Rejoicing in generosity

My quiet time this morning included 1 Chronicles 29. David is doing a hand-over to Solomon, his soon-to-be-king son. The number one task for Solomon will be to build the temple, and so David outlines the preparations he's already made - all the wood, gold, bronze, silver, iron, onyx etc that he's stock piled in readiness.
And then the people make their freewill offering, and it's a massive offering.

Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the LORD. David the king also rejoiced greatly. (v9)

Oh that we could all have that attitude in the church today! How will such a church (i.e. the true church - the people of God, we're not interested in stone structures) be built? Well, keep reading...

   Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
    “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. O LORD our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you.
(1 Chronicles 29:10-17 ESV)

The people gave wholeheartedly, willingly and freely because they understood the everything we have comes from God, and they understood the temporary nature of this life. When we truly believe this, thanks to God rises within us and overflows into generosity, praise and joyful self-giving.

But the next verse is telling:

O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you. (v18).

And we know that the people of Israel failed to keep their hearts directed towards the LORD. We also know that under the New Covenant, God gives us his Spirit to write his laws in our hearts (Jer 31:31-34 cf Heb 8). Yet we persist in our hard-heartedness and grieve, quench and resist the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30; 1 Thes 5:19).
Our sinful nature finds the temporary, glittering things of this life terribly attractive; not so much the onyx and bronze, but the i-pad 2, or the i-phone 4, or the new collection in White Stuff, or 2 weeks in the sun and so on and on and on. All these things really are terribly attractive. Terribly attractive because they are so deceptive and an unhealthy desire for them is so destructive.
And the deception is this: 'all things come from God' - "they're good things to be enjoyed now, and a foretaste of the better things in heaven." And there's a certain truth in this. But it's not that simple. This life is short (the parable of the rich fool, Luke 12:13-21). And then there's judgement; judgement for how we've used what God's entrusted to us as his servants (the parabl of the talents, Mat 25:14ff; cf 1 Cor 3:10-15).
So what's the cure?  A number of key ideas from 1 Chronicles 29:

• A focus on the eternal greatness, power, glory, victory and majesty of God.
• Truly believing that everything in heaven and on earth belongs to God.
• Remembering that God's Kingdom is the only kingdom that will last. To be engaged in building this kingdom is to be engaged in an eternal project.
• Acknowledging that anything we do have is from God even though we may think we've worked hard for it and have used our skill & talent to earn it - the strength, skill & talent were given us by God.
• Remembering that we are sojourners and strangers in this world and that 'our days are like a shadow, and there is no abiding' - how fleeting and temporary is a shadow in an English summer! (cf 1 Peter 1).

If we truly believed all this, surely we could work and give and pray and praise and worship God with a whole heart and great rejoicing!

How to read the Old Testament

I've met many Christians who wouldn't dream of obeying some of the OT laws - whether about sacrifices, clothing, food or roof construction. But they're absolutely certain that the 10 commandments should be obeyed literally - including the Sabbath (except that the Sabbath is now Sunday, and they don't work 6 days, and they're not too keen about being put to death if they have to pop down the shops for some milk!)
More seriously, it's a real issue for those who say homosexual practise is now OK because we don't obey laws like not eating shellfish (they always quote that), and therefore we don't have to obey the OT laws about sexual behaviour. (Of course they carefully ignore what the NT says, but that's another story).
So how should we read the OT?
Read this and find out: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/02/22/preaching-the-gospel-from-the-law-of-moses/?comments#comments

Mission week

Over 50 people attended evangelistic lunches & suppers and heard Hayley, Phil, Simon and Paul testify to Jesus and then field loads of questions. Hosts did a fabulous job, and perhaps will be emboldened to do the same again... maybe others will be encouraged to have a go...
About 65 came to the quiz night and heard Simon's talk about the evidence for Jesus' death and resurrection. A good number then quizzed Simon further about what he'd said.
Children & teenagers at 4 local schools heard presentations about Christianity and engaged in discussions and games; they went to a disco and a dinner with a speaker.
Not too many guests at the service today, but a powerful testimony & sermon on the need to ask, seek and knock on God's door so that he'll give the Holy Spirit.
Great collaboration between St Peter's, CrossTeach and the Cornhill Training Course.


