Presiding Bishop Katherine Schori Reveals Her Utter Ignorance of the Bible

Anglican Link has a story about a recent sermon Katherine Schori preached on Acts 16, and Paul’s exorcism of the slave girl. If this is what she said then she has revealed a frightening ignorance of the scriptures. Here is a section of her sermon as reported:

“There are some remarkable examples of that kind of blindness in the readings we heard this morning, and slavery is wrapped up in a lot of it.  Paul is annoyed at the slave girl who keeps pursuing him, telling the world that he and his companions are slaves of God.  She is quite right.  She’s telling the same truth Paul and others claim for themselves,”

“But Paul is annoyed, perhaps for being put in his place, and he responds by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness.  Paul can’t abide something he won’t see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it.  It gets him thrown in prison.  That’s pretty much where he’s put himself by his own refusal to recognize that she, too, shares in God’s nature, just as much as he does – maybe more so!,”

Read the whole article HERE

May’s Pastoral To The Parish

Dear Friends,

What follows is a devotional I gave at the April Vestry. I feel that I should share this with you all.

I have told some of you before that there was a lawyer in Georgetown SC who won a huge case and with his share of the settlement, that was in the millions of dollars he bought a yacht and he named it “Never Enough”.

I tell you this story because of Paul’s words in Philippians 4:

I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. 13 I am able to do all things through Him[a] who strengthens me.

I felt this was a word for us as a church.

We need to be content in who we are in God AND in what God has called us to be. It can be very easy for a church to constantly keep striving to become bigger and better and more impressive. The problem is that sometimes this becomes an obsession that takes up all the energy and focus.

We are Anglican in tradition. We are liturgical in our worship. We aim to be scriptural in our teaching. And we strive to love one another.

We need to understand that not everyone will want to come to our church. Not every visitor will be led to stay with us. That is OK. We are not trying to ‘attract’ people. We are hoping to be a community which worships the Lord in spirit and in truth and seeks to live out our faith in our neighborhoods and work places.

Now, this is not to say we don’t want to grow – yes we do – but we want to grow in God’s timing and in by His grace. We want our growth to be sustained, long term and fruit bearing.

Being content with who we are and what we are in Christ means that instead of coming to church on a Sunday and lamenting what we are lacking or do not have that, which takes our focus off of the Lord, we can come excited to worship and enjoy the Lord’s presence and enjoy each others fellowship.

Someone once said that you should never welcome someone at the door looking over their shoulder seeing who else is coming. Instead we rejoice in  those God has given us and we joyfully minister to them endeavoring to do everything in the strength of the Lord. And when we do that, I believe the Lord will steadily and gradually supply our needs and bless our ministries.

Our job is not to maintain or promote Christ the Saviour but to maintain and promote the gospel message.

It is not our plans that matter, but the Lord’s plans.  We are His servants here and He can do as He pleases with us. Our hearts need to say “Not my will but your will be done”.

Abraham was given a magnificent promise by God, and Hebrews 6:13-20 tells us that Abraham waited patiently for this promise. He waited patiently because he knew that God’s promises are unbreakable – and therefore they will come to pass. ALWAYS!

V19 of Hebrews 6 says 19 We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure.

Paul says in Phil 1:6  I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you[a] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. We know he will because as the author to the Hebrews tells us, it is impossible for God to lie and Jesus has shown us the way – he has gone before us.

As a Church we are to seize the hope set before us – the work of Christ and the promise of the Gospel – and when we do this we will realize that this hope is our stabilizing anchor -  it keeps us close to Jesus, safe and secure - and content; content in Christ and content serving Christ.

Let me close with these from the Apostle Paul:

Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 

With my love and prayers!

 

A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future by Os Guinness

America is known as the land of the free. Freedom is one of the central planks of the American ideal. But how would the average American today define this ideal of freedom. Let’s say we ask the question: What does it mean to be free in America?

I would suggest that the basic response would be “I am free to do as I want”. And this is the very problem that Os Guinness writes about in this book.

To define Freedom as the ability “To do whatever I want” will eventually cause America to lose the very freedom which it upholds and holds dear.

It is also a complete misunderstanding of what the Founders intended.

Guinness writes that: We  are rapidly reaching the point in Western consumer societies where people confuse freedom with choice, as they are dazzled daily by an ever expanding array of external choices in consumer goods and lifestyle options. But the pursuit of freedom has led o a surfeit of choices and a scarcity of meaning and value – a point at which choice itself, rather than the content of any choice has become the heart of freedom. The result is that modern  people value choice rather than good choice.

And here is the issue – making GOOD choices.Unconstrained freedom is destructive. This is, for Guinness, the genius of the Founders. The Founders understood history and saw that all empires fell. They wanted to create a free society that would remain free – that would defy history. Reliance on the Constitution alone and on structures and laws alone will not work. In what Guinness calls the ‘golden triangle of freedom’ the Founders understood that the cultivation and transmission of the conviction meant that freedom requires virtue, which requires faith, which requires freedom which in turn requires virtue, which requires faith which requires freedom and so on.

In other words, freedom depends on the character of the rulers and the ruled alike and upon the trust which exists between them. Guinness writes: Leadership without character, business without ethics and science without human values – in short freedom without virtue – will bring he republic to its knees.

The danger for America, in Guinness’ eyes is that it has reached a point where virtue is hardly esteemed at all – or at least not welcomed in the public square. Greed is good, vice is flaunted etc, etc.

Freedom for you and I is the gift of self control, training and discipline – not self indulgence. And this is why to define freedom as “Doing whatever I like” puts the American ideal of freedom in jeopardy today. Those who founded this country always knew that freedom rested in the ability of it’s citizens to act selflessly, not selfishly.Unquestionably the framers knew from history and their own experience that the wrong relationship of faith and virtue to freedom had been and would always be disastrous for both freedom and faith.

This is a very powerful and sobering read – highly recommended.

Who Said This…?

Who and what theological tradition said this:

“the Word of God precedes the Bible and surpasses it. That is why the center of our faith isn’t just a book, but a salvation history and above all a person, Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh.”

Entrusted With the Kingdom

I have shared with many of you that it is quite funny how whenever I meet another Brit here in the States we have an almost instant affinity together. We have a bond. We are Brits in America – we have a similar accent – we share similar experiences of our country – we have eaten toad in the hole, fish and chips, steak and Kidney Pie with gravy and Yorkshire Pudding followed by Treacle Pudding and Custard.

We have a bond BECAUSE we are citizens of the United Kingdom, or Great Britain.

Now, if I was back in England, this person may not even be on my radar of friendship. I may not even have liked them if I had met them on streets of London.

But because of the circumstances of living in another country where we are a minority – we instantly come together under the identity of our Citizenship and talk all things British.

The same thing happens with church. Church is a place we gather & meet people we would not necessarily naturally be drawn to outside of the church. In the first century, the Church had a hugely diverse membership, which in the culture would have caused incredible problems. Slaves and masters, rich and poor, the powerful and the weak all gathered as equals under the cross of Christ. Nowhere else in the world could they gather as equal brothers and sisters and therefore nowhere else could they have known one another.

It is no exaggeration to say that the peoples very lives were tied up in the body of the Church in the first century.

And while the cultural gaps between the rich and poor, the powerful and weak the master (employer) and slave (employee) is different, the same principle is at work.

We come together because of a desire to worship the Lord God and to grow in maturity and to be a part of the fellowship and community of Christians. We talk and spend time together but then the rest of the week our paths may never cross.

One theologian has said that in church, what hurts the most is our lack of human relationships. Many worship services in which we participate every Sunday remain devoid of genuine human contact. We scarcely know each other with any genuine mutuality. We do not even consider it very valuable to create community with each other.

Of course, when we gather together in church we say Hi, how are you, great to see you, but so often these relationships cease when we leave the meeting.

A question we might ask ourselves is can there be a preaching church in which one receives something, without a community in which one gives something?

In this account from Luke there are some words which are really quite remarkable – in v29 he says: You are those who have stood by me in my trials and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom.

The Revised English Bible translates this verse as “You have stood firmly by me in my times of trial: and I now entrust to you the kingdom which my father entrusted to me”.

I think that is a better translation.

As Jesus prepared to leave earth and return to heaven, he entrusts to his closest disciples the work he has started. He entrusts to them the kingdom.

The following verses show that ultimately this carries into eternity– the 12 will rule on thrones – but this entrustment, also includes the here and now.

Now, what did it mean to be entrusted with the kingdom of Heaven? Well, of course part of it would be the declaration of who Jesus was and the call to people to follow him, but it also included looking after those IN the kingdom of heaven – looking after the believers.

One of the hardest lessons for us to learn as believers is that we are not just individuals but part of a body. We are not just a collection of people who gather with a common focus on a Sunday but we are a united, joined, force which has at its center the work of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom – we are citizens of heaven – ambassadors for Christ – a community.

But community is not, and should not be about occasional, interspersed interaction.

We must not forget that Jesus Christ lived in community – he lived intimately together with his disciples. His disciples squabbled, argued with each other, annoyed each other and even tried to get places of authority behind each others backs. This was no peaceful commune. Yet Jesus gave himself to the community of those around him; living, walking; teaching; solving conflicts between the disciples, and sharing an intimate meal with them on the eve of his death.

We have also been entrusted by God with his kingdom here in Mount Vernon – and how we live and act in this community of the body of Christ, both outwardly to others, and inwardly to each other, is vitally important.

