Word on Wednesday with John Mason: Recent Episodes
John Mason: Speaker and writer. President of the Anglican Connection; Commissary to the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney in the USA.
The weekly podcast is a Mid-week Bible Reflection that includes Prayers drawn from an Anglican Prayer Book, Bible Readings (typically from the New Revised Standard Version), and a Bible Reflection given by an ordained minister of the Church. Each podcast session is introduced and closed with Music (and may occasionally include a song).
In What Are People For? an essay in his 2002 The Art of the Commonplace, Wendell Berry wrote: "Marriage, in what is evidently its most popular version, is now on the one hand an intimate 'relationship' involving (ideally) two successful careerists in the same bed, and on the other hand a sort of private political system in which rights and interests must be asserted and defended."
Now, 24 years later, what is the future of marriage? Find out more in this podcast.
How are we to reach a world where voices in the media and social media criticizing Christianity have morphed from constructive conversation into emotive smearing?
Paul’s words in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1and 2 are key to the life God calls us to: Be imitators of God… and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us…
Love is the model and framework for our lives. Paul illustrates this by pointing us to the way Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. When he was nailed to the cross, the most unjust act in history, we don’t find him cursing. Rather, we hear him pray, ‘Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing’.
In illustrating what love is in practice Paul, like any good teacher, tells us what love is not: But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people… (5:3).
People today often confuse sex and love. Here Paul says that sexual immorality outside the marriage commitment is greedy and improper for God’s holy people. He observes that obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking … are out of place. We need to reveal who we are by daring to be holy, modelling the beauty of God’s character in this self-centered, vain-glorious world.
Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, Paul continues. Live as children of light … Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, … (5:8).
Light. God’s people are light in the world not because they now follow a new set of rules, but because of their new relationship with Jesus Christ. We are to shine out the light we are.
Our lifestyle is a vital part of our witness. If we’re not progressing in God’s Word, we can hardly expect that anyone will want to find out what we believe. People who say there are no absolutes won’t be persuaded by logic, but they possibly will be if they see our lives being truly changed.
Be careful how you live, not as unwise but as wise, Paul exhorts. FF Bruce notes that Paul’s readers are ‘a small minority, and because of their distinctive ways, their lives will be scrutinized by others: the reputation of the gospel is bound up with their public behavior. Hence the need for care and wisdom, lest the Christian cause should be inadvertently jeopardized by thoughtless speech or action on the part of Christians’ (The Epistles to the Colossians, Philemon and Ephesians, p.378).
And Paul continues, …making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Don’t be foolish. Understand what the Lord’s will is.
We all know how time flies. Paul knew this too: ‘Learn to use it well,’ he is saying. Seize the day – carpe diem!
We need to understand that although God has opened a door for men and women to enter the new era of his kingdom of light, the present age continues to be shrouded in darkness. There is so much evidence of this around us – the Russian aggressive war with Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle-East, drugs and sex trafficking by racketeers, and injustices perpetrated, sometimes even within courts of law.
Understand what the Lord’s will is, Paul writes. Our awareness of the suffering world surely stirs us to dig deep into the Bible so we can better understand God and his purposes. The Scriptures reveal that God hasn’t simply wound up the spring of his creation but is working all things towards the day when he will bring all injustice and suffering to account. For us to seize the day involves not only our living a new life as God’s people but also our ever-growing delight in knowing the Lord.
Now, if you are thinking that all this is heavy and burdensome and rather joyless, we need to meditate on Paul’s further words: Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,… (5:18-20).
The Spirit of God is not a fluid with which we may be filled up. Instead of being under the influence of alcohol we are to be under the influence of God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Christ within us (see also Romans 8:9).
Alcohol can lead to drunkenness and debauchery, which dehumanizes us. We become the reverse of what we were meant to be; no longer the glory of God’s creation, made in his image, we become as the beasts. However, when the Spirit of God fills our lives, he awakens us to be as he created us to be – evoking song and thanksgiving.
Singing. Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,… singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts… (5:19).
We may not realize that the earliest churches expressed their joy in music and singing. The Psalms were their hymn book. And, from the New Testament era, praise has not only been offered to God but also to Christ as God. One of the ways we worship God and build relationships is by singing to one another as well as to the Lord what we learn from the Scriptures.
Emotions are an important part of our makeup. When the Spirit of God is at work in us our singing will have the rich sound that comes from people who have a deep joy that comes from knowing the Lord.
Thanksgiving: Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (5:20).
Nothing brings about tension and division more than ingratitude. A thankful heart trusts God, not just in good times but also in tough times. This stands in sharp contrast to fatalism that results in a resigned acceptance of a situation. Thankful people know that in every situation the all-good sovereign Lord is working out his wonderful purposes for us – as we also read in Romans 8:28-30. God’s spirit-filled people who display their indebtedness to God’s grace are people who know peace, harmony and joy.
Here we have a response to the cacophony of voices of our day – voices of people who know not love and joy and peace and who experience the suffering and injustices of life without hope. They have yet to find the God who loves them with a greater love than they ever dreamed.
Carpe diem. Don’t be drunk with wine; don’t be afraid. Rather, seize the day and live wisely in a world dominated by self-interest. And be filled with the Spirit – singing songs and hymns with gratitude to the Lord in your heart.
A prayer. Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Seize the Day…! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In his book, Christians: The Urgent Case for Jesus in Our World (2021), Dr Greg Sheridan, an Australian journalist and writer, comments: ‘In the West… religious belief has been in serious decline in recent years. The loss of faith is part of a broad movement in the culture. It is also partly, … related to a shocking loss of knowledge’.
He continues, ‘The West is a culture willing itself into amnesia and ignorance, like a patient carefully requesting their medical records and then burning them, so they and their physicians will have no knowledge of what made them sick in the past, and what made them well. … If you believe, as I do, that the Bible is true, this is our society willfully depriving itself of truth’ (p.40).
Paul the Apostle, in his Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 17 writes: Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds, darkened in their understanding, separated from the love of God, because of the ignorance within them…
A world without God. Paul is not saying that people who seek to live without God can’t be academically smart. Rather, he is saying that no matter how clever people might be, they need to be taught about God. For no matter how sharp or developed their reasoning, they won’t find answers to the true meaning of life without God.
Furthermore, he comments, minds without Christ produce various moral symptoms: They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity (4:19).
Paul isn’t saying that every unbeliever is a libertine. Rather, he is speaking about the lifestyle humanity tends to adopt when it chooses to live without God. Yes, there are social inhibitions that check our desires – good families, schools, and social conventions. But, as we’re seeing around us, values are changing. Minds without God invariably slide towards self-indulgence and sensuality. And, if we’re honest, when we look into our own heart we will surely agree.
New life – new lifestyle. Having laid out what happens in a world without God, Paul turns to the new life God expects of his people. Put off the old self, he exhorts; be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self (4:23f). With these active and passive verbs — put off, be renewed, and put on, Paul reveals that we are to play our part in adopting a new lifestyle. God will be working in our lives, but we are to own our responsibility in this new relationship.
And this awakens us to the way God works with his people. We are dependent upon God for our daily food, but that doesn’t mean we expect him to provide house or room service. We need to work for a living and shop for food. In the same way there is a balance of this process of becoming more like God.
On the one hand, God in Christ puts a new mind in his people – an act in which we are completely passive. On the other hand, there is the part that we must play. This is why the New Testament is full of exhortations: to struggle against sin, to fight the good fight and to run the race. Christianity is not a spectator sport where we are up in the grandstand, watching the Holy Spirit win all these battles for us.
The new life requires effort. The Holy Spirit’s work is not to save us the effort, but rather to awaken us to Jesus and to enable us to run. When we become God’s people we have a new nature within us, counteracting the sin virus. God is now working within us, yes, but we have a part to play in developing qualities of holiness and righteousness. We won’t experience this perfection until the coming of the Lord. For the present we are works in progress.
What then does this new life look like? Be imitators of God… and walk in love… Paul exhorts (5:1f). Love sums up the sort of life we ought to live. However, as love is an abstract noun, it needs definition, which we find in chapter 4, verses 25 through 32.
Love means telling the truth and putting off falsehood, for we are members of one body 4:25). It means controlling our temper: In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold… (4:26). There are times when we are justly angry but we mustn’t let it overwhelm or dominate our lives. God will judge all injustice.
Our useful and honest work is to provide benefit for others (as well as addressing our own needs – 4:28). In our conversations we are not to let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up… (4:29).
We are to honor God, not grieving the Holy Spirit of God (4:30). Furthermore, there is no place for bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, as well as every form of malice in our relationships. But most of all, Paul says, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other,… Why? Just as in Christ God forgave you.
With these exhortations Paul is not setting out an exhaustive list of rules to follow. He couldn’t do this in a way that would address every situation in life. Rather he sets out illustrations for the underlying principles of honoring God and loving one another.
So, when we find ourselves in situations of moral uncertainty, inventing more rules is not the solution. Rather, we need to reflect on the perfect model – the Lord Jesus. In turn we need to pray for wisdom and strength to exemplify the kind of self-denying love that Christ showed – in his attitudes to those around him and, supremely, when he gave himself up on the cross. We will not go far wrong if we try to live a life like Christ. Be imitators of God… Paul writes. Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (5:1-2).
Here then is a response to the spiritual forgetfulness around us – our growing Christlike lives. Let’s then pray that God will so work with his Spirit and his Word within us that we will grow in the riches of his love and bear the fruit of his Spirit in our lives.
A prayer. Teach us, gracious Lord, to begin our works with reverence, to go on in obedience, and finish them with love; and then to wait patiently in hope, and with cheerful countenance to look up to you, whose promises are faithful and rewards infinite; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
© John G. Mason
The post Spiritual Forgetfulness … appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Commenting on how we understand Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Rebecca McLaughlin writes: ‘We hear a call to care for strangers in need. But Jesus’s first audience heard more. They heard a story of love across racial, religious, and political difference, in which the moral hero was their sworn enemy’ (The Secular Creed, 2021: p.11).
And we might add, yet how many in the wider community today are even aware of the parable of the Good Samaritan let alone understand its significance for us? Even more importantly, how many today know the Jesus of the historical Gospel accounts?
The key to everyone’s understanding lies in the ministry gifts that Paul the Apostle highlights in chapter 4 of his Letter to the Ephesians.
Having written of the unity of God’s people – there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all (4:6) – he moves on to the theme of diversity. In their unity, God’s people are not monochrome but rather, to change the metaphor, can be likened to the instruments of the heavenly orchestra because of the variety of gifts he gives each one of us. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift, Paul writes (4:7).
Having rescued his people through an act of extraordinary and undeserved grace (2:5, 8), God gives to all his people a grace or gift for the building up of the Christian community. Drawing from Psalm 68 which is associated with the Jewish Pentecost and the receiving and giving of the law through Moses to the people, Paul uses it as an analogy for Christ receiving the Spirit and now giving the gifts of the Spirit to God’s people. Furthermore, as Christ descended from heaven, taking on human form and dying the death we justly deserve, he has now ascended, being raised from the dead to heaven where he now holds supreme power at God’s right hand (Philippians 2:5-11).
From this position God in Christ now gives each one of his people back to the church as a gift. Consider verse 11: The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,… These declaratory gifts are set out first because they are essential for the growth of God’s people.
The apostles were a unique, select group, called and sent by Jesus himself – men who had personally met with the risen Lord Jesus Christ and who were commissioned and equipped by him to reveal and proclaim him to the nations. They would have a true understanding of the significance of his life, death and resurrection. Their unique ministry, together with that of the prophets, is foundational for the church (Ephesians 2:20).
The prophets are also one-of-a-kind in the Bible in that God has uniquely spoken through them. Thus says the Lord characterized their ministry. We therefore need to beware of all who bring new ideas claiming to be prophets.
In some circles much is made of the phrase, ‘apostolic succession’, applying it to bishops and sometimes to church-planters. It is said they stand in the succession of the apostles through the laying on of hands. But Paul is not suggesting this. The biblical way to speak of the apostolic succession is to relate it to the preaching and teaching that is consistent with what the apostles and prophets proclaimed and taught.
Paul next references evangelists(4:11). While all God’s people are called upon to play a part in testifying to their faith. God calls some to have a special ministry as evangelists – being gifted in evangelistic speaking or effective evangelistic equipping of God’s people.
From its inception Christianity has been global, and key to this movement isn’t force of arms but a message. We often forget Jesus’ words, ‘the fields are white (ready) for harvest (John 4:35). With his reference to the gift of evangelists, Paul underlines God’s purpose to rescue men and women and build his church. Every congregation needs to pray for, identify and support evangelists amongst them.
And there is another gift: pastors and teachers. Because Paul omits the definite article before teachers, he indicates that the gift of pastor and teacher is paired. A pastor is a teacher and a teacher a pastor. To teach God’s Word is to pastor God’s people. To be an effective Christian pastor, God’s Word needs to be explained and applied.
The pastor and teacher is given by God as a gift to guide and grow his people. The services for the ordination of ministers in the 1552/1662 Book of Common Prayer reflect these principles from Ephesians, applying them to ministers and bishops. They’re not super-holy people; rather, they are gifted as pastors and teachers.
Paul explains God’s purpose in giving these declaratory gifts to his people: To equip the saints (literally, the holy ones)for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (4:13).
God is committed to building his church, not just in number but also in maturity. And this is achieved primarily through the ministry of his Word. Evangelists have the task of reaching the wider community. Pastors and teachers are to equip God’s people so that we can all play a part in ministries to one another that promote our unity in Christ and our growth in knowing him. God wants us to become a healthy and mature body of people in our walk together with Christ.
Furthermore, he doesn’t want us to be fickle in our faith, tossed to and fro by every new teaching that arises, new teaching that might at first appear biblical, but which in fact takes us in a new direction that is not biblically-grounded – as happens in churches that are carried along by the culture.
In a world where progressive voices are subverting the Judaeo-Christian message, how much more do we need to grow in our knowledge of God and in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Essential to our growth and our voice in the wider community are the declaratory ministries of God’s Word. The ministries of evangelists and pastors and teachers are essential. We may pray for the ministers of our church, but do we also pray we can discern and support those in our midst to whom God has especially given the gift of evangelism?
And, if you will pardon a personal note, have you obtained a copy of my book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs? It’s written as a refresher for God’s people and as a book to be passed on to people you know who don’t know what to believe. If you are in the US, you can use the link below. It’s available everywhere through Amazon.
A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Essential for Growth … appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
One of the outcomes of the rapid development of cell phones is the extraordinary capacity for connectivity we all have. In nanoseconds we can reach people around the world while we sit on a train or wait for a bus. Yet there’s an irony. How often do we see people in twos or threes or more, sipping coffee or eating out together with their phones out? Their proximity to one another does not necessarily mean community. And how often does social media subvert meaningful communication: research is regularly revealing the destructive forces at work on personalities.
Created in the image of God we are designed for meaningful and joyful community.
Come with me to The Letter to the Ephesians where a central theme unfolds: God is building a new society of people drawn from all the nations of the world. In chapter 4 he develops expectations for this new community. It’s a theme he is excited about.
Humility. Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, he writes in verse 1. On the night of his arrest, Jesus said to his disciples, “A new commandment I give you: that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). Our problem is that we keep failing in this. Yet relationships amongst God’s people are so important that Paul tells us we need to work at them. He exhorts us: Lead a life worthy of your calling, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (4:2-3).
Consider the flipside of humility and gentleness: conceit and insensitivity. Wrapped up in themselves conceited people dismiss anyone for whom they have little regard. No, says Paul, you are called to humility and gentleness. These aren’t signs of weakness, but rather strength: it is only the strong who can be humble and caring.
To these qualities he adds patience, literally, longsuffering. The flipside is the quick-fire temper that explodes at the least provocation. Most of us have areas of our personality where we respond out of all proportion to a situation. It’s as though we have minefields in our lives. Some have very few mines and relate naturally and easily to others – even when they disagree. Others, however, have personality mines that explode when they encounter someone with whom they disagree. Indeed, it only takes one ‘walking minefield’ to destroy the morale and endeavor of a community.
How then can God’s people develop a genuine community? We have a resource and a model that no-one else has: the character of God. God is not without his points of conflict with us, but he is patient and has provided the means whereby he can forgive us. He doesn’t hold grudges and he doesn’t let his anger turn into bitterness.
If we call ourselves God’s people, we are to reflect these qualities in our relationships with one another. In fact, this is a request in The Lord’s Prayer: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us. We ought to be known as people who are forgiving, having a charitable spirit in all our relationships. It is inconsistent with our calling to be argumentative and explosive, bitter, resentful and complaining.
Now Paul is not saying that we should be long-suffering because we’re prepared to put up with anything. In verse 15 he says: But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,… Being long-suffering doesn’t mean there is no place for admonishment or exhortation. We are called to be non-judgmental. The quality we are to adopt is the spirit of love: love for God and love for one another: lead a life worthy of your calling.
Unity. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all (4:4-6).
How easy it is in life, even when we are at church, to forget the awesome, cosmic plan of the triune God – namely to draw together his people from throughout time and from all nations. Just as God is one, so his people are one, united through the work of the Spirit. As Jesus indicated to Nicodemus (John 3), it is the Spirit who gives us new birth and who awakens us to the binding power of the hope the Lord Jesus Christ holds out to us.
Furthermore, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. The one faith and one baptism are linked with one Lord because the Lord Christ Jesus is the object of our shared faith. We are not governed by a heavenly Committee but by a person – the exciting, mighty and powerful figure, Jesus Christ. He is the Lord who brings us together.
Paul lifts our gaze and our wonder to God the Father when he says there is one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all (4:6). In his Delighting in the Trinity Michael Reeves says, “It is only when we see that God rules his creation as a kind and loving Father that we’ll be moved to delight in his providence”.
Community. Indeed, because from eternity the triune God exists in relationship and because God has made us in his image, we are made first and foremost for relationship with him and, in turn with one another. No wonder we long for deep and lasting, meaningful and genuine relationships. It’s an essential part of our DNA. The starting point is our relationship with God.
Furthermore, as Paul has been explaining in chapters one through three, even though we have messed up and broken our relationship with God, such is his nature that he delights to love and give new life.
Surely we will want to pray that God’s Spirit and God’s Word will enable us to begin to experience the riches and beauty of God’s love and awaken us to a genuine love for him and for one another.
Tertullian, a 2nd century North African theologian and apologist wrote of the church of his time: “Look,” they say, “how they (Christians) love one another” (for they themselves, Romans, hate one another); “and how they (Christians) are ready to die for each other” (for they themselves, Romans, are readier to kill each other).
Most people I meet long, deep down, for meaningful relationships. Yet in a world where we are all encouraged to explore our self-identity, again and again, we experience proximity without community. How much more then should we bear witness to genuine community in our relationships with one another as God’s people, especially in the church we attend. But first we need to have a true relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ who brings us and binds us together as his people in a new and true community.
A prayer. Almighty and everlasting God, you have given us your servants grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and by your divine power to worship you as One: we pray that you would keep us steadfast in this faith and evermore defend us from all adversities; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Genuine Community … appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
How can we weather the challenges of our divided and uncertain world?
Come with me to Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 through 21 where the curtain over Paul the Apostle is drawn aside, and we are given a glimpse of him at prayer.
I kneel before the Father, he begins, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. Genesis chapter 1 tells us that God created us in his image, and it is therefore true to say that all humanity has its fatherhood or parentage in God. However, as the Bible unfolds, we see that there is a very special relationship between God and those who are personally drawn to him. Paul is echoing what Jesus taught his disciples: we can call God, ‘our Father’.
This really is an extraordinary privilege – to be able to call God ‘Father’. In fact, when we think about it, there is no higher honor that God could give us, for it means we stand in a very special relationship with him as his adopted sons and daughters. This awesome truth stands at the head of Paul’s prayer. And he prays that we might experience this awareness in our lives, so we can relax and enjoy the amazing privilege of being God’s special people at every twist and turn in life. Three themes stand out.
Inner strength. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit…
The work of the Spirit goes to the heart of our being. Despite what cosmetologists and exercise gurus want us to think, the truth is that our physical bodies are wasting away. The time will come, when as far as our physical body is concerned, there is little hope for the future. But Paul wants us to understand that it’s not all downhill.
If God is at work in our lives, changes for the better to our inner being can occur. It’s here we see the counter-cultural way God works as opposed to the way that the world expects him to work. The world expects God to work with great displays of power. Tempted to think this way too, we might say that God’s power is to be expressed in self-confidence, self-assertion, success. And when it comes to churches, it is thought that God’s power will be seen in high-powered church growth and in dramatic answers to prayer.
But God has a different plan. For the present he chooses to work in secret, changing us from the inside out, not the outside in. It’s an important distinction most of us miss. Paul is praying that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us at the very root of our character and our lives. He prays that God’s Spirit will so work in our lives and so teach us that we will be strengthened in our appetite for God and our love for and loyalty to Jesus. He wants us to focus our hope on Christ, to drop sinful habits and develop a new framework for living.
Paul says he wants to see the whole of our inner life affected by the Spirit — our hearts and affections, our will, our minds and decisions. It’s radical and it’s painful. Once the Holy Spirit starts to work in our lives, begins to probe, to question, to challenge, to discipline and to develop us, it hurts. For when he takes the Word of God and reaches to the very depth of our being, the Word becomes like a scalpel in his hands.
Transformation. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love(3:17).
This is the only place in the whole of the Bible that speaks about Christ dwelling in our hearts. Dwell means ‘settle down’, or ‘putting down roots’. Mixing his metaphors Paul prays that we will be well-rooted trees withstanding droughts, and well-built houses that can withstand hurricanes.
There will be many things in us with which Jesus Christ will not be comfortable. Repairs and renovation are needed in our lives. And anyone who has done house renovation and repairs knows it takes longer and costs more than originally expected.
Knowing that this kind of life-changing transformation is what God wants and knowing that it requires God’s power in our lives, Paul prays that God will do what is necessary to make our lives a fit home for his Son.
Christ’s Love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (3:18-19).
With imagery that awakens us to the complexity and profundity of God’s love – the breadth and length, and height and depth – Paul prays that we will know the love of Christ. He wants us not only to know but also to experience God’s love so that we may be able to say, and really know it and feel it in our hearts, ‘the Son of God gave himself for me.’
This genuine experience of Christ rarely comes to anyone who is not spending time in the Scriptures – for example, meditating on Ephesians chapter 1 through chapter 2, verse 10. The kind of mind-shift we need to prompt us to do this usually requires large explosive power. Sometimes God give us a wake-up call through hardship, bereavement or tragedy. Sometimes it’s not until we see material possessions for what they are, unsatisfying tchotchkes or knick-knacks, that we begin to comprehend the reality of God’s love.
Indeed, it’s only when God’s power is at work in our lives that we will begin to see what it meant for him to take on human form and enter our world, what it cost for him to suffer and die in our place. I pray, says Paul, that with all of God’s people, you experience the power of God’s love in your hearts, and knowing that experience, the fullness of joy with the transcendent Lord.
Beyond Imagination. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (3:20-21).
Paul’s words here startle and encourage us. Our thoughts and imaginations are lifted beyond time and space to the Lord himself. Significantly, the focus of God’s powerful work is amongst and through his people.
Too often we forget God’s awesome cosmic purposes. We focus too much on ourselves. Maybe we are content to swim in the shallows of faith rather than in the deep, clear waters of God’s love. For in his love God has far greater expectations for us than we can even begin to imagine.
A prayer. Almighty God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit: so enable us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and always to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The 250th anniversary of American Independence brings to mind a key statement in the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”.
Interestingly, Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli historian and philosopher, observes in his book, Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind (2015: p.109), that the equality of humanity is not self-evident: “The Americans got the idea of equality from Christianity which argues that every person has a divinely created soul, and that all souls are equal before God. However, if we do not believe in the Christian myths about God, creation and souls, what does it mean that all people are ‘equal’?”, he asks. According to Harari who writes as an atheist, “Homo Sapiens has no natural rights, just as spiders, hyenas, and chimpanzees have no natural rights” (Sapiens, p.111).
Harari rightly observes that Christianity teaches that all men and women are equal before God. We often forget that the opening chapter of the Bible describes humanity as being created in the image of God – the climax and glory of God’s creation. And significantly, as we read on into the New Testament, we find that Matthew includes non-Israelite women in Jesus’s human bloodline: Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute and Ruth, the Moabitess. Both came to trust Israel’s God (Matthew 1:5).
Furthermore, Luke, in his Acts of the Apostles, records a meeting between Philip and an official from the court of Queen Candace of Ethiopia – ancient Cush, the region south of modern Egypt, into Sudan (8:26-38). While the Bible doesn’t refer to skin color (and so doesn’t note that the official from ancient Ethiopia would have been black), it is vitally interested in our relationship with God. In this instance, Luke tells us that the man responded to Philip’s gospel presentation and was baptized.
Significantly, recent researchers such as Vince Bantu (in A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity’s Global Identity)record the strength and vitality of African churches from the very earliest years. Why did this happen – especially given the antipathetic attitude towards Christianity’s founder amongst the Jewish leaders? We find an important clue in chapter 3 of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians where he writes of the revelation of God’s mystery.
Mystery revealed. Paul uses the word mystery, not as secrets that are only revealed to the elite ‘insiders’, but rather to refer to God’s plan that had been hidden in the past but is now openly revealed to everyone. He says it has to do with Christ who has opened the way for the non-Jewish world to enjoy full and equal benefits of all God’s promises (3:4, 6). This is radical. He is saying that a unique relationship between men and women and God’s Messiah is now available, and that this relationship removes the barriers and hostility between all peoples, no matter their skin-color or race and includes Jewish and non-Jewish peoples.
Through the years the Jewish people had understood that God would bless the nations through them – as he had promised Abraham (Genesis 12:3); they also knew Isaiah had said that Israel would be a light to the nations (Isaiah 49:6). But there is no hint, either in the Old Testament or in Jesus’s teaching that God planned to involve the non-Jewish peoples of the world as equal beneficiaries in a new international community he is building – a community whose head is the Jewish Messiah, Christ Jesus.
Mystery proclaimed. In verse 7 Paul writes: Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.
Saying he is the very least of all the saints, Paul speaks as one of God’s emissaries in announcing the boundless riches of Christ to the non-Jewish world (3:8). The boundless, unsearchable, inexhaustible, incalculable riches of which he speaks is one of the most profound ideas in the Bible. Paul wants us to know we shall never come to the end of the wealth of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.
An important theme permeates this as he brings together the ideas of revelation and commission: God’s truth is to be passed on! Just think. If we were sure that the gospel is God’s truth and the riches of Christ are for all men and women, not one of us would be able to keep quiet.
The story is told of a conversation between a prominent Russian communist leader and a Western church leader at the height of the cold war. The Christian was bemoaning the fact that the USSR was closed to Christianity. The Russian leader’s response was immediate: ‘You don’t know what you are talking about! We envy you. Look at the vast resources you have to get your message out: you have people.’ When the first Christians came to faith their lives were changed and they talked their faith – gossiped the gospel.
Light and Truth. To make everyone see (enlighten) what is the plan (administration) of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Paul continues(3:9).
Plan or better, administration refers to the implementation of God’s plan – which is revealed in Bible-believing and teaching churches. So that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places (3:10).
The mystery of God was no abstract idea. Now revealed, it takes shape as men and women from all walks of life, from all cultural and racial backgrounds, are brought together as one people. It reveals the rich tapestry of God’s grace, power and wisdom. And as the story of this work of God continues to unfold, Paul tells us that there are supernatural watchers, the angelic world, spectators to the drama of God’s astonishing work.
This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, Paul writes, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. I pray therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory (3:11-13).
Sadly, so many of us have lost sight of the wonder of God’s great cosmic plan. The very existence of healthy, vital churches growing across the nations of the world, reveals the global extent of Christianity and, when we think about it, the impact of the fundamental value that all men and women are created equal.
A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Back in 1979 Christopher Lasch in The Culture of Narcissism wrote, “Our society has made lasting friendships, love affairs and marriages, increasingly difficult to achieve. Social life has become more and more warlike and personal relationships have taken on the character of combat. Some dignify the combat by offering courses in assertiveness training. Others celebrate the impermanent detachments which result with slogans like ‘open marriages’, but in doing so they merely intensify the pervasive dissatisfaction with the quality of human relationships which is at the heart of the problem”. And this before the age of the internet and social media.
Alienation is a word often used to describe our human plight. Everywhere relationships are broken – within and between nations, in the workplace, within families and between friends.
Love is said to be the cure-all for the brokenness and division. But what does it mean? What does real love look like?
Throughout the Bible, especially as it relates to God and his relationship with us, we find a radically different way that love is understood. As we touched on last week, in chapter 2 of his Letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks of our natural state as the walking dead: You were dead through the trespasses and sins, he says(2:1), … children of wrath (2:3).
However, God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us has given his people new life withChrist, raising us from death and giving us a seat beside Christ in his victory and rule (2:4f). God is truly just in judging us because we chose to divorce him. Yet at the same time, he has chosen to love us and reveal his grace because his nature is to have mercy.
Paul goes on to explain what this means for his non-Jewish readers: Remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world (2:12).
Pointing out that they were once without Christ: they didn’t know the Messiah of the Jewish people and were thus separated from God and from God’s ancient people. They were aliens – implying that being men and women made in God’s image, a former relationship with God had been broken. The Gentiles were without God, living in the darkness of self-interest without the light of Christ in their lives. They had no hope beyond this life.
Barriers of power and greed, culture and class, color and race cause division everywhere. Broken relationships exist at every level, as we see exemplified across the political divide. We experience proximity but without community. Remember what you were, Paul says.
Yet how often do we forget! We write our Christian testimonies failing to remember that we were once without Christ, without God, and without hope – that we were saved by grace and now live by grace (2:8,9).
The peace-maker. In verses 13 through 16 we read: You (Gentiles) have been brought near by the blood of Christ. In his flesh he has made both groups into one. So that he might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.
God could have justly written off humanity. But that would have been an admission of defeat. Instead, at an extreme cost to himself, he chose a path that would enable a just peace between the Jewish and non-Jewish (Gentile) peoples, and alsobetween both groups and himself (God).
The Bible tells us that from the very beginning of his creating work, knowing what men and women who were created in his image would choose to do, God determined on an infinitely more costly strategy. Instead of abandoning this evil and ungrateful world that had rejected him, he would provide a path to peace. He would rescue people from the consequences of their folly by dealing himself with the penalty of his own just anger.
The key is Christ Jesus and the blood he shed when he died at Calvary. It’s the first time in the Letter that Paul has developed the theme of the cross of Christ. And here he is telling us in memorable words what God has done. In an extraordinary gift of love, he has opened the way to peace through Christ’s sacrificial blood shed on the cross.
Christ is creating a new society in which hostility gives way to harmony; alienation gives way to reconciliation. Of all the great teachers, prophets, mystics, and all the -isms of the world, Jesus alone has been able to achieve this.
This doesn’t mean that humanity is now united and at peace. Daily the news tells us it isn’t. But while at times it is difficult to believe, there is one group where true community is possible: amongst God’s people.
Citizens of God’s new society. In verse 19 we read: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,
You non-Jewish believers, Paul is saying, are no longer what you used to be— strangers and visitors without legal rights. Rather, you have a new status. Once you were without God, but now you have the same God and Father as Jewish believers: you are brothers and sisters together in Christ. Once you were without hope; now you are joined together with believing Israel and being built into a temple – the people with whom God lives. It’s an awesome picture.
Without the teaching of the apostles and the prophets we wouldn’t have a clue about what God has done. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is the chief cornerstone of God’s work. Cornerstones were essential in ancient buildings, setting them and keeping them in line and steady. The glorified Jesus is the key to God’s new community.
Not there yet. This doesn’t mean that God’s people are yet perfect. Far from it. It does mean our being honest with God, daily turning to him in repentance and asking for new resolve and strength to live his good way. It means less self-interest and self-will and more of what God expects of us.
It means putting aside everything that stands in the way of developing true community as God’s people – getting to know one another, including those who are not normally part of our social network, caring for those in need, working at reconciliation with those we have hurt or those who have hurt us. Not bearing grudges or grievances.
Men and women everywhere are looking for meaningful relationships of trust. In an angry, bitter, and divided world a powerful testimony to the truth of God’s gospel is the local church community where peace, not division, should exist. What are we doing with this precious jewel God has given us?
Prayer. God of the nations, whose kingdom rules over all, have mercy on our broken and divided world. Shed abroad your peace in the hearts of all men and women and banish from them the spirit that makes for war; so that all races and people may learn to live as members of one family and in obedience to your laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Three years ago I referenced an article by Chris Kenny, ‘Our politicians and media are letting us down’ (The Weekend Australian, June 17-18, 2023). He observed: “When we see the open deceit and toxicity of politics and the media in the Canberra bubble (Australia’s DC), it is tempting to despair … We see persistent tension between truth and lies. We are informed about political systems we do not trust by media we do not believe”.
He then commented, “The depressing reality is that politics and media are manifestations of human nature, which is stubbornly flawed. Dante knew 700 years ago that the propensity to lie was our greatest flaw … More than 2000 years ago Aristotle warned that the only thing we “gain by falsehood” is to ensure we are not believed when we speak the truth. Yet in the here and now this same battle between truth and lies is the most important daily struggle”.
Two thousand years ago Paul the Apostle took the notion of our flawed human nature to another level. In Ephesianschapter 2, he writes: You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived,…
Our real problem. In our natural state we are the walking dead in God’s eyes: our relationship with him is dead, non-existent. Our trespasses and sins – our self-interest and pride, our covetousness, lies and deception, are all illustrations of this.
Furthermore, Paul identifies another layer behind our deeply flawed, self-interested nature when he says that in our natural state we follow the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient…
We are subject to oppressive influences – our flawed inner self, and from outside the prevailing secular culture. However, beyond both and actively working through both, is the ruler of the kingdom of darkness who holds us in captivity.
All too often, even so-called gospel churches fail to understand the depth of the abyss into which humanity has plunged – because we’ve turned our backs on God. It is an abyss from which we can’t extract ourselves. Humanity’s problem is not that it has simply taken a by-path in life. Rather we have chosen the path that leads to death. ‘Is there any hope?’ we might ask.
But God …All of us are by nature children of wrath,butGod, who is rich in mercy, … Paul declares (2:3, 4).
The contrast between verses 3 and 4 is astonishing. God’s just anger in condemning us is not incompatible with his love. The two can be held together. God can be truly just in judging sin and at the same time choose to forgive because his nature is always to have mercy – choosing to love and to give life. Indeed, his justice reveals the depth of his mercy.
And consider what his mercy means for all who turn to him: … Out of the great love with which he loved us… he made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (2:4, 5b, 6).
Although we were dead to God because we had chosen to ignore him, he nevertheless chose to give us a new life withChrist, raising us from death and giving us a seat beside Christ in his victory and rule – such is the tight link we now have with himthrough his Spirit (1:13).
God has done this, Paul tells us, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus (2:7).
How different is God’s love – his grace and kindness – from the self-focused, emotional and sentimental way love and mercy are understood today. Out of God’s pure love, his grace – his mercy so totally undeserved – he acted in rescuing the Ephesian Christians. He also planned that the overwhelming nature of his mercy he had shown, would be seen in the ages to come.
‘Can all this be true?’ we might ask. ‘Or is it another lie to promote the noise of the churches and to prop up the cripples of life? Two great themes in this passage provide an answer: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and the witness and evidence of the changed lives of genuine Christians throughout the ages (2:6, 7).
In verses 8 and 9 Paul restates the extraordinary mercy and gift of God: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
Three foundation gospel words stand out – salvation, grace and faith. Salvationis more than forgiveness: it is deliverance from death and the gift of new life in Christ in all its fullness. Grace is God’s free and undeserved mercy towards us. Faith is our response of trust by which we each receive God’s free gift for ourselves.
There is no place for asking, ‘How much penance should I do?’ God’s gift of forgiveness and new life is full and free. It echoes Jesus’s words to the repentant criminal as he was dying on the cross: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Good works. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life (2:10).
We are God’s work of art. Our salvation is God’s masterpiece in his creation. In the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s, ‘The Creation of Adam’ portrays God reaching out to Adam. Paul wants us to know that God’s masterpiece is of a totally different order: salvation is not just creation, or re-creation. It is a new creation.
Furthermore, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works – good works that God prepared beforehand. Before God in his mercy brought us to Christ we walked in trespasses and sins in which self-interest and the powers of evil had trapped us. Now we live out the good works God has eternally planned for us to do.
There are many things happening around us today that are troubling. Our only hope is to be found in the depths of God’s mercy. Let me encourage you to reflect on these words of Paul and ask the Lord to awaken the riches of his love in you, stirring you to live out each day the good works he has prepared for you to do. When we do this, others will notice – especially if we wisely play a part in helping them to discern truth in the midst of the deceptions around us. Maybe then, they with us, will come to know the hope and joy that only God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, can give us.
A prayer. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, like lost sheep we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts and have broken your holy laws. Going our own way we have not loved you as we ought nor loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve your condemnation. Father, for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, forgive us all that is past. Turn our hearts to love you and obey your will. Help us to live for your glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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AA Milne’s, Christopher Robin’s prayer, ‘Little Boy kneels at the foot of his bed…’ has touched the hearts of millions. The poem is a picture of childhood innocence, a mixture of God language and the distractions of inner thoughts: ‘Wasn’t it fun in the bath tonight?’ and, ‘If I open my fingers a little bit more, I can see Nanny’s dressing-gown on the door’.
For adults it raises questions about prayer. Is it something we grow out of? If we do pray, what should we pray: ‘God bless the family, friends and me?’ And why are there all those distractions in our prayers? Will we ever grow out of them?
Paul the Apostle provides very helpful answers to these kinds of questions in Ephesians chapter 1. Thanksgiving and prayer are two themes in the chapter, setting out a balance for our prayers. Our relationship with God is not just asking for things: it also involves thanksgiving for the riches of God’s love and the inexpressible joy we have in him. C.S Lewis once commented: I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to ‘rejoice’ as much as by anything else.
In verses 3 though 14, Paul thanks God for the faith and love and hope evident in the lives of the Ephesian church – features that have been awakened and made possible through the complex work of the triune God.
Now in verses 15 through 21, he prays for the Ephesians – especially that they might continually grow in the riches of all God has done for them. His prayer is not simply, ‘God bless the church in Ephesus’!
Know God. In verse 17 he writes: I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,…
Knowing God involves wisdom and revelation. Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom – the beginning, not the ending. We also need God’s self-revelation, and this is what the Bible says of itself: God breathing out (inspiring) his thoughts (2 Timothy 3:16). The Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles speaks of the Bible as ‘God’s Word written’ (Article XX). As in all meaningful personal relationships we need to reveal who we are and for others to do the same. In the same way we need God to reveal himself, otherwise we will only have conjecture, not relationship.
Adolphe Monod, a great Protestant French preacher once commented, Philosophy taking man for its center says, ‘Know thyself’; only the inspired word which proceeds from God has been able to say, ‘Know God’.
So Paul prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, (or the glory) may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. While most translations spell spirit with a lower case ‘s’, it’s more likely that Paul’s reference is to the Holy Spirit, since the Bible speaks about him as the Spirit of Truth – the agent of God’s self-revelation.
It is because of his confidence in the Spirit’s ministry that Paul continues his prayer: so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know… The eyes of the heart is a reference to the whole of the inward self – mind and emotion. Our natural bias is to turn away from God and thus from truth. This is the reason the world is in its state of turmoil and conflict.
It is the Spirit who opens the eyes of our heart and turns us to God. It is that same Spirit and the Word of the Spirit that continue to bring us more and more into the fullness of God’s truth. It is for such ongoing enlightenment that Paul prays.
Hope. Paul continues: So that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,… (1:18a). God has called us to something and for something – something rich, exciting and worthwhile.…
Features of knowing God include freedom (freedom from the judgment of God’s law) and peace (in Christ we experience harmony across the barriers of age, gender and race). Paul prays that, now enjoying fellowship with God and with one another, our eyes will be opened to the hope that lies before us.
Glory. So that you may know what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,.. Inheritance refers to what God plans to give us – one that is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit (1:14).
While our inheritance is beyond our wildest imagination, there are moments when the New Testament lifts a corner of the curtain for us. We’re told we shall see God and his Christ, that as this vision unfolds we will worship him with great joy in our hearts.
When Christ appears we shall reflect his glory, not just outwardly but in our inner character. God’s plan for his people will include a great banquet for the vast multitude – far too great to number. His people will be drawn into his presence from every nation throughout time. Clearly Paul doesn’t think it is presumptuous for us to think about this future or even to anticipate it with joy and gratitude. On the contrary, he prays that we may know it and know the riches of glory and live with the joy of it in our hearts.
Power. Paul continues: So that you may know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power (1:19).
Paul knows we need the energy and strength of God’s power in our lives if we are to come safely to our final inheritance. We know the reality of our human weaknesses: our tongue or our temper, malice, greed, lust, jealousy or pride – things that are beyond our power to control. But are our weaknesses beyond God’s power?
Paul answers this by reminding us of God’s supremacy. Jesus’ resurrection, enthronement and headship over all things are examples of God’s power (1:20 – 23). It is because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead and his absolute lordship over all other authorities including the powers of evil that he’s been given headship over the church. The resurrection and the ascension were decisive demonstrations of divine power.
Paul continues his great prayer saying that Christ fills the church in the same way he fills the universe – empowering his people with wisdom and understanding, inspiring and motivating us to a new way of living.
What a far cry this is from the vesper prayer of the young Christopher Robin. Like any good parent, God wants us to grow up, to know him and to enjoy him forever. But he also knows that we need his help – his power at work within us. And this he promises. All we need to do is ask.
A prayer. Teach us, gracious Lord, to begin our works with reverence, to go on in obedience, and finish them with love; and then to wait patiently in hope, and with cheerful countenance to look up to you, whose promises are faithful and rewards infinite; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Over the northern summer, the Word on Wednesday will offer a series of reflections on The Letter to the Ephesians. The Letter plumbs the depths of biblical Christianity, opening up the riches of God that shape the mind and warm the heart.
The Letterwas written to be read in churches in the region of ancient Asia Minor, modern Türkiye. It may be helpful to imagine yourself sitting in church with the first eager listeners when the wonders of this Letter unfolded – after all we are members of the same family.
In the opening lines we read: Paul, an envoy of Christ Jesus by the will of God – commissioned through God’s decision – to the holy ones in Ephesus – regular people whose lives were separated from God through sin, and who are now walking a new life of faith in Christ. Grace to you and peace – being reconciled with God, may the rich kindness and favor of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ rest on your minds and hearts.
Then in one long sentence, from verses 3 through 14, we are drawn into God’s awe-inspiring presence and cosmic plan – a plan that reveals the extraordinary mercy of the triune God.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the realm of spiritual realities – Paul begins. He continues by breaking out what this looks like in terms of God’s pre-cosmic plans for his people; this includes their redemption and remission of their sins in Christ (verses 4-6), and their inheritance in Christ (verse 11) – a relationship and hope that is sealed by the Spirit of God (verses 13f).
The theme of God’s grace is palpable, dominating the whole scene. God is the subject of almost every main verb: It is he who has blessed us … ; He has freely bestowed upon us his grace (verse 6); He has made known his will and purpose which he set forth in Christ… to unite all things (verses 9f); He accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will (verse 11).
Contrary to a stereotyped view, the God of the Bible delights in giving life, is kind and generous, warm-hearted and loving – so different from the pagan gods of the world, the impersonal Force of Star Wars and the cold-blooded, ruthless rule of human dictatorships.
How easy it is to nod sagely at Paul’s words and yet fail to consider their substance, especially what they teach us about God’s grace. In verses 5 through 8 we learn what that grace cost God: He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.
God’s glory is revealed in his grace, his extraordinary love for the unworthy: and despite what we like to think, none of us is worthy. And that glorious grace is supremely seen in the costly death of his Son.
At the turn of the 5th century AD, Pelagius, a popular preacher, challenged the immorality of his day and urged people to live pure lives. His preaching seemed biblical until the north African theologian and bishop, Augustine, began to review his teaching. He pointed out that Pelagius was saying that it was only through ‘right living’ that we had any hope of eternal life – in other words, our hope of eternal life lay in using God as the one who sells us heaven.
Augustine rightly commented that the Bible teaches that we are designed to love, but the tragedy is that we have turned love in on itself – from loving God to loving self. Our hearts need to be changed – something we can’t do ourselves.
In our western world today there’s a culture of victimhood that blames the ills of the world on others. Underlying it all is the rejection of any sense of my personal failure. It’s what happens when self-love dominates. And, if there is life after death, most people reckon that they’re good enough to make it.
Tragically, many professing Christians and churches have not grasped the reality of the meaning of God’s grace. They tell us Christianity is about love, but the Christian focus is on loving one’s neighbour and caring about the injustices of the world. Churches that lose this understanding have no vocabulary for the cost of God’s grace that required Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross. In turn they don’t have a ministry or a liturgy that calls for repentance for sins and the assurance of God’s forgiveness.
God’s plan is to build a vibrant, new community of forgiven people. Eleven times in this one long opening sentence, we read the phrase, in Christ or in him. And in verses 9 & 10 we learn that God’s ultimate plan is to bring everything and everyone under the rule of Christ.
Assurance. Having believed, you were marked in him (in Christ) with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession— to the praise of his glory.
God seals us as his own by coming into our lives through his Spirit. Long before, he had promised his people that he would take up residence with them (Jeremiah 31:31ff). Ephesians is now telling us that the presence of God’s Spirit within us is a down-payment on our future inheritance.
The presence of the Holy Spirit within us now, assures us that our names will be found in the great Register of God’s people – listed as an adopted son or daughter of the Father, signed in by Jesus Christ, embossed with the great seal of the Holy Spirit of God.
It is with humble, heart-felt thankfulness for the humility of our great and wonderful, all-glorious and loving God, that I look forward with joy to the day when I come into his presence, because he has honored me with a part in his epic story.
A prayer. Lord God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: mercifully accept our prayers, and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do nothing good without you, grant us the help of your grace, so that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in word and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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God is love. Yet how often is this glibly said – without giving thought to the implications? For God to love he must have someone else to love throughout eternity.
In a highly patterned and repetitive piece of writing, the first book of the Bible introduces six stages of God’s creating work with, “And God said,” and “Let there be…”
However, in the second part of verse 26 of Genesis chapter 1 this symmetry is broken. A significant plural verb is introduced, “Let us make…”. The break is emphatic. The us is not simply a royal plural. The decision to create men and women is the outcome of a conversation within the Godhead.
The Old Testament consistently says there is only one God. Yet, there is constant reference to the Spirit of the Lord. Furthermore, in the New Testament, the Gospel records speak of Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God. John the Gospel writer speaks of the Word, who was with God and who is God, coming amongst us in human form (John 1:14).
Which brings us to Jesus’s words to his disciples on the night of his arrest. Jesus knew they dreaded the very idea of his departure. As so often happens, self-pity blinded them to the hidden but greater purposes of God.
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth,” he said, “it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (16:7). One of the Spirit’s tasks would be to awaken and convict men and women to the reality of their broken relationship with their creator – the God who is just in all his ways.
Furthermore, Jesus continued, “The prince of this world stands condemned”. Satan’s attempt to usurp God’s throne was confounded when Jesus was crucified (Colossians 2:15). The Spirit convicts us of sin, of the standard and triumph of righteousness, and of Satan’s defeat.
One God in three persons. We begin to see something of the significance of God being one, in three persons. He is a God of love who, in his love for us, is passionate about us loving him.
Can we be sure of this? “I still have many things to say to you,” Jesus said, “but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:12-15).)
These words explain why Jesus never wrote anything down. Most of the Old Testament prophets wrote up their messages, but Jesus didn’t. He didn’t pick up a quill(a pen) because he knew that the Spirit would ensure that the special revelation he had brought would not be forgotten or muddled.
Earlier Jesus had said, “He, the Advocate or Helper, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). The Spirit inspired the first disciples, the apostles, with accurate recall and a clear and correct interpretation of Jesus’s person and work.
Now in chapter 16, Jesus says the Spirit would guide the disciples into all the truth – not some of it. Subsequent generations would not be inspired to fill out more of the picture. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit would ensure that the apostles would receive and rightly interpret all the truth about the person and work of the Christ.
Significantly, at the end of their ministry, we don’t find them telling God’s people to look for other apostles and prophets to reveal new truth. Rather, they warned their readers against false prophets and urged God’s people to transmit faithfully what they, the apostles, had taught and delivered to God’s people (Jude 1:3).
The speaking God. We can see the logic of all this. If we are made in the image of God, if Jesus is God in human form, then God is not just a remote, powerful intelligence. He is a speaking God. He is about building relationships in the way that we do – through verbal communication.
All this helps us in our study of knowledge (epistemology). It means that amongst the sources of knowledge there is revelation as well as human discovery.
A Chinese English professor tells of his experience in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. When he saw the guns of the people’s army turned on the people, Marxism and Maoism within him died. If there is such a thing as truth, he said, I realized it had to come from outside human inspiration and thought. That night he went home and read a New Testament that he had previously ignored. Reading it from cover to cover, he said, ‘Here is the truth’.
How then does God’s Spirit work within us today? We need to distinguish inspiration and illumination. The Spirit inspired the apostles to preach and write God’s truth. He now illuminates our minds as we read what the apostles have written – hence Paul: All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness… (2 Timothy 3:16); and Peter: …No prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,… but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God (2 Peter 1:20f).
The God who is love. Can we be sure that God delights in us knowing him? The answer is found in our understanding that God is love because he is a Trinity. Throughout eternity the three persons in the one Godhead love one another. When we begin to understand this, we will sense the beauty and goodness, the generosity and overflowing love of God. Our life and our relationships, our lifestyle and our future hang on loving the one, ever true and eternal God who exists in three persons.
A prayer for Trinity Sunday: Almighty and everlasting God, you have given us your servants grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and by your divine power to worship you as One: we pray that you would keep us steadfast in this faith and evermore defend us from all adversities; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Trinity – The God Who is Love appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Over the last twenty years or so God’s people have been increasingly put on the defensive about their faith. In a climate where people of faith are dismissed as intellectually inept, many are fearful of speaking up about what they believe.
Come with me to a significant scene witnessed on the day of Jesus’s resurrection. It’s recorded in John chapter 20, verses 19 through 23. That Sunday evening, the first day of the week, Jesus suddenly stood in the midst of his disciples. John doesn’t say how Jesus came to be there: he simply records, Jesus stood.
Last time the disciples had seen him, he was wounded and bleeding, wracked with pain, dying on a cross. When they had seen a spear thrust in his side and the fluid flowing from the wound, they knew he was truly dead. Yet here he was, not weak and limp but standing tall, speaking the very words he had uttered at the Passover meal: ‘Peace be with you’.And to show he was physically alive and not a ghost, he showed them his hands and his side.
Terrified and overjoyed they doubtless were, they knew, extraordinary miracle though it was, Jesus was truly alive again. ‘Peace be with you’, he repeated. On the night of his arrest he had said, ‘My peace I leave with you… Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in me’ (John 14:27).
In a world of turmoil and injustice, the peace he held out to his followers was not meaningless comfort. His resurrection was now proof of that. Yet it was surreal. But then, as GK Chesterton observed, Truth is stranger than fiction.
The Commission: ‘As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you…’, he continued (20:21). More than once they had heard Jesus say, ‘As the Father has sent me…’ But now he was drawing them into this work as well.
Jesus had been sent to speak God’s words in person to the world. Supremely he had been sent to be lifted up on a cross at Calvary to rescue humanity (John 12:32). Now, he was sending his disciples and in turn, his people, to announce his life-giving news to the world.
And significantly they would not be alone: they need not be fearful. The peace of Christ would be with them at every twist and turn along the way. Consider what follows.
The Gift. Jesus breathed and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven, if they are retained they are retained’ (20:22).
Let’s think about this: Jesus’s words bring together the announcement of God’s gospel and the work of the Spirit. Neither God’s Word nor his Spirit work in a vacuum. They are necessarily interlinked.
We should notice that Thomas wasn’t present, and that John’s Gospel doesn’t record separately the events of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the verb breathed doesn’t have an object – despite some English translations.
Jesus’s words peace be with you speak of his warm, personal relationship with them, even though they all had failed him. This is reinforced with his gift of his Spirit whom he had promised on the night of his arrest (14:16-24). As Paul the Apostle later says, the Spirit would assure them of their rich inheritance with Christ (Romans 8:14-17; Ephesians 1:13-14).
The Spirit’s presence was not only for the benefit of the disciples. As Jesus had promised, the Spirit would enable the disciples to remember and to interpret accurately all he had said and done (14:25-26). But he would also awaken the world to a spiritual awareness and convict it of its failure to honor the great high king who so loved us that he gave his life for us (16:8-11; 3:16).
Jesus’s reference to the retaining and forgiveness of sins is significant. Being in the passive voice, the two verbs indicate that it is not humanity, but God, who retains or forgives sin. When people fail to believe they remain isolated from the Lord. But when they turn in repentance to the Lord, they receive his forgiveness.
Bringing together the threads of Jesus’s words in the context of John’s Gospel as a whole, it is not our human prerogative to retain or forgive sins. Rather it is the outcome of the ministry of God’s Word, the gospel, and the work of his Spirit.
The ministry Jesus gave the disciples laid the foundation for our gospel ministry, namely the verbal announcement of God’s gospel that the Spirit uses to transform lives. This stands behind the Anglican Connection vision and mission:‘Connecting for Gospel Led Regeneration’. Our work is not tied one denomination but to like-minded, gospel-focussed ministers and churches.
It is the kind of gospel vision that the late Timothy Keller exemplified throughout his ministry. I experienced this personally when he, a Presbyterian in New York City unexpectedly invited me, an Anglican minister from Sydney, Australia, to talk with him about setting up a new church in Manhattan. Under God I was involved in setting up Christ Church NYC as well as what is now Emmanuel Anglican NYC. We thank the Lord for gospel-focussed leaders such as Tim Keller and pray the Lord will raise up many more.
Yet how often do we overlook Jesus’ words to his disciples in John chapter 20 and elsewhere in the New Testament. All God’s people have the wonderful privilege of being sent by Jesus to play our part in announcing his good news. Yet many today are fearful. Let me encourage you to pray that the Spirit will make real your experience of the peace of the Lord within you. Pray also that that God’s Spirit will awaken you to the riches of your inheritance with Christ, and open your eyes to opportunities to introduce family and friends to the Jesus of the Gospels.
Permit me also to encourage you to purchase a copy or two of my book The Jesus Story: Seven Signs. It is written as a refresher for God’s people and as a book to pass on to those who don’t know what to believe. It’s available everywhere through Amazon; if you are in the US you can use the button in the banner below.
Prayers. O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: do not leave us desolate, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to where our Savior Christ has gone before, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for evermore. Amen.
Almighty God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit: so enable us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and always to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
You might like to listen to, Holy Spirit Living Breath of God from Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend.
© John G. Mason
The post God’s Breath…! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Why don’t we pray more consistently than we do? And how often when we do pray, do we look to the model prayers we find in the Bible – and not least from the lips of Jesus?
Dr. J.I. Packer once commented, ‘I believe that prayer is the measure of God’s people, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face’.
Come with me to the prayer that Jesus prayed on the night of his arrest. We find it in John chapter 17. In verse 1 we read: After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,…”
Knowing he was about to die, Jesus prayed that he would be honored in carrying out God’s previously hidden plan. His impending death was now a certainty, for John tells us that Judas had gone out into the night to do his dark work of betrayal. And now, as Jesus looked into the darkness of this evil, he prayed that he would not only remain faithful to his mission but would also be glorified.
The meaning of glory often eludes us for we tend to think of it more in terms of the splendor of fame or beauty. But the meaning of glory here is more subtle. It refers to the outward splendor of hidden, inner nature and qualities.
In praying, “Father… glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you”, Jesus was asking God to clothe him with glory because his cross would reveal for all time the nature and cost of God’s love.
Furthermore, he prays that as he himself is glorified, in carrying out this supreme mission, men and women will see the splendor of the extraordinary love of the Father for men and women, even though they choose to divorce him.
Ashley Null has observed that for Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, ‘The glory of God, is God’s love for the unworthy’.
The theme of glory through his crucifixion continues in verse 4: “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do”.
Jesus is saying that he has completed the work God had given him to do. In his teaching he brought further revelation of God and in his miracles (signs) he revealed God’s compassion and power. One great work – his greatest work – remained. When he was lifted up on the cross at Calvary, he would bear in himself the sin of the whole world (John 3:14-15 and 16).
And John chapter 19, verse 30 records Jesus’s final words: “It is finished”. With his death, Jesus had completed his mission. He had offered the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world, once and for all time. To try and repeat it, is to diminish and dishonor his work.
Jesus’s prayer continues: “So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed” (John 17:5).
The words of John Stainer’s Crucifixion capture something of John’s record: “Far more awful in Thy weakness, more than kingly in Thy meekness, Thou Son of God… Here in abasement; crownless, poor, disrobed, and bleeding: There in glory interceding; Thou art the King!”
Prayer for the Disciples: “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word” (17:6).
The greater part of Jesus’s prayer is for his disciples. This tells us of their importance. They are to be the bridge between himself and the rest of humanity. Much will depend on their understanding of Jesus as the Christ – the Messiah – and their courage and loyalty.
So he prays that the Father will give them eternal life. In verse 11, he prays that the Father will protect them; in verse 15, that the Father will keep them from the powers of evil; in verse 17, that the Father will make them holy in the truth; and in verse 16, that the love God the Father has for the Son, will be true for them as well.
Jesus knows that the road ahead for the disciples will not be easy. Yet he doesn’t pray that they will be taken out of the world, but that they will be kept faithful and guarded from the powers of the evil one.
Prayer for his people: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one” (17:20-22).
In praying for his people through the ages, Jesus alerts us to the heart of his disciples’ mission. Their ministry is to be a declaratory (Word) mission. The content of their preaching and teaching will be that Jesus is God’s king who has come for us – to restore God’s friendship with us. Furthermore, Christ has come so that he might be in us – the oneness of God’s people (not denominational structures) will draw others to faith in Christ. In turn all his people through the ages will share with him as heirs in the glory to come.
Which brings me back to prayer and the theme of God’s glory. How often do we pray that God will be glorified? After all, Jesus taught us to pray, “Father, hallowed, glorified be your name” (Luke 11:2).
In this era of God’s mercy shouldn’t we be praying that God will glorify his name in the changing lives of his people – in you and me? Shouldn’t we also be praying that God will honor his name in drawing the lost to faith, turning hearts to their true home in Jesus Christ?
A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The loss of someone deeply loved awakens a profound anguish and grief within us. Even some time after a loved one has gone from us, we can unexpectedly find ourselves tearing up.
In the course of his last evening with his close followers Jesus told them he was going away and that they could not come with him (John 14:3). He knew what his going would mean for them and likened their state to orphaned children – destitute and alone. However, he didn’t offer glib platitudes about his going but promised them a Counselor – literally, a Comforter.
In chapter 14 verses 15 though 21, John the Gospel writer sets out the record of Jesus’s words of comfort and hope to his disciples.
“If you love me you will keep my commandments,” he said. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him…” (John 14:16-17).
When we first read these words and the reference to the Spirit we might think that Jesus is speaking about an impersonal power or force. Indeed, in Acts chapter 8 we learn that Simon Magus thought the Holy Spirit was a force he could purchase (Acts 8:18f).
However, the personal pronouns ‘him’ and ‘he’ in John chapter 14, verse 17 with reference to the Spirit indicate that Jesus is not speaking about some impersonal force or power, but a person. In the original language the word ‘spirit’ is a neuter noun, an ‘it’ word. But John breaks the rules of grammar. He refers to the Spirit as ‘he’: He dwells with you…
The moment we think of the Holy Spirit as an ‘it’, we miss the profundity of Jesus’s promise. He, Jesus, is going away. ‘He’ is to be replaced, not by an ‘it’, but a ‘he’, the ‘Helper’, the ‘Spirit’.
Helper translates two words in the original text – the preposition alongside and the verb, called.The fact that Jesus promises another Helper implies that He himself has been helping. Now in this time of the disciples’ deep need he promises the Holy Spirit – a Helper, a Comforter.
Furthermore, this Helper or Comforter doesn’t provide comfort like Linus’s blanket, nor is the Comforter simply a hot water bottle for cold, hard times. He comes to strengthen our hearts and minds – putting ‘backbone’ into our lives. Jesus has been helping for three years; now the Spirit of truth comes to help.
‘The Spirit of truth is not known by the world,’ Jesus says (verse 17), but ‘you know him – and he will be with us forever’.
We are living in the age of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is not physically in the world now, but he is through his Spirit. This is astonishing and something we don’t usually think about. The Lord Jesus Christ is present and at work in the world now, not in a physical way that we can see, but invisibly through his Spirit.
It’s something that was foreshadowed in the Old Testament. There we read that God’s people dearly wanted God to live with them. Even so, they found the whole idea hard to grasp. In his prayer at the beginning of his reign, King Solomon asked: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you;…” (I Kings 8:27). To which the answer was ‘yes’; the Temple in Jerusalem was not only a place of worship, it symbolized God’s dwelling with his people, God’s special relationship with his people.
Furthermore, Ezekiel chapter 37, verse 27 says: “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people…” What Solomon thought God was far too big for, God himself said he would do. He would come amongst his people.
The amazing thing is that the Bible tells us that God notices us and cares for us in a way far beyond our imagination. Remember, back in chapter 1, verse 14, John records: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Now inJohn chapter 14 we begin to see the wonder of Jesus’s promise: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you…”
The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ will not just be with us but also in us. Jesus takes his promise to another level here. He is saying that he is personally present with us in our lives. This is why Paul the Apostle writes in First Corinthians, chapter 6: Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit?
Jesus promises his followers a powerful companion who would comfort them and strengthen them.
For many, Christianity is little more than a moral code they must struggle to observe. But Jesus is saying, ‘I want you to understand that the faith I am talking about is, in its deepest essence, about a relationship, a relationship with the one who is at the heart of the universe.’ It’s about knowing Jesus and having him live with us through his Spirit. ‘God in the soul of men and women,’ is how one ancient writer put it.
Sometimes we can feel cut off from God by a sense of failure or unworthiness, ignorance or unbelief, or abandonment. Jesus is saying to his first followers, and to you and me today, ‘Do not despair: you can experience me in your life.’ We are not alone in life.
In his Letters Paul the Apostle develops this astonishing work of the Spirit. For example, in Romans chapter 8, verses 15 through 17: … You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we might be glorified with him.
CS Lewis picks up this theme in his Narnia books with the analogy that the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve are the kings and queens of Narnia. The Bible tells us that God’s Spirit awakens us to the privilege God’s people have of being joint heirs with Jesus Christ in his inheritance.
A prayer. Heavenly Father, the giver of all good things, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and grant that by your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by your grace and guidance do them; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Never Alone …! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Glen Scrivener’s book, The Air We Breathe (2022) compellingly explores ways Christianity has shaped the moral values of the West. It is a book for those who believe and those who don’t know what to believe. It alerts us afresh to the question of God and, if he exists, what he is like.
Of course, there are always those who tell us that there is no God – as did Nietzsche in the 19th century and scientists today like Richard Dawkins – although, interestingly, Dawkins says that he is a ‘cultural Christian’: he appreciates the heritage of Anglican Christianity.
History suggests that the idea of God is embedded in every culture that has existed for longer than three generations. It’s not surprising therefore that even in popular music, questions of God arise. Back in June 1996 the pop singer Joan Osborne came and went with a #1 single, ‘One of Us’. The lyrics asked some good questions: If God had a name, what would it be? If God had a face, what would it look like? In essence it asked the question, ‘What would God be like if he were flesh and blood?’
Hinduism tells us there are many different gods (Shiva, Vishna, and so on); Judaism insists that there is only one. Buddhism denies the notion of God and Islam insists that everything is directed by the will of Allah. So, who’s right? Certainly not all of them. Perhaps none.
It’s this kind of question that makes Joan Osborne’s question so relevant. The only way we can really know what the creator God is like is if he lived as one of us. If he stepped into our shoes for a while we could see him from his birth to the grave. We might be able to find out where he was born and the school he attended. We’d hear of his interests and lifestyle, and perhaps what music he listened to and what social events and pubs he might check out. And we’d see the way he’d treat people – the politicians and the celebrities; the poor and the outcast; or just the average guy on the street like you and me. And if he had to die, we’d see how he would cope with it.
One of the striking things about Christianity is that it is grounded in history. The Gospel writers insist that Jesus of Nazareth not only lived but is unique. He was not just a prophet: he was more than a prophet. He was not just a man, he was God’s Messiah. He was not just an extraordinary man. He was both God and man.
In the hours before his arrest one of Jesus’ friends asked him a question that wasn’t very different from the one in Joan Osborne’s song. In John chapter 14, verse 9 we read Philip’s request: “Lord show us the Father. That’s all we need.”
Philip wanted to know what every religion has always wanted to know: What is God like? He wanted some tangible experience of God that would sweep his doubts away. Perhaps he was thinking of God’s special appearance to Moses in the burning bush. Or maybe he was influenced by the Greek mystery religions and had in mind some inner ecstasy, a spiritual trip that would lift him up to new levels of consciousness. Either way he wanted to see God.
Jesus’ response is electrifying: “He who has seen me has seen the Father…”
We would not have been surprised if Jesus had replied, ‘Don’t be silly Philip. You’re asking the impossible’. Rather he says, ‘Don’t you know me Philip, even after I’ve been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’.
Yet there are many who think of Jesus merely as the ultimate good guy or one of history’s great teachers. Both ideas are no doubt true, but neither comes near what he is saying. He is saying that he is not just God’s emissary or ambassador, but God himself. He is claiming to be God in our shoes.
Consider how Jesus continues: ‘Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves’ (John 14:11).
Think about it, Jesus is saying: ‘You’ve seen me turn water into first-class wine; you’ve heard that I cured a young boy at a distance; you’ve seen me heal a man paralysed for 38 years, provide food for thousands at a word, restore sight to a man blind from birth, as well as bring a man dead for four days out of a tomb. Doesn’t that tell you something about me?’
It would have made sense, explaining many extraordinary events over the last three years – how Jesus could out-teach the academics of his day: he knew what he spoke about because he is from God; how Jesus could raise people from the dead, because he is the source of life.
The cumulative impact of Jesus’s life – the signs he performed and his revelatory teaching – exemplifies the truth of the opening lines of John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men and women … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, … (John 1:1-4, 14).
Blaise Pascal, the 17th C French mathematician, philosopher and physicist, wrote in his Pensées‘: ‘People despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is just to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men and women wish it were true, and then show them that it is’.
In the opening lines of Psalm 98 – a psalm that bubbles throughout with praise and joy to the Lord – we are reminded of God’s supernatural intervention in human affairs:
Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
The Lord has made known his salvation…
To rephrase Glenn Scrivener’s words, ‘Is this the air you breathe’?
A prayer. Almighty God, you show to those who are in error the light of your truth so that they may return into the way of righteousness: grant to all who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s service that we may renounce those things that are contrary to our profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to it; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Marvelous Things …! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In 1966 Frederick Buechner, American pastor and theologian published, The Magnificent Defeat. He commented: “We all want to be certain, we all want proof, but the kind of proof we tend to want – scientifically and philosophically demonstrable proof that would silence all doubts once and for all – would not in the long run, I think, answer the fearful depths of our need at all. For what we need to know is not just that God exists, but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-to-day lives as we move around knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of this world. It is not objective proof of God’s existence we want, but the experience of God’s presence. That is the miracle we are really after – and that also, I think, is the miracle we really get”.
Words of Jesus consistently exemplify this. In John chapter 10 verse 11, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”.
Many today view shepherds through rose-tinted lenses, imagining them with their faithful dogs, caring for the sheep on grassy hillsides. The reality is that the shepherds of ancient Israel lived dangerous lives. And because sheep were today’s equivalent of money in the bank, shepherds had to contend, not only with marauding animals but also with thieves and armed robbers.
Every village had their ‘banks’ – sheepfolds – with their door and security guard. In John chapter 10 Jesus twins the images of Door (or Gate) and Good Shepherd when he says: ‘…He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (John 10:2-3). And in verse 7 he says, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep’, and in verse 10, ‘I am the good shepherd’.
Shepherds. Usually poor and often treated as outcasts, shepherds played an essential part in the life of Israel. Israel’s kings were described as shepherds. King David, the greatest of the Old Testament kings had been brought from shepherding sheep to shepherding God’s people Israel. But it was not only the kings who were called shepherds but also the religious leaders. And in Ezekiel 34 we read that when they abused their position and failed their spiritual duty, God declared that he himself would shepherd his people. Ezekiel chapter 34, verses 1-31 echoes Psalm 23 as it speaks of God himself as the shepherd of his people.
A millennium after David, Jesus says that he is the door and the good shepherd. As the good shepherd he brings togethershepherd as a metaphor for the Messiah and the theme of death. False messiahs took the lives of men and women. The true Messiah gives life to men and women. And the life he gives, is life to the full (10:10). But it comes only at the cost of his own life ‘…Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep’, Jesus says (10:15).
We begin to see what Jesus means when he says he is the good shepherd. He is not a do-gooder, for they tend to be more interested in themselves and what others think of them. This good shepherd is willing to take our death from our shoulders and bear it himself. That is what he means when he says he is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. He didn’t die just to prove how much he loved us. He died to save us from death itself.
Furthermore, eternal life in biblical terms is not an existence that goes on and on. Rather it is the expansion and intensification of life’s very best experiences we enjoy now. Jesus is not interested in the quantity of life but in the quality.
An underlying theme we often miss in John chapter 10 is the distinction that Jesus makes concerning his goal and his method compared with those who went before him and would come after him. He was not a political Messiah.
In John chapter 10 verse 8 Jesus says: ‘All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, they will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly’.
The thieves and robbers were the false messiahs, the political activists of Jesus’s day. In their endeavors to free Israel from Roman rule, they used violence in various forms. But Jesus charts a very different path in the cause of real life and true freedom.
As the door, he is the only one who has the right to open the gate of heaven and have the title Messiah. As the good shepherd he has given his life to open the way to the freedom and joy of God’s long-promised kingdom.
When we consider these words of Jesus, we discern their application in our 21st century world. The only real hope of freedom and life the progressive materialist has to offer is some kind of embodiment of Karl Marx’s classless society. According to Marx people could only find real happiness if they freed themselves from the imperialism of economic oppression and exploitation. Only then would the hostilities between races and nations be resolved and humanity be able to develop its full potential.
But don’t be misled, Jesus is saying. ‘These people have come to steal – they have no respect for personal property or enterprise. They have come to kill – they don’t value human life.’ Think of the millions who died under the 20th century revolutionary movements led by Lenin and Stalin, Hitler and Mao, Pol Pot and Idi Amin. And to what end? No perfect peaceful and just society emerged from these ideologies.
‘I am the good shepherd’, Jesus says.
Have you personally heard the voice of the Good Shepherd through the Scriptures? And having heard it, do you trust him with your life and follow him? That is what he calls us to – a life of discipleship; a life with the people who respond to his call.
I can’t tell you where that life may lead. I cannot say that life will be a bed of roses, or that all your problems will evaporate overnight. But one thing I can promise, because Jesus, the good shepherd promises it: you will find his leadership perfectly satisfies all your longings.
Only those who truly turn to him will find true life and liberty. They alone find true deliverance – they are saved. They alone find true fulfillment – they find satisfying pasture.
If we want to find true freedom, deep satisfaction and real life, we need to turn to Jesus Christ – who carried not a gun, but a cross.
A prayer. Almighty God, you alone can order the unruly wills and passions of sinful men and women. Help us so to love what you command and desire what you promise, that among the many and varied changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys may be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Shepherd …! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? Dr. John Lennox, emeritus Professor of Mathematics Oxford University, writes, “To the majority of those who have reflected deeply and written about the origin and nature of the universe, it has seemed that it points beyond itself to a source which is non-physical and of great intelligence and power”.
Transcendent Power. Yet in today’s world where influential voices sometimes angrily dismiss such a possibility, it is easy to overlook the transcendent power that was at work on the first Easter Day when Jesus physically rose from the dead. When we consider the evidence, it becomes clear that Jesus’s resurrection didn’t occur because of some natural mechanism. It happened because the creator God chose to intervene (Romans 6:4b).
The four Gospel writers record that on the third day following his crucifixion and burial, Jesus’s tomb was empty. Altogether, as we read in First Corinthians, one of the earliest New Testament Letters, Jesus was seen physically alive by over five hundred witnesses.
In chapter 15, verses 4b-6a and verse 8, Paul the Apostle writes: … Christ was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and …he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at one time, most of whom are still living… Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Eyewitnesses. Paul is saying that Christianity didn’t start because a group of fanatics had invented a story about their hero, nor because a group of philosophers had come to an agreed conclusion about life. Nor was it because a group of mystics shared the same vision about God. It began with eyewitnesses – ordinary men and women who saw something veryextraordinary.In fact, it began with the history of a man who had risen from the dead.
Greatest Design. Furthermore, there was a far-reaching purpose in the events of Jesus’s death and resurrection. In Luke chapter 24 – the ‘resurrection chapter’ – the dominant theme is his crucifixion: it had to happen.
In his conversation with the two on the road to Emmaus Jesus said: “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter his glory?” (Luke 24:26). He also pointed out, ‘If you knew the Scriptures you would have known that for me the road to the crown was through the cross. That was the message of the prophets. I am the suffering servant of whom they spoke’ (for example, Isaiah 52:13-53:12).
And later, when Jesus met with his disciples, he spelled out God’s grand design. He showed them how the Scriptures pointed to the Messiah’snecessary suffering, death, and on the third day his resurrection(24:46). Jesus’s death and resurrection were an essential part of God’s greatest and completely unexpected design, a plan formed even before the universe came into existence and reaffirmed with the creation of men and women (Genesis 1:26a).
God’s great news. Luke tells us that Jesus went on to tell the disciples what now needs to happen: “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his (Jesus’) name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (24:47). Jesus’s death and resurrection are tightly linked to the announcement of the forgiveness of sins.
Indeed, Paul identifies this when he writes earlier in First Corinthians 15: For I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and was raised on the third day … (15:3)
The story of Jesus’s death and resurrection is not merely that of a dead man who came back to life, nor that of a dying and rising god. Neither is it a romantic story that tells us that death is not the end. It is the record of the Messiah’s shameful death by crucifixion; he suffered the pains of God-forsakenness on our behalf because we have broken God’s holy law.
Simply to say that Christ died is insufficient. Historians agree that he died. But the New Testament explains that his death was a voluntary sacrifice with a purpose – to satisfy God’s perfect justice, once and for all, on behalf of guilty humanity. The Anglican Communion Liturgy puts it well: Christ’s death was ‘the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world’. Unless sin had first been defeated once and for all, Jesus’s resurrection would not point to forgiveness and new life.
To enjoy the benefits of Jesus’s death and resurrection we need to turn to him personally in a spirit of true repentance, humbly asking God to forgive us for following the devices and desires of our own hearts and so breaking his holy laws. A gospel presentation without the call for a personal, true and heartfelt repentance to God is not the gospel.
Jesus’s resurrection bears witness to God’s greatest design for men and women – a design that offers full and free forgiveness, and a life of meaning and hope, love and joy forever.
In his final Narnia story, The Last Battle, CS Lewis metaphorically opens our eyes to an ever-larger picture of God’s Greatest Design: “And as He (Aslan) spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.
“And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
A prayer. Almighty Father, you have given your only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification: grant that we may put away the old influences of corruption and evil, and always serve you in sincerity and truth; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Note: Material in today’s Word on Wednesday is adapted from my book, Luke – An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2019, in the Reading the Bible Today series.
The post He is Risen Indeed. Hallelujah! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? Dr. John Lennox, emeritus Professor of Mathematics Oxford University, writes, “To the majority of those who have reflected deeply and written about the origin and nature of the universe, it has seemed that it points beyond itself to a source which is non-physical and of great intelligence and power”.
Transcendent Power. Yet in today’s world where influential voices sometimes angrily dismiss such a possibility, it is easy to overlook the transcendent power that was at work on the first Easter Day when Jesus physically rose from the dead. When we consider the evidence, it becomes clear that Jesus’s resurrection didn’t occur because of some natural mechanism. It happened because the creator God chose to intervene (Romans 6:4b).
The four Gospel writers record that on the third day following his crucifixion and burial, Jesus’s tomb was empty. Altogether, as we read in First Corinthians, one of the earliest New Testament Letters, Jesus was seen physically alive by over five hundred witnesses.
In chapter 15, verses 4b-6a and verse 8, Paul the Apostle writes: … Christ was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and …he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at one time, most of whom are still living… Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Eyewitnesses. Paul is saying that Christianity didn’t start because a group of fanatics had invented a story about their hero, nor because a group of philosophers had come to an agreed conclusion about life. Nor was it because a group of mystics shared the same vision about God. It began with eyewitnesses – ordinary men and women who saw something veryextraordinary.In fact, it began with the history of a man who had risen from the dead.
Greatest Design. Furthermore, there was a far-reaching purpose in the events of Jesus’s death and resurrection. In Luke chapter 24 – the ‘resurrection chapter’ – the dominant theme is his crucifixion: it had to happen.
In his conversation with the two on the road to Emmaus Jesus said: “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter his glory?” (Luke 24:26). He also pointed out, ‘If you knew the Scriptures you would have known that for me the road to the crown was through the cross. That was the message of the prophets. I am the suffering servant of whom they spoke’ (for example, Isaiah 52:13-53:12).
And later, when Jesus met with his disciples, he spelled out God’s grand design. He showed them how the Scriptures pointed to the Messiah’snecessary suffering, death, and on the third day his resurrection(24:46). Jesus’s death and resurrection were an essential part of God’s greatest and completely unexpected design, a plan formed even before the universe came into existence and reaffirmed with the creation of men and women (Genesis 1:26a).
God’s great news. Luke tells us that Jesus went on to tell the disciples what now needs to happen: “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his (Jesus’) name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (24:47). Jesus’s death and resurrection are tightly linked to the announcement of the forgiveness of sins.
Indeed, Paul identifies this when he writes earlier in First Corinthians 15: For I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and was raised on the third day … (15:3)
The story of Jesus’s death and resurrection is not merely that of a dead man who came back to life, nor that of a dying and rising god. Neither is it a romantic story that tells us that death is not the end. It is the record of the Messiah’s shameful death by crucifixion; he suffered the pains of God-forsakenness on our behalf because we have broken God’s holy law.
Simply to say that Christ died is insufficient. Historians agree that he died. But the New Testament explains that his death was a voluntary sacrifice with a purpose – to satisfy God’s perfect justice, once and for all, on behalf of guilty humanity. The Anglican Communion Liturgy puts it well: Christ’s death was ‘the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world’. Unless sin had first been defeated once and for all, Jesus’s resurrection would not point to forgiveness and new life.
To enjoy the benefits of Jesus’s death and resurrection we need to turn to him personally in a spirit of true repentance, humbly asking God to forgive us for following the devices and desires of our own hearts and so breaking his holy laws. A gospel presentation without the call for a personal, true and heartfelt repentance to God is not the gospel.
Jesus’s resurrection bears witness to God’s greatest design for men and women – a design that offers full and free forgiveness, and a life of meaning and hope, love and joy forever.
In his final Narnia story, The Last Battle, CS Lewis metaphorically opens our eyes to an ever-larger picture of God’s Greatest Design: “And as He (Aslan) spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.
“And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
A prayer. Almighty Father, you have given your only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification: grant that we may put away the old influences of corruption and evil, and always serve you in sincerity and truth; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Note: Material in today’s Word on Wednesday is adapted from my book, Luke – An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2019, in the Reading the Bible Today series.
