SOUL SURMISE

TWO SILVER LININGS IN CORONA'S DARK CLOUD

My friend recommended a new book The New Testament in Its World by NT Wright and Michael F Bird. It arrived this morning and looks thick enough to fill a few weeks of isolation!

As I flicked through it I stopped at some notes on 2 Thessalonians and was taken by a phrase about the verses 3 and 4 in 2 Thessalonians 1 - “Paul immediately launches into thanksgiving for the Thessalonians perseverance in their faith despite adversity.”

“Despite adversity”. I have been saying it a lot recently but the Corona months might be when we begin to read the Bible in the context that it was written in and indeed the context that the first readers read it in.

Most of the Bible is written at times of adversity whether in slavery, wandering in the desert, at war or in exile, under oppressive Pharoahs Herods or Caesars.

Paul is impressed by how the Thessalonians dealt with their adversity. Here’s Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of these verses:

 

3-4 You need to know, friends, that thanking God over and over for you is not only a pleasure; it’s a must. We have to do it. Your faith is growing phenomenally; your love for each other is developing wonderfully. Why, it’s only right that we give thanks. We’re so proud of you; you’re so steady and determined in your faith despite all the hard times that have come down on you. We tell everyone we meet in the churches all about you.

 

I love “Your faith is growing phenomenally; your love for each other is developing wonderfully.” 

This might be a time for such growth and such developing. Perhaps this time in lock down might be seen as a spiritual sabbatical. 

Let us use it to grow our faith. Let us re-align with God, remember who he is and realise our place in his order of things. Let us trust God more. Let us pray more and ponder God’s word more.

Then let us develop our love for each other. I am heartened by people’s response in offering their time and gifts to help get us through this adversity. Nothing develops love like exercising that love. Love your neighbour has never been a more urgent call. It is a sacrificial revolutionary act that might save lives. Let’s do it! 

GOOD NEWS... IN A WORLD OF BAD - 5 Short Thoughts On Isaiah #5

(#5 in my short series on Isaiah for PCI's Tides Daily Readings... thank you guys for the privilege)

 

READ: ISAIAH 40: 6-11

A voice says, “Cry out.”

    And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass,

    and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.

7 

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

    because the breath of the Lord blows on them.

    Surely the people are grass.

8 

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

    but the word of our God endures forever.”

9 

You who bring good news to Zion,

    go up on a high mountain.

You who bring good news to Jerusalem,[c]

    lift up your voice with a shout,

lift it up, do not be afraid;

    say to the towns of Judah,

    “Here is your God!”

10 

See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,

    and he rules with a mighty arm.

See, his reward is with him,

    and his recompense accompanies him.

11 

He tends his flock like a shepherd:

    He gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart;

    he gently leads those that have young.

 

REFLECT: For me the entire book of Isaiah is built around that personal experience of God that Isaiah had in the Temple (chapter 6: 1-8). Isaiah knew his condemnation as a man of an unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips. Then God moved graciously to atone for his guilt and take away his sin.

This was the good news that Isaiah personally experienced that we read about here in Isaiah 40. The rest of the chapter waxes lyrical about a creator, sustaining God, beyond compare.

In these early verses we hear of a humanity that is like the grass, quickly withered and gone. The good news, best news in the entire world, is that that God invites us to walk in his light, comes to dwell among us, gives us hope of a better world and comforts our traumas.

A world of bad news needs such good news, today!

RESPOND: Listen to Pierce Pettis’s song You Did That For Me and spend a little time coming to terms with the utterly spectacular news of the Gospel deep in your soul. Then give thanks.

FINDING A GRACE CENTRED GOD IN OUR PERSONAL AND WORLD TRAUMA - 5 Short Thoughts on Isaiah #4

(#4 in my short series on Isaiah for PCI's Tides Daily Readings...)

 

READ: ISAIAH 40: 1-5

Comfort, comfort my people,

    says your God.

2 

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

    and proclaim to her

that her hard service has been completed,

    that her sin has been paid for,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

    double for all her sins.