Our epistle reading from 1 Corinthians 11 shows this vividly. Paul tells us something quite sobering – if one eats the bread and wine of the Eucharist unworthily then they are guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Then V29 says this For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. The question is to what does the word ‘body’ refer? The context suggests it is the body of believers. Paul has, in v20-22 chastised the Corinthians for how they are treating other members of the body. The likelihood is that as they gathered for a communion service, bringing their own supplies of bread and wine for the service as was the custom, the more wealthy began to eat and drink before everyone else had arrived, which meant the poorer people, those who were slaves who had to finish all their work before being able to come to this communion service, arrived to find there was no food, either to eat for a meal nor to have for communion. One theologian says on this verse: Those who eat and drink in flagrant disregard of the physical needs of others in their fellowship risk incurring punishment from God.

In other words, we take communion unworthily when we have ignored or trampled on the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Is our view of community, of this body, simply a weekly, limited interaction for an hour or so?

Or do we feel that we are part of a body – a community that looks out for each other, where no one is alone with their problems; where no one has to conceal their disabilities; where neither the old nor the young are isolated; where we bear with one another even when it is unpleasant and there is no agreement.

Jesus lived in and ministered in community and then he ENTRUSTED THE KINGDOM to this community.

Let us just pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that when we come forward to take communion, we do so not as individuals who happen to belong to Christ the Saviour, but as a body, a community, who has been entrusted with the Kingdom here in this place and that each of us has a role in it.

The Episcopal Church Is Like The Lying Prophets in Jeremiah

Jeremiah 26 has the prophet declaring God’s word to the religious leaders and people. They did not like the word of the God because it offended and contradicted what they had been preaching. v7-9 says:

⁷ The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. ⁸ And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! ⁹ Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

This is exactly what is happening in the Episcopal Church today. Those, whether clergy, bishop laity, who promote doctrines which are not scriptural (yes, gay ordination and gay marriage) are just like those in Jeremiah’s day who screamed at  Jeremiah “You shall die”. No, the liberal church is not threatening the conservatives with death – but they are just as angry.

One blogger writes: In the actual world of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion there are all sorts of signs pointing to communities of incarnation and resurrection, but in blogland the sour voices of the realignment crowd and the thickheaded call for a return to the “faith once delivered to the saints”makes for dull and deadly conversation.

Really? Those who stand for the truth of God’s word are thickheaded?

Or The Rev. Dr. Luis León, Rector of St John’s in DC. Effectively he tells everyone that unless they agree with gay marriage, pro choice etc you are a bigot.

The Rev. Dr. Luis León is just like the priests which screamed at Jeremiah “You shall die”.

The interesting thing is that the liberal church would have hated Jeremiah. And to hate a prophet of God was to hate God.

 

Criticism

One day a man met Charles Spurgeon, the famous London preacher, on the street, took off his hat and bowed, and said, “The Rev. Mr. Spurgeon—a great idiot!”

Spurgeon took off his hat and replied, “Thank you for the compliment. I am glad to hear that I am a great anything!”

Have you ever had a day, or even a season when people have criticized you?

Criticism can be hard to take. It can stir a huge range of emotions in us; it can make us defensive, angry, fearful and even bitter.

Of course, while we would prefer never to be criticized the likelihood is that we probably will be.

As Elbert Hubbard, author of A Message To Garcia said: to avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing!

And of course, we know that Jesus was criticized. A lot!

Just take Mark chapter 2 for example. Jesus is criticized four times in this chapter alone. Every story that Mark tells in this chapter has the Pharisees criticizing Jesus’ or Jesus’ disciples actions.

• Why does this fellow talk like that – v7?
• Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? – v16
• How is it  that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting but yours not? V18
• Why are [your disciples] doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? V24

For most of us, criticism can strike at the very heart of who we are. It can paralyze us; it can immobilize us – it can stop us from doing what we should be doing. We end up scared of being criticized so we do not do anything.

To get criticized does not mean what you are doing is necessarily wrong.  Jesus is criticized four times in this passage – and he had not done, nor does he ever do anything wrong! To do something well, right and true does not mean we will avoid criticism!!

Criticism is always difficult to accept, but if we receive it with humility and a desire to improve our character it can be very helpful. As Proverbs says Only a fool does not profit when he is rebuked for his mistakes.

Several years ago I read a helpful article on this subject. It stated that when we are criticized we ought to ask ourselves whether the criticism contains any truth even when it is not given with the right motivation and in the right spirit.

The article offered these four, helpful suggestions as to what to do when someone criticizes us:

(1) Commit the matter instantly to God, asking Him to remove all resentment or counter-criticism on your part and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you any needed lessons in the criticism

(2) Remember that we are all great sinners and that the one who has criticized us does not know the worst about us.

(3) If you have made a mistake or committed a sin, humbly and frankly confess it to God and to anyone you may have injured.

(4) Be willing to learn afresh that you are not infallible and that you need God’s grace and wisdom every moment of the day to keep on the straight path.

When we are criticized, even when the delivery of that criticism is mean spirited and unfair, let us accept what is true and act upon it; reject what is not true and then commit to the Lord.

Even our Lord was criticized. How we deal with criticism is a sign of our maturity and growth in the Lord.

 

Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives by Richard Swenson

Overload is not having time to finish the book you’re reading on stress. Margin is having time to read

it twice. Overload is fatigue. Margin is energy. Overload is red link. Margin is black ink. Overload is hurry. margin is calm. Overload is anxiety. Margin is security. Overload is the disease of our time. Margin is the cure.

So reads the back cover of Richard Swenson’s book.

Swenson, an MD, knows what life can be like when lived without margin. He saw patients daily who were stressed, depressed and exhausted – not just physically but mentally, financially and emotionally. And this is becoming a norm for 21st century living. Why?  For Swenson the absence of margin is linked to the march of progress. There are five axiom’s which for Swenson reveals why margin has disappeared for many.

1. Progress works by differentiating our environment, thus always giving us more and more of everything faster and faster.
2. The spontaneous flow of progress is toward increasing stress, change, complexity, speed, intensity and overload.
3. All humans have physical, mental, emotional and financial limits that are relatively fixed
4. The profusion of progress is on a collision course with human limits. Once the threshold of these limits is exceeded, overload displaces margin
5. On the unsaturated side of their limits, humans can be open and expansive. On the saturated side of these limits, however, the rules of life totally change.

Swenson is not anti-progress – quite the opposite in fact. Nor, for the most part, does he see stress, change, complexity, speed, intensity and overload as enemies. But when stress becomes distress, change becomes fear, complexity becomes unsolvable, speed becomes out of control and overload becomes crushed then margin has gone and life is now maxed out. And that is when we are danger.

We all need space to breathe, freedom to think and time to heal and develop deep relationships. But for so many people life is maxed out and so there is no space. Life goes from one event to the next without time to stop for significant space. He writes:

Progress’s biggest failure has been its inability to nurture and protect right relationships. if progress had helped here, I would have no quarrel with it. [P]rogress builds by using the tools of economics, education and technology. But what are the tools of the relational life? Are they not the social (my relationship with others), the emotional (my relationship to myself), and the spiritual (my relationship to God)? None of the tools of progress has helped build the relational foundation our society requires.

Swenson’s book is an appeal for re-direction, to stop and take stock. When our physical bodies reach their limit they hurt or even break and we realize very quickly that there is a problem. However, when we reach our limit emotionally, or mentally we tend not to realize it until we breakdown, by which time damage is often done.

Swenson’s book gives wonderful tools and suggestions for regaining margin back into life. There is a cost to regaining margin – a cost which Swenson himself happily paid and is now living a life which has margin.

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by E. Randolph Richards & Brandon J. O’Brien

The concept of this book is desperately needed. The gap between the culture in which the scripture was written and our own day is often wide, complex and even at times confusing. Reading the Bible from our western perspective can mean that we miss some interesting and at times vital things simply because the Bible is NOT a western book. Richards and O’Brien will introduce and guide you into some of the important principles and issues at stake and to provide you with some basic skills to help you cross this ‘cultural’ gap.

I would have liked the authors to have engaged a little more with the Jewish Roots concept – that is that the Bible is primarily a Jewish book and therefore uses Jewish idioms, figures of speech etc. That being said, this is a great introduction in opening the exciting doors of even deeper understanding of the scriptures.

How Should Evangelicals Respond To The Inauguration Prayer Incident?

Joe Carter at the Gospel Coalition Blog has a great post out-lining three positions various evangelicals have taken over Louie Giglio’s withdrawal from the Inauguration because of a sermon he preached 15 years deemed ‘anti-gay’.

I wonder which position you would take?

Position #1: Gabe Lyons, a best-selling author and founder of Q Ideas, says Giglio is a “target of intolerance” and “reverse discrimination at its finest“:

As gays come out of the closet, are Christians meant to swap and go hide back in closets of their own? This zero-sum game is the most un-American of games.

Freedom to speak your mind and live by your convictions—a person’s freedom of conscience—is the first, most fundamental, American right. James Madison believed strongly in the freedom of conscience, even claiming, “This right is in its nature an unalienable right” in his Memorial and Remonstrance written in 1785. Maintaining and defending “freedom of conscience” protects every citizen from being coerced, cajoled, intimidated or bullied into taking a point of view that goes against their deepest convictions.

It’s a sad day in America when that right is up for debate.

 

For the other two positions CONTINUE READING HERE

Time for Novels

Being sick at the beginning of the year meant I read some novels. I have been a great fan of CJ Samson’s tudor detective series featuring Matthew Shardlake, a hunchback lawyer living in the reign of Henry VIII. I read his first book, Dissolution in 2009 and the second book Dark Fire in 2010 (see  HERE and HERE). While sick I completed the series, reading Revelation, Sovereign and Heartstone. What makes these mysteries so good is that the ‘history’ is factual and accurate, thus putting them in the historical fiction bracket – but also Samson’s writing is engaging and a real page turner.

