Suffering Successfully

The book of Jeremiah takes place in the late seventh and sixth centuries BC. These are the years on either side of the destruction of the kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian King. This led to the deportation of many of the Jewish elite to Babylon about 1,500 km away. Those who were left behind were under foreign rule.

Jeremiah was sent by God before this disaster happened. He was to warn the people about the judgment God was about to allow to fall on them because of their sin and to call them to repent. The people of God had broken the terms of the covenant – both in their personal lives, expressed in failings in both ethical and religious behaviour – and also politically, in making alliances with foreign powers, rather than relying on God.

But the ruling class in Jerusalem were not interested in Jeremiah’s message. Jeremiah spoke an inconvenient truth: he highlighted their moral failure, he drew attention to their corruption, he questioned their political strategy, and he demanded that they change their ways. This led them to look for ways to silence him: they had him thrown into a muddy pit, they had him locked him up in prison, and they even tried to kill him.

So, it comes as no surprise that Jeremiah is unhappy with his lot. He is just trying to be God’s prophet, proclaiming the message that God has given him honestly and accurately. Yet he is detested, opposed, ridiculed, and silenced. It is an understatement to say that Jeremiah is not enjoying the experience of ministry. He has discovered that being God’s prophet is hard and unpleasant. Finally, in Jeremiah 15:15-21 his emotions boil over, and he pours out his heart to God.

The Bible is a deeply honest book. And Jeremiah is one of the most honest books within the Bible. One of the ways we see this honesty expressed is in the Biblical genre of lament. Lament has a particular structure. About a third of the 150 psalms are considered psalms of lament; it is the largest category of psalms. Think about that for a moment.

The largest category of psalms are psalms in which God’s people are suffering and unhappy. They are experiencing anxiety, struggle, and pain. They are confused, disappointed, often angry with the way that God is working, or not working in their lives.

The fact that a third of the hymn book of the Jewish people are psalms of lament should warn us that living in relationship with God is not easy.

But the proper response to confusion, disappointment, or anger with God is not to disconnect from God. Or worse, to pretend that everything is rosy and that life is fine. No, the proper response is to be brutally honest with God, to express our feelings openly in lament.

I wonder what our worship would be like if we expressed our feelings honestly to God? If we sang songs about the misery of COVID, our agony when we see natural disasters happening, our anxiety about an ever-warming planet, our outrage at immoral and corrupt leaders who seem untouchable, our despair at wars that seem to start and never end.

Being honest with God and ourselves, is always good – as if we could hide from God our true feelings anyway. Being honest helps us to work through our feelings, and often it leads to healing and to peace, even when there are no clear answers.

There is a deeply prophetic and deeply troubling little book called “Don’t Waste Your Sorrows” by Paul E. BILHEIMER. It is troubling because he explains that suffering is an essential component of the life of faith. Suffering, rightly endured and responded to, is the only thing that decentralises the self and develops our capacity to love God and others.

BILHEIMER writes, ‘There is no sainthood without suffering. This is why the greatest saints were often those who suffered most.’

The reason that God allows suffering in our lives is incredibly rich and profound. We suffer because we are destined to rule and reign with God. To be co-rulers with God requires the formation of our character, and character is generally formed through the experience of suffering. As David wrote in Psalm 119:67 and 71,

Before I suffered, I did wrong. But now I obey your word…

It was good for me to suffer so I would learn your demands.

So BILHEIMER’s provocative title, ‘Don’t Waste Your Sorrows’, is a challenge to respond positively to any suffering that we experience and to allow it to do its transformative work in us.

I suppose that Job is the ultimate Biblical example of how suffering deepens and develops a person’s character. Job was a good man at the start of the book, but he is a deep man at the end of the book. His faith has moved on from embracing simplistic certainties, to accepting the deep mysteries of God. In a word, he has grown up. His vision of God has expanded, and he responds to the experience with deep awe, deep humility, and deep worship.

I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know…

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;

therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.’ Job 42:3-6

Suffering, rightly responded to, took Job deeper into God, that is what it is meant to achieve in us.

Notice that as Jeremiah utters his lament, it is still expressed in the language of worship. The proper response to evil, injustice, and suffering is still worship; even if all we can bring ourselves to do is to cry out our pain and our complaint before God.

Jeremiah pleads with God to act, to sort out this terrible situation. He reminds God that it is his obedience to God’s call that has brought this suffering into his life. God seems to have not responded as he should have. He describes God as a deceitful stream, one that dries up whenever you go to it looking for water. It feels like God has taken his sacrifice but instead of responding with favour and blessing God has abandoned him.

As is often the case in Scripture, God doesn’t give the answer Jeremiah wants to hear. Instead, God responds by quoting almost verbatim the words he used when he first commissioned Jeremiah;

“And I for my part have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall, against the whole land — against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you.”

God reminds Jeremiah that the suffering he has experienced is ‘as advertised’. This is not a mistake, or a failure, this is God’s plan working out. God tells Jeremiah that he has a choice. He can offer the people two kinds of speech: worthless speech or precious speech.

He can remain true to his calling, speaking God’s words with honesty and integrity – regardless of the response. Or he can pander to what people want to hear, he can modify the message, he can make it more palatable. But that will make his words entirely worthless.

God insists that Jeremiah continue. There is no promise of it being any easier. Nor is there any promise that he will see success. But God will be with Jeremiah and God will work his purposes out.

I believe that Jeremiah’s words speak powerfully to us today.

As in Jeremiah’s day, those in power in our world seem to be more and more opposed to God and to the values of God’s kingdom. The rich get richer and the poor have their faces ground into the dirt.

Those in power seem to exert all their power and influence to block and delay any change that would promote the greater good – dealing with climate change, decarbonisation. They put their own self-interest over concerns of justice, mercy, even the survival of the planet itself.

There seems no appetite for peace, only for war. No desire for mutually beneficial trading relationships, only for economic domination.

The Christian dream of the coming of God’s kingdom, a society ruled in justice, promoting righteousness, and expressing love for one another, appears far away — even impossible.

What do we do? Do we give up hope? Do we meekly accept the reality of injustice and unfairness? Do we simply shrug our shoulders about the fate of the poor and oppressed? Do we hold our silence as the planet burns?

God’s words to Jeremiah were to stay faithful, to embrace hope, to trust that God is working his purposes out, despite all the evident signs to the contrary. As Christians, we’ve read the end of the story; we know that ultimately God wins.

In Matthew 16:21-28, Jesus, like Jeremiah, is also experiencing opposition from the rich and powerful. They too want to silence him. Like Jeremiah, Jesus is a threat to the status quo. The rich and powerful do not want their cosy life to be messed up. The system is working nicely for them; the last thing they want is for things to change.

Jesus gathers around him some disciples and he speaks to them about establishing a kingdom. But the nature of that kingdom, and the means of establishing that kingdom are totally unexpected. Like Jeremiah, the way Jesus will fulfil his mission is passive – through enduring opposition, accepting suffering, and finally, through being killed.

As the disciples listen to Jesus predicting his coming suffering and death, they are scandalised. St Peter cannot see any way that this approach will work. This is not how kingdoms are established; it is not how evil power structures are overthrown. Like Jeremiah, Peter is confused, Jesus’ plan doesn’t make any sense. He takes Jesus to one side, and tells him his plan is just plain wrong.

Jesus’ response is to strongly rebuke Peter. To tell him he has no idea of how God works. God doesn’t adopt human strategies, or work according to human reasoning. But Jesus goes further. Anyone who wants to follow him will have to embrace his approach. Turn over their life entirely to God, embrace suffering and weakness, and trust that God will work through that to establish his kingdom. Those who do side with God will be vindicated and rewarded one day when God’s kingdom comes, which it will.

Romans 12:9-18describes what it looks like when God’s people choose to live in that way. When, to quote Romans 12:1, we choose to become ‘living sacrifices’.

There are 26 descriptions of how Christians should live. If we embrace this approach to life, we will be living in the same way Jeremiah and Jesus lived. It’s a costly and difficult way to live, yet it is what the normal Christian life is meant to be.

1. Let love be genuine;
2. hate what is evil,
3. hold fast to what is good;
4. love one another with mutual affection;
5. outdo one another in showing honour.
6. Do not lag in zeal,
7. be ardent in spirit,
8. serve the Lord.
9. Rejoice in hope,
10. be patient in suffering,
11. persevere in prayer.
12. Contribute to the needs of the saints;
13. extend hospitality to strangers.
14. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
15. Rejoice with those who rejoice,
16. weep with those who weep.
17. Live in harmony with one another;
18. do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;
19. do not claim to be wiser than you are.
20. Do not repay anyone evil for evil,
21. but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.
22. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
23. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’
24. No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’
25. Do not be overcome by evil,
26. but overcome evil with good.

I invite you to read these descriptions of what the normal Christian life should look like. Ask yourself;

• Where am I showing some progress?
• Where are the challenges for me?
• Is there one thing I could change that might help me more closely approach this description?

Take your thoughts and ideas to God in prayer.

May God bless your prayerful meditation on these commands. May our practice of these commands transform our lives and our fellowships. Amen.

The Miraculous Moment When Time Itself Slips

Something deeply profound happens when we turn to Christ in faith. At that moment, the timeframe of our life changes. As Christians we no longer live in the timeframe of a human lifetime, but in the timeframe of eternity. That changes everything. It was something Isaiah talk about in Isaiah 51.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath;

for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats;

Which is something that astrophysics confirms. This world, this universe, this cosmos are all time-limited. And human beings, with the brief lifespan that we have, are like tiny flies on the surface of the world. But then God says something that radically changes everything;

but my salvation will be for ever, and my deliverance will never be ended

Isaiah is saying, ‘Look, when you are with God, that changes how you view time and existence. Yes, you are still human. You will experience growth, maturity, decline, and death, with all the joys and sorrows that a human life may encounter along the way. But that is now set in a far wider context. Your context is now eternity. Death is now not the end of your story;

but my salvation will be for ever, and my deliverance will never be ended

That reality has massive consequence as to how we should approach life. If the timeframe in which you evaluate your life is your lifetime, then you are focussed on the here and now. You ask yourself, ‘Am I getting as much pleasure and joy out of life as I can?’ Because I have only a very limited time to live, if I’m lucky, 80-90-100 years.

If this life is all there is, then I am in a desperate race to do all those things that I want to do before I die. The cultural expression of this view of time was invented in 1999 by the screenwriter Justin ZACKHAM. He came up with the concept of ‘the bucket list’. A list of things you must do before you die or else you will judge your life to have been unfulfilled.

