1 John 2. 1-14. More than sentiment or slogans

John, old, wise, conscious of his call as an apostle, of his connexion with Jesus himself, is writing to  groups of Christians – possibly in Turkey – to establish a solid basis for fellowship together and for fellowship with God    That Greek-speaking, Roman governed, pagan intellectual world was full of ideas and philosophy.  Some of these ideas would be familiar to us:  emphasis on mysticism, on doing something a bit supernatural – but without any moral compass.  A world of contrasts and contradictions, a bit like ours. A tough, dog-eat-dog world, but a world where everyone lived to enjoy themselves. A  world where everyone believed in some god or other, yet few took belief seriously. Where tolerance was expected, but certain views and ideas, were not tolerated.  A hard-nosed world but as sentimental world. 

It was very easy to think wrong, in a world like that.  It was very easy to be seduced by a wrong view of faith and fellowship... We can think that faith and fellowship, the stuff that holds us together, is sentiment or slogans...    But John is determined, our fellowship with each other and with God, is more than sentiment or slogans.  Let's start with our relationship with God... 

When God says he loves us, it's not sentiment; it's not slogans...
None of us can dare to claim “Hey, I have no sin!”  John has already dispatched that idea  (1 Jn 1. 8).  A hundred years ago, G K Chesterton, a newspaper columnist and committed Christian, said that Original sin is “the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.”   Want to give it a try? Anyone going to tell me they went a whole week without sinning once, let’s say since exactly this time last Sunday?   So we are in trouble, then.  Or maybe not.  After all, God is love.  He's nice.  He's cuddly. He wouldn’t punish us for our sins, would he?  But that's a cute, cuddly-kitten kind of god, and it's a merely sentimental understanding of his love.
It's a gospel of sentiment.   I admit I don't like sentiment. If I get another picture on line of a kitten doing something really cute, I may throw my computer out the window! 

 What John says, is different.  If we do sin (and we do!) we need help.  We are found “guilty.”  If you go to court you need someone to speak on your behalf, to prove your innocence or to plead for mercy.  Jesus is our advocate, our lawyer, called alongside us to speak on our behalf, to plead for mercy... and he has a particularly strong argument for doing so.  He is Jesus the Just.  He doesn't just plead our case, he pleads because he is the sacrifice that deals with sin; he has carried it, instead of us.  He has already paid the fine, so he pleads with the Judge to let us go....  And John adds in “that Jesus is the sacrifice not just for us but for the whole world.

So our relationship with God isn't based on sentiment.  It's forensic, it's a legal transaction, a contract, a covenant, sealed with the blood of Jesus.   That's tough love.  It doesn’t “let us off” as though sin were just a stupid wee thing.  It sees our sin as the outrage it is, but then pays the price.  It says to us “You can't sort this out, not in a million years.  I will sort it out.”  

Our relationship with God is more than sentiment or slogans. It is rooted in the tough love, the sacrificial love that God has for us. And it results in tough love.  This atonement, pleads our case, seeks mercy from God; but it also plants a seed of eternal life in our hearts. 

Our love for God – it's not sentiment or slogans.
Having been received, forgiven, welcomed, we are transformed.  It's more than sentiment in the outworking of that relationship in our lives. 

If we say we know him (a slogan that no doubt would trip off the tongue of those selling the new teaching) we will keep his commands. Each time John uses that expression “we know  Him” (v. 3) or “You know him” (v. 13-14) he uses the perfect tense: it is rooted in a past experience with continuing results.

Some of us in this room today “know Jesus”.  In other words, like John and his readers, we “have come to know him.”  Some may be like me and can  point to a specific place, a specific time when you came to know Jesus: I was at a meeting in a marquee at a camp-site between North Berwick and Dunbar in 1968. I still have, somewhere, the Good News for Modern Man New Testament I bought at that camp.  Others, like Pam, find it difficult to point to a specific time but you just know that over a period, something happened, you grew to trust Jesus as Saviour, and he came in and started to change you.   If you don't know him, I invite you to come to know him today... 

But if you have come to know him, that has to be more than a slogan.  If you know him, then you will obey him.  You don't obey him to become good enough.  You obey him because God has done something in your life.  You don't obey in order to get to know him.. But if you know him, your life will start to be transformed.  If you are close to him, live in a Jesus-atmosphere, you will begin to  do what he did.  Some of us may be a bit unsure: was it real?  Do I know him?  Well, the more you obey him the surer you become.  That relationship with God, is more than sentiment and slogans: it is transformation.  That transformation is seen in one vital way: in keeping one vital commandment.