A real bright spot while feeling very cruddy.

Being Sick

The day after Christmas (boxing day for us Brits) I decided that I should go to the doctors and check out the cough I have had for some 3 weeks.

It’s quite ironic. My mom, back in the UK has also had a similar cold, cough for quite a while. The contrast in how the medical process unfolded here in the USA and back home, is really interesting. My mom has been telling me of the hours spent in the waiting room of her GP, only to have been prescribed antibiotics TWICE and now being told she may have to have a chest x-ray which would mean a another trip to a hospital and some more hours waiting.

On Dec 26 I drove, without an appointment, to the doctors. I left the house at 10am. I was sitting in the triage section of the doctors, having my blood pressure, weight and temp checked at 10:40am. I was then taken to one of the 11 available cubicles, with a bed and computer in it. I had taken my iPad and was reading for a while. A nurse came back and asked me to change into a gown – a technician would be in shortly to take me to have my chest x-rayed. By 11am I was waiting for the doctor to see me. A nurse popped her head round and apologized for the delay and assured me they had called another doctor to come in. The doctor comes in at 11:15am. He pulls up the x-rays on the computer. I have bronchitis and ‘walking’ pneumonia. I need three meds including antibiotics. They have a pharmacy on site, would I like to spend the $10 each prescription and he could get them now and bring them back to the cubicle. Sure I say. 11:30am, I was leaving the doctors with a diagnosis and the meds I needed to get well.

Home by lunch time.

Two hours – x- ray, diagnosis and medicine. Yes, you pay for your medical insurance. Yes I will get a bill for the chest x-ray, despite having a good medical insurance.

But the contrast is remarkable. My mom has had a doctor guess what has been going on for the past few weeks, without my mom getting better. Now, after two doctor visits, her GP is suggesting a chest x-ray and she is still not feeling well.

Remarkable. Truly remarkable.

Budget Time

My wife and I took somewhat of a risk to move State to become the Minister of a small church plant last year. We have never regretted the move. However, there are certain times when the facts of where the church is and how things are going are put down very starkly – and budget time is one of those times. This morning, over pineapple, coffee and almonds the finance committee sat down to go over the numbers in order to present to the budget to the vestry and then to the church.

The Lord has blessed us mightily and today was a blessing. Including children, over this past year, we have grown 51%. Our income is up 16%. And our expenses have not gone up too much. This meant that the meeting was not about what can we cut, but what do we want to do! And at the end of the meeting we had a budget which was not just acceptable but one which made us excited.

The Lord has been good to us this year and this morning was a great encouragement. Praise him.

National Convention Center

We took the 20 mins to drive across the river on Woodrow Wilson Bridge to visit the awesome National Convention Center… HUGE place… Sorry for the quality of the video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The myths of Bible Translation

I often find it amusing that people insist on having ‘literal’ or word for word translation, as if that is the best and only translation to have. That is of course false. A great blog post by Daniel Wallace gives the 15 myths of Bible translation. Here are the first two to wet your appetite:

1. Perhaps the number one myth about Bible translation is that a word-for-word translation is the best kind. Anyone who is conversant in more than one language recognizes that a word-for-word translation is simply not possible if one is going to communicate in an understandable way in the receptor language. Yet, ironically, even some biblical scholars who should know better continue to tout word-for-word translations as though they were the best. Perhaps the most word-for-word translation of the Bible in English is Wycliffe’s, done in the 1380s. Although translated from the Latin Vulgate, it was a slavishly literal translation to that text. And precisely because of this, it was hardly English.
2. Similar to the first point is that a literal translation is the best version. In fact, this is sometimes just a spin on the first notion. For example, the Greek New Testament has about 138,000–140,000 words, depending on which edition one is using. But no English translation has this few…

Read the whole article here.

110% Increase

That was what we had at this years CHristmas Eve Service. It kinda blew our minds – the pageant was packed with kids and people just kept walking in. God is always good and his goodness was very evident tonight. Thank you Lord.

A Godly Leader

I am very fortunate. I serve as a priest under one of the most godly men and Bishops I know. He is certainly the best Bishop I know, for many different reasons. But one small, yet I think powerful, indication of the type of leader and pastor my bishop is comes on a day like today – Christmas Eve. This is the second Christmas as Rector of my parish and this is the second Christmas Eve that my Bishop has called me to see how I was, and to pray for me over the phone. He is doing this with all the clergy in his Diocese. It is both a blessing and a wonderful affirmation that just hours from a Christmas Eve service my bishop has prayed for me, for the service and for the ministry. I am very fortunate and blessed indeed.

Peter Adam Quotes Hilary Mantel…

One of the privileges I have is sitting on the committee which examines those who feel God is calling to them to ministry in the Anglican Church and our Diocese as well as the committee which examines those graduating Seminary and about to be Ordained.

I have been swatting up on Anglican Theology and on the 39 Articles. In reading one book, “The Very Pure Word of God: The Book of Common Prayer As A Model Of Biblical Liturgy” by Peter Adam, a strong reformed Anglican, I was amazed to see him quote from “Wolf Hall”, Hilary Mantel’s novel on Thomas Cromwell and the Reformation period in England. Some have labeled Wolf Hall and Mantel’s follow up novel “Bring Up The Bodies” as advocating moral relativism. Yet here is the very conservative Adam quoting from her novel. He quotes this bit: They have seen their religion painted on the walls of churches, or carved in stone, but now God’s pen is poised, and he is ready to write his words in the books of their hearts.

Very interesting…

Elementary school shootings 26 dead….

The tragic killings of young lives today will live in the memory of this nations history. The town will become infamous and famous because of this horrendous event.

However, the pro-gun lobby are already subtly preparing the sound bites to defend gun ownership in the aftermath of this event. The call for gun reform will inevitably come. But this time I hope that the pro-gun lobby simply bow their heads and take the hit. There is nothing to say. It was as bad as bad can be. No defense. No sound bite. No argument. Children died at the hands of a man with a gun.

Pray for the families.

What’s Our View of the World Right Now?

The world we live in right now looks scary. Watching the news is a task of endurance as you go from one crisis to another crisis, with no apparent solution or end in sight.

For many, it appears that the world has become a different place – an strange place – it has changed beyond recognition from their childhood.

Many feel they are living in a foreign land.

Daniel faced something very similar.

He and his nation were in exile, in captivity in Babylon. Everything Daniel had held dear to him had been ripped away – his way of life, how he worshipped, his culture, what he ate, how he dressed, even how he spoke. The Babylonians even took his name away from him – Belteshazzar.

What happened to Daniel and Israel was effective Armageddon – the end of the world.

Daniel’s people, the Israelites, had a very simple worldview. They had always believed that the stability of the world was guaranteed by the fact that Yahweh, created the world and ruled over the world. Yet Israel faced a crisis. Daniel, I believe, himself faced a crisis. The stability of the world had fallen off a cliff. When a nation was defeated – so was your god. So when you believed that you had the most powerful god in the universe, and then this god does not rescue you from defeat, the question is – was the other nations god more powerful than your god.

Daniel believed Yahweh to be the one true God – creator and sustainer of all things and that all other gods were subject and under the power of Yahweh. But the defeat by Babylon meant that this worldview was being severely tested.

Had God forgotten Israel? Was he able to defeat the Babylonians? Why was evil prevailing? What was going on?

The future looked grim for them. It looked hopeless – and it looked like a future without Yahweh.

It is in this contextual background that Daniel gets this vision in Chapter 7 V9-14. The vision has one simple point – God has not abandoned his people to the will of their oppressors. Those who remain faithful to the end will see the consummation of God’s Sovereign purpose.

Yahweh was a “to go” God – He was not restricted by the temple, or national boundaries – God – Yahweh was right there in Babylon, with the people of Israel, and even working on the King of Babylon himself – but that is another sermon.

Boy, did they need to hear this. God had not abandoned them. He is not powerless to stop what had been happening.

A similar thing was happening with the apostle John. John had served his God and his master Jesus, but was now, banished to the island of Patmos during a time of persecution. Christians were being killed – the world ruled by a mad and insane man. Jesus had not yet returned. What was delaying him? What is going to happen? Then John receives this revelation – revelations of things that have happened that are happening and that will happen.

I want you to notice something. We often call Revelation the revelation of John. But that is not accurate. Look at the first line of our reading this morning.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take place; and he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John.

This is a the Revelation of Jesus – given to Him by the Father, and then given to John. This is directly from the Father to the Son, and then to us!

Daniel and John are given two incredible visions which take us into a place which is quite remarkable – a glimpse into the heavenly perspective of time.

And these visions, given by God are not here in scripture to satisfy human curiosity about heaven but to affirm faith and give hope in the midst of difficulty and encourage obedient service.

The vision of Daniel 7 is of a court room – the Ancient of Day has taken up his place in the court of justice, and this court, the court of God, is always convened. In fact it is convened right now – his justice is always flowing; even as the earthly kingdoms exist – God has already passed judgment on these Kingdoms, and on the Kings, prime ministers and Presidents of the world – and in due course, the sentence will be passed into the physical realm of this world.

God is on the heavenly throne, even when it appears that earthly thrones are occupied by tyrants.

