Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, June 2019]

It Is Important To Remember, Lest We Forget

It is worth asking ourselves why we come to church whenever we do. Some of us, perhaps because we are so busy with various tasks, have forgotten and need to remember that it is about meeting with Christ in the company of others. For some, this truth will need to be realised for the first time.

Christian author Max Lucado writes about a king who had many wives. Of all his wives, he loved one the most. When she died, he grieved deeply. He resolved to honour her by constructing a temple that would serve as her tomb. Her coffin was placed in the centre of a large piece of land and construction of the temple began around it. No expense would be spared to make her final resting place magnificent. As the weeks turned into months however, the king’s grief was eclipsed by his passion for the project. He no longer mourned her absence. The construction consumed him. One day while walking round the site, his leg bumped against a wooden box. The king’s son brushed the dust off his leg and asked a worker to throw the box out. The king didn’t know that he had ordered the disposal of the coffin – now forgotten – hidden beneath layers of dust and time. The one the temple was intended to honour was forgotten.

Max Lucado asks if this is difficult to believe, then asks us to think about ourselves in church. Some remember the one who was slain. They are wide eyed and expectant, like children watching the unwrapping of a gift. Some only see the temple. Their eyes wander, their feet shuffle, their mouths open – not to sing, but to yawn… all temples lose their lustre after a while. The temple gazers don’t mean to be bored. They love the church, they come every week. They don’t mean to grow stale, but something is missing. The One they once planned to honour hasn’t been seen in a while. But those who have seen him can’t seem to forget him. They find him, often in spite of the temple rather than because of it. They brush the dust away and stand ever impressed before his tomb – his empty tomb.

The temple builders and Saviour seekers. You’ll find them both in the same church, on the same pew – at times, even in the same suit. One sees the structure and says, “What a great church.” The other sees the Saviour and says “What a great Christ!” Which do you see?

It is important not to lose sight of Christ in all that we do, so once you’ve started to put Christ back at the centre of church, don’t stop there. Take this attitude, this awareness with you to work, take it home with you, take it to the shops with you, take it everywhere you go. Christ won’t barge in, but he is waiting patiently to be recognised, to be invited in.

“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” (Revelation 3:20)

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, May 2019]

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God (Psalm 46:4)

Wading through cold water in a narrow tunnel 60 feet underground in single file with only torchlight to lighten the darkness does not seem like an enjoyable holiday activity. This happened to me on a holiday in Israel, but it helped that the young lady behind me was laughing and joking most of the time. The real enjoyment was knowing that I was in a place built over 2,500 years ago which we can read about in the Bible.

The tunnel was built by King Hezekiah to bring a secure water supply into the city of Jerusalem, which was about to be besieged by the king of Assyria. “As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?” (2 Kings 20:20) It was built by men starting at opposite ends as they cut through solid rock until they met in the middle. An inscription commemorating this event was found where they met and is now in a museum. The water was collected in the Pool of Siloam where we came out of the tunnel and where, hundreds of years after it was built, Jesus sent the blind man to wash his eyes so that he could see. It is so encouraging to see the truths of the Bible, and even today the water forms part of the supply for the city of Jerusalem.

Water is so necessary for life, but living water is even more necessary for eternal life and it is why Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7:37) When we come to Jesus to cleanse us from all we have done wrong in our lives we drink of His living water, the Holy Spirit, and this gives us a new and unending life with Him. But the Holy Spirit living in us and through us also gives us the gifts and the power to serve Him in our daily and church life. As Jesus went on to say as we read in John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 05/May/2019]

Last month saw the 35th anniversary of my first visit to Horley Baptist Church. My employer moved me from Warwick to Epsom, and Horley turned out to have the only house that I could afford. Those who befriended me at that time will recall that the house required a ‘certain degree of renovation’ but that was something that I could change. Change is an antidote to stagnation. Horley has changed – you can no longer buy tyres at the Jack Firman or park with impunity on the High Street. Horley Baptist has changed – the manse and the church building have changed, pastors and leadership have changed, the style of music has changed, the demographic of the congregation has changed.

Change has its downsides. We can all think of examples when we would have preferred not to change.

• Change is not always beneficial
• Change does not always last
• Change is not always welcome
• Change does not always satisfy

 
We often speak of a God who never changes. If change is necessary for progress what do we make of a God whose last acclaimed visit was over 20 centuries ago? Does this mean that He is out of date, irrelevant or even obsolete? Is God anti-change?

Consider these words from Daniel chapter 2:
He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. The benefits of God’s changes are always long-lasting and for our good but whether they are welcome and satisfying is up to us.

