A reality bite

Last Saturday evening I was heading up Windsor Road from Parramatta and passing Bella Vista I noticed some flashing blue lights heading in the opposite direction down Windsor Road. Those blue lights grew as I realised that there must be some serious incident to attract this many police bikes and cars. It was then that the cavalcade passed me and in the middle of the escort were three hearses. I remembered the news report just minutes earlier telling us that the bodies of the three soldiers killed in Afghanistan had just landed at Richmond air base.

Afghanistan is thousands of miles away, but there, just across the median strip, was the grim reality of a war that for that brief moment came home to me. It made a night at the football quite mundane.

I have to confess that it made my Sunday morning message on ‘Come and die’ all the more important to me personally and if no one else listened to me, I did!

There is a passage in the Book of Micah that I was reflecting on this morning:

‘He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; but they shall sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.’Micah 4:3,4

It is of course an impossible dream – or is it? When Jesus came among people his common greeting or call to others was that they might have peace or go in peace. In Hebrew the word for peace is Shalom and while Jesus undoubtedly spoke in Aramaic, I like to think that for such an important word he would have used the language of the prophets and said ‘Shalom’.

An important part of the ministry of Jesus was that of peace carrier. A key part of our growth as disciples of Jesus is to move from having faith in Jesus to having the faith of Jesus (I think I pinched that from Dallas Willard but am not sure where?) Having faith in is cerebral, while having the faith of is gut. There is a very big difference.

Having faith in is like believing that the Parramatta Eels is a good football team. It’s a faith statement that really requires nothing more from us. We can attend the occasional game if we like but the hard work is done by others who we can feel free to boo and criticise because after all, we are believers!

Having the faith of is a different matter altogether. It lifts our eyes to far horizons and gives us hope and vision far beyond ourselves and the tiny kingdoms that we have built for ourselves. I was once abused and accused of being self righteous because I was thinking of giving a large amount of money away to a worthy charity. Strange behaviour you might say; but I think it is becoming normal in a society of shrinking worlds and shrinking values.

Leonard Sweet tells this story:

‘There was once an old Jewish man. All he ever did in his spare time was to go to the edge of the village and plant fig trees. People would ask him, “Why are you planting fig trees? You are going to die before you can eat any of the fruit that they produce.” But he said, “I have spent so many happy hours sitting under fig trees and eating their fruit. Those trees were planted by others. Why shouldn’t I make sure that others will enjoy the enjoyment that I have had?”’ So Beautiful – David C. Cook – 2009 – pg 188

People can keep their ‘ticky tacky’ faith; I want something with a bit of guts. For me three hearses on Windsor Road has been a powerful impetus to faith. It has been a powerful reminder that we followers of Jesus are ‘Shalomers’, people of peace. It starts where we are but who knows where it might go?

Shalom - John

I was struck this week by the contrast between two Old Testament brothers, Moses and Aaron. It is worth reading the Book of Exodus and thinking through what is going on in this tumultuous time. Moses, hardly the man that we would employ as God’s spokesperson, was a coward, a murderer and struggled with public speaking because he had a speech problem. Aaron was second in charge to Moses but was the better speaker, perhaps even the more ‘charismatic’ figure?

This Sunday I am speaking on the theme ‘Come and Die’; a title not really guaranteed to pack in a big crowd; but come along if you dare! The surrendered life is such fertile soil for God to grow fruit that will last. Jesus was in a garden of olive trees – so traumatised that his sweat ran like blood – facing torture and death; yet following his prayer his final words were ‘Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.’

Queen Esther had it all, but when her faith in God was challenged, she responded by saying; ‘After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.’

As I trace the faith journey of Moses, I am struck by his almost constant sense of not knowing! ‘Moses take off your sandals the place you are standing is holy ground’. ‘Looks like a desert to me Lord; but if you say so ..’ ‘Moses go to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go.’ ‘You say what??’ Moses, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.’ ??? It seems that the closer Moses got to God the less he knew.

Moses was delayed on Mount Sinai – volcanic ash or the Ten Commandments or some such thing was causing concern and he had to stay over for a few days. His articulate brother Aaron, though distant from God apparently knew exactly what God looked like –He had the people of Israel build the Golden Calf while they were waiting.