There is a story of two friends used to play basket ball in a public school after they had finished work. On the side lines, an elderly janitor waited patiently until the two finished playing. Invariably he sat there reading his Bible. One day one of the players asked him what he was reading. The man answered, ‘The book of Revelation.’ Surprised, the man asked if he understood it. ‘Oh, yes,’ the Janitor assured him. ‘I understand it!’ ‘What does it mean?’ the man asked. Quietly the janitor answered, ‘It means that Jesus has won, Jesus has won.’”

What is your view of the world right now? Do we look at the world with hope or fear? Do we see a future which is bright or dark? Do we have confidence or are we uncertain of what is to come.

Our future as Christians is entirely controlled by the past. The past, of course, is the victory of Jesus on the cross. When Jesus rose from the dead and defeated death, and ascended back to heaven, the Kingdom of Christ won – and it began to conquer. As people give their lives to Jesus, when they trust in Him alone, and live under HIS kingdom, his government, the Kingdom of God is conquering. It is running parallel with other kingdoms, but all other kingdoms and governments will fall, just as Babylon fell, the Med & Persian Kingdom fell, Greece fell and Rome fell. Christ’s Kingdom will continue forever and ever.

Faced with suffering, injustice, and oppression and with no deliverance or remedy at hand, hope has to lie in the belief that there is more to reality than is apparent – that there is a righteous, holy and mighty God who does sit on his throne and who acts to deliver the faithful.

There is a Kingdom coming and the Kingdom’s of this world cannot stand against it.

Our Gospel reading is a fabulous illustration of this.

Right here we have the confrontation of two kingdoms – the Kingdom of Rome, of the world, of which Pilate is a representative and the Kingdom of Jesus, the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is the visual image of what Daniel and Revelation is illustrating. Visually, the Kingdom of Rome appears to be winning. Pilate is interrogating Jesus. He has the authority. Pilate believed this. He tells Jesus in Chapter 19: 10 Pilate therefore said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” The oppressor, the ‘evil’ man appears to be in control and to have won the day. Pilate had no doubt that he was in a place of power – for it was his kingdom that ruled on earth.

But how wrong Pilate was.

There is another Kingdom – and even here, Jesus is speaking to Pilate about this kingdom. Jesus is ministering to Pilate and even now, in Pilate’s palace, is offering him the chance to take hold of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus’ response to Pilate is so amazing – Jesus asks Pilate, why are you asking me whether I am the King of the Jew? Your motive for asking will determine the answer i give.

In other words, If Pilate is truly asking because he wants to know then Jesus will say yes. If Pilate is just repeating the charge of the Jews then the answer is no, because he is not the King of Jews that the people expected.

No, even here – even as Jesus is about to be judged and sent to the cross, Pilate is not in control. The ruling government is not in control. Jesus is. The Lord is. God is.

Jesus’ kingdom is not from this world. It does not operate like the kingdoms or governments of this world. And it has been Jesus role and the Churches mission, to tell the world about the truth of the Kingdom of Heaven.

N.T Wright is a very well known theologian and scholar, as well as being the former Bishop of Durham in the UK. He said that the Gospel is the declaration of four things which stem from the prophets:

• That on the cross Jesus defeated all evil & the power of sin and death
• In Jesus a new age has dawned of the fulfillment of the prophets and scriptures and that the whole world would be addressed by one God
• That Jesus is the long awaited messiah and King
• That Jesus is the Lord and one true King of the whole world to whom one day every knee will bow to.

The Gospel is a declaration of truth – of fact – of the Kingdom of God.

And this kingdom is returning – he is coming back. Jesus has won. Evil will not win.

CS Lewis said that If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

Do we live in this knowledge despite what our world shows us – despite what life is throwing at us right now? Do we know that God’s kingdom has arrived? Even though it is not yet here in its complete fullness? Do we see the wars in the world today and the conflicts and the evil people and political empires who oppress and kill and know that God has judged them and that sentence will be passed soon. Do we know that in the struggles of life that face us through illness, or hardship; in our work places or families, that we belong to Christ’s kingdom and that our future is with Him.

The message of Daniel and John is the same, and it is illustrated by Jesus as he stood before Pilate.

If we base our faith only on the realities we see here and now, we will flounder and lose hope. But if we place our hope deep into God’s future promises, which he has revealed to us now, it will hold us through the very worst of storms. As the Psalmist said this morning: The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed, he is girded with strength. Amen!

 

If you Don’t Agree – Ditch Them….

One of the accusations of those in the Episcopal Church is that those who have left are schismatics who show no tolerance for others view points.

Of course that is not true – but even more ironically, that is now what the established Episcopalians are doing with the Church of England.

Of course, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lambeth Palace have no actual ‘authority’ over the provinces of Anglicanism. But there is this ‘bond of affection’ which revolves very loosely around the use of the Book of Common Prayer, the 39 Articles the acceptance of Bishop, Priest and Deacon and attendance at the Lambeth conference held every 10 years.

The issue of marriage, and it’s re-definition to include same sex couples has been one of the issues which has divided anglicans and episcopalians. And now, the Church of ENgland has published a paper on this issue in response to Prime Minister Cameron’s belief in allowing same sex couples to marry in Churches.

The irony is the attacks which the writer(s) of this paper have come under for expressing their position. You may not like it. You may not agree, but the inability of liberal episcopalians to engage and to exercise the tolerance they themselves call others to exercise is stunning. Mark Harris, who is a liberal, but often a thoughtful and in many ways at least tries to be objective, writes a post with this as it’s title: Innies, outies, complementarity and other mind boggling foolishness about men and women.

Really? This is an approved paper by the Church of England. This was not written by 12 year olds, but by those who do understand theology, even if one disagrees with their position. To use a title such as this I think is very unfair, and a tad contemptuous and makes fun of the traditional view of marriage, as if the traditional view has been created by traditionalists, rather than stated squarely and clearly in the Holy Scriptures!!

And then another blog writes a post entitled Has the established C of E outlived its usefulness?  So here you have it. The Liberal / progressive view point is this: We, the tolerant faction of the Episcopal Church and Anglicanism, who welcome all people, suggest that you agree with us, or you will be ridiculed. And if you don’t agree with us, your view is not only invalid but has outlived it’s usefulness and so either you go or we leave! 

Stewardship and Giving

The question that is first on our lips when we read a passage like Genesis 22 is Why Does God ask Abraham to Sacrifice Isaac?

There may be a number of reasons but I my view one of the key reasons that God asks this of Abraham is because God is teaching Abraham the principle of First Fruits.

And the Principle of First Fruits is this: the FIRST born – or the FIRST of something belongs to God. It is His. And it must either be sacrificed to God or redeemed.

Where does this idea come from? Well, to find the answer to this we need to go back to the very first Passover in Egypt. The Passover is a time of judgment. God declares that he will judge the Egyptians for ignoring Him and Him ways. If you remember, the Israelites are commanded to put blood on the door posts of their houses. This was a sign for the angel to Passover that house and so the first born in that house did not die. Every other first born – both man and animal, died that night. This was about “the Egyptians and Israelites.” God passed his judgment over ALL the people in Egypt – and only those who followed the command of God were not killed. If an Israelite ignored the command to put blood on the door post, all the first born of that household would have doed. Being an Israelite by birth would not have saved them.

Now the fact that no Israelite died that night did not mean they had been let off. God’s judgment came upon everyone in Egypt – and the Israelites were no better than the Egyptians – they were sinners. So a price still had to be exacted from Israel. God is a just and righteous God. Forgiveness without justice is not righteous. Therefore God does not forgive without a price and the salvation of Israel from Egypt required a price.

In Number 3 verse 11 we are told what that price was to be.

The LORD also said to Moses, 12 “I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman. The Levites are mine, 13 for all the firstborn are mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set apart for myself every firstborn in Israel, whether human or animal. They are to be mine. I am the LORD.”

So the result of the first Passover was that every first born male Israelite, instead of dying like the Egyptians, had to be given to the Lord. But so that families did not have to hand over every first born child, God chooses the Levites as a first born offering among the tribes, this meant that first born males did not have to be given to God, the Levites took that role and that place.

However, the Israelites were required to give to God the first born male of their flocks and animals, or the first fruits of every harvest.

Exodus 13:12-13 says: you shall set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the LORD’s. 13 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.

Ex. 23:19    “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.

Thus, every first lamb born to your flock had to be sacrificed. If it was an unclean animal, like a donkey, you had to redeem it with a spotless lamb, or a monetary offering or you had to break its neck. Kill it. And every first harvest from your crops had to be given to the Lord.

Why? It was to teach the Israelites total reliance on God. The risk of giving God the first fruits is that you had no idea that you would have any more flocks or harvest. God does not say “ Let your ewe produce 9 lambs and then give me the tenth”. No, God says, “Give me the first one and then trust me that you will have more” It was a statement of faith that if we give to God the first, he would provide all that is needed.
What then is God asking of us?

Faith. It ALWAYS requires faith to give the first, because you have no idea what is coming. This is the point of faith – we do not see but we trust. Most of us would prefer that our faith is based on what we can see. But scripture is very clear:

Romans 8:24 says: Now in this hope we were saved, yet hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?

Hebrews 11:1 says Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

And we know, don’t we, that we say paraphrase this verse as – Faith is the reality of things fully expected, the certainty of things not seen.

God asks us to give HIM the first even before we see if we are going to have enough.

This is because we are trusting that God will redeem the rest – when the first is given to God, God redeems the rest.

And this is not just about money.

The question is do we give God the first of everything.

For example – Do we give God the first of our day – do we give him the first 15 – 20 mins of our day to him in prayer, and a devotional time? By giving him the first minutes, we let him redeem the rest of the day for us.