In fact, when you live with a ‘this life’ timeframe, your whole life becomes one enormous bucket-list. Trying to squeeze in everything that this life might offer you – success, achievement, experiences, and pleasure – before it is all over and you die. If you want to know what that approach to life looks like, just look around you.

But that is not the Christian view of life. As if the success or failure of your existence could be determined by the experiences you had or failed to have! Whether or not you ate oysters or climbed a mountain.

The Christian view is that there is only one way that you succeed in life, and that is by putting God at the centre of it.

The Shorter Westminster Catechism, written in 1647, begins with the opening statement, ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him.’ The goal of your life is a love relationship with God and the only proper response to the reality of God is worship – whole-life, whole-person worship. This involves the process of orienting every aspect of your life, moment by moment to pleasing God; to enjoying his presence; to aligning your heart with his heart.

Which is exactly what we read in Romans 12:1-8;

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 

But the Westminster Shorter Catechism added one word to that sentence that changes everything, ‘forever’.

‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.’

The timeframe of your life is not time, but eternity. God wants you and him to be in a love relationship of mutual enjoyment for eternity. Put another way, God will not allow death to separate Him from his beloved children.

If that is true, then the only way you can fail in life, is to not recognise the existence of God and to fail to properly orient yourself to God, putting God at the centre.

Putting God at the centre, is both transcendental and mundane. As Brother Lawrence described in the Practice of the Presence of God, he decided to live each moment of his life in God and with God and for God. So, everything he did became an act of worship. He could bend down and pick up a stray piece of straw for the love of God. Seeking to do that tiny act of cleaning and tidying as an expression of his worship to God. Which makes the action both mundane and transcendent, here and now and eternal. Nothing done for love of God will ever be forgotten.

Our worship is therefore not our singing, or even our gathering together on Sundays, but rather our whole lives. Everything we do, we can do for God and in God and with God, and it is that motivation of heart that transforms even the most insignificant action into something that counts in the timeframe of eternity.

In his PhD thesis, the American Tom WADSWORTH argues convincingly that in the early church their gatherings did not have as the worship of God as their primary focus. Worship was what you did in your day-to-day life throughout the week – you expressed your worship in how you lived – as a living sacrifice.

What the Christians gatherings were focussed on, was mutual edification. In the New Testament there are 59 ‘one-another’ commands. These describe what Christians are meant to do for each other, these are what actually express the reality of what Church is meant to be. As a few examples;

have peace with one-another, love one another, forgive one-another, pray for one-another, comfort one-another, be of the same mind as one-another, don’t judge one-another, admonish one-another, serve one-another, speak to one-another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs etc. etc.

59 of them, I have a list, if you are interested. Note that none of these commands are gender specific. It doesn’t say women do this, or men do that. Neither do any of these commands express any hierarchy or power structure. There is no difference in what episcopoi, presbuteroi, or diakonoi (bishops, priests, and deacons) or lay people are meant to do.

These ‘one-another’ commands are what every Christian should be doing for every other Christian. So, in the Early Church, the Sunday gatherings of the local Christian community – remember these were always in someone’s home – were mainly focussed on Christians ministering to ‘one-another’, encouraging, challenging, and building up ‘one-another’ in the faith – what is termed in Romans 14:19, ‘mutual edification’.

Certainly, the celebration of the eucharist was always a central element in the Christian gathering, alongside the teaching of the apostles through reading their letters and the preaching of local or visiting church leaders. But peer to peer ministry, ‘one-another’ ministry was a core feature of what the early Christians gathered to do.

In the contemporary church, we often have a hard time replicating ‘one-another’ ministry. It is probably something that happens more in home-groups, but our Sunday gatherings are often passive. People come along to receive, not to give. To be ‘done to’ rather than to ‘do’.

This is why I often try to create space for ‘one-another’ ministry after my sermon. I also usually encourage you to continue your conversations after the service. We also try to have people around ready to offer prayer after the service.

In our Vision Day, when we asked you to share your hopes and dreams for the future of our church, the biggest response expressed was a desire for more discipleship. Well, participating in ‘one-another’ ministry is one of the key ways in which we grow in our discipleship.

If we were to come to church less focussed on, ‘What will I get out of this?’ and more focussed on, ‘What might I be able to bring to share with my brothers and sisters that would encourage, build up, and strengthen them in their faith?’ I think our church would be healthier, and we would see more people growing as disciples of Jesus, discovering the gifts and graces that the Holy Spirit has placed in their lives, and finding how God wants to use them in His Church.

As an Anglican priest I believe in the ordained priesthood – people consecrated and set apart to lead the Church. But the ordained priesthood exists to empower and release the priesthood of all believers, where we all act as priests to one another and to the world. This ‘one-another’ ministry is an expression of that priesthood which we all share.

This priesthood is empowered and enabled by Holy Spirit gifting, as Romans 12:1-8 explains;

We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

• Are you someone to whom God’s gives wisdom and insight? We need that.
• Can you minister to others leaving them feeling stronger in their faith? We need that.
• Can you help people grow in their understanding of the faith? We need that.
• Are you someone that can fire others up, motivate them to live more fully for God? We need that.
• Are you someone God has blessed with resources to share and given an open and generous hand? We need that.
• Are you someone who spots what is going on in a community and can give wise leadership? We need that.
• Are you kind and compassionate and cheer people up? We need that.

This church will only ever achieve its full potential, when we have everyone offering their gifts, graces, skills, energy, and effort. When we manage to do ‘one-another’ ministry.

But ‘one-another’ ministry is costly. It requires commitment and a willingness to think of others more than yourself. No-one would ever be willing to commit to that kind of life, unless something radical had happened to them. Something so significant that it changes their timeframe from time to eternity; from living for this life and for themselves, to living for God. That radical thing that needs to happen is a miraculous moment of divine grace.

We read of Peter’s miraculous moment in Matthew 16.13-20. Of all the disciples, he is the first to recognise Jesus as the Son of God. What was Jesus’ response?

‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.’

As it says in 1 Corinthians 12:3; ‘no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.’

Whenever anyone recognises Jesus as Lord, a divine miracle has happened. God has directly worked in their heart and mind and soul to make that miraculous moment happen.

If you have never had that miraculous moment, then you need to pray asking God to give you that gift. No-one else can do that for you but God.

But when that miraculous moment happens, everything changes. Your time frame slips from this life to eternity. That miraculous moment makes it possible for you to choose to live a life of worship, to offer your body as a living sacrifice. The miraculous moment makes it possible for you to see the value of engaging in one-another ministry, discerning and fulfilling your life’s calling, partnering with God in what he is doing to bring the cosmos to redemption.

It is the miraculous moment that changes everything. Amen.

The 3 Levels of Faith

The great tragedy of Jesus’ life and ministry was that his own people, the Jews, largely rejected him. As St John writes in John 1:11, ‘He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.’ Sadly, throughout his ministry, the majority of the Jewish people failed to have faith in Jesus.

Jesus had a pet-name for his disciples. In Greek it is ‘oligopistoi’ and it means ‘the little-faiths’. It was a slightly pejorative and chiding term and is recorded in Matthew’s gospel four times (6:40, 8:26, 14:31, 16:8). Each time it is used by Jesus when his disciples have failed to have faith in him. So, the majority of the Jewish population had no faith in Jesus, and his disciples only had little faith in him.

This is something Jesus laments in Matthew 23:37, ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!’

We might wonder why the majority of Jews had no faith in Jesus? That would seem to be counter intuitive. The Jews had a unique historical relationship with God, so aren’t the Jews closer to God than the rest of humanity? Don’t the Jews have easier access to God? Aren’t the Jews in a privileged class when it comes to faith?

Interestingly, there are two people in the New Testament that Jesus describes as having ‘great faith’. The shock is that they are both Gentiles. Let that sink in for a while.

It seems that by singling out two people, both Gentiles, as having great faith, Jesus is making some kind of point. But what point is he making?

It is undeniably true that the Jews had certain historical advantages when it comes to faith. They had the patriarchs, the creation of their national and religious identity in the covenant, the Promised Land given to them by God, the prophets, the system of temple worship. As Jesus says to the Samaritan woman in John 4, there is a very real sense in which, “Salvation is of the Jews”. Before Jesus, everything we know about God comes to us from the Jewish people.

Even Jesus’ own mission was focussed primarily on the Jews, as Jesus says in Matthew 15. But all those advantages that the Jews enjoy, they aren’t significant if they don’t lead to faith in Jesus.

In contrast, two Gentiles, who have had none of the advantages of a Jewish background, they can still draw close to God if they respond to Jesus in faith.

So, that which determines our relationship to Jesus is not our racial, cultural, or even our religious background, but our personal response to him.

So, what does this mean for us?

Well, we may have had the privilege of a Christian upbringing. We may have been taught the faith from our youngest years. That is a great blessing. But it doesn’t mean anything unless it leads us to respond personally to Jesus in faith, to put Jesus at the centre of our life, and to live out kingdom values in our lives.

Conversely, we may have grown up in a home where God was never mentioned, except as a way of cursing. We might literally know nothing about Christianity. Well, that doesn’t hinder us in any way from turning to Jesus in faith.

The first of these Gentiles with great faith appears in Matthew 15. An unnamed Gentile woman comes to Jesus seeking help for her demonised daughter. She represents Israel’s notorious ancient foe — the Canaanites – and she behaves like a pest. She keeps trying to get Jesus’ attention, but Jesus pointedly ignores her. This is what any Jewish Rabbi of the time would have done. But she just keeps on shouting.

She has some justification, Jesus who has left Jewish territory and entered a Gentile region. So, he has come to her.

Also, we see that this Canaanite woman — this unclean, outsider — has a better grasp of Jesus’ identity than his own disciples. The woman greets Jesus as “the Son of David.” That is a messianic title. His disciples are much slower to identify Jesus in that way.

But her constant shouting is an annoyance and finally the disciples have had enough, and they ask Jesus to send her away.

Jesus’s responds to them stating that his mission is to the Jews. This, again, fits what would be expected of any Jewish Rabbi. Jesus seems to be agreeing with his disciples. He still doesn’t speak to the woman; but, crucially, neither does he respond to the disciples’ request and send the woman away.

The woman notices this. Jesus has not done what his disciples have asked him. This is an opening. She has at least been acknowledged and noticed. So, she seizes her chance. She does something that is always significant in Matthew’s Gospel: she kneels before Jesus. Matthew always uses this as a way of showing people recognising kingship.