3 

A voice of one calling:

“In the wilderness prepare

    the way for the Lord[a];

make straight in the desert

    a highway for our God.[b]

4 

Every valley shall be raised up,

    every mountain and hill made low;

the rough ground shall become level,

    the rugged places a plain.

5 

And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,

    and all people will see it together.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

 

REFLECT: “Comfort”. That is a word I use so many times in ministry. As we read this I am aware of those who need comfort. Some are grieving, concerned about their health or the health of loved ones and a plethora of other worries. Then there is the state of our world.

Isaiah 40 is a gear shift in this longest prophetic book. These next chapters are full of the Bible’s best literature filled with hope and redemption and revelation from a compassionate God. 

Isaiah 40 is written to a people, ripped from their homes and cast into exile. Suddenly, there is a “be still and know that I am God” moment. God tells the prophet that “Comfort, comfort” are to be tenderly spoken in the trauma of exile.

When we are still to know this God, we find a grace centred, compassionate one, “slow to anger, rich in love”.

 

RESPOND: Bask for a few moments in the presence of a compassionate comforting God. Allow the spirit to caress your soul with grace, healing, soothing and bringing hope and solace to all of your anxieties and worries. 

GETTING READY FOR HEAVEN BEFORE HEAVEN COMES - 5 Short Thoughts on Isaiah #3

(#3 in my short series on Isaiah for PCI's Tides Daily Readings...)

 

READ: ISAIAH 11: 4-9

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,

    or decide by what he hears with his ears;

4 

but with righteousness he will judge the needy,

    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;

    with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

5 

Righteousness will be his belt

    and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

6 

The wolf will live with the lamb,

    the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together;

    and a little child will lead them.

7 

The cow will feed with the bear,

    their young will lie down together,

    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 

The infant will play near the cobra’s den,

    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

9 

They will neither harm nor destroy

    on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord

    as the waters cover the sea.

 

REFLECT: John Lennon imagined there was no heaven. It was easy. Isaiah imagines there is a heaven. That brings us all a challenge.

Back in the noughties our Queen’s Chaplaincy teams to South Africa always toured Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. We heard about prisoners learning to read and write and do mathes. Why? “We were getting ready for freedom before freedom came!”

I heard those words when when I read Isaiah 11. In the midst of God’s judgement being proclaimed, there are  signs of different days. Days of a whole new order. Predators dwell in harmony with their prey and children play with snakes!

These are the days of Revelation, when God will dwell with his reconciled peoples of all nations in the new Jerusalem.

Discipleship is getting ready for these days before they fully arrive. To be people of peace. People of reconciliation. People of a world order back in harmony as it was in the early days of Eden. 

 

RESPOND “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Where can we get ready for heaven before heaven comes?

BEING WITH THE ISOLATED; GOD'S MODEL - 5 Short Thoughts On Isaiah #2

(my contribution. to PCI's Tides #2)

READ: ISAIAH 7:13-17

13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you[c] a sign: The virgin[d] will conceive and give birth to a son, and[e] will call him Immanuel.[f] 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17 The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.”

 

REFLECT: This passage is the home of the first of only three mentions of my favourite word, maybe in the world - “Immanuel”. 

What a word! “God with us.” Isaiah looks ahead to when a baby is born of a virgin. This child will be "the Word of God made flesh… among us”.

God with us. It is a fabulous theological concept but even more wonderful when we believe it as pragmatic reality.

God was for us but after sending 39 books, God showed us that BEING WITH was even better.

While on earth, God worked with people and was even for people BUT the majority of his time was just BEING WITH. 90% of God’s years on earth we know nothing about. BEING WITH was enough.

God’s model and call for mission is BEING WITH people,  carrying to them his hope, compassion and grace.

 

RESPOND: We live in a world of lonely and isolated people. We are called to follow Jesus to make his word flesh. Spend some time listening to God to see who he wants you to be with today.

LONG BOOK TO HELP US BE STILL - 5 Short Thoughts on Isaiah #1

(I was kindly asked by PCI to contribute to their daily Bible readings Tides...it is short!)

 

READ: ISAIAH 2: 3-5 

3 Many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

    to the temple of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways,

    so that we may walk in his paths.”

