Sermons Archive - Queen's Park Baptist Church: Recent Episodes
Queen's Park Baptist Church
This Sunday we are starting a new preaching series called Topsy-Turvey Kingdom – a life worth sharing. Alan Loach has once again done a great job in creating an appropriate and eye-catching graphic to go with this new series.
A blessing that ripples out and beyond It is a privilege to work with a fantastic and gifted team and I’m blessed (and hope you are too) when each of us operates within our calling and plays to the strengths God has given us. That goes not just for the staff team, but for us as a church. God has a call on each one of our lives and we, this city, and further afield, are blessed with we operate within the calling God has placed upon us and play to the strengths he has given us.
Called to participate
At a very general level, the calling God has placed upon each one of us is to participate in His kingdom. Given this is a topsy-turvy kingdom, or as Donald B. Kraybill famously called it, the upside-down kingdom, the strengths God has given us are often viewed as weaknesses by wider society. I take heart that from this, I hope you do too.
Kraybill’s book had a massive impact upon my life when I read it some 30+ years ago. If you have never read it then do yourself and favour and read it, but be warned, …you may never be the same again!
A shift but not a break Last week Iain drew upon Peter and John’s encounter with the man at the beautiful gate (Acts 3), to unpack something of our new vision. This represents a shift, a development, rather than a break. The guiding image in our previous vision was the table, drawing upon God’s invitation for all to come to His table.
The guiding image of the new vision is the gate, a place between the table and the temple where Jesus filled, Holy Spirit encounters take place.
Table – Gate – Temple all sit in relationship to one another. We need those smaller spaces (tables) where we encounter each other and Jesus in our midst. We need, more than anything else, a space where we encounter God in a way which goes beyond our own private time with Him (Temple). And because God loved the whole world we are called to position ourselves and be ready to act in His grace, at beautiful gates, places out-with the four walls of church or home.
Invitation is still a thing So, while our new vision will seek to support and emphasise that everyday places, your Front Line (where you spend most of your day), can be beautiful gates, we are not giving up on invitation and doing things and creating spaces where we can invite people to.
There is a great opportunity to exercise our invitational muscles on 14th May. The wonderful and talented Yvonne Lyon, Gareth Davies-Jones and DL will be in concert here at QP. As if that isn’t enough, in coming along and bringing friends you get to help support the work of Tearfund!
You can get tickets HERE
Buy early to avoid disappointment!
Brodie
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“Come on Iain just a few more steps.” This is the constant chorus I shout at my aching legs and heaving lungs as I stagger towards the prize of summiting a mountain peak. Often it’s worth it! great vistas of mountain ridges, sky and snow stretch out as far as the eye can see. Panoramas only viewed by the muddy-footed, masochistic hillwalker. These are the visions that spur me on through bog and boulder-field and focus my navigation.
As on the hills so in life. We all like to know where we are headed, what we need to get stuck into and where we need to deploy our resources for maximum effect.
That brings me to our vision Sunday this week. On Sunday we will be painting the big picture, pointing out the mountain and outlining where we will climb as we move out of this pandemic. These themes have been brewing in our leadership team for a couple of years and we are all glad that we can begin to work this out. I should add that we were advised to keep this clear and simple. I hope we can. So here are the headlines of our fresh vision.
Why are we here as QPBC? What are we for?
Our heart-cry remains to
“Call our City to Life”
More than ever people in Glasgow and its conurbations need to encounter the life-changing reality of Jesus who is the source of life in all its fullness and flourishing. That’s what we are going after.
So how are we going to do that? How are we to reach our city?
- By living lives that are worth sharing, lives that are saturated by ongoing encounter with God, centred on Jesus and filled with the Spirit.
- By living lives that are shared with one another, encouraging each other to grow as disciples of Jesus through accountable and supportive relationships that are grounded in God’s word and full of the Holy Spirit. Imagine a multicultural, multigenerational and socially diverse community of Jesus followers spurring each other on.
- By living lives of faith that are shared with others, sharing the good news of Jesus as we scatter into our families, workplaces and communities and as we gather together to build bold and creative outreach.
We sum these up in 3 priorities that will shape and guide all we do
Encounter – Encourage – Engage
We aim to be a community of wholehearted followers of Jesus who are
- Encountering God (Father, Son, and Spirit)
- Encouraging transformative relationships in one another
- Engaging in bold outreach
As we move into this new era, our standout priority is to engage in bold outreach.
Our 2010 vision was visualised by the banquet table from Matt 22. This emphasized invitation and welcome, grace and respect (great values – don’t lose them!) and inspired some great projects and events.
However the challenge we face today is not simply to invite people in but to go to where they are and to expect God to show up “out there” as much as “in here”.
To put this challenge in picture form, it is to shift from the “table” of Matt 22 to the “gate “of Acts 3:1-10.
In Acts 3 Peter and John encounter the lame man at the “beautiful gate” in the heart of the city of Jerusalem. God shows up there and then, on the street, on the lame man’s turf, in miraculous and life-changing power.
As we take up the challenge to step out and get alongside people where they are, let us too have faith that God is already on the streets and homes and workplaces of our city seeking to give the gift of a transformed life.
Please pray into these themes and how you might contribute.
See you on Sunday!
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He is Risen! So, have you set your alarm ready to make it to the flagpole at 8:30am on Sunday morning? The good news is that the weather forecast (at this point in time) suggests it will be dry, and there is breakfast to look forward to in the basement afterwards.
Last Year. I must admit last year (which seems more than a year ago) it was very strange to live stream on Facebook from the flagpole with just Alison and myself. I’m expectant that there will be more than 2 of us there this year!
Why the flagpole? Someone asked me recently “what’s the significance of the flagpole” and the short answer is, there is none. Part of why we gather there is its proximity to the church building. It’s also easy to find, so hopefully no one goes to the wrong part of the park and then wonders, why is no one else here. Certainly, one great thing about the flagpole is the almost 360o view you get of the city.
Dance like no one is watching. Do people hear us as we sing, proclaim and pray? … I don’t know. But there is something special about a public act of witness, something powerful about looking out over our city and proclaiming over it that Christ is risen, He is Lord, He is the King who comes to heal and make whole.
How early is early? If you think 8:30am is early for a Sunday morning then I think Mary, Mary, and Salome (Jn 16:11) would disabuse you of that notion. Luke tells us these women went to the tomb “at early dawn” (Lk.24), which would probably be between 5 and 6am. Now that is early, and I love that Luke gives us this small detail as I think it speaks volumes. If you want to know what I think Luke is telling us with this detail, then you’ll need to come along on Sunday morning.
Bible Reading(s) I’m currently thinking of drawing on Luke 24:1- 12 and Mark 15: 1- 8 for my sermon. I wonder what stands out for you in these passages.
Context is key. Of course, Christ’s resurrection, which we celebrate on Easter Sunday, did not just happen. There are a series of events, a whole life, a “Holy Week” which leads up to this. You will find on our YouTube channel a short reflection based on the events of each of the days of Holy Week.
