Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

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

In an earlier reflection we looked at Nehemiah chapter 2, specifically at the way in which Nehemiah responded to the king’s question about his plans. However, there is far more in the book of Nehemiah than his account of how a person in a position of influence used the surplus resources of a rich nation to help restore the fortunes of a needy one.

In chapter 1 of the book we read how Nehemiah offered repentance for the sins of an earlier generation – sins that he personally had nothing to do with. To what extent is that appropriate at a time when many societies are attempting to come to terms with their own history? He also recalled God’s promise to restore the nation of Israel from exile and return them to the land that He had given them. Do we make a practice of recalling God’s promises when we pray? We must first be aware of God’s promises before we can ask Him to act upon them, and that entails spending time with His word.

Chapter 3 gives us details of how the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt and, perhaps more importantly, it gives the names of those who took responsibility for the work. It was a team effort involving people with various different skills and from both genders; their names are preserved for all to see. But the account also records that certain people did not want to get their hands dirty. Are you willing to muck-in, or even muck out if that is what God requests of you?

Nehemiah is best-known for the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem but the later chapters of the book record how he re-established a number of social reforms within the people of Israel. He remonstrated with those wealthy Israelites who forced their compatriots into debt and then sold them into slavery. He took exception to the charging of interest at 1% – image how he would react to the 30+% being charged today. He rebuked those who had formed partnerships with non-Israelites, whether business or domestic, he stopped the misuse of the Sabbath and he reinstated the supply of resources for the priests and the proper worship of God.

I suspect that Nehemiah would have a lot to say about our modern lifestyles, and not much of it would be positive.

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

I don’t know if it is appropriate to have ‘favourite’ Bible verses – all Scripture should be of great value to us – but one of my regular visits is to the second chapter of the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah was a Hebrew in exile but, like Joseph and Daniel, he had achieved a position of great importance in the government of his host state. Where are God’s people in similar positions today? Has politics become ‘too dirty’ for Christians to get involved?

Nehemiah was cup-bearer to the king Artaxerxes I, the king of Persia from 465-424BC. As cup-bearer he not only had the responsibility of ensuring that the king’s wine was to his liking (and not poisoned) but he also would be party to most of the great decisions of state.

Despite his closeness to the king, Nehemiah retained a great deal of respect for the monarch – perhaps he had heard about the fate of Joseph’s colleague in Genesis 40. So when Artaxerxes detected that Nehemiah was preoccupied and sad in his presence Nehemiah had cause to fear for his position.

After Nehemiah explained that Jerusalem, the historic focus of the Jewish people, lay desolate and neglected, the king asked Nehemiah “What is it you want?” I suspect that most of us would have blurted out “I’ve got a little list” but it is at that point that Nehemiah sets us an example that we should heed:

“Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king”

Note the sequence – we know that Nehemiah had already prayed at length and prepared a response but still he prayed again before answering. We do not know the nature of that second prayer – was it thanking God for the opportunity to speak or asking God for courage to continue with the request? Either way, it would have been brief and spoken from the heart. It was also successful.

We face many situations where a brief, heart-felt prayer is appropriate but we must not neglect the essential foundation of regular personal prayer and the readiness to act when God requires it.

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 05/Jul/2020]

Do you like your names? As a child, mine led to a lot of teasing. Oddly enough, it was the shouts of Helen Shapiro and the shortening to Hell which I minded more than the endless comments over my surname. The teasing over the latter largely stopped after I told the bullies defiantly “I like having an unusual name!” My sister became Mrs Hook on her marriage, but even this ordinary and easy to spell name had its drawbacks as it meant she and her husband felt they couldn’t call their son Robin, a name they really liked.

Naming a child is a privilege of parenthood and one that is generally denied to adoptive parents nowadays, especially if the child is old enough to know their name. Fortunately for me David’s birth parents chose my favourite boy’s name for their son, which felt like a sign that he was meant for me. I was able to add my father’s name as a second name when I adopted him at age 13 months, as well as my surname. When Michael came at 6 months he was young enough for me to choose a new first name, keeping his original one as a second name.

The Bible tells us that God also gives us a new name when he adopts us (Isaiah 62 v 2, Revelation 2 v 17). We may not like the name our birth parents gave us or the surname we inherited, but we can trust our adoptive Father to give us a name of which we will never be ashamed.

Just for fun, here are some anagrams of names of people from this church.

 
Article written by: Feel fur hen had

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

Bodies are something we’re pretty familiar with, after all we all have one! So the apostle Paul uses the body as a way to describe the church. What can we learn from this analogy today?

Last week we looked at defining what the church is and what it isn’t. Actually we have to be careful what words we use because the words we do use say a lot about who we are and what we do. There’s a particular analogy that the Apostle Paul famously uses to talk about the church and it’s found in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it’s a letter that he wrote to the church in Corinth. They refer to the gathered believers in Jesus Christ as a body. In other parts of the Bible it tells us that actually those who believe in Jesus are the body of Jesus Christ; they are his representatives on earth, his physical presence filled with his spirit.