The law will go out from Zion,

    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 

He will judge between the nations

    and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

    and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

    nor will they train for war anymore.

5 

Come, descendants of Jacob,

    let us walk in the light of the Lord.

 

REFLECT: The book of Isaiah is like a long book to help us “be still and know that I am God.” God asks the Psalmist to be still at a time when everything around him is in chaos. The earth is giving way, mountains are falling into the sea. Being still reminds us who God is, and subsequently who we are and where we find ourselves in his creation, under his Lordship.

Isaiah does the same for God’s people. The times are uncertain. Isaiah is written pre exile and some post exile. The ground is shaky. Isaiah brings sense to these moments of history by declaring who God is and his good news to his people. 

God is always inviting us in a fallen broken world to turn and live differently. Follow me. Love your neighbour. Be still. Walk in the light of God. 

RESPOND

Prayerfully ponder your diary for the week ahead and consider where God might give you an invitation to walk his light into dark places and be pray for readiness to the unscheduled surprises.

JANICE'S DREAM AND WHOSE PICTURE OF POWER WE SET UP

A few years ago, my wife had a dream. She was about to marry someone else but I arrived to try to change her mind. As she surveyed how her husband to be and I were setting up the Church for the weddings we both wanted she recognised a difference. 

The other guy had set up the room with pictures of himself BUT I had set it up with photographs of Janice. She quickly realised that one wedding was all about him and the other all about her. He loved himself and I loved her. She chose me. I wish I was so selfless but I am glad that Janice should have such a dream.

At the same time I was spending time preparing for a sermon in John 18 where Pilate and Jesus are in confrontation. As Pilate is interrogating Jesus about whether he was King or not and Jesus was answering as the King of Kings but in a way Pilate could not understand I realised that Jesus was modelling a different kind of power. 

Jesus was laying down his life for the world not slaying the world for his own gain. Jesus as King of Love was declaring a new way of humility and grace. This is so utterly other worldly, as in indeed Jesus states clearly to Pilate, that there is simply nothing more prophetic, profound, radical and revolutionary. 

It turns everything on its head. Jesus didn't come to bring us a nicer cleaner sanitised version of the way the world is. He came to rip it to pieces and give us an entirely different dissonant way to live. It was about turning the other cheek, giving the extra coat, going the extra mile. Crazy mad stuff!

I was wondering how I could illustrate the difference between Caesar and Jesus, the despotic Kings of Jesus time and Jesus’ alternative Kingship. Janice’s dream opened this up profoundly. I couldn’t help but see that the traditional Kings put up pictures and image of themselves. Images of Caesar were everywhere in the Roman world, on coins, kitchen utensils, statues at libraries and sports arenas; everywhere! 

Instead Jesus put pictures of us everywhere. As Paul put it in Romans 5, “God demonstrated his love for us in this while we were sinners Christ died for us.” Us! It is the beloved that this King lives for and gives himself for.

Whatever our opinions in the very divided political world of 2019, I started to ask whether our politicians modelling Jesus or Caesar? Is power about them or about the people? Is it their flags, their red lines, their images and their rights or is it about what is best for all of the people across our society? 

Oh that they would find themselves at the centre of history, in the passion of Jesus, where Jesus overthrew the idea of power over others and gave us the humble King of the manger, the donkey and the cross. Oh that the image of a King who laid down his life for the good of those he was at enmity with would be imprinted on our lives and actions.

It is from that Jesus model that we are called to love neighbours, to love enemies, to be peacemakers, to break down barriers of hostility. 

“You may say that I am a dreamer” as John Lennon sang. You might be right. The Caesar model is always the default in a broken world. However, it is in that default that Jesus calls his followers to be so upside down and rebellious. God might be asking us today, what picture we have up? Any hoped for redemption in our world will depend on the answer.

THE STRENGTH OF VULNERABILITY PT 2 - VOLUNTEERING VULNERABILITY

(this is my sermon THE STRENGTH OF VULNERABILITY in 2 parts... this second part urges vulnerability for the good of physical, emotional and spiritual health) 

My favourite novel of the summer was Cole Moreton’s The Light Keeper. I loved his lyrical prose, the warm deep engagement I felt with his characters and the shifting in the plot line. It was gripping in the most gentle of ways.

