KEEPING THE SABBATH, 6

In the last post I wrote about how keeping the Sabbath dethrones the god of work. In this post we will look at how keeping the Sabbath is a practical demonstration of our trust in God.

Keeping the Sabbath requires faith (trust) because it forces us to ask the question, “Will God provide?” In the agrarian society that the Bible was written in this would have been an even more critical question than it is in our industrialised society. For the farmer so much is dependent upon what the weather is doing. This is why modern farmers get the harvest in when they can – if the harvest is ready and the weather is good they will have the combines working 24/7. The reason they do this is that if the weather changes they may not be able to get the crop in, and it will be ruined. For an Israelite whose very survival depended on getting the harvest in taking a Sabbath would have been a supreme test of faith. The choice would have been very stark – trust YHWH and rest today, believing the harvest will be ok tomorrow (risking starvation if YHWH doesn’t come through); or not trust YHWH and get the crops in today.

In our society, where not so many of us are farmers, the choice is more likely to be: “I have to go into the office today… or trust God.”
One of the reasons why this test of faith is important is that Sabbath is also a matter of social justice. The prophets often equated constant economic activity with social injustice (E.g., Amos 8:4-6). Forcing others (or yourself) to work seven days a week is unjust.

We can dismiss this prophetic concern as legalism and miss out on grace. We can say, “As a Christian I’m free to work seven days a week” and miss the fact that as a Christian you are free not to work seven days a week. But choosing not to might cost you!

Sabbath keeping does make faith very simple, very black and white. Do you trust God?!

I first learnt this lesson as a student. I had been a poor studier while at school – undisciplined and largely unmotivated – and as a result never did quite so well academically as I should have done. Once I got to university it would have been easy to carry these poor habits on. After all, that is the typical student pattern – leave things to the last minute, then be forced to work the nightshift, cramming six months worth of study into a couple of weeks frantic activity, sustained by constant coffee and loud music. Instead of doing this I made a commitment to myself to work a ‘proper’ week. Hard, concentrated effort, 9-5, Monday to Friday, and to then always take Sunday (and normally Saturday too) off. This strategy paid off – I was more engaged and more successful academically than I had ever been before. This was a good habit to learn.

Taking this step of faith is also helpful in that it reminds us of our dependence on others. If we work every day of the week we quickly get into the self-deception of thinking that everyone else is depending upon us for everything and that if we stop working the universe will implode. One day a week it is good to stop, and be reminded that if it wasn’t for the work of other people we would be living under the stars and eating grass for our dinner. And this in turn helps strengthen our faith in the God who is the ultimate source of our every provision.

Next time we’ll see how keeping the Sabbath slays the god of money.

KEEPING THE SABBATH, 5

It is my conviction that Sabbath should be about freedom, grace and gospel, not law.

What, then, should we actually do on the Sabbath?

Sabbath should serve as a punctuation mark in the flow of our week. Sabbath gives us time to reflect on the days that have gone before and the days that are to come; it gives us space to reflect on God’s goodness.

Sabbath thus dethrones work and enthrones God. Work is good – a gift from God – but it too easily becomes our god. We need to develop habits that keep God on the throne of our lives, and Sabbath is essential to that.

Trying to define what work is, is actually quite difficult. It is certainly not merely activities for which we get paid. My best stab at defining it is to say that work is any activity that fills a major part of our waking hours and that we have to do either to meet our own needs or the needs of others. Work defined this way – whether it is running an international corporation or being a housewife or being a student – should not consume us seven days a week. It is not to be our god.

Taking a Sabbath reminds us that we are human beings not human doings. Sabbath reminds us that we are not indispensable – that if we stop working for a few hours the world will keep spinning. Wouldn’t we all be better off if (say) our political leaders were not constantly working?!

Understood this way, Sabbath is not so much a break from work as space for other things. It is not so much about what you can’t do as what you can do – things that are vital to our wellbeing, like fellowship, service and rest.

Sabbath also serves as a regular call to what is most important – our worship of Jesus. Sabbath is an opportunity to be with people because you want to be and not for commercial purposes. It is an opportunity to serve others rather than oneself. It is an opportunity to recharge the batteries. Living the Sabbath makes time to be thankful – it gives us the time to respond to God’s grace.

Practically, in my house, this means that Sabbath looks something like this…

Monday is my Sabbath rather than Sunday, because Sunday is one of the busiest days in my week. Sabbath means that on a Monday I do some things my wife would normally do, in order to serve her and help her have a Sabbath as well. Normally Grace does all the cooking, but on a Monday I do it – in part to give her a rest, but also because it is an activity I enjoy and find refreshing. So we start the day with a cooked breakfast, and end it with a good dinner and bottle of wine. Sabbath means that on a Monday I take the kids to school and pick them up again – something that I don’t normally get to do. Sabbath means that on a Monday I don’t blog (those posts that appear on a Monday are scheduled in advance). Sabbath means that on a Monday Grace and I normally try and get out into the countryside, for a walk or a run or a bike ride, because this helps us to recharge our emotional batteries, and makes us thankful to God for his creation. Sabbath means that on a Monday I don’t check my email or answer my phone, because I want to be undistracted from enjoying the day. Sabbath means that without Monday I would have suffered complete emotional and physical collapse by now!

Take your Sabbath, and enjoy it.

Next time we’ll look at how Sabbath not only dethrones the god of work but tests and increases our faith in other areas of life.

BOOK REVIEW: SIMPLY CHRISTIAN

Simply Christian by Tom Wright

Having had this on my ‘to read’ shelf for the past 18 months or so I finally got round to reading it this week.

For those not familiar with the author, Tom Wright is Bishop of Durham (the fourth most important bishopric in the Church of England) and a significant scholar. Wright writes under the name ‘Tom’ when he is aiming at a more general audience, and as ‘NT Wright’ when writing for an academic audience. So this book is intended for the average person who has an interest in the Christian faith.

I have previously reviewed Tim Keller’s The Reason for God, which is aimed at a similar kind of market to Simply Christian. Interestingly, Wright, like Keller, is clearly influenced by CS Lewis, and both are making an attempt to offer a contemporary alternative to Lewis’s classic Mere Christianity.

