.

Decisions that don’t seem to be important but which are really important

There are also decisions we have to make that don’t seem to matter that much, but that in reality, are way more important than they seem.

There are some things in our lives that we can change, and we think that if they did then things would get better for us. You may have even said this to yourself before, I know I have,

“If only I had…more money things would be better, moved out of my parents home things would be easier, if I were married things would be better, if I had an iPhone 4 my life would be more organised, once I start driving things will be a lot better, I can’t wait till I am 18, everything will change then.”

Sometimes we get more extreme, we think that if we move church, move cities even, then everything will better. And sometimes it is right to move church or cities.

But on the whole none of these examples change much. Whoever you are now you still will be even if you are richer, living away from your parents, driving, married, got a degree. The best examples of this I think is boys attitudes to marriage. I get asked more often than I would sometimes like to talk to young men about sex and relationships, and one of the things I tell them is that if they struggle with lust and pornography now, getting married won’t change that. “Oh come on Harry,” they say, “once I’m married I’ll be having sex like five times a day, I won’t struggle with lust.” To which I tell them, “You won’t and you will.”

So what are the decisions that really matter? Well a good place to start seems to me to be to ask the question of what things did Jesus go on about? The main focus of Jesus’ teaching was to ‘repent for the kingdom of God is near.’

Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15; Mark 6:12 and Luke 13:3-5 are all about repenting.

REPENT

When we here the word ‘repent’ we immediately think that what Jesus is saying is that we stop doing naughty things and go to church instead; this is what the word repent has come to mean, stop sinning and do something religious instead.

But we are wrong if we think this is what Jesus meant. One way for us to find out what the word meant at the time that Jesus used it is to look at other people who used the word at about the same time. And forty years or so after Jesus’ crucifixion there was a Jewish historian called Josephus who used the word, and when wrote it down we still have a copy of what he wrote. When I say historian we might imagine that Josephus had a beard and a tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbow. He probably did have a beard, but no tweed jacket. In fact as well as being a historian Josephus was an aristocrat, a rich and important Jew. He was also a general.

One day he was asked to go and visit the Jewish rebels. These were a group of people who wanted to use force to beat the Romans and drive them out of Israel. Josephus was given the task of telling the leaders of these rebels to wait until the right time, to not be hot-headed and take on the Romans when they can’t win. So Josephus goes to them, and as he records in his history book, he tells them to, ‘Repent and believe in me.’

That sounds familiar, it sounds a lot like what Jesus used to say. When Josephus said it he wasn’t asking those rebels to stop sinning and to do something religious instead. He was asking them to give up their own agendas and follow him instead.

40 years earlier when Jesus used that same phrase he probably meant something more than Josephus. When Jesus used the phrase it had more theological implications especially because he spoke of the kingdom of God. But if Jesus meant more than Josephus, he certainly didn’t mean less. He too at least meant that we should give up our own agendas and live for the kingdom of God instead. Give up our own agendas.

SO WHICH DECISIONS REALLY MATTER?

If Jesus calls us to repent, and if repentance is, at the very least, a call to give up our own agendas, then that means every decision we make matters. Whether we become an orthodontist or a vet might affect our salary, it might affect where we live, it might ultimately affect who we marry. It might affect how many hours we work, it might affect where we go to university, so on one level a decision like this is important. But all of those things can happen in different ways and you can still be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

But what about decisions like who we hang around with? Proverbs 27:17 says, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.’ In other words, if you hang around with the right person you’ll get sharper, if you hang around with the wrong people you’ll get blunter. This is a decision that really matters, and yet a lot of the time we don’t stop to think about it – we let life happen to us. Before we know it we have been influenced by the people we hang around with and find ourselves doing a whole load of things that months ago we wouldn’t have even dreamt of doing because somehow or other it seems ok now.

What about decisions like the things we say. Sticking with Proverbs for a while 12:18 says, ‘The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.’

I know people who have left the church and aren’t following Jesus anymore because of gossip and people saying negative things. Saying something behind someone’s back that isn’t very nice is a decision most of us don’t make – we just find ourselves doing it. Yet for those people who think, “If that is what it means to be a Christian, I want nothing to do with it!” that decision is way more important than the decision of what job you do.

What about what we think. Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, ‘But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’

Most of us would spend more time on the decision of which car we want to buy than making a decision about what we think about, or the things we watch or see that feed our thoughts. Yet Jesus said that lustful thoughts are as harmful as a physical adulterous relationship, whether you are married or not, we tend not to think too critically about the films we watch, the words we read or what we are thinking about.

What about praying? Paul gave the seemingly impossible bit of advice for us in one of the shortest verses of the Bible when he said, ‘pray continuously’. I guess this is only impossible if we think that prayer means kneeling down at the side of the bed. If we see prayer as simply a matter of being in God’s presence then we can make a decision to be with God, to take Jesus with us everywhere we go and all day. The difficulty is this needs to be a conscious decision of the will, and secondly, I guess some of us go some places and do some things that we don’t want to do with or in the presence of God. Taking God with us, being in his presence all day, recognising that when we are doing the housework we can be in God’s presence, is one of the most important decisions we make.

What about being part of a church – Hebrews 10:25 says, “Don’t give up meeting together as some do, but encourage one another.” I have met a lot of people who think they don’t need to meet with other Christians – generally speaking their faith is stagnant, and the gifts that God has given them they don’t share with brothers and sisters in the church.

These are the decisions that really matter.

Depending on what we decide about issues like these will either move us closer to or further from Christ. And yet there is a real danger that a lot of people in the church don’t let their faith influence decisions like these, we don’t let Christ into these parts of our lives. Sure, we want Jesus to tell us about which job to have or who to marry because we want to get that right, but we don’t want Jesus to have a say in who our friends are, what we watch, who are boyfriend or girlfriend is. And people sometimes suggest to me that I need to talk to people about these decisions – but Jesus has already spoken to us, and if we won’t listen to Jesus then won’t listen to me – or I won’t listen to others.

This is vision Sunday. My vision for Uncut is that we would be a community of people in which we have all repented, and I don’t mean we’re more religious, I mean we have all given up our own agenda and are living for Jesus.

If you want to join me tonight in repenting, maybe for the first time, maybe for the millionth time, then you can do that in the quietness of your heart right now. You might want to kneel down and do it.

Inviting People to Church

(Resound Design) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I was asked today why I thought that the service we call ‘Food Church’ works, and by 'works' they meant why were people ready to bring their friends to that service. First off I would say that not all of them are. We do get a lot of new people coming along to that service, and some of them stick around for the following week, and the week after that, but there is no instant success when it comes to living our lives and seeking to make disciples.

I think there are probably four main reasons why people come. Firstly and obviously, God. However, that needs to be said. All the best ideas in the world aren’t worth toffee if God is not in the midst of our Church community. Secondly there is, I hope, a simple and clear message that we need to be an open community that wants people to witness great worship. Worship is about giving glory to God, and giving glory to God is about people who have been transformed by the Gospel and who express the depths of their relationships with their Creator: that can mean energetic songs, but it doesn’t have to. By all that I mean that we try and be as clear as we can that we should be inviting people in to Food Church to experience God’s hospitality. Thirdly, I think it is about being welcoming, in a relaxed way. We don’t always get this right, some people slip in and slip out, some people who we should say hello to we miss, but we try. Fourthly, it is a natural part of who we are as a Community. It is not somethign we put on, or work at, it is not that different from what you would experience in other places and gatherings of the Uncut Project.

And then I had an interesting thought. Church should be a place that welcomes people in. Members of the church should know that the Church, using an old cliché, should exist for non-members. And therein lies two problems, if I may be so bold: some churches are not very good at communicating this and so they become a ‘holy huddle’ looking inwards. Other churches are good at communicating the need to reach out and be a priesthood to the world that God creates and loves; but a lot of people don’t want to invite friends to their church. So I thought it might be worth asking why that is. So perhaps I will one day soon.

As for us? We could improve on both counts, but I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit is shaping us and changing us into a community of radical hospitality which proclaims God’s kingdom in word and actions.

(Thanks to Dave Walker for the image which I used without asking.)

The Social Network and Where We get our Sense of Identity

(Resound Design) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I finally got to see the movie, ‘The Social Network’ last week. I liked it a lot. It’s the story of the creator of Facebook, and how that website that most of us can’t remember a time when it didn’t exist, came about.

One of the reasons that I liked it is that it made me think of how we identify ourselves in all kinds of ways. When I was growing up, perhaps because we had little money, perhaps because my parents were keen on recycling, or perhaps because they knew how quickly I wore holes in my trousers (pick whichever one is least offensive to my parents), most of my clothes came from a charity shop. I still remember regular trips to Oxfam to get me some more jeans, and my hoping that someone had inexplicably donated some Levi 501s that were in good condition and in my size. (You also have to remember that this was before Tescos clothes or Primark – back in those days you actually had to pay how much the clothes had cost to make. And, because they were largely made in western countries, and people refused to work for 18 hours a day for a bowl of rice, clothes were expensive.)

What this meant was that I think as a teenager I unconsciously sought to get my identity from somewhere else other than the things that I owned. This was because I didn’t own much and what I did wasn’t that good. This was a great lesson for me, which I soon forgot.

Having a beard for the past twelve months (and for six months it being unusually large) has been a similar experience. If Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp want a silly beard they get away with and still look acceptable, if somewhat eccentric, to most women. I don’t have the kudos of those two though. I often feel a little apologetic about the way that I look. So if I did get my sense of identity from how I look that then my identity would probably be something other than that which I might like. So another good lesson learnt, but one that I have no doubt I will soon forget.