I’m very grateful to Ali, Caz, Sam, Callum, and Lenna for crafting these short video reflections. If you have not watched them yet then you are missing out, they all do a great job and are well worth listening to.
There are also in-person opportunities to gather to reflect and worship. You’ll find all the details and information you need on the Easter 2022 page on the web-site.
See you on Sunday, if not before.
Grace and peace
Brodie
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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
So begins Dickens novel “A Tale of Two Cities”, and so we might describe such days as we are living in.
As our weather strives to find its way from one season to the next, it matches this cultural moment, as the 21st-century wavers between a spring of hope and winter of despair. Sadly, it seems to me, it is all too easy to overlook the flickers of hope amidst the pervasive gloom of war, pandemic, economic hardship, and environmental threats.
Nevertheless, here are some glimmers of joy in the darkness:
Thank you for your wonderful response to our global focus offering and our appeal for Ukraine. A reminder of the figures:
Global Mission: £11000,
Ukraine: £7000! Amazing.
We delight too in Mark and Claire’s wedding this week, and for several others in the pipeline and the prospect of mask-free celebrations.
Staying with the pandemic. For the first time since 22 March 2020, there will no longer be any Covid restrictions in places of worship. Nevertheless, we want to remain respectful and helpful to those of us who need or prefer to be in a masked environment. So, we have allocated a designated area on Sunday mornings for those of us who would prefer to be around people wearing masks.
Now the sadness:
We continue to grieve with Oliver Galbraith’s family and so many who have endured loss in this tough season.
Many of us are now seeing the pressure of rising bills hit our personal finances and facing the worry that brings. Please remember that we have a fellowship fund administered by the pastors which can be used to assist one another in facing financial challenges.
Of course, it’s the unspeakable events played out daily in Ukraine that are most troubling. These scenes of horror are the latest in a litany of tragedies and trauma that remind us of the gross inhumanity that humanity is proficient in and the reality of evil in our world.
Easter is coming and as we survey the wondrous cross, it serves to remind us that we humans are capable of the most heinous evil and barbarity. That we humans could reject, torture, and eliminate our loving creator shows that we are capable of anything. Yet it is on the ghastliest of human days when evil did its worst that God in Christ condemns and conquers sin. The effects of this moment have transformed human hearts and history ever since.
This is not simply my assessment. I have greatly enjoyed reading Tom Holland’s fantastic book “Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World”. He advances his argument not as a Christian apologist but as an academic historian: The death of Jesus on the cross is the greatest influence upon our contemporary civilisation that there is, the world is changed for the better through the cross. Or, in his own words:
“The cross, that ancient implement of torture, remains what it has always been: the fitting symbol of the Christian revolution. It is the audacity of it—the audacity of finding in a twisted and defeated corpse the glory of the creator of the universe—that serves to explain, more surely than anything else, the sheer strangeness of Christianity, and of the civilization to which it gave birth. Today, the power of this strangeness remains as alive as it has ever been. It is manifest in the great surge of conversions that has swept Africa and Asia over the past century; in the conviction of millions upon millions that the breath of the Spirit, like a living fire, still blows upon the world; and, in Europe and North America, in the assumptions of many more millions who would never think to describe themselves as Christian. All are heirs to the same revolution: a revolution that has at its molten heart, the image of a god dead on a cross.” ― Tom Holland,
May you find hope in these bleak times, in and through the revolution won at the cross.
Iain
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“Sometimes, particularly in our culture, we think that our family is only the people that live in our house or at most the people we are related to. But being part of the church means that we are part of a big family.”
These are words Nanette shared with us on Sunday morning in Camphill, and as Brodie reminded us a few weeks ago, the church we are part of is not just those who gather in Camphill or connect with QP online but instead is something so much bigger. In fact, this church, this family is worldwide. This coming week we are joined by a guest who is part of our wider Baptist church family here in Scotland.
Lisa Holmes is part of the National Team for the Baptist Union of Scotland and as we look forward to welcoming her at Camphill this Sunday and on QPonline next Sunday, we thought we would let her introduce herself to you all…
“I’m Lisa and in September I began a new role with the Baptist Union of Scotland as their Deeper Church Lead focusing on areas around prayer and spiritual formation and covering some aspects of pastoral care for ministers and leadership training.
Previously, I have been a Baptist Minister at Skipton Baptist Church in North Yorkshire (8 years as Senior Minister). I am also on the Leadership team for Spring Harvest and part of the Evangelical Alliance Council. I am married to Mike, and we have 2 children (20 & 18) and a whippet. I love music and play flute and saxophone and also enjoy anything that’s outdoors!”
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Question: What do you get when you take a youth pastor, a previous youth pastor, and three young people willing to share their faith?
Answer: a big splash
On Sunday, Brodie and I had the joy of baptising three of our young people, and yes, there was a literal big splash, but I want to focus on the impact of their stories. Each one of our young people stood up and confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour in front of friends and family. I was also struck by the love and respect they each have for the church family and the importance not simply of a youth ministry, but of being whole church family. Whether you were in Camphill on Sunday and heard their stories or not, we wanted to share them with you here. And so, with the permission of Ali, Eilidh and Isaac we are sharing their stories, in their own words…
Caz
_______________________
Ali “Hi. My name is Ali. Like most of us I struggled through lockdown with all of the challenges of online learning, not being able to see family & friends & of course loosing that connection with the church & with God. I would find myself trying to get out of going on youth zoom calls & pretending that I was on zoom when in fact I was on my phone. It was not only this but through the hole time of the first lockdown I didn’t keep in contact with any of my friends from school & it was extremely unhealthy mentally.
In August 2020 after starting secondary school, I found a chance to make new friends which helped a lot. Throughout this time, I had still somewhat distanced myself from God & Church.
It was only in the second lockdown when I felt my friendships slip again, I decided that I would get back into going to youth. At this point I hadn’t been to youth for a month or two & I just thought I would give it a go & it helped massively.
I realised that God & our relationship with God isn’t just church, or even necessarily the people who go to church but it’s about having someone who is always there for you & who always know right from wrong & know what is best to support you as an individual to help you grow.
I would like to finish on a Bible verse that changed my view of god for me & it is Isaiah 41:10
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Thank you”
__________________________
Eilidh “Hello everyone. My name is Eilidh. So, I’ve grown up in this church. I’d like to think that the majority know me, or at least know of me, because of my best memories have been right here in this building and/or has involved my friends who are here today who grew up in QP with me. Having a strong community around me has help me grow into the person who is standing in front of you all this morning to get baptised. I honestly don’t know where I would be without this community I speak of. The first SU camp I went to, I went with some of these people, the first time I broke down sobbing during worship, I was surrounded with my QP friends. I even remember who handed me a tissue to dry my eyes. I also remember when I stopped coming to church and distanced myself from God, who was there checking on me and stood beside me until I eventually run back into his arms. I know Gods’ unconditional love for me, but I also know unconditional love from my friends and family sitting here today. So, I thought I would be fitting to get baptised in this building, surrounded by my biological family but also my QP family whom I love and appreciate greatly.”
