Jesus' Grandfather

Check out this interesting blog on the differences between the genealogies in Matthew and Luke's gospels, posted on the 'Christianity Today' website.

http://bit.ly/6JpClY

Do you find this convincing? How else would you explain the differences in the accounts?

Faith: Part 3

This is my third and final post on faith. In these posts, which focus on the calling of Peter and his friends, I have been trying to assert is that faith is never merely about what we 'believe', as if belief in something can be limited to the intellectual sphere. No - faith must necessarily spill over into what we do, into the essence of who we are as people. This is the lesson of Peter's encounter with Jesus. So how can we become the kind of people who are filled with that kind of faith?

The extent to which we respond in faith will always be the extent to which we know the risen Jesus. We cannot be filled with faith unless we know Him for ourselves and are filled with his Holy Spirit. Derivative knowledge will not do. Our churches are filled with people who leach their pastors faith, believing that they can live 'through' their pastor. They can't and this is why many church-goers' lives look no different to the world's lives. Vicarious knowledge of Jesus is not enough.

But how can we develop such a knowledge of Jesus? Firstly, we need to learn to be in Jesus’ presence. Just to sit with him. We need to become more and more familiar with him through any and every element of our lives. We need to get familiar with him through reading the bible, through developing an active prayer life, through talking with other Jesus followers and through acting on what we think he might be saying. We need to encounter Jesus on every level of the human experience and we need to do it often. We cannot survive on our 'conversion experience' alone. Every day God is waiting for us to meet Him afresh. Faith in God which does not engage the daily experience will soon become academic and stale, losing its vitality.

Jesus himself says this to his disciples in Luke 18.

"¹Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ²He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

⁴"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "

⁶And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

Persistence in prayer is one of the key ways we develop faith, because through it we find out about who God is what He is like.

We learn something more on this subject from Simon Peter. In verse 8 we see Peter’s response to the miracle he has just witnessed. He says “go away from me , Lord, for I am a sinful man!” This is typical of anyone who has come into the presence of the living God. Peter sees Jesus for who he really is and in so doing he recognizes who he really is too, a sinful man.

Peter's analysis of the situation is quite wrong at this point. He thinks that his sinfulness means that Jesus won’t want to associate with him. In reality, quite the reverse is true. Simon’s sinfulness is exactly the reason Jesus wants to associate with him. Jesus has come to 'seek and save what has been lost' and that begins with Simon and will eventually be done through Simon. Jesus knows there is something in Simon that is totally untapped and unrealized, and he wants to bring it out of him. He wants Simon to be his disciple. He thinks that Simon can become like him because Simon has the X-Factor - faith and humility. In other words Simon knows what he lacks and what he needs.

Jesus, in interacting with Simon in this way, is saying that Simon is up to the job of becoming just like Jesus. This, too, is his promise to us.

In verse 10 we see that Jesus sees beyond Simon's fear into his heart and ultimately into his future. He calls him, redefining what he has always done and re-directing it for the greater purpose of the Kingdom of God. That’s how Jesus wants to work in our lives too. He takes what we have and directs it for his greater good. Our job is simply to submit and obey. Jesus is not asking us to put a mask on before we come and serve him. In fact quite the opposite is true. He wants us to come just as we are and he will use what we have and multiply it.

Simon's response says it all. He is the representative of his accomplices here, making the same decision they all choose to make. This is the hinge point of their lives. They have seen Jesus do amazing things before this, but they have not yet made the key decision to follow. Here, they unmistakably and irrefutably do just that; “they left everything.” This is the true response of faith and also the test of faith. You know when someone has really given themselves over to Jesus because they choose to leave everything for Jesus.

It’s pretty amazing to think that Simon leaves even the catch of fish, which would have been worth a heck of a lot of money, as well as his business and family behind in order to follow this guy he has only recently met. Simon knows that the financial value of the haul, even the total value of the business is nothing in comparison with the value of being around Jesus. The young men don't even bother to sell the fish!

Simon has been made aware of the fruit of obedience and now he chooses to follow with everything he has. He, John and James now know that it will be totally worth their while. Meeting Jesus has put everything else in perspective for them. Even their livelihood has now taken second place to the call of Jesus. Their faith in them has led to greater obedience to what he wants for them. They could not bear to be without him after what they have seen.

What impact must this have had on the crowd watching? Surely it shook them to their core? What impact would it have on the places we live and work if we were known as people who would gladly follow Jesus even if it meant leaving behind all the trappings of the world? What kind of world would we inhabit have if those of us that believe in Jesus gave up everything for him, even the things that hold us back and stop us from being totally abandoned to Jesus? What would our gospel look like if we held it out especially to those who are fully aware of their inability to make it on their own - to the least and the poorest?

Jesus used these fishermen to change the world! He can do the same with us!

How much are you willing to give up for him to do that?

Faith is an event and a process; it is a departure point and a journey. Some of us have set off on the journey and are now walking with Jesus and keeping in step with His Spirit. For us, we need the encouragement to keep on walking and obeying as we go. Others have not yet set off. We need to make the decision to begin walking and trusting in Jesus with all we have, knowing that He will bring along what we lack. Others have walked with him before but have stopped walking. They need to begin again, knowing that there is enough grace for them to stand up and re-start the journey.

There is room for all of us in a story as big as this and there is grace for all of us too. Jesus says the same thing to one and all, 'come and follow me'. This is our duty but it is also our destiny. Only in following him do we discover who we are and what we were born to do.

Faith: Part 2

In verse 4 we see that Jesus finishes teaching. He hasn't finished working though. In fact, the greater work of testing and calling Simon is only just beginning. Jesus is not content merely to work in the supposedly 'spiritual realm', with things like teaching crowds. No, he is innately relational. There is as much in that sphere for him as in any other element of his ministry. He is perfectly well balanced in his priorities. No one element of his work takes precedence over the other and all are in submission to his relationship with God the Father. This is the model he lays down for the lives of all who follow him. 

Yet this will involve a certain amount of laying down other priorities, processes, even relationships if we are to re-order our lives in line with his. We will often need to learn to say 'no' before we can properly say 'yes'. This will come as each of us make the step of personal obedience to listen to God and to obey what says. 

This is exactly the same attitude that we see in Simon, Jesus’ first disciple. After Jesus has finished speaking he looks to Simon and asks him to begin fishing. Where does Jesus get this idea from? It must be that he has heard it directly from the Father, otherwise it is lunacy. There is absolutely no worldly sense in this request. There is no reason whatsoever that Simon should obey him, other than through recognising who Jesus really is by faith. Faith is the only reason that Simon would even allow Jesus to say something so preposterous. How can a carpenter advise a fisherman on fishing? Simon has been fishing all night – which is when you fish – and has caught nothing. If nothing has been caught at night then fishing in the day is hardly going to help.

But this act is not merely about Simon’s faith, it is about Jesus’ faith. Jesus is the one who has started this event through his hearing God and knowing that God was not finished with him once the sermon had ended. Jesus obeys what he hears his father saying. And it Jesus’ obedience that gives Simon the model for his own obedience.

Simon knows that what Jesus is asking him makes little sense, and in a gentle way he tells Jesus so. “Master…” In spite of this Simon doesn't ask for a sign or even an explanation, he simply obeys.

