"Making the best of it"

 "For by the same criteria you use to determine what's right and wrong, you will also be weighed and examined". Matthew 7:2.

Evil rarely comes at us in horns with a tail, and if does, there's usually been a long developmental process to get to that point. 

The powers which enable genuine evil to perpetuate, notes C S Lewis, are "given to it by goodness" (Mere Christianity) - by an inversion of what is meant to be there to enrich and enliven into something which demeans and taints.

In the days of Jesus, those deemed teachers in the region of Judea had refined their means of determining what could and could not be done to the point of literally dotting their I's and crossing their T's, because, in addition to Mosaic law, they had composed an additional rule-book called the Halakah, which told them what to do in all those niggling little moments when the Laws in the Torah weren't detailed enough. A practical solution, perhaps, but the trouble was, as time went on, these 'additions' came to be seen as just as important as God's given law, and this meant that judgements often derived from a reasoning that placed what certain "religious" folk determined as right, in fact imperative, rather than what was actually right.

We all have a propensity to 'judge' in ways that require demanding a great deal from others, (whilst usually requiring not so much from ourselves), and this had certainly become the case amongst many of those who made such requirements when Christ came amongst them.

Many of these rules were really hot button "musts" in respect to the Sabbath - it was imperative that pretty much everything that wasn't to do with treating the day differently (so, for example, work) was entirely concluded before sunset on Friday, and not resumed until after the special day was over, but there was a problem here. Did the rule not to work mean that you ceased from doing good for a whole day? Wouldn't that mean, in effect, that if there were an immediate need, and it wasn't addressed, that what was meant to be holy instead became a context for harm and evil?

After reading from Isaiah's striking words to define His ministry, Jesus often 'worked' (did good) on the sabbath to clarify the trouble we place ourselves in when we serve religion rather than God.

Keeping a day special is good (rest and refreshment are essential), but there are other requirements than just those provided for in such a break, so we should also take genuine notice of the "closing down" of religion in what Jesus is about here.

The Torah says nothing to forbid doing genuine good on the day of rest - and it is this truth that makes Jesus both angry and grieved at those who wished to manufacture their own morality above and beyond what was provided by God (Mark 3:4).

Soon, it would be the scribes and religious who were murderously angry with Jesus as He continually defied their rules and proceeded to teach that these were futile when it came to genuine righteousness.

The intention of those deemed 'spiritual' was to work amidst a framework of statutes which allowed them to continue to be viewed as 'good' and 'holy', whilst in truth, they continued to avoid the genuine requirements of God's commands in respect to the fullest compliance to these. 

Truth, of course, shatters the illusion, hence their violence towards Jesus.

So, what of us?

Are there rules or requirements we impose that are in effect contrary to the good that God is seeking to work amongst us?

Christianity isn't 'muddling along' beneath a set of moral, civil and ritual devices that we believe will convey some kind of acceptable piety whilst covering up our far deeper evils in respect to God and each other. Being naked bar the righteousness of Christ means we 'walk in the light' before Him and each other - that we genuinely understand each other to be sinners saved entirely by grace.

Law compliance, however pious it may appear, concludes beneath a curse (Galatians 3:10) - for all of us truly fail miserably to come close to complying with its comprehensive and relentless requirements - if we're honest, we'll admit we even fail in reaching the far lower standards we make for ourselves.

The community of faith has to be seen to be marked by something better, and that is where grace comes into the picture.

What are we about right now?

Are we throughly 'ruled up', seeing our assent with what's required as virtuous and even perhaps allowing us to see ourselves as "good".

We must be careful to understand how evil really leads us into ruin by such devices.

There are plenty of times God's people failed because of this blind spot, but, thankfully, because of God's mercy, there are also countless times when they were picked up again by Gods goodness and embrace so they could continue to walk in something that truly heals them, and us.

Let's not muddle through in our own folly, but rest assured on the surety of His astounding care.

(Happy Reformation Day from Dr Mike Reeves)

For Reformation Day...

 Two recommendations to set your weekend alight as you sip your German ales....

First up, this excellent article by Mike Reeves in Table Talk on why the Reformation is so vital to the present.

Then, 1517 held their annual conference recently on the Freedom of the Christian, and have generously placed the entire two days worth of material on You Tube. There is some excellent material here, and I'd highly recommend David Zahl's paper on Freedom.

Enjoy the day!

The "If" bomb

 "He brought me into a broad place; He rescued me; He delighted in me".                        Psalm 18:19.

I wonder how often you have entered a church and heard the minister or the opening hymn tell you in a clear, unambiguous fashion that "Grace Rules".