Keller’s book is probably more practical, dealing as it does with the objections to faith that are typically raised in a sceptical age. Wright’s book takes a different approach. I thought the first section, ‘Echoes of a voice’ was excellent. In it Wright explores the pull all humans feel towards justice, spirituality, relationship, and beauty, and explains how our desire for these things are an echo of our desire for God and the creation as he created it to be. The next section of the book gets to grips with who God actually is, considering Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the story of God’s people Israel. The final section deals with the practices of being a Christian – worship, prayer (he makes an interesting appeal for Anglican style liturgy at this point), Bible reading, becoming part of the people of God and looking forward to the renewed heaven and earth – where there will be perfected justice, spirituality, relationship and beauty.

Wright is a very competent writer. Even his thicker, denser, more scholarly books have a narrative flow and engaging quality that is too often missing in other serious authors, and this – shorter – book bounces along nicely. But the first four chapters aside, I didn’t find it as compelling as The Reason for God. What I really need to do is ask someone who is not a follower of Jesus to review both books for me – after all, I am not the target audience. Although Wright is aiming for a general audience I think any non-believing reader would need to be fairly committed to get through all this; but then the same could be said for Mere Christianity.

In the end I think it’s a good, worthwhile book, but a little too Anglican for me and not ‘mere’ enough – too much of Wright’s wider theological agenda filters through. But why not buy it for a non-Christian friend – if you do, let me know what they think!

(BTW, Tim Keller is visiting the UK in February, speaking at Westminster Chapel. For details, click here)

THE KING IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE KING!

I wonder what it is like to be George Bush right now?

Democracy is an amazing thing. We are so used to it that often we miss its historical oddity. It is remarkable that 44 times power has changed hands in the USA not because of sword or bullet but because people voted that way.

That is not how it has normally been. Normally power comes from father to son, or from coup or war.

Yet, the transfer of power within a democracy is still an execution of sorts. I wonder how a former president mentally adjusts. One day you have full access to the White House and all it represents – You can sit in the Oval Office whenever you please. You can command an army. You receive daily security briefings containing highly classified information. You are top of the tree. And then, one cold day in January, it is all taken away. Now you are not allowed in the White House unless invited. Now there is no secret information being passed to you. Now you cannot sign an order and have it immediately enacted.

It must feel odd. It must feel like an execution.

And then what? Assuming Obama serves two presidential terms he will still be only 55 when he is executed from office. What will he do then? Where do you go having been President of the United States? What mountains are left to climb?

The very power of democracy is that it enshrines this principle of execution. Only by killing the monarch (figuratively speaking) can the nation be safeguarded and renewed. Without execution pride and laziness inevitably take control. The corrupting influence of power has to be cut out as ruthlessly as a cancer, even if the patient gives every appearance of health.

This seems to me to be as good an evidence as any of the fallen nature of our world but our innate sense that things should be different. We know deep in our gut that leadership is necessary and leadership should be powerful and leadership should be good for us – and then we look at how our leaders inevitably seem to end up and our best solution is a bloodless regicide.

The Christian gospel draws other conclusions – that there really is a king, a king all powerful and wise and good. A king not corrupted by power but master of it. A king who cannot be corrupted by power because he has already died, and in his death has defeated all corruption. So we look to the day when this king is revealed. On that day we will know the freedom that pure power brings, and we will never desire to overthrow our king. He will reign forever, and we will be glad!

KEEPING THE SABBATH, 4

So far in these posts we have seen that theologically the Sabbath is important but spiritually there is nothing unique about Sunday. What then should the Christian approach to Sabbath be?

First off, lets consider some hard realities…
Socially, it is regrettable that every day is now alike. Back in the ‘90s I supported the Keep Sunday Special campaign because of the social implications of the shops being open on Sunday’s. I just don’t think that our quality of life as a nation has been improved by another day on which to spend money. All it seems to have done is lead to an increase in our stress levels and busyness.

Then there is the reality that many Christians do have to work on Sundays. I work on Sundays! Those who work jobs which operate on a shift basis, those in healthcare or the military or the police and emergency services all have to work Sundays. That is just the way it is.

While your work might mean your Sabbath cannot be on Sunday, I still feel it is good if it can be! Despite Sunday being another trading day, for most people it is still the best day to have as a Sabbath. Although many people work on Sundays fewer do than do so on other days of the week, and this means Sunday is still the best day to gather together as church. This is not because Sunday is uniquely special but because it is necessary for believers to meet together regularly. If Sunday is the best day to do so then that is the day we should do it.

If Sunday can’t be your Sabbath find another day (mine is Monday) – and guard it, and enjoy it.

More on this in the next post…

BLOG DE-RATIONALIZATION

Mrs Hosier says I am confusing things by having my daily devotional notes on this blog. As she is always right they are going back to The Worship Poole. Hope to see you there!

THE POWER OF WORDS

So, what did you think?

President Obama's inaugural speech seems to have been met with a generally positive response. The two poles of the Guardian, and the Telegraph both write glowingly of what was said, while recognizing the challenges of what lies ahead.

For me though it fell a little flat. From Aretha Franklin struggling to sing in the icy Washington cold (it was amusing to watch the TV commentators almost frozen to their seats and shivering through their comments) to the sombre lunch time address, no doubt impacted by the collapse of two senators (for those of superstitious bent this can hardly have been a good omen). While Obama's speech was solid and serious, highlighting the challenges that need to be tackled, I didn't feel it gripped the heart in the way some of his campaign speeches did. Perhaps this was deliberate - as the Telegraph puts it, 'a serious speech for serious times'. But I was waiting for the punchline equivalent of JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you but what can you do for your country." After two months of work, I thought Obama and his speech writing team would pull it off.

Anyway, now is the time for action, as well as words. Let's see what this presidency can deliver.

I did think that Rick Warren did well though. For all the flack that has surrounded the public prayers said over the past few days, the pastor from Orange County, California rose to the occasion, didn't compromise, and set an example in how we should pray for our leaders. (Mark Driscoll sums it up well here.) This is the prayer:

Almighty God, our Father:
Everything we see, and everything we can’t see, exists because of you alone.
It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory.
History is your story.
The Scripture tells us, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now today, we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States.
We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where a son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.
Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity.
Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans—united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you—forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone—forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve—forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes—even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve, and to seek the common good of all.
May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.
And may we never forget that one day, all nations--and all people--will stand accountable before you.
We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life—Yeshua, 'Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus—who taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.

196

John 4:27-38

Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" They went out of the town and were coming to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

This time it is the disciples turn to be confused.

Actually, Peter and the gang show an unusual level of self-restraint at this point. Their normal tendency would have been to jump straight in and give the woman a good telling off, or to rebuke Jesus for his casual behavior! But there must have been something so sacred about what was going on that even the disciples could sense it – perhaps they were feeling the breeze of the Spirit on their faces.

