Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 01/Apr/2018]

During Lent I never quite know how we should look forward to Easter. Should we be sorrowful as we know we approach Good Friday and all the memories of the sufferings of Jesus as he died for us, or should we be happy knowing that on Easter Sunday we rejoice that Jesus rose from the dead with a glorified body? I guess it’s a combination of both, but perhaps with an emphasis on the rejoicing as we remember that His death resulted in us finding faith for our forgiveness from God. Also we rejoice that His resurrection is a promise to us for having our future risen bodies like His, either after our death or at His Second Coming to reign.

For the sorrowful part I have been thinking of the way bystanders insulted Jesus as He suffered His horrific execution.

The crowd mocked Him – “Save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” (Matt. 27:40)

The chief priests and lawyers mocked Him – “He saved others but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said “I am the Son of God”.” (Matt. 27:41-43)

The soldiers mocked Him – “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” (Luke 23:37)

Jesus is the king of Israel and the Son of God, and their taunts could not hurt Him because He knew that He couldn’t save Himself, even though He had the power to do so. If He had come down from the cross, then He would never have died for us and we could not have received cleansing and forgiveness for all that we had done wrong in our lives.

But to start rejoicing I think of what one of the robbers said, when he acknowledged that he was guilty and deserved his punishment, but then he said – “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42)

Isn’t that amazing? He was dying and Jesus was dying, and yet he had understood what all those who were mocking could not see, that Jesus really is the Son of God. Then Jesus made that wonderful promise as He said – “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

That’s only the beginning of the rejoicing. The day is coming when all of us who trust Jesus as our Saviour and will be resurrected will join with the forgiven robber in paradise and say – “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb (Jesus).” (Rev 7:10)

At last, Lent is over, I can say – “Happy Easter!”

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 18/Mar/2018]

The experience of parenting came late to me. For most of my life I had successfully heeded the ubiquitous medical advice “keep away from children” and I was settled into a comfortable yet productive retirement. Then my wife announced that her grandchildren were coming to stay. Not merely coming to visit; coming to stay!

This is not such an uncommon arrangement in the rural areas of eastern Europe. One or both of the parents will leave the children in the care of their own parents or even grandparents whilst they explore the chance to provide for the family in a way that they could not do by staying at home. Meanwhile, the grandparents get the opportunity to correct the mistakes they made first time around. So when the four-year-old plunges his arms into the washbasin without rolling up his sleeves you patiently get a dry pullover, grateful in the knowledge that he has at least washed his hands. Or when a snotty two-year-old asks you to help her blow her nose for the umpteenth time, you gently comply. After all, rumour has it that you were like that once.

The Bible likens God’s relationship with us to that of a father, but what image comes to mind? In our contemporary society there are many examples of fatherhood – some good, some bad – so how do we decide which gives the best picture of God? In ‘Yours’ recently, Helen reminded us about the type of father who likes to give us good gifts – gifts that sometimes are all the more precious for having had to wait for them.

In his gospel, Matthew reports that Jesus taught His disciples to ask their heavenly Father for their daily bread, whilst the writer to the Hebrews argues that God’s discipline is ultimately for our good. Generosity, provision and correction are all characteristics of a caring parent; let us be thankful that our Father knows the perfect balance for each one of us.
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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, March 2018]

Finding Jesus shouldn’t be like running through an obstacle course.

Being on the rota for writing the article in ‘Yours’ helps you realise that time flies. You blink and it’s your turn again! I realised with one day to go to the deadline that I still hadn’t done the article.

While I’m waiting for inspiration, let me tell you about a meeting we had in the Church this last weekend. It was meant to start with breakfast – much anticipated. The eggs, sausages, bread, coffee and tea were all ready. Just the bacon left to be done, so we went to turn on the hob. Except we couldn’t. There were instructions on the wall in the kitchen. 4 or 5 different steps. We followed them, but no joy. We tried and tried again and even ‘phoned a friend’, but still no joy… We gave up on the hob.