Then there was the lesson learned. Cole paints a beautiful picture of a world where the professional and the experts might not be the best at resuming, healing or redeeming. It might just be the vulnerable. Two lives in dark nights of their souls accidentally bump into each other and their sharing in vulnerability is the thing that nudges them towards the light.

Vulnerability. On definition I read puts it this way:

the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.

That is not something that we grow up in the morning wishing or even praying for.

Perhaps we should. Jesus call to Radical Humility is a close step away from making ourselves vulnerable. Jesus did it in the germ invested manger he was first laid in. He did it when he chose twelve disciples and opened him to the possibility that one would betray him. He did it when he hing on a Roman cross of wood.

Vulnerability is when we expose ourselves. Our true selves. There is a serious danger in hiding away our true selves. Not going to a doctor because we don’t want to expose ourselves physically could be literally the death of us. Holding in our true selves, hiding behind some facade can be psychologically dangerous too.

Deep at the heart of following Jesus is our awareness of our need for confession. The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, one arrogantly self righteous and the other humble and vulnerably reveals what God requires. 

Are we vulnerable in that way in our congregations though? Songwriter Peter Case asked a pastor friend of mine if his Church was like a Pub or Alcoholics Anonymous?   When ny friend looked at him quizzically Peter said that when he went into AA andaske who was an alcoholic everyone put their hand up but when he asked the same question in a pub no one did. When you ask who in your Church is a sinner, how many put their hand up?

Oh my! Vulnerability. Radical Humility.

So, I believe that humility is not only the posture of discipleship that God desires from us but it is also the key to our healing. 

That is not only in personal healing but also across society. We have gone almost 1000 days in Norther Ireland without a local government. If you stop think about it, we have a lot of strutters of arrogant self righteous politicians with their red lines, on both sides of our divide. What would happen if humility and vulnerability took over and politicians and communities confessed their complicity in the making of our wounded divided society?

What I found wonderfully affirming about these thoughts was that in a recent study a Researcher discovered that the most common trait in the lives and attributes of the 250 successful people she researched was vulnerability. 

How interesting. Surely followers of Jesus should be ahead of the game on this one. We are called to a radical humility that should make us the voluntarily vulnerable. As with every aspect of Jesus Gospel that will be a door to redemption.  

read part 1 of this series HERE

THE STRENGTH OF VULNERABILITY PART 1 - RADICAL HUMILITY

(this is my sermon THE STRENGTH OF VULNERABILITY in 2 parts... this first part lays down a Biblical mandate for a radical humility)

 

One of the major traits of Jesus revolutionary way to life is a Radical Humility. It is not the way the world works but the Kingdom is upside down to the world.

There’s a pragmatic paradox here. Jesus is born, dies, is resurrected and ascends to heaven in order to restore all the relationships that were broken as a result of the human Fall. Relationships between God and humanity, human and human and humanity and creation were all fractured when humanity reached to be more than human and ended up less than God’s intentional design.

As we reflect on God’s creation and the work of Jesus’ redemption humans are reminded of our preciousness. Humans are made in the image of God. Jesus gives his life, revealing God’s love for this humans. Paul describes followers of Jesus as heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.

However, the posturing of a follower of Jesus is not to be haughty or arrogant or self righteous. 

The book of Proverbs (25:6-7) advises: 

 

6 Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great; 7 for it is better to be told, "Come up here," than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.

 

Jesus himself spoke about the first being last and the last being first. He showed us the posture of God incarnate by washing his disciples feet. As Paul put it in his letter to the Philippians (2: 6-8)

 

Who, being in very nature[a] God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

 

rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

 

And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

 

Now that is Radical Humility… and Jesus asks us to follow him.

I am not sure that this is the posture that the Church has shown to the world around us. Too often we have been self righteous and arrogant, strutting ourselves as better than everyone else.

It is not the Jesus way of Radical Humility. We are the people of the manger, the donkey and the cross. This is the discipleship that we are called to.

