A thought for Christians post-referendum

Having spent some time cycling and running round the Isle of Wight I’ve had head space to try and reflect theologically on the situation we awoke to find ourselves in on Friday 24th June. I hope these thoughts are helpful to those who follow Jesus.

Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world” – nothing has changed that. We as God’s people, members of God’s kingdom, are the light of the world. We bring light into darkness, our presence banishes darkness, and we bring with us the kingdom of God into every situation. Spirit filled, Spirit empowered, members of Christ’s body.

The question of course is what does that look like when roughly half of us (presumably) are elated at the outcome of the referendum and the other half are unhappy?

First off I think it means we remember our purpose, we are the light of the world. Ours is to make disciples of all nations, starting at home, then in our neighbourhoods, then more broadly until we reach the ends of the earth. Our lives should be so attractive, and filled with such power, that those around us want to know more about God’s kingdom and ultimately join us in following Jesus.

Second I think we need to remember our identity. 1 Peter 2:9 “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” – Paul puts it like this Ephesians 2:19-21 “You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” Our identity is not European, British, English, Welsh, Irish or Scottish (or any other secular identity). Our identity is the people of God. The division of nations at the tower of Babel was a result of the fall, the work of Christ has restored us into being one people in Christ (and Revelation closes with Eden restored). The referendum has changed how we are governed by our secular political masters and may have changed the identity of those who do not belong to Christ, but it has not changed in anyway our identity if we are Christians.

Third I think we need to remember our dependence on each other. Ephesians 4:2-4 “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called.” We stand together on both sides of the referendum debate and result, we are God’s family members of one body.  1 Corinthians 12:27 “You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” So whilst those who don’t belong to Christ tear lumps out of each other, we don’t “the eye cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you” (1 Corinthians 12:21). [As an aside, on that note please don’t proclaim how God told you to vote as that merely implies that those who voted differently either didn’t ask God, heard him incorrectly, or disobeyed him.]

Does that mean we are all going to be happy and talk positively about the referendum result? No, such thoughts are in my view naive, unrealistic, and trite. For example whether you are on the side of exit or remain you must be horrified by some of the negative impact the vote has already had:

• We have seen in the last 24 hours the facist right wing of Europe applaud our referendum result. We have seen some UK politicians proclaim the death of the EU (which may suggest that it wasn’t only UK independence they were after). Last time Europe saw a tide of extreme right wing nationalism the church sat back and watched millions of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and others get slaughtered. We must do better than that, we must speak out against nationalism, racism, and oppression of others whatever the personal cost to ourselves.
• Our news has broadcast interviews with people in the streets who express barely disguised racism as they denounce immigration and immigrants and proclaim that they are glad we have our country back. Yet we should remember Leviticus 19:34 “The foreigner residing among you but be treated as your native born” or Matthew 25:40 “Whatever you did for one of the least of these … you did for me.” We must be a people that welcome others and set an example in doing so wherever they were born.
• Our credit rating has been downgraded by Moodys who see negative implications for the medium term outlook and who believe our fiscal savings will be outweighed by lower growth; the pound has fallen to the level of the 1980s and stock markets are down whilst we have to remember that we have one of the largest budget deficits amongst advanced economies. In short, all the pointers are toward more austerity and those who voted for exit because they were tired of being impoverished by austerity and the self interest of the ruling classes are about to get a rude shock. We must be ready to provide more shelters for the homeless, food for the hungry, clothes for those that need them (regardless of their ethnic identity or country of birth).

That isn’t to say that there won’t be good come out of the result of the referendum, nor is it to say that the referendum result is either right or wrong, nor yet is it to condemn or congratulate anybody on how they voted because I assume that as Christians we all voted as we believed God led us.

But it is to say that our mission hasn’t changed. We are still the prophetic voice bringing God’s kingdom to bear in the situations around us. We are the people who pray for our political leaders “for there is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1). We are the people who will engage positively to help those who are dispossessed and powerless. We are the people of God who will stand together united as one family. We are the light of the world. We are the hope of the nations. We are the people who will not stand by and see darkness claim ground because as we proclaim God’s kingdom the gates of hell itself will not be able to stand against us (Matthew 16:18). We are the people who will work to see God’s kingdom come and his will done on earth, and the lives of millions transformed as they too join us as followers of Jesus.

What are you putting away as you tidy Christmas up?

Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103:1-5

Phew, it’s over. Presents given and received. Gifts unwrapped. Turkey cooked, eaten and remains frozen for the inevitable turkey curry, turkey fricassee, turkey … Christmas has been well and truly done, and wasn’t it great? Carol singing, Christmas events and services, Christmas morning – all opportunities to share our faith and tell others about Jesus.

Now the new year is upon us, it is nearly 12th night, and time for the Christmas decorations to be carefully boxed up and stored until next year. Easter eggs will be appearing in the shops in the coming days. For some the credit card bill will drop through the letterbox with the cost of Christmas in cold black and white, for others it is time to start saving for next Christmas. All too easily we move from Christmas to the next thing on our calendar.

The Psalmist, David, knew the danger of moving on too quickly, for him he could see the risk of forgetting what was important. He cried out “Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits.” He recognised the agency of God in his every day life, it is God who forgives his sins – and David knew he had many to be forgiven. It is God who heals all his diseases. It is God who redeems his life and crowns him with love and compassion.

As I reflect on those words I wonder how we would write them today? If we are honest we might admit that all too often it is the therapist or counsellor who helps us live with our compromised lives; it is the NHS who heals all our diseases; it is our hard work that satisfies our desires with good things. In short, we rely on almost anybody other than God.

Now of course there is nothing wrong with therapy and counselling, with the excellent NHS or indeed with hard work. But there is a lot wrong in a life that forgets God and all his benefits and that substitutes reliance on those things for reliance on God.

So as the year turns and Christmas is put away, why not take a check and consider what else you are putting away, what you put away as you leave the building where your church meets on Sundays, and ensure that with David you can say those marvellous words from Psalm 103.

What is your Advent resolution?

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

Isaiah 9:6-7

Advent is upon us. The start of the church year. A time of reflection. A season to anticipate the coming of the saviour into the world – the return of Christ who will bring all things to completion.

Or at least it ought to be, but as the world heads into Advent what is going through our minds? For some it will be fear based on the actions of ISIL/ISIS in Europe recently. For others it is the frenetic activity required to prepare at work for the Christmas break. For others its the organisation of Christmas itself, perhaps coping with the ever increasing excitement of children around them. For some it will be sadness at the memory of loved ones no longer around to celebrate Christmas with them. So many pressures and thoughts competing for our attention!

Yet in the passage in Isaiah we find some words that we could meditate on to help us to recenter and to find hope in Christ. There are amazing promises in the short paragraph. For example, to us, yes us, a child is born, a son is given. To us? Who are we for such a gift? What love the Father has for us, what grace. And not just for us because of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. Whatever is going on around us the truth is that Christ’s peace is extending across humanity and across his creation.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” It wasn’t some bit of wishful thinking, some acknowledgement that God should be allowed to get on with what he was doing. It was a prayer that committed the one praying it to be the hands and feet that saw that kingdom come, to see God’s will being done. To make that happen Jesus left us with the counsellor, the Holy Spirit, who empowers and enlightens us, who enables us to be the answer to the prayer that we pray.

So Advent is a time when we can meditate on the wonderful truths of Jesus and all that God has done for us. As the church year starts we can make our “new year” resolutions, resolutions to be the answer to the prayer that we pray daily to see God’s kingdom come and his will be done, to be people of peace filled with God’s Spirit bringing light and life to those we encounter, introducing them to the God who gave everything for us and for them.

May 7th, time to love your neighbour!

“Love your neighbour as yourself”
Luke 10:27

The command to love your neighbour as yourself was part of the answer the expert in the law gave Jesus when challenged by him to summarise what the law said. Jesus told him he had answered well and that if he followed his answer, which was to love God and love his neighbour, then he would find eternal life. But the man responded with the question “who is my neighbour?” and Jesus replied with the parable of a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. You can read the full account in Luke 10:25-37.

We are now just a few days away from a General Election and having had so long to pray and think about it, we should be becoming clearer about who we will vote for. The Christian vote is distinctively different because Christians are the only group in society who will never vote for their own benefit, but always for the benefit of others. We are the ones who are asking our Lord “who is my neighbour” and then considering which party will serve their needs best as opposed to our needs.

Our vote isn’t driven by whether we are pensioners, single, married, wealthy or poor. It isn’t driven by what nationality we are or the deal each party is offering our region of the UK. It isn’t shaped by ideologies such as a belief in privatised or nationalised industries, or large or small state. It isn’t influenced by what our parents voted, what neighbourhood we live in, or who our friends are.