^[01:01] Paul takes that analogy even further and compares the body of Christ to an actual body. He talks about unity but he also talks about diversity and the importance of the differences that we find in our churches. You might be tempted to think “well, I can’t do what that person can do or I don’t look like them or sound like them so I can’t be part of the body, I can’t be part of the church” or you might be looking at someone else and say “You know what, they don’t really fit in here, they’re two different, they’re too unlike us.” Paul said “That just doesn’t work. It’s like the head saying to the feet or the eye saying to the hand I don’t need you“. Now in respect to a body then that’s just ridiculous and it should be ridiculous as well for the church because in our diversity and in our unity we make up a complete whole. We are all necessary, we are all important and we are all indispensable, so much so that if one part of the body hurts the whole body hurts.

^[02:27] I used to suffer from ulcers a lot as a child and even now I know that if I get an ulcer in my mouth that’s going to hurt pretty much for the whole week. Something so small can have such a negative effect on the whole of my body and likewise Paul says that if one part of the body hurts then the whole body hurts, if one part of the church hurts then the whole church hurts and if any part is lacking honour there well, God wants to fix that. He wants to raise them up, he wants to elevate them, he wants to give them a special honour and we as the church should rejoice in that. That is so relevant at this time when we are reflecting on racism and the way that we have been culpable in that.

^[03:14] Rather than questioning whether we should elevate one particular group of people, we need to realize that the black community has been rejected by our churches and sidelined so much that they have to form their own churches. God is actually using this time to lift them up and, rather than be annoyed at that, rather than becoming defensive we should rejoice in the fact that God is lifting them up to a place of honour. We celebrate our differences, we need to recognise that everyone is important and necessary and has a part to play. We need to recognise that we are united because we are the body of Christ and we are full of his spirit to do his work in this place in our communities and to build his kingdom.

[1] YouTube link: What is the Church? Part 2
Bible references: 1 Corinthians 12 v12-27
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[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during July 2020]

Back in November 2016 Michael Goble wrote a reflection in ‘Yours’ in which he recounted how he had been called to step outside of his comfort zone. In one example he spoke of dancing in church and another of acting as chaplain to a youth group. Michael’s conclusion was “If that is truly His will for you then by His Spirit He will give you the power to do it”.^[1]

The prophet Amos was called to step outside his comfort zone. He describes himself thus: ‘I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”’ He found himself transferred from a rural setting into the court of the king of Israel where he had to deliver a message that was unpopular with the people of his day. The core of his message was that the nation of Israel – the people of God – had turned their backs on Him and were now headed for destruction.

As we see the news reports of post-lockdown reactions, do we too see evidence of people who have no interest in God? As a mass of humanity releases pent-up frustrations, whether at the barricade or the beach, how do we react? In Luke 18 Jesus described the religious approach: ‘The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector.”’ In the following chapter Jesus shows his own reaction: “As he … saw the city, he wept over it”.

In the days of Amos, the people rejected the warning from God and in due course they were taken into exile, the religious along with the ungodly. Yet the book of Amos has a positive ending:

“I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them, says the LORD your God.”

We spend most of our lives trying to make ourselves comfortable. Maybe Psalm 119 offers a better approach: “I remember, Lord, your ancient laws, and I find comfort in them.”

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[1] Available on this site at I Feel Like Dancing
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[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during June 2020]

Catalogue (def): a dialogue with a feline focus.

Recently we were treated to an ingenious presentation of the Biblical story of Daniel in the lions’ den^[1]. It set me wondering which of our ten cats could play the central role of Albus Dumblepaw. Ten cats? I suppose that ten cats is about the right number if you want to get rid of some corrupt state officials with dubious motives. In a somewhat similar way, our cats are not house pets – they are expected to earn their keep by controlling the local vermin.

Initially, there was just one cat but someone dumped two kittens at our gate, no doubt thinking that the Englishman will look after them. Then a neighbour’s cat decided that we were offering better facilities so she moved in too. The two older cats are familiar with the instruction in Genesis 8 v17 and have set about complying; each had three kittens and they are both happy to nurture each other’s offspring.

Domestic cats are not often mentioned in the Bible. By implication, their ancestors are included in the process of creation and similarly in Noah’s floating menagerie but otherwise it is their wilder cousins who take pride of place. We think of lions as the magnificently-maned layabouts of the savannah but the middle-eastern concept is more like a mountain lion. Fiercely protective of both their family and their territory, they symbolise strength, cunning and aggression. They inspire fear in those who encounter them although some, like Samson and David, were able to defeat them.

In 1 Kings 13 we have the curious story of a prophet who disobeyed God and was attacked by a lion on his way home. His body was found with the lion standing on one side and his untouched donkey on the other. Later, in 2 Kings 17, we are told that the people who resettled Samaria after the Israelites were exiled were themselves attacked by lions under the hand of God because they did not know what “the god of that country requires”. The key to survival is obedience to God.

The apostle Peter warns us: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Failure to heed this warning is likely to be catastrophic.

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[1] HBC Sunday morning online service, 21/Jun/2020, from 27:58
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