Our Love for each other is not sentiment or slogans.
And one commandment sums it up.  John insists he's writing nothing new here: it's familiar.  Jesus Himself said it.  “You had this from the beginning (v. 7); I heard it from Jesus Himself.”  But it's new because just as it was fulfilled in the life of Jesus, it  it is being fulfilled in creative new ways in you.”  

It's like a new day dawning.  At 6 a.m.  it is still dark.  But by 7, it's just beginning to get light.  In the world we know, it's dark in many ways. People don't show a lot of love for each other.  People live alienated, separated lives with a  lot of hostility.   But we are the people of the new day; there's at least  a few rays of sunlight in our lives.  We are beginning to learn to love one another.  That special relationship with each other, is love.  If we say we are in the light (another slogan!) yet hate our fellow Christians, we are really stumbling about in the dark.  John Wimber was an evangelist and church consultant. He visited and studied all sorts of Churches, including snake-handling pentecostal churches.   He taught the importance of power evangelism – healing as  a tool for mission.   He knew lots of Christians form different backgrounds; some people admired him; others opposed him fiercely.  But Wimber said, “my brother is never my enemy!”

We are in a special relationship with each other.  John speaks of his readers really affectionately: he calls them “little Children.”  (v. 1)  It's one word, and it's incredibly fatherly and warm: the best way I can translate it is using the Scottish “Bairnies.”  We are called to show the father’s love, and it begins by loving one another and building real, affirming, caring relationships with one another.  We need to be family.

There's something really significant that happens when that relationship really works out right: other people want to join in!  Jesus isn't only the sacrifice for our sins but for the sins of the whole world (v. 2) and he said “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13. 35)

So, dear old John, writes to build fellowship – a special relationship – between him and his readers. And he writes to strengthen that fellowship relationship between us and God...   he finishes off this section with a lovely word of encouragement, in verse 12-14.  These people are all different.  Sometimes they rubbed each other up the wrong way.  Little children, fathers,young men, they are all God's children. Men and women, old and young, Fifers and foreigners, we area all God's children. John speaks to them all in this wonderfully positive, encouraging way: “your sins are forgiven; you know him who is from the beginning;  you have overcome the evil one;  you are strong; and the word of God abides in you.”“I'm not suggesting that you don’t' know him, that your sins are not forgiven, that you have not done battle, shown strength and overcome the enemy.  On the contrary I fell free to write to you precisely because are forgiven, victorious.   It's vital that you build on these strengths to keep the New Commandment... to have fellowship; to love one another. 

© Gilmour Lilly February 2012

1 John 1: More than a Message

Background: John writing in old age; perhaps the last surviving member of the Twelve.  John uses the Apostolic “we”... and he writes for a specific reason: John “applies truth to life.”  Although what he writes is rooted in the Gospel story, he's not telling the story here ( he's already done that!); although all he says is built on good theology, he's not writing theology here; he's applying it to life.

So he begins with truth!   That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. What a way to begin a letter!   God is the focus of all attention, eternally, from the beginning.  This message, the “Word of life” was in the beginning.  John traces the journey of this revelation through from the  remote, distant voice of the ancient prophets, through to what he and the other apostles had heard Jesus say and seen him do... and more intimately, they had known his touch.  “Handled” suggests in particular the resurrection encounters and John's certainty about the truth of the resurrection.  It actually happened, people! 

John goes on — 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.  Christianity is never a matter of a message.  Never just talk, an idea, a concept.  John awkwardly breaks the flow of what he's saying to stress that the life was not just “there”, to be analysed or understood, but “manifest” – to be seen. The “life” was a person, and his name is Jesus.  who was with the father but came and showed the Father. John saw and is a witness. Faith in Jesus is always encounter with a Person.

So John picks up where he left off...  — 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed. At last, he begins to talk about his own activities and purpose.  This, this amazing life who was seen – this is what we proclaim and teach... The centre of attention is Jesus. And John writes and speaks this message for two practical purposes: fellowship, and joy.  The joy flows from the fellowship and it's the fellowship that we need to look at...