Whatever, they manage an appropriate reticence, until they start talking about food, and it is at this point that they become confused.

Jesus had offered the woman water that she didn’t have to draw, now he speaks of food that the disciples cannot see. The disciples were keen on food. It is interesting and revealing to do a study of food in the gospels, and see how often it gets the disciples into trouble. Jesus wants them to feed, but for the focus of their hunger to be more on reaching souls than filling their stomachs.

If only they could see it! A harvest is there! Food is there!

Food? In this spot? In Samaria? Yes – a harvest awaits.

Questions
• Why did the disciples not see what Jesus saw?
• Where is your Samaria?
• Where is your harvest field?

Praise
• Praise Jesus that he sees the harvest.
• Praise Jesus for the labor that has already been done in preparing the harvest.
• Praise Jesus for spiritual food.

KEEPING THE SABBATH, 3

It was only in 1994 that the Sunday trading laws in the UK changed to allow shops to open on Sunday’s. Although this is only 15 years ago we forget how radically different our society now is as a result. Sunday has become just another shopping day. It is much noisier, much busier than it used to be.

Before the law was changed there was a ‘Keep Sunday Special’ Campaign co-ordinated by various church groups. This name made the assumption that Sunday is special. But is it?

In absolute spiritual terms we have to say the answer is No.

The early church was largely Jewish (and at the very first it was entirely Jewish). These Christian Jews would have continued to observe the Jewish Sabbath, on Saturday. Very early on in the history of the church, however, Christians began to gather to worship on Sunday. Evidence for this can be found in Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2 (this is why Seventh Day Adventists are wrong!). There is no requirement upon Christians to keep the Sabbath on Saturday.

The reason the early Christians began to meet to worship on Sunday was because this was the day of the resurrection, the day of Pentecost, and it avoided a clash with the Jewish Sabbath.

At first Sunday would have been an ordinary working day, and presumably the believers would have gathered in worship before work or after work. We also need to bear in mind that they would have worked 12 hour days, and many of them were slaves, so they had no choice as to when they worked anyway.

This is quite a challenge to us…

It was only in 321AD that the emperor Constantine decreed Sunday a holy-day, and Sunday became the official day to gather in worship.

Today, Christians in Islamic countries often meet to worship on Friday, because this is the day of worship in Islam. It is just practically easier for believers in Jesus to also gather on that day.

So, there is nothing intrinsically special about Sunday.

In fact, there is no special spiritual value to Sunday or to any other ‘special day’. Paul makes this clear in Colossians 2:16-17:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Sunday; Easter; Christmas – these can be kept or not. They are shadows, not the real thing. These are not to become matters upon which we judge others – having a bee in your bonnet about how your church does or doesn’t celebrate Easter or Christmas is a failure to understand the gospel.

Because of what Jesus has done we are Easter people and Christmas people. We live in the light and benefit of Christ’s incarnation, his death and resurrection. This is true whether or not we keep the festival. It is also true about Sabbath. We are Sabbath people, whether or not we keep it.

However, I do believe there is value in keeping Easter and Christmas. Doing so helps us remember what it is we have become. These feasts also serve as opportunities for witness. They are times when we can call people to join us in worship of the Savior. Sabbath is similar. We don’t have to keep it because Jesus has already fulfilled it, but keeping it is a prophetic witness to the world.

Keeping the Sabbath is prophetic because it speaks about the inheritance that will be ours. Although we find Sabbath rest in Christ, God’s people still look forward to the Sabbath (Hebrews 4:8-11). We are waiting for the renewal of all things and the day when we shall look upon Jesus face to face. Keeping the Sabbath is a sign that we are looking for this day, this greater Sabbath.

How should we keep the Sabbath then? Next time…

195

John 4:21-26

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."

At this point in the encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well, Jesus turns the conversation back to the real issue: Its not where you worship but who and how you worship.

And just as Jesus had spoken to Nicodemus about “spirit” he speaks to the woman about spirit. He brings things to the same place with the woman as he did with Nick. The context is very different, but the need is the same.

What is different about the woman is that she gets it!

These two stories take place in very different situations: A man and a woman; the city and country; an insider and an outsider; a professional and a layperson; a respectable man and a disreputable woman; an orthodox and a heretic; one who takes initiative and one who lets it be taken; one named, the other anonymous; human reputation at risk and divine reputation at risk.

These are two very different people – with one need: relationship with God.

It doesn’t matter who you are; it does matter how you respond.

It is more about Jesus than Nick and the woman. Jesus asks both a question: Will you respond to God’s Spirit? They need to recognise that the Spirit is moving. Does the wind move the trees, or is it the trees moving that generates the wind? Some (like Nick) saw Jesus as a moving tree; others (the woman) understood that the Spirit was blowing through Jesus.

Questions
• Why did the woman seem to get it better than Nicodemus?
• What is your response to Jesus?
• What is your response to his Spirit?

Praise
• Praise God that in Jesus he has shown us how and who we are to worship.
• Praise God for the Spirit that has been given us so that we can worship.
• Praise Jesus that in him we see perfect truth.

FACT & FICTION

A friend has lent me the complete set of the West Wing. This is bad news, as I find it powerfully addictive. Anyway, the parallels between the plot of the greatest TV series ever and the real life American politics of recent months are striking. This article explains the context:

