Epiphany: Worship, Murder and other Responses to a New Leader

The 6th of January is Epiphany, a day when Eastern Orthadox Christians celebrate Christmas, for others it marks the time after Christmas when the wise men (Magi) visited the infant Jesus. 

The account of which, in Matthew’s gospel, gives us a powerful contrast in responses to a new leader.

1 “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”

7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. “

Matthew chapter 2 (NIV 2011)

See how Herod, (not a pantomime villain, but a historical leader with a recorded capacity for “political” violence) reacted when he heard about the supposed arrival of a new king. And not just a new King, but THE King, the one many had been waiting for, a king to rule forever. 

First he lies, trying to use the wise men’s good intentions for his own malice, then when that fails, he turns to calculated murder, infanticide. The simple analysis is this, Herod cared more about keeping his power than he did about people lives. And he wanted power more than he cared about what God wanted, the classic marker of what the Bible calls sin. 

That’s one response to a new leader, to a challenge on power. In a way, we saw something like it on Wednesday. Lies, violence, refusal to give way, refusal to give a hearing. 

Jesus’ opponents constantly react this way in Matthew’s account, they recognise his claims to power and react with false accusations and violence. Jesus will ultimately give himself over to them, leading to his unjust execution. In that moment, he valued people’s lives (eternal lives) over keeping his power.

Herod gets the odd line in Christmas carols (Often sung in angry voices). But the legacy of Matthew 2 belongs largely to the Magi, the men who were called wise. Let’s think about their response to the new leader.

Firstly they seek, they pursue the truth. There’s no evidence that they were kings like the songs say, but it’s still surprising that they would come “to worship” a new-born King of the Jews. They weren’t Jews, but they wanted the truth and were willing to follow wherever it led. Even if that be a to a nowhere town in Judea. 

And they were willing to listen to the words from God in the Hebrew scriptures, from people who knew those scriptures well. Those chief priests and teachers would turn out to be crooks too, but the Scriptures about Bethlehem came true nonetheless and the wise men followed whoever they led, even to an infant.

And they bowed in deference and humility, and worshiped. 

Murder and worship, reflecting the extremes of response people have to a challenge on authority or way of life.

Matthew saw and recorded this, but he didn’t need to tell us what we are like. What Matthew is really hoping we take away from his account, is a closer look at one leader: the infant King, who was worshipped. He was not worshipped for being the lesser of two evils, he was not worshipped for being a breath of fresh air.. He was worshipped because he was God with us, God’s promises realised for a dark world.

Can I encourage you to read the opening chapters of Matthew’s account? Why not seek and listen like the men who were called wise, it’s strange yes, and uncomfortable times, but so is the world right now. 

As you read, think if you ever seen a leader like Jesus. Who, in the next chapter, identifies with the worst kind of people yet is described as the most wonderful figure; the son of God. And then in chapter four, he walks through the challenges and temptations faced by his people, he overcomes them, including the temptation to seize power through compromising integrity (4:8-10). Then, in chapter five, he brings his manifesto, his constitution, (now called the Sermon on the Mount) regarding how his Kingdom operates; where justice prevails but enemies are to be loved, where peacemakers are blessed, where careful looks should be taken at ourselves before we judge others. Where God the Father is our father, and is hallowed and obeyed and forgiveness flows.

Covid, Faith & Easter #6: But We See Him Crowned.

[The faint rainbow above (a Biblical and UK-household symbol of hope) appeared briefly after a storm yesterday.]

Easter Sunday has come (and now gone), it seemed fleeting while the Covid crisis remained. But if this Jesus stuff is for real, as I believe it is, then what we celebrate on Easter Sunday remains true, more enduring than celebrations or my emotions. Let’s look at the final bit of our passage that we haven’t thought about yet.

“Now in putting everything in subjection to them, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:8-9

With the empty tomb of Easter morning in mind, let’s conclude our series, tying the threads together and thinking about what we see in Christ’s resurrection:

 

A Mission Accomplished:

God’s polished arrow, his ideal servant (spoken of in Isaiah 49-53), has hit his target: death. It’s a direct hit! The arrow has gone into the jaws of death, and since death could not hold Jesus, it has shot out its back, killing the beast. Or, for a more graphic metaphor, God the Father has pulled the arrow out of the beasts belly, killing it in the process! The Bible speaks about the resurrection in both senses, in both ways, sin is smashed, death is finally defeated.

 

A King Confirmed:

In the resurrection we see the long-awaited Jewish Messiah has come, never to die, never to be over-thrown. Imperial Rome, who strung him up, now look petty. Even Satan and death, the mightiest oppressors ever, are overthrown. God’s plan for a Kingdom, a new world, is on track.