The post Resurrection – The Greatest Design! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Easter Day that we celebrate this Sunday, is a gala day as we remember Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. His resurrection underscores the validity of the Christian faith. Without it, we are lost.
That said, our joy with Jesus’s resurrection raises interesting questions: Why isn’t an empty tomb the symbol of Christianity? Why is the symbol a cross? In today’s age when feelings and political correctness trump facts it would surely make much more sense if we focused on the themes of the new life and hope that the resurrection symbolizes.
Yet despite the fact that Jesus’s crucifixion was a bloody and brutal affair, the cross remains the symbol of the Christian faith.
In the opening scene of Luke’s ‘resurrection chapter’ we read: But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body (Luke 24:1-3).
Despair. There was no joy in the hearts of those women that morning. They had watched Jesus die and now were grief-stricken and despairing. They had believed that he was God’s Messiah and were looking forward to a new age of justice and peace, of laughter, love and joy. Now their only thought was to give his body a proper burial.
We can picture them trudging to the tomb in the grey light of the dawn, burdened by their own thoughts and laden with heavy jars of oils and spices for the burial.
But that was not all. When they arrived at the grave, they saw that the huge stone closing the tomb had been rolled away. Was this some underhand action on the part of the authorities?
While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them… (24:4). They had despaired at Jesus’ death and now were terrified: they could only bow their faces to the ground at the dazzling appearance of two angels. And when the angels spoke, the women were even more confused: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” ‘You’ve come to the wrong place.’
Remember! “Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise again…’” (Luke 24:6b-7a).
The angels could have explained the empty tomb. Instead, they told the women to remember what Jesus had said to them. The focus of those words of Jesus is important: ‘The Son of Man, the Messiah, had to suffer and die and then rise again’. Suffering and death were essential to the first coming of God’s king.
Which brings us back to the subject of the cross. Richard Dawkins and others reckon that to say, ‘Jesus died for our sins’ is vicious and disgusting. ‘Why couldn’t God simply forgive sins if he so chose?’ Dawkins asks.
In every age Jesus’s death has been an enigma – even for his first followers. Yet during the course of his ministry, he had foreshadowed both his death and his resurrection. Indeed, in his public ministry he revealed that he had not come as a political Messiah to bring in God’s kingdom through force. Rather, he came as a savior to address our greatest need – our broken relationship with God.
This theme infuses Luke’s gospel. At Jesus’s birth the angel announced that God’s savior had been born (Luke 2:10-11). And when Jesus met with Zacchaeus, a wealthy tax-collector, he summed up his ministry saying, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
Furthermore, Jesus’s words at the Last Supper are key to the purpose of his death: “This is my body given for you…” and “This is my blood shed for you…” (Luke 22:19-20). These words are amongst the oldest statements of Christianity. We find them in First Corinthians, chapter 10, written around 50AD, as well as in Matthew and Mark which were written no later than the 60s AD.
Forgiveness – the cost. The movement of the Bible tells us that without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22).
Now some say that Jesus’s crucifixion was a form of child abuse – a father punishing a son for someone else’s wrongs. But Jesus’s words in John chapter 10 verse 11, assure us that his decision to lay down his life was voluntary. With deliberate purpose he chose to go ahead and lay down his life. His death would prove to be the turning point of history.
To return to Jesus’s words at the Last Supper, “This is my body given for you,” and “This is my blood shed for you”, we begin to understand that the cross of Christ is God’s intervention in human affairs to open the door for forgiveness, new life and hope.
As Paul the Apostle in Romans chapter 3, verses 21-26, and the rest of the New Testament make clear, the cross, an instrument of Roman brutality, became the means whereby God, the aggrieved and just judge chose to pay in full, once and for all time, on our behalf the death we deserve.
When we read the New Testament as a whole, we learn that Jesus’s death is about God’s love and justice. Only Jesus the Messiah, the man from heaven, could deliver us from God’s just judgement and open the doors of God’s forgiveness and hope for the future.
The cross is not a charm, but yesterday’s barbaric execution tool. Yet it was the price for our forgiveness required by the holy and just God. We surely must tremble at the cost God through Christ was willing to pay for our restoration.
Prayers – for Good Friday and Easter Day.
Almighty Father, look graciously upon this your people, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Note: Material in today’s Word on Wednesday is adapted from my book, Luke – An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2019, in the Reading the Bible Today series.
The post The Cross…! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In today’s world, God is not so much dead as cancelled. He is not to be spoken about. If he does exist, there’s nothing good to say about him: he is grim and uncaring.
How different this is from what the Bible actually says about God. Consider the most well- known words in the Bible: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
They occur in the context of a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, a Jewish leader who had come to see him late at night. Nicodemus was one of the thousands who had been impressed and he wanted to meet Jesus for a personal chat.
Jesus’s rise to stardom had happened very quickly and his popularity was enormous. He said the most amazing things and backed them up with the most extraordinary actions: he healed the sick, raised the dead to life, and overcame the powers of evil. No matter what confronted him, he was always in control. His person and presence had so great an impact that he is also mentioned by other historians of that era – such as Tacitus and Josephus.
God’s love. The Bible tells us that God’s essential nature is love. In Psalm 145:8-9 we read: The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.
The theme of the love of God permeates both the Old and New Testaments. What is more, we find that his love is not sparked by something attractive about us. God loves because love is at the very heart of his being.
Now it’s important to note that our English word love translates four Greek words (the language in which the New Testament was written). One word is eros, from which we get our word erotic. It’s a word associated with intense emotional feeling. It’s a word that pagan religions have long used in part as a reference to the mystical experience of the supernatural. One form of yoga in Hinduism exploits sexual intercourse as a technique for achieving spiritual enlightenment.
But nowhere does the New Testament use the word eros. It uses a rare word in the original Greek: agape. There are no rapturous, mystical experiences associated with agape. Rather,
agape is committed to serving the best interests of the ones who are loved.
Furthermore, John tells us, God so loved the world that he reaches out to all men and women. This is astonishing. God could have shut humanity down at the moment of their rebellion. We deserved nothing less. But God in his love had a bigger and very costly plan in mind that would benefit a world that rejected him.
God’s gift. He gave us his Son…
John is not saying that God loved world enough to give his Son. Rather, it was out of God’s love for the world that he gave his Son.
These words are amongst the most famous in the Bible. Consider what they say about Jesus.
He is ‘the one who came down from heaven, the one and only Son of God’ (John 1:14).
Being from God, the Son personally reveals to us what God is like. As Jesus says later, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). More than ever we need to hear him and respond to him.
But significantly, God didn’t give his Son just to shine his light into a dark and troubled world. God so loved the world that he gave his Son to rescue it. The gift would come to its climax and fulfillment when the Son was crucified.
It is in Jesus’s death that we discover the immeasurable depth of God’s love. For it was through Jesus’ voluntary, sacrificial death that God opened the door once and for all whereby he could forgive men and women who have shown no love for him – we who have turned our backs on him.
God’s offer. John tells us of the offer that God holds out: Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Eternal life is contrasted with perishing. John doesn’t tell us what perishing is, but he does tell us that it will be a most unwelcome experience. Elsewhere we learn, mainly through Jesus’s own teaching, that it is a very serious thing to refuse God’s gift. Perishing won’t mean perpetually partying with friends. Everything that is good, beautiful, and true will be lost. T.S. Elliot put it this way, Hell is oneself. Hell is alone…
Life eternal will be a life of perfection and beauty, where there will be no more pain or suffering, self-absorption or injustice. It will be fullness of joy in the glory of the Lord.
God’s beneficiaries. John tells us who will benefit: Whoever believes in the Son… We can’t achieve eternal life by our own efforts or merits. We are totally dependent on God’s generous gift. To turn to Jesus, the Son of God and to trust him, is the key to our benefiting from God’s precious gift.
In our natural state we don’t want to accept God’s offer because we know it will mean a radical lifestyle change. And we don’t want to change. We would rather stay in the dark than move into the light and admit what we are really like.
I’ve wondered how long the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus recorded in John chapter 3, lasted. Nicodemus had arrived late at night. Could it be that as he left there were the first glimmerings of dawn on the horizon? And as he saw the rising sun, did he smile with joy at the dawn of a new day, or did he turn his eyes back upon the darkness of the night?
This is the choice that confronts you and me, and indeed the world.
Significantly, in John chapter 19 verses 39 and 40, we learn that Nicodemus was involved with Joseph of Arimathea in the burial of the body of Jesus.
A prayer. Almighty God, we ask you to look on the heartfelt desires of your servants, and stretch forth the right hand of your power to be our defense against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post God so loved the world… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Aspects of Christianity can seem far-fetched to our 21st century minds. The miraculous elements can make it feel like the story of Santa Claus or fairies at the bottom of the garden. But before we dismiss the supernatural events of the Bible as fiction, it’s worth remembering GK Chesterton’s words about truth and fiction: ‘Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it’.
I make these comments because today we turn to an extraordinary event recorded in the writings of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
In Matthew chapter 17, verse 1 we read: Six days later,… Matthew wants us to be in no doubt that, just as the previous conversation had occurred when Jesus had asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (16:15) so did the event that he now records.
Eyewitnesses. Matthew is specific. Jesus took three of his close followers, Peter and James and John, to a high mountain. Unlike what we find in other religions, there was more than one eyewitness to times of supernatural revelation. In this case there were three eyewitnesses to this significant moment in Jesus’ life.
And what an astonishing occasion it was. Jesus was transfigured, literally, metamorphosed before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light (17:2).
The dazzling white light of the sun is Matthew’s metaphor for the brilliance and purity of the bright light that emanated from Jesus. In both Luke and Acts the reference to clothes as white as light speaks of supernatural glory.
Furthermore, two of the great prophets, Moses and Elijah – representing the law and the prophets – were present and spoke with Jesus. (17:3).
In a conversation six days earlier, Jesus had asked the disciples who people thought he was. They had first responded, ‘John the Baptist or Elijah, or one of the prophets.’ And when Jesus had pressed them for their own view, Peter had replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16).
But here on the mountain it was obvious that Peter had not yet worked out what this meant for he said to Jesus: “Lord, if you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (16:4). Peter had no idea what he was saying.
God’s voice. But before he could burble on with something else, a cloud enveloped them all and they heard a voice, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (17:5). God the Father was speaking! Overcome by the awesome scene before them and the words they heard, the disciples fell on their faces and were terrified (17:6).
But Jesus, seeing their fear, told them to get up and not to be afraid. Furthermore, walking down the mountain that day, he commanded Peter, James and John not to tell anyone what they had witnessed until after he had been raised from the dead (17:9).
God the Father’s words confirmed Jesus’ identity as his unique Son. That day Peter, James and John witnessed Jesus’ majestic glory – the glory that reveals the utter holiness and power of the eternal Son of God who had taken on human form.
Much later, Peter writes of the event in his Second Letter: We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we had been eye-witnesses of his majesty (1:16).
God’s words not only confirmed for the disciples the divine status of Jesus and his supreme power and authority, but also assured them of the authenticity of all he taught and promised.
Significantly, the scene also revealed that there are at least two persons in the Godhead. The event also unveiled the extraordinary humility of God in his willingness to serve us in our greatest need. God’s Son was willing to put aside his true glory and come amongst us as one of us.
And so we should heed God’s voice and listen to the Son. In the midst of the myriad of voices today it is so easy to get distracted and depressed because we neglect to read and meditate on God’s Word.
As we look at Jesus’ transfiguration through the lens of his death and resurrection and ascension, we begin to see its greater significance. Imagine if Jesus had just disappeared after his resurrection and ascension. The transfiguration is a preview of Jesus in his ascended and kingly glory. It also gives us a glimpse of his glory when he returns.
The transfiguration confirmed Jesus’ status as he prepared for his approaching arrest and death. It also informed and inspired the disciples in their mission and their preaching and ultimately, in their writing.
The hope of glory. And there are further implications. The day will come when all of God’s people will share in the glory of Christ! In his Letter to the Romans, Paul the Apostle writes: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God (8:18).
In Mere Christianity,C.S. Lewis puts it this way: ‘If we let Him – for we can prevent Him, if we choose – He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less.
A prayer. Father in heaven, whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain, and spoke of his suffering in Jerusalem: give us strength so to hear his voice and follow him, that in the world to come we may see him as he is; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Hope of Glory…? appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
At a time of economic challenges and inflation, how easy it is to be consumed with anxiety about money and possessions. As his Sermon on the Mount moves on, Jesus exhorts us to view life and the material world from a bigger perspective.
In Matthew chapter 6, verse 19 he says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Jesus is not saying material things of themselves are evil. God created all good things for us to enjoy. Nor is he saying we should all sell up everything we have. His disciples didn’t. Rather, he was setting out a principle: things don’t last. They may rot, rust or be stolen. Jesus wants us to hold lightly to the things of the world. They aren’t permanent. John D. Rockefeller, industrialist and philanthropist, was perhaps the world’s first billionaire. When he died in 1937, a journalist asked his accountant, ‘How much did he leave?’ ‘Everything,’ was the reply.
Yet Jesus knows how much money and possessions can tug at our heart strings and dominate our thoughts. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” he says (Matthew 6:21). Once again he tackles heart health.
“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” he advises (6:20). He wants us to learn that money and possessions are not just to serve our needs, but as a resource also to serve others. Putting God’s values and agenda at the top of our personal priorities, we won’t want to amass wealth, hoard money or acquire more real estate. Rather, we should look to ways we can put resources God gives us to use in his service.
Over the years it has been the generosity of Christians that has funded global, gospel-focused, disciple-making mission, together with medical centres and hospitals, places for God’s people to gather for worship and teaching, encouragement and compassion; as well as schools and universities.
In warning us of the way money and possessions can tug at our heart strings, Jesus goes on to urge us not to be anxious about food and clothing. In chapter 6, verse 25 we read: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.”
Jesus’s words have a contemporary ring, for no matter who we are, most of us will have been anxious about material issues – perhaps stress about the mortgage or the rent, medical bills or a tax bill, or even where the next meal may come from. Some may be anxious about their retirement fund. Psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers all speak of the physical and psychological consequences of stress from worry over material things.
“Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Jesus asks. “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (6:25b-26)
When we first encounter these words we may be tempted to respond, ‘Jesus, you can’t be serious!’ But consider the logic of his words. He is saying that to be preoccupied with the basics of human life – food and clothing – is to undervaluehuman worth. “Are we not of more of more value than the birds? To be anxious about material things is to be blind to what makes our existence so special and precious – our capacity for relationship with our creator.
Jesus continues, “And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith?” (6:27-31)
None of us can add to our length of life. In fact, the irony is that worry about our lifespan can shorten it. And in the same way we cannot add to our lifespan by worrying, so we cannot guarantee success in all our affairs. There are too many variables outside our control.
Furthermore, God does not work a fresh miracle each day to provide for the birds of the air or the flowers of the field. Rather he provides for them in ways that are consistent with the nature he has given to each: birds have beaks to forage for food and a digestive system to make use of it; flowers have a biochemical structure to benefit from the sunlight, the soil and the rain. ‘If God has taken so much trouble to provide for these elements of creation, that are so transitory, how much more trouble will he take with you?’ Jesus is saying. ‘After all, you are the pinnacle of God’s creation, destined to live forever.’
Jesus reminds us here that God continues to sustain the necessary environment for us to find the materials for food and clothing. Anxiety about our material needs puts blinders on our eyes and ignores God’s goodness and grace.
It is tempting to think that this is pie in the sky talk. But it isn’t. God sustains environments so that our needs can be met: he provides the soil for the seed, the sun and the rain for growth, and the human skill to harvest the food we need. It’s one reason it’s good to give thanks before a meal.
What then about the starving millions? All the indicators are that there are sufficient food resources in the world to provide for every mouth. Tragically human sinfulness, corrupt regimes, selfishness and the distribution of resources, prevent proper food distribution.
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” Jesus exhorts (6:33). What is more important: money and possessions, or God? If our answer is ‘God’, can we say we trust him to supply our needs? ‘Seek first God’s kind and generous rule, his goodness and mercy. We have everything to gain when we do.
Some who read or hear these words will have young children. What will you teach them about the place of money and possessions as they grow up? What will your example be to them? Will you give them everything they ask for? Will you teach them more about making money or about Jesus Christ – what it means to know him, to love and honor him? Jesus wants us to know him and enjoy him.
Prayer. Eternal God and Father, by whose power we are created and by whose love we are redeemed: guide and strengthen us by your Spirit, so that we may give ourselves to your service, and live this day in love to one another and to you; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Heavenly Treasure…? appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Human relationships on the personal and international level must rate as the greatest challenge for the world’s future. The invasion of Ukraine four years ago last month, the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023 together with the heightened divisions marked by hatred and anger in many countries, all reveal an unspoken issue that confronts us: humanity is flawed.
The Russian author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once commented, If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
In this season of Lent, which focuses on the themes of repentance and God’s forgiveness, spiritual renewal and growth through Bible reading and prayer, it is easy to fall into a pattern of works rather than growth in true faith – growing personally in the riches of God’s love for us and our daily walk with him.
Such is our flawed nature that we can deceive ourselves. We may read the Bible and pray, attend church, and give to the poor and to mission, but our hearts can remain unchanged in our relationship with the Lord, as well as with one another.
Consider Jesus’s warning against hypocrisy in his Sermon on the Mount: “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).
Knowing better than we, how deceitful our hearts can be (Jeremiah 17:9), Jesus warns us against using our faith to win the praise of others and make a name for ourselves.
In a world where religion is publicly decried, we may not win popularity in the wider community. However, it can be a different story within the life of the church. Preachers and church leaders, musicians and generous givers can generate praise if they work at it. And social media can easily be used to promote it.
It is against this that Jesus warns. Professing Christians who long for the accolades of others will miss out on the true reward that comes from the living God. All they have is an empty faith, with no lasting value.
Consider, for example, what Jesus says about giving and prayer.
Giving. In chapter 6, verse 2 we read: “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.”
Trumpets may be a metaphor: we shouldn’t sound our own trumpet or boast about our giving to the needy. But trumpets could also have a literal meaning. In Jesus’ day the Temple trumpets were sometimes blown, calling on people to make a special donation when there was a pressing need. Anyone watching would see who responded.
Giving to support the ministry of God’s Word and providing assistance for those in need is biblical. Here Jesus is saying that to give so others know what we’re doing, whether in church or at a charity function, is hypocritical.
Hypocritical religion is not from the heart. It’s motivated by self-interest. Hypocrites, Jesus is saying, give gifts and support causes so that they may be honored by those around them. “I tell you they have their reward,” he observes.
“But when you give alms,” he says, “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your father who sees in secret will reward you.”
To prevent pride or conceit about our giving, Jesus uses a vivid metaphor: the right hand should not know what the left hand is doing. No one, apart from God, will know about this private giving. He will see our real motives.
To be rewarded by God is the richest blessing. Approval by others is transient. Approval from God is eternal.
Prayer is another area where we can be tempted to look for human recognition. Look at verse 5: “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward…”
Prayers in the synagogues were typically led by a synagogue member. To be invited to lead the prayers was a mark of distinction. But again, Jesus knows how easy it is for anyone leading prayers to draw attention to themselves – perhaps through the literary quality of their prayer or their tone of voice.
Significantly, Jesus focuses on private prayer. He isn’t critizing public prayer. But, better than anyone, he knows that when we pray in the privacy of our room we reveal who we truly are. In praying privately, alone with God, we can be nothing but genuine and honest. And uncluttered, heartfelt, honest prayer is what God hears.
How important it is that we not only pray day by day but also heed Jesus’s warning: “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” God delights in our honest and heartfelt, loving and loyal relationship with him.
The Ash Wednesday Prayer prayed throughout Lent and at other times: Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made, and you forgive the sins of all who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, so that we, lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Prayer for Peace.God of the nations, whose kingdom rules over all, have mercy on our broken and troubled world, especially people in war zones. Shed abroad your peace in the hearts of all men and women and banish from them the spirit that makes for war. We ask this so that all races and people may learn to live as members of one people and in obedience to your laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Self-Deception…? appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
“This world has no importance and whoever recognizes that wins his freedom. And that’s just it—I hate you because you are bound. I alone am free. Rejoice, for you finally have an emperor to teach you freedom…” So speaks the Emperor Caligula, in Albert Camus’ play of the same name.
But did Caligula represent true freedom? History records he used his power in self-indulgent extravagance, no matter how cruel or disgusting. He did whatever he pleased.
Many reckon that freedom is the ability to do whatever you want without external restraints. For the extreme capitalist it means no market controls; for the extreme socialist it means the power of the collective to impose its will on the individual without restraint; for the extreme hedonist it means the license to follow the lusts of the heart.
Let me return to reflections on Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew chapters 5 though 7. In the course of his Sermon Jesus lays out the pattern for living that he expects of his people. Significantly, he doesn’t simply set out a list of dos and don’ts. Rather he opens up the real meaning of love for God in loving our neighbor. Let me identify themes in Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 through 48.
Anger (5:21, 22): “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’
‘You shall not murder’ is Number Six of the Ten Commandments. But consider Jesus’s words: “But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment”. He is saying that our angry and hateful thoughts are just as problematic as the actual action of murder.
“…And,” he continues, “if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.
Anyone who thinks or says to another, fool or idiot, says Jesus,is subject to the fires of God’s judgment – separation from God and from all that is true and good – a separation he likens to the fires of Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem where the city refuse was dumped and burned. The judgement we think is reserved for the literal murderer, also hangs over everyone who is angry, bitter or contemptuous.
“So, when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift(Matthew 5:23). DA Carson comments, ‘How easy it is to substitute ceremony for integrity, purity and love; but Jesus will have none of it.’ Before going to church, Jesus is saying, ensure your relationship with others is sorted out.
Lust. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’” Jesus continues (5:27). Society often turns a blind eye towards adultery, undercutting the lifelong commitment of marriage. However, Jesus sharpens the focus of the original commandment: “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (5:28). By labeling lust adultery, he reveals a deeper level to the 7th commandment in relation to the 10th which prohibits covetousness.
Jesus is not prohibiting sex: the sexual relationship between a man and woman in marriage is a God-given gift. Nor is he prohibiting the normal attraction that exists between men and women. His issue is with the desires of our hearts controlling our thoughts and behavior.
Oaths. “You have heard that it was said in ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord…’” Jesus says (5:33).
There are Old Testament references permitting oath-taking, even in God’s name. For example, in Deuteronomy 10:20 we read, You shall fear the Lord your God. Him you will serve, to him you will cleave, and you will swear by his name. There are also references in the New Testament: Paul swears on God’s name and calls on God to be his witness – as we read in Romans 1:9; 2 Corinthians 1:23; and 1 Thessalonians 2:5. We also find God swearing oaths – that he will not flood the world again (Genesis 9:9-11); that he will send a Redeemer (Luke 1:68, 73); and, as we read in Acts chapter 2, verses 27 to 31, God had sworn he would raise his son from the dead.
All this oath-taking points to its real purpose – the importance of telling the truth. As one commentator has noted, swearing an oath makes the truth all the more solemn and sure.
Why then does Jesus speak about swearing falsely? Jewish commentary on the Old Testament law in Jesus’s day set out to define what oaths were binding and what were not. One rabbi taught that if you swore an oath by Jerusalem, you were NOT bound by your oath. If, however, you swore an oath toward Jerusalem, you were bound by your oath.
The swearing of oaths became a game. Depending on how you played it, you could get away with lying and deception. It was against this that Jesus speaks.
By relating every oath to God, because everything is ultimately under God’s direction, he presses the point of truthfulness. Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’ be ‘No’. Who hasn’t distorted the truth – perhaps, to put others down and to push ourselves up? Or who of us has said we will do something and then reneged on the commitment?
Rights. “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth…’” (5:38) – words of the Mosaic law found in Exodus 21 and Leviticus 24.
The law is both prescriptive and restrictive. If an assailant knocked out another person’s eye, one of the assailant’s eyes is forfeit – but not the second eye. The law provided justice but at the same time it prevented the escalation of feuding and bloodshed.
Into this scene Jesus now introduces a radical response: “But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person…” Does this mean Jesus’ followers shouldn’t take up arms, enter the police force or become sentencing judges and magistrates?
Commentators agree that Jesus is speaking about personal abuse towards his people. In times where we might suffer because of our faith, we should nevertheless stand up against evil for the sake of our neighbours.
Love. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (5:43).
Behind Jesus’ words lies the deeper truth about God: how good and gracious he is to both the righteous and the unrighteous – he makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. If God is like this, what would our world be like if God’s people prayed for all who oppose God?
Perfection. “Be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5:48).
People used to say how much better the world would be if everyone got back to the basics of the Ten Commandments. But this isn’t what Jesus is saying. His diagnosis of the human dilemma isn’t a matter of obeying dos and don’ts. Rather he sees a much deeper problem: the desires of our hearts – both in understanding, and in obeying the commands.
The reality is that under certain conditions the muck at the bottom of our hearts, surfaces. We all need God’s help and, amazingly, this is something God is willing to provide.
We get a glimpse of this where Jesus continues: ‘so that you may be children of your Father in heaven…” (5:45). God wants to work within us, to pass on his moral genes. He wants us to bear the fruit of the Spirit – fruit that reveals the work of God’s Word and his Spirit in our lives.
Jesus is telling us that our broken relationship with God has consequences: judgement and the fires of Gehenna. But as we read on in Matthew and the rest of the New Testament, we learn that Jesus himself has paid the penalty of our self-absorption. Isaiah chapter 53, verse 6 says, we all like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord has laid on him (his Servant)the penalty we deserve. God’s nature is also one of mercy. From the New Testament we learn that when Jesus died, he took the penalty we deserve – for our hatred, our deceit, our lust, our insistence on our rights, our lack of love, indeed for all our weaknesses and failures.
Where is our hope for freedom – in a long list of dos and don’ts? Or is true freedom found in humbly confessing our brokenness to Christ and asking his forgiveness, having a new and heartfelt desire to honor him?
Camus’ Caligula seemed free to do anything he wanted. But was he really free? The play concludes with Caligula facing his murderers, saying: “I have chosen a wrong path, a path that leads to nothing. My freedom isn’t the right one…. Oh, how oppressive is this darkness!”
Caligula’s freedom was false. Entrapped in his own ego he reckoned freedom meant doing what he liked. He had no sense that true freedom is the liberty to do what we ought.
A prayer. Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much our own ways and the desires of our own hearts, and have broken your holy laws. We have left undone the things that we ought to have done, and we have done what we ought not to have done. Yet, good Lord, have mercy upon us; restore all those who are truly penitent, according to your promises declared to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. And grant merciful Father, for his sake, that we may live a godly and obedient life, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Real Freedom…? appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In his Screwtape Letters CS Lewis says that there are two equal and opposite errors that people fall into regarding the dark powers. One mistake is to disbelieve in their existence; the other is to believe in them to excess.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent that continues through to the day before Easter Day. Many use the season to re-start their Bible reading, reflection and prayer, for the Lord Jesus challenges us to grow in the riches of his love as the Holy Spirit opens up our relationship and our trust in him through our Bible reading and prayer – not just in Lent but throughout the year.
In Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 12, the Apostle Paul writes: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power… For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places…
Here Paul takes the realities of our troubled world to another level. He is saying that ‘our struggle’, literally ‘our wrestling’, is not so much against ‘flesh and blood’ but ‘principalities and powers’. Back in chapter 1 verse 10, he speaks of the day when all things, ‘in heaven’ and ‘on earth’ will be brought under rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, as we read in chapter 6, for the present there’s a war between two unequal spheres: darkness and light.
Spiritually speaking, God’s people live in enemy occupied territory. The epic the Gospels reveal is that the true king has slipped into our world to rescue people enslaved by dark powers. In John’s Gospel chapter 18 verse 36, we read Jesus’s words to Pilate who had asked him if he was a king. Jesus responded that his kingdom is not of this world; if it was, he could have called on a powerful army to rescue him. However, knowing he was the only one who could defeat the prince of darkness, Jesus came alone into the world to accomplish his mission. He knew that only through his sacrificial death could the power of evil, sin and death itself, be conquered (so, Colossians chapter 2, verses 13 through 15). Jesus’s victory is validated by his resurrection from the dead.
However, for the present the dark powers, although mortally wounded, continue to do their worst, attempting to destroy God’s ultimate and sure plan to glorify his people.
Against this background we learn from Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 that God’s people are caught up in a spiritual conflict as individuals, and together. It is here that all too often we are naïve. We think it is only the smooth-tongued and often deceitful influential and powerful who obstruct spiritual truth in the world. No, Paul warns. There are formidable supernatural forces at work – powers that will not respond to reason. And so we’re caught up in a conflict that involves dark powers and human choices.
Put on the whole armor of God, we read in verse 13, so that you may be able to stand your ground. There will be times when the dark forces press us morally: whispering, everybody’s doing it. Sometimes they press us intellectually: you’re too clever to believe that. Sometimes they press us psychologically: your faith is so intolerant. And there are times when we may be physically persecuted. The aim is always the same: to silence the voice of God’s people.
Stand firm, Paul says. Be alert. Don’t give in. Put on the inner protection of a godly lifestyle. Our loins need to be girded with God’s truth; we need a breastplate of righteousness; our feet need to be shod with the commitment to spread the gospel of peace, and we need the headpiece of salvation. Our lives are most at risk when our inner defenses are broken through. We need the qualities of integrity, of righteousness, of gospel readiness, and the deep assurance of God’s ultimate victory.
The dark powers will do their worst to discredit our integrity, prevent gospel outreach through lethargy and infighting, and demoralize us by discouraging us.
We need protection:the shield of faith with which we can quench the flaming darts of darkness. We can’t cope on our own. We need to trust Christ, for when we do, the darts of darkness will fall useless. ‘The victory that overcomes the world,’ John tells us, ‘is our faith’ (1 John 5:4).
The sword of the spirit. While Paul hasn’t spelled out the meaning of his metaphors up to this point, he wants us to know that God’s Word is a sword. Unlike communism or any other ‘ism’ or ideology, there is no place in Christianity for a literal holy war. God’s new society is not brought in by act of Congress still less at the end of gun. God works through his Word.
The Word of God is not a message of freedom fighters, but one that focusses on personal repentance and God’s forgiveness: the building of God’s new society and its compassion and care for a lost world. The victory of God’s Word will have eternal outcomes.
Pray. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints… (Ephesians 6:18).
In any battle, communication is vital. In the histories of World War II there is a picture of a young soldier holding together a broken telephone line. Prayer is our field telegraph. Paul urges us to pray constantly, to persevere in prayer and to be vigilant in prayer. We are to pray in the Spirit.
Romans chapter 8, verses 26 and 27 helps us understand this. There Paul tells us that the Spirit works with us in our prayer. In the midst of suffering, we’re often at a loss to know what we should say. In those times, Paul tells us, the Spirit comes to our aid, putting our inarticulate thoughts into meaningful prayer, speaking to God on our behalf.
Despite the noise of opposing voices, God’s work continues to make inroads on the kingdom of darkness. When Jesus stood on the hills of ancient Israel with a handful of his followers, he said, ‘On this rock – the rock of faith – I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18). He was speaking to a small group of humble, un-influential men.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the legitimate ruler of the world. No, much, much more: the universe. Nothing in all creation will prevent his return in all his might, majesty, dominion and power – to judge and to bring together all his people in the new heaven and the new earth.
Let’s hold on to the shield of faith, wield the word of God with greater confidence, and most of all, pray – for one another and for others – that we will stand firm, not failing to live under God’s Word, nor failing to promote his good news to those around us. You may want to pass on a copy of my recent book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs, available through Amazon.
Prayers. Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made, and you forgive the sins of all who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, so that we, lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty God, give us grace so that we may cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came amongst us in great humility: so that on the last day, when he comes again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Ash Wednesday Reflection appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Loud voices today insist there is no God, leaving us adrift on the ocean of life without an agreed moral compass. Persuasive voices appeal to our basic, albeit unthinking instincts, while the profounder, wiser voices that speak to the depths of our souls are drowned out.
Into this world of confusion and noise, anger and division, Jesus’s timeless words to all his followers in his Sermon on the Mount stand out: “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13, 14).
Jesus’ metaphor of salt is double-edged: his followers are to bring out the flavor of what it means to be men and women – to be human. We are also to act as a preservative, slowing down the decay of society. Both a tall order!
Jesus has in mind the impact of the counter-cultural lifestyle he has just identified in his eight beatitudes – the ‘blessed’ who would experience the incomparable joys of God’s kingdom (Matthew 5:3-12). They are the people who understand their spiritual poverty before God, who mourn their failure to honor God and who grieve for a world that turns its back on God. They are ones who, instead of engaging in the power play and deceptions of the world, walk the tougher path of humility and service, truth and peace.
Indeed, it is because Jesus knows that humanity without God will always spiral away from truth and goodness, he calls on his followers to be the salt of the earth. He expects all of us, who have turned to him in repentance and faith, to live in a way that exemplifies the beauty, goodness and joy of Godly living, and so slow down the rot of self-interest and greed, of injustice and the unchecked power-play of the powerful and the social elite. Today’s world either ignores or simply rejects the reality that none of us is good – that we’re all flawed.
As Jesus is all too aware, the world needs good and godly examples pointing to him and his kingdom. But this will only happen when his followers don’t become insipid. That’s why he warns against salt losing its saltiness: “…if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Matthew 5:13b).
NaCl is a stable chemical compound. However, in the ancient world, salt was obtained more from salt marshes and contained many impurities. The actual salt could be leeched out, leaving a substance that tasted salty but in fact was worthless. ‘Watch out,’ Jesus warns, ‘that you don’t become insipid, wishy-washy fools’.
How do people view you? Do you claim to be a believer, but your life remains unchanged? Is your lifestyle directed by the culture or by the Bible? Are you just as greedy, unforgiving, and selfish as everyone around you? ‘If you call yourself a follower of mine,’ Jesus says, let your life be transformed by my words, for “You are the salt of the earth”.
In his Letter to the Colossians Paul the Apostle writes: Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time… Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answereveryone (4:5-6).
Salt here is a metaphor for sparkling conversations that trigger questions about life. Have you considered ways you could use news items and opinion columns to ask questions and spark conversations about the goodness of God and his good news? Do you look for opportunities to pass on a copy of my recent book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to others for whom you are praying?
“You are the light of the world…” Jesus continues (Matthew 5:14). Negatively, he is saying that there is a darkness about our human existence – something we easily forget because we live in an age that has turned away from God’s compass bearings.
Up until the 1960s and 70s morality in the West was grounded in the Judaeo-Christian ethic. But now all has changed.
Over 700 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah wrote of the birth of God’s King. In chapter 9 he speaks of the people walking in darkness and seeing a great light: On those living in a land where the shadow of death falls, a light has dawned. A child will be born. He will be called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”
Indeed, in John chapter 8 we read Jesus’s astonishing words: “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life”. God, the source of all true light, has come into our world in person. Jesus, the light who reveals God, calls us out from the darkness of our own ego into his light.
But how will our world today come to know him? “You are the light of the world,” Jesus says. “A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house…” (Matthew 5:14f).
‘Everything you are, everything you do,’ Jesus says, ‘must reflect all I have taught you.’ He expects us to reflect the light of God in our lives to the world. Yet do we? Do we endeavor to live out what he teaches in his Sermon on the Mount? Or do we hide the light of our faith?
“Let your light shine before others,”Jesus says, “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven…” (Matthew 5:16).
‘Live your life in the light of my words,’ he says, ‘and others will be drawn to my light and love’. It’s an awesome thought. We’re all involved. When we’re tempted to despair at the moral decline around us, we need to ask ourselves, ‘How do my family and friends, my colleagues see me? Just like everyone else, or as someone who knows the hope and the joy of God’s gospel?’
Jesus calls us to two tasks – to be salt and light. As salt we are to play our part as Godly examples of what it means to be men and women and so slow down society’s decay. As light we are to awaken people to God’s truth, with its hope and joy. Beware therefore of sin or compromise that reduces your Godly influence as salt. Beware of hiding the light of your faith through laziness or fear.
How are we to do this in a world that thinks it has all the answers? Ask questions. Ask if there is any real and long-lasting hope in the noise of today. And look for ways to show how good God is – especially for all who turn to Jesus in repentance and faith.
Pray for God’s grace that the light in your life will shine for everyone to see – in your kindness and care for others; in the way you cope with the challenges of life. Jesus will use our good works and our words to draw people to his light so that on the last day they too will glorify God. “You are the salt of the earth,… You are the light of the world.”
Prayers: God, our refuge and strength, the author of all godliness, hear the prayers of your people: and so grant us that whatever we ask for in faith we may surely obtain; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Teach us, gracious Lord, to begin our works with reverence, to go on in obedience, and finish them with love; and then to wait patiently in hope, and with cheerful countenance to look up to you, whose promises are faithful and rewards infinite; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Salt and Light in a Troubled World appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Great leaders are often remembered for their speeches as well as their accomplishments – George Washington for his Inaugural address as President, Abraham Lincoln for his iconic Gettysburg Address, Winston Churchill for his 1940 speech, “We shall fight on the beaches”, and Martin Luther King for his Washington Speech, “I have a dream”.
Today we turn to the introduction of Jesus’s memorable Sermon on the Mount which begins with his Beatitudes. We find the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of St Matthew, chapter 5, verses 1 through 12.
Back in chapter 1, Matthew introduces Jesus as God’s long-promised king, a descendent of the greatest of the Old Testament kings, David (1:1). Foreigners, known as Magi, came from the East and worshipped him as king (2:1-6). At his baptism Jesus is called God’s ‘Son’, a title reserved for the kings of Israel (3:14-17; Psalm 2). By the close of Matthew chapter 4 we read that people came to hear Jesus from the reaches of the vast empire that David and Solomon had ruled in the golden age of Israel’s history some one thousand years before (4:23-25).
But there is something unexpected about the opening chapters of Matthew’s Gospel: not one word from Jesus himself is recorded. It seems deliberate. Matthew wants us to know that when we do hear from Jesus, we are not simply hearing from a great ‘nice guy’, but from the great king. The Sermon on the Mount, we could say, is the King’s Speech!
Matthew chapter 5 opens on the scene of a huge crowd gathered on a hillside. Jesus used the natural amphitheater to address two groups of people present – followers and a larger crowd of onlookers. And despite the diversity of his vast audience, Jesus’s words are electrifying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God,” he begins.
Known as Beatitudes each line in the introduction to the Sermon begins, Blessed are … The word blessed is sometimes translated happy, but that identifies just one aspect of the meaning. To be blessed is to receive God’s approval and, as this is God’s universe, God’s blessing is the greatest honor anyone can receive.
From the outset Jesus’s words challenge us. Do we want the blessing that comes from our successes in this world? Or do we want, above everything else in life, God’s blessing?
The first beatitude reveals that the truly blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus isn’t speaking here of the materially poor or the psychologically impoverished. He’s referring to the spiritually destitute.
Poverty in spirit is exemplified by the tax collector in Jesus’s story in Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through 14. Over against the pride of the Pharisee, a tax collector humbly and honestly prayed from a corner in the Temple: “God, Be merciful to me, a sinner”. Poverty of spirit is the admission of our failure to love and honor God first in our lives.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted”, Jesus continues. These people grieve for personal failure before God. They also mourn because, even dimly aware of God’s purity, they see how the world without him lives in darkness. They weep because of the erosion of truth, because of the greed, cynicism, and lack of compassion evident everywhere.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (5:5). Meekness isn’t a reference to the weak or insipid. It is a strong word, referring to the deep, selfless resolve to serve the best interests of others. Meekness is not insisting on your rights. It’s thinking of others before self – and hence not being on the front foot with criticism. No one of us is perfect. Jesus himself is the supreme example of true meekness.
The meek learn to look at life from God’s viewpoint and are content. Their egos are not so inflated they think that they must always have more. In Christ they see themselves as possessing everything (2 Cor 6:10; cp 1 Cor 3:21-23). Furthermore, a billion years into eternity (if we can speak of eternity in terms of time), God’s people in the new heaven and the new earth will still be rejoicing that this beatitude is literally true. They will be grateful that by grace they learned to be meek during their initial threescore years and ten.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness” (5:6). Hunger and thirst are vivid images of desire. Righteousness suggests justice and truth. To hunger for righteousness is to long that our lives reflect the mind and will of God in his perfection. There’s an inner longing for heaven where God’s righteousness and justice will prevail.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”(5:7). Mercy embraces forgiveness for the guilty and also compassion for the suffering and needy. The promise isn’t mercy from others but significantly from God himself.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (5:8).Throughout the Bible the heart is the center of our being – of who we are. Purity in heart is indispensable for our relationship with God, or to use Jesus’ words, for seeing God.
Purity of heart isn’t outward conformity to rules. Rather, our heart, our thoughts and attitudes need to be pure. What do you think about when your mind slips into neutral? Jesus asks. What dominates your private thoughts? Do you let your mind linger on sights that have tempted you? Is the real inner you expressed in your outward words and actions?
Psalm 24 asks, Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? They who have clean hands and a pure heart,… and in The Letter to the Hebrews we read, Make every effort… to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).
The pure in heart are blessed in that they will see God. While this will be especially true in the new heaven and the new earth, it’s also true now. Our perception of God and his ways, even our fellowship with him, depends on the purity of our heart – which is a gift from God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers” Jesus says (5:9). He isn’t speaking about those who yearn for peace, but all who work at making peace. Jesus is the greatest peacemaker – for through his cross, he has opened the door to peace between us and God by removing the stain of sin that separates us. His death also points to the way of peace between men and women.
Jesus isn’t only speaking about gospel peacemaking. He also saying that his followers are to be peacemakers, seeking solutions to ease tensions, to reduce conflict, and to ensure that people understand one another. This isn’t easy, especially when we personally have been hurt by others. It’s very easy to forget that ‘a soft answer turns away wrath’, and that we shouldn’t allow ‘the sun to go down on our anger’ (Ephesians 4:26). To be a peacemaker means that we don’t bear grudges or nurse our anger.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”(5:10-12). Jesus here restricts the blessing to all who suffer persecution because of righteousness — people who are committed in their loyalty to Jesus. Persecution can take the form of physical hardship, torture, imprisonment, death. But there are more subtle forms:
mocking and personal rejection. This beatitude is potentially the most searching, for if we never experience some kind of rejection for our faith in a fallen world, are we truly a follower of Jesus?
Who then are the truly blessed? Jesus expects our lives to change radically. Instead of self-sufficiency in our relationship with God, we need to understand our spiritual poverty. Instead of dismissing unbelievers, mourn for a world that ignores God. Instead of playing for power to achieve kingdom ends in a fallen world, walk the tougher path of humility and service. Hunger for truth and righteousness. Show mercy, pursue purity, and work for peace. Reckon on the reality that life won’t always be easy for God’s people. But, Jesus says, stay with me. It will be worth every bit of it.
Prayers. Lord, you have taught us that whatever we do without love is worth nothing. Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you: grant this, for the sake of your only Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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In this first month of the new calendar year, we’re looking at Ecclesiastes, one of the wisdom books of the Bible.
The wisdom books stand apart from the main narrative of the Bible, asking questions about our experiences of life. Jobasks how do we make sense of suffering, especially the suffering of the seemingly innocent. The Song of Songs explores God’s gift of the joys of love and sex. Proverbs provides a framework for street-smart and successful godly living. Ecclesiastes asks, ‘What’s the purpose of life?’
Having touched on Ecclesiastes chapters 1 and 3 we turn to the concluding chapters of Ecclesiastes where we can identify two themes: ‘What’s the Point?’ and ‘What’s the Answer?’
What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? is a question that bubbles through Ecclesiastes.We work hard, put in long hours, and give up things we’d prefer to be doing. What’s the value of it all?’
The phrase, under the sun is used twenty-seven times in Ecclesiastes. It’s asking what is life all about if God doesn’t reveal himself? The writer isn’t asking this as an atheist: he believes God exists. He’s asking, ‘What do we make of life if we don’t have a special word from God?’
And there’s another layer to life’s conundrum: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all (9:11). Life doesn’t always reward the swift or the strong, the wise or the brilliant. So much is a matter of timing or chance. If you’re the wrong age when the position of CEO arises, no matter how successful, how smart or wise you are, you’ll be passed over. ‘What’s the gain?’
In chapter 11 the Teacher exhorts us to try to be positive about life. If time and chance rule, there’s nothing we can do. So, if farmers watch the wind, they’ll never sow seed. Take a chance, give it a go!
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun, he continues in verses 7ff. Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all;…
It’s good to see the sun, especially after long, wintry days. Enjoy life if you can. But as verse 8 chillingly observes: … Remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. Everything is meaningless. ‘When you’re dead, you’re dead’.
So, rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclination of your heart … (11:9). Enjoy your youth while you can. You’ve got energy and an ability to learn quickly, so run, swim, learn, pump iron. Enjoy being young and strong, but be assured there’s a sobering conclusion: But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Chapter 12, verses 1 through 8 are a poem: Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with the rain;…
A picture of old age emerges. Today’s world is afraid of aging. Indeed, there’s a vast industry devoted to anti-aging.
Ecclesiastes tells us life can be fun: enjoy it while you can, but it won’t last. If you try to hold on to it, you’ll find it’s like sand: it slips through the fingers and is gone. What’s the point?
Is there an answer? In chapter 12, verses 9ff we read: Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly. The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd….
Ecclesiastes is composed of the collected sayings given by one shepherd – an Old Testament way of referring to God. It speaks of its sayings as goads, pointed sticks, prodding us to consider the meaning of life. It also likens the words of the wise to firmly embedded nails, something to anchor us in life.
And in verse13 we read: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone.
This is the first time Ecclesiastes says that God has spoken. It’s the first time the Teacher has said that we don’t just live under the sun; we have a word from God. For our good he has given us commandments to live out. We’re not living in the dark.
The Book of Proverbs says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Ecclesiastes gives us the flipside: to ignore God and his Word is ultimate foolishness. Honoring and serving God gives us meaning.
Ecclesiastes concludes, not just with reference to God the creator who has revealed his good purposes for us in his commandments, but also as the judge. God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil (12:14).We live in a moral universe – the key that makes sense of our lives. For when we think about it, living in a moral universe means we are caught up in a much bigger story about the meaning and purpose of life.
The New Testament gives us a clearer picture. In Second Corinthians, chapter 5 we read: all of us must appear before the judgment seat of God to receive his just judgment for things done in the body whether good or bad (5:10).
Do you believe these things will come to pass? Prophesies that spoke of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, his life, death and resurrection, all came true. In the same way, the words of Ecclesiastes and of Jesus himself about the coming judgement, will also come true. Such judgement makes sense of our existence.
Are you and your family and friends prepared?
My recent book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs is written as a refresher for God’s people and as a book to pass on to others. Unless you have already done so, you may want to purchase a copy or two. Focusing on the seven signs of John’s Gospel it introduces Jesus as God who has come amongst us in person; throughout it addresses questions many people have. It’s available through Amazon.
A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Wisdom We Need – About Life … appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Another year has passed, and now another has begun. With the rapid and seemingly endless passing of the years and seasons, and with our experiences of life, how do we make sense of it all?
Back in the 1960s The Byrds and Pete Seeger with the song Turn, Turn, Turn brought the world’s attention to the words of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3.
The chapter begins by focusing on the bookends of life: A time to be born, a time to die… It moves on to creative and destructive events: A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal. And verse 4 highlights our emotions of sorrow and joy: A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. Verses 5 and 6 speak of building and possessions, and verse 7 touches on the wisdom of speaking up and remaining silent. Verse 8 speaks of personal and wider relationships, of love and hate, peace and war.
We sense with the rhythm of the poetry, the movement of time as the years and seasons come and go. We are made aware that there is a time for everything: just as it’s not always summer, so it’s not always a time to speak.
But being aware that there is a right time for everything, we feel the challenge: what do we reckon is the meaning and purpose of life? At the end of an enjoyable summer do we begin to see that it’s time for autumn with its colors and even winter with its cold and snow? The seasons are not just random. But what’s the purpose of it all?
Threading through the Book of Ecclesiastes is the question: what are you looking for in life? What are you working for? What do people gain, or profit, from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?
In chapter 3 the Teacher is asking: Does the movement of time and the variety of experiences mean that life is beautiful or meaningless? Is life meaningful or a burden? He tells us it’s both! Verse 9 repeats the theme: What gain have the workers from their toil? And verses 10 into 11 press the point: I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time.
There’s a beauty about everything in its time – the passing of the seasons, our childhood and teenage years. There’s also a beauty about study and developing our skills; there’s a beauty about being single and a beauty about marriage; there’s a beauty about Thursday afternoon because we know Friday’s coming and a lazy Saturday morning and coffee.
But there is another, deeper layer to our experience of time: Moreover, God has put a sense of eternity into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. God has given us an inner awareness that there is more to life. Philosophers have acknowledged this. Goethe in Faust said: “Everlasting! the end would be despair. No – no end! No end!” And Friedrich Nietzsche who said that God is dead, wrote, “All joy wills eternity – wills deep, deep eternity.”
We all sense there is more to life. It’s another facet of the tantalizing questions: ‘What is life really all about?’ and, ‘What does the future beyond space and time hold out for us?’
So, what is Ecclesiastes’ answer? If you can enjoy life, enjoy it. This is a gift from God. But notice God has a purpose in things. Verse 14 says: I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him…
It is here that we find a chilling note. Much in life doesn’t seem just: Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there as well (3:16).
In the places where power and authority should be used for right purposes there is corruption, wickedness and injustice. In some countries corruption is endemic. But one noticeable feature of countries that have been influenced by the Judaeo-Christian ethic, has been the built-in checks and balances, systems of regulation and accountability.
Even so, corruption still exists. The Australian group, Midnight Oil bluntly sang: The fat cats still push the thin cats around. That’s the way the world is.
So is God doing anything? I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work (3:17). There is injustice now, but one day there will be a day of reckoning.
If the teacher is right about this, if he’s right in what he says about time, the seasons of life, the times of injustice now and the time of justice to come, what is the state of our own relationship with God?
When Jesus of Nazareth was put to death by crucifixion, two criminals were crucified with him. One cursed Jesus. The other turned to him and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”. Jesus responded, “Today, you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).
There are two ways we can stand before God– either without Jesus or with him at our side as our defense attorney. The practical wisdom of Ecclesiastes 3 is simple. We cannot afford the luxury of simply enjoying all that we can in this present time without regard to a future time. The Teacher speaks of a time of justice to come. The day will come when all of us will find time gone.
A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Much in life today is politicized. So much so, that anyone who reflects on life will ask, ‘What’s it all about?’
The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the wisdom books of the Bible. It is a strange book and it’s rather surprising to find it in the Bible. It doesn’t seem to fit into the Bible’s story-line.
In chapter 1 verses 2 and 3, we read: Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
Ecclesiastes is quite depressing. Yet, as it unfolds it raises questions for us all. It’s a like a cleaning machine, cutting through the nonsense that fills our lives, and challenging us to ask what actually gives our lives meaning and purpose.
The writer, self-styled the Teacher, could have been David’s son, King Solomon who lived around 1,000BC. Or it could have been someone who wrote up the wisdom of Solomon. Significantly, embedded in the word Ecclesiastes is the Greek word for assembly: ecclesia.Ecclesiastes is what the Teacher teaches the assembly.
How then does the Teacher view life? What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? he asks (1:3). Gain is a commercial, Wall Street term, questioning the value or the bottom line of life. We work, we throw ourselves into life, we struggle, but what’s it all worth? What’s the point of it all?
The phrase under the sun (1:3), a recurring theme throughout the book, is a metaphor asking how we view life, as it were, from the outside. What sense can we make of life without reference to God?
The answer is most discouraging: Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity (1:2). The word vanity indicates that it’s all in vain, pointless. The word can also mean a puff of wind or a mist. Later in the Book, the Teacher speaks about life itself being like chasing the wind.
A generation goes, and a generation comes, he says, but the earth remains for ever. The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow (1:4-7).
Like a scientist he writes up his observations: the sun rises, sets, and rises again. The wind blows from one direction, then another, and yet another. The streams run into the sea, but the sea never fills up. In our terminology, he observes the evaporation of water and precipitation: the rain falling on the hills, forming streams that run into the sea, then evaporation, precipitation, and so on.
The endless rising and setting of the sun, the blowing of the wind from every point of the compass, the endless movement of water, go on, and on, and on, and on.
It’s a theme with which he begins verse 4: Generations come, and generations go… But, unlike everything around us, we’re here one moment, gone the next! What’s the point of it all? So much of our life is spent working to achieve wealth, power, prestige. And what’s the point? We’re here one moment gone the next.
What’s more, we’re wearied in the brief time we’re here: All things are wearisome; more than one can express (1:8).Furthermore, hesays: The eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing (1:8).
One of Elton John’s songs in The Lion King captures the mood: From the moment we arrive on the planet and blinking step into the sun, there’s more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done. Why do we need new songs? Imagine if record companies said, ‘Instead of releasing new songs we’ll only be making available the best songs from the past’.
But ironically, nothing new ever happens: … There is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? (1:9) Nothing ever changes. Not even the news. It’s only the names, the faces and the locations that change.
And there’s something even more depressing: the time will come when you and I will be forgotten. Consider 1:11: The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.
So, does the Teacher have any solutions? An important test he applies is: ‘Is there anything that’s going to last?’ Ultimate meaninglessness is our issue. What will be left when the waves wipe out the sandcastles of our lives? What will be left when the winds blow on the idols we have erected in our heart? He isn’t saying life is all negative; just don’t stop and think about it.
As we transition from one calendar year to the next, it’s worth taking the time to stop and reflect – maybe read Ecclesiastes. Yes, there is hope for the future, whatever may happen in the coming year. Ecclesiastes 2:26a provides a clue: For to the one who pleases Him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy;…
Ecclesiastes challenges us to look for answers to the meaning of life. Significantly, its answers take us into the larger biblical narrative, where we learn that God supremely holds out the answer to our questions, in His Son, Jesus, whom he has appointed as the Lord over all.
In John 20:31 we read: These things are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and, that through believing you may have life in his name.
At the risk of repeating myself, you may also want to give a copy of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to family and friends. It’s written as a refresher for all who believe and to be passed on at an appropriate moment to anyone who doesn’t know what to believe. It’s available through Amazon.
A prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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An op-ed on Christmas Eve in The Australian (12/24/18), referenced a lecture by Dr. George Weigel.
The article noted that Weigel “argues that Christianity, including the values highlighted at Christmas, has an important role to play in revitalizing democratic, market-oriented societies … These are struggling on both sides of the Atlantic and elsewhere, including Australia, producing unrest, instability and disillusionment.”
“If free politics and free economies are to produce a genuine human flourishing, Weigel says, the strength of the public moral culture, flourishing institutions that earn public confidence and a concern for the common good are vital. Christmas offers a chance to reflect on such issues and to take stock of the bigger picture…”
While it is not my purpose here to explore the relationship between Christianity, politics and a free-market economy, let me observe that the article is similar to ones often found around the beginning of a New Year, calling for a reawakening of the meaning and application of the real Christmas story.
Articles like this invite us to focus on the themes of the poverty and weakness, the love and compassion embedded in the birth of Jesus – all of which are true.
But here is a problem. Driven by the trickle-down effect of writers who have adopted Nietzsche’s anti-theology – that God is dead – our culture tells us that the Bible is a series of fanciful stories and fictious stuff.
But this conflicts with the opening lines of the longest Gospel – Luke. Dr. Luke wants us to know that he was writing history, not fiction. He followed the principles of writing adopted by historians such as Thucydides. Furthermore, he tells us that he verified his account with eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, people who had been with Jesus during his public ministry – the ‘keepers of the Jesus record’.
In their various ways the four Gospels witness to the reality of Jesus as God who has come amongst us as one of us. His public life reveals his authority and his compassion for a very needy world – especially our need to be rescued from our self-love, captured by the line: ‘me, myself and I’. We have turned aside from the true love and worship of our maker.
To say again what I wrote in January last year, Matthew chapter 2 provides an example of true worship. In verses 1 through 12 he records that Magi – wise men – visited Jesus from the far East to bring him gifts and worship him.
In chapter 1 Matthew tells us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the town where Jacob had buried Rachel and where King David was born. Known from that time as the City of David, the prophet Micah spoke of Bethlehem as the place where God’s Messiah would be born (Micah 5:2).
The legends that have developed around the magi following a star and visiting the baby Jesus in Bethlehem shroud the veracity and the surprise of Matthew’s account. He doesn’t mention the number of the wise men who visited Jesus, nor does he say they were kings. Nor does he tell us their names. Who then were these people who travelled so far?
The Magi werea tribe of priests in ancient Persia and were known for their study of astrology – making predictions from the stars. In the ancient world the movement of the stars and the planets was understood to frame the orderly pattern of the universe. Any interruption to this was seen to mark some new significant event that would impact the human story.
Piecing together the astronomical studies of the past, it seems that the Magi observed a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that occurred in 7BC around the time Jesus was born. In an age before telescopes, the conjunction would have given the appearance of a very bright star, which some of them followed.
Coming from Persia where the Jewish people had been in exile in the 6th century BC they would have known the Jewish Scriptures which include the prophecy of Balaam in Numbers chapter 24, verse 17: I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;…
The conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter occurred three times in 7BC, suggesting that when it had first appeared the Magitravelled westward to Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. Given the distance, they would have arrived there about the time of the third planetary conjunction. It was when they were in Jerusalem that they learned of the baby’s birth in Bethlehem, as Micah had foretold.
Matthew records: Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11).
Their gifts were prophetic: gold, a gift for a king – the greatest king of all time lay before them; frankincense, used by the priests – the highest priest of all was the one they saw; myrrh, for the burial of the dead – this baby, born to be king would be crowned through his suffering on a cross. Significantly, and to us surprisingly, these highly respected, wise, non-Jewish men fell on their knees and worshipped this baby.
At the time when Matthew wrote this Gospel account, non-Jewish peoples from across the known world were acknowledging the crucified and risen Jesus as their king and savior. Matthew here is highlighting yet another facet of the fulfillment of the prophetic promise concerning God’s King: Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn… (Isaiah 60:3).
Articles that call for our world to revisit the Christmas story are a fresh illustration of the way Jesus Christ fulfills Isaiah’s words. They give us the opportunity to take people around us to the true story revealed in the Gospels. And while the percentage of Christians in the US has fallen, Christianity is still the majority faith.
Let me ask, are you praying for family and friends that they might turn to the King of Kings – in repentance and worship? Are you looking for opportunities to live out and pass on the very best news our troubled world has received?
If you will allow me a personal note, you may also want to give a copy of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to family and friends. It’s available through Amazon.
May you know the joy and rich blessing of God’s great news as we enter a New Year!
A prayer. Lord our God, you have given us the life of Jesus in his home as an example: grant that all Christian families may be so bound together in love and service that we may rejoice together in your heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Wisdom for the New Year… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Catastrophic events such as occurred on Sunday, December 14 at Bondi in Sydney, give us pause and challenge us to see life with new eyes. Many are now looking for their leaders to chart a course to preserve life and secure livelihoods.
Throughout the ages people have expressed their desire for good and just leaders. Plato wrote about this theme with the notion of a philosopher king in his Republic. In recent times JRR Tolkien addressed the longing people have for a trustworthy leader in Lord of the Rings.
Good and upright leaders are rare, and even good leaders are not perfect. Yet, as every election shows, people long for a leader who will use their position to provide for justice and peace, the welfare and security of the nation. Indeed, in a fallen world the freedom to elect leaders is important and very precious.
Now, as we begin a New Year, is there any hope we might find a true and good leader?
Two and a half millennia ago hopelessness was staring the diminished kingdom of Judah in the face. In the 8th century BC the Assyrian imperial army rampaged through the Middle East and sacked the northern kingdom of Israel. A century later the Babylonian armies were on the rise, and it was only a matter of time before Judah received the unwelcome attention of those powerful forces.
How would Judah survive? She had no significant army, no money and no allies. Greater nations had already been cut down. Political obliteration seemed inevitable. Yet despite the odds, Judah’s morale was not destroyed. A glimmer of hope was on the horizon.
Isaiah, one of the prophets who had spoken of doom and despair, wrote about a special leader who would be raised up. In Isaiah chapter 11, features of God’s promised king unfold.
A leader after God’s heart. Isaiah was disappointed by the politicians of his day. They were corrupt: they took bribes, ignored the poor, and turned a blind eye to injustice. King Ahaz for example, had broken every trust given to him. He had even used the gold of the Temple to try to bribe Assyria and prevent her march on Jerusalem. He’d failed. As a ruler he’d let his people down.
Time and time again, rulers and governments do that. In most western democracies today election promises are constantly consigned to the trash.
In chapter 11 verse 1, Isaiah offers hope: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
Jesse was the father of King David, the great king in the Old Testament. Just as David himself had come out of obscurity, Isaiah is saying, so too a new king would emerge, and he would be greater than David and his son Solomon.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2-3).
Wisdom, understanding and knowledge would characterize this king’s rule. But fundamental would be his willingness to learn from God. There would be no political blunders in his rule. Furthermore, corruption would not plague his government; the media wouldn’t be able to destroy him – either over his personal integrity or his policies. No one would be living in poverty or without a home.
A leader who would use his power for peace.The metaphors in verse 6 are vivid: The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. Peace would be the mark of this leader’s rule.
Periods of world peace are fleeting. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have expunged the view that the world has at last entered a time of safety, security and prosperity. Yet Isaiah insists, under God’s ruler there will be no incompetence, no corruption, no violence – only peace. Could it be true?
A leader who draws his people from the nations. Isaiah doesn’t stop there, for in chapter 11, verses 10 though 16 he portrays people coming from all parts of the world to rally around this ruler. It will be a victorious, redeemed community, he says (11:15). People will come from the East and the West. Highways will be built so that people from every nation can come. It’s a vivid and poetic picture.
Understandably we ask, ‘Could it happen?’ ‘Who is this root of Jesse, this ruler to whom the people rally, who will restore creation to its pristine harmony?’ Jesus!
Some seven or eight hundred years before Jesus came, Isaiah predicted the first coming of God’s king as well as his return. This is one of the amazing things about the Bible that convinces me that it is what it says it is: namely, God’s deliberate, progressive, self-revelation.
Furthermore, centuries before Jesus came, Isaiah opened a window on Jesus’s life and work. Wise men did come from the Far East to pay him homage at his birth (Matthew 2:1-12). And people from around the world have been coming to him ever since his death and resurrection.
The Gospel writers reveal that, unlike many leaders today, Jesus did not just teach, but acted, revealing God’s compassion for a sick and sorry world. He fed the hungry and healed the sick, he stilled a storm and even raised the dead to life. He overcame the forces of evil.
As the New Testament unfolds, we learn that the coming of God’s king is in two parts: his first coming was a rescue operation; his return will reveal the king in all his might, majesty dominion and power. He will bring his perfect justice to bear and, with the unveiling of his own glory, will reveal the glory of all who have truly turned to him.
His first coming we celebrate at Christmas. In the season of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, we focus on the reality of his return.
Hope is bound up in God’s king. For the death of the Messiah on the cross came between God’s good creation, ruined by human sin with which the Bible begins, and the promise of a restored creation with which the Bible ends. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes… there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4).
In the meantime, God has given us all the opportunity to turn to Jesus the true king, with deep, heartfelt sorrow that we have not honored him as we should. He also now calls on us to adopt his moral compass for life and follow his example, showing love and compassion, praying for enemies, and looking for ways to point family, friends and all with whom we have connections, to the one true Lord of heaven and earth.
May you know the riches of God’s mercy and love in the New Year.
Prayers. Almighty God, the protector of all who put their trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply your mercy upon us, so that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal: grant this, heavenly Father, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Lord, we beseech you, pour out your grace into our hearts; so that, knowing the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection by his cross and passion. We ask this through Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
If you appreciate the weekly ‘Word on Wednesday’ please consider making a year-end donation to the Anglican Connection. Donations in the US are tax deductible. Donations can be made here.
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The appalling and deadly attack against Jewish people celebrating the beginning of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach on Sunday, December 14 raises many questions – not least the question of ‘Why?’ Why, in this age of so much scientific and technical achievement, is there still bitterness and anger, hatred and murder in the world? Why do events such as this happen?
Humanly speaking, the responses are complex and many, but when all is said and done, there is a deeper issue at stake – flawed humanity. Despite the wisdom of the wise, such is the brokenness of humanity that we are not able to rescue ourselves. None of us is good enough, wise enough, or powerful enough to achieve it.
And, to take up an idea that is rejected by many elite today; if there is a creator God who is all good and all powerful, why doesn’t he do something to clean up the mess – to inaugurate a world of stability and peace? The answer is found in the story-line of the Scriptures.
Over this Advent season we have noted that some seven or eight centuries before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah foretold that a young woman would conceive and give birth to a son who would be named Immanuel – God with us (Isaiah 7:14). We also read of the time when this was fulfilled with an angelic announcement to Joseph, Mary’s fiancée (Matthew 1:20-23).
But that is not all. In Isaiah chapter 9 we read that into the darkness of Israel’s experience at the time, a light would dawn in the north, the region of Galilee: Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who are in distress, Isaiah says.
Galilee was the region that had been invaded by the Assyrians. As Isaiah chapter 9 unfolds we read that a day of joy would come (verse 3); the signs of war would cease (verses 4 and 5); and the shadow of death would disappear. For, as verse 6 of chapter 9 says: To us a child is born, to us a son is given…
The sign of the dawning of the new day in God’s purposes would be something weak and insignificant – the birth of a baby. Yet, as Isaiah foreshadows, the government will be on his shoulders. His name was to be called, wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (9:6).
Through the lens of the New Testament we see the beginning of the fulfilment of these words – the first instalment, as it were. Matthew chapter 1, verses 21 through 23 records the angel’s words to Joseph – who had a problem: Mary his fiancée was pregnant and he knew he was not the father. “(Mary) will bear a son,” he was told, “and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”.
How important it is we consider afresh the message of Christmas.
Sixty years ago (December 1965),Charles M. Schultz’s A Charlie Brown Christmas was released. “What is Christmas all about?” is Charlie Brown’s question.
When A Charlie Brown Christmas was first released, the overwhelming positive response took the television network executives by surprise. It was watched by an estimated forty-five percent of the television viewing audience that night. Now, sixty years later, it remains a Christmas classic.
Tired of the commercialism of Christmas, Charlie Brown wants to know the real meaning. Snoopy’s answer is his participation in a Christmas lighting and decoration competition. For Sally, Charlie Brown’s young sister, Christmas all about getting.
When once more Charlie Brown asks his question, Linus responds by taking center-stage and reciting Dr. Luke’s record of the event of Jesus’s birth found in chapter 2, verses 8-14:
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid: for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will amongst those he favors’.
In an interview later, Charles Schultz’s wife, Jeannie, commented that her husband pushed back against the idea that there is no place for a text from the Bible in a cartoon: he insisted that the Bible is not just for God’s people. It is for everyone.
Schultz understood that Christmas is the twinning ofgiving and getting. God gave; we get or receive.
So often we simply do not appreciate the full weight of this event. We may believe the baby born in Bethlehem to be the Son of God, but how often do we let the intense meaning of this birth pass us by?
How often do we pause and reflect on the reality that divinity walked the streets of Jerusalem? That infinite Wisdom and Power humbly took on human nature? That God poured his heavenly resources into rescuing us, even though it meant for Jesus the violence and horror of a crucifixion?
It is for our sake that Christ condescended to such monumental humiliation. The lowly birth in Bethlehem points to Christ’s voluntary decision to set aside his glory for our sake. He came and he gave, to rescue us from our brokenness and open a new era of justice and peace that would stretch into eternity.
God’s way of addressing human failure is so unexpected. But let’s remember, our wisdom is finite and imperfect. It cannot be compared with the infinite and perfect wisdom of God.
With the events that unfold in the pages of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings as well as the Gospel records, we learn that God has chosen to involve himself personally and at great cost in the events of the world to open the way for our rescue and restoration as people created in his image.
Colossians chapter 1, verse 13 sets out God’s action for all who believe: God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, …
In response, we will want to emulate, no matter how feebly, the unspeakable generosity of God’s gift. Because God gave, we will want to live God’s way as salt and light and also share with others the gift of joy and hope – not condescendingly or aggressively, but graciously and generously.
You may want to find a way to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas with your family. You may also want to give a copy of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to family and friends. It’s available through Amazon.
May you know afresh the joy and rich blessing of God’s great gift this Christmas!
A prayer. Almighty God, you have given us your only Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin. Grant that we, being born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
If you appreciate the weekly ‘Word on Wednesday’ please consider making a year-end donation to the Anglican Connection. Donations in the US are tax deductible. Donations can be made here.
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Last Sunday afternoon, when many churches were beginning the celebration of the birth of Jesus, at least fifteen Jewish people were killed by gunmen and some twenty-nine injured at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, Sydney. A great anti-Semitic evil was perpetrated. How much we need to pray for all who lost loved ones and for the Jewish people. How important it is that we support and care for Jewish people we know.
It is also important that we pray that God will direct the leaders of the nations, enabling them to administer justice impartially, uphold integrity and truth, restrain wickedness and vice, and maintain true freedom.
Yet in a world that is divided, where anger and hatred can dominate, and where the notions of serious public conversation and forgiveness are often dismissed, is there anywhere we can we find hope?
The Book of Psalms consistently speaks of the injustices, the sinfulness and suffering of the world. The psalms constantly remind us that the wisdom and strength we need are found in the creator God alone.
For example, in the opening lines of Psalm 46 we read: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging (Psalm 46:1-3).
Psalm 46 encourages us that God is the sovereign lord over every aspect of life – over nature in the opening verses and, as it continues, over enemies of God’s people and over the world with all its tensions and conflicts. Written in a time of crisis, the Psalm-writer’s confident faith in God’s ultimate control is so encouraging.
Furthermore, while we might fear the instability in nature and are concerned with the tensions and conflicts of the world and the all-too-often lack of quality leadership needed to promote justice and peace, we can be assured that God not only knows what is happening, but is in the midst working out his greater purposes: The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;…But we are assured of God’s final word: he utters his voice, in judgment on the nations.
It’s clear that the Bible knows about suffering and evil, especially human evil and its devastating effects on the world. We see that God ‘s presence is neither disconnected nor dislocated from such evils. Rather, in speaking of God being in the midst of them, the psalm tells us that God is not the cause of evil, but neither is he removed from it.
In verse 4 we read: There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God…. Under God the waters no longer rage but are found as life-giving streams for his people under siege.
It is not surprising then that the Psalm moves to a climax with a command, Be still, and know that I am God(verse 10). This is not so much a word to God’s people, but rather God’s word to the turbulent seas and rebellious world. It is a command that foreshadows the words of Jesus of Nazareth to the stormy seas: ‘Peace! Be still (Mark 4:39). It is the same powerful voice of authority of Jesus when he commanded the deceased Lazarus: ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ (John 11:43).
Verse 10 continues: God will be exalted among the nations; he will be exalted in the earth.
If such a God is with us, we can have every confidence that when we turn to him he will hear us and sustain us. Despite the awfulness of our experiences at times, God is our refuge and strength.
The Psalm concludes: The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Prayer. Almighty Father, we commend to your goodness all who are in any way afflicted or distressed, especially those who are known to us. May it please you to comfort and relieve them according to their needs, giving them patience in their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty God, the protector of all who put their trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply your mercy upon us, so that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal: grant this, heavenly Father, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
If you appreciate the weekly ‘Word on Wednesday’ please consider making a year-end donation to the Anglican Connection. Donations in the US are tax deductible. Donations can be made here.
© John G. Mason
The post Suffering …! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Once again, I’ve been intrigued by the promotion of Advent calendars, online and in large retail stores. The calendars are becoming a pre-Christmas accompaniment, advertising wine, coffee pods and chocolate and, of course, the calendars themselves.
Back in November 2016, Ysenda Maxtone Graham drew attention in The Spectator UKto the season of Advent. She spoke of Advent as ‘a season of death, judgment, heaven and hell’ (November 26, 2016).
‘I relish the frisson of gloom,’ she wrote, the ‘foreboding and fear of judgment you get at Advent, alongside the hope. The Holly and the Ivy is all very well, but it’s the minor chord at the end of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel that I crave.’
‘More goose-pimples erupt in the naves and transepts of our cathedrals during the Advent service, than at any other in the liturgical year’, she comments. ‘It’s the mixture of bitterness and sweetness that does it,…’
It was Isaiah the prophet, writing in the 8th century BC, who was amongst the first of the prophets to speak, not only of the first coming of God’s King (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7), but also of his second coming (Isaiah 11:1-9).
It’s important we think about this. Too often we don’t think about the elements of the Christian heritage that touch people in our wider society. Christmas retains an ongoing point of connection. Now we’re seeing an interest that extends back into Advent.
Given this interest let me consider one of the readings set for this Advent season – for this Sunday, December 14.
The Book of Isaiah, chapter 35, verses 1 and 2 read: The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
A brooding theme in Isaiah chapters 1 through 39 is God’s impending judgment of his people. In 586BC the Babylonian forces would destroy the city of Jerusalem and take its people into exile. But Isaiah chapter 35 shines a light in the darkness, bringing news of God’s promise of a new day.
Isaiah’s poetry is powerful as he likens the experience of joy and singing at the coming of the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God, to our response when flowers burst into bloom in parched lands after refreshing rain.
It is a vision that inspires courage and fearlessness: Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God..’ (35:3-4a).
But Isaiah chapter 35 also sounds a warning: because God is holy, his very nature means that he must judge what is unholy.
In chapter 35, verse 4b we read: …He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. We would be much happier to overlook this aspect of God’s character. We’d prefer to listen to and pass on a message of blessing – of justice without judgment, of salvation without a cross.
However, the wonderful news is that the nature of the God of the Bible is always to have mercy. Isaiah continues: ‘…He will come and save you’ (35:4c).
We know that despite the incredible advances in science and technology, humanity continues to make a mess of relationships – between the nations and amongst families. It is self-evident we have no power of ourselves to save ourselves. Spiritually we are blind and deaf, lame and mute (Isaiah 35:5-6).
The wonderful news is that God himself promises us a future. He will build a highway for his people into his very presence! He will bring us to our true and lasting home where there will be joy and gladness… Sorrow and sighing shall flee far away (35:8, 10).
Isaiah uses the language of redeemed and ransomed of the Lord (35:9-10) to speak of every one who is brought into God’s presence. These words look back to the rescue from Egypt; they also look forward to the saving work of Jesus Christ.
And there’s something here we often miss. The highway to God is called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it… (35:8). Having been rescued we are now called upon to work at the quality of life that reflects the holiness of God. Paul the Apostle puts it this way: we all… beholding the glory of the Lord, will be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Isaiah chapter 35 is a great reading for Advent. We see in it another facet of Isaiah’s vision of the glory of the Lord as he points us to the glorious day of the final coming of the Lord. We can drink it in and take new courage as it speaks to us of the everlasting joy and gladness we will then know.
Surely this is news we will want family and friends to know – so they too will see glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
The interest in Advent reveals the deceit of a secular progressivism insisting that life now is all there is. This is cruel, denying the reality of a day when perfect justice will be done. It also rejects what, deep down in our hearts we know: eternity exists (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
As I write, I am praying that we will all have a renewed commitment to shape our priorities, decisions, and relationships in the light of Jesus’ return. Yes, he will return – perhaps when we least expect it.
So, will you join me in praying for two or three people who don’t yet know Jesus? You may also consider getting two or three copies of my recent book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs. It’s available globally through Amazon. I’ve written it to encourage God’s people in our walk with Jesus, and as an easy-to-read book to pass on to family and friends – perhaps as a present for Christmas.
If others don’t hear, how can they be prepared to meet God’s King?
A prayer. Almighty God, we pray that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered through your guidance that your people may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Advent Theme – The King’s Return appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Inscribed on a clock-case in Chester Cathedral, England, is a poem, Time’s Paces, attributed to Henry Twells.It reads:
‘When as a child I laughed and wept, Time CREPT;
When as a youth I waxed more bold, Time STROLLED.
When I became a full-grown man, Time RAN.
When older still I daily grew, Time FLEW.
Soon I shall find, in passing on, Time GONE.
We do everything we can to deny the passing of time. We pay attention to the skillful marketing of products that can supposedly delay the ravages of the passing years or even reverse the process. But no one is able to stop the advance of time.
In Mark chapter 13, verses 24-27 we read some very sobering words from Jesus: “In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”
There are times when significant events occur that impact the course of history. We saw this with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the destruction of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001, and the unprovoked, barbaric attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The world around us seems to be growing more selfish and corrupt. Nearer home, parents are concerned about the influences of social media and the impact of gender issues. Drugs and alcohol, homelessness, violence and rape seem more prevalent. Any sense that humanity is the special creation of a personal God seems to be gathering dust on the shelf of history.
Will there ever be a time when the evil and troubles of the world are brought to a close?
In Mark chapter 13, we read that Jesus doesn’t beat about the bush concerning the realities of our troubled world. He speaks of suffering and using metaphors, predicts global, catastrophic events. In this context he forewarns us of a day of his return.
His expression, the Son of Man, takes up the prophecy of Daniel some five or six hundred years before. Daniel chapter 7 speaks of the Son of Man coming in dominion and glory and that all peoples, nations and languages will be brought under his rule.
Consider for a moment the splendor and pageantry of royal occasions on earth such as a coronation, then multiply the scene a million times, and then a million times more. We might just begin to imagine the dazzling glory and the awesome power of the return of God’s king.
The idea of an end of time is dismissed these days. The thought is laughable. Catastrophic events impacting the world is a theme that books and films play with. But in the human mind such catastrophies never mean an end of time. Movies such as 2012 and The Road portray humanity coming to the rescue in the aftermath of any global catastrophe. Opinion-makers today tell us there will always be survivors to carry on and chart human destiny.
How different is the picture that Jesus portrays. He foreshadows a world catastrophically consumed by fire and his appearing across the skies for all to see – all of which may seem fanciful. Yet he is clear. He points to an end-time and the beginning of a totally new age – one where there will be no crying or mourning, where death itself will have passed away (Revelation 21:4).
What we forget these days is the Person who speaks so clearly and firmly about these matters. Prophecies made by people such as Nathan (2 Samuel 7), Isaiah (Isaiah 7, 9, 11 and 61) and Ezekiel (chapter 34) centuries before Jesus was born, came true with Jesus’s birth and life. Furthermore, his specific predictions about his death and resurrection came true. And he was correct in his predictions about the destruction of the temple and fall of Jerusalem that occurred in 70AD. Is it not conceivable that his further prediction about his return will also be fulfilled? We would be foolish not to pay careful attention to him.
In his Pensées, Blaise Pascal, the 17th C French philosopher, mathematician and chemist, wrote: “Either Christianity is true or it’s false. If you bet that it’s true, and you believe in God and submit to Him, then if it IS true, you’ve gained God, heaven, and everything else. If it’s false, you’ve lost nothing, but you’ve had a good life marked by peace and the illusion that ultimately, everything makes sense. If you bet that Christianity is not true, and it’s false, you’ve lost nothing. But if you bet that it’s false, and it turns out to be true, you’ve lost everything and you get to spend eternity in hell”.
In Mark chapter 13, verses 28 through 30, Jesus uses the analogy of the fig tree to illustrate his remarks about the future. Just as the sprouting leaves on the fig tree indicate that summer is near, so do catastrophic events indicate the coming of God’s new age.
When will this happen? As history reveals, star-watchers don’t help us with an answer. And Jesus tells us that not even he knew (Mark chapter 13, verse 32). However, he is sure of this: there will be an end time when he will return. Indeed, he tells us that despite calamitous cosmic events in the world, his words will not pass away.