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the start of season one, and it has been a startling experience revisiting – with the benefit of hindsight – the sojourn of President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) in the White House.
The first two seasons were completed before 9/11 changed the course of US history and redefined the presidency; and, viewed a decade on, they sometimes seem almost prehistoric. Mobile phones, for instance, aren't the ubiquitous item they would very soon become, and there's a moment when Vice President John Hoynes quaintly insists, without irony, that the internet is here to stay.
But at the same time, the programme makers also reveal an astonishing prescience. In an early episode, a passing reference to a real-life figure will have meant nothing to the vast majority of viewers; yet the sudden, shocking emergence on to the world stage of one Osama bin Laden was only months away.
That was the strength of The West Wing: its storylines were so authoritative, so convincing and so enthralling. This was due largely to the contributions of former White House staffers such as Marlin Fitzwater, Dee Dee Myers and Peggy Noonan, whose inside knowledge laid bare, in a hugely entertaining manner, the workings of the most powerful office in the world.
It may be that, in real life, not quite so many exchanges between presidential aides take place as they march briskly up and down the corridors of power, but The West Wing provided 20 million-plus Americans with insights into contemporary politics that they would otherwise never have enjoyed.
Things got rather weird, though, when reality seemed to take a lead from fiction – something that started quite early in The West Wing's seven-year run.
The death of Bartlet's secretary in season two was marked by a minute's silence in the real California State Assembly, The New York Times urged George W Bush to adopt policies favoured by the Bartlet administration, and a poll before the 2000 presidential election showed voters preferred Bartlet to the real candidates.
Last year, that weirdness went into overdrive as Obama's progress towards the White House began to mirror uncannily the presidential campaign of Democratic hopeful Matthew Santos in the final two seasons of The West Wing.
The Hispanic Santos (Jimmy Smits) is a tall, charismatic fortysomething with a young family, a relative newcomer to politics, who has to overcome a well-established rival for the party nomination. Sound familiar?
But which was the chicken and which the egg? Because it soon emerged that, in devising the Santos character, the programme makers had been inspired by a young Illinois politician, who is now only days away from being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.
In another (chance?) parallel, Santos's Republican opponent in the election is Arnold Vinick (played by Alan Alda), a straight-talking, snowy-haired political veteran bearing a remarkable similarity – in character, if not physical stature – to feisty Senator John McCain.
During last year's campaign, The New York Times noted that, in The West Wing, Vinick admits he hasn't been to church for a while. When questioned on the same subject, McCain said he hadn't attended church as often as he should have.
The dizzying blur of life imitating art imitating life led the chief strategist of Obama's campaign to email one of the show's writer/producers this time last year, saying: "We're living your scripts!"
As if to confirm this extraordinary two-way traffic of ideas, when Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, was interviewed by GQ magazine in August, he said: "The first time I met Barack Obama – I should say the only time I've met Barack Obama – was a year ago, when he was doing 50-person cocktail party fund-raisers. He flattered me by saying, 'My intention is to steal a lot of your lines'."

194

John 4:16-20

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."

The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."

In response to Jesus’ prophetic insight the woman throws in a diversion.

Why does she pursue this tack – this question about Jerusalem?

Is it simply racial animosity. She must have been rattled by Jesus’ insight into her private life and might have felt, “I’m not having some Jew talk to me like this.”

Is it that she is scared or embarrassed and wanting to get out of the spotlight?

Or is it a genuine question? Is she really asking this prophet, “How do I enter the kingdom?”

Whatever her motives, the woman is about to get an answer to her question that is very different from anything she could have been expecting when she came to draw water that day.

Questions
• When has Jesus made you feel uncomfortable?
• What diversionary questions have you noticed people throwing in when Jesus comes into the conversation?
• What do you think the woman’s motives were?

Praise
• Praise Jesus that he is never thrown off track.
• Praise Jesus that he always understands peoples real needs, regardless of the questions they ask.
• Praise Jesus that he is the greatest of all prophets.

KEEPING THE SABBATH, 2

The Old Testament speaks with one voice about the Sabbath: It matters to God and we should observe it!

The Sabbath is rooted in the very nature and character of God (Genesis 2:2-3). YHWH is a God who works, and who rests, and as people made in God’s image we are to imitate his pattern of work and rest. Because this is a creation issue it means we are biologically made to need Sabbath. Without it something will go wrong – our wiring will fuse.

Sabbath was also seen as an issue of social justice in the Old Testament (E.g., Isaiah 58:6-14). God did not want people to be abused, and making people work seven days a week is a type of abuse.
Sabbath also served as the focal point of the worship life of the people of God. All of life was to be lived in worship to YHWH, but the Sabbath offered a weekly moment to more deliberately remember the goodness and greatness of God.

In the New Testament the dialogue surrounding the Sabbath changes. By this time Judaism had fenced around the Sabbath law and applied legalism instead of grace. By Jesus’ day 1,521 rules had been made up to protect the Sabbath. Even today Orthodox Jews will not flick a light switch on the Sabbath.

It was this legalism around the Sabbath that Jesus attacked.

It is important to see the distinction here – Jesus didn’t attack the Sabbath itself; rather he attacked the legalism surrounding it. This attack was actually one of the main reasons why Jesus was killed (John 5:2-18). What had been intended by God as grace had become burden, and Jesus went for the jugular on this one.

Sadly, Christians have often done the same as the Jews with the Sabbath, and made it a burden rather than a blessing (as it was for me when Sabbath observance kept a swimming pool out of bounds).

We hate this legalism! And this is why often we don’t keep the Sabbath. But have we thrown the baby out with the bath water? Have we confused our grace theology with our godless 24/7 culture?

More next time…

193

John 4:1-15

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" ( For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

Whereas Nicodemus had come to Jesus at night, Jesus comes to Samaria in the day. This was hostile country. It wasn’t Jerusalem. And Jesus strikes up conversation with a woman, not a man.

Everything is wrong about this!

Nick was a religious leader, he was in Jerusalem, and he was following protocol. Jesus shouldn’t have been in Samaria, he shouldn’t have been talking to Samaritans, and especially not to a Samaritan woman.

So she is surprised that Jesus speaks to her.

What is her story? Is she wary of Jesus? She would have good reason to be – she clearly had lots of experience with men. We can guess her experience of men had not always been positive. I guess she had been used to being knocked about a bit by men, of being taken advantage of. How did she know this stranger Jew wasn’t simply looking for an opportunity to abuse? She had known serial rejections, multiple failures – men were danger.

Or perhaps it was the opposite? Is she flirting with Jesus? Maybe she is the user, not a victim.

Whatever the woman’s heart motives, as with Nicodemus, Jesus doesn’t question them, and John doesn’t explore them. Its all about Jesus, not the woman.

In this encounter Jesus uses “water” as he used “wind” with Nick. Something everyday, but something with a double meaning. And just like Nick, the woman misses the point: Jacob dug a well, but Jesus is the well. This ordinary looking man, tired and dusty from his journey, in the wrong place, talking to the wrong person is about to pour out the water of life.

Questions
• What is the significance in this account of the references to Jacob and Joseph?
• Do you think Jesus went looking for this encounter, or simply responded to it when it arose?
• What can you learn and apply from the way Jesus spoke to the woman?

Praise
• Praise Jesus that he reaches out to the “wrong sort” of people.
• Praise Jesus that he is greater than any other historical figure.
• Praise Jesus that in him is the water of life.

MORE GOD & POLITICS

I posted a few days ago about the furore surrounding the decision taken by Brack Obama to invite both Rick Warren and Gene Robinson to participate in his inauguration as 44th President.

Further to that post you might be interested to read John Piper's thoughts on the matter - he is not happy - and a series of prayers offered for the occasion by leading American evangelicals on the Pyromaniacs blog.

