Prosperity feeds idolatry

I've been reading Hosea in my quiet times, and today I read this:

As [Israel's] fruit increased
he built more altars;
as his land prospered,
he adorned his sacred stones.
Their heart is deceitful,
and now they must bear their guilt.
The LORD will demolish their altars
and destroy their sacred stones.

And then a thick, glossy catalogue arrived from a company supplying 'Ecclesiastical Furnishings & Garments'. Here I could buy anything from a perspex communion table for £2273, or a stations of the cross set for £47,150, to a wallet-sized hologram, 'Prayer to our Lady Fatima' for £1 (inc. VAT). Probably the worst item is a '12" resin infant Jesus with halo' for £70, though the fridge magnet of St Jude is really ugly (but 'only £5.50'). Sadly these aren't in their online catalogue, so I can't show you the pictures!

Now some of you might think I'm just a fundamentalist protestant taking a poke at the Catholics. Not so. I agonised long and hard about how much (if anything) we should spend on our new chairs at church. We must be able to justify every penny we spend because the danger is that the more we prosper, the more we spend on adorning 'sacred spaces'.

If we think such expenditure adorns the faith, we're sadly mistaken because the New Testament constantly reminds us that we don't need altars or temples - we have Jesus, and we're to adorn our lives with holiness and good works. This theme is especially prominent in 1 Peter, which is interesting since Paul had to argue with Peter not to impose Jewish customs on Christians. Clearly, by the time he wrote his first epistle, Peter understood how the OT had been completely transformed by Jesus, and he left us an absolute gem of a letter!

Money

Why, when, almost without exception, we have so much, is God's work so often limited by lack of money? Why do we find it so hard to live simply, and to enjoy giving sacrificially to the work of the kingdom?

Of course, there are the broad-brush answers about selfishness & sin - and I'm as guilty as the next person. But if we probe a little deeper, why do we feel the need to be selfish? Why, when we want to be generous, are we not?

Perhaps we're afraid of denying our children and spouses what others have, and so being thought of as mean - putting the needs of others before them.

Perhaps it's because, when the needs of gospel organisations are so great, we feel that our little bit won't make any difference, and we just keep hoping that God will send us a very wealthy person who'll be able to write a cheque for £100k and not even notice it's gone!

Perhaps we who teach the Bible simply aren't clear enough in our teaching, and don't lead with a good enough example.

I long for the day when I won't have to worry about income for Christian charities (NB I'm not just talking about St Peter's here!).

Diversity and unity

Last night, on the One Show, there was a piece about received pronunciation versus regional accents. Years ago, the BBC used people with received pronunciation to unite the country. Today, regional accents are used to emphasise and reflect the diversity in the country, and now this emphasis on diversity is manifesting itself in worrying ways - people are aligning themselves with very narrow single-issue pressure groups. So you have a fragmentation of the UK (and many other countries) into smaller regions, and pressure groups for all kinds of things: preferred sexuality, anti-vivisection, for every different ethnic group and so on.

In the church, we recognise our differences but are deeply united as one body.

So, in 1 Corinthians, we acknowledge that, as male & female we are different, but we are one as God the Father, Son & Holy Spirit is One. We are rich & poor, but we are one body of Christ. We have different gifts, but they are given by the one Spirit. We have different ministries, but serve one Lord Jesus. We do different tasks, but one God empowers us for them. (1 Cor 12:4-6).

All of this is a manifestation of God's nature - he is three and he is one. And our way of reflecting that should be a light to an increasingly divided nation.

People not programmes

Mike T ran a really good Passion for Life session last night, with some very helpful discussion about engaging with the community.

A number of things struck me:

• salt - Israel was meant to take the gospel to the nations, but failed. In Mat. 5, at the beginning of the Messiah's ministry, they're in danger of being thrown out of the Kingdom all together. No need to get distracted by all the historians' discussions on 1st century uses for salt - the OT always provides a better background!
  
• light - Israel was meant to be light to the world, but failed (Is 42:6, 49:6). Now Messiah Jesus has come as 'the light of the world' and we're to imitate him in that respect.
• building on what I wrote the other day here, it would be easy for us to focus on setting up programmes for outreach. But while there may be a place for these actually what we need to do is build relationships. The best programmes may help in this (e.g. Noah's Ark), but only because people are prepared to share their lives and get involved with others.
  