We can focus on what we own, or what we look like, or how much power we have and how respected we are, or how much money we have (or it can be the negative of all those things – how much money we don’t have, etc.)

So, as I was watching the film of how the youngest billionaire came to be a billionaire, I was reminded of something Pope John XXIII was alleged to have said, “Strive to be unknown.”

Nowadays I think I tend to get my sense of identity from how much I know. This is not always helpful either and reminds me of a quote by Jesus. ‘…whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’

Advent and Harry's Beard

(Resound Design) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

For the last twelve months I have been growing a beard.

The intention was not to shave or trim at all in this period, but having started at the end of November with a clean shave, I had a wedding to do in March and decided that I needed to trim the sides in order that I look a little presentable and not ruin my friends wedding photos.

But the hair growing out of my chin has not been trimmed for almost twelve months.

Someone said the other day, ‘Harry’s beard is so crazy! I feel sorry for Zoey.’ Lots of people wonder why; when I try and comb it I wonder why.

It all began as we approached Advent in 2009. Advent is the time of the year where the church looks forward to Jesus coming into the world. It is normally the time when you get an Advent calendar from the shops with barely edible chocolate shapes hidden behind cardboard doors. This chocolate delight takes the shape of things like Father Christmas or a reindeer; rarely do small children pause and consider the symbolism of eating a chocolate man with a big beard and a lapsed health regime.

Advent used to be what the church called a penitentiary season. This means a time of the year when we are particularly aware of our need for Jesus. This would be marked by an acute awareness of our sinful nature and perhaps even some kind of self-discipline – like giving up eating chocolate Father Christmases for example. In Advent the church also often reads Revelation, the last book of the Bible. This helps us remember that Christmas is when Jesus came into he world, that Jesus will come again, and that this future hope invades the present and gives us a hope today. There ought not be parties in Advent, we should wait until Jesus does arrive on Christmas morning before we break our fasts.

So last Advent I decided to fast alcohol. But then I decided to do it for a year because I wanted to tell anyone who asked me about my silly facial hair that as a general rule of thumb people in the western world rely too much on alcohol – to help them forget, to help them relax, to help hide the shame, to help them be someone who they really aren’t.

In the Bible there is something called a Nazarite vow. It basically involves not shaving or drinking alcohol for a year. You can read about it in Numbers 6:1-21. So I decided to mark Advent by not drinking or shaving for a year.

The vow runs out soon, and I will have a shave. But on the day that the vow runs out Advent starts again, and so for Advent I am giving up alcohol again. The reason for this is that I want Christmas to be a real party. I want to get ready for Jesus coming into my life in a fresh way, and I want to celebrate his arrival.

At the same time, once Advent begins, I will begin another year long fast. This time I will not buy anything which I don’t need. I have to do some work on defining need here, but I am convinced and convicted that it is not good that some in the western world get richer and the poor get poorer. I am also convinced that it is not good that more and more we define our identity by the things that we own or the things that we don’t own. I am not buying that anymore.

But some of that is the topic of another discussion…

Why do we have sermons?

(Resound Design) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

10^th October 2010, The Anvil

This is the last in a sermon series that we have been having about various aspects of church and why we do them. In the series we have considered why we gather as church, why we sing songs, why we do Communion; and now, having sat through all those sermons, we will be looking at why do we have sermons.

Our reading this evening is a sermon in the Bible. (Acts 2:14-41)

What surprises me about this sermon is that it worked. Sermons in general don’t seem to work that well. That sounds like a scary admission to make, and if I think that is true why do I bother preaching sermons? Good question. The fact is that in a week, especially when you consider Root Group, Youth Alpha, my Co-Motion, reading commentaries so I can send a Bible text-out most days, and other things I may have been invited to, I spend the majority of my time writing sermons. And I think that is right, I believe it is important. But I am all too aware of the reality – that when I look out on a Sunday evening some people don’t hold the sermon in as high regard as I do, mobile phones and what their neighbour has to say is more important.

Sermons are also almost instantly forgettable. If I asked you what the sermon was about at Food Church you might remember: Justice. Some of you might even remember some of the content – the fact that I wondered if there was difference between fairness and justice, and then spoke about how the people of Israel were oppressed and then became oppressors. But if I asked you what I preached on the week before you might struggle – it was Communion. You might remember because most of us were sat at the front of church nibbling bread whilst I preached. And the sermon looked at confession, the Eucharistic prayer, and then the bread and wine. But you may not remember sermons that stretch further back than that.

Of course there are exceptions. Some of us will have heard a sermon that we will never forget. Mine was on a youth residential a bit like Houseparty. The sermon was not particularly brilliant, it was about how God knew us before we were born. I think that for the first time I kind of knew that God loved me and that I wanted to live for him.

And so, in an analogy that you will have heard me use before, sermons are a little but like meals. Some of them we never forget. I remember a meal that Zoey and I had whilst on honeymoon with some friends in Rome. But most meals we forget about; I can’t remember what I had for dinner 3 nights ago, but I am glad that I ate it otherwise I would be hungry. So sermons might not always be memorable, but somehow they shape us.

Peter has a tough task for his sermon. He has to persuade a lot of people who think that he is very weird, because he has just been speaking in tongues, and who are Jewish and therefore believe that there is just one God in heaven, that a human being who was crucified by the Romans a few weeks ago was in fact God. And that Jesus is now alive again and with God in heaven. Not an easy task. Peter does well, he speaks a language the Jews understand, using their own scriptures to make the point he is trying to make. However, so many people respond, that there must have been more than that…it is like there is more power in the words that Peter says than the words themselves and more presence in what is being said than could happen by the skilful crafting of the sermon by Peter…and that leads me to my first point:

1. News from beyond us needs delivering aloud and face to face.

Not the snappiest point I have ever come up with, but here’s the vibez: Romans 10:14-17 says,

‘But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.’

For some reason spoken word is important, hearing things prompts faith. Peter had a word from outside – this was not something that he had made up, it was Good News form God, And that Good News is so important it needs to be spoken out., and it needs to be done face-to-face, because the Holy Spirit in Peter was part of the message. I think there were a number of things which made Peter’s sermon work, and a number of reasons why sermons are important, but a key one is the fact that the Holy Spirit inspired Peter. A sermon is more than words, it is the Word of God which inspires faith.

Why is that? I am not really sure, it is just the way that God works. In fact it is the way that God has always worked. If you read Genesis 1 verse 3 God speaks and the world literally comes about from the word that he speaks.

Knowing that should make the next bit obvious, but I guess it isn’t. There is a Hebrew word, it is dabar, it means word. But it also means events or deeds. Dabar means word-event, or event-words.

What is the significance of this? It means that when we speak the word of God it opens up new possibilities. It speaks of potential; it speaks of the way that God wants things to be. The description and speaking out of the way that God wants things to be creates opportunities. I am not meaning in the individualistic sense like we say something and God has to give us something or do something for us. That is not what God is about. I mean in the sense of changing the world.

Perhaps we have never thought of a sermon like that before, but if we believe, if we have faith, if we act, it can bring about God’s kingdom.

A good recent example of this is the trip I went on to India. I stood up in front of a room of Indian pastors – about 120 – and spoke a couple of times. No one fell over, there were not tongues of fire, nothing dramatic happened.

But in the past few years hundreds and hundreds of people in that area have been baptised. Not like baptised so they can go to the local church school, baptised as in renouncing their past, turning to God, running the risk of being persecuted by extremist Hindu’s and being disowned by their families because they have turned to Christ. Someone turns up, speaks the world of God in the power of the Spirit and deeds and events take place – that’s dabar.

You can see that in Jesus’ sermon in Luke’s Gospel when he preaches in Luke 4. And anyone who thinks going to church and hearing sermons is not important: pay attention to what Jesus does. He goes to the synagogue as was his custom. In other words every week he went to join a community of people in their worship of God. It mattered to Jesus.

Then, and as part of the worship that was going on, not just randomly, he preaches a sermon. This sermon has authority. Jesus knew his Scripture, he knows what they mean and how to handle them – he doesn’t just make this up on the spot.

And thirdly, he, like Peter, is empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach. That is why he says, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in our hearing.’ Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God is here now, these aren’t just words, they are God’s words, full of the Spirit of God, they are deeds, they shape and change the world.

And the thing that happens here is my final point.

2. Prophetic preaching

Jesus is preaching prophetically.

Amos 3:8 says,

‘The lion has roared—
       who will not fear?
       The Sovereign LORD has spoken—
       who can but prophesy?”

God has spoken to Jesus just like God spoke to the other prophets, and Jesus is compelled to preach. Prophetic sermons should be about understanding what is going on in the world and then interpreting and critiquing that according to God’s will.

Because of this preaching speaks to situations and powers which set themselves up against the Kingdom of God, and this is important. God’s word is action, and so when we preach and respond things happen.

In Ephesians we are told,

For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

When a sermon is preached in the power of the Spirit – and that by the way does not mean that it has to be interesting, it doesn’t mean that it has to be funny, it is not the same as a sermon being entertaining. When the prophets spoke to the nation of Israel and pronounced judgement on them because of their sin, they didn’t think, ‘That was a great sermon, I loved that personal anecdote you used – very funny. You should make some DVDs and see if you can sell them in Christian Bookshops.”