 

A Good Man Appreciated:

Jesus was one of us, he shared our humanity to the deepest level. He really showed us up in how well he lived, not really regarding his power, but how he loved for God and neighbor, he took his responsibility to heart, fulfilling it to the last. So he was crowned  the crown for humanity, as David had written about in Psalm 8. In the resurrection we see the fulfillment of the servant of God we saw in the prophet Isaiah chapter 50:

The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;
    I have not been rebellious,
    I have not turned away.
⁶ I offered my back to those who beat me,
    my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
    from mocking and spitting.
⁷ Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
    I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
    and I know I will not be put to shame.
⁸ He who vindicates me is near.
    Who then will bring charges against me?
    Let us face each other!
Who is my accuser?
    Let him confront me!
⁹ It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me.
    Who will condemn me?

The resurrection can be seen as God’s vindication of Jesus, confirmation that Jesus did not deserve a criminal’s death, that he had been right to trust the Lord, that he was following his responsibility. You could say it was like God the Father, stepped out of his front door, and applauded his son. And because his son is one of us, we share in the Father’s pleasure, in his design for a good and honourable humanity!

 

Everything Made Right:

In this section of the letter to the Hebrews, the writer speaks of a “world to come”, and like the world we’re in now, this world will be beautifully (re-)made by God, ruled through a humanity who know and love God and each other. Jesus, the perfect man, has reconciled God and humanity, heaven and earth, in his death. That golden chain from before is remade stronger than ever. Christ is the missing link we needed, and all who hold to him are restored to their proper place. Just as when humans fell, the world beneath us broke, so as humans are restored in Christ, so too the world under us will be fixed. Not all now, but in Jesus we wait for our inheritance!

 

A Purpose in Suffering:

Here’s the one I want to end the series with, because this is what the passage emphasises, and what I think we all need to hear now. See how suffering was in this plan? In fact, do you see how it says, he was “crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering”. Jesus’ suffering was not meaningless, nor a construct of the imagination, it’s not that God couldn’t comprehend or appreciate it. God saw it, saw it enough to crown his Son for going through it. I repeat He saw it, saw it enough to crown his Son for going through it.

Dear sufferer of any kind, dear friends, dear family, please see Jesus, as I have done, today and always, “crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone”, and crown him yourself.

Crown him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon his throne.
Hark! How the heavenly anthem drowns
all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing of him
who died for thee,
and hail him as thy matchless King
through all eternity.

Crown him the Son of God,
before the worlds began,
and ye who tread where he hath trod,
crown him the Son of Man;
who every grief hath known
that wrings the human breast,
and takes and bears them for His own,
that all in him may rest.

Crown him the Lord of life,
who triumphed over the grave,
and rose victorious in the strife
for those he came to save.
His glories now we sing,
who died, and rose on high,
who died eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die.

Crown him the Lord of peace,
whose power a sceptre sways
from pole to pole, that wars may cease,
and all be prayer and praise.
his reign shall know no end,
and round his piercèd feet
fair flowers of paradise extend
their fragrance ever sweet.

Crown him the Lord of love,
behold his hands and side,
those wounds, yet visible above,
in beauty glorified.
No angel in the sky
can fully bear that sight,
but downward bends his burning eye
at mysteries so bright

Crown him the Lord of years,
the Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres,
ineffably sublime.
all hail, Redeemer, hail!
For thou has died for me;
thy praise and glory shall not fail
throughout eternity.

Covid, Faith & Easter #5: But We See Him Dead.

The first Easter Saturday after Jesus death, his friends were confused, frustrated and afraid. The disciples locked themselves in a room and feared the outside, feared death.

It all sounds a bit familiar.

And if you’re confused, frustrated or afraid. Please please know that what I say now is not intended to hurt, but to address the fear of death.

My prayer for this blog today is simply:

“Help us Christ, God’s only Son

By thy bitter passion

Help us learn wheat you have done

For mankind’s salvation.”

(From the English translation of Bach’s John Passion)

 

Our Bible passage for the the week:

“Now in putting everything in subjection to them, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:8-9

Yesterday I encouraged us to see Jesus suffering. Today let’s think about where that suffering led.

“The suffering of death”

Jesus died. His heart stopped. The baby in a manger was gone, as Mary looked on, powerless. This was a horrible way to die. 

 

“so that by the grace of God”

God’s love, that is what drove Jesus, not because of anything we’d done on our end. Christ, God’s polished arrow, was shot towards death by God the Father, with rescuing intent, and himself fully and lovingly partaking.

 

“He might taste death”

Jesus tasted death, I hope these blogs have shown you that the Bible is rich and deep in its language and meaning. Here we see one of the most powerful examples. “Tasted death”, what an evocative image that is. 

And because this letter began by saying, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3 ESV), therefore God was willing, and has now, tasted death. As such he’s surely covered every breath of human experience imaginable. 