This period of 35 years represents more than half of my life (so far) and despite the changes HBC has been an example of stability in a life where much else has changed. Henry Lyte also valued the stability of his faith when he wrote these well-known words:
Change and decay in all around I see
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, March 2019]

I am always amazed at the complexity of the human body, let alone the rest of creation. A simple example is the way that the eye works. What we see is projected onto the retina but the image we see is upside down. However, the brain turns that picture around so that we see it the right way up. This was proved by an experiment where a person wore a viewer over his eyes, during his waking hours for a few days, which turned his vision upside down. He then saw his surroundings in a completely different way. For instance, he thought that he was walking on the ceiling and when he went to walk through a doorway, he tried to step over the part of the wall which was between the top of the door and the ceiling above it. That was very amusing for those watching him but not to him. After a period of time the brain took over and compensated for what he was seeing so that he was then able to see the right way up. Some time later, the viewer was removed and, surprise, surprise, he now saw everything upside down with his ordinary sight. He had to wait a long while for his brain to correct what he saw and his sight to go back to normal.

We seem to be going through a time when people’s views in general seem to be turning upside down. Whether it is to do with politics and Brexit, questions of faith, morality, knife crime, sexuality, marriage and many others. I’ll leave you to fill in the details. Could this be the beginning of what Paul says in 2 Timothy 3? “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self – control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Does any of that sound familiar? It seems to be the way that many people view their lives today.

When Jesus came, He turned the view of His listeners upside down. In His teaching He often said, “You have heard that it was said…….. but I tell you…….”. And He would give them a completely different view to what they thought they already knew. He could say what He did because He is the Son of God and taught the truth of God and not what we human beings think is truth.

Last Sunday, Martin said that we don’t have to earn a new relationship with God we only have to accept it with thanksgiving as a gift from Him. Jesus not only taught that but gave His life on the cross to make it possible. When we believe that truth He turns our life upside down in a new and exciting way. The first Christians showed this in their lives and Paul and Silas were accused of “turning the whole world upside down” as a result.

If we believe this good news in our own lives, we should pray that Jesus will cleanse, renew and empower us by the Holy Spirit as a church to share the good news, so that many in our community will have their own lives turned upside down to know Jesus as Saviour. Then their lives will really be the right way up.

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 10/Mar/2019]

Today, as I write the first draft of these thoughts, our puppy has died. She was four months old but had been with us for only 10 days when she died from an allergic reaction to a vaccination that was intended to safeguard her health. Despite her short stay with us she made an impression even amongst a society that generally values animals primarily for their working potential. She shared her kennel with our cats, who seemed to understand her suffering.

At times of loss it is common to turn to the story of Job. We lost one animal, Job lost 11,000 – his livestock was his livelihood. Yet he could say “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1: v21). But in both cases there remains the supplementary question – “Why?”

In the Romanian Orthodox tradition, there is a recognition of an almighty God whose purposes are often beyond our comprehension. There is very little teaching about Jesus as saviour and friend. Rather, the Church places a great deal of importance on those whom it designates as ‘saints’, using their life stories as examples of how we should live our lives. We may not understand what God is up to but we can call upon numerous friends who are there to help us.

For those of us who are saints in the western Baptist interpretation our understanding is different. Jesus is man’s ‘bestest friend ever’. Consider the words of James G Small:
I’ve found a Friend, oh, such a Friend! He bled, He died to save me;
And not alone the gift of life, but His own self He gave me.
Naught that I have my own I call; I hold it for the Giver;
My heart, my strength, my life, my all, are His, and His forever.

For us the critical question is not ‘why’ but ‘who’. Who is your best friend?
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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, February 2019]

At the prayer meeting just before the service last week, one of those present commented on how time just seems to fly by. It seems like only a short while ago that it was Christmas and here we are about to go into Spring. When I was asked how my week had been, all I could remember was that it had been busy, packed full of things that needed doing. I looked forward to the weekend, when things would be quieter.

A well-known poem by Willian Henry Davies contains the lines:

What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs and stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass, where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight, streams full of stars, like skies at night…………..
A poor life this if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.

In Mark 1: 38, we are told that very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. I am beginning to see that I can’t just wait for less busy periods – they seldom come. I need to learn, in the hustle and bustle, to make time to pause, to rest and to reflect, to make my requests known to God.

Psalm 23 says that God makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. It would be a shame if we were too busy to appreciate this. It is the person who pauses and appreciates the green pastures and quiet waters who comes back with his soul restored, not the one who like me, has often spent long days at work and then taken work along with him on holiday! I need to learn, in the hustle and bustle, to make time to pause, to rest and to reflect, to give thanks to God for his blessings.

We need also to appreciate and respond to things around us. It struck me that in the parable of the good Samaritan, three people saw the wounded man, but only one person paused and then went on to care for him. Paul, in the letter to the Galatians tells them to bear each other’s burdens. As we travel life’s journey, we should look to help lighten the loads of others that we meet. We are more likely to do this is if we stop long enough in our busy lives, to see the people around us and appreciate what they are going through.

So, in this week that’s up ahead, God is likely to bring various things across our paths – the work colleague going through hard times, the homeless person sleeping rough, glorious sunrises and sunsets… Whatever the situation, let’s resolve to take time not only to stand and stare, but also to care for those in need of our help and to give God thanks for all he has blessed us with.

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