All in all a very good week, and it's only now that I realise that all week I've been really anxious about the events - that people would turn up, that speakers wouldn't embarrass guests, that Christ would be honoured. I needn't have worried. Everyone did brilliantly. Thank you to everyone who took part.

Now we need to pray that God will be at work by his Spirit and that people will come to the next Simply Christianity course...

Don't be distracted!

Luke 10:38-42

In Luke 10:24-37, we saw Jesus being accosted by a religious lawyer – a theologian – who wanted to know what he had to do in order to earn his place in heaven. And Jesus told him to love God with all the he was and all that he had; and to love his neighbour as himself.

But the man wanted to justify himself. He wanted Jesus to tell him that he'd done enough. But to do that, he needed a tight definition of 'neighbour' and a limited definition of love.  To answer that question, Jesus told him a story - the parable of the Good Samaritan.

A man – a Jew - is beaten and robbed and left for dead. Two religious men walk along the road, but deliberately ignore the half-dead man. They refuse to show love and compassion to their fellow Jew.  Then a Samaritan goes past. He stops to help his enemy and demonstrates extreme, sacrificial, costly, generous love.

So Jesus turns to the self-righteous lawyer and says, 'Go and do likewise.'

But of course he can't.  And that's the point. He couldn't – and we don't. We cannot do enough to satisfy God's command to love. And when we do love, our motives are mixed and our love is corrupted.

What are we to do? Do we give up? Are we condemned to a life of guilty failure?

No. We come to Christ for constant forgiveness. And we come to Christ for constant strength to go out and do better next time.

That is the important context for what comes next.

In v38, Jesus and his disciples are on one of their many journeys, and they come to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him – and presumably the disciples as well – so Martha had 13 hungry men to feed. So off she goes, into the kitchen.

But her sister Mary sits down with the men and listens to Jesus, leaving Martha to get on with it.  Imagine the scene – Martha's filled the largest mixing bowl she has with flour and water and is kneading the dough.  As she kneads the dough, she thinks about Mary – sitting there doing nothing to help - and she kneads it a bit harder...  Now we're not told exactly what Martha was thinking, but we can have a pretty good guess because we know how we'd react!

And the more she thinks about how much there is to do, and how Mary isn't helping, and how she's working her fingers to the bone, her resentment and anger rises. She mutters under her breath. And slams down the jug of water – hoping Mary will get the hint!

But she doesn't. And she ought to. You see, Martha knows the men won't help – in that culture they never did... - but Mary ought to be helping. That's what women should do. But there she is, making a spectacle of herself sitting at Jesus' feet like some hussy! How embarrassing!

So Martha smashes her fist into the dough and storms into the living room, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!'  And it's all a bit like a scene from Larkrise to Candleford, and one the many arguments between Ruby & Pearl...

But then, what appears to be a simple argument, is turned into a complex and important point by Jesus:

'Martha, Martha you are worried & upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'

Now this has often been taken to as Jesus giving his approval to the contemplative life of nuns and monks, or the importance of silent retreats, but we must remember the context.  And the context is that Jesus has just said that, though we always fail, yet we are to try to love God and to love our neighbour with every ounce of strength – with every bone in our body.

Jesus concluded the parable of the Good Samaritan by saying, 'Go and do likewise.' 

Yes, we fail, but that doesn't mean we don't try. So Jesus can't simply be saying that we must never do hard work. The key, as ever, is to read the Bible carefully. What does it actually say?

Look at v40 – 'Martha was distracted by all the preparations'. Luke's explanation of what was going on was that Martha was distracted. You see, for all Martha's hard work, she was distracted from Jesus. What else could it have been? Mary's sitting at Jesus' feet giving him her full attention. Martha is distracted from listening to Jesus.

So it's not that hard work is never a good thing, rather that doing things becomes bad when they distract us from listening to Jesus.  And surely we all experience this. I certainly do each and every day.