To put that in a perhaps more familiar phrasing from the Apostle Paul - 

"It is for freedom that Christ has made you free. Stand firm, then, in that freedom, and do not let anyone place you again under a weight of bondage" (Galatians 5:1).

The freedom the Gospel brings is our liberation from the powers of sin and death - forces which wish to take from us the very life which God breathed into us, face to face, in giving Adam breath, but the 'bondage' that so concerned Paul here was what came after that deliverance - slavery that had arisen in the church by the forceful imposition of various rules and requirements, which, if you refused to honour and obey, would mean you were judged as unrighteous - socially and spiritually rebuke-able because you had, in effect, denied what was required in addition to Grace.

In my years in the 'renewal' realm of the church, this was encountered in all sorts of ways - you had to speak in tongues to prove you were saved, you had to submit to the "rhema" word of those deemed 'Apostles' or elders on everything - from who should lead the church to whether you should or shouldn't marry someone - because if you didn't, you were outside of the 'covering' of God's anointing, and therefore under discipline until you repented. What fascinated me was when I later joined a Pentecostal church, they didn't require any of this - the key thing to them was enjoying their faith in Jesus and sharing that joy.

At the start of his letter to the Galatians, Paul is clear about what's gone wrong. Originally, these people had known the beauty and latitude that God's grace had given them in life to be people who could use their new faith well, but it wasn't long before those who had despised such freedom sought to restrain them with all manner of 'necessary' rules, taking them away from what was genuinely good.

Religion will always seek to feed upon "your" virtue, wholeness, sanctity and the like - to establish worth in what we, in and of ourselves say and do, rather than turn us away from such silly peripherals to the sweet and ever-abundant goodness of Gods grace (that He is for us - that is why Christ came). This is because it is something which feeds itself upon our compliance and thereby makes us believe we are "good" because of such behaviour, but true freedom, true righteousness have nothing to do with this. The real totality of righteousness is found solely in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (see Galatians 3:1).

Legalism cannot see the good in Christ making gallons of excellent wine for friends at a wedding. It cannot but agree with those chastising the disciples for indulgently picking heads of corn on the sabbath. It joins in chorus with Judas when the precious ointment, which could have fed the poor, is broken out and used to fragrance the head of Jesus, and it is horrified when a 'fallen' woman is found kissing and washing the Lord's feet.

All of these examples point us to EXACTLY the manner of sweetness and beauty that grace breaks open in the Christian - warmth, joy, genuine repentance and affection, delight in the good things of life - these are the bitter enemies of religious bondage.

So, what do we find in our churches?

Do we imbibe freedom as we step into a realm of fellow-believers, or are we met with a barrage of "if's"...

"If you want to be here with us, then you must"....

or

"If you want to belong to our fellowship, then you have to"....

Jesus says something somewhat different -

"Come to you me, all who are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest".

He GIVES freedom and life. Grace reigns.

Christianity isn't, ever, about seeking to please or gain the approval of men.

It is about sharing the amazing love of God.

That's why we need this in our churches, every week, and why we need to be given the room, the freedom, that God Himself bestows - hence, Paul's crucial words in Galatians 5.

Church is essentially the house of grace, where the family of saved sinners can come and be included amidst, as one Puritan put it, 'their prayer and play'.

In the current circumstances, we need to examine carefully what signals we're sending in respect to what fills the religious vacuum of 2020. Are we expressing some manner of virtue justification - a self or moral rightness - in our manner of showing Christianity, or  are we evidenced as those, as Robert Capon noted, who are 'intoxicated on the rare vintage of God's exuberant mercy'?

We live in a moment defined principally by strict rules and requirements, even perhaps to the point in some cases of requiring a rendering to Caesar what is actually Gods.

The lost need to see that God is wholly about something gloriously good, and this, as Paul notes in Galatians, can be evidenced when those who are truly free can express this in the way they genuinely serve each other. Humility, patience and gentleness ( the fruits of grace - Ephesians 4:2) only spring from liberty bestowed through grace - that is why Paul can end his exhortation by speaking of how standing in Christ makes us those who bear another's troubles (6:2).

The days ahead are clearly going to be arduous, so let's stand where the Apostle teaches us we must to truly express the richness of God's astounding grace.

Straining gnats and eating camels?

 "When I saw their conduct was not in step with gospel, I opposed it".                 Galatians 2:11-14.

Around 8 months ago, we were told that for everyone's good, it was 'right' for Christians to close shop and construe some new manner of 'worship' via virtual means.

More recently, with very explicit restrictions concerning all manner of prohibitions, churches were allowed to 'open' once more.

The general response to this has been this is all 'good' and 'acceptable', as the general duty of the church has been defined as one which must conform to the social and ethical requirements of the day to be seen to be upstanding in our plagued society.

