Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during October 2020]

In the liturgical calendars of many branches of Christianity, this period of transition from October to November is often called ‘Allhallowtide”. Hallows is an old-English word for saints. All Saints Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of November, following All Hallows Eve the night before. All Saints Day is an occasion to bring to mind those who have died and, in some denominations, to pray for the peace of their souls.

We too can take this opportunity to thank God for all those who have walked the life of faith before us, who have left us an example whereby we can be encouraged in our own walk with the Lord.
In 1864, William How wrote the following words:

For all the saints who from their labours rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

In the Biblical context, saints are not just those who have been venerated for some special reason. It is clear from his writings that the apostle Paul used the words ‘saints’ to include all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. For example, in his letter to the church at Ephesus Paul wrote “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” [Ephesians 2 v19 NKJV].
On that basis, we can claim our own common heritage with them.

O blessed communion, fellowship divine,
we feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

As we celebrate the blessing of Godly predecessors, we should not forget that we are setting examples for those who will follow us. That can be a sobering thought but also an encouraging one.

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Alleluia! Alleluia!

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[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during October 2020]

God’s instruction to Moses “Take two tablets” has a certain resonance with many of us, albeit in a different context. Very often, it seems that the gift of healing has been delegated to the purveyors of compressed powders. Tablets to relieve pain, tablets to reduce blood pressure, tablets to rectify low blood pressure, tablets to stimulate, tablets to relax, we even have tablets to restore the equilibrium of the stomach after taking too many other tablets. Perhaps we need the tricorder and the hypospray from USS Enterprise to deliver instant cures.

After the incident when Moses dropped the first two tablets on the ground, God told Moses to keep the replacements in a box. Great idea, it keeps them safe and out of sight. But out of sight can often mean out of mind, ignored, forgotten.

For us, when we attempt to put our tablets back in their box we find the way is obstructed by a tightly folded piece of paper. Usually we just pull it out and throw it away. That leaflet is sometimes called a prospectus – it contains important information about the medicine and what we can expect from it. Have you ever bothered to read one? It tells us who made the product, what it is for, the appropriate dosage, what to avoid whilst using it and how to recognise any side-effects.

Moses received a prospectus too; you can find it in the early books of the Old Testament. It gives us important information about what was written on the tablets that he was given; who wrote them, what their purpose was, what should we do or not do and what can we expect if we follow its advice. The rest of the Old Testament shows that, for much of the time, the prospectus given by God was ignored or forgotten by those purporting to be His people.

The apostle Paul wrote about tablets. In his second letter to the Corinthians he commended them: “You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” [2 Corinthians 3 v3]

Ignoring a medical prospectus can mean an uncomfortable present; ignoring God’s prospectus makes for a very uncomfortable future.

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[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church on 22^nd October 2020]

History, or rather Wikipedia, records that on this day in 451 the Chalcedonian Creed was adopted by the ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. Many Christians will be aware of the earlier ecumenical councils at Nicaea and Constantinople which resulted in the Nicene Creed – a statement of faith that is still used in many churches today.

The council at Chalcedon was intended to issue a statement defining the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ. This it did, but the resulting document has neither the simplicity nor the wider acceptance of earlier creeds. The records of the proceedings reveal a great deal of dispute between people who considered themselves to have some authority in the churches of the time, and led to further divisions between different branches of the church – not what was expected.

On this day in 1844 the followers of American pastor William Miller expected to see Christ return in His second advent. Some had even sold their possessions in anticipation. Miller had done a great deal of research into the Old Testament prophecies and had concluded that they all pointed to that date. Unfortunately he had apparently overlooked Christ’s own statement recorded in Mark 13:

But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.

On this day in 1887, coal miners in Blantyre went to work as usual, expecting to return home at the end of their shift; 207 died following an explosion of gases underground. In 2005, 117 people boarded a plane in Lagos, expecting to arrive safely in Abuja. The plane crashed; there were no survivors.

What will history record about this date in 2020? Do you have great expectations for this day? Are you afraid that it may turn out to be a day of great disappointment? Proverbs 16 v3-4 advises us:

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. The Lord works out everything to its proper end”.

Is this talk of disappointment depressing? Here is an antidote:
“This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

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[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during October 2020]

In the early 1970s, American singer Don Maclean wrote a song entitled ‘Vincent’, also commonly known as ‘Starry, starry night’. He had been inspired by reading a book about Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch post-impressionist painter. The song reached No 1 in the charts in the UK and in Ireland, and No 3 in Australia and Canada. The lyrics of the song include the lines:

“They would not listen, they did not know how, Perhaps they’ll listen now.”

This raises the question of ‘Who would not listen’? Perhaps for van Gogh it was the experts of the contemporary art world who did not recognise his artistic achievements until after his death. Or perhaps it was those who dismissed him because of his mental illness.

As we look around our contemporary world it does not take long to identify people who are not listening. Children not listening to their parents, spouses not listening to each other, citizens not listening to health advice, experts not listening to divergent views, legislators not listening to common sense, politicians not listening to those who pay their wages … and the vast majority not listening to God.