What’s the deal with death? We saw in the second of this series that humanity has turned from their creator and the kind privileges and responsibilities he gave them. In response God caused the world to produce “thorns” and eventually the fair verdict on humanity, “dust you are, dust you will return.” (Genesis 3: )

But we have seen how the creator-as-man carried the crown of thorns: the symbol of a broken world. And he died: the verdict on a guilty humanity. 

But this was not just symbolism. He really did carry our suffering and our verdict of death. This death carried punishment, not just the act of dying, but the specific punishments for evil acts, the separation from God, which we would face after death, as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews would later say, “after death comes judgment” (9:27). 

This was no little sip of death by Gods Son, this was a draining of the cup to its dregs.

 

“..for everyone.”

“How can it be that thou my God should die for me?” Good question Charles Wesley. Let’s think about the context of our main passage again. Jesus has been shown as the the Jewish messiah, the King who would represent Israel AND -by using the reference to Psalm 8- shown as humanity’s representative.

As like David faced Goliath for Israel, Jesus faced death for humanity. Mano y mano.

This was the moment his disciples assumed he would triumph. Throw the metaphorical stone into death’s forehead, after all, the Messiah was supposed to live forever (John 12:34)

But Jesus was representing his army, his people, and they were sinners. They were the losing side, the dying. It’s as if he said, “they are mine, and therefore so is their sin”.

So in taking upon himself people’s sin, the judgement of death fell on him. As such Goliath swings and deaths jaws clamp shut around him, with a snarl. The Satan, which means “the accuser”, delights at the misery sin has brought.

The King has died for his people. A man has died for mankind. Him for us, he tasted death for everyone, for everyone faces death. 

But Jesus was innocent, he acted like a human should. He was the only one who actually didn’t deserve death. In fact his sacrificial service of God and man was the most exemplary life ever.

The innocent has died instead of the guilty. The one in credit, has paid off the one in debt. 

These are the promises of good Friday, to those who believe.

And as such, death is undone for the believer. It is defeated. It has no rightful hold on them forever. The accuser can accuse no more, since debt has been paid, so death’s jaws become a doorway instead of a cage, a valley of shadow towards green pastures and still waters. 

Hallelujah.

The writer to the Hebrews continues:

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death -that is, the devil- and free those who for all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (2:14-15)

The first Easter Saturday was a Jewish Sabbath, a day to rest and remember / foretell God’s provision. This Easter Saturday, maybe for the first time, do you want to rest in God’s provision of Jesus for you?

 

Covid, Faith & Easter #4: But We See Him Suffering

Sometimes we need to be told about suffering, we need to be reminded that some parents can’t afford to feed themselves and their children or that folks around the world don’t have even clean water to drink.

I don’t think this is one of those times. We don’t need reminding just now.
But how to face it? How do we face a world so obviously broken and hurting and the knowledge that we ourselves aren’t far from suffering’s range. That was a question these Hebrew Christians were asking in the first century. In our quote for the week, we see the author’s answer.

“Now in putting everything in subjection to them, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:8-9

How do we face it? Look at Jesus suffering. That’s his answer.

Tightly woven into the argument is the hope of a world made right, but it doesn’t gloss over suffering, suffering is central in those verses, and because Christ is the centre of Christianity, his suffering is central to Christianity. And that word “see” is used twice. “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them. But we see him..” The author wants us to to see the sufferings of Jesus as clearly as we see the suffering of the world around us!

I said in my post on Monday that my faith isn’t just in what I hear but in what I see. The Bible calls us to see Jesus and see him suffering. His sufferings strike us out of the pages of the gospel accounts: so vividly we see it writ large in our imaginations and hearts. So vividly that the crucifixion of Jesus would dominate art and culture and religious life of much of the world for millennia.

So let’s look again.. Here’s Mark’s account of the lead up to the crucifixion.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+14%3A43+-15%3A32&version=NIV

We’ve considered over the past few days Jesus’ identity from the quote in Hebrews, let’s think how his suffering maps on to that.

• The one who came to stand for his brothers was abandoned by them.
• He was the Son of God, he shared to the deepest level our humanity, but his human body was made to be on the brink of being torn apart as it was strung up in an unnatural position on some wood, fragility exposed for public humiliation.
• The King of the Jews was condemned in Jerusalem by the Jewish crowds and elders and priests.
• The King of creation’s crown was made of thorns: remember how thorns represented the pains that the created world can cause its stewards.
• The one who suffered with us was mocked even by those crucified with him.

There’s the physical suffering, There’s the relational suffering, There’s the injustice,
and there’s the temptation to turn away from God.

It’s all there. It’s all upon him, our Maker. As a favourite song of mine puts it:

“Humble King, Holy One
Friend of sinners, God’s own Son
God in flesh, Among men
You walked my road, You understand.”  (Hillsong: To be like you)

You may want to stop, pray or pause here. Continued below.