Jesus’ authority comes from knowing that his Father has told him to do this. Jesus is perfectly obedient to what God is asking of Him…and so is Simon. He knows it doesn’t make any sense to do what Jesus is asking Him but he trusts it all the same, simply on the basis of his faith in Jesus. He doesn't even know Jesus that well. But he trusts on the basis of what he does know, and he does not allow what he doesn't know to stand in his way. Simon has already seen his mother healed and he trusts that something good will come of this even if he doesn’t know what. He doesn't know everything but he knows enough, and this is enough for him for now.

And here is the crucial element, he acts. Much of the church has tried to separate faith and action as if they could be held apart. They can’t. To have faith in Jesus is to trust in what he is saying and to demonstrate that by following him. Sometimes that means that we will end up doing some really stupid things. Sometimes we won’t have a clue about the outcome until we are halfway through the story. Sometimes we won’t know how God has used us until afterwards. Sometimes we will have to wait until heaven!

“Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

Simon’s trust is not in the advice Jesus gives but in the person who is giving it. He has faith in Jesus and he acts out that faith.

And the fruit of obedience is abundance. Simon’s nets are so full that he has to bring his partners James and John into the equation to help. Even then both boats are sinking under the load of the haul of fish.

What has happened here is in no way normal. What has happened here is totally miraculous. Simon has learned a key lesson through this; when we are fully obedient to the powerful words of Jesus we see our lives bursting with fruit. There is nothing that can stand in the way of the obedient disciples of Jesus. This has to be true for us too. Sometimes the blessing of faith, the abundance, will be the faith itself. Sometimes it will be material. We don't choose. All we can do is receive and be thankful.

Those of us who follow Jesus know that what we want to see happen in the world is so much greater than anything we could imagine on our own and anything we could grow. It's an agenda born out of hope, not rationale or even experience. We want to see this creation transformed by the love of Jesus. We want to see God’s Kingdom spill out of us and touch the world that we encounter day by day. We want to see people fall so deeply in love with Jesus that their lives are changed forever. We want to see addictions forgotten, demons cast out, people healed and the name of Jesus become synonymous with our city, state and country – and we want to see radical faith filled communities sending other churches out into the world for this to happen elsewhere.

 We are only ever going to see this happen if we hear and obey the word of Jesus. There is no short cut to this. Hear and obey. Hear and obey. We believe in the one who has all we need because we know we can't do it on our own.

In the final blog in this series we will look at how we can position ourselves for this kind of life.

Faith: Part 1

How do we follow Jesus into the job of changing the world? What do we need in our proverbial locker if we are to see God’s Kingdom come to change and heal this hurting and broken world through us? We need to have an intimate relationship with the living God by His Holy Spirit for one. This will lead us to a genuine love for others too, which is crucial; but we also need faith - and lots of it.

Despite his many shortcomings, I see Peter as a fine model of faith in the gospels. He gets some things wrong but he gets a heck of a lot right too, so I thought I would spend the next few blogs going through Luke 5.1-11, where we see Peter being called to follow Jesus. This is how the story goes...

1One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

 5Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

 6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

 8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

   Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." 11So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him."

We begin with a description of the scene, but without much of an explanation for it. Why was Jesus standing by the lake? The implied explanation given is simply that he was there to teach. That is what his ministry is about in some part. He has just laid out the multi-faceted nature of his ministry in Luke 4 - his own manifesto as it were - drawn from Isaiah 61, and now he has begun to work it out in public. He has already healed one man with an unclean Spirit, a woman ( Simon's mother) from a fever and has cast out many demons - no sickness is too big or too small for Jesus - and now he continues to teach. His teaching can never be separated from his healing and vice versa. They are inextricably linked as they both form a part of his composite announcement of the reality of the Kingdom, which has drawn near in his own self.

The crowd is pressing in on him. They know why they are there. They have seen something in him up to this point that they have never witnessed in anyone before this point. Even in this short time of his active ministry they know that this man Jesus is unique and they want more. They want to hear what he has to say. There is something about this man that marks him out from the others, even in an age where there are many opinions and leaders. 

He has authority (Luke 4.36).

What the crowd see is a man filled with the Holy Spirit (4.1) and empowered by the Holy Spirit (4.14) to do the very works of God. How could the crowd fail to see that? They can! That’s why they’re there. His teaching is different (4.15) because it is active and it draws people. This is reminiscent of Paul's approach in Corinth (1 Cor 2.1-5). It is the only sound basis for the preaching of the gospel. 

"1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

This kind of preaching, in itself, requires great faith. Jesus has that kind of faith and he inspires it in those he meets.

Jesus observes the situation he is in and he sees more than meets the eye. An opportunity not simply to teach the crowd but to draw disciples to himself. Jesus is able to focus on the large scale and the small scale at the same time. He does not get so enamored and distracted by the crowd that he loses his focus on the individual. Nor does he become so intrigued with the personal that he withdraws from the corporate. He has bifocal vision. He sees the purposes of God in both and has a big enough picture to honor God in both.

He climbs aboard and begins to teach the crowds. He does not ask permission, he simply does it. He is demonstrating his authority in action. He has also 'paid his way' in some measure by healing Simon's mother in the  previous verses. There is some relationship already stirring between Simon and Jesus. 

Jesus is totally free to ask Simon to do what he says. He has no fear of offending Simon, no worry about putting him out. Simon obeys him word for word by 'putting out a little way from the sure'.  Jesus is 'testing the water' of Simon's heart, so to speak. He is working out whether this is the kind of guy he would like to have with him. Simon doesn't know he is at a job interview, which makes his obedient response all the more impressive. 

Notice this. Simon does not alter Jesus' request at any point. He simply hears and obeys. This is the response of faith, that we hear and we obey. Simon is about to demonstrate this again, although he does not know it yet. 

We'll move onto this in the next post.

A quote

You must wait and listen for the sound of the genuine that is within you. When you hear it, that will be your voice and the Voice of God.

- Howard Thurman, American author, civil rights leader, and theologian (1899-1981)

Pastor is as Pastor does

I have observed a worrying trend in much of the church, which is that pastors are no longer willing or able to live up to their calling as pastors, instead choosing to be 'entrepreneurs' and 'visionaries'. I see the same trend in my own heart too. It is a sickness born of the desire to be significant before being obedient.

Reading from the introduction to 'Working the Angles' by Eugene Peterson;

"The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper's concerns - how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that customers will lay out more money.

"Some of them are very good shopkeepers. They attract a lot of customers, pull in great sums of money, develop splendid reputations. Yet it is still shopkeeping; religious shopkeeping, to be sure, but shopkeeping all the same.

"The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades."

'Pastor' is not a job title, nor is it a designation of the level one has reached in the organisation of the church. The Pastor is the one who serves the flock, who even lays down his own life for the flock. The true Pastor is the one who knows what the sheep need and is able to go to God with and for each flock member within his pasture to attain it.

It is not that we don't need teachers, visionaries or entrepreneurs. In fact, we need them all in greater measure. However, these gifts and roles are not, in my humble opinion, what is most important in the life of the church. The most pressing need in the church is for Pastoral care to emerge which will help 'average folks' become the saints that God has ordained them to be. God provides the growth, of course, but we are still told that Paul planted and Apollos watered (see 1 Cor 2). One of the things I most enjoy about the church I work at currently is that there is a sustained emphasis on the need to care for and train people to live out their life in Christ on a day-to-day basis. Even with such an emphasis it is a tough job. Imagine how things go when this emphasis is lacking!