__________________________
Issac
“Hi so for anyone that does not know me I am Isaac.
Ever since I was little, I was taken to church but didn’t really think anything of it, it was just normal for me, that’s just what we did in our family. I didn’t really understand who or what God was for certain. It wasn’t until I moved into youth that I asked more questions and found out more about God and who he was for myself.
So, the next part of my story goes forward to the youth weekend away. I went away on this trip not expecting much and not really sure what I would experience. My friends were there too, and we were just looking forward to spending time together. However, one evening after a talk I remember we did a prayer tunnel for the first time. This was a significant experience for me. I went into the tunnel, and I felt a wee bit nervous, some people were in tears on the ground while I was just standing there being prayed over. Although I didn’t fully understand, I know I felt comfortable and calm in this place of prayer. It was kind of like a spark being flicked on and I just knew that I wanted a deeper connection with God from that moment.
So fast forward a couple of years and the worst thing happened – COVID!!! So, at this point I am still unsure about my relationship with God. I am guessing due to covid a lot of people may have been asking where God was. I definitely was. One thing that had happened in my life just before covid was that my uncle had sadly passed away due to pancreatic cancer. I was asking God “why you would let this happen”. So, my relationship with God grew further apart. I can’t remember the scenario, but I was writing an English essay one day during covid, and mid-sentence all of a sudden thinking “God must have a plan and I should trust him”. I really felt at calm and at peace.
Once covid restrictions started to ease we were allowed back into the church for some things, and I can still remember that when I came into this building again having an appreciation for God so much more and for the importance of church family. This is why I want to get baptised – God is a real and central part of my life.”
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It is probably safe to say that if you’ve been reading the news, or visited a fuel pump, or got your gas bill this week, or tuned in to QPBC’s church meeting last Wednesday, it’s been a rough week for you. I know it has been for me. Human suffering has been thought about, theologised and philosophised by better minds than mine for millennia, but there are seasons when suffering draws close to us in a very un-theoretical way.
And yet, as Brodie reminded us during Global Focus week so recently, we hold weeping and rejoicing together. So weep with those who weep.
And I would love for you to rejoice with me. I’m delighted to say that our Renew Wellbeing Café, which began in the Lane outside Queens Park Baptist Church in August 2021, was recently awarded a £10,000 grant from the Scottish Government’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, to sustain its staffing needs and expand it to three days a week for eighteen months. This is in addition to a £2,000 Cinnamon Network micro-grant for décor, signage and activities.
This feels to be a big affirmation of the witness and ministry of the project. I’m so proud of our six volunteers, who put over 30 hours a week into running the café on Mondays and Fridays. The number of guests coming through has been steadily increasing, and we’ve been praying three times a day each Monday and Friday since we began.
The Point’s gardening project continues to grow too. Our links with the local community have grown through the litter-picking hours we hosted through 2020 and 2021, to the point that the Govanhill Area Coordinator asked us especially to help with the Govanhill Week of Action and a few troublesome areas. We are tackling these this Sunday 20th March, with litter-picking and gardening.
I’m grateful for God’s gift of funding to help build our projects, but I am most excited about the difference QPBC members are making in Govanhill through getting involved at The Point. I think that might be the real gift God has for our city; us, as the body of Christ, calling our city to life, in all its weeping and rejoicing.
If you can give the gift of volunteering, we’d love to hear from you. Please email us at office@qpbc.org, or phone in on 0141 423 3962.
Grace and peace.
Jamie
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In July 2021 Vladimir Putin published a 5000-word essay “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians”. In March 2022 the essay was enacted, and Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its sovereign neighbour attacking the Ukrainian people and threatening the peace of the world.
No doubt, like me you watch breaking news with mounting shock and the incredulity that here in the 21st Century we are watching tanks roll across the plains of Europe.
Putin’s essay claimed common “spiritual, human, and civilizational ties formed for centuries”. After all, the Russian Orthodox church, key to national identity, originated in Kyiv in the 9th Century. Now with the blessing of the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill Putin pronounced that he is liberating Ukrainian citizens and restoring Mother Russia. A narrative which Putin has been saturated in, written about and gamed out in military exercises is now played out in the destruction and displacement of Ukrainian civilians.
I feel powerless, helpless as I watch. What can be done? what can I do?
Firstly, there is a salutary lesson here. War begins in our hearts. Paul says as much in our reading this week – Galatians 5: 15-21. Putin’s essay reminds me of the stories we tell ourselves, the judgments I make about others, the conspiracy theories I build up about people and their motives and how that influences my interactions. How deeply these prejudices wedge into my thinking! My views of the world and of myself need constant debunking and questioning from others. War begins in a warped mind and ends in bloodshed and hatred.
Secondly, this is a reminder to us that evil is real, and unchecked it threatens our world. The rehabilitated mind of a Christian believer is indignant at evil in our world. As the old adage goes: “if you are not angry at injustice you are not paying attention.” So how do we channel righteous anger? I have been reminded this week of the so-called “imprecatory” Psalms – those we don’t and won’t sing and would find impossible to voice if they were not written in scripture. These psalms name evil. Take a look at the raging outbursts we find in Psalm 7 as a for instance.
14 Whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
15 Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit they have made.
16 The trouble they cause recoils on them their violence comes down on their own heads.
17 I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.
This is a psalm that tells our souls to set our hopes in ultimate justice and to call out for God to avenge wrong. Perhaps it helps us pray that the mind of a dictator would be changed, and that trouble he causes would recoil upon him and lead to repentance. Certainly, it allows us to take sides against the oppression we see and to pray with our hearts and emotions engaged rather than pray blandly, apolitical prayers that hedge around what God’s will may or may not be in this given situation.
We can pray together too. We are inviting you to come join us for a time of prayer for Ukraine on Sunday evening at 6:30pm in Camphill.
We also want to give in support of churches and agencies who are expressing care in the name of Jesus. you can see details of that elsewhere on this update. we will channel our offerings through our friends at Fast in Romania who are offering refugee support and the European Baptist Network who are working directly on the ground in Ukraine and neighbouring countries.
And still, we cry – Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy.
Iain
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Amazing Grace: Galatians 5: 1 – 12
This week I want to start the blog with a bit of a personal reflection. Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. Traditionally it is a day of fasting, confession and repentance.
I grew up in a Christian household. We did pancake Tuesday, and I will not be persuaded otherwise that my dad makes the best pancakes in the world. But it had no religious significance for us. I don’t think I was aware of Ash Wednesday until I went to university and had to question why I saw people walk around with black crosses on their foreheads. Growing up we were all about Easter, all about resurrection and victory.
Learning from others As I’ve become older, and as I’ve met and become friends with Christians from different traditions, I’ve grown in my curiosity of, and appreciation for the festivals and rhythms of the ‘Christian Calendar’, especially the season of Lent (which starts with Ash Wednesday).
Don’t worry for the Chocolatiers I suspect that for most people if they associate Lent with anything they associate it with giving up something. But worry not for the Chocolatiers whose sales take a hit as millions give up chocolate for 40 days; they have convinced even more people that the “proper” way to celebrate Easter is to overindulge in that from which you have just abstained, and so their profits grow as waistlines expand.