Why is it then that we so easily put aside this thought? Why is it that we don’t pay greater attention to what our Bibles say? Are we too busy? Do we not believe Jesus’s words?
We may forget that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The giving of the law to Moses caused people to tremble with fear as they stood at the foot of Mt Sinai (Exodus 19:16). Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in the temple caused him to cry out, “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips…” (Isaiah 6:5). Significantly in Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 11, Paul the Apostle writes: Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others…
How then should we now live? Watch, pray and work. Watch. Be aware that this world is passing. Be prepared for the return of the King. Pray. Pray that God, in his compassion, will open blind eyes and soften hard hearts. Work. God calls us to partner with him in rescuing the lost and bringing them to their true home in knowing, loving and serving Jesus Christ.
If you will allow me a personal note, you might consider getting two or three copies of my book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs. It’s available globally through Amazon. I’ve written it to encourage God’s people in our walk with Jesus, and as an easy-to-read book to pass on to family and friends – perhaps as a present for Christmas.
I didn’t tell you there’s a last line to that poem in Chester Cathedral: ‘Soon I shall find while travelling on, time gone. “Will Christ have saved my soul by then?” I asked.’
A Prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, so that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Time – and Advent appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
We do everything we can to deny the passing of time. We pay attention to the marketing of products and exercise routines that supposedly delay the ravages of the passing years or even reverse the process. But we can't stop the advance of time. Jesus doesn't beat about the bush when he addresses the realities of time and our troubled world. In this Advent Season, this podcast focuses on his words about what the future holds.
Uncertain times challenge us with the bigger questions of life and whether a good and caring God does exist. Jesus' words in Matthew chapter 5 are helpful: "Do not think I have come to abolish the law and prophets. I have not come to abolish but to fulfill."
Find out more in this podcast.
Hallelujah, which means Praise the Lord! is an exhortation which forms the bookends of the last five psalms. Hallelujah is a word of praise which challenges us to ask, Who is God that we would want to praise Him?
Find out more in this podcast.
Do you have any regrets? In Psalm 51, David lays out his confession to God following his affair with Bathsheba. It is timeless in its application as it also speaks to us about ourselves and about God.
The Bible is a book without pictures. This is because there is an impenetrable mystery about God. How can we begin to grasp God's awesome majesty, holiness and power?
Because relationship is at the heart of God's nature, we come to know him through words. In Psalm 139 the power of words brings us into the presence of God.
We usually expect personal testimonies to be about conversion experiences. However, testimonies from God’s people about God’s ongoing work in their lives can be very encouraging.
Of all the psalms, Psalm 116 gives us a rare glimpse of such testimony. It’s a psalm, written in the aftermath of a crisis, that is charged with emotion and punctuated with the personal pronouns ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’. The panic of his crisis is palpable as is his excitement of his spiritual discovery.
1. A cry for help. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me, he writes in verse 3; I suffered distress and anguish.
His words awaken us to his dark experience. This is someone caught by the tentacles of death. We’re not told what the situation was but it’s clear the writer was reduced to a state of emotional collapse: I suffered distress and anguish, he says.
What did he do? His anxiety and terror stirred him to pray: Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, save my life!” (116:4)
It’s a desperate prayer: ‘Lord, save me!’ We can surmise from the psalm that he had prayed before but never with such passion, urgency and persistence. The tense of the verb indicates that he repeatedly called out to God.
For some reason he found that people he thought he could rely on wouldn’t help him. In verse 11 he says: I said in my consternation, “Everyone is a liar”. Either treacherous individuals had threatened him or friends had deserted him in his hour of need. There’s one thing worse than feeling afraid and that’s feeling afraid alone.
Yet in the midst of his terror and isolation he discovered something else. In verse 10 we read his testimony: I believed, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” In my moment of crisis, he says, I found I not only believed, but also that I could express my distress to God. In my helplessness I discovered what it is to trust God.
2. God’s response (116:5):Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.
a. Protection. We sense the relief and gratitude that sweeps over the writer as he recalls his narrow escape. The unstated peril has gone away and his understanding of God convinces him that God had stepped in and answered his desperate plea. So, he counsels his racing heart: Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you (v.7).
Clearly his emotions had not yet fully recovered. It takes time for this to happen. But it’s also clear the writer is more composed. In verse 8 he says:
For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
How often in times of distress are we awakened to a greater understanding of God?
In verse 6 we read: The Lord protects the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. The writer seems to have got himself into this mess. Simple refers to someone who’s naïve He’d taken people at face value. But God doesn’t chasten him: there’s no ‘serve you right’. Rather, God is his ally against the ruthless and cunning of others who were out to destroy him.
b. God never forgets a promise. In verses 15-16 we read:
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds.
The writer’s friends appear to have failed him. He was unloved and unwanted. But God’s intervention revealed he was valued. He was not worthy of God’s love, but God treated him as a precious son. We’re reminded of Jesus’s words: “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God … Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Luke 11:6, 7).
c. God delights in our friendship.
For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I walk before the Lord in the land of the living (vv.8-9).
With his words, I walk before the Lord the writer describes living in God’s company. God didn’t deliver him just to satisfy a moral principle; rather he had a personal interest in rescuing him. God wanted to enjoy his friendship – truly one of the great and most encouraging discoveries in the whole of the Bible.
Christianity is not just a matter of how we feel about God but rather how God feels about us. God cares about us and values us. He delights in our friendship. That’s why he stepped in and revealed things the writer would not have otherwise learned.
3. Our response. What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? (v.12)
a. Grateful acceptance. The song-writer knew how close he’d come to death. He knew God didn’t owe him anything yet he had rescued him. It prompts us to ask the question, ‘How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?’
I will lift up the cup of salvation (v.13a).He isn’t offering anything to God. Rather, he reckons that God having stepped in to rescue him, he will accept the gift. This is one way we can repay the Lord for his goodness to us. Living on the other side of the cross of Jesus Christ, how much more do we have reason to accept gratefully and enthusiastically God’s greatest of all gifts of forgiveness and new life,.
b. Prayer. And I will call on the name of the Lord (v.13b).His earlier cry for help and his gratitude for God’s loving response, made him aware that prayer is not Plan B – when all else failed. Prayer is not just for emergencies but is to be a daily habit. The writer pledged himself to be a man of prayer.
c. Testimony. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people (v.14).
And, I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem (vv.17-19).
The song-writer committed himself to testify about what God had done. He wanted everyone to know what had happened to him.
Some of us will identify with this psalm, because there may have been a moment when you stood at death’s door. Whoever we are, wherever we are, we need to grasp that, according to the Bible, we are all in a life-threatening situation. The deliverance to which this psalm testifies is a model of deliverance that every single human being needs to find. For all of us are in danger. All of us need to be rescued.
On a hillside outside Jerusalem, 2000 years ago, a cross stood silhouetted against an unnatural sky, and a man cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
The answer to that question is that in our great need and through that Man, God came to our rescue: He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). Like simple-hearted, foolish sheep, we have gone astray, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).
In our helplessness there was nothing we could do for ourselves. The extraordinary news is that God himself stepped in, because he pitied us, and most amazingly of all, because he delights in our friendship.
Prayer. O God, the author and lover of peace, in knowledge of whom stands our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; defend us your servants in all assaults of our enemies, so that surely trusting in your defense, we may not fear the power of any adversaries, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post A Personal Testimony … appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
‘Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done,’ are words from an old Christian song. How easily we forget to thank God for the countless good things he provides for us. Most of them are unknown to us. We take it all for granted.
But there is something else we forget; King David writes about it in Psalm 103. It seems he wrote this for the great choir he established in Jerusalem. It reflects his personal growth in his understanding of God.
With his opening and concluding words, Bless the Lord, O my soul, we find that this song has the tone of a personal reflection. His exhortation is directed to his inner self – a theme that he especially develops in the first five verses.
In reminding himself of all God’s benefits he begins by focusing on the forgiveness and healing that God held out to him. This suggests the psalm was perhaps another reflection on his affair with Bathsheba and his illness in the aftermath when he was deeply depressed. Assured now that the sin that had caused his sickness was forgiven, he reflects on the extraordinary mercy of the Lord.
Significantly, David didn’t attribute his recovery to good medical care or healthy foods. Rather, he sees his deliverance as nothing less than God’s personal involvement in his life. He doesn’t even attribute his deliverance to the power of prayer. Instead, he reflects on God’s mercy: The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel (103:6-7).
‘My experience,’ he says, ‘is an example of a general truth about God that I read in the Scriptures.’ At the time of Moses God broke into the experience of an entire nation. He revealed what a just and righteous God he is when he delivered his people from oppression in Egypt and opened a way for them to enter the land of Canaan. God showed himself to be merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (103:8).
Now, it’s important that we think about this. We can’t scientifically prove that God is at work in our lives. Nor can we prove that God answers our prayers. If anyone wants to interpret events some other way, we can’t prove them wrong. All we can say is that our personal experience and the testimony of the Bible mesh together in a way that we find personally convincing. We know God is real because somehow everything hangs together and fits. It rings true. This helps us when we think about our faith, or we are looking into faith.
Years ago, when I was re-thinking my position about my faith, I looked for some kind of logical argument that concluded, ‘The New Testament is true’ and ‘Jesus did rise from the dead’. When I found that the Bible never even tried to offer reasoning along these lines, I felt let down. Then I realized that faith, as the Bible reveals it, is not a logical deduction. We can’t prove that God exists and then decide we’re going to believe in him. This doesn’t mean that faith is a leap in the dark: it is grounded in historical reality.
As others have observed, ‘faith isn’t a logical deduction, it’s closer to what scientists call a paradigm shift’ – what the Germans call a Gestalt phenomenon.
Faith is a new way of looking at the world that makes convincing sense of it. David wasn’t speculating when he spoke of a God who forgives his sin and heals his diseases. He was reflecting on the point that the Bible makes compelling sense of our human experience. The Bible and David’s experience of God meshed together. This is how it feels as we grow in our understanding of the Lord and see him at work in our lives.
Significantly, David didn’t go on to list all the specific things God had done for him. Rather he focused on essential features of God’s character – God’s justice and his steadfast love.
God’s just anger: God will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever (v.9).Martin Luther once commented, ‘Wrath is God’s strange work.’ Anger is alien to God: it is his response to our failure to honor him and give him the thanks that is his due. There was a time when there was no anger in God; equally, there will come a time when there will be nothing further to rouse his anger.
God’s steadfast love: For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him (v.11). Children sometimes ask their parents, ‘How much do you love me?’ and they open their arms saying, ‘This much, or this much?’ When David said this to God, he realized that not even the expanse of the universe can describe the vast dimensions of God’s love.
So he continues: As far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us (v.12). We can’t watch the sun rise and set at the same time. We have to turn our back on one to see the other. Through the lens of the New Testament we see that through the cross of Christ, God found a way of detaching our sin from us, so he could condemn the one without condemning the other. The illustration means that when we ask God for mercy, he has to turn his back on our sin when he looks at us, because he puts us and our sin on two different horizons.
We have even more reason than David to bless the name of God, for we live on the other side of the cross that once stood on Calvary’s hill. That cross is a far, far greater measure of God’s love than the unfathomable depths of the universe about which David spoke. The arms of the cross show us the grief that tears the heart of God because of our sin. In Christ, God not only lifts us out of the pit, he lifts us from the depths of hell and raises us to new life forever.
How encouraging are the words of the second verse of Charitie Lees Smith’s 19th C hymn, Behold the throne of God above which says:
When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see him there, Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free,
For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me…
Is there any real praise of God in our hearts? It’s easy to go to church, to sing songs and hymns, and say Amen to the prayers, but to have no real personal connection with him. It’s easy to hear sermons that move us, but we’re not really listening to God because we’re more impressed with the preacher than we are with relating to God.
True blessing. Do you have a sense of God’s blessing in your life, a sense of connectedness with him that comes through knowing Jesus Christ? If you do not, then do what Jesus said: Ask, seek and knock. God promises to open our eyes to the truth.
A prayer. Lord our God, fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: have compassion on our infirmities; and those things which for our unworthiness we dare not and for our blindness we cannot ask, graciously give us for the worthiness of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Count Your Blessings …! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
CS Lewis once observed, ‘I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to “rejoice” as much as by anything else’.
Yet rejoicing is not only an apostolic injunction. A number of psalms in the Old Testament Psalter pulsate with exhortations to sing our praise to the Lord with joy in our hearts. Psalm 96 begins, O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
The psalm seems to have been written for the celebration of the time, some three millennia ago, when King David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. The Ark was the sign of God’s steadfast commitment to his people. First Chronicles, chapter 16 quotes Psalm 96 almost in full.
As with any good poetry, a number of themes are tightly woven together. Two, in particular, stand out: Sing and Tell.
Sing. Three times we are exhorted to sing to the Lord. Vital, biblically-grounded faith always gives rise to joyful singing because God’s people have every good reason to rejoice. The words, the Lord, stir us to lift our gaze beyond the material world: for there is one Lord.
The great commandment Jesus quoted is in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4: Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. Isaiah chapter 45, verse 5 says: I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god… And Paul the Apostle echoes this in First Corinthians chapter 4, verse 8: we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.”
The world we live in is a most unusual place. The universe is not some gigantic accident, but rather the product of a creator’s genius. Indeed, when we look with open minds at the complexity and diversity of the world and universe around us, we see how true this is. In his Pensées, the 17th C French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal wrote: “If I saw nothing there which revealed a Divinity, I would come to a negative conclusion; if I saw everywhere the signs of a Creator, I would remain peacefully in faith”.
Everything that exists came into being at God’s command, be it the structure of the universe, the atmosphere that surrounds our world and enables us to live, or the proportions of land and sea. All reflect God’s perfect design.
The implications are enormous – both encouraging and frightening. Encouraging because we learn we are not alone in the universe: there is a purpose and direction to life. Frightening because all humanity is called upon to do business with this God who alone is the Lord.
But there is something else that is significant. The psalm-writer exhorts us to sing to the Lord a new song. While newcould refer to new music, the context suggests something far more significant: we are to tell of his salvation from day to day. The Lord is not just the creator he is also a merciful savior. We are to glory in, and tell of his mercies that are new every day. I wonder how many of us do this?
Personally, I find it helpful to start the day with a Bible reading, starting with a Psalm, and then prayer, as well as to conclude the day with prayer. This helps me reflect on God’s mercies each day. Furthermore, as I recognise God’s daily work in my life, I am more motivated to sing his praises, not only in church, but also, often in my mind, during the day.
Which brings us to a second important theme: Tell. Verse 3 reads: Tell the nations…
With the word tell, the direction of the psalm changes – from worship of God, to telling the nations. In fact, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (LXX) uses the word from which we get the word evangelize.
There is an important sequence of ideas here: true worship leads to gospel announcement. If we truly worship the Lord, we will want to introduce others to him. Do we do this?
From the time of Kings David and Solomon, Jerusalem was a busy international city. In Jesus’s day the Temple included a court for Gentiles, who would have heard the songs of God’s people.
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, the psalm continues. The Lord is to be revered above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
The logic is clear: the majesty and glory of God are to be announced throughout the world for the simple reason that there is only one God. Significantly, the focus of exhortation shifts from God’s ancient people, the Jewish people, to the nations (verses 7-10). In the singing of this psalm, visitors in Jerusalem would overhear the exhortation to attend to Israel’s God, the Lord who not only made the heavens, but whose mercies are new each day.
Psalm 96 is so important in providing a link between worship and witness, between ‘songs to God’ and ‘speech to the nations’, between the reality of faith and gospel outreach.
The theme of gospel language develops in the Old Testament. The prophets spoke of a day when God’s anointed king would be revealed and announced to all the world. Isaiah writes: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news (gospel), who announces (proclaims the gospel of) salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns” (52:7).
The content of the gospel is the news: “Your God reigns”. From the time of Isaiah’s prophetic words, God’s people looked for the messenger who would announce God’s King. As we now look back through the lens of the New Testament, we see that not only has the messenger come (John the Baptist), but also the king: Christ the Lord, Jesus.
The theme that there is only one God who is Lord of all, reaches its climax in the closing verses of Psalm 96: Say among the nations, “The Lord is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.” Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.
Martin Luther reflected: “Christ is Himself the joy of all, The sun that warms and lights us.
By His grace He doth impart Eternal sunshine to the heart; The night of sin is ended. Hallelujah!”
A prayer. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your amazing love in the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be truly thankful, and that we may declare your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Sing to the Lord …! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
CS Lewis once observed, "I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to rejoice as much as by anything else." Yet rejoicing is not only an apostolic injunction. A number of psalms in the Old Testament Psalter pulsate with exhortations to sing our praise to the LORD with joy in our hearts.
Find out more in this reflection on Psalm 96.
King Lear,one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, tells the story of a king who voluntarily set aside his titles and property in favor of two of his three daughters, only to find himself reduced to poverty and homelessness because they rejected him.
“Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,” King Lear sighs. “How sharper than the serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.”
While some parents might identify with these sentiments let me ask, how often do we express our gratitude to the LORD? He is so good to us, far beyond our imagining. Do we thank him daily for his countless mercies?
The opening lines of Psalm 95 read: O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.
Singing is a great way to express our love for God. We sing when we are happy and there is joy in our hearts. Have you ever heard the singing of the Welsh Rugby Union supporters? They can’t stop, and their singing is enthusiastic – especially when they’re winning.
The opening lines of Psalm 95 are the words of people who know God as their creator and savior. We feel the repetition of the verbs: sing, make a joyful noise,… How different this is from times when we drift into church late, pre-occupied and apathetic.
Furthermore, Psalm 95 suggests that singing is not just a matter of joy in the LORD. We also exhort and encourage one another. And so our songs need to be strong on Bible and not insipid. Our songs are not intended simply to arouse some spiritual ecstasy: they are instruments of instruction and encouragement.
And as the psalm unfolds, we see why we should sing: For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also… (Psalm 95:3-4).
One of the distinct features of biblical Christianity is the understanding that there is a living, personal God at the heart of the universe.
Significantly, the more scientists discover, the more extraordinary and complex we find the universe to be. There are chemists and physicists who tell us what the Scriptures reveal: the universe has not come into existence by chance, but rather is the work of God’s design and purpose.
Consider the personal pronouns in verses 4 and 5: In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it; for his hands formed the dry land. These are personal images.
Hands speaks of a God who is not some robotic brain behind the universe. When we plumb the depths of the cosmos, we find not so much a mathematical equation or scientific formula, but a divine personality.
All this tells us something else – God sustains and directs all things. It’s important to know this and remind one another of it, for it helps us make sense of our lives. We see that we’re not just part of a meaningless journey, going nowhere.
The New Testament gives us all the more reason to see how true this is. In his public ministry Jesus showed that he has divine authority and divine power. At a word and in a moment he healed the sick, raised the dead, and stilled a storm. The New Testament speaks of Jesus as God incarnate who holds all things in his hands.
It’s sometimes said that people who go to church leave their brains at the door. But worship of God is not a mindless activity. Songs of praise are not simply a strategy to create the right psychological atmosphere. Vital faith in the LORD always awakens joyful singing because there are sound reasons for this response of thanksgiving.
And there is another great reason for singing to the LORD. Our lives have a purpose, a goal. And that purpose and that goal are bound up with knowing this God who is our refuge. No wonder Psalm 95 insists that we make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
But in verses 7 and 8 the Psalm brings a solemn warning: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness …
At the very point when we might want to dance and shout, the psalm takes a solemn turn. God himself now speaks asking us if we are really listening to him! Our actions might seem worshipful but our real self remains unchanged towards God.
Meribah and Massah marked places at the beginning and end of the wilderness journey, when God’s people Israel forgot his goodness in bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. On both occasions the people doubted God’s promise and his power. When the going got tough in the desert, they faltered and bitterly complained. ‘We were better off as slaves in Egypt,’ they said.
The Letter to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 95 in chapters 3 and 4. The writer knows how easy it is to forget God’s extraordinary love and goodness. It’s true even for people who have been bought and bound to God through the perfect sacrifice offered by the Lord Jesus Christ. For it was through the obedience of Jesus that God implemented a masterstroke when he satisfied in full all his righteous requirements for the sins of the world. Through the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross, a new and perfect way into God’s presence is now open for all who repent and believe the gospel. As Hebrews observes, Christ offers much more than the temporary rest Joshua offered. Christ offers a rest that is timeless and filled with joy (Hebrews 4:8-10).
Psalm 95 exhorts us to sing to Lord with joy in our hearts. It also warns us against turning our back on the salvation he has won for us. We who live on the other side of Jesus’ death and resurrection, express our joy in him and trust his promises. Having grasped his great gift with thanksgiving, let’s not turn away.
Thanksgiving. How often do you think about God’s mercy with thanksgiving in your heart and a song of praise on your lips – not only when you go to church, but also when you rise in the morning and go to bed at night?
Prayer. God our Father, whose will is to bring all things to order and unity in our Lord Jesus Christ; grant that all the peoples of the world, now divided and torn apart by sin, may be brought together in his kingdom of love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Raise up your great power, Lord, and come among us to save us; so that, although through our sins we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us, your plentiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the sufficiency of your Son our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post A Call to Worship (Psalm 95) … appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
One of the things I love about the Bible is its earthy realism. It understands the world we live in – the good and the bad, the grief and the joys. It also understands how we feel about life’s injustices especially when we see people who mock the notion of God, enjoying success. Nothing ever seems to go wrong for them. And as well as the unfairness we often feel, there are the realities of droughts and famines, floods and fires, earthquakes and ruthless autocratic rulers. Why doesn’t God step in? It seems so out of character, if he is all-powerful and truly good.
True faith will always have questions. In fact, faith that refuses to ask questions is one that leaves itself open to the contempt of the skeptic. True faith will want to address tough questions and be willing to experience the doubts that arise.
Now it’s important to note that to have doubts is not to lack faith: doubt is not the opposite of faith. Doubt and unbelief are two very different things. Doubt is something that only a believer can experience, for you can only doubt what you believe.
Doubt. Psalm 73 is a reflection written by a man who experienced doubt. He came within a hair’s breadth of abandoning his faith in God: But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped (73:2). Yet at the end of the psalm he tells us he felt closer to God than ever before: But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord Godmy refuge, to tell of all your works (73:28). As the psalm unfolds we learn of his spiritual pilgrimage – how he progressed from doubt to a surer trust in God.
One of his big questions is framed by what we might say is a theological principle – that God is good to the upright(73:1). ‘Why is it then’, he asks, ‘that many who are godless find life easy while I suffer? Where is God?’
Indeed, a tone of bitterness flows through verses 3 through 11. It’s as though he is saying, ‘Come on, let’s face it, whatever we say when we go to church, it is the self-centered, proud, deceitful and ruthless people who succeed. Healthy and wealthy, nothing seems to bring them down. No-one seems to be able to call them to account. ‘They get rewarded for their crimes with popularity’, the psalmist observes. ‘God is irrelevant’, they say in mocking tones, rejecting any thought of divine retribution. Justice is the issue troubling the poet.
Consider what triggered the writer’s crisis of faith: All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have been plagued and am punished every morning (73:13f). For many, injustice only becomes an issue when it touches them. In those times we ask: ‘God, why me?’ It’s here that the first person singular pronouns give us away: ‘Why should I suffer?’ ‘Why me God?’ The psalm-writer articulates it: I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked (73:15).
The solution. In verses 15 following, we discover how the poet worked through his doubts. He went to church: When… I went into the sanctuary of God… I perceived their end.
Good churches not only read the Bible, but believe it to be God’s authentic, self-revelation. And so, they teach it and as they do they put God at the center of the vision of God’s people. This is vitally important. For it is only when God is at the center of our vision that we see life as it really is. We’re like the moon – we live on borrowed light. It’s only when we turn our face towards God through his Word that we see the light. But as long as we put ‘me’ at the center of life, our vision will be distorted.
So it’s only when we learn from God’s Word that we begin to see the true light revealed by God. And when the psalmist reflected on God’s Word he began to see what happens to those who choose not to believe: They are like a dream when one awakes; on awaking you despise their phantoms(73:20). As far as the Bible is concerned, this is dreadfully real.
The idea of a final day of accounting is mocked today. But when we think about it, if there is no ultimate judgement the world is reduced to moral indifference: goodness itself has no value. Furthermore, God’s people realize that just because we can’t see the future doesn’t mean it is imaginary. God sees it, even though we don’t.
There is probably no more terrible judgment on godless men and women than the reality that one day God will ignore them forever. ‘Depart from me, I never knew you,’ Jesus will say. What chilling words to hear from the Lord of the universe. What a terrifying nightmare to be despised by God. When the psalmist went to church and put God at the center of his vision, he understood how precarious is the prosperity of the godless. It won’t last, he realized.
But the psalm-writer also learned that despite his doubts and foolish talk, he was a child of God: Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me into glory (73:23). To hear God’s Word in the company of his people is a powerful grace-gift from God. It prompts us to see our doubts for what they are and opens our eyes to the riches of faith. God holds us by the hand, guides us with his counsel, and will bring us to everlasting glory.
We today have all the greater assurance of this because we live on the other side of the life and death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Without him we will not know life in all its fullness and joy. CS Lewis onceput it this way: All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever.
Prayers. Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen.
Heavenly Father, the giver of all good things, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and grant that by your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by your grace and guidance do them; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Earthy Realism … appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Last week we reflected on the reality of the depression many people experience. Psalms 42 and 43 testify to this. The psalms are an example of the timeless wisdom and counsel that we find in the Bible. Psalms 42 and 43 are a cry from the heart.
The writer asks why he is depressed. ‘I believe’ he says, ‘Why then should I feel as I do? Why am I so inwardly disturbed? What’s happened to me?’ Three times he asks: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? (Ps 42:5, 11; Ps 43:5).
Speaking about his feelings, the poet doesn’t do what many who are depressed do: he doesn’t try to bury his emotional distress. And certainly, he doesn’t turn to alcohol, drugs, or some other diversion. Nor does he try to pretend he’s doing well: he admits his feelings.
We find here a very helpful lesson. It takes courage to identify that we have a problem. Men especially find this difficult, for generally we don’t like to talk about their feelings or admit to what might be perceived as weakness. Both Psalms 42 and 43 imply that if we are depressed, we need to acknowledge it. We don’t have to announce it on Facebook, but it’s worth speaking with a trustworthy friend, a pastor or a physician. And there may come a time when we will want to tell a wider audience – by way of testimony.
The point is that if we are lonely, or feel guilty about something, or if we have lost someone dear to us, we need to talk about it. There’s nothing to be gained by brushing it off or burying it. Look at the poet’s response in Psalm 42:9: I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?” He’s almost making an accusation: ‘God, where are you? You’re supposed to be my rock and my security. Well God, the rock has moved. You have let me down. Why?’
Now, it’s important that we ask questions like this. Not because there’s necessarily an immediate answer, but because we need to express our frustration, even despair. Indeed, there can be times when we’re depressed because we repress our anger. One psychotherapist speaks of it as ‘frozen rage’.
When we feel angry with God, we must remember that he is no stranger to emotion. He knows what it is like to be treated unjustly and to be sinned against. And he certainly knows what it is like to feel alone. We should never forget Jesus’ own cry of dereliction that he uttered from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
We cannot even begin to understand the depths of aloneness Jesus experienced over the three hours as he suffered the full power of God’s justice that we justly deserve. Time would have seemed to stand still as Jesus, the eternal Son of God, suffered the full force of the horrifying darkness and separation from all that is pure and good, from God, his eternal Father, as the weight of human sin was laid on his shoulders. In our moments of despair, it is easy to forget the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every day we need to keep it before us.
Remember. To return to the psalms we are considering, in Psalm 42:4 we read: These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God,… Recalling past blessings brought comfort to the writer in his spiritual drought. Many people find it helpful to keep what some Christians speak of as a journal of the soul. Reading it in the tough times can be a great encouragement.
Address our soul: Throughout the two psalms the theme cry is: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? The conscious mind of the poet is speaking to his inner self. Talking to yourself is sometimes reckoned to be a sign of mental aberration. But the poet is telling us that there are times when this can be a way to climb out of the pit of despair. A great danger for someone who is depressed is self-pity. Speak to your soul’, the poet advises.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a renowned 20th century English preacher wrote: ‘The main trouble in this whole matter of depression is that we allow our Self to talk to us instead of us talking to our Self.’ The writer’s soul has been depressing him, crushing him, so he stands up and says, ‘Soul, listen! I will speak to you: “Hope in God; I shall again praise him, my help and my God”.’
This is not the same as saying to anyone who is depressed, ‘Pull yourself together’. That kind of counsel won’t help. But, if we’re depressed, it would be helpful to say to ourselves, ‘Look to the Lord, for he is my light and my help. My hope is in him’.
Throughout these two psalms there is a movement from depression, to admission, and to self-exhortation. But there is something else: Prayer.
In Psalm 43:1 we read: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people… And in verse 3: Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me…
The psalm-writer is confident in God’s grace at work in his life. Because of this he knows that the day will come when, again filled with joy, he will sing songs of praise to God.
Psalms 42-43 urge us to move beyond believing things about God, to sensing the Lord’s living presence in our lives – whoever we are, and whatever our situation in life.
A prayer. Almighty God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit: so enable us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and always to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘A Cry from the Heart …’ Psalms 42 & 43 (#2) appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Many people these days experience depression. It is not something new and should not be lightly dismissed. Some experience it more than others. Furthermore, it is not something that only people who have no religious faith experience. Great ones of the Bible, such as Elijah, King David, Jeremiah, and Paul the Apostle, all experienced it.
A cry from the heart. Psalms 42 & 43 which open Book II of the Psalms, reveal lessons we can learn from the experiences described in them. Far from home, in exile in the north, the psalm-writer asks three times: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you so disquieted within me? (42:5, 11; 43:5).
In the opening line of Psalm 42 the poet reveals his desire: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? He longs for God’s presence. There are times when we too echo his feeling – times when prayer is difficult and talk of joy and peace is meaningless.
But notice what underlies these occasions – feelings, emotions, depression. Because we are psychosomatic beings, a disturbance in our body chemistry which may be caused by external physical factors, can affect our emotional balance as well as our spiritual awareness.
We can see what the writer is doing: he is telling us that it’s important we view our feelings and experiences through the lens of the wisdom of our faith. If we have a migraine we don’t shout, ‘Alleluia’. And so, if we’re suffering depression, we’re not going to feel close to God. But that shouldn’t prevent us from asking questions. Indeed, we should understand that there’s all the difference between feeling forsaken by God and being forsaken by him.
Now, that said, depression can be a result of spiritual factors. If, for example, we are burdened with guilt about something we’ve done, we may feel God is remote. There may also be times when we experience a spiritual attack from opposing forces. However, in most instances what might be called spiritual depression is in fact a natural depression impacting a spiritually minded person. This seems to be what the writer is experiencing.
And so he records his experiences. He speaks of his spiritual isolation: My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?” (42:3) The verbal barbs went home. It’s easy to trust God in the comfort and security of God’s people. But now he was alone, without emotional support or personal encouragement. Situations like this can depress us for we are social creatures.
Furthermore, he reveals his physical isolation: These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
A high point of the writer’s life had been religious festivals. He is homesick as he remembers them. Anyone who has moved to a new city or a new country knows how real this can be. It’s enough to make anyone depressed.
But again, his experience was not necessarily spiritual depression. Yes, he felt isolated from God, but that didn’t mean there was an underlying spiritual cause. His issue wasn’t sin or lack of faith. It was the consequence of his situation.
His depression so disturbed him that he burst into uncontrollable tears: My tears have been my food day and night,..(42:3) Three times he also tells us that he was downcast.He felt flat. He felt no spark of enthusiasm or energy. Depressed people often feel exhausted.
He also says three times that he is disturbed: ‘Why are you so disturbed within me, o my soul?’ We sense his anxious sighs and groans. And in verse 7 he tells us that he feels overwhelmed:Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your waterfalls (or, cataracts); all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
Socially and physically alone, the writer was emotionally distraught. He was flat emotionally, anxious, and overwhelmed. Which led to something else: spiritual rejection. In verse 9 he says: I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?” Torn with a sense of loss, he is like someone grieving the loss of a loved one. He feels spiritually bereft, devastated, and heartbroken.
But this writer is a believer. The dominant person in his life is God. We recall his opening line: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. The poet feels spiritually depressed, not because he was spiritually negligent but because of his situation as one of God’s people. ‘I believe’ he is saying, ‘Why should I feel like I do? Why am I so inwardly disturbed? What’s happened to me? What’s happened to my faith?’
We may think this man is spiritually weak but there’s no hint of this in the psalm. In fact, the way he wrestles with his depression testifies to the reality of his faith and to his perseverance.
Psalms 42 and 43 are most important for they provide lessons for us when we are in the depths of despair. What was the writer’s response? We’ll consider this next Wednesday.
A prayer. Almighty God, we commend to your fatherly goodness all who are in any way afflicted or distressed, especially those who are known to us. May it please you to comfort and relieve them according to their needs, giving them patience in their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post A Cry from the Heart… Psalms 42 & 43 (#1) appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Twenty-four years ago Judith and I were living three short blocks south of the Twin Towers in Downtown Manhattan. We had awakened on Tuesday morning, September 11 to clear blue skies and the sparkling waters of New York Harbor. But it was not to last.
We felt the shock in our building when the first tower was hit from the north. We heard the scream of the second jet flying low overhead and what sounded like a sonic boom when the south tower was hit. We experienced the shaking of our apartment building, similar to that of an earthquake, and the midnight darkness when the first tower collapsed. We saw the dust, the ash and the paper on the streets and felt the eerie silence when we were later able to leave our building. Lower Manhattan was like a moonscape. A great evil occurred that day.
Twenty-four years on it is easy to put aside the hideous, evil acts that cut short the lives of people going about their daily affairs. It’s easy to forget that commercial airliners were used as missiles to crash into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. A further flight intended for more destruction was thwarted by the selfless heroic efforts of passengers. People on that flight prayed the Lord’s Prayer as the plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Over three thousand men and women died that day.
In his address to the nation that evening, George W. Bush, then President, called for prayers for all who had lost loved ones. He continued: And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.”
In the Wall Street Bible talks I was giving at the time, I spoke on Psalm 46 which begins: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
Creation in turmoil. It can never be said that the Bible knows nothing about catastrophic events – and not least human evil and its devastating effects on this world. Indeed, the Psalm introduces a theme we overlook today – namely, the ultimate dissolution of the present world order by its Creator. God continues his work even in the midst of the chaos. God’s supremacy and presence with his people is never thwarted. He alone is our security and strength.
The larger biblical epic records the intrusion of evil into God’s good creation in Genesis chapter 3. God didn’t create evil, but because he didn’t make us robots, he allowed it. However, as the biblical narrative unfolds, we become aware of the reality and the depth of wickedness.
As a side note, if we insist we’re here by chance and are nothing but atoms in an ordered cohesion bumping around in time and space, evil and suffering have no meaning for there is no transcendental moral compass.
The opening lines of Psalm 46 speak of the unchanging God who is our refuge and strength. In him alone we find a secure shelter and the power within to address any situation. Indeed, verses 2 and 3 exhort us not to fear, even if the world around us is undone, for God remains supreme over every facet of his creation – the earth, the mountains, and the seas.
Humanity in turmoil. Psalm 46 moves from the upheaval of the material world to human turmoil. There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God….God is the midst of the city; it will not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
Derek Kidner comments that ‘the city of God is one of the great themes of the Old Testament … God’s choice of Zion, or Jerusalem, had been as striking as his choice of David, and the wonder of it keeps breaking through’ (Kidner, Psalms, Vol.1, p.175). We also find glimpses anticipating the New Testament vision of the heavenly Jerusalem as the community of God’s people rather than as a place (Ps.48:2).
Verse 6 speaks of the instability of evil and human tumult: The nations are in uproar, the kingdoms totter… However, God has the last word for when he utters his voice, the earth melts. Verse 7 is so reassuring: The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
The Lord of hosts points to the mighty armies of heaven to which Jesus alluded when he was arrested (Matthew 26:53). Refuge,a different to word to verse 1, speaks of an ‘inaccessible height’ which the New English Bible translates as our high stronghold.
Be still! Verses 8 and 9 are an invitation to catch the vision of God’s ultimate intention – to make wars to cease to the end of the earth.It is a picture of the perfect peace that will follow on the other side of God’s judgement – the accounting that precedes the perfect righteousness of the new heaven and the new earth (2 Peter 3:12f).
The command “Be still” is not so much a word of comfort to God’s people under duress but a command to every nation. Jesus’s word to the turbulent winds and waters, “Peace. Be still” display the power of God’s Word. Mind-bending though the idea is, at God’s command the nations will be called to order, confronted by God’s supreme and glorious power: “Know that I am God! I will be exalted among the nations … and in the earth” (46:10).
In the closing words, the confidence in God in verse 1 returns with greater power: The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge – our high stronghold! The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ confirm the truth and trustworthiness of these words.
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 twenty-four years ago, churches were filled as many looked for comfort and hope. Some turned to the risen Lord Jesus Christ for the first time.
As we reflect on these events twenty-four years on, will you join with me in praying for the nations, especially that God might open blind eyes and unstop deaf ears, turning hard hearts towards their true home in Christ?
It’s worth noting the words of Blaise Pascal, the 17th C French mathematician, physicist and philosopher: “Men and women despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is just to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good people wish it were true, and then show them that it is”.
Let me also encourage you to purchase copies of my book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs – one to refresh your own faith in Christ as well as copies to pass on to others. Use the link in the banner below if you are in the US. If you are outside the US copies can be purchased through Amazon.
Prayer.We commend to your fatherly care, merciful God, all those who in this passing world are in any kind of trouble, sorrow, sickness, anxiety or need, especially we pray for… Give them patience and confidence in your goodness, and in your mercy provide their every need. Father, hear our prayer, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
We praise your name for all your servants in whose life and death Christ has been honored. Grant that, encouraged by the good examples of their lives, we may run the race that is set before us, and with them share the fullness of joy at your right hand; through Christ who is the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post September 11 – Twenty-Four Years On… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Back in April 2017, The Spectator (UK) carried an article by Douglas Murray who asked, ‘Who Will Protect Nigeria’s Northern Christians?’ Murray pointed out that the Fulani (militia) are watching everything closely from the surrounding mountains. Every week, their progress across the northern states of Plateau and Kaduna continues. Every week, more massacres – another village burned, its church razed, its inhabitants slaughtered, raped or chased away…
‘For the outside world, what is happening to the Christians of northern Nigeria is both beyond our imagination and beneath our interest… Villages have been persuaded to keep records of the attacks to show anyone who cares…
Murray was writing of the region where three years before (2014) the Boko Haram had abducted two hundred and seventy-six schoolgirls. A report in April last year, 2024 indicated that ninety-one were still missing.
Murray commented in 2017: ‘If the international community meant anything by its promises such as the UN’s ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine, then what is happening could not go on. But the international community is uninterested…’
The reality is that the persecution of Christians continues. With some 50,000 deaths of Christians in Nigeria over the last decade, Nigeria is considered to be the most persecuted country in the world.
Atrocities like this cause our hearts to cry out with the repeated words of Psalm 13, How long, O Lord…?
Indeed, over the years one of the questions that constantly arises is how to respond to the carping criticism against Christianity about suffering in the world. It’s an important question. Yet it is also one of the toughest to answer for anyone who believes that God not only exists but is also all-powerful and all-compassionate.
Our sense of right and wrong and our cry for justice suggest we live in a moral universe.
If we lived in a world that had come into existence simply through a process of spontaneous change, logically we would be nothing but particles, bumping around in some sort of meaningful connection. Our conscious state would be nothing more than electrical discharges in the human brain.
Indeed, when we think about it, it’s difficult to be morally indignant about behavior that results from quarks smashing together. The issues of evil and suffering and the cry for justice are irrelevant if our existence is simply the product of an evolutionary framework.
Is this a reason for the international and media silence about the plight of suffering in Northern Nigeria and elsewhere? Yet the reality is that most of us have a sense of justice, often ill-defined, but nevertheless it is there.
Difficult though the subject of suffering is for anyone who believes in God, the Bible assures us that our cry for justice is right. It is right to condemn all wicked violence, the taking of innocent life. The Bible condemns the perpetrators of such deeds. Indeed, the Bible helps us to know evil when we see it.
So will justice ever occur? If we agree that we live in a moral universe, the picture the Bible paints makes a lot of sense and is very satisfying. Winston Churchill once observed that there had to be a hell, to bring the likes of Lenin and Stalin and Hitler to justice. The good news is that one day God will call everyone to account.
But there is a sting in the tail. If we want justice to be done to others, we must agree that we too need to be brought to account. Yes, we long for justice and vindication, but we too are guilty before a good and holy God.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn observed: ‘If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?’
So, why doesn’t God step in now? The Bible’s answer is that God stays his hand for the present because he wants to give all men and women, like the Prodigal Son in Jesus’ parable, the opportunity to turn to him in repentance. The good news is that God will pardon and deliver us when we turn to Jesus Christ. His judgment may be slow as we count time, but it is very sure as we read in the Second Letter of Peter, chapter 3 (2 Peter 3:9-13).
In the concluding verses of Psalm 13, we see the energy of David’s faith as he presses on in the Lord: But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt wonderfully with me (13:5-6).
We now have a far greater understanding of God’s love than David, for we live of the other side of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus came between God’s good creation ruined by human sin with which the Bible begins, and the promise of a restored creation with which the Bible ends. In Revelation, chapter 21 we read: God will wipe away every tear from our eyes… there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
Does this mean we do nothing about the atrocities perpetrated against God’s people now? We have this responsibility – to pray for our suffering brothers and sisters, to find ways of letting them know of our awareness and even to find ways of providing support. And, as we are able, to let others, including leaders, know of the plight of the persecuted peoples. As Edmund Burke, 17th century English philosopher and statesman remarked: The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men (men and women) to do nothing.
Prayer. God of the nations, whose kingdom rules over all, have mercy on our broken and divided world. Shed abroad your peace in the hearts of all men and women and banish from them the spirit that makes for war; so that all races and people may learn to live as members of one family and in obedience to your laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Raise up your great power, Lord, and come among us to save us; so that, although through our sins we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us, your plentiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the sufficiency of your Son our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post A Moral Universe …? appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Studies reveal that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. Not that we should be surprised. Jesus warned his followers that this would be their experience because of their association with him. “If the world hates you”, Jesus says, “know that it has hated me before it hated you …” (John 15:18).
The theme of the persecution of God’s people is not new. Psalm 2, written some 1,000 years before, begins: Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
Why introduces the first of four voices and the underlying theme. The plot is a war between humanity and their creator. Significantly, plot in verse 1 is the same word used in the original language as the word translated meditate in Psalm 1, verse 2. Whereas all who are truly blessed and happy delight to meditate on God’s Word, the nations and peoples mutter and murmur in a negative voice.
The psalm continues by identifying the leaders of this muttering: The kings of the earth set themselves, and their rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed saying, “Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us” (Ps 2:2-3).
In identifying who the kings and rulers oppose, two further voices are identified – the Lord God (Ps 2:4-6) and his anointed one, Messiah (Ps 2:7-9).
Significantly, the prophet Hosea, chapter 11, verse 4 reveals God’s words about his relationship with his people and his care of them: I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.
And the Acts of the Apostles records the prayer of God’s people when Peter and John were released by the Jewish Council for preaching that Jesus, raised from the dead, is the Messiah. Psalm 2 is referenced in Acts as a psalm of David (even though the Psalm is not titled as such) and understood it as a prediction of Jesus’s crucifixion: Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? (Acts 4:25f).
Specifically, the Jerusalem believers understood that Psalm 2 pointed to the actions of Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Gentile and Jewish leaders who had called for the crucifixion of God’s anointed one (Messiah). They viewed it as an essential part of God’s hidden, sovereign plan (Acts 4:28f). As Derek Kidner observes, ‘Every grand alliance against heaven will show, in time, this double pattern’ (D. Kidner, Psalms, IVP).
Verses 4 through 6 reveal God’s response: He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision.
God’s laughter is not mocking, but rather laughter at the human arrogance that denies the existence of the Lord, sovereign over his creation. As Psalm 19 reveals, The heavens declare the glory of God; and the earth proclaims his handiwork …
Paul the Apostle echoes Psalm 2:5 and Psalm 19 when he writes: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him… (Romans 1:21a-23).
And in First Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 20 we read: Where is the one who is wise? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
To return to Psalm 2, God speaks to us all when he says: “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill” (Ps 2:6). The perpendicular pronoun “I” is emphatic. Despite the view of many, especially in the western world today, God is not mocked. As he promised King David, a descendant of his (David’s) will one day be enthroned and be seen by all. God and his king will have the final word – and the last laugh.
Which introduces the third voice of the psalm – the voice of the king: I will tell the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you (Ps 2:7).
In Second Samuel chapter 7, verses 12 following, Nathan the prophet reveals God’s promise to David as he speaks about a descendant of David: … I will raise up your offspring after you, … and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
The relationship between the second and third speakers of the psalm permeate the New Testament. God says to Jesus at his baptism: “You are my Son, the Beloved” (Luke 3:22) and to Peter, James and John at Jesus’s transfiguration: “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” (Luke 9:35) Furthermore, Paul the Apostle in his address at Antioch in Pisidia, linked the title of Jesus as God’s Son with his resurrection from the dead (Acts 13:32-34).
The theme of the rule of God’s king develops: Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps 2:8-9).
Matthew records Jesus’s mandate to his disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, … (28:18f). And although the rule of Christ Jesus is hidden for the present, his mandate to make disciples of the nations, continues through the ages for all his people. Furthermore, in the context of Psalm 2 we can paraphrase break them as shepherd them, and a rod of iron as scepter, indicating his rule is as a shepherd king, guiding and disciplining with his royal scepter.
Which leads to the warning to God’s enemies in Psalm 2, verses 10 through 12: Now therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, live in trembling, paying true homage or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
God’s anger is not fickle, but just. It is balanced by the reality that he is also merciful and slow to anger – as we read, for example, in Isaiah chapter 63, verse 9: In his love and in his pity he redeemed them (his people)…
The fourth voice is in the last line of the psalm: Happy are all who take refuge in him (2:12c). Happy or blessed brings Psalms 1 and 2 together.
Dr. Andrew Shead (Moore College, Sydney) comments, ‘… this refuge-seeker is none other than the wise reader who delights in God’s instruction. Most of the psalms that follow are told from the perspective of this character as he addresses God in trust and thanksgiving, and comes to God for refuge’.
We shouldn’t be surprised when our faith in Christ Jesus is mocked. Rather, as Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matthew 5:44).
Prayer. Almighty God, the protector of all who put their trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply your mercy upon us, so that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal: grant this, heavenly Father, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Eternal God, from whom all holy desires, all good purposes, and all just works proceed: give to your servants that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and that free from the fear of our enemies we may pass our time in trust and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Have you ever been resentful of people whose lives seem successful? They’ve achieved recognition; they have beautiful children, and they enjoy material riches. The very thought of them strips any sense of happiness from you.
Now there’s nothing wrong with being successful, having a great family or having money. The question is how do we value them? Do they represent what life is about or is there more to life?
Today we come to a second Reflection on Psalm 1. The Psalm is important for it lays the foundation for the whole Book of Psalms. As it progresses it identifies our two life-choices – a road to nowhere, or a path to life.
Consider verse 3. The imagery is vivid as it speaks of the truly blessed or happy people. They are like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all it does it prospers.
Like a tree, truly happy people draw upon life-giving water, growing slowly, steadily, surely, putting roots deeper and deeper into the source of life. Their source of water is God’s word. And just as a well-rooted tree develops its own particular fruit in the appropriate season, so they develop their own distinctive personality and quality of life.
And significantly, because this tree is well-rooted, its leaf doesn’t wither in the crippling conditions of drought. Unlike reeds in dried-up river beds or grass in parched earth, trees because of their deep-rooting system are more able to reach what little moisture there is. So in the tough times of life, the faith of God’s people is not likely to shrivel up.
Yes, our faith will be tested, but in the same way a deeply rooted tree in drought conditions is stimulated to push down even deeper in search of moisture, so too are we are stirred to dig deeper into God’s word; to rely more and more upon him; to be more focussed on putting our life in his hands. This results in bearing the fruit of love – love for God, love for others. We yearn for this. We long for the water of life, but in our natural state we look in the wrong places.
Two thousand years ago a woman at a well in Samaria longed for happiness but it had eluded her. Thinking that love and marriage was the answer, she had been married five times. And as Jesus observed in his conversation with her in John chapter 4, she was now living with a sixth man. But each time she made the same mistake. Her life was a mess. She felt insecure, lonely, and dissatisfied.
Telling her that he, Jesus, offered living waters which spring into eternal life, he said that true believers worshipped the Father in spirit and in truth. ‘A new age is dawning,’ he said, ‘when access to God is no longer tied to any one race or nation.’ The key is to know Christ and, in turn to make him known.
Consider what Psalm 1 tells us happens to a world that fails to turn to God and put its trust in him. In verse 4 we read: The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Chaff is the epitome of what is rootless and weightless: it has no substance. It’s useless. We can feel the force of the imagery – the action of winnowing, tossing the harvested grain into the air so that the light, useless chaff will be carried off by the wind, while the heavy grain falls to the ground.
Other psalms point out that all too often it is the godless rather than the godly who seem to succeed in life. But those same psalms also come to the same conclusion as this psalm. There will come a Day when men and women of straw together with their works of straw will be revealed.
Verse 6 looks ahead to this: Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
If this world is to make any sense at all, there must be a final judgement. If there is any morality, there must come a time when everyone is called to account. One of the points the Bible insists upon is that there will be such a time. And the psalmist wants us to know that on that day, those who have ignored God, who turned their backs on the perfect pattern of life he has shown us, or who have simply rejected him, will not have a leg to stand on.
Are you looking for meaning and lasting joy in life? Psalm 1 tells us how we can find it. We won’t find it by following our own inclinations nor by following our passions. And, with the incarnation of the Son of God, we certainly won’t find it by dismissing Jesus Christ.
We don’t know what life holds. One thing we do know is this. Our world is not getting any better. The western world is more and more wrecking itself on the rocks of unadulterated selfishness. People want happiness but insist upon looking in all the wrong places.
God tells us where we can find it. In responding to him, in learning from him and leaning on him; in living lives shaped by his perfect pattern. Then and only then will we begin to find true happiness.
So, if we want to find true happiness, it’s worth planning a lifestyle that includes the daily reading of the Bible; developing a pattern of prayer, so we can plunge into the springs of God’s living water. The best way to begin is to not procrastinate. If you are not regularly reading the Bible, plan to start today.
A prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, so that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Happiness is something we long for. But how can we achieve it? It’s elusive: one moment we can be feeling happy, but the next we’re not. Like moonlight it has slipped through our fingers.
In fact ‘happiness’ can’t be a goal in the strict sense of the word. For a goal is something that is within our power to achieve. Happiness isn’t like that. There are too many variables outside our control.
We can think that being successful, having a good family and friends, material assets and comfort, will make us happy. But it doesn’t. There will always be others more successful. And behind the best of families there is often unresolved pain or hurt; those with wealth often find they’re not satisfied – they want more, or they worry about the security of all they have. Despite experiencing much that is good in life we don’t always feel that overwhelming sense of real happiness and joy.
Psalm 1 helps us. Blessed is the one … we read. Blessed means ‘happy’. The idea is echoed twenty-six times in the Psalms. It is also the word Jesus used in what are known as the Beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-12).
In Psalm 1 verses 1 through 3 we read: Happy is the one who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.
We all have a real thirst, a longing for something that will satisfy us deeply. The thirst is not wrong. It is part of our complex make-up that makes us human. Our problem is that we look in the wrong places to satisfy it. The prophet Jeremiah records God’s words: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water,…” (Jeremiah 2:13).
Verse 1 of the Psalm challenges us to consider our world-view. Our natural inclination is to adopt a world-view that appeals to our sense of self-sufficiency. We like the music emanating from the temples of materialism or humanism that puts us in control of our lives and our destiny.
As we continue down this path, we indulge in behaviour that appeals to our feelings, even though it means flouting God’s directions and good purposes. And so we find ourselves marching in step with the crowds who live as though there is no God and no objective moral order. In turn we join the cynics who mock Christianity. We become part of a silent majority, failing to speak up for what we believe because we’re afraid. We sit in the seat of scoffers.
What then is the path to real happiness? Verse 2 tells us: their delight is in the law of the Lord; and on his law they meditate day and night.
The negatives of verse 1 are now contrasted in verse 2. As others have observed, they show us we have a choice. Like Adam and Eve in the original garden, God respects the gift of choice he has given us. It’s one of the features that makes us human. We are not puppets on a string in a mechanistic universe. We can choose.
Verse 2 provides the key that unlocks our true humanity: Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. We need something to transform us from deep within. The law of the Lord which stands against the counsel of the wicked is a reference to God’s instruction.
Interestingly the word meditate here is the same word plot Psalm 2:1. What goes on within our hearts and minds becomes evident in our words and actions. In Psalm 2:1 the plotting is the intention of darkness that leads to evil. In Psalm 1 meditating on God’s Word, his self-disclosure, leads to Godly growth and behaviour.
People who are blessed meditate on God’s Word – God’s special self-disclosure. Here is the key to real and lasting happiness. It foreshadows Jesus’s reference to living waters that he promised to the woman at the well in Samaria. These ‘waters’ are bound up in knowing him.
Sometimes we think that meditation is something carried out by the super-spiritual – people who are etched into stained-glass windows, people who have their heads in heaven but who are no earthly use. This is not so. The words here echo God’s command to Joshua – God’s man of action who needed just as much as anyone else to think hard about the will of God if he wanted to achieve anything worthwhile.
Real happiness is found in our determination to be instructed and counselled by God himself. This isn’t easy. It will mean being prepared to look inside ourselves and consider why we say the things we sometimes do, why we think and behave the way we do, and then be willing to change. This can be tough. It means being honest with ourselves before God. It can take time.
For to meditate on God’s teaching involves letting the weight of God’s Word press upon our hearts and minds, and our life-style.
Where then do we find true happiness? Not swimming in the shallows of faith, but plunging into the mind of God found in the living waters of his Word.
A prayer. Almighty God, you show to those who are in error the light of your truth so that they may return into the way of righteousness: grant to all who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s service so that we may renounce those things that are contrary to our profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to it; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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What do you think of prayer? Do you pray regularly? And if you do, do you pray with confidence? Can God, whom we call ‘Father’, be trusted to hear our prayers and answer them?
In Luke chapter 11, verses 9 and 10, Jesus says: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
On either side of these words Jesus answers two questions we might have about prayer: Does God always listen to us? Does he always have our very best interests at heart? His answer is found in two metaphors that sit on either side of his words in verses 9 and 10.
His answer to our first question is in a parable sometimes called, ‘The Friend at Midnight’ (11:5-8). The parable has an underlying, unspoken question, ‘Can you imagine…?’ ‘Can you imagine a man talking like this to a friend in need?’ Jesus is asking.
The key to the parable is found in the words in verse 8, translated, the man’s boldness. Let me suggest this is one place where most English translations are unhelpful, for they follow a translation that only dates back to the 12th century.
In recent times the late Dr. Kenneth Bailey brought fresh insights to the parables from his work on Middle-Eastern culture. In the original text the noun, man’s does not appear; rather the personal pronoun his is found. Furthermore, in the light of the research by Dr. Bailey, a better translation of boldness is sense of shame. The flow of the syntax, the narrative impact of the story has the sleeper in bed as the focus – not the man knocking on the door. It is a parable about God and the issue of God’s honour, his name. It is not a parable about the man’s persistence. Persistence is a theme taken up in a parable in Luke chapter 18.
In the parable of the friend at midnight God is represented as the one who is in bed, shut in for the night. The unwritten laws of mid-eastern hospitality, which are an important sub-text of the parable, required a man to get up and help his neighbour in need. If he didn’t he would be shamed and he would bring dishonour to the whole community. “Can you imagine,’ Jesus asks, ‘anyone saying, ‘Don’t disturb me?’ to a neighbour in need, even at midnight?
So it is with God. His very nature demands that he get up and act. Otherwise, he will bring shame to his name. It’s a matter of God’s honour and integrity. He can be trusted to hear our requests, no matter how small, no matter what time of day or night.
‘That’s so encouraging’, you may say: ‘But what about the next question? Will God give me good things? Can he be trusted at that level or is he fickle?’
In verses 11 and 12 Jesus adopts two metaphors to move from the lesser to the greater: the most violent thief can be kind to his son and the most mercenary-minded father can be generous to his daughter. ‘Do you think God is any less open-handed?’ Jesus asks.
We need to think about this. To trust God is also to rely on his fatherly wisdom. A good and loving father will give good gifts, but he’ll use his own discretion as to how he will act.
Jesus assures us that God will not exploit our prayer or act in some malicious way. In the model prayer he gave to his disciples (11:2-4), he tells us to call God, “Father”. We need to be assured of this when we pray. Furthermore, we must realise that we are not wise enough, nor good enough, to get everything we request from someone who is the all- powerful, creator, lord of the universe.
Jesus’ direction in the model prayer to say, “Your will be done”, is not fatalism. These words are necessary to any conversation with an all-loving and all-powerful Father.
People who find it difficult to grasp the idea of a good and loving father are often those who have had an unhappy or abusive childhood. Jesus is saying that we can trust our heavenly father. Even if you have not had a good experience of an earthly father, you can nevertheless trust in the goodness of your father in heaven. We need not fear that he will twist our words.
He may not give us everything we want; he may delay making any response; but like any good and loving father he does not want to spoil us with over-indulgence. He may also want to test our seriousness in prayer and the quality of our relationship with him.
Sometimes God does say, ‘No’, as he did when Paul asked him to remove the thorn which was troubling him. He also said ‘No’ to Jesus when he begged that the cup of suffering might be taken away. When God says, ‘No, it’s because his plans are bigger than ours.
When we begin a prayer relationship with God the Father, we open the door to untold blessings. That’s why Jesus is speaking with such unqualified confidence when he promises: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you”.
Prayer is a precious privilege. As Blaise Pascal, the 17th C French mathematician, chemist and philosopher observed, ‘God has organised the government of the universe so that our prayer, our talking with him, has meaning. It brings us into the very presence of the God who is at the heart of the universe’. Yet so often our prayer life is dead. Why don’t we pray more consistently and more confidently?
And for anyone who is still asking questions about the faith and is finding it hard to make a commitment to the Lord Jesus, his words are for you as well: ‘Ask, Seek, Knock’. If you want faith, ask for it. If you seek, you will find. If you really are knocking on God’s door, the door will be opened.
God is the Father who loves to give. We can take Jesus at his word. ‘Will God not give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?” Jesus asks.
Why does he speak about the Holy Spirit here? He is anticipating the great gift of his coming to us through his Spirit: the Spirit will open our minds to hear the voice of God through the Word of God; the Spirit will open our hearts to God and enable us to call God, ‘Father’ – as we read in Romans, chapter 8, verse 15. The Spirit will open our lives to God and empower us to trust God.
Prayer. Let your merciful ears, Lord God, be open to the prayers of your people, and so that we may obtain our petitions, direct us to ask such things as will please you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
© John G. Mason
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I have a simple question: What is your ambition in life?
The themes of royalty and service stand out in Dr. Luke’s record of the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth. Although he is demonstrably God’s king, he never used his divine powers out of self-interest or self-aggrandizement, but for the good of others. His service is a constant theme.
In the opening lines of Luke chapter 10, we read that Jesus sent out seventy (or seventy-two) of his followers on a training mission so they could experience first-hand what ministry in his name means. Three themes stand out.
1. Prayer. In sending out the seventy Jesus wanted his disciples to involve others in their ministry. Because God’s good news is for all peoples, many more than the disciples would be needed. The harvest is plentiful,’ Jesus said, ‘but the laborers are few; pray the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field’ (10:2).
The Book of Revelation tells us that in the last day the Kingdom of God will include a huge multitude, drawn from every nation and tribe and from every generation. It will be as countless in size as the sands on the seashore and the stars in the sky.
A vast international company like this will require the involvement of thousands – people who are willing to leave their comfort zones and commit to serving the cause of Jesus Christ; people who, left to themselves, would sit comfortably in church on Sundays and let their phones dominate their lives for the rest of the week.
In Reformation Anglicanism Archbishop Ben Kwashi writes, ‘In much of the world today there are churches seemingly everywhere and very many Christians, yet with little positive impact on society’.
How important it is that we pray the Lord of the harvest to stir up amongst his people a gospel mindset and the resources that are needed for the work of gospel ministry.
2. Partnership. Jesus’ instructions Luke records here were specific to a particular mission. The seventy were to ‘carry no purse, no bag, no sandals’ (10:5). Rather they were to trust God to provide for their material needs.
Jesus also impressed on them the urgency of their work: ‘Greet no one on the road,’ he said (10:5). Saying Hello to someone in the Middle East can be time-consuming. Jesus is saying that someone with a job to do can’t let themselves be caught up in small talk with everyone they meet. It doesn’t mean God’s people are to be dismissive and discourteous. Rather, Jesus draws attention to how easily we can be distracted from the ministry he is passionate about – namely rescuing the lost, giving them new life and hope in his name.
How then were the seventy to find bed and board? Jesus answered by saying: ‘Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’’ (10:5-8).
People who are involved in ‘full-time ministry’ are to receive their support from others who are not so called. But ministers are not charity cases: ‘They work as hard as anyone,’ Jesus is saying, ‘and they deserve their wages’.
However, he also sounds a warning. Our ministry may be rejected: But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near” (10:10-11).
None of us likes rejection. But Jesus warns this is a real possibility. Christian ministry can be unpopular, even dangerous work. ‘I send you out as lambs amongst wolves,’ he says elsewhere. ‘Not everyone will want your message: in some places whole societies will reject you.’ And, he adds: ‘You are to accept the rejection; but warn those who reject you that the kingdom of God is near.
Ministry is about life and death issues. Men and women can reject other views about life with impunity, but when we reject God’s Messiah we put our souls in jeopardy. The stakes are high when we hear God’s gospel and when we open a Bible. We are given a choice: will we reject or accept the message? “He who listens to you, listens to me” Jesus said; “He who rejects you, rejects me; and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (10:16).
3. Warning. The seventy returned from their mission trip and were enthusiastic about the way God had changed lives. Their ministry was authenticated as they saw people from all walks of life receiving the message of God’s kingdom. Who wouldn’t be excited?
But Jesus has some sobering words. He not only alerts his young followers to times of ministry disappointment but also alerts them to the perils of ministry success. Taking them aside he points out that the arrival of God’s kingdom heralded the downfall of the evil powers. ‘Ministers of God’s good news will see signs of my greater power and lives being changed for good. But don’t let this success go to your head. Remember Satan himself fell because of spiritual pride. Your greatest reason for joy is that your names are written in heaven’ (10:20).
We see here that God’s ambition is to draw into his kingdom countless numbers of people from all walks of life. We also see the conjunction of ministry and prayer.
What is your ambition? Whoever we are, whatever we do, Jesus challenges us to ask how can we serve in God’s plan to rescue men and women and bring them into his kingdom.
A prayer. Teach us, gracious Lord, to begin our works with reverence, to go on in obedience, and finish them with love; and then to wait patiently in hope, and with cheerful countenance to look up to you, whose promises are faithful and rewards infinite; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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With the current geo-political upheavals many fear what the future holds. The uncertainty today is exacerbated by the angry divisions within societies. Vindictiveness has replaced respectful and serious conversation. And we can feel utterly powerless when it comes to talking about our faith.
In Perelandra or Voyage to Venus, the second in CS Lewis’ science-fiction trilogy, Ransom, the main character, feels powerless in confronting an evil force at work on the untainted planet Venus. The crafty subtle evil power reflects the temptations in Genesis chapter 3. Despite being a learned scholar in philology, Ransom constantly finds himself defeated in his arguments. What can he do?
This raises an important question for us, for today people have little knowledge of the Jesus of the Gospels. So subtle and persistent has been the attack on Christianity, they are not looking to the Christian faith for answers about life. Is it time for us to review our approach?
Come with me to a parable Jesus told – the parable of the sower. It begins in Luke chapter 8, verse 4. When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’… ‘Now the parable is this,’ Jesus explained: ‘The seed is the word of God.’
People travelled from near and far to see Jesus. Expectations were rising. It would have been a great time for him to call them to join him in a march on Jerusalem to set Israel free from Rome. But that was not God’s way.
We need to focus on the key to the parable: “…The seed is the word of God” (verse 11).
Causes and revolutions are staged by various means. Last century Marxists brought in Communism at the end of a gun. This century began, as we are reminded on 9/11 each year, with Islamist extremists trying to de-stabilise and destroy through terrorism. In Jesus’s day zealots tried to revive Jewish independence through guerrilla warfare.
But these are not Jesus’s methods. The picture he paints in these verses is of a farmer quietly sowing seed. The Word of God he is saying, has within its DNA the capacity to change people’s lives for good. At first the transformation is hidden but there comes a day when the change is obvious.
Churches today have often lost confidence in the power of God’s Word to change lives. So, many churches focus on the sacraments, and others on social justice. But to make these things the priority is to lose sight of the way God works. God’s Word is the key that unlocks the door into God’s kingdom and therefore to life.
In Second Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 and 17 we read: All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the people of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
The Scriptures, as the Word of God, give us exclusive information about salvation. They don’t contain exhaustive truth, but what they do give us is sufficient for restoring our relationship with God and for living as God’s people.
In the larger context of Second Timothy chapter 3, Paul reminds us we live in a world that prefers to find or invent its own religion. He tells us that our only real hope for life and meaning is found in God’s unique self-revelation. Human resources won’t provide deep and satisfying answers. Our sure hope is in dependence on the resources of the living God.
To return to the parable in Luke chapter 8, Jesus warns us that the results of sowing the seed of God’s Word aren’t uniform. Some of the crop grows well, some poorly, some hardly at all. The results are not so much caused by bad sowing but rather because of some failure in the ground. We could call this parable the parable of the four soils.
One group, having heard God’s Word, hardened their hearts through the silent, crafty work of the power of evil. A second group received God’s Word with joy, but in times of testing fell away; they had liked the preacher but there was no true repentance, no real change in their lives. A third group also heard God’s Word but had not counted the cost of commitment; they were not convicted of their sin and their need to turn to Christ in repentance; they had come as customers to buy, not as disciples to surrender.
But Jesus also speaks of a fourth group. They are true followers of Christ who hold fast to God’s Word with an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance. Perseverance in godly living is the sign of God’s grace at work. A real lesson here is the encouragement we can experience in the ministry of disciple-making and outreach.
Jesus’s references to birds, stones, and thorns could easily demoralize us. But he is saying, ‘Don’t be put off. Be realistic, yes. But the ministry of God’s Word will always have its successes, and what success that will be!’ So let’s be encouraged. Let’s never forget Jesus’s words: “I will build my church, and nothing will prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
And most of all, remember the key to ministry is letting God’s Word do its work.
To assist you in your own faith and equip you with a small book to pass on to others who don’t know what to believe, I have written The Jesus Story: Seven Signs that focus on the miracles of John’s Gospel. You can access it through the banner below if you are in the US, or through Amazon anywhere else in the world.
A prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Note: I have adapted material here from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God (2nd Edition, Aquila: 2019)
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In this world of turmoil and suffering, we long for a day when all will be put right.
A scene in the public ministry of Jesus of Nazareth helps us.
They arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he (Jesus) stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs… (Luke 8:26-27).
While today the man would probably be diagnosed with some form of psychosis, Luke the physician says he was demon-possessed.
Alien powers. Which raises an interesting question for us. The world of the Bible did not have the fields of psychiatry and psychology, yet the Bible does teach that we human beings are strange creatures who live on the boundary of two worlds – the physical and the spiritual. Sickness can invade this psychosomatic unity from either of those spheres. And when it does, it can cause symptoms that affect both the physical and the spiritual, the mind and the body.
Furthermore, just as illness can invade us from either source, so healing can come from either source. And when it is successful it can bring both spiritual and physical relief. We recognise this for example, when we bring prayer and medicine to bear on cancer. In the same way, we can bring prayer and psychiatry together for a person who is mentally ill.
Luke’s record provides a helpful clue to our question of diagnosis: the man fell down at Jesus’ feet, not in worship but in recognition of Jesus’ superior power. He shouted, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech you, do not torment me’ (8:28).
The man was suffering from more than mental illness or uncontrolled behaviour through alcoholism or drug addiction. Markers of his condition were the length of time he had been disturbed and his awareness of the supernatural.
His response to Jesus’ question, ‘What is your name?’ shows how true this was. ‘Legion,’ he said. The powers within him knew they were confronted by someone greater, for Jesus was commanding them to leave the man (Luke 8:29-30).
A greater power. Fearing the abyss, the restriction of their movement, these alien forces asked Jesus to let them enter a large herd of swine. They may have thought this would allow them to move around. Receiving Jesus’ permission, they entered the pigs and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned (Luke 8:33).
The destruction of the pigs graphically captures the ultimate purpose of such cosmic powers: they are hell-bent on the destruction of God’s creation.
Luke’s juxtaposition of the before and after scenes reinforces this. Under the influence of dark powers, the man had no shame. He was naked and couldn’t live in normal society – only amongst the dead. He couldn’t be restrained and was unable to enjoy meaningful human relationships, let alone relationship with God. He was alienated and alone, an outcast. The powers of darkness are intent on defacing and destroying the image of God in us.
However, released from these dark powers through Jesus’ greater power, the man’s life was dramatically changed: the townspeople found him sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind (Luke 8:35). Whereas previously he hadn’t wanted companionship, now he wanted to be with Jesus. Whereas previously he had lived amongst the dead, now Jesus told him to return …home (Luke 8:38-39a).
Jesus holds out to us the promise of restoration and hope.
The picture the New Testament paints is that the Creator’s rightful rule has been usurped by a coup – by what the Letter to the Ephesians calls the rulers of this present darkness (Ephesians 6:12). Currently there is a conflict between two distinct spheres of existence – the heavenly and the earthly. However, the scene in the land of the Gerasenes points us to the supremacy of Jesus Christ.
For the present, we are naïve if we ignore the reality that there are dark forces in the cosmos intent on controlling the lives of men and women. As the scene in Luke 8 reveals, and as we read in Ephesians chapter 6, our struggle is not simply against flesh and blood. God’s people are caught up in a struggle with the powers of darkness.
However, the Bible assures us that the day is coming when everything will be brought under the rule of Jesus Christ – as we read for example, in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 10. Christianity is not a dualistic faith. God’s king is supreme. Jesus’ restoration of the man in the land of the Gerasenes points to this reality.
A commission. There’s something else in the scene in Luke chapter 8. Despite the good Jesus had done for the man, the local property owners and townspeople didn’t want him to stay. They feared him (Luke 8:35, 37). But Jesus didn’t leave this non-Jewish world without a witness. He commissioned the man to stay and let everyone know what God had done for him (Luke 8:39). His presence and testimony would be a constant reminder of the extraordinary Jewish man who had visited and brought about an amazing transformation to his life.
From the way Luke has recorded this event, it is clear he wants us not only to grasp the impact of Jesus’ power, but also to feel the extent of his care and compassion – and not least to those who are outside Israel.
God’s good news is that a remarkable intervention has occurred in world events. The true king of the universe himself has come amongst us, not with great fanfare, let alone with an army. That was not his strategy. Rather, single-handedly he has mortally wounded the prince of darkness and is now gathering from all over the world, people who are loyal to him.
To achieve his purposes, he involves us – to pray for God’s mercy and to introduce our family and connections to the compassionate and all-powerful Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who will put all things right.
If you will allow me a personal reference, have you taken up an opportunity to read The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to refresh your own faith as well as have a book to pass on to others? You can access it through Amazon.
A prayer. Lord God, the unfailing helper and guide of those whom you bring up in your steadfast fear and love, keep us, we pray, under the protection of your good providence, and give us a continual reverence and love for your holy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Note: Material for today’s Word on Wednesday is adapted from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God (2nd Edition, Aquila: 2019).
The post Two Powers… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
n his Screwtape Letters CS Lewis observes that there are two equal and opposite errors that people fall into regarding the dark powers. One mistake is to disbelieve in their existence; the other is to believe in them to excess.
In Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 12, Paul the Apostle writes: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power… For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places…
Paul takes the reality of conflict in the world to another level: ‘our struggle’, literally, ‘our wrestling’, is not so much against ‘flesh and blood’ but ‘principalities and powers’. In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 10, Paul speaks of the day when all things, ‘in heaven’ and ‘on earth’ will be brought under rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, as we read in chapter 6, for the present there’s a war between the two spheres of darkness and light.
Spiritually speaking, God’s people live in enemy occupied territory. The epic the Gospel records reveal is that the true king has slipped into our world to rescue people enslaved by the dark powers. The Gospel of John records Jesus’s words to Pilate: he could have called on a powerful army to rescue him (John 18:36). However, knowing that he alone could defeat the prince of darkness, he came without fanfare to accomplish his mission. He knew that only through his sacrificial death could the powers of evil, and death itself, be conquered. This is clearly stated in Colossians, chapter 2, verses 13 through 15. Jesus’s resurrection from the dead validates his victory.
However, for the present the dark powers, although mortally wounded, continue to do their worst, attempting to destroy God’s ultimate and sure plan to glorify his people.
Against this backdrop we learn from Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 that God’s people are caught up in a spiritual conflict as individuals and together. It is here that too often we are naïve. We might reckon it is only the smooth-tongued and powerful elite voices that obstruct spiritual truth in the world. No, Paul warns. There are formidable supernatural forces at work – powers that will not respond to reason. We are caught up in a conflict that involves dark powers and human choices.
Put on the whole armor of God, we read in verse 13, so that you may be able to stand your ground. There will be times when the dark forces press us morally, whispering that everybody’s doing it. Sometimes they press us intellectually: you’re too clever to believe that. Sometimes they press us psychologically: your faith is so intolerant. And there are times when we are physically persecuted. The aim is always the same: to silence the voice of God’s people.
Stand firm, Paul says. Be alert. Don’t give in. Put on the inner protection of a godly lifestyle. Our loins need to be girded with God’s truth; we need a breastplate of righteousness; our feet need to be shod with the commitment to spread the gospel of peace, and we need the headpiece of salvation. Our lives are most at risk when our inner defenses are broken. We need the qualities of integrity, righteousness, gospel readiness, and the deep assurance of God’s ultimate victory.
The dark powers will do their worst to discredit our integrity, prevent gospel outreach through lethargy and infighting, and demoralize us by discouraging us.
We need protection:the shield of faith with which we can quench the flaming darts of darkness. We can’t cope on our own. We need to trust Christ, for when we do, the darts of darkness will fall useless. ‘The victory that overcomes the world,’ John tells us, ‘is our faith’ (1 John 5:4).
The sword of the spirit. While Paul hasn’t spelled out the meaning of his metaphors up to this point, he wants us to know that God’s Word is a sword. Unlike communism or any other ‘ism’ or ideology, there is no place in Christianity for a literal holy war. God’s new society is not brought in by act of Congress still less at the end of gun. God works through his Word.
The Word of God is not a message of the freedom fighters, but one that focusses on personal repentance and God’s forgiveness: the building of God’s new society and its compassion and care for a lost world. The victory of God’s Word will have eternal outcomes.
Pray. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints… (Ephes 6:18).
In any battle, communication is vital. In the histories of World War II there is a picture of a young soldier holding together a broken telephone line. Prayer is our field telegraph. Paul urges us to pray constantly, to persevere in prayer, and to be vigilant in prayer. We are to pray in the Spirit.
Romans chapter 8, verses 26 following, help us understand this, for there Paul tells us that the Spirit works with us in our prayer. In the midst of suffering we’re often at a loss to know what we should say. In those times, Paul tells us, the Spirit comes to our aid, putting our inarticulate thoughts into meaningful prayer, speaking to God on our behalf.
Despite the noise of opposing voices, God’s work continues to make inroads on the kingdom of darkness. When Jesus stood on the hills of ancient Israel with a handful of his followers, he said, ‘On this rock – the rock of faith – I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18). He was speaking to a small group of humble, un-influential men.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the legitimate ruler of the world. No, much, much more: the universe. Nothing in all creation will prevent the return of the King.
How important it is that, by God’s grace, we hold on to the shield of faith, wield the word of God with greater confidence, and most of all, pray – for one another and for others. Pray that we will stand firm, not failing to live under God’s gospel, nor failing to take his gospel to those around us.
If you have not already done so, let me encourage you to obtain copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs – a copy to revitalize your own faith and copies to pass on to others who don’t know what to believe. If you are in the US you can purchase copies through the button in the book banner below. If you are elsewhere purchases can be made through Amazon.
A prayer. Almighty God, give us grace so that we may cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came amongst us in great humility: so that on the last day, when he comes again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Spiritual Conflict…? appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In the concluding chapter of his book, Dominion (2019),Tom Holland draws together his theme of the ways Christianity has impacted “the rise and fall of empires, the actions of bishops and kings, the arguments of theologians, the course of revolutions, the planting of crosses around the world. Yet”, he comments, “that hardly tells the whole story.
“I have written much in this book about churches, and monasteries, and universities,” he writes, “but these were never where the mass of the Christian people were most influentially shaped. It was always in the home that children were likeliest to absorb the revolutionary teachings that, over the course of two thousand years, have come to be so taken for granted as almost to seem to be human nature. The Christian revolution was wrought above all at the knees of women.
“The success, then, of the most influential framework for making sense of human existence that has ever existed always depended on people like my Godmother: people who saw in the succession of one generation by another something more than merely the way of all the earth. Although she had no children of her own, she was a teacher, … and publicly honoured for it.
“As a Christian, … she had the hope of eternal life. It was a faith that she had received from her mother, who had received it in turn from her parents, … And this was the tradition that my Godmother passed on to me” (p.519).
Let’s think about this. In the Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 4 we read: Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
These words would have shocked the Roman world where a father was the autocratic head of the family, with untold power over his offspring. Paul’s command was revolutionary: parents – for mothers as well as fathers are included – are not to abuse their children, giving them cause for bitterness and anger. Rather, they are to provide a home of love and care, helping their children to grow in the knowledge and love, wisdom and self-discipline in the Lord.
The words of Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 7, written around 1200BC, come to mind: Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.
The one-ness and uniqueness of God echo a great theme of Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Behind the diversity and complexity of the universe there is one God who holds everything together and unifies it. We live in a meaningful, ordered world because everything that happens, no matter how varied, is all part of the one creation.
It’s crucial for us to understand this for it helps us begin to answer the question we all ask at some point: “Who am I?” The answer of Deuteronomy chapter 6 is that there is one God who is our creator. We won’t make sense of ourselves without him. Strip from the universe and our lives the notion of God who is Lord of his creative handiwork, and we’re left with an emptiness and sense of meaninglessness.
The God of Deuteronomy chapter 6 is not an abstract being, without meaning or message. This is even more so in the New Testament where, for example, we read in the Gospel of John: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth (1:14). And in Philippians chapter 2 we read: At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess him as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Our world and our children need to hear these truths. We do great harm to our society and to the next generation if we so cram our children’s lives with activities and programs that they do not hear these truths. Yet how many parents fill their children’s lives with music before school, activities after school, and success at school that they never have time with them as a family to talk about the things of God.
Who should teach these things about God? Consider Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 6: Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.
Parents and family are the most important educational influence on children. It’s built into the very nature of family. Children don’t stop learning when they get home from school. They are learning every waking hour of the day. It’s one of the reasons they need to be guided in their use of phones, social media, and television viewing.
Despite research that suggests parents are handing over responsibility for their children’s education and training to schools, the best people to instil fundamental attitudes and form children’s moral lives are parents and family. This involves commitment but the rewards are great.