Loving people is not something we do if have the time. It's not an optional extra in the mix of Christian leadership. It is, in fact, the primary requirement. If we can't act pastorally we should wonder what we are doing in the church at all. It is something that all of us are commanded to do by Jesus himself. If we are not doing this we are not Christians, never mind Christian leaders. It really is that simple. Let the visionaries first be pastors. Let the teachers be pastor-teachers and let the church entrepreneurs know that unless they do their work in love it will be as a 'resounding gong and a clanging cymbal' (1 Cor 13).

Yes, let us build the most innovative and exciting church the world has ever known. Let us work as hard as we can in this regard, but let us build it on the foundation of faith, love and care. And let those of us in leadership surrender our agenda for greatness to the greater gospel agenda of love, that we might 'present everyone mature in Christ.' (Col 1.28) 

Prayer - Stanley Hauerwas

2 things to learn from prayer;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYRk3uPVhvY

Culture vs. Strategy

http://www.philcooke.com/ford

Here is a link to a blog by a guy called Phil Cooke. Well worth a read.

It is far harder to create a healthy culture than it is a sexy vision or strategy. This, surely, is why so few organisations attempt it or achieve it.

Sharing

If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be ... Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, "Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land."

Deuteronomy 15:7-11

Sharing trumps giving because when we share we don't get to stay in control of our stuff. When we open up our lives to sharing with our community we allow others to invade our space and take what they need. We don't get to choose when and what we give, we give as there is need.

We get the same benefits in return too. There is a mutuality to sharing that is not present in the same way through giving.

The freedom of obscurity

"For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3.3

The gospel is first about death, Jesus's death and then our death. We enter into the story of the gospel through the cross of Jesus, which demands that we die. When we begin this journey of following Jesus we say 'no' to those things that used to drive us forward and instead choose to follow Him.

Our life is no longer our own, it is now hidden in His life. We no longer have a life apart from Him but our life is derived from His life. This is what it means to be hidden in Him. It's no longer about us. We're not the central figure in the play - Jesus is.

The advantages of this are obvious. Jesus is now with God. He enjoys all the benefits that being in the presence of God allow. He has intimacy with the Father and He knows the will of the Father. Through Jesus we now have access to all of these benefits which were once beyond our reach. We participate in the very life of God. This is the life after the death.

Peter puts it like this;

"His (Jesus') divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he (Jesus) has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." 2 Peter 1.3-4

All this means that we must become hidden, obscure and discounted. It's not about us. We are freed from the need to be at the center of the story. It can't be about us any longer. It has to be about Him if it's going to work as it should. This truth has obvious implications for how we function as followers of Jesus. A sure sign of the authenticity of our faith will be our humility. We will live as if we are nothing and He is everything. We will get out of the way.

How often can we say this is our reality? How often are we actually more concerned with being noticed and approved of? I can say for myself that this is a big problem. I think the culture of Christian celebrities is one of the biggest signs that we have missed the gospel and one of the reasons we see so little of the power of God in our midst. We have made it about us and none of us has anything to offer.

Our job is to point to Him. To become hidden that He might be revealed. Are we ready for this? Are we ready to die again? There's nothing I want more but nothing I feel less able to do.

This is why John the Baptist is so amazing. What a humble man it takes to say
"He must increase, but I must decrease." John 3.30

A meditation on a Psalm

"The Lord is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his
anointed.

O save your people, and bless your
heritage;
be their shepherd, and carry them
forever."

Psalm 28.8-9 (NRSV)

Jesus is the strength of the church, which is his people. There is no other strength in the church than that which comes through and from Jesus. Everything else is weakness. Only he can provide the salvation of God that the church is called to receive and then offer to the world. No well-thought-through strategy can offer this; no perfectly designed sunday service; no conference, no gifted teacher and no celebrity pastor. No-thing.

Only one person. Jesus Christ.

He is not only the salvation but also the refuge of his people. "The name of the Lord (Jesus) is a strong tower. The righteous run into it (him) and they are safe (Prov 18.10)." Salvation and refuge are closely linked in Jesus. He is our salvation because he is our refuge and he is our refuge because he is our salvation.

We cannot ever be safe without him. Individually we must foster our relationship with him so that he becomes the place we run to for safety and salvation instinctively. Corporately we must do the same. Those of us in leadership within his people must learn that we cannot do anything without first submitting it to his will. We can only expect the cover and safety he promises us if we are walking in his will - walking in his path - as the sheep follows the shepherd.

We must ask him to pick us up and carry us forward. This will mean we have to stop trying to walk on our own and in our own strength. How might this happen?

Prayer. Prayer has to be the bedrock of everything we do. When we pray we await his direction and submit to it. We do not do what we want and then pray that it will work out - 'Lord bless this mess' - we ask him what he wants and then we do it. This must be our rule of life if we are to be effective in carrying out his work.

Resurrection

I am reading a book on the resurrection by Peterson (below). He writes that resurrection always happens at the fringes of things. Jesus was raised from the dead in the quiet of a garden with nobodies (Mary Magdalene etc.) there to witness the aftermath and no-one there to see the event itself.

This is a deep truth.

As Christians who want to make a difference in and to the world we must position ourselves on the fringes of things - this is where the life is. I think this is where God would have us be. It is in some ways a dangerous place to be. A cliff edge has drawbacks and great dangers attached to it, but I feel that God would rather us live there with the associated risks than in the certainty and boredom we often choose. He hates lukewarm, remember?

Why are our churches so boring? Perhaps because we are boring and safe. Is God bored? I think He might be.

"When the son of man returns will He find faith on the earth?"

Eugene Peterson

People have been telling me to read some Eugene Peterson so I have started a book called 'Living the Resurrection'. Here is one pearl from the first couple of pages...

"My conviction is that the church is the community that God has set at the centre of the world to keep the world centered."

(Eugene Peterson - Living the Resurrection, page 12)

A matter of life and death

The foundational events of the Christian faith are the life, death and resurrection of the God-man Jesus Christ. These events happened 2000 years ago, more or less. However, they are not intended to be merely historical events for those of us who follow Jesus. Instead we are to engage with these truths and these events today. In fact if we are not engaging with the reality - not merely historical but current - of these events in the here and now we will fail to live the kind of life that Jesus has promised us.

How might we do this? One suggestion would be that we would be a people who embrace all of life, including those elements of suffering. Bonhoeffer said that we should 'drink the dregs' of this life. Much of our time in this cozy world is spent seeking to avoid suffering and decay. Nowhere is this more true than in my current location, Orange County, California. Yet the cross and resurrection call us into a new reality. The entrance way into this reality is suffering and death; the cross. Yet the fruit of this reality is new life and peace; the resurrection.

As followers of Jesus we are thus called to embrace the full story of life. The good, the bad and the ugly. We are not to hide in the corner when suffering comes our way. We are to face it head on with God at our side. Note that we cannot enter this new reality without dying with Jesus. Our suffering must be done by his side if we are to be sure that it will lead to new life - remember the thieves on the cross. Suffering can be meaningless. It always is when Jesus is not in it with us. But we need not fear or live to avoid it. As Christians we do not believe that Jesus died so we would not have to but so that we would know how to.

In the world, not of the world

The above phrase is often trotted out as the ideal for the relationship between the Christian and the world. But where does this come from?

In John's gospel Jesus provides the basis for this way of looking at the world. See John 17.14-19 (NIV).

14. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.

We are not of the world. We are the misfits and outcasts. The Kingdom of God is to be made up of no-ones and and nothings. If we were not such misfits when we came in we soon should be after we enter in.