Taking up for Lent Around 2010 I became aware of people suggesting that rather than give up something for Lent we should take on something. My ‘taking on” for Lent started in 2011 with Stephen Cherry’s book Barefoot Disciple. Each year the Archbishop of Canterbury commissions someone to write a book for Lent, and this was the book for 2011. If you’ve read Ruth Valerio’s Saying Yes to Life – and I know a number of you have – then you have read one of the Archbishop’s Lenten books.
Barefoot Cherry uses the metaphor barefoot discipleship to describe a “passionate- humility, a Christlike attitude that is down-to- earth, full of live, vulnerable and transformative ” (21). His metaphor challenges us to remove the boots and shoes that protect us, inculcate us, desensitise us, from the world around us.
Take off your shoes Ash Wednesday is an act of metaphorically taking off our shoes.
The ashes remind us, not just of our mortality and the fragility of life, but they point forward in hope. Australian missiologist Mike Frost summed it up neatly in a tweet when he wrote.
“Thank you that the ashes on our forehead do not symbolise our ultimate reality. From dust we might have been formed, but our bodies, our spirits, ourselves, await beautiful redemption and the restoration of all things. Help us to long for that day, and let it come quickly. Lord.”
Too many ashes The ashes of Ash Wednesday are not the only ashes visible to us this year. Glib Mazepa, a resident in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city spoke to reporters of life under attack from Russian missiles:
“they will just bomb the whole city to ashes”.
Ashes… too many ashes, too much war, too much death, too much destruction and loss. It can all feel too much to bear.
Ultimate Reality Ashes …too many ashes, and yet the ashes of war mingle with the ashes of Wednesday. They remind us in these distressing and fear-inducing times that just as the ashes of Ash Wednesday do not symbolise our ultimate reality, so the ashes of war do not, and will not have the final word. Amid the ashes we remember hope, hope which has a name: Jesus.
Prayer However, if we are not ‘barefoot’ there is a danger such hope could lead to indifference. ‘Barefoot hope’ does not shrug its shoulders and say, “it will be alright one day”, rather it rolls up its sleeves in active love and anticipation/exemplification of the beautiful redemption and the restoration of all things.
Being barefoot reminds us that the ground we stand on is holy, because God is Lord of all, and keeps us sensitive to what is going on around us.
Prayer helps keep us barefooted, it is the spiritual act of removing our shoes; of saying we come before God in his holiness not just with our own stuff, our own pain, but in solidarity with those we see who are also suffering and whose suffering is often much greater than ours.
A cry of holy discontent In prayer we cry out to God, not just for ourselves, but for others. We cry to God that there would be peace, that rockets, and bombs would stop. That soldiers would return to their families, and weapons of war transformed into weapons of life and fruitfulness (Isaiah 2:4).
In prayer we express a holy discontent with the world as we presently encounter it as an expression of our love of God and love of our neighbour.
Breaking down barriers Love and the breaking down of barriers of hostility is a significant theme of Paul’s letters. I detect something of this theme in Galatians 5: 1- 12 which we will look at on Sunday.
This section of Paul’s letter opens with the famous words “For freedom Christ has set us free”.
But what does freedom in Christ mean? What is it we are freed from, and for what are we freed?
I wonder what your answers are to these questions and what difference this makes in our daily interactions with people?
The only thing … If verse 1 is the verse that makes the headlines, it is verse 6 that has stopped me in my tracks and grabbed my attention. I’ve found myself reading and re-reading the words of the second half of this verse:
“the only thing that counts is faith working itself out in love”.
What does this look like for us? What could and should this look like?
Grace and peace.
Brodie
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In Lewis Carroll’s rather bizarre tale of Alice and her adventures in wonderland, the young Alice on several occasions either eats or drinks something which causes her to grow or to shrink. I wonder if over the past couple of years our view of the world has grown or shrunk? Not because of what we have eaten or drunk, but …well COVID has affected us in so many ways; the challenges and restrictions we have faced have changed both what we do and also how we view the world around us. For many people, the use of Zoom, and other such platforms, has helped expand their world as they have connected with people around the world at the click of a button. For others, their world has shrunk given they have not been able to travel and that which is local has taken on a new significance and importance.
This weekend is an opportunity for us to grow and expand our view of what God is doing in the world as it is our Global Focus Weekend. It is great to have our horizon expanded, and I’m confident that in various ways over the weekend that will happen. Having our horizon expanded is not, in God’s purposes, at odds with that which is local being significant and important to us. The adage, “think global, act local” springs to mind.
The bible has several pairings which at first glance seem to be mutually exclusive, but which in God’s purposes belong together. Our theme for Global Focus is one such pairing:
Rejoicing and Weeping In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul instructs them, and therefore us, to “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15). When we look at our world with its certainties and multiple and innumerable losses, there is much for which we need to mourn, especially when we remember our kinship in Christ with those who, in addition to the pandemic, war and rumours of war, suffer from a myriad of injustices. We need to hear their stories and stand with them in prayer.
In my experience these stories, while full of challenges and suffering, speak of God’s hesed (click on the word to watch a video). I think hesed [חֶ֥סֶד] is going to be an important word for us as we seek to grow in Christlikeness, recover from the pandemic, call this city to life, and partner with, and support, our mission partners/mission organisations.
In my experience stories that come from a place of mourning and weeping, because they speak of God’s hesed, contain moments of rejoicing. They speak of a joy that the world cannot understand but comes from God and gives remarkable strength. So, we not only need to be attentive and see and hear those who weep (and understand the reasons for this), but we also need to pay attention to stories of rejoicing, especially where they arise from situations of suffering.
One of the ways we can be attentive to these stories of rejoicing and weeping is by hearing from and listening to our mission partners. There will be an opportunity to do that on Sunday night as we join together across Zoom, across continents to hear from and pray with our mission partners. All our mission partners are planning to be on the call and we’ll also on this call connect with Fast in Romania, IJM and Tearfund.
Each of our mission partners has, like so many of us, experienced losses and challenges in this time of COVID. Yet, while we have all been in the same storm, we are not all in the same boat. That we’ve all been in the same storm is helpful, it means we have a shared experience and understanding. However, it also means we need to listen well, so we understand the specifics of different situations and contexts.
Global Focus this weekend On Friday night there is an opportunity to have some fun and expand our horizons as we join the Global Focus Quiz, 7pm till 9pm in the large hall in Camphill. If you’ve not yet booked your ticket for this, please do so. The cost of your ticket helps support our mission partners and projects.
On Sunday morning Paul Davie from Alpha International is our guest speaker. Paul’s work brings him into contact with wonderful sisters and brothers in Christ around the world some of whom are rejoicing and some of whom are weeping. I have, as I’ve gotten to know Paul, not just grown to appreciate his stories but the prophetic edge he brings as he faithfully shares what God is saying to him. I’m really looking forward to what Paul is going to share with us and how God is going to use him on Sunday morning.