If you are a parent or grandparent, aunt or uncle or godparent, consider the example of your life – how much time you spend on your phone or in front of the big screen. Use the precious conversations around the dinner table, on walks, and at bedtime. Be known for your reading of the Bible and living it out, not just with words but also in your lifestyle.
Be prepared to answer questions about life – about right and wrong, life and death, about drugs and alcohol, about nuclear or climate concerns, about God. Speak plainly about what Jesus means to you. These are crucial times. Children’s experiences with family, and family connections, will live in their memories for a lifetime.
It’s in the home, as we instruct our children about God and Jesus Christ, that they learn their own value and self-esteem as a boy or girl, made in the image of God. It’s in the home they learn how to get on with other people and to respect authority and discipline. It’s in the home they develop as individuals and find their individuality accepted, appreciated and affirmed.
Parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, godparents and godly family connections are well placed to blend the demands of society and the needs of the child in a way that affirms a child’s dignity and yet also makes them ready for society, to mix with other people and not just to be a self-centered little island.
Much more needs to be said about how we can pass on God’s good news from one generation to the next. A starting point is your own understanding of and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you will allow me a personal reference, have you taken up an opportunity to read The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to refresh your own faith as well as have a book to pass on to others? You can access it through the link below if you are in the US, or through Amazon.
A prayer. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, whose Son Jesus Christ shared at Nazareth the life of an earthly home: bless our homes, we pray. Help parents to impart the knowledge of you and your love; and children to respond with love and obedience. May our homes be blessed with peace and joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story: Seven Signs – Pass it on…! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Everyone loves a story – the huge success of the Narnia books of CS Lewis, The Lord of the Rings from JRR Tolkien and, of course, JK Rowling’s, Harry Potter series, all come to mind.
But fiction is not the only form of story people long for. There is always wide-ranging interest in the personal stories of people – the successful and the unknown, recent and long-past. It is as though people find their own sense of identity and purpose in the story of others. This is especially true in troubling and challenging times – as we are currently experiencing.
With that thought in mind, come with me to the story of the man who, as HG Wells – author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds – once observed, is “irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history”.
In the course of preaching sermons on John’s Gospel last year I was struck afresh by the conversations that we read in chapter 14.
The chapter opens with a dark cloud hanging over the close followers of Jesus. For three years they had followed him with increasing confidence that he was someone very different from anyone they knew. But he had just told them that within a matter of hours he was going away. They were in a state of shock.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said. “Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going” (John 14:1-3).
At this, Thomas, one of his followers, expressed his frustration: ‘We don’t know where you’re going’, he said. ‘How can we know the way?’ We might sympathize with Thomas. The idea of Jesus going to heaven and preparing a place for his followers seems far-fetched.
Let’s think about this. Many people will never admit that their view about life is wrong – that there might be more to life than the material world we experience. There are even people like this in churches: they say the creed, but they don’t really believe it; they might give the impression of spirituality but there’s no substance to it.
At least Thomas is prepared to admit he didn’t understand. But while Jesus doesn’t belittle him, his response is nevertheless startling: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father but by me” (14:6). ‘If you truly know me Thomas, you would know what I am talking about.’ Significantly, Jesus doesn’t say, “I’ll show you the way” but “I am the way”; he doesn’t say, “I’ll tell you the truth” but “I am the truth”; he doesn’t say, “I’ll give you eternal life” rather, “I am the life”.
It’s as though Jesus is saying, the path to life beyond the grave involves a relationship, a relationship you already have – a relationship with me. His words are incredible: he is saying that behind the universe is not a mathematical equation or a scientific formula but a person.
John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy at Oxford University, has written: “The rational intelligibility of the universe,… points to the existence of the Mind that was responsible both for the universe and our minds. It is for this reason that we are able to do science and to discover the beautiful mathematical structures that underlie the phenomena we can observe.” (cited in PW Barnett, Gospel Truth, p.21)
Jesus is saying that the impossible has happened: God has come amongst us in person and that he is the one. His words echo what we read in the introduction to John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In John chapter 14, Jesus is saying that the only way to make sense of our human existence is by recognising that he is the complex person who is the Mind behind the universe. And, while it seems impossible, he is that person.
As the chapter moves on, we discover that Thomas’ frustration leads to a request from Phillip: “Lord show us the Father. That’s all we need,” he says (14:8).
Philip wanted to know what every religion wants to know: What is God like? He wanted some tangible experience of God that would sweep away his doubts. He might have been thinking of God’s special appearance to Moses at the burning bush. He wanted to see God.
Again, Jesus’ response is astounding: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9). We would not have been surprised if Jesus had replied, ‘Philip, you’re asking the impossible’. Rather he says, ‘Don’t you know me Philip, even after I’ve been among you over these years? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father?”’
Some people think of Jesus as one of history’s great teachers. But this doesn’t come anywhere near to what Jesus was saying. He is saying that he is not just God’s emissary or ambassador, but God himself. He was claiming the impossible – to be God in our midst.
Consider how Jesus continues. We read his words in verse 11: “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
Jesus anticipated their doubts. Think about it, he is saying. You’ve seen me turn water into first-class wine. You have also seen me perform many other miraculous acts that no-one else has ever been able to do – including bringing out of a tomb a man who had been dead for four days. ‘Doesn’t that tell you something about me?’ he is asking.
In a new book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs, I have taken up Jesus’s words in his response to Philip’s request (14:8): “…Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves” (14:11). The works are the signs.
Many people today have no problem with the existence of Jesus and the idea that he was a good man. However, they’re unaware of the real Jesus story that points to his uniqueness and divinity, and the life and hope he offers us.
John’s Gospel is sometimes called the book of the signs. My book takes up the gospel story for those who believe and those who don’t know what to believe. It is written to encourage and reassure God’s people before being handed on to others with an invitation to find out more.
Copies can be purchased in the US using the banner below, or anywhere else from Amazon at: The Jesus Story: Seven Signs, John G. Mason.
Prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story: Seven Signs …! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Can we help our broken and divided world find hope and peace? Or has the voice of God’s people been silenced? As I point out in my recent book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs, Tom Holland in Dominion traces the influences of the Jesus story on the West, including the values of right and wrong, justice and compassion.
In his Letter to God’s People in Colossae, Paul the Apostle writes of the hope that has awakened their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for one another. He reminds them that this hope is found in God’s good news which is itself grounded in the truth.
What is more, he observes that not only were God’s people in Colossae growing in their faith, love and hope, but God’s good news was bearing fruit and growing in the whole world.
These words are very encouraging for us today.
Let’s consider the flow of Paul’s thought: He begins by thanking God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christfor their faith in Christ Jesus and the love they have for all the saints,… because of the hope laid up for them in heaven (1:3-5). There is a causal link between hope and faith and love. Hope is not the consequence of faith and love. Rather, hope has awakened them.
This is so important. The hope that we have is the motivation for our faith and love.
Let’s consider this. In First Corinthians chapter 15, as we have recently seen, Paul writes of the reality and significance of Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead. He points out that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, our own future resurrection from the dead is negated. Our professed faith would be meaningless and the associated Christian morality a joke. As he says in verse 32, if the dead do not rise, we may as well ‘eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’.
The hope of which Paul speaks in Colossians chapter 1, verse 6 is not a baseless optimism. It is a certain hope.
In verses 5b – 6 he writes: Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come toyou, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing – as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, …
It’s important to notice the emphasis Paul puts on the word truth. The gospel, is literally, the word of the truth. He could have left out any reference to the words, the truth, but he doesn’t. He wants to stress that the essence of the Christian message is true.
Reflecting on this, we can see that God’s good news is beyond human invention and imagination. No one of us would have invented a God who was prepared to forgive a self-preoccupied and faithless world by such a costly and humiliating death as occurred at Calvary.
The gospel is also true, historically. Paul implies that that the accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are no invention. The records are true and trustworthy, supported by eyewitnesses.
Furthermore, the gospel is true experientially. By this I mean that when people put their trust in Jesus Christ who is at the center of the gospel, they discover that their faith is not a hoax.
It’s so important we are assured that our faith and our love for one another as God’s people are based on the hope that is laid up for us in heaven. We need to ask ourselves, “Is my faith, love and hope a response to God’s good news?” Paul assures us it is the truth, and nothing but the truth.
Indeed, we need to pray that God’s Spirit will awaken within us, as he did in the lives of the Colossian Christians, an ever-deepening love for the Lord Jesus, and for his people across social, cultural, and racial divides.
In the 2nd century, God’s people in the Roman world were under great suspicion. Tertullian, one of the church leaders at the time, responded by contrasting Christians with the Roman society: ‘Look, they (the Romans) say, ‘How they (the Christians) love one another’ (for they themselves, the Romans, hate one another); ‘and how they are ready to die for each other, for they themselves (the Romans) are readier to kill each other’.
Furthermore, it’s worth praying for opportunities to talk with others about the inconsistencies and unworkable nature of the diversity that careless and false narratives are imposing on the western world.
Robert Letham, for example, observes that ‘the world of postmodernism is entirely arbitrary. If the emotions trump reason, we have no rational grounds for anything… Postmodernism cannot stand the test of everyday life’, he says. ‘It does not work, and will not work. It fails the test of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who insisted that language and philosophy must have “cash value” in terms of the real world in which we go about our business from day to day. To do that, we assume that there is an objective world and act accordingly. If there is not, life could not go on’ (Letham, The Holy Trinity, pp.452f).
Because God’s good news is based in the initiative and promises of the living God, we can be assured that his word and work will continue in today’s world. God’s passion is to rescue the lost. But we too, have a part to play: the testimony of our faith, the example of our love – which includes forgiving those whom we believe have wronged us – and the reality of the hope we have, will all bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Above all, we need to pray that God in his mercy will send his Spirit into the world, opening blind eyes to the truth of the hope, the joy, and the peacethat God holds out to us.
If you have not already done so, let me encourage you to obtain copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to read for yourself and to pass on to others. You can use the button in the banner below or, if you are outside the US, you can get copies through Amazon.
Prayers. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
Grant us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right, so that we who cannot do anything that is good without you, may in your strength be able to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Hope for Troubled Times… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In his book The Holy Trinity (2004), Robert Letham commented on the impact of postmodernism on society: “In terms of instability and diversity,” he wrote, “the postmodern world of constant flux is seeing insecurity, breakdown, and the rise of various forms of terrorism… As diversity rules, subgroups are divided against each other… A cult of the victim develops, and responsibility declines. This is a recipe for social breakdown, instability, and the unravelling of any cohesion that once existed” (p.453).
Come with me to Paul the Apostle’s prayer of thanksgiving for the church in Colossae that we read in Colossians chapter 1: In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,… (1:3). Significantly Paul begins his prayer defining the God we worship: He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s think about this: The essential nature of a perfect father is to love and give life. Paul’s understanding is that God the Father delights to love and give life. From eternity God the Father has given life to a Son.
Paul’s words are consistent with what we read in the opening line of John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And in Jeremiah 2:13, the Lord says of himself that he is the ‘spring of living water’. From eternity, before the creation of the universe, God the Father was loving and begetting his Son. God did not become a father at some point.
A water fountain, whose very nature is to pour out water, helps us with this idea. In the same way that a fountain is not a fountain if it doesn’t pour out water, so God the Father would not be who he is, unless he was giving life to his Son. God the Father and God the Son are distinct persons, but they are inseparable from one another. They always love one another, and they always work together in perfect harmony.
This is important, for it tells us that Paul is giving thanks to the God whose existence is not simply as a powerful intelligence behind the observable universe, butto a personal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Colossians’ faith in Christ Jesus was real and personal, expressing itself in their love and care for one another. The Colossian church was a place where there was genuine community. People accepted one another, treated one another as equals across the social and racial divide. Their love for one another led to compassion and practical care for those in need.
Significantly, Paul goes on to tell us that the faith and love the Colossians enjoyed, was inspired by a third Person of the Godhead – the Holy Spirit. In verse 8 he writes that Epaphrashad told him ofthe Colossians’ love in the Spirit.
In John chapter 14 we learn that on the eve of his arrest, Jesus promised his disciples he would send the Holy Spirit to comfort and equip them. And in John 16:8 we learn that the Holy Spirit would also convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment:… An important part of the Spirit’s work is to convict our consciences of our failure to honor and love Jesus as Lord. One day God will ask us all: ‘What did you do with my Son?’
In his treatise, The Bondage of the Will Martin Luther addressed what he saw as the fundamental question regarding salvation. He pointed out that so distorted and flawed is the human heart, that no one has a free will when it comes to our relationship with God. The desires of our hearts lock us into self-worship and vainglory, rather than the rightful worship and glory of the one true God who is Lord of heaven and earth.
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Henry VIII, held a similar view of humanity. Dr. Ashley Null sums up Cranmer’s anthropology this way: ‘What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies… For Cranmer the mind is actually captive to what the will wants, and the will itself, in turn, is captive to what the heart wants’.
So how are hearts changed? From his rich understanding of Scripture, Cranmer’s prayer books stress the need for God to intervene in our minds and hearts. And so the 1552 Service of the Lord’s Supper begins with a Prayer for Purity: Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, so that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
It is a prayer for the outpouring, the coming down, of the Spirit of God, significantly not on the bread and wine on the Holy Table, but on the minds and hearts of everyone present. As Ashley Null points out, the prayer is saying that we cannot truly love God unless God supernaturally changes our hearts.
A careful reading of Cranmer’s liturgies reveals that his prayer is that the Holy Spirit will work through the Scriptures to change the hearts of the worshippers. For Cranmer, with all the English Reformers, believed in a living God whose delight is to answer prayer.
To return to Paul the Apostle’s prayer of thanksgiving in his Letter to the Colossians, we see the One God who exists in Three Persons, delighting to give life to his people.
Our broken world needs to hear afresh the good news of this Triune God. If we grieve for our world, we need to pray that God will act with compassion and send his Spirit to soften hearts, turning them, as they hear the gospel, to Jesus Christ as Lord.
Let me encourage you to obtain copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to read for yourself and to pass on to others. You can use the button in the banner below or, if you are outside the US, you can get copies through Amazon.
A Prayer for Trinity Sunday:Almighty and everlasting God, you have given us your servants grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and by your divine power to worship you as One: we pray that you would keep us steadfast in this faith and evermore defend us from all adversities; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Is there anything that can really make us different, that can shake us out of our apathy and anxieties? That can inject enthusiasm and joy, confidence and courage into our lives?
Come with me to the events of Pentecost that we read about in Acts chapter 2. It was six-weeks after Jesus’ resurrection.
Three questions emerge.
What happened? When the day of Pentecost came, the disciples were together in an upper room in Jerusalem. ‘Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came… Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them… All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.’
Pentecost is the Jewish festival celebrating the giving of the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 19:18 we read that violent wind and tongues of fire had enveloped Mt Sinai at the time God gave Moses the law. However, as Israel’s prophets had said, the law failed to change the world because the law failed to change people.
Now at Pentecost some twelve hundred years later, God was coming with fire and wind, not to impart more law, but to impart his Spirit. The mighty wind symbolised the power of Jesus; the fire symbolised his purifying and cleansing work; and speech pointed to the good news of Jesus reaching every nation.
Luke, the author of Acts focuses on speech. He tells us: Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. … And everyone was bewildered because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each (2:5).
The crowd came from the Caspian Sea in the east to Rome in the west; from modern Turkey in the north to Africa in the south. ‘How is it?’ they asked, ‘That we can understand them in our own native language?’
The cynics in the crowd mocked, saying the disciples were drunk. But Peter wasn’t silenced: ‘The bars aren’t open yet,’ he said. ‘It’s only nine o’clock in the morning’. This was the ultimate Author of speech reversing Babel.
The disciples, previously demoralised and defeated, had a new enthusiasm, confidence and joy. Peter, who had denied Jesus, was no longer a coward but a courageous preacher. What made that difference? It was the Spirit, ‘Another Helper’ whom Jesus had promised.
For many, Christianity is little more than a moral code they must struggle to observe, or a creed recited mindlessly every week. But in John 14 Jesus had spoken of ‘a Companion’ who would enable his people to experience a life-changing personal relationship with him.
What did it mean? The Holy Spirit was turning cowardly disciples into intrepid apostles. From verse 22 Luke records Peter’s speech: “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. …And you, …put him to death …but God raised him from the dead, …”
People today mock the idea of Jesus’ miracles. Yet first-century historians such as Josephus, agreed that Jesus was a miracle-worker. Peter called the miracles signs. Just as a sign-post points to the road we might follow, so Jesus’ works pointed to the power and authority he wielded. “If I by the finger of God cast out demons,” Jesus had said, “then the kingdom of God is come upon you.”
The climax of Peter’s speech is in verse 36: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this, God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Peter had a logically developed progression of ideas – not a frenzied set of phrases. He explains that Jesus’ cross and resurrection reveal God’s extraordinary love. The Son of God had put aside the glory of heaven and come amongst us, giving his life as the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Human authorities had judged Jesus a threat and guilty, and nailed him to a cross. From his supreme court, God overturned that judgement and raised Jesus to life.
Does all this matter? It happened so long ago. Peter’s hearers were cut to the heart…, “Brothers, what should we do?” they asked (2:37f). They were utterly ashamed. Previously they had mocked the dying Jesus. Now they knew the truth. God’s Spirit was at work.
Peter’s response is one we all need to hear: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven (Acts 2:38). He didn’t tell his hearers they needed to turn over a new leaf and start living moral lives. Rather, he focused on their relationship with Jesus. Repent. ‘Come to your senses about Jesus,’ Peter is saying. ‘Turn to him and ask him for his forgiveness.’
Three thousand responded to Peter’s call that day. God’s Spirit was taking up the work of Jesus the Messiah in the world, opening blind eyes and changing hearts.
Significantly Peter continued: And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him (Acts 2:38f). From now on God’s Spirit would come into the lives of all God’s people (see also Romans 8:9).
What God did that day, and what he has been doing ever since, matters. God’s delight is to draw men and women from all over the world, from every culture and walk of life – people like you and me – into a personal, living relationship with himself.
And we have a part to play. Let’s not be fearful. Rather, let’s pray for the Spirit’s strength and wisdom to take up opportunities to introduce people we know to Jesus. Let me encourage you to obtain copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to read for yourself and to pass on to others. You can use the button in the banner below or, if you are outside the US, you can get copies wherever you are through Amazon.
A Prayer. Almighty God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit: so enable us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and always to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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In the midst of the uncertainties and fears of the world around us, it’s worth pausing and reflecting on those all too rare moments when we experience a deep longing that we know nothing on earth can satisfy.
We might experience such moments when our hearts are lifted to a sense of the transcendent, perhaps when hearing some sublime music or gazing on a glorious scene that draws us beyond the material to the ethereal. For a few all too fleeting seconds we are enchanted by the prospect of a world whose beauty and peace surpass our usual experience. And we long for it.
Does our longing suggest it could be real?
The myths and legends of the past, and the various religions of the world, may speak of life beyond our experience now. But the Christian Scriptures are of a very different order. They have a unique authority, for the events of which they speak and the utterances they record are firmly grounded in history. Furthermore, they point to a future that is foreshadowed by and is consistent with our experiences now.
Come with me to Acts chapter 1 verses 9 through 11: While Jesus (he) was going and the disciples were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
It reads like sci-fi. In his book Miracles CS Lewis asks, “… what precisely should we expect the onlookers to see? Perhaps mere instantaneous vanishing would make us feel most comfortable. A sudden break between the perceptible and the imperceptible would worry us less than any kind of joint. But if the spectators say they saw first a short vertical movement and then a vague luminosity (… ‘cloud’) and then nothing – have we any reason to object?” (pp.177f).
Clearly Christ moved from the space and time dimensions that we know into another beyond our comprehension. Further references in the New Testament help us understand this. Philippians chapter 2, verses 9 through 11 tell us that God the Father has highly exalted Jesus and given him the name which is above every name. And Colossians chapter 3, verse 1 speaks of Christ as seated at the right hand of God. And, back in the opening lines of Acts chapter 1, Luke tells us that during the forty days between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God (1:3). The age of God’s Messiah had dawned.
The disciples’ question in Acts chapter 1, verse 6, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” reveals their excitement and thoughts that at last Jesus was going to reveal his true power and position as Israel’s true king. They were thinking in political and nationalistic categories.
And through the ages many have thought in similar terms. But it’s important that we focus on Jesus’s response: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority (1:7). ‘You’re not to worry about times and end-times,’ Jesus is saying. ‘I’ve got something much more important for you to do with your time and energy: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Jesus had a very specific agenda for his disciples.
Witnesses. In commissioning them as his witnesses, Jesus wants us to know that what they passed on is nothing but the truth. This is very important because the Bible makes it plain that Christianity is not a religion, involving rules, rituals, and regulations. At its heart is a relationship with Jesus Christ. And because meaningful and lasting relationships can only be built on truth, we need to know the truth. Relationships within families are only meaningful where there is truth and honesty. Without truth there can be no trust.
Now it’s important to make a distinction here. Jesus is not saying that his followers down through the ages are witnesses as were the original disciples. We can’t be. We weren’t there. But we are called upon to testify to the good news he brings.
Two Kingdoms. For the present, God’s kingdom, the rule of the Messiah, remains hidden. Indeed, in his Letter to the Colossians Paul the Apostle indicates that the new age of God’s rule co-exists with the old – which the New Testament speaks of as the world. Currently a door is open, allowing people to pass from the old age to the new. So, while we see around us the movement of human kingdoms and powers, God in his mercy is rescuing people throughout the world from the dominion of darkness, transferring us into the kingdom of the Son he loves… (Colossians 1:13).
We live in an uncertain and troubled world. We need to pray for the leaders of the nations and play our part in contributing to the welfare of people in need around us. Above all, let’s pray that God in his mercy will use the good examples of our lives and our testimony to draw many to the Lord Jesus Christ. His physical resurrection and the angels’ words at his ascension assure us that his return is certain.
But there’s something else we need – which we’ll talk about next week!
In the meantime, let me ask if you are praying for three people with whom you would like to share the good news of the lordship and love of Jesus? Consider purchasing copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs, John G. Mason. You can use the link on the banner below or, if you are outside the US, you can make your purchase through Amazon. Simply pass on a copy to others at an appropriate moment.
Prayer. God our Father, make us joyful in the ascension of your Son Jesus Christ. May we follow him into the new creation, for his ascension is our glory and our hope. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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During this Easter Season we have been touching on the reality of life and death. Three years ago I observed that Eugene Ionesco’s, Exit the King is a clever play about life and death. Reportedly the Romanian-French Ionesco who died in 1994, said about the play: I told myself that one could learn to die, that I could learn to die, that one can also help other people to die. This seems to me the most important thing we can do, since we’re all of us dying men who refuse to die. The play is an attempt at an apprenticeship in dying.
Now I don’t want to be morbid, but I raise the subject for two reasons. First, Ionesco understood that because life is fleeting – as everyone in war-torn countries knows too well – we need to consider our values and priorities. Second, in Jesus’s parable of the Prodigal Son a key theme is our lostness: we look for life in the wrong places.
Throughout his ministry Jesus of Nazareth challenged us all to consider our hearts’ desires.
The opening lines of Luke chapter 15 reveal that two very different groups of people were in Jesus’s audience at that time – what we might call the sinners and the saints. The sinners were society’s outcasts, the fraudsters and the immoral; the saints were the religious establishment. The first group needed to learn that at the heart of God’s nature is mercy and forgiveness; the second needed to be shocked out of their self-righteousness. The two groups had two very different views about life and death.
Knowing that mindsets are very hard to shift, Jesus didn’t preach a sermon nor engage in debate. He told three stories – about a shepherd who had lost a sheep, about a woman who had lost a coin, and about a father who had lost two sons. I’ll focus here on the father and his younger son (Luke 15:11-24).
The story opens with the younger son asking his father for his inheritance. The son, by asking this implied that he wished his father were dead. Nevertheless, the father gave him what he wanted. But it was not long before the money was gone. Having no friends or credit line, the son was soon without food and homeless. Worse followed. With a drought and a crash in primary industry, the best he could do was become a day-laborer, feeding pigs. Even so, he starved. His thoughts turned to home – to his father, the farm, and the food.
The son weighed the odds. ‘Here I am, feeding pigs,’ he reflected. ‘The casual-workers on Dad’s farm are better off than me. I’m a fool. I’ll have to bury my pride and go home. I’ll have to tell Dad I’m really sorry I messed up and don’t deserve a thing. I’ll ask him to take me on as one of the hired-workers.’
Jesus’s story would have captured everyone’s attention. Some hearers would have been saying to themselves, ‘That’s me.’ Another group would have said, ‘That son doesn’t deserve to be forgiven’.
The critical question was how would the father react.
Like most fathers, he knew what his son was like and what he would do. But he still loved him. In fact, he’d been on the lookout for his return. And when word came that his son was on his way home, he immediately raced out to greet him.
We need to feel the impact of Jesus’s story. No self-respecting citizen in that culture would ever run down the street. He would walk with dignity and deliberation. Furthermore, this father wasn’t racing out to greet a son who had graduated with a doctorate and made his first million before he was twenty-five. The father’s action came at a personal public humiliation.
Yet the father not only ran but he threw his arms around his son and kissed him. The son, no doubt overwhelmed, was honest and expressed his sorrow and deep repentance: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ Period. Full stop.
He had planned to add, ‘Treat me as one of your hired servants.’ But he now realized this was not appropriate. For the first time he understood that he’d never really known his father, nor how much his father loved him. He had never appreciated the privilege of being a son.
What was the younger son’s problem? He wanted his father’s wealth so he could enjoy all the pleasures that took his fancy without accountability.
Here is heart of the human dilemma. We think that our possessions and the pleasures we pursue are the be-all and end-all of life. Reckoning they are secure we find they aren’t secure at all. We look for life in the wrong places because we’ve left God out of the equation of the meaning of life. We also forget that there is life beyond the grave for which we need to prepare.
Jesus’s great longing is for us to be honest and humble enough to say, ‘Lord, I know you are true and I know everything I have comes from you. Please forgive me for turning my back on you. Help me to honor you above all else in life.’
Can God find it in his heart to forgive us? Jesus also answers this. In verse 22 we read that before the younger son could catch his breath, his father was busy ordering new clothes, shoes, and a ring – the best of everything. The most elaborate and expensive feast was prepared, and the father tells us why: ‘For this my son was dead, now he is alive, he was lost but now he has been found.’
The Prayer of Humble Access in the Anglican Prayer Book takes up the principle of God’s willingness to forgive the repentant heart. Our prayer, addressed to the Lord whose nature is always to have mercy asks that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his (Christ’s) body and our souls washed through his precious blood…
We easily miss the force of the father’s words in Jesus’s parable, ‘For this my son was dead, now he is alive…’ We may have everything the world offers but until we turn to Jesus Christ in repentance, we are the walking dead. How truly wonderful it is that Jesus said he came toseek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).
Is the hope of life that we find in Christ alone something you have found? Is it something you want to pass on to family and friends? Let me encourage to obtain copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to read for yourself and to pass on to others. You can use the button in the banner below or, if you are outside the US, you can get copies wherever you are through Amazon.
A prayer. Almighty God, grant that we, who justly deserve to be punished for our sinful deeds, may in your mercy and kindness be pardoned and restored; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Note: My comments on Luke 15 are drawn from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, Second Edition, Aquila: 2019.
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Writing in The Australian last year (April 23, 2024), Dr Greg Sheridan observed, ‘Politics, as they say is downstream of culture, and culture is downstream of faith. Having lost faith in any transcendental truth, the West now is in a permanent crisis of meaning, which leads to political entropy, a kind of political vertigo, forever on the edge of a nervous breakdown’.
Over this Easter Season we’ve touched on the Gospel record of Jesus’s physical resurrection as well as what Paul the Apostle writes in First Corinthians chapter 15. We’ve noted that the events of the crucifixion and resurrection are inextricably tied together – through his death Jesus perfectly satisfied the just requirements of a holy God in his interface with a sinful humanity; through his resurrection Jesus assures all who turn to him of God’s full and free forgiveness and new life in all its glory.
In First Corinthians chapter 15, Paul lifts a corner of the curtain on what this new life means – a physical resurrection with Jesus where there will be a continuity with our present experience (15:21-38). But we will also experience a significant discontinuity between our present and future bodies.
In verses 40b and 41 we read: There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly bodies is one kind and the glory of the earthly bodies is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.
All around us there’s evidence of God’s awesome ability to create a vast variety of different physical bodies. When we think about this, we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility of there being more than one type of human body, having a different kind of glory or splendor from its old form. A new, resurrection body is not only possible, but there’s every reason to believe that it will have an appearance more glorious than the first.
The following verses develop the point: So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body (15:42-44).
Someone once sent me a birthday card. On the front was a caricature of Benjamin Franklin with the caption: “We all age from the top downwards – first the hair, then the eyes, mouth, neck, the chins.” On the inside were the words, “What exquisite ankles you have”.
Paul is saying that our new resurrection body will be marked by imperish-ability and immortality. It will no longer suffer from disease, disability or death. It will be raised up in glory – in vitality and power. It will no longer be weak and powerless. It will be all the things we cry out for: a healthy, vital, body that will live for ever. Ideas of reincarnation pale into a shadow compared with this robust, glorious picture of Paul’s.
Currently we have a physical body suitable for our existence on earth. However, God will provide a spiritual body appropriate for our existence in heaven.
Notice how all this will occur: If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being” the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are on the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so we shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven (15:45-49).
Paul identifies two proto-types – Adam and Christ. One is formed from the dust of the earth. The other is the life-giving spirit from heaven. We need to experience bodily transformation and acquire a spiritual body if we are to live in the new heaven and the new earth.
As frail mortals we can’t exist with Christ in heaven. We need a body appropriate for God’s promised new order – a body that has the form and shape of our present body, but one in which our perfected spirit will exist. It will be perfectly adapted to the new heaven and the new earth. Just as the disciples recognised the risen Jesus, so we will recognise each other.
A computer with its hardware and software may assist with these complex ideas. We could liken the inner self, the conscious self, to computer software, and the body to the hardware. In God’s purposes, when we turn to Christ and take hold of God’s promises, our ‘software’ – our inner self – is subject to a major re-programming: all our imperfections are removed. Our resurrected body – our new ‘hardware’ – will reflect the glory of this perfection.
Paul continues by lifting the curtain on the future scene a little more: I declare to you, brothers and sisters that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen I tell you a mystery: we cannot all die, but we will be changed— as in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and the mortal will put on immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory’ (15:50-54).
This amazing chapter moves to a magnificent climax: we will be changed, as will also those who are alive when that day comes. We will no longer have bodies liable to death and decay.
Paul wants each one of us to rejoice with him in the triumph that has been won over death itself. And what a triumph: “Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (15:55-57).
The success of life over death is not in our hands. The victory is God’s. He’s done it all. And we mustn’t dismiss Paul’s note about those who benefit: the victory is for those who know Christ Jesus.
Let me quote Malcolm Muggeridge, one-time editor of the English Punch magazine: “Confronted with the reality of death,” he wrote, “we may rage or despair, induce forgetfulness, solace ourselves with fantasies that science will in due course discover how we came to be here and to what end, and how we may project our existence, individually or collectively, into some Brave New World spanning the universe in which Man reigns supreme. God’s alternative proposition is the Resurrection – a man dying who rises from the dead… I close with, ‘Done’…: Christ is risen!’”
Paul wants us to know the reality of Jesus’s resurrection and to understand the continuity / discontinuity between our present and future existence. But he also wants us to understand something else. He wants us to appreciate how the resurrection impacts our life now. He writes: Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, abounding in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Live now in the light of the reality of the resurrection glory that is to come, he says.
In a world that has lost its awareness of transcendental truth, continue steadfast and immovable in your walk through life with Christ Jesus. Continue steadfast in prayer. Pray for wisdom to discern and take up opportunities to introduce family and friends, colleagues and people in the wider world to the Lord Jesus. Continue steadfast and true in your faith in Christ and the hope of the resurrection, knowing that no matter the cost, your work in his service will not be in vain. Others may not know what we do or they may forget, but Jesus won’t. The day will come when he will shout it from the roof-tops.
– – –
Let me ask, are you praying for three people with whom you would like to share the good news of Jesus’s resurrection? Consider purchasing copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs using the link on the banner below. Simply pass on a copy at an appropriate moment.
A prayer. Heavenly Father, the giver of all good things, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and grant that by your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by your grace and guidance do them; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The death of Pope Francis has attracted wide media attention with numerous outlets having representatives in Rome commentating on the events. Of the many reports one in particular caught my attention. A reporter commented that the Pope’s body was being laid to rest for eternity in a basilica outside the Vatican.
It would appear that the commentator was unaware of the creedal statement made by both Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches namely, we believe in ‘the resurrection of the body and life everlasting’. More importantly, we don’t say this because it is part of church dogma – which it is – but because it is revealed in the Scriptures, alone the authority in matters of faith.
Consider what Paul the Apostle writes in the clearest biblical statement on the resurrection. In First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 21 we read: For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.
When by faith we turn to Christ Jesus and attach ourselves to him, we are assured that even though our bodies may decay in a grave or be incinerated, the day will come when we too will be raised from the dead.
On the day when Christ returns, his majestic power and glory will transcend the universe. That will be the time when he will give all his people from throughout time a new body.
Jesus’s own resurrection from the dead – which happened on a certain day outside the city of ancient Jerusalem – foreshadows the resurrection of all his people from all races and nations.
Jesus’s resurrection is an extraordinary miracle – something that is deemed impossible by those who say ‘we now know the laws of nature’.
As I have noted before, Dr. John Lennox, Professor Emeritus, Mathematics and Philosophy, Oxford University responds to this line of thinking: “From the theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God and the possibility of his intervention in the universe is plainly fallacious” (italics mine) (God’s Undertaker, Lion: 2009, pp. 200-201).
The future resurrection of our body is the theme that Paul develops in First Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 35 following. He writes: Someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.
Decades ago, when I was in kindergarten, my family were living in the country. I recall carrying out my first formal scientific experiment. We were given a saucer, cotton wool and some wheat. We put the wheat on the cotton wool, wet it and took it home. Over the next few days, I was amazed at what I observed. Out of the rotting, smelly grain grew new life.
Paul is telling us that in the present order of things death needs to take place before new life occurs. The death of the first facilitates the change. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed…
Furthermore, he continues: God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. All flesh is not the same: men and women have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another (15:38, 39).
Have no doubt, the resurrection of our bodies will be a reality. It makes sense. It’s consistent with what we can observe of the various elements of the present natural order. It means there is continuity between our present and future existence.
God creates bodies appropriate for different kinds of environments. Each is perfectly fitted for its environment. It is God’s prerogative to bring about change and give the sown seed its appropriate plant body as he wills. He creates and recreates.
This is so important for us to know. It means for one thing that God treats every aspect of his creating work seriously – nothing is lost, for everything has a meaning. There’s not some massive disjunction between the material and the spiritual world. Rather, there is continuity.
Paul is saying that while our earthly bodies are suited for our earthly existence, they would be useless in the perfection of the age to come. Rather, it will be out of the raw material of our present earthly body that God will produce a new, spiritual body perfectly suited for the new age.
Christianity doesn’t drive a wedge between the spiritual and the material. This suggests that keeping as fit as we can now is an important part of worship of God. Now, I’m not suggesting we all become gym junkies or triathletes, but certainly the continuity between the present and the future order should encourage us not to abuse our bodies. Who we are now as God’s people and what we do now matters to God.
Furthermore, the continuity of our physical bodies in the future with who we now are, means that while we’ll all have a glorious appearance such will be the nature of our resurrected body that we will all recognise one another.
Jesus’s own resurrection from the dead laid the foundation for this glorious hope.
In the final Narnia book, The Last Battle, CS Lewis portrays Peter, Edmund and Lucy entering the land of Narnia, never again to leave. The unicorn summed up everyone’s feelings: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now …”
In our world where there is darkness and despair, Jesus’s resurrection from the dead is the bedrock and bright star of our hope.
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Let me ask, are you praying for three people to whom you would like to share the good news of Jesus’s resurrection? Consider purchasing copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs using the link on the banner below. Simply pass on a copy at an appropriate moment.
A Prayer. Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Dead Will Be Raised…! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In The Return of the King, the 3rd volume in The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkein portrays the struggles Frodo and Samwise Gamgee faced on the final stretch of their perilous journey to Mt Doom. Utterly exhausted, Frodo is barely able to press on. Sam, despairing of achieving their goal, looked up: ‘There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach’.
Anyone who is alert to the strange mixture of good and evil in the world around us, can well be tempted to despair. Is there any hope for the future?
This was a very real question for the first followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Consider what they experienced. They had seen the man they thought was God’s Messiah die a brutal death on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem. They were numb with grief. ‘How could he allow this to happen? He was always in control,’ they must have said.
They had given up three years of their lives to follow this man and now he was dead. Was Jesus all a lie? Was he another failed leader? Like us today, they had watched leaders come and go. Many had shown promise as they flared into prominence but then they had sputtered out as their failures or the failures of those around them subsumed them. With Jesus’ death their hopes and dreams for the future were dashed to pieces.
Yet an extraordinary thing had happened on the Sunday following that fateful Friday: their lives were dramatically changed. Their tears of grief turned to tears of unbounded joy. Why? What had brought about that dramatic change?
Come with me to First Corinthians chapter 15, the single most important chapter in the New Testament on the subject of Jesus’s resurrection. In verses 3 following, Paul the Apostle writes: For I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living…
Christianity didn’t start because a group of fanatics had invented a story about their hero, nor had it started because a group of philosophers had come to the same conclusions about life. And it hadn’t started because a group of mystics shared the same vision about Jesus.
The Christian story began with a group of eye-witnesses – a company of very ordinary men and women who saw something very extraordinary happen.
When Jesus was put to death John the Gospel-writer tells us that Jesus’s disciples thought for a while that they had been deluded. Thomas had said, ‘I’m not going to believe in him any more’. But a week after ten of the disciples had seen the risen Jesus, Thomas also saw him. “Put your finger here Thomas,” Jesus had said. “Don’t be faithless but believing” (20:22).
Was this a fantasy? Were these people deluding themselves, trying to make the best of the worst moment of their lives?
Do you know the first Christian sermon was preached around three miles from Jesus’s tomb? Nobody could have been in a better position to test the trustworthiness of the story of the resurrection than those who were there in Jerusalem that day. Yet when Peter insisted that Jesus was risen from the dead, we don’t find 3,000 skeptics, but 3,000 converts.
The first preachers are insistent. The tomb of Jesus of Nazareth was empty on the third day, not because the body had been stolen, nor because the disciples had removed it, nor because Jesus had come out of a coma in the cool of the tomb, but because of a divine intervention.
No historical event can be certain in the same way that 2+2 = 4. Ken Handley, a former Justice of the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia, points out that all history is a matter of weighing up evidence and probability.
The New Testament faith cannot survive without evidence. It needs history, for without history faith is indistinguishable from fantasy. If someone turned up with conclusive evidence that Jesus had not risen from the dead, would you still be a Christian? I wouldn’t. Nor would the apostle Paul.
Jesus’s resurrection was not a myth. It was the creator God, breaking into history at a particular place and at a particular time. We know this because of the eye-witness evidence.
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins, Paul continues.
Humanity has a problem: all of us are flawed one way or another. Malcolm Muggeridge, a former editor of the English Punch magazine once commented, The depravity of man is at once the most unpopular of all dogmas, but the most empirically verifiable.
Throughout his public life Jesus Christ spoke of our flaws in terms of our relationship with God and with one another. When asked what is the greatest commandment, he responded: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.”
Jesus taught that the primary purpose of his life was to rescue the lost. He had also taught that his death would be for the ransom, the rescue, of many (Mark 10:45). And this is what Paul says in verse 3 of this resurrection chapter: Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. Now in verses 17 – 19 he writes, If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
The English philosopher Edmund Burke wrote:‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’. Jesus is the ultimate good man who through his death has overcome once and for all the powers of sin, evil and death. He didn’t achieve this by a call to arms, nor by calling down the powers of heaven. He achieved it by laying down his life in our place – the just for the unjust, the godly for the ungodly.
In our world of toil and trouble, how much we need to let the bright star of Jesus’s death and resurrection smite our hearts… and so find hope. For, to draw from the words of Samwise Gamgee, ‘there is light and high beauty beyond the reach of the darkness of this world’.
– – –
So let me ask, are you praying for three people to whom you would like to share the good news of Jesus’s resurrection? Consider purchasing copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs using the link on the banner below. Simply pass on a copy at an appropriate moment.
Prayer. Almighty God, you alone can order the unruly wills and passions of sinful men and women. Help us so to love what you command and desire what you promise, that among the many and varied changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys may be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post He is Risen Indeed. Hallelujah! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
The story is told of an Easter dawn in a Russian prison camp in the days of the USSR. A voice called out, ‘Christ is risen!’ and, despite the command for silence, a chorus of voices responded, ‘He is risen indeed!’
The events of the first Easter Day awakened the world to the dawning of a new era and with it the assurance that there is more to life than our experiences now.
In our troubled, conflicted and war-ravaged world, how encouraging this is. The resurrection of Jesus reveals that death need not be the end, but the door to life in all its fullness and joy.
Now you may dismiss the resurrection as fake news because it conflicts with the natural laws, the regularities scientists observe about the operation of the universe. However, such laws don’t prevent God from intervening and overruling whenever he chooses – bringing about an event that we speak of as a miracle.
In the opening lines of Luke 24 we read: But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they (the women) came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body.
The first witnesses. There would have been no joy in the hearts of those women in that early morning. They had watched as Jesus died. Now, filled with grief as they trudged to his grave, laden with heavy spices and ointments for his burial, they were confused and despairing.
But more distressing news was to come. When they arrived at the grave, they found the massive stone that had closed the grave entrance, had been rolled away. What could have happened? Was it thieves? Was it some underhand action on the part of the authorities? They were totally out of their depth.
While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. And as they were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen…” (24:4-6a).
‘If you want to find Jesus, you’ve come to the wrong place,’ the angels said. “Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise again…’” (24:6b,7).
The angels themselves could have explained the empty tomb. But instead, they focussed on the weight and authority of Jesus’s own words: ‘Remember what he told you,’ they said.
This is so important. The gospel writers want us to hear Jesus’s explanation of what he did and why. He had spoken of the events that had now come to pass. He had already explained why it had to happen. And, with this reminder, the women remembered (24:8).
It is easy for us today to forget Jesus’s words when we learn troubling news. We forget that Jesus not only predicted his death and resurrection, as well as the fall of Jerusalem (which occurred in 70AD), but he also spoke of earthquakes, conflicts and wars that would occur before his return.
As Paul in his Letter to the Romans writes, We know that the whole of creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved … But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Romans 8:22-24a, 25).
During his ministry, Jesus had spoken twice about his death and resurrection. He had come as the savior who would address our greatest human need. He would deliver us from God’s just judgement and open the great doors into God’s kingdom.
Jesus’s words at the Last Supper are key: ‘This is my body given for you,’ he said. ‘This is my blood shed for you.’ Scholars agree that these words are probably the most reliably preserved statements of earliest Christianity. We find them in First Corinthians, written around 50AD, and also in Matthew, Mark and Luke, written no later than the 60s.
‘Love it or hate it, the evidence that Jesus thought of his death as a sacrifice or ransom for sins is strong.’ In fact, when we read Luke as a whole we see that his emphasis on Jesus’s death is so strong, we begin to understand that the crucifixion is about God’s justice and love. It was why Jesus came.
Love and justice both matter to God. To say, as some do, that Jesus’s death was some kind of cosmic child abuse, is to forget that the New Testament insists he was not coerced into dying at Calvary. Jesus laid down his life voluntarily. In John chapter 10, verse 18 we read Jesus’ words: ‘No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord…’
The New Testament is clear. In the case of men and women God is the wronged party. Yet, in his love, he chose to enter the world in person and bear the punishment that we, the wrong-doers deserve. He, the judge has paid the fine owed to him by us.
The women who went to the tomb did remember Jesus’s words. And what a difference it made. They didn’t stay at the tomb. Suddenly energised with new vitality and joy they rushed off to tell their friends the breaking news. Who doesn’t want to share good news?
And Dr Luke, that very careful historian, wants us to know that even though the first witnesses to the empty tomb were women, their witness is true. It’s one of the reasons he identifies them by name: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James (Luke 24:10). They were perfectly sane and sensible people, people of integrity. In fact, Luke implies, if you want to find out for yourself, go and talk to them.
How important remembering is for us. How often we forget the words of Scripture. In good times we forget because things are going well. But we also forget God’s words of comfort and assurance when life gets tough – in times of drought or flood, injustice and war. Or you may be single, longing for a partner; you may be in a loveless marriage; you may be longing for a job; you may have a sick or dying loved one, or you yourself may be suffering.
We need to remember that we are never alone. We have a secure hope. Through his death and resurrection Jesus is the pioneer who leads us into life in a new era in all its fullness and joy.
Are you praying for three or so people to whom you would like to pass on God’s good news? Consider purchasing some copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs using the link on the banner below. Simply pass on a copy at an appropriate moment.
A Prayer. Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen.
Note: My comments on Luke 24 are drawn from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, Second Edition, Aquila: 2019.
© John G. Mason
The post The Day Death Died… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
A Maundy Thursday / Good Friday ReflectionWhy is it, that despite all the hopes and dreams of the world becoming a better place, wars, injustice and poverty continue?
Why, two millennia ago, did Jesus of Nazareth die – the most unjust conviction ever? He lived a life of unquestionable purity. He was never accused of lying; he showed a selfless service in his compassion for the needy and the outcast; and he never promoted his cause through weapons of war.
Indeed, when Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in Judea at the time, asked him at his trial what he had done, he had responded, “My kingdom is not of this world…” There and then he implied there is more to life than our present experience (John 18:36).
Luke chapter 22 records Jesus’ words at his last Passover meal with his disciples – a meal now known as The Last Supper.
Passover is a special occasion when the Jewish people recall the time God passed over their homes when they were enslaved in Egypt around 1200BC. God had stepped in and miraculously brought about their release from Egyptian rule. Passover became the annual celebration of God’s goodness and grace and the freedom they came to enjoy.
The Passover looks back. On the night of the first Passover, God decreed that every Hebrew household should take an unblemished lamb, slaughter it, and sprinkle the blood on the door posts of their homes. Each household was to have roast lamb for their evening meal. God promised that his angel of death would pass over every household where the blood of a lamb was on the door posts.
But it also looks forward in anticipation of a very different kind of freedom – when God’s promised Messiah will step in and establish his kingdom.
Twelve centuries after the events in Egypt, Dr. Luke records that Jesus carefully prepared a Passover meal with his disciples on the night before his death. It was a time when the Jewish people had once again lost their political freedom. For some six centuries they had been puppets to super-powers and now they lived at the pleasure of the Roman emperor.
Passover signified freedom. And even the gloomiest of Israel’s prophets, Jeremiah, spoke of a new day of hope: The days are coming when I (God) will make a new covenant with the house of Israel … I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people… for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
When Jesus prepared to celebrate Passover with his friends, patriotic feelings were running high. Believing people in Jerusalem would have been remembering the exodus from Egypt. When Jewish families gathered for Passover they would say, ‘Today we are slaves. Perhaps next Passover we shall be free.’
The breaking of the unleavened bread is a vital part of the Passover meal. Every Jewish family member around the table knew by heart the words the host would recite: “This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. All who hunger, let them come and eat, All who are in need and let them celebrate the Passover…”
But at the Last Supper Jesus’s words are electrifying. He didn’t say: “This is the bread of affliction,” but rather, “This bread is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance…” not “of the Passover” but, “of me”. He made his body, his dead body, the focus of the Passover meal.
And that raises something else that was strange about this Passover meal. Roast lamb would normally have been the center piece. Peter and John may have prepared the meal, but there is no mention of lamb in any of the Gospel records. Jesus was telling them, and is telling us now, that he is the sacrificial lamb around which the new Passover feast must revolve.
This is reinforced with his further surprising words. For when he took the cup of wine at the end of the meal, he said, “This cup is the cup of the new covenant” (Luke 22:20).
‘The Passovers you have been celebrating over the years,’ Jesus is saying, ‘look forward to God’s new covenant. Well, Passover is about to find its fulfilment. This is the last Passover of the old age and the first Passover of the new age.’
Jeremiah said of the new covenant that God will forgive their wicked ways and remember their sin no more. The self-focused desires of people’s hearts had ruined the old covenant relationship with God. Jesus had not come to save his people from Roman oppression.
Nor had he come simply to restore peace, safety and security, prosperity and a good lifestyle. No. Jesus came to rescue his first followers, and you and me today, from our deepest need – our love of self and our indifference towards God. And he has done it in exactly the same way the lamb had saved the Hebrews on that first Passover night. As he said at the Last Supper, he gave his body and he shed his blood as the Passover lamb to rescue us from death.
The Russian author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once observed, “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
Imagine for a moment you were the first-born in a Hebrew family at that first Passover. A lamb had been slaughtered, the blood sprinkled on the doorposts, and you awoke the next day to the sound of wailing from every Egyptian household. For in each of their homes someone had died. You thought for a moment, and then you really woke up: ‘That lamb died instead of me! Because that lamb died, God spared me’.
“This is my body, given for you. … This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood,’ Jesus said. (Luke 22:19-20). ‘I will die in your place, to save you from the second death, God’s just condemnation,’ he is saying.
Elsewhere Jesus speaks of wars and rumors of wars in this world. And in another place he says: “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him, who after he has killed, has authority to cast you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:4-5).
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead authenticates all his words and actions.
In writing a liturgy for the Lord’s Supper that reflected the Bible’s teaching, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who was responsible for the 1552/1662 Anglican Book of Common Prayer, set out the significance of Jesus’s death as the one oblation of himself, once offered, a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.
Significantly, before we partake of the elements of the Lord’s Supper – the bread and the wine – we are called upon to truly and earnestly repent of our sins… with the intention of leading a new life, … and walking in the Lord’s holy ways.
We are to draw near with faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, our one and only Savior (1662 BCP, Service of The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion). Partaking of Communion doesn’t save us. Rather it is our faith in what Jesus Christ in his mercy, has done for us.
In Hebrews chapter 10, verses 12-14 we read: But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
A Prayer for Maundy Thursday / Good Friday. Almighty Father, look graciously upon your people, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Note: My comments on Luke 22 are drawn from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, Second Edition, Aquila: 2019.
© John G. Mason
The post The Last Supper… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
GK Chesterton once observed, “On five occasions in history the church has gone to the dogs, but on each occasion it was the dogs who died”. With the 40million Americans who have stopped attending church over the last twenty-five years, Chesterton may well have included a sixth occasion!
Are you interested in playing a part in a gospel movement today?
Over the last three weeks I have been touching on Bible references that are foundational and inspirational in my ministry. References include Exodus chapter 24 – ‘the God who rescues’; Matthew chapter 28, verses 18-20 – ‘the God who mandates his people to make disciples who make disciples’; Luke chapter 10, verses 1-2 and chapter 11, verses 2-13 – ‘the Lord who calls us to prayer’. Another key reference in my ministry is Second Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1-6.
In the opening lines Paul explains why he is passionately committed to the ministry of the gospel. Despite the obstacles, the disappointments, and the setbacks, he says in verses 1 and 16: We do not lose heart. Bracketed between these two statements he writes in an intensely personal way: ‘Why do I bother with preaching? It’s God’s way of bringing the light of Jesus Christ into the lives of men and women’.
Two themes stand out in verses 3-6: ‘Why people don’t believe’(4:3-4), and ‘Why people do believe(5-6).
Why people don’t believe. In verses 3-4 we read: And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The references to veil and glory show that Paul has in mind a contrast he makes in chapter 3, between the old and the new covenants. There he points out that the Jewish people didn’t understand the Bible; they were spiritually blind, with a veil over their hearts and minds.
In chapter 4 he develops this theme to include all men and women. In the same way that unbelieving Jewish people failed to understand the significance of the Old Testament law, so too unbelievers everywhere are blinded from seeing the glory of God in the person of Jesus. The god of this age is blinding their eyes, he says in verse 4.
Much ink has been spilled in explaining these words. Many commentators view the god of this age as a reference to the power of evil – Satan. However, while in the Parable of the Sower (Seeds), Jesus spoke of the devil taking the seed of God’s word from people’s hearts, he also drew attention in the same parable to other reasons the ‘seed’ of God’s Word doesn’t grow. Let’s consider more carefully what Paul is saying.
And to do this is to appreciate the way Paul expresses himself in the original text. To be technical for a moment, the phrase, the god of this age, is appositional: one idea within the phrase explains the other. The meaning of the phrase is ‘the god that consists of this age’. In other words, Paul is saying that people make this age their god. That is what blinds them.
A similar form of phrase is found in verse 6: The light of the knowledge of the glory of God – which means, ‘the light that consists of the knowledge of the glory of God’.
In verse 4 Paul is saying that it is the idolatrous preoccupation with the material things of this world that blinds humanity to spiritual realities. In a materially obsessed world people are blinded to the reality that there is more to life than the material world.
The eyes of people who lightly dismiss the reality and significance of Jesus Christ are so fixed on life now and the pleasures the material world offers, they are blind to the larger realities of our existence. They fail to see that we are much more than the sum of our parts.
To understand the god of this world this way is consistent with the overall teaching of the Bible. Although people who don’t believe are victims of ignorance, the bottom line is that their ignorance is willful. They choose to ignore the evidence.
And because they have chosen to worship what is less than God, he has given them over to a darkened mind, and so yes, the devil finds it so easy to steal the word of God from their hearts. People are perishing because they choose to turn their backs on God.
How then does anyone come to believe? In verses 5-6 we read: For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servant for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
That is how we come to believe: God has made his light shine in our heart. Paul’s reference to God’s utterance bringing about light is imagery drawn from Genesis chapter 1. Turning from unbelief to belief involves an act of divine initiative as awesome and as powerful as the act of creation.
God says to our hearts, ‘Let there be light’ and there is light, and from that moment a new world begins. The implication is thrilling: ‘God is the light’ who has shone in our hearts’. What we see in Jesus is not some magical gift of spiritual insight. It is the miracle of seeing God. It’s so important then, that we introduce people around us to the Jesus of the Gospels.
And this, Paul says, is the focus of his ministry. ‘We don’t preach ourselves,’ he says in verse 5, ‘but Jesus Christ as Lord’. We are Jesus’s servants. It is not my gifts of preaching, my oratory, my charisma, my charm, that wins men and women to faith. Rather, humanly speaking, it is bringing them to a face-to-face encounter with Jesus.
Paul wants us to know that he tells people who Jesus is, what he has done, and why he has done it. He points out that Jesus is not just a great teacher or extraordinary miracle worker, but God walking in our shoes. Jesus is more than a prophet for he is God in the flesh.
Furthermore, throughout his ministry Paul wanted everyone, everywhere to feel the impact of our fatally flawed nature. We are all trapped by self-love rather than love for God. Yet God is not a frowning misery-bags out to get us. He is the Lord, whose nature is always to have mercy. No matter what we have done or not done, he holds out mercy and forgiveness far greater than we ever dreamed.
Furthermore, Paul is saying that as he declares God’s gospel, again and again God by his Spirit takes the veil from blind eyes and hard hearts and enables them to see the glory of God, shining in the face of Jesus Christ.
We see why Paul did not lose heart. He understood that God chooses to work through our words that introduce Jesus and announce God’s mercy. Given the flow of Paul’s thought from the end of Second Corinthians 3 into chapter 4, we see that it is God’s Word and the power of God’s Spirit that opens our eyes to Christ. God’s Spirit turns on the light so that we see Jesus. So, we can liken faithful gospel ministry to opening the curtains in the morning – darkness gives way to daylight.
Because God’s miracle of illumination is such a necessary part in people responding to God’s good news, we surely should be praying. In Jesus’s words we considered last week, “Ask, seek, and knock”. Gospel movements come about because God’s people are praying and looking for opportunities to introduce others to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you read The Jesus Story: Seven Signs? It’s available from Amazon using the link below. I’m praying it will be a useful book that you can simply pass on to others who don’t know what to believe.
When they’ve read it, talk with them about TheWord121 (www.theword121.com). It’s a great read through all of John’s Gospel – over coffee or in small groups.
Let’s pray that God in his mercy will awaken his people and bring about a gospel-led regeneration of lives.
Prayer. Merciful God, who created all men and women in your image and who hates nothing you have made, nor would have the death of a sinner, but rather that they should be converted and live; have mercy on all people everywhere and take from them all ignorance and hardness of heart and contempt of your Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to your flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of your ancient people, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post God’s Great Passion (4)… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
I have a question: What do you think of prayer? When you pray, do you pray with purpose and confidence? I ask this because prayer is integral to our partnership with the Lord – and not least in our gospel promotion.
In Luke chapter 9 we read that Jesus sent out the twelve on a mission to Jewish people. And, in chapter 10 we learn that he sent out seventy to both the Jewish and non-Jewish peoples. He not only wanted the disciples to know that the news of the kingdom of God is for all people, but also wanted them to understand they weren’t sufficient in number to do the work by themselves.
Even seventy would not be enough. The first task for the disciples was to pray for colleagues: “The harvest is plentiful,” Jesus said, “but the labourers are few; pray the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2). Prayer is essential if we want to play our part in fulfilling Jesus’s mandate to make disciples of all nations.
In this third in the series, ‘God’s Great Passion’, let’s focus on prayer, especially as it relates to gospel mission.
In Luke chapter 11, verses 2 through 13 we read memorable and significant words from Jesus on the subject of prayer. He not only teaches the disciples a ‘model’ prayer which we call, ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, but he also makes three very specific promises found in verses 9 and 10: “Ask, and it will be given you; Seek, and you will find; Knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Furthermore, on either side of these promises he uses two parables or metaphors to answer two questions we sometimes ask: ‘Can God be trusted to hear our prayers?’ (verses 5-8); and second, ‘Can I trust God to have my best interests at heart?’ (verses 11-13).
In verses 5-8 Luke records Jesus’s parable, often known as ‘The Friend at Midnight’. The parable falls into the category of sayings that have an underlying, unspoken question: ‘Can you imagine…?’ ‘Can you imagine a man talking like this to a friend in need?’ Jesus asks.
The key to understanding the parable is found in the word in verse 8 usually translated: impudence’ or boldness. Let me suggest this is one place where our English translations are unhelpful.
The late Dr. Kenneth Bailey brought new and helpful insights to the parables from his work in the Middle-East. He pointed out that the word translated boldness or persistence in verse 8, is a composite. In its basic form the noun has a negative meaning: shame. However, when a prefix is added, as here, there is an important shift to a positive meaning: avoidance of shame.
A careful reading of verses 7 and 8 reveals that the pronouns me and my in verse 7 refer to the householder who is in bed, not the man knocking at the door. Furthermore, the flow of verse 7 into verse 8 and the pronouns he and his, also refer to the householder.
The syntax and the narrative impact of the story has the sleeper in bed as the focus – not the man who is knocking on the door. If the sleeper, the householder, refused to get up and act, he would bring shame to his name.
The unwritten laws of mid-eastern hospitality, which are an important sub-text of the parable, required a man to get up and help a neighbour in need. If he didn’t, not only would he be shamed, he would also bring dishonor to the whole village community.
‘Can you imagine,’ Jesus is asking, ‘anyone saying to a neighbour in need, even at midnight, ‘Get lost. Don’t disturb me’?
In this parable Jesus illustrates an important line in his model prayer: Father, hallowed or honored be your name … In the parable Jesus tells us that it is God’s very nature to hear and respond to our prayers. If he didn’t, he would bring shame to his name.
God’s honour, God’s integrity, God’s name is at the heart of the way he will not only hear but he will also act. Central to the prayers of Moses and Daniel is the humble but bold request that God will act for the sake of the honor of his name (Numbers 14:13-19; Daniel 9:3-19).
When we begin a prayer relationship with God the Father we open the door to untold blessings. “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened for you,” Jesus promises (verses 9-10).
‘Can we trust God to give us good things, or is he fickle?’ we might ask. Jesus anticipated our question and assures us that God not only listens, but always has our best interests at heart. Two metaphors illustrate this.
In verse 11 Jesus says: ‘The most violent thief can be kind to his son and the most mercenary-minded father can be generous to his daughter. Is God any less open-handed?’ Jesus asks.
And in verse 12 he addresses our concern about God’s goodness with an illustration from good parenting. Parents don’t give their children things that are bad for them. We need to trust that God is good and wise in the way he responds to our prayers. He is neither capricious nor malicious and will not spoil us with over-indulgence. Just as a loving father will give good gifts wisely to his children, God uses his discretion as to how and when he will act in answering our prayers.
Prayer is a precious privilege. It brings us into the presence of the God who is at the heart of the universe. CS Lewis observed, ‘God has so ordered the governance of the universe to include our prayers’.
God is a father who loves to give. “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” Jesus concluded (11:13).
Why did Jesus raise the subject of the Holy Spirit here? In the sweep of Luke’s narrative, we see Jesus was anticipating the great gift of his Spirit following his resurrection and ascension.
His Spirit opens our minds to hear God’s voice through his Word; his Spirit opens our hearts to God and enables us to call him ‘Father’; his Spirit opens our lives to God and empowers us to trust him and to follow him.
To return to Jesus’s words in Luke chapter 10, why don’t we pray more consistently for the promotion of the gospel, for the raising up of colleagues? The fields are ready for harvest. Ask, seek, knock.
In Luke chapter 19, verse 10 Jesus says that he came to seek and to save the lost. Think of God’s passion for the lost and the cost it was for him to pardon and deliver us from our self-centered lives.
Let me encourage you to pray for five people you would like to see come to know the Lord. If you will allow me a personal note, the task is simple: you can pass on a copy of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs. The link is in the banner below.
Prayer. Let your merciful ears, Lord God, be open to the prayers of your people; and so that we may obtain our petitions, teach and direct us to ask such things as will please you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Today’s ‘Word on Wednesday’ is adapted from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition (Aquila: 2019)
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In the light of Dr. George Barna’s Reports in February and March this year, I am touching on Bible references that have been foundational and inspirational for me.
The Barna Report in February revealed, “that while 71% of adults” (in America) “believe in the existence of one or more gods or spiritual authorities, far fewer said they believe in the existence and influence of Jesus Christ (59%) or the God of the Bible (40%). Barely half of all adults (54%) said they worship or follow Jesus Christ with only one-third (34%) saying they worship or follow the God of the Bible”.
In this second week in the series, ‘God’s Great Passion’, let me take up another reference that is significant in my ministry: Matthew chapter 28, verses 18-20. In verse 18 we read that the resurrected Jesus said to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”.
Jesus’s words reveal the supreme power and authority over the universe, the whole created order, that has been given to him. He is far superior to all earthly human authority and power that has existed or will exist – be it a president or prime minister, monarch or governor. He is, as we read twice in the Book of Revelation, King of kings and Lord of lords (17:14, 19:16).
On the day of which Matthew speaks, the disciples stood before the High King of the universe. In his words that follow, Jesus set out what we might call his royal mandate: his disciples were to go and as they did, they were to make disciples …
The form of the verb go in the original language is significant: it is an imperative, present participle. It implies that the disciples are to go out, not simply stand still or sit around discussing recent events. They were to go and make disciples of all nations, …
From its outset, Christianity is missional and international. Its message is not just for the Jewish people. All peoples can be beneficiaries of the ministry of the apostles, that is the disciples who were now sent (hence apostles, from the original Greek). We may be Jewish or African, Asian, or European. Jesus offers to all people throughout the world, throughout time, the full and free benefits of his work.
But to be beneficiaries we need to learn of his goodness and beauty, his greatness and his selfless love. We need to be introduced to him and discover just who he is and what he has so wonderfully done for us.
Furthermore, his people are to be baptized in the nameof the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In using the singular word name, Jesus is telling us that three persons constitute the one God. Everyone who is baptized is to be instructed, not only in God’s existence, but also his triune nature.
Baptism is the outward mark of a changed attitude towards Jesus Christ and our relationship with God. It signifies our identity with Jesus, in dying to sin and rising to new life with him – as we read in Romans chapter 6, verses 3 and 4.
Furthermore, there is another element to Jesus’s royal mandate: disciples are not only to be baptized, but also instructed in the faith. They are to be taught about Jesus: who he is and what he has done and in turn, the new lifestyle he expects of his people.
The central theme of Jesus’ teaching is that God’s king has come into the world in person. In this age of mercy, he calls on all men and women everywhere to turn to him, the true king, in repentance and in faith, asking forgiveness for the past, and responding to him with love and loyalty.
Matthew chapter 28 verse 19 is Jesus’s very clear commission for the disciples to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing and teaching them. To follow the logic of this, because the apostles would die, the expectation would be that those whom they had discipled, would in turn disciple others in accordance with the apostles’ teaching. Here is the biblical meaning of apostolic succession: ministry that passes on the gospel that Jesus’s apostles proclaimed together with their teaching. It is not the ‘succession of bishops’.
Three themes become evident in the closing scene of Matthew’s Gospel: the King, the Royal Mandate, and thirdly, our task. Every generation is called upon not only to respond to the apostolic gospel and teaching, but also to continue the work of making disciples, who in turn make disciples.
Because the Lord Jesus has all authority, his mandate to make disciples guarantees his own involvement and success in rescuing the lost sheep of the world. His power through the Holy Spirit assures us of this. And so he calls on us to pray and to work as he catches us up in God’s great story.
On this point Jesus’s concluding promise here is so encouraging: “Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age” (28:20). Our English translation always masks a Greek expression that we find only here. It means the whole of every day. Jesus promises to be with us as we make disciples, the whole of every day to the very end of the age. We are not alone.
Making disciples who become disciple-makers is central to our work. Disciple-making ministries build God’s new society. God’s people who are progressing in the faith will increasingly want to know and honor the Lord in their lives, serving him in serving others – in their needs and with the gospel.
In today’s world this is challenging, but we don’t need to be fearful. First Peter chapter 3, verse 15 says: … always be prepared to give an answer for the hope (or the faith) that you have in Jesus Christ. And Colossians 4:6 says, Let your speech be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Let me encourage you to pray for three to five people you would love to see come to know the Lord Jesus. And as you do, let me suggest that you will find, sometimes unexpectedly, an opportunity to open up a conversation about the faith. You don’t need to say much. Indeed, if you will pardon a personal note, you may find it helpful to pass on to them a copy of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs. It takes about an hour to read. You can purchase copies through the link in the banner below.
Prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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In a report released this week, Dr George Barna wrote that ‘Americans are increasingly minimizing the role and influence of God in their lives—with a minority of only 40% who believe He exists or influences human lives.
‘As a result, fewer American adults put God at the center of their lives, view their relationship with Him as important, or rely on Him for daily guidance.
‘This shift removing God from the center of American life is being seen inside the church, with the role of God becoming less important to people of faith. But the findings also indicate this shift is bringing a dramatic loss of reliance on God among Americans generally’ (Dr. George Barna, Director of Research, Cultural Research Center, Arizona: March 12, 2025).
Given that authentic ministry is grounded in the ministry of God’s Word, during this season of Lent let me identify some texts that have been foundational and inspirational.
Today, let me focus on Exodus chapter 24 – The God Who Rescues.
Background. We learn from Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, that God created men and women in his image: we are the glory of his creating work. However, tragedy entered in chapter 3, for Adam and Eve wilfully chose to ignore God’s specific command and attempted to usurp his place in creation. From that moment humanity became the shame of God’s creation.
God could have decided to destroy humanity and start again. But that would have been an admission of failure. Rather, he chose to follow a rescue plan, at great cost to himself, that was part of his creation plan.
We get a preview of this in the heavenly conversation that took place on Day 6 of creation. In the opening words of Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 we read: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness…”
At this point in the creation narrative the style of the language changes and we sense a break between the creation of the animals and the creation of men and women. It is as though there was a pre-cosmic pause while a conversation took place within the Godhead where a question was discussed: ‘Will we do it?’ The language, ‘Let us…’, implies the question, ‘Will we go ahead with this next and final part of creation? The cost will be great.’
In the New Testament, in his Letter to the Philippians, chapter 2 verse 6, Paul the Apostle opens another window on this pre-cosmic conversation. He tells us that the Second Person of the Godhead made a personal choice to follow through the plan that had been set before creation. Jesus’s coming amongst us as one of us, his crucifixion and resurrection, were not God’s Plan B but key elements in God’s Plan A!
To return to Exodus chapter 24. In verses 1, 9 and 11, we learn that such is God’s nature, it is his delight to rescue us from our guilt and shame and open the way for us to share in his glory, as we read in verses 16 and 17. In Exodus chapter 24 there are echoes of Genesis chapter 3 where Adam is described as walking in the garden with God.
And there are further developments in Exodus chapter 24 that we overlook; the chapter speaks of our not just being with God, but feasting with him and enjoying his presence.
Too often our thinking about our relationship with God is limited to forgiveness and salvation. Exodus chapters 24 through 39 reverberate with the language of ‘glory’ and God being with his people. It is an anticipation of the parable of the wedding banquet that we find in Luke chapter 14, but more specifically and grandly, the scene in Revelation chapter 21.
Furthermore, Exodus chapter 24 verses 3 and 12 spell out what our relationship with God should come to look like; Moses is called upon to write up and declare the ordinances and commandments of the Lord.
With this, another important theme opens up. The Bible is not just a record of God’s redemption: it is the instrument of his rescue. It is not enough to read the Bible. We need to understand that God speaks to us personally through his written, self-revelation. His Word opens the window for us as to what it will be like to know him and to be with him. We ignore God or treat him casually at our peril.
Exodus chapter 24 reveals another great theme: How God Rescues. We can only enjoy God’s promises when the consequences of our transgression have been removed. So in terms of the old covenant, Moses was told to splash in two directions, the blood of perfect animals that had been sacrificed – against the altar, symbolizing the satisfying of God’s justice (24:6) and over the people (24:8) symbolizing the covering of their sin.
Some twelve hundred years later at the Passover meal on the night of his arrest, Jesus said, “This is my blood of the new covenant that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 22:19-20).
God’s mercy and forgiveness are not cheap. Christ the righteous suffered for the unrighteous so that God might see us as having the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The gospel of the New Testament is foreshadowed in Exodus chapter 24: it is the good news of God’s redemption.
It is essential that we keep God’s gospel front and center in Christian ministry today. Let me say, it is being forgotten or seriously challenged in many churches. If we lose the gospel as God has revealed it in his Word, we have no grounds for hope.
If we turn to God in the way he has designed and implemented, we will discover freedom, joy and the hope of glory.
If you will allow me a personal note, let me mention my newly released book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs.
Given the interest in the stories of people’s lives today, I have sought to tell Jesus’s story with a focus on his works – signs as John the Gospel writer calls them. Following the order of the seven signs in the Gospel, I endeavor to retell each story in a way that sets out the scene and interacts with questions people might have today.
Copies can be purchased from Amazon using the link in the banner below. Proceeds from sales in 2025 are being used for the Anglican Connection ministry.
My prayer is that as you pray for family and friends you might find it helpful to purchase 3-5 copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs, to pass on to others who don’t know what to believe, at an appropriate moment. You may want to start by purchasing one copy to read yourself.
Prayer. Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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It’s often said, we have only one life to live! We need to live it well.’
How many people really believe this? Most people have a sneaking suspicion that there is more to life – that death is not the end of our existence.
C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity commented, If I find in myself desires which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
Come with me to a significant question that Jesus put to his close followers. We read it in Mark 8:28: “Who do people say that I am?” he asked.
Up to this point, Mark tells us, Jesus’ followers seemed dull and obtuse in their understanding of him. They had seen first-hand his power and authority when he had healed the sick, commanded the powers of evil, and even raised the dead to life.
On one occasion they had been in a boat with him when a sudden storm threatened their very lives. When they cried out in fear, he calmed the tempest at a word. “Have you no faith?” he’d asked them. They saw his many miracles and they heard his teaching, yet they still didn’t understand.
Let’s think about this. Most of us have seen pictures that have two perspectives. We look at the drawing one way and we see a vase. We look at it another way and we see a face.
Sometimes we can look at a picture like this for hours and only see one thing. The second perspective remains hidden. Then we blink our eyes or turn our head and look back, and there the second perspective is. We wonder why we didn’t see it before. Psychologists call this a Gestalt phenomenon. It comes from the German word meaning shape or pattern.
The phenomenon can’t be broken up into logical stages. We can’t get half-way. It’s all or nothing. We either see the second perspective or we don’t.
Opinions about Jesus are a little like this. There have been times when I have talked with people for hours about him – answering questions, making points, developing the case that Jesus is who he claimed to be. Yet often they don’t see what is so obvious to me.
The ability to recognize the uniqueness of Jesus is an insight. We can’t organise it. It’s a perception we must have. It comes, not as a conclusion to a logical argument, but as a gift.
In the same way that people can be perplexed by picture puzzles, the disciples couldn’t make proper sense of Jesus.
Then came a critical moment. Jesus had taken them away to Caesarea Philippi. “Who do people say that I am?” he asked. Mark tells us they cited the popular perceptions: some say you’re Elijah, others, John the Baptist, and others, one of prophets.
It was obvious to everyone that Jesus was someone very impressive, but there had been impressive people before. The general consensus seems to have been that Jesus belonged to the group of great ones in Israel’s history.
But Jesus was not content with this, “What about you?”. He pressed them: “Who do you say that I am?”
Suddenly, Peter seems to have got it. He’d probably thought about it before, but it was too crazy for words. But now the penny had dropped and his blurred vision cleared. Jesus wasn’t just a prophet. He was the One the prophets had foreshadowed.
We can almost hear a click as Peter saw this new perspective. “You are the Christ”, he said.
How did Peter work this out? Was it the outcome of reasoned research? No. The moment of insight came, as it does for every true believer – out of the blue. It wasn’t a deduction or a discovery. It was revelation!
And there was something else: inspiration! The ministry of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 16:17 we read Jesus’ words: “… Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”
It is here that we find the key to the meaning of life. To see that Jesus is no mere man but God in the flesh, is to see that there is much more to life than what we experience now. For to understand that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Messiah, God’s eternal Son who has set aside his true glory and become one of us, opens our minds and hearts to a hope and a joy that satisfies our deepest longings.
As we reflect on these deep matters of life we see that there is something mysterious in the way God opens our eyes. As we come to know the Jesus of the Gospel records, we come to realize that there are critical moments when we are conscious that Jesus is personally asking us: “Who do you say that I am?”
How do we experience this? We don’t have the advantage of having Jesus with us in the flesh. But we do have the reliable accounts from those who did meet him or had verified their record with eyewitnesses (Luke) – the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And we note that the account about Jesus is not written up by only one man, but four!
Many people are aware that there is more to life than our material existence. Without that hope, life offers little purpose for most people.
We often forget that God’s Spirit uses his Word to touch and transform lives – opening their eyes to who Jesus really is, convicting them of going their own way rather than God’s way, and bringing them to a ‘Gestalt moment’. However God doesn’t act in a vacuum. He gives us the privilege of working with him in his ministry of mercy to which he is passionately committed.
Will you join with me in praying that the Lord will be pleased to renew his people with the vision of reaching the lost, so that many others might come to know and love Jesus Christ as their Lord and their God – through experiencing a life-changing Gestalt moment?
Prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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No-one likes a hypocrite – someone who says one thing and does another. I’m not talking about times when we fall short of the Lord’s expectations of us. I’m referring to the general disposition of someone whose professed faith is hollow.
A hypocrite – an English word derived from the Greek, hypokrisis – means actor.
In Matthew 6:1 Jesus warns: “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”
Earlier in his Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven…” Now he is saying, “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them,..”
In both places he is talking about being seen by others. At first glance his words seem to be contradictory. Is he inconsistent? No.
In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus begins his sermon on the Mount with what we call the Beatitudes – qualities of lives blessed by God. Jesus also says that his followers are to be salt and light in the world and he goes on to exemplify what this looks like in areas of anger and lust, truth-speaking, retaliation, and prayer for enemies.
Now in Matthew chapter 6 he is saying that our faith doesn’t entitle us to promote ourselves. There’s all the difference in the world between honoring God in our lives and wanting to make a name for ourselves.
These days we may not win popularity for our faith in the wider community. However, it can be a different story within the church. Preachers and church leaders, musicians and generous givers can generate acclaim if they work at it. And social media networks can promote it.
But with three examples in his Sermon, Jesus warns against a faith that has no substance. John Stott commented, ‘Our good works must be public so that our light shines; our religious devotions must be secret lest we boast about them.’
Giving. “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others,” Jesus says (6:2).
Giving to the ministry of God’s Word and providing assistance for those in need is biblical. Writing on Godly and responsible giving in 2 Corinthians 8:9, Paul the Apostle says: For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might be rich.
However, when we give so that others know what we are doing, whether in the street or in the synagogue, whether in church or at a charity function, we are being hypocritical. It’s not the kind of giving that honors God, because it is motivated by self-interest. This is a reason why for decades the names of living benefactors were not on plaques in church buildings.
Jesus is saying that hypocrites give in order to be honored by those around them. ‘And’, he says, “I tell you they have their reward” (6:2).
Jesus uses a telling metaphor that the right hand should not know what the left hand is doing. No one, apart from God, should know about our giving. He will see our true motives: our real concern to support gospel ministry and to care for the needy. Such giving will be rewarded by our heavenly Father, Jesus says.
Prayer. “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward…” (6:5).
To be invited to lead the prayers in the synagogue was a mark of distinction, especially as the leader prayed in front of everyone. Jesus knows how easy it is for anyone leading prayer in church to focus on themselves, their presence, the theological and literary quality of their prayer – even the tone of their voice, rather than truly addressing God.
Now Jesus isn’t saying that prayer must always be in secret. He and his disciples attended services in the Temple and synagogue. Prayer in public is not the issue: it is our attitude. However, there is something special about prayer in private. It reveals who we really are – including the fact that we pray! Prayer in the privacy of our room will be more honest and genuine. We are less likely to focus on self. It’s the kind of prayer God hears and blesses.
Fasting. “And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show to others that they are fasting… (6:16). Fasting was one of the characteristics of Jewish devotional life and was particularly observed on special days, such as the Day of Atonement.
With his words, “whenever you fast …” Jesus assumes there will be times when his followers will fast – as we read in Acts 13:2-3. Fasting was typically associated with a time for reflection with a Bible open and repentant prayer. Fasting can be a helpful self-discipline, prompting us to focus on God without distraction.
But once again Jesus warns: “And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show to others that they are fasting…” There is to be no ostentation, perhaps through whitewashing the face or using ashes or earth on the face. Rather, Jesus says, use oil to brighten the face – again not ostentatiously. We are not to show or tell others what we are doing: it is between us and God.
In verse 1 Jesus warns: “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven,” And with each of the warnings against hypocrisy he contrasts two types of reward: the applause of others or the reward from your Father who is in heaven.
In verse 9, the first words of the prayer he teaches his followers to pray are: “Our Father …”
All God’s people throughout time, no matter their race or their status in life, are invited to call the creator of the vast and complex universe, “Father”. It’s an extraordinary privilege, far, far greater than we ever imagined or dreamed.
Jesus’ words about giving, prayer and fasting are humbling. Doing the right thing before God, living with integrity before the Lord, must never become confused with play-acting spirituality, pious ostentation. Jesus challenges us to ask, ‘Who am I trying to please?’
Honest answers to this question can produce the most disquieting results. How many of us would want to hear God’s chilling verdict: “Hypocrite!”
The story is told of an occasion when the esteemed philosopher CEM Joad of London University was asked by a visitor at a College high table, ‘Tell me, Dr Joad, what do you think of God?’ To which he replied, ‘My greater concern is what God thinks of me’.
What reward are you looking for in life – approval of people you know or the secret blessing of the Lord that will one day be shouted from the rooftops?