Paul puts it like this;

"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." (1 Cor 1.26-29)

Unlike the rest of society, becoming increasingly uniform over time, we are to be the opposite. The more our love and knowledge of Jesus grows the less we should follow along with the world's tune. We demonstrate that we belong to the Kingdom of God when we do not fit in with the world.

15. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

We do not follow Christ so that we might be removed from the mess of the world. Far from it. When we choose to join in with Jesus' mission we join in with his cause, which is to rout Satan's armies. To advance the Kingdom of God at any cost.

Jesus prays that we will be protected precisely because He assumes we will need it! We are in a battle and when we are really living in the power of the Spirit we will regularly be confronted with evil. We can be confident that in the midst of this that we are protected because our saviour has prayed this for us. "He that is in us is greater than he who is in the world" (1 Jn 4.4).

18. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

We are sent into the world by Jesus. He expects a radical engagement with the world from His own disciples. One of the signs of our authenticity is our willingness and ability to do this work.

18b-19. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

We do all this through the work that He has done for us and in the power of the Holy Spirit that He secured for us through His life, death and resurrection. Without Him we are nothing, just another group of people doing stuff in their own strength. The only hope we have of completing His mission is that we have been sanctified, washed, prepared by Him. The hope we have for the success of our work has nothing whatsoever to do with us but everything to do with Him.

The Spirit of God

John's gospel is a masterpiece. Perhaps the best thing ever written in the history of everything written. What a unique perspective John has on the most influential and important events in all of human history!

Here is one small nugget from the great gold mine.

"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." John 6.63

One of the central themes of John's gospel is life. Jesus consistently reminds us in this gospel that he is the way to life as it was meant to be. He is in fact the way, the truth and the life. He is totally synonymous with life. Life cannot be known outside of relationship with Him. Giving us that kind of life is at the heart of his mission (John 10.10).

This passage reminds us that the way to that life is mediated by His Spirit in us, not our own flesh. We can't do anything worth doing in our own strength. It is only by the power of God the Holy Spirit that any good will come of anything we are a part of. The only lasting fruit of our lives will come through and by the power of His Spirit.

What a relief!

One year in the USA

As of last Saturday we have been in the USA for one year. It has been a remarkable growing and learning experience. We have found that Jesus is far better than we could have imagined. He continues to surprise us with his mercy, grace and healing power. He's so good. There aren't words to describe Him.

There's always more of Him to be experienced, loved and enjoyed. He goes on forever. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." He never stops loving, never stops giving, never stops forgiving. What a friend we have in Jesus!

We are so excited about this journey of following Him. It never ends. We get to do this for all eternity. Spending all time in His beautiful presence. If you don't know what that's like you should ask Him to show you!

Dawkins on his soap box again...

Read this by Richard Dawkins on his own website, a self-proclaimed 'clear thinking Oasis'. You be the judge.

http://richarddawkins.net/article,88,The-Emptiness-of-Theology,Richard-Dawkins

And then this reply by John Stackhouse on his own blog.

http://stackblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/what-good-are-theologians

Dawkins is absurd, perhaps even mad, but certainly incredibly short-sighted and narrow minded. Does he not know that the 'science' he so loves was birthed because of a belief in God? Those who made the early great advances in science were monks after all. In fact, scientific inquiry would never have begun were it not for God fearing men and women who believed that God had made the universe to be intelligible. Dawkins is criticising the very discipline that gave birth to his own. It's like he is standing on the roof of the house that he loves, whilst simultaneously hacking away at its foundations.

better world or better church

I'm really excited about the focus on mission within the global church at the moment. Whilst there is certainly a lot of guff and spin flying around, the essence of the situation is this; the church has recognised that it hasn't done a great job of representing what the gospel is and actually getting that message to the people who need to hear it.

This cultural basis for 'mission shaped living' - fancy way of saying 'being a Christian' - is joined with strong biblical evidence too. In each of the gospels Jesus makes it his final priority to remind his disciples that the good news about his death and resurrection leaves them with an obvious imperative - go and preach the good news to all the nations. Get out there, tell them about what this all means and show them the evidence at the same time. Pronounce that the Kingdom has come and do it with all the resources that I am about to send you by my Spirit.

This mission is not an add on to the gospel message, but something very central. Just as the purpose of the Old Covenant was that the nations would be blessed through the seed of Abraham, so the New Covenant has the same aim. Jesus came to fulfill the Old and to bring the New whilst continuing the same thread. The difference of course between the two Covenants is that the New includes all who believe on Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile. Secondly, and as evidence for the first, there are new resources given for this work - namely the Holy Spirit! Those who have received the Holy Spirit are now God's people in the world, called to do the work of building His Kingdom and inviting others to do the same.

The point is this. The mission of the church is not to build a better church but a better world. Whilst the latter will obviously include the former, what history has shown us is that those that concentrate on the former never get much further. Instead our starting point as Christians is worship which flows out into Mission, not into ecclesiology (talk of the church). We will of course finally get round to talking about how the church should be shaped in the light of all this but it must never be our starting point.

A book to read

I'm halfway through reading a book called 'Christ is All' by Andrew Murray. It's a wonderful book of small reflections, most no more than 10 pages long. Each chapter contains a deep truth which all point towards the reality of an intimate relationship with God that Jesus promised through the power of His Holy Spirit. Murray is a mystic of sorts. If you like Tozer etc. you will love Murray.

This book has taught me more about the reality of God's Kingdom on earth than any other I have read in recent times. It is amazing to think that Jesus actually intended and expected for us to live a life full of joy and peace. His teachings were never intended to be reduced to theory, or reserved for a religious elite. No, the life of the Kingdom of God is the inheritance of every Christ follower and must be received as a child. God wants to give His very self to normal people. What beautiful news!

Murray's thoughts are so simple, which is wonderfully refreshing in a world that has become obsessed with needless complexity. Nevertheless they are totally profound. God has spoken to me through this book and I hope that if you read it you will find the same. More than anything else I hope that you will come to know in greater intimacy the God who really wants to fill you with His Spirit to such a degree that you walk with Him in great intimacy every moment of your life. Amen.

Word of warning

"All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependance on the appreciation of others." Cyril Connolly

Rest

This month the wife and I are in the UK, resting and re-connecting before heading back to the USA for another year. We're enjoying seeing family and friends and generally getting a feel for the UK again.

It's an incredible gift to be able to rest for this month and we're grateful that our church has allowed us this time. I've found it surprisingly difficult to receive the gift of time and space though. I'm so used to producing, doing, managing and making - in my humble way - that it has become difficult to measure success without any output.

With all that stripped away I have found it hard to know how I'm doing, how I'm measuring up. That shows where I've been looking for my sense of worth I suppose. I think one of the most important reasons God likes us to rest is that when we rest we see who we truly are. All of the masks we've been wearing - teacher, leader, joker, friend - fall away. It's us and God and that's all. If there's not much between us and God it can be disconcerting.

I'm really being challenged to stop and listen, because listening is all that is left to do. I'm so desperate to do anything but listen though. I'd rather be shopping, interneting, reading or thinking - anything but listening. Through all of my wandering I sense that God is asking me for one thing, simply to wait and listen to Him. To find Him in the quiet place and to choose to let go of the other masks and go to him for the resources needed for all the work that needs to be done in the present and in the future.

Whose fool are you?

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." (1 Cor 1.18-19 NIV)

I recently heard a story of how a man called John Wimber came to follow Jesus. He was in someone's living room when all of a sudden he found himself on his knees, sobbing and recognising Jesus as His Lord.