Prov 3:9-10: Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; 10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

We don’t have time to go through ALL the passages of scripture which show this, so we will take two. Joshua 6. In Joshua chapter 6 God prepares the Israelites to attack Jericho.

What is the significance of Jericho?

It’s the first city they are to attack in the promised land.

Josh. 6:18 But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. 19 But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD.”

Do you see? This is the FIRST city – and everything IN that city is dedicated to God. Here again is the first fruits principle. And when the Israelites give God the first city he could Redeem the other cities. The next city they defeated they could have the loot!

Another example is Genesis 4. We all know the story of Cain and Abel and that Cain’s offering is rejected and Abel’s is not. Why? Well, lets read it she [Eve] also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of a flock, but Cain cultivated the land. 3 In the course of time Cain presented some of the land’s produce as an offering to the LORD.a 4 And Abel also presented |an offering|—some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he was downcast.

Abel offered his first fruits – Cain did not and so God rebuked Cain. Notice this. Cain makes an offering – but he has not given God the first and it is for this reason that God rejects Cain’s offering.

Now, the scriptures are totally consistent is EVERY way and the first fruit principle is found in the New Testament, perhaps in it’s most remarkable way.

Luke 2:7: And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Jesus we know to be the firstborn of Mary. But he is also the firstborn in other ways;

Col 1:15: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

What does the principle of first fruits tell us? That the firstborn, must die to redeem the rest.

What does Jesus do? He dies that we might live. As one theologian has written: When Christ redeemed us by his sacrifice he brought us back to God. He is literally a first fruits offering. In a very real sense, Jesus was God’s tithe!

In fact, the day that Jesus rose from the dead was the Jewish feast of First Fruits – the third day of the Jewish festival of Passover, 16 Nisan (Lev 23).

The first of everything we have – finances, time, family, work, all belong to God. Our hearts should say “ God, I am going to give to you first in every area of life and trust that you redeem the rest.”

And the giving of our first fruits to the Lord must not be begrudgingly but joyfully. Most of you know that I think the guilt driven stewardship campaigns of many churches are utterly unbiblical. It’s not about us wanting your money. It’s about God having your heart. If this Church were to have a motto for stewardship it would be 2 Cor 9:7: Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not out of regret [or reluctantly] or out of necessity [or compulsion], for God loves a cheerful giver.

God wants us to be joyful in what we give. Why? Because that helps us to be spiritually healthy. Joy in our giving, whether it be money or our time, or energy helps us to be spiritually healthy.

We see this in our gospel reading. I think this is one of the most misunderstood texts in the New Testament.

What on earth is the good eye that makes your body full of light and and the bad eye which makes your body full of darkness? In the Hebrew scriptures and rabbinic tradition the term good eye – ayin tovah – means generosity while the term bad eye – aiyin ra’ah – means stinginess or selfishness. A rabbi would say, “If a person gives a gift, let him give it with a good eye.”

We see this in proverbs 22:9 – A generous person will be blessed, for he gives some of his food24 to the poor. Some translations will have a footnote which says that the word generous is literally good eye.

Jesus was saying that generosity is the light of the body. If we share ourselves and our resources with others, we will be full of light because we have good eye, just as to be stingy and selfish with resources and ourselves is to have a bad eye.

As I have said before this is not just about money. Sharing wisdom can be as, if not more valuable than giving.

But the key is – will we be a fellowship who stands on the principle of first fruits. God asks the first of us, The first of every thing!

We Need To Lean On The Right Thing!

There is a prevailing belief, not unreasonably, that if you do everything right – if you follow the right steps, everything will turn out for the good.

This was drummed into me at school. If you study hard, you will get good results and you will be able to either go to university or get a good job. If you follow the right steps, the outcome will always be good.

This is how we dream, isn’t it. I used ask the Senior High’s in my youth group what their dream was for life – and it was always to work hard, graduate, get a good job, settle down, find the right person , marriage, kids, travel etc.

I would then teach on the curve balls of life – the 20 year olds who die in road accidents, or get paralyzed playing sports, or encounter a season of disease, treatment and rehabilitation. We don’t factor into our dreams that life can throw the unexpected and the unpleasant.

My brother in law, who passed away at a tragically young age experienced this. He did everything right. He went to school, graduated from Cambridge University – one of the very best in England – became a nuclear chemist, married, had children. He did everything right. But then his wife left him. The stock market crash led to the company which held his pension to fold, losing him 60% of the money he had diligently saved and then he passed away from cancer at 48 years of age.

You can do everything right and it still not turn out right. Life can be tough. We live in a world which is fallen and imperfect.

This is why it is so important for us as Christians to realize exactly what it is we lean on in life. If we lean upon our good decisions, careers, pensions, abilities, income, good works, even religion then all of these can be taken away, and we will crash to the floor.

If everything were to be stripped away from you today – everything, what would be left?

The two widows we encounter in our reading today have had everything stripped away. We have no idea whether they had been wealthy or not – or what their husbands had done. All we know is that when we encounter them in the scriptures they have nothing left. And they themselves probably did not envision the latter half of their life being so hard and difficult. In the days of both Elijiah and Jesus, a woman without a husband was very vulnerable – work was very hard, if not impossible for a woman to get and so without an income and without help and support very often widows would die.

What is remarkable about these two widows is their heart. In the midst of their complete hopelessness and destitution they reach out to God.

Let’s look at each of these widows.

The first is a widow who lives in Zarapheth. That means she was a gentile – a pagan widow. Zarapheth was between Tyre and Sidon and 80 miles north of Samaria. This is Baal country. In fact this is the Domain of Jezebels father, Ethabaal (1 Kings 16:31). The King of Israel at this time was Ahab and he had imported the cult of Baal, his wife’s god, into Israel.

But the irony here is that in the middle of the cult of Baal was this widow who believed in the God of Israel – Yahweh.

The fact that God would send Elijah to her tells us two things: (1) God always hears the cry of his people, no matter where they are or who they are; (2) God judges those who ignore his grace.

Jesus gets into hot water by recounting this event in the Synagogue in luke 4:25-26. Jesus points out that there were many poor widows in Israel, but because of Israel’s continued rejection of God’s ways, Elijah was sent to a gentile. This infuriated Jesus’ hearers – they could not believe such an interpretation of the scriptures – that God would favor a gentile pagan over an Israelite.

The Israelites were trusting in and leaning on something other than the Lord – and so God exercises his judgment, symbolically, on them by going outside of Israel to bless a pagan who believed in God! God clearly shows that his grace is not based on what you are but on what you believe in and trust in.

In what appeared to be the end of hope for this widow in Zarapheth, gathering wood for the final, pitiful meal before the inevitable outcome of death, hope appears. God honors her faith. But look at what he asks of her! Elijah asks her to give HIM the last of their food. If she gave him everything, God would take care of her.

And she does. She leans entirely upon the Lord. She trusts in him utterly. She gives everything over to him. And notice how the miracle plays out. She does not receive twenty barrels of oil and flour miraculously outside her house. She has to live day by day and each day she receives the miracle which allows her, her son and Elijah to live. She was reliant daily on God’s continued provision.

As one writer has said, In the absence of Baal who lies impotent in the netherworld, Yahweh steps in to assist the widow and this is done in the heart land of Baal.

Israel, the people of God, have adopted Baal, who is powerless, and yet here in the very center of Baalism, Yahweh performs a miracle and saves!

Whatever it is we face, even in the face of our last meal and even death, it is on faith, on the very word and promises of God that we are to lean – for from that comes life – just as this widow experienced.

It is this same attitude which accompanied the widow in the temple.

Just was the writer of Kings would have us make the comparison between the nation of Israel, the supposed visible representation of God on earth being bypassed by God in favor of a woman in an pagan, idolatrous nation because of her faith, so the gospel writer makes a similar comparison between the leaders of the God’s people and an insignificant, poverty stricken widow.

Who had the real faith? Who truly leaned upon the living and true God? Who put their money where their mouth was?

Jesus is scathing. These men were men of ostentatious attitudes and corrupt morals.

Ostentatious in that they wanted to be seen and they wanted to be revered and they wanted to be honored. Everything they did was to advance their own selves. Jesus’ charge is simple – they had attitudes of Lords rather than attitudes of servants. Their long prayers presented an impression of piety that masked greed. They pretended to love God greatly but their aim was to get people to love them greatly. They wore flowing robes. Why is this mentioned? Not to attack their dress but to show the type of people they were – you could neither hurray NOR work in such robes. They were men of leisure. They enjoyed being called Rabbi = my great one.

They were also, largely corrupt. Teachers of the law in Israel received no official income. They depended upon voluntary contributions and yet all were wealthy. They had large benefactors who would contribute to their ‘ministry’ and they had no qualms from taking money from old ladies and widows. To support a teacher of the law was seen as a blessing – God would bless you for supporting such a person. And instead of the teachers of the law saying to little old ladies and widows, “You do not have to give your money – keep it” they took it happily – indeed they solicited from such people.

The teachers of the law were spiritually poor, and physically prosperous. The widow was physically poor and spiritually prosperous.

This even takes place in the Court of the Gentiles. There were 13 trumpet shaped metal reciprocals where the offering were put. These boxes made a very recognizable sound as the coins were dropped into them. Often those Pharisees who wished to boast would drop a large number of coins in at once. This was called sounding the trumpet.

And in the midst of all this coming and going and all the large and impressive giving Jesus points out this one woman.

Oh, we will meet her in heaven. We will have the privilege of speaking with her. A woman who had lost her husband, her support, her provider. She had nothing. And she takes her two coins – her lepta – worth in todays value 1/5th of a cent, and put’s both into the offering.