Prayer. Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made, and you forgive the sins of all who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, so that we, lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, Ash Wednesday)
© John G. Mason
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HG Wells, historian and author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds responded to a request from The American Magazine in July 1922, to identify the six most influential people in history. “I am an historian,” he said. “I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history”.
Why then was HG Wells, and many like him, not a believer? Perhaps it has something to do with what we might call, God’s deep irony. In First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 22 we read: For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, …
The Jewish people wanted miracles – something that Jesus recognized in the course of his public ministry. In Luke chapter 11, verse 29 he seems to have strangely observed: “This generation… seeks a sign…” I say, strangely, because Jesus performed many miracles. He objected to performing signs because he knew what was in the hearts of people who asked for them: in their pride they thought they had a right to evaluate him, test his credentials.
Significantly, Paul the Apostle not only knew what was in Jewish minds; he also understood the mindset of the non-Jewish world, the Gentiles. They may not look for signs, but they too had a problem which proved to be an obstacle to faith. They believed they were smart enough to explain the world and life: if God exists, he would need to fit into their philosophical and scientific worldview.
First century Corinth was a world not much different from our own. But Paul came with a very different message – a message about a king who came and who was put to death. In verse 23 he writes: but we proclaim Christ crucified,…
It’s not what we would call a brilliant line! But it sits at the heart of God’s powerful message that can transform people’s lives across the nations and races throughout time. It doesn’t sound wise, but it is the only power that can rescue a lost humanity.
Many Jewish people longed for the coming of God’s Messiah who, they believed, would come in majestic glory and great power. For them, Paul’s message of a crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms. It was blasphemy to think that God’s Messiah would hang, cursed by God, on a tree. And this is what Paul also thought before he met Jesus in a vision on the Road to Damascus.
Paul, a Roman citizen who had been educated in the University of Tarsus, also understood the non-Jewish world. He knew the Gentiles valued reason and philosophy. They weren’t interested in tales about an uneducated man who was put to death as a felon.
Both Jewish and Gentile peoples rejected or mocked the message about a cross. But Paul is insistent. In verse 24 he presses his point: but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
The Jewish people expected a powerful Messianic ruler, a great King David. They scoffed at the idea of a crucified Messiah. It is a matter of deep irony that Jesus’ death which seems to be a moment of supreme failure, is in fact a moment of God’s supreme power.
For their part, the Gentiles who prided themselves in wisdom, mocked the idea of a crucified hero. Yet again, it is a matter of deep irony that through what seems to be utter foolishness, the profound wisdom of God is revealed.
Which brings us to an all-important question: In What Do You Glory? In verse 26 he says: Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
Are you ever impressed when you find you are in a church where there are successful people – perhaps a top surgeon, or successful banker or financier, a top sports person? How easy it is to focus on people like this. But the reality is, in human terms, not many of God’s people are successful. This was true in the church in Corinth.
Back in Paul’s day, churches brought together people from all backgrounds and with a wide diversity of ability and skills. One of the things that came to be noticed about them was this very diversity – of free people and slaves, of rich and poor, of educated and uneducated.
Paul is reminding us of the way that God’s mercy reaches across our social divides. None of us can claim an advantage with God because of birth or family, position, success or wealth.
And Paul comments that even in this very diversity God has a purpose: But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God (1:27).
None of us can boast about anything we have done to secure a place with God. We are not good enough. Our relationship with God is God’s free gift to us. To quote Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
However, there is one thing about which we can boast: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1:31).
Typically, we don’t respect people who boast about themselves. It’s rude and arrogant, the height of pride and self-centeredness. Paul’s words about boasting here are of a very different order. He is talking about boasting in God. In fact, another word we could use for boasting is glorying – glorying in the Lord.
In verse 30 he tells us why: He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord”.
Christ Jesus who died and rose again is God’s wisdom. His wisdom secures our righteousness – our legal standing before him. God’s wisdom brings about our sanctification – the special status we have with God. It is God’s wisdom that purchases our redemption – the freedoms we now enjoy as God’s people – freedom from sin, from the power of evil, and from death.
How wonderfully wise is our God. How amazing is his mercy. The more we get to know him, the more we will want to bring every part of our life in line with him – our hopes and dreams, our joys and our sorrows, our laughter and our tears.
Here is the God who is not just worth knowing about, but personally worth knowing.
Prayer. Father in heaven, whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain, and spoke of his suffering in Jerusalem: give us strength so to hear his voice and follow him, that in the world to come we may see him as he is; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Last week a good friend of mine went to be with the Lord. In a final conversation with him – in this world – one of the things we talked about was the hope we have in God whose loving action led to Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus’ death is reckoned to be foolishness by the world. Consider what the Apostle Paul writes in First Corinthians, chapter 1.
Foolishness…? Writing about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ Paul says in verses 18 and 19: For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart”.
Paul wants us to know that when Jesus died on the cross the power of God was uniquely at work. He wants us to know that God in his wisdom has addressed the root problem of the human dilemma in a way that no other religion or philosophy has.
Our world has made incredible strides in the field of science and technology. We can peer into the vast spaces of the universe and map the human genome, but there is always something that trips us up, especially the persistent inability to find a path to perfect peace with one another.
William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, was once asked why he wrote it. He responded: I believed then, that man was sick – not exceptional man, but average man. I believed that the condition of man was to be a morally diseased creation and that the best job I could do at the time was to trace the connection between his diseased nature and the international mess he gets himself into.
In First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18, Paul is telling us that where human wisdom has failed to find answers, God himself has stepped in and acted. The man who hung on a cross between two self-confessed criminals on a hill outside of Jerusalem almost two thousand years ago, was God’s one and only eternal Son. Crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in Judea, the Son of God, who is the source of our life, died the death we justly deserve.
That day the all-holy God acted in love and provided a solution to our human dilemma in a way that nothing else could. For in his death, the sinless Son perfectly satisfied once and for all every righteous requirement of God.
A moral universe. Paul is saying that we live in a moral universe. Despite the strident voices in the public square, we are not here by chance simply to make the best of a fleeting life. We are image-bearers of our creator God. Our deepest problem is that, designed to know and enjoy a rich relationship with the living God, we worship the desires of our own hearts – ourselves and whatever catches our attention. But we were designed for so much more – and for eternity.
The good news is that through the cross, God in his wisdom and love offers a new start and a new way of living to everyone who turns to Jesus Christ in heart-felt repentance and faith. The cross is not simply good advice. It is not even news about God’s power. It is the place where God has destroyed all human pretence and indifference, even arrogance.
It was something very strange that God did when Jesus died, but there is a rightness to it. Paul tells us that God has deliberately ordered things this way so that we arrogant, self-centered people cannot, and will not, find our own solution.
More foolishness…? In verse 21 Paul says: God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. This is breath-taking. Through the announcement of Christ’s crucifixion, a message that seems senseless and inane when we first come across it, God has determined to rescue anyone who turns to Jesus as their Savior and Lord.
The implications of this are humbling. God, in his wisdom, has determined on a plan that to human eyes seems so ludicrous. Furthermore, it means that all people (it doesn’t matter who we are) have an equal opportunity to benefit. Priority isn’t given to the highly intelligent or the elite. God’s offer of salvation is open to anyone who, by his grace trusts him at his word, to anyone who relies on him, who turns to him and believes in him.
The message of Christ crucified is God’s strange wisdom that subverts the wisdom of the world and provides the one and only solution to our human need – turning our hearts to our true home with God, and giving us motivation and a model for working out our relationships with one another.
In the conversation with my dying friend, we talked about death and the hope of a future that God in his wisdom and love holds out to us. There will come a day when we will meet again in the perfected age to come.
Reflect: For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart” (1 Corinthians 1:18-19).
Prayer: Almighty Father, look graciously upon this your family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked leaders, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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As The Lord’s Supper is often confusing, let me step aside from my usual practice of providing a Bible reflection and make a few remarks about key themes that were crafted by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1533-1556.
Cranmer was used by God to re-form the Church of England as a biblically-grounded, gospel-focused church. He achieved this through recovering the unique nature of the Scriptures as God’s written self-revelation, the development of The Thirty-Nine Articles, the Homilies (sermons on essential doctrines of the faith) and his 1552 Book of Common Prayer – which sits behind the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. To this day the 1662 BCP sets out the doctrine and principles of worship for the gathering of God’s people in the Anglican Church around the world.
To understand the shape of The Lord’s Supper we need first to appreciate Cranmer’s view of human nature which Dr Ashley Null summarizes as: ‘What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies. Such is the nature of our broken relationship with God that the desires of our hearts dominate us. When we gather as God’s people our hearts need to be addressed and changed, and that can only be achieved by God – through his Word and his Spirit.
So, at the commencement of The Lord’s Supper, we pray: Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, so that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
We pray for the outpouring of the Spirit of God on the lives and hearts of everyone present, not on the elements of bread and wine on the Table. The prayer rightly calls down the Spirit of God on everyone gathered in the name of Christ Jesus.
And to remind us of God’s expectations, Cranmer called for the recitation of the Ten Commandments. Jesus’ summary of the commandments is sometimes used today – followed by a response: Incline our hearts to keep this law. Cranmer’s intention was to let the Holy Spirit work through the Scriptures to change hearts.
In the flow of the liturgy, the Scriptures are read and a Creed – a statement of belief – is said. A sermon is given, indicating that we can come only to the Lord’s Table through a response of faith to God’s Word. Prayers are said for the church, leaders in the wider community, and the needs of God’s people and others.
The minister then exhorts everyone with words that echo Paul’s warning in First Corinthians chapter 11, about eating the bread and drinking the cup without heartfelt repentance and a deep desire to live out Christ’s commands.
The warning leads into a general confession, followed by a pronouncement of the promise of God’s forgiveness in the Name of Jesus, for all who truly repent of following their heart’s desires rather than God’s holy law. The biblical ground for the promise of God’s forgiveness is underlined by what are called ‘comfortable words’ (e.g., John 3:16;1 John 2:1-2).
With the exhortation and response, Lift up your hearts. We lift them to the Lord. we are exhorted to lift our gaze to the Lord of heaven and earth. We are also reminded that Christ is not physically in the world. Rather, he is in heaven.
In this context our hearts are lifted up to the Lord on high with words from Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, known as ‘the Sanctus’: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are filled with your glory. Hosanna in the highest – period, full stop.
In Cranmer’s 1552 Prayer Book there is no following acclamation: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ – words that reflected a false theology of ‘the real presence’ of Christ in the bread and the wine. If we read Luke 13:35 carefully we will see that Jesus spoke these words of himself and of his forthcoming sacrificial death. This work was completed once and for all through his crucifixion. Cranmer’s aim was gospel clarity, not ambiguity.
The themes of confession of sin, God’s grace and forgiveness, continue with the Prayer of Humble Access. The focus of our prayer is to the Lord whose nature is always to have mercy…
Cranmer’s prayer of consecration – the setting apart of the bread and wine for The Lord’s Supper – follows. It recalls God’s all-glorious act of redemption that was achieved through the Lord Jesus Christ who, in his death on the cross, made there … a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world and thereby instituted a perpetual memory of his precious death until his coming again.
The prayer continues, asking that the bread and wine become for us the body and blood of Christ – not literally but spiritually in that the Spirit of God feeds our hearts and minds, with the benefits of what Christ has done for us.
It is important to notice that the sacraments are not administered to give us a nice warm feeling. Nor, as Cranmer’s 1552 Prayer Book makes clear, are they are a re-offering of the sacrifice of Christ. They are not something we do to achieve some merit in our relationship with God. Rather, the sacraments bring us through an outward sign, what God has done for us in Christ. For the true believer in Christ, they bring real spiritual benefits.
As God’s people eat the bread, they are exhorted to Take and eat this, in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on Him in your heart by faith, with thanksgiving. And in taking the cup all are exhorted to Drink this in remembrance that Christ’s blood was shed for you and be thankful. As we receive the bread and the wine, we are spiritually partaking of the benefits of Christ’s death. When we truly believe in Christ, they bring us spiritual benefits.
How important it is that when we come to The Lord’s Supper, we have reflected afresh on what Christ has done once and for all time to satisfy in full God’s righteous requirements for our sin and for the sins of the world.
The Lord’s Supper concludes with a prayer of self-offering (oblation) based on Hebrews 13:15 and Romans 12:1-2. With these prayers God’s people are sent into to the world to live for Christ and to change the world through the gospel.
A prayer. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us all with everything good that we may do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The late afternoon storms last Tuesday afternoon (Australian Eastern Summer Time) brought down a huge neigbouring tree on to the Cammeray Church site – one of two church properties where I am part-time interim senior minister. No one was harmed – for which we thank the Lord. But the building itself has suffered structural damage making it unusable for the coming months.
It brought to mind the devastating fires in Los Angeles, USA as well as the loss and devastation caused by war – not least in Ukraine at this time. Where is God? Why does he allow such things to happen?
Now I need to point out that there are no complete answers to the question, ‘why do people suffer in a world where a good and loving God rules?’ It would be misleading to say we have a full explanation. In fact we can only begin to provide some answers with certainty because of God’s revelation of himself in Scripture.
How important it is then that in the midst of the unexpected in life, we encourage one another with cool, clear minds that are grounded in the Bible. The Psalms, for example, constantly reflect on the vagaries of life and evil (the unprovoked, interventionist war in Ukraine, for example) that we experience, reminding us that the wisdom and strength we need are found in the Lord God.
Psalm 46 begins: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging (Psalm 46:1-3).
The Psalm encourages us that God is the sovereign lord over every aspect of life – over nature, the enemies of God’s people, and the world with all its tensions and conflicts. Written in a time of crisis, the confident faith in the Lord’s ultimate control is most encouraging.
Furthermore, while we might fear the instability in nature and events around us, we can be assured that God not only knows what is happening but is in the midst working out his greater and ultimate and very good purposes. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;… but we are assured of God’s final word: he utters his voice, in judgment on the nations.
If you will allow me a personal note, on September 11, 2001 Judith and I were living in Downtown New York City, in close proximity to the Trade Towers. When the towers collapsed our building was impacted. We were without a home for some 6-weeks and my fledgling New York ministry was also affected. We had to move our apartment and start afresh. Tim Keller who had invited me to start a new gospel-focused Anglican church in Manhattan later told me that he had thought that Judith and I would return to Sydney. But the Lord in his grace brought us through the challenges.
In the midst of the unknown, Psalm 46 was one of the Bible texts from which we, along with many others, drew comfort and strength.
Psalm 46, verse 4 says: There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God…. Under God the waters no longer rage but are found as life-giving streams for his people under siege.
It is not surprising that the Psalm moves to a climax with a command, Be still, and know that I am God (verse 10). This is not so much a word to God’s people – although that is there – but rather primarily God’s word to the turbulent seas and rebellious world.
It is a command that anticipates Jesus’ words to the stormy seas: “Peace! Be still” (Mark 4:39). It is the same powerful voice of authority of Jesus when he commanded the deceased Lazarus: “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43).
Psalm 46, verse 10 continues: God will be exalted among the nations; he will be exalted in the earth.
If such a God is with us, we can have every confidence that when we turn to him he will hear us and sustain us. Despite the awfulness of our experiences at times, God is our refuge and strength.
And the Psalm concludes: The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
A huge broken tree falling on a church building in storm-tossed winds can stir us to frustration and even anger as we work through the challenges of the necessary ministry adjustments. The same can happen when God’s people make mistakes, or experience illness or other personal challenges.
Or, in the goodness of God, it could be another way the Lord builds us up in the riches of his love and forgiveness, and opens opportunities for us to testify to our faith in the community. These are my prayers. Are they yours?
Prayer. Almighty Father, we commend to your goodness all who are in any way afflicted or distressed, especially those who are known to us. May it please you to comfort and relieve them according to their needs, giving them patience in their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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With the elections in the UK and the US last year and upcoming elections in other democracies we wonder about the future. Good and upright leaders are rare. Indeed, while every election shows that no leader is perfect, most people long for someone who will use their position to provide for the security and welfare of a nation. In a fallen world the freedom to elect leaders is important and very precious – something for which we should pray.
When we read the history of Israel in the Old Testament we learn that the prophets spoke of a unique leader whom God would send. Isaiah chapters 1 through 39 reveal God’s condemnation of his people for their self-worship and their disregard of him. Isaiah had warned of God’s judgement and in 586BC the Babylonians demolished Jerusalem and took its people captive. But Isaiah is not all negative, for he opens a window on something new and lasting that God planned to do through a very special king.
In Isaiah chapter 61 we read: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me;… Isaiah 61 continues by telling us what this Spirit-led figure will do: He has come to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor; And the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn… (61:1b-2).
It is not until we come to the New Testament that we see the real significance of these words.
For Luke chapter 4, verses 17 through 19 tells us that Jesus, as guest speaker in the synagogue in Nazareth, opened the scroll of the book of Isaiah at chapter 61. He read: The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me,… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Period. Full stop.
He didn’t complete Isaiah’s words: …and the day of vengeance of our God, but went on to comment: “Today these words are being fulfilled in your midst”.
By leaving Isaiah’s words incomplete, Jesus implies that there are two stages to the ‘Day of the Lord’ – the day of favor, and the day of justice. His first coming inaugurates the time of God’s favor, or mercy – the era of God’s rescue operation. His return will be the time of God’s judgment and the establishment of Jesus’ rule in all its perfection and glory. Everyone will see it and feel it.
It’s important that we notice how Jesus applies Isaiah’s words to his public ministry: he says he has come to the aid of the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed.
When did he do this? After all he didn’t provide food and clothing for all the needy around him; he didn’t release any prisoners, not even John the Baptist. Why? Because he has a bigger plan.
Words such as poor, blind, captive and mourn in Isaiah and the Old Testament as a whole, are often used as metaphors. The poor is often a reference to the spiritually poor, the blind, to the spiritually blind, and the captives, to those who are captive to self, sin and death. Those who mourn are aware of their own broken relationship with God as well as the brokenness of the world in its relationship with God.
That said, there were times when Jesus literally fulfilled Isaiah’s words. He did feed people who were hungry; he did give sight to some who were blind; and he did release people who were captive to the powers of evil. In each instance the miracle is a picture of God’s compassion and his ultimate purpose to provide life in all its fullness and freedom for his people. The events pointed to the beauty and perfection of the rule of God’s king.
By reading from Isaiah chapter 61 in the synagogue in Nazareth that day, Jesus assumed the mantle of the anointed servant-king of Isaiah’s vision. He was announcing that the final great era of God’s mercy had dawned.
Yes, he introduced a tension between the is and the yet to be of God’s rule, but it is a tension we need to work with, for it is God’s plan. It’s important that we see this for we need to live with this tension in our lives.
Many around us have thrown God out of their lives and view political power and their own world-view as the solution to the world’s ills. But no matter how good human leaders might be, they will always fail us. How wonderful it is to know that the day will come when Jesus Christ will return in all his kingly glory to usher in a new heaven and a new earth where truth and righteousness, peace and joy will prevail forever.
Before he departed from his followers, Jesus commissioned them with the primary task of proclamation – announcing God’s good news of release to all nations. What’s more, he continues to raise up men and women to carry on this task, to give people everywhere the chance to turn to God. Isaiah tells us and Jesus repeats: ‘Now is the time of God’s favor – the era of God’s grace’. The opportunity to respond to God’s good news won’t last forever.
Now is the time to listen up and to respond. In Jesus we find the leader we long for: God’s king who will come in all might, majesty, dominion and power.
Do you believe this? Are you prepared? And are you keen to help others to be ready for the return of the King?.
A prayer. Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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There are many things in life that baffle and trouble us. If God is almighty and all loving, why does he allow pain and suffering, evil and injustice to run riot through the world? From the wildfires in Los Angeles to conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, why does God allow us as individuals to go through so many of the things we do?
If we are to understand the trauma and trials of life, we need more than human wisdom and understanding. Abraham Lincoln once remarked: I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.
Wisdom. When the Bible speaks of wisdom it speaks of the complex matrix of intelligence, knowledge and power within a moral framework working together towards a good outcome.
Wisdom is the practical side of moral goodness. Because God alone is good, and because he alone has the power always to achieve his goals, his ways are always wise. Wisdom is an essential part of God’s character.
Isaiah chapter 42, verse 21 through chapter 43, verse 7 provides us with two scenes of God’s wisdom. The first speaks of tough times and God’s justice. The second speaks of peace and contains some of the most tender words of God’s love.
Tough times and God’s justice. The first scene portrays God’s people in exile in Babylon. Like refugees today, they were rootless, homeless, and friendless in a foreign land. But far greater than their personal loss was their sense that God had deserted them. They hadn’t believed prophets like Jeremiah; rather, they had preferred to listen to the popular preachers in Jerusalem who had told them that all would be well.
But it wasn’t. In 586BC their city had been destroyed, the temple demolished, and they had been deported. In Isaiah chapter 42, verse 24 we read: Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey? Where was this only wise God?
Yet against all the odds, God’s ancient people survived. Indeed, no passage of the Bible expresses the renaissance of these people more clearly than Isaiah chapter 43, verses 1 through 7.
Which brings us to a second scene – a picture of God’s wisdom and love. It opens a window on God’s infinite wisdom and power at work.
In Isaiah chapter 43, verse 1 we read: This is what the Lord said, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
Isaiah tells us that God took the growing embryo of our life and shaped it according to his good and wise purposes. But more than that, he redeemed us. For even though we have denied him and sought our independence from him, he bought us and brought us back to himself, even at great cost to himself.
We find this picture emerging in the Old Testament when he rescued the slaves in Egypt and shaped them into a nation. And when he returned the exiles in Babylon to Jerusalem and re-instated them as a people. But we see the greatest picture of God’s redemption when we turn to the New Testament. There we read that he has not only created us but has also redeemed us through the death of his one and only Son.
As Paul puts it in First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 18 and especially verses 24b and 25: Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser that human wisdom, and God’s weakness stronger than human strength. Jesus’ crucifixion seems foolish to world, but God in his infinite wisdom planned it.
Presence. God has not just redeemed his people. He promises to be personally present with us. Back in Isaiah chapter 43 we read in verse 2: When you pass through the waters I will be with you;… God doesn’t promise that his people will be immune from tough times. He says when, not if. Furthermore, he speaks of his people passing through the waters not over them.
For the people of Isaiah’s day, it meant that God would be with them in the land of exile. For us who live on the other side of Jesus’ cross and resurrection, it’s an even richer statement, for we find that God has come amongst us in our pain and has participated in it.
This is the meaning of the manger in Bethlehem, and the cross outside Jerusalem. Christianity is not about a God who emails us sympathy notes. Rather he bore our sin and carried our sorrow. He descended to the lowest parts of the earth to rescue us. Immanuel: God is with us.
No other religion comes near this – a God who comes into a suffering world and suffers with us; a God who comes into the world and dies for us; a God who comes into the world and becomes a curse on our behalf. No other religion has even dreamed of this, let alone actioned it.
God wasn’t just satisfying some passing whim when he created and redeemed us. His plan and purpose, which he has been working out through history, is to establish a people who love him and glorify him.
Prayer. Lord our God, fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: have compassion on our infirmities; and those things which for our unworthiness we dare not and for our blindness we cannot ask, graciously give us for the worthiness of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Martin Luther King Junior’s 1963 Washington Speech, “I have a dream”, fired the hearts of American people across the racial divide to a new vision and energy to promote harmony and peace. Yet within five years Martin Luther King himself was dead, gunned down by an assassin’s bullet.
Is there any hope for our world where divisions, conflict and war continue? Or will there always be death and destruction?
Come with me to Isaiah chapter 60 where he speaks of a city yet to rise. With the Babylonian conquest of the Kingdom of Judah in 586BC, Isaiah’s first readers had lost their city, the temple (the symbol of God’s presence) and their king. Yet in the midst of the darkness and despair Isaiah provides shafts of light revealing God’s ultimate plans. We get glimpses of this in chapters 25 and 35 and especially in chapter 60.
With the close of chapter 59 Isaiah introduces the theme of a renewed city (verse 20), and in chapter 60 he speaks of God’s City – a place where the dark experiences of our present world will give way to light. Gloom will give way to glory.
Isaiah pictures the sun rising over Jerusalem as a metaphor for God’s future city. His readers would know the rising sun appears over the Mount of Olives before striking the city below, driving away the darkness and flooding the whole scene with the glory of its light. It’s a sight that tourists still marvel at today.
Significantly, Isaiah’s words came true. For against all odds the Jewish people did return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. Cyrus the Mede had risen and conquered Babylon and in 520BC he decreed that the Jewish people could return to their homeland.
But there’s another layer to Isaiah’s prophecy. He didn’t just speak of the city of Jerusalem rebuilt after the exile. He was taking up a theme found in chapter 25, where God’s Messiah, his king, would come down to earth. God would bring in a whole new order, a new creation, where Messiah would host a banquet far beyond anything that anyone dreamed.
Yes, the return of the exiles and the re-building of Jerusalem was part of God’s plan, but the earthly city Isaiah is speaking about is a picture of a greater city yet to come. Isaiah uses the earthly city of Jerusalem as a metaphor: God himself will rise over Jerusalem, filling the whole of the city with the light of his presence: Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
The imagery of light and darkness is often used to portray God’s creating work. In Genesis chapter 1, we read that thick darkness covered the earth, but that God’s light overcame it. In Isaiah chapter 60, darkness is a metaphor for moral evil and spiritual blindness.
The darkness of moral and spiritual failure is a shroud that embraces all people and covers all the nations. But, in the same way God’s light pierced the darkness in creation, now Isaiah sees God’s light piercing the darkness of human failure and the emergence of a new city.
At the centre of this new world is God – God’s throne and God’s city. Here there will be no need of a sun or a moon, for God’s glory will shine forever. God’s city represents everything that was promised in the original creation – relationships with God and with one another where there is truth and love, joy and peace, forever.
Furthermore, God’s light will shine world-wide. People everywhere will be drawn to it. In verse 3 we read: Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes round about and see; they all gather together, they come to you.
Nations and kings will come to Zion, not to conquer it, but to acknowledge God and submit to him. Those who refuse, verse 12 warns, will perish: For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste.
It is one of the ironies of history that the power of Rome which crucified Jesus in the first century capitulated to him in the fourth century when the emperor Constantine was baptized.
It is striking proof that Isaiah’s words were no idle dream. The kingdoms of human power would fail; they would amass their wealth only to lay it down at the feet of the king of kings.
It’s an inspiring and encouraging picture. How much more should it encourage us, who live on the other side of the coming of God’s Messiah, the Lord Jesus. With Jesus’ coming and his resurrection from the dead, we have greater assurance that God’s plans will come to pass. God’s rule and God’s City will be established in glory and greatness forever.
What then should we be doing in the meantime? Part of the answer lies in our need to be biblically rich in understanding God and his purposes.
We need to believe what we read in Colossians, chapter 3, verse 4 for example: When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. While Jesus Christ is already enthroned at God’s right hand, his rule remains hidden for the present. In this meantime, he wants people to come to him in faith, trusting him for who he is and what he has done for us.
This means in part, that we should not withdraw from society with its issues and concerns. Rather, to quote Jeremiah’s words to exiles in Babylon: But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29:7). We all have a task to serve the best interests of the community around us.
We also have a greater task to assist the lost in being introduced to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet sadly, the majority of churches in the West have lost their zeal to promote this good news.
In chapter 60, Isaiah wants us to see the restoration of ancient Jerusalem in the 6th century BC as a picture of God’s promise of a far greater city, when the dominion, power and glory of the Lord will be revealed in all its awesome majesty. Come what may, no human authority, no evil power, is greater than God.
As we read in Colossians chapter 2, verse 14, when Christ died, God defeated the powers of evil, sin and death. The day will come when that reality will be seen in all its fullness and glory.
Prayer. Almighty and everlasting God, ruler of all things in heaven and on earth, hear with mercy the prayers and petitions of your people, and so grant us your peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Just a Dream…? appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Writing in The Weekend Australian (01/4-5/25), Greg Craven, former vice-chancellor of The Australian Catholic University, observes that Christmas has not merely “become commercial … but that it has become materialist.
“All of which is odd,” he continues, “in a nation (Australia) that ostentatiously pines for the spiritual. Millions genuinely seek or claim to be seeking something beyond the commercial veil. But even this desire struggles in an age of mindless mercantile self-help …
“But however misdirected or amusing, all these desires go in a single direction: people long for a spiritual reality that transcends mere functional reality.”
The call for a reawakening of the meaning of the Christmas story that sits behind the Christmas Season is not unique. How important it is therefore that we consider afresh the various facets of the original records found in Matthew and Luke.
Furthermore, as we reflect on the Gospel narratives of Jesus’ birth for our own benefit, it is also worth considering ways we can weave the larger story of his birth into our conversation. It’s worth keeping in mind the surprising way God works and the diversity of people his plan includes – non-Jewish peoples as well as Jewish, in fact people from every race.
Consider, for example, Matthew’s account of the Magi who visited the baby Jesus from afar to bring him gifts and worship him. In Matthew chapter 1 we learn that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the town where Jacob had buried Rachel and where King David was born. And some 700 years before Jesus the prophet Micah spoke of Bethlehem as the place where God’s Messiah would be born (Micah 5:2).
The legends that have developed around the magi from the East following a star and visiting the baby Jesus in Bethlehem shroud the veracity and the surprise of Matthew’s account. There is no mention in Matthew of the number of the wise men who visited Jesus and we are not told whether they were kings. Furthermore, we are not told their names. Who then were these people who travelled so far?
The Magi were a tribe of priests in ancient Persia and were known for their study of astrology – making predictions from the stars. In the ancient world the movement of the stars and the planets was understood to frame the orderly pattern of the universe. Any interruption to this was seen to mark some new significant event that would impact the human story.
Piecing together astronomical studies of the past, it seems that the Magi observed a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that occurred in 7BC around the time Jesus was born. In an age before telescopes, the conjunction would have given the appearance of a very bright star which some of them followed. Coming from Persia where the Jewish people had been in exile in the 6th century BC they would have known the Jewish Scriptures which include the prophecy of Balaam in Numbers chapter 24, verse 17: I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;…
The conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter occurred three times in 7BC, suggesting that when it had first appeared the Magi travelled westward to Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. Given the distance, they would have arrived there about the time of the third planetary conjunction. It was when they were in Jerusalem that they learned of the baby’s birth in Bethlehem – as Micah had foretold.
Matthew records: Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11).
Their gifts were prophetic: gold, a gift for a king – the greatest king lay before them; frankincense, used by the priests – the greatest priest was the one they saw; myrrh, for the burial of the dead – this baby, born to be king would be crowned through his suffering on a cross. Significantly, and to us surprisingly these highly respected, wise, non-Jewish men fell on their knees and worshipped this baby.
At the time when Matthew wrote this Gospel account, non-Jewish peoples from across the known world were coming to the crucified and risen Jesus as their king and savior. Matthew here is highlighting yet another facet of the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning God’s King: Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn… (Isaiah 60:3).
A reawakening of interest in the transcendent, supernatural order and the mystery of the Christmas story is an illustration of the way Jesus Christ fulfills Isaiah’s words. His words give us the opportunity to take people back to the true Jesus story revealed in the Gospels.
Let me ask, are you praying for such opportunities and thinking about ways to use them?
Prayer. O God, who by the leading of a star manifested your beloved Son to the Gentiles: mercifully grant that we, who know you now by faith, may after this life enjoy the splendor of your glorious Godhead; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Another day. Another year. A year of change…?
In his Choruses from the Rock written in 1934, TS Eliot prophetically observed:
But it seems that something has happened that has never happened before:
though we know not just when, or why, or how, or where.
Men have left GOD not for other gods, they say, but for no God;
and this has never happened before.
That men both deny gods and worship gods, professing first Reason,
and then Money, and Power, and what they call Life, or Race, or Dialectic.
What have we to do but stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards
in an age which advances progressively backwards?
What is the most pressing issue as we enter the new year? TS Eliot suggested it is the matter of God in our lives.
As a culture, the Western world today rejects the notion of there being an ultimate truth. It is said that at best we can only have opinions. You have your opinions and I have mine. To tell me I am wrong is to be arrogant and judgmental.
But here is an irony. To slow down disease and the aging process, people are looking to medical science for solutions. And the only way remedies can be developed, is to work with an objective body of knowledge that can be tested through experiment and reasoning. If there is no agreed world view concerning this kind of knowledge there can be no assurance with respect to a cure.
And many scientists would agree. Where some might disagree is with a world view that holds that there is a creator God. And this is because they deny a world view that underlies the meaning of what are called the natural laws.
We find ourselves with a dilemma. We live in a world where social progressivism denies objectivity and the idea of truth. On the other hand, the same world is dependent upon the fact of objective truth when it comes to the laws of nature and the search for cures.
So, what should we do? Let the light of God’s gospel shine in our lives.
In Luke 11:29-32 Jesus had been reminding the crowds that in response to Jonah’s preaching, the people of Nineveh had repented and turned to God. He also commented that the Queen of Sheba had travelled hundreds of miles to learn from the wisdom of King Solomon.
He then went on to make an astonishing announcement: “… Something greater than Solomon is here” (11:31). Was the growing crowd around him aware they were in the presence of greatness itself – indeed, God himself? Were they listening? Were they aware of what would happen if they turned their backs on him?
Jesus concluded this teaching with these rather enigmatic words: “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.”
Light and darkness are images that bubble throughout the Bible. In the Gospel of John we read Jesus’ words: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Furthermore, when we turn to Jesus God transfers us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Colossians 1:14).
So, to have the light, the lamp of the gospel shine in our lives, is the most wonderful privilege we have. How foolish of us not to let this light shine into our very hearts. Furthermore, we need to let this light so transform our lives that others will also see the changes. This will involve growing in the riches of God’s love. It means that our lives will be shaped, not by the latest ideas of ‘correctness’ but by God’s Spirit teaching us from God’s Word.
It means recognizing that all of humanity in every age has its faults and failures. William Hazlitt, the 19th century essayist, drama and literary critic observed: Mankind are an incorrigible race. Give them but bugbears and idols — it is all that they ask; the distinctions of right and wrong, of truth and falsehood, of good and evil, are worse than indifferent to them.
So often today God’s people are falling short of letting the light of our faith shine for others to see. Wanting to avoid being seen to be intolerant or arrogant, we remain silent when it comes to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, God incarnate. Many of us like to think we are good people because we refrain from sexual immorality or theft, living lives of outward integrity.
But to live a complacent, self-satisfied life, thinking that all is well, and yet not praying nor looking for opportunities to reach out to others with God’s truth, is to treat God’s king with contempt.
Let’s pray for one another as we start a new calendar year, that we will walk in the light of God’s love, trusting him with our lives, and letting his light so shine through us that others will be drawn to the Lord Jesus themselves.
In his 1939 Christmas broadcast, on the eve of Britain’s darkest hour in World War 2, King George VI concluded with this quotation: “I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be better than light, and safer than a known way.”
Prayer. Almighty God, you wonderfully created men and women in your own image and have now more wonderfully rescued and restored them. Grant us, we pray, that as your Son our Lord Jesus Christ was made in our likeness, so may we share his divine nature; we ask this through Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post Happy New Year! appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Does Christmas hold out something special for you? A time to be with family? A joyful celebration? Or is it nothing but fake news and a season of stress?
Let me touch on two scenes in the biblical narrative in Luke chapter 2.
But first, let’s remember who the writer is – Luke, the physician. Trained in medicine, he understood the principles of research. Indeed, at the outset of his narrative he assures us that he has carefully researched his account of the Jesus story and verified it with eyewitnesses (Luke 1:1-2). Furthermore, like all good historians, he identifies the time of the events. At the beginning of chapter 2 he writes: In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered (Luke 2:1).
As we look back at this, we see that Augustus’s mandate requiring a census of the people, set in motion events that resulted in the fulfilment of God’s promises. It’s worth noting that the God who exists beyond time, works out his own purposes in time, in the course of human decisions and affairs.
The birth. The time came for her (Mary) to deliver her child, Luke continues (2:6b, 7). And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
The word inn is not an accurate translation of the original word. The usual word for inn is found in the story of the good Samaritan where the Samaritan generously provides for a victim of assault at an inn (Luke 10:34). The word in Luke 2 is another word, katalyma which literally means a place to stay or guest room. It is the same word Luke uses to refer to a guest room in a private house in Jerusalem where Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples (Luke 22:11).
In Jesus’ day poorer families lived in homes with one large extended room, for living and for sleeping. And at one end there was always a small area at ground level, but under the same roof, where the family animals were kept at night to keep them secure.
Luke is telling us that in the home where Jesus was born there was literally no guest room. Mary had to make do for the birth of Jesus at the end of the living room, near the animals. What’s more, she used the cattle feeding-trough, a manger, for Jesus’s crib.
Shepherds. Luke again surprises us when he reports that an angel announced the birth to shepherds who were working on a hillside near Bethlehem: … In the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and said: “To you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:8, 9a, 11).
At the time of Jesus’ birth, shepherds were at the bottom of the social order. They were the lost, the outsiders. Why did the angel announce the birth to them? Given the resources of heaven they could have pulled off one very spectacular announcement in Bethlehem or Jerusalem or across the skies.
To begin to appreciate the reason the angel spoke to the shepherds we need to consider a back-story we find in the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel spoke of the kings of Israel as shepherds, but he knew that many of them were self-indulgent, power-hungry exploiters. In Ezekiel’s day God’s people had been conquered by the Babylonians – Jerusalem was in ruins and its people were in exile. Ezekiel chapter 34 tells us it was the fault of the kings, the shepherds.
But Ezekiel’s news is not all negative. He speaks of a day when God would raise up a new and perfect king, a shepherd-king in the line of king David – a king whose power and glory was far beyond what anyone dreamed.
The king. With the angel’s announcement to the shepherds, we see that Jesus’ birth is the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s promise. God himself would raise up a king to do things Israel’s kings hadn’t done— restore the weak and gather the lost, offer an amnesty and open up his rule of justice and peace for the world, for ever. “Then they will know that I the Lord their God am with them” Ezekiel had said (Ezekiel 34:30). Jesus’ birth is indeed the very best news the world has known.
In fulfilment of his promise, the creator God himself has reached down from the glory of highest heaven to rescue and transform the lives of all people, even the lowliest, including the outcasts. No wonder the heavenly choir of angels broke into song: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, ‘shalom’, ‘peace’.
In her Christmas Broadcast in 2012, Her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II said, “The carol, In The Bleak Midwinter, ends by asking a question of all of us who know the Christmas story, of how God gave himself to us in humble service: “What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a wise man, I would do my part”. The carol gives the answer “Yet what I can I give him – give my heart”.”
How right this is: Jesus wants us to turn to him, our savior-king, and to give him our heart in true repentance, love and loyalty.
Indeed, it is when we give our hearts to Jesus that we can truly sing: O Holy Night… it is the night of the dear Savior’s birth; long lay the world in sin and error pining, till he appeared and the soul felt its worth…
Prayer. Loving Father, who sent your only Son into the world that we might have life through faith in him: grant that we who celebrate his birth on this most holy night may come at last to the fullness of life in your heavenly kingdom, where he now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
Note: My comments on Luke chapter 2 are drawn from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, Second Edition, Aquila: 2019.
© John G. Mason
The post Christmas Eve… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
We all like to think that there are areas in our life where we are in control.
CS Lewis in Surprised by Joy wrote of his pre-Christian phase: “… But, of course, what mattered most of all was my deep-seated hatred of authority, my monstrous individualism, my lawlessness. No word in my vocabulary expressed deeper hatred than the word INTERFERENCE. But Christianity placed at the centre what then seemed to me a transcendental Interferer. If its picture were true, then no sort of ‘treaty with reality’ could ever be possible. There was no region, even in the innermost depth of one’s soul (nay, there least of all) which one could surround with a barbed wire fence and guard with a notice No Admittance. And that was what I wanted; some area, however small, of which I could say to all other beings, ‘This is my business and mine only’.”
As we prepare for Christmas it’s worth reflecting on one of the most breath-taking moments in history – the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28b). We can appreciate Mary’s alarm with this supernatural visitation.
But the angel, sensitive to her apprehension continued, “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus… (Luke 1:30-31).
“How can this be, since I have no husband?” Mary responded (Luke 1:34). Even though she was engaged to Joseph, at this point she had clearly not slept with him. And, perhaps like Peter at the time of Jesus’ transfiguration (Luke 9:33), she uttered the first thought that came to mind.
The angel’s response to Mary’s question is unexpected and astonishing (Luke 1:35). It is one of the most stunning statements about Jesus in the whole of Luke. Gabriel clarified for Mary, and for us, just why this baby can be described as truly human and yet divine: ‘God’s Holy Spirit will come upon you,’ he says, and ‘the power of the Most High will overshadow you’. They reflect the life-giving work of God in creation (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 104:30), and in salvation (Ezekiel 37:14).
Mary was a special recipient of God’s grace. God would be with her (future tenses) in the events that were to unfold. His centuries old promises concerning his kingdom and his salvation were about to be fulfilled.
Consider what the angel Gabriel goes on to say to Mary about her baby: “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32f).
The theme of a virgin or young woman bearing a special son found in Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14, is present here. Yet Luke, unlike Matthew, doesn’t reference this. His emphasis is on the son rather than the mother. The baby is to be named Jesus. Furthermore, Luke sets out who the baby is – drawing our attention to the themes of the prophet Nathan’s words to king David in Second Samuel, chapter 7. Nathan speaks of David’s descendent whose name would be great and who would sit on the throne of his father David (2 Samuel 7:9 and 13-16). Furthermore, Nathan speaks of him as God’s son who will rule over God’s people (see also Psalm 7:17 and Daniel 4:24).
We should also note Luke’s contrasting statements about Jesus and John the Baptist. Whereas John would be great before the Lord (Luke 1:15), Jesus would be great in his own right (Luke 1:32). Many will rejoice at John’s birth (Luke 1:14) but God would give Jesus the throne of his father David (Luke 1:32). While John will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God (Luke 1:16), Jesus will reign over the house of Jacob forever (Luke 1:33).
John would play a significant role in God’s plan, but Jesus would be more significant in every way. John would stand in the tradition of the great prophets, but Jesus would be greater than a prophet. He would not simply stand in the tradition of the kings but would be the king God had promised long ago. (2 Samuel 7:9-16; Psalm 89:14, 19-29, 35-37). For Luke, Jesus’ connection with David is most important (1:32; 1:69; 2:4; 2:11; 3:31).
While Jesus would be given the title Lord after his death and resurrection (Acts 2:29-36), glimpses of this would be seen during the course of his ministry (Luke 18:39; 19:38). This royal figure would be the Son of the Most High (Luke 1:32). His rule would be over Jacob and would be forever (Luke 1:33).
In this remarkable, unexpected scene, Luke records God’s direct and personal involvement in his creation. From the moment of his conception in Mary’s womb, Jesus is understood to be truly man and truly God. God’s kingdom or rule has come into our human experience in a new and personal way. Jesus is truly divine and yet he is from the family of the kings.
Mary’s words of humility challenge us: “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
When we consider this simple yet profound scene the implications are life-changing. They threaten our desire to be in control. Yet when we reflect, we discover an unexpected ray of light and hope for us and for our world. Yes, God is the ‘transcendental interferer’ but his ‘interference’ springs from his amazing heart of love and mercy.
No wonder we sing, Hark! The herald angels sing, … glory to the newborn king.
Prayer. Lord, we beseech you, pour out your grace into our hearts; so that, knowing the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection by his cross and passion. We ask this through Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Note: Comments on Luke 1 are drawn from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, Second Edition, Aquila: 2019.
© John G. Mason
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“Prepare ye the way of the Lord …” are the opening words of the Broadway musical Godspell, that was released in 1971. The lyrics pick up the theme of John the Baptist’s preaching some two millennia ago as he prepared people for the coming of God’s promised Messiah or King. All four Gospels record John’s ministry.
John the Baptist was a great preacher. He drew thousands from the cities and towns to the wilderness region near the Jordan River. He may have been a member of the Qumran community which was located around the northern shores of the Dead Sea.
In his preaching John used the symbolism of the exodus from Egypt. God’s people Israel had endured the wilderness for forty years because they had not listened to Moses. Now God in his mercy, had sent John whose role was to prepare the way for God’s Messiah. John’s mission was to call Israel back to God through preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as we read in Luke chapter 3, verse3.
For John, repentance and baptism are tightly linked. We men and women fail to honor God in our lives. This is our real sin. And we need to change. ‘Repentance and baptism’, said John, ‘were signs of a change of heart towards God and a renewed relationship with God’s people.’ In calling both the Jewish people and Gentiles to repent and be baptised, John angered many Jewish leaders. Baptism was a ceremony typically used as a sign of the incorporation of non-Jewish people, that is, outsiders, into the Jewish faith. When John preached that Abraham’s descendants should also be baptized, he was implying that God saw them as outsiders and not automatically as his people.
The glory of the Lord. To enable us to understand the significance of John’s ministry, Luke quotes Isaiah chapter 40, verses 1 through 9, the chapter from which the opening lines of Handel’s Messiah are drawn: Comfort, comfort, my people, says your God …. Isaiah 40 continues: In the wilderness a voice cries out, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight … a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;… Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (40:3-5).
The preaching of John the Baptist was a wake-up call for all of God’s people. ‘God is about to do a new thing; there will be a new exodus,’ John was saying. ‘He is going to fulfil his promises that prophets like Isaiah spoke about: God is about to send his Messiah who will offer comfort and hope to a broken world. My task,’ said John, ‘is to prepare you. You need to repent – to turn back to God – and, as a sign of your changed hearts, be baptised for the forgiveness of your sins’ (Luke 3:3).
Significantly, Luke emphasises Lord rather than God. John’s preaching is focused on God’s Messiah, namely, Jesus. This is significant. Luke is telling us that God is about to do a new thing. He is about to provide the means of the rescue of a lost world and with it, offer the comfort and hope the world longs for. All flesh shall see the salvation of God, we read in Luke chapter 3, verse 6. Like freeway or highway construction, cutting through mountains and filling in valleys, John’s ministry was to make the way ready for the Lord.
The priority of John’s ministry is preaching (3:7-18), the ministry of the sacrament is dependent on the ministry of God’s Word. This is important for us who live in an age when churches often focus more on the outward signs of faith rather than an inner personal response. God uses the instrument of words, not signs, to bring people to himself and change their lives.
John likened his hearers to a brood of vipers (3:7). These people were descendants of Abraham and yet he told them that they were alienated from God. “Who warned you,” he asked, “to flee from the wrath to come?” (3:7).
‘The time is critical,’ he insisted: “Even now the axe is laid at the root of the tree” (3:9). The true children of God are not those who have the right credentials (physical descendants of Abraham, 3:8), but those who bear fruits that befit repentance (3:8). ‘Do not be complacent or self-satisfied about your lives,’ John declared, ‘for you do not bear the marks of godly living. Like the very desert you are standing in,’ he implied, ‘you are barren; be warned of God’s coming judgment’ (3:9).
Godspell dramatized the first coming of the Messiah. The words prepare ye now serve as a reminder of his return. The season of Advent, which is the first season in the annual Church calendar, and which began on Sunday December 1, focuses on the second coming of the Lord Jesus.
The return of the King one day will surprise us all. We need to be prepared. We also have the task of preparing others for that great and glorious day. Will you join me in praying that all of us will look for and take up opportunities to introduce family and friends to Jesus, the Christ, especially over the Advent and Christmas seasons?
A Prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Note: My comments on Luke 3 are drawn from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, Second Edition, Aquila: 2019.
© John G. Mason
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“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Lord Acton wrote in his correspondence with Bishop Creighton in England in 1887. Reflecting on the moral issues in writing a history of the Inquisition, Lord Acton considered that all people, including political and spiritual leaders, should be held to the same moral standard.
The problem, as Lord Acton observed, is that leaders are inclined to use their powers corruptly. Especially is this true of despotic rulers who are not held accountable. How we need to thank the Lord for good leaders while also praying for them – for they are not perfect. Indeed, as Paul the Apostle urges us in First Timothy chapter 2, we need to pray for the leaders of all nations.
Significantly, the wrongs that leaders can perpetrate contrast sharply with the story of Jesus of Nazareth.
Come back with me in time some two and a half millennia, when the little kingdom of Judah in the Middle-East was facing the rise of great powers. In the 8th century BC the Assyrian imperial army rampaged through the Middle East and sacked the northern kingdom of Israel. A century later the Babylonian armies were on the rise, and it was only a matter of time before Judah received the unwelcome attention of those powerful forces.
How would Judah survive? She had no army to speak of, no money and no allies. Greater nations had already been cut down. Political obliteration seemed inevitable. Yet despite the odds, Judah’s morale was not destroyed. A glimmer of hope was on the horizon.
It was Isaiah, one of the prophets who had spoken of doom and despair, who wrote about a special leader who would be raised up. In Isaiah chapter 11, features of God’s promised king unfold.
A leader after God’s own heart. Isaiah was disappointed by the politicians of his day. They were corrupt: they took bribes, ignored the poor, and turned a blind eye to justice. King Ahaz, for example, had broken every trust given to him. He had even used the gold of the Temple to try to bribe Assyria and prevent her march on Jerusalem. He’d failed. He was another ruler who’d let his people down.
Time and time again, rulers and governments do that. In most western democracies today election promises are constantly consigned to the trash.
In chapter 11, verse 1, Isaiah offers hope: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
Jesse was the father of King David, the great king in the Old Testament. Just as David himself had come out of obscurity, Isaiah is saying, so too a new king would emerge, and he would be greater than David and his son Solomon.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, Isaiah says, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2-3).
Wisdom, understanding and knowledge would characterize this king’s rule. But fundamental would be his willingness to learn from God. There would be no political blunders in his rule. Furthermore, corruption would not plague his government; the media wouldn’t be able to destroy him – either over his personal integrity or his policies. No one would be living in poverty or without a home.
A leader who would use his power for peace. The metaphors in verse 6 are vivid: The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. Peace would be the mark of this leader’s rule.
Periods of world peace are fleeting. The war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle-East today have expunged the view that the world had at last entered a time of safety, security and prosperity. Yet Isaiah insists that under God’s ruler there will be no incompetence, no corruption, no violence – only justice and peace. Could it be true?
A leader who draws his people from the nations. Isaiah doesn’t stop there, for in verses 10 though 16 he portrays people coming from all parts of the world, like a scattered army, to rally around this ruler. It will be a victorious, redeemed community, he says (11:15). People will come from the East and the West. Highways will be built to God’s City so that people from every nation can come. It’s a vivid and poetic picture.
Understandably we ask, ‘Could it happen?’ ‘Who is this root of Jesse, this ruler to whom the people rally, who will restore creation to its pristine harmony?’ Jesus.
Some eight hundred years before Jesus came, Isaiah predicted the first coming of God’s king as well as his return. This is one of the amazing things about the Bible that convinces me that it is what it claims to be – namely, God’s deliberate, progressive, self-revelation.
Centuries before Jesus came, Isaiah opened a window on Jesus’ life and work. Wise men did come from the Far East to pay him homage at his birth. And people from around the world have been coming to him ever since his death and resurrection.
The Gospel writers reveal that Jesus not only taught but backed up his words with action that showed God’s compassion for a sick and sorry world. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, and dealt with the powers of evil.
As the New Testament unfolds, we learn that the coming of God’s king is in two parts. His first coming was a rescue operation; his return will reveal the king in all his might, majesty dominion and power. He will bring his perfect justice to bear and, with the unveiling of his own glory, will reveal the glory of all who have truly turned to him.
His first coming we celebrate at Christmas. In this season of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, we focus on the reality of his return.
Our hope is bound up in God’s king. For the death of the king on the cross comes between God’s good creation, ruined by human sin with which the Bible begins, and the promise of a restored creation with which the Bible ends. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes… there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4).
A prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, so that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
You may want to listen to Christ Our Hope in Life and Death from Keith and Kristyn Getty and Matt Papa.
The Advent Word on Wednesday series is adapted from my 2022 Advent series.
© John G. Mason
The post Facing the Future… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
‘Thanksgiving’ in America is one of the delights Judith and I experienced when we moved to New York in 2001. Despite the evil events of September 11, 2001 people at our first Thanksgiving Dinner expressed their thanks for the way the Lord had used the events of 9/11 to build their trust in him.
When we think about it, thanksgiving is a theme that permeates the Bible – especially the Psalms. And while we do live in an uncertain world, there is still much for which to be thankful.
Come with me to Paul the Apostle’s Letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, verses 4 through 9.
An exhortation: Rejoice in the Lord always, Paul exhorts. And, as he doesn’t want us to skim over this, he says it a second time: Again, I say, Rejoice.
Paul was in prison when he wrote these words. He is repeating an earlier exhortation that we read in chapter 3, verse 1: Rejoice in the Lord. God wants us to so value our relationship with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, that we long for the smile of his approval in all we do. Nothing else matters. He is our joy.
Paul is encouraging us to rejoice in the Lord because we can be assured that the Lord has his hand on the helm of the world’s events and our personal affairs. Come what may in life, he is working out his good purposes for his people. This challenges us to ask if we trust him in every situation – be it the loss of a job, disappointments, or sobering medical news.
Furthermore, in exhorting us to rejoice, he is not speaking about our being happy, always having a smile on our face. The joy he speaks of is the deep inner peace and contentment that spring from a personal trust in Jesus.
For this reason, he urges us to pray with thankfulness in our hearts: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
What remarkable and encouraging words: Don’t be anxious about anything … A timeless remedy for anxiety.
So Paul urges us to pray about our concerns in life, petitioning the Lord with our particular needs, and yet with thankfulness in our hearts for his goodness and mercy.
Here is the antidote to anxiety and the prelude to the experience of peace. Such prayer and thanksgiving express trust in God in every situation.
Let me ask, can you honestly say you are assured that Jesus is not only in control but that he truly loves and cares for you?
The promise of peace. In verse 7 we read: And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, and in verse 9: …And the God of peace will be with you.
Peace, Shalom is a word of security. Paul was in prison for his faith when he wrote these words. He knew what it was to be anxious, even fearful about life’s injustices and disappointments. He knew the barbs that can hurt, especially false accusations and unjust persecution.
Encouragingly he speaks about God’s peace guarding our hearts and minds. Guard in this context conveys the positive idea of protection. As a Roman citizen, he may have had in mind the Praetorian Guard. It’s a great thought: God’s ‘Praetorian Guard’ providing security for our hearts and minds, and so giving us peace.
Furthermore, heart is the Bible’s way of speaking of what is deep within us – the desires that are at the very center of our soul. And mind refers to our decisions and thoughts that spring from our inner longings.
Now, if we remove God’s promise of peace from its biblical context, the idea of peace may be a great idea, but it is without substance. Peace in the Bible is profound because it is grounded in righteousness and truth. It is only meaningful because its foundation is the objective reality of the God whose very nature is holy and just. We enjoy peace only because God, whose very nature is to be merciful, has himself opened the way for peace between himself and us.
On the day of his resurrection, when Christ met with his disciples in a locked upper room, his first words were the conventional Jewish greeting: ‘Peace be with you’ (John 20:19). After showing them his hands and his side, revealing that he was truly physically alive he repeated the greeting: “Peace be with you” (20:21). In doing this, he was reminding the disciples of his words on the night of his arrest: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you … Do not let your hearts be troubled” (14:27).
The God of peace has stepped into our world in person and, in his righteousness and love, has provided once and for all time the means whereby his just requirements of us are perfectly satisfied. The resurrection of Jesus Christ assures us of the peace God has secured and now holds out to us. Nothing, not even death, can stand against it.
How much there is for which we can be thankful to the Lord from the bottom of our hearts. Is this real for you? How often do you express your thankfulness to the Lord – just at Thanksgiving, or every day?
A General Thanksgiving. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your amazing love in the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace and for the hope of glory.
And, we pray, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be truly thankful, and that we may declare your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
You may want to listen to the song, May the Peoples Praise You from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
May you enjoy afresh the riches of God’s love this Thanksgiving!
A Gift at ThanksgivingYou might like to assist us meet our budget this year with a special Thanksgiving gift?
Donations in the US are tax deductible. Gifts can be made here.
© John G. Mason
The post Rejoice in the Lord… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Jesus’s physical resurrection from the dead is fundamental to the Christian faith. Without it, as Paul the Apostle says in First Corinthians, chapter 15, our faith is meaningless: we would have no assurance of our broken relationship with God being restored and no hope of eternal life that God holds out to us.
Some years ago, Ken Handley, a retired Justice of the Court of Appeal in New South Wales, Australia, wrote: “Most people who reject the resurrection do so with a closed mind without looking at the evidence. This is irrational and foolish. Jesus, the Son of God, who died to make us right with God, is calling each of us into a relationship with him which will involve faith, repentance, forgiveness and obedience. The Christian answers to those nagging personal questions make sense of the Cosmos and our place and purpose in it…”
In the opening segment of John 21 we learn that seven of Jesus’s disciples, including Simon Peter, went fishing on the Sea of Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) in the aftermath of Jesus’s resurrection. However, as they were returning to shore a voice called out asking if they had caught anything. Receiving a negative answer, the voice encouraged them to cast their nets on the right-hand side of the boat. Even though they didn’t know who it was, they followed the advice and quickly found that the nets were overfull with fish. ‘It is the Lord!’ John quietly said to Peter (21:7). Keen to see Jesus once again, Peter threw himself into the water.
As an eyewitness John the Gospel writer provides precise details: the boat was in shallow water, being only 100 yards offshore, and the catch of large fish numbered 153 (21:11). Fabricated accounts would not give such unexpected detail. The disciples found Jesus by a charcoal fire with fish laid out, as well as some bread. ‘Bring some of the fish that you have just caught’, Jesus said … ‘Come and have breakfast’ (21:12). Jesus not only turned out to be their provider that morning but cooked and served them breakfast – something apparitions cannot do (21:13).
John records: it was the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead (21:14).
And as we read on, we find that Jesus had a special word for Peter that day.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ When Peter had first encountered the power of Jesus’s words, he had said, ‘Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord’ (Luke 5:8). And on the night of the Last Supper Peter had said, ‘Lord I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death’ only then to deny Jesus three times, as Jesus had predicted (Luke 22:33f).
Like us, Peter was a sinner, in need of forgiveness. He sorely wanted Jesus’s assurance. He knew that without Jesus’s forgiveness their relationship would be broken; it would also mean that he could never be doing what Jesus had said he would do: “… from now on you will be catching men and women (Luke 5:10).
‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ Jesus asked him. Three times Jesus asked the question. Three times Peter had denied the Lord, and now, three times Peter responded, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you’. Humbled and grieved for his failures, Peter felt the force of Jesus’s questioning. So much so that his third response reveals the depth of his contrition, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you’ (21:17). The thrice repeated questions and Peter’s answers, assured him, in front of the other disciples, that the Lord had fully and freely pardoned and forgiven him. It was a special word for Peter – and for us all.
Furthermore, Jesus now had work for him to do. For with his response to Jesus’s three questions, he is commissioned with, ‘Feed my lambs’,‘feed my sheep’ – God’s people, the children and the adults, the young in the faith as well as those who are mature in their faith.
The imagery of shepherd and sheep bubbles throughout the Bible. In Psalm 23 David speaks of the Lord as his shepherd and John chapter 10 records Jesus’s words, ‘I am the Good Shepherd (10:11, 14). Psalm 100 says, Know the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 11 tells us, He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
Verse 6 of Isaiah chapter 53 begins with a sobering note about everyone of us, All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to our own way; and then foreshadows what God will do, And the Lord has laid on him(the suffering servant – the Son of God) the iniquity of us all. It is a prophetic word about the significance of the death of Jesus: Christ died in our place (Romans 5:6, 8).
Jeremiah chapter 3, verse 15 sets out another facet of God’s plans for his people, ‘I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding’.
These words stand behind Jesus’s charge to Peter as well as Paul the Apostle’s words in his Letter to the Ephesians when he speaks of God giving various ministries to his people – some as apostles (the foundational ministries), some as prophets, some as evangelists, and others as pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11f).
The ministry of God’s Word is the key to the effective growth and pastoral care of God’s people. Without the announcing of God’s good news how will people be rescued? (Romans 10:14f) Unless God’s people are taught God’s truth how will they grow in their love for him? (Colossians 3:16f). How will we know and understand the true meaning of the equality of all men and women – that we are all equal in God’s eyes, designed to know and love him, and enjoy him forever? How will we know what true compassion and justice are?
Without God’s speaking into our world through his unique, written self-revelation, how will understand that our reasoning and decisions are so often flawed? God alone can teach us the wisdom we need for life in a self-centered world until the day of Jesus’s return. How easy it is in the world of change pressing in on us to lose sight of the primary task of true ministry.
In his First Letter, Peter says, shepherd the flock of God among you … And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory (1 Peter 5:2, 4).
Do you love me? the risen Jesus asks. Feed my sheep – children and teenagers, unmarried and married, and the elderly.
A prayer. Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly living; give us grace so that we may always thankfully receive the immeasurable benefit of his sacrifice, and also daily endeavor to follow in the blessed steps of his most holy life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for evermore. Amen.
You may like to listen to Facing the Task Unfinished from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
The post Feed My Sheep… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Back in 1995 Joan Osborne came and went with the hit, What if God Was One of Us? On the surface it asked the seemingly impossible question about seeing God face to face in human form. What would we do if we knew his name, saw his face, and his glory?
It’s a song that challenges us to think about our own worldview. It’s asking how we would respond if we were personally confronted with the seemingly impossible – seeing God face to face, as one of us. It’s a question that the Jesus Story we read in John’s record prompts us to ask.
In John chapter 14 a dark cloud was hanging over Jesus’s close followers. For three years they had been with him and were increasingly confident he was God’s promised king. But on the night of his arrest, Jesus had told them he was going away. “Don’t be troubled,” he said. “Believe in God, believe also in me… I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:1, 2b).
However Thomas, one of Jesus’s close followers, found this frustrating: “Lord, we do not know where you’re going…” For him, knowledge was based on concrete evidence and logic, not abstract ideas: ‘Where is this Father’s house? How can we know the way?’
Jesus’s reply is breath-taking, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Significantly, he doesn’t say, ‘I’ll show you the way’ but rather, “I am the way”; he doesn’t say, ‘I’ll tell you the truth’ but, “I am the truth”; he doesn’t say, ‘I’ll give you eternal life’ but, “I am the life”.
He is saying that at the heart of the universe is not a mathematical or scientific equation, but a person – a transcendental person who has come amongst us, as John records.
Many today dismiss the existence of God and a supernatural realm – and especially the idea that should it exist, that it can enter the material world. Maybe Thomas thought this too.
Indeed, John later candidly reports that Thomas didn’t believe the other disciples when they said they had seen Jesus risen from the dead. But when, a week later Thomas saw him, Jesus said to him, “Put your finger here, and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe” (20:27).
Experiencing first-hand an unexpected joy and without touching Jesus, Thomas responded, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). With these heartfelt words Thomas not only acknowledged the reality that Jesus had risen from the dead, but also revealed his genuine repentance for having doubted the testimony of the others.
His contrite confession, “My Lord and my God!” underlines the veracity of John’s witness to Jesus: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
The challenge that Jesus put to Thomas that day, he puts to you and me today: “Do not disbelieve but believe” (20:27). Unbelief that Jesus is God is how Jesus defines sin. This is the question we all need to address.
Consider also how Jesus responded to a request from Phillip, another of his close followers. Philip said: “Lord show us the Father. That’s all we need” (John 14:9).
Philip wanted to know what every religion, and Joan Osborne, wants to know: ‘What is God like?’ He wanted some tangible experience of God that would sweep his doubts away. Perhaps he was thinking of God’s special appearances to people in the past – such as Abraham, Jacob, Moses. Or maybe he was influenced by a Jewish mysticism of the day, known as Merkabah or chariot mysticism, that taught of angels taking true believers by chariot into the very presence of God. Philip wanted to see God.
Again, Jesus’s response is breath-taking: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
We would not have been surprised if Jesus had replied, ‘Don’t be silly Philip. You’re asking the impossible’. Rather he says, ‘Don’t you know me Philip, even after I’ve been among you for some years? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’.
Now many who read history regard Jesus as one of the world’s great teachers. But this doesn’t come close to what he is saying. He isn’t just an emissary from God, but God himself.
And so, he continues: “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works (or signs) themselves” (John 14:11).
Think about it, Jesus is saying: ‘You’ve seen my miracles, signs that point to my divinity. Don’t they tell you something about me?’
It would make sense, explaining many extraordinary events over the last three years – especially how Jesus could even raise people from the dead, because he is the source of life.
The cumulative impact of Jesus’s life – the signs he performed and his revelatory teaching – exemplify the truth of the opening lines of John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men and women … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, … (John 1:1-4, 14).
The impossible has happened. God has come amongst us in person. As the Joan Osborne song suggests, he has a name and a face, he wants us to know him and one day share his glory.
Indeed, the signs of Jesus’s transcendent nature and his tender compassion for those in need, help us understand the significance of the words of chapter 3, verse 16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
We all have a decision to make – not believe that Jesus is God in the flesh (which is what sin is) or believe that Jesus is truly God who came to us as one of us, to rescue us and restore our relationship with God. He alone is our hope. Does your heartfelt response to Jesus echo the repentance and faith of Thomas: ‘My Lord and my God’.
Do you want to find out more? You will find it helpful to speak with a believing friend, perhaps over coffee. They may suggest one or more options. One that comes to mind is, ‘TheWord121’ (www.theword121.com). It is an accessible introduction to the bigger picture of the Jesus Story in the Gospel of John and is available in booklet form or online.
Prayer. Almighty God, you show to those who are in error the light of your truth so that they may return into the way of righteousness: open our eyes to know Jesus as our only Lord and Savior, prompting us to renounce all things that are contrary to your will and stirring us to live for you, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Impossible has Happened… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In his Pensées Blaise Pascal, the 17th century French mathematician and philosopher wrote, “Everyone seeks happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end…”
John the Gospel writer tells us of a woman at a well in Samaria two thousand years ago who would have agreed. Like us, she longed for happiness, but it had eluded her. Five failed marriages testified to that.
Thinking that love, sex and marriage would give her life meaning and happiness, she thought that each new man would be the answer. But each time she made the same mistake. Her life was a mess. Lonely and insecure, dissatisfied and empty, she was having to draw water from the well by herself at the heat of the day.
But there came a time when her life was transformed through an unexpected conversation with a Jewish man. Ignoring social, cultural and political taboos, Jesus made a simple request for water from the well. He didn’t talk about her life or matters of faith – at least to begin with. Rather he spoke then, as he speaks to us today, with concern and respect.
However, it wasn’t long before he took the conversation to another level by speaking to her about living water. This provided a natural opportunity for her to open up about her hopes.
It happened this way. Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:12-14).
On a really hot day a glass of crystal clear, cold water is so refreshing. Jesus was offering water of a very different nature – not the reinvigorating physical water we enjoy, but water of such vitality that satisfies our deep inner spiritual thirst. He was saying he is the answer to the regrets and to the emptiness that gnaws at our souls. His words point to the reality that we are much more than the sum of our parts: we have souls – a spiritual dimension to our lives that needs to be nourished. Life with Jesus can be a cascade of fulfillment and joy.
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water” (John 4: 15). There’s a wistfulness in her words. It’s as if she was saying, ‘It would be great if you could do it, stranger. If only you could free me from this life of loneliness and regret’.
Her response opened a door of opportunity for Jesus to talk about her life. Most of us aren’t willing to be honest about how we’re really doing and the woman that day was no exception. We pretend we’re doing well but the reality is that we often have a sense of hopelessness about life that we won’t admit to. So, we endeavor to offset our sense of emptiness by filling our social calendar, making money, being a success, pursuing sexual adventure. But it never works.
No matter how successful we are or how intense the emotional experiences we might have, nothing can be a substitute for the relationship with God for which we are made. But if we’re going to find Jesus’s answer to our longing for happiness, we first have to admit our need.
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet…” (4:16-19)
Suddenly the woman realized that the man with whom she was speaking was nothing less than a prophet who was aware of her life and lifestyle. And deep down, she knew that her selfish, self-centered, indulgent life was going nowhere. She was also aware that Jesus was challenging her to sort out her relationship with God. The big question was where to do this – the temple in Jerusalem, or in Samaria?
Jesus’s response is unexpected: “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (4:22-24).
He isn’t saying that it doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you’re sincere. Spirit and truth are not just synonyms for sincerity. When Jesus speaks of truth, he is talking about the inner reality of God’s being which becomes visible to us through him, Jesus.
True worship involves relating to Jesus – who he is and what he has done for us. Later he says, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
The woman responded, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us”.Jesus’s response is breath-taking, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you” – literally, ‘I who am speaking to you, I am’ (4:26).
In the lead up to the exodus from Egypt, God had revealed his name to Moses in Exodus, chapter 3: “I am that I am that is my name”. Jesus was not just claiming to be the Messiah but to be one with God.
The water that Jesus promised the woman that day would bring her into a deep, satisfying and eternal friendship with God. Four centuries later, Augustine, Bishop of North Africa wrote, ‘Our souls are restless until they find their rest in thee’.
The eternal life that Jesus talks about, the water that will truly satisfy us, isn’t found in some new sexual experience or the acquisition of the latest phone. Indeed, because we were made first and foremost for relationship with God, the answer to our cry for happiness isn’t even a new religious experience. It involves a personal relationship with Jesus. Jesus is God in the flesh. He gives us life by giving us himself.
Just look at what the woman did: Leaving her water jar… John records (4:28). The symbol of her emptiness now lay discarded at Jesus’s feet.
She had found the living water, for she had found someone who knew her and yet had compassion for her, someone who pointed to the existence of a transcendent, caring God. Things would never be the same again.
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did” she said to people in her village. “Can this be the Christ?” (4:29). John records that many Samaritans responded by coming and listening to Jesus teach. And many believed him to be the Savior of the world (4:42).
There are tens of thousands of people with regrets and empty lives like this woman. Many are dismissive of finding hope in churches because they feel betrayed: God’s Word is not faithfully taught with compassion. How important it is we turn afresh to the real Jesus story and learn of the compassion and care he showed towards women and to everyone.
Prayer: Almighty God, we confess that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: open our eyes to know that you not only exist but that in your great love you care for us. We ask this in and through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post A Life of Regret… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
‘Do you want to live forever?’ was the question leading into an article, ‘From Here to Eternity’ in The Weekend Australian magazine (May 27-28, 2023). ‘Coming back from the dead, then living as an immortal?’ the article began. ‘It sounds like science fiction, but the pioneers behind this wild venture are true believers’.
The article took up personal stories of a small number who believe in the science of freezing their body at death and holding it in ‘cryonic suspension’ until a future time when science and medicine will have addressed the issues of aging, disease, and death – a day when they will be resurrected.
While almost all scientists reject such a development, two features stand out: only a very tiny number would benefit; second, given the world’s history of conflict and war, there is little hope that anyone ‘waking’ in fifty or three hundred years will find a world of just and lasting peace. Would we really want to live forever in such a world?
In the penultimate chapter of John’s record of the Jesus Story, we read of an eighth sign – Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead.
It was most likely at Passover time in either 30 or 33AD that Jesus was put to death by crucifixion. Tacitus, the Roman historian reported in his Annals of Imperial Rome: ‘Christ, … had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate …’
Yet John, together with the other three ‘Gospel’ writers, records the most significant event in human history: following his crucifixion, Jesus was seen alive, physically risen from the dead.
The first witnesses. John, chapter 19 concludes with the record that two highly positioned wealthy men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, had buried Jesus’ body according to Jewish custom, wrapping it in linen cloths spiced with a mixture of myrrh and aloes. It was a new tomb and fulfilled what Isaiah prophesied eight hundred years before, his tomb was with the rich (Isaiah 53:9).
In the opening lines of chapter 20, the Apostle John relates his experience on the morning of the third day following Jesus’ crucifixion. Mary of Magdala, one of the women who went to the tomb, ran back to tell Peter and John it was empty. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,” she said, “and we do not know where they have laid him” (John 20:2).
Despite the testimony of women being treated as unreliable and insignificant in first century Judaism, women were the first witnesses of the empty tomb. No Jewish writer would have written this if the account were fiction.
Furthermore, John the Apostle’s own testimony has the ring of an eyewitness. He tells us that being younger he outran Peter, but he didn’t enter the tomb first: Peter did. Both saw the linen wrappings lying there and the linen cloth that had been around Jesus’ head… rolled up in another place. It was as though Jesus’ body had passed through the shroud which included some one hundred pounds weight of expensive myrrh and aloes (John 19:39) and the head covering had been discarded. It seemed that human hands had not removed the body. What did it mean?
John reports that he saw and believed (20:8). But in the next sentence he tells us that neither he nor Peter understood it. Like Martha who had told Jesus she knew her brother Lazarus would rise from the dead on the last day (John 11:24), John seems to have believed that Jesus had gone to be with God the Father, as he had said (John 14:2-4).
Neither he nor Peter understood what Jesus meant when he said they would see him again, physically risen from the dead. We need to grasp this, for it emphasises the unexpectedness and authenticity of what happened.
Despair. We need to appreciate how Jesus’ first friends felt when they saw him strung up on a cross. For three years they’d been with him. They’d seen him turn water into wine, heal a dying boy from afar, feed a crowd of five thousand from a lunch-box of five barley loaves and two pickled fish, and restore sight to a man born blind. They’d even watched when, standing at the entrance of a tomb, he called out to a man who had been dead for four days: “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43).
Then to their horror, they’d watched him die! And they’d heard his shout of victory, “It is finished” – my work is done (John 19:30) – as he died.
Their minds were numb with the shock that such an innocent man who had used his powers to serve others, should die a common criminal. No wonder they hid behind locked doors, fearing for their own lives.
John records that on that Sunday evening, Jesus suddenly stood in the midst of his disciples. His words, Jesus stood, contrast with the time they had last seen him – hanging on a cross, wounded and bleeding, wracked with pain, dying. And when they had seen the spear thrust in his side, they knew he was dead.
Yet here Jesus was, not weak and limp, but standing, tall and erect, in command, repeating words he had spoken when he was last with them: “Peace be with you”. And to prove he was real and not a ghost, he showed them his hands and his side (20:19f).
Bewildered and confused though they were, they nevertheless knew that Jesus was alive. “Peace be with you!” he said again. At their last meal he had promised, “My peace I leave with you… Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in me” (John 14:27).
They were overjoyed, but their minds couldn’t fully grasp what was happening. It was like a dream.
The words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus are apt: ‘Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find truth, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain’. And last century G.K. Chesterton remarked, ‘Truth is stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it.’
As I have mentioned previously, Jesus’ resurrection is not the result of a natural law that can be tested. Rather, as the New Testament tells us, it happened because God chose to over-rule, using his awesome, supernatural power (Romans 6:4b). No-one has been able to prove conclusively that it didn’t happen.
Given that life and death matters are at stake, it’s imperative we ask whether the account of Jesus’ resurrection is an invention. I say this because the resurrection is foundational for Christianity. If it’s false, let’s eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. If it’s true, it’s life-changing.
John sets out the purpose of his writing in chapter 20, verses 30 and 31: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Prayer: Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story: The Ultimate Sign – Resurrection appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
The subject of death is not something we usually discuss. It’s too personal and confronting. Yet it’s the ultimate certainty we all face. It’s why literature, film and philosophy so often dwell on the themes of our mortality. But it’s rare that anyone claims they can do anything about it. Death is the inevitable end for everyone.
In John chapter 10 we learn that life had been heating up for Jesus in Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders had attempted to stone him for his apparent blasphemy (10:31).
So he left the city for the region east of the Jordan River. There he learned that his friend Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, was dying in the village of Bethany, near Jerusalem. Then, learning that Lazarus had died, and against the advice of his disciples who feared the Jewish leaders, Jesus returned to Bethany where he was first met by Martha.
In the course of their conversation where she said to Jesus that if he had come sooner her brother would not have died, he made an amazing assertion: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
His words are astonishing, for in saying, “I am the resurrection and the life…” Jesus wasn’t saying, ‘I promise resurrection and life’. Nor was he saying, ‘I procure,’ or, ‘I bring’ but ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’
Furthermore, in saying ‘I am’ he uses the very words God used when he disclosed his name to Moses. Unless Jesus is equal with God his words are nothing short of blasphemy.
“I am the resurrection and the life…” he says. “Do you believe this?” he asked Martha.
John records that Jesus then met Martha’s sister, Mary who fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Once again Jesus was rebuked for not having come sooner. But unlike Martha, Mary allows her grief to flow. John tells us then that Martha and Mary weren’t the only ones to grieve:
Jesus wept (11:35).
These words form the shortest verse in the Bible. How poignant, how stark it is.
The word wept that John uses speaks of a deep anguished cry of grief. It’s the cry of heartfelt loss, the kind of grief that explodes from the depths of our inner being.
Why did Jesus react this way? He didn’t weep like this when news came that Jairus’s daughter had died. Certainly Lazarus was a close friend, but Jesus knew he was going to pull him out of that tomb.
Jesus wept. I suggest he was grieving for our human plight. No matter how successful we are, how good and compassionate we are, death awaits us all.
Men and women, created in God’s image, are now broken images and broken images cannot endure the pure light of God’s perfection and glory. Jesus was grieving for what we, and all humanity had lost. As in Adam all die, Paul the Apostle writes in First Corinthians chapter 15.
At Lazarus’s graveside, Jesus felt the full impact of this and wept. But there is a sense in which Jesus grieved at what our loss would mean for him. It would mean that he himself would have to die. Only through his death could he conquer death and raise to life anyone who turns to him and believes in him. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22).
Could it be true? The witness of Jesus’ own resurrection, the New Testament, the evidence of history, the existence of the Christian church, point to the conclusion that Jesus’ words are the truth. Apart from Jesus Christ we have no certainty about the future.
And if there is a future life, how can we be assured that we are good enough to achieve it? Most people are aware of their failures – failures that we don’t want to talk about, let alone tell anyone about. It’s one of the reasons John Newton’s Amazing Grace is so well known: it speaks to our sense of lostness, our need to be rescued and our hope for the future.
John’s record doesn’t stop with Jesus’ words to Martha and Mary. He went to the tomb and asked that the stone be rolled away. We can only imagine the scene. A graveyard, a cave in a hillside, filled with bodies and bones. The stench of rotting bodies as the gravestone was rolled aside.
And then, standing at the entrance of the tomb, Jesus called, “Lazarus, come out!”
For a moment everyone must have thought he was mad. But then, a sight to behold: still in his grave clothes Lazarus appeared.
Voices around us today insist that because we now know the laws of nature we can be sure that miracles like this can’t happen. But, as we have noted, Dr. John Lennox, emeritus professor of mathematics and philosophy at Oxford University, responds, the laws of nature don’t prevent God from intervening if he chooses.
Men and women have come a long way in understanding and harnessing quantum chemistry, physics and medicine, but nothing compares with the naked power Jesus wielded that day.
The scene is a picture of a time yet to come when Jesus will once again appear on the stage of world events. On that day he will cry out in a loud voice, “Come forth,” and all the dead from throughout time will rise.
The question Jesus had asked Martha that day was: “Do you believe this?” Let me ask: Can you say with Martha, “Yes Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world?” Death is not the end of our story. Rather for all who turn to Jesus and believe in him, death opens the door to the beginning of a new life that is everlasting.
Prayer. We beseech you, almighty God, to look in mercy on your people; so that by your great goodness we may be governed and preserved evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story – Sign #7: A Dead Man Raised appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In March 1973, Pink Floyd introduced the line, ‘The dark side of the moon’. The album enjoyed great success addressing dark questions about life. The theme of darkness surfaced again with the 2013 movie, Gravity where Sandra Bullock is left untethered in space. The visceral terror of darkness and helplessness is palpable.