Our vote is determined by the answer to one question. “Who is my neighbour?” Because when we know who our neighbour is then we can work out how best to love them in casting our vote. From the parable Jesus told in Luke 10 and his other teachings, and from the writings of Paul, it seems reasonably clear that our neighbour is primarily the poor, the oppressed, and the needy.

All this makes voting vitally important for us as Christians. If we don’t cast our vote then we are failing to raise our voice on behalf of the poor, oppressed and needy. We might proclaim that we aren’t political, but we do have a calling from our Lord to cast our vote. When we vote we are acting as disciples of Jesus, proclaiming his kingdom, and doing our part to see it coming to earth.

The churches in the UK have a campaign, “Love your neighbour: think, pray, vote”. Let’s determine to make sure we don’t miss this precious chance to show love for our neighbours.

Chasing that next dream

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.
Matthew 6:34

My cousin runs East of Scotland Microlights and when we holidayed in Edinburgh last October he finally persuaded me to go for a flight with him. To my amazement I found I thoroughly enjoyed the flight – it was like being on a motorbike but with no trees, cars or safety barriers to hit! The decision was made, I have to learn to fly.

With a bit of work I sorted out three weeks of leave in the spring and set about getting a medical certificate from my GP. A medical certificate should have been easy, but it seems not to have been. So I’ve been involved in a frustrating 2 month multi-visit discussion as we work through various issues.

After the last visit I was despondent as without the medical I can’t solo, and if I can’t solo then I can’t get my licence and I was on the verge of cancelling the whole trip. Then I had an email from my cousin’s wife. She emailed about those who pass their test, get a licence, buy into a microlight and then park it in the hanger waiting for the perfect weather to fly it, whilst it just sits there unused.

As I pondered this I realised that I was focussed on the destination, the licence, rather than the journey, learning to fly. I then remembered the words of Jesus quoted above. The process of learning to fly is part of the journey. On that journey I will get to spend three weeks with my cousin and his wife who so tragically lost his 21 year old daughter to suicide last year – there are fantastic opportunities to spend time with them, to simply be with them in their grief, and maybe to bring some of the goodness of God’s kingdom into their lives. Then, of course, there is the sheer fun of the lessons themselves.

It didn’t take much to realise that this lesson applies to so much more of life than this unique opportunity. Many of us live wishing or waiting for the better things of tomorrow. By being focussed on tomorrow, we fail to follow Jesus’ command to live in today. We rob God of some of what we can offer as our minds are elsewhere rather than here and now.

A focus on tomorrow leaves us living in disappointment and discontent and wishing we were elsewhere instead of enjoying where we are now. So let’s take a moment at the start of this month to commit to God that we will live in today, and enjoy the day that he has made, and leave tomorrow in his safe hands.

A vision for a bigger Lent …

As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem

Luke 9:51

Lent is upon us and this is the time of year when the Christian church stops and gives thought to the suffering of our saviour, Jesus. We take time out of our busy lives and contemplate his life and death. Some will have given something up for Lent thereby recalling Christ’s own 40 day fast in the desert at the beginning of his ministry. Lent culminates in the Easter weekend where we recall the torture and crucifixion of Jesus and then celebrate his resurrection.

With the strong focus on suffering, crucifixion and resurrection it is very easy to reduce Jesus’ resolution to set out for Jerusalem to a simple story of Jesus dying on the cross for my sins and being raised to life so that I might have eternal life. And yes, Lent and Easter are all about that, Jesus did die on the cross for our sins and in his resurrection we have the promise of our own resurrection – at least those of us who have surrendered our lives to him and asked him to be Lord of our lives.

Yet Lent and Easter are about so much more than our personal salvation. Jesus came to bring God’s kingdom rule back to this earth, a rule that humans rejected from the very start. In Genesis we find humans rejecting God’s rule and God no longer walking with them in the garden. In Acts we find Jesus giving his Spirit to his church and walking with us in every moment of our lives, no longer just in the cool of the evening. As we saw in our autumn series he empowered his church to proclaim and demonstrate his kingdom rule through healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead.