How would you pray for Obama?

However you would do it, lets make sure we do do it.

KEEPING THE SABBATH, 1

Yesterday I was teaching at our regional Leadership Training base and spent some of that time focussing on Sabbath. This generated a good discussion so I am planning to do a series of posts on the subject here.

Sabbath keeping is not a much talked about subject in my circle of churches. I think this is because we are terrified of legalism and always want to emphasise grace.

Some of us have very bad memories of the past, when Sunday was a day of restrictions and joylessness. When I was a boy my family would sometimes stay at a Christian conference centre which had a swimming pool. That swimming pool was out of bounds on Sundays, because to swim on a Sunday would offend Jesus! I remember hot summer Sundays longing to get in the water but being expressly forbidden from doing so.

For other people the Sabbath is never thought about not because of negative experiences in the past, but simply because the very notion of Sabbath is just not culturally there. It is a totally alien and strange idea.

But whichever side of this fence you sit on, the reality is that the Sabbath is a major biblical theme.

The fourth of the ten commandments gives instruction to keep the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11). This is the longest of the ten commandments, and is addressed to everyone. And it is unique in setting out the reasons for it being given. Over the next few posts we will look at these reasons, and their application to us.

In the book A Passion for God’s Story, Philip Greenslade writes this:

If it is true that human beings are the crown of God’s creation, it is equally true that the Sabbath is the goal of creation. Everything God has made aspires to that end. The Sabbath sanctifies time. It invites us to look back to the God who rested from his creation task and model our lives on the rhythm of God’s labour and rest. It encourages us to imitate God’s creative labour as worshippers, not restless workaholics.

It is these themes, and this goal, that I want to take some time to explore.

192

John 3:31-36

He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

This paragraph is a kind of, “Now class, here is what we have learned so far…” Let’s break it down:
1. Jesus is God
2. Jesus speaks about God and the kingdom of heaven
3. Jesus’ message is rejected by many (some rhetorical overemphasis for effect, “no one believes him…”)
4. Those who do believe him demonstrate that they believe God
5. Jesus has come in order to release the power of God’s Spirit on the earth
6. Jesus has all power
7. The only way to real life is by entrusting yourself to Jesus
8. John got it, Nicodemus didn’t, and now we’re off to Samaria…

Questions
• Up to this point, what evidence had Jesus given that he was from heaven?
• Why did so many reject Jesus?
• What is the wrath of God?

Praise
• Praise Jesus that he came from heaven to earth for our salvation.
• Praise God for the gift of his Spirit.
• Praise Him that by faith in Jesus we are delivered from wrath.

191

John 3:22-30

After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized (for John had not yet been put in prison).
Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease."

John and Jesus, both dipping people. That must have been quite a sight. I wonder how people chose who to go to? Was it simply a case of whichever one they got to first? Did it depend on who was actually doing the dipping – “I’d rather have John than Peter; but rather Peter than one of John’s disciples…”

And then there was the awkward squad – the religious ones who wanted to check out that this baptism business was happening properly. Is it sufficiently purifying? What’s on offer here? And with two prophets baptizing which one offers the greater purification?

John wasn’t distracted by these kind of personality preferences and religious debates. He was very clear: “Jesus is far greater than I am.” What is noteworthy about John’s attitude is that he was not begrudging in any way about Jesus getting in on the baptizing business. John had been enjoying a monopoly in this area – he was the wild prophet the crowds poured into the countryside to hear. He was the one attracting disciples. But now the crowds are going elsewhere, and his remaining disciples are concerned for business.

This is not John’s concern.

His eyes are fixed on Jesus too, but not out of envy or resentment. John is looking at Jesus with joy. John knows his mission is complete. He must decrease, so that Jesus may increase.

Questions
• Do you have envy or resentment issues?
• Why was John so sanguine about Jesus taking prominence?
• Where do you find your joy?

Praise
• Praise Jesus that he is the one who purifies us.
• Praise God for his faithful servants – men and women who serve Jesus and his Church, humbly and joyfully.
• Praise Jesus that he is purifying his bride, ready for marriage.

190

John 3:19-21

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."

While God’s basic orientation towards the world is one of love, the world’s basic orientation towards God is one of hostility. People, generally, are happy to live their lives outside the light of God. Just as a teenager enjoying a lie-in will vehemently object to his parent turning on the light in his room, and retreat back under the covers, so the world has responded to Jesus.

Often light attracts us. We are drawn towards light as moths to a flame. Light represents warmth and safety. Light enables us to see. In the depths of winter we like to come into the light – at Christmas we decorate our houses with lights. Yet the light that is in Christ has repelled people as much as it has drawn them.

To those who love the darkness the light of Christ is less pleasing illumination and more hostile searchlight. To the guilty, seeking obscurity in the shadows, a searchlight is intimidating rather than comforting.

But to those who step out into this light, who choose to submit themselves to its beam, there is no waiting jailers cell or firing squad. Instead there is a heavenly welcome and the forgiveness of sins. Suddenly what we do we are able to do in the light – where we are less likely to trip over obstacles and injure ourselves. In the light we are able to do the works of God, without fear or shame.

Questions
• Why does Jesus provoke a strong reaction in people?
• Jesus and Nick were having this conversation at night – do you think Nick was hiding in the shadows or coming into the light?
• What is the difference between works done in the darkness and works done in the light?

Praise
• If Jesus has enabled you to come into the light – Praise Him!
• Thank God that he calls us to do good works, in the light – works that he takes pleasure in.
• Praise Jesus that the light always wins in the end – the darkness will not last.

BOOK REVIEW: JOHN NEWTON

John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace, by Jonathan Aitken.

Newton’s story is so amazing, it shouldn’t be difficult to write a good book about it.

Newton was an extremely unpleasant and aggressive young man, and lived in an age which is so different in so many respects to ours.

John’s father was a sea captain, and first went to sea when he was only ten. Newton was impressed into the Royal Navy as a young man, then transferred to the merchant fleet because he had made himself so obnoxious to his superiors. His life was a mess – notorious for the foulness of his mouth, even among hardened sailors; flogged and demoted for insubordination; a slave trader, who was for a time himself enslaved in Africa. There was very little attractive about him – until God broke in.

The story of Newton’s transformation from slave trader to Christian and minister of the gospel is more incredible than fiction. His spiritual and social significance was considerable – a leading light in the great evangelical awakening of the 18th century; a best selling author; closest confidant of the poet William Cowper; composer of the most widely sung hymn in the world; and a major contributor to the campaign to abolish slavery, led by his protégé, William Wilberforce.