As he did this a memory of a time passed came to his attention. He remembered being in a park in LA trying to find an old friend with some money. As he was waiting for his friend, a drug dealer, he saw a man walk by wearing a sandwich board. On the front it read "I am a fool for Christ", on the back simply "whose fool are you?"

At the time Wimber thought this silly, but when on his knees in that living room he realised that Jesus was asking him the same question; will you be my fool? He said 'yes' and God worked through him in amazing ways.

As I was watching that video I sensed that God was asking me the same question. I was moved and if I am honest, terrified. Am I really willing to be Jesus' fool? Am I willing to let go of all other symbols of identity and abandon all I have to him? Am I really willing to let go of my reputation, of my attempts to make people like me? I want desperately to say yes to this question, because God always uses the "foolish things of the world to shame the wise" (1 Cor 1.27). I have said yes to Jesus if He will help me get there.

We are all someone's fool. Maybe we are our own fool. Maybe we are pursuing our own agenda for success with the trappings of Christian discipleship. Or perhaps we are swallowing the world's agenda hook, line and sinker. I know I have done that for a long time. But the goal of this Jesus thing is to give everything up to Him in order that He might work in us the thing that is really life - his abundant life.

I'm a fool for Christ (in training). Whose fool are you?

Making peace happen

The followers of Christ have been called to peace. And they must not only have peace but also make it. To that end they renounce all violence and tumult. ... His disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering rather than inflict it on others. They maintain fellowship where others would break it off. They renounce hatred and wrong. In so doing they overcome evil with good, and establish the peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Where hope can be found

As Scott Peck says at the start of his wonderful book 'The Road Less Travelled', "life is difficult". This is self-evident. We've all had times of plenty but they don't seem to last very long. They seem sometimes to be only short breathers amidst the real stuff, the hard stuff. Sometimes life gives less reason for hope than for hopelessness. Less reason for faith than cynicism. Less reason for love than for hatred.

Yet the marks of the christian are "faith, hope and love" (see 1 Cor 13 esp.). How can we be people marked out by these three when the tide of the world drags us to another place? I think that part of the answer has to do with where we are looking for our faith, our hope and our love.

If we look to the things of the world to provide our hope we will soon end up without any. If we base our love for others on what they can do for us and what we can do for them we will not love long. If our faith depends on how we perceive the world is responding to us, even to God, in this or that instant we will not be faith-filled for long.

No, the only appropriate source and destination for our faith, hope and love is God Himself. Everything else will let us down, confuse us or depress us. Nothing else is faithful. Only God will never lie to us, disappoint or cheat us. Only God will not ever let us down. Only God never defaults on his loans!

I have spent a great deal of my life trusting in the church and its leadership to give me hope and railing against it the minute it fails to do so. But no person, institution or movement can provide or sustain what really matters in life. To look to them for it will only lead us away from God.

The prophet Jeremiah puts it this way;

Thus says the LORD:"Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.

7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit."

(Jer 17. 5-8)

Who or what are you looking to for faith, hope and love?

Home and Away

"At the moment what this team needs is the support of the fans. I must say there is a massive difference between the away fans, who are absolutely fantastic, and the home fans."

The above words were spoken by Arsene Wenger, manager of Arsenal Football Club, one of England's best clubs. His team has come under fire recently for not having the guts to compete when it really matters most. His comments got me thinking about what kind of supporter I am, specifically what kind of supporter/follower of Jesus I am.

There are, as Arsene knows only too well, two kind of supporters. The home fans and the away fans. Home fans turn up when the going is good. They sit in the nicest parts of the stadium. They know the best way to get to the ground and they leave before then game is finished so they can get home for dinner. They come expecting entertainment and when they don't get what they want they make their feelings abundantly clear - even before half time. After all they have paid good money for those seats haven't they? Home fans come to be receive something.

Away fans often travel hundreds of miles to get to the ground braving all kinds of public transport. They are usually seated in the worst parts of the ground, pushed around by the police and treated with suspicion, being made to wait to leave the ground after the final whistle so that they don't disturb the peace. Still, they normally make more noise than the home fans whose ground they are visiting, though they are only a fraction of the number. They have a collective identity. They are not just individuals in a sea of other individuals, they are a group who have come together to do something - to support their team. Away fans come to give everything.

It's not too different when it comes to faith in God. There are those of us who treat our allegiance to Jesus as something we do on a weekend, a strand of entertainment in the rich tapestry of our lives. Some who come to be given something to take away, muse upon and discuss with friends .

Then there are some who come to give not just something but everything to the cause. Nothing is too much to ask of such people. Spend all day traveling the length and breadth of the globe to support the team? Sure. Give extortionate amounts of money to the cause? Of course. Such as these bear the burden when things aren't going well because it is something they must do. To do any less would be totally alien to them. They have made a decision to follow their team and now are living that out.

And it makes me think, will Jesus recognise me as an away fan when he walks out on the pitch again?

The sword and the staff

"It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ". (Eph 4.11- 15 NIV)

There is so much to see in this passage that entire books could be filled just working out what it all means, but what I want to focus on is the relationship that is proposed here between truth and love.

Four different kinds of giftings are mentioned here - apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers - all of which have the same aim, to prepare God's people for a different kind of living, a holy oneness where we all pull in the same direction and increasingly resemble Christ's character. This is a great statement of unity in diversity. It should be possible within the body of Christ to exhibit the kind of unity that is seen nowhere else. A unity which is not based on uniformity, on us all being from the same place, but which comes from the fact that we are all going in the same direction - that is toward Jesus Himself. Perhaps the lack of such a unity in the church merely shows how little we have loved our saviour.

What stands out to me here though is one particular gifting, that of the pastor-teacher. The pastor-teacher is at once a shepherd and a warrior. She has to delicately balance caring for the sheep and fighting off the wolves, just as King David did all those years ago. The pastor must hold the tension between truth and love and constantly find the middle ground. It is not enough to simply be 'right', because rightness without love is not right at all. Neither is it enough to be 'loving'. There is no real love without truth. The pastor-teacher must find a way to hold both the sword and the staff at the same time with the same goal in mind, the advancement of the flock.

Perhaps the fact that this is such a difficult dance explains why so few even attempt it these days. We have our great teachers of course, but so many of them have withdrawn to the ivory towers of academia, caring little for the cold, hard realities of day-to-day life. We prefer to be purists, ever narrowing down on our subject so that we know all there is to know about one thing. Perhaps we avoid the human for this very reason - it is too complex. Humans don't sit still on the page as words do. Sadly we see this in the church as much as we do in the academy. Leaders who have chosen to withdraw from the day-to-day work of loving other people as Christ loves them. It is no surprise that their 'truth' is not really transformative. It may be academically sound and well researched, but it will not ever resonate or change us. It is no surprise that the best 'theologians' of every generation are pastors too (think Barth, Bonhoeffer, N.T. Wright).

There are also those who would prefer to police others instead of pastoring them. They have the title of the pastor but none of the love to go with it. They are managers of people but not shepherds and once again, their example will never lead others into maturity in Christ Jesus (see http://jonnyhughes.blogspot.com/2009/03/pastors-or-police.html)

On the other hand there are those who 'just want to love' those around them, without telling them what they need to hear. Out of a fear of offending, a fear of man, they end up blessing any mess and sacrificing their sheep on the altar of tolerance. I admit that I tend toward this end of the extreme, which is perhaps why I love to be around people with the guts to tell people the truth.

