A Taboo subject?

Few things are not open to discussion these days, and yet there are some, that when raised cause raised eyebrows, huffing and puffing and shouts of that's personal or discrimination.

I wonder, if you stop for a moment what subjects, if raised in conversation, would raise your hackles? Abortion or the right to choose? Murder in the name of religion (whichever religion)? Immigration? Poverty? Sexual orientation? Marriage or what it means? State controls over our lives? Tax cuts or increases? NHS Reforms? Lives endangered by radicals? Government snoopy our communications? Freedom of speech? I could produce quite a list but hopefully you get the picture.

Jesus, as we read, in the gospels, seems not to have had such taboo's - challenging the things that were not right in society in 1st Century Palestine. For example Jesus points out that observing outwards signs of religion makes no difference if a persons heart is not tuned to God. If our hearts are not in the right place in terms of understanding, compassion and faith, then what we think, do and talk about - our actions, will not be in tune with God. Jesus challenged wrong attitudes and thinking throughout his earthly ministry. The problem for us is that one persons wrong attitude seems to be another person idea of right.

If I take just one issue in the UK at present, the lack of funds for the NHS, many want the latest and often high cost treatments to extend life. We expect medical miracles as a matter of course, daily. But if anyone were to suggest that we pay 10% more in tax to pay for improvements, I suspect there would be an outcry. Money is often at the bottom of our basic reason for reacting to something, how does it affect my wealth or finances?

The same often happens related to church. Does money act as an enabler or disabler? One piece I read the other day suggested that perhaps in churches we can be so focused on the churches money and protecting how little it often has to work with, that we might miss the point that all that we have is God's and so our income, homes, cars ... are all God's and therefore are all part of the resources of His Church. Of course there is the other perspective that the church does not need our money etc. does it, because it has lots of its own? . Where our treasure is ... . How ready are we to hold that lightly to what we have here on Earth and invest it into God's Kingdom and treasure that is eternal?

Toys and tinsel

Christmas is close upon us again, only a matter of days before the big event. The big supermarkets are vying for best Christmas advert for 2014. I would guess that in the UK Monty the penguin has certainly drawn a lot of attention. A child's toy that becomes real in the child's mind and searches for love and the child's realisation that the penguin needs a partner. The child's present for the penguin, another toy penguin. Touching and fun. Love amidst the promotion of products and the toys and tinsel.

Celebrating is a big thing at this time of year, for Christians and for many who don't believe, we like to celebrate and be happy and to make others happy, or at least many of us do. The toys and tinsel bring a sense of excitement as children wait expectantly to be able to open the presents containing the toys and gifts that they hope for and the tinsel and lights that deck out our homes help set the scene.

"Look to the skies there's a celebration", is a modern Advent / Christmas song which we sing in church. It reminds us that Christmas is a time of celebration and excitement, it reminds us that on that first Christmas the waiting was over, God's gift, God's saviour, Jesus, had come and nothing would be the same again. Not a toy or any tinsel in sight at the time, an animals feed trough for a bed, a draughty stable for a room, the one who changed the world arrived in a simple setting.

And yet ... simple it may have been, lacking in the toys and tinsel that our modern celebrations include, the light of the world arrived, to shine on humanity and call us back to God. A light to all, a light to help us see through our misunderstandings about God. A "light" that says come to me.


Amidst the toys and tinsel this Christmas find a few moments to consider what Christmas means to you, Christian or not, is it only the toys and tinsel, the parties and food, the family gatherings that make it Christmas? Or maybe its about love, God's love for us, defined in the arrival of that small baby on that first Christmas, that would change the world and offer us hope, peace, love, joy ...

A cause to celebrate indeed. Have a great time celebrating Christmas.

Patience

In this busy life that we lead, patience is something that is not usually in the forefront of our thinking. For example yesterday I was conducting a funeral and while the hearse and limousines were parked outside the church, the road was blocked for a little while. One person could not wait, and they may have had good reason, but in breaking a parked cars mirror, they ended up spending a lot more time there than they intended. Another was so impatient to get out of a parking place that they could not wait for the limo to move up the street a little to let them out.

Our world seems driven by last minute panic, communication, sat-navs, the internet all help to make everything seem instant. Yet with all of this and with our diaries in our phones, we still rush from place to place, often late, often without time to think or prepare, patience is almost a dirty word.