Please also look out for our Global Focus prayer diary for 2022 which will be available through Church Suite. This contains a profile and prayer points for each of our mission partners. I pray that it will be a starting point for us as we demonstrate what it means to be a community of hesed as we listen well to the stories of our mission partners and seek to support them practically and in prayer.
All our mission partners regularly send updates and prayer letters to those who want to support them at a deeper level. Why don’t you, as well as using this prayer guide, connect with a mission partner at this deeper level and contact them for their newsletter/prayer updates?
Grace and peace.
Brodie
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Let me begin with a story. It comes from a favourite film, the Shawshank Redemption. It’s the story of an old jailbird called Brooks Hatlen, Shawshank’s librarian. After 40 years of incarceration old-man, Brooks is released into a bright new world of freedom. But his head is still in prison; in the familiar routines and the security of a world he knows. Brooks has been so deeply institutionalised that he cannot shake off his identity as a convict.
The film depicts his complete bewilderment with life on the outside, a life he has longed to lead. He is free but, in his head, he is living as a prisoner, a slave. Spoiler alert: it does not end well.
Brooks’ story is my story. I find my new identity in Christ undermined by pressures to conform to the ways of believing and behaving that belong to the old jailhouse me. Sometimes the old ways look attractive, familiar, and safe!
But in Galatians 4: Paul lets it rip:
“You are no longer slaves, but sons”.
In Christ, we have been released to live a new life! We are dead and unresponsive to the past (Gal 2:20) we are free from any moralistic or ritualistic high wire balancing act (Gal 3:1,2) and the authority of our old life has been undone (Gal 4:5)! We are no longer enslaved to the actions and reactions of our damaged souls, dysfunctional society, or demonic harassment. If the son sets you free – you are free indeed.
Of course, we often find ourselves blind to the liberating power of the cross and the privilege of knowing God as Father. We foist false, damaged images of parenting onto the perfections of God and live out the defective results.
In 2006 Tim Reid, a researcher at Baylor University in Texas, showed how distorted perceptions of God were shaping Americans’ political views. (No doubt we are not that different) He found 4 particular false pictures of God stood out: Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical and Distant.
In fact, most Christians expected God to be authoritarian, angry and ready to smite any dissent with earthquake, war or death penalty! Besides they also expected their political masters to embody these values too! Perhaps we should not have been so surprised to see militias of gun toting MAGA warriors, bibles in hand, storming the Capitol Building in Washington in January 2021.
Our perceptions of God have massive consequences. “What you believe about God,” said A W Tozer “is the most important thing about you!”
Picking our favourite trope about human fatherhood and ratcheting it up to the max to describe God will not do. Karl Barth caught biblical teaching right on when he said we don’t get to make up who God is, only God has the right to say who he is!
God is not who we say he is! but who he says he is. That requires a heaven to earth revelation. So, where on earth do we begin?
Two things:
- Consider Jesus. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the father,” he said
- Cooperate with the Spirit: calling out God’s fatherhood is the mission of the Spirit in our souls
And one more. Take a deep dive into the images of God that shape your perspective – share your notes with a friend, which will help you both see more clearly
So, let’s start here. Which of these distorted images do you identify with most? God who is Authoritarian (a legalistic tyrant), Benevolent (a sugar daddy who never confronts anything) Critical (nit-picky negative) Distant (absent, uninvolved, vague and indefinable) perhaps you have your very own portrait to add to the gallery of false images!?
Iain
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As an Australian in Glasgow, I’m conscious every now and again of the feeling of being a foreigner. It doesn’t happen very often, and it’s easier for me than others as I am a somewhat ‘invisible’ foreigner in the UK; also white, Western, and English-speaking. I’m never more struck by this feeling than when I walk the streets of Govanhill and see the melting pot of cultural influences that dominates the area. I walk past Slovak convenience stores, a Ghanaian restaurant, the local mosque and a Scottish bakery just in one block.
I’m sure a lot of the new Scots and refugees feel their exile far more poignantly than I, but I am reminded that as Christians we should all recognize this feeling of exile and foreignness on some level. Exile is a significant theme that runs through the whole Bible. From Genesis 3 when man is cast out of the Garden in Eden, through the Jewish exile to Babylon, to the New Testament letters where early Jesus followers were encouraged not only to welcome the stranger and foreigner, but to think of themselves as foreigners too (1 Peter 1).
A gift
Wonderfully though, and in a way that is both surprising and that I’ve come to expect from our faith, this foreignness is flipped upside-down so it is a gift and a call, a gracious opportunity afforded us as followers of Jesus. Our foreignness reminds us to look forward to the coming Kingdom of God, our true and permanent home (Hebrews 13). We are to live as foreigners, different and distinct, actively calling and bringing and waiting the Kingdom of God into our lives. Even as exiles in Babylon, God calls his people to life, to plant gardens and to settle in (Jeremiah 29).
Planting Gardens
Exiles planting gardens still happens today. A week past Sunday a motley crew of volunteers from QP joined me on Langside Road for the first draft of our community gardening project. As with most first drafts, we learned a lot, and will likely make some tweaks to help the smooth running of the event. Encouragingly though, with our first draft complete, I am confident that I like the story we as QPBC are telling in Govanhill. A story of God’s grace and faithfulness, of living differently, as foreigners, and of the small beginnings of the Kingdom of God.
Join us If you are interested in getting involved (whether you were there last time or not) we are hosting our next community gardening day on Sunday 27th March.
Jamie
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Our New Identity in Christ. The news in Scotland this week has been full of pictures of trees in the Northeast blown down by Storm Malik on Saturday then Storm Corrie. A photo in a recent BBC News article showing a picture of thousands of trees toppled like toothpicks near Edzell is strangely beautiful, while at the same time representative of the destruction and disruption these storms have brought not just to forestry but to the lives of people who live in these areas.
This Sunday This Sunday in Camphill we will be thinking a little about trees, not the kind that get blown over by winter storms, but of family trees and our identity. In many ways the whole of the book of Galatians is about identity, about a specific family tree, and who is part of this lineage.
Conclusions from Paul’s line of argument Paul sums up in Galatians 3: 23 – 29 and 4: 1- 7, drawing some conclusion for us, from what he’s argued about in his letter to this point.
This week we are not going to look at both passages, but home in on Galatians 3: 23 – 29 and think about our new identity in Christ.
Paul declares:
“in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith… you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”.
What does this mean for us?
Famously Famously Paul goes onto say:
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female”
Clearly, there are people who are Jewish and non-Jewish. Regrettably, slavery is still an injustice that entraps and destroys the lives of too many. Self-evidently, leaving aside contemporary debates about gender, there are people who are male and people who are female.
Questions? * So, what is Paul saying to us here, and what are the implications of this for how we understand ourselves individually and as a people? * Does this make a difference to how we live, given we are called to live in and from God’s grace because we have received His grace?
These are just some of the questions this passage has thrown up for me. I wonder how you might answer them?