Many today experience the black hole of depression – feeling that the light of life has been sucked out of them.
With the sixth of the seven signs that we find in the Gospel According to John, Jesus encounters a man who was blind from birth. The account of the events that unfold are found in John chapter 9 – a chapter that reads like a drama.
The first act opens with an introduction: As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. We must work the works of him who sent me’ (9:1-4a).
A blind man begging on the side of the road was a familiar sight. But this man hadn’t contracted blindness through the dusty, disease laden air of the roads. He had been born blind, and the question Jesus’ close followers asked reflected Jewish theology: ‘Who sinned? This man or his parents?’ they asked. People often ask a similar question today when things go awry: ‘What have I done to deserve this?’
Jesus’ response was unexpected: sin hadn’t led to this man’s blindness. Rather, it was to reveal God’s power. Consider the simplicity of the drama that followed. Jesus doesn’t look for any expression of faith, he simply acts. And, once more he wields the re-creative power of God. It’s another sign that points to the unique power and compassion of Jesus. He is a unique man doing unique things.
He spat on the ground, made clay and anointed the man’s eyes. ‘Go and wash…’ he commanded. The man obeyed and returned seeing.
Just think how this simply stated drama would be written up today. There’d be a detailed description of what Jesus said and did. There’d be interviews with people who witnessed it, together with the inevitable question: ‘How did you feel?’ The gospel record almost seems flat and disappointing. As we have noted before, what mattered was not what was felt, but what was done.
Another sign had occurred. Now what?
A second act unfolds with five very different conversations, revealing that the man had not only been physically blind but also spiritually blind.
In the first conversation neighbors were confused. They were uncertain that the man they now saw was the blind beggar they had known. ‘I am the man,’ he repeated. “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight” (9:11).
But signs of tension emerge with a second conversation revealing the inability of people whose views are intractable to respect and listen to the experience of others.
One of the groups of Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees, disputed the credentials of someone who healed on the Sabbath (9:13-17). ‘No one who is truly from God would heal on the Sabbath,’ they said. ‘How could someone who breaks the law – and therefore a sinner – do such signs? What do you think?’, they asked the man. “He’s a prophet,” he responded (9:17).
In a third conversation the Pharisees spoke with the parents of the man. In response to their questioning, the parents insisted their son was born blind but could now see. The Pharisees responded by warning that anyone who said the man who had healed him is the Christ, would be excommunicated. ‘Don’t involve us,’ the parents said. ‘Ask our son. He is of age.’
And in a fourth conversation, when once more the Pharisees spoke with the healed man, they pressured him saying, “Give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner” (9:24). But the man wasn’t shaken. He knew he had been born blind and that now he could see. He was also beginning to see that these revered leaders were blind to the truth.
“We know that God has spoken to Moses,” they said, “but as for this man, we don’t know where he comes from” (9:29). You call this man a sinner, the man responded, and yet he opened my eyes. To which the Pharisees correctly and very significantly replied, “…Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind” (9:32). If this man were not from God, he could do nothing, the man answered.
The fifth conversation is one of the most beautiful found in the Bible (9:35-37). The man was rejected by the religious leaders but Jesus sought him out. ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’, he asked. The man’s answer is honest and open: “Who is he sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus’ response is stunning: “You have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you” (9:36f). “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped him.
There are few mountain peaks higher in John’s record. The man began by calling Jesus a man (9:11) and then a prophet (9:17). Later he said, this man must be from God. Now he worships Jesus as Lord.
It’s a road many people travel as they awaken in their understanding of Jesus: he did live; he is a prophet; he must be from God; He is God – He is my Lord.
Whenever Jesus spoke, he created tension within people. This continues today, for every time we talk about Jesus, people will react in one of two ways. Some will want to find out more and in time, come into the light of faith. Others will choose the darkness of unbelief.
Through the sign or miracle Jesus performed, through his own testimony, and through the witness of the formerly blind man, John reveals that Jesus is truly and uniquely the man from heaven. In the healing of the man born blind, we see God’s greater purpose: to give us spiritual sight – something he alone can do. We can’t get it by our own efforts. God opens eyes, drawing us to the truth and a living faith in the Lord Jesus.
A prayer. Almighty God, grant that we, who justly deserve to be punished for our sinful deeds, may in your mercy and kindness be pardoned and restored; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
You might like to listen to the song, By Faith from Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story – Sign #6: The Blind See appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Jean Paul Sartre, the French existentialist, anticipated the sense of aloneness people today are experiencing when he wrote, ‘That God does not exist, I cannot deny; That my whole being cries out for God, I cannot forget’.
I am not suggesting that we need to invent a god to calm our anxious thoughts. Rather, we need to be open to learning about the most remarkable man who ever lived.
Yes, it means making time in our busy lives to read and review our view of the world. It’s much simpler to follow along with the views of Stephen Hawking and others who deny the notion of a creator God and overlook the observations of other high-level scientists.
For example, Dr HF (Fritz) Schaefer, one of the world’s leading quantum chemists has made this comment about the late Stephen Hawking’s view of God. In A Brief History of Time Hawking wrote: ‘We are such insignificant creatures on a minor planet of a very average star in the outer suburb of one of a hundred billion galaxies. So it is difficult to believe in a God that could care about us or even notice our existence’.
In his book Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence? Schaefer writes: ‘My response to that statement by Hawking, and to others that have said this over the years, is that that’s a silly thing to say. There isn’t any evidence to date that life exists anywhere else in the universe. Human beings, thus far, appear to be the most advanced species in the universe. Maybe God does care about us! Where Hawking surveys the cosmos and concludes that man’s defining characteristic is obscurity, I consider the same data and conclude that humankind is very special’.
In chapter 6 of his account of the Jesus Story, the writer John records another sign pointing to the uniqueness of Jesus. Following his provision of enough food for a crowd of five thousand from five barley loaves and two fish, Jesus saw that the crowds were planning to make him king. He had therefore slipped away, alone back up into the mountain (6:15). The disciples had taken a boat without him, to cross the Sea of Galilee towards Capernaum some five miles away.
It was a night crossing and strong winds caused the waters to rise. This is something that often occurs here. The lake is six hundred feet below sea level and strong winds blow up from the south-eastern plains, causing the shallow waters to rise quite quickly.
When the disciples had rowed three or four miles they saw Jesus, walking on the sea and coming near the boat. John records they were frightened (6:19). “It is I” – literally, “I am”, Jesus assured them. “Do not be afraid” (6:20). Relieved, they took him into the boat.
It was another amazing event – Jesus, walking on water – pointing to someone who was truly human and yet who could act outside the laws of nature. It was either a lie that John, and Matthew (14:22-34) and Mark (6:45-52) had fabricated, or it is another event that exemplifies the observation of Dr. John Lennox that we have already noted: ‘From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God and the likelihood of his intervention in the universe is plainly false’.
Having arrived in Capernaum, John records that the crowds again found Jesus. We read his cryptic comment: “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you (6:26-27).
‘What you have to realize,’ Jesus is saying, ‘is that there are two kinds of bread. The bread that sustains our physical bodies which one day will die, and another bread that sustains our spiritual existence: a life that will last forever’.
‘However,’ Jesus continues, ‘because you are focussed on the physical bread, you are materialists. You enjoyed the benefits of lunch in the open and were excited about it. But you missed the real meaning of what happened. You enjoyed the benefits of the miracle, but you didn’t see the sign.’
When he looked out on the crowd that day, Jesus didn’t just see people who were hungry for physical food, but people who were searching in vain for something to satisfy the spiritual vacuum in their hearts. He didn’t just see empty stomachs: he saw empty souls. The miracle of turning the loaves and fish into sufficient food to feed the crowd was a sign of his capacity to feed our deep spiritual hunger.
In the final analysis, material things cannot satisfy our deep longings. And so Jesus reminds us that we do not live by bread alone. Life is more than physical food.
Words such as these prompted people like Karl Marx to insist that religion is the opiate of the poor to keep them content with their lot. Jesus disagrees: materialism is a drug anaesthetizing men and women to the reality of spiritual things. True and lasting contentment, satisfying the depths of our souls, can’t be found in materialism.
Think how often we look for new clothes and the latest electronic gear. Our appetite for things is insatiable. No amount of physical ‘bread’ will satisfy our spiritual need.
Jean-Paul Sartre’s words referenced above, express our frustration with painful honesty.
The Teacher in The Book of Ecclesiastes says God has put eternity into our hearts. But Jesus alone claims to meet that spiritual longing. “I am the bread of life,” he says. ‘Anyone who comes to me will never go hungry. Anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty.’
It’s vital we see this. The story of Jesus and the signs he carried out, point to a greater reality about him and about us. He is the wholly good, all-powerful and compassionate Lord who has come among us to serve us. His words reveal that we are much more than the sum of our parts – our brain and heart, our body and our limbs. We are made for relationship – with our creator and with one another.
The bread Jesus offers awakens us to our deeper need – to feed on the one who can offer us life by restoring our relationship with God and learning to love one another. In him we find true hope for the future.
Prayer. Lord our God, fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: have compassion on our infirmities; and those things which for our unworthiness we dare not and for our blindness we cannot ask, graciously give us for the worthiness of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story – Sign #5: Walking on Water appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
There are many troubling issues around us today – the cost of living, the divisions in society, opioid and alcohol abuse, homelessness and the rising power and influence of autocratic leaders. Many long for leaders of integrity in the West who will promote impartial justice and peace, healing and hope.
At the time of Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish people were under Roman rule and there was enormous antipathy towards the Roman government. Significantly the protest against Rome was motivated by the recollection of God’s promises through prophets such as Samuel, Isaiah and Ezekiel concerning a coming king who would establish God’s rule in the world. Jesus’ contemporaries were constantly on the lookout for a leader who would storm the citadels of Rome and bring an end to Roman authority.
Such longings were heightened at the annual Feast of the Passover for, at Passover the Jewish people looked back to their deliverance from slavery in Egypt at the time of Moses some twelve hundred years before. They also looked forward to a far greater deliverance – the day when God’s king would appear and deliver them.
As the Jesus story unfolds, we learn in the opening scene of John, chapter 6 that Jesus was rapidly becoming a celebrity. He drew large crowds who especially wanted to see him and benefit from the signs he was doing on the sick (6:2).
John’s record is sometimes called ‘the book of signs’ – a reference to Jesus’ miracles that point to his unique power and compassion. In the scene that follows, we read of a fourth sign – food for a hungry crowd!
Because of the crowds Jesus and his disciples had crossed by boat to the north-eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias. On arriving there they had gone up the mountain and sat down. But the crowds had followed on land by foot.
Seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that the people may eat?” (6:5). John comments that Jesus said this to test Philip. They were not near a village where there were shops and there were certainly no fast-food outlets.
Even if they could buy food, Philip observed that two hundred denarii, the equivalent of a day-laborer’s pay for two hundred days work, would not be enough to buy even a small portion of bread for everyone. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, had found a boy with five barley loaves and two fish, the diet of the poor. Taking the initiative, Jesus had the disciples sit the crowd of about five thousand on the grass: this is the kind of detail that assures us that John’s account of Jesus is that of an eyewitness.
Then, he took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the two fish, as much as they wanted (6:11). In giving thanks, Jesus was doing what God-fearing Jewish people do before eating, indicating that God, in upholding his creation, provides the food we eat.
Being near the time of the Passover, Jesus’ miracle potentially would have reminded the crowd of the time of Moses and God’s provision of manna for his people (Exodus 16:4-36). The feeding of the crowd also looked forward, symbolising the day of which Mary, Jesus’ mother had spoken: the hungry would be filled (Luke 1:53). The crowds had done nothing to deserve this kindness. It was an act of sheer grace, a sign of God’s extraordinary generosity for people in need.
The meal not only satisfied everyone, but an abundance was left over. Twelve baskets of fragments were collected (6:13). God had provided a superabundance of food. The people saw the event as a sign. John records their response, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” (6:14).
But this was not the response Jesus was looking for. In John 6:15 we read: Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
As it was nearing Passover time, it is not surprising the Jewish people began to view Jesus as a potential revolutionary and political figure. ‘Let’s make him king. This is the Passover we’ve been waiting for’.
Throughout history there’s been a tendency for churches to politicize Christianity. We find it at the beginning of last century in the USA with the so-called social gospel movement. We also find it in Latin America mid last century with liberation theology. It’s happening today in various traditional denominations in the West with their emphasis on social justice.
Now we can sympathise with these movements because it’s right to care for the needs of the poor and address the issues of unbiased justice. But this isn’t first and foremost what Christianity is about. Jesus is not a political Messiah. He could have been, but he refused to be. He would not let them make him king. His mission and message is primarily a spiritual one – a message not primarily about food for the body but food for the soul.
It was precisely because of this emphasis that many people left him. The same thing happens today. If we were to offer Jesus Christ as the one who can tell us how to care for the poor and the hungry and provide justice and peace in the world, thousands would flock to him. But it’s because he tells us to be less concerned about our physical bodies and more concerned about our spiritual state that he’s treated with contempt by people who are only looking for political solutions.
Following the next sign, Jesus made an extraordinary claim: “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you (6:26-27).
Prayer. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, unworthy as we are, thank you for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your amazing love in the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story – Sign #4: Food for Five Thousand appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
HG Wells, historian and author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds once commented: ‘I am an historian. I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history’.
Many agree that Jesus was a great man, perhaps the greatest teacher who has ever lived. Who would want to quarrel with his ethic, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’? Furthermore, the quality of his life was exemplary. But is he more than this?’
In the opening scene of John chapter 5 we are taken to a pool in Jerusalem that is most likely to be found today beside St Anne’s Church in the Arab quarter in the Old City.
Known in Aramaic as Bethzatha, it is a pool bounded by five porches or porticos. In Jesus’ day the waters in the pool, fed by distant springs, would regularly bubble up. It was reckoned there were special healing qualities when the waters were disturbed.
John notes the sad scene of the sick, the blind and the lame around the edges of the pool. One day Jesus approached a man there and asked, “Do you want to be made well?”. To which he received what seems to be an evasive reply, “Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the waters stir”. He had been there thirty-eight years and seems to have become accustomed to the lifestyle.
“Get up. Pick up your bed and walk,” Jesus said. Unless one is absolutely sure their words have the power to restore life to paralysed limbs, it would be utter folly to say this. But Jesus had no doubts. Calmly and deliberately, he spoke. Instantly the man must have sensed Jesus’ extraordinary healing power at work. Without a word, he picked up his bed and walked.
We need to think about this. At the time I am writing, going back thirty-eight years would take us back to 1986. Assuming we were alive then, imagine how atrophied our muscles would be if we had not used them all that time. Yet this man now had the strength to get to his feet, bend down, pick up his bed and walk away with it.
In today’s world of computer design, a Hollywood film would digitally portray vitality surging down through the whole of the man’s body. The withered limbs would be taking on renewed shape and strength.
And if we had been there that day, we can only begin to imagine how astonished, perhaps dumbfounded, we would have been. We may have wanted to shout or, if we ourselves were disabled, we may have felt envious. We would certainly have been intrigued to find out more about Jesus.
But John portrays the high drama of this healing quite simply. There’s no ostentatious show. Jesus simply spoke. Furthermore, Jesus didn’t look for any expression of faith on the part of the man. He simply intervened and acted.
Now we mustn’t confuse this with any gracious act of God in healing someone who is sick today. The miracle that day was another sign that John records, pointing to the transcendent power of Jesus.
But John sounds an ominous warning: there were people around that pool that day who weren’t impressed. It was the Sabbath (5:9).
In verse 10 we read: So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ”
John’s expression, the Jews is a reference to the Jewish religious leadership. They weren’t in the least interested to know that someone who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years had been healed. They were only interested in insisting on keeping rules about the sabbath they themselves had developed. “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” they asked (5:12). The man didn’t know. Jesus had slipped into the crowd.
Jesus, in finding the man later in the temple, said to him: “See, you have been made well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
Jesus was saying that the man’s healing was permanent: it wasn’t a 24-hour wonder.
Furthermore, you have been made wellindicates the man had nothing to do with his restoration – it had come from an external greater power.
Jesus’ “Sin no more…” is a challenge to the man to consider the power that had made him well: his healing could only be attributed to the restorative power of the creator God. ‘Don’t sin in not giving thanks for God’s wonderful mercy to you today. Rather, ‘Rejoice in the Lord.’
Yet what did the man do when he found out who it was who had healed him? He reported Jesus to the Jewish leaders (5:15). John records their response in verse 16: Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.‘You don’t heal on the sabbath,’ they were saying. ‘And you certainly don’t encourage people to carry around their beds on the sabbath.’
To which Jesus responded: “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
Jesus’ words exploded in their ears. They were furious. He was not only breaking the sabbath law – a capital offence – he was claiming to be equal with God. That was blasphemy. If they could swing it past Pilate, they’d hang him for this.
Many people say they believe in God; but who is this God they claim to know? Is he the God who is the eternal Father of the Lord Jesus?
The Jewish leaders misunderstood Jesus when they heard him say he was equal with God. They refused to bend their minds to understand his explanation.
Many today might agree that Jesus is a good teacher and a great example, but they’re not prepared to listen when he claims to be divinity who has come amongst us. Jesus wants us to know this: that he is the all-important One for everyone of us to know and to trust, to honor and to live for.
As John records, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life(3:16).
Prayer. Lord, open my eyes so that I may see the wonderful truth found in your Word – truth that enables me to know you and that gives me hope. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story – Sign #3: A Paralytic Healed appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Christian faith is regularly considered to be ‘a leap in the dark’. Let’s think about this. Daily we take countless steps of faith – faith that the food we eat and the water we drink won’t harm us; the traffic will stop when we step out at a marked crosswalk or zebra crossing and the flight we board will land safely at the destination for which we were ticketed. We step out in faith in accord with the evidence and experiences we have.
In his Pensées, the 17th C French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal wrote: ‘If I saw nothing there which revealed a Divinity, I would come to a negative conclusion; if I saw everywhere the signs of a Creator, I would remain peacefully in faith’.
John’s Gospel is sometimes called the book of the signs – evidences that point to the existence of a transcendent power. It’s as though John had been constantly asked questions about Jesus of Nazareth. In response he put together a collection of events that happened in the course of Jesus’ life, so that his readers could meet the real Jesus.
Come with me to the story of a father who asked Jesus for help for his dying son. The story catches our attention and touches our hearts as three aspects of faith unfold.
Jesus was in Cana in Galilee when he was met by an official from the household of King Herod. The man’s title indicates he held a position of high office: he might have been the equivalent of Herod’s chief of staff. He came to Jesus because he’d doubtless heard of his growing reputation and because his son at home was dying: “Come with me,” he pleads.
But Jesus’ response is curt, bordering on the dismissive: “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe” (4:48).
Why was Jesus so abrupt with this desperate father? It’s hardly a response we’d expect from someone with the power to act and who purportedly cares.
Now what we need to observe is that you in Jesus’ response is not in the singular; it’s plural. Jesus isn’t saying to this anxious father, ‘Unless you personally see signs and wonders you won’t believe.’ Rather, he’s making a general statement about everyone – including you and me today. He’s saying, ‘all of you are the kind of people who won’t believe me unless you see signs and wonders.’
It’s an extraordinary statement. Jesus’ first response to an anxious father seems so negative and off-putting. No-one writing fiction would have put these words into his mouth at such a moment.
What then did Jesus mean? He is NOT saying, I find you people in Judea and Galilee to be hard-headed rationalists: you will never believe who I am. NOR is he saying, I want you to understand that it’s a real challenge for me to come up with the kind of extraordinary miracle that will awaken your faith.
Furthermore, he is NOT saying that he wouldn’t provide any evidence at all as to who he is. In other words, he is NOT saying that he wants people to have a blind faith – to take a leap in the dark.
The clue to what he is saying is found in John’s comment: Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee (verse 54).
This is most important. The miracle John records here is another sign that is intended to open people’s eyes – to awaken faith. Jesus is NOT reluctant to provide us with the evidence of his unique power and his compassion – evidence that points to a transcendent figure who walked among us.
Consider the official’s response: “Sir, come down before my son dies” (4:49).
Let’s think about this. As someone in a position of authority, he was well aware of what people are like. Faced now with the prospect of his son’s death, he unexpectedly turned to someone outside the recognized religious leadership.
The drama of this event is simply stated. Think how it might be written up today. There’d be a profile of the background of the man, a detailed description of every word spoken and the details of Jesus’ action. There’d be interviews with people who witnessed what happened, with the ubiquitous question, ‘How did you feel?’
But the story here almost seems flat and disappointing. There are no emotional details. What mattered was not what was felt, but what was done.
Put yourself for a moment in the shoes of that desperate father that day. What would have gone through your mind? Is Jesus mocking me, playing with me? And think of your response to Jesus now? Is your thought, ‘How can I trust Jesus, how can I follow him when I can’t see him?
Madeleine L’Engle, writer, and author of A Wrinkle in Time, once commented, ‘I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, … in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.’
Just imagine if Herod’s official had got home and his son’s condition had worsened. He would have been the laughing-stock of Cana. And so would have been Jesus. Even in the days before social media word would have spread and no one would have trusted him again.
So, what happened? Even before he reached home, one of the official’s servants came out to meet him with good news. We can picture the anxious mother would have been caring for her son. He may have been running a high temperature in the hot and dusty climate and she had been constantly fetching wet cloths to cool him. But then there was a moment when he awoke, renewed, no longer feverish. ‘When precisely did that happen?’ the official pressed his servant. We can imagine a tense moment as the official waited for a response. “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him” he was told (4:52). The seventh hour is one o’clock in the afternoon – the very hour Jesus had spoken.
So he himself believed, John records, along with his whole household (4:53).
The man’s faith was real. He wanted to share it, to let everyone know – his wife and family, his household and his neighbors. Jesus could be trusted. Here was someone with extraordinary power, who could heal a dying child from a distance.
Jesus challenges superficial faith that only looks for signs and wonders. ‘Will you trust me at my word?’ he asks. When we begin to understand that divinity has walked amongst us we will want to share what we have come to believe with others so that they too may come to believe in him.
Prayer. Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story – Sign #2: A Healing from Afar appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In his book, God and Stephen Hawking (2011), Dr. John Lennox notes a current objection to miracles that says: ‘Now we know the laws of nature, miracles are impossible’. To which Dr. Lennox responds: ‘From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God and the likelihood of his intervention in the universe is plainly false’.
Indeed, God’s people understand that ‘the laws of nature’ are the observable regularities that God the creator has built into the universe. However, such ‘laws’ don’t prevent God from intervening if he chooses. When he does, we are able to identify the irregularity and speak of it as ‘a miracle’.
A wedding in a small, impoverished village. In John chapter 2, verses 1 through 11, we read of a wedding that Jesus and his close followers attended in Cana in Galilee. A critical situation had arisen: the wine had run out. And Mary, Jesus’ mother, who seems to have been involved with the preparations for the wedding, had turned to him and asked him to do something.
At first sight Jesus’ response might seem harsh: “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?…”
However, woman was a customary address at the time. We find other examples of it, when he spoke to a woman at a well in Samaria (John 4:21). It was the form of address he used when he spoke to his mother as he was dying on the cross, putting her in the care of John, the beloved disciple (John 19:26). He also spoke this way with Mary Magdalene in the garden after his resurrection (John 20:15). On no occasion did he address women with harshness or indifference.
Furthermore, his response: “What concern is that to you and to me?…” is a Hebrew idiom. While literally it means, ‘What to me and thee’, we need to consider the context. So, on the lips of the evil-possessed in Mark 1, it means, ‘What have we in common with you?’ (1:24). Here, as one commentator observes, the probable meaning is, ‘Your concern and mine are not the same’.
Jesus was indicating to Mary that he was no longer simply her son but was now about to begin his public ministry when he would be increasingly revealing who he really is and what he had come to do. His response to Mary’s “they have no wine”, would be much more profound and more significant than simply alleviating the pressing need at a wedding.
Yet as the story unfolded his response reveals his compassion and his extraordinary power.
Water jars. In verse 6, John tells us: Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification,… As John’s Gospel was written in the first instance for a Jewish readership, it is fair to say that John, who uses symbolism throughout his writing, wants us to understand the purpose of the water: it was for outward and ceremonial cleansing of people who were physically and spiritually unclean.
The wine. Jesus directed the servants to draw from the water jars and take it to the steward, the wedding master of ceremonies, for tasting. Recognizing the fine quality of the wine he spoke with the bridegroom, complimenting him for leaving the best wine, contrary to custom, until the last.
We are left in no doubt about the quality and superabundance of Jesus’ action. He had provided for a bridegroom in his dilemma – saving him from potential legal action, for at the time the bridegroom was responsible for the cost of the wedding. Jesus also provided a generous wedding gift: the new couple could have sold the balance of the wine to start their new home.
Some critics have responded to Jesus’ action in turning some 120 – 130 gallons of water into wine as a purposeless ‘luxury’ miracle. It’s said this miracle is unlike every other supernatural act of Jesus. On every other occasion he showed God’s concern for those in physical need.
What then do we glean from this remarkable event?
In verse 11 we read: Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in (on) him. None of Jesus’ actions were simply designed to assuage human suffering. Yes, they do reveal God’s compassion, but they also point to the fact that in Jesus the transcendent God has come among us in person. In John’s Gospel Jesus’ extraordinary acts are spoken of as signs revealing his glory.
Furthermore, because this sign is not followed up with John’s usual spiritual discourse, we need to look more carefully at the detail of the narrative. As we observed, in verse 6 John had indicated that the water in the six stone jars was used for the Jewish rites of purification.
Given the direction of John’s narrative to the hour when Jesus said he would be glorified – in his crucifixion – we can say that the water, now turned into wine, symbolized the day when Jesus would generously provide the perfect, once and for all time spiritual cleansing for the sins of an unclean humanity – through his shed blood on the cross.
Significantly, John the Gospel writer tells us that the disciples believed in him. They did not simply believe that he was divinity walking amongst them: they put their trust in him.
Jesus’ turning the water into wine was the first occasion John records when Jesus chose to intervene and act outside ‘the laws of nature’. It was the first of the signs authenticating him as the Word of God, the Son of God incarnate.
Prayer: Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story – Sign #1: Water into Wine appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, leading new atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Richard Dennett and the late Christopher Hitchens challenged the authenticity of religion. In 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald reported Richard Dawkins saying, ‘The time has come for people of reason to say: enough is enough. Religious faith discourages independent thought. It’s divisive and it’s dangerous’.
Indeed, in January 2009, the atheist society in England ran a campaign on London buses: ‘There’s Probably No God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’. Similar campaigns were run in Washington, DC in 2008, in Bloomington, IN, and elsewhere. It would seem voices like this contributed to the significant fall in church association over the last two decades.
Yet in recent years, with the cultural changes and values that have emerged, people are experiencing disappointment, depression and loneliness. The new atheism has not offered an agreed morality or real purpose in life. Morality based on human convention has led to an ethical relativism.
Thinking people are now asking if their worldview needs to be reviewed. With this there is a rising interest in the Jesus story and its global influence. Interestingly, Tom Holland in Dominion traces influences of the Jesus story on the West, including the values of right and wrong, justice and compassion.
With the great advances in technology, people feel isolated and sense their lives are going nowhere. They have no substantial grounds for hope. How important it is that we reintroduce the authentic story of Jesus found in the records of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The real story is unknown by the majority of people today – young and old.
So, how might we begin?
In 2002 Phillip Johnson published The Right Questions. Johnson who died in 2019, had been Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley for over three decades. He wrote that at the heart of the cultural changes today is the sharp divergence between two very different world views: ‘the Christian view that states, as in John chapter 1, verse 1: “In the beginning was the Word…”; and scientific materialism which says, “In the beginning were the particles”’ (p.136).
In an earlier chapter, he had observed that “In the beginning was the Word” is dismissed as a ‘non-cognitive utterance of religion’ and therefore one that cannot be evaluated in terms of ‘true or false’ (p.63). On the other hand, he also draws attention to an unquestioned assumption that stands behind scientific naturalism, namely that ‘the laws and the particles existed, and that these two things plus chance had to do all the creating’ (p.64).
In this context Johnson pointed out that everyone needs to ask ‘the right questions’ – especially with respect to the assumptions that stand behind scientific materialism. For example, he draws attention to President Clinton’s announcement in June 2000 with the breakthrough in understanding the human genome: “Today, we are learning the language in which God created life, we are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, the wonder of God’s most divine and sacred gift” (p.37). And Francis Collins, the scientific director of the government’s Human Genome Project, said: “It is humbling for me and awe-inspiring to realize that we have caught the first glimpse of our instruction book, previously known only to God” (p.38).
Johnson commented that both statements ‘seem to say that the genome research actually supports the view that a supernatural mind designed the instructions that guide the immensely complex biochemical processes of life’. He also noted the negative implications, namely that ‘Clinton and Collins seemed to be repudiating the central claim of evolutionary naturalism, which is that exclusively natural causes like chance and physical law produced all the features of life…’ (p.38). Yet he also noted that most leading biologists reject the notion of God and God’s involvement.
But can the clear statements of the opening lines of John’s Gospel be easily dismissed as a prop for those who need such a foundation for life? In the beginning was the Word, we read, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God… And in John 1:14 we learn, And the Word became flesh and lived among us,…
In his prologue John speaks of the pre-existence of the Word of God. From all eternity the Word has been enthroned in the magnificence of the glory of heaven. But John also speaks of the incarnation of the Word: he is a Person who took up residence with us. John was either spinning a falsehood or witnessing to a truth that is beyond human invention. The Gospel of John together with the other three Gospels reveal a transcendent figure.
Dr Edwin Judge, esteemed emeritus professor of history and philosophy, Macquarie University observed: ‘An ancient historian has no problem seeing the phenomenon of Jesus as an historical one. … The writings that sprang up about Jesus also reveal to us a movement of thought and an experience of life so unusual that something much more substantial than the imagination is needed to explain it’.
When we ask the right questions, we discern that there are some essential assumptions undergirding scientific or philosophical naturalism that continue to frame the objections to the Christian faith in the corridors of learning and the media – assumptions that cannot be tested and which in themselves require a step of faith. On the other hand, the step of faith in the statement that there is a creator God, is not a blind step. Its essence is grounded in a verifiable historical figure – Jesus.
It is the good news he brings that we need to embrace ourselves and introduce to others around us today. Over the next weeks I will be exploring Jesus’ seven signs we find in John’s Gospel – for they uniquely reveal a central part of the Jesus story: his power and compassion, his divinity and his humanity.
Prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, so that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
You might like to listen to The Perfect Wisdom of Our God from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
The post The Jesus Story: A Renewing Interest… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In January 2009 Atheism UK ran an advertising campaign on London buses. It read: There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life. Despite this, people are disappointed with life, depressed, lonely and disillusioned. Thinking people are now asking if their worldview needs to be reviewed.
How often do we express our gratitude to the LORD? Do we wake up in the morning and go to bed at night with thanksgiving in our heart and praise on our lips? This podcast encourages us to be thankful with the words of Psalm 95 which begins: ' O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!'
In a world where there is so much uncertainty and tumult we need wise, cool and clear minds amongst God’s people, and prayer for leaders. Let me take the second point first.
Prayer for Leaders. In his First Letter to Timothy, chapter 2, Paul the Apostle writes: I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
Paul expects that God’s people will regularly pray for all people, including those in positions of authority. He has in mind leaders at every level of government.
Something we often forget is that for the first three hundred or so years after the events of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, his followers were regularly persecuted under Roman rule. The Roman historian Tacitus, for example, records that the Emperor Nero used Christians as scapegoats for a devastating fire in Rome (Tacitus, Annals of Imperial Rome XV.44).
In Paul’s day God’s people had every reason to hate the state, yet Romans chapter 13 and First Peter chapter 2 call us to respect the civil authorities for what they are: God’s provision for the good order and protection of society in a fallen world.
Through the ages God’s people are called to pray for leaders. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer reflected this in his prayer book during the reign of King Edward VI. In an update of the 1552 Service of The Lord’s Supper we pray:
‘Almighty and ever-living God, we are taught by your holy Word to offer prayers and supplications and to give thanks for all people… We pray that you will lead the nations of the world into the way of righteousness; and so guide and direct their leaders, especially N, our (King/President/Prime Minister), that your people may enjoy the blessings of freedom and peace. Grant that our leaders may impartially administer justice, uphold integrity and truth, restrain wickedness and vice, and maintain true religion…’
Cool, Clear Minds. The Book of Psalms provides a constant reminder of the ups-and-downs of life that we experience. We are constantly reminded that the wisdom and strength we need are found in the Lord God.
For example, the opening lines of Psalm 46 read: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging (Psalm 46:1-3).
Psalm 46 encourages us that God is the sovereign lord over every aspect of life – over nature in the opening verses and, as it continues, over enemies of God’s people and over the world with all its tensions and conflicts. Written in a time of crisis, the confident faith in the Lord’s ultimate control is most encouraging.
Furthermore, while we might fear the instability in nature and are concerned with the tensions and conflicts of the world and the all-too-often lack of quality leadership needed to promote justice and peace, we can be assured that God not only knows what is happening, but is in the midst working out his greater purposes: The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;… But we are assured of God’s final word: he utters his voice, in judgment on the nations.
It’s clear that the Bible knows about suffering and evil, especially human evil and its devastating effects on the world. We see that God ‘s presence is neither disconnected nor dislocated from such evils. Rather, in speaking of God being in the midst of them, the psalm tells us that he is not the cause of evil, and neither is he removed from it.
In verse 4 we read: There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God…. Under God the waters no longer rage but are found as life-giving streams for his people under siege.
The reference to the city of God, Jerusalem, takes up a significant theme of the Old Testament that accompanies God’s unexpected choice of David. In the Old Testament Jerusalem survives as long as God is in her midst, protecting her and her people. Indeed, because the city represented God’s presence in the world, it became the envy of others.
As Psalm 68 metaphorically observes: O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan; O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan! Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount that God desired for his abode,… (68:15f). Mount Zion is the size of a hill in comparison with the heights of Mount Bashan.
Furthermore, the prophet Isaiah points to a time when Jerusalem will be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it (Isaiah 2:2). The New Testament speaks of the new Jerusalem, not as an earthly city but as a heavenly city where God will live with his people – where there will be peace and joy forever (Revelation 21:1-3).
It is not surprising then that the Psalm moves to a climax with a command, Be still, and know that I am God(verse 10). This is not so much a word to God’s people, but rather God’s word to the turbulent seas and rebellious world. It is a command that foreshadows Jesus’ words to the stormy seas: ‘Peace! Be still (Mark 4:39). It is the same powerful voice of authority of Jesus when he commanded the deceased Lazarus: ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ (John 11:43).
Verse 10 continues: God will be exalted among the nations; he will be exalted in the earth.
If such a God is with us, we can have every confidence that when we turn to him he will hear us and sustain us. Despite the awfulness of our experiences at times, God is our refuge and strength.
As the Psalm concludes: The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Prayer. Almighty Father, we commend to your goodness all who are in any way afflicted or distressed, especially those who are known to us. May it please you to comfort and relieve them according to their needs, giving them patience in their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty God, the protector of all who put their trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply your mercy upon us, so that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal: grant this, heavenly Father, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
You might like to listen to The Perfect Wisdom of Our God from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
The post Songs for the Summer: Anxiety… appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
For the first three hundred years or so after Jesus' death and resurrection, his followers were regularly persecuted under Roman rule. Yet they were called up to pray for their leaders as people whom God had provided for the good order and protection of society in a fallen world.
Do we criticize our leaders? Or do we pray for them?
In April 2017, The Spectator (UK) carried an article by Douglas Murray who asked, ‘Who Will Protect Nigeria’s Northern Christians?’ Murray pointed out that the Fulani (militia) are watching everything closely from the surrounding mountains. Every week, their progress across the northern states of Plateau and Kaduna continues. Every week, more massacres – another village burned, its church razed, its inhabitants slaughtered, raped or chased away…
‘For the outside world, what is happening to the Christians of northern Nigeria is both beyond our imagination and beneath our interest… Villages have been persuaded to keep records of the attacks to show anyone who cares. One of the very few from outside who does – Britain’s own Baroness Cox – came here recently. Her vehicle was spotted by the Fulani, who came out hunting for her and only just missed their target. Because of attacks like this, almost nobody comes. Just one more reason why these atrocities do not attract the West’s attentions…’
Murray was writing of the region where three years before (2014) the Boko Haran had abducted two hundred and seventy-six schoolgirls. A report in April this year (2024) indicted that ninety-one are still missing. Murray commented in 2017: ‘If the international community meant anything by its promises such as the UN’s ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine, then what is happening could not go on. But the international community is uninterested…’
Atrocities like this cause our hearts to cry out with the repeated words of Psalm 13, How long, O Lord…?
Indeed, over the years one of the questions that constantly arises is how to respond to the carping criticism against Christianity about suffering in the world. It’s an important question. Yet it is also one of the toughest to answer for anyone who believes that God not only exists but is also all-powerful and all-compassionate.
Our sense of right and wrong and our cry for justice suggests we live in a moral universe.
If we lived in a world that had come into existence simply through a process of spontaneous change, logically we would be nothing but particles, bumping around in some sort of meaningful connection. Our conscious state would be nothing more than electrical discharges in the human brain.
Indeed, when we think about it, it’s difficult to be morally indignant about behavior that results from quarks smashing together. The issues of evil and suffering and the cry for justice are irrelevant if our existence is simply the product of an evolutionary framework.
Is this a reason for the international and media silence about the plight of suffering in Northern Nigeria and elsewhere? Yet the reality is that most of us have a sense of justice, often ill-defined, but nevertheless it is there.
Difficult though the subject of suffering is for anyone who believes in God, the Bible assures us that our cry for justice is right. It is right to condemn all wicked violence, the taking of innocent life. The Bible condemns the perpetrators of such deeds. Indeed, the Bible helps us to know evil when we see it.
So will justice ever occur? If we agree that we live in a moral universe, the picture the Bible paints makes a lot of sense and is very satisfying. Winston Churchill once observed that there had to be a hell, to bring the likes of Lenin and Trotsky and Hitler to justice. The good news is that one day God will call everyone to account.
But there is a sting in the tail. If we want justice to be done to others, we must agree that we too need to be brought to account. Yes, we long for justice and vindication, but we too are guilty before a good God.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn observed: ‘If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?’
So, why doesn’t God step in now? The Bible’s answer is that God stays his hand for the present because he wants to give all men and women, like the Prodigal Son in Jesus’ parable, the opportunity to turn to him in repentance. The good news is that God will pardon and deliver us when we turn to Jesus Christ. His judgment may be slow as we count time, but it is very sure as we read in the Second Letter of Peter, chapter 3 (2 Peter 3:9-13).
In the concluding verses of Psalm 13, we see the energy of David’s faith as he presses on in the Lord: But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt wonderfully with me (13:5-6).
We now have a far greater understanding of God’s love than David, for we live of the other side of the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus came between God’s good creation ruined by human sin with which the Bible begins, and the promise of a restored creation with which the Bible ends. In Revelation, chapter 21 we read: God will wipe away every tear from our eyes… there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
Does this mean we do nothing about the atrocities perpetrated against God’s people now? We have this responsibility – to pray for our suffering brothers and sisters, to find ways of letting them know of our awareness and even to find ways of providing support. And, as we are able, to let others, including leaders, know of the plight of the persecuted peoples. As Edmund Burke, 17th century English philosopher and statesman remarked: The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men (men and women) *to do nothing.*
Prayer. God of the nations, whose kingdom rules over all, have mercy on our broken and divided world. Shed abroad your peace in the hearts of all men and women and banish from them the spirit that makes for war; so that all races and people may learn to live as members of one family and in obedience to your laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Raise up your great power, Lord, and come among us to save us; so that, although through our sins we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us, your plentiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the sufficiency of your Son our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
You may like to listen to He Will Hold Me Fast from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
The post Songs for the Summer: How Long, O Lord…? appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
‘Who Am I?’ That is the question so many are asking today.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet observed: What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! (Hamlet, II.ii)
Psalm 8 ponders the wonder of humanity when it asks in verse 4: What is humanity that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
Significantly this question, found at the very center of the psalm, is enfolded by the opening and closing lines which read: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
In other words, the structure of the psalm indicates that humanity is the centerpiece of God’s majestic work. And yet there is an irony, for the centerpiece is in the form of a question, not a statement. It suggests the poet is pondering, ‘How can this be?’
The meditative nature of the question is reinforced by the interesting movement from verse 1 into verse 2: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens – verse 1.
And verse 2: Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a stronghold because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
The contrast between the majesty of the creator God and the mouths of babes could not be greater. It suggests that God uses the weak things of his creation to accomplish his purposes – to silence the enemy and the avenger.
The reflection on the majestic and creative power of God returns in verse 3: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
David, most likely the writer of the psalm, is possibly meditating on his experience as a shepherd. We can imagine him looking up at the night sky and seeing the myriad of stars. And we can almost hear him voicing his thoughts as he realized that such vastness and complexity must be the work of the fingers of God. And, as he considered the greatness of that night sky, we can feel his question exploding in his mind: What is humanity that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
It’s ironic that with the immense knowledge of the cosmos we have accumulated through the study of astrophysics and space exploration, most people never think of asking this question today. Our knowledge has brought us cynicism, not wonder.
Indeed, Dr. Stephen Hawking commented in A Brief History of Time that “we are such insignificant creatures on a minor planet of a very average star in the outer suburb of one of a hundred billion galaxies. So it is difficult to believe in a God that could care about us or even notice our existence”.
To which Dr. HF (Fritz) Schaefer, one of the world’s leading quantum chemists responds, “Where Hawking surveys the cosmos and concludes that man’s defining characteristic is obscurity, I consider the same data and conclude that humankind is very special”.
As Psalm 8 reveals, those who oppose the idea of God and his majesty are ultimately blinded by the reasoning and wisdom of their own minds. God’s supremacy is seen in the way he uses the weak of the world – the voices of babes and infants – to confound the wise.
Indeed, it is striking that Jesus quoted these words when the children lauded him in the Temple courts with their songs of praise while the chief priests and the scribes angrily objected (Matt 21:15f): When the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him (Jesus), “Do you hear what these are saying?” he said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise…?”
God is glorified in the simple faith of children and in the childlike humility of his people.
The psalm moves from the consideration of the majesty of God and the vastness of his creation to the greatness that God intends to place upon men and women. In verses 5 and 6 we read: Yet you have made them a little lower than the angels, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever swims along the paths of the seas.
The words echo the creation account of Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 through 28. God having made humanity in his image has placed us only just under the position of the heavenly beings, giving us royal status, crowning us with glory and honor.
Furthermore, there is a twinning in God’s plan whereby he gave us authority over the works of his hands, for he put everything under our feet. But the extraordinary privilege was dependent on our relationship with him, for our rule is under his.
There is an important link here to Psalm 2 and God’s voice concerning his messiah: Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession (Psalm 2:8). As we touched on last Wednesday, Matthew records the powerful words of the risen Jesus: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…” (28:18).
To draw these themes together. The highpoint of Genesis chapter 1 is that humanity, Adam, is the glory of God’s handiwork. Psalm 8 sets out God’s intention. However, Genesis chapter 3 reveals that in disobeying God, we became the shame of God’s creation. We are totally unworthy of any royal privilege or rule.
Psalm 8 is prophetic. It points to a second Adam who is the messianic voice and figure of Psalm 2. For God has not turned his back on humanity but unexpectedly, having made us in his image, has come amongst us in person. As we look back through the lens of the New Testament we see that the Son of God set aside his divine glory and took on human form, as we find in John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4 and 14.
Jesus was and is, man as man is meant to be. And through him God has provided a way for us to be restored to our proper place. For through his death Jesus not only conquered the power of sin and death but also overcame the power of evil. Jesus himself has been crowned with glory and honor. The time will come when all his people will share with him the same crowning and glory. On that awesome day the great plan of psalm 8 will be seen throughout the universe.
CS Lewis observed, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors”.
Prayer. God our Father, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding: pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you above all things, may obtain your promises which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: do not leave us desolate, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to where our Savior Christ has gone before, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for evermore. Amen.
You may like to listen to the Keith and Kristyn Getty and Matt Papa song, What is Our Hope in Life and Death.
© John G. Mason
The post Songs for the Summer: Who Am I? appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Who Am I? Is this a question you ask? Have you found the answer? This reflection on Psalm 8 comes up with a surprising answer.
God's people are regularly mocked for their faith. Psalm 2 alerts us to the plotting of men and women against God.
Are you ever resentful of successful people who post their lavish lifestyles on social media: their achievements, perfect family and exotic vacations? Is this really the epitome of life? Or is there something more? Psalm 1 takes us to the two choices we have.
Happiness is something we long for. But how can we achieve it? It’s elusive: one moment we can be feeling happy, but the next we’re not. Like moonlight it has slipped through our fingers.
In fact ‘happiness’ can’t be a goal in the strict sense of the word. For a goal is something that is within our power to achieve. Happiness isn’t like that. There are too many variables outside our control.
We can think that being successful, having a good family and friends, material assets and comfort, will make us happy. But they don’t. There will always be others more successful. And behind the best of families there is often unresolved pain or hurt; those with wealth often find they’re not satisfied – they want more, or they worry about the security of all they have. Despite experiencing much that is good in life we don’t always feel that overwhelming sense of real happiness and joy.
Psalm 1 helps us. Blessed is the one … we read. Blessed means ‘happy’. The idea is echoed twenty-six times in the Psalms. It is also the word Jesus used in what are known as the Beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-12).
In Psalm 1 verses 1 through 3 we read: Happy is the one who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.
We all have a real thirst, a longing for something that will satisfy us deeply. The thirst is not wrong. It is part of our complex make-up that makes us human. Our problem is that we look in the wrong places to satisfy it. The prophet Jeremiah records God’s words: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water,…” (Jeremiah 2:13).
Verse 1 of the Psalm challenges us to consider our world-view. Our natural inclination is to adopt a world-view that appeals to our sense of self-sufficiency. We like the music emanating from the temples of materialism or humanism that puts us in control of our lives and our destiny.
As we continue down this path, we indulge in behaviour that appeals to our feelings, even though it means flouting God’s directions and good purposes. And so we find ourselves marching in step with the crowds who live as though there is no God and no objective moral order. In turn we join the cynics who mock Christianity. We become part of a silent majority, failing to speak up for what we believe because we’re afraid. We sit in the seat of scoffers.
What then is the path to real happiness? Verse 2 tells us: their delight is in the law of the Lord; and on his law they meditate day and night.
The negatives of verse 1 are now contrasted in verse 2. As others have observed, they show us we have a choice. Like Adam and Eve in the original garden, God respects the gift of choice he has given us. It’s one of the features that makes us human. We are not puppets on a string in a mechanistic universe. We can choose.
Verse 2 provides the key that unlocks our true humanity: Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. We need something to transform us from deep within. The law of the Lord which stands against the counsel of the wicked is a reference to God’s instruction.
Interestingly the word meditate here is the same word plot Psalm 2:1. What goes on within our hearts and minds becomes evident in our words and actions. In Psalm 2:1 the plotting is the intention of darkness that leads to evil. In Psalm 1 meditating on God’s Word, his self-disclosure, leads to Godly growth and behaviour.
People who are blessed meditate on God’s Word – God’s special self-disclosure. Here is the key to real and lasting happiness. It foreshadows Jesus’ reference to living waters that he promised to the woman at the well in Samaria. These ‘waters’ are bound up in knowing him.
Sometimes we think that mediation is something carried out by the super-spiritual – people who are etched into stained-glass windows, people who have their heads in heaven but who are no earthly use. This is not so. The words here echo God’s command to Joshua – God’s man of action who needed just as much as anyone else to think hard about the will of God if he wanted to achieve anything worthwhile.
Real happiness is found in our determination to be instructed and counselled by God himself. This isn’t easy. It means being prepared to look inside ourselves and consider why we say the things we sometimes do, why we think and behave the way we do, and then be willing to change. This can be tough. It means being honest with ourselves before God. It can take time.
For to meditate on God’s teaching involves letting the weight of God’s Word press upon our hearts and minds, and our life-style.
Where then do we find true happiness? Not swimming in the shallows of faith, but plunging into the mind of God found in the living waters of his Word.
Prayer. Almighty God, you show to those who are in error the light of your truth so that they may return into the way of righteousness: grant to all who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s service so that we may renounce those things that are contrary to our profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to it; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Almighty and eternal God, grant that we may grow in faith, hope, and love; especially make us love what you command so that we may obtain what you have promised; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may like to listen to He Will Hold Me Fast from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘Happiness…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
How can we weather the challenges of our messy and conflicted world?
Come with me to Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 through 21 where we find one of the great prayers of the Bible. The curtain over Paul the Apostle is drawn aside and we are given a glimpse of him at prayer.
I kneel before the Father, he begins, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. Genesis chapter 1 tells us that God created us in his image and it is therefore true to say that all humanity has its fatherhood or parentage in God. However, as the Bible unfolds, we see that there is a very special relationship between God and those who are personally drawn to him. Paul is echoing what Jesus taught his disciples: we can call God, ‘our Father’.
This really is an extraordinary privilege – to be able to call God ‘Father’. In fact, when we think about it, there is no higher honor that God could give us, for it means we stand in a very special relationship with him as his adopted sons and daughters. This awesome truth stands at the heart of Paul’s prayer. And he prays that we might experience this awareness in our lives, so we can relax and enjoy the amazing privilege of being God’s special people at every twist and turn in life. Three themes stand out.
Inner strength. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit…
The work of the Spirit goes to the heart of our being. Despite what cosmetologists and exercise gurus want us to think, the truth is that our physical bodies are wasting away. The time will come, when as far as our physical body is concerned, there is little hope for the future. But Paul wants us to understand that it’s not all downhill.
If God is at work in our lives, changes for the better to our inner being can occur. It’s here we see the counter-cultural way God works as opposed to the way that the world expects him to work. The world expects God to work with great displays of power. Tempted to think this way too, we might say that God’s power is to be expressed in self-confidence, self-assertion, success. And when it comes to churches, it is thought that God’s power will be seen in high-powered church growth and in dramatic answers to prayer.
But God has a different plan. For the present he chooses to work in secret, changing us from the inside out, not the outside in. It’s an important distinction most of us miss. Paul is praying that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us at the very root of our character and our lives. He prays that God’s Spirit will so work in our lives and so teach us that we will be strengthened in our appetite for God and our love and loyalty to Jesus. He wants us to focus our hope on Christ, to drop sinful habits and develop a new framework for living.
Paul says that he wants to see the whole of our inner life affected by the Spirit — our hearts and affections, our will, our minds and decisions. It’s radical and it’s painful. Once the Holy Spirit starts to work in our lives, begins to probe, to question, to challenge, to discipline and to develop us, it hurts. For when he takes the Word of God and reaches to the very depth of our being, the Word becomes like a scalpel in his hands.
Transformation. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love (3:17).
This is the only place in the whole of the Bible that speaks about Christ dwelling in our hearts. Dwell means ‘settle down’, or ‘putting down roots’. Mixing his metaphors Paul prays that we will be well-rooted trees withstanding droughts, and well-built houses that can withstand hurricanes.
There will be many things in us with which Jesus Christ will not be comfortable. Repairs and renovation are needed in our lives. And anyone who has done house renovation and repairs knows it takes longer and costs more than we anticipate.
Knowing that this kind of life-changing transformation is what God wants and knowing that it requires God’s power in our lives, Paul prays that God will do what is necessary to make our lives a fit home for his Son.
Christ’s Love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (3:18-19).
With imagery that awakens us to the complexity and profundity of God’s love – the breadth and length, and height and depth – Paul prays that we will know the love of Christ. He wants us not only to know but also to experience God’s love so that we may be able to say, and really know and feel it in our hearts, ‘the Son of God gave himself for me.’
This genuine experience of Christ rarely comes to anyone who is not spending time in the Scriptures – for example, meditating on Ephesians chapter 1 through chapter 2, verse 10. The kind of mind-shift we need to prompt us to do this usually requires large explosive power. Sometimes God gives us a wake-up call through hardship, bereavement or tragedy. Sometimes it’s not until we see material possessions for what they are, baubles and trinkets, that we begin to comprehend the reality of God’s love.
Indeed, it’s only when God’s power is at work in our lives that we will begin to see what it meant for God to get into our skin and enter our world, what it cost for him to suffer and die in our place. I pray, says Paul, that with all of God’s people you experience the power of God’s love in your hearts, and knowing that, experience the fullness of joy with the transcendent Lord.
Beyond Imagination. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (3:20-21).
Paul’s words here startle and encourage us. Our thoughts and imaginations are lifted beyond time and space to the Lord himself. Significantly, the focus of God’s powerful work is amongst and through his people.
Too often we forget God’s awesome cosmic purposes; we focus too much on ourselves. Maybe we are content to swim in the shallows of faith rather than in the deep, clear waters of God’s love. For in his love God has far greater expectations for us than we can even begin to imagine.
A prayer. Almighty God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit: so enable us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and always to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
You may like to listen to The Lord is My Salvation from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘Paul’s Prayer: Transformation’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
A question we rarely think about is this: ‘What does Jesus expect of everyone who believes?’
A third part of the prayer Jesus prayed on the night of his arrest provides a vital part of the answer. In John chapter 17, verse 21 we read: “I ask … that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me”.
The all in this verse suggests that he is including everyone who comes to believe in him, as well as his disciples.
In the flow of his prayer, it is important to notice that he is not praying for ‘unity’ as we often think of it – a structural unity – but rather a ‘confessional’ unity. He is praying for a unity of understanding amongst all his people: the acknowledgement that he is the unique Son of God, sent by the Father to rescue humanity.
In other words, Jesus is praying that the essential truth of his relationship with God the Father will be at the heart of Christian belief. As such, he prayed for a unity amongst his people that reflects the unity of relationship between God the Father and God the Son. The unity that Jesus is speaking of here is that all his people would receive and respond to his teaching the same way.
Which implies another key to the unity for which Jesus prays – the acceptance of the unique authority of his person and work and his teaching.
Furthermore, there is to be a unity of profound love and fellowship between his people because of their fellowship with God the Father and God the Son. His prayer reflects his teaching that true worshippers will ‘worship God the Father in spirit and in truth’ (John 4:23).
And it is also important to notice that Jesus is praying for a ‘missional’ outcome to this unity: “That the world may believe that you have sent me”.
Division amongst men and women is the way of the world. True unity amongst the people of God, for which Jesus prays, facilitates gospel outreach – ‘so that the world may believe’.
Men and women in the wider world are in revolt against God and the Son he has sent. Yet God has loved, and continues to love, the world and is committed to drawing more and more people to the One he has sent. The unity in faith of God’s people will be a sign that will draw many to faith.
Now, we need to note that Jesus is not praying here for the amalgamation of denominations. Joining like-minded Christians together might be desirable, especially where buildings and services are often duplicated with a loss of efficiency.
But Jesus is not praying for this kind of structural unity. Rather he is praying for the essential union of hearts and minds that respond to the truth of Jesus. Ultimately he is praying that all his people – whether the first disciples, or you and me today – will be with him where he is: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am,…”(John 17:24).
So, the essence of this part of Jesus’ great prayer is that all his people throughout the ages will be with him where he is in the Kingdom of God. His intention for his people is that we all see the glory that the Father has given him, as God’s unique Son, because of God’s love for him. So Jesus continued: “That they may see my glory which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24b).
This prayer of Jesus that we have touched on over these three Wednesdays tells us so much about him – his glory, his suffering and his passion. We see his commitment to glorify God. It also tells us about the significant work of the disciples; if they had messed up, we would have no knowledge of God’s extraordinary love and the forgiveness he holds out to us. Thirdly, Jesus’ prayer tells us about us, and our need to work at the unity that springs from a united confession of faith.
Jesus’ prayer is not a ‘God bless…’ prayer. It is a prayer that instructs our minds and touches our hearts with the riches of God’s love.
Prayer. Lord may we come to love you more and more, with all our mind, with all our heart and from our very soul, so that you may be glorified in the lives of all who are united in a common confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Lord, give your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only true God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may like to listen to May the People’s Praise You from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘Jesus’ Prayer: (3) Confessional Unity’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
How can we be sure about God? Christianity makes claims that can be hard to believe in the 21st century – for example, its exclusiveness, its supernaturalism and its age.
To say that Jesus is the only way to God appears to be very narrow-minded. Further, the story of Jesus is woven around miraculous events – a virgin birth and a resurrection. And it all happened more than two thousand years ago.
In John chapter 17 we find the record of a prayer Jesus prayed on the night he was betrayed and arrested. The greater part of the prayer was for his disciples, revealing the unique role they were to play in building on the foundation that Jesus himself was laying.
In Jesus’ words to God the Father we discern the importance of the disciples in God’s big plan: “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
The disciples were to be the link between Jesus and the world. Much will depend on their understanding of Jesus as the Christ – the Messiah – and their courage and loyalty to him.
In verses 2 and 3 Jesus had prayed: “Since you have given him (that is, he, Jesus) authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, so that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
The ministry of his disciples would be essential if men and women were to benefit from God’s gift of eternal life. If the disciples failed in their task, if they gave in to hostile pressures and denied the truth they had been given to speak about, Christianity would have been still-born.
So Jesus prays that the Father would give each of the disciples eternal life. He also prays that the Father would protect them (17:11), keep them from the powers of evil (17:15), and make them holy in the truth (17:17). He also prayed that the love that God the Father has for the Son, would be true for them as well (17:16).
Jesus knew the road the disciples would tread would not be easy. Yet he didn’t pray that they would be taken out of the world. Rather, he prayed that they would be kept faithful and guarded from the powers of the evil one.
Furthermore, Jesus went on to pray for everyone who would come to faith: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, …” (John 17:20).
At the heart of the disciples’ ministry would be the ministry of ‘God’s Word’ – preaching and teaching. The content of their word would be Jesus the Messiah.
From the time of Pentecost the disciples, now apostles (sent ones), began preaching, urging their hearers to turn to Jesus as the Messiah in repentance and faith. Over the following fifty years, thousands turned to Christ through their word ministry.
Furthermore, it was during those years that the apostles and others who had been uniquely trained, equipped and commissioned by Jesus, wrote the Gospels and Letters for the churches.
In 2 Peter 1:16-18, we read: For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
Peter is saying that he and the other apostles did not pass on a cunningly invented myth. Jesus really is God in the flesh; he really did rise from the dead. ‘I have the evidence of my own eyes,’ Peter says. ‘Our testimony is true.’
Furthermore, in 2 Peter 3:15 we read: …Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother, Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
Paul’s Letters also were acknowledged as God’s Word.
What we often overlook is that these men, and others with them, overturned the Roman world not by armed revolution, but by the example of their lives, their testimony and teaching. Can you imagine that those disciples of Jesus constructed a monstrous lie?
Prayer. Heavenly Father, keep your household the Church continually in your true religion; so that those who lean only on the hope of your heavenly grace may always be defended by your mighty power; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may like to listen to Lift High the Name of Jesus from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘Jesus’ Prayer: (2) Life & Ministry’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Our prayers say a great deal about us. Are your prayers like that of AA Milne’s, Christopher Robin who, in the midst of his child-like bedtime prayers, prayed that God would bless his parents as well as himself? Or do your prayers reflect the shape of the honest and humble yet bold petitionary prayers of people such as Moses, David and Daniel or the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples?
In John chapter 17 we read Jesus’ prayer on the eve of his arrest. It’s a prayer that tells us a great deal about him and his relationship with God the Father, his concern for his disciples, as well his concern for all his people throughout time. Over three Wednesdays I’ll be touching on these three themes.
Today let me focus on verses 1 and 5. In verse 1 we read: After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, … “
Jesus knew that within hours he would be arrested, convicted by human authorities, and put to death. Given the confessional prayers of Moses, David and Daniel, as well as the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, it is significant that he makes no confession of sin. Of all humanity, he alone is without sin.
His prayer is sometimes called ‘the great high priestly prayer’, but strictly speaking it isn’t. The central task of a high priest’s work was to offer sacrifices and to pray for God to forgive his own sin as well as the sins of God’s people. But the focus of Jesus’ prayer is that God will glorify him: “Glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify you…” (17:1).
The verb to glorify typically means ‘to honor’ – as we find in John chapter 5, verse 23. There Jesus speaks of God’s plan that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
But in the opening line of his prayer in John chapter 17, Jesus reveals the depths of God’s previously hidden pre-cosmic plan.
The opening lines of John’s Gospel read: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And in verse 14 we learn that the Word took on human form and came amongst us as one of us. John testifies: We beheld his glory, the glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (1:14).
Now, in chapter 17, Jesus prays that God will glorify him, so that he will remain faithful to the bitter end in the implementation of his Father’s long hidden plan, so that he in turn may glorify the Father (17:1). God’s plan is extraordinary, in contrast to that of any human wisdom. God’s glory would be revealed through the events of Jesus’ death, resurrection and exaltation.
And some sixteen centuries later Archbishop Thomas Cranmer came to understand – as Dr. Ashley Null has observed – that ‘the glory of God is his love of the unworthy’.
On the night of his arrest, Jesus prayed that God the Father would honor him, so that he would honor the Father through his sacrificial death for the sins of the world.
We feel the impact of what Jesus is saying and what was about to happen. Judas had gone into the night to do his dark work of betrayal. Jesus was certain of his pending arrest, trial and death. “Glorify the Son,” he prays, “so that the Son may glorify you”.
In verse 5, Jesus continues: “So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed”. Jesus is self-consciously divine, but he is also human and therefore vulnerable. He was praying that God would restore the glory he, Jesus, had set aside when he took on human form.
One great work remained – his work of bearing the sin of the whole world, when he would be lifted up on the cross as he had predicted earlier in his ministry (John 3:14-15). Furthermore, his final words, “It is finished”, recorded in John chapter 19, verses 28 and 30, express his sense that his work on earth was complete.
As he began his prayer, Jesus knew that with his arrest, trial and crucifixion, he would have to endure an injustice such as the world had never seen, and that the physical torture he would have to bear would be horrific. Significantly, the Gospel record is silent on the physical pain. Rather the focus is on the spiritual pain he would endure in taking on himself our sin and guilt before the holy God. In that hour he would feel totally alone. His eternal, perfect and loving relationship with God the Father would be at breaking point.
Jesus knew that the only way he could remain faithful, passing through the deepest shadows of the valley of death and so glorifying God, would be in God’s strength. He would be treading the path of suffering in the midst of the extremes of human hostility and supernatural opposition.
Yet throughout this first part of his prayer he reveals that his central concern is the glory of God.
This surely gives us pause. As beneficiaries of the events that reveal the true glory of God, surely we too will want to thank the Lord from the bottom of our heart and, in turn, want to glorify God in our every thought, word and act.
Jesus did not just pray for himself and the dark hours he faced. He prayed that God would be glorified through his death, resurrection and exaltation. He further prayed that God would restore him to the glory he had put aside when he came amongst us in person.
Prayer. Lord God, the unfailing helper and guide of those whom you bring up in your steadfast fear and love, keep us, we pray, under the protection of your good providence, and give us a continual reverence and love for your holy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may want to listen to In Christ Alone from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘Jesus’ Prayer: (1) Glorify’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
To say that Jesus is the only way to God seems very narrow-minded. The story of Jesus is woven around a virgin birth and miracles. The greater part of Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17 focuses on. his disciples and their significant role in the promotion. of God's good news.
Are your prayers all about you? Are they like Christopher Robin's bedtime prayers - God bless ... God bless ... ? Listen to this week's podcast on Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17 and be encouraged in the focus of your prayer life.
How often are your prayers prompted by your meditation on God's Word? In Daniel chapter 9 we find Daniel confessing not only his own sin, but also the sins of God's people. And he then asks God to honour his promises to the people of Israel.
Let me ask, do you have any regrets? You may regret words you let rip and can’t take back, or a relationship you should never have started.
Second Samuel, chapter 11 tells us of the occasion when King David was relaxing on the roof of the palace when he saw a woman bathing. Attracted by her beauty he invited her over. But she was the wife of one of his officers. He’s away, he may have thought. And after all, I am the king.
But Bathsheba became pregnant, and David’s attempts to arrange for her husband, Uriah to return home and sleep with her, failed. So he developed a more devious plan. Uriah was sent back to the battlefield and positioned so that he would die. Like the ophthalmologist who had an affair and then arranged a murder in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, King David seemed to have committed the perfect crime. But David had forgotten God.
In Second Samuel, chapter 12 we learn that Nathan the prophet arranged to meet the King.
Knowing the power of kings, Nathan told a story of a wealthy man who had many sheep and a poor man who had just one little lamb. When the rich man needed a sheep for a meal to entertain a guest, instead of taking a sheep from his own flock, he took the poor man’s lamb. David, a former shepherd, was furious: ‘The man should be brought to justice,’ he said. Nathan’s response? ‘You are the man!’
The heading of Psalm 51 reveals that David wrote it following his affair. It is a complex, very personal psalm, but it is timeless in its application as it also speaks to us about ourselves and about God.
Have mercy on me, O God, David begins. His cry for mercy reveals that he understood he had no right to expect God’s favor. But because God had sent the prophet Nathan to speak to him, David knew God had not forgotten his promise. So, he not only cries for mercy but also appeals to God’s covenant love and compassion: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. Have me mercy on me, O God, according to your abundant mercy (51:3).
Confession. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me, David continues (51:3). Fully aware of his guilt before God, he didn’t just regret what he had done. He truly repented of his actions.
It’s important to think about this. David had tried to cover up and even excuse what he had done. It’s something we’re all tempted to do at times. Over the last 100 years or so academia has provided us with more and more excuses for what we do. Freud taught us to blame our parents. Marx taught us to blame the capitalist system. And 21st century medicine tells us to blame our DNA. But our guilt can fester and re-appear in ways that are usually not obviously related to the original failure. It’s sometimes why we can’t sleep.
We need to do as David did: speak to the Lord. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, he said. But what about Bathsheba and Uriah? With his words David is voicing something we all have to reckon with: our sin is first and foremost against God. Adultery and murder are second commandment issues. But when we break the second commandment – love your neighbor as yourself – we are in fact breaking the first, for the second is consequent upon the first. Sin against our neighbour is primarily sin against God.
Contrary to what psychology and psychiatry might tell us guilt is not just a psychological hang-up. It is something objective, something real, that stands between us and our Maker. The God who rules the universe is not just some impersonal force. He is a moral being, a holy judge. When we do wrong things, we offend him. As David recognizes, God’s anger towards him – as it is towards us – is justified.
The pricks of conscience we feel, reflect our awareness of an objective moral order and the existence of God. It’s not enough for the psychotherapist to help us come to terms with our guilt. It’s not even enough for the human beings we have hurt to tell us they forgive us. We are all accountable to God.
See how David puts it: You are justified, God, in your judgment, for against you alone, have I sinned… And, he adds, Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me (51:5).
David knows that his sins are the outcome of a self-centered nature. He’s not speaking against his mother nor the nature of his conception; nor is he blaming her for his actions. Rather he makes a chilling statement about human nature: no one of us is intrinsically good. As Paul the Apostle writes in Romans, chapter 3: We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (3:23).
Yet human wisdom today fails to recognize this reality. It is something that impacts every arena of life – politics and the courts, economics and education, family, local community and international relations. Malcolm Muggeridge, one-time editor of the English Punch magazine wrote: The depravity of humanity is at once the most unpopular of all dogmas, but the most empirically verifiable.
Cleansing: You desire truth in the inward being, David continues; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart (51:6). If we are going to find peace of mind and heart, it’s in our minds and hearts that the process of acquiring God’s wisdom must begin. What’s buried in our thoughts needs to be exposed before God.
Consider David’s further words: Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities (51:7-10).
We need more than the band-aid of education or more laws. It’s not just isolated acts of sin we need to be cleansed from, but the powerful grip of our self-centredness.
It is not until we come to the New Testament that we learn the true cost for God to cleanse us. In Colossians 2:13 we read: And you who were dead in your trespasses … God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Heart-Change. Create in me a pure heart, O God, David continues (51:10). Too often our problem is that we don’t want to pray this prayer. Indeed, unless God’s mercy and grace are at work within us, we won’t want to change. But he also knows that he can’t presume on God’s mercy. That is why he also says, take not your Holy Spirit from me (51:11).
How we need to pray with David: Restore to me the joy of your salvation (51:12) Restore reminds us that God was no stranger to David. He could recall times when things were different, when he had enjoyed an intimate close communion with God. Now, more than anything else he wanted to experience again the joy of that relationship.
‘All I can bring, Lord,’ David continues, is a broken and contrite heart (51:17). He knew that as well as being pure and just, God is also willing to forgive us and set us on a new course of life that is good for us and honors him. How often do we need to meditate on this.
There it is. A very personal, complex psalm with many layers. King David’s cry for God’s mercy is not so much a psalm for a General Confession in the gathering of God’s people, but a psalm for our own personal reflection and prayer in the privacy of our own relationship with the Lord.
Before you go to sleep tonight, let me encourage you to reflect on your own relationship with the Lord with this psalm open before you. Be honest with him, asking him to forgive you for failing to honor him at all times in your life. Pray that his Word and his Spirit will bring about the changes that God in his perfect wisdom knows are for your best, so you may know the joy of his love. Pray further that the Lord will give you the opportunities and the courage to share the joy you have found in him with family and friends.
Where is our hope in life? It is in Christ alone because of God’s amazing grace.
A prayer. Lord God, without you we are not able to please you; mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may like to listen to the Keith and Kristyn Getty and Matt Papa song, What is Our Hope in Life and Death.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘David’s Prayer: Confession’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Do you have any regrets? You may regret words you let rip and can't take back, or a relationship you should never have started. Listen to this reflection on Psalm 51, where David expresses his guilt to God following his adultery with Bathsheba.
Many of us are concerned with the issues of justice and peace, divisions and conflict. Is there anything we can do that might make a difference in our world where daily the news seems to get worse?
Come with me to a prayer of Moses that we find in Numbers, chapter 14.
A little over three millennia ago, God’s people were on the southern border of ancient Canaan – a land peopled from different regions. Moses had sent twelve spies to bring a report on the land. And, in their report they were all were agreed on the prosperity of the land: they had grapes to prove it! (Numbers 13:25ff)
However, the report was divided: ten said the cities were well defended and that the legendary sons of Anak – the giant Nephilim – were in the Canaanite armies. But two of the group, Caleb and Joshua, provided a minority report: ‘Let’s act now,’ they said, ‘we can overcome it’ (13:30).
But no one listened. Rather, they raised a hue and cry about Moses and Aaron, saying that they would have preferred to have died in Egypt or in the wilderness (14:2). “Why is the Lord bringing us into this land only to die by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey… Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (14:3f).
In Numbers 14:11f we read God’s chilling words: “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them…”
God went on to make an offer to Moses: “I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
This must have seemed extraordinarily attractive to Moses. He would be rid of this fickle crowd. However, his response was to pray to the Lord: “Then the Egyptians will hear of it! (Numbers 14:13).
Moses didn’t make excuses for Israel, pleading mitigating circumstances. Rather, he appealed to the character of God: “In your might or power you brought these people from Egypt…” he said. Aren’t you a God of your word?’
‘What will the nations think?’ he continued. “If you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’”
Most of all, Moses appealed to God’s unchangeable love: “And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying, ‘The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty…”
What a moving prayer this is. Here is a single individual praying, and the fate of God’s people hinges on it. How can the prayer of any man or woman possibly have such significance?
Moses’ prayer shows us that it is because of God’s character we can be very confident when we pray. Moses knew that God is a God of his word. Furthermore, he knew that God is a God of mercy.
And the outcome of Moses’ prayer? God tempered his judgment with mercy. The people were forgiven. But they were destined to die without seeing the promise themselves.
So what can we learn from this today? With the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ we live under another, very different covenant. God’s promise now is not just to a specific race of people but to all people. Nor is it about a promised land, or material wealth.
In Matthew chapter 16, verse 18 we read Jesus’ words: “I will build my *church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. Furthermore, Mark records Jesus’ words, “For the Son of Man has not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (10:45). When he was dying on the cross, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). And following his resurrection from the dead he commissioned his disciples with, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”* (Matthew 28:18-20).
It’s easy to forget in the busy-ness of life that God is committed to drawing men and women from all peoples and nations to himself through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And indeed, with influential voices opposing Christianity we can lose confidence in the power of prayer. Not that prayer of itself is powerful. Rather, the One to whom we pray is all-powerful.
In the light of Moses’ prayer, let’s ask God to have mercy on family and friends, colleagues and people in the wider community and world, for the honor of his Name and the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ! After all, Jesus himself taught us to pray, ‘Father, hallowed (or honored) be your name,… (Luke 11:2).
Let me ask: what if everyone who reads this Word on Wednesday were to commit to pray for three people? You may want to invite others to join you. Will our prayers make a difference? Moses knew that his prayer would, because of who God is and the honor of his Name.
Do you have this confidence? Do you pray earnestly and consistently that God will act with mercy today – opening blind eyes and softening hard hearts so that people will respond to and grow under the gospel – for the honor of his name?
Prayer. Preserve your people, Lord God, with your continual mercy, for without you we will fall because of our frailty; keep us always under your protection and lead us to everything that makes for our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lord God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: mercifully accept our prayers, and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do nothing good without you, grant us the help of your grace, so that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in word and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may also want to listen to the song from Keith and Kristyn Getty, By Faith.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘Moses’ Prayer: The Honor of God’s Name’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
One of the ironies of today’s highly connected world is the personal isolation that many feel. Indeed, an extreme sense of personal isolation can lead to despair and even suicide.
And there are times when a sense of isolation can overwhelm God’s people: prayer is difficult, and any talk of joy and peace seems empty. God feels more like a distant relative than a heavenly Father.
Psalm 42 begins: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night, he continues, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?” (42:3).
The writer of Psalms 42 and 43, removed from his home city of Jerusalem and the temple, asks three times, Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you so disquieted within me? (42:5,11; 43:5).
Alone. The psalmist felt he had no-one to confide in. Indeed, those around him taunted: ‘where is your God?’ It’s easy to trust God in the security of a good home and church. But now the song writer who seems to have led the Temple worship was alone, without personal encouragement and emotional support. Loneliness can make us feel distressed. We are social creatures made for personal relationships, and when we lose our support networks it can really impact us.
He also experienced physical isolation: These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival (42:4). We sense his grief for the time he was part of a joyful throng. Now he was alone.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see how separation might lead to loneliness. Even in the large cities of the world people can experience personal isolation.
Disturbed and downcast the psalm-writer lacked energy; he felt anxious and overwhelmed: Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your waterfalls; all your waves and your billows have gone over me, he writes (42:7).
He felt alone from God: I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?” (42:9). Torn with a sense of loss, he was like a jilted lover or a widow grieving for her husband.
‘I believe’ he is saying, ‘What’s happened to me?’ As we dig into this psalm we realize that here is a man of spiritual integrity who is willing to ask questions.
Which leads to his significant question: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? (42:5,11 and 43:5).
Many who feel lonely, sad and depressed try to find escape by turning to alcohol or drugs, online gambling or pornography. It’s important to notice what this psalmist does: he admits his feelings. We need to do the same. And we need to encourage others to do so as well.
It takes courage. If we’re feeling lonely or depressed we need to acknowledge it. If we feel guilty about something, we need to own up to it before God. If we’ve lost someone we loved, we also need to articulate our loss. There’s nothing to be gained by running away.
Look at the way the psalm writer responds in v.9: I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?” ‘God, where are you? God, you have let me down. Why?’
It’s an important question to ask. Not because there’s always an answer, but because we need to express our frustration. We need to tell God what we feel.
There’s a very moving incident in Pieter de Vries’ novel, The Blood of the Lamb. The main character has a daughter who dies of leukaemia on her 12th birthday. Her father is devastated. Holding a birthday cake he was taking to her in the hospital he looked up at a crucifix on a church wall. Suddenly he exploded and hurled the cake at the face of Christ.
In one sense it was a blasphemous act. Yet in another sense it expressed the very reason why Christ was once on that cross. For there Christ is the representation of God’s just anger against all the injustices, sin and evil in the world. In one supreme act, Christ on the cross perfectly satisfied God’s just anger and, once and for all time, making it possible for him to be reconciled with a sinful world.
When we feel angry with God we need to remember this. God is no stranger to pain. He knows what it is like to feel alone in an unjust world. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” the dying Jesus had said (Matthew 27:46).
With the psalm writer we need to question ourselves when we feel alone: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? (43:5) The greatest danger when we are feeling alone and ‘down’ is self-pity and to become self-preoccupied. ‘Speak to your soul, your inner self’ the psalm advises, ‘and ask questions’.
And there is something else: prayer. Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people… (43:1); and Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me… (43:3). The psalm writer is confident in God’s love and light. He is assured of the day when, again filled with joy, he will sing songs of praise to God.
Indeed, through the lens of the New Testament we can see this more fully. God, who exists in three persons, has been and is fully involved in serving us through his work of restoring men and women everywhere into relationship with him. “For the Son of Man came,” Jesus said, *“to seek and to save the lost”* (Luke 19:10).
Furthermore, God is not only building us back into relationship with him, but also with one another as his offspring. Church is a special gift from God. When we are part of a community of God’s people we can find support and encouragement. God’s delight is that we find and enjoy relationship with him and with one another.
Whoever we are, whatever our situation in life, when we belong to Christ, we are never alone.
Prayer. Almighty God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit: so enable us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and always to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Almighty and everlasting God, you have given us your servants grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and by your divine power to worship you as One: we pray that you would keep us steadfast in this faith and evermore defend us from all adversities; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘Never Alone!’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Do you ever feel alone, isolated from people and from God? Find encouragement in this week's podcast looking at the words of Psalms 42 and 43.
Is there anything that can shake us out of our apathy and fear and make us an intrepid people? That can inject enthusiasm and joy, confidence, and courage into our lives as God’s people?
Come with me to the events of Pentecost that we read about in Acts chapter 2. It was six-weeks after Jesus’ resurrection. Let me identify three questions that emerge.
What happened? When the day of Pentecost came, the disciples were together in an upper room in Jerusalem. ‘Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came… Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them… All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.’
Pentecost is the Jewish festival celebrating the giving of the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 19:18 we read that violent wind and tongues of fire had enveloped Mt Sinai at the time God gave Moses the law. However, as Israel’s prophets repeatedly observed, the law was not changing people’s lives: it failed as an instrument to change the world.
Now at Pentecost some twelve hundred years later, God was coming again with fire and wind, not to impart more law, but to impart his Spirit. The mighty wind symbolised the power of Jesus; the fire symbolised his purifying and cleansing work; and speech pointed to the good news of Jesus reaching every nation.
Luke, the author of Acts focuses on speech. He tells us: Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. … And everyone was bewildered because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each (2:5).
The crowd came from the Caspian Sea in the east to Rome in the west, from modern Turkey in the north to Africa in the south. ‘How is it?’ they were asking, ‘That we can understand them in our own native language?’
The cynics in the crowd mocked, saying the disciples were drunk. But Peter wasn’t silenced: ‘The bars aren’t open yet,’ he said. ‘It’s only nine o’clock in the morning’. This was the real Author of speech, reversing Babel.
The disciples, previously demoralised and defeated, now had a new enthusiasm, confidence, and joy. Peter, who had denied Jesus, was no longer a coward but a courageous preacher. What had brought about the change? The coming of the Spirit of God, ‘Another Helper’ as Jesus had promised (John 14:16, 26).
For many, Christianity is little more than a moral code they struggle to observe or a creed mindlessly to recite each week. But in John 14 Jesus had spoken of a Companion who would enable his people to experience a life-changing personal relationship with him.