Back in March, some manner of action was certainly required in respect to the sensible responses for each person to take in the light of the problem - social distancing and personal hygiene were tried and tested methods in prior pandemics of curtailing infections, but more draconian methods (lockdowns and masks) have long been known to have no genuine restraint benefits beyond something practical (in the March scenario, the goal was to assist overwhelming hospitals, which was clearly successful by June... when, bizarrely, we suddenly found ourselves facing compulsory mask wearing).

The data now gathered makes one thing pretty clear - the worst is over. Yes, there's been a rise in "cases" of people carrying some trace of the virus, but deaths are low and whilst the media and a few 'experts' whip up a storm about a second wave, the fact is that what is actually unfolding is exactly the kind of influenza issue we face in the winter every year (hence, there being 7 years in living memory where far more people died from flu than have died this year in the country from the virus).

Mounting numbers of scientists working in the field have spoken out recently to convey this reality to governments, and the response in some places (Germany and Spain, for example) has been encouraging, and yet, our own authorities are seeking to drive us back into harsher lockdowns over the winter months, which may well, in effect, mean the closure or curtailment of Christian celebrations this Christmas.

As with the sudden introduction of masks in the height of summer, you have to ask why, and what are we as Christians meant to do in such circumstances?

There may indeed be a case for 'shielding' vulnerable people or allowing the NHS to not become overwhelmed, but at what point should these concerns prevent the requirements placed upon us as the church? If we're commanded to gather to worship and partake in the Lord's Supper, as we are, then for just how long are we at 'liberty' to cease and desist from what should be genuinely evident amongst us as common?

The argument so prevalent this season has been the 'authority' requirement, which no doubt clearly applies to a point (paying taxes and obeying laws which do not prevent what our being church requires). Christians in the 2nd century may have sought to appeal to Rome concerning their good citizenship, but they still found themselves victims of that state because they refused to compromise on what defined them as distinctly believers (caricatured as cannibalism and incest).

All this brings me back to Martin Luther.

As he stood before the council of worms and the Emperor, the 'advice' of fellow monks no doubt ringing in his ears that he should recant and conform, he felt his courage wain, and asked for a day to reflect on what he should do. He was granted the pause, and, in what was no doubt a very troubled night, he prayed the following:

 "O God, Almighty God everlasting, how dreadful is the world.

 See how its mouth opens to swallow me up, and how small is my faith in you.

Oh, the weakness of the flesh, and the power of Satan.

 If I am to depend upon any strength of this world – all is over . . . The knell is struck . . . Sentence is passed. . . O God! O Lord, my God! help me against the wisdom of this world. Do this, I beseech you; you should do this . . . by your own mighty power . . . The work is not mine, but yours. I have no business here . . . I have nothing to contend for with these great men of the world. I would gladly pass my days in happiness and peace. But the cause is yours . . . And it is righteous and everlasting. O Lord, help me! O faithful and unchangeable God. I lean not upon man. It is vain to do so. Whatever is of man is tottering, whatever proceeds from him must fail. My God, my God, will you not hear? My God, are you no longer living? You cannot die. You hide Yourself. You have chosen me for this work. I know it! . . . Therefore, O God, accomplish your own will! Do not forsake me, for the sake of your well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, my defence, my buckler, and my stronghold".

It's a prayer that brings to mind the one recorded when the church in Jerusalem began to suffer persecution (Acts 4:24-30). They felt God shake the place (vs 31) as a result, and, on the morning following his prayer, Martin Luther indeed felt the world shake as he finally addressed the council and refused to curtail the freedom that God had given in Jesus Christ.

What lay ahead wasn't easy. Labelled a heretic, he was exiled to keep him alive, but the shockwave his words and writings caused rippled out and changed the world.

So, here's the question.

What are we about to do? As the nation literally begins to be torn apart, are we, publicly, boldly going to stand up for what the church is - those made free by grace, meaning that we reject impositions upon that liberty which are unwarranted and unfounded (Galatians 5: 1-13), or are we going to fold in the manner Peter and others chose to do when the "law makers" appear amongst us? Remember what is at stake here - not merely "safety measures" or  being polite - THE GOSPEL (Galatians 1:10).

If indeed we fail to stand well at this moment, then we in effect, says Paul, detach ourselves from Christ Himself, and all our 'spirituality' is in vain (Galatians 1:6).

Perhaps, until now, we have believed that what we have done was for the best, but with courts now ruling across the world that the measures that have been imposed these past months (which are now being tightened further here) are entirely contrary to basic human rights (including those concerning freedom to worship), the circumstances are changing fast.