What is needed are those people and those communities that hold the tension between truth and love. Those who know that truth and love are not alien concepts but fraternal twins, different sides of the same coin. Jesus did this and if we are to grow into his likeness as mature followers we need to be around those who also do this. Yes we need prophets, apostles and evangelists too, but I sense our faith is lacking more from a lack of truthful love than it is from vision or evangelistic zeal.

Perhaps the answer is for us all to discover the place within us where we can hold the sword and the staff simultaneously. To practice loving people into truth. Wherever we find ourselves from day-to-day, I believe we are demanded to be the sorts of people who live in this tension wherever we go and whatever we are doing.

Death and all his friends

My dad once said that all fear is linked to the one ultimate fear - death itself. Having spent some time in the dentist today I have to say that I think he is right. I have had a fear of the dentist for a long time now, ever since I felt that deep shame which can only be experienced when a dental practitioner peers inside your mouth, inside YOU, and disapproves of what she sees. It's a shame that sticks, especially when the experience often costs significant money.

Behind this shame is a deeper fear in my case. The real pain of seeing the dentist is not of the financial sort but is the nagging realisation that in seeing the dentist I am forced to come into contact with my own mortality. Most days I can hide from the cold, hard truth that I will one day die. I feel pretty healthy most of the time and so I don't experience the shadow of death following me around. Except when I see the dentist.

The dentist teaches me that I am not perfect, that I only have a very limited time on this earth. In fact, I am not physically capable of living for a very long time. My teeth won't allow it. At this rate I won't have any beyond the age of 50, or so I am led to believe. Either way I cannot escape the truth that I am not going to be here forever. This is no trivial reality. We all have to get there at one time or another and it is not a very pleasant place to live.

The question is what do we do with this new information? Do we run from it by getting all the treatments that money can buy; new teeth, new boobs and a new hair cut? Do we buy a new wardrobe to hide some of the imperfections? Or do we face it head on with God?

I want to choose the latter. My teeth are not perfect and one day I will die, but in the midst of this crisis I want to choose to be thankful for what I have been given, rather than ruing what I wish I was. I don't have the perfect anything, certainly not the mind or body that I wish I did, but God has made me this way and I can be no other.

The good news of course is that one day I will get another run at this thing called life and I will be given a totally new body and a totally new set of pearly whites, which will never decay. Perhaps they're made from the same stuff they make the pearly gates from, who knows? Either way, God has a plan to resurrect me and place me back on this earth with the kind of body that Jesus got after his dying and rising. This truth - for those willing to accept it - is the end of fear.

God will not abandon us to the grave. We were made for eternity and we will one day live within it. Amen.

Better to be free than good

Jesus does not come just to make us 'good people'. His demands on us reach much further than that. He comes to set us free from any law of prescriptive behaviour, from any moral code which we might wish to chain ourselves to. He comes to make us 'people', real human beings who love the world into existence. The Christian claim is that without his help we fall short of what it is to be human and we will fail to fulfill this mission of re-creation and redemption. It won't happen in us and so it won't happen through us either.

Yet there is a great deal of confusion over this issue both within and without the church. Within it we act as if everything will be OK as long as we behave ourselves, quit our drinking, stop smoking, stop swearing and having sex with the wrong people. Although these things aren't good for us, this approach of dealing with symptoms stops pitifully short of the truth. Outside the church people often reject the good news Jesus brings on the grounds that they are 'already a good person'. Both of these attitudes miss the essential purpose of Jesus' mission on the earth. The Christian one simply enslaves us to another master - moral perfection and a corresponding pride - and the outside perspective fails to realise that 'moral goodness' is not the goal, but true freedom and humanity.

So why this perception outside the church? I feel it must have something to do with the fact that the church spends much of its time harping on about whether this or that behaviour is morally acceptable and not enough time loving the world in spite of its behaviour, which is exactly what Jesus instructed it to spend its time doing. This has led to a misunderstanding of the good news of Jesus in the world and many have rejected it on this account.

The heart of the matter

I'm sick of theology. Sick of hearing about what I should be thinking about God. Sick of being told what the correct doctrinal stance is on this or that matter. What God thinks about money. What God thinks about Homosexuals. What God thinks about salvation. I think God might well be sick of it too. If He had wanted theologians He wouldn't have gone to all the trouble of compiling the Bible, but would have written a text-book instead. I think He might be far more interested in LOVERS.

The Bible is no textbook and to treat it as such is to bastardize it. It's a compilation, a best-of if you like, of the God who goes after the hearts of His people, the God who chooses encounter over information. God wants to encounter each of us all the time. Do we want it though?

Sometimes I think that we would much rather have the information. It keeps us safe. We know where we are with information. Encounter, well, it's too scary. I mean we might not end up in the driving seat and then where would our theology be? We might end up in a (holy) mess.

Theology, then, can be the biggest barrier to knowing God. It can be the biggest obstacle to encounter, unless it is submitted to the heart. Unless our thinking comes out of the love affair with God we are in, then I think we will always end up in idolatry of vacuous ideas and theological systems.

Jesus saw it like this;

"You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men." (Matt 15.7-9)

I want to honour God with my heart. Do you?

Prayer

Prayer begins when words fail.

Prayer works best when we first admit our powerlessness; that we can't change anything, not even our own selves.

Through prayer we join in with Power Himself, who we call 'God'. We plug into the mains supply rather than trying to run on our own batteries, which constantly let us down when we need them the most. God's Power is of course called Love. There's always more of this energy around.

The question is 'how much do we want?'

Prayer and Action

Prayer without action is idealism.

Action without prayer is violence.

Pastors or Police?

All church leadership must place in the context of relationship. If it does not, quite quickly it becomes more like police work than pastoral work. Those in this line of work love to sniff around for clues; who is committing the crimes? When was the last time they did so? With whom? Have we got enough evidence? What sentence can we set to really teach them a lesson?

The problem with this approach of course is that it is completely and utterly ineffective. Police work does not often deal with crime as it focuses on symptoms rather than causes. Moreover, it can only punish those who are caught. Thus crime often ends up going underground and in a far more virulent form. Quite apart from this is the fact that people are as likely to rebel against such authoritarianism as they are to toe the line. Even those who fall in line won't necessarily know why they are doing so and soon they will be disillusioned, or far worse, they may join the force themselves.

Instead, those who want to take seriously the call to leading the church of Jesus should aim for nothing less than transformation of hearts and minds. Peoples actions will always fall in line with what they believe to be true about the world. So aim for the heart! If you can convince someone of the need to change at that level then real and lasting transformation will occur, which will likewise spread like a wild fire.

Leather bags

This summer I almost bought a leather bag from a nigerian chap in a market in Florence. Thankfully I was able to resist the temptation and instead bought something far better and consequently far more expensive in a great leather shop next to the Duomo. I did not regret the extra expense.

So often in life we settle for something less than the real thing. An imitation. A cheap rip off. But it never does the same as the real thing. It never satisfies, it never performs for as long or as well. Inevitably we feel ripped off by the whole experience and we always wish we had done it properly the first time around.

I think it is the same with God too. The temptation is to settle for less than the real thing. So often we settle for knowledge about God rather than knowledge of God. We think that this will do the same job, plus it's far less expensive to attain. All we need do is listen to the right people, read the right books, use the right religious language and listen to the latest worship music. But the cheap imitation will always break down under stress and we will be left worse off than when we began.