So, with this kind of material, a good biography should be easy to write. And this is a good biography.

Aitken is a shrewd choice of biographer, with his own Newton-like experiences in mind, and he writes well. Sometimes the writing could be a little crisper, and there is an irritating narrative tick in repeating certain facts and stories from chapter to chapter, but the story is pacey and engaging. Also, each chapter is fairly short, which always seems to make reading go faster – rather like distances seem to be shorter when driving on the Continent because the sign posts are in kilometres rather than miles.

I found this a gripping read. It has fascinating human interest, and is of great historical interest. It is also very stirring spiritually. Newton’s life is well worth study, and this is an excellent place to start. Having read it, you will never sing “Amazing Grace” in quite the same way again.

189

John 3:16-18

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

John 3:16. Surely the most quoted verse in the Bible – the text for countless “gospel sermons,” a banner held up at innumerable sporting events, the graffiti on a million walls.

But invariably ripped out of its context.

The message is one of hope and love – for Nicodemus, for me, for the world – but the place where we start is not as recipients of life. We are condemned people.

Without God we have no hope of God in this life or the next. Life without God is not merely life without a certain lifestyle accessory – it is life under condemnation. It is a life from which our only expectation should be eternal misery and loss, an unbearable weight of unresolved guilt and shame.

But, For God. God has different plans than our deserved condemnation. God’s plan is our eternal salvation – an eternity of joy and gain, of unimaginable peace and delight. In Jesus there is salvation for the world.

Was this what Nick was expecting?

Questions
• If you were a Premiership footballer, would you write “John 3:16” on your shirt?
• How did you come to believe?
• What does “not perishing” mean?

Praise
• Praise God that he has made a way for the world to know life rather than condemnation.
• Praise God that his basic orientation to the world is one of love.
• Praise Jesus for his life given for you.

GOD & POLITICS

The blogosphere is starting to fizz with the announcement that gay bishop Gene Robinson is to pray at the Obama inauguration. Mark Roberts comments (from the American evangelical position) here, and Cranmer (from his unique position!) here.

I'm sure there will be much more to come...

It appears that Obama has invited Robinson in order to provide a polar opposite to the already invited Rick Warren, following the furore provoked among gay/lesbian/transsexual groups by this invitation due to Warren's "homophobia."

What a farce. As Cranmer pithily observes:

Bishop Gene Robinson has built an episcopal career on not being especially Christian, for it is difficult to see the fruits of the Holy Spirit in an hypocritical, bisexual adulterer who misrepresents the Faith, denounces Christian prayer as ‘sectarian’, and is ashamed of the gospel of salvation. Instead, he prefers to go all Buddhist and pray about rivers and trees, of mountains and seas, of the dollar and the poor, of families and (one presumes) some of his minority concerns – ‘people of colour’, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Cranmer does not believe the Bishop will mention the obese, for they will take up too much room in the Kingdom of God.

Perhaps it would be better if American politicians sometimes observed the separation of Church and State in a more thorough going manner.

188

John 3:11-15

Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Having paraphrased Ezekiel, Jesus now quotes the story of the bronze snake that Moses made. This story can be found in Numbers 21:4-9, and it’s a strange one. The people of Israel were grumbling against God, so he sent snakes among them to bite them. When the people then repented God commanded Moses to make a bronze snake, and anyone who was bitten by a real snake would be healed if they looked upon the bronze snake.

Bizarre.

What Jesus does is take an obscure and strange story from ancient history and layer upon it a meaning of incredible profundity. By his death on the cross, Jesus would bring the offer of healing to all mankind. The image of the cross is so familiar to us that we don’t find it strange, but it is even more extraordinary than Moses’ snake. How bizarre that believing in a man nailed to a piece of wood should bring the promise of eternal life.

It is the cross that is God’s means of salvation for the world.

Mankind is afflicted by many ‘fiery serpents’. We are beset by sin. We need one who is able to neutralize the serpents venom. On the cross Jesus absorbed all that poison, took the full dose himself. And on the cross he defeated the original serpent. Satan was defanged at the cross.

Come on Nicodemus – catch up with the plan!

Questions
• Why did Jesus keep referring to Old Testament scripture in his conversation with Nick?
• Of what sins has Jesus cleansed you?
• Are you amazed by the cross?

Praise
• Praise Jesus for his cross.
• Praise Jesus for his victory over sin and Satan.
• Praise Jesus that he has revealed heavenly things to us.

BUSY LIVING

People keep telling me how busy they are, either like its a badge of honor, or as if it comes as a surprise.

January is meant to be busy. Its how January is.

This coming Friday I am spending the day teaching at our local Newfrontiers Leadership Training base about the "devotional life of the leader and time management." Assuming of course, that I am not too busy to prepare something for it...

CJ Mahaney has been posting on his blog on time management, material I will probably purloin for Friday (but I'm confessing my sources here, so it won't be plagiarism), and Mark Roberts links to this fascinating article in the LA Times:

So you're racing through another jam-packed day, late picking up the kids from basketball practice because you got stuck at the office. You still have to pay the bills, walk the dog and perhaps grab cold pizza before collapsing into bed.

When do you ever find time for God?

One publisher has the answer: "The One Minute Bible, Day by Day," whose brief readings promise to inspire your "daily walk with the Lord."

Or check out "5 Minute Theologian: Maximum Truth in Minimum Time."

Because man does not live by bread alone -- and might be tempted to eat on the run -- there's "Aunt Susie's 10-Minute Bible Dinners: Bringing God Into Your Life One Dish at a Time."

The American style of worship, like everything else in people's overloaded lives, is speeding up.

I could be accused of adding to this "speed-worshipping." My daily Worship Poole posts are meant to help people get something of the word in short segments, and I have been encouraging a few minutes of daily Bible reading/listening in order to get through the Bible in a year.

Sometimes it can feel as though we are just squeezing Jesus into small sections of our over busy day.

Of course, this is not how it should be.

That is not to say that little and often does not have its place. I'm sure it does, especially with tasks that might otherwise look daunting, such as reading the Bible in a year. As the saying goes, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. But the point is that the whole of life is meant to be lived for Jesus, "keeping his commandments and experiencing the Spirit" (1 John 3:24). We don't give Jesus a segment of our lives - we hand him the whole thing.

Living this way means that whatever we do is infused with a sense of God. There is no sacred/secular divide. The whole thing belongs to Jesus. It all becomes worship.