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.com

Going toward suffering…

..that’s what our nurses, doctors, carers and shop-assistants are doing. It’s what the heroes of our films and books do, it’s why we applaud, why we stand, why we are moved.

Make no mistake, Jesus’ sufferings were not a surprise to him. In Jesus, the transcendent God came within arrow-reach of this world’s suffering. But he’s not just a poor victim to rally behind. Jesus went toward suffering. Here’s what he himself said before it all happened.

 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.” (Mark 10:33-34)

And centuries before Jesus was even born, in the Hebrew Scriptures it was written – I think miraculously – that there would be a servant of the Lord who would have this attitude:

“Listen to me, you islands;
    hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the Lord called me;
    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
    and concealed me in his quiver.
He said to me, “You are my servant, “(Isaiah 49:1-3)

^” I offered my back to those who beat me,
    my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
    from mocking and spitting.
 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
    I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
    and I know I will not be put to shame.
 He who vindicates me is near.” (Isaiah 50: 5-8)

So not only was Jesus in the range of sufferings’ arrows, he was God’s polished arrow, who set his face like flint – determined, making a b-line for his target,  into the jaws of pain and death. Like the best of doctors (Jesus described himself as like one) he went toward danger, for us, for those who needed him.

Next we’ll try and see how this happens, how his sufferings are to save us.
And then come Easter Sunday, we’ll see the fulfillment of what Jesus knew would happen: “I know I will not be put to shame, he who vindicates me is near.”

Covid, Faith & Easter #3: But We See Him..

Last time we saw something of the Biblical vision of humanity: to be appointed royal stewards over the world, with the creator God as ruler over us. Fruitfulness of every kind would be the result. But we see the world isn’t like that, though we know our potential is to be more than just animals. The Bible’s diagnosis is that humanity as whole has turned from this God and fallen from this responsibility, breaking of the created world in the process.

A lot to take in. But now we can move on to the bit of the Bible I’ve been keen to dig in to..

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:8-9)

A bit of context to the quote. It comes in a letter in the New Testament called Hebrews, by an unnamed author to ethnically Jewish Christians. Here’s how the letter begins.. In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Which makes our quote all the more amazing, for this same Son of God, became a man, a jew.

Embedded in the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament) was the hope for a Messiah, a King who would bring them into the promises of their God, who was the good creator. The hope and promise was that like King David there would be a King from among them who would stand as a champion in the front line of the battles and free Israel from their enemies. 

The author and audience of this letter, believed (nearly at pain of death) that their Messiah had come. However  in quoting Psalm 8- David’s own song about all humanity- the author shows that this hope goes beyond just one nation, to all humanity. This was in keeping with what Jesus himself said and did.

So a rescuer and champion for Israel, one of them, is a rescuer and champion for humanity, one of us.

And in quoting Psalm 8, he author says that in Jesus we see the original plan for people stamped again with the divine seal of approval. 

Because this is the Messiah for the world, this text gives me enormous confidence that God intends to restore humanity to its full potential, through the rescue Jesus brings- the “sanctification”: being pleasing and close to God – which the letter describes. The writer sums it up beautifully in the next verse.

“Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”! (Hebrew 2:11)

And even more assuring, is that this is the one who was above the angels, now “made lower than the angels for a little while“, that’s how committed he was to getting humanity back on track. This self-lowering of the Son of God isn’t a theory, it was his deliberate and gritty entry into our suffering, into humanity’s suffering, I think we need that now. 

That’s the next blog.

Covid, Faith and Easter #2: What We Don’t See

‘In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.’ 

We probably all have that person we really want to see, to hug, to eat with. But social isolation dictates we can’t be with them. We stay away because of the medical risk, our human frailty, but long to see them because they’re so much more to us than just a fragile body. There’s this paradox about humans, we can lead a country one day, and the next day be in intensive care, we can teach children, provide rooms for the homeless, while being dependent on something as menial as a plastic mask. We are so small and fragile, but feel so significant. Why?

Allow me, if you would, to present an answer from the Bible. Specifically from a song, by perhaps our influential lyricist from the ancient world.

King David of Israel, now famous for a star and, according to Leonard Cohen, his supposed “secret chord”, once considered this question himself, and sings to God, triggered in part by a look at clear night sky..

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,     

what is mankind that you are mindful of them, 

human beings that you care for them?”  (Psalm 8:3-4)

His first consideration about people is how relatively tiny we are.