This relatedness, this “Kiononia” is the practical reason why John is writing.  Now fellowship is an important NT word.  It means “having something in common”.  Before they met Jesus, Peter, Andrew, James and John had something in common: they made a living as fishermen. (Lk 5. 10 describes James and John as Simon's koinonoi.)  Believers have our faith in common, (Jude 3); we have Jesus in common (1 Cor 1. 9); we have spiritual blessings in common (Rom 15. 27) and the earliest church had all things in common (Acts 2. 44).   We have something in common with each other, that puts us in a relationship with each other.  We have Jesus in common.  There are other thigns we may or may not have in common?  Culture, musical preferences, language, education, gender, age, ability or disability.  It's easy to feel we're got so much in common with one another when we hang around with people our own age, our own gender, our own outlook... but if these are the things that unite us, there will be others we aren't united with.  Even within a small church like ours, we will differ in some ways with regard to music, clothes, language...  But it is Jesus that we have in common. 

Which is bigger: the school you went to, or Jesus? Your politics, or Jesus?  The kind of music you like, or Jesus.?  (was John Lennon really more famous than Jesus?)  God calls us to fellowship, a special relationship with each other, that flows from the fact that we have Jesus in common.

But John says something else – something even more amazing:  our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ...  He defines not only our walks with each other as a special relationship, but also our walk with God is a special relationship.  We have fellowship with Jesus and with his Father.  God calls you to a relationship with your Heavenly Father., through Jesus.  He calls you to a relationship with Jesus, by the Spirit.   It's not enough to say we pray, we trust, we obey.  John says our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son.   How's your relationship with Jesus. today?  How's your relationship with Father today? 

Devilla Forest, Fife. Photo  G Lilly

But wait a minute: “Fellowship” is having something in common.  What can we possibly have in common with God?    I believe the answer is “Light.”  John says, "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth".  God is light, and wants us to walk in the light too.   We share light.  We share a wonderful, worshipful celebration of God's very character. 

What does it mean to say that “God is light”?  In the OT, “Light” tells us three things about God: firstly, that he is pure and holy (Ps 90. 8; Isa 51. 4; Hosea 6. 5; Hab 3. 11); secondly he is splendid and majestic; (Ps 104. 2) and thirdly that he show himself in a way that saves us: see Ps 27.1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation,” and Ps 36. 9 “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”  This is our God.  There are things we don't understand about him and the way he does things. That's our fault, not his.  There is nothing dark in him: no dullness or ordinariness; no sin or wrongdoing;   nothing of deception or self obscuring. Only splendour, holiness, justice, goodness and  grace.

God, this God is Light – splendid and majestic; he is holy, the judge of all the earth; he is love and sends his light to show us the way home.  This God invites us to have fellowship with himself.  He calls us to walk with him, to walk in his light.  He shares his light with us so we can walk in it.  You can know like a scientist that there is such a thing as light.  You can analyse it and admire the fact that it is travelling at 186,282 miles per second.  Or you can go out and watch the sunrise, see the colour, feel the warmth.

Photo by USAF in Public domain

But there is darkness in us:  the opposite of light: there is smallness and dullness and sin and self-obsession and self deception and play-acting.  We are weak, sinful, and we like to hide what we really are.  As a result, we find ourselves having to choose, whether to live in the light, responsive to what God's light exposes in us and reveals of God  or to dodge back into the darkness, trying to deny the reality of our darkness.   – we “say we have no sin” in one or more of at least three ways:-
We can do that by telling ourselves sin isn't really sin... everybody takes paper-clips from the office, nails from the workshop; everybody has sex if they want it.  Everyone loses their temper.
We can do it by telling ourselves it is someone else's fault.  It's the way I was brought up; I was provoked. God made me like it.
Or we can do it by denying we do anything wrong. “I never think an impure thought. I love absolutely everyone and am always seeing lost kittens across the road.” 

Photo by G Lilly

We can either walk – live our lives day by day, in the full exposing, challenging, saving radiance of God's light... or we can cover up, put on the sunglasses, the straw hat, the long-sleeved coat, stay indoors, shut the curtains, hide under the bed, go down the cellar.   If we try to hid, we lose fellowship with God and each other.  If are prepared to admit to the darkness inside, then the light not only exposes our sin, but bleaches them clean. "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." (verse 7) If we confess our sins, God forgives, and cleanses (verse 9).

God calls us to the special relationship – fellowship with him, and fellowship with each other. 