• we all need to work hard at being neighbourly - an old-fashioned word, but a good one. Let's invite neighbours round; make a point of going outside when the neighbours are out and talking to them; share plants; lend tools; have a neighbourhood BBQ; if you have Sky sports, use it to invite friends to watch their team... Shine your light from your home. Be salt in your own street.
  

The problem with laws

Would more regulation of the banks have prevented the financial crisis?
Will more CRB checks prevent child abuse?

The answer to both is, of course, no. Why not? Because we're all Pharisees at heart.

The Pharisees wrote laws so that everyone could be clear about how little they had to do to remain on the right side of God. That's what laws do - they say, 'If you do this much, you're OK'. So that's what the banks did - they ticked the box for each law they had obeyed, and did no more.

Moral decisions and obligations were replaced by legal requirements. Once the legal requirements were met, anything else was seen as OK.

This is increasingly true of all sectors of life. In schools and hospitals, in workplaces and voluntary organisations, people are ticking the boxes given to them by the government. Once that's done, anything goes.

The other side of this is the removal of a final moral authority - God. Jesus reserved his harshest criticism for the Pharisees because they limited people's freedom to do what was good and right. That's what much of the schools, child care, social care and child protection legislation has done: good nurseries, sports clubs, youth organisations etc. have closed because they failed to cross a 't' or dot an 'i', or because the burden of doing so was simply too great.

But more than that, it's removed a sense of duty, service, honour, trust, moral courage and responsibility from society. Surely, as Christians, we need to take a lead in demonstrating these attributes.

What to do in an evening off...

I'm not used to having evenings at home - and I know it won't last - so it's a chance to catch up on jobs at home. And boy was last night successful!

A new element fitted in the oven, and a printer & file sharing network set up for the girls! The latter was much harder than the former, but the sense of achievement was that much greater!

I even finished in time to watch most of the excellent Newsnight special on the economy. I was slightly surprised to see that Rowan Williams was one of the guests, and I've been very critical of Dr Williams in the past, but last night he spoke some really good biblical and common sense. Even Jeremy Paxman seemed impressed... until Dr Williams mentioned original sin...

Causes of climate change?

I've always been sceptical about the causes of climate change. My geography and geology A-levels taught me that the climate was warming and cooling in cycles long before the industrial revolution.

But perhaps I need to change my thinking.

Hosea 4:1b-3
There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land mourns [or 'dries up'] and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.

On the basis of these verses various reports from Christian organisations have concluded that the Bible says that our actions have disrupted nature and caused global warming.

But is this a careful enough reading of the text?

This passage is written, not about the whole world, or even all of God's people, but about Israel (not even Judah, cf v15) and the Promised Land, 'Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites' (v1). It is true that their sin was affecting their land, but this was a specific punishment from God for their persistent idolatry - they were saying, 'I will go after my lovers who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.' (1:5). They were attributing God's provision to idols ('lovers'). So God removes his provision from them - their land dried up, their fish died etc.

So this is not a general statement about the causes of global warming. It's a specific warning for a specific sin at a specific time. Of course there may well be principles here that we must take to heart, but these must be discerned by reading the OT passage in the light of the coming of Jesus and the NT.

The NT equivalent of Israel is the Church, not the whole world. So we must ask, 'Is the church demonstrating faithlessness and lack of love? Is it failing to acknowledge God as the sustainer & provider of all we need?' If so, the NT warnings for us would include 1 Corinthians 6, Galatians 5, Hebrews 2 and James 2 - warnings that unfaithfulness, lack of love and disregard of God among those who appear and claim to be his people, will lead, not to a damaged and fruitless land, but to exclusion from the kingdom of God and eternity in a place of death, drought and disaster.

And as for my views on global warming? Well, I'll keep on looking & listening for the evidence.

Amazing love

Hosea, the Old Testament book named after the prophet, is a tale of astonishing love.