Her actions do two things:

1. It expressed her love for God. She had come to the temple to worship – to bring her offering, to express how she felt to him and she gave God what she had.
2. it expressed her trust in God to sustain her. She gives it all because she believes God will help her.

The means of the giver and the motive are the measure of true generosity.

This woman gave her all. She trusts in the Lord. She leant entirely on God. And this means that whatever the outcome, even, I believe, in the event of her starving to death, she trusted the Lord.

Both these widows gave everything they had to God. They held nothing back, even in their most difficult situation.

There is a great symbolic truth here. There is nearly always something we hold back. We rarely make the ultimate sacrifice.

These two widows did. And these widows did.

God calls us to give everything – to hold nothing back – to give ourselves to HIM – that is to lean on God utterly – to trust in him completely. For he will never fail us nor forsake us.

Lastly, while we do not have time do focus on this, I did want to mention the fact that there is no sense that these two widows were angry or bitter with God.

A baptist theologian and pastor John Piper says:
Adversity by its very nature is the removal of things on which our comfort and hope have rested and so it will either result in anger toward God or greater reliance on him alone for our peace.
And his purpose for us in adversity is not that we get angry or discouraged, but that our hope shift off earthly things onto God.
God’s main purpose in all adversity is to make us stop trusting in ourselves or any man.

This is the cry of the Psalmist. Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help: Whose hope is in the Lord their God.

These widows trusted in God regardless of the situation or the outcome. They leaned on Him utterly, whether in the miracle of his provision, or even in the face of death. And they appear to have done it without bitterness or anger.

May our faith be like this. May it lean on the our very real and eternal hope, Jesus Christ.

Why Rob Bell Left Mars Hill…

The Christian Post is reporting on an interview which Rob Bell did with the New Yorker about his controversial book Love Wins.

It is said explicitly what has always been known – the book cost Bell’s place at Mars Hill:

Bell told The New Yorker that the publication of his book resulted in a 3,000-person decrease in membership at Mars Hill Bible Church, which he founded in 1999.

“The book put pressure on the people around Bell, who found themselves having to defend statements they might never have heard, let alone approved,” The New Yorker writes.

“Congregants reported that friends and family members were asking why they were allowing themselves to be led by a false teacher,” the magazine continues.

Wife of the megachurch pastor, Kristen Bell, remembers staying home from service for some weeks because she could not stand the criticism her husband was receiving for his book.

“There was a cost,” Bell told The New Yorker.

 ”And part of the cost was, we couldn’t keep doing what we were doing at Mars Hill,” she added.

You can read the whole article HERE

What Is Love?

We live in a world and culture which has generally lost the real meaning of the word love.

We can see glimpses of it, as it manifests itself through some people’s heroism, self sacrifice but generally, love has lost it’s real, deep meaning and it has become somewhat cheapened.

The word Love is now used indiscriminately to affirm the acceptance of all things and all behaviors. To love, in todays world, is to be ultimately tolerant of everything.

To stand against something – or to disagree with someone regarding their attitude, behavior or even belief is seen to be unloving.

Love has become so broad as to be almost meaningless.

A biblical view of love is the exact opposite. In fact, love in the scriptures is very narrowly defined and requires, no, demands, a very specific path.

Deut 6 is known as the Shema. Even today it is recited by orthodox Jews every morning and evening and at the beginning of every Orthodox Synagogue Service.

So important and foundational. is this prayer that boys were required to memorize it as soon as they could speak.

Some rabbi’s caught that the Deut 6:1-9 was the pivot around everything else revolves.

Why?

It is the central foundational commandment between us and God. It teaches us about who God IS and how we might keep his ways. Also it affirms two vital and central things about God and our relationship to him.

The first vital and central thing we learn is that God is ONE. In other words, it affirms God’s central characteristic – his oneness. The word ONE means, as well as numerical oneness, a UNITY.

In a culture of polytheism the Israelites were to affirm that there was only ONE, TRUE, LIVING, UNITED God – Yahweh!

The second vital and central thing is that we MUST love this one, true, living, united God. And this love must encompass our whole being – Heart, Soul and Strength.

The heart was the central part of person’s existence; the soul was the seat of emotional activity and strength, or mind was the intellect and attitudes of a person.

We are to love God with ALL of who we are.

Also, the word love here is not about emotion but will. It is to make a covenant commitment – a determination of the will to be absolutely loyal and obedient to him in every respect.

Now this fits in very nicely with our Multigenerational Class study right now on the Strategy, Aims and Visions of a Church. We saw two weeks ago that the first aim is to show our love for the Lord. That is the first and primary role of the people of God and of the Church.

True love, real love begins and must be rooted in the one, true, living and united God.

This is why I say that biblically love is very narrow, defined and focused. All true and real love emanates from and is found in God.

And remember that this is not a request. It is a command. The first command is to LOVE God with every part of our being!!

One writer has said To love God and worship him and serve him is the highest privilege we can have, so when the Lord commands us to love Him, He is inviting us to that with is the best.

The result of loving God first is that all our other love comes out from this love. God calls us to love others from the foundation, from the well of God’s love in us and our love of God.

This is why Jesus put the two things together in his response to the Scribe’s question – Jesus says Deut 6 AND he quotes Lev 19 – Love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself.

When we do this, that is when we follow Jesus’ command to love God and to love our neighbor, I believe we will see three things happen:

1. our love will last longer and be deeper
2. it will be more powerful
3. it will be a love which upholds and declares truth

Let’s look at these three things.

Firstly, a love which is founded in our love of God lasts longer and be deeper.

A love which is NOT rooted in God, which comes from us, will get tired. It will get frayed. It will run out. We will lose patience. We will find fault. My love – our love, in it’s own strength has limits. God’s love does not.

When we love people in our own strength we will, at times, run out of juice, do and say things unloving.

As Christians we need to be a people whose love for others flows from our love of God. And when we allow our love for God to be the driving force of our love of others we allow God’s power to help us, especially to love those who we find difficult to love.

So firstly, when we love God with all that we are, that allows us to love others and that love will be a lasting, deeper love.

Secondly, a love which is rooted and based in God is a powerful love. It has incredible power. It is SO powerful, it is able to save.

Jesus perfectly manifests the Shema and Lev 19 in his life and Hebrews 7 affirms that this love can save. God invites us to a love relationship with him which saves us and cleanses us from sin.

There is incredible power when we love people from the love of God.

Third and finally, a love which comes from God manifests and declares truth.

The Scribe sent by the Pharisees with the question of “what is the greatest commandment” was being used to try and trap Jesus. My own view is that the scribe himself was actually interested in the question itself. He may have been a pawn in the Pharisees plan, but the scribe was genuinely interested and was not ‘in’ on the plan to trap Jesus.

The question itself was one which was very common and often debated by rabbi’s and leaders – and there was no consensus. There were 613 laws in the Old Testament – 365 negative, 248 positive. To try and say there was ONE great commandment occupied many a debate.

Some argued from the Old Testament itself – the 613 laws were, for some rabbi’s condensed to just 11 in Palm 15. Still others argued that those 11 were further reduced by Isaiah 33 to just 6 and Micah 6:8 reduces these 6 to a mere 3 – Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God..

The famous rabbi Hillel, who died just before Jesus was born, as was followed by many, said that the greatest command was “What thou hatest for thyself, do not do to thy neighbor. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary. Go and learn.”

Jesus combines Deut 6 and Lev 19:18 into one, inseparable command – they flow from each other.

But when Jesus says this to the scribe, I think the scribe was absolutely stunned and taken a back.

Jesus confronts this scribe with LOVE – the command to love God. And because Jesus was one who loved God with ALL his heart, soul and strength and because loved others, the person and the words combined to become a powerful witness to this scribe.

Notice was the scribe says in response – our reading says You are right! In fact, you could legitimately translate it “Beautiful.”

Beautiful!! Oh what beauty, the scribe says. Jesus’ words have done more than penetrate his mind, it has penetrated his heart! And it opens him up.

When people are confronted by the true truth of the love of God, given not in an intellectual manner, but from the love of God, people stop defending party lines or even their own prejudices.

The Scribe suddenly grasps that Jesus in both word and deed is making love, the love of God and the love of others the most important thing in life because love is fulfilling the law.

We know this because of what he says in response. The Scribe quotes back essentially what Jesus has said, probably with some feeling – but then he says this remarkable statement:

More than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

The scribe sees it. He realizes the magnitude, majesty, power, and primacy of the love of God – it is such that it transcends even the very core of the Israelite worship of burnt offerings and sacrifices.

For a scribe, a lawyer of the law, to acknowledge that the burnt offerings and sacrifices of the temple are secondary to the law of love in and through God was a remarkable thing.

This is why Jesus says to him “You are close to the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Just for a moment the scribe gets it. He lets go of the religious arguments, and legal requirements of the law and is faced with the Love of God and he gets it.

So, real, true, biblical love is not a wide free for all indiscriminate tolerance of everything – but a very narrow and very defined thing, beginning with a recognition of God as One and then to love God with our whole self, and when we love God, we will love others with a love that (1) is deep and lasting, (2) that is powerful (3) and that proclaims truth.

This is the love we are to have – to show and to demonstrate to the world.

Now, you may think “I do not have this love”. That’s OK – look to Jesus – love Jesus – let your first priority to show your love for God and as you and I do this we begin to grown in these aspects of love. We cannot do it ourselves – the love God calls us to lvoe him and others is not manufactured in us. We do not have what it takes – but Jesus does we go to him and through his work in us we can.

