Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[Modified transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube^[1], April 2020]

When the cracks start to show in my life, can I find peace?

I don’t know how you are coping with social isolation. We have now reached the three week mark and maybe you thought “yeah, we can do this; yeah, three weeks not too bad” and maybe you launched into it with some degree of enthusiasm.

^01:03 I don’t know about you but the cracks are starting to show. Perhaps you’re homeschooling and started off with such gusto but you’ve got a run dry of inspiration. Maybe there’s only so many times you can deep clean the kitchen. Perhaps your garden is pretty much sorted for the time being. You start to feel dry. You start to feel as if the cracks are showing, not just in your day-to-day living but in your relationships as well, maybe even with your relationship with God. It’s not that the cracks weren’t there before, it’s just that busyness and variety of life managed to plaster over those cracks. They managed to sustain us even though maybe our relationships weren’t as good as they could be.

^02:21 “Be still and know that I am God” – that’s what the psalmist says in Psalm 46. He reminds the followers of God that God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore do not fear even if everything around you is falling apart, even if chaos is at your door. Do not fear because God is in control and as verse 10 towards the end of the psalm says “Be still and know that I am God”.

^03:36 For the psalmist the answer was to be still, but you can say “that’s a stupid idea, I mean being still is what’s got me in this trouble in the first place. Being still it what’s giving me time to think and to dwell on the wrong things.” Maybe that’s the answer – it’s the wrong things. The psalmist has asked us to “Be still and to know that I am God”; to be still and know that God is in control, to be still and know that God is our help, to be still and know that God will be exalted in all this, to be still and know that God has a plan, to be still and know that God is with you.

[1] YouTube link: Can I Find Peace?
Bible references: Psalm 46 v10
Music: ‘Be Still and Know’ played by Phil Gwilt on the cello.

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[This Reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 12/Apr/2020]

An online dictionary defines pestilence as “any epidemic outbreak of a deadly and highly infectious disease” and this would be an apt description of the COVID19 virus that is currently disrupting our lives. The scale of the present outbreak may be unprecedented but the concept was familiar to the writer of Psalm 91:

Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. (v3)

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. (v 5, 6)

Does this mean that the Lord’s people are immune to the troubles that surround us? No, we may be citizens of another place but we are still sojourning here and we are subject to the perils and restrictions that apply to those around us. We are called to be salt and light or, as Neil recently put it, bright dots amongst the dull ones.

How we act in times of difficulty can have a positive influence on those around us. Are we ready with words of encouragement for those who feel that they cannot cope? Is there some practical way in which we can show God’s love to our neighbours? How we behave now will not only be a witness in times of trouble but will also be remembered when whatever passes for normality returns.

How do we keep our own spirits up when we are obliged to act as hermits? Many of us now have much more time on our hands – time to read God’s word more diligently and to share the gems that we find. Others will be working more intensely and will miss the support of their family of believers. The psalmist offers hope:

Because he loves me,’ says the LORD, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. (v 14, 15)
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These thoughts were part of a series of Easter reflections prepared for, and by, members of Horley Baptist Church during April 2020. This reflection is based on Mark 15:42-47.

What might you be missing because it all seems so familiar? This passage is probably very familiar to many of us. As with most things however, the more familiar they are, the easier it is for us to miss subtle but important messages. I read it again and found a couple of things worth noting in the passage.

1 -“Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council,who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.” The New Living Translation states that “Joseph of Arimathea took a risk and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.” We are later told that Joseph was a prominent member of the Jewish Council.

The risk he took might have been to do with his reputation, his standing in the Council, or perhaps even danger to his life. It is interesting to see how it was after Christ died that he became emboldened. We find ourselves in strange times with this corona virus issue, but we will undoubtedly have occasion to stand up and be counted for Christ, to let our lights shine. I pray that by His Spirit, we might be emboldened to do this when the situation arises.

2 –“Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.” I find this last section particularly interesting. The women who were there at the time saw where the body was laid, they saw the stone rolled into place. When they came back after the Sabbath, they stone had been rolled away and they could see into the empty tomb.

I have often read this and assumed that the stone was rolled away so that Christ could come out of the tomb. Clearly this is wrong, as he had already left the tomb before the stone was rolled away. The women and the disciples perhaps had to see that the tomb was empty first to be able to believe that he had risen.

You may read this passage and find other things I haven’t seen. I pray that God’s Holy Spirit will help us look again at the familiar and see hidden gems and that they may be a blessing to us and those we meet this Easter period.

Happy Easter!
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These thoughts were part of a series of Easter reflections prepared for, and by, members of Horley Baptist Church during April 2020. This reflection is based on Mark 15:21-39.

Pilate has had Jesus flogged, a cruel and harsh beating, and passed Jesus to the soldiers to be crucified. Simon of Cyrene is passing and he is press-ganged into carrying Jesus’ cross. As Jesus arrives at Golgotha, he is offered wine mixed with myrrh. This drink was a mild analgesic which may well be seen as a last act of kindness to dull the pain of crucifixion, probably given by a group of local ladies. Jesus declined.