What did it mean? The Holy Spirit was turning cowardly disciples into intrepid apostles. From verse 22 Luke records Peter’s speech: “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. …And you, …put him to death …but God raised him from the dead, …”
People today mock the idea of Jesus’ miracles. Yet first-century historians such as Josephus, agreed that Jesus was ‘a miracle-worker’. In his speech Peter called the miracles signs. Just as a sign-post points to the road we might follow, so Jesus’ works pointed to the power and authority he wielded. “If I by the finger of God cast out demons,” Jesus had said, “then the kingdom of God is come upon you” (Luke 11:20).
The climax of Peter’s speech is in verse 36: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this, God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Peter had a logically developed progression of ideas – not a frenzied set of phrases. He explained that Jesus’ cross and resurrection reveal God’s extraordinary love. The Son of God had put aside the glory of heaven and come amongst us, giving his life as the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Human authorities had judged Jesus a threat and did what autocratic leadership so often does – stamped out the opposition by fair means or foul. They nailed Jesus to a cross. But from his position of chief justice in his supreme court, God overturned the judgement of the human court and raised Jesus to life. As we talked about last week, we live in a porous universe.
Does all this matter to us? It happened so long ago. Peter’s hearers that day were cut to the heart…, “Brothers, what should we do?” they asked (Acts 2:37f). When Jesus was dying on the cross, they had mocked him. Now they knew the truth they were utterly ashamed. God’s Spirit was at work.
Peter’s response is one that we all need to hear: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven (Acts 2:38). Peter didn’t tell his hearers they needed to turn over a new leaf and start living moral lives. Rather, he focused on their relationship with Jesus. Repent. ‘Come to your senses about Jesus,’ he says. ‘Reckon on the reality that he is the Lord. Turn to him and ask him for his forgiveness.’
Three thousand responded to Peter’s call that day. God’s Spirit was taking up the work of Jesus the Messiah in the world, opening blind eyes and changing hearts.
Significantly Peter continued: And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him (Acts 2:38f). From now on God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, would come into the lives of all God’s people (see also Romans 8:9). This is what Paul the Apostle means when he says that God’s people are in Christ (for example, Colossians 1:27). Christ, through his Spirit now lives in us.
What God did that day, and what he has been doing ever since, matters. God’s delight is to draw men and women from all over the world, from every race and nation – people like you and me – into a personal, living relationship with himself.
And we have a part to play. Let’s not be fearful. Rather, let’s pray for the Spirit’s strength and wisdom to be an intrepid people – taking up opportunities we have, to introduce family and friends, colleagues, and people in the wider community to Jesus. Why not invite a friend to join you in finding out who Jesus really is through ‘The Word 121’? It’s not a course or a program. Rather, it is a ministry that opens up the Gospel of John. Families are using it to grow in their understanding of Jesus, God’s Son who has come amongst us. The Word One-to-One is available online at: www.theword121.com.
A Prayer for Pentecost / WhitSunday. Almighty God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit: so enable us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and always to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us all with everything good that we may do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
You may like to listen to the Keith Getty and Stuart Townend song, Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘An Intrepid People…?’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Is there anything that can shake us out of our apathy and fear and make us an intrepid people? That can inject enthusiasm and joy, confidence, and courage into our lives as God’s people?
Come with me to the events of Pentecost that we read about in Acts chapter 2. It was six-weeks after Jesus’ resurrection. Let me identify three questions that emerge.
What happened? When the day of Pentecost came, the disciples were together in an upper room in Jerusalem. ‘Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came… Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them… All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.’
Pentecost is the Jewish festival celebrating the giving of the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 19:18 we read that violent wind and tongues of fire had enveloped Mt Sinai at the time God gave Moses the law. However, as Israel’s prophets repeatedly observed, the law was not changing people’s lives: it failed as an instrument to change the world.
Now at Pentecost some twelve hundred years later, God was coming again with fire and wind, not to impart more law, but to impart his Spirit. The mighty wind symbolised the power of Jesus; the fire symbolised his purifying and cleansing work; and speech pointed to the good news of Jesus reaching every nation.
Luke, the author of Acts focuses on speech. He tells us: Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. … And everyone was bewildered because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each (2:5).
The crowd came from the Caspian Sea in the east to Rome in the west, from modern Turkey in the north to Africa in the south. ‘How is it?’ they were asking, ‘That we can understand them in our own native language?’
The cynics in the crowd mocked, saying the disciples were drunk. But Peter wasn’t silenced: ‘The bars aren’t open yet,’ he said. ‘It’s only nine o’clock in the morning’. This was the real Author of speech, reversing Babel.
The disciples, previously demoralised and defeated, now had a new enthusiasm, confidence, and joy. Peter, who had denied Jesus, was no longer a coward but a courageous preacher. What had brought about the change? The coming of the Spirit of God, ‘Another Helper’ as Jesus had promised (John 14:16, 26).
For many, Christianity is little more than a moral code they struggle to observe or a creed mindlessly to recite each week. But in John 14 Jesus had spoken of a Companion who would enable his people to experience a life-changing personal relationship with him.
What did it mean? The Holy Spirit was turning cowardly disciples into intrepid apostles. From verse 22 Luke records Peter’s speech: “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. …And you, …put him to death …but God raised him from the dead, …”
People today mock the idea of Jesus’ miracles. Yet first-century historians such as Josephus, agreed that Jesus was ‘a miracle-worker’. In his speech Peter called the miracles signs. Just as a sign-post points to the road we might follow, so Jesus’ works pointed to the power and authority he wielded. “If I by the finger of God cast out demons,” Jesus had said, “then the kingdom of God is come upon you” (Luke 11:20).
The climax of Peter’s speech is in verse 36: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this, God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Peter had a logically developed progression of ideas – not a frenzied set of phrases. He explained that Jesus’ cross and resurrection reveal God’s extraordinary love. The Son of God had put aside the glory of heaven and come amongst us, giving his life as the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Human authorities had judged Jesus a threat and did what autocratic leadership so often does – stamped out the opposition by fair means or foul. They nailed Jesus to a cross. But from his position of chief justice in his supreme court, God overturned the judgement of the human court and raised Jesus to life. As we talked about last week, we live in a porous universe.
Does all this matter to us? It happened so long ago. Peter’s hearers that day were cut to the heart…, “Brothers, what should we do?” they asked (Acts 2:37f). When Jesus was dying on the cross, they had mocked him. Now they knew the truth they were utterly ashamed. God’s Spirit was at work.
Peter’s response is one that we all need to hear: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven (Acts 2:38). Peter didn’t tell his hearers they needed to turn over a new leaf and start living moral lives. Rather, he focused on their relationship with Jesus. Repent. ‘Come to your senses about Jesus,’ he says. ‘Reckon on the reality that he is the Lord. Turn to him and ask him for his forgiveness.’
Three thousand responded to Peter’s call that day. God’s Spirit was taking up the work of Jesus the Messiah in the world, opening blind eyes and changing hearts.
Significantly Peter continued: And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him (Acts 2:38f). From now on God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, would come into the lives of all God’s people (see also Romans 8:9). This is what Paul the Apostle means when he says that God’s people are in Christ (for example, Colossians 1:27). Christ, through his Spirit now lives in us.
What God did that day, and what he has been doing ever since, matters. God’s delight is to draw men and women from all over the world, from every race and nation – people like you and me – into a personal, living relationship with himself.
And we have a part to play. Let’s not be fearful. Rather, let’s pray for the Spirit’s strength and wisdom to be an intrepid people – taking up opportunities we have, to introduce family and friends, colleagues, and people in the wider community to Jesus. Why not invite a friend to join you in finding out who Jesus really is through ‘The Word 121’? It’s not a course or a program. Rather, it is a ministry that opens up the Gospel of John. Families are using it to grow in their understanding of Jesus, God’s Son who has come amongst us. The Word One-to-One is available online at: www.theword121.com.
A Prayer for Pentecost / WhitSunday. Almighty God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit: so enable us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and always to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us all with everything good that we may do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
You may like to listen to the Keith Getty and Stuart Townend song, Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘An Intrepid People…?’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Almost everything around us contains pores – the timber floor under our feet, the paperback in our hand, and the cotton sheets on our bed. Our skin and our brain are porous. Pores are a necessary part of our health and well-being. For example, blood in our skin opens and closes the pores in our skin enabling us to cope with temperature changes.
Pores are a necessary part of the material world. On one occasion walking through the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ, I learned that in line with all flora, the saguaro cactus has pores in its skin that open and close to collect carbon dioxide. During photosynthesis, plants turn the collected carbon dioxide into food in the form of sugars. While most plants open their pores during the day, cacti and other nocturnal plants such as the aloes open their pores at night.
At another level, pores in the earth’s surface enable the movement of vital water that sustains life. In recent times scientists are exploring ways to store climate gases in the earth’s surface. High-level research is being carried out using mathematics and natural sciences to solve ways to store carbon gases in porous rocks beneath the sea. Porosity is an important aspect of the world around us and to our own life and well-being.
That said, materials such as glass, plastics and metals and other human developments are typically non-porous.
Now, let me take this notion of porosity to a totally different level: the porosity of the universe. I’m referring to a non-material supernatural dimension of existence, beyond the space-time material world that is capable of movement within the material universe.
The big question that arises here is this: how do we know it’s true?
When we turn to the four records of the life of Jesus Christ, known as ‘Gospel’, we find that by the closing chapters it appeared that the Roman and Jewish authorities had won the day. They had felt threatened by an outsider, Jesus of Nazareth, who wielded extraordinary power and attracted vast crowds. But then there came the day when they put him to death by extreme torture, Roman crucifixion.
But the Jesus story didn’t end there. All four Gospel records reveal that the impossible had happened. Jesus was seen alive again. He not only met and spoke with his closest followers but also ate with them. He was not some ghostly apparition or a figment of the imagination.
Now you may have difficulty with the notion of Jesus’ resurrection, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. In his book, God and Stephen Hawking, Dr John Lennox, emeritus professor of mathematics at Oxford University, observes that many scientists today say ‘miracles arose in primitive, pre-scientific cultures, where people were ignorant of the laws of nature and so readily accepted miracle stories’ (p.82).
To this Professor Lennox responds, ‘In order to recognize an event as a miracle, there must be some perceived regularity to which that event is an apparent exception! In other words, we don’t need the benefit of modern science to define an extraordinary event’ (pp.84f).
Dr. Lennox further comments, ‘From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God and the likelihood of his intervention in the universe is plainly false’ (pp.86f).
God’s people understand that ‘the laws of nature’ are the observable regularities that God the creator has built into the universe. However, such ‘laws’ don’t prevent him from intervening if he chooses. When he does, we are able to identify the irregularity and speak of it as ‘a miracle’. Jesus’ resurrection was not the result of a natural mechanism. Rather, it happened because God chose to intervene with super–natural power (Romans 6:4b).
One of the distinctives of the biblical record is the interaction and movement between the heavenly sphere and the world of our experience. A further example of this is found in the opening chapter of Dr. Luke’s second volume, The Acts of the Apostles.
In the opening lines of Acts chapter 1, we read that for some six weeks following his resurrection Jesus met with his close followers and others, teaching them about the kingdom of God (1:3).
Sensing that the age of God’s Messiah had dawned, the disciples asked: “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Excited by the idea that Jesus was going to reveal his status as Israel’s true king, they were thinking in political and nationalistic categories.
And through the ages many have thought in similar terms. But it’s important that we focus on Jesus’ response: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority (1:7). ‘You’re not to worry about times and end-times,’ he is saying. ‘I’ve got something much more important for you to do with your time and energy: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
In commissioning his disciples as witnesses, Jesus wants us to know that what they passed on is nothing but the truth. This is so important. It assures us that we do live in a porous universe – that there is a supernatural dimension to our existence. That there is a creator God who chooses to intervene in our affairs, working out his larger, loving purposes for our good.
Significantly, the Bible reveals a faith that is not grounded in rules, rituals and regulations, but rather in a relationship – a relationship with Jesus Christ. And because meaningful and lasting relationships can only be built on truth, we need to know the truth. Relationships within a marriage and family are only meaningful where there is truth and honesty. Without truth there can be no trust.
Now, it’s important to note that Jesus is not saying that his followers down through the ages are witnesses as were the original disciples. We can’t be. We weren’t there. But we are called upon to testify to the good news he brings.
Which brings us to another facet of the porosity of the universe. In Acts chapter 1, verse 9 we read: And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men in white robes stood by them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Clearly Christ moved from the space and time dimensions that we know into another beyond our comprehension. It was the dawn of the age of God’s Messiah.
For the present God’s kingdom, the rule of the Messiah, remains hidden. In his Letter to the Colossians Paul the Apostle tells us that the new age of God’s rule co-exists with the old. But currently a door is open, allowing people to pass from the old age to the new. While we see around us the movement of human kingdoms and powers, God, in his mercy is rescuing people from all nations and races from the dominion of darkness, transferring us into the kingdom of the Son he loves… (Colossians 1:13).
We live in an uncertain and troubled world. We need to pray for the leaders of the nations and play our part in contributing to the welfare of people in need around us. Above all, let’s pray that God in his mercy will use the good examples of our lives and the testimony of our lips to draw many to the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ. His physical resurrection and the angels’ words at his ascension, assure us that his return in supreme power and dazzling glory is certain.
A Prayer for Ascension Day. God our Father, make us joyful in the ascension of your Son Jesus Christ. May we follow him into the new creation, for his ascension is our glory and our hope. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Benediction. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us all with everything good that we may do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘A Porous Universe…!’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Porocity is an important aspect of the world around us and to our own life and well-being. However we tend to overlook the fact of the porocity of the universe - the non-material supernatural dimension of existence, beyond the space-time material world that is capable of movement within the material universe. Find out more in this week's podcast.
Writing in The Australian (April 23, 2024), Dr Greg Sheridan observed, ‘Politics, as they say is downstream of culture, and culture is downstream of faith. Having lost faith in any transcendental truth, the West now is in a permanent crisis of meaning, which leads to political entropy, a kind of political vertigo, forever on the edge of a nervous breakdown’.
In this Easter Season we’ve touched on the Gospel record of Jesus’ physical resurrection as well as some of the implications of this momentous event. We’ve noted that the events of the crucifixion and resurrection are inextricably tied together – through his death Jesus perfectly satisfied the just requirements of a holy God in his interface with a sinful humanity; through his resurrection he assures all who turn to him of God’s full and free forgiveness and new life in all its glory.
In First Corinthians, chapter 15, Paul lifts a corner of the curtain on what this new life means – a physical resurrection with Jesus where there will be a continuity with our present experience (15:21-38). But we will also experience a significant discontinuity between our present and future bodies, as we read in chapter 15, verses 39-57.
In verses 40b and 41 we read: There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly bodies is one kind and the glory of the earthly bodies is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.
All around us there’s evidence of God’s awesome ability to create a vast variety of different physical bodies. Just look up, Paul is saying, at the sky during the day and also at night. The lights of the sun, the moon and the stars are different: they all reveal a different kind of glory, reflecting the glory of their maker in various ways.
When we think about this, we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility of there being more than one type of human body, having a different kind of glory or splendor from its old form. A new, resurrection body is not only possible, but there’s every reason it will have an appearance more glorious than the first.
The following verses develop the point: So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body (15:42-44).
Paul distinguishes between the physical body and spiritual body. The life we experience now is marked by perish-ability and decay. Someone once sent me a birthday card. On the front was a caricature of Benjamin Franklin with the caption: “We all age from the top downwards – first the hair, then the eyes, mouth, neck, the chins.” On the inside were the words, “What exquisite ankles you have”.
The new resurrection body will be marked by imperish-ability and immortality. It will no longer suffer from disease, disability or death. It will be raised up in glory – in vitality and power. It will no longer be weak and powerless. It will be all the things we cry out for: healthy, vital, bodies that will live for ever. Views of reincarnation pale into a shadow compared with this robust, glorious picture of Paul’s.
Currently we have a physical body suitable for our existence on earth. However, God will provide a spiritual body appropriate for our existence in heaven.
Notice how all this will occur: If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being” the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are on the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so we shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven (15:45-49).
Paul identifies two proto-types – Adam and Christ. One is formed from the dust of the earth. The other is the life-giving spirit from heaven. We need to experience bodily transformation and acquire a spiritual body if we are to live in the new heaven and the new earth.
As frail mortals we can’t exist with Christ in heaven. We need a body appropriate for God’s promised new order – a body that has the form and shape of our present body, but one in which our perfected spirit will exist. It will be perfectly adapted to the new heaven and the new earth. Just as the disciples recognised the risen Jesus, so we will recognise each other.
A computer with its hardware and software may assist with these complex ideas. We could liken the inner self, the conscious self, to computer software, and the body to the hardware. In God’s purposes, when we turn to Christ and take hold of God’s promises, our ‘software’ – our inner self – is subject to a major re-programming: all our imperfections are removed. Our resurrected body – our new ‘hardware’ – will reflect the glory of this perfection.
Paul continues by lifting the curtain on the future scene a little more: I declare to you, brothers and sisters that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen I tell you a mystery: we cannot all die, but we will be changed— as in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and the mortal will put on immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory’ (15:50-54).
This amazing chapter moves to a magnificent climax: we will be changed, as will also those who are alive when that day comes. We will no longer have bodies liable to death and decay.
Paul wants each one of us to rejoice with him in the triumph that has been won over death itself. And what a triumph: “Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (15:55-57).
The success of life over death is not in our hands. The victory is God’s. He’s done it all. And we mustn’t dismiss Paul’s note about those who benefit: the victory is for those who know Christ Jesus.
Let me come back to words of Malcolm Muggeridge: ‘Confronted with the reality of death,’ he wrote, ‘we may rage or despair, induce forgetfulness, solace ourselves with fantasies that science will in due course discover how we came to be here and to what end, and how we may project our existence, individually or collectively, into some Brave New World spanning the universe in which Man reigns supreme. God’s alternative proposition is the Resurrection – a man dying who rises from the dead… I close with, ‘Done’…: Christ is risen!’
Paul wants us to know the reality of Jesus’ resurrection and to understand the continuity / discontinuity between our present and future existence. But he also wants us to understand something else. He wants us to appreciate how the resurrection impacts our life now. He writes: Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, abounding in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Live now in the light of the reality of the resurrection glory that is to come, he says.
In a world that has lost its awareness of transcendental truth, continue steadfast and immovable in your walk through life with Christ Jesus. Continue steadfast in prayer. Pray for wisdom to discern and take up opportunities to introduce family and friends, colleagues and people in the wider world to the Lord Jesus Christ. Continue steadfast and true in your faith in Christ and in the hope of the resurrection, knowing that no matter the cost, your work in his service will not be in vain. Others may not know what we do or they may forget, but Jesus won’t. The day will come when he will shout it from the roof-tops.
A prayer. Heavenly Father, the giver of all good things, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and grant that by your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by your grace and guidance do them; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘Steadfast, Immovable…!’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In a culture which ignores or rejects transcendental truth, the fact of Jesus' resurrection from the dead gives us hope.
It is said that there are two certainties in life – death and taxes. Ironically both subjects have traditionally been off limits at dinner parties. Our death is something we don’t want to talk about, let alone think about. Woody Allen once quipped: ‘It’s not that we’re afraid to die. We just don’t want to be there when it happens’. And Malcolm Muggeridge, a former editor of the English Punch magazine, observed, ‘In earthly terms death is the only certainty’.
He continued, ‘All my mortal mind can know for sure is that this hand, writing these words, will falter and become inert, and the intelligence choosing and arranging them become inoperative. Flesh and intelligence equally doomed shortly to distinction after so brief and fleeting an existence – no more than a dragonfly’s, with its bright wings and exquisitely precise movements darting about in the sun…’
Yet, in our orthodox Christian creeds, we state that we believe in ‘the resurrection of the body and life everlasting’.
What do we really mean when we say this? What happens when our body is destroyed – rotting in a grave or cremated? If we’re one day to be raised, what kind of body will we have?
These are just some of the questions we have. The subject is complex, and our answers can easily become no more than confused ramblings.
Consider what Paul the Apostle writes in the clearest biblical statement on the resurrection. In First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 21 we read: For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.
When by faith we turn to Christ Jesus and attach ourselves to him, we are assured that even though our bodies may decay in a grave or incinerated, the day will come when we too will be raised from the dead. On the day when Christ returns, his majestic power and glory will transcend the universe. That will be the time when he will give all his people from throughout time a new body.
Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead – which happened on a certain day outside the city of ancient Jerusalem – foreshadows the resurrection of all his people from all races and nations.
This is the theme that Paul develops in chapter 15, verses 35 following. He writes: Someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.
Decades ago, when I was in kindergarten, my family were living in the country. I recall carrying out my first formal scientific experiment. We were given a saucer, cotton wool and some wheat. We put the wheat on the cotton wool, wet it and took it home. Over the next few days I was amazed at what I observed. Out of the rotting, smelly grain grew new life.
Paul is telling us that in the present order of things death needs to take place before new life occurs. The death of the first is the means of effecting change. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed…
Furthermore, he continues: God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. All flesh is not the same: men and women have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another (15:38, 39).
‘Have no doubt,’ Paul is saying, ‘the resurrection of our bodies will be a reality’. It makes sense. It’s consistent with what we can observe of the various elements of the present natural order. It means there is continuity between our present and future existence.
God is used to creating bodies appropriate for different kinds of environments: different bodies for men and women and animals who live on the land; different bodies for birds which fly; and different bodies again for fish that swim and live in water. Each is perfectly fitted for its environment.
It is God’s prerogative to bring about change and give the sown seed its appropriate plant body as he wills.
This is so important for us to know. It means for one thing that God treats every aspect of his creating work seriously – nothing is lost, for everything has a meaning. There’s not some massive disjunction between the material and the spiritual world. Rather, there is continuity.
Paul is saying that while our earthly bodies are suited for our earthly existence, they would be useless in the perfection of the age to come. Rather, it will be out of the raw material of our present earthly body that God will produce a new, spiritual body perfectly suited for the new age.
Christianity doesn’t drive a wedge between the spirit and the material. This suggests that keeping as fit as we can now is an important part of worship of God. Now, I’m not suggesting that we all go out and join ‘Fit for Him’ exercise class, but certainly the continuity between the present and the future order should encourage us not to abuse our bodies. Who we are now as God’s people and what we do now matters to God.
Furthermore, the continuity of our physical bodies in the future with who we now are, means that while we’ll all have a glorious appearance such will be the nature of our resurrected body that we will all recognise one another.
Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead laid the foundation for this glorious hope.
An insight by Samwise Gamgee in JRR Tolkein’s The Lord of Rings is pertinent. Sam and Frodo are undertaking their seemingly hopeless task of ascending Mount Doom. We read: ‘There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach’.
In a world where there is so much darkness, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the bedrock and bright star of our hope.
A Prayer. Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen.
© John G. Mason
The post ‘The Dead Raised…?’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
The orthodox Christian creeds state that 'we believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting'. How can this be? Paul the Apostle answers our question in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
If the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of the Christian faith, why is the cross the symbol of Christianity and not an empty tomb?
It is imperative that we think about the truth ad reality of the resurrection. If it is true, then our lives gain meaning and purpose.
Psalm 96 is one in which the psalmist exhorts us to sing our joyful praises to God - the creator, the loving provider and righteous judge. This is to encourage us and also to tell the world that everything that is beautiful and good comes from God, the God who will judge the world with righteousness and truth.
One of the things I love about the Bible is its earthy realism. It understands the world we live in – the good and the bad, the grief and the joys. It also understands how we feel about life’s injustices especially when we see people who mock the notion of God, enjoying success. Nothing ever seems to go wrong for them. And as well as the unfairness we often feel, there are the realities of droughts and famines, floods and fires, earthquakes and ruthless autocratic rulers. Why doesn’t God step in? It seems so out of character, if he is all-powerful and truly good.
True faith will always have questions. In fact, faith that refuses to ask questions is one that leaves itself open to the contempt of the skeptic. True faith will want to address tough questions and be willing to experience the doubts that arise.
Now it’s important to note that to have doubts is not to lack faith: doubt is not the opposite of faith. Doubt and unbelief are two very different things. Doubt is something that only a believer can experience, for you can only doubt what you believe.
Come with me to Psalm 73. It’s the first of three Psalms that I will be touching on as we move into a new season. The Psalms are God’s ancient hymn book for his people. They provide meditations on questions raised in everyday experiences. Over these three Wednesdays we will consider Psalms 73, 96 and 103 as we explore the themes of doubt, joy, and mercy.
Doubt. Psalm 73 is a reflection written by a man who experienced doubt. He came within a hair’s breadth of abandoning his faith in God: But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped (73:2). Yet at the end of the psalm he tells us he felt closer to God than ever before: But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, to tell of all your works (73:28). As the psalm unfolds we learn of his spiritual pilgrimage – how he progressed from doubt to a surer trust in God.
One of his big questions is framed by what we might say is a theological principle – that God is good to the upright (73:1). ‘Why is it then’, he asks, ‘that many who are godless find life easy while I suffer? Where is God?’
Indeed, a tone of bitterness flows through verses 3 through 11. It’s as though he is saying, ‘Come on, let’s face it, whatever we say when we go to church, it is the self-centered, proud, deceitful and ruthless people who succeed. Healthy and wealthy, nothing seems to bring them down. No-one seems to be able to call them to account. ‘They get rewarded for their crimes with popularity’, the psalmist observes. ‘God is irrelevant’, they say in mocking tones, rejecting any thought of divine retribution. Justice is the issue troubling the poet.
Consider what triggered the writer’s crisis of faith: All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have been plagued and am punished every morning (73:13f). For many, injustice only becomes an issue when it touches them. In those times we ask: ‘God, why me?’ It’s here that the first person singular pronouns give us away: ‘Why should I suffer?’ ‘Why me God?’ The psalm-writer articulates it: I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked (73:15).
The solution. In verses 15 following, we discover how the poet worked through his doubts. He went to church: When… I went into the sanctuary of God… I perceived their end.
Good churches not only read the Bible, but believe it to be God’s authentic, self-revelation. And so, they teach it and as they do they put God at the center of the vision of God’s people. This is vitally important. For it is only when God is at the center of our vision that we see life as it really is. We’re like the moon – we live on borrowed light. It’s only when we turn our face towards God through his Word that we see the light. But as long as we put ‘me’ at the center of life, our vision will be distorted.
So it’s only when we learn from God’s Word that we begin to see the true light revealed by God. And when the psalmist reflected on God’s Word he began to see what happens to those who choose not to believe: They are like a dream when one awakes; on awaking you despise their phantoms (73:20). As far as the Bible is concerned, this is dreadfully real.
The idea of a final day of accounting is mocked today. But when we think about it, if there is no ultimate judgement the world is reduced to moral indifference: goodness itself has no value. Furthermore, God’s people realize that just because we can’t see the future doesn’t mean it is imaginary. God sees it, even though we don’t.
There is probably no more terrible judgment on godless men and women than the reality that one day God will ignore them forever. ‘Depart from me, I never knew you,’ Jesus will say. What chilling words to hear from the Lord of the universe. What a terrifying nightmare to be despised by God. When the psalmist went to church and put God at the center of his vision, he understood how precarious is the prosperity of the godless. It won’t last, he realized.
But the psalm-writer also learned that despite his doubts and foolish talk, he was a child of God: Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me into glory (73:23). To hear God’s Word in the company of his people is a powerful grace-gift from God. It prompts us to see our doubts for what they are and opens our eyes to the riches of faith. God holds us by the hand, guides us with his counsel, and will bring us to everlasting glory.
We today have all the greater assurance of this because we live on the other side of the life and death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Without him we will not know life in all its fullness and joy. CS Lewis once put it this way: All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever.
Prayers. Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen.
Heavenly Father, the giver of all good things, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and grant that by your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by your grace and guidance do them; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The post ‘Songs for Today – Doubt’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
The Psalmist turns to God when his doubts become overwhelming after observing the success of those who ignore God and live selfish, money-grabbing lives and live in comfort and ease. Then he sees where they are heading eternally and realises that having God's wisdom, counsel and presence is an eternal blessing.
Paul describes the spiritual armour needed by a follower of Jesus Christ, in order to be able to stand against the dark spiritual powers.
Paul's guidance to parents to be loving to their children, training them up to be obedient and respectful and to know God as their loving father. This is in contrast to the autocratic rule of the Roman father who had the power to order his child to be killed or sold as a slave.
The post ‘Summer Growth – Light in the Lord’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Our marriage relationships are to reflect God's love for us - in the husband's sacrificial love for his wife for her mental, emotional and spiritual flourishing and his wife's godly submission as well as in relationships between God's people.
Paul urges the Ephesian believers to live lives that reflect their new life in Christ - having been darkness and now being light. As Christians they were a small minority in their society so Paul clarifies the qualities which will mark them out as followers of Christ.
The post ‘Summer Growth – Spiritual Amnesia…?’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
How can we live our lives in a culture which seems to have forgotten God, so that we reflect the Lord Jesus? Paul, in Ephesians chapter 4, explains how this is possible.
The post ‘Summer Growth: Essential for Growth…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
The Apostle Paul encourages the Ephesian Christians not only to be individually growing in Christ but also to be growing in unity; and he explains how God has made this possible through the different gifts he has given each one of them. In fact, they are God's gifts to each other.
Paul's encouragement to the Christian congregation in Ephesus to be reflecting the unity that we have in Christ - to have an active love for one another, being patient, humble and gentle in our relationships. Tertullian in the 2nd century AD '... Look how they love one another ...'
Paul prays that the Ephesian believers will be changed from the inside out. And that they will see God's big picture which transcends earthly concerns.
We are all created equal in God's eyes and through His Son He has made it possible for every person to know the riches of God's grace and benefit from all of God's blessings and promises.
God, through the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah, His Son, reconciles Jewish and Gentile believers with each other and with Himself.
Paul eloquently describes the rich mercy of God, who brings us to repentance and into his kingdom, even though we've been living as though we're our own God.
Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers shows us how to pray for one another and our families and friends. He also focuses on God's supremacy over all rulers in heaven and earth.
Do Cryonics really offer us eternal life/ And if so, what kind of life would it be. Is there a better option?
Over the last twenty years or so God’s people have been increasingly put on the defensive about their faith. In a climate where people of faith are dismissed as intellectually inept and even as ‘terrorists’, many are fearful of speaking up about what they believe.
Come with me to a significant scene that occurred on the day of Jesus’ resurrection. It’s recorded in John chapter 20, verses 19 through 23. That Sunday evening, the first day of the week, Jesus suddenly stood in the midst of his disciples. John doesn’t say how Jesus came to be there: he simply records, Jesus stood.
Last time the disciples had seen him, he was wounded and bleeding, wracked with pain, dying on a cross. When they had seen a spear thrust in his side and the fluid that had flowed, they knew he was truly dead. Yet here he was, not weak and limp but standing tall, speaking the very words he had uttered at the Passover meal: ‘Peace be with you’. And to show he was physically alive and not a ghost, he showed them his hands and his side.
Terrified and overjoyed they doubtless were, they knew, extraordinary miracle though it was, Jesus was truly alive again. ‘Peace be with you’, he repeated. On the night of his arrest he had said, ‘My peace I leave with you… Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in me’ (John 14:27).
In a world of turmoil and injustice, the peace he held out to his followers was not meaningless comfort. His resurrection was now proof of that. Yet it was surreal. But then, as GK Chesterton observed, Truth is stranger than fiction.
The Commission: ‘As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you…’, he continued (20:21). More than once they had heard Jesus say, ‘As the Father has sent me…’ But now he was drawing them into this work as well.
Jesus had been sent to speak God’s words in person to the world. Supremely he had been sent to be lifted up on a cross at Calvary to rescue humanity (John 12:32). Now, he was sending his disciples and in turn, his people, to announce his life-giving news to the world.
And significantly they would not be alone: they need not be fearful. The peace of Christ would be with them at every twist and turn along the way. Consider what follows.
The Gift. Jesus breathed and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven, if they are retained they are retained’ (20:22).
Let’s think about this: Jesus’ words bring together the announcement of God’s gospel and the work of the Spirit. Neither God’s Word nor his Spirit work in a vacuum. They are necessarily interlinked.
We should notice that Thomas wasn’t present, and that John’s Gospel doesn’t record separately the events of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the verb breathed doesn’t have an object – despite some English translations.
Jesus’ words peace be with you speak of his warm, personal relationship with them, even though they all had failed him. This is reinforced with his gift of his Spirit whom he had promised on the night of his arrest (14:16-24). As Paul the Apostle later says, the Spirit would assure them of their rich inheritance with Christ (Romans 8:14-17; Ephesians 1:13-14).
The Spirit’s presence was not only for the benefit of the disciples. As Jesus had promised, the Spirit would enable the disciples to remember and to interpret accurately all he had said and done (14:25-26). But he would also awaken the world to a spiritual awareness and convict it of its failure to honor the great high king who so loved us that he gave his life for us (16:8-11; 3:16).
Jesus’ reference to the retaining and forgiveness of sins is significant. Being in the passive voice, the two verbs indicate that it is not humanity, but God, who retains or forgives sin. When people fail to believe they remain isolated from the Lord. But when they turn in repentance to the Lord, they receive his forgiveness.
Bringing together the threads of Jesus’ words in the context of John’s Gospel as a whole, it is not our human prerogative to retain or forgive sins. Rather it is the outcome of the ministry of God’s Word, the gospel, and the work of his Spirit.
The ministry Jesus gave the disciples laid the foundation for our gospel ministry, namely the verbal announcement of God’s gospel that the Spirit uses to transform lives. This stands behind the Anglican Connection vision and mission: ‘Connecting for Gospel Led Regeneration’. Our work is not tied one denomination but to like-minded, gospel-focussed ministers and churches.
It is the kind of gospel vision that Timothy Keller who was gathered into the presence of the Lord last Friday, exemplified throughout his ministry. I experienced this personally when he, a Presbyterian in New York City unexpectedly invited me, an Anglican minister from Sydney, Australia, to talk with him about setting up a new church in Manhattan. Under God I was involved in setting up Christ Church NYC and what is now Emmanuel Anglican NYC. We thank the Lord for gospel-focussed leaders such as Tim Keller and pray the Lord will raise up many more.
Yet how often do we overlook Jesus’ words to his disciples in John chapter 20 and elsewhere in the New Testament. All God’s people have the wonderful privilege of being sent by Jesus to play our part in announcing his good news. Yet many today are fearful. Let me encourage you to pray that the Spirit will make real your experience of the peace of the Lord within you. Pray also that that God’s Spirit will awaken you to the riches of your inheritance with Christ, and open your eyes to opportunities to introduce family and friends to the Jesus of the Gospels.
Let me also encourage you to check out TheWord121 – an annotated version of John’s Gospel – that anyone, no matter how young in the faith, can use to introduce others to God’s good news. Find out more at: www.TheWord121.com.
Prayer. O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: do not leave us desolate, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to where our Savior Christ has gone before, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for evermore. Amen.
Almighty God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit: so enable us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and always to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
You might like to listen to, Holy Spirit Living Breath of God from Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend.
The post ‘Gospel-Led Regeneration…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Why don’t we pray more often than we do? And how often when we do pray, do we look to the model prayers we find in the Bible – and not least from the lips of Jesus?
Dr. JI Packer once commented, ‘I believe that prayer is the measure of God’s people, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face’.
Come with me to the prayer that Jesus’ prayed on the night of his arrest. We find it in John chapter 17. In verse 1 we read: After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,…’
Glory. Knowing he was about to die, Jesus prayed that he would be honored in carrying out God’s previously hidden plan. His impending death was now a certainty, for John tells us that Judas had gone out into the night to do his dark work of betrayal. And now, as Jesus looked into the darkness of this evil, he prayed that he would not only remain faithful to his mission, but would also be glorified.
The meaning of glory often eludes us for we tend to think of it more in terms of the splendor of fame or beauty. But the meaning of glory here is more subtle. It refers to the outward splendor of hidden, inner nature and qualities.
In praying, Father… glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, Jesus was asking God to clothe him with glory because his cross would reveal for all time the nature and cost of God’s love.
Furthermore, he prays that as he himself is glorified, in carrying out this supreme mission, men and women will see the splendor of the extraordinary love of the Father for men and women, even though they choose to divorce him.
Ashley Null has observed that for Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, ‘The glory of God, is God’s love for the unworthy’.
The theme of glory through his crucifixion continues in verse 4: ‘I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do’.
Jesus is saying that he has completed the work God had given him to do. In his teaching he brought further revelation of God and in his miracles (signs) he revealed God’s compassion and power. One great work – his greatest work – remained. When he was lifted up on the cross at Calvary, he would bear in himself the sin of the whole world (John 3:14-15 and 16).
In John 19: 28 & 30 we read Jesus’ final words on the cross: “It is finished”. With his death, Jesus had completed his mission. He had offered the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world, once and for all time. To try and repeat it, is to diminish and dishonor his work.
Jesus’ prayer continues: ‘So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed’ (John 17:5).
The words of John Stainer’s Crucifixion capture something of John’s record: ‘Far more awful in Thy weakness, more than kingly in Thy meekness, Thou Son of God… Here in abasement; crownless, poor, disrobed, and bleeding: There in glory interceding; Thou art the King!’
Prayer for the Disciples: ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word’ (17:6).
The greater part of Jesus’ prayer is for his disciples. This tells us of their importance. They are to be the bridge between himself and the rest of humanity. Much will depend on their understanding of Jesus as the Christ – the Messiah – and their courage and loyalty.
So he prays that the Father will give them eternal life. In verse 11, he prays that the Father will protect them; in verse 15, that the Father will keep them from the powers of evil; in verse 17, that the Father will make them holy in the truth; and in verse 16, that the love God the Father has for the Son, will be true for them as well.
Jesus knows that the road ahead for the disciples will not be easy. Yet he doesn’t pray that they will be taken out of the world, but that they will be kept faithful and guarded from the powers of the evil one.
Prayer for his people: ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one.’ (17:20-22).
In praying for his people through the ages, Jesus alerts us to the heart of his disciples’ mission. Their ministry is to be a declaratory (Word) mission. The content of their preaching and teaching will be that Jesus is God’s king who has come for us – to restore God’s friendship with us. Furthermore, Christ has come so that he might be in us – the oneness of God’s people (not denominational structures) will draw others to faith in Christ. In turn all his people through the ages will share with him as heirs in the glory to come.
Which brings me back to prayer and the theme of God’s glory. How often do we pray that God will be glorified? After all, Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Father, hallowed, glorified be your name’ (Luke 11:2). In this era of God’s mercy shouldn’t we be praying that God will glorify his name in the changing lives of his people – in you and me? Shouldn’t we also be praying that God will honor his name in drawing the lost to faith, turning hearts to their true home in Jesus Christ?
A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The post ‘Prayer…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
The loss of someone deeply loved awakens a profound anguish and grief within us. Even some time after a loved one has gone from us, we can unexpectedly find ourselves tearing up.
In the course of his last evening with his close followers Jesus told them he was going away and that they could not come with him (John 14:3). He knew what his going would mean for them and likened their state to orphaned children – destitute and alone. Significantly, he didn’t offer glib platitudes about his going but promised them a Counselor – literally, a Comforter.
In chapter 14:15-21 John the Gospel writer sets out the record of Jesus’ words of comfort and hope to his disciples. He was not going to leave them bereft. Rather, he promised them another companion to comfort and strengthen them.
‘If you love me you will keep my commandments,’ he said. ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you…’ (John 14:16-17).
When we first read these words and the reference to the Spirit we might think that Jesus is speaking about an impersonal power or force. Indeed, in Acts chapter 8 we learn that Simon Magus thought the Holy Spirit was a force he could purchase (Acts 8:18f).
However, the personal pronouns ‘him’ and ‘he’ in John 14:17 with reference to the Spirit indicate that Jesus is not speaking about some impersonal force or a power, but a person. In the original language the word ‘spirit’ is a neuter noun, an ‘it’ word. But John breaks the rules of grammar. He refers to the Spirit as ‘he’: He dwells with you…
The moment we think of the Holy Spirit as an ‘it’, we miss the profundity of Jesus’ promise. He, Jesus, is going away. ‘He’ is to be replaced, not by an ‘it’, but a ‘he’, the ‘Helper’, the ‘Spirit’.
Helper translates two words in the original text – the preposition alongside and the verb, called. The fact that Jesus promises another Helper implies that He himself has been helping. Now in this time of the disciples’ deep need he promises the Holy Spirit – a Helper, a Comforter.
Furthermore, this Helper or Comforter doesn’t provide comfort like Linus’s blanket, nor is the Comforter simply a hot water bottle for cold, hard times. He comes to strengthen our hearts and minds – putting ‘backbone’ into our lives. Jesus has been helping for three years, now the Spirit of truth comes to help.
‘The Spirit of truth is not known by the world,’ Jesus says (verse 17), but ‘you know him – and he will be with you forever’.
We are living in the age of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is not physically in the world now, but he is through his Spirit. This is astonishing and something we don’t usually think about. The Lord Jesus Christ is present and at work in the world now, not in a physical way that we can see, but invisibly through his Spirit.
It’s something that was foreshadowed in the Old Testament. There we read that God’s people dearly wanted God to live with them. Even so, they found the whole idea hard to grasp. In his prayer at the beginning of his reign, King Solomon asked: ‘But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you;…’ (I Kings 8:27). To which the answer was ‘yes’: the Temple in Jerusalem was not only a place of worship, it symbolized God’s dwelling with his people, God’s special relationship with his people.
Furthermore, Ezekiel chapter 37, verse 27 says: ‘My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people…’ What Solomon thought God was far too big for, God himself said he would do. He would come amongst his people.
The amazing thing is that the Bible tells us that God notices us and cares for us far beyond anything we can begin to imagine. Remember, back in chapter 1, verse 14, John records: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Now in John chapter 14 we begin to see the wonder of Jesus’ promise: ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you…’
The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ will not just be with us but also in us. Jesus takes his promise to another level here. He is saying that he is personally present with us in our lives. This is why Paul the Apostle writes in First Corinthians, chapter 6: Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit?
What does this mean in reality? Think of it like this. If someone put a powerful explosive in our apartment what would we do? We’d call in the explosive experts and keep clear. But if the newly crowned Charles III came to our place, what would we do? We’d surely welcome him and take the opportunity to get to know him.
Jesus promises his followers a powerful person, a counselor, a companion. For many, Christianity is little more than a moral code they must struggle to observe. But Jesus is saying, ‘I want you to understand that the faith I am talking about is, in its deepest essence, about a relationship, a relationship with the one who is at the heart of the universe.’ It’s about knowing Jesus and having him live with us through his Spirit. ‘God in the soul of men and women,’ is how one ancient writer put it.
Sometimes we can feel cut off from God by a sense of failure or unworthiness, ignorance or unbelief, or abandonment. Jesus is saying to his first followers, and to you and me today, ‘Do not despair: you can experience me in your life.’ We are not alone in life.
In his Letters Paul the Apostle develops this astonishing work of the Spirit. For example, in Romans chapter 8, verses 15 through 17: … You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we might be glorified with him.
CS Lewis picks up this theme in his Narnia books with the analogy that the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve are the kings and queens of Narnia. The Bible tells us that God’s Spirit awakens us to the privilege God’s people have of being joint heirs with Jesus Christ in his inheritance.
A prayer. Heavenly Father, the giver of all good things, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and grant that by your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by your grace and guidance do them; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘Bereft…?’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Jesus promises his disciples that although he is leaving them, they will not be bereft. He will send the Holy Spirit to be their Comforter and Guide.
Glen Scrivener’s recent book, The Air We Breathe (2022) compellingly explores the way that Christianity has shaped the moral values of the West. It is a book for those who believe and those who don’t know what to believe. It especially awakens those of us who believe, to why we need God’s strength to honor him in our lives as well as promote him afresh. Yet how often are we silenced through our fears, forgetting what the Bible reveals about Jesus Christ.
For example, at the opening of John chapter 14 a dark cloud was hanging over Jesus’ disciples. For three years they had been with him and were increasingly confident he was God’s promised king. But at the Passover meal he had told them he was going away. ‘Don’t be troubled,’ he said. ‘Believe in God, believe also in me… I go to prepare a place for you’ (John 14:1, 2b).
Frustration and Doubts. Thomas’s response to Jesus’ words expresses a frustration we can all feel: ‘Lord, we do not know where you’re going…’ For him, knowledge is based on concrete realities not abstract metaphors. ‘Where is this Father’s house you’re talking about Jesus? How can we know the way?’ Thomas was frustrated and doubted.
Jesus’ reply is breath-taking, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6). Significantly, he didn’t say, ‘I’ll show you the way’ but rather, ‘I am the way’; he didn’t say, ‘I’ll tell you the truth’ but, ‘I am the truth’; he didn’t say, ‘I’ll give you eternal life’ but, ‘I am the life’.
He is saying that at the heart of the universe is not a mathematical or scientific equation, but a person. This news is ‘the air we have come to breathe’.
Now many dismiss the existence of God and a supernatural realm – especially the idea that the supernatural can enter the material world. Maybe Thomas thought this too. Perhaps this is why later on, he couldn’t accept that Jesus had risen from the dead (John 20:25).
Let’s think about this. You may attend church but never admit your doubts, silently going along with the church crowd. It would have been easy for Thomas to have pretended to believe what Jesus was saying. At least he was prepared to admit his doubts. And, helpfully for us, Jesus doesn’t cut him down. When, a week after his resurrection Jesus saw Thomas he said, ‘Put your finger here Thomas. Don’t be faithless but believing’.
In the midst of cynical voices today, it’s also encouraging to know that there are eminent mathematicians who testify to the trustworthiness of the Bible’s record and the existence of the supernatural. For example, Dr. John Lennox, professor emeritus of mathematics at Oxford University, has said, ‘The rational intelligibility of the universe,… points to the existence of the Mind that was responsible both for the universe and our minds. It is for this reason that we are able to do science and to discover the beautiful mathematical structures that underlie the phenomena we can observe’ (cited in Barnett, Gospel Truth, p.21).
Jesus is saying that the only way we’re to make sense of our existence is by recognising that he is the complex person who is the Mind behind the universe. People who can hardly recall their two times tables can be closer to the truth than many high-level scientists or mathematicians – because they have a relationship with him.
Questions. Phillip, another of Jesus’s disciples, had a follow up question: ‘Lord show us the Father. That’s all we need’ (John 14:9).
Philip wanted some tangible experience of God that would assure him of Jesus’ words. He may have wanted a special appearance of God such as Moses experienced at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-6). Or maybe he was influenced by the Greek mystery religions and had in mind some kind of inner ecstasy, a spiritual trip that would lift him to new levels of consciousness. Either way he wanted to see God.
Jesus’ response is astonishing: ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14:9).
We would not have been surprised if Jesus had replied, ‘Don’t be silly Philip. You’re asking the impossible’. Rather he says, ‘Don’t you know me Philip, even after I’ve been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’.
Many who read history still regard Jesus as one of the world’s great teachers. But this doesn’t come near to what he is saying: he isn’t just an emissary from God, but God himself.
Consider how Jesus continues: ‘Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves’ (John 14:11).
Think about it, Jesus is saying: ‘You’ve seen me turn water into first-class wine; you’ve heard that I cured a young boy at a distance; you’ve seen me heal a man paralysed for 38 years, provide food for thousands at a word, restore sight to a man blind from birth, as well as bring a man dead for four days out of a tomb. Doesn’t that tell you something about me?’
It would have made sense, explaining many extraordinary events over the last three years – how Jesus could out-teach the academics of his day: he knew what he spoke about because he is from God; how Jesus could raise people from the dead, because he is the source of life.
The cumulative impact of Jesus’ life – the signs he performed and his revelatory teaching – exemplifies the truth of the opening lines of John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men and women … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, … (John 1:1-4, 14).
Blaise Pascal, the 17th C French mathematician, philosopher and physicist, wrote in his Pensées‘: ‘People despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is just to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men and women wish it were true, and then show them that it is’.
To rephrase Glenn Scrivener’s words, ‘Is this the air you breathe’?
A prayer. Almighty God, you show to those who are in error the light of your truth so that they may return into the way of righteousness: grant to all who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s service that we may renounce those things that are contrary to our profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to it; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘Doubts and Questions…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Elections and the resulting political discourse remind us how much most people long for a leader who will bring us justice and peace, protection and prosperity. However, on every occasion our aspirations are dashed as leaders reveal their flaws and failures and self-interest. No one proves to be the ideal leader.
Let me suggest one exception: Jesus who said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
Many today view shepherds through rose-tinted lenses, imagining them with their faithful dogs, caring for the sheep on grassy hillsides. The reality is that the shepherds of ancient Israel lived dangerous lives. And because sheep were the equivalent of money in the bank today, shepherds had to contend, not only with marauding animals, but also with thieves and armed robbers.
Every village had their ‘banks’ – sheepfolds – with their door and security guard. In John 10 Jesus twins the images of Door (or Gate) and Good Shepherd when he says: ‘…He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (John 10:2-3). And in verse 7 he says, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep’, and in verse 10, ‘I am the good shepherd’.
Shepherds. Usually poor, and often treated as outcasts, shepherds played an essential part in the life of Israel. Israel’s kings were described as shepherds. King David, the greatest of the Old Testament kings had been brought from shepherding sheep to shepherd God’s people Israel. But it was not only the kings who were called shepherds, but also the religious leaders. In Ezekiel 34 we read that when they abused their position and failed their spiritual duty, God declared that he himself would shepherd his people. Ezekiel 34:1-31 echoes Psalm 23 as it speaks of God himself as the shepherd of his people.
A millennium after David, Jesus says that he is the door and the good shepherd. As the good shepherd he brings together shepherd as a metaphor for the Messiah and the theme of death. False messiahs took the lives of men and women. The true Messiah gives life to men and women. And the life he gives, is life to the full (10:10). But it comes only at the cost of his own life ‘…Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep’, Jesus says (10:15).
We begin to see what Jesus means when he says he is the good shepherd. He is not a do-gooder, for they tend to be more interested in themselves and what others think of them. This good shepherd is willing to take our death from our shoulders and bear it himself. That is what he means when he says he is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. He didn’t die just to prove how much he loved us. He died to save us from death itself.
Furthermore, eternal life in biblical terms is not an existence that goes on and on. Rather it is the expansion and intensification of the very best experiences we enjoy in life now. Jesus is not interested in the quantity of life but in the quality.
An underlying theme we often miss in John chapter 10 is the distinction that Jesus makes concerning his goal and his method compared with those who went before him and would come after him. Jesus was not a political Messiah.
In John 10:8 Jesus says: ‘All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, they will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly’.
The thieves and robbers were the false messiahs, the political activists of Jesus’ day. In their endeavors to free Israel from Roman rule, they used violence in various forms. But Jesus charts a very different path in the cause of real life and true freedom.
As the door, he is the only one who has the right to open the gate of heaven and have the title Messiah. As the good shepherd he has given his life to open the way to the freedom and joy of God’s long-promised kingdom.
When we consider these words of Jesus here, we discern their application in our 21st century world. The only real hope of freedom and life the progressive materialist has to offer is some kind of embodiment of Karl Marx’s classless society. According to Marx people could only find real happiness if they freed themselves from the imperialism of economic oppression and exploitation. Only then would the hostilities between races and nations be resolved and humanity be able to develop its full potential.
But don’t be misled, Jesus is saying. ‘These people have come to steal – they have no respect for personal property or enterprise. They have come to kill – they don’t value human life.’ Think of the millions who died under the 20th century revolutionary movements led by Lenin and Stalin, Hitler and Mao, Pol Pot and Idi Amin. And to what end? No perfect peaceful and just society has emerged.
‘I am the good shepherd’, Jesus says. Have you personally heard the voice of the Good Shepherd through the Scriptures? And having heard it, do you trust him with your life and follow him? That is what he calls us to – a life of discipleship; a life with the people who respond to his call.
I can’t tell you where that life may lead. I cannot say that life will be a bed of roses, or that all your problems will evaporate overnight. But one thing I can promise, because Jesus, the good shepherd promises it: you will find his leadership perfectly satisfies all your longings.
Only those who truly turn to him will find true life and liberty. They alone find true deliverance – they are saved. They alone find true fulfillment – they find satisfying pasture.
If we want to find true freedom, deep satisfaction and real life, we need to turn to Jesus Christ – who carried not a gun, but a cross.
A prayer. Almighty God, you alone can order the unruly wills and passions of sinful men and women. Help us so to love what you command and desire what you promise, that among the many and varied changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys may be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Note: Material in today’s Word on Wednesday is adapted from my book in the Reading the Bible Today series: Luke – An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2019
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘The Good Shepherd…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In his book God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? Dr. John Lennox, emeritus Professor of Mathematics Oxford University, writes, ‘To the majority of those who have reflected deeply and written about the origin and nature of the universe, it has seemed that it points beyond itself to a source which is non-physical and of great intelligence and power’.
Transcendent Power. Yet in today’s world where influential voices sometimes angrily dismiss such a possibility, it is easy to overlook the transcendent power that was at work on the first Easter Day when Jesus physically rose from the dead. When we consider the evidence, it becomes clear that Jesus’ resurrection didn’t occur because of some natural mechanism. It happened because the creator God chose to intervene (Romans 6:4b).
The four Gospel writers record that on the third day following his crucifixion and burial, Jesus’ tomb was empty. He was seen physically alive by his close followers and many others.
Eyewitnesses. In First Corinthians – one of the earliest New Testament Letters – chapter 15, verses 4b-6a and verse 8, Paul the Apostle writes: … Christ was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and …he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at one time, most of whom are still living… Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Paul is saying that Christianity didn’t start because a group of fanatics had invented a story about their hero, nor because a group of philosophers had come to an agreed conclusion about life, and not even because a group of mystics shared the same vision about God. It began with eyewitnesses – ordinary men and women who saw something very extra-ordinary happen. In fact, it began with the history of a man who had risen from the dead.
Grand Design. Furthermore, there was a far-reaching purpose in the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In Luke chapter 24 – the ‘resurrection chapter’ – the dominant theme is Jesus’ crucifixion: It had to happen.
In his conversation with the two on the road to Emmaus Jesus said: “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter his glory?” (24:26). He also pointed out, ‘If you knew the Scriptures you would have known that for me the road to the crown was through the cross. That was the message of the prophets. I am the suffering servant of whom they spoke’ (for example, Isaiah 52:13-53:12).
And later, when he met with the disciples, he spelled out God’s grand design. He showed them how the Scriptures pointed to the Messiah’s necessary suffering, death, and resurrection on the third day (24:46). Jesus’ death and resurrection were an essential part of God’s grand design, a plan formed even before creation came into existence and reaffirmed with the creation of men and women (Genesis 1:26a).
God’s good news. Luke tells us that Jesus went on to tell the disciples what now needs to happen: “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his (Jesus’) name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (24:47). Jesus’ death and resurrection are tightly linked to the announcement of the forgiveness of sins.
Indeed, Paul identifies this when he writes: For I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and was raised on the third day … (1 Corinthians 15:3)
The story of Jesus’ death and resurrection is not merely that of a dead man who came back to life, nor that of a dying and rising god. Neither is it a romantic story that tells us that death is not the end. It is the record of Messiah’s shameful death by crucifixion, suffering the pains of God-forsakenness on our behalf because we have broken God’s holy law.
Simply to say that Christ died is insufficient. Historians agree that he died. But the New Testament explains that his death was a voluntary sacrifice with a purpose – to satisfy God’s perfect justice, once and for all, on behalf of guilty humanity. Unless sin had first been dealt with, Jesus’ resurrection would not point to forgiveness and new life.
To enjoy the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection we need to turn to him in a spirit of repentance, humbly asking God to forgive us for following the devices and desires of our own hearts and so breaking his holy laws. A gospel presentation without the call to true heartfelt repentance is not the gospel.
Jesus’ resurrection bears witness to God’s grand design for men and women – a design that offers full and free forgiveness, and a life of meaning and hope, love and joy forever.
In his final Narnia story, The Last Battle, CS Lewis metaphorically opens our eyes to an ever-larger picture of God’s Grand Design: ‘And as He (Aslan) spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.
‘And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.’
A prayer. Almighty Father, you have given your only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification: grant that we may put away the old influences of corruption and evil, and always serve you in sincerity and truth; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
You may like to listen to Christ Is Risen, He Is Risen Indeed from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
Note: Material in today’s Word on Wednesday is adapted from my book in the Reading the Bible Today series: Luke – An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2019
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘He is Risen Indeed. Hallelujah!’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In his book God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? Dr. John Lennox, emeritus Professor of Mathematics Oxford University, writes, ‘To the majority of those who have reflected deeply and written about the origin and nature of the universe, it has seemed that it points beyond itself to a source which is non-physical and of great intelligence and power’.
Transcendent Power. Yet in today’s world where influential voices sometimes angrily dismiss such a possibility, it is easy to overlook the transcendent power that was at work on the first Easter Day when Jesus physically rose from the dead. When we consider the evidence, it becomes clear that Jesus’ resurrection didn’t occur because of some natural mechanism. It happened because the creator God chose to intervene (Romans 6:4b).
The four Gospel writers record that on the third day following his crucifixion and burial, Jesus’ tomb was empty. He was seen physically alive by his close followers and many others.
Eyewitnesses. In First Corinthians – one of the earliest New Testament Letters – chapter 15, verses 4b-6a and verse 8, Paul the Apostle writes: … Christ was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and …he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at one time, most of whom are still living… Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Paul is saying that Christianity didn’t start because a group of fanatics had invented a story about their hero, nor because a group of philosophers had come to an agreed conclusion about life, and not even because a group of mystics shared the same vision about God. It began with eyewitnesses – ordinary men and women who saw something very extra-ordinary happen. In fact, it began with the history of a man who had risen from the dead.
Grand Design. Furthermore, there was a far-reaching purpose in the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In Luke chapter 24 – the ‘resurrection chapter’ – the dominant theme is Jesus’ crucifixion: It had to happen.
In his conversation with the two on the road to Emmaus Jesus said: “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter his glory?” (24:26). He also pointed out, ‘If you knew the Scriptures you would have known that for me the road to the crown was through the cross. That was the message of the prophets. I am the suffering servant of whom they spoke’ (for example, Isaiah 52:13-53:12).
And later, when he met with the disciples, he spelled out God’s grand design. He showed them how the Scriptures pointed to the Messiah’s necessary suffering, death, and resurrection on the third day (24:46). Jesus’ death and resurrection were an essential part of God’s grand design, a plan formed even before creation came into existence and reaffirmed with the creation of men and women (Genesis 1:26a).
God’s good news. Luke tells us that Jesus went on to tell the disciples what now needs to happen: “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his (Jesus’) name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (24:47). Jesus’ death and resurrection are tightly linked to the announcement of the forgiveness of sins.
Indeed, Paul identifies this when he writes: For I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and was raised on the third day … (1 Corinthians 15:3)
The story of Jesus’ death and resurrection is not merely that of a dead man who came back to life, nor that of a dying and rising god. Neither is it a romantic story that tells us that death is not the end. It is the record of Messiah’s shameful death by crucifixion, suffering the pains of God-forsakenness on our behalf because we have broken God’s holy law.
Simply to say that Christ died is insufficient. Historians agree that he died. But the New Testament explains that his death was a voluntary sacrifice with a purpose – to satisfy God’s perfect justice, once and for all, on behalf of guilty humanity. Unless sin had first been dealt with, Jesus’ resurrection would not point to forgiveness and new life.
To enjoy the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection we need to turn to him in a spirit of repentance, humbly asking God to forgive us for following the devices and desires of our own hearts and so breaking his holy laws. A gospel presentation without the call to true heartfelt repentance is not the gospel.
Jesus’ resurrection bears witness to God’s grand design for men and women – a design that offers full and free forgiveness, and a life of meaning and hope, love and joy forever.
In his final Narnia story, The Last Battle, CS Lewis metaphorically opens our eyes to an ever-larger picture of God’s Grand Design: ‘And as He (Aslan) spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.
‘And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.’
A prayer. Almighty Father, you have given your only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification: grant that we may put away the old influences of corruption and evil, and always serve you in sincerity and truth; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
You may like to listen to Christ Is Risen, He Is Risen Indeed from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
Note: Material in today’s Word on Wednesday is adapted from my book in the Reading the Bible Today series: Luke – An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2019
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘Christ is Risen…!’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Easter Day that we celebrate this Sunday is a gala day as we remember Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. His resurrection underscores the validity of the Christian faith. Without it, we are lost.
That said, our joy with Jesus’ resurrection raises interesting questions: Why isn’t an empty tomb the symbol of Christianity? Why is the symbol a cross? In today’s age when feelings and political correctness trump facts it would surely make much more sense if we focused on the themes of the new life and hope that the resurrection symbolizes.
Yet despite the fact that Jesus’ crucifixion was a bloody and brutal affair, the cross remains the symbol of the Christian faith.
In the opening scene of Luke’s ‘resurrection chapter’ we read: But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body (Luke 24:1-3).
Despair. There was no joy in the hearts of those women that morning. They had watched Jesus die and now were grief-stricken and despairing. They had believed that he was God’s Messiah and were looking forward to a new age of justice and peace, of laughter, love and joy. Now, their only thought was to give his body a proper burial.
We can picture them trudging to the tomb in the grey light of the dawn, burdened by their own thoughts and laden with heavy jars of oils and spices for the burial.
But that was not all. When they arrived at the grave, they saw that the huge stone closing the tomb had been rolled away. Was this some underhand action on the part of the authorities?
While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them… (24:4). They had despaired at Jesus’ death and now were terrified: they could only bow their faces to the ground at the dazzling appearance of two angels. And when the angels spoke, the women were even more confused: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” ‘You’ve come to the wrong place.’
Remember! “Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise again…’” (Luke 24:6b-7a).
The angels could have explained the empty tomb. Instead, they told the women to remember what Jesus had said to them. The focus of Jesus’ words they quoted is important: ‘The Son of Man, the Messiah, had to suffer and die and then rise again’. Suffering and death were essential to the first coming of God’s king.
Which brings us back to the subject of the cross. Richard Dawkins and others reckon that to say, ‘Jesus died for our sins’ is vicious and disgusting. ‘Why couldn’t God simply forgive sins if he so chose?’ Dawkins asks.
In every age Jesus’ death has been an enigma – even for his first followers. Yet during the course of his ministry, he had foreshadowed both his death and his resurrection. Indeed, in his public ministry he revealed that he had not come as a political Messiah to bring in God’s kingdom through force.
Rather, he came as a savior to address our greatest need – our broken relationship with God. Only Jesus Christ, the man from heaven, could deliver us from God’s just judgement and open the doors of hope for the future.
This theme infuses Luke’s gospel. At Jesus’ birth the angel announced that God’s savior had been born. And when he met with Zacchaeus, Jesus summed up his ministry saying, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
Furthermore, his words at the Last Supper are key to the meaning of his death: “This is my body given for you…” “This is my blood shed for you…” These words are amongst the oldest statements of the New Testament. We find them in First Corinthians, chapter 11, written around 50AD, as well as in Matthew, Mark and Luke, which were written no later than the 60s.
In fact when we read Luke as a whole we come to see that Jesus’ death is about God’s love and justice – central aspects of His character. Some say that Jesus’ crucifixion was a form of child abuse – a father punishing a son for someone else’s wrongs. But we need to remember Jesus’ words in John chapter 10 verse 11, where he said he would lay down his life voluntarily.
The movement of the Bible tells us that without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins (Levitcus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22). God, the wronged party, in his extraordinary love, came amongst us in person and bore the punishment we deserve. God as the judge, paid in full, once and for all time, the penalty owed by us, the accused who have been found guilty of dishonoring the name of God.
When we understand this, Jesus’ words at his Last Supper: “My body given for you,” and “My blood shed for you”, we begin to see why the cross, once an instrument of Roman brutality, became, and remains today, the symbol of God’s extraordinary love for the world.
The cross is not a charm, but yesterday’s barbaric execution tool. Yet this was the price for our forgiveness required by the holy and just God. We surely tremble at the cost God was willing to pay for our restoration.
Prayers – for Good Friday and Easter Day.
Almighty Father, look graciously upon this your people, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen.
© John G. Mason
You may like to listen to In Christ Alone from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
Note: Material in today’s Word on Wednesday is adapted from my book in the Reading the Bible Today series: Luke – An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2019
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘The Cross…!’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Royal events attract the attention of millions around the world. It is estimated some 4 billion people watched the funeral of her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II – more than twice the population of the world when she was born.
How different was another royal occasion, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the acclamation of the crowds calling on him as God’s King.
A King’s Welcome. The Gospels tell us that Jesus deliberately set the scene for his entry into Jerusalem that day. Riding into the city on the back of the foal of a donkey, he was fulfilling a prophecy about the Messiah made by Zechariah some 500 years before (Zechariah 9:9).
When Jesus prepared to ride the donkey, the disciples threw their cloaks on its back, and Luke records that as Jesus rode down from the Mount of Olives people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. His entry into Jerusalem had the hallmarks of a king entering his city (Luke 19:35f).
Indeed, Luke along with other Gospel writers wants us to feel just how much of a royal procession it was: As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!…” (Luke 19:37f).
The crowds were singing one of the festival psalms for the Passover Feast (Psalm 118:26). It’s a song of victory, a hymn of praise to the one God who never loses his battles and establishes his kingdom.
Peace was another theme: “…Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” they sang. Peace was the angels’ song at the announcement of Jesus’ birth. Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people… the angels had sung (Luke 2:12).
However, there was an irony here that the crowds in their enthusiasm seemed to have missed: this king was not riding a warrior horse. It was no royal or presidential motorcade with an armed security.
And there is another element to that first Palm Sunday which Luke records: As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. … because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God” (Luke 19:41-44).
As Jesus came over the top of the Mount of Olives and saw the city, it is clear that uppermost in his thoughts were his suffering and the destruction of nation’s capital, David’s royal city. Yes, he was the king coming ‘in the name of the Lord’ as the people sang. But he knew he was not coming to take up David’s throne at that time as everyone expected. Rather, he foresaw the city of Jerusalem – a smoking, desolate ruin.
Why would this happen? Because Jerusalem failed to recognize the One who had visited it.
On that first Palm Sunday there were joy, acclamation, and tears. Yet, five days later the unthinkable occurred: Jesus was put to death by crucifixion. The contrast between the first Palm Sunday when crowds acclaimed Jesus as king and the day he was strung up on a cross, could not have been more stark. One day the crowds were saying he was God’s promised king; within a week the dying Jesus was exposed to the vulgar frivolity of the Roman soldiers as they offered him wine and made a party of it. “If you are the king of the Jews,” they mocked, “save yourself” (Luke 23:37).
The events of that Thursday evening and Friday had moved swiftly. Jesus had been betrayed, arrested, brought to trial before the Jewish religious leaders, before Herod, and before Pilate. Herod and Pilate had declared him innocent of the charges against him. But the Jewish leaders were adamant he should be put to death.
And when Jesus was nailed to the cross, Pilate the Roman governor in Judea had ordered, as was the custom, that the charge against Jesus be nailed above his head – ‘King of the Jews.’ With Jesus’ resurrection and his conquest of death, Pilate’s notice was prophetic.
Why then did Jesus die? Jesus himself answers the question. In Luke chapter 19, verse 10 he says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”.
The whole of the New Testament and the voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts tells us why: he died for you and for me. As we read in Romans chapter 5, verse 8 the punishment for our sin was laid on him. Indeed, when he was dying, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Everyone watching the scene that day knew he was innocent. The them he was praying for are all who shut their minds to the voice of truth, the voice of the Spirit, and the testimony of their conscience. He was praying for the Roman soldiers and the Jewish leaders; he was praying for the crowd and his followers. But he was also praying then for you and me, for none of us has perfectly honored him as we should.
And isn’t it also true that although we have heard the story of the cross, there are times when we have refused to let it change us? How often have we failed to reckon that our indifference or arrogance towards him contributed to his pain.
How encouraging it is to reflect on the twin themes of Palm Sunday and Good Friday. As we consider their significance, we need to ensure that our own relationship with the king is secure. And when the joy of that really touches us, surely we’ll want to share it with family and friends as well as many others.
A prayer. Almighty and everlasting God, in tender love towards humankind you sent your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take our nature upon him and to suffer death on the cross, so that all should follow the example of his great humility. Grant that we may follow the example of his suffering and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘The King…?’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
The subject of death is not something we usually discuss. It’s too personal and confronting. Yet it’s the ultimate certainty we all face. It’s why literature, film and philosophy so often dwell on the themes of our mortality. But it’s rare that anyone claims they can do anything about it. Death is assumed to be the inevitable end for everyone.
In John chapter 10 we learn that life had been heating up for Jesus in Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders had attempted to stone him for his apparent blasphemy (10:31).
So Jesus left the city for the region east of the Jordan River. There he learned that his friend Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, was dying in the village of Bethany, near Jerusalem. Then learning that Lazarus had died, and against the advice of his disciples who feared the Jewish leaders, Jesus returned to Bethany where he was first met by Martha.
In the course of their conversation where she said to Jesus that if he had come sooner her brother would not have died, he made an amazing assertion: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
His words are astonishing, for in saying, “I am the resurrection and the life…” Jesus wasn’t saying, ‘I promise resurrection and life’. Nor was he saying, ‘I procure,’ or, ‘I bring’ but ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’
Furthermore, in saying ‘I am’ he uses the very words God used when he disclosed his name to Moses. Unless Jesus is equal with God his words are nothing short of blasphemy.
“I am the resurrection and the life…” he says. “Do you believe this?” he asked Martha.
John records that Jesus then met Martha’s sister, Mary who fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Once again Jesus was rebuked for not having come sooner. But unlike Martha Mary allows her grief to flow. John tells us then that Martha and Mary weren’t the only ones to grieve:
Jesus wept (11:35).
These words constitute the shortest verse in the Bible. How poignant, how stark it is.
The word wept that John uses speaks of a deep anguished cry of grief. It’s the cry of heartfelt loss, the kind of grief that explodes from the depths of our inner being.
Why did Jesus react this way? He didn’t weep like this when news came that Jairus’s daughter had died. Certainly Lazarus was a close friend but Jesus knew he was going to pull him out of that tomb.
Jesus wept. I suggest he was grieving for our human plight. No matter how successful we are, how good and compassionate we are, death awaits us all.
Men and women, created in God’s image, are now broken images and broken images cannot endure the pure light of God’s perfection and glory. Jesus was grieving for what we as men and women had lost. As in Adam all die, Paul the Apostle writes in First Corinthians chapter 15.
At Lazarus’s graveside, Jesus felt the full impact of this and wept. But there is a sense in which Jesus grieved at what our loss would mean for him. It would mean that he himself would have to die. Only through his death could he conquer death and raise to life anyone who turns to him and believes in him. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22).
Could it be true? The witness of Jesus’ own resurrection, the New Testament, the evidence of history, the existence of the Christian church, point to the conclusion that Jesus’ words were the truth. Apart from Jesus Christ we have no certainty about the future.
And if there is a future life, how can we be assured that we are good enough to achieve it? Most people are aware of their failures – failures that we don’t want to talk about, let alone tell anyone about. It’s one of the reasons John Newton’s Amazing Grace is so well known: it speaks to our sense of lostness, our need to be rescued and our hope for the future.
John’s record doesn’t stop with Jesus’ words to Martha and Mary. He went to the tomb and asked that the stone be rolled away. We can only imagine the scene. A graveyard, a cave in a hillside, filled with bodies and bones. The stench of rotting bodies as the gravestone was rolled aside.
And then, standing at the entrance of the tomb, Jesus called, “Lazarus, come out!”
For a moment everyone must have thought he was mad. But then, a sight to behold emerged: still in his grave clothes Lazarus appeared.
Voices around us today insist that because we now know the laws of nature we can be sure that miracles like this can’t happen. To which Dr. John Lennox, emeritus professor of mathematics and philosophy at Oxford University, responds, ‘The laws of nature that science observes are the observable regularities that God the creator has built into the universe. However, such ‘laws’ don’t prevent God from intervening if he chooses. When he does, we are able to identify the irregularity and speak of it as ‘a miracle’’.
Men and women have come a long way in understanding and harnessing quantum chemistry, physics and medicine, but nothing compares with the naked power that Jesus wielded at that moment.
The scene is a picture of a time yet to come when Jesus will once again appear on the stage of world events. On that day he will cry out in a loud voice, “Come forth,” and all the dead from throughout time will rise.
The question Jesus had asked Martha that day was: “Do you believe this?” Let me ask, can you say with Martha, “Yes Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world?”
Death is not the end of our story. Rather for all who turn to Jesus and believe in him, death opens the door to a new beginning of life that is everlasting.
A prayer. We beseech you, almighty God, to look in mercy on your people; so that by your great goodness we may be governed and preserved evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
You may want to listen to Christ Our Hope in Life and Death from Keith and Kristyn Getty and Matt Papa.
The post ‘The Dead are Raised…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In our troubled world many long for the days of the great revivals – perhaps the days of the Wesleys and George Whitfield in England and in the US, or the years of Billy Graham, or the days of great revival in East Africa.
Let me suggest we shouldn’t be discouraged. Jesus himself began with a small group of men and women and look what happened: by the 4th century AD the influence of God’s gospel had had spread throughout the Roman Empire. This hadn’t happened through armed conflict but through the work of God’s Word and God’s Spirit.
Come with me to the events that unfold in John chapter 9 – a chapter that reads like a drama in three Acts.
Act 1. As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. We must work the works of him who sent me’ (9:1-4a).
A blind man begging on the side of the road was a familiar sight. But this man hadn’t contracted blindness through the dusty, disease laden air of those roads. He had been born blind, and the question Jesus’ close followers asked reflected Jewish theology: ‘Who sinned? This man or his parents?’ they asked. People often ask a similar question today when things go awry: ‘What have I done to deserve this?’
Jesus’ response was unexpected: ‘Sin hadn’t led to this man’s blindness. Rather, it was to reveal God’s power’. Consider the simplicity of the drama that followed. Jesus doesn’t look for any expression of faith, he simply acts. And like all the gospel miracles, he wields the creative power of God. It’s a miracle which speaks of the uniqueness of Jesus. Jesus is a unique man doing unique things.
He spat on the ground, made clay and anointed the man’s eyes. ‘Go and wash…’ he commanded. The man obeyed and returned seeing.
Just think how this simply stated drama would be written up today. There’d be a detailed description of what Jesus said and did. There’d be interviews with people who witnessed it, together with the inevitable question: ‘How did you feel?’ The gospel record almost seems flat and disappointing. But what mattered was what was done, not what was felt.
A marvellous miracle had occurred. Now what?
In Act 2 five very different conversations unfold, revealing that the man had not only been physically blind but also spiritually blind. The first conversation was with confused neighbors. ‘I am the man,’ he said. ‘The man Jesus healed me’ (9:8-12).
But signs of tension emerge with a second conversation. The Pharisees disputed the credentials of someone who had healed him on the Sabbath (9:13-17). No one from God would heal on the Sabbath; how could a sinner do such signs? ‘What do you think?’, they ask the man. ‘I think he’s the prophet,’ he responded.
In a third conversation the Pharisees spoke with the healed man’s parents. In response to their questioning, they insisted their son was born blind but could now see. Anyone who said the man who had healed him is the Christ, would be excommunicated, the Pharisees warned. ‘Don’t involve us,’ the parents said. ‘Ask our son. He is of age.’
And when the Pharisees spoke with the healed man, they aggressively observed that he had been born ‘in utter sin’. ‘Keep quiet and all will be well,’ they said. But the man wasn’t shaken. He knew that he was born blind and that now he can see. He was also beginning to see that these revered leaders were blind to the truth.
‘We know that God has spoken to Moses,’ they said, ‘but as for this man, we don’t know where he is from’. ‘You call Jesus a sinner,’ the man responded. ‘If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’
The fifth conversation is one of the most beautiful found in the Bible (9:35-37). The man has just been rejected by the religious leaders, but Jesus seeks him out. ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’, Jesus asks. And the man’s response is honest and open: ‘I would believe if…’ Jesus’ response is stunning: ‘You have seen him. With your own eyes you have seen me, the Son of Man, And now I am speaking to your mind and heart, reaching the depths of your soul with who I am.
‘Lord I believe,’ he responded. And he worshipped Jesus as though he were God.
There are few mountain peaks higher in John’s gospel. The man began by calling Jesus a man (9:11); then a prophet (9:17); and then, ‘this man must be from God’. Now he worships Jesus as Lord.
It’s a road that many people travel as they awaken to their understanding of Jesus: he did live; he is a prophet; he must be from God; He is God – He is my Lord.
But there is a Third Act as Jesus draws out the meaning (9:39-41). “For judgment I came into this world,” Jesus said, “so that those who do not see may see, and so that those who see may become blind”.
Whenever Jesus spoke, he created tension within people. This continues today, for every time we talk about Jesus, people will react in one of two ways. Some will want to find out more and in time, come into the light of faith. Others will choose to be drawn into the darkness of unbelief – a terrifying thought.
But there is a very positive side to the healing of the formerly blind man. Through the miracle Jesus performed, through his own testimony, and through the testimony of the healed man, John reveals that Jesus is truly the man from heaven.
Furthermore, the miracle is a parable. In the healing of the man born blind, God shows us his greater purpose: to give us spiritual sight – something he alone can do. We can’t get it by our own efforts. God opens eyes, drawing us to the truth and a living faith in the Lord Jesus.
A prayer. Almighty God, grant that we, who justly deserve to be punished for our sinful deeds, may in your mercy and kindness be pardoned and restored; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘The Blind See…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In his Pensées Blaise Pascal, the 17th century French mathematician and philosopher wrote, ‘Everyone seeks happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. They will never take the least step but to this object…’
John the Gospel writer tells us of a woman at a well in Samaria two thousand years ago who would have agreed.
Like us, she longed for happiness, but it had eluded her. Five failed marriages testified to that. Thinking that love and sex and marriage would give her life meaning and happiness, she thought that each new man would be the answer. But each time she made the same mistake. Her life was a mess. She felt insecure, lonely, and dissatisfied.
An unexpected conversation. But there came a day when her life was transformed through an unexpected conversation with a Jewish man.
Ignoring social, cultural and political taboos, Jesus initiated a conversation with her through a simple request for water from the well. He didn’t talk about her life or matters of faith – at least to begin with. Rather he spoke then, as he speaks to us today, with concern and respect, meeting us where we are.
However, it wasn’t long before he took the conversation to another level by speaking to her about living water. This provided a natural opportunity for her to open up about her hopes.
It happened this way. Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water” (John 4:12-15).
Jesus offered her water that would satisfy her deep inner spiritual thirst. He was saying that he is the answer to the emptiness and the longing for happiness that gnaw at our souls.
Most of us aren’t willing to acknowledge this and the woman that day was no exception. We pretend we’re doing well but the reality is that we often live closer to despairthan we admit. So, we endeavor to offset our sense of emptiness by filling our social calendar, making money, being a success, even pursuing sexual adventure. But it never works.
No matter how successful we are, no matter how intense the emotional relationships we might experience, nothing can be a substitute for the relationship with God for which we are made. But if we’re going to find Jesus’ answer to our longing for happiness, first we have to admit our need.
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet…”(John 4:16-19)
Suddenly she realized that Jesus, whom she had taken for a progressive Jewish man, was nothing less than a prophet with supernatural knowledge of her life. She knew enough about religion to realize that she was being challenged to sort out her relationship with God.
The big question was where to do this – the temple in Jerusalem, or a house of worship in Samaria? Jesus’s response is, in today’s world, politically incorrect: “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:22-24).
Jesus isn’t saying that it doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you’re sincere. Spirit and truth are not just synonyms for sincerity. When Jesus speaks of truth, he is talking about the inner reality of God’s being which becomes visible to us through him.
True worshippers must worship the Father in spirit and truth. This can only relate to who Jesus is and what he has done for us. Later Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
The woman responded, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us”.Jesus’s response is breath-taking, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you” – literally, ‘I who am speaking to you, I am’ (John 4:26).