I go into my study at about 8am each day, and begin the day by reading my bible and praying. But... I do tend to switch on the computer first....and open my list of emails... And I sit at my desk where, on my right hand side sits my 'to do' list... and next to that is a pile of letters, agendas & minutes...

And while you won't have the same distractions as me, I bet you do get distracted – especially, if, like me, you're naturally a 'do-er' rather than a 'thinker'.

What else does the Bible actually say about Martha? Well, in v41, Jesus says, Martha, Martha you are worried & upset about many things...

Not only is she distracted, but she's worried and upset about all the preparations and about Mary's behaviour.

She's cross with Mary. And she, like the Lawyer of the previous passage, has come over all self-righteous:

'I'm working my socks off here, and she's doing nothing. It's not fair.'

Again, if you're anything like me, you can feel her anger! We too have indulged in self-pity, self-righteousness.

And Jesus says, 'There's something more important than what you do for me. The Christian life begins and continues by listening to me. Receiving from me, not doing things for me. Yes there's a time to do, but don't let that distract you from first things – grace comes first. Action comes later.'

The apostle Paul put it like this, 'it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Grace first – works second. Receive from God first – give to God second.

That sounds upside down, but the to those who are so used to the ways of the world, God's ways often seem like that. What God wants from us is a relationship - first and always.

But there's one other and very important point here:

It is often said that the Bible and Christianity is sexist and patriarchal. But here, Jesus is turning contemporary social norms on their head. In those days, Rabbis did not have women disciples. A woman would not have sat at the feet of a teacher and learned. But Jesus welcomes Mary as a disciple. This is surely one reason why Martha was so upset. Mary's place was in the kitchen while the men sat and listened and discussed.

But Jesus says, 'No. Women are welcome too.' It's Jesus – it's Christianity – that says, Women can be as close to God, through Jesus, as men. Jesus calls women to the same personal intimacy with God that men had thought was their privilege.

Before God, men and women are equal. That doesn't mean there aren't different roles – Jesus did not appoint a woman as an apostle, and the Bible repeatedly calls for men to take to lead at home and in church. But just because our functions are different, does not mean that we are unequal before God.

Far from it. And that was a radical departure from cultural norms. Jesus gives women the same status as men, the same access to God, the same Holy Spirit fills all. Jesus welcomes women, teaches women, listens to women. 

Next year, the ruling body of the C of E – General Synod – will vote whether or not to allow women to become bishops.

And in the run up to that, we will hear a lot of nonsense in the media – and some sections of the church – about how failure to allow women to be bishops makes them second class citizens and shows how the church is patriarchal and sexist. That could not be further from the truth. In Christ, we have equal access to God. That is equality.

Justice, injustice and freedom

Pontius Pilate has insisted three times that there were no valid charges against Jesus (Luke 23:4, 14, 22), and that, 'He has done nothing to deserve death.'
But the crowds shouted and cried for his crucifixion, 'they insistently demanded that he be crucified' (v23).
And Pilate, possibly fearing an uprising like that in Cairo this week, bowed to their demands, 'and their shouts prevailed. [And] Pilate decided to grant their demand.' (v23)
And then, in the most astonishing and wonderful transaction that has ever occured, '[Pilate] released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder - the one they asked for - and surrendered Jesus to their will.'
And so the people get the one they want, the one they deserve - the insurrectionist and murderer. The rebel against the state is welcomed by the rebels against God. The innocent man is rejected and condemned to death.
But before we become self-righteous and condemn the people for rejected Jesus, we must realise that they represent a whole world in rebellion against God. Each one of us has followed our own desires and sought our own comfort at the expense of God's glory and the love of our neighbour.
And in the midst of this unholy injustice, God is doing something utterly astounding: Jesus is swapped for Barabbas. The innocent Jesus bears the punishment for the guilty rebel. And the rebel walks free.

It's a tragedy that some can read the gospels and miss what's going on here. And it's tragic that they cannot admit their guilt, be relieved of their punishment and walk free. But what joy for us whose eyes God has opened!