It is interesting to me that those who are distant from God have little trouble drawing a picture, whereas those who continue the struggle to know and discern the work of God spend a lot of time in Puzzle Land?! The closer you get the less you know. The further apart the surer you are.

These first six months of 2010 have been some of the most personally challenging that I have known. As a church leader the end of 2009 contained much that gave encouragement for the future. While I have enjoyed seeing people grow significantly in faith, I have also been bemused at the stark reality of something that can only be called the fickleness of faith. When I retire I think I know the name plaque for our home that will be dedicated to my ministry experience. I will have a sign that reads ‘Gunnadoo’. It has a nice Aussie sound to it after all.

In recent weeks I have experienced the loss of one of my dearest friends. Sad though this time has been it has reminded me of the power of the gospel to transform lives that are submitted to Jesus. At the same time I am coming to terms with a sense almost of betrayal, faith that seems to offer much but is in reality a façade, a ‘noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.’

It all takes me back to Ezekiel 47 and the vision of a man being lead though various depths of water. Ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, then a place where the river is so deep that it cannot be crossed and all you can do is give yourself to the river! Deep river faith is never going to be a popular gig and yet this is the task that I believe God has called me into. At my best moments I love it and at my worst I would gladly trade it for a Golden Calf. Yet ‘within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot.’ Jeremiah 20:9

For God's sake grow up!

I came across a story recently about a Scottish lady whose name was Margaret. Perhaps it was the recent loss of my own dear friend Margaret that made the story stand out for me? Margaret was dying from cancer of the throat that was so badly constricting her breathing that she was slowly being strangled to death. People would come and visit this lady and so often the conversation went along the lines of, ‘Oh Margaret, you’ve suffered so much and now this’. Margaret became so frustrated that – now unable to speak – she wrote her own statement of faith as a response to give to visitors:

This is not the worst thing to ever happen! Cancer is so limited. It cannot cripple love, shatter hope, corrode faith, eat away peace, destroy confidence, kill friendship, shut out memories, silence courage, quench the Spirit or lessen the power of Jesus.’

That my friend is a gutsy earthy faith! I am well over the wishy washy, anaemic little thing that seems to suffice for some and yearn for a good belt of Margaret faith.

Last week my theme for the day was ‘Come and obey’ and I suggested that it would be absurd to still be breast feeding our children into adulthood, putting forward the radical idea that likewise there is a place where we might need to ‘grow up’ spiritually. I’m glad to be able to report that at least one person in history agrees with me:

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, Hebrews 5:13-6:1

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Ephesians 4:14

I am seeing a bubbling up of desire for some solid food these days. Oh, there are not hundreds beating a path to my door, indeed it doesn’t even number in the tens; but this Pentecost season I am seeing some bubbles! I am being inspired by the way in which people among us have taken some massive hits and yet still stand! More than that; they are moving forward; groggy, but determined to not only rebuild but offer themselves yet again to God, daring to ask how they might better worship, witness and serve him. Gutsy faith.

A lot of faith for me is BCEF – Baptism, Christmas, Easter and Funeral. Get the child done so that grumpy god is appeased, then we will drop in to have a look at the baby Jesus or be brave and reflect on the cross of adult Jesus, until its time to stamp our passport for heaven at our funeral service. Here is the good news! We worship a God of infinite love and this God cannot help himself, it is intrinsic to the divine nature – God will bless.

God doesn’t have off days when he takes time to have a sulk and go through the good book crossing off names in a fit of temper!

God is love! However, I think that the Jesus story tells us that there is so much more for us to seek. We tend to settle for the easy bargain basement toys of life. We are after all not here for a long time but a good time? Recent days have reminded me of just how great is the love of the Father that we might be called children of God. I think that is something worth thinking about.

tribute to a friend

I stumbled across a really good proverb this week:

'Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm.’ Proverbs 13:20

The above piece of wisdom struck home to me this week when Ronnie and I attended the funeral of one of our very closest friends. Margaret was for me one of the finest people I have ever known and to have played a small part in her coming to faith was a gift to me as much at to her. I regularly tell people that Margaret gave me the greatest compliment ever about my gifts of faith sharing. She once said, “John, thank you for showing me that you can be a Christian and still have fun!” She was a very wise, gutsy and dear friend whose loss has affected me more deeply than I could
have imagined.