• The magi, who are also Gentiles, are the first to kneel before Jesus, recognising him as ‘the child who has been born king of the Jews’ (Matt 2).
• The unrepentant slave bows before the king in the parable of unforgiving servant (Matt 18),
• The mother of James and John kneels before Jesus when she seeks a position of favour for her sons in Jesus’ coming kingdom (Matt 20:20).

This Canaanite woman’s act of kneeling before Jesus is a physical expression of her identification of Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of David.

In Matthew’s gospel, the act of kneeling is not only a sign of kingship, but also recognition of power. Often when people kneel before Jesus his power is then made evident.

• A leper kneels before Jesus and asks to be made clean and is healed. (Matt 8:2).
• A ruler of the synagogue kneels before Jesus and asks for his daughter’s healing and she is raised from the dead. (Matt 9:18).
• A father kneels before Jesus asking for him to deliver his demonised son, who the disciples have failed to help, and Jesus heals him. (Matt 17:14)
• At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, when the resurrected Jesus appears, the disciples worship him. The word translated ‘worship’ also means ‘to bow down, to prostrate oneself’. In response to this act, Jesus says that all authority in heaven and earth is now given to him (Matt 28:17-18).

Si, this woman kneels before Jesus recognizing his authority not only to sit on the throne of David, but also to wield power over evil and sickness.

Jesus’ response seems quite unkind to our ears. He says it is not fair to take the children’s food and give it to their pets.

But the woman is clever. She spots a loophole. She takes Jesus’ metaphor and develops it. He has used a picture of the family home. So, she claims a place in that household, not a position of privilege, or even as an equal. She accepts Jesus’ characterisation of Gentile’s having the status a family pet, but she claims that even the family dog gets to enjoy the crumbs that fall from the table.

Her statement is striking. She places her hope in what others have discarded. This fits entirely with what we have seen in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus has come to his own people, the Jews, but the Jews have largely rejected him. Surely, if rejected ‘food falls from the table’, then the family ‘pets’ have the right to benefit from it?

Jesus seems both amused and impressed by her response. This woman seems to understand what the members of the household of Israel have yet to grasp; that Jesus is not just hope for Israel but hope for the whole world.

Jesus responds with the statement, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And we are told that her daughter was healed instantly.

In the passage that immediately precedes this story, Jesus has responded to challenges from the scribes and Pharisees by reframing the idea of what is clean and unclean. In Matthew 15:18, Jesus has stated that what comes out of the mouth, comes from the heart; and it is what comes out of the heart that determines whether a person is clean or not.

In this subsequent story, we see that what comes out of this Canaanite woman’s heart is pure faith — a certainty that Jesus is the promised Messiah and that he has power to heal her daughter. Her words are a therefore challenge to the separation of Jew from Gentile. With a faith so pure, how can this Gentile be deemed unclean?

In this way, this encounter with a Canaanite woman prepares the way for the coming ‘Great Commission’ at the end of Matthew’s gospel, when Jesus sends his disciples out to go and to make disciples of all nations.

The other story of a Gentile who Jesus says has great faith is in Matthew 8. Here, a Roman Centurion – a representative of the hated Roman army of occupation – comes to Jesus pleading for the healing of his servant. His slave is paralysed and in deep distress.

This Gentile Centurion has great compassion for his slave. He cares enough to come to Jesus and seek healing for him. But Jesus has stated that his primary mission is to the Jews. We might expect Jesus to refuse to help him. But surprisingly, Jesus agrees to go and heal the man’s slave.

But that would require Jesus to enter a Gentile home, which would make him ritually unclean. He would then have to go through a whole process of re-establishing ritual purity before being able to enter the temple or a synagogue.

The Centurion is sensitive to this and wants to avoid inconveniencing Jesus in this way. And the Centurion has faith that Jesus can heal at a distance. He says, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.’ We are told that Jesus was amazed at his faith and heals his slave.

So, a Canaanite woman and a Roman Centurion both become heroes of faith, whilst those with a privileged Jewish religious heritage, turn away from Jesus in disbelief.

One final thing. Amazingly, and rather wonderfully, both the words of the Canaanite woman and of the Roman Centurion have been included in our communion liturgy. I wonder if you ever noticed that?

From the 4^th century words that echo those of this unnamed, Roman Centurion, were used as private prayers prayed before receiving holy communion.

Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.

From the 11^th century they officially became part of the liturgy, spoken quietly by the priest before consuming the bread and wine. Eventually, becoming part of the liturgy spoken by all the people in both Roman Catholic and Anglican liturgies.

In 1548, when Thomas CRANMER created the first Anglican Eucharistic liturgy, ‘The Order of the Communion’, he included words that echoed those of the unnamed Canaanite woman.

We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table. But you are the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy.

Two unnamed Gentiles, yet their faith and their words have shaped our liturgy down to this day. Isn’t that beautiful! It expresses the vision of the prophet Isaiah that we read in Isaiah 56,

And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant — these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

A vision that was also echoed in Psalm 67,

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

The question for each of us to answer, is what level of faith do we have? Do we have no faith, like the Jews of Jesus’ time. Do we have little faith, like the disciples? Or do we have great faith, like these two unnamed Gentiles?

The wonderful thing is that Jesus is for everyone, regardless of our ethnicity, our culture, our religious background. God’s invitation is for all of us. We are all invited to respond to Jesus in faith, to receive his forgiveness, to join his family.

At St Mark’s Church, Versailles, we have the joy of expressing this in our multicultural congregation. We are living proof that God is indeed bringing his promise to pass, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Amen.

Miracles, Misery, and Loss of Faith

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah has a face-off with the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. He has stood alone against all 850 of them. They have built two altars on top of Mount Carmel, placed firewood and a bull on each altar, and then asked their respective Gods to consume the sacrifice with fire.

The pagan prophets prayed, they whipped themselves up into a frenzy, they cut themselves with knives. But nothing happens. They continue all day, but no fire comes.

Then, at the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah steps forward. Such is his confidence that he has his altar doused three times with water. Then prays and we read;

Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

The watching crowd are amazed and astounded. They accept this as proof that Elijah’s God is the true God. Elijah then leads them in having all 850 of the pagan prophets put to the sword. In one day, the whole pagan religious system is cleansed from the land.

Following that, Elijah prophesies to King Ahab that the 3-year drought will now end. The covenant specifically promised drought for apostasy and rain for repentance. As the people have now acknowledged God as the true God and turned back to him, God will now bless their land with rain. Elijah prays seven times and then the rain comes.

Note that Baal was a storm god. If any god should have been able to send lightning on the sacrifice and rain upon the land, it should have been Baal. But Baal has been shown up as powerless. The true God, Yahweh, has proved that he is the God who controls everything.

Then a third miraculous thing happens. The Spirit of God comes upon Elijah so that he can outrun the king’s chariot for 27 km, all the way down from Mount Carmel to Ahab’s palace in Jezreel.

Think about that, three amazing miracles in one day. What an incredible experience! What a spiritual high! All that Elijah has hoped and dreamed of for the past three years has now come true in one 24-hour period. No doubt, Elijah now expects to be installed in the royal court, to be his counsellor giving godly guidance to the king. Israel can now enter a new religious golden age.

But on his return, King Ahab tells Queen Jezebel what Elijah has done and what is her response? Does she repent of her error in worshipping the goddess Asherah and turn to the true God? No, her response is to send a message to Elijah swearing by the gods that he will be dead within 24 hours.

In that crushing moment, Elijah realises that nothing has really changed. The power structures are still in place, and they are still opposed to God and to him. Elijah’s dream shatters.

So, Elijah flees for his life. He and his servant walk from Jezreel in the North of the land to Beersheba in the South, about 160 km. He is literally putting as much distance as he can between himself and Jezebel. Arriving at Beersheba, Elijah leaves his servant behind and walks for a day out into the desert. There, alone, he lies down under a bush, and he prays to God that he might die. He is a broken man. He has had enough. He simply cannot find the strength to go on.

I wonder, have you been there? Have you experienced moments in your life when it all just felt too much, too hard? Moments when you no longer have any idea what God is doing. The things that you had interpreted as God’s activity didn’t produce the results you expected. Nothing makes any sense. Looking at your circumstances, you cannot see any way for things to change. Everything has just gone terribly wrong, and it’s all just too much.

It is interesting to see God’s gracious response. No words, no arguments, no criticism. God just sends an angel with freshly baked bread and some cool water. Elijah is invited to get up and eat. He does so and then he lies back down again to sleep.

This is an important spiritual insight. Elijah is having a crisis of faith, but God ministers not to his soul, or his mind, but to his body with food and rest. As human beings we are body soul and spirit. Each of those impacts the other. Elijah’s soul is battered and bruised. His mind is confused. His emotions are all over the place. But his body is also exhausted. His body needs food and rest before his mind and his soul can be healed.

This physical restoration happens a second time. But this time the angel says, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” We wonder, ‘What journey?’ But then we are told that Elijah is heading to Mount Horeb. He spends the next 40 days and 40 nights walking there.

Why that long? The distance is only around 150 km. So, that means he walks less than 4 km a day. So why does it take him 40 days?

40 days is a recurring period of time in Scripture, it indicates a time of testing and preparation. Perhaps the most obvious example is Jesus being tempted in the desert for 40 days before starting his ministry. Our two annual 40-day fast periods of Advent and Lent are also times when we are meant to prepare ourselves for an encounter with God at the great feasts of the liturgical year. Elijah is about to encounter God at Mount Horeb, so he spends 40 days preparing himself in fasting and in prayer.

But why did Elijah decide to go to Mount Horeb? Mount Horeb is also known as Mount Sinai and has a key place in the spiritual history of God’s people. On its slopes Moses met God in the burning bush. At Horeb Israel first became a nation by entering into covenant with God. At Horeb Moses received the 10 commandments. So, Elijah is going back to the beginning, back to where it all started.

It is a reality that when people lose their vision for the future they return to the past. Elijah has lost any clear vision for the future of God’s people, so he goes back to what he knows – that Israel is in a covenant relationship with God, that God has called this nation, that God has shaped this nation, that God has a plan and purpose for this nation. What Elijah needs to know now is how is that meant to play out going forward? What does that covenant relationship mean for him, God’s prophet today? So, he heads to Horeb.

This is an important spiritual concept. When you lose your sense of what God is doing in your life, you go back to when God spoke in the past.