When a sermon is preached in the power of the Spirit, and when people listen – which is not the same as sitting in a room and hearing someone at the front say some stuff, it means actually listening, thinking about what it might mean for us, getting ready with a notepad because we are pretty sure that God is going to speak to us. Going home and writing a poem about it, praying a prayer, whatever.

When a sermon is preached in the power of the Spirit, and when people listen then their faith grows and a community of God grows. And that community speaks out and lives out against the rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world. And yes I do mean the devil, and as the kingdom of God grows, Satan retreats and gets mad, and the world becomes that which God wants it to be. But I also mean that media retreats, that drug use retreats, that injustice retreats, that bullying retreats, I mean that alcohol abuse retreats.

And that is prophetic preaching. I don’t have a beard because it is fun. I have a beard because I believe in prophetic preaching and so I have vowed to not drink alcohol for a year. Now in moderation there is nothing wrong with a nice glass of wine or a cool beer. But we live in a country where alcohol costs the NHS alone £2.7 billion in costs, alcohol related deaths have increased by 20% since 2001 and doubled since 1991, where 24% of adults, that is almost one in four, are classed as hazardous drinkers,.

We need prophetic preaching that declares an alternative reality to what is, after all, drug dependency albeit a legal drug. Yet in the church there are people who drink too much. More worryingly there are people, maybe some here, who go out in order to get drunk, that is there prime focus. We call is things like ‘letting our hair down’ and it has become so familiar a sin – because in the Bible we are expressly told not to get drunk – that we aren’t in much of a position to declare an alternate reality.

So prophetic preaching declares a counter-future, it says this is not the way that things should be. And so our sermons need to not be too influenced by culture, they need to proclaim that counter-culture as God’s reality.

Just as when we pray we need to be ready to become the answer to that prayer, so do when the dabar of God is declared that we need to be ready to live out that counter reality, for our lives to reflect the sermon.

Now if a sermon was my clever words that would be an outrageous thing to say – you should live as I say. But if a sermon is prophetic, if it is dabar, if it is the word of God, then sermons become important. Much more important than whether they are entertaining or not, more important than hearing this funny thing that happened to me the other day, more important than my personality and charisma shining thorough, more important than not offending anyone who might be gathered to hear.

It gives life and creates.

So what are the issues we should be speaking out on? What are the sermons that we should be living?

I hope our words will be deeds, and that we will be counter-cultural, set apart, living prophetic lives. Amen.

To respond, think of the sermons we need to be and write them down on a piece of paper. These are not sermons I should preach, these are sermons we should live.

Hezekiah, Faith, and When Things Go Wrong: 2 Kings 18:13-14

(Resound Design) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

2 Kings 18:13-14

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me."

Hezekiah was one of the greatest kings in Judah. Well, let’s be honest here, if you were playing ‘Kings of Israel and Judah Top Trumps’, then the only one likely to beat Hezekiah is King David.

We are told in 2 Kings 18:3 that Hezekiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord – more so than any other king. Hezekiah stopped all the worship of gods going on at the high places; and the bronze snake that Moses had made - which had started out as a good thing and then had turned into an object of worship - he also destroyed. Only David and Hezekiah were said to be successful in war, to have defeated the Philistines. In short this guy was a good king. The main thing we are told about Hezekiah is that he clung to the Lord. This verb 'to cling' is the same verb that is found in Genesis 2:24 to describe how man should cling to his wife.

All this is building somewhere, there is a lesson to be learnt. If you cling to God, if you have faith, and if you obey God, then life goes well with you. Everyone will like you, you will like yourself, birds will sing, and stuff will be good. Nice.

But chapter 18 of 2 Kings carries on… As Dale Ralph Davis said,

2 Kings 18…tells you that you can be a king who trusts and obeys Yahweh and who reforms the nation’s worship and yet your enemy may come and crush your land, deport its population, and await the moment when he can impale the king’s carcass on a stake outside the city wall. It’s helpful to faith to know that.

Some people have the idea that faith means everything is fine and that as long as you clutch on to the rabbit’s foot of your faith (except it is less tangible than a rabbit's foot) ,then nothing bad can happen. If you belive that and then something bad does happen (and it probably will), then your faith tends to fail you.

You have to have faith that God is with you in the midst of difficult times. But believeing this throws up all kinds of questions, mainly, why doesn’t God do something about these difficulties? And so we end up back at Sunday school, we’re sure the answer is Jesus; it is just that sometimes that answer feels more comfortable than at other times. Welcome to a life of faith.

There is one more thing to learn from 2 Kings 18. The King of Assyria, who was called Sennacherib, imposed a tribute on Hezekiah. Hezekiah had to pay a sum of money every year to Sennacherib if he wanted to be left alone. But then Assyria attacked anyway: never trust an Assyrian king called Sennacherib.

Church: Why Communion?

(Resound Design) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

26^th September 2010, The Anvil

This evening we are asking the question of why do we have a monthly Communion service. I wanted to ask this question especially today as many churches up and down the country do this thing called “Back to Church Sunday”. This is a once a year special service, which we basically do once a month when we do ‘Food Church’. So as we think about ways of making church relevant to people who may not normally come to church and what church might look like, we come to the issue of Communion. Communion is when we gather around a big table together, say some words, and then each of us who want to, or in some churches only those who are allowed to, eat a little bit of bread and drink a little bit of wine. Usually it is just enough to make you hungry or thirsty, but not enough for much else. Why do we do this?

The brief answer to that question is we do it because Jesus told us to.

We are surrounded by endless choice and innumerable ways for us to express ourselves, how we feel and who we are. From the music that we carefully chose to put on our iPod, to our purposefully chosen public self that we put on Facebook – making sure that the photo we use is the one in which we look the best/most alternative/most sexy to our status updates which show just unique and in the know we are.

So when something happens in church you can be sure that we have an opinion on it. Why do we do five songs and not three? Why do we only do three songs when we should have five? 'That’s not the way we would do things if we were making the decisions,' we say.

If I were in charge it wouldn’t look the way it does either. We would all have big glasses, converse shoes, and be listening to the Animal Collective. And we would all have beards…including the women. Although if we all had big glasses and listened to my music it is unlikely that there would be many women around. Thank God I am not in charge and that this is Jesus’ church. So however much we are used to making choices, creating playlists, expressing our individuality on Facebook, the church is a place where we don’t always get things the way that we want them. And so we do Communion because Jesus tells us to do it. But what happens if we obey God in that particular way?

I’d like to talk about three things which make up a Communion service and say why I think it is important that we do them.

1. Confession

Usually, as part of a Communion service, at some point and in some way we will confess our sins. The reason we do this is because sin should offend us. We should see it for what it is – something which potentially stops us from knowing and being known by the holy and eternal God. Missing out on being known by God forever has a special abbreviated and theological word to describe it, a word that is sometimes misunderstood: hell. Parts of Bible refer to hell as unending lakes of fire – this is allegorical and poetic talk. There aren’t any words that could describe how painful it will be to miss out on being known by God forever – existence will cease because God is the source of life and if we are removed from that source we have no life.

And so sin is serious.

But we forget, we get used to it. At first sin is a stranger in our house, it feels strange, unwelcome. Before long sin has moved into the spare bedroom and begins to dictate the things we do and the places we see. Stuff that used to offend us we have learnt to live with.

And so confession reminds us of our need for God, it rings a bell for us and points out that sin should not have its feet under our table. It is hard for us to confess a need, a need for forgiveness, a need for closeness and intimacy, a need for a hug from God. A need for us to have the shame or guilt taken from us.

So confession is not something to rush through, to not think about. It is not just a bit of time thinking and talking to God that we have to do before we can get back to singing the bouncy songs. But nor is it a time to dwell on hang-ups and failures. It is not a time to look around at everyone else who needs to confess and feel good about ourselves. Nor is it just the end of our sin and sense of shame, it is the beginning of new life in Christ. Each time we confess is a reminder of our baptism: our old self being washed away, everything else becoming new.

Let God investigate your life and bring to light the parts that need to change. In forgiveness we find life and freedom.

2. Eucharistic prayer

Another key aspect of the Communion service is the prayer which happens before we eat the bread and drink the wine. The reason for the prayer is a little like the reason for doing Communion at all – Jesus did it that way, so it seems like a good idea for us to do it that way to. When Jesus had the first Communion with his disciples he said a prayer. The prayer showed that this was not just eating normal food, but that they were about to eat spiritual food together.

The prayers and the words that Jesus said were a little like the words used at the Jewish festival of Passover when the Jewish people celebrated their escape from Egypt. The meal was more than a celebration of what happened in the past, it was a way that they participated in the past, the y remembered, but also shared in that moment. Jesus saw the importance of food and he saw the importance of worship. But combining the two was not a new idea; it was something that God had commanded long ago.

And that is why we say the prayer. It is a serious moment.

Now I know that liturgy can be boring, it can be routine, it can become so familiar that we stop noticing the words that we say. But in the words we come to know God. They become a part of who we are, they shape us.

So for 2,000 years the church has prayed more or less the same prayer. We might think that it is about time that we changed it then, or we might think that it is good that we base the words as much as possible on the words that Jesus prayed.

The prayer before we take the bread and the wine is important, because regardless about how we feel, God acts, and the bread and wine becomes something more than bread and wine.

3. Bread and wine

And that brings us to the third aspect of a Communion service that I would like to discuss this evening: the bread and the wine.

Jesus took these ordinary things, and God, in his grace, gives them extraordinary meaning. Some people believe that when we pray the Eucharistic prayer the bread and the wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus. These people are very careful about what happens to the crumbs of the bread, in case they drop a little of Jesus’ body on the floor. I don’t believe that, but I do believe that we meet the real presence of Jesus through sharing the bread and the wine – it is still bread and wine, but in faith we can meet with Jesus.