Skip forward a few millennia here’s another song, by Eric Idle this time, maybe you listened to this in Physics class:

“Life is really quite odd. Life from a star is far more bizarre, Than an old bearded man they call God  So gaze at the sky, and start asking why, You’re even here on this ball  For though life is fraught, The odds are so short, You’re lucky to be here at all…  Standing on a planet which is spinning round a star One of just a billion trillion suns. In a Universe that’s ninety billion light years side to side Wondering where the heck it all came from. You’ve a tiny little blink of life to try and understand, What on earth is really going on.”
(Galaxy DNA Song)

Though Idle tries to discredit traditional Christian thinking, he’s actually sharing the Bible’s own perspective, Eric Idle and King David agree on how small we are relative to the cosmos!

But if that’s all we had, just a sad sense of our frailty and finitude, why do people feel more significant than that?

Well David had more to say, he knew his God wasn’t just a creator, but a giver, he was The LORD of Israel, who was relational, who blessed and who had a special plan for humanity. So David continues..

‘You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honor.

You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:

all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild,

the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.’ (Psalm 8:5-8)

According to that, God had given humanity the most profound gift: authority and responsibility of caring for and developing the beautiful world he made, to be a royal family under the Divine King, agents of his plan to fill the world with his glory, care and rule. In response to a gift like this, David responded with the same that he used to open the song.

‘Lord, our Lord,  how majestic is your name in all the earth!’ (Psalm 8 vs 1 and 9)

That statement, encapsulating the whole content of the song/prayer, shows that to David, God’s kindness in giving humanity this value is as majestic as his act of creating the stars.

Just chew on that for a moment, taste and see that this Lord is good! Because that would means that the created world around us, the trees, the sheep in the field near where I’m wiring this, and indeed the people currently at home are not only signs of our relative smallness, but of our divinely appointed significance. Doesn’t that go some way to explain our desire to be in nature or with people and why it stings to be apart from that? Because the same hands who made them, made you, and appointed us all as stewards, made in his image.

(One other thing to savor, how remarkable is it that an ancient King would praise God for the special role of all humanity!? Not just himself.)

In this light humanity is still small but we were made to be a jewel in creation’s crown, a vital, shining, link in a chain of command. Made to be responsible but not made to have all the answers. Made to reflect God’s character and wisdom. Fruitfulness of every kind, emotional, spiritual, physical, relational, would be the result. 

But we don’t see it. The world is not like that.

According to the Biblical narrative, humanity has done something very foolish, although we’ve been given one of the the highest honours in creation, we’ve grasped for the one thing we weren’t allowed; divinity, not satisfied to be God’s agents, we want to be god, we reject the creator, we want to be the master, not willing to listen to God. It’s classic isn’t it, wanting the one thing you can’t have, it’s so us, and it’s so ugly, it’s sin.

How many of us have been humbled at this time by realising how much we took for grated and how much time and effort we spent our craving things we didn’t need. 

The shock-waves of living like this are terrible, we kill, grab, hoard, hurt, rape, abuse, and ruin the world and the people we were meant to look after, as such our real agency is exposed.

If that’s the theory, then King David observed the visible reality. In the next song/prayer in the book of Psalms, he goes from looking to the stars, to looking at the world around him, and it’s not pretty. The people in the world around him “forget God”, they act “wickedly” and then because God is a fair judge they “fall into the trap of their own making”. (see Psalm 9)

(The sad irony is that King David himself would go on to do these things, which you can read in 2 Samuel 11)

At the end of the song David cries out to God, “let the nations know they are only mortal.”

That’s what he asks for, that people would know they are just human, that they aren’t gods, that they mustn’t reject God and his generosity or goodness, that they shouldn’t exercise brutality and injustice on fellow creatures or act act spoiled and greedy, that they are creatures of a majestic creator, whom they will have to face one day and give account. 

And God answers that prayer, and has throughout history, humanity has been shaken from complacency, to consider their situation. And though it’s unpleasant, it’s a good thing, otherwise we’d walk in ignorance of our purpose and potential. We get a sense of how God does this in the Genesis narrative (specifically chapter 3), humanity are expelled from God’s presence: humanity has fallen, that’s the pain of sin, in reaching for what wasn’t ours, we lose what was given us to begin with. Like the prodigal son, we’ve left the one home we had, and have ended up so much lower, eating pig food, when a family feast was in order. Further and fittingly, the natural world is now in some way ‘cursed’: it “kicks back” against us, it’s rightful stewards, it produces ‘thorns’, which, in the larger bible story could include viruses as well.  And then there’s the tragic but fair conclusion on humanity: ‘Dust you are, dust you will return.’ 

How high our position is meant to be, how kind God has been in giving it to little humans, how far to fall. 

 

Writing centuries after David, an early Christian wrote a letter to some ethnic Jewish Christians, who knew the psalms and all the Hebrew scriptures well. He quoted Psalm 8, and then comments:

 In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus.. (Hebrews 2:8-9)

Maybe you, like them, have seen our fragility, seen our value and potential, and seen our fall. But something very related yet very new else happens when we see Jesus.. 