Brodie
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June 2019 saw a historic event occur on the pyramid stage at the Glastonbury Festival. The rapper Stormzy became the first black solo British headliner at the iconic festival. Central to his performance was his hit song “Blinded by your Grace”
The excited crowd of festivalgoers joined in with the words:
“Lord I’ve been broken
Although I’m not worthy
You fixed me, now I’m blinded
By your grace
You came and saved me.”
Grace is the life-changing power of God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
This is the reality that erupted in the lives of the first Christians like those we have been reading about recently in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Here in southwest Turkey, Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, women and men were encountering an outpouring of God’s blessing and power which belied their social standing or cultural heritage. They were experiencing what Mike Yaconelli describes as the outrageous grace of God:
The grace of God is dangerous. It’s lavish, excessive, outrageous, and scandalous. God’s grace is ridiculously inclusive. Apparently, God doesn’t care who He loves. He is not very careful about the people He calls His friends or the people He calls His Church.
New Testament scholar John Barclay tells us that in Roman society it was common practice to ration out gifts strategically and discriminately to those who were regarded as valuable or important. He points out that the grace of God in Christ flips this on its head. God gives, the New Testament says, not because we are worthy but in order to make us worthy.
Martin Luther the great reformer said:
“Sinners are attractive to God because they are loved; they are not loved because they are attractive …This is the love of the cross.
God’s grace confers value upon us.
We are continually reminded that we live in an age critically short of self-esteem and worth. The numbers of people suffering anxiety, self-doubt depression, and struggling to find a foundation on which to build identity are epidemic. No doubt these conditions surface in multiple ways: sleep disorders, compulsive behaviours, self-harm, and more. Undoubtedly, they are intensified by the high expectations of self-image, body shape, celebrity, and achievement that are portrayed in our daily diet of social media.
Brene Brown famously said “let go of who you think you should be and embrace who you truly are.” (Subtitle of “Gifts of Imperfection). Sadly, that does not help as John Barclay points out
“if “who you are” crumbles under your own embrace as happens for many people today. If that embrace does not come from outside ourselves and if it’s not completely authoritative and utterly secure we are left wishing ourselves into worth rather than knowing we have it.”
Identity, worth and psychological security require a secure base that is more than my own wishful thinking, no matter how strongly I hold it.
This is the glory of grace and the good news of the message of the gospel. There is nothing inherent in any of us worthy of God’s attention, and nothing in God’s giving that pays any regard to our personal achievement.
- I am not my social status
- I am not my educational qualification
- I am not my own estimation of myself
- I am most truly myself in the shadow of Christ’s gift of himself for me on the cross.
- I am who God says I am
Of course, it’s not always easy to sense this and stand on this. What we believe in our heads must move to our hearts. Paul’s hope is that our worth before God is reinforced by how we relate to one another. In Romans 12:10 he says
“Take the lead in showing honour to one another.”
Here is an encouragement to all of us to actively promote to one another the assurance of God’s acceptance and the worth that grace conveys. After all, it’s so hard to hear this for ourselves.
It seems to me that grace is a truth our societies and souls are desperate to know. I like to think that truth of it resonates deep within all human hearts and that is what made the 2019 Glastonbury crowd sing.
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Who exemplifies grace for you? What image comes to mind when you think of a grace-filled person? You might want to ponder that thought as we head to Sunday.
In popular thinking, a grace-full person is a doormat, a rollover who is passive and silent in the face of discord. A gracious person will “never say boo to a goose” and is first to ask that “everyone just gets along”.
For grace read nice, tolerant, passive.
However, the fact remains, inaction in the face of abuse or threat leaves people harmed and sweeps heinous evils under the carpet. As Kirsten Powers says
“Grace without repentance and accountability is called “enabling.”
No doubt, our passivity in the face of harm and neglect, creates the occasion for damage to go unchallenged.
Galatians is a letter about grace. The vibrant grace of God which reconfigures our souls and resets our social relationships as we come to regard one another from Christ’s point of view.
Galatians is also an outburst of confrontation as Paul goes toe-to-toe with those who would like to allow religious performance and social conformity to limit the freedoms of grace. As The Message translates Gal 2:11
Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line.
Grace, Paul’s way, is not silent in the face of wrongdoing. Instead, he takes on Peter, the pillar of church authority, and calls him to account.
This kind of grace empowers us to tackle the issue, not the person, and to speak out forcefully for truth without taking down our detractors. Grace is a robust confidence that seizes the opportunity to call one another back into alignment with God. All at the same time honouring and valuing the other.
No one said that was easy!
Monday this week was Martin Luther King day. It’s a public holiday in the USA when people reflect on the legacy of the civil rights leader. King’s drive to stand up for justice for America’s black population was inspired by his Christian devotion. He stood up to confront racial prejudice and social injustice because he believed:
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
Martin Luther King epitomises for many what grace looks like in action: peaceful, civil (in both senses), and powerful protest.
The old adage remains true: “evil triumphs when good people do nothing”. Grace it seems can look like courageous confrontation, resisting influential people and holding fast to truth. Perhaps we actually do need to be more gracious.
Iain
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The turn of a calendar page makes little difference to reality, nevertheless, the beginning of a new year symbolises change and fresh possibilities for many of us. So how are you launching into 2022? Some of us remain disheartened and exhausted as we continue to respond to the twists and turns of an endlessly creative pandemic. Others, the glass-fullers amongst us, may be looking forward to hitting the bright side of the 2022 road.
Whether we are anxious or excited about 2022, changes to our lives and lifestyles are likely to remain with us for some time to come. Over these last two years, each of us have carved out our own unique ways of responding to the pandemic in response to our particular health needs, work demands or family and social connections. Hopefully, 2022 will see QPBC continuing to reconnect and rebuild Christian community as we have more opportunities to connect. As we come together these multiple responses and approaches will bump up against each other. Some will feel nervous or cautious whilst others a bit more gung-ho!
So can I ask all of us to show extra consideration for one another in these months and indeed for ourselves! Let’s welcome one another with a no-blame, no-shame mentality allowing us each our own way to deal with these uncertain times.
That will require us to grasp the most thrilling and life-transforming Christian truth: Grace!
Grace is the quite staggering fact of God’s intervention in our world arising out of, what author Brennan Manning calls, the “furious longing of God”. At an immeasurable cost to himself, God our heavenly Father has broken into the world to reach, rescue and restore human beings.
Grace is God’s unique gift:
Grace is undeserved favour, God’s other-worldly intervention in Jesus that interrupts the cycle of crime and punishment, sin and death.
Grace is outrageous, silencing the prideful inner moralist that tells us we can pull ourselves up by our spiritual bootstraps. Grace shatters the lie that faking our virtue before God with the veneer of respectability, or the smokescreen of religious behaviour wins his favour.
Grace is candid, it does not need to pretend but can face the truth of our own spiritual poverty and hopelessness because God has done for us on the cross what we could never do for ourselves.
Grace sings: I once was blind but now I see,
Grace has the courage and confidence to say I am still a beginner, a habitual sinner in need of God.