But to stop there would be to miss even wider truths of what Lent and Easter are about. As God’s kingdom rule is restored to this earth through what Jesus did, our world is turned upside down. Paul summarised this in a pithy statement in Galatians 3:28. Racial harmony is restored, there is no longer Jew nor Greek. Power relationships are restored, there is no longer slave nor free. Gender relationships are restored, there is no longer male nor female. Of course, God’s kingdom is here now but it won’t be fully here until Christ returns so sadly gender inequality continues, people are still enslaved and racial distrust continues even in this country.

During Lent we are going to think about an aspect of gender inequality and see what the Bible has to say about it. During April we will be bombarded with political messages ahead of May’s election and that will give us opportunity to engage with politicians to see positive change in our society. There are plenty of opportunities for us as God’s people to extend his kingdom rule, to play our part in restoring his creation to the beauty with which it was made.

Let us take Lent slowly this year and spend some time pondering the implications of Jesus setting out for Jerusalem and committing ourselves to resolutely extend his kingdom rule into our broken and needy world.

The best of intentions

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unploughed ground, for it is time to seek the Lord
Hosea 10:12

One month into the new year and our resolutions and best intentions are probably already beginning to fall by the wayside as the pressures of day-to-day life take their toll on us. My own resolution to exercise instead of taking a lunch break every day failed in the first week of the year, although I have managed since then to get back on track!

Through Hosea God was speaking to a people whose hearts were not for the things of God, urging them back to him. As I was preparing for a recent evening sermon on 1 Corinthians 13, that famous passage about love, I was struck by a commentator who said that our emotions reveal our values and beliefs. As I pondered this I started to wonder what my emotions said of what I value and believe. What is my emotional response to people and situations – is it always a response of love that reflects their intrinsic worth in God’s eyes? Or do I find myself irritated or angry by something they have said or done? As I thought about it I realised that in some instances my responses were good, but with a moment of honesty I realised that I also had some poor responses. I wonder what you realise about yourself as you notice your emotional response to people and situations?

To put this in Hosea terms, when we find ourselves not responding in love it is an indicator of hard unploughed ground in our hearts. We cannot reap the fruit of unfailing love because there is hard unploughed ground. Yet the call is to break up the hard unploughed ground and to sow for ourselves righteousness, reaping the fruit of unfailing love.

Whatever your pledges were as you entered 2015, one thing God is asking of each of us is to break up the hard unploughed ground in our hearts – the selfishness, individualism, envy and so on. Ploughing is hard work and takes time, but God’s call is clear. Then we need to ask God to sow his love afresh in our hearts as we chose to put aside the things that harden our hearts so that he can grow his love in us. As we do this we will reap the fruit of unfailing love as our emotional response to people and situations changes, reflecting God’s love into the lives of others, bringing light into their lives, and introducing them to the God who loves them so very much.

Let us pledge to make 2015 the year when our hearts are ploughed and entirely yielded to God and his purposes so that we can reap the fruit of unfailing love as we seek him.

Got any spare change guvnor?

I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing
2 Samuel 24:24

During Calvary’s week of prayer in September this passage from 2 Samuel was brought to us. The context of the passage is that David was seeking to build an altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Araunah was quick to offer David his oxen for the burnt offering, his threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood, and his threshing floor to build an altar on – all without charge. However David was resolute in his commitment that he wouldn’t offer God a sacrifice that cost him nothing.

Later that day, as we met for prayer again, somebody else felt they had a picture from God and they interpreted it as saying that we have a tendency to put him in a bag and chose whether to carry him into situations with us or to leave him outside to be picked up later.

The following morning two other scriptures were brought, all on the same theme. One from Malachi (1:13b) says “When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” The other was from Amos 5:21-24.

As I reflect on these scriptures and the picture I notice a consistent theme through them. A challenge. A personal challenge but I suspect also a challenge to us all, both individually and as God’s people.

The challenge is simple – do we give God the best of what we have? For example, when we plan our day do we put time with God first? Do we give ourselves to prayer and the Bible when we are at our best, or do they have to fit in with everything else? When we give financially, do we give generously from what he has given us, or do we give from what is left over after everything else has been paid for? When we decide whether to get involved in the things that God is calling Calvary to do, do we give the best of our time or only get involved if we have spare time? When we meet people in need of an encounter with the Kingdom of God, do we only give them time if we aren’t in a rush or do we stop and put them first?