You could argue that this is what has happened with the renewed interest in Celtic spirituality over the past 20 or 30 years. People had lost a sense of God in the contemporary church, so they looked back to the spiritual heritage of the British Isles. In rediscovering Celtic spirituality they have found deep spiritual meaning and new ways to connect to God through the natural world, encountering the Creator through his creation. It has given them back the enchantment that had been lost in an over-rationalistic enlightenment spirituality.

Similarly, the renewed interest in pilgrimage, praying with icons, meditative prayer, these all speak to that same trend. Reconnecting to God through ancient spiritual practices that the Church had mostly forgotten about. The challenge for us in the contemporary church is, therefore, how do we present the Christian faith in ways that give people opportunities to experience God and to encounter God, through these ancient spiritual practices. People no longer just want to hear about God; they don’t want to hear a rational argument for faith; what they want is to experience God for themselves. As Jesus said to the disciples of John the Baptist, ‘Come and see.’

So, Elijah makes a pilgrimage to this holy site in Israel’s spiritual history. When he arrives, God speaks to him. God’s answer comes to Elijah – but not in the storm, nor through the earthquake, nor through the fire. But in the sheer silence that follows this massive storm, a voice speaks. It is in the silence that Elijah meets God.

Again, this is an important thing to note for our own spiritual life. We encounter God more in silence than in noise. If we want to go deeper with God, we will have to create pockets of silence in our lives. If we can’t do that regularly, we will never become mature disciples of Jesus. I think that the thing that most disturbs me about our modern culture is that people live without silence. Everyone is wearing headphones, listening to music or podcasts, watching stuff on their ‘phones. Even when they are running, or working out, or in the car, on the train. There is never any silence. That disturbs me deeply.

So, God speaks to Elijah, what does he tell him? Well, firstly he tells Elijah that his ministry is nearly over. His hard service is almost done. He has only to anoint the next two kings of Aram and of Israel – and to anoint his successor, the next prophet, Elisha, and then he will be done. This is the next step in God’s plan for his people.

But crucially, Elijah is also told something that he didn’t know. God still has 7000 faithful people in the land. The forces of evil may be in the ascendance, but God is still working away behind the scenes. The situation is not hopeless. God is working his purposes out.

There is a striking parallel between Elijah’s story and the gospel reading in Matthew 14:22-33. Like Elijah, Jesus has just had an amazing day with the miracle of the feeding of the 5000. But, like Elijah, he faces opposition from those in power. Herod has just had John the Baptist beheaded, and Jesus has had to flee Herod’s area of influence. Like Elijah, Jesus retreats into silence in the desert in order to meet with God.

The disciples too, having experienced the great spiritual high of the miracle, then find themselves in the middle of a great storm out on the lake, in danger for their lives. They might wonder, what is God up to? That incredible miracle, and now we just die? Was it all just for nothing?

Then we have the miracle of Jesus walking on the water, coming to the aid of his terrified disciples. We see Peter’s incredible faith, he wants to walk out on the water to meet Jesus, he wants to do what Jesus is doing. Jesus invites him and he does so, but then Peter’s faith fails and he starts to sink. Again, there is an obvious parallel with Elijah. Elijah’s faith has failed and he has sunk into despair.

What happens? Jesus comes and gently rescues Peter. There is a painting of this moment by the Korean artist Yongsun Kim. The painting is called ‘The Hand of God’.

We see the moment from the perspective of Peter as he sinks down into the water. He looks up and sees Jesus reaching out his hand to save him.

It is a painting full of compassion and warmth. Jesus is smiling at Peter. There is no judgement, no condemnation, just a gentle rescue and the invitation to begin again.

Again, the parallel with Elijah’s experience is clear. Elijah’s faith failed, but God has come to rescue and restore him and to show him the next step.

So, what do we take away from these stories?

• Success in the life of the church is often only fleeting. Miracles sometimes do happen, God does sometimes move in power, but times of testing and struggle will always return. That is the normal pattern.
• It is ok to sometimes be overwhelmed and to lose faith. That is normal, we are only human. We have a limited capacity to deal with hard things. In those moments of confusion and despair, our bodies, souls and spirits all need to be ministered to. In those times, we should do what Elijah and Jesus did. Retreat into the silence with God. Let him minister to you. Let him bring you healing, strengthening, and restoration. Then let God show you the next step.
• When, like Elijah and Peter, we fail. There is no condemnation from Jesus. Only a smiling rescue. Jesus will lift us up. He will set us back on our feet, and he will invite us to try again. Amen.

Jesus the God of Food and Drink

In Isaiah 55:1-5 God offers his provision for the basic human needs for life – food and water – as a sign of God’s care for those who turn to him in faith.

“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.

More broadly, the ability to provide the essentials of life is often a sign in scripture of God-anointed leadership.

In Egypt, Joseph rises to prominence and achieves greatness not only because he can interpret Pharoah’s dream that warns of 7 good years followed by 7 years of famine, but because he can organise Egypt to harvest and store grain over those 7 good years and enable the country to survive.

The great leader, Moses, proves himself again and again to be God’s chosen leader by being the person through whom God provides food and water in the desert.

But in the Isaiah reading God’s invitation to look to him for provision, goes far beyond the basic necessities. God is not just offering here the bread and water, but rather ‘wine and milk’, and ‘rich food’. Remember that one of the frequent descriptions of the Promised Land was that it was ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ – in other words a land of goats and bees.

All of this presents the idea that God’s abundant provision flows to those who live in right relationship to him. One of the consequences of being in a relationship of love and obedience to God is that God will provide for us.

This is of course not to promote a prosperity gospel. Which is an incorrect interpretation of these texts. Prosperity gospel says that every Christian should be rich, successful, and never have a day’s illness. But that is a heresy.

If you own life experience doesn’t convince you that this isn’t how the Christian life works, then read the Psalms, or any part of the Bible, and you will read of those who are living in a right relationship with God and yet still experience pain and suffering and struggle in their lives.

So, how do we hold God’s promise of blessing and provision, alongside our real experience of life, where this doesn’t always happen?

Well, we know that there are some things that God can only do in our lives through adversity.

You may find this difficult to believe, but as a young guy, I was very skinny. Hard to believe I know! But at the age of 16, I went to college, and at the college they had a weights gym that students could use. So, with a friend, I started to do weight-training, 3 lunchtimes a week. I learnt something important through that process.

Muscles only grow when you push them beyond their current capacity. So, if you want to build muscle mass, you have to lift heavier and heavier weights. When you do that, when you push your muscles beyond their capacity, it produces micro-tears in your muscle fibre. When these micro-tears heal, they heal bigger and stronger. If you keep repeating this process, then over time, you build muscle mass.

So, I did weight-training 3 days a week for 3 years. By the end of that time, I had increased my body-weight by about 15%, all of which was muscle and I was never Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I was no longer skinny.

Why do I tell you that story? Well, I do so because faith is very like muscle in that sense; it only grows when it is stretched beyond its current capacity.

So, if God wants to grow faith in us, if he wants to make us capable of following him into situations that seem impossible, then he has to build our faith by stretching it.

What stretches our faith? Adversity and suffering. Being in difficult situations that force us to hold on to God. That is the only way faith grows. So, this is one reason why Christians experiencing suffering. It is the only way that God can grow our faith.

Secondly, we live in a fallen world. The creation is marred from its original goodness. It is also made worse by mankind’s sinfulness, greed, and stupidity. As St Paul says in Romans 8, ‘The creation groans … waiting for its redemption’.

So, horrible diseases exist; earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes happen; forest fires break out. And they happen to everyone – Christians don’t get a ‘get out of jail free’ card that we can just wave when trouble strikes and get a free pass. We live in a world where bad things sometimes happen. And they happen to all of us.

We are also in a spiritual battle. We have chosen to side with God in the battle against good and evil. That means we are an enemy target. As 1 Peter 5:8 reminds us, ‘Your enemy the devil is like a roaring lion. He prowls around looking for someone to swallow up.’

So, it is never a simple arithmetic equation – that obedience to God equals blessing. It is much more complex than that.

• There are some good and necessary things God can only do in our lives through suffering,
• There are naturally occurring things that bring suffering into our lives,
• There are spiritual forces at work that seek our harm.

So, in any situation of suffering we need discernment to know what is actually happening here? Until we know what’s happening, we cannot face the situation properly or helpfully.

All that said, the general principle is still that God wants to provide for his children and to bless them. So, often, if not always, righteousness will lead to the experience of blessing.

This was seen in the Methodist revivals in the 18^th century. Working class people were reached with the gospel by men like Wesly and Whitfield. The people they preached to were often living in filth and misery and poverty. Alcoholism, and violence were rife. As these people came to faith, they began to put their lives, their families, and their homes in order.

They learned to read and write so that they could study scripture. This up-skilled them as workers. They also became dependable and trustworthy. So, within a generation, many of these people were lifted out of poverty and misery. It was both God’s providential blessing and also the natural consequence of living the right way.

Returning to the subject of food and drink in Scripture, we need to note its significance for us in the Church. Our central act of worship has been, from the very beginning, a meal of bread and wine. As a family we gather around God’s table, we share bread and wine. We symbolically act out and express our relationship to God and to each other. We receive God’s spiritual sustenance and strengthening for our bodies and souls – however you choose to understand the outworking of that.

One aspect of this that we often forget, is that as recipients of God’s gracious provision of abundant food and drink we have certain responsibilities. Like Abraham, we are blessed to be a blessing.

“All nations on Earth will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me.” Genesis 22:18

The blessing we receive from God, is meant to flow out to others. We share what we receive. Tithing our income is one way that we practically express this. As a church we not only teach this, but we also try to model it. We give 10% of our income to Christian organisations, and we give another 10% to the diocese in Europe. As God blesses us, we seek to bless others.

If we turn to the feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14:13-21 we notice that the passage begins bizarrely with the phrase, ‘Now when Jesus heard this’. But heard what? We can’t possibly understand what happens next unless we know what happened just before.

So, to provide context, Jesus has just heard that his cousin, his forerunner, his baptiser, John the Baptist, has just had his head cut off. In response to this news, Jesus withdraws to a lonely place. Why does Jesus do this?

Possibly, out of his own need for time and space to process his grief. Or maybe it is in response to the danger that Herod will double down and come after him too. Jesus withdraws to an area away from the centre of Herod’s control. No doubt Jesus was hoping for a period of quiet. A time to rest, to find comfort in God.

But his plan fails. The crowds follow and Jesus finds himself with 5,000 men and women and children – perhaps 10,000+ people gathered on the hillside.

Now, what happens next is the miraculous feeding of this crowd. Now, of all the 41 miracles of Jesus, this is the only one that is recorded in all 4 gospels. Think about that. That alone should alert us that something significant is happening here. This is not just a simple story of a miraculous picnic.