Amen

Real Life: A Christianity Worth Living Out by James Choung

I’ll admit that I was not sure whether I would like this book. This is a book on discipleship which is written as a story. There has been a number of such books written like this, most notably The Five Dysfunctions of A Team and Leadership – Self Deception. I have always thought how brave such authors are – not only have you to get across your ‘thesis’ but you have the added pressure of creativity which fictional writers wrestle with.

Of course, this is not designed to be a page turning novel, but Choung does a great job of using the genre of story telling to frame his view of discipleship. The story revolves around Stephen, a guy who trying to make it at work, which means he stays late and works longs hours, even when his boss goes home. And yet he is a christians. And one day, a young guy on Stephens team at work (Jared) realizes Stephen is a Christian and gets very excited and asks Stephen to disciple him. The novel is the out working of that request. Stephen has no idea HOW to do this and it is soon apparent that after the first couple of lunch meetings with Jared that Stephen is WAY out of his depth. So he seeks out one of his friends to help him.

The story unpacks the process and varying degrees of what discipleship is how the how it unfolds in someones life. Yet there were a number of things that really spoke to me. The first thing was that Stephen, despite being out of his depth, knew that he should be willing to disciple someone and so, even though he was out of his depth, and had no idea what to do, he said YES I WILL, and, sought out help. In other words, we should not be afraid to disciple others despite our own inadequacies. In fact, and this is the second thing that spoke to me, although Stephen was the ‘older’ ‘mature’ christian, he too was growing and learning as he meet with Jared. Being a mentor does not mean you have it all together. Mentors should, and indeed NEED to grow in the process. And thirdly, Choung very cleverly shows us that the process of being a mentor, or discipling someone, does not just change the one being discipled, but it changes the one doing the discipling. Through the process Stephen beings to see clearly some of the issues in his own life and this leads to Stephen making a radical decision.

As I said, I was not sure I would like this book, but by the end, I had enjoyed it. No, this is not the typical book on how to disciple, with the logical, linear arguments and points, backed up with many biblical passages. Yes, this will appeal to those who function more in the creativity aspect of their brain. But that said, anyone who picks this up will benefit from it, and enjoy in the process.

Faith is NOT a Wish – But CERTAIN Hope!

Last week we saw how Jesus’ words to the rich young ruler was aimed at helping him to let go of his ‘penny’, his possessions so that he could open his hands to receive the gift of eternal life, which was worth more than all the riches on the earth.

To do this requires faith – a faith which is not a hope or a wish, but a faith based on certainty and absolutes. Remember we saw that Hebrews 11:1 says Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

And that when you break this verse down, we saw that it could be paraphrased in this way – Faith is the reality of things fully expected, the certainty of things not seen.

And such faith requires a big shift in how we think and view our life and the world.

I think one of the reasons why many believers struggle with faith and the world is because we have one foot in either camp and we end up trying to mix the two approaches together. Just as oil and water do not mix, so the perspective of faith and the perspective of the world do not mix and when you bring the two together a clash happens.

It was this truth that Jesus presented to the rich young ruler, and today in our gospel reading Jesus presents this truth to his disciples who are trying to mix faith and the world together.

James and John are even less tactful than the rich young ruler. At least the young ruler ATTEMPTED to flatter Jesus by calling him Good – James and John simply say “Teacher, Do whatever we ask”.

And what do they want? They want glory, authority and status.

Now, here are two Jews – their culture and life was steeped in the worship of Yahweh – the great festivals governed and shaped their year; they knew the law and the torah – they were men who were spiritual…. AND YET here they try and grasp onto something which was of the world – power.

They have calculated that Jesus, being the Messiah would rule and when he did begin to rule, they wanted to get their candidacy in for the top posts in the upcoming administration.

Now, one of the reasons they probably approached Jesus so readily was that they were cousins – they were the sons of Zebedee and Salome, and Salome was Mary’s sister.

So their thought was that we’re kind of family and so naturally we should be at the top of the tree with Jesus.

Notice Jesus does not rebuke them for asking this – what he says is ‘You have no idea what you are asking”.

Jesus then asks them – Can you drink the cup that I drink and be baptized in the baptism that I am baptized with?

In other words Jesus is saying, “You have no idea what you have to endure and experience in order to get to that position.”

And the two disciples show their absolute ignorance by saying “yes”.

Now the cup and baptism that Jesus refers to are Jewish idoms.

The cup refers to the life and experience that God hands out – both good and bad. So Ps 23:5 says My cup overflows which is a good image, while Is 51:17 says Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, You who have drunk at the hand of the Lord The cup of His fury; You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, And drained it out – which is a bad thing.

So Jesus asks first of all – Can you drink from the experience which God is about to give ME.

The second image is baptism. This word means to submerge – be covered over completely.

Hence, secondly Jesus is saying “Can you be totally submerged and covered over in what I am about to submerged in and covered over in.

And what was this experience which Jesus was going receive from God and be submerged in – well of course the cross.

What Jesus asks James and John is can they handle going through Is 53. Can they be stricken, afflicted, wounded, bruised, oppressed and die!

Jesus is not saying “Can you be crucified for the world” – only he could do that – but Jesus point is – You guys want glory – but do you realize what kind of road you have to walk and what the road entails that leads to glory?

The contrast is that James and John wanted for free what Jesus was about to give everything for.

Jesus is saying to them – can you walk the Isaiah 53 road? That’s the road to glory.

What james and John had done was to mix faith and the world together. They saw Jesus as their Messiah but then believed that the way to get the places of authority was to do as the pharisees did – as the Romans did – to campaign, to get the favor of those in authority to advance their own ambitions.They had mimicked the Roman rulers who loved positions of authority and craved them.

The world focuses upon the benefits of position and status.

And while there is nothing wrong in aspiring to greatness we MUST be careful how we define greatness and the motives and reasons behind WHY we aspire to it.

The rest of the disciples reaction to james and John’s request showed that their own ambitions were based on exactly the same principle – it was just that James and John had beaten them to the request.

And so Jesus teaches his followers that you cannot mix the world’s values with faith values.

They needed to choose the right example to follow. The disciples had made a mistake and had followed the world’s values as to what is important and what authority is and
how we obtain authority.

Instead they must follow Jesus’ example. And the road to greatness means submission to servanthood.

And the ultimate example of a life of servanthood was Jesus – he came not to be served (as was his right), but to serve us by dying for us.

Now we all know this, don’t we. We have heard it a countless times in sermons. The problem is that many think and say that Jesus’ example is all well and good, but in the cut and thrust of Wall Street, or the business world, or politics, or law, this is just not practical.

But this is Jesus’ very point! We want success? True success? Lasting success? We want greatness? True greatness? Lasting greatness? Then we must drink the cup and be baptized with the baptism that comes not from the world, or from our bosses, but from Jesus and Jesus alone.

The worlds standard of greatness is power – how many people does a man control – how great an army of servants has he at his beck and call. The Emperor Galba sums up this idea of the world’s attitude to greatness when he said, on becoming emperor, Now, I can do what I like and do it to anyone.

For Jesus the standard is service. Greatness consists not is reducing others to one’s service but in reducing oneself to their service.

Some may say that to live as Jesus asks in the business world,will mean a ruined career. Maybe. Jesus lived what he taught. Our passage from Hebrews 4 this morning tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way just as we were. Jesus knows about the temptations we are faced with. Even Jesus was offered the fast track to success – in his temptation with the devil, the devil offers him all the kingdoms and all the authority of the world right there and then – no cross, no suffering, no humiliation. All he had to do was bow and give authority to the devil. But Jesus does not take the easy road – he took the cup and baptism God had for him and he was killed.

But it was his death which led to his glorification . Romans 1:3&4 say concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

In other words, Jesus’ life on earth, lived under servanthood, being the slave of all, led to his total glorification where every single knee in the entire universe, whether human or angelic will bow at his name at the end of time. There is no higher place than Jesus.

So, living our life under the example of Jesus, being a servant of all instead of trying to be served by all, may ruin a career but it is the right thing to do, because it is the path to true and lasting greatness.

True faith, being the the reality of things fully expected, the certainty of things not seen, means we are also servants in every aspect of our lives, not just at church, not just in our homes, but servants at our jobs, careers, schools. We entrust our future to God. And when we become servants even in a culture or job which rejects such as attitude, we can then watch God do incredible things by opening doors no one else can open and closing doors no one else can close. And if we do reach the top of our careers or become greatly successful we then know it was not us – but the mercy, power and provision of God working as we sought to follow Jesus’ example of life.

Our Psalm this morning says Because you have made the Lord your refuge, *
and the Most High your habitation,

10 There shall no evil happen to you, *
neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.

11 For he shall give his angels charge over you, *
to keep you in all your ways.

12 They shall bear you in their hands, *
lest you dash your foot against a stone.

13 You shall tread upon the lion and adder; *
you shall trample the young lion and the serpent
under your feet.

14 Because he is bound to me in love,
therefore will I deliver him; *
I will protect him, because he knows my Name.

15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; *
I am with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him to honor.

16 With long life will I satisfy him, *
and show him my salvation.

Notice how the psalm begins – because you have made the Lord your refuge.

Is Jesus our example today? Is he our refuge? Our careers and our future are not in the hands of men – but in the hands of God. And we can only live our life to the very fullest – when we follow Jesus’ example – we can only achieve ‘success’ and ‘greatness’ when we learn to be the servant of all, just like our Lord.

This is why faith requires us to have such a different perspective, attitude and focus on this world and on our life. The life Jesus calls us to requires radical faith – certain, fully expected, rock solid faith, which has both our feet in Jesus, living lives of outrageous grace which goes utterly against the grain of culture.

Meaning of Life?

