Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Advent Bible Study - Matthew 11:2-11



Bible Study – Matthew 11:2-11

Q1          Why was John in prison?

Q2          Why was the question John sent to Jesus a reasonable one?

Q3          Why did Jesus reply by quoting Isaiah 35? Do you think his answer would have satisfied John?

Q4          What did Jesus mean in verse 6 when he said “Blessed are those who do not find me an obstacle to faith”? How might Jesus be an obstacle to faith for people today?

Q5          Why did Jesus go on to question the crowds about their motives for going out to meet John in the wilderness? Why were they now with Jesus?

Q6          What is a “prophet” in the bible? Why did Jesus consider John a prophet and more than a prophet? Would we be right to describe anybody alive today as a prophet? If so, what expectations might we have about such a person?

Q7          Why did Jesus quote Malachi 3:1 and apply it to John? Was he right?

Q8          How do you understand verse 11? Who is the least in the kingdom of Heaven?

Q9          Which character in the reading do you most identify with? Might you have answered differently at a different time in your life?

Q10        In what ways does the reading inspire you or fill you with hope?


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

For Vicars and people who care about them

Some good insights in this article on the Fulcrum website: www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm?ID=842
The comments thread is pretty interesting too :)

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

A New Foundation



Luke 7:1-10

·         An interesting thing about Luke 7 is that it follows Luke 5 and 6 J

·         In Luke 5, as Jesus teaches and demonstrates his inclusive gospel of grace,  it is becoming increasingly clear that the new wine of the gospel can not be contained in the old wineskins of the Jewish religion and all that it has become under the Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees.

·         Luke 6 starts with tension continuing to rise between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders – expressed in a dispute over what is lawful on the Sabbath.

·         The fury and plotting against Jesus grows and he responds by spending a whole night in prayer and then selecting and calling the 12 apostles, who are to be the patriarchs or pioneers of a new people of God who would convey his power and his love to the world.

·         He then preaches the Sermon on the Plain (not that kind of plane J), which is a shorter version of the more famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. The Sermon is a manifesto for Christian living, a manual for discipleship.

The Sermon on the Plain

·         Those who aspire to be disciples need to love their enemies (6:27-36), and not just in a theoretical or sentimental fashion, but in a practical, radical and sometimes costly way. “Do to others as you would have them do to you”, Jesus tells them.

·         Disciples must not judge or condemn others (6:37-42). Their attitude to the faults of others must be governed by a humble attitude to their own faults and weaknesses. They are to forgive the trespasses of others and to give generously to meet their needs, following the example of their teacher and being fully trained in his ways.

·         Disciples are reminded that the goodness or badness of a tree will be demonstrated by the fruit that it bears (6:43-45). They are called to live in a way that is fruitful, a way which feeds health and spreads goodness, drawing on the good which is in their hearts.

·         Finally Jesus warns the disciples that it is not enough to call him “Lord, Lord”: they need to do what he says (6:46-49). Hearing the words of Jesus and putting them into practice is like being a man who builds his house on a firm foundation of rock. To merely hear his words without obeying them is to build without a foundation and to court disaster.

·         So we come to chapter 7 with the scene set for someone to demonstrate the kind of discipleship that Jesus has been describing. This example is immediately provided, not by Simon Peter or John or any of the 12, but by a most unexpected person; a Roman centurion; an officer in the enemy occupying army.

·         Even Jesus is amazed and encouraged by this man’s faith and applauds him as a wonderful example of the kind of discipleship he has just been calling for!

·         What was so interesting and exemplary about this man? What was it about him that Jesus and Luke found so exciting and encouraging?

The Centurion’s Qualities

·         The first interesting point is that the centurion was already living in pretty much exactly the way Jesus had set out in the Sermon on the Plain:

·         He is loving his enemies. The elders of the Jewish people tell Jesus “he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” The synagogue referred to is the one in Capernaum, where Jesus had already preached and healed (Luke 4:31-37).

·         His compassion also extends to his household staff, to an unusual degree. When a slave or servant became sick and close to death in Roman society, they would no longer be of value and could expect to be disposed of like a lame animal.

·         This centurion is different. He highly values this slave/servant and is prepared to risk embarrassment in seeking his healing by the charismatic young Jewish rabbi he has been hearing about.

·         In spite of the power and authority of his position, the centurion is also humble, acknowledging his defects and unworthiness in Jewish eyes, not demanding and claiming not to deserve anything from Jesus (7:6).

·         The Jewish Elders (respected senior members of the community) DO think the centurion’s good works qualify him to receive Jesus’s attention “This man deserves to have you do this” (7:4), they tell Jesus.

·         We know that good works do not save us, however Jesus is not dismissive of the centurion’s case. He likes what he has heard about this man and is intrigued and compassionate enough to go along with the request. Perhaps he also senses a teaching opportunity for the Jewish Elders and his own disciples.

Amazing Faith

·         Before Jesus reaches the house, a message is brought to him by the centurion’s friends and it is this message which so impresses and encourages Jesus that he is amazed. It deserves to be read out in full:

·         “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go’, and he goes; and that one, ‘Come’, and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this’, and he does it.” (Luke 7:6-8)

·         These are the words, or rather, this is the faith that amazed Jesus. It is a faith he has not found anywhere in Israel. Here is a man who not only calls Jesus ‘Lord’ but puts that belief into practice and recognises Jesus’s authority, not just over people but over sickness and death.