Note that it is compassion that motivates Jesus in this story. As is often in his ministry, it is Jesus’ concern for people that provokes him into action. But, in all honesty, it is an unnecessary miracle. People are not going to suffer unduly or die because they missed one meal. So, it’s significance must be elsewhere.

We remember God’s miraculous provision of ‘bread in the desert’ with the manna in Exodus 16. The prophet Elisha also feeds 100 men with only 20 bread rolls. So, God’s miraculous provision of the necessities of life is a theme that appears several times in the Bible.

Jesus begins by asking the people to sit down. He then does what the head of the household would do at every Jewish meal, he blesses God for the food. Note it is not blessing the food, but blessing God who has provided the food. Something we often get wrong in our own action of grace before meals.

Jesus ‘takes’, ‘blesses’, ‘breaks’, and ‘gives’ the food. These four verbs are used in the description of what Jesus does after his resurrection, when he eats with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus – and when he does that, at that exact moment, they recognise him.

Also, in all four gospel accounts of the inauguration of the Lord’s Supper, these same four verbs are always used. These are therefore very specific eucharistic words. Our communion liturgy is shaped around these four verbs – we ‘take’, ‘bless’, ‘break’, and ‘give’ the bread and the wine.

So, the meaning of this event is meant to be seen as a foreshadowing of the Eucharistic celebration that Jesus will later give to his disciples as the central act of Christian worship.

Like the eucharist, it both look backwards and forwards. Backwards to all of the examples in the Bible of God’s provision for his people, backwards to Jesus’ self-giving on the cross for our salvation. But it also looks forwards. It looks forwards to the final great messianic banquet prophesied throughout scripture, when all of God’s children will be gathered to enjoy his presence and abundant provision forever.

Note that women and children are specifically mentioned as being present. We are perhaps meant to hear an echo of the Exodus provision of the manna, when we are told;

There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. (Exodus 12:37)

This speaks of inclusion. Male female, old and young, all are gathered together as an new community. So, in this meal on the hillside, we have the symbolism of Jesus creating a new community with himself as the head of the family. It is a replaying of the Exodus event, when a new people were created with God as their head.

So, in a very real sense, Jesus is the God of food and drink.

Jesus Agent Provocateur

In Luke 19:41-20:8 Jesus goes to the Temple in Jerusalem. It is not an accidental visit. It is rather a deliberate and thought-out act.

In this incident something radically new is happening in salvation history. In the Old Testament the Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting, and then the Jerusalem Temple itself, were considered to be the physical location of God’s presence on earth.

But with Jesus, something new is happening. It is Jesus himself that is the physical manifestation of God in the world.

‘For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form’ (Colossians 2:9).

In other words, Jesus is the new temple.

So, in this incident, we have the new temple setting up in the Old Temple, it is the overlap of the old and the new.

With its failure to recognise the Messiah, the Old Temple has invalidated itself. It is now a thing of the past. The new temple has now come.

Of course, this new temple of Jesus himself, is only a temporary state of affairs. Jesus will return to the Father after his resurrection. But with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, a third kind of temple is birthed. God’s dwelling will now be within every community of God’s people. As St Paul will say in 1 Corinthians 3:16,

Do you not know that you [plural] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you [plural]?

In the age of the Church, every single community of Christians is a manifestation of the physical presence of God in the world. We are now the temple.

More broadly, after Pentecost, there is nowhere that we can say that God is not. God is at large in the world, through his Spirit.

When he gets to the Jerusalem Temple, Jesus acts out a symbolic protest. The Court of the Gentiles is being used as a market area – people buying sacrificial animals to offer, people changing currency into coinage that is acceptable to the Temple authorities. Jesus runs amok; overturning tables and driving out the traders.

Perhaps it is best to understand this as a prophetic manifestation of how the old temple has failed in its function and needs to be replaced. There are several reasons for Jesus’ action;

1. It could have been a protest that the Temple was meant to have been a place of prayer, but it had become more of a commercial enterprise.
2. It could have been a protest about the fact that the Court of the Gentiles where the market was held, was the only part of the temple complex to which non-Jews had access. So, the commercial activity going on in that space was preventing Gentiles from having access to God.
3. It could have been a protest against swindling and dodgy dealing. The temple would not accept offerings in sacrilegious Roman coinage, as Roman coins bore the image of the emperor and often of Roman deities. This created an opportunity for moneychangers to exchange Roman coinage for acceptable coinage. But a degree of swindling was often involved. Of which the temple authorities took their cut. Piety at the service of chicanery.
4. It could have been a protest intended to reveal the coming reality that worship was no longer to be a matter of animal sacrifice, but was to become an inward, spiritual matter. It no longer needed a temple with an altar, or a fire to consume the offering. Worship was now to be a matter of spirit and truth (John 4:24).

Whichever of these, or combination of these, we regard as being significant, it was only a short, symbolic protest and quickly over, as the next part of Luke’s gospel has Jesus teaching daily in the temple. So, Jesus wasn’t arrested or banned, and there were no consequences for his actions.

After this event, Jesus effects a second provocation. Jesus sets himself up in residence in the temple as a teaching Rabbi.

Now, Jesus has been opposed by the religious leaders, but what does he do? He goes to the centre of their operation, their powerbase, and installs himself under their noses as resident teacher in the Temple.

Like the cleansing of the Court of the Gentiles, it is another symbolic act of protest. The old temple has failed to teach the people God’s will, so now the new ‘temple’ comes to do that.

This provocation evokes two responses. The religious leaders respond with hostility, the ordinary people hang on Jesus’ every word.

The temple authorities come to Jesus and ask where does he think he gets the authority to set himself up as resident teacher in the temple? He is not a graduate of any of the rabbinic schools. He has not been formally trained. Nobody has recognised his ministry or invited him to be here. So, who does he think he is?

Jesus’ response is to answer a question with a question. John the Baptist was a similar case. He had no formal training, although he was from a priestly family. But he was widely regarded by the people as a prophet.

So, Jesus asks them, “Tell me by whose authority John the Baptist ministered, and I will tell you by whose authority I minister.”

This puts the religious leaders in a difficult position. If they say John the Baptist was sent by God, then Jesus will ask, ‘Why didn’t you receive his message and repent and be baptized?’

But if they say John the Baptist was not sent from God, the people will react very strongly against them because they were sure that John was a divinely ordained prophet.

So, they simply refuse to answer. Jesus therefore refuses to give them an answer.

I keep saying that our job is to recognise the activity of God around us and to go and stand beside that activity. That is exactly what the Jewish leaders had failed to do here.

God had sent John the Baptist as a prophet and now Jesus as the Messiah, but the religious leaders had failed to recognise either of them, and to stand beside them.

The religious institution had therefore failed in its function and had forfeited its position. It is now no longer in the flow of God’s activity; it has become an anachronistic irrelevance. It will therefore be swept away.

The serious question for us is exactly the same. What is God doing in our time? Where do we see things that look like God’s activity? Are we recognising them and standing beside them?

I wonder if we are noticing things that look like God around you? How are we standing beside them? How are we seeking to participate in what God is doing?

If we aren’t doing that, then we too are an irrelevance that might as well be swept away.

And how are we doing as a temple of God in the world? Do our gatherings manifest the presence of God in any way? Are kingdom values demonstrated in how we treat each other, care for each other, support and love each other? It is a question perhaps worth exploring by every Christian group. Amen.

Living with Two Wolves

In Romans 7, St Paul describes his frustration at his inability to live in the way he wants to live. I Have often told ‘the parable of the shopping trolley’ as an illustration of this. Those shopping trolleys with a wonky wheel – always liable to shoot off in the wrong direction – that’s a pretty good image to show what St Paul is talking about.

St Paul states that as fallen human beings, we have this in-built tendency to go wrong. So that even when we become Christians, we still find it difficult to live in the way we should. We find ourselves speaking, behaving, thinking in ways that we know we shouldn’t, in ways that we don’t even want to. It is a constant battle to live as disciples of Jesus.

Something St Pauls sums up famously as, ‘For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.’ His summary statement of his earthly condition is bleak but he holds on to hope for eternity, ‘Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!’

Which is a sombre and sobering message. You can imagine the first hearers of St Paul’s letter, in Rome, feeling quite depressed as they heard the struggle of the Christian life so bleakly and starkly laid out. It will be a 24/7 battle, and it is a battle that you will often lose, and you are going to have to fight this battle for the rest of your earthly life. That is quite a brutal truth to hear.

So, how does St Paul follow that up? Well with the opening statement from the following chapter, Romans 8, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ 

You can imagine the relief as they heard those words. They might well have been feeling under a lot of condemnation, as they thought about their own lives and their struggles to live as followers of Jesus.

Like St Paul, they could look at their lives, words, actions, thoughts and see many, many instances of where they had gone wrong. St Paul has just told them, this is going to be your whole life. Desperately struggling to stay on the right path but often losing your way.

So, to hear St Paul’s words about there being no condemnation, would have been a great encouragement and a relief. Yes, in spite of your best efforts, you will go wrong from time to time. But there will be no condemnation.

St Paul’s point is that whilst, as children of Adam, you still have this in-built tendency to go wrong, as baptised believers there is another truth about you; you are also Children of God. You therefore have a dual identity, but it is your identity as Children of God that will prove to be decisive.

He tells his hearers, you are in Christ and Christ has conquered sin and death. This means that the tension that you live under is only temporary. At the judgement, your being ‘in Christ’ will triumph over your being ‘in Adam’.

In other words, after Calvary, there is only one kind of sin in the world – forgiven sin. Yes, we have to turn to Christ in repentance and faith, expressed in baptism, to receive that forgiveness, but it is held out to us as a free gift through God’s grace and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. As a Christian, the ultimate truth of your existence is that you are loved and forgiven.

St Paul explains why this is the case. The law of the Spirit is more powerful that the law of sin. The Law of sin leads to death, but the Law of the Spirit leads to life.

The Old Testament Covenant expressed in the Jewish Law, served only to reveal sin, to make people aware of when they had gone wrong. But In Jeremiah 31, the hinge point of the whole Bible, God promised that he was going to do something new. This is what it says;

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

The New Covenant will not be an external system of Law, written on tablets of stone; but an internal desire to please God written on the heart. The Law will not be a policeman to control external behaviour, but an internal motivation to do the right thing.