In the end, these great truths aren't to be analysed. That which  was from the beginning, which we have heard, seen, touched, the word of life, isn't to be analysed.  It  - he - is to be encountered.  Thsi truth beckons us into relationship with Father and with each other.  As we seek to show the Father's love to the people around us, we need to walk in fellowship with Him and each other.



© Gilmour Lilly February 2012

Gathering - Matt 18.20...

The importance of gathering together: 

1. Jesus is the focus...
The rabbis had a saying that “when 2 people sit together and occupy themselves with the Torah the Shekinah abides among them”. Jesus turns that on its head, when he says “where 2 or 3 gather together (Gk sunago is the word from which we get synagogue) in my Name I am in the midst.”

That is a dramatic, startling statement …  Jesus is saying something about himself: he is both Torah and Shekinah.  He is the Word who reveals the Father to us, makes God known.  And “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only  begotten son from the Father.”  He makes outrageous claims and demands.  It's one of those statements that only makes sense when we remember who God is: the Three-in-one.  When we gather in his name, Jesus  (the visible glory of the father  - see Jn 1.14) - is present by the Spirit.  So he claims our reverence and worship; and he demands our attention.  It's in his name that we gather.  But he also makes promises...

2. Jesus is the presence.
When we gather in his name, Jesus says he is there in the middle of us: he is present. When we gather, he not absent, he is present.  That’s his promise.  We receive it by faith.  We've been thinking about the things that enable us to go Deeper with God: silence, solitude, surrender, faith.    Today we need to think about gathering.  Gathering is vital.  Gathering is about making an approach to God, welcoming his presence.  It welcomes God, the three-in-one, in our midst.

 Gathering welcomes the presence of Jesus... who comes by the Spirit.  Acts 2. 1-4   “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. … and they heard and saw, and were filled... “  The Pentecost event started because they were gathered, all together.  And when the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, two things happened to the disciples: they  became missionaries (v 5-12) and they became family (v 42-47). Part of what the Holy Spirit does is to make the Church.  So Paul says “by one spirit you were all baptised into one body...” (1 Cor 12. 13)  

The Church – the gathered community is his body:   “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Cor 12. 27)  “The Church is Christ's body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph 1, 23)  Gathering is about giving Christ a body.  It is about being the body of Christ. " you are the temple of god and god himself is present in you" 1 Corinthians 3.16 , The message. Being one yet many is a living illustration of the mystery of the trinity.

Receive it by faith.  When we gather in his name he is here.  HE answers our prayers when we are in agreement.  We have his authority to “bind” and “set free”. We are his body, he is the head, and he is at work in us. No wonder the guy who wrote Hebrews insisted “Don’t forsake gathering (literally synagoguing) together..”  Heb 10. 25

3. Speaking his Name
The Bible talks about a number of ways in which we speak his Name... when we gather...
Baptism – the sacrament of joining. The name of Jesus was central to baptism: we are baptised into his Name, (Acts 2. 38) or into the name of the Father, the Son and the Spirit (Mt 28.19)  Now, what happened when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour?  You realised certain truths: there's a good God who made a good world. God loves his world and loves you. All of us have turned against God, which has messed up God's world and cut us off from God.  Jesus came to put things right through his life, death and resurrection. You turned back to God and trusted Jesus to make you a new person: you probably did that by praying a prayer... and then you may have thought, “What's next?”  How do I serve God? Does God want me to get baptised? To join the Church? In the early days of Christianity, you would have realised the same truths about God, the world, sin, you, and Jesus.  But then, when you realised they were true and that you needed to respond, you would have got baptised. And from that moment on you would have been part fo the church. “Those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls”. (Acts 2. 41) I wonder where that leaves our traditional baptist practise? So far so good.
Breaking Bread  and sharing wine in remembrance – calling to mind – the sacrifice of Jesus for us.   That's very much about the body of Christ.   “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?  Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. “ (1 Cor 10. 16)  
 Laying on of hands – which happened for a number of reasons: sometimes to receive the Spirit (Acts 8. 17; Acts 9. 16; Acts 19. 6) although that would have often happened as soon as you were baptised; then to recognise ministry and send into mission (Acts 6. 6; Acts 13. 3) then for  healing (Acts 19. 11-12; Acts 28. 8)  along with anointing the sick with oil (James 5. 14-15)
Confession and giving forgiveness.  That isn't about having to confess your sins to a recognised Church leader; it is about supporting one another with the things that drag us down spiritually.  (James 5. 16)
Speaking and singing.  The spoken word of God – telling the stories of Jesus (for the earliest Christians the only records they had of the story of Jesus were passed on by word of mouth.)  Explaining the great truths of the faith. (These together would make up the “apostles' teaching of Acts 2. 42) If someone important like Paul had sent a letter it would be read out (see Col 4. 16)  Praising God and Speaking to each other in “Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”. (Eph 5. 18) )  And that was not all “led from the front”  1 Cor 14. 26 says “What then, brothers? When you come together,  each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.”