The book begins with God telling Hosea to take an adulterous wife - i.e. a woman who would commit adultery. This he does, and sure enough she commits adultery leaving Hosea with one child of his own and others who are not his. Eventually she leaves him for another man (perhaps a pimp for whom she works).

But then in chapter 3, God tells Hosea, 'Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and live the sacred raisin cakes.'

The point of all this is that it's a shocking illustration to Israel of the way she has treated her husband, the LORD God and the way he continues to love his people despite the fact that they have set their hearts on something as trivial and pathetic as 'raisin cakes'! They have abandoned the pleasure and joy of living with the Almighty Lord God of all things for the satisfaction of eating raisin cakes made for stone idols! Just as adultery is the greatest insult and humiliation to a loving spouse, so Israel's idolatry has insulted and humiliated the God of love.

And yet in an heroic act of love, Hosea buys his wife back, presumably paying off her lover-pimp. But she has to demonstrate her willingness to come back by abandoning her adulterous ways. And Hosea tells how this too is an acted parable of God's amazing love for his people.

And we can't help but be reminded that 'God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us' (Romans 5:8). While we were still in an adulterous relationship with the idols of this world, God demonstrated his love for us, making us his own people, 'which he bought with his own blood' (Acts 20:28).

If Hosea's love for his adulterous wife was heroic, how much more the love of God in Christ for us?

Help in temptation

In the Lord's prayer, we say, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever.'

I'd never paid much attention to the link between these two lines - that little word, 'for'. But it's very significant.

When we're led into temptation and evil, we're led away from the kingdom of God, away from the power & glory of the King and his kingdom. But because temptation seems so very enticing, we need to be reminded first that there is no glory in giving in to temptation (only shame) and second, that there is infinitely greater glory in the kingdom of God.

The point is made clearly if we remember that 'for' could also be translated 'because', in which case it reads, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, because the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever.'

Giving in to temptation results in momentary pleasure and long-lasting bad consequences. Following God results in experiencing the kingdom of God, its power & glory, 'now and forever.'

An interesting week

The other week, I was asked what I did all day. Well here's some of the things I've done in the past few days:

• Led a day-seminar for Oak Hill College to review its governance procedures & practice
• Prepared & preached a sermon on men, women & headship - most feedback was positive, though some weren't so sure!
• Dealt with two confidential and difficult pastoral situations
• Played for the Diocesan golf team(!)
• Chaired the Standing & Finance Team
• Prepared the memorial service for a lady who died at the age of 107
  
• Practiced playing my sax for the HAHA service
• Prepared for a wedding
• Spoke to a choir master about an evangelistic concert in 2010
  
• Met with the church administrator
• Prepared to preach at the HAHA service
  
• Decided on autumn Bible study series

And then there were the emails, phone calls, letters and casual conversations in the street.

But next week will be completely different: no golf (shame!), no S&F meeting, no memorial services or weddings, no HAHA service...

So what do I say when people ask me what I do all day?

Re-creation

This morning, as I ponder the perfect humanity of Jesus, I am brought face-to-face with my own imperfect and defaced humanity. Jesus loves and obeys all the way to the cross; I love and obey so long as it's not too inconvenient or unpleasant. He gives his all, I give what I think is sufficient and no more. His thoughts are centred on his Father - how he can glorify and honour him; my thoughts are on myself and how others think of me.
My humanity is distorted, broken, twisted. But praise God because Jesus' perfect humanity not only comes to my rescue by winning my forgiveness, but also begins to recreate, re-form and straighten me out.
This is one of the great themes of John's gospel: Jesus the Word who made all things in the beginning, comes into the dark and ignorant world to bring the new light of the knowledge of God (John 1), the new birth of the Spirit (John 3), and the water of new life (John 4). He comes to recreate, repair and straighten out people like me - and you, if you'll allow him in.

Sabbatical follow-up

You may remember that one of my aims on sabbatical was to help a theological college review its governance procedures and structures. I had spent a lot of time by myself and at meetings preparing this review, and today was the day to test it out with the governing body.
I was really quite anxious about how it would go, but it went better than I could possibly have hoped! There's a lot more work to do, but we've made very significant progress. All that preparation was time well-spent, and makes my sabbatical feel all the more worthwhile.