Which is exactly what St Paul has been saying in chapter 7. That is exactly what he is experiencing. Through the Holy Spirit, he now has this in-built desire to do what pleases God, he just struggles to live it out because of his in-built fallen human tendency to go wrong. But one of those forces within him is only temporary.

St Paul then goes on to explain exactly how the Christians in Rome should understand themselves. They are dual-nature creatures now. Yes, they are still flesh and blood, still marked by human fallenness and still likely to go wrong. But they are also now creatures of the Spirit. Creatures with God’s Spirit inside them, calling them upwards, to holiness and to life.

As Christians our calling is upward. We are to prioritise our Spiritual nature over our fleshly nature. We have to choose to live out of our identity as Children of God, rather than out of our identity as fallen children of Adam.

There is a native American story where a Grandfather is talking to his Grandson.

The grandfather says, “In life, there are two wolves inside of us which are always at battle.

One is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery, and love.

The other is a bad wolf which represents things like greed, hatred, and fear”.

The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”

The grandfather replies, “The one you feed.”

St Paul says, in effect, you have two natures at war within you; so make sure that you feed the Spirit, not the flesh.

That is what discipleship is meant to do. It is meant to put those practices into our lives that will strengthen our Spiritual nature.

Practically, this is expressed in the choices we make about engaging in prayer, coming to church, meditating on Scripture; committing to a discipling relationship in a small group, or one to one, engaging in serving God in some way. In fact, all the spiritual disciplines of abstinence and engagement work to strengthen our spiritual nature and weaken our fleshly nature.

Whenever we do these things, we feed the Spirit. We aim upward. Whenever we neglect these things, we feed the flesh. The nature we feed the most, is the nature that will predominate. It is the nature that we will most display in our words and actions.

But we must not underestimate the difficulty in this, it does mean that there is a war-zone inside of us. But it only temporary. One day the Spirit of Life will be victorious, and the Spirit of sin will be a thing of the past. But whatever happens, there will be no condemnation. Amen.

The Parable of the Shopping Trolley

I don’t know if you have had the same experience as I often have? You go to the supermarket. You go to the trolley park and get a trolley, ready to do your shopping. You get half-way across the car park, too far to go back and change it, and suddenly the trolley veers off in a random direction. And you realize, Oh no! It’s happened again; you’ve picked the trolley with the wonky wheel.

The next hour, or however long it takes to finish your shopping, are going to be an absolute nightmare. You are going to be totally stressed out by the time you finish. Because your shopping trolley has a mind of its own. It behaves like a thing possessed. At any moment, for no apparent reason, it will suddenly veer off in a completely random direction.

No one is safe around you. You are terrified of taking out an old person, or a little child, or of knocking over some display in the shop. You have white knuckles from holding on to the handle so tightly, trying to anticipate any random direction change. It’s a total nightmare.

Why do I share that story? Well because it is a good description of what St Paul tells us in Romans 7.15-25 about living as a human being.

What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise.

As fallen humans, we are like that wonky shopping trolley, at any moment we are liable to shoot off in the wrong direction. We have an in-built tendency to go wrong.

St Paul is very open and honest about how difficult and painful he finds this experience. We can feel his frustration coming through his writing, ‘This is not who I want to be!’ I want to be pure and holy, slow to anger, gentle and humble, kind and compassionate, open-handed and generous. But it is SO hard to do this consistently, I keep going wrong. I veer off in the opposite direction, and I hate that.

And we need to remember who is talking here. This is St Paul, and he is a very serious disciple. This is not someone who is paddling in the shallows of faith. St Paul is all-in for Jesus. He is so committed to following Christ he has been prepared to go through tremendous suffering. He lists some of it in 2 Corinthians 11;

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

I don’t imagine that any of us can compete with that list of proofs as to how seriously St Paul took his commitment to Christ.

And yet St Paul still can’t manage to live the way that he wants to live. He still finds himself being tripped up by this in-built tendency to go wrong. Think about that. If St Paul still can’t live out the Christian life as he should, how much more are we going to struggle?

If even the greatest followers of Jesus find it almost impossible, how can we live as we should?

C.S. LEWIS wrote an essay called ‘the sermon and the lunch’ in 1945[1]. It illustrates the point St Paul is making very well.

C. S. LEWIS was attending evensong and in his sermon the vicar started talking about the importance of the home,

‘And so’, said the preacher, ‘the home must be the foundation of our national life. It is there, all said and done, that character is formed. It is there that we appear as we really are. It is there we can fling aside the weary disguises of the outer world and be ourselves.

LEWIS writes that after that phrase, ‘fling aside the weary disguises of the outer world and be ourselves’ he never heard any of the rest of the sermon. The reason that phrase stopped him in his tracks was that he had dined at the vicar’s home that lunchtime. He had seen what the vicar was like when he threw off the weary disguise of the outer world, and it had not been a pleasant experience.

He had been invited to come and have lunch at the vicarage as the vicar’s two grown-up children were home for the weekend. LEWIS was about to refuse when the Vicar’s daughter whispered in his ear, ‘For God’s sake stay to lunch if they ask you. It’s always a little less frightful when there’s a visitor.’

So, he accepted the invitation. As they sat down to lunch the young people were chatting away just talking about trivial, amusing, everyday stuff, when suddenly the vicar interrupted his son in mid-sentence and launched into a rant about something about which he had absolutely no knowledge.

When his son had the temerity to suggest that maybe there was another way of seeing the issue the vicar got very cross and was quite insulting towards his son.

And so, the lunch went on. Both the vicar and his wife behaved abominably towards their grown-up children.

The vicar was certainly being true to his own words, ‘we can fling aside the weary disguises of the outer world and be ourselves.’

Because the vicar and his wife would never have dreamed of being so offensive, intolerant, or short-tempered outside the home. But somehow, at home, they felt they could be themselves – and it turned out that they were quite unpleasant.

This experience caused LEWIS to wonder, if being ourselves is not something we can even do at home, when can we relax, take things easy, let down our guard? He writes,

How, then, are people to behave at home? If a man can’t be comfortable and unguarded, can’t take his ease and ‘be himself’ in his own house, where can he?

That is, I confess, the trouble. The answer is an alarming one.

There is nowhere this side of heaven where one can safely lay the reins on the horse’s neck.

It will never be lawful simply to ‘be ourselves’ until ‘ourselves’ have become sons of God.

The expression ‘to lay the reins on the horse’s neck’ is a horse-riding term and it means to give the horse freedom to move and act without direct control, letting go of strict control.

LEWIS discovered in the 1940s what St Paul discovered 2,000 years previously, that because we are all wonky shopping trolleys with in-built tendency to go wrong, we can never relax. Only a lifestyle of constant vigilance will keep us on the right track. Like St Paul, we will have to learn to live with this frustration, until finally, our beings will be redeemed and recreated, we will be made whole; and our tendency to go wrong will be a thing of the past.

But this is merely to state the situation negatively. We must be constantly vigilant to avoid falling into sin. But that same action of constant vigilance, will have a positive result too.

One of my favourite examples of this is Brother Lawrence. He was a Frenchman, born in Lorraine and he lived from 1614-1691.

His parents were peasants, so his schooling was very limited. As a young man, poverty forced him into joining the army, which at least guaranteed him meals and a small salary. But he was soon badly injured in a skirmish, and the injury left him with a permanent limp and so put an end to his army career.

He managed to get a job as a footman to a rich man. But his lameness made things difficult, and he was described as ‘a big awkward fellow who broke everything.’

But he came to faith and at the age of 40 he entered a Carmelite monastery. He wasn’t clever enough to become a priest, or a scholar, so they put him to work in the kitchen, where his job was to prepare vegetables.

But Brother Lawrence decided to try and live in the constant presence of God. To try to do everything he did, with God, and in God, and for God. He sought to turn his attention to God each moment of the day and to do everything he did as an act of worship of God, even something as mundane as peeling a carrot.

This focus and attentiveness to God gradually transformed him, to such a degree that people started to come to him from the whole of France to ask him for spiritual guidance. This simple monk, the kitchen helper, became one of France’s most famous spiritual guides. A little book of spiritual guidance that explains his methos called, ‘The Practice of the Presence of God’ is still considered to be one of the great classics of spiritual writing today, some 300 years later.

So, that is the positive outcome of constant attentiveness to God. Not only does it keep our wonky shopping trolleys from veering off into sin, but positively it gradually transforms us into people who actually do resemble Jesus Christ. Which is the ultimate goal of life for any Christian. Anything else, we might want to do with our lives, can only ever be secondary to that goal.

And what will get us there, the only thing that will get us there, is constant attentiveness to God, 24/7 for the rest of our life.

But practically, how do we do that?

Firstly, we need to be part of a community of disciples, where we can encourage each other when we see one another getting things right, when we notice progress in each other. But we can also challenge and call out one another when we notice we are getting it wrong.

Secondly, we need to engage with Scripture in some way each day. That will keep our calling ever before our eyes. We can also learn in scripture from the example of the great heroes of the faith, when they got it right and when they got it wrong. And, constant engagement with the gospels will help us keep Jesus and his perfect example, ever in view.

Thirdly, we can develop a one-to-one, or a small group discipling relationship. Or we can find a spiritual director. Someone who can help us to reflect on how we are doing with God and offer us their perspective and insight.

Fourthly, prayer is a way in which we attune our hearts to God’s heart. If we are much in prayer, our ability to sense God’s will in every situation will grow and develop.

At our recent Vision Day, we asked you to share your Hope and Dreams for this church. Your top desire was an expression to grow in discipleship. Which excited me and for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the way God has tended to use me in my ministry has generally been helping people grow in discipleship. So, it confirmed to me that this church is where God wants me to be.

Secondly, I believe if you make disciples, then you get everything else for free. That is why Jesus sent his apostles out to make disciples. Everything else – church, mission, ministry they all flow naturally when you have a community of disciples. So, this desire that you have expressed, to grow in discipleship, really gives me hope for our church.

If you want to grow in discipleship, I commend to you what I have shared this morning. Live an examined life, find yourself an accountability relationship in some way, engage with scripture each day, be much in prayer. If you do these things, slowly, over time, you will grow in your discipleship. My God bless you and guide you clearly. Amen.

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[1] C. S. Lewis, 1945, From Undeceptions (Geoffrey Bles, London, 1971), pp. 233-7

Saul and His Paranormal Encounter

We face a particular problem as we come to scriptures like 1 Samuel 28.3–19 and the story of Saul and the person traditionally known as the witch of Endor (although, as Matt ARNOLD points out, this description of her is somewhat inaccurate, she would be better called, ‘the ghost-mistress of Endor’[1]).