So eating a little bread, and drinking a little wine is something that the world doesn’t do. If you come to church for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, then it can seem strange and not of this world. Which is good, because it isn’t like anything in this world. It is good that our worship reminds us that the world is not the way that God intends us to be, that the church is called to shape and challenge the world. And that is why we take bread and wine on a regular occasion.

As we do that, as we eat the bread and drink the wine we might not feel anything. Despite the fact that it is spiritual food, we might not always feel like we have met with Jesus. Perhaps you have never felt you met with Jesus when you have taken Communion.

But we should still obey Jesus even if we don’t feel anything. Should we trust our feelings over the word of Jesus Christ? God is truer than how we feel, and we can meet with God at Communion even if we don’t feel anything. (Our feelings are still important though.)

And as we eat the bread we remind ourselves that the same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in us; we remember that Christ has called us to go and be Jesus to the world. As we eat the body of Christ we remind ourselves we are the Body of Christ, we remind ourselves we need to become like Jesus, to be in the image of God.

And as we drink the wine, in the words of one of my favourite worship songs, ‘we want the blood of Christ to be flowing through our bodies’ because we want to be like Jesus, to share in his death and resurrection, to do the things that Jesus did ("Dry Bones' by John Mark McMillan)

Communion has a lot of different churchy names. Communion, Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, even Mass. One of the names that Communion used to be called is the Viaticum. That is the Latin word used for provisions – the claok, the food, the money – a Roman magistrate needed when he went on an official journey. And the bread and wine is what we need for the journey in life: it is spiritual food. (Thanks to Lauren Winner, Girl Meets God for this thought).

When we eat and drink we reach the end of the spiritual meal, and we begin new life in Christ.

Relevant or Counter-cultural?: Acts 15:1-2

(Resound Design) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 15:1-2

Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them.....

We have heard of the way that the Gospel has spread to the non-Jews, how the Holy Spirit led Paul and Barnabas to preach both in the synagogue and to pagans. We have heard of the success of this mission and how well things were going…but there was trouble back in Jerusalem. There were some people who were worried about how these new converts would fit into the community of believers. Who would change the most, the community or the new believers?

It is hard to be an exciting and vibrant church without there being some frank discussion (arguments). It is hard to be an exciting and vibrant church if there are frank discussions. Every time you try to do somethng new, someone comes up with a plethora of reasons as to why it shouldn't be allowed or can't be done.

It might be a question of tradition again. Some of the Jeruslaem delegation wanted the gentiles ot be circumcised. We might hear what they are not saying. No one is saying that mission shouldn’t be to the Gentiles, non-Jews and pagans, just that if they have faith they should get circumcised in the same way that all the Jewish people did, including the Jewish Messiah Jesus.

When we seek to make the Gospel relevant and accesible to the people we are trying to reach how far is too far, and how much should church be different, challenging, a prophetic voice to the world that God wants to redeem? I’m not going to answer, I just thought I would ask the question again...the church has been asking it for thousands of years, and it is always worth revisiting.

God carriers and the perils of power: Acts 14:11 and 14

(Resound Design) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 14:11 and 14

‘When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!"But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes...’

Paul heals someone and the crowds all of a sudden think that they are Greek gods. Paul and Barnabas are not gods and they are not happy to be called gods. I get unhappy sometimes, but I don’t usually express this by ripping my clothes off and running around; not that the idea isn’t appealing: it would show people that I was really, really unhappy.

Paul and Barnabas are not gods, but messengers of the Gospel. They bring the Good News in word and action. They reveal God to the world. The ultimate revelation of God to the world was in the human person of Jesus Christ. Everyone knows that if you think too long about God becoming human, dying, and coming back to life - being human and God at the same time - you soon realise that you are facing a profound mystery that is too big for us to wrap our heads around. Next God reveals himself in the world through you and I, imperfect humans, which is, even more difficult to understand than God becoming human and living and dying.

What are the implications of the fact that God has chosen you and I to reveal him to the world?

In a connected matter there are lots of things happen in church (and all other areas of life) for reasons that we sometimes forget, or sometimes misunderstand. Some people call this tradition. Some recognise that good tradition is the living faith of the dead - vibrant, real, meaningful, and that bad tradition is the dead faith of the living - empty actions which have no meaning or purpose. Therefore, it is a bit simplistic to label all the things that we do through routine but have forgotten the meaning of as ‘tradition’.

There was once a tradition in the church that the priest who presided at Communion would stand with his back to the congregation as he led the prayer. Some people like this tradition but most of us would find it rude if we went for a meal at someone’s house and they talked to us whilst facing away from us. The reason for the tradition was (so I heard) that in doing this the priest showed that he represented the people before God; he stood in front of the congregation (with his back to them) and faced God. This is not the same as a priest representing Jesus to the people.

We are all Christians (little christs), and we all represent God to the world. Are we all priests? Yes. Should we represent God to the world? Yes. Should we represent the world before God? An interesting question...

Like Paul and Barnabas we have power, we are Jesus’ disciples. But power can be misunderstood, both by the people who see it in action and those who use it (and those who use it can misuse it). Like a tradition, even if it is good its meaning is not always clear. So what does it mean to be powerful, but to not grasp on to and misuse power, but instead to serve the people? The answer to that brings us right back to Jesus. So we have the awesome task of being Jesus in the world. Perhaps the hardest part of that is not being powerful or famous, but serving and striving to be unknown.

To the ends of the earth Acts 13:13-14

(Resound Design) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 13:13-14

‘From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath they entered the synagogue and sat down.’

There are lots of complicated places named here, and if we struggle to pronounce them, it is even more difficult for us to point them out on a map. What we can be sure of is that Paul and Barnabas went a long way - to travel to Pisidian Antioch was a journey a third of the way across Asia Minor. In fact it has been estimated that all in all Paul would have travelled ten thousand miles on his various missionary journeys.

Once they get to Antioch Paul and Barnabas attend a synagogue service and Paul is invited to speak. Paul tells the assembled Jews that Jesus is a descendent of David, that the teachers of Israel did not recognise him for who he was as revealed through the words of their own prophets, and so they had him killed. However the death of Jesus, and more importantly his subsequent resurrection from the dead, proved that Jesus is the Messiah. His death showed him to be a willing servant of his Father God, and his resurrection is an act of God toward humanity, showing us that life is not futile and that salvation is here and now. This also means that forgiveness is offered now.

Paul then warns the congregation of this synagogue to take heed of this message (verse 41). Paul knows that this salvation is for everyone, but he doesn’t want the Jewish people to miss out. Paul and Barnabas have already been to Paphos (Acts 13:6-12) and have proclaimed the Gospel to pagans. Now their mission to preach the Gospel takes them to the synagogue where they demonstrate the Gospel in a very different way. It doesn’t matter where they are, they will find a way to share with others the life that Christ brings.

Our identity as followers of Christ Acts 10.13-14

(Resound Design) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A text message long blog entry today...

Acts 10.13-14

‘Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."’

Peter is a devout Jew who obeys the food laws. This might seem strange to us, but for Peter & fellow Jews it was a way of identifying themselves as God’s people, standing out in the Roman culture they lived in. This is why Peter is so confused by the vision that God gives him.

In the next few verses we find the full significance of what God has asked Peter to do, but for now we are left wondering what it is that make us stand out as followers of Jesus, and what is God calling us to do and be?

A Helpful Gazelle Acts 9:36-37

(Resound Design) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 9:36-37

In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas), who was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room.

Tabitha and Dorcas both mean Gazelle. Here we have a strange scene, which seems to interrupt the story of Saul’s conversion and subsequent ministry. It is the story of Gazelle using her gifts to practically help the poor. In the first century the poor were often women, a result of the fact that they were denied status in society. Women who had no male figures in their life to gain for them security were very poor, so widows were often forgotten about.

Tabitha is a disciple. This use of the word here is the only time in the whole of the New Testament that the word ‘disciple’ is used in the feminine form. This female disciple, like the others, is given life, energy, ideas, and direction by the Holy Spirit. She moves from the place that the world might say she should be, to the place that God calls her. She runs a welfare charity for the poorest in society.

But then she dies, and the world seems to have a stronger case as to where she should be. But Peter prays a courageous prayer, the widows need Tabitha, and through the death of Christ death has been undone. We could ask questions about raising people form the dead, we could wonder if the same can happen today. But we should first reflect on the power of God which allows us to leave the places that we should be. Tabitha may be a woman, but she can help the widows, Peter may be a fisherman, but he can appeal to Christ and raise the dead.

Tradition and Experience Acts 9:26-27

(Resound Design) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 9:26-27

‘When [Saul] had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles , and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus.’

Saul’s conversion means he has to do something, and he starts straight away. He begins teaching, convincingly, that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. The apostles (the original eleven disciples of Jesus, plus Matthias who had been chosen to replace Judas) and other followers of Jesus are understandably a little nervous about what is going on. Saul spent a lot of time and effort persecuting followers of Jesus, and now he is spending a lot of time and effort trying to convince others to become followers of Jesus.

Saul finds himself between a rock and a hard place: the disciples are nervous of him, the Jewish authorities would like to see him dead in much the same way that he used to want to see followers of Jesus dead. Some of the disciples are on Saul’s side, and they help him escape Jerusalem by lowering him outside of the walls in a basket.