The activities of the gathered Church are the means by which God chooses to be present.  In particular:  The things that make us one, are the things that make God's presence seen and known. In these “sacramental” acts, we become one, remain one, and encounter God.  Sacramental acts are ways in which we encounter God and each other. 

4. The Maths of Gathering...
Gathering doesn't need to be a big group. the presence of God can be encountered in a small and intimate group.  There are some things that are going to work better in a small group:
I'm not so sure about confessing my sins in front of the whole Church though I might find that God does something when I talk to someone mature about the things I struggle with. The right number there might be two.
Praying for the sick might happen in a small group of two or three,
And in a crowd of several hundred, or even several dozen, it may be difficult to hold the kind of worship where each one has a hymn, a lesson or a revelation.
On the other hand Baptism, Laying hands on someone to send them into their ministry or mission may be a joyful occasion to share with a great crowd.  Reading and explaining Scripture may be delivered to vast crowd, who may be encouraged by singing God's praises together.

There are benefits to different sizes of gathering.  Sometimes Christian leaders have talked about the Cell – a few people who really look out for each other; the congregation, that's a bigger group where we might not all feel free to take part, but where we get taught and encouraged, and the celebration, where there are crowds, worshipping and learning together.  In the Cell, the Congregation and the Celebration, when we gather in Jesus Name, he is there in the midst.

5. Gathering is about relationship
Someone should at this point have noticed that the context to this teaching about “gathering”, is how the Christian community sorts out our difficulties in relationships: “putting things right”.  Sometimes that is labelled “Church Discipline”. But that isn't what this is all about. This isn't a law-code for removing people from fellowship if they step out of line,  it's guidance for maintaining loving relationships.  Jesus isn't wanting the person who has done wrong to apologise, or pay back in some way. He wants him simply to listen, because it is the act of listening that relationships are built and maintained. And it's only after listening that the sorting out can happen.   If someone doesn’t listen, Jesus says, “treat them as  a  'Gentile and a tax collector'”.  And how did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors?  He challenged them as he challenged everyone else,  but the door was always open and grace was always available. Gathering – in large groups or small, is about building and maintaining healthy relationships.  

6. Gathering and Going
The presence of Jesus is also promised, in mission (Matt 28. 20). When the Spirit filled the first Christians they became communicators and they became community. I believe there is more than an accidental relationship between these words.  There has to be community for there to be communication...   Jesus wants us to be family so that we are skilful and attractive in demonstrating father's love to the  Gentiles and tax-collectors, the last the lost and the least in our world.  Gathering is always linked with going.


 © Gilmour Lilly February 2012

Luke 5. 12-26; Luke 6. 12-19. Spirituality and Solitude

Jesus and solitude
How exciting to be like Peter was, called to be a follower, an apprentice, of the Lord Jesus! What a day that was for Peter!   How amazing to in the Synagogue as Jesus set free a man from a demon; and then, the same day, after the service, they went to Peter’s house where the wife's mother was in bed with a fever – and Jesus healed her instantly.  By sundown that day, crowds had gathered outside Peter’s front door, wanting to be healed.   So it's kind of frustrating that next morning, just as things are taking off and the crowds are coming back for more, Jesus is nowhere to be seen.  He's up a hill somewhere, praying to his Father.  

And the fact is, that Jesus kept on doing that.  Matthew and Mark give us specific instances: Luke tells us that these weren't just occasional moments. They were repeated over and over and over.  Mornings, before the day started; evenings, when the crowds had begun to disperse, Jesus withdrew to a quiet place to pray....  It was his regular habit.