Jeremiah recognised a similar situation when he wrote:

“Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline”. [Jeremiah 17:23]

The prophet Zechariah came to a similar conclusion:

“They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit”. [Zechariah 7:12]

There is an added irony. In his early years van Gogh had entertained ideas of becoming a pastor like his father. He spent some time as a missionary in a mining community in Belgium and, according to at least one source, in southern England. Was his depression, at least in part, due to his perceived lack of success as a preacher?

When we look again at our modern society, are we optimistic or are we compelled to share Maclean’s closing sentiment:

“They would not listen, they’re not listening still, Perhaps they never will”

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[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube^[1], October 2020]

People today seem to take offence so easily, and therefore there is little room for intellectual debate and disagreement. How do we react to this kind of culture as Christians?

There’s a quote going the rounds on Facebook at the moment supposedly from Morgan Freeman though I very much doubt it is Morgan Freeman but I still like the quote anyway and it says this “Just because I disagree with you does not mean I hate you”. We need to relearn that as a society.

^[00:42] I think that’s really sums up how things are at the moment, we’ve lost that ability to disagree agreeably and something being offensive is defined by whether or not someone takes offence. People seem to be taking offence very easily at the moment and off the back of that there seems to be a reduction in the opportunities for free speech. Many a comedian and street preacher has fallen foul of the authorities and the morality police who take offence at what’s been said. Also authors and intellectuals have found themselves banned from university or their debates cancelled because of their particular stance on gender or sexuality or abortion. Perhaps those views which were fairly mainstream have now become distasteful, offensive, even hate speech. Perhaps because of this we are heading to a point in our future where rules and regulations, where our state are shaped by popular opinion and that leaves little debates for alternative views.

^[02:13] This is very much linked to what I was saying in a previous midweek message about our definition of truth: we seem to have lost a standard for truth so, what is true or what is offensive, has now become arbitrary. Actually it is the most popular voice or the loudest voice which dictates what is true and what is good or what is hateful now. The church has found itself increasingly on the fringe and increasingly on the wrong end of this truth, of this debate. Workers have found themselves at employment tribunals because of something they said or didn’t say on Facebook or Twitter or whatever social media they happen to be using.

^[03:16] Perhaps as a church we sowed the seed of our own destruction. I mean it wasn’t that long ago in history where the arbiter of what was offensive and what was true was the church. We weren’t particularly great at being gracious and time and time again people were censored or even arrested for the things that they said or the things that they did, be it saying that the earth revolves around the sun or that you stood up for the vulnerable and the weak.

^[03:53] Time and time again the Bible has been used as a weapon, as an excuse to imprison rather than liberate and perhaps what we’re seeing now in our society is just a continuation of what’s been going on throughout all history. Narrow mindedness, partisan politics, morally outraged society who demand justice when they find themselves offended by something.

^[04:29] Perhaps this is just a sign of the sinful, the fallen world that we live in, that the Bible tells us about. This is the way humanity unfortunately is. We seem to have this knack, this habit of taking those things that are good and true or intentions or the bible or morality and twisting it so much that it causes hurt and pain. Issues are used as a stick to hit people with and it leads to people being discriminated against rather than loved. We see this in the way the Bible has been used and perhaps as Christians, rather than pointing the blame, we need to learn some lessons about the way we have treated people in the past and the way we have used God’s words to discriminate against and to hurt whereas God’s word is meant to bring freedom particularly to those who society would put on the outside. So before you point out the splinter in the eye of society perhaps we need to look in the mirror at the plank that is in our own.

[1] YouTube link: Should I Be Offended?
Bible references: ~

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[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church, 15^th October 2020]

On the 15^th October in 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte began his exile on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. He had been Emperor of France and had controlled much of Europe but now he was reduced to living in a damp outpost of the British Empire.

In the mid-sixties my family regularly visited an elderly lady then in her nineties. In her younger years, she had been the matron of the hospital in St Helena. Great Aunt Elizabeth claimed to have known someone who had known Napoleon Bonaparte; arithmetically, it could indeed have been as she said. Not many of us can claim to have some form of link with someone in charge of most of Europe (although corresponding with the deputy-head of the European Commission might be a first step).

Do you know someone who knows someone famous? Perhaps you know someone famous personally, or maybe you are someone famous yourself. What does fame mean? How long does it last?

In the Bible we find the names of many famous people, some recorded as having done what was right in the sight of the Lord, and some who did not. We can also see the names of other people who are mentioned only once, perhaps in a genealogy or as a record of their hospitality. They are not insignificant, they are essential links in the chain of God’s dealings with His people.

In the church we have high profile people but we also have others whose contribution is known only to God (and the admin team). You don’t have to be high profile to be essential – you just have to play your part in God’s plan.

In Psalm 24 David posed the question “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?” and responded “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.”

The 15^th October each year also happens to be ‘Global Handwashing Day’ – somewhat less famous than other ‘days’, perhaps it will have a higher profile this year when disease control is more important. Yet more important still is the spiritual parallel – have your hands been washed and your heart made pure?
You know where the Fountain is!

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