One of the disciples who knows Saul and his conversion experience is Barnabas. He clearly thinks that this is a bit of a ludicrous state of affairs, and decides that the apostles should meet Saul. Why? Paul has met the Risen Lord in a dramatic vision which has changed his whole life. Why does he need to meet the traditional twelve apostles in Jerusalem, does he need some kind of validation from them? Why doesn't he just press on with what he is doing, celebrate the results that he is seeing, and keep an eye out for those Jewish authorities who are trying to kill him. Let the apostles in Jerusalem do their own thing...

The bottom line is that the twelve recognised the importance of tradition, of making sure that the teachings of Jesus were passed on and lived out with authenticity, and in the power of the Spirit. And Saul seems to recognise the importance of that tradition given that he agrees to go and meet the apostles rather than just going off to do his own thing.

A gut reaction might be to think that if Jesus had called Saul then he did not need a load of men to tell him he was doing the right thing. But Jesus had also called those men. The Holy Spirit does have a role to play in authority, and maybe, although this might be stretching it too far for some of us, the Holy Spirit has a role to play in institutions. If we think that is not true is that for the right reasons, or because we are products of an individualistic society which mistrusts authority and places a high emphasis on personal emotions and experience? For Luke, who recounts this story, it appears both experience and tradition are important. There is a synergy between them, and both are necessary.

I have seen traditional churches that function without the Holy Spirit and which refuse to share in the life-giving experience that the Spirit brings to local church communities around the world. I have also seen Spirit-filled churches which self-confidently declare in their worship and proclamation that their experience, which is discontinuous to two thousand years of church tradition, is the one true expression of Christ's church on earth. I am not sure which is worse...

A Dramatic Conversion? Acts 9:3-4

(Resound Design) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 9:3-4

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

One of the things which most strikes me about Saul’s conversion, of which we read the first stages of here, is that he knew just what he was doing.

Conversion for Saul didn’t mean he had to change certain aspects of his behaviour - he was already a devout Jew obeying the Law very closely. Conversion for Saul meant acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord. That would result in a lot of things, but one very real consequence for Saul would be the fact that his old colleagues with whom he had imprisoned and even condoned the killing of Christians, would now be after him ( Acts 8:2-3 ) It would take a lot of faith to persuade Saul that he should worship Jesus as God.

Saul’s conversion happens just before an other dramatic conversion - dramatic for different reasons - that of the Roman Centurion, and just after the dramatic conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. Perhaps Luke is trying to tell us something.

Not everyone who was with Saul experienced what he experienced. They heard something, but didn’t see anything. And although Saul’s life will never be the same, those around him apparently remain relatively unaffected. And that causes me to ask the most difficult of questions, why Saul and why not the others? Did Saul deserve this singling out by Jesus, or had his companions done something particularly wrong which meant that they weren’t allowed to hear from Jesus? If grace and mercy break in so dramatically into someone’s life, why not in someone else’s life?

Perhaps part of the answer to that is the fact that Saul had witnessed the stoning of Stephen and heard his final words. Maybe Saul, who was so earnest in his pursuit of God that he tried to destroy these things which he perceived had set themselves up against God, began to wonder at the words of Stephen, perhaps open his heart to the possibility that Jesus really was God’s Son. If I can’t be sure of that, I am sure that God had good intentions for Saul and his companions on that road to Damascus that day, God loves the whole world.

A Servant of the Spirit: Acts 8:36 and 38

(Resound Design) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 8:36 & 38

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?"And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.

Sometimes God asks us to to do strange things. Like a mad dog or an English man, Philip is asked by an angel of Lord to travel down a desert road at noon.

We might wonder who is in charge here. Philip obeys the angel without saying a word, he preaches the gospel on the request of the Ethiopian, and, once the episode is finished Philip disappears and reappears in Azotus.

Who was the Ethiopian Eunuch? Popular opinion is that, as an attendant of the Ethiopian queen, he would have been castrated to remove the possibility of being sexually inappropriate. This castration would have meant that he would not have been able to enter the Temple in Jerusalem according to the regulations in Deuteronomy 23:1 . This is not necessarily the case, although the Eunuch would certainly have been an important man, an advisor to the queen, perhaps a Jew or someone interested in the faith of the Jewish people. He was, however, unable to get to grips with the prophecies of Isaiah.

The Ethiopian listens to the explanation of Philip, and responds to the message that is preached, wanting to know what is hindering him from being baptized immediately?

The assumption is that the gospel is available for all with no qualification. The Eunuch has already proven that he does not understand everything, and even after Philip’s sermon (and what did he preach? what did he consider to be the core message of the gospel?), there would still be a great deal that he does not know. However, baptism is available for all who know enough that they want to respond to Jesus Christ.

Philip, we should remember, is a servant in all this: it is the prompting of the Holy Spirit that resulted in the Ethiopian asking to be baptized. Baptism is not something that Philip can claim as a demonstration of his own power and influence. The Spirit has led him here, he has been able to share the gospel when asked, and then the Spirit prompted the Ethiopian to respond in a public way.

Where might the Spirit be leading us, and are we ready for the request for response of those who come from a long way off our own places of worship? And are we humble enough to get out of the places we think we should be and the things we think we ought to do, and go to the places that God wants us to be and serve the needs of the people we find there?

Dangerous Faith - Acts 8:1-2

(Resound Design) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 8:1-2

‘On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.’

This section of the Book of Acts is the final act in the death of the first martyr for Jesus Christ. Stephen has made a long speech which basically outlines the failures of the nation of Israel in their call to live as God’s people. As he finishes his speech Stephen sees a vision of heaven, where the Son of Man, Jesus, is seated at God’s right hand.

Stephen was originally arrested and told to give an account on charges of blasphemy. As he describes seeing Jesus at God’s right hand the crowd who have ‘arrested’ him are left with a decision. If Stephen is right then they too must live for Jesus because living for God means living for Jesus. If they decide Stephen is wrong, then this really is blaspheme. The crowd are forced to make a decision, it is them who stand accused.

They make their decision, and in a fit of rage, they, who under Roman rule have no real power to execute someone, rush to stone Stephen to death. Stephen goes the way of his master Jesus Christ, and we are reminded that his death, like Jesus’, involves spiritual forces too. The angry mob lay cloaks at the feet of Saul who is heavily involved firstly in the stratagem against the advancement of the kingdom of God before his dramatic conversion.

Stephen’s death seems alien to those who know the privilege of being Christian in the western world. Even as western society becomes increasingly post-Christian, stories of dying for one’s faith seem foreign. In our society where faith is marginalized it might be understood of why we might die for a good cause, but not faith.

Stephen knew his life belonged to God, so Stephen did not take his life, but he was prepared to give it. Everyday we make decisions based on the fact that we are followers of Jesus Christ, are those decisions based the fact that we have given our lives to God? Because if we don’t sometimes stand out and look different because of our faith it may be that we are not following Christ closely enough.

The power of a sermon - Acts 2:22

(Resound Design) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 2:22

People of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

The thing that always surprises me about this is that the sermon ‘worked’.

I preach a lot of sermons and am acutely aware of the need to have good content, to deliver it well, and to consider the question of what are the congregation actually hearing, because it may not be the same thing that I think I am saying. I am also aware of kinesthetic learning, of a desire for intuitive and interactive ways of learning and growing as disciples (which means growing in love not just growing in knowledge). And despite of this desire for a more post-modern approach to learning in church I am aware of the theological importance of the spoken word. After all it was the word which brought creation into being.

And considering all of these things I am aware that a very few sermons are memorable, and others are almost instantly forgettable (but this doesn’t mean that they aren’t useful); oftentimes the same sermon can be forgettable and memorable depending on the listener. All of these considerations need to take into account two thousand years of church tradition and history which is throwing its weight behind each one of the sermons I preach.

And then Peter stands up with no history or tradition and tries to convince a crowd of Jewish people whose rich tradition of monotheism might have persuaded them otherwise, that a human being called Jesus is God, and that despite the fact that he had been killed he is now alive and sitting next to God in heaven. A lot of people listened to the sermon and believed and responded. This was in part because of the way Peter shaped it: he referred to Jewish tradition, the prophecy of Joel, to show that what was happening was supposed to happen.

But there must have been more than that. A word from outside, an ‘external word’ (what Luther called externum verbum), a power that no one gathered there could have mustered up themselves: A kind of word that could create worlds. So it was the Holy Spirit that made the difference.

That is the kind of word we need to pronounce. And every sermon should allude to that fact that we need this external word, because there is no way we can save ourselves...

A new church - Acts 2:2 and Psalm 127:1

(Resound Design) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 1:23-24

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.

The disciples have been told by Jesus to wait, and they are waiting. The activists and completer-finishers amongst them must have been having a torrid time. The introverts may well have been enjoying the stillness and quiet in the presence of God, but there would have been a group of people who were desperate to go out and do something.

The author of the classic childrens' book The Little Prince , Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said,

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

Like the disciples, if we want to see God’s will done, our first desire should be for God, not for organizations, programs, strategies to introduce people to God.

A new church leader - Acts 1:23-24

(Resound Design) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Acts 1:23-24

So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen...

The community of believers gather together to pray after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. It is an very Jewish community. There are 120 of them - this is the required number of people needed to form a synagogue with its own council. It also consists of twelve apostles who were sent on mission to Israel, and who would sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel...except it doesn’t.

Judas, after he betrayed Jesus became so overcome with guilt that he killed himself, and so it is necessary for the apostles to appoint someone to replace him. The book of the Acts of the Apostles begins with a betrayal by one of the Apostles. We are reminded that community of believers is fallible, that attack can come from those who have followed Christ.