Let that be your resolution for 2009.

187

John 3:4-10

Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

In response to Nick’s understandable question (wouldn’t you have said the same thing?) Jesus starts talking about “spirit.” We know what he is talking about. Our English bibles translate the word as “Spirit.” We know he’s talking about God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit. But for Nick there might have been a greater ambiguity. The Greek word pneuma can be translated as wind, or breath, as well as spirit. So what is Jesus talking about? Breathing? or the weather? or God?

If this is the case, why does Jesus rebuke Nick for not understanding?

The best explanation for this is that Jesus seems to have been paraphrasing Ezekiel 36:25-27, a passage that Ezekiel would probably have known by heart. This prophecy speaks of God washing his people and giving them new hearts – of them being born again – by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.

Nick should have understood. He should have spotted what Jesus was doing – he was telling Nick a story about himself, that he was the one who was about to fulfil Ezekiel’s vision.

What had Nick come to Jesus for? We don’t know. But we know what Jesus had come for – to see the Spirit poured out on the people of God.

Questions
• Was Jesus unduly tough on Nicodemus?
• Why did Nick not spot what Jesus was saying?
• What is your experience of the Spirit?

Praise
• Praise God for English translations of the Bible!
• Praise Jesus that he came to enact the promise of new life in the hearts of his people.
• Praise God that we have received the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit.

G DAY + 7

A week on from Alder Road becoming Gateway, and a year and a week since my first Sunday at the church.

Its been a good year, and a good week.

I didn't ever expect to see the Harbour frozen over though.

186

John 3:1-2

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

It was those signs again. They sure did get the attention. At least Nick was correct in his assessment of them – this had to be God in the mix.

The trouble is, Jesus always demands more than an acknowledgement that God is somehow in the mix.

Nick comes at night. Why? The implication was that he was coming secretly. Why? Perhaps he didn’t want his colleagues to know. It might not look very good in his position to be seen hanging out with Jesus. Or perhaps it was humility. Lets give Nick some credit – humility may have been the reason, after all, leaders are often very aware of their own limitations. Perhaps Nick was aware of his inadequacies when he was near Jesus, so coming in the dark somehow seemed safer. Or perhaps it was plain old curiosity. Perhaps he was trying to stay ahead of the curve, trying to work Jesus out.
Israel at the time was a mixed up and volatile place, and a leader like Nick ought to stay ahead of the game, but to do so subtly, without people noticing.

Nick introduces himself with an innocent sounding statement – its those signs see. But what is his real motive? Is he just wanting to get acquainted?

Jesus does not question Nick’s motives and John doesn’t explore them. Jesus simply cuts to the chase

Its about Jesus, not Nick: Jesus is the star of the story.

Jesus identifies that Nick has a need – a way into the kingdom. This is odd, because Nick was meant to be an expert in the kingdom. He was Israel’s teacher after all. But Jesus goes and complicates things: “You must be born again.” Everyone knows about birth; but what is this rebirth? What is it that Nick is missing?

Questions
• If you could have a one on one conversation with Jesus on a dark night, what would be your opening statement?
• Why do you think Nick came to Jesus?
• Why did Jesus respond to Nick the way he did?

Praise
• Praise Jesus that he sees straight into our hearts and knows exactly what are our needs.
• Praise Jesus that he is the answer to all our needs.
• Praise Jesus that in him we can be born again.

185

John 2:23-25

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Jesus made things happen. Whether it was turning water into wine, or casting the money changers out of the temple, stuff happened when Jesus was about.

We humans like people who make stuff happen. It is natural for us. Give us someone who looks good, sounds good, does good. Give us someone who works wonders! Give us razzmatazz, give us holy high-rollers, give us that good time music.

And Jesus seemed to fit the bill. He was certainly making the sparks fly. So people were putting their trust in him because of the signs he was doing, but Jesus knew the fickleness of the crowd. He knew that his way of doing things was not going to keep the crowds rolling in long-term. He was no snake-oil salesman, no stand-up comic or magic turn. He had a message that was going to cause people trouble.

Jesus knew people – knew how they were made and what made then tick. And he knew which were the ones who really got it, understood what it meant to follow this messiah. And he knew the ones who were merely entranced by the sparks that were flying.

Jesus never sold out to the crowds. It wasn’t them he was trying to please.

Questions
• What is it that draws you to Jesus?
• What would have been the consequence of Jesus entrusting himself to the crowd?
• What was the purpose of Jesus’ signs?

Praise
• Thank God that Jesus knows what people are like!
• Praise Jesus that he has power to do mighty signs, but doesn’t need to do them to prove who he is!
• Thank God that he has graced you to respond to Jesus’ message.

BLOG RATIONALIZATION

For the past few months I have been posting daily Bible study notes on The Worship Poole blog. As of tomorrow I am going to move these posts to this blog and mothball The Worship Poole for a while.

I hope you will find these posts helpful.

SABBATH LIVING

Living The Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest & Delight, by Norman Wirzba

“Sabbath keeping” seems very anachronistic in our 24/7 society. It is also a phrase from which contemporary Christians tend to recoil because of our terror of legalism – why should we keep one day special? where is the grace in that? There are some important answers to such questions, but this book focuses very little on what a particular Sabbath day might look like, and much more on what a Sabbath directed life should look like.

Central to Wirzba’s thesis is the understanding that Sabbath is the goal towards which creation is headed, as described in Hebrews 3-4. Part of our kingdom mandate then is to live with a rhythm of rest and delight – a rhythm very different from the pattern of the world. Such a Sabbath-lived-life will have a centeredness to it, and will impact how we interact with the world – at our work, in our homes, in our economic and education systems, in our thinking about the environment, and as we worship.

Wirzba contends that, “our anxious obsessions prevent us from adequately considering and enjoying the convivial life God so much wants for us.” Living a life less anxious begins with the very basic, such as an appreciation for the food that we eat. When we eat it should be with a sense of gratitude to the creator, and with a sense of our dependence upon the plants and animals we feed on, and the soil that sustains them. This in turn should give us a concern for the care of those plants, animals and soil, and keep us from simply being consumers who eat “products” as fuel.

Living in this way will lead us into delight. Wirzba differentiates pleasure (what we consider good for us) from delight (the affirmation of the goodness of what God has made). It is not that pleasure is wrong, but that it is too narrow. If we live only for pleasure we will be surely disappointed, whereas delight can survive even terrible pain: “The goodness of creation does not narrowly depend on the possibility that it is good for me (this was one of the important lessons learned by Job) but more broadly on the affirmation that a good, loving God made it.” Wirzba then argues that there is a decline in delight in our culture even as, paradoxically, there is an increase in entertainment. The fact that we find “real life” dull and need evermore stimulating forms of entertainment is, he says, evidence of our inability to find delight in the created world, in friendship, in God.