“From him, we have received from him grace upon grace,” says John 1:16. Grace received becomes grace given. Grace is the atmosphere in which Christian community flourishes. Grace is not an empty “kumbaya” around the campfire that pretends unity and tolerates sin. Grace is not niceness but the tough love that can call out wrong whilst at the same time embracing the wrongdoer. Grace pays the price for the offence, so the offender has hope for the future.
“Grace”, as Kirsten Powers in her Book “Saving Grace,” says “does not encourage dispassion or silence in the face of wrongdoing “
Instead, she says,
“it’s about speaking your truth without spitting contempt; co-existing with people you don’t even want to share a planet with let alone a country “
So, our teaching theme these next few months is Grace – it is truly amazing. We will be hearing Paul’s heart through the letter to the Galatians as he holds fast to the truth of grace in a world where ungrace rules
As you look forward to Sunday: here are a couple of questions:
- How would you describe God’s grace at work in your life? What does his undeserved favour look like in your experience?
- Think about someone you are different from you or disagree with. What would it look like to express grace to them?
Iain
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“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community… Let him who is not in community beware of being alone… Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
Uncertainty is once more upon us, as we face another January living with the reality of Covid-19. As I write I have just reached the end of ten days of isolation following a positive PCR result. Aside from the illness itself, and the concern about family members who contracted it from me, the isolation definitely had an impact on my wellbeing. Extroverts don’t cope well with days and days of being alone! I’ve had time to reflect, though, on what we mean by community and solitude, and where Christian community and solitude differ from what we see around us. The quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book Life Together, cuts to the heart of the question of whether should favour one over the other. More of an extrovert? Community’s the answer. Identify as an introvert? You’ll prefer solitude, then. Actually, we all need both, says, Bonhoeffer.
Solitude, the practice of choosing to be alone with God, is essential to deepening our relationship with Him. Where isolation can be a selfish, lonely and terrifying experience, solitude involves intimacy with our Father God. Our busy culture shouts loudly in order to tempt us to amusement, distraction and self-preservation. To thrive as followers of Jesus, we need to find ways to follow his example: seeking out quiet places to be with God, communing with Him, waiting on Him, worshipping Him. That might mean putting down my phone for a while or setting an alarm and choosing to sit for 5-10 mins in silence with God. Solitude is not isolation. Isolation cuts us off from other people and God. Solitude draws us closer to God and sharpens our awareness of others. Find solitude whilst remaining in community, says Bonhoeffer, or you’ll end up plunging into a void of words and feelings.
I suspect we’ve all learned to appreciate our immediate community in deeper ways in the last two years. But as restrictions tighten, forcing us to retreat from unnecessary contact, we need to be careful not to fall in step with how society sometimes defines it. When I get to choose my community, I will usually opt for it to include people who are like me. In fact, given carte blanche, I’ll probably opt for my community to consist of people who LIKE me. Good community should always offer acceptance and trust, but the fellowship we see in the New Testament is not like a filtered Instagram version of a happy bunch of friends who all look alike. Look at the ragtag bunch of misfits who comprise Jesus’ disciples or consider the descriptions of the members of the early church. This community is made up of unlikely, imperfect human beings choosing to live with passionate spirituality and radical love for others. Real Christian community – the kind of community where we bear with one another and forgive one another despite our differences – is hard work, but made possible by the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. He helps us to love one another even when we don’t really feel like it, or worse still, when we don’t really like one another. It’s often in those times, just when we begin to think it might be easier to opt out, that it’s good for us to be reminded of the glorious, beautiful, messy reality of being part of God’s family. Maybe it means I need to reach out to the person I find difficult or to find ways to encourage the person who is quick to share their struggles but never asks how I’m doing. Find fellowship whilst seeking solitude, says Bonhoeffer, or you’ll end up perishing in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.
Solitude not isolation, community not superficial connection. These are not easily won. They don’t just happen. They can feel like hard work at times. But like good fruit on a tree, or healthy branches on a vine, they are a sign of healthy growth. My prayer for you is my prayer for my own community and my own life: that through solitude and community we may grow more like Jesus in the months to come, whether we’re extroverts or introverts, or something in-between.
Fiona Stewart (Creative Director, Foolproof Creative Arts)
@fionacstewart
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This week I was chatting with a young mum watching her two-year-old mesmerised by a small revolving Christmas tree. She was sadly anticipating the day when her child would grow up and lose her sense of ‘wonder’.
This conversation has made me think about the concept of ‘wonder’, that capacity for rapt awe and amazement. Of course, for children everything is new; wonder comes easily, while adults can become jaded by familiarity. Perhaps, that’s why so many are constantly seeking out fresh experiences and new thrills.
As we head for another Christmas amid Covid 19 uncertainties and restrictions, it’s an opportunity to marvel again and be gripped by the real reason for the season, and allow God to restore the joy of our salvation and even childlike wonder. There are many wonderful depths of truth and meaning in the simple story of the nativity, but these are the thoughts that are fueling my worship this Christmas.
His Wonderful Works Christmas confirms to me again that God is in control. He has a plan – a big plan for the whole world, and he will move heaven and earth to accomplish it. Look how he orchestrated angels and wise men and even a star for the birth of Jesus, and how he led Caesar Augustus, emperor of the known world who himself was declared a son of god, to call a census that would take Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, fulfilling his Word (Micah 2:5)!
Though wars, famines and global catastrophes fill our news, we need not be alarmed, for we know these are the beginning of birth pains in preparation for Christ’s Second Coming (Matthew 24:8).
His Wonderful Ways A manger? This seems so contrary to what Mary might have expected, she who was to give birth to the Son of the Most High, destined to reign (Luke 1:33)? How reassuring it must have been to hear from the shepherds that the manger was the angel’s sign to them. It’s not surprising that Mary treasured it in her heart as she reflected on God’s ways. We all want confirmation that we’re in God’s will, part of his plan, but we don’t expect it to come through disappointment, hardship and suffering – like a manger! It fills me with wonder that even when I don’t understand the twists and turns of my life, God sees me, knows all about me, and is never taken by surprise.
His Wonderful Name He shall be called Immanuel – God with us (Isaiah 7:14). This is a truth we need to embrace this Christmas, especially if we are alone or isolating. God is with us! He is with you and with me, and his name is Wonderful Counsellor, to guide us with supernatural wisdom, Mighty God, strong for us who are weak, Everlasting Father, caring and providing for our needs, and he’s the Prince of Peace who brings us into right relationship with God and each other (Isaiah 9:6).
All this is possible because his name is Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). The older I get, the more self-aware, sin-aware I become, and the greater my felt need of a Saviour. The miracle of his love come down makes my capacity for wonder and an awe of God larger than ever.
Of course, we can’t live life in a constant state of amazement, but may we shun busyness, take time to reflect and have an openness of spirit to be surprised by joy when the wonder of Christmas breaks through.
Lenna
Read more of Lenna’s blogs here: lennasblog.org
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Mary, she is either adored or avoided, sainted or airbrushed from history. We often view her as a demure and dainty woman, her eyes coyly bowed in saintly meekness. This Mary points to a Christmas and a kingdom of quiet, passive submission. That’s hardly the Mary Luke portrays.
