God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble

1Pe 5:1-11  Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it--not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock.  And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away.  In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.  Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.  And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.  To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

This letter was written at a time that Christians in Rome were suffering great persecution. The Emperor Nero had accused them of starting a fire in Rome.[1] This letter, written from a Roman context of suffering[2], seeks to give courage to all who suffer everywhere, and remind them that “Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.”[3]

Today is a day for us to remember those who suffer. Some scenes that immediately come to mind are the victims of the bomb explosion in Boston yesterday; those who are suffering because of thesuicide commando that went on the rampage in the main court complex in Mogadishu on Sunday, and the 17 civilians killed in Afghanistan by Unites States airstrike on 6 April.

Lord in your mercy – Hear our Prayer.  

 

  

Fourth  Sunday of Easter

The Good Shepherd
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.160

 

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[1] History has concluded that the Emperor Nero set that fire in order that he might clear away the ramshackle buildings of Rome and give him room for new construction.

[2] Peter says he wrote it from Babylon (5:13). Most scholars agree that he referring to Rome.

[3] 1 Peter 5:10.

Shepherds of the Flock

Jer 23:1-4 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD.  Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.  I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.
..........
Jer 23:28  Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the LORD.

Jeremiah Chapter 23 contrasts bad shepherds with the servants of the Lord. The bad shepherds scatter the flock, causing fear and disunity. The good shepherds gather the flock, calming fear, and speaking faith. Jeremiah is reflecting on the difficult task of leadership, lamenting those leaders who do not follow the advice of the Lord. Here he is speaking specifically to King Zedekiah who in 590 BC decided to withhold tribute to Babylonian Empire, against the advice of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 27:4-8). The shepherds of Judah were making policy decisions that placed the people in danger – and history showed that because of this, they were driven into exile.

The invitation for today is to think about people we know who have been called by God to be “shepherds” of the flock: presidents, community leaders, pastors. They are fragile human beings called to do a difficult thing. Too often we criticise their frailties, without offering them encouragement. Think of ways in which you can encourage a leader you know to remain faithful to the call of God. Now be a good shepherd to that person.

 

  

Fourth  Sunday of Easter

The Good Shepherd
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.160

 

The Spirit of God

Act 4:23-37  As soon as Peter and John were set free, they returned to their group and told them what the chief priests and the elders had said. When the believers heard it, they all joined together in prayer to God: "Master and Creator of heaven, earth, and sea, and all that is in them!  By means of the Holy Spirit you spoke through our ancestor David, your servant, when he said, 'Why were the Gentiles furious; why did people make their useless plots?  The kings of the earth prepared themselves, and the rulers met together against the Lord and his Messiah.'  For indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together in this city with the Gentiles and the people of Israel against Jesus, your holy Servant, whom you made Messiah.  They gathered to do everything that you by your power and will had already decided would happen.  And now, Lord, take notice of the threats they have made, and allow us, your servants, to speak your message with all boldness.  Reach out your hand to heal, and grant that wonders and miracles may be performed through the name of your holy Servant Jesus."  When they finished praying, the place where they were meeting was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim God's message with boldness.  The group of believers was one in mind and heart. None of them said that any of their belongings were their own, but they all shared with one another everything they had.  With great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God poured rich blessings on them all.  There was no one in the group who was in need. Those who owned fields or houses would sell them, bring the money received from the sale,  and turn it over to the apostles; and the money was distributed according to the needs of the people.  And so it was that Joseph, a Levite born in Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means "One who Encourages"),  sold a field he owned, brought the money, and turned it over to the apostles.

This passage from Acts says that the sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit was boldness and generosity.  Why then do we tie ourselves in knots by chasing after speaking in tongues, ecstatic experience, exclusive wisdom and inner feelings of joy? The Spirit of God is not some personal possession, given to make us feel good, or to allow us to feel superior over those who do not “have our experience”. The Spirit of God is given so that we may be faithful in our service: a service that asks us to be bold, and to become generous.   

To Sing:

God’s Spirit is in my heart,
He has called me and set me apart.
This is what I have to do,
what I have to do.
He sent me to give the Good News to the poor,
Tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more,
Tell blind people that they can see,
And set the downtrodden free
And go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come,
And go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come.

Author: Alan Date (1902-1979) & Hubert J. Richards (B 1921)

 

Third Sunday of Easter

The Lord is with us
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.154

 

Your God is too small

Lev 26:1-13  You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images or pillars, and you shall not place figured stones in your land, to worship at them; for I am the LORD your God.  You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.  If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully,  I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and live securely in your land.  And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land.  You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.  Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.  I will look with favour upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you; and I will maintain my covenant with you.  You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new.  I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you.  And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people.  I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

The first verse of Leviticus 26 echoes the first verses of the Ten Commandments.[1] While these verses speak of “idols” and “carved images”, this is not an objection to the creativity of artists or stone carvers. The core issue is about limiting our understanding of God. The moment we try to “draw God”, or to carve a representation of God, is the moment that we reduce God to the limits of our understanding. God the Unknowable, the Unexpected, the Unexplained, the Wholly Other cannot be captured in visible form. Therefore the commandment is not about carvings – but is rather about limiting our picture of God.

There are also other ways of limiting God. We can limit God through the use of images:

·         “God our Father”, while offering a concept of love, also limits God to being male! And God is far more than the limitations of a male.

·         Some refer to God as “the Old Man upstairs”: again, God is far more than a benevolent grandfather.

·         Some have God pegged as a vengeful tyrant, who will obliterate all who do not follow Jesus. But this image falls short of the God of Grace.

Let us not be guilty of making our God suitable to ourselves – literally making God in our own image.  The challenge for today is to be reminded that God is bigger than anything we can imagine.