The person to replace Judas must, according to Luke, fill the same criteria that the other apostles met. This is to say that they must be eyewitnesses to the events from Jesus’ baptism until he was taken up into heaven. Although these criteria would not include the Apostle Paul (presumably he wouldn’t agree with them then), they show luke’s concern for making sure that there is a faithful witness to the life and ministry of Jesus.

The new leader then must be qualified, but must also be chosen by God. This fledgling community needed a leader, and so the church today needs leadership - of course the nature of this leadership is much debated. In the next chapter the Holy Spirit is poured out on everybody meaning we are all chosen and all have qualifications to be leaders, but God still calls some to be servants (and leaders) of the leaders.

Flickering Pixels and Post-Christians

(Resound Design) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A recent read is the book by Shane Hipps called Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith . Although I am only part way through, it is proving to be a fascinating read, and one theory in particular stands out.

Hipps is influenced by the work of a professor of media and communication called Marshall McLuhan. This is the guy who came up with the expression “Global Village”. McLuhan firmly believed that the medium was the message. What that means is that we are as influenced by the way that we are told something as by what we are told.

Hipps comes up with a very interesting example of this based on the medium of the printed word. In the fifteenth century Johannes Gutenberg modified a wine press and made something which could print words. Up to this point books had to be written out by hand. This made them very expensive and very rare. Most people could not read, and had never seen a book.

This is why there are stained glass windows in churches. The pictures tell the story of who Jesus is, the miracles he performed, his life and death. In this way everyone could know about Jesus despite the fact that they did not have access to a Bible and could not read.

Hipps notes that once the printed word was invented it affected everything. He even points out that churches began to look like words printed on a page. Until then churches were big open spaces where people stood. There were no chairs and no pews. But then pews were introduced and people looked at the back of someone’s head in nice rows, in the same way that words were printed on the page in two neat coloumns (p.47).

But perhaps the biggest way that the medium of the printed word changed things was that it made the message more efficient. Stained glass windows told stories of the Bible: creation, the flood, Jesus’ miracles. These stories were open ended, expansive, non-linear. They drew you in, required imagination and were open to interpretation.

The printing press meant that the letters of Paul could now be communicated. Paul’s letters are complex and could not be communicated in stained glass - even the Apostle Peter had found them hard to understand (2 Peter 3:16). This basically resulted in two things. Firstly a simplification of the Gospel message. Hipps expresses this simplification as,

Apologize for your sins + Believe Jesus = Go to Heaven (p.48)

Secondly, it resulted in the growth of reasoning skills and academic study that Paul’s letters inspired. It was this that supported and allowed the Reformation.

Hipps talks about this medium of reasoning and intellectualism as ‘medium reversed’. The media of reasoning and intellectualism became ‘overextended’.

This led to the belief that the gospel could be established and received only through reason and fact. (p.49)

I guess the reason that I find this interesting is because a number of public figures are wading in on the Christianity verses New Atheism debate by denouncing their Christian faith. But this denouncement is expressed in terms of a frustration with what often seems like a Church which is too influenced by the media of reasoning and intellectualism. Me being me, most of my examples come from the world of music. The first is the ex-lead singer of the Christian rock group Tree63, John Ellis.

An article came out which had some impact on the church in South Africa. Perhaps it was overly influenced by the medium of journalism, and so John Ellis wrote about the article on his own blog. You get a strong sense that Ellis is disaffected with the culture and medium that is attached to the Gospel rather than the Gospel itself.

Another example is David Bazan.

From the literary world Anne Rice says,

...following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.

So, is the church doing something wrong? I guess that is the ‘conversation’ which is sometimes called Emerging Christianity. I personally can empathize with some of the views expressed by these people, but can also overlook some aspects of the church because I ultimately believe that no matter how broken or wrong the church is, it is a medium in itself, hopefully a medium of God’s grace.

The women and the resurrection - Luke 24:6-8

(Resound Design) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 24:6-8

‘He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” Then they remembered his words.’

The women in Jesus group of disciples are given a prominent role in Luke’s Gospel, and this is particularly true in the accounts of the finding of the empty tomb on Easter morning. The women were present at the crucifixion, and here ‘the women’ take the spices which have been prepared in advance in order to anoint the body of Jesus, in doing so they find the tomb empty and bump into two angels. It is the women who first have faith in the Risen Christ.

An empty tomb is not proof that Christ has risen. Faith is not something which can be proven, and therefore, much to the chagrin of secularists, is not something which can be defended. This raises all kinds of issues and debates, but it is worth noting that faith does not require one to disengage ones intellect; in fact, as we shall see, the opposite is true. Faith is something which is experienced, and so we feel the wounds in Christ’s hands and feet (Luke 24:39), and which makes sense of the world we live in.

In our reading this morning the angels are surprised to see the women approaching the tomb to find the dead body of Jesus (there must be some irony here - they can’t be that surprised otherwise why were they waiting for the women to go to the tomb?). They tell the women that the living is not to be found amongst the dead, and go on to explain how Jesus had described to them in Galilee the events that would unfold leading up to and beyond Jesus’ death.

The presumption that the women would know this information shows that they were in the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples. This is also demonstrated in Luke’s Gospel by their natural reaction to share the news with their fellow, male disciples. They do not feel obliged to go and share, they chose to.

What makes the women so eager to go and share? They have discovered the tomb of Jesus empty, they have been preached to by heavenly messengers, and they have recalled what Jesus said to them before his crucifixion. Their faith consists of what they see and know, miraculous events, and what seems right to their intellect. The conversations they had with Jesus make sense now.

The impossible happened - Luke 23:35

(Resound Design) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 23:35

‘The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."’

In Luke we have reached the crucifixion of Jesus. Much has been written on and about the crucifixion, and may songs and poems speak of the emotions. But Luke is both relatively brief, and factual. He prefers to let the events speak for themselves.

If we read the account carefully we can see that he is concerned to draw attention to the events of the crucifixion of Christ which fulfill Hebrew prophecy. For example, Jesus is crucified between two thief's as mentioned in Isaiah 53:12. Luke is at pains to point out the sin of Jerusalem for not recognizing their Messiah, this is not because he wants to blame the Jews for the death of Jesus, but because he wants them to repent of their sin. The sin is the fact that they have closed their eyes to Jesus, unlike the Gentiles who are ignorant of Jesus.

Either way Jesus can and will forgive them both. He prays from the cross, ‘Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.’ The ‘them’ is purposefully vague. It refers to Jewish and Roman authorities.

On the cross these rulers make fun of Jesus, and in doing so repeat the temptations that Jesus faced at the beginning of his ministry, “If you are the Son of God...”. Jesus is the Son of God, he is here to save others, and that means that he cannot save himself. On the cross we see the willed powerlessness of God. The impossible happens, God dies so we don’t have to.

Repent - Luke 22:31-32

(Resound Design) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 22:31-32

‘Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.’

Jesus predicts that at the time of his death the Devil will try and press the advantage he supposes he has, and this will mean difficult times for the disciples (‘you’ in verse 31 is plural).

Simon Peter argues that this will not happen to him, he is ready now, there is no need to repent, there is no need to pray. Jesus warns him that he is not ready, and in doing so predicts what it is that will happen to Simon Peter. He will deny Jesus, he will repent, he will know the Risen Christ, he will find strength and then strengthen others.

All of us, at some time, will find that we need to ‘turn back’, we all need to repent. When we repent, we continue, and when we repent and continue the Devil is beaten.

To Serve - Luke 22:26-27

(Resound Design) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 22:26-27

‘...the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.’

Jesus has predicted his own death, he is in Jerusalem, and he is eating a final meal with his disciples. Alarmed that one of them will betray Jesus, the disciples wonder who it might be. In turn, this leads to a discussion about which of them is the greatest, which one of them is the best.

At an emotional time like this, and in the presence of Jesus Christ, such thoughts and discussion seems highly inappropriate. Perhaps this is why the author of the Gospel is keen that it should happen after the meal with Jesus. It reminds us and warns us, that even when we share Communion, even when we gather around the Lord’s Table, we can suffer with pride and other sins.

Many, perhaps all, of us struggle with a love of power and recognition. We don’t suddenly become immune to this just because we eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

As the song lyric by Bill Mallonee says, ‘They say that pride is the chief of sins, well I know all of his deputies.’ (‘She Walks on Roses’)

For me personally, humility is something that I often find myself praying for. I think the more humble I am the more able I am to be all that God wants me to be, and the more freedom I can enjoy.

The Future Now - Luke 21:31-32

(Resound Design) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 21:31-32

Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

Jesus has been teaching his disciples about the end of time, and it has involved lots of cosmic signs, huge events, and things which are hard to comprehend. So Jesus makes it simple for them.

He talks about a common fig tree: something which all the people gathered would have been familiar with. In the same way that one knows summer is near when the leaves of the fig tree start budding, so too you know that the end of the world is near when some of the signs described begin to take place.

Imagine yourself in that crowd. You might say, “Alright Jesus, I understand the fig tree thing, but when will that actually happen?’ Who doesn’t want to know?

And so Jesus tells them and us. It will happen within one generation. A generation is a period of time of about 30 years. Thirty years after Jesus said that, the world was, and is, very definitely still spinning as we know it.

But ‘generation’ can also mean a period of time with no set years, but identifiable for a particular feel: a period or generation of waiting, a generation of hope, a generation of suffering.