·         The remarkable thing which has happened here is that a new foundation of faith in Jesus, of belief in his saving power and authority, has been added to this man’s qualities – and it is this faith which he is commended for and which brings life instead of death to his servant. It is faith like this which provides a new wineskin fit to contain the new wine of the gospel of grace.

·         I’m reminded of the Las Arenas shopping mall in Barcelona – formally a bullring, a place of ritualised death as a form of entertainment, which was raised up in a remarkable feat of architecture and engineering and had a new foundation added as part of its transformation into, well, into a shopping mall and entertainment complex (I recognise the limitations of this parallel J).

Lessons for today’s church?

·         Outsiders may be forgiven for thinking the focus of Christianity is on following a set of legalistic rules. It isn’t! The important thing is living faithfully; putting our belief in the Lordship of Jesus into practice in every aspect of life.

·         That is what the Sermon on the Plain was all about and it is what Jesus saw and commended in the centurian.

·         What church can become (and this is how a lot of people see us) is a self righteous bunch of people who are convinced they have correct beliefs and are consequently superior to people who do not share these beliefs.

·         When this attitude prevails there is little priority for engaging with and serving the world in the way Jesus envisaged. Its the kind of religion the Pharisees had developed. An old wineskin which cannot contain the new wine of the gospel.

·         We all want to build a better world and as Christians we want that to be a world like the Kingdom of God, with the values Jesus expressed so passionately in the Sermon on the Plain.

·         And it’s tempting to look at the sorry mess society is in and decide to walk away and build somewhere else. Or to say this will have to be pulled down before we can build something better in its place.

·         But a third option is that we can be inspired by the vision and achievements of Richard Rogers and his team who transformed Las Arenas, and by the example of our centurion who added faith in Jesus to underpin the good life he was already living.

·         Instead of walking away from society or pulling it down we can give it a new foundation, by preaching and demonstrating a gospel of grace, reaching out to all people, including people of goodwill who don’t yet acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus.

·         Together we can lift this place to a new level – one that pleases God, one that is full of faith and one that brings joy and glory to Jesus.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Paul's Anger

Why was Paul so angry in Galatians 1? Because he saw the gospel of grace he had preached being corrupted by people who came after him and turned into a rule based religion to control or exclude people. As he said "That's no gospel at all!"

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Three Threes for Trinity Sunday



Three Threes for Trinity Sunday (John 16:12-15) (also Rom 5:1-5)

Truth is mentioned in John’s gospel more than in any other book of the Bible. It is one of the key ideas

Three words describing the attitude we need in order to understand the truth God reveals:

·         Humility – As modelled within the Trinity. Everything the Father has is given to the Son. The Spirit does not do his own thing, he communicates what he has heard from Jesus and glorifies Jesus. The disciples do not know it all yet (16:12) and need to be guided into the truth (16:13).
·         Hunger – Jesus is encouraging disciples to hunger for understanding; the understanding they need in order to continue God’s mission of salvation.
·         Honesty – With ourselves, each other and God. If truth is the goal, we need a truthful approach. Be honest about the fact that we need to be saved from our selves and our sins, and that Jesus is our Saviour and Lord, not just a good example.

Attitudes are not much use unless they are translated consistently into actions which live out those attitudes …

Three actions we need to keep on doing if we want to grow as christian disciples:

·         Listen – The Spirit will speak, but that won’t help us unless we listen. How good are we at listening? How can we create times and places with the silence and concentration to really listen to the Spirit?
·         Love – All the “yous” in the passage are plural. Learning God’s ways is done in community, modelled on the first community which is the Trinity. Love of God and neighbour (including enemy). Love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5) but without being put into action, love dies. No good if it is just an ideal or an empty sentiment.
·         Learn – Learn from what God teaches you (Billie’s catchphrase Learn from this!) That means growing up, not staying infantile or keeping on repeating mistakes or habitual sins.

Three qualities we need:

·         Prayer – You need a structured and disciplined prayer life, of a kind which suits your personality type but also stretches you. Give it time.
·         Practice – Put what the HS is teaching you into practice, with reflection, supported by other christian friends who are on the same journey.
·         Perseverance – (Rom 5:3) Don’t expect it to be easy.

Conclusion

·         The Trinity is Truth and can be defined by three simple truths:
·         1.There is only one God.
2. The Father is fully God, the Son (Jesus) is fully God and the Holy Spirit is fully God.
3. The Father is not the Son, and neither the Father nor the Son are the Holy Spirit.
·         I think the value of this doctrine for the Church is that it affirms along with other monotheistic faiths that there is only one God, all powerful and all loving. But unlike the others Christianity insists that God is not distant and separate from the worls but is also fully and actively involved in it, in Christ and in the Holy Spirit.
·         So the atoning death of Christ is God’s atoning death. And the Spirit living within and inspiring us is the Spirit of God.
·         It actually is not at all difficult to define. But our task as christians is not to define or even to value the Trinity – it is to live and breathe it!
·         The definition is not the point. Truth is not an academic goal. The point is to do all of the above  (HHH, LLL, PPP) in order to be drawn into the Trinity’s workings and participate in the redemption drama, bringing glory to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
·         Where do you start? That depends on who you are and where you are in your spiritual journey. Which attitude, action and quality would I pick out as those which most need to be worked on? Honesty … Listening … Prayerfulness.
·         Come to our Church Family Retreat (14-15 June) and let’s work on them together.