A song of the 60's reminds me that 50 years ago the same seemed to be the case as well. "Slow down, you move too fast, you got to make the morning last". Perhaps no matter what labour and time saving gadgets we come up, we will have the same problem, we use all the time end up trying to do too much and so rush from thing to thing. As we rush we become less patient, more intent on the next thing or place to be.

A recurring theme in scripture is being still. God's words to the Israelites as they seemed to be staring certain annihilation in the face, was "be still, I will fight for you". Hard to do when you just want to run like the wind . Its a theme in a number of Psalms, finding that place to be still, waiting upon God. Stillness helps us calm down, helps us re-focus and de-stress. The panic of the disciples in a boat in a storm was calmed along with the storm when Jesus simple said "Quiet, be still".

I don't think it's the gadgets that make us impatient but its our inability to give ourselves enough time for each event or activity, trying to cram too much into our time. Taking time to be at peace, to be still, for me usually means a walk in the country and a stop as I reflect and look. Find your place and time to be still, to learn to be patient, more gets down well that way, in my experience and it usually gets done better.

God of surprises

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us ..." is part of Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3. As I have unpacked my thoughts on a difficult situation and its outcome, this week, this scripture reminded me that in my fallible humanity, it is hard sometimes to figure out what surprising thing God might do through it.

Yet God does do surprising and amazing things, things that astound and encourage us, at least that's my experience. From Paul's writing that seems to have been his experience as well. Our God always has the ability to do what we could not dream of or expect, his ways and his will often bringing about so much more than we could expect.


I guess one of the issues for us all, is that in our limitations we focus on what we can tangibly understand or grasp, a solution to a problem, how to formulate a new mission opportunity and such like things. Tangible is safe and secure, tangible is achievable and  comfortable. The secondary problem is being able to trust God when our trust level is damaged or even broken down by experiences or what we are in the middle of. But God is the same yesterday, today and forever, surprising and doing the unimaginable. Walking out with God is often unsafe, insecure and pretty scary by our measures of things. But God will not let us down, he equips us for the task he calls us to and strengthens us to handle it, he asks us to put out faith and trust in him, our hands in his hands.

One example of this trust in God, is Stephen, called to serve the church giving out charity to the widows of the church, God leads him into dangerous territory which leads to his untimely death One of my favourite leadership examples in the Bible is Nehemiah. I man who was prepared to trust his life to God's call, who even when opposed stood firm and found that others began to stand with him. The account of Nehemiah provides some surprises as his trusts to God's call on his life, not seeking anything for himself but helping and encouraging the people to step up to the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

The wonder of seeing God do something unexpected, surprising and amazing, is faith building, trust building and just plain amazing.

 

What Kind of God?

Over the last while we have been looking at the book of Acts in our weekly service at the church. While there is lots of really encouraging stuff to get our teeth into and take on board, there are also some really tricky parts.

Recently we covered Acts 4:32-5:11, which is a tale of two parts and since the second part is often a real no no for some, a God who strikes people, in this case Ananias and Sapphira, down ... no that cannot be the God we know and want to proclaim. surely?

The problem possibly is that we like the idea of a cuddly cute kind of God, who is all about love and goodness and a loving God could not possibly do something as harsh as that. After all who wants a God who disciplines and does hard things to correct his people?

One of my lecturers at bible college used to tell us that when we read scripture we need to ask"what kind of God?" and "so what?" God wants his people to be holy, right with him and as such things which pollute that or could cause his people to have very wrong ideas, need to be stopped short. Ananias and Sapphira thought that they could lie to the church and to God, What kind of God did they see? One that clearly was not all around and all knowing. So what? Well would that be a god worth serving, a god worth trusting? But God did know their innermost thoughts and attitudes, because nothing is hidden from him. As result they are punished - perhaps because the illusion that they had, would have undermined the wonderful generous nature of what was going on in the church at that time.

What kind of God? A God who is awesome, amazing and Holy, God who will not have his people led astray and so brings discipline. The sin being very public, the result being very public. Similarly God had dealt with other public wrong doing for example with David when he used his authority to take someone else's wife, and with Belshazzar when he used God's temple vessels for his own banquet.

So what? Thinking that we can hide things from God means we have a wrong view of who God is and there will be consequences with such an attitude.

As Gods' people we should realise that nothing is hidden, but all can be forgiven if we admit and repent, turn from our wrong doing. What kind of God? A God who loves us enough to correct and discipline us, as any loving parent would do. So what? Often discipline is hard to take, but usually, with hindsight we realise that it was needed and has put us back on the right path. God has what is best for us in mind.