Read Part 2 of this series HERE

UHTCEARE - PRE-DAWN ANGST (by Frances Livingstone)

This is a guest blog by Frances Livingstone. She used this in a morning thought in Fitzroy a few years ago and I believe it has pastoral potency...

I came across a new word recently, courtesy of my daughter, and when I have passed it on in conversation to others, their response has been, to say the least, conspicuous. Not because it’s a beautiful sounding word , which it is, or that its derivation is unusual, which is also true, but because its meaning resonates with the experience of, dare I suggest, all of us. It’s an Old English word, uhtceare, meaning pre-dawn angst,  you know those hours just before day break when we often lie awake, anxious about our own problems or those of the people we love,   or anxious about anticipated problems not yet upon us.

I found myself thinking about this when I encountered the first reading of our Lenten booklet, Psalm 27. David starts off boldly:- “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” and then immediately launches into the various threats that he has experienced or is currently encountering. They are very much to the forefront of his mind. His problems are not minor; the vocabulary makes that clear – he talks about evil men devouring his flesh; foes attacking him; armies besieging him; wars breaking outagainst him. But he insists, in spite of this, that he will be kept safe,that God will hide him, shelter him, set him high upon a rock out of danger. It really looks as though David has it all sorted!

And then we come to the third phase of the psalm and the pace quickens; his mood changes; his confidence is replaced by desperation. So David also experiences the whole welter of emotions. What a relief!    His moods fluctuate; his confidence and faith ebb and flow just like ours.   “Do not hide your face…..do not turn your servant away. Do not reject me or forsake me”, he begs. “Teach me, lead me. Do not hand me over” he pleads. Maybe David’s pre-dawn angst isn’t so very different from our own;   he too wants a quick fix.

And then it’s as if there’s a long pause between the first 12 verses and the last two. He has poured himself out emotionally and then, in verses 13 and 14, it’s as if a spirit of calm returns and a quiet confidence rises as he asserts. : “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and waitfor the Lord”…. I think I’ll try to rebuff those pre-dawn demons, that uhtceare, with these words, next time they attack.

 

 

 

This is a guest blog by Frances Livingstone. She used this in a morning thought in Fitzroy a few years ago and I believe it has pastoral potency...

I came across a new word recently, courtesy of my daughter, and when I have passed it on in conversation to others, their response has been, to say the least, conspicuous. Not because it’s a beautiful sounding word , which it is, or that its derivation is unusual, which is also true, but because its meaning resonates with the experience of, dare I suggest, all of us. It’s an Old English word, uhtceare, meaning pre-dawn angst,  you know those hours just before day break when we often lie awake, anxious about our own problems or those of the people we love,   or anxious about anticipated problems not yet upon us.

I found myself thinking about this when I encountered the first reading of our Lenten booklet, Psalm 27. David starts off boldly:- “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” and then immediately launches into the various threats that he has experienced or is currently encountering. They are very much to the forefront of his mind. His problems are not minor; the vocabulary makes that clear – he talks about evil men devouring his flesh; foes attacking him; armies besieging him; wars breaking outagainst him. But he insists, in spite of this, that he will be kept safe,that God will hide him, shelter him, set him high upon a rock out of danger. It really looks as though David has it all sorted!

And then we come to the third phase of the psalm and the pace quickens; his mood changes; his confidence is replaced by desperation. So David also experiences the whole welter of emotions. What a relief!    His moods fluctuate; his confidence and faith ebb and flow just like ours.   “Do not hide your face…..do not turn your servant away. Do not reject me or forsake me”, he begs. “Teach me, lead me. Do not hand me over” he pleads. Maybe David’s pre-dawn angst isn’t so very different from our own;   he too wants a quick fix.

And then it’s as if there’s a long pause between the first 12 verses and the last two. He has poured himself out emotionally and then, in verses 13 and 14, it’s as if a spirit of calm returns and a quiet confidence rises as he asserts. : “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and waitfor the Lord”…. I think I’ll try to rebuff those pre-dawn demons, that uhtceare, with these words, next time they attack.