These kinds of stories are difficult for us as 21^st century people. We live with a worldview that is characterised by what the missionary anthropologist Paul HIEBERT calls, ‘the flaw of the excluded middle’[2]. In the West we see reality as having two levels;

1. The Spiritual dimension, which is unseen. The domain of God, religion, faith, miracles, visions etc.
2. The Scientific or Material dimension. The natural world, that which can be seen, measured, the laws of nature.

But this is not how the Bible, or most cultures of the world, see things. For them, there is a middle section that we exclude. This level is where the spiritual and the material overlap and interreact. It is the domain of spirit beings such as angels and demons, but also it is where humans, animals, plants are situated.

So, if we want to understand how the first hearers of the Bible understood its message, we need to adopt a worldview that includes this middle dimension. It is a worldview that accepts the reality of such things as spiritual beings, paranormal activity, ghosts, the possibility of communication with the spirits of the dead etc.

As an example of this worldview in the Bible, remember when Jesus walked on the water, his disciples first reaction was to think he was a ghost[3]. That’s because ghosts were real for them. At Jesus’ first post-resurrection appearance they had the same reaction[4]. In both cases, Jesus does not deny the existence of ghosts, rather he reassures them that he isn’t one.

1 Samuel 28 begins with Saul experiencing God’s silence. King Saul is in a tricky situation, his enemies, the Philistines, are about to attack, and he doesn’t know what to do. He asks God, but God refuses to speak to him.

We might say, no wonder. Saul has recently killed 85 of God’s priests because he thought they supported his rival, David’s, kingship. He had also refused to listen to God’s prophet Samuel. So, God gives Saul up to his choices. The worst thing God can ever do to a human being, is to leave us alone in our sin and rebellion.

With no prophet to guide him, Saul turns to the remaining priests. He asks them to seek God’s guidance with the Urim and Thummim. We don’t know what these were. But they were a means by which the priests could ascertain God’s will. They were a part of the priest’s vestments, possibly contained in a little sort of a pouch above the priest’s heart. The names ‘Urim and Thummim’ mean ‘lights and perfections.’ One idea is that they were semi-precious stones that glowed in some way as a response to an enquiry.

They were only ever used for decisions of national importance. The priest would ask for God’s guidance, and, the Urim and Thummim would indicate ‘true’ or ‘false’ or ‘guilty’ or ‘innocent’. After the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.E., we are told that the Urim and Thummim ceased to function. But here too, when Saul asks for guidance, God refuses to answer through them.

Saul is therefore paralysed and doesn’t know what to do. His crisis is aggravated by a new strategy of the Philistines, who, instead of fighting Israel in the hill country, have marched into the plain of Jezreel where their iron chariots will give them an advantage. In mountainous territory the Israelite infantry might hold their own, but this is now a battle in open country. This manoeuvre also threatened to cut off Saul from the support of the northern tribes. Saul has a premonition of the outcome being grim.

Note that this happens at a place called Gilboa. This was the spring by which Gideon and his men camped. They were also about to face a massive army that outnumbered them. But in that case, God spoke. Surprisingly, God’s response was to say that Gideon had too many men. God instructed Gideon to say, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ And in response two-thirds of the army, 22,000 men left. So, it became known as the `Spring of Trembling’ (Judges 7:1, KJV). It is one of those interesting features of Scripture that Saul finds himself, in a similar situation, in exactly the same spot. He too is trembling with fear. But this time God does not give guidance about how the battle is to be won, instead God is silent.

Saul, now desperate, decides that if God will not speak to him, he will try and communicate with the dead prophet Samuel. He decides to consult “a woman who is a medium” (lit., “a woman, mistress of a spirit”, or a “ghost-mistress”. This seems to indicate someone who has a demonic spirit within them that enables them to make contact with the dead. Saul’s decision to use the services of a medium marks the final step in his downfall. The demonstrates that Saul has turned as far away from God as it is possible to go.

To get to the ghost-mistress, involved a perilous journey of some seven or eight miles from Saul’s camp at Gilboa to Endor, and it involved skirting the Philistine encampment. So, Saul goes in disguise with just two of his men.

When he gets there, he tells the ghost-mistress that he wants to communicate with the spirit of a dead person. The ghost-mistress is reticent. Saul had previously issued a command that those who consult the spirits of the dead were to be expelled from the land. It was a specific command of God in the Covenant that his people were not to consult the spirits of the dead.

But Saul reassures her that she is safe, and she asks who he wishes to speak to. He says, Samuel.

She calls up the spirit of Samuel. How she does so, the mechanics of her practice, are not described, and suddenly the dead prophet Samuel appears before her.

Now, we need to stop here and moment and decide what we think is happening. There are several schools of thought which go back to the earliest times of the Church. So, Christians have had trouble understanding this for a very long time.

1. Was the woman a fraud and this is just a trickster plying their craft and making money from credulous punters?
2. Or was she a fraud, but in this instance, much to her surprise, the actual spirit of Samuel appeared. So, God is overruling in order to carry out his purposes.
3. Or was it a demon pretending to be Samuel?
4. Or is this an instance of something that can actually happen – a dead person’s spirit being conjured up to communicate with the living?

The ancient Rabbis thought it was the last of these. In the Christian era, this view was shared by Augustine, Origin, and Justin Martyr. But on the other side, Tertullian and Hippolytus thought that it was simply the case of a fraudulent trickster plying her trade. So, right from the start Christians have disagreed about what is happening here. You will have to make up your own mind from the four possibilities.

But bear in mind the Transfiguration event when the long-dead Moses and Elijah both appear and converse with Jesus. Although, that comparison is complicated by Elijah being taken up to heaven and Moses body never being found. Whereas Samuel died and was buried, therefore would be considered to be in Sheol. But, whatever you decide has to be able to handle all of this biblical data.

But, whatever you think is happening, the next thing that happens is that in response to the apparition, the woman shrieks in fear and cries out, ‘Why have you deceived me, you are Saul?!’

It is not clear how she identifies Saul from Samuel’s appearance. Maybe she recognised the prophet Samuel and made the connection with the tall stranger before her. It is not clear what she is afraid of? Is it that Saul might have her killed for consulting the dead, or is it something else?

But Saul cannot see anything and has to ask her, “What do you see?”

The most ancient versions of the text have the woman say, “I saw elohim ascending out of the earth.” Elohim can mean God, but it can also mean the spirit beings that live in the middle strata of reality. But clearly Samuel looked glorious in some way. Saul askes for further clarification, “What is his appearance?”

The medium’s description is sufficiently distinctive for Saul to identify the figure as Samuel. “An old man wearing a “robe”. Samuel always wore a robe, rather than the prophetic mantle, so this may have been enough for Saul to recognise him.

But Samuel’s robe had also been significant in their final meeting. When Saul disobeyed God and Samuel said he would no longer go with him we are told, ‘As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore.’ (1 Sam. 15:27–28). So, if the woman described the robe as torn, that would be further proof to Saul that it really was the spirit of Samuel who had come.

Recognising that it is Samuel, Saul falls prostrate to the ground before him.

Samuel complains about being disturbed. Remember, the biblical view was that each person after death, whether they had been good or bad, went to Sheol – the domain of the dead. There they were gathered with their forefathers. What existence was like in this realm was not clear, it was certainly not considered as good as being alive.

Perhaps at this point Samuel becomes visible to Saul, because he greets him with deference and respect. They seem to be able to communicate directly as the medium plays no further part in their conversation.

Saul explains why he has summoned Samuel,

 “I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”

Samuel replies, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has departed from you and become your enemy?”

It is not an encouraging response from Samuel. Notice that in comparison to Saul’s single mention of God, Samuel refers to “the Lord” seven times in his reply – seven is the number of perfection or completeness. It is a literary device used to make the point that Saul has turned away from God, but Samuel is perfectly oriented towards God.

Samuel provides Saul with no new information, instead stressing that the existing situation is in accordance with what Samuel had, during his life, revealed to Saul. “The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbour”. This repeats the message that Samuel had delivered in their last meeting before he died — David is now God chosen king.

In the current situation Saul can expect nothing but defeat. Furthermore, Samuel reveals what Saul feared, that Saul and his sons will all die the following day and they will join Samuel in Sheol.

Saul’s fate has a certain irony and circularity. Due to his disobedience, the king that God had appointed to defeat the Philistines will die at the hand of the Philistines.

Presumably Saul had maintained a kneeling position before Samuel, but on hearing this declaration he collapses “full length on the ground.” The terror-stricken king had come hoping against hope that Samuel would indicate some way to avert the looming disaster, but he has instead reinforced its certainty and immediacy.

So what?

Firstly, Saul once had spiritual life. He knew God and God knew him. He knew and walked in the truth. He had even been filled with God’s Spirit and prophesied. Saul had known God’s anointing. He had known what it was to be called and set apart. He had known the power and victory of God. But years later, he changed. He drifted away from God. He rebelled against God’s instructions. He forfeited the opportunity God have given him.

So, Saul’s story is a warning that starting well with God and finishing well with God are two very different things. I remember reading that someone had studied Christian leaders, both those mentioned in Scripture and those in the history of the Church, as well as contemporary church leaders, and they had found one constant. Of those leaders who start well with God, only a third finish well.

The way the preacher shared this was quite provocative. He invited us to look at the two people sitting either side of us and note that the chances were high they would not finish well with God. Of course, as we did that, we realised that our neighbours were looking back at us! It made the point quite powerfully.

Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall [1 Corinthians 10:12].

Secondly, the story of Saul at Endor is sobering because it reminds us that when God is silent, then we are in a very precarious place. It is very difficult to remain in a posture of waiting upon God, when God’s silence is prolonged and everything in us and all those around us is desperate for something to happen.

What Saul should have done was to repent of his sin, turn back to God in repentance. But instead, he sought light in darkness and he found only despair.

The same temptation Saul faced looms today. He was desperate and turned to the occult for an answer. Our culture feels to me like it has a fragrance of desperation about it. So many things seem to be going wrong. We have war and terrorism that seems never-ending. A climate crisis that feels irreversible. Economic challenges that seem insurmountable.

When people are desperate, there is always the temptation to turn to the occult. To find ways of connecting with sources of power that are dark. Apparently, AI is now being used for necromancy – contacting the dead. This might look innovative, but it is just a new expression of ancient sin.

Saul’s story is therefore a warning against any involvement in séances, consulting the spirits of the dead, in any manner. People might be seeking comfort or guidance, but all they will find is despair. If there were anything good to be derived from it, God would not have condemned it in such a clear way.