Picture a hypothetical scene:
A man walks into Church seeking Jesus. He is met by welcoming people, and after they hear his request, they tell him he needs to follow certain steps in order to see Jesus. They hand him the manual. He follows these steps as best he knows how. After many unfruitful attempts at trying to complete the steps, he gives up and walks out.

We gave up on the hob, he gives up on finding Jesus!

It is worth asking ourselves what obstacles we inadvertently put in the way of those who want to meet with Christ? Do we feel people need to be dressed in a certain way, speak in a certain way, behave in a certain way…? I remember my father telling me about how in one of the churches he used to attend when growing up, the men were not allowed to have beards. The ironical thing was that on the wall of the church hung a painting of Jesus – with a beard!

The song ‘Come just as you are to worship’ reminds us that God wants us to come with boldness, with confidence to him. Bold and confident, not in what we have done, but because of what Christ has done on our behalf. As the apostle Paul puts it, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We did nothing to earn His love. We mustn’t put barriers in the way of others coming to know him. If there is any transforming to be done, the Holy Spirit will do this, not us.

Oh, about the breakfast last weekend, we did get the bacon done – in the oven! I’m sure there was a switch we didn’t flick which would have made the hob work and now that I think of it, who knows – it might have been God’s way of providing something for me to share in ‘Yours’ this week.

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, January 2018]

It is that time of year when we tend to look back at the year just gone and ahead to the one just begun. We probably had a lot of good intentions (resolutions) at the start of the last year and on reviewing things, if you are like me, there are a lot more that we fell short of achieving, than those where we hit the mark. Indeed, on reflection, I see where God’s blessings have been abundant and often unexpected. The shame about it is that I forget these very quickly and wonder why He seems so distant when the next difficulty presents itself!

I am determined to do things differently this year, such as getting this work-life balance thing right, taking time for what really matters, tackling one thing at a time, spending more time with God in His word and in prayer. All laudable things no doubt, but given my track record, hmmm…

How do I go about making this year different from the one just gone? How do I know what really matters, what path God wants me to walk this year? Victor Frankl is said to have stated that “We DETECT, rather than INVENT our missions in life.” How do I detect what I need to do this year?

I find words from Minnie Haskins’s aptly named poem, ‘The Gate of the Year’ very helpful:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

In John’s gospel, Jesus said “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10: 10). Jesus was clear about why he had come in to the world. To get clarity, that is who we need to turn to. We need to ask Him to show us what we need to do, where we need to be during this year and how we should do what He has asked us to do.

My prayer for us all is that when Christ’s Spirit reveals these things to us, we will resolve to be faithful and obedient to His leading.

So, yes, New Year revelations, which will lead to New Year resolutions.

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 12/Nov/2017]

How many of us can remember Sunday School? Those two hours on a Sunday afternoon when a few dedicated people sacrificed their own time so that our parents could meditate on the morning’s sermon without being woken up. Do you remember the story of a tax inspector who wanted to check out the accounts of Jesus? I suspect that even fewer of us can recall much of the little ditty that went with the story:
“Zacchaeus was a very little man and a very little man was he.
He climbed into a sycamore tree for Jesus he wanted to see.”

Perhaps you heard about those four men in Capernaum who wanted to bring their friend to Jesus. When the conventional approach proved impossible they had to try something else and they found that the only way was to break into the place where Jesus was preaching. I suspect that our Facilities Manager would not be happy about that.

Then there was Bartimaeus, sitting beside the road near Jericho. As a blind beggar he did not get invited to the big outreach events in the town. He heard that Jesus was in the neighbourhood and wanted to ask Him for some help but something held him back.

What is there in common with these three stories, other than a reference to getting up and then going somewhere? The narratives tell us in each case that the existing followers of Jesus got in the way. Those seeking Jesus were crowded out. Do we have some practices or even liturgy that a visitor might find off-putting? A colleague recently told me about a visit he made to a church in the USA – 6,000 people arriving for a great time of worship but none of them with a word of welcome for the stranger in the car park. We can thank God that HBC is not like that, but we must also pray to remain alert to those who might be blinded by our shadow.
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