The real Mary has spiritual depth. She bursts out in extravagant worship, her praises peppered with Old Testament scripture. She boldly prophesies the demise of the powerful and the dignity of the humble. The “Magnificat” is a Holy Spirit-inspired revolutionary chorus.
In his book The Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight says about Mary’s song found in Luke.
“Mary’s song is actually announcing a social revolution. The King at the time is Herod the Great, and he is a power-tossing and death-dealing tyrant. Mary is announcing that he will be dealt his own due and have his power tossed to the winds. In his place, Mary declares, God will establish her very own son. Unlike Herod, he will rule with mercy and justice.”
Mary is gifted with grace, and she is gutsy! It’s Mary who calls for a miracle when the wine runs dry, it’s Mary, the disciple of Jesus, who does not bail out before the horror at the cross. Mary’s grace is not neutered or passive but is expressed in the remarkable confidence to call out evil without swallowing the same hatred herself. That’s the gutsy grace we all need.
These days online culture trains us to despise and trade cheap insults with those who are different from us. It’s time to rediscover Mary as an example of courage to confront with extraordinary grace.
Luke gives Mary a voice and a central place in the story. This teenager in the backwoods of Galilee is a worshipper with a prophetic voice and a heart for justice.
As we head to Sunday (in person) we are leaving space for more voices to contribute as we worship. We will take time to worship together and create space for us to listen for the Spirit to speak to us as we remember Jesus together in communion.
We’d love for you to listen in preparation for what the Lord might be saying to you for our church or for others so that you might encourage us all as we gather.
This is surely time to stir up our inner Mary and give voice to our worship and give words to what the Spirit is saying.
Iain
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Advent is a season in which we journey together towards Christmas. With one eye we look back to the first coming of Jesus, the long years of preparation and promise, hope and disappointment, and the arrival of God’s Son, our saviour. With the other eye, we set our vision upon the second coming of King Jesus in glory and the renewal of all things in Christ.
For Joseph and Mary that first 100-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was a tough trek. They faced rough paths, steep hills, the threat of robbers, and violent attacks not to mention the impending arrival of the baby.
Journeys are fraught with danger as recent and tragic events in the English Channel have reminded us. The world is on the move as millions seek refuge from despotic regimes, conflict, poverty, and the consequences of climate change, risking their lives for the dream of a better life, or freedom from threat and tyranny.
No doubt many issues both political and personal drive migration as they did for Joseph and Mary. The account of the Christmas story reminds us that God shows up, in-person and meets us even in our displacement from what is safe and familiar. What appeared to be an officious political instruction was reframed and redeemed by the God of history as the means of his salvation. There was a great happening, the journey of God through space and time to redeem and reign over his creation. This roadmap would not be thwarted by political expediency or unexpected circumstances. Salvation could not be thrown off course.
That serves to remind us that God can meet us anywhere on our journeys, whether we find ourselves physically in a very different location from where we imagined or living a life very different from our hopes and dreams. Yet God meets us in the journey: as that medieval spiritual saying has it: “God loves to draw straight lines with crooked sticks”
As we step into advent this year with anxieties and worries about our world, concerns about the possibilities of new variant infections undermining our Christmas plans be assured that God seeks to meet us and to remind us that his great journey from cradle to cross, to crowning glory, has been completed and we seek and long for his great and final advent when he arrives in glory.
On Sunday some of us will look at Mary’s story whilst others will be looking at God’s great finale in the book of Revelation. They are parts of the same story of God, intervening in our world to do what we cannot do for ourselves
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, incarcerated in a Nazi prison cell awaiting his execution wrote on Nov 21, 1943
“Life in a prison cell may well be compared to Advent; one waits, hopes, and does this, that, or the other- things that are of no real consequence- the door is shut and can be opened only from the outside.”
God in Christ has opened the door on his side lets step into his great journey again this year.
Iain
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I love this photograph …it is of a tree growing, clinging to a rockface, a most improbable place for something to grow, on the side of Ben More near Crianlarich.
For me, it is a picture of hope, of endurance, of life against all the odds.
I love trees and it gives me joy and comfort to think that in this wild and over-grazed landscape this tree has grown and survived.
This Sunday On Sunday, we will be thinking about the book of Revelation, a book full of evocative imagery. It is in many ways a book about hope, endurance, and comfort. It tells of the life of God’s people, the church, pictured as seven lampstands, who know true life against all the odds.
Not just comfort, but challenge However, it is not just a book of comfort, it is also a book of warnings and challenge. It challenges us to cling to the rock who is Christ Jesus. It challenges us to remain faithful – even in a hostile environment – in our worship and witness to who is God and Lord. It challenges our understanding of power and victory by presenting us with a lamb …a lamb who appeared as if slain.
An immersive experience
John’s series of visions recorded in the book of Revelation are not a puzzle to be solved or a code to break, rather, it is an invitation to be caught up in what John sees and feels.
Questions As you read the book of Revelation, I wonder what you see and feel? What brings you comfort and hope in John’s message? What challenges you, and as a result what might you change?
See you all on Sunday (DV)
Brodie
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Mr Chippy Mr Chippy was his name. He was a central figure in my boyhood, and for good reason. For Mr Chippy was the purveyor of a vast emporium of delights. Mr Chippy ran our local fish and chip van, brimful of an endless menu of fried pleasure.
My father was well aware of the pull that Mr Chippy’s store of goodies had on young boys and was not shy about utilising it as a motivational tool. On several occasions we would find ourselves trudging slowly home across the moor on a trek from the hills or coast and as fatigue sank in drifting off course and losing pace. It was at this point that he deployed his motivational strategy.
“What can I buy you when we get to Mr Chippy’s?”
Soon our pace picked up, the valleys were raised up, mountains and hills made low, and yeah, verily, the rough ground became level! Our vision turned to steak pies and fried fish, chips smothered in salt and vinegar. Soon our pace picked up and for the joy set before us, endured the bog and the bracken, exhaustion, and agony until we reached our heavenly goal.
So, what has this to do with our theme this week, or anything else, for that matter?
Fix your eyes on Jesus The book of Hebrews is our focus. Written to seasoned Christians undergoing persecution and social pressure. Some were abandoning faith and fellowship. This post lockdown not-yet-normal time has many resonances with the experience of those who were being addressed in Hebrews.
The temptation is to bail out when the knuckle screws of disappointment and discouragement are tightened up high. Perseverance and patience are the Christian virtues no one really wants but appear to be high on the list of God’s current plan for us.
It seems to me that this is a time for us to cultivate spiritual grit and determination. Hebrews points us to the vision that feeds endurance:
“Fix your eyes on Jesus” (Heb 12:2)
“For the joy set before him endured the cross”
This message calls us to look up to Christ and to look forward to meeting him and hearing his “well done” as we cross the finishing line of life.
I wonder how you go about “considering Jesus”, making the vision of him central, perhaps you have learned ways of calling to mind the joy that is set before us as we persist? Why not let us know or share with a friend what helps you to press on.
Press on!
Iain
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