That’ll be tomorrow’s topic.

love 

Robin

Covid, Faith and Easter: #1 What I Don’t See

First of a (hopefully) daily series in the lead up to Good Friday

---

I was one of those people.. I’m sorry..   I was one of far too many to take advantage of the free national trust grounds a couple of weekends ago, what a bizarre and embarrassing confession. But before you rightfully get angry I can assure you I was keen to stay away from people, and did.

---

As I walked around twitchingly, looking at the groups and families, what struck me was how obliviously they seemed to be living. Elderly folk were there with their grand-kids.. didn’t they know we had a pandemic on our hands? Two parents swung their toddler between them, like mine used to do with me. Didn’t they know? Could they see where we’d be today?

---

The thought could easily have danced through my mind that actually there was no C-19, that really, everything was fine. But no the awkward distance was kept, and I spent most of the time uncomfortable. Why did I believe that the spread of the virus was real and serious?

Because I’d been told.

I couldn’t see the virus. I’ve never seen the virus. I haven’t even seen anyone with symptoms, even if I did they’d only be symptoms of an otherwise invisible problem.

---

What I’m employing here is a form of faith. Believing something I’m told and then living like it’s true. And this is similar to what living with Christian faith is like. Being told about a reality that is sometimes clear and obvious, sometimes not, and believing it.

---

This kind of faith is not “blind”, it’s not optimism, it’s believing what you’ve been told, by a relevant authority, about matters that really matter. In this case told by God through many people in many ways and ultimately through his Son, captured in a divinely crafted book, the Bible.

---

I wake up believing the news of the virus, and believing the news about Jesus. Believing in an invisible virus, and an invisible problem called sin. Both problems I can play a nasty part in.

---

In our first virtual church service a couple of weeks back, we looked at some parts of the Bible book of Revelation. The climactic finale of the Biblical narrative, the book is based on this principle that there is something going on and going to happen that we as humans cannot naturally fully see, but need to be aware of. What we see in the book is that this reality (of God’s rule and rescue) doesn’t stay detached from life on earth, but visibly impacts it. Impacts in ways we see throughout history.

---

Now at this point I know I may appear naive. Please hold on, I’ve only given half the story. At the centre of the story of Revelation is a man, a man who actually didn’t need to be revealed anew. The world had seen him already, and we can “see” him now.

---

This week in the run up to Easter, I’ll try and show in a few blog posts that my faith isn’t just in what I hear, but in what I see in Jesus and his sacrifice, based on the verse below. Please bear with me, I think this is our best and only hope.

---

‘But we see him, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor  because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death  for everyone.’ Hebrews 2:8-9.

If you’d like to talk do get in touch,

Best

Robin

God behind closed doors..

We live in quite a nosy culture don’t we? Wanting to see “what people are really like”, it’s “access-all-areas”, “behind the scenes”, with leaks, photo hacks and big “EXPOSED” headlines. It’s a atmosphere that instagram and youtube has played into, with a very simple war cry and that sounds through the echo chambers, “this is me!”. 

I think this snooping has often been undertaken with wrong motives, leading to bad results, take Love Island, where too much is seen and judgmentalism, gossip and unhelpful comparisons develop. But sometimes there are helpful or significant outcomes of investigation, like when a candidate for the role of Prime Minister is revealed to have frequently used cocaine, while publicly condemning fellow middle class drug takers.

What makes this better? It’s the fact that the person being “exposed” is vying to exercise authority in your life. It is valuable to know what someone is like “behind closed doors” when it gives us an insight into character for leadership.

And this principle is found throughout Christian thinking, the early Christian leader Paul said that attributes for a church leader included how they lived at home (1 Timothy 3:2-3).

But I want to show you something so much grander. If it’s valuable to know what someone is really like “behind closed doors” if they are to lead you in someway, imagine if they were vying to be your God. Think how stunningly precious that information would be.

Which is why the seventeenth chapter of the disciple John’s account of Jesus’ ministry is one of the most significant and powerful bits of writing I have ever read. It impacts me every time I read it and everytime I see something new.

Because in John 17 we hear God behind closed doors, God as he really is deep down. 

Now to be clear it’s not that God is otherwise false or deceitful about himself in the Bible, no he is always perfectly himself. For example, see here in his famous burning-bush talk with Moses:

‘God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me, from generation to generation.’                                                                                            (Exodus 3:14-15)

But in John 17 we see something very special, we hear Jesus.. (who claimed to be God –

“Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I AM.”                         (John 8:58)

-spot the correlation to the God of Moses!) ..talk to His Father, who he says is also God. So we have God talking to God, we have been allowed to hear the family communication of the Godhead, inside the deep eternal union of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s especially emotive given that this takes place minutes before Christ’s arrest leading to his crucifixion.