Twelve hundred years before, God had revealed his name to Moses: “I am that I am that is my name”. Jesus was not just claiming to be the Messiah but to be one with God.
The water that Jesus promised the woman that day would not just quench her thirst for real life but would bring her into a deep, satisfying and eternal friendship with the one true creator-redeemer God.
Four centuries later, Augustine, the Bishop of North Africa wrote, ‘Our souls are restless until they find their rest in Thee (God)’.
The eternal life that Jesus talks about, the water that will truly satisfy us, isn’t found in the acquisition of the latest phone or some new sexual experience. Indeed, the answer to our cry for happiness isn’t in a new religious experience. It involves a personal, mutually committed relationship with Jesus. Jesus is God in the flesh. He gives us life by giving us himself.
Consider what the woman did. Leaving her water jar… John records (4:28). The symbol of her emptiness now lies abandoned at Jesus’ feet. She had found the living water for she had found Him. Things would never be the same again.
There are tens of thousands of people like that woman, with empty lives. We don’t have to wait for anything special to happen to start a conversation with them. Rather, we need to be praying that God will open our eyes to opportunities to stimulate curiosity, awaken an awareness of need. It could even start with a question, ‘Have you ever read the real story about Jesus?’ followed by an invitation to look into the first eighteen sentences of that story over coffee (using TheWord121 – a very accessible annotated version of John’s Gospel).
A prayer. Almighty God, we confess that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: keep us outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, so that we may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘Happiness…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In today’s world, God is not so much dead as cancelled. He is not to be spoken about. If he does exist, there’s nothing good to say about him: he is grim and uncaring.
How different this is from what the Bible actually says about God. Consider the most well- known words in the Bible: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
They occur in the context of a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, a Jewish leader who had come to see him late at night. Nicodemus was one of the thousands who had been impressed and he wanted to meet Jesus for a personal chat.
Jesus’ rise to stardom had happened very quickly and his popularity was enormous. He said the most amazing things and backed them up with the most extraordinary actions: he healed the sick, raised the dead to life, and overcame the powers of evil. No matter what confronted him, he was always in control. His person and presence had so great an impact that he is also mentioned by other historians of that era – such as Tacitus and Josephus.
God’s love. The Bible tells us that God’s essential nature is love. In Psalm 145:8-9 we read: The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.
The theme of the love of God permeates both the Old and New Testaments. What is more, we find that his love is not sparked by something attractive about us. God loves because love is at the very heart of his being.
Now it’s important to note that our English word ‘love’ translates four Greek words (the language in which the New Testament was written). One word is eros, from which we get our word erotic. It’s a word associated with intense emotional feeling. It’s a word that pagan religions have long used in part as a reference to the mystical experience of the supernatural. One form of yoga in Hinduism exploits sexual intercourse as a technique for achieving spiritual enlightenment.
But nowhere does the New Testament use the word eros. It uses a rare word in the original Greek: agape. There are no rapturous, mystical experiences associated with agape. Rather, agape is committed to serve the best interests of the ones who are loved.
Furthermore, John tells us, God so loved the world that he reaches out to all men and women. This is breath-taking. God could have shut humanity down at the moment of their rebellion. We deserved nothing less. But God in his love had a bigger and very costly plan in mind that would benefit a world that rejected him.
God’s gift. He gave us his Son…
John is not saying that God loved world enough to give his Son. Rather, it was out of God’s love for the world that he gave his Son.
These words are amongst the most famous in the Bible. Consider what they say about Jesus. He is ‘the one who came down from heaven, the one and only Son of God’ (John 1:14).
Being from God, the Son personally reveals to us what God is like. As Jesus says later, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). More than ever we need to hear him and respond to him.
But significantly, God didn’t give his Son just to shine his light into a dark and troubled world. God so loved the world that he gave his Son to rescue it. The gift would come to its climax and fulfillment when the Son was crucified.
t was with Jesus’ death that we discover the immeasurable depth of God’s love. For it was through Jesus’ voluntary, sacrificial death that God opened the door once and for all whereby he could forgive men and women who had shown no love for him.
God’s offer. John tells us of the offer that God holds out: Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Eternal life is contrasted with perishing. John doesn’t tell us what perishing is but he does tell us that it will be a most unwelcome experience. Elsewhere we learn, mainly through Jesus’ own teaching, that it is a very serious thing to refuse God’s gift. Perishing won’t mean perpetually partying with friends. Everything that is good, beautiful, and true will be lost. T.S. Elliot put it this way, Hell is oneself. Hell is alone…
Life eternal will be a life of perfection and beauty, where there will be no more pain or suffering, self-absorption or injustice. It will be fullness of joy in the glory of the Lord.
God’s beneficiaries. John tells us who will benefit: Whoever believes in the Son… We can’t achieve eternal life by our own efforts or merits. We are totally dependent on God’s generous gift. To turn to Jesus, the Son of God and to trust him, is the key to our benefiting from God’s precious gift.
In our natural state we don’t want to accept God’s offer because we know it would mean a radical lifestyle change. And we don’t want to change. We would rather stay in the dark than move into the light and admit what we are really like.
I’ve wondered how long the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus recorded in John chapter 3, lasted. Nicodemus had arrived late at night. Could it be that as he left there were the first glimmerings of dawn on the horizon? And as he saw the rising sun, did he smile with joy at the dawn of a new day, or did he turn his eyes back upon the darkness of the night?
This is the choice that confronts you and me, and indeed the world.
A prayer. Almighty God, we ask you to look on the heartfelt desires of your servants, and stretch forth the right hand of your power to be our defense against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘God so loved the world…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Human relationships on the personal and international level must rate as the greatest challenge for the world’s future. As I remarked this day last year, the invasion of Ukraine reveals an unspoken issue that confronts us: humanity is flawed.
The Russian author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once commented, If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent that continues through to the day before Easter Day. You may find it helpful to use the six weeks of Lent as a special time for daily Bible reading, honest reflection, and prayer.
Indeed, the prayer for Ash Wednesday and for Lent, focuses on God’s forgiveness of the repentant person and spiritual renewal. The Lord Jesus challenges us to know the Scriptures, reflect on them and to pray, not just in Lent but throughout the year.
However, such is our flawed nature that we can all deceive ourselves. We can say one thing and do another. We may read the Bible and pray, attend church, and give to the poor, but our hearts can remain unchanged in our relationship with the Lord, as well as with one another.
Consider Jesus’ warning against hypocrisy in his Sermon on the Mount: “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).
Knowing better than we, how deceitful our hearts can be (Jeremiah 17:9), Jesus warns us against using our faith to win the praise of others and make a name for ourselves.
In a world where religion is publicly decried, we may not win popularity in the wider community. However, it can be a different story within the life of the church. Preachers and church leaders, musicians and generous givers can generate praise if they work at it. And social media can easily be used to promote this.
It is against this that Jesus warns us. Professing Christians who long for the accolades of others will miss out on the true reward that comes from the living God. All they have is an empty faith, with no lasting value.
Consider what he says about giving and prayer.
Giving. Look at v.2: “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.”
Trumpets may be a metaphor: we shouldn’t sound our own trumpet or boast about our giving to the needy. But trumpets may also have a literal meaning. In Jesus’ day the Temple trumpets were sometimes blown, calling on people to make a special donation when there was a pressing need. Anyone watching would see who responded.
Giving to support the ministry of God’s Word and providing assistance for those in need is biblical. Here Jesus is saying that to give so others know what we’re doing, whether in church or at a charity function, is hypocritical.
Hypocritical religion is not from the heart. It’s motivated by self-interest. Jesus is saying here that hypocrites give in order to be honored by those around them. And, he states, “I tell you they have their reward.”
“But when you give alms,” he says, “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your father who sees in secret will reward you.”
To ensure that we’re not proud or smug about our generosity, Jesus uses a vivid metaphor: the right hand should not know what the left hand is doing. No one, apart from God, will know about this private giving. He will see our real motives.
To be rewarded by God is the best kind of blessing. Approval by others is transient. Approval from God is eternal.
Prayer is another area where we can be tempted to look for human recognition. Look at verse 5: “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward…”
Prayers in the synagogues were typically led by a synagogue member. To be invited to lead the prayers was a mark of distinction. But again, Jesus knows how easy it is for anyone leading prayers to draw attention to themselves – perhaps through the literary quality of their prayer or their tone of voice.
Significantly, Jesus focuses on private prayer. He isn’t critizing public prayer, but he well knows that who we are when we pray in the privacy of our room is who we truly are. In praying privately, we can be nothing but genuine and honest before God. And uncluttered, heartfelt prayer is what God hears.
How important it is that on this Ash Wednesday – and every day – we heed Jesus’ warning: “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” God delights in our honest and heartfelt, loving and loyal relationship with him.
A prayer for Ash Wednesday: Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made, and you forgive the sins of all who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, so that we, lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A prayer for peace. God of the nations, whose kingdom rules over all, have mercy on our broken and troubled world, especially the people of Ukraine and other war zones. Shed abroad your peace in the hearts of all men and women and banish from them the spirit that makes for war. We ask this so that all races and people may learn to live as members of one people and in obedience to your laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A prayer for all in need. Almighty God, we commend to your fatherly goodness all who are in any way afflicted or distressed, especially the people of Turkey and Syria suffering from the catastrophic earthquake. May it please you to comfort and relieve them according to their needs, giving them patience in their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
The post ‘Ash Wednesday’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Aspects of Christianity can seem far-fetched to our 21st century minds. The miraculous elements can make it feel like the story of Santa Claus or fairies at the bottom of the garden. But before we dismiss the supernatural events of the Bible as fiction, it’s worth remembering GK Chesterton’s words about truth and fiction: ‘Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it’.
I make these comments because today we turn to an extraordinary event recorded in the writings of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
In Matthew chapter 17, verse 1 we read: Six days later,… Matthew wants us to be in no doubt that, just as the previous conversation had occurred when Jesus had asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (16:15) so did the event that he now records.
Eyewitnesses. Matthew is specific. Jesus took three of his close followers, Peter and James and John, to a high mountain. Unlike what we find in other religions, there was more than one eyewitness to times of supernatural revelation. In this case there were three eyewitnesses to this significant moment in Jesus’ life.
And what an astonishing occasion it was. Jesus was transfigured, literally, metamorphosed before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light (17:2).
The dazzling white light of the sun is Matthew’s metaphor for the brilliance and purity of the bright light that emanated from Jesus. In both Luke and Acts the reference to clothes as white as light speaks of supernatural glory.
Furthermore, two of the great prophets, Moses and Elijah – representing the law and the prophets – were present and spoke with Jesus. (17:3).
In a conversation six days earlier, Jesus had asked the disciples who people thought he was. They had first responded, ‘John the Baptist or Elijah, or one of the prophets.’ And when Jesus had pressed them for their own view, Peter had replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16).
But here on the mountain it was obvious that Peter had not yet worked out what this meant for he said to Jesus: “Lord, if you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (16:4). Peter had no idea what he was saying.
God’s voice. But before he could burble on with something else, a cloud enveloped them all and they heard a voice, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (17:5). God the Father was speaking! Overcome by the awesome scene before them and the words they heard, the disciples fell on their faces and were terrified (17:6).
But Jesus, seeing their fear, told them to get up and not to be afraid. Furthermore, walking down the mountain that day, he commanded Peter, James and John not to tell anyone what they had witnessed until after he had been raised from the dead (17:9).
God the Father’s words confirmed Jesus’ identity as his unique Son. That day Peter, James and John witnessed Jesus’ majestic glory – the glory that reveals the utter holiness and power of the eternal Son of God who had taken on human form.
Much later, Peter writes of the event in his Second Letter: We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we had been eye-witnesses of his majesty (1:16).
God’s words not only confirmed for the disciples the divine status of Jesus and his supreme power and authority, but also assured them of the authenticity of all he taught and promised.
Significantly, the scene also revealed that there are at least two persons in the Godhead. The event also unveiled the extraordinary humility of God in his willingness to serve us in our greatest need. God’s Son was willing to put aside his true glory and come amongst us as one of us.
And so we should heed God’s voice and listen to the Son. In the midst of the myriad of voices today it is so easy to get distracted and depressed because we neglect to read and meditate on God’s Word.
As we look at Jesus’ transfiguration through the lens of his death and resurrection and ascension, we begin to see its greater significance. Imagine if Jesus had just disappeared after his resurrection and ascension. The transfiguration is a preview of Jesus in his ascended and kingly glory. It also gives us a glimpse of his glory when he returns.
The transfiguration confirmed Jesus’ status as he prepared for his coming arrest and death. It also informed and inspired the disciples in their mission and their preaching and ultimately, in their writing.
The hope of glory. And there are further implications. The day will come when all of God’s people will share in the glory of Christ! In his Letter to the Romans, Paul the Apostle writes: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God (8:18).
In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis puts it this way: ‘If we let Him – for we can prevent Him, if we choose – He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less.
A prayer. Father in heaven, whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain, and spoke of his suffering in Jerusalem: give us strength so to hear his voice and follow him, that in the world to come we may see him as he is; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry here.
You might like to listen to Christ Our Hope in Life and Death, from Keith and Kristyn Getty and Matt Papa.
The post ‘The Hope of Glory…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
“This world has no importance and whoever recognizes that wins his freedom. And that’s just it—I hate you because you are bound. I alone am free. Rejoice, for you finally have an emperor to teach you freedom…” So speaks the Emperor Caligula, in Albert Camus’ play of the same name.
But did Caligula represent true freedom? History records he used his power in self-indulgent extravagance, no matter how cruel or disgusting. He did whatever he pleased.
Many consider freedom is the ability to do whatever you want without external restraints. For the extreme capitalist it means no market controls; for the extreme socialist it means the power of the collective to impose its will on the individual without restraint; for the extreme hedonist it means the license to follow the lusts of the heart.
In his highly respected Sermon on the Mount Jesus lays out the pattern for living that he expects of his people. Significantly, he doesn’t simply set out a list of do’s and don’ts. Rather he opens up the real meaning of love for God in loving our neighbor. Let me touch on themes we read in Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 through 48.
Anger (5:21, 22): “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’
‘You shall not murder’ is the 6th Commandment of the Ten. But consider Jesus’s words: “But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment”. He is saying that our angry and hateful thoughts are just as problematical as the actual action of murder.
“…And,” he continues, “if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.
Anyone who thinks or says to another, Fool or Idiot, says Jesus, is subject to the fires of God’s judgment – separation from God and from all that is true and good, a separation he likens to the fires of Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem where the city refuse was dumped and burned. The judgement we think is reserved for the literal murderer, also hangs over everyone who is angry, bitter or contemptuous.
“So, when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23). DA Carson comments, ‘How easy it is to substitute ceremony for integrity, purity and love; but Jesus will have none of it.’ Before going to church, Jesus says, ensure your relationship with others is sorted out.
Lust. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’” Jesus continues (5:27). Society often turns a blind eye towards adultery, undercutting marriage as a lifelong commitment. However, Jesus sharpens the focus: “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (5:28). By labeling lust adultery, he reveals a deeper level to the 7th commandment in terms of the 10th which prohibits covetousness.
Jesus is not prohibiting sex: the sexual relationship between a man and woman in marriage is a God-given gift. Nor is he prohibiting the normal attraction that exists between men and women. His issue is with the desires of our hearts controlling our thoughts and behavior.
Oaths. “You have heard that it was said in ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord…’” Jesus says (5:33).
There are Old Testament references permitting oath-taking, even in God’s name. For example, in Deuteronomy 10:20 we read, You shall fear the Lord your God. Him you will serve, to him you will cleave, and you will swear by his name. There are also references in the New Testament: Paul swears on God’s name and calls on God to be his witness – as we read in Romans 1:9; 2 Corinthians 1:23; and 1 Thessalonians 2:5. We also find God swearing oaths – that he will not flood the world again (Genesis 9:9-11); that he will send a Redeemer (Luke 1:68, 73); that he will raise his son from the dead (Acts 2:27-31).
All this swearing points to its real purpose – the importance of telling the truth. As one commentator has noted, swearing an oath makes the truth all the more solemn and sure.
Why then does Jesus speak about swearing falsely? Jewish commentary on the Old Testament law in Jesus’ day set out to define what oaths were binding and what were not. One rabbi taught that if you swore an oath by Jerusalem, you were NOT bound by your oath. If, however, you swore an oath toward Jerusalem, you were bound by your oath.
The swearing of oaths became a game you played. Depending on how you played it, you could get away with lying and deception. It was against this kind of casuistry that Jesus spoke.
By relating every oath to God, because everything is ultimately under God’s direction, he presses the point of truthfulness. Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No’. Who hasn’t distorted the truth – for example, to put others down and to push ourselves up? Or who of us has said we will do something and then reneged on the commitment?
Rights. “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth…’” (5:38) – words of the Mosaic law found in Exodus 21 and Leviticus 24.
The law is both prescriptive and restrictive. If an assailant knocked out another person’s eye, one of the assailant’s eyes is forfeit – but not the second eye. The law provided justice but at the same time it prevented the escalation of feuding and bloodshed.
Into this scene Jesus now introduces a radical response: “But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person…” Does this mean Jesus’ followers shouldn’t take up arms, enter the police force or become sentencing judges and magistrates?
Commentators agree that Jesus is speaking about personal abuse towards his people. In times where we might suffer because of our faith, we should nevertheless stand up against evil for the sake of our neighbours.
Love. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (5:43).
Behind Jesus’ words lies the deeper truth about God: how good and gracious he is to both the righteous and the unrighteous – he makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. If God is like this, what would our world be like if God’s people prayed for all who oppose God?
Perfection. “Be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5:48).
People used to say how much better the world would be if everyone got back to the basics of the Ten Commandments. But this isn’t what Jesus is saying. His diagnosis of the human dilemma isn’t a matter of do’s and don’ts. Rather he sees a much deeper problem – the desires of our hearts.
Indeed, under certain conditions the muck at the bottom of our hearts, surfaces. We all need God’s help and, amazingly, this is something God is willing to provide.
We get a glimpse of this where Jesus continues: ‘so that you may be children of your Father in heaven…” (5:45). God wants to work within us, to pass on his moral genes. He wants us to bear the fruit of the Spirit – fruit that reveals the work of God’s Word and his Spirit in our lives.
Jesus is telling us that our broken relationship with God has consequences: judgement and the fires of Gehenna. But as we read on in Matthew and the rest of the New Testament, we learn that Jesus himself has paid the penalty of our self-absorption. Yes, we all like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord has laid on Jesus the penalty we deserve. He did this because God’s nature is also to have mercy. When Jesus died, he took the penalty for our hatred, our deceit, our lust, our insistence on our rights, our lack of love – indeed for all our imperfections.
Where is our hope for freedom – in a long list of do’s and don’ts? Or is our freedom found in confessing our broken relationship with Christ and in a heartfelt desire to honor him?
Camus’ Caligula seemed free to do anything he wanted. But was he really free? The play concludes with Caligula facing his murderers, saying: “I have chosen a wrong path, a path that leads to nothing. My freedom isn’t the right one…. Oh, how oppressive is this darkness!”
True freedom is not the licence to do as we like, but the liberty to do what we know is right.
A prayer. Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much our own ways and the desires of our own hearts, and have broken your holy laws. We have left undone the things that we ought to have done, and we have done what we ought not to have done. Yet, good Lord, have mercy upon us; restore all those who are truly penitent, according to your promises declared to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. And grant merciful Father, for his sake, that we may live a godly and obedient life, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The post ‘Freedom…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Loud voices today insist there is no God, leaving us adrift on the ocean of life without an agreed moral compass. Persuasive voices appeal to our basic, albeit unthinking instincts, while the profounder, wiser voices that speak to the depths of our souls are drowned out.
Into this world of confusion and noise, anger and division, Jesus’ timeless words to all his followers stand out: “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13, 14).
Jesus’ metaphor of salt is double-edged: his followers are to bring out the flavor of what it means to be men and women; we are also to act as a preservative, slowing down the decay of society. Both a tall order!
He has in mind the impact of the counter-cultural lifestyle he has just identified in his eight beatitudes – the ‘blessed’ who would experience the incomparable joys of God’s kingdom (Matthew 5:3-12). They are the people who understand their spiritual poverty before God, who mourn their failure to honor God and who grieve for a world that turns its back on God; they are ones who, instead of engaging in the power play and deceptions of the world, walk the tougher path of humility and service, truth and peace.
Indeed, it was because Jesus knew humanity without God would always spiral away from truth and goodness, that he called on his followers to be the salt of the earth. He expects everyone of us who has turned to him in repentance and faith, to live in a way that exemplifies the beauty, goodness and joy of Godly living, and slow down the rot of self-interest and greed, of injustice and the unchecked power-play of social elites. Today’s world either ignores or simply rejects the reality that none of us is good. We’re all flawed.
As Jesus was all too aware the world needs good and godly examples pointing to him and his kingdom. But this will only happen when his followers don’t become insipid. That’s why he warns against salt losing its saltiness: “…if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Matthew 5:13b).
NaCl is a stable compound. However, in the ancient world, salt was obtained more from salt marshes and contained many impurities. The actual salt could be leeched out, leaving a substance that tasted salty but in fact was worthless. ‘Watch out,’ Jesus warns, ‘that you don’t become insipid, wishy-washy fools’.
How do people view you? Do you claim to be a believer, but your life remains unchanged? Is your lifestyle directed by the culture or by the Bible? Are you just as greedy, unforgiving, and as selfish as everyone around you? ‘If you call yourself a follower of mine,’ Jesus says, ‘let your life be transformed by my words, for “You are the salt of the earth”’.
In his Letter to the Colossians Paul the Apostle writes: Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time… Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone (4:5-6).
Salt here is a metaphor for sparkling conversations that trigger questions about life. Have you considered ways you could use news items and opinion columns to ask questions and spark conversations about the goodness of God and his good news?
“You are the light of the world…” Jesus continues (Matthew 5:14). Negatively he is saying that there is a darkness about our human existence – something we easily forget because we live in an age that has turned away from God’s compass bearings.
Up until the 1970s morality in the West was grounded in the Judaeo-Christian ethic. But now all has changed. Few leaders anywhere would challenge the prevailing assumption that there is no morally binding objective authority or truth above the individual.
Some 700 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah wrote of the birth of God’s King. In chapter 9 he speaks of the people walking in darkness and seeing a great light: On those living in a land where the shadow of death falls, a light has dawned. A child will be born. He will be called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”
Indeed, in John chapter 8 we read Jesus’ electrifying words: “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life”. God, the source of all true light, has come into our world in person. Jesus, the light who reveals God, calls us out from the darkness of our own ego into the light.
But how will our world today come to know him? “You are the light of the world,” Jesus says. “A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house…” (Matthew 5:14f).
‘Everything you are, everything you do,’ Jesus says, ‘must reflect all I have taught you.’ He expects us to reflect the light of God in our lives to the world. Yet do we? Do we endeavor to live out what he teaches in his Sermon on the Mount? Or do we hide the light of our faith?
“Let your light shine before others,” Jesus says, “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven…” (Matthew 5:16).
‘Live your life in the light of my words,’ he says, ‘and others will be drawn to my light and love’. It’s an awesome thought. We’re all involved. When we’re tempted to despair at the moral decline around us, we need to ask ourselves, ‘How do my family and friends, my colleagues see me? Just like everyone else, or as someone who knows the hope and the joy of God’s gospel?’
Jesus calls us to two tasks – to be salt and light. As salt we are to play our part as Godly examples of what it means to be men and women and so slow down society’s decay. As light we are to awaken people to God’s truth, with its hope and joy. Beware therefore of sin or compromise that reduces your Godly influence as salt. Beware of hiding the light of your faith through laziness or fear.
How are we to do this in a world that thinks it has all the answers? Ask questions. Ask if there is any real and long-lasting hope in the noise of today. And look for ways to show how good God is.
Pray for God’s grace that the light in your life will shine for everyone to see – in your kindness and care for others; in the way you cope with the challenges of life. Jesus will use our good works and our words to draw people to his light so that on the last day they too will glorify God. “You are the salt of the earth,… You are the light of the world.”
Prayers: God, our refuge and strength, the author of all godliness, hear the prayers of your people: and so grant us that whatever we ask for in faith we may surely obtain; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Teach us, gracious Lord, to begin our works with reverence, to go on in obedience, and finish them with love; and then to wait patiently in hope, and with cheerful countenance to look up to you, whose promises are faithful and rewards infinite; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The post ‘Salt and Light in a Troubled World’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Great leaders are remembered for their speeches as well as their accomplishments – George Washington for his Inaugural address as President, Abraham Lincoln for his iconic Gettysburg address, and Martin Luther King for his Washington Speech, ‘I have a dream…’.
Today we turn to the introduction of a most memorable speech – Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount recorded in the Gospel of St Matthew, chapter 5, verses 1 through 12.
In chapter 1 Matthew introduces Jesus as God’s long-promised king, a descendent of the great King David (1:1). Foreigners, the Magi, came from the East and worshipped him as king (2:1-6). At his baptism Jesus is called God’s ‘Son’, a title reserved for the kings of Israel (3:14-17; cp Psalm 2). And by the close of chapter 4, we learn that people have come to hear Jesus from the reaches of the vast empire that David and Solomon had ruled in the golden age of Israel’s history some thousand years before (4:23-25).
But there is something unexpected about the opening chapters: Matthew doesn’t record one word from Jesus himself. It seems deliberate. Matthew wants us to know that when we do hear from Jesus, we are not simply hearing from a ‘nice guy’, but from the great king. The Sermon on the Mount, we could say, is the King’s Speech!
Matthew chapter 5 opens on a new scene. A huge crowd had gathered on a hillside and Jesus used the natural amphitheater to address the two groups of people present – followers and a large crowd of onlookers. And despite the diversity of his vast audience, Jesus’ words are electrifying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”
Known as Beatitudes each line in his introduction begins, Blessed are … Blessed is sometimes translated happy, but that identifies just one aspect of the meaning. To be blessed is to receive God’s approval and as this is God’s universe, God’s blessing is the greatest honor anyone can receive. From the outset Jesus’ words challenge us. Do we want the blessing that comes from celebrity status because we are perceived to be successful? Or do we truly want, above everything else in life, God’s blessing?
The first beatitude reveals that the really blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus isn’t speaking here of the materially destitute or the psychologically impoverished, the spiritual elite or the prayerful mystics. He’s referring to the spiritually destitute.
Poverty in spirit is exemplified by the tax collector in Jesus’ story in Luke 18:9-14. Over against the pride of the Pharisee, the tax collector humbly and honestly prayed from a corner in the Temple, ‘God, Be merciful to me, a sinner’. Poverty of spirit is the admission of our failure to love and honor God first in our lives.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted”, Jesus continues. These people grieve for personal failure before God. They also mourn because, even dimly aware of God’s purity, they see how the world without God lives in darkness. They weep because of the erosion of truth, because of the greed, cynicism, and lack of compassion evident everywhere.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (5:5). Meekness isn’t a reference to the weak or insipid. It is a strong word, referring to the deep, selfless resolve to serve the best interests of others. Meekness is not insisting on your rights. It’s thinking of others before self – and hence not being on the front foot with criticism. No one of us is perfect. Jesus himself is the supreme example of true meekness.
The meek learn to look at life from God’s viewpoint and are content. Their egos are not so inflated they think they must always have more. In Christ they see themselves as possessing everything (2 Cor 6:10; cp 1 Cor 3:21-23). Furthermore, a billion years into eternity (if we can speak of eternity in terms of time), God’s people in the new heaven and the new earth will still be rejoicing that this beatitude is literally true. They will be grateful that by grace they learned to be meek during their initial threescore years and ten.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness” (5:6). Hunger and thirst are vivid images of desire. Righteousness suggests justice and truth. To hunger for righteousness is to long that our lives reflect the mind and will of God. There’s an inner longing for heaven where righteousness and justice will prevail.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (5:7). Mercy embraces forgiveness for the guilty, and also compassion for the suffering and needy. The promise isn’t mercy from others but significantly from God himself.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (5:8). Throughout the Bible the heart is the center of our being – of who we are. Purity in heart is indispensable for our relationship with God, or to use Jesus’ words, for seeing God.
Purity of heart isn’t outward conformity to rules. Rather, our heart, our thoughts and attitudes need to be pure. ‘What do you think about when your mind slips into neutral?’ Jesus asks. ‘What dominates your private thoughts? Do you let your mind linger on sights that have tempted you? Is the real inner you expressed in your outward words and actions?’
Psalm 24 asks, Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? They who have clean hands and a pure heart,… and in The Letter to the Hebrews we read, Make every effort… to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).
The pure in heart are blessed in that they will see God. While this will be especially true in the new heaven and the new earth, it’s also true now. Our perception of God and his ways, even our fellowship with him, depends on the purity of our heart.
“Blessed are the peacemakers” Jesus says (5:9). Jesus isn’t talking about those who yearn for peace, but all who work at making peace. Jesus is the greatest peacemaker ever – through his cross, making peace between us and God by removing the stain of sin that separates us. His death also makes peace possible amongst all men and women.
Jesus isn’t only speaking about gospel peacemaking. He also saying that his followers are to be peacemakers, seeking solutions to ease tensions, to reduce conflict, and to ensure that people understand one another. This isn’t easy, especially when we personally have been hurt by others. It’s very easy to forget that ‘a soft answer turns away wrath’, and that we shouldn’t allow ‘the sun to go down on our anger’ (Ephesians 4:26). To be a peacemaker means that we don’t bear grudges or nurse our anger.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (5:10-12). Jesus here restricts the blessing to all who suffer persecution because of righteousness — people who are determined to live as Jesus lived. Persecution can take the form of physical hardship, torture, imprisonment, death. But there are more subtle forms: mocking and personal rejection. This beatitude is potentially the most searching, for if we never experience some kind of rejection for our faith in a fallen world, are we truly a follower of Jesus?
Who then are the truly blessed? Jesus expects our lives to change radically. Instead of self-sufficiency in our relationship with God, we need to understand our poverty. Instead of dismissing unbelievers, mourn for a world that ignores God. Instead of playing for power to achieve kingdom ends in a fallen world, walk the tougher path of humility and service. Hunger for truth and righteousness. Show mercy, pursue purity, and work for peace. Reckon on the reality that life won’t always be easy for God’s people. But, Jesus says, stay with me. It will be worth every bit of it.
Prayers. Lord, you have taught us that whatever we do without love is worth nothing. Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you: grant this, for the sake of your only Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The post ‘The King’s Speech…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Heraclitus, the 6th century BC Greek philosopher observed, ‘Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find truth, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain’.
Come with me to Matthew chapter 4, verses 12 through 25. Matthew records that following the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus began his public ministry in the region of Capernaum in Galilee – the land of Zebulun and Naphtali.
Back in the 8th century BC powerful Assyrian forces had gathered in that very region preparing to conquer the northern kingdom, Israel (720BC). Yet into that darkness Isaiah the prophet spoke of the day when a light would dawn on the northern horizon, and God would honor Galilee of the Gentiles (Isaiah 9:1-2).
In chapter 4, Matthew tells us that Jesus began his public ministry in the north – not in the capital, Jerusalem. ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’, he said.
An Unexpected Message. The kingdom of heaven is not a location but rather refers to God’s supreme rule. Jesus’ words at hand implied that with his presence this had taken on a new immediacy. His words would have awakened the hopes of God’s people who lived with the expectation of the coming of God’s king, the Messiah. Prophets such as Samuel, Isaiah and Ezekiel had spoken of such a time (2 Samuel 7: 11b-13; Isaiah 7:14, 9: 6-7, 11:1-5; Ezekiel 34:23-24).
But Jesus’ call for repentance may well have come as a surprise, for the king was expected to bring in God’s reign of peace and prosperity. He would judge the nations: the time for repentance would be over. The work of the prophets, including John the Baptist, was to prepare the way for the king’s coming.
But Jesus was still calling people to repent, suggesting that there were deeper truths he needed to address before he revealed himself in all his awesome glory, dominion and power.
The real issue Jesus sees with all of us is that we have a heart problem. Heart in the Bible is not just the pump that sends the blood around our bodies, nor is it the seat of our emotions. It refers to the real us.
Let me ask, why do we hurt people we love? Why, in this technologically advanced world are there still divisions within nations and wars between nations? Why is there still so much injustice? It has to do with the desires of our hearts – in our relationships with one another, and especially in our relationship with God. When Jesus was once asked what is the greatest commandment, he responded, saying the first and greatest commandment is that we should love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength (Mark 12:30).
An Unexpected Call. It was the practice for good teachers or rabbis in Jesus’ day to have disciples with them. “Follow me,” Jesus said to two fishermen, Peter and Andrew, who were brothers. It wasn’t a command but rather a call. They had choice: they could follow or remain where they were.
But notice Jesus wasn’t just calling them to be followers – to listen and to learn; he was also inviting them to join him in becoming fishers of men and women.
The prophet Jeremiah had spoken of ‘fishing for men and women’, meaning catching men and women for judgement. But the mission Jesus was inviting Peter and Andrew to join him in, was to rescue men and women from judgement – an unexpected call.
Two other fishermen, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also invited to join Jesus in this mission. All four immediately left their families and businesses and followed Jesus.
Jesus wasn’t asking them to sell up their homes or businesses. But such was his impressive nature or his teaching that they were willing to leave their businesses in the hands of others and follow him.
An Unexpected Compassion. With deft brush strokes Matthew introduces us to the pattern of Jesus’ ministry – preaching the good news of the kingdom, as well as healing the sick, and exorcising the demon possessed, at a word and in a moment of time.
Today, the notion of miracles, especially those recorded in the New Testament, are dismissed because ‘we now know the laws of nature’. Against this Dr. John Lennox, Oxford Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy responds: ‘The laws of nature that science observes are the observable regularities that God the creator has built into the universe. However, such ‘laws’ don’t prevent God from intervening if he chooses. When he does, we are able to identify the irregularity and speak of it as a miracle’.
If Jesus is God’s unique Son – not just a man, but God in the flesh – if he speaks and acts with the authority and power of God, it is quite consistent for him to be able to perform what we call ‘miraculous’ feats. Indeed, if the Bible is authentic – and it claims to be so – we should expect the unexpected.
Indeed, we shouldn’t be surprised that Jesus wielded such extraordinary power that crowds came in droves from near and far – even from far away Jerusalem.
But there is another layer to Jesus’ acts of intervention: they were temporary. People were only restored for a time; they would still all experience death. Wouldn’t the Messiah conquer even death itself?
Here was another potential unexpected twist. Jesus presents us with so much expectation and hope, but he also leaves many questions unanswered.
Three unexpected themes: Jesus commands us to repent, for God’s rule has taken on a new dimension; we need to sort out our relationship with him while we have time. He calls us to follow him and play our part as fishers of men and women: helping others to find the truth. Jesus cares for us at all times, intervening in our lives for our good, giving us a taste of the perfection and joy to come.
What will you do with Jesus? He is both extra-ordinary but very ordinary. He does the expected but constantly says and does the unexpected. But shouldn’t we expect this?
A prayer. Lord God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: mercifully accept our prayers, and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do nothing good without you, grant us the help of your grace, so that in keeping your commands we may please you both in will and deed, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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Predictions about the global economic outlook for the new year are not encouraging. Nor is the news of the ongoing aggression by Russia in Ukraine. Given the rise of powerful despots and divisions within western democracies, is there anything that we can do?
Two and a half millennia ago the Jewish people were in exile. In 586 BC Babylonian forces had rampaged through Judah, conquering Jerusalem, razing its walls and its temple to the ground. Political obliteration seemed inevitable as the cream of the population was taken to Babylon.
Yet the extraordinary thing was this: Judah’s morale was not destroyed. There was a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Isaiah, one of the prophets who had spoken of God’s impending judgment on the nation, had also sounded a voice of hope.
“Comfort, comfort, my people,” Isaiah chapter 40 begins and in the following chapters the prophet speaks of a ‘Servant’ whom God would raise up to rescue and restore his people.
Isaiah tells us that God’s plan involved Cyrus, an insignificant prince from the north of Babylon. Despite humble beginnings Cyrus rose to defeat the Babylonian forces and paved the way for the Persian Empire under Darius. With his rise to power Cyrus had the authority in 520BC to decree the release of the Jewish exiles, permitting their return to Jerusalem and the restoration of their city – a miraculous event. Isaiah speaks of Cyrus as God’s anointed (45:1).
But as we read on, we learn from Isaiah chapter 49 that God had greater plans for his Servant. In verse 1 we read God’s words: Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away!
God’s people were crying out for rescue, but this Servant doesn’t speak directly to them. Rather he speaks to the world at large, the islands and distant nations. The mission of this Servant is not just to God’s people, but also to the nations. His vision is global.
Yes, his work would involve the restoration of Judah, for in verse 5 we read: And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength—
But there is something more. A needy world is waiting to hear the truth about God: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).
In fulfillment of his promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3b), God’s plan is to extend his salvation to the nations. And, while verse 7 says that God’s Servant will suffer at the hands of the nations, a day would arrive when they – and even their leaders – would come to him.
Centuries before Jesus’ birth, Isaiah was opening a window on elements that would characterize his life. Wise men did come from the East to pay him homage at his birth. People from around the world have been coming to him ever since.
As we look back on Isaiah’s words through the lens of the New Testament we see that he was right. God’s king has now come. In his words and his actions Jesus revealed that he is God in the flesh. He not only taught with great authority but he also revealed God’s compassion for a needy world – feeding the hungry and healing the sick, overcoming the powers of evil and even raising the dead. But most of all, he dealt with our greatest need – our selfish, broken relationship with our Maker. Once and for all, at great cost to himself, he offered himself to die the death we deserve.
As yet, most people don’t know about Jesus, let alone acknowledge him as Lord. Many who do know about him may agree that in Jesus we have the greatest moral teacher who has ever lived. To follow his teachings, the world would certainly enjoy peace: nowhere did he ever encourage violence or evil. In fact, even when he was betrayed in a most ugly way, he told one of his followers to put away his sword. Jesus taught and exemplified truth and love, compassion and peace.
The Getty Music Compassion Hymn sets out the theme of God’s love and compassion and his commitment to rescue the lost:
There is an everlasting kindness You lavished on us when the Radiance of heaven came to rescue the lost; You called the sheep without a shepherd to leave their distress for Your streams of forgiveness and the shade of Your rest… / How beautiful the feet that carry this gospel of peace to the fields of injustice and the valleys of need – to be a voice of hope and healing, to answer the cries of the hungry and helpless with the mercy of Christ / What boundless love, what fathomless grace You have shown us, O God of compassion! Each day we live, an offering of praise as we show the world Your compassion.
The 17th century philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal observed: ‘Humanity despises religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is just to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men and women wish it were true, and then show them that it is’.
Will you join me in praying for God’s grace to let the light of his love and truth shine in our lives? Will you join me in praying that the Lord will open our eyes and give us the words to say to family and friends so that they too will come to learn of God’s goodness and compassion through reading one of the Gospels? John’s Gospel using TheWord121 (www.theword121.com) is a good place to start.
A prayer. Almighty and everlasting God, ruler of all things in heaven and on earth, hear with mercy the prayers and petitions of your people, and so grant us your peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The post ‘Compassion…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
A close source pointed me to an article by Marylynn Rouse in Christian Heritage London, about the 250th anniversary of Amazing Grace. She comments, ‘It’s not often that a pop song in the charts can claim to have been around for 250 years. John Newton’s hymn Amazing Grace featured in hit parades all over the world in the 1960s and 70s, but was written for New Year’s Day 1773.
‘Newton was then curate-in-charge (senior minister) at the parish church of St Peter and St Paul in Olney, Buckinghamshire. He took for his text 1 Chronicles 17:16,17 – And David the king came and sat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God; for thou hast also spoken of thy servant’s house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O Lord God.
‘Newton began his sermon by saying “The Lord bestows many blessings upon his people, but unless he likewise gives them a thankful heart, they lose much of the comfort they might have in them.”
‘His objective then was to arouse in his listeners “a thankful heart”.’
As we begin a new calendar year, it’s worth pairing two great themes in Isaiah chapter 40, Comfort, and in chapter 60, Glory.
With the Babylonian conquest in 586BC, Isaiah’s first readers had lost their city, the temple (the symbol of God’s presence) and their king. We can only begin to imagine their reaction to Isaiah’s words in chapter 40, for he was now telling them that the time of God’s judgment was over. God had not forgotten them: they would have a future.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
There’s a timelessness about these words, for they speak to us all as we face life with its difficulties, challenges, and suffering. In the midst of our cries from the heart, ‘Comfort’ speaks of God’s tenderness.
The theme continues in verse 11: ‘He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom…’
Isaiah knows that in tough times only a big God can sustain us. And our God is a big God. Only he can overrule our world when it is falling into chaos around us. Only he can say to us with any degree of credibility, ‘Comfort’.
Isaiah continues by awakening us to God’s awesome majesty and kindness, with questions such as, ‘What is God like?’ Can we compare him to the great ones of the world? Some try to pose as gods! Nebuchadnezzar, the great emperor of ancient Babylon, tried it for a while. So did Augustus Caesar and other Roman emperors. So too, do some autocrat leaders today.
To which Isaiah responds: Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to nought and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing…
We search the universe in vain for an adequate comparison to God’s majesty. There is nothing we might worship – be it science or technology, intelligence or wisdom, military might or political power, or even the sun or the stars – that can be compared with him. Yet our world today has walked away from the very thought of God.
‘Is God kind and compassionate?’ we ask. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Isaiah says. The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable (40:28).
No matter how heart-breaking our situation, no matter how perplexing, we remain in the hands of a kind and limitless intelligence. He knows what he’s doing. Events that trouble us don’t mean that God’s hands have slipped from the helm. We may not always understand his ways, but we have every reason to trust him.
Indeed, God is good and caring: He gives power to the faint, and gives strength to the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, and note this: they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint (40:29).
Walk and not faint. That’s what we need when life is tough and incomprehensible.
In times when resentment, bitterness and pain make it hard to believe and hard to pray, hard to sing and hard to read the Bible, we need to turn afresh to Isaiah 40.
Which brings us to Isaiah chapter 60: Glory. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising… I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it (Isaiah 60:1-3, 22b).
The darkness of this world will one day give way to light, gloom will give way to glory. Isaiah 60 prepares us for the coming of God’s king in all his glory. It speaks of the city God has planned for his people – the new Jerusalem where, as Revelation 21:1-4 tells us, there will be no more pain or suffering, crying or death. Above all we will know the deep joy of God’s presence with us.
But this city lies on the other side of a cosmic divide. Isaiah’s words will only be fulfilled through the personal intervention of God himself. Only then will we be delivered from the pain of our present world.
Miraculously, the exiled Jewish people in Babylon returned to Jerusalem in 520BC. It is a picture of a far greater promise – forgiveness and new life for all God’s people in a city where there will be a perfect freedom we can only dimly understand. It will involve the manifestation of God’s King in all his majestic power and glory. And, come what may, it will happen. No human authority, no evil power is greater than God’s.
As we begin a new calendar year, how important it is that, as we look forward, we also look back with thankful hearts to the greatest blessing of all that God has given humanity – the coming of his king amongst us and, through his death and resurrection, the offer of a full and free pardon and forgiveness for all who turn to him. We can face the future with hope and goodwill in our hearts.
No wonder on a New Year’s Day, two hundred and fifty years ago, John Newton penned the words, Amazing Grace…
With thankful hearts may you know the blessing of God’s joy and peace in this New Year!
A prayer. O God, who by the leading of a star revealed your beloved Son to the Gentiles, mercifully grant that we, who know you now by faith, may after this life enjoy the splendor of your glorious presence; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The post ‘Amazing Grace…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
An op-ed on Christmas Eve four years ago in The Australian (12/24/18), referenced a lecture by Dr. George Weigel.
The article noted that Weigel ‘argues that Christianity, including the values highlighted at Christmas, has an important role to play in revitalizing democratic, market-oriented societies … These are struggling on both sides of the Atlantic and elsewhere, including Australia, producing unrest, instability and disillusionment.’
‘If free politics and free economics are to produce a genuine human flourishing, Weigel says, the strength of the public moral culture, flourishing institutions that earn public confidence and a concern for the common good are vital. Christmas offers a chance to reflect on such issues and to take stock of the bigger picture…’
While it is not my purpose here to explore the relationship between Christianity, politics and a free-market economy, let me observe that the article is similar to ones often found towards the end of a year, calling for a reawakening of the meaning and application of the real Christmas story.
Articles like this invite us to focus on the themes of the poverty and weakness, the love and compassion embedded in the birth of Jesus – all of which are true.
But here is a problem. Driven by the trickle-down effect of writers who have adopted Nietzsche’s anti-theology – that God is dead – our culture tells us that the Bible is a series of fanciful stories and fictious stuff.
But this conflicts with the opening lines of the longest Gospel – Luke. Dr. Luke wants us to know that he was writing history, not fiction. He followed the principles of writing adopted by historians such as Thucydides. Furthermore, he tells us that he verified his account with eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, people who had been with Jesus during his public ministry – the ‘keepers of the Jesus record’.
In their various ways the four Gospels witness to the reality of Jesus as God who has come amongst us as one of us. His public life reveals his authority and his compassion for a very needy world – especially our need to be rescued from our self-love – captured by the line: ‘me, myself and I’. We have turned aside from the true love and worship of our maker.
Matthew chapter 2 provides an example of true worship. In verses 1 through 12 he records that Magi – wise men – visited Jesus from the far East to bring him gifts and worship him.
In chapter 1 Matthew tells us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the town where Jacob had buried Rachel and where King David was born. Known from that time as the City of David, the prophet Micah spoke of Bethlehem as the place where God’s Messiah would be born (Micah 5:2).
The legends that have developed around the magi following a star and visiting the baby Jesus in Bethlehem shroud the veracity and the surprise of Matthew’s account. He doesn’t mention the number of the wise men who visited Jesus, nor does he say they were kings. Nor does he tell us their names. Who then were these people who travelled so far?
The Magi were a tribe of priests in ancient Persia and were known for their study in astrology – making predictions from the stars. In the ancient world the movement of the stars and the planets was understood to frame the orderly pattern of the universe. Any interruption to this was seen to mark some new significant event that would impact the human story.
Piecing together the astronomical studies of the past, it seems that the Magi observed a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that occurred in 7BC around the time Jesus was born. In an age before telescopes, the conjunction would have given the appearance of a very bright star which some of them followed.
Coming from Persia where the Jewish people had been in exile in the 6th century BC they would have known the Jewish Scriptures which include the prophecy of Balaam in Numbers chapter 24, verse 17: I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;…
The conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter occurred three times in 7BC, suggesting that when it had first appeared the Magi travelled westward to Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. Given the distance, they would have arrived there about the time of the third planetary conjunction. It was when they were in Jerusalem that they learned of the baby’s birth in Bethlehem – as Micah had foretold.
Matthew records: Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11).
Their gifts were prophetic: gold, a gift for a king – the greatest king of all time lay before them; frankincense, used by the priests – the highest priest of all was the one they saw; myrrh, for the burial of the dead – this baby, born to be king would be crowned through his suffering on a cross. Significantly, and to us surprisingly, these highly respected, wise, non-Jewish men fell on their knees and worshipped this baby.
At the time when Matthew wrote this Gospel account, non-Jewish peoples from across the known world were acknowledging the crucified and risen Jesus as their king and savior. Matthew here is highlighting yet another facet of the fulfillment of the prophetic promise concerning God’s King: Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn… (Isaiah 60:3).
Articles that call for our world to revisit the Christmas story are a fresh illustration of the way Jesus Christ fulfills Isaiah’s words. They give us the opportunity to take people around us to the true story revealed in the Gospels. And while the percentage of Christians in the US has fallen, Christianity is still the majority faith.
Let me ask, are you praying for family and friends that they might turn to the King of Kings – in repentance and worship? Are you looking for opportunities to live out and pass on the very best news our troubled world has received?
A prayer. Lord our God, you have given us the life of Jesus in his home as an example: grant that all Christian families may be so bound together in love and service that we may rejoice together in your heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
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The post ‘Wisdom for the New Year…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
‘What is Christmas all about?’ asks Charlie Brown, in Charles M. Schultz’s A Charlie Brown Christmas.
When A Charlie Brown Christmas was first released (December 1965), the overwhelming positive response took the television network executives by surprise. It was watched by forty-five percent of the television viewing audience that night. And now, over fifty years later it is still a Christmas classic and continues to draw millions.
Tired of the commercialism of Christmas, Charlie Brown wants to know its real meaning. We see Snoopy’s answer when he enters a Christmas lighting and decoration competition. For Sally, Charlie Brown’s young sister, it’s all about getting.
When once again Charlie Brown asks his question, Linus responds by taking center-stage and reading from Luke 2:8-14:
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid: for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will amongst those he favors’.
In an interview, Charles Schultz’s wife, Jeannie commented that her husband pushed back against the idea that there is no place for a Bible text in a cartoon. He insisted that the Bible is not just for God’s people – it is for everyone.
Schultz understood that Christmas is the twinning of Giving and Getting. God gave; we get or receive.
Indeed, this Advent season I have been drawing attention to the way, some seven centuries before Jesus was born, Isaiah foretold that a young woman would conceive and give birth to a son who would be named Immanuel – God with us (Isaiah 7:14).
But that is not all. In Isaiah chapter 9 we read that into the darkness of Israel’s experience at the time, a light would dawn in the north, the region of Galilee: Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who are in distress, Isaiah says.
Galilee was the region that had been subject to the Assyrian invasion. As Isaiah chapter 9 unfolds we read that a day of joy would come (verse 3); the signs of war would cease (verses 4 and 5); and the shadow of death would disappear. For, as verse 6 of chapter 9 says: To us a child is born, to us a son is given…
The sign of the dawning of the new day in God’s purposes would be something weak and insignificant – the birth of a baby. Yet, as Isaiah foreshadows, the government will be on his shoulders. His name was to be called, wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (9:6).
Through the lens of the New Testament we see the beginning of the fulfilment of these words – the first instalment, as it were. Matthew chapter 1, verses 21 through 23 records the words of the angel to Joseph: ‘(Mary) will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’.
So often we simply do not appreciate the full weight of this event. We may believe the baby born in Bethlehem to be the Son of God, but how often do we let the intense meaning of this birth pass us by?
How often do we pause and reflect on the reality that divinity walked the streets of Jerusalem? That infinite Wisdom and Power humbly took on human nature? That God poured his heavenly resources into rescuing us, even though it meant the violence and horror of a crucifixion?
It is for our sake that Christ condescended to such monumental humiliation. The lowly birth in Bethlehem points to Christ’s voluntary decision to set aside his glory for our sake. He came and he gave, to enrich us.
Because of God’s gift to us, we will want to respond with true repentance and deep thanks.
We will also want to emulate, no matter how feebly, the unspeakable generosity of God’s gift. Because God gave, we will want to live God’s way and to share with others the gift of joy and hope. Not condescendingly or aggressively, but graciously and generously.
There is a story about a fourth century bishop in Turkey. One Christmas he wanted to express his gratitude to God for the gift of Jesus. Going into a slum area of the city carrying a heavy sack on his back, he knocked on the door of one of the little mud houses and was greeted by the dirty faces of three young children. Taking the pack off his back he gave them each a warm woollen coat before disappearing back to his own home. The bishop was Nicholas of Myra.
The story of Nicholas, now thoroughly commercialized, is nevertheless a good example if true; a useful parable if a legend. He felt the weight of the words of Paul the Apostle in Second Corinthians, chapter eight, verse nine: For you know the generous gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
Here is the greatest reason of all for Christian giving – and not just at Christmas.
You may want to find a way to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas with your family.
You may also want to give a special Christmas gift for the ministry of your church or a gospel mission. You may also like to make an end of year gift here to the ministry of the Anglican Connection. (Gifts in the US are tax deductible.)
May you know afresh the joy and rich blessing of God’s love this Christmas!
A prayer. Almighty God, you have given us your only Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be borne of a pure virgin. Grant that we, being born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry – End of Year gift here.
The post ‘Christmas – Giving and Getting’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
It’s said that familiarity breeds contempt. Christmas celebrations can at first fill us with awe. But with the passing of the years, we can become indifferent and sometimes even cynical about them.
Whenever familiarity produces contempt, we are potentially in danger. We can disengage and become weary and cynical. Amidst the familiar trappings of Christmas, it’s easy to become blind and deaf to the overwhelming significance of the humility of God.
How many of us have become so familiar with the account of Jesus’ birth that its reality and true meaning no longer touches our hearts. We forget that it fulfilled God’s promise made seven centuries before, that a young woman would bear a son whose name would be ‘Immanuel’ – God with us (Isaiah 7:14).
How would we respond if we celebrated Christmas only once every ten years?
It’s important to think about this, for Christmas celebrates the birth of one who stands unique in history. We see in the Gospel records the integrity of his character, his compassion for the needy, the profundity yet simplicity of his teaching, and his extraordinary powers.
Hegel, the German philosopher observed, ‘One of the lessons of history is that we don’t learn from history’. Secular progressivism’s outright denial of the reality of the uniqueness of Christianity’s founder is one of the tragedies of our age. Jesus Christ is not just great: he is goodness incarnate. His voice is the voice our world desperately needs to hear and heed.
Indeed, every generation needs to hear or rediscover the Gospel truth. Furthermore, it is up to all of us who believe to play our part in ensuring that God’s gospel is effectively passed on to the younger generations.
As we endeavor to do this it’s very easy to forget the lessons of the past. We’re tempted to ask, ‘Is God really in control?’ ‘Does he really care?’ ‘Will his Spirit continue to open blind eyes and unstop deaf ears?’ Has he left us alone to fend for ourselves?’ ‘Is there any hope for the future?’
At the time of Isaiah the prophet, it seems that these kinds of questions were in the mind of King Ahaz when he was confronted by the Assyrian threat on his northern border.
Into this situation Isaiah spoke: ‘Keep calm Ahaz. God will give you a sign – any sign, all you have to do is ask’ (Isaiah 7: 10).
But Ahaz was not interested in any sign. Even though God had given him this special offer, Ahaz refused. Second Kings, chapter 15 reveals that Ahaz chose to do it his way: he paid tribute to the Assyrian king, hoping the danger would disappear. Ahaz turned his back on the familiar – what was known from Israel’s past. Prayer and listening to God’s Word were not part of his response.
We can be like Ahaz. We ignore the enormous influence for good that Christianity has had on the western world and look for human solutions, not God’s solutions to the challenges we face. We have allowed a liberal, secular progressivism to drive our thinking. And tragically it’s happening in many churches.
Yet what does the current wisdom of the world have to offer? In its apparent care for the needy, secular progressivism appears to resemble Christianity in that it encourages love and compassion, tolerance and the relief of poverty and injustice. But at its center it is myopic and cruel because it teaches that life as we know it is the only life. It ignores the lessons of history revealing that God not only exists, but that he has acted in great humility to serve us in our greatest need: our need to be rescued from our self-absorption.
For the first Christians, the incarnation and the events of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God were real. Their familiarity with these truths didn’t weaken their faith but enhanced it. Their lives were rooted in God’s promises.
The daily insecurities of the decaying Roman Empire with its organized persecutions didn’t affect their basic confidence. They looked for the day when Christ would return.
Indeed, they heeded Jesus’ words: ‘Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man’ (Luke 21:36).
Familiarity with the Christmas story can breed an indifference to the miracle of the incarnation and the uniqueness of Jesus. Are you praying that the Spirit of God will keep your faith vital and fresh, confident in God’s promises?
Are you also praying that God’s Spirit will awaken hearts that have grown cold towards him because familiarity has bred contempt? Recent research shows that one-third of those who have not been in church for some time would accept an invitation to go to church. Christmas is a great time to invite them.
A prayer. Lord, we beseech you, pour out your grace into our hearts; so that, knowing the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection by his cross and passion. We ask this through Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
You may like to listen to Jesus Shall Reign from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry – One-time gift here.
The post ‘Familiarity…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
I’ve been intrigued by the promotion of Advent calendars, online and in large retail stores this year. Looking into it, I find it is becoming a pre-Christmas accompaniment, advertising wine, coffee pods and chocolate, lego (for Advent) and, of course the calendars themselves.
Back in November 2016, Ysenda Maxtone Graham drew attention in The Spectator UK to the season of Advent. She spoke of Advent as ‘a season of death, judgment, heaven and hell’ (November 26, 2016).
‘I relish the frisson of gloom,’ she wrote, the ‘foreboding and fear of judgment you get at Advent, alongside the hope. The Holly and the Ivy is all very well, but it’s the minor chord at the end of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel that I crave.’
‘More goose-pimples erupt in the naves and transepts of our cathedrals during the Advent service, than at any other in the liturgical year’, she comments. ‘It’s the mixture of bitterness and sweetness that does it,…’
It was Isaiah the prophet, writing in the 8th century BC, who was amongst the first of the prophets to speak, not only of the first coming of God’s King (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7), but also of his second coming (Isaiah 11:1-9).
It’s important we think about this. Often we’re not aware of elements of the Christian heritage that touch people in our wider society. Christmas retains an ongoing point of connection; now we’re seeing an interest that extends back into Advent.
Given this interest let me consider one of the readings set for this Advent season – for this Sunday, December 12.
The Book of Isaiah, chapter 35, verses 1 and 2 read: The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
A brooding theme in Isaiah chapters 1 through 39 is God’s impending judgment of his people. In 586BC the Babylonian forces would destroy the city of Jerusalem and take its people into exile. But Isaiah chapter 35 shines a light in the darkness, bringing news of God’s promise of a new day.
Isaiah’s poetry is powerful as he likens the experience of joy and singing at the coming of the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God, to our response when flowers burst into bloom in parched lands after refreshing rain.
It is a vision that inspires courage and fearlessness: Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God..’ (35:3-4a).
But Isaiah 35 also sounds a warning note. Because God is holy, his very nature means that he must judge what is unholy.
In chapter 35, verse 4b we read: ‘…He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense…’ We would be happier to overlook this aspect of God’s character. We’d much prefer to listen to and pass on a message of blessing – of justice without judgment, of salvation without a cross.
However, the wonderful news is that the nature of the God of the Bible is always to have mercy. Isaiah continues: ‘…He will come and save you’ (35:4c).
We all know that despite the incredible advances in science and technology, humanity continues to make a mess of relationships – between the nations and amongst families. It is self-evident we have no power of ourselves to save ourselves: spiritually we are blind and deaf, lame and mute (Isaiah 35:5-6).
The wonderful news is that God himself promises a future for us. He will build a highway for his people into his very presence! He will bring us to our true and lasting home where there will be joy and gladness… Sorrow and sighing shall flee far away (35:8, 10).
Isaiah uses the language of redeemed and ransomed of the Lord (35:9-10) to speak of everyone who is brought into God’s presence. These words look back to the rescue from Egypt; they also look forward to the saving work of Jesus Christ.
There is also something here that we miss. The highway to God is called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it… (35:8). Having been rescued we are now called upon to work at the quality of life that reflects the holiness of God. Paul the Apostle puts it this way: we all… beholding the glory of the Lord, will be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Isaiah, chapter 35 is a great reading for Advent. We see in it another facet of Isaiah’s vision of the glory of the Lord as he points us to the glorious day of the final coming of the Lord. We can drink it in and take new courage as it speaks to us of the everlasting joy and gladness we will then know.
Surely this is news we will want family and friends to know – so they too will see glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
The interest in Advent reveals the deceit of a secular progressivism insisting that life now is all there is. This is cruel, denying the reality of a day when perfect justice will be done. It also rejects what, deep down in our hearts we know: eternity exists (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
As I write, I am praying that we will all have a renewed commitment to shape our priorities, decisions, and relationships in the light of Jesus’ return. Yes, he will return – perhaps when we least expect it.
So, will you join me in praying for five people who don’t yet know Jesus? You may want to take the opportunity to invite them to church, as well as to coffee to explore the first eighteen sentences of John’s Gospel using TheWord121 (www.theword121.com). If others don’t hear, how can they be prepared to meet God’s King?
A prayer. Almighty God, we pray that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered through your guidance that your people may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may like to listen to Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry – One-time gift here.
The post ‘Advent…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
The world around us seems to be growing more selfish and corrupt. The values that spring from a general acknowledgement that we are the special creation of a personal God are gathering dust on the shelf of history. Parents are concerned about the influences of social media and the impact of gender issues. Drugs and alcohol, homelessness, violence and rape seem more prevalent.
Is it possible to feel hopeful?
Two and a half millennia ago hopelessness was staring the little kingdom of Judah in the face. In the 8th century BC the Assyrian imperial army rampaged through the Middle East and sacked the northern kingdom of Israel. A century later the Babylonian armies were on the rise, and it was only a matter of time before Judah received the unwelcome attention of those powerful forces.
How would Judah survive? She had no army to speak of, no money and no allies. Greater nations had already been cut down. Political obliteration seemed inevitable. Yet despite the odds, Judah’s morale was not destroyed. A glimmer of hope was on the horizon.
It was Isaiah, one of the prophets who had spoken of doom and despair, who wrote about a special leader who would be raised up. In Isaiah chapter 11, features of God’s promised king unfold.
A leader after God’s own heart. Isaiah was disappointed by the politicians of his day. They were corrupt: they took bribes, ignored the poor, and turned a blind eye to justice. King Ahaz, for example, had broken every trust given to him. He had even used the gold of the Temple to try to bribe Assyria and prevent her march on Jerusalem. He’d failed. He was another ruler who’d let his people down.
Time and time again, rulers and governments do that. In most western democracies today election promises are constantly consigned to the trash.
In chapter 11, verse 1, Isaiah offers hope: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
Jesse was the father of King David, the great king in the Old Testament. Just as David himself had come out of obscurity, Isaiah is saying, so too a new king would emerge, and he would be greater than David and his son Solomon.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, Isaiah says, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2-3).
Wisdom, understanding and knowledge would characterize this king’s rule. But fundamental would be his willingness to learn from God. There would be no political blunders in his rule. Furthermore, corruption would not plague his government; the media wouldn’t be able to destroy him – either over his personal integrity or his policies. No one would be living in poverty or without a home.
A leader who would use his power for peace. The metaphors in verse 6 are vivid: The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. Peace would be the mark of this leader’s rule.
Periods of world peace are fleeting. The war in Ukraine has expunged the view that the world had at last entered a time of safety, security and prosperity. Yet Isaiah insists, under God’s ruler there will be no incompetence, no corruption, no violence – only peace. Could it be true?
A leader who draws his people from the nations. Isaiah doesn’t stop there, for in verses 10 though 16 he portrays people coming from all parts of the world, like a scattered army, to rally around this ruler. It will be a victorious, redeemed community, he says (11:15). People will come from the East and the West. Highways will be built to God’s City so that people from every nation can come. It’s a vivid and poetic picture.
Understandably we ask, ‘Could it happen?’ ‘Who is this root of Jesse, this ruler to whom the people rally, who will restore creation to its pristine harmony?’ Jesus.
Some seven hundred years before Jesus came, Isaiah predicted the first coming of God’s king as well as his return. This is one of the amazing things about the Bible that convinces me that it is what it says it is – namely, God’s deliberate, progressive, self-revelation.
Centuries before Jesus came, Isaiah opened a window on Jesus’ life and work. Wise men did come from the Far East to pay him homage at his birth. And people from around the world have been coming to him ever since his death and resurrection.
The Gospel writers reveal that Jesus not only taught but backed up his words with action that showed God’s compassion for a sick and sorry world. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, and dealt with the powers of evil.
As the New Testament unfolds, we learn that the coming of God’s king is in two parts: his first coming was a rescue operation; his return will reveal the king in all his might, majesty dominion and power. He will bring his perfect justice to bear and, with the unveiling of his own glory, will reveal the glory of all who have truly turned to him.
His first coming we celebrate at Christmas. In the season of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, we focus on the reality of his return.
Our hope is bound up in God’s king. For the death of the king on the cross comes between God’s good creation, ruined by human sin with which the Bible begins, and the promise of a restored creation with which the Bible ends. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes… there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4).
A prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, so that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
You may want to listen to Christ Our Hope in Life and Death from Keith and Kristyn Getty and Matt Papa.
© John G. Mason
Note: Today’s ‘Word’ is adapted from my book in the ‘Reading the Bible Today’ series, Luke: An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2018.
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry – One-time gift here.
The post ’Where Is Our Hope…?’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
Philippians 4 - Giving thanks to God in everything and then knowing God's peace, which passes all understanding.
Luke 23:33ff - Gramercy - Great Mercy, as shown in Jesus' words to the repentant thief beside him on the cross.
Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and warns of political and climatic upheaval.
One of the conundrums of life is the oft irrational hostility towards the Christian faith. Yes, sadly some professing Christians have carried out terrible abuses. But the big picture is that over the centuries God’s people have shown care and compassion for the poor and the needy – exemplifying a facet of the public ministry of Jesus – seeking the welfare of the city (Jeremiah 29:7).
Ironically, but perhaps not surprisingly, the media in all its forms chooses to overlook such welfare. I say ‘not surprisingly’ because people in every generation want to cut down anyone who threatens them. The Jewish leadership felt threatened by Jesus of Nazareth. So much so that they endeavored to trap him with gotcha questions which could discredit and destroy him. This was increasingly evident during the days before the Passover – at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion.
In Luke chapter 20, verse 25 Jesus had responded to the question, ‘Teacher, … is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor?’ with ‘… Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s’. Confounded by his answer they were silenced (Luke 20:26).
Nevertheless, despite this unexpected setback, the aggressive questioning continued. This time the Sadducees, another group of Jewish leaders, pressed him on the subject of the resurrection.
The Sadducees were conservative aristocrats. The high priests were drawn from this group. Willing to work with the Roman authorities, their privileges were protected.
However, they were treated with suspicion by Jewish loyalists and pious Jewish people. In his Antiquities Josephus tells us that the Sadducees only accepted the written Scripture, not oral tradition which the Pharisees accepted (xiii.297; xviii.16). However, the Sadducees denied life after death and therefore, resurrection. This was the question on which they challenged Jesus (Luke chapter 20, verse 28).
Using the law that required the brother of a man who died childless to take his brother’s wife in marriage (levirate law), the Sadducees framed their question. Yet, given that there are only a few recorded occasions of levirate marriage – one being that of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 4:5, 21) – and that the practice seems to have been dropped by the time of the New Testament, their question was more hypothetical than real.
They posed the situation of seven brothers successively marrying the same woman. None of the marriages produced any children. In turn they asked Jesus whose wife the woman would be in the resurrection (20:29-33). Implying there could be no answer to their question, they used it to argue there could no resurrection.
But Jesus responded: ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage’ (20:34). His implication is clear. Given the successive marriages portrayed by the Sadducees, Jesus affirms the norm and the appropriateness of marriage between a man and woman. Significantly, in saying this he also confirms the creation order of Genesis 2:24.
But he didn’t stop there. He continued by contrasting our present experience and that in the life to come: “Those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage…” (20:35). In a tightly worded sentence he affirmed the reality of life beyond death and also the resurrection.
‘Life in the age to come will be significantly different for all who are considered worthy,’ he says. Not everyone will experience the new age and the resurrection.
His words here are consistent with the movement of thought that unfolds in Luke: only those who have been rescued (Luke 19:10) will enjoy life and resurrection in the coming age. Marriage as we know it will no longer apply. It will no longer be needed for ‘they cannot die any more…’ (20:36b).
One of the reasons for marriage is the procreation of children in a world where everyone dies. But in a world where death no longer reigns, marriage and the birth of children is unnecessary.
Notice Jesus didn’t say they no longer die but rather, they cannot die. In the coming age we will share something in common with the angels: ‘… they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection’ (20:36c).
So important was the question of resurrection that Jesus used the opportunity to point out that it was implied in the Old Testament. Drawing from the scene when God revealed his name to Moses (Exodus 3:15), Jesus drew attention to God’s description of himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (20:37). Jesus then drew out the logic of God’s words, saying: “Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive” (20:38).
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were long dead when Moses was alive. The statement that God is the God of these men, can only be true if they are alive, even though they have died. The alternative is to say that God is the God of people who no longer exist, which is nonsense.
Luke then includes words not found in the other gospels, ‘…for to him (God), all of them are alive” (20:38b). To us they are all dead, but that is not how God sees them. Death cannot break God’s relationship with them.
The Sadducees were silenced! And at least one other group the scribes, who did not necessarily like the Sadducees, agreed: ‘Teacher, you have spoken well’ (20:39). They were pleased to see the Sadducees silenced: For they (the Sadducees) no longer dared to ask him another question (20:40).
The 17th century mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal commented in his Pensées, ‘… The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Christians, is a God of love and of comfort, a God who fills the soul and heart of those whom He possesses, a God who makes them conscious of their inward wretchedness, and His infinite mercy, who unites Himself to their inmost soul, who fills it with humility and joy, with confidence and love, who renders them incapable of any other end than Himself.’
A prayer. Merciful God, it is by your gift alone that your faithful people offer you true and pleasing service. Grant that we may so faithfully serve you in this life that we do not fail at the end to obtain your heavenly promises; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may like to listen to Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed from Keith and Kristyn Getty
© John G. Mason
Note: Today’s ‘Word’ is adapted from my book in the ‘Reading the Bible Today’ series, Luke: An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2018.
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry – One-time gift here.
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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn lived at the time when Soviet communism sought to harness human engineering to create a new society. The goal was to develop a new kind of human being. Greedy, competitive and alienated individualists were to be transformed into co-operative and generous altruists. Capitalist men and women were to be changed into a socialist society.
Even before the fall of the USSR, Solzhenitsyn concluded the experiment had failed. It suggests that dreams of a better world and a better life based on human invention and force will founder. But let me suggest that we don’t have to despair. A ray of light shines in the darkness of our world.
Come with me to an unexpected encounter that changed a wealthy money-grabber into a benevolent philanthropist. The man’s life was changed more rapidly and more radically than even Karl Marx would have believed possible. We read about it in Luke chapter 19, verses 1 through 10.
Zacchaeus was very rich, yet his wealth didn’t earn him respect. In fact, the reverse was his experience: he was a social outcast. He was a chief tax collector.
Jewish tax collectors were regarded as traitors because the money they collected went to the treasury in Rome. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, it was reckoned that 99% were crooked.
But there seems to have been something appealing about Zacchaeus. Short in stature, there was a touch of humorous eccentricity about him. And this was evident when Jesus of Nazareth came to town.
As do celebrities today, Jesus drew huge crowds wherever he went. Zacchaeus wanted to see him but, pushed back by the crowd, he discovered he couldn’t. Thinking outside the box, he climbed a tree.
We easily miss the incongruity of the scene. Here was Zacchaeus, an eminent, affluent public servant, shinning up a tree to get a look at the man who, himself, was considered an outsider by the elite. Zacchaeus risked being ridiculed by the crowd.
What prompted Zacchaeus? Curiosity? He certainly wanted to see the celebrated miracle-working teacher from the north. People have always been attracted to celebrities and heroes, and encounters with Jesus often begin like that — curiosity about a celebrity.
But consider what happened: When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry up and come down; for I must stay at your house today’ (Luke 19:5).
We can only imagine how startled Zacchaeus must have felt. It was a critical moment. He didn’t expect this. How would he react? He hurried and came down and received him joyfully (19:6).
Perhaps it was more than curiosity that prompted Zacchaeus to climb the tree that day. He may have felt growing regret over his lifestyle.
Over the years in ministry, I’ve encountered people like this. They find life doesn’t turn out as expected — a broken marriage; difficult children; money ill-spent; a lost reputation. They feel trapped. But they know they can’t turn the clock back.
Zacchaeus may have felt this sense of despair. But maybe he’d heard how Jesus had changed other people’s lives – Matthew, another tax-collector, for example. Whatever prompted him, Zacchaeus jumped out of the tree and without a moment’s hesitation took Jesus in for lunch.
It was a life-changing moment, for clearly Jesus impressed Zacchaeus. So much so that during the meal Zacchaeus stood up and said, ‘Behold Lord, the half of my goods, I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold’ (Luke 19:8).
Zacchaeus’ promises are specific and immediate. There’s no fabrication. We can almost hear him turning the key in the lock of his safe. Meeting Jesus led this self-centered wealthy, but probably lonely man to a radical change within. He turned away from greed and revealed compassion for the poor and powerless. He also demonstrated a sense of justice.
What caused the change? Zacchaeus suddenly understood who Jesus really was: he called him ‘Lord’. This was more than a courtesy title. He knew he was in the presence of greatness.
In his work Zacchaeus would have experienced the deceitfulness of human nature in paying their taxes, and the dishonesty of tax-collectors in collecting taxes. He now knew he was in the presence of someone who could see right through deception and fraud. Jesus was the one man with whom you had to be completely honest.
There’s a transparency and humility about Zacchaeus’ reaction. His awakened conscience had led to his heartfelt repentance.
‘Today salvation has come to this house…’ Jesus said (Luke 19:9). It wasn’t good works or making amends for past wrongs; it wasn’t his generosity to the poor, that saved Zacchaeus. Rather it was his personal encounter with Jesus and his genuine repentance.
It was a significant moment: a man’s life was transformed. It’s the kind of transformation that politicians try to achieve through economic and other strategies. Revolutionaries use a gun. Jesus did it by inviting himself to lunch.
You may be thinking this kind of change can’t really take place in our world today. But consider Jesus’ further words: ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham’ (19:9b). Because of his repentance and the evidence of that repentance, Zacchaeus, formerly an ‘outsider’ was now an ‘insider’ in his relationship with God and his people – he could now be called a true son of Abraham.
Significantly Jesus goes to the heart of the reason for his coming: ‘For the Son of man came to seek out and to save the lost’ (19:10).
Let’s think about this. From God’s perspective every one of us is lost. Created to know and love God and enjoy him forever, we have all succumbed to self-worship: we fail to love him first. However, God didn’t reduce us to the particles and dust from which he had formed us. Rather, he spoke to one man, Abraham, and made three promises: ‘I will give you a land’; ‘I will make your name great’; and ‘I will bless all the nations through you’ (Genesis 12:2-3).
The history of Abraham’s family and their dealing with God is not a pretty one, but God persisted. He had a plan, and at the right time came amongst us in person. It was this God/man whom Zacchaeus encountered. Jesus came into the world to awaken us and rescue us, by laying down his own life so that we might enjoy life in all its fullness now and forever.
When we know Jesus, we will want to fall on our knees in repentance and love. In turn we will surely also want to find ways to arouse the curiosity of others – perhaps inviting them to coffee – so that we can introduce them to him too.
A prayer. Almighty and eternal God, grant that we may grow in faith, hope, and love; especially make us love what you command so that we may obtain what you have promised; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Note: Today’s ‘Word’ is adapted from my book in the ‘Reading the Bible Today’ series, Luke: An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2018.
You may like to listen to Magnificent, Marvelous, Matchless Love from Keith and Kristyn Getty.
© John G. Mason
Note: Today’s ‘Word’ is adapted from my book in the ‘Reading the Bible Today’ series, Luke: An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2018.
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry – One-time gift here.
The post ’Curiosity…’ appeared first on The Anglican Connection.
In Mere Christianity CS Lewis comments, ‘According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride…. It was through Pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind’.
Consider Jesus’ parable recorded in Luke chapter 18, from verse 9: He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector”.
In Jesus’ day the Jewish people considered tax-collectors traitors and thieves – traitors, because they were employed by the Romans; thieves, because they took a percentage of all taxes they collected. Yet the Pharisees at that time were regarded as exemplary, morally upright people.
The context of the parable suggests that the two men had gone to the temple for either the morning or the afternoon ritual sacrifice. Yes, both offer their own prayers during the service, but it seems this was customary at the time the priest was offering the sacrificial lamb.
Religion. It seems that the Pharisee stood at the front of the temple, apart from the main body of the congregation. This is consistent with the content and tone of his prayer. Reckoning he was righteous before God he considered himself superior to everyone else.
Indeed, in his self-conceit he didn’t pray for the tax-collector but rather prayed so that the tax-collector might hear him: “God, I thank you that I’m not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers or even like that tax collector” (18:11). He moved from what he no doubt considered to be the general sins of his fellow-worshippers to a ruthless denigration of the tax-collector.
And he did not stop there, but outlined his own credentials: he fasted twice a week – whereas the Law required fasting only once a year (on the Day of Atonement); he gave ten percent of all he earned – this too was beyond the Law’s requirements.
Despite all of this the Pharisee, Jesus tells us, had a very real problem: he had the outward form of religion but no personal relationship with God.
Relationship. Jesus’ story does not stop here: “But the tax collector, standing far off would not even look up to heaven” (18:13). Standing, as was the Jewish custom, the tax collector was at the back of the temple. He was under no illusion about his moral and spiritual condition. There’s no self-congratulation: rather, he beat his breast.
There are only two places in the New Testament where people ‘beat their breast’ – here and in Luke 23:48, where men and women went away from the scene of Jesus’ crucifixion. Only in times of deep emotional stress and grief would people, men especially, beat their breast. Clearly the tax collector was aware that his broken relationship with God was real and that it arose from deep within his heart. Elsewhere Jesus identifies the heart as the seat of all human sin (Mark 7: 21-23).
We can imagine his words bursting out in gasps expressing his inner torture: “‘God be merciful to me, a sinner!’” He felt as if he were the only sinner in the universe.
There is something else significant: merciful here is not the usual Greek word. Have mercy on me is normally, eleeson me (as in Luke 18:38). Here the wording is literally, God, make an atonement for me…! It is a reference to the sacrifice of atonement.
The tax collector very specifically asks that God will turn away his just anger through a sacrifice of atonement (or propitiation) so that he might be forgiven. Unlike the Pharisee, this man knows that his only hope is to throw himself totally upon God and God’s heart of mercy. Mercy is the only thing he knew he could ask for.
Jesus’ concluding comment is breath-taking and would have shocked his first hearers: “I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted” (18:14). The tax collector’s prayer is the kind of prayer God hears.
Significantly there is a change in the order as the two men walk away from the temple. The tax-collector now leads the way. He is the one who is justified.
Justify is the language of the law courts and is central to the Apostle Paul’s teaching about salvation. Significantly it is found first on the lips of Jesus. The tax collector is reckoned righteous in the same way that a judge declares or acquits an accused person of charges against them.
Kenneth Bailey comments: ‘For centuries the Church debated whether the sacraments have an automatic effect on the believer irrespective of their spiritual state. Here in this simple parable we already have an answer, and the answer is no!’ (Bailey, Peasant Eyes, p.155)
The parable goes to the heart of our relationship with God. And this includes our attitude when we attend church. It is only when we come into God’s presence honestly and with a repentant heart, that God in his mercy declares us pardoned and absolved of our sins. Yet, how often when we go to church do we leave with the same mindset with which we came? Our pride and self-worship have not been challenged by the Scriptures stirring us to confess our true state before God.
The tax collector had gone to the temple that day because he knew he needed a relationship with God. He knew he was unworthy of any good thing from God. The encouraging news is that God always hears and answers the honest and humble prayers that come from our heart.
It is so easy to be proud of our good works, thinking they give us credit with God when compared with the seemingly godless lives of others. We forget it is not religion that God wants of us but relationship.
A prayer. Almighty and everlasting God, look with mercy on our infirmities; and in all our dangers and necessities stretch out your right hand to help us and defend us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Note: Today’s ‘Word’ is adapted from my book in the ‘Reading the Bible Today’ series, Luke: An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2018.
You may like to listen to In Christ Alone from Keith and Kristyn Getty
© John G. Mason
Note: Today’s ‘Word’ is adapted from my book in the ‘Reading the Bible Today’ series, Luke: An Unexpected God, 2nd Edition, Aquila: 2018.
Support the Word on Wednesday ministry – One-time gift here.
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