Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

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

Has it ever occurred to you that, if it were not for Christmas, turkeys might well have been hunted to extinction? Although they can be on the menu at any time of year, it is the need to provide for the following year’s Christmas (and Thanksgiving) celebrations that ensures the survival of the species. Ironically, it is because some turkeys die that turkeys as a species thrive.

I live on a small-holding where, each year, we raise a new generation of turkeys, along with chickens and guinea fowl. They grow up together until it is time to return to their respective flocks. As adult birds, turkeys are not very attractive to look at and their gobbling sound is discordant; they are not as productive as the hens but least they are not as stupid as the guinea fowl. Nevertheless, their destiny is the same – a pot of boiling water on top of a stove.

The concept of one dying so that others can live is not new. There are many reports of how, in time of war, patriots have been willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, and even in less turbulent times people have taken great risks in order to save others. It occurs in the natural world too, where a herd of zebra or wildebeest will relax once one of their number has been caught by the lions.

As Christians, we recognise the greatest example of such a sacrifice. Paul wrote to our predecessors in Rome:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [Romans 5:6-8, nivuk]

It is because of Christ’s death that those who put their trust in Him can live, not only with confidence whilst we wait here but with reassurance about the life to come. So as you tuck into your Christmas turkey remember that one Man died so that you do not have to end up somewhere too hot for comfort.
More Brussels, anyone?

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

As I started to pray about this reflection a strange thought came to mind – “Mince pies are like flat-pack furniture”. Seriously? I was not thinking about either of those commodities at the time so from where did the thought come? How can anyone make anything of spiritual benefit out of a statement like that?

It did not go away: “Mince pies are like flat-pack furniture”. Ok; I used to make up statistics for a major local authority and should be able to demonstrate the credibility of the most unlikely statements, so let’s try.

Mince pies and flat-pack furniture are both made primarily from specified formulae of ingredients, rolled to a certain thickness and cut to shape. They are decorated, either with a glaze or a laminate, then packaged in cardboard boxes. They both look attractive when new but age badly. Both items are susceptible to water damage and neither travels well, especially when sent 1,600 miles in the back of a truck. You would not enjoy the taste of flat-pack furniture and the same could be said of some mince pies.

Flat-pack furniture represents settling down, making yourself a home. Mince pies are made from crops that have been grown and harvested; flour, fruit, spices. These activities require time and a positive attitude to one’s circumstances. An Old Testament prophet had this advice:

“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.’” [Jeremiah 9 v5]

In modern parlance, the message is “For you the good old days have gone, this is your new normality, make it work for you”.

History tells us that God did not abandon His people; many people did well in their new situation and in due course He re-established them back in their land. Indeed, some have suggested that the ‘Three Kings’ who came to worship the baby Jesus were descendants of those who had prospered in Babylon.

Maybe that’s the message for us too – our circumstances may not be of our liking but this is where we’re at. God will not abandon us and we continue to have good reason to worship the newborn king.

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

A few days ago, when I started to think about this reflection, I discovered that we had no internet connection. In the context of these reflections, it meant that I did not have access to the online tools that often help with their preparation. Having said that, there was something strangely satisfying in picking up a well-worn but somewhat dusty Bible, and reading the text as St Paul wrote it! Maybe we should do it more often.

It transpired that a couple of ‘entrepreneurs’ had thought that the copper core from 400 metres of cable could provide a nice Christmas bonus. To their disappointment, and the disruption of service to a substantial area of the county, the cable was a fibre-optic one and had no value beyond its intended purpose.

Of course, the value of that cable was not in its physical structure but in its function. Especially in this year of ‘online this, that and the other’, the significance of the missing link becomes painfully apparent. The data that it carries are used by emergency services, hospitals, clinics, and many public bodies, not to mention students studying online and the many people working remotely.

In Luke chapter 5 we read that Simon the fisherman and his partners had a problem with their net connections. After an unproductive night without a catch, his encounter with Jesus resulted in there being so many fish that their nets began to break. Not only that, but their boats began to sink. By compromising the tools of their trade, was Jesus indicating that that phase of their lives was over?

Like those fishermen of old who depended on their nets, many people today depend on a different form of net. We have become to rely on it in ways that just a year ago might have been regarded as science fiction. A short interruption can have life-changing consequences.

Would an encounter with Jesus challenge your lifestyle? Are you afraid of the consequences? Simon and his colleagues accepted the challenge that Jesus gave them; He changed them and then they went on to change the world.
Fancy a challenge? He is online right now.

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