Listen in and enjoy! See what this God is like.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.  For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.  All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.  And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,  that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.  I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”                                              (John 17)

 

This fathers day would you commit to exploring, and seeking the God of the Bible, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Because this God is so much kinder, more generous and more glorious than you would have otherwise imagined. And it is eternal life to know Him.

“May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and love of God (the Father), and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore Amen.”

The Christmas gospel according to John Lennon

“And so this is Christmas, and what have you done?”

With that opening line and the isolated jangling chords, Lennon and co make it clear this isn’t going to be a standard Christmas song. I don’t care for edgy and melancholic Christmas songs usually, we get enough of that anyway, but I think this song has a core vastly more Christmassy than most.

The first line turns a mirror on the listener, not allowing them to escape into snowy jingle bell land just yet. It calls for perhaps uncomfortable refection, (as was often Lennon’s way), asking what have we done, as society, as humanity? This song was a continuation of Lennon’s and Ono’s protest of the Vietnam War, which, although in 1971 was in the process of Nixon’s supposed de-escalation, was still a canvas for atrocities; blanket bombing and mass execution were commonplace, rightly raising the question, what have we done?

“War is over” may not seem like the most Christmassy of ideas, but the concept of peace is a huge deal in the meaning of Christmas, and is still seen in Christmas narratives all over the place. For example the wonderful Christmas day informal truce: peace and football on the Western Front in World War One, which was amiably represented by that advert a few years back. Peace is shown more generally as co-operation, forgiveness, reconciliation, Scrooge coming to peace with his past and future, etc, peace is all over Christmas.

And so it was back at that first Christmas, the one prophesised “Prince of Peace,” came into the world and the angels sang “Glory to God and on Earth be Peace”. But what peace? Where was this peace? Even when Christ came Bethlehem was under military occupation, where was the peace? Was it just in sentiment, proclaiming peace as a good thing?

No, Peace really was on Earth, he was in the manger. He is peace, and what a beautiful picture of peace he is. More he came to bring peace and to make peace.

As we look back as Lennon encourages us to, we know that the prime reason of a lack of peace, is what we’ve done, individually and collectively. The Bible agrees and highlights two things we would probably readily admit too, firstly that our efforts have not brought about total peace with each other, (often the opposite) and secondly that we generally don’t accept God. The Vietnam War may be over but our capacity for destruction and hate seem in no hurry to leave. Imagine how the giver of this world and the one who loves its people, must feel. At the very least we’ve taken the gifts and forgotten the giver, at worst we’ve ridiculed the giver and abused the gifts. If there is a good God, surely they can’t be fond of what we’ve done, and what we seem to go on doing. Jesus agrees and warns that God won’t stand for any evil, so there’s a gap between us and God. You could say there’s conflict.

But, God doesn’t leave it there.

No, God came to us.

Not some representative, but God himself, and he came tiny and bare, born in a stable, and unable to even hold his head up. He redefined greatness to a twisted world and showed that this was to be a peace mission, not won by divine might or force but by love. He came not to negotiate, but to give.

How did people react, well exactly as you’d expect prideful people would, those in power tried to kill him, again and again. Thirty years later, when he’d done countless things to show not only that he was God, but that he was here “to serve, not to be served and to give his life as a ransom for many”, they finally got their wish, and he was willingly executed. And as he died, he shouted “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they do”, and then “it is finished”. As he dies, the peace is sealed, never to be undone. As an early believer and evangelist called Paul writes:

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”  (Paul’s letter to the Colossians 1–The Bible)

Jesus rose again, and now this peace is totally for us, it is the fulfillment of the Christmas gift. And as with any gift it only needs only to be received, we’re not held at ransom by God, the ransom has been paid. We receive it simply by admitting we’ve been wrong and inviting Jesus into our lives as Lord and saviour (The last verse of Away in a Manger is a great start).

This peace can be ours, and be in us as well, a peace that comes from being with Jesus, with all barriers removed by him, it’s a peace that “passes all understanding”, a supernatural peace that isn’t defined by circumstance, fairy lights or candles, it’s realisation of true purpose, so we, like Scrooge, can be at peace with our past and our future, and like with Scrooge, it can totally change how we live now. So among other things we strive for peace on Earth now. Jesus hated the horrors of the Vietnam War more than John Lennon and when Jesus returns, he will ensure wars cease, “so that all may lie down in safety.”

And like Lennon sings, it’s truly open for all, this isn’t a peace only if you can afford it, or peace if you’re the right kind of person. No it’s for “weak and for strong, for young and old, rich and the poor ones, for black and for white”.

Lennon wouldn’t thank me for this, it’s true that he was no great fan of Christianity, (though I don’t know if that meant Jesus to him or not- it should have done). Nonetheless I think that that which Jesus is: Peace, redemption etc, is so foundational to everything that even those against him can’t help but sing of it.