As with buying leather bags the trick with God is to never settle for anything less than the totality of reality. We will never attain it, no, which is of course very frustrating in its own manner. But yet in this endless pursuit and struggle we will develop character and become the right sort of person, a person who knows God for themselves.

Death by a thousand cuts

I had a great chat with a good friend over coffee this morning. We were talking about how learning the truth in life and growing into the shape God would have us take up is more often than not such a slow and painful process. The reason for this is related to my last post.

Growing up is actually growing down! That is to say that maturity is about 'learning how to die' (see Jon Foreman's song of this title). But dying necessarily takes a long time. God could do it in one knock-out punch; he could knock us off our feet. But the trouble is that if He did it in one we would never get up off the canvas. Or to switch the metaphor, if He cut the mess out of us with one incision we would die of blood loss.

So we endure the death of a thousand cuts, which is to say He does his work slowly and surely. This is his mercy, although it does not feel much like it at the time. It feels more like a long, drawn out death, which is just what it is. It is actually for our good that it happens in this way.

What is our role? To pray for endurance I suppose, that we would stay on the operating table long enough for the work to be completed.

Death as the gateway to Life

The Christian gospel has at its centre a wonderful paradox: the idea that the way to receive life in its fullest and most undiluted form is to die. This is not necessarily a physical death - in fact it encompasses way more than just the physical - but it is a choice to 'let go' in all areas of life, which means to give up the pursuit of ones own agenda for life and submit it to God's agenda.

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt 16: 25 & 26)

The answer to Jesus' questions in these verses is of course 'nothing'. Nothing can be given in exchange for a person's life. No material thing, no earthly achievement, no degree certificate, no healthy family, nothing. The only hope the follower of Jesus has is utter abandonment to Jesus' cause, with a commensurate trust that he will do everything necessary for life 'through' us.

The better we learn to die, the better the risen Jesus will be able to live through us. That's the exchange we are to become a part of as Christ followers. One of the best examples of such a life was John the Baptist, who said of Jesus; "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3.30).

I believe that this is one of the greatest meanings of Jesus' death and resurrection; that after a death always comes a new life for the ones who learn to trust in God.

Excellence versus Obedience

I believe that God is far more interested in whether we are choosing to follow Him in how we live - by loving Him and loving other people - than whether we are pursuing the appearance of 'excellence' in our lives. Obedience then is of much greater importance than excellence.

Yes, I believe that we are to do our best with what we have been given. Jesus, after all, talks along these lines in the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25). But his main point in this text seems to focus around how we respond in obedience with what He has entrusted us with, not whether or not the results appear impressive from the outside looking in.

This kind of perfectionism misses the point. It focuses on the outward appearance instead of the inner motivation or the power of God, something that Jesus continually warns us against doing in the gospels (eg. Matt 5 & 6). Jesus' life shows us that what is powerful in God's eyes is often profoundly unimpressive in human terms.

What is of far more consequence to God, in my opinion, is what the motivation of our hearts is. If we are doing things because He has led us in a certain direction, then more power to us. But we must beware of getting to a place where we think that our excellence can compensate for God's power.

The Emerging Church

Over here in the USA there is a great deal of controversy over the Emerging Church. For those of you that don't know, the Emerging Church (EC) is a broad movement which is seeking to re-interpret the gospel for today's culture, rather than to stick with outmoded ways of doing things just because they are familiar. Those within this broad movement recognise that the medium is the message and that there is a huge responsibility on the church to change in order to stay true to the gospel Jesus preached.

As with any movement there are those who have perhaps gone too far in this quest; that is inevitable. But what excites me is that there is energy present in this conversation, not only in the emerging movement, but in those who have for too long been dormant who now refute the new thing. Whether or not you agree with these emergents, the presence of this energy (zeal?) can only be a good thing.

Here are some things I like about this broad movement;

1) The EC is willing to broaden the field when viewing scripture. That is to say that it is willing to come to the scripture afresh and view it through different lenses. This is a recognition that no one lens will suffice in viewing the truth of God's word, not even a middle class, white, male lens! This to my mind is a sign of reverence for the scriptures although it is sometimes interpreted as being the very opposite.

2)There is a willingness within the EC to change the forms/wineskins where they have obstructed the message of the gospel. For all the talk about the evangelical movement doing this on its own, there has been little fruit. (The 'Fresh Expressions' in the Anglican Church has achieved this).

3) There is a re-emphasis on the organic, relational elements of faith. This is a choice to favour what is 'real' over what is 'true'. This is imperative for our generation.

4) There seems to be less of a pre-occupation with structure and hierarchy. This may be a function of the newness of the movement. Enjoy it while you can!

If this is a move of God - and I believe that it is - then it will continue to generate further energy. One of the most exciting facets of the movement is that it has arisen independently in many different parts of the world. What I am not suggesting is that this 'denomination' is perfect, nothing is. But through it I believe God is going to do some great things.

"Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." (Acts 5.38-39)

God's energy is LOVE

Matthew 7.28 and following

"Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowd were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes." (Matt 7.28-29)

During chapters 5, 6 and 7 Matthew has led us through Jesus' ethical teaching in the 'Sermon on the Mount'. Here though, Matthew is ready to lead us into a new section, driving home a different emphasis. The key word is found in verse 29 and regularly over the following chapters. It is 'authority'. In the above verses Matthew is showing us that the authority of Jesus' teaching was unmatched, as was recognised by those gathered to hear him (verse 28). But Jesus' authority does not end with teaching. He is not merely the mouthpiece of God. Jesus in fact is here to heal as well as to preach. In his ministry these two elements are indivisible. Tragically, his disciples (i.e. us) are the ones who have separated teaching and healing and do so to this day.

To illustrate this point Matthew leads us through a series of healings, which demonstrate to us that Jesus has authority over physical sickness where he is present (Matt 8.1-4) and even when he is absent (8.5-13). Where there is faith present great things can be done in his name. In verse 23 we see that his authority does not merely extend to the physical realm. He is also Lord over nature itself and so he is able to still a storm.

Moreover, he commands opposing demonic forces to do whatever he pleases. This Jesus is Lord of all things and the word that keeps cropping up in Matthew's account is 'authority'. What does it take to participate in this authority? Faith. This was the key ingredient to see Jesus' authority at work then and nothing has changed. Faith can be interpreted in many ways but what I would suggest it is pointing towards here is a 'reliance on the authority of Jesus'. So to see Jesus work in the world simply need to believe that he can and will work in the world - indeed he is working in the world.

The church is in desperate need of this sort of faith in this present age. We need to come to see Jesus for who he is again. We have, I believe, spent far too long concentrating on the problems in the world and far too little time looking at the solution, the Lord of all, even the Lord of death. There is no crisis, economic, spiritual, physical or otherwise that he does not have Lordship over. Let us ask him to show us who he is once again.

Some things I realised this morning...

1) The world does not revolve around me.
2) My life is not about me; it is about God.
3) I am not in control of anything.
4) I am fragile.
5) How much would I give away if I knew I could die anytime?
6) If my life is not about me there is absolutely no need to worry about anything.

Thank God!

Matthew 3.1-12

A figure arrives out of nowhere at the beginning of chapter 3. His name is John the Baptizer. He comes to fulfill what Isaiah had pointed towards in Isaiah 40.3, namely 'to prepare the way for the Lord', the one who was to come and sort out the mess Israel found itself in (messiah). He was to make Jesus' paths straight, which is to say that his job was to get the people to a place where they could recognise the messiah when he came. His method for doing this was calling people to repent and be baptised. That is to say he led people to begin afresh, to turn their lives around in readiness for the appearance of the Kingdom of God (3.2). This coming near of the Kingdom was the mission of the messiah.