Jesus’ pain could not be diluted. If your sin and mine is to be lifted from our shoulders, the full cost has to be paid, there can be no part payment, short cuts or lessening of the price. Christ has to suffer the full force of the consequences of our sin. Jesus did so obediently, there was no other way for the price of our sin to be paid. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. After six hours on the cross Jesus cried his last. “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

In these days of self-isolation and social distancing here we read of Jesus in isolation. Jesus had always shared fellowship with God. Jesus was with God, and he was God, from the very beginning. Yet on the cross, as Jesus took our sin upon his shoulders, that fellowship, that bond was broken. God could not gaze upon His son, as Jesus who was perfect, became sin for us. God turned his back on his only son. Jesus knew isolation and loneliness. Such was the cost of our salvation. As we go through the strictures of social isolation brought about by COVID-19 Jesus is well aware of how it is affecting you and your fears and concerns for the present and the future.

The centurion remarks “Truly this man was God’s Son!” In Luke’s account of the crucifixion we also read that another, one of the criminals crucified with Jesus, recognised that Jesus was innocent and was God’s Son as he said “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replied,“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” That same offer is available to all of us today.
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These thoughts were part of a series of Easter reflections prepared for, and by, members of Horley Baptist Church during April 2020. This reflection is based on Mark 14 v32-46

I wonder, if you were asked to recall something that you knew you had to face, that you were dreading so much that it made your stomach churn and your knees buckle, what thoughts and emotions would assault your senses. We’ve all been there, haven’t we – that exam you’ve been worrying about; a visit to the doctor you keep putting off because you are frightened of the possible outcome; that meeting with the bank manager about your mortgage; that dentist appointment, that … …
The worry and the dread of whatever it is seems to be unbearable.

* * * * * *

Jesus had just been sharing the last supper with the disciples when, later, He took Peter, James and John with Him to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, because He knew that the hour of His death was now very close. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death”, He said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

I wondered why it was the Garden of Gethsemane, and if we look at the same account in Luke’s gospel, he tells us that “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives” (where the Garden of Gethsemane was located at the base of the Mount). Surely, this is the first place that His captors would look for Him, the place he usually went to. But He still went to that place, indicating that He knew the path that He must take, as it was all part of the plan.

The Garden of Gethsemane (in Hebrew known as “Oil Press”) was also full of olive trees. Oil was extracted from the olives by use of an oil press (still in use today in some places), which would create such immense pressure that the oil would seep out and become separated from the vegetation water and the solid material. What a picture those trees paint for us of the pressure that fell upon Jesus on that fateful night as He anticipated what was to come. So great was His distress, that Luke’s account portrays that “being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground”. He even prayed to the Father, that perhaps there was another way, pleading that this cup might pass from Him. “Yet not my will, but yours be done”, He said. Why did He want this cup to pass from Him? What exactly was this cup? It was the cup of God’s wrath, that should have been yours and mine to drink, but instead would be poured out on the Son, as the Father turned His face away.

Just pause at this point and consider what Christ endured for each one – such raw humility and vulnerability, such great agony and the dread of God’s wrath. And yet He did not run away, and even showed concern for the disciples who, despite the situation before them, kept falling asleep instead of keeping watch. Gethsemane is, then, a picture of how Christ shared in the human condition – anguish, alienation, sadness and death. This is why we know He comes alongside us in our suffering – he understands, because He suffered so greatly in this garden, anticipating the road ahead. He was literally pressed and crushed by the very thought of what He must face.

Someone said recently, “Humility is strength”, and never more so was this demonstrated than in the Garden of Gethsemane and the events thereafter. If Jesus had not humbled himself, allowed himself to be the most vulnerable that He could possibly be, the course of mankind would forever have changed and been lost for eternity. And in that, is strength! I admit to feeling quite sad as I wrote this, but I too am humbled by remembering what happened, realising afresh just how much God loves me, how much He loves you. We must never forget what Jesus went through, but praise God, the Garden of Gethsemane was soon to be replaced with the empty tomb – hallelujah!

But that’s for another day.
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These thoughts were part of a series of Easter reflections prepared for, and by, members of Horley Baptist Church during April 2020. This reflection is based on Mark 14 v16-25.

For nearly two thousand years, millions of people have looked at this passage at Easter-time. For many people it will bring to mind Leonardo da Vinci’s famous fresco of the Last Supper; for others it forms the focus of every communion service. For those of us who have become ‘hardened’ to passages such as this, how is it possible to see something new in words that are so familiar?

The first gem in this passage came from words in verse 16 – [they] “found things just as Jesus had told them.” Jesus knew the details in advance. A similar thought can de detected in verses 18 and 21 – Jesus knew in advance. As we work our way though one of the most difficult periods in modern history we too can take comfort in the assurance that Jesus knew in advance.

“When evening came, Jesus arrived.” It had been a strange day; a simple visit to the home of some friends had turned into an event that was difficult to understand. Now it was getting dark and the disciples did not know what the evening would bring. In our insecurity about the future we too can look forward to Jesus being with us.

“He … gave it to his disciples.” He shared the meal with them. Of course, it was not an ordinary meal – it was the Passover meal when most of the city would have been recalling the way in which God had rescued his people from Egypt. We remember that we too have been delivered by the actions that Jesus foretells during this meal. All the twelve disciples were included, not even Judas was excluded. Rather, Jesus took the opportunity to warn Judas of the consequences of his actions; it was not too late to repent. Is that relevant to you?

“that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Jesus spoke of better times to come. He was looking forward to the time when a great multitude that no one could count would stand before the throne of God. Will you be there?

He knew, he came, he shared, he reassured. Let us live with confidence knowing that this Lord is our shepherd and, whatever happens in the meantime, we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
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