Perhaps there is a missional application here too. Our job as Christians is to show people that there is real hope to be found out there. That hope resides in the fact that God is in control of the universe and he loves us and he is bringing the story to the end that he has planned.

We do not need advice from the dead, because we can ask God for his direction and guidance. So, we can face this life in peace and in hope. We’ve read the end of the story; we know who wins. Amen.

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[1] Matt D. ARNOLD, The Invisible Dimension, New York : Anamchara Books, 2024, p231ff

[2] Paul G. HIEBERT, Anthrpological Insights for Missionaries, Grand Raoids : Baker Book House, 1985 (1996), p158

[3] Matthew 14 :26, Mark 6 :49

[4] Luke 24 :36-49

A Tale of Two Prophets and a Prophet’s Reward

In Matthew 10:40 to end, Jesus talks about those who will minister on his behalf. He states that those who do so deserve to be treated as we would treat Jesus. It is drawn from a Jewish cultural understanding that a person’s agent is to be treated as the person themself.

Jesus then gives three examples – prophets, righteous people, and ‘these little ones’ – probably meaning the disciples. If people treat these groups of people with respect and kindness because they minister on Christ’s behalf, they will have a share in the reward that these ministers will receive from Christ in glory.

So very concretely, if for example, you financially support, you practically help, you encourage, or you pray for, any Christian minister, you will get a share in the reward that Christ will grant that minister for their ministry. And that reward extends down to the very least thing, even a cup of cold water – so it is something that anyone can do.

In Jeremiah chapter 28 we have a story about two prophets – one a true prophet of God, and one false prophet. Last Sunday I shared about how the priestly and prophetic ministries work together to keep the Church healthy. I described priestly ministry as keeping the wheels of the Church turning, and prophetic ministry as making sure those wheels are pointing in the right direction.

But all ministry can go wrong. In the Old and New Testaments, we read of stories where those in authority over God’s people – the priests – go wrong, and where those called to guide God’s people – the prophets – go wrong. That is why discernment is essential in the Church.

As a practical consequence of that reality, you should weigh and test everything you hear me say. If ever I say something to you and you don’t see that it aligns with Scripture, you need to say, ‘Stephen, I don’t see how you get that from Scripture, can you explain that because I’m not seeing it.’ And if I can’t justify my words, then you have the Church Council, the Areadean, the Archdeacon, and ultimately the Bishop, who are there to hold me to account. That’s why we have an authority structure in the church, because ministers can, and do, go wrong.

In chapter 28 of Jeremiah we see a clash between Hananiah and Jeremiah. We can date this incident very precisely to 594 B.C.

God had instructed Jeremiah to walk about with a wooden yoke around his neck. It was a dramatic portrayal of the fact that God was about to punish his people for their sin and waywardness, by allowing the king of Babylon to conquer them and ‘place his yoke’ upon them.

Jeremiah is told to do this right in the middle of an international conference in Jerusalem. Political leaders from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon have all gathered to decide what to do about ‘the Babylonian problem’. Should they try and fight together against the King of Babylon, or should they submit to him and become his vassals?

In the previous chapter, Jeremiah sends a message to each of these political leaders telling them that they must submit to the King of Babylon, otherwise their nations will be destroyed.

So, we have Jeremiah, walking around wearing a yoke proclaiming God’s message, ‘Don’t rebel! God is with the King of Babylon, and you need to accept his authority.’

Into this situation comes the false prophet Hananiah. Hananiah means `The Lord is Gracious.’ That’s a nice, warm, positive, and encouraging name.

Hananiah chooses a very public space for his intervention, ‘in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people’. In that space he dramatically delivers a counter prophecy to that of Jeremiah. He claims that God has told him that this Babylonian exile will only be for 2 years. Then both the temple treasures and the people will return from Babylon. God will break the yoke of the King of Babylon. Which is great news, a tremendous relief for all concerned.

Jeremiah responds by saying, ‘I hope you are right. May God do what you have said.’ But then he reminds Hananiah and everyone listening that in the history of the ministry of prophets they have more often brought messages that were difficult, messages that spoke of war, plague, and disaster, than messages of comfort.

So, whilst true prophets often bring unpleasant messages, Jeremiah describes false prophets like this in chapter 23,

they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’

True prophets are more likely to bring messages described like this,

“Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? (Jer 23:29)

Furthermore, Jeremiah says, ‘prophets that prophesy peace will only be known as true prophets, if that prophecy comes to pass’.

Hananiah reacts angrily, violently to this implied criticism. In modern parlance, he doubles-down. He grabs the yoke that Jeremiah has been wearing. He tears it off Jeremiah’s neck and he breaks the yoke dramatically. He smashes it to pieces on the ground. He announces that in a similar way, God will smash the yoke of the King of Babylon.

No doubt the crowd goes wild, and they cheer and applaud Hananiah. That’s the way to go! Well done for tearing a strip of the gloomy, doomster Jeremiah. This is the kind of prophet we like!

Now, if the ministry of prophets was about helping people to feel better, Hananiah would have been a good prophet. Everyone goes home with warm, fuzzy feelings, feeling at peace with the world. But the ministry of prophets is not about making people feel better, but about helping people to live better. In that, Hananiah failed spectacularly.

What des Jeremiah do? Jeremiah just walks quietly away. He doesn’t argue. He doesn’t defend himself. He doesn’t go on the counterattack. Mocked and shamed, physically attacked, his message and ministry rejected, he just walks away.

But later God gives a word to Jeremiah for Hananiah. This word from God tells him that his false prophecy and his rejection of Jeremiah’s message will have two consequences;

1. Firstly, God will make Babylon’s rule a harsher experience for the people of God.  ‘You have broken a wooden yoke, but in its place you will get a yoke of iron.’ Not only will God not break the power of the King of Babylon, but God will strengthen him to a degree that even the wild animals will obey him. Which emphasises the totality of his authority, nothing will escape his control.
2. The second consequence of Hananiah’s rebellion is personal. ‘Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’” Very soberingly, the chapter ends, ‘In the seventh month of that same year, (3 months later) Hananiah the prophet died.’

In contrast, everything that Jeremiah prophesied came to pass. Babylonia conquered the whole region, and the Jewish ruling class was carried off into exile in Babylon for around 70 years.

So what? What does that mean for us here today?

Well, all ministry is meant to build up the people of God, to strengthen them. But sometimes in order to be strengthened we need correction. We may need to be challenged, we may need to hear God’s critique of where we are going wrong, we may need to be shown which parts of the gospel we are ignoring.

Hearing these kinds of prophetic messages can be difficult and painful; it will also be costly to respond to those messages. But learning the truth of our situation, having a diagnosis of the problem, is the first and necessary step towards putting things right. Would you rather that your cancer went undiagnosed, or that you got an early diagnosis and could begin a course of treatment?

So how can we have healthy prophetic ministry in the life of a congregation?

Firstly, note that when challenged by Hananiah, Jeremiah did not immediately respond. He walked away, he spent time in prayer, he sought a message from God. He didn’t reply until God gave him something. In contrast false prophets just speak out immediately from their own imaginations and emotions.

So, the first safety feature is the stance of those with prophetic gifting, to be slow to speak, to be much in prayer, to wait, to weigh, and to test. To know themselves and their emotional state and to only speak when they feel absolutely certain that God has spoken to them.

The second safety feature is something we see expressed in chapter 26. In that chapter, Jeremiah had delivered a shocking prophecy about the coming destruction of the temple and the nation. The audience’s response was instantaneous and violent;

Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!”

But then we are told, ‘Some of the elders of the land stepped forward’. These older, wiser, and cooler heads reminded the people that the prophet Micah had delivered the same kind of message about 150 years previously. At that time, the king and all the people had responded with repentance. To which God had responded by relenting and the prophesied destruction was avoided.

Other people then stood up and also supported Jeremiah and the mood changed and Jeremiah’s life was spared.

So, the lesson for us is when we are in traumatic, emotional times, when God gives us a painful prophetic message about our community, we need older, wiser, and cooler heads to step forward. To bring the wise council of Scripture to the situation. Hence the importance of having people within the congregation who know their Bibles.

Notice also that this is a corporate, communal process. The whole community is working together to try and discern what God is saying. As we tried to do in our recent Vision Day. No one person can decide for the whole group, we have to discern together.

We need to hold this alongside the teaching of Jesus that says prophets are valued ministers of God and should be helped, encouraged, and supported. Those who do so, will share in their reward.

If I can close with a personal story. I was once leading a small Christian community, and I noticed that there were tensions within the group. Some people would roll their eyes when certain other people spoke. People would interrupt each other people and not let each other speak. There would be sniffs of disdain when certain people spoke up.

I could have ignored it. I could have said, God thinks we are a great bunch of people and he loves us and our community is great and functioning well. I could have been a Hananiah. But instead, I chose to be a Jeremiah, to be sensitive to a prophetic prompting.

I said to the community, I think we have a problem. I think there are tensions within this group. So, what I want us to do is to try and bring everything out into the open.

So, we invited people to write down one thing they appreciated about our community, one thing they didn’t like about our community, and to share one question they would like to ask about our community. 3 people actually ‘phoned me to ask if they were really allowed to be honest!

We gathered these responses and then we gathered to spend the day together. We had a BBQ and then we opened the responses. In silence we just heard what people had written about our community, no reactions, no justifications, no debate, we just heard what people said.

And it was very hard and it was quite painful. People recognised their own behaviour being called out, they were forced to face the fact that they had hurt their brothers and sisters.

Then we spent a few weeks, each of us reading and praying over what people had said. Then we gathered for another day together and we tried to answer the question, ‘How could we live together better? What changes could we make, so that people don’t feel hurt, or ignored?

Some of it the decisions we made were very practical. In times of discussion, we would have a ‘talking token’ that passed around the circle. Only the person holding the token was allowed to speak. This made sure that everyone was heard and stopped those of us who like to hear our own voices from talking too much.

There was also a marked change of attitude within the group. People became more sensitive to one another. They tried harder to understand each other. They listened to each other. They worked harder to get along. As they did so, they started to appreciate each other more.

It transformed the health of our little community. I believe that everything that God did amongst us and through us in the following years, flowed out of that time where we responded to a prophetic prompting.

We looked at ourselves honestly. We heard the prophetic voices of critique, and we repented and sought to find a way to do better.

So, what is God saying to us today? What prophetic voices are there in this community? As we look at the Vision Day responses, what is that telling us about ourselves? What should we do? I leave you with those questions. Amen.