So whatever your circumstances, have a wonderful Christmas, because War is over (If you want it).

Hark! the herald angels sing
Glory to the new-born King
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled

Joyful, all ye nations, rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With angelic host proclaim
Christ is born in Bethlehem
Hark! the herald angels sing
Glory to the new-born King

 

P.s. If you’ve got questions- I genuinely love trying to answer them, so shoot them my way!

 

 

Wanna be adored now? The gospel according to The Smiths and The Stone Roses.

What could the often neurotic and manipulative lyrics of the Smiths (admitted as such by Johnny Marr) or the borderline sadistic lyrics of the Stone Roses (fantasising about car crashes for example) have to do with good news? I think the key lies in the lyrics of their biggest songs.

In How Soon is Now? (the Smiths best song according to Mojo and many others) Morrissey details misfortune, shyness and, the topic for this blog; the need for love. I remember hearing this live when seeing Johnny Marr in Hyde Park, the wobbly guitar line builds and builds, slides and builds, Morrissey sings of how he’s a “son and heir of nothing in particular”, then it flares up, reaching the summit of the track, with the line “I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does.” the line from which the rest of the song is understood. It’s a powerful show of vulnerability, especially for a man hailed as loving nothing more than himself.

What I also find really interesting is that immediately before this line Morrissey bellows a classic teenage angst/moral relativist war cry: “You shut your mouth, how can you say I go about life the wrong way!” a phrase often said to exasperated parents and Christians alike (often before they’ve actually opened their mouths). Yet this line precedes one where he declares a universal truth, to be human, means a need to be loved. So what if someone offered a fulfilment of this love, but it involved admitting that we often go about life the wrong way?

The protagonist of this song, Morrissey or otherwise, is crippled by shyness, he can’t find love, certainly not at clubs. It may well have been Morrissey’s experience, this lack of love is sung of in other songs, for example “Two lovers entwined pass me by, And heaven knows I’m miserable now” (that’s where I’m going with all this).

Anyway hold that thought. Let’s move on to the Stone Roses, who took up the baton of dancable guitar music at the turn of the decade, and what is probably their best known song. Much like How Soon Is Now?, I Wanna Be Adored starts slowly and eeriely and builds and builds, bursting some tension with John Squire’s shimmering guitar line, then the title lyric appears at the summit(s) of the song. The song only contains about 20 different words in total, which, other than “I wanna be adored” are, “I don’t have to sell my soul, he’s already in me.” Seemingly a reference to the devil. What’s going on? Well some say the song was an apology to fans for selling out to a hefty record deal. Ian Brown himself is reported to say how he wrote the words to show how wanting to be adored is like a sin, I’m not quite sure what he means by this, but I do see in this song and indeed in life, how it can become like an addiction; a hunger for acceptance and love which, when not met in the right way, can become a dark obsession (we’ll see what I believe the right way is at the end). Another deeper layer is added, with two word changes near the end:

“you adore me
I wanna be adored
I wanna, I gotta be adored”

He is adored by someone but it’s not enough, he wants more, a ever-growing fix! It’s a conflict that seems so rough it can only be adequately expressed in the soaring guitar line.

The reason these lyrics interest me so much is that they come from bands you’d hardly call happy or lovely, indeed often their lyrics seem in direct opposition to positivist mentality and seem to sprout from some of the darkest and loneliest places in the human heart. These lyricists are known for their arrogance, their pride. So these discussed lines seem like anomalies in their vulnerability and focus on love.
But I don’t think these are throw-away lines. I think they genuinely meant it, whether deeply personally, or just by knowing the power of what they were singing. In How Soon Is Now?, the lack of love leads to hopelessness as the last verse says.

“When you say it’s gonna happen now
Well when exactly do you mean?
See I’ve already waited too long
And all my hope is gone.”

In I wanna be adored, the desire seems all consuming, resulting in giving into obsession.
In short, neither situation has a satisfying fulfilment of the love sort, and it’s lead to hurt, or a sense of trapping (and 2 brilliant songs).

So is there any hope? Any answer to these problems? I’m convinced there is.
You see, this sense of needing to be loved is the Christian starting point, we all sense the need for love, and we see that other things don’t quite suffice, we can feel trapped and disappointed.

But there is an answer in Jesus, he displays God’s utter faithfulness and love, we see it most clearly on the cross, to take away any divide between us and God. This is the love we were made to know and enjoy, this love is unchanging, eternal, we don’t earn it, we only recieve it, it’s open for all, and this love is enough. It’s a waterfall or a light that never goes out.

“This is love, not that we loved God, but he loved us and gave his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin.” (1 John 4:10)

“I pray that you.. may have power.. to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18)