What strikes me about John most of all is that he is so clear in his understanding of what he has come to do, so much so that he does not deviate from this path in any way. John is not a people pleaser - just look at what he is wearing! In fact he is so free of the need to please others that he is able to tell the religious leaders of the day to their face that their time has been and gone, their 'kingdom' has come to an end. In his own language 'the axe is lying at the root of the tree' (the tree is an OT metaphor for Israel here employed to refer to the current leadership of Israel). These guys had been instrumental in making the mess and they needed to know they could not be part of the solution in their current state.

But in John's criticism comes a challenge in verse 10; that those who want to carry on in the new Kingdom God is building must not only turn back from the ways of the old kingdom, the old power based structures and such, but must also example this by bearing good fruit. This is an instruction to prove it or lose it. All that do not will be thrown into the fire. Perhaps the fire is for purification as much as destruction, but certainly it will be a painful experience.

The fire metaphor is carried over to verse 11 to talk about Jesus where we discover that Jesus is the one who will be bringing the fire. Indeed, the fire is his Holy Spirit given to those who repent and bear good fruit. This is another type of baptism which only Jesus can bring. Those that do not choose to receive this will instead be choosing fire of a different kind, which seems to refer to judgment (3.12).

John makes me ask the questions; am I too comfortable to be of any use in announcing Jesus? do I care too much about what other people think of me to really be able to follow Him? how can I prepare the way for Jesus? what is standing in the way of me doing this?

Matthew Chapters 1-2

I had never before realised how prominent a figure Joseph is in the early gospel story, as recorded by Matthew. He is, in fact, significantly more prominent than Mary who is only mentioned explicitly twice (vv18 & 20) and twice more implicitly (vv21 & 22). Even when Mary is mentioned explicitly she is always referred to in relation to Joseph or in relation to her task. In verse 18 she is 'engaged to Joseph', in verse 20 she is Joseph's 'wife'. There is no doubt that Joseph is the hero of this early story. He is the recipient of the vast majority of the divine interaction; he is witness to two Angelic apparitions (1.20 & 2.13) in his sleep and two further instructive dreams (2.12 & 2.22), which guide this fledgling family on their way.

Perhaps the fact that he is the recipient of such divine help is only an indication that he needed it more than the others. Putting myself in his shoes I can see why that might be the case. What would he be feeling? His wife-to-be had only 9 months previously broken the news to him that she was pregnant and he was not the father! Since then he had travelled to Bethlehem, Egypt and now to Nazareth, a backwater town, in fear of his life and the life of his family. He had the responsibility of caring for his young wife and his young son Jesus, who is to 'save his people from their sins' (2.21). I would imagine he was asking some serious questions of God; what did I do to deserve this? Why choose me? He is in awe. He must be frightened, terrified in fact. This must have been something akin to a waking dream, perhaps a nightmare at times. But yet in the face of all of this he consistently makes the right decision, to be obedient to God.

Much has been made in the history of the church of the heroism of Mary, and yes, she is worthy of much of it. But Joseph is without doubt a hero too. On him rested the massive responsibility of keeping this vulnerable troupe alive and he responded with great courage and distinction. But the same thing that marked Mary out as a heroine marks him out as hero - he was obedient. He said yes. Again and again and again, he said yes.

And that is the challenge for each of us too. Will we be people who say 'yes'? People who surrender our agenda to God and in so doing allow Him to make something more of our lives than we could ever make under our own steam? If we do we can be certain that this will lead us into a story far bigger than us, the same story that Mary and Joseph stepped into when they said yes to receiving the Messiah Jesus, the Saviour of the world.

Matthew's Gospel

Over the coming weeks and months I am hoping to write some observations on Matthew's gospel as I read it for myself. Last year I did the 'Bible in a Year, which was a good discipline but did not leave room to let the bible breathe. I am hoping to go deeper into the New Testament this year - particularly the gospels - as I am embarrassed by how little I know of what Jesus actually said.

There won't be any real scholarship behind what I'm doing - you can get that elsewhere - but hopefully something will grab your attention and provoke your thinking.

Where is the life?

This is nothing new I know, but it has struck me again this week that growth and life are always to be found on the margins of the institutions and organisations; on the margins of society - perhaps even on the margins of the human self.

This observation clearly has implications for how we structure our churches, our businesses, perhaps even our society. In terms of our churches, increasingly we will need them to be more fluid and focussed towards those who are not currently members. (FYI - I am not talking about implementing 'seeker services' so much as ridding ourselves of services as we know them. Who is getting served after all?) It also has clear implications for how we should be living. Namely we must people who are ready to make our home on the borders of our society. As Christians we have seen this kind of life in action in Jesus. He was born on the margins and in disgrace, he lived on the margins, even died on the margins outside the walls of the city.

Let the church once again find its place on the margins of society (disestablishment?). Let us give up the search to be in with the 'in crowd'. Let's instead spend our time getting in with the wrong crowd and building communities there. Let's spend less money on new church buildings and more on building homes for the homeless. Less time working out how to best 'worship' God and more time doing it. Maybe then we will rediscover our prophetic witness to the world, which I would argue we have almost completely surrendered.

I don't pretend to be living this kind of life by the way. But I would love to try. Are you interested? It can't be done alone. It will certainly cost us the life we dreamed we might live. But I believe Jesus on this one, I think the rewards will more than compensate for the loss.

Being one of the kids

I have been thinking a bit recently about my own childhood. About how I became who I am, both for good and for ill. I have realised that many of my fears and worries now come from my erroneous belief that I am the one who has to be in control of my life; that I have to make things happen. After all, if I am not working to make life happen, who will?

Who knows when I started to think like this? All I know is that it is the root of much of my anxiety. I am noticing more and more that it also saps me of real hope. When I look at the world, the church and my life with my controlling mind I cannot help but feel hopeless. How could this mess ever come to any good? The answer of course is that it cannot as long as I am in control. But true hope rests not on the created order, of which I am a paltry part, but on the Creator who never changes.

My trouble is that I think way too much like an adult. In fact I think way too much like I am a god. I put myself in God's shoes and then spend all my time trying to control the world around me so that I can remain unharmed. As Bruce Almighty should have shown us - if not the 10 commandments - we were not cut out to be Gods, but kids.

And this is the secret to gaining access to both hope and peace. As with most of Jesus' teaching it is both simple and very difficult. See Mark 10.13-16 (NKJV).

"Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. 15 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” 16 And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them."

It seems to me that Jesus is saying that the only ones who will enter the kingdom of God are those who are willing to become children. This seems to echo something of what he was saying to Nicodemus in John 3. Children are those who are willing to lay down control of their lives, allowing God to be the parent. These ones will be taken up into Jesus' own arms and cared for by him (v16).

Children trust in the goodness of their reality even to the point of naivete, living their lives in radical dependence on their parents. This can get them into trouble but it is the right sort of trouble to be in. There is a certain risk to living this kind of trust-filled life and it is certainly not for the faint of heart. Children are the courageous ones! But they are also lighthearted, hopeful, joyful, playful, kind and generous. This is the kind of life I want to pursue in 2009. May this new year be the year of radical dependence on God, the year of becoming a child once again!