When people ponder the question “What is the meaning of life”, in my mind the answer is very simple. Jesus. Now, that may not be a satisfactory answer for many, but it is the true answer. Amos says exactly the same thing this morning – Seek the Lord and Live! What is my purpose, what is my destiny, what is my reason for being on this earth – well, the final answer is Jesus – and when we discover this and embrace this then we discover how that works out in our various roles as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters; careers and education. The question of who we are and what we are can only be found in Jesus. It was one of the frustrations in doing evangelism; spending time with someone you have never meet before – listening to them talk about their struggles and fears of life and then still rejecting Jesus and the message of the gospel – rejecting the key, the answer to their struggles and fears. Now I have said many times to the point ad nauseum, that becoming a Christian does not mean you have no problems or difficulties in life – or that you are shielded from the tragedies of life. What it does mean, aside from the wonderful message of reconciliation with God and the forgiveness of our sins and our adoption as His sons and daughters is that we get a heavenly and spiritual perspective on life which allows us to see beyond what we are experiencing – to see to our future, assured destiny which is to be with Jesus – and this enables us to walk through the dark valleys of life with peace. But in order to get to this place we have to have faith. Now faith is more than just hoping something might happen. The Bible speaks of faith far more factually – Hebrews 11:1 says Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Now, when you break this verse down, you can paraphrase this it this way – Faith is the reality of things fully expected, the certainty of things not seen. In other words, people with faith in Jesus have a view of reality which is different to anyone else; an expectation of what is to happen different to anyone else; a certainty about the outcome of the world different to anyone else. And in order to become a person of such faith – to truly enter into this place requires that we fully let go of everything and fully grasp onto Jesus. There is a story of a little boy who got his hand stuck in a very expensive vase. His parents tried everything to remove without breaking it. Finally the father said: “Son, now listen to me – you need to stretch out your hand as fully as you can”. The boy said: “I can’t”. “Why” said his dad. “Because I will have to let go of the penny”. To some extent this is exactly what is going on with Jesus and the rich man in our gospel reading this morning. This man comes and asks Jesus “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” We know this man is young, he is a ruler of some sort – in charge of people, has influence – and that he was wealthy. His question reveals much of where he was coming from: He firstly flatters Jesus – rabbi’s did not allow the word ‘good’ to be applied to them. Only God was good. Now Jesus’ response is not denying he was God – in fact he is affirming it. He does rebuke the man for calling him ‘good’ – he asks the man if he understood why he had called him good, did the young man know what he was saying – or was it just out of flattery. This young man believed he had a right to obtain eternal life. He uses the word ‘inherit’. He was a Jew – a son of abraham – therefore he had a right to it. And yet – by asking this question, the young man knew he did not have it. He did not have assurance that he had eternal life and he is asking Jesus what must I do to get this assurance – this guarantee I will have eternal life Finally, this first question shows that the young man had a very superficial view of sin, and of salvation. He believed that by doing a few religious works, he could settle his account with the Holy god and be set right. His success and and his wealth gave him a false believe that he could accomplish anything either by his own ability or by paying for it. Jesus’ response was to say to him “Let go of the penny”. Jesus says this in two ways to this man. Firstly he tells him some commands, which the young affirms that he has utterly kept. The commands Jesus lists is important – he chooses all the ‘verifiable’ commands – the commands which show outward obedience. And here Jesus is saying – you have kept all these visible commands and yet you come to ask me how to inherit eternal life. The keeping of the law has not given the young man any assurance of salvation. In fact – the law acts like a mirror – it should show you that you are a sinner. This man had kept these commands but has no assurance, no peace that he had eternal life. This man does not see himself as a sinner and he wants salvation on his own terms. Secondly, Jesus then shows him the command he has not been able to keep – it is the final commandment and the one that comes after this list that Jesus quotes – the command not to covet. Jesus does not say it outright but challenges the young man – “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Jesus loves this young man. He sees this young ruler utterly lost – unable to see the truth which was right before him – that you cannot receive a gift if you are holding onto something else – you have to let go to receive. And here is the choice confronting the young ruler – do you really want eternal life? Do you really want to receive it – well you need to let go of everything else to get it. The mans love for money broke the commandment of covetousness. And because he had broken a command he needed to repent and be set free. The issue here is not wealth – it’s not an attack against being wealthy – or that Christians should not have wealth – the issue is the internal state of this young man. Was he willing to let go of everything to grasp onto Jesus? Jesus asks this of us. Will we seek God and live. This requires that we grasp onto nothing else but Jesus. Too many Christians have a view that God will one day hold up their good works and their bad works and if their good works exceed their bad works they will get into heaven. No. The scriptures show very plainly that this is not what God says. God says that we must let go of everything – and receive Him completely. The answer to life, the answer to eternal life is Jesus. This wealthy young ruler believed that because he had success and was able to create for himself his success that he could achieve salvation – all he had to do was achieve something – pay for something – his world focused mind set, which said “you can achieve anything”, made him believe he could achieve salvation on his terms. And Jesus’ response to this approach to life is an emphatic NO! In fact it is as impossible as trying to thread a needle with a camel – ridiculously impossible. The irony of this young man is that his wealth robbed him of God’s blessings. Faith requires a huge culture and worldview shift – and it is only possible to do that by the Holy Spirit in us – and that happens when we utterly surrender ourselves to Jesus – coming to him not with clench fists holding onto something but with open hands ready to receive FROM him. Notice that Jesus’ words effect the disciples. The disciples were also still steeped in the worldview of the rich man. They believed that wealth was a sure sign of God’s blessing. Jesus refuted this. Wealth and success is NEVER an indication that the Lord is with you. It may be – but the factors of wealth and success alone are not guarantees that God is with you. And then Peter asks the question – it’s the question which was on the mind of all the disciples – it’s the selfish question of a person who has yet to receive the Holy Spirit – Peter began to say to him, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you.” In other words what will we get! Notice Jesus’ words: Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many that are first will be last, and the last first.” The disciples needed to be re-focused – there is a great reward to come – and along with all the blessings notice what Jesus slips in there – persecutions BUT the end is eternal life. The disciples did reach that point – of letting go of everything in order to embrace Jesus and all that he has to give us. So, my encouragement to us this morning is to open our hands to the Lord – lets let go of the penny – lets receive the gift Jesus has for us – to embrace him with open hands, willing to let go of anything which might be holding us back. Now, lest any of you misunderstand me – I am not saying to sell everything you have – or give away all your money. Jesus’ words to this young man were directed at what this man needed to do to inherit eternal life – it focused upon what this man was holding onto and would not let go to receive God. The ‘penny’, the thing we are letting go of may be very different to money – it may be a career – our pride – our reputation – that we think we are better than everyone else – even our very life. God’s call to us is to let go and trust in God completely. Also, God is not a God who desires to see us poor – or struggling – he wants to bless us – Jeremiah says he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. God may bless many of us with wealth and abundance – but he wants our hearts to be embracing him and not our wealth – and embracing god by saying – Lord use what you have blessed me with for you. We cannot receive God’s gift – His blessings – all that he has for us while holding onto other things. Let’s let go of the penny and embrace the riches God has for us.

Thanksgiving Day

It has been the quintessential thanksgiving day today. The morning was spent outside on a stunning day – sunny and quite warm! Then, in the afternoon, we were invited round to a parishioners house to join 19 others to celebrate the day. Along side the traditional turkey and trimmings we drunk beer and watched Houston pull out a great win over Detroit and the Redskins beat the Cowboys. Turkey, football and a house full of people and children running and having fun…. Happy thanksgiving indeed…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Episcopal Church is Israel – Ignoring the Warnings of the Prophets Who Plead That They Turn From Their Destructive Path…

It has become clear to me now that the Episcopal Church is now just like Israel before the exile. The ‘priests’ and ‘prophets’ are doing their own thing despite the warnings from the minority. Jeremiah preached against the abuses of the religious leaders and yet the leaders not only ignored Jeremiah, but they claimed all was well and then tried to shut Jeremiah up.

No amount of rhetoric from the Presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church or those who support the liberal agenda changes the fact that the Episcopal Church is not just advocating unbiblical practices and lifestyles but claiming righteousness in their advocacy. This is tragic. They have departed from the narrow way that Jesus called all to walk and are now encouraging people to walk on the broad way to destruction. And in doing so they claim they are being Jesus centered; doing what Jesus would surely have done, accepting gay and lesbian behavior as normal. The liberals claim they uphold a Jesus centered tolerance and inclusivity for all. And yet in the very next breath they exclude conservative, biblically focused priests and bishops. You cannot claim tolerance and inclusivity and then attack those who disagree with you. You cannot claim tolerance and inclusivity and vilify a conservative diocese like South Carolina and its bishop Mark Lawrence.

The fact is scripture shows us that when ever Israel departed from the ways of God, the leadership thought they were doing fine. When ever they ignored or persecuted a prophet who called them out on their liberal, unbiblical ways, they attempted to silence and remove the prophet.

The Episcopal church has turned away from the clear teaching of the biblical to endorse and embrace that which cannot be endorsed by those who follow Christ. It is that simple.

We know what happened to Israel in the scriptures. God judged them. His judgment was aimed at drawing the people back to him and to obedience to is ways, his laws and his kingship. God will judge all who depart from his ways, he will judge in order to draw people back to him.

In the meantime, may the voices ring out loudly – may the message of the gospel and the truth of a Christ centered, biblical, Christianity which desires to follow, not change God’s ways be proclaimed even in the face of persecution, dismissal and a church leadership intent on traveling a path which leads away from the ways of the Lord.