We don’t know when the end will begin, but we do know it is in the future, and it will mark a change from the feeling that we are feeling now...every tear will be wiped away, there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things will pass away. (Revelation 21:4).

So what of it, what do we do in the meantime?

Do we feel overwhelmed? Do we spend our time trying to work out when it will happen? Do we panic and look for signs in the sun, moon and stars, as well as keeping an eye on fig trees? Do we forget about it until it happens and live an ordinary life?

We let that future invade the present, and the hope that we have affect how we live today.

Lift Up Your Heads - Luke 21:27-28

(Resound Design) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 21:27-28

‘At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

Jesus’ teaching on the end times continues. In 21:20-24 Jesus speaks of events which were fulfilled a few years after his death and resurrection in 66-70 AD. At this time Jerusalem was destroyed by a Roman army, as was the Temple.

The destruction of the Temple would have seemed like the end of the world for the Jews. It was the House of God, the place they went to meet with God. But Jesus tells them that this is not the end of the world, far from it, it is the beginning of the time of the Gentiles (verse 24). This is the time that the Gospel is shared amongst non-Jews (Gentiles). Not only is this not the end of the world, but the time of the Gentiles does not mean that God has given up on the Jewish people, God has not abandoned Israel, there are two sons in Jesus’ story of the Prodigal.

After the time of the Gentiles has been fulfilled there area number of signs which show that the end of the world is about to take place and that the Son of Man will return.

The description of these signs shows that the return of Jesus will have a worldwide effect. This has already been alluded to in Luke’s Gospel (17:22-27), and is also key to Paul's thinking ( Romans 8:18-25 ). If, when Jesus returns the whole world will know and creation itself will be affected, then we must seriously consider the nature of our own faith and the ministry and mission of the Church.

We live in a time when religion is tolerated as long as it is kept private and is tolerant of all other faiths and beliefs. Whilst tolerance is a biblical principle, our faith should affect every area of our lives, be lived out in the open, and impact upon those around us. This impact is not one of force, but of the transformational power of the Holy Spirit. After all, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church on the day of Pentecost, Peter explains what has happened to the crowds using the worlds of Joel (Joel 2:30-32). These words contain language very similar to the signs which will accompany the return of Christ.

I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

Acts 2:19-21

The return of Jesus happens on a grand scale, the gospel affects the whole of creation. So the Church now must not be about private, individual faith, but speak to the whole world.

The reach of God's redemption - Luke 21:6-7

(Resound Design) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 21:6-7

‘Jesus said, “"As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.""Teacher," they asked, "when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?"’

Someone comments on how amazing the Temple looks, and Jesus takes the opportunity to teach about the future.

The future in the Bible is hard to understand because it is written about in a particular style: ‘apocalyptic’. The word means revelation, and the best known example is the last book of the Bible called, appropriately, ‘Revelation’. However apocalyptic writings appear elsewhere, for example Daniel, and briefly in the Gospels.

The focus of apocalyptic writing involves another long word: ‘eschatology’. Eschatology is the word used to describe things concerning the end, so apocalyptic writing is concerned with the end of the world as we know it, and the beginning of a new order of things. What does that mean for us, ion sentences that don't involve long words?

This immediately raises the question of when? When does/did the world as we know it end and a new world begin? For example Jesus’ death and resurrection changed the world. But Jesus is coming back, and in his return the victory which began on the cross will be finished, and things will change dramatically. So perhaps we are now living ‘between times’, and if we are then we experience the ‘now’ of the Gospel - we know we are saved, we live as children of God, we are in the Kingdom.

But we also experience the ‘not yet’. We sin ‘in thought, in word, in deed; through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault’, as the liturgy reminds us. And we suffer, sometimes we suffer because we believe. We are being saved.

As Jesus continues his talk on the end of all things, he speaks of the signs of the end, what will happen before the end comes, the fall of Jerusalem, the coming of the Son of Man, he tells a parable about a fig tree (!), and he speaks of the time of the coming of the Son of Man. As we read about these things in Luke 21:5-38 it is sometimes hard to decide which bit fits where, which bit is about the end, which bit is about things which will happen before the end?, etc.

The important thing is this: There is no part of the cosmos, no where in the universe, which is outside of God’s plan.

Sometimes it is easier for us to imagine the vastness of the universe being in God’s reach than it is the small, yet hugely significant, details of our lives. The deepest hurt, the emptiness and striving which comes because of a sense of being alone, the sin that seems so bad we are scared to name it before God, these are all part of the cosmos that God will reach and redeem.

Offering Everything - Luke 21:1-2

(Resound Design) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 21:1-2

‘As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.’

Jesus is still preaching in the Temple courts. He is talking to his disciples, but there is a crowd listening in to what is being said. It is in this public forum that Jesus speaks to his disciples about leadership; he does it by contrasting the attitude of the Scribes and a widow.

The Scribes were experts in the Law who helped the people to understand and apply the scriptures. Widows were usually without income and dependent on their family or welfare for support.

As Jesus gives this example the people in the crowd hear what Jesus has to say to the disciples about leadership, and so the world already has an expectation of how followers of Jesus should live their lives, and the expectation that Jesus sets is rigorous.

In the past the disciples have shown a desire for positions of power with regard to leadership (Luke 9:46). The disciples are doing what comes naturally to most of us: desiring greatness.

So Jesus points out to them that the greatest doesn’t always look like the greatest, or get the recognition that they deserve. The widow gives a small amount of money, but she actually gives all that she has. Jesus shows that the giving of the large gifts is not bad, nor does he romanticize what the widow offers. The offering of everything is great.

If we give everything we have, and do it unnoticed, then what do we gain and who do we become? As Pope John XXIII said, “Strive to be unknown”.

Luke 19:45-46

(Resound Design) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

‘Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. "It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.’”’

Here Jesus purifies the Temple. In doing so he acts against an institution created by God but does it in the name of God, which is interesting.

It is interesting because those who are anti ‘organized religion’(that is what they would call it, others would call it ‘church’) will use that verse to show that God will judge ‘organized religion’. Others will use the same verse to argue that God, in Christ, cares enough about the institution he has created (which of course is not necessarily synonymous with the church) that he wants to fix it. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus does not denounce the Temple, merely fixes it for continued use. (See in Acts, also written by Luke, how the early Christians continued to worship in the Temple.)

So which is right? Are those who support free church, postdenominationalism, and ‘organic church’ right? Or are those who enjoy the rich history and liturgy of the institutional churches right?

Perhaps Solomon was right. When he dedicated the Temple he was sure that, given that heaven cannot contain God, there is no way that God will fit in the Temple (1 Kings 8:27). There is no way that any organization, building, or institution can contain the full mystery of God. But they can and do witness to the glory of God.

What is important is that those who are called to be servants of the church don’t become officials, that the institution does not become authoritarian or controlling, and that the maintenance of an institution does not become more important than witnessing to the glory of God.

So all of us in the Church must invite Jesus to examine ourselves and our motives, and ask the Holy Spirit to give us courage to make brave and humble decisions.

Bible reading 1st July 2010

(Resound Design) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 18:25-38

‘As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"’

This story follows on from Jesus speaking to his disciples about his imminent death in Jerusalem. The disciples don’t, or won’t, understand what Jesus is saying to them. But Jesus is able to give sight to the blind.

The man whom Jesus heals can see more than the crowds do. He calls out ‘ Son of David’. This is a Messianic title. He recognises Jesus as being the Messiah, and that the healing of the blind is possible by the Messiah. The fact that the crowd rebuke the blind man shows that they have no such expectation.

This might raise the question for us, ‘Which Jesus do we see?’

The blind man has faith in Jesus as the Messiah, but he calls him ‘Son of David’. This is the most political of the messianic titles. It presupposes the vanquishing of Jerusalem’s enemies, that Jesus will ride into Jerusalem and sit on the throne of David, that the glory days of old will return. That is now how Jesus interprets the title of ‘Son of David’, but that is how most of the crowd would understand it.

Jesus can work with the blind man’s understanding of him. The man is healed, praises God, will follow Jesus into Jerusalem, see the Messiah crucified and raised to life, will understand, will begin to see that Jesus saves us through willed powerlessness, and not force. The blind man is healed and saved.

As we consider our own salvation and the sight that Jesus has given us, we should pray, be with Jesus, and read our Bibles with humility which recognises that we might have our own agenda. And we should have a desire to know the real Jesus.

Bible reading 28th June 2010

(Resound Design) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 17:20-21

‘Jesus answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’

In Luke 17 beginning at verse 20 Jesus is asked by some Pharisees about the kingdom of God and when it will arrive. This question was motivated by an understanding that one day in the future God would rule the earth and bring peace, justice and an end to suffering. The Pharisees have missed something here - the first sign that the kingdom of God will arrive is Jesus, and yet they fail to recognize him.

Jesus tells them that the kingdom of God is in the midst of them. Some Bible translate the Greek of this verse as saying, ‘the kingdom of God is within you’ (NIV - the footnote explains the alternative understanding). The you in this verse is plural, and Jesus is speaking to people who have rejected the kingdom so it is unlikely that he would want them to mean that the kingdom is in them, more likely that it is in the midst of them.

The disciples have been overhearing this conversation, and so Jesus turns to them to explains some more (beginning at verse 22). Perhaps Jesus does this motivated by the disciples questions, questions we might ask, ‘If the kingdom is here now, is this all there is?’ we can be moved by stories of compassion and people making a difference in the world, we can see the answers to prayers, and feel close to God in our worship. But at the same time we don’t have to look far to see injustice, oppression, poverty, etc., etc.