As I ponder those examples I realise how often God gets second best, the spare change of my life if you will. I realise afresh how often I short-change God, the God who gave everything for me. I find I’m brought back to my knees in repentance with a fresh determination to ask the Father to change my heart that I might better serve him and not my own needs, putting him and the call of his kingdom first in everything. I wonder, will you join me on my knees in that prayer?

God heals today, why do we keep it a secret?

The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

Luke 10:17-18

Jesus appointed seventy-two people and sent them out to heal the sick and to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is near you. He told them that the harvest was plentiful, but there were few workers, and they should ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field; and with that he told them to “Go!”

Today there is no shortage of harvest. We live in a country with a lot of lost people in it. The number even identifying themselves culturally as Christians is declining and the number who truly know Jesus and are his disciples is a tiny fraction of the total. There is a huge harvest field out there full of people captivated by sin and death, subject to the rule of Satan in their lives. Caught in worship of false gods such as money, jobs, social status, good looks, materialism – the list is endless. Most utterly unaware of their state – an identical problem to that facing Jesus’ disciples all those years ago when he sent them out.

Jesus’ parting words were to make disciples of all nations and to teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. Proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come near was central to Jesus’ ministry and he made it central to the instructions he gave his disciples, i.e. us.

There are many ways in which we can show that the Kingdom of God has come near, through the way we live, our humility, our passion for justice, our generosity, our willingness to suffer, and so on. But as Jesus made plain one of the clearest acts of love to demonstrate the reality of the Kingdom of God is to show people the powerful impact of the Holy Sprit on their minds, emotions and spirits. When the seventy-two returned having cast out demons and healing the sick they were overjoyed – imagine how those who had been released from demonic influence and who had been healed from sickness felt! Imagine how easy it was for the seventy-two to tell them that the Kingdom of God had come near once they had been healed.

And the result? Jesus said he saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. When the good news of the Kingdom is proclaimed and demonstrated through signs and wonders in the way that Jesus has commanded us to do and that he modelled for us, then Satan is dethroned from his place of influence and control in the lives of individuals, and his rule and influence in this world is replaced by the rule and influence of the Kingdom of God.

The church in this country has kept this good news to itself for too long and spent too much time only offering healing in its buildings, its time we took God’s healing out into the market places, work places, streets, pubs and so on. Its a job for every disciple as Jesus commanded; will you step out obediently?

For an excellent book that explores this theme see Bruce Collins book “Jesus’ Gospel Jesus’ Way”

Constancy of heart

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. … Set an ambush behind the city” (Joshua 8:1-2)

As I was reading in my quiet time one sunny morning in March this passage from Joshua really stood out for me. Joshua had led the people across the river, and they had conquered Jericho. I’m sure you remember the account of how they marched around the city once a day for six days, then on the seventh day they marched around seven times, gave a war cry, and the walls fell before them.

Following that victory they had suffered a surprise defeat and had lost heart. Achan had been unfaithful to God by hoarding plunder God had said he couldn’t have and the people of Ai had easily defeated the Israelites. This is the setting for the passage I was reading.

God gave Joshua instructions, he reminded him of his calling to be strong and very courageous, although he did this by saying “do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Then God did something that over time became a pattern for Joshua, he told him to capture Ai by setting an ambush rather than by marching around it for seven days. How much easier it would have been for Joshua to believe that God was delivering Ai into their hands if they had used a tried and tested battle technique. But this wasn’t to be the way for the Israelites – throughout the battles that Joshua led them in God gave different instructions on how to fight each one.

What God was teaching Joshua and the rest of the Israelites was that they were to trust in him and to follow his ways. The constancy God was looking for wasn’t that they kept doing the same things, rather it was that they kept doing things the way he told them. He was looking for a constancy in their hearts, a willingness to not simply settle into a regular pattern and feel safe in it, but a willingness to trust God and move on as he directed.

And so it is for us today. God looks for the same constancy in us. A faith that is built on relationship with him, a faith that is willing to step out and follow his lead. He wants us to be people who listen for his voice and respond wholeheartedly to his call, a people who offer all of ourselves to his service.

As we look ahead to Easter and think about Jesus who modelled out that constancy and who died to bear our punishment and bring us salvation, let us stop and consider again the lesson of trust that Joshua and the Israelites learnt, and let us recommit ourselves to unreservedly giving our all to God.

May you find fresh joy in him this Easter as you recommit yourself to his service!