 

Thought

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.
Walter Chalmers Smith[2]

Third Sunday of Easter

The Lord is with us
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.154

 

 

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[1] See Exodus 20:1-5.

[2] Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/14#ixzz2QG0iYkWH

 

 

Being Different

Gal 2:11-20  But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"  We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;  yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.  But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!  But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.  For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The way of Jesus will lead us into difficult, counter-cultural living.  Because following Jesus often asks us to “turn away from our sin” it will mean that there are moments when we will have to choose to be different – something that will make our friends and family uncomfortable! This is illustrated in the passage above: Peter (Cephas) was asked to embrace Gentiles as brothers and sisters. This ran counter to the culture of his friends, and so when they arrived he gave in to their cultural prejudice. Paul reprimands him, and reminds him that he no longer lives for himself, but instead he now represents the Christ who lives in him.

The challenge of Easter is to allow Jesus to put to death the old sinful prejudices/practices/culture, and to let new Jesus-resurrected views and actions be seen in our lives. This is not easy, because we will be asked to differ from our prevailing culture: some examples that come to mind - if you are an American, you will be asked to trust Jesus instead of your weapons; if you are a South African you will be asked to be kind and generous to foreign national who seek work; if we are heterosexual, we will be challenged to show love and acceptance to homosexual people.... and so the list of uncomfortable charity goes on......

Pray for the courage and commitment to be faithful to the values of Jesus, especially when this might alienate us from the values and customs of our friends and family.    

Sing:

It’s no longer I that liveth,
But Christ that liveth in me.
It’s no longer I that liveth,
But Christ that liveth in me.
He lives, He lives,
Jesus is alive in me!
It’s no longer I that liveth,
But Christ that liveth in me.

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/ns/16#ixzz2Q838fJpS

 

Third Sunday of Easter

The Lord is with us

(Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.154)

 

Living a Larger Life

Rom 8:1-11  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,  so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law--indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

 The Christian church in Rome insists that adopting the Jewish religious laws are a pre-condition for following the way of Jesus. Paul disagrees: “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.[1]  The life of a Jesus-follower is larger than the limits set by the observance of the Jewish religious rules: ” you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit” .[2] This life begins not when a person has learned the rules, but when the Divine Spirit touches our lives: “he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you”.[3]

So then why do so many people who follow Jesus today pay more attention to the rules of faith than to the life of faith? Why do we think that keeping religious rules equates to living a spiritual life? Paul’s teaching is clear – surrender our lives to the direction of the Spirit of God, and the Christ-like life will follow. I suspect we are afraid of this radical freedom, and choose instead to find safety behind our religious rules and regulations.

Here is the challenge: Pentecost is on its way! The Divine Spirit is already at work within you. Surrender to the work God, and worry less about keeping the rules.

 

Thought
"dilige et quod vis fac." : Love and then what you will, do.[4]
Augustine of Hippo  In epistulam Ioannis ad Parthos

 

 

Third Sunday of Easter

The Lord is with us
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.154

 

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[1] Romans 8:2

[2] Romans 8:9

[3] Romans 8:11

[4] Translation by Professor Joseph Fletcher

Moving in Next Door

Act 18:5-11  When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with proclaiming the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus.   When they opposed and reviled him, in protest he shook the dust from his clothes and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."  Then he left the synagogue and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God; his house was next door to the synagogue.  Crispus, the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul became believers and were baptized. One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent;  for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people."  He stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

Yesterday, while I was paying for fuel for my car, the petrol pump attendant discovered that I was a Methodist Minister. He then commented – “Oh, the Methodist umfundisi (ministers) that I know are rich, because they always drive new cars”. Although my vehicle is nearly 20 years old, I was left feeling uncomfortable by association, asking myself “Ought our image as ministers of the Gospel to be one of prosperous well-being?”  I am all too aware of how ‘purveyors of snake oil and other preachers’ have used religion for their personal profit. This has made many people sceptical of those who ask for the generosity of donors so that they can remain in the Christian ministry.

Acts chapter 18 marks the moment when Paul’s ministry changed from a ‘part-time’ self supporting work, to a full time work. Silas and Timothy arrived with financial support from the people of the Christian church in Philippi (see Philippians 4: 15-19 / 2 Corinthians 11:8-9). This enabled Paul to focus all his time on establishing a Christian church in Corinth.   I am suggesting that the actions of Paul in the above passage reveal a helpful principle that can guide any who relies on the generosity of donors to sustain a Christian ministry:

Acts 18:7 tells us that Paul left the Synagogue, and moved in next door. In case we miss the significance of this, Paul gives up the Synagogue: this is the place where he has his status as a well-connected, highly educated, and greatly senior rabbi – a status that would have earned him respect, and given him clients in his tent making business. Paul gives up his access to wealth and status to migrate down the social scale into the home of the “sinner” next door – a non-Jewish, Roman speaking Gentile who would have not been welcome in the Synagogue. Paul gained nothing in his personal capacity by moving, and lost much. I believe this becomes the touch stone for authentic ministry: that those of us who are privileged to be able to serve Jesus through the generosity of others ought to show two signs – sacrifice of personal ambition, and a ministry that is grounded amongst the “next door people’, those people who are not readily welcome through the front door of our religious establishments.

As one who has benefitted from the kind generosity of faithful Christ-followers, I can only say thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve God in this way. At the same time, please would you hold me accountable for the way I use this privilege: may my life always be moving away from status, and towards the “next door” people.

 

Thought

Come, and He will give you rest;
Trust Him for His word is plain;
He will take the sinfulest;
Christ receiveth sinful men.
Lyrics: Erdmann Neumeister (1671-1756), Translated by Frances Bevan

Third Sunday of Easter

The Lord is with us
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.154