Placing an emphasis on the kingdom being here now is known as ‘realized eschatology.’ Of course, there is an element of truth in this, Jesus himself says that the kingdom of God is here now. Paul and John speak often about living in the fullness of eternal life now and the benefits we have of knowing God and being known by God - we are a new creation, we have passed form death to life.

Paradoxically there are those who look forward to heaven. In its extreme this view leads to a lack of responsibility for today; every hardship, every difficult situation, is dismissed with the understanding that one day we will all be in heaven. It can mean that little is done to seek justice here and now. There is a danger that we can have too much interest in the future, or that we can be too confined by the present.

The reality is that the kingdom is here and not yet, it has come and is yet to come.

Bible reading 10th June 2010

(Resound Design) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 12:36-37

”...like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.”

A Jewish wedding goes on for a long time, anyone at one of those celebrations will be out partying to late, very late. In fact the Jewish night had three watches, and it might be that the party-goers might not be back till the last watch of the night. If the master comes home and his servants are still up waiting to make him a cup of tea and give him some indigestion tablets, then the master is going to be very pleased with the servants.

By telling this parable Jesus tells his disciples to be ready for his return, for when heaven comes to earth. The reward is extraordinary: the master will serve the servants. This is so incredible there is little doubt that the disciples would have been shocked to hear this, as shocked as they were when Jesus washed their feet as recounted in John’s Gospel.

One of the interesting things about this parable is it tells us the benefit of living as a Christian every day. The Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the 4th century. Historians debate as to how much a Christian he really was - like many Roman emperors, his enemies would sometimes die suddenly in mysterious circumstances (a short sword in the bowels - that kind of thing), even if they were family members. Perhaps aware of the difficulties of living as a disciple, Constantine put off his baptism until he was on his death bed. He wanted to make sure that he didn’t commit any sins after his baptism. Some people today have the same attitude believing that they can turn to God in the last minute. This is true, Jesus himself affirms this, but as well as missing out on the ‘here and now’ aspects of the kingdom of God, they may also find that when the ‘not yet’ aspects of the kingdom of God happen, that although they are in Jesus’ presence and sat around the same table (reward enough), they miss out on the extraordinary reward which Jesus recounts here.

We are called to live as disciples in this life, seeking the kingdom of God here & now. This is its own reward, but there is more to come!

Bible reading 8th June 2010

(Resound Design) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 12:15

‘Then Jesus said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."’

A younger man came to Jesus and asked him to settle an inheritance dispute with his older brother. Jesus takes this as an opportunity to address worry that results in people grasping after possessions to try and ensure a secure future. If we do this, we make possessions more important than God (which the apostle Paul was against, see Romans 1:25 and Colossians 3:5, as well as the Law of Moses in Exodus 20:17), and we have no concern for the needs of others (which Jesus was concerned about see Matthew 5:7, and the Early Church see Acts 6:1, James 1:27).

Jesus tells a parable of a farmer who does well and succeeds in life. In this parable there is nothing wrong with achieving something, the warning is about what we do with what we have achieved. The farmer decides to live for himself and to hoard his possessions. What good is this? Elsewhere Jesus will ask the crowd, ‘What good is it for a you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self?’ (Luke 9:25)

This is what the farmer does, and because of this he is a fool. Next Jesus will address worry...

Bible reading 7th June 2010

(Resound Design) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 12:6-7

‘Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.’

When it comes to being a follower of Jesus there are two types of hypocrisy. The first is when someone pretends that they are a follower of Jesus, but really they are living for something else. This is what Jesus is accusing the Pharisees of in this passage. They claimed to be following God and leading others as they followed with God, but really their own status and power was more important to them.

The second type of hypocrisy is when someone is a really a follower of Jesus, but denies that they are. Why would someone do that? Normally because they are facing persecution for their faith; consider the example of peter who three times denied that he knew Jesus. Jesus also speaks to the disciples about this kind of hypocrisy. He tells them that there is no need to worry about persecution because God will look after them so that no one can really harm them. This does not mean that life won’t be difficult for them as disciples: many of them were killed later in life for following Jesus. The same is true for us. Being a disciple doesn’t mean life is easy, but it does mean that God knows us and is faithful to look after us.

Because of this we should never pretend to not be a follower of Christ when we actually are. God has given much more to us than the price of a sparrow, he will not give up on his creation.

Bible reading 4th June 2010

(Resound Design) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 11:29-30

’As the crowds increased, Jesus said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.’

As is often the case there is a large crowd gathered around Jesus. This crowd ask Jesus to provide evidence for the claims that he makes, they want him to prove himself by performing a miracle.

Faith in Jesus requires more than seeing and accepting evidence which is placed before us. Faith is more than evidence, and because of that someone who does not want to believe will not believe, no matter how much ‘proof’ is put before them. (By nature God has to be bigger than proof that satisfies human rationale, who wants to believe in a God that can be proved and understood?)

Jesus seems to be very harsh to the crowd; why is that? If Jesus did a miracle to prove himself to a crowd (and if such a miracle were possible...those who don’t want to will not believe) he would have forced the crowd to believe, and that crowd would not have faith that comes from freewill. Jesus believes that those who want to force faith are doing wrong and are therefore evil.
There will be a sign, it will be the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days and then became a sign to the Ninevites, so too Jesus will be in the grave for three days after his death, and then he will rise again.

Jesus will die for the crowd, but he won’t force them.

Bible Reading Notes

(Resound Design) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 11:23

‘He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.’

Jesus says this to a crowd after he has cast a demon out of someone. Some in the crowd who have witnessed this miraculous act accuse Jesus of performing doing it with the power of Beelzebul, or the devil.

Jesus had just done a good thing, and so to attribute it to the devil seems a little strange to us. However in those days there was a strong belief in the power of magicians and healers; perhaps a little like our belief today in horoscopes, crystals, etc. These magicians might do good things, but they were regarded as not always using good powers to do these acts.

For the crowd the question was not ‘Did this happen?’, but ‘How did Jesus do this? Is he a magician, does he use occult magic?’

Jesus answer the charge with logic: why would the devil use his own power against himself? (verse 18), and with a challenge: if I am doing this with God’s help then the kingdom of God is here now (verse 19).

So then it all comes down to which kingdom the crowd want to align themselves with? Jesus does not offer further proof, the crowd must decide, there is a Holy Spirit and there are spirits which are not holy.

We might ask ourselves the same question, and we might consider if, like Jesus, we are serious about setting people free from oppression? As Jesus will go onto say (verses 24-26) this is a serious responsibility, we are called to set people free and to disciple them...there is no point cleaning a house out and then leaving it empty.

New Hold Steady Album

(Resound Design) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Hold Steady are an old-school rock band. They play pretty raucous music which is influenced by roots and Americana rather than anything heavy metal-esque: think loud Neil Young. They don't try and change the musical rules, they just write good lyrics and set them to good music. And all of their albums have been well received. They have just released their fifth album called, 'Heaven is Whenever'.

The first song on the album is called, 'The Sweet Part of the City' and like many of Craig Finn, the lead singer's, lyrics it is a dense tale of growing up as teenagers in America - about drinking and hoping to find a good party to go to. The people mentioned drink alcohol until it runs out, listen to music all night, and try and find more alcohol. The twist comes in the final lines of the song.

'We were bored, so we started a band' says Craig Finn. Then the song closes out with some repeating lines. All of the reviews of the album say the last lines are 'We like to play for you', as do on line lyrics (for example see the Pitchfork review). Having listened to the album on Spotify, I am sure Craig Finn sings, "We'd like to pray for you."

Either way it is pretty interesting that the song turns out to be autobiographical, and the only chance of salvation for Craig Finn and his friends was to make music and play to crowds of people who also like to drink and listen to music all night.

Is Craig Finn playing for the crowd or praying for them?

Bible reading notes

(Resound Design) — Mon, 24 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Luke 9:20

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God."'

Not everyone in those days expected a Messiah, but a great many Jews did. Given the fact that they were surrounded by Romans, and paying them taxes, the idea that one day there would be freedom from all this and that God would send someone to defeat their enemies was a popular one. It is easy to imagine that as they spoke of the promised Messiah they imagined him the way that they most wanted him, doing the things that they considered most pressing and needy in their lives.

They believed that before the Messiah came a prophet like Elijah, or Elijah himself, would come. This was based on the scripture Malachi 4:5-6,

"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse."

Many regarded Jesus as being this forerunner rather than the Messiah himself. If the Messiah is already here, if the Messiah is Jesus, then the people could no longer imagine him the way that they wanted him to be, it was the Messiah who would shape us the way that God wants us to be.

And even today we imagine Jesus the way we like best. We have problems imaging the disciples sitting with Jesus in a boat after he has calmed the storm and being more afraid of Jesus than they were the storm. We too struggle with the concept of a Messiah suffering for our sins, after all, what have we done that is so wrong?

We could ask ourselves questions like, how is our worship shaped by who we would like Jesus to be rather than shaped by Jesus? How is our church community given life by the parts of Jesus we like best, but ignoring those parts that we feel less comfortable with? But maybe we need to start with the question of how well do we know Jesus?

In this passage in Luke's Gospel, Jesus knows that his path is a path of suffering. He knows this because he prays - this section starts with,

Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him...

This kind of prayer is first and foremost about being with God, and that is not a bad place for us to be today, recognising that it means God will shape us, not the other way around!

If you would like to receive a shorter version of these reflections via text message, send me a message with your mobile number via Facebook, or text me.