I guess this is so because Margy was more than a friend; she was one of my greatest supporters and prayer warriors. Sadly in this line of business you can get knocked about a little more than you might expect and it is always good to know that certain special people have you covered. The older and (hopefully) wiser I get, the more I am valuing the company of good and wise friends and the more I am trying to be a similar friend to others.

One of the marks of my ministry I am told is my openness and transparency. This is good because it is one of the things that I believe in very deeply. However I do understand why people in ministry leadership may tend not to be open and transparent. Putting it simply; hurt and disappointment is normal and distance is a way to avoid it. In any relationship, the person who gets hurt the most will be the one who loves the most.

So what is the secret to my staying in a very difficult ministry role? It has a great deal to do with the grace of God who thinks more highly of me than I do; but it is also that over the years I have harvested some very significant wise, loving and prayerful friends. It is a small circle but is a powerful one!
Of course there is another circle of friends that I am greatly thankful for and this particular group is one that is beyond corruption and rather than in danger of diminishing, it continues to grow. We find a clue to this group in the Book of Hebrews chapter 12:

‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us ..’

These are my balcony people. These are the saints who have touched me over the years and are now in glory standing on the balcony of my life and cheering me on. I have to tell you that is some cheer squad!!

If someone were thinking of going into ministry my first advice would be to pray really hard and then I would advise them to gather some good and wise friends. My guess is that it will not be a very large group at all. At any given time mine would rarely – if ever - reach double figures.

In whatever we do in life we are always exposed to a wide network of people. As best as you know how, bring a spirit of acceptance and a transparent heart. Offer to everyone you meet – as best as you can – gifts of love and grace. Along the way you will bump into fools and occasionally be a fool yourself; but keep good company with the wise it will be an excellent investment.

I hope that the great cloud of witnesses enjoy a glass of red Margaret!

Grace and peace - John

Last Sunday I used a couple of quotes from one of my favourite Christian writers, Dallas Willard and I would like to use them again as the basis for my weekly waffle / trifle:

‘Jesus’ good news about the kingdom can be an effective guide for our lives only if we share his view of the world in which we live. To his eyes this is a God bathed and God permeated world. It is a world filled with a glorious reality, where every component is within the range of God’s direct knowledge and control.’

What does it mean to follow the resurrected Christ? Is it just a good idea or a fine philosophy for us to live by? Is it just a myth out of history that gives us a framework through which we can live our lives? Is it a kind of coat hanger that we can hang our ‘stuff’ on? Or is it really REAL?

I dropped in and out of church as an adult for about 15 years. It began with being greatly attracted to a gorgeous young lady, so much so that I married her and for a brief time we had a dalliance with the church from which that wedding took place. A few years on and I picked up the church relationship again with the advent of children and the need to get them ‘done’, that is baptised. On each of these occasions I walked away and yet at the same time I felt a sense of disappointment; as if there was something more to find behind the words and the ceremony.

So what changed? I guess I did. For so long I had been the resident judge, jury and executioner for church and all its failings; the non-resident expert if you like. Being in actuality quite ignorant of most of the facts, this made me eminently qualified to be an expert on the subject!

There is a lovely phrase in the story of the Prodigal son, who is enjoying the five star luxury of a farmers pig pen, when he says: ‘But when he came to himself..’ I think that is the most important moment in any person’s life; that time when we stop kidding ourselves and have a reality check. Well, over a period of months from September 1982 to February 1983 I had experienced the joys of the pig pen until I came to myself.

I came home to the father. Not as a doubting, cynical and ignorant expert; but as one who acknowledged that he was lost and needed a Saviour.

Over many months of earnest searching and of taking the enormous risk for me of opening myself to others, I found that the living Christ was not some churchy catch-word, but was true. Through giving myself to the crazy journey of a local church I began to see things – not through my eyes or the churches eyes – but to my amazement and wonder, I began to see the world through the eyes of Christ. I discovered that this was truly a God bathed and God permeated world.

Oh, there is a lot of stuff that I do not get. On Monday Ronnie and I found that one of our very dearest friends is seriously ill. All we have been able to do is pray and even as I write this paragraph word has just come though that Margaret has died this morning. I don’t understand what goes on around these things; but I do know a God of unconditional love and infinite grace and have known and experienced enough of that grace and love to hold fast to this faith.

I strive to share Jesus’ view of this God breathed and God permeated world. I share the hope that every component is within the range of God’s direct knowledge and control.