God’s Sabbath commands to the people of Israel touched every area of their lives. It called for regular rest, not only for human workers but for their animals and even their land. The weekly Sabbath was a foretaste of the Sabbath year, which was a foretaste of the Year of Jubilee – a year of rest and of freedom. And every year was punctuated by feasts – times to enjoy food and family and rest and worship. All this is itself a foretaste of the renewed heavens and earth when work and worship and rest will find their perfect, untainted, rhythms. This eschatological dimension isn’t explored thoroughly enough by Wirzba, and I feel his arguments get a little shaky when he tries to apply his Sabbath principles to the cold realities of 21st century life. But this is a thoughtful and thought provoking book, which is worth reading. Here is a quote that sums up what he is about:

Sabbath observance…gives us the time and the space to take a considered look at what our work is finally about. Our temptation is to think that we live through our own effort and that the goods we enjoy are ours because we have earned and deserve them. A moment’s reflection can quickly dispel that illusion, as everywhere we look we can see the generosity of others: earthworms aerating and rebuilding soil, plants turning sunlight into energy, family providing for us since birth, teachers looking out for our children. The list of kindnesses goes on and on, but we often fail to notice. We are simply too busy with our own agendas and our sense of self-importance.

2009 is bound to be busy, every year is. So take some time out to think about Sabbath, and live a life more rounded.

ALDER ROAD'S BIG DAY

Before...


Tomorrow is a big day for the church I lead, as we officially change our name to Gateway and celebrate the opening of our revamped facilities. The building is looking great, and the smell of fresh paint and new carpet are an appropriate accompaniment to a new year. I am excited about all that 2009 will bring us and looking forward to tomorrows service. It should be fun!

After...

OBAMA'S DREAM

Dreams From My Father, by Barack Obama

I was given this by my brother in law for Christmas, and it is a quite remarkable read.

Of course, it is impossible to tell how differently I would have read ‘Dreams’ had it been written by someone who was not President-Elect. Famous politicians are able to sell large quantities of their memoirs, regardless of whether those memoirs are especially well written or revealing, and Obama is now the most famous politician of them all. But this was written long before all that, in 1995 – at a time before he had run for any office, but had attracted some attention as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. So, in that sense, the book needs to be judged on the merits of its original writing – the first work of an unusually intelligent and interesting young man trying to find his place in the world – but this is now impossible. With every sentence there is the awareness in ones mind that, “this is the President of the United States!”

I’d like to think though that if I had picked this up ten years ago I would have been as hooked by it as I was this Christmas, because it is simply brilliant.

During the presidential campaign there was a certain amount of griping from the Republican side about the media obsession with Obama, its willingness to give him headlines and airtime. True, but someone who can communicate like this deserves more media space. It is very, very good writing, and utterly compelling.

‘Dreams’ is built around Obama’s relationship with his father, a man he only met once, and never really knew. The Obama family history is a remarkable one – grandfather was the first person from his Kenyan village to see a white man; father a natural academic who ended up at Harvard before returning to work in Kenya; son President of the USA. It is a messy and pained history though. Obama’s father sired children by at least four women, and left ‘Barry’ and his mother in Hawaii while he pursued his career. Then that mother took her young son to Indonesia where she married another man and produced a sister. Half-siblings scattered across the continents. And all Obama’s many relations held emotionally under the sway of his brilliant, autocratic, stubborn, mysterious father, even long after he had died.

Around this central story the rest of the story unfolds in a quest to discover who Obama really is – the questions all of us have amplified by his scattered family and lack of geographical fixity and, especially, by his skin colour. The sense of unbelonging ripples through this books pages – not white, but not really African. Pulled between worlds and expectations. Uncertain.

For me, the strongest part of the narrative is the central section that details Obama’s time as a community organizer in Chicago. It is here that his nascent gifts are most obvious – galvanizing the poor and poorly motivated to try and improve their communities; early interactions with politicians and TV news crews; great self-confidence in spite of not knowing who the ‘self’ really is. It is easy to forget that at this point the story is about a man in his early twenties, but then everything in Obama’s life seems to have happened at accelerated pace – the jump from a pre-colonial African culture to ‘leader of the free world’ in three generations; publishing a book of incredible depth and insight while aged only 34; a senator for a mere term before winning the highest office of all.

It is in this section of the book that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright appears, so suddenly and controversially in the news last March – the man who would “cost Obama the Presidency,” they said. My response to reading about Wright here was to feel some sorrow that Obama denounced him last year. I wonder if in that decision he was being as true to himself as he was in ‘Dreams’. It is a book of remarkable candour, and it is hard to imagine someone being this honest if they knew they would one day be campaigning for President. Was Wright really dropped out of conviction, or out of convenience?

Where does this leave me then in terms of my feelings towards the next US President? In some ways, no different to before. I still feel his electoral victory means some things that will be good and others that will be bad. I still respect the biblical command to pray for those in authority. But it has also changed my thinking, if only to the extent that I admire someone who can communicate so well, and the thought that someone who can write this way will be in the Oval Office is exciting. And there is definitely something exciting about having a leader who has served his time serving the poor in the tougher parts of Chicago, and does cross all kinds of national, ethnic, and racial boundaries in his own story.

So I would recommend Dreams From My Father. If you haven’t yet read it, give it a go - at the least you will be better informed about the next US President.

MORE ON BIBLE READING

Lots of people seem to be blogging about Bible reading plans for the new year. Very helpfully Justin Taylor gives details about how you can get a podcast of daily bible readings - this way you'll end up with the whole audio Bible for free!

NEW YEAR READING

In the previous post I mentioned the MP3 ESV that I have downloaded. The start of a new year is a good time to assess one's reading habits so I thought I would highlight some other resources that might be helpful in developing a habit of scripture reading.

The ESV homepage offers a number of links to daily Bible reading plans. If you have access to the internet you can each day check in and catch up with your reading. And as part of these daily schemes you also have the option to listen to the passage being read - without having to pay for it. To listen to or read the whole Bible through in a year would only take about 12 minutes of each day. Alternatively, 20 minutes of listening to the MP3 version on your way to work three or four times a week would see you working from Genesis to Revelation in less than twelve months.

There is no excuse to not read through your Bible in 2009!