Are we "knowing the times" and meeting these as the church has always done, or will our voice remain muffled, if not silent, in what is ahead?

Can we pray the prayer of Luther, and step out to meet the hour?

"When enticed by error, we must return to what is good, understanding that those who foster lies will be condemned for their activity. Truth is the bread of life, so how dreadful will it be for those who taint this life with such death as lies".

Luther on Galatians 5.

Dazzled

"Two of far nobler shape erect and tall,
God like erect, with native honour clad,
In naked majestic seemed lords of all,
and worthy seemed, for in their looks divine,
The image of their glorious maker shon"."

John Milton

This week, a photographer friend of mine won acclaim for one of his fine art figure images he's taken this summer. It was well deserved, but what made me smile was his comment on what occurred when taking the image - "this was one those moments when you looked through the view finder, and the hairs on the back of your neck stood up".

It caused me to reflect on another incident. Back prior to the strange events of the present, a certain politician was making an inaugural address in February and when it came to the growing concerns about the storm approaching from China, he briskly shooed any worries aside, saying that, like Clark Kent, we would go on to don our best superhero kit and quickly see such a minor trouble quickly set aside as we got on with the far greater task of building an international network for growth. Some months on, and the picture looks very different to what was anticipated in such a statement.

Two very different incidents, but both derived from the same fundamental subject - one which in reality defines so much of what we're about.

Here's how the Psalmist frames it:

"What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honour. You have given him dominion over the works of your hand and you have put all things under his feet".

(Psalm 8:4-6).

What a work we are!

This strikes down into the manner of our true dilemma - when we see humanity, we see something which clearly speaks not only of the greater at work through the lesser, but, far more troubling, the greater within the lesser.

Consider...

Having reached a point where we see that something as extraordinary as life requires something even far more astonishing to devise and produce such complexity (see below for more (1), we then see something divine amidst all the perils of our tumultuous natures. Fractured and constantly obscured, no doubt - but there. This shock is what unnerves us artists as we encounter beauty and what causes others (when power goes to their heads) to often believe, mistakenly, that we can of ourselves stem any threat. 

We were made to be so much - hence the horror of what our current smallness so states about our present disarray.

We of course see this magnificent truth writ large in all the world, but it is within ourselves that we confront this axiom in its untarnished force to leave us either soberly staggered or erroneously swaggering underneath the intoxication that we are still captain's of our souls.

The fool seeks to erase this realisation, or contort it to hell-bent ambitions, but its true shock remains, and provokes each of us to see further than our pretences - to consider how staggering is our existence and how profound its ramifications. Beauty and inclination prompt us to the fact that we are part of a far larger drama.

This is why Christianity has to be given a true hearing - it wants to bring these realisations home, and it does so in a manner that brings God Himself into the very centre of the the greater being evident amongst and within the lesser.

Jesus Christ enters flesh and lives amongst us fully human because the totality of what was intended for us will be realised in His work of redemptive rescue.

In Jesus Christ, Paul informs us, humanity is renewed in regeneration to prepare her for the fullest and richest expression of all that she was intended to be - regents over a renewed material creation that will eternally reflect the richness of The Trinity's supremely good will for us - to express something truly divine in respect to truth and beauty within the material.

It's a vision philosopher's have often sought to repudiate, and the modern world is dull to see, but it bristles with awe and wonder... humanity will be part of an eternal unveiling of something extraordinary.

This is how the New Testament touches on it as it picks up the theme of the Psalmist:

"Now in putting everything in subjection to us, he left nothing outside. At present, we do not yet see this, but we look to the one who for a season was made lower than the angels -Jesus - now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, because by the goodness of God He experienced this for each of us". Hebrews 2:8-10.

The intention here is clear. Jesus gave Himself to put us back on the way to what we were intended to be - "lesser" beings, because we are created, but clothed with destiny and eternal purpose.

That's our true riches.

(1) This has been expressed in many theological, philosophical and scientific assertions in the past century, but one of the most comprehensive was highlighted by David Berlinski in his recent work Human Nature where he notes in the sixth chapter how Alvin Plantinga has recently developed an "ontological argument" in which in the very existence of our world, it is by necessity key to also have the existence of that which can conceive of and thereby furnish that said world. Clearly, via physics and other 'hard' sciences, we have shown the world exists, and also had a beginning, and therefore the provider of that realm must therefore equally exist. Berlinski then proceeds to say how the power of what Plantinga is stating is such that he himself has had to begun to reflect much deeper on the possibility of there being an infinite being who created us.

Personally Delivered

 Vital considerations for right now - how we need the real and not just the virtual:

Enjoy this.