He did it when he started his ministry: out into the desert (led by the Spirit into the desert, where he faced down the big temptations associated with the works his Father had called him to do.  He did it when he was experiencing success.  He did it when he was grieving – like the day he fed the five thousand, when he was still smarting from the death of John the Baptist.  He did it when he had to make important decisions – such as before finally appointing the twelve as Apostles. He did it when he was facing the cross and needed to courage and strength to go to Calvary.  He did it all the time.

Solitude and us
So solitude – getting alone with God, is vital – at times of commitment, times of mission engagement, times of decision, times of challenge.  If Jesus needed to get alone with the Father, how much more do we need to do the same.   Jesus not only showed us by example; he explicitly taught his disciples to pray alone.  “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”  Mt 6. 6

It is vital that we have the habit – like Jesus did, of getting alone with our Heavenly Father. to find solitude to
Pray – some things we may need to say to God that we don't want other people to be part of...  personal thanks, confession and requests.
Listen – as we were learning last week. Kenny Borthwick of Holy Trinity Church Wester Hailes once asked a significant question: if we won't spend time listening to God, what are we afraid of?  If we are  afraid of encountering god, of being alone with him, because we are afraid of what he will say to us, then we don't really know him as Father.
Read the word.  Both Bible Study and bible soaking.  We need to be taking in the word any way we can.  If you can't read, or can't see to read, you need to take particular measures to get into the word: either to get (and use!) Scriptures on CD or else to hold in your mind the scripture from last Sunday's worship, and consciously to recall it and think about it each day in the week.

Solitude allows us to develop a relationship with our heavenly Father. You can't grow a relationship with someone without spending time with them. Part of the process of getting to know someone is working together, learning how they are with other people...but part of it has to be time alone, with with uninterrupted conversations. Try only ever taking your girlfriend to football with your mates and see how you get on!

We can be working with our hands, creating something, listening to music, walking, exercising.  But even. If we may are unable to remove ourselves completely from the presence of other people, we need to turn aside from them for a time of  talking and listening to god, and giving him our full attention.  We need to be alone with God.

That getting alone with God is essential.  Hearing the word on a Sunday in Church is no substitute for reflecting on the word alone with God.  Prayer on Sunday, quietness in Church, is no substitute for quieting your heart and seeking God's face alone.  Praying with friends is no substitute for praying alone.  If you don't get alone with God, you're missing out. If you don't get alone with God, you're not obeying Jesus.

Solitude has Limits...
Some of us – probably a minority – will find this too easy!  We love to curl up in a quiet corner, read a book, walk alone... Some people could easily take to prayer in solitude, enjoy it, separate themselves from fellowship and think that they get all their  spiritual food from times alone with God.
Others will find it more difficult.  We like to be active, doing.  We enjoy meeting up.  We get encouraged and built up as we worship with other Christians.  Some Christians can get carried along by the praise, the prayers, the preaching, and imagine that times alone with God are only for those who are good at that sort of thing.  The rest of us don't need to bother.  

Of course there are limits to solitude. .  Nobody is suggesting that we should all become hermits. 
God calls us to be the Body of Christ and finding that experience of “body life” is a vital part of begin a Christian.  (Eph 2. 19-20; 1 Cor 12. 27)   Following Jesus was never meant to be a matter only of our own private relationship with Him. The experience of Christian community is not just an add-on to a private and personal faith.
We are clearly told, not to abandon the habit of worshipping together. (Heb 10. 25)
We need fellowship.  There are times when we can support, encourage, challenge and correct each other. 
We need to be involved in ministry and mission. 

Solitude and fruitfulness...
But... it is precisely in the place of solitude that we charge our batteries and get ready for the challenges of mission and ministry.  Solitude and shared life are not two different options.  They are two different sides of the same coin.   For Jesus they were a rhythm: breath in, breathe out. Time with Father, time with friends; time alone, time in the crowds. 


And that produces fruit...

In ministry to other Disciples. In Mark 6. 45-52, We learn how Jesus spent time alone in prayer - then through the miracle of walking on water,  taught his disciples about faith and about who he is.  Paul says (1 Cor 14. 26) “When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.”   If when we come together “each one has” something, where do they get it from?  Surely, from time alone with God.  If we want to have something to share in open worship we need to spend time alone with Father.  

In mission.  In Mark 1. 38, When Peter interrupted Jesus' prayer time, Jesus refused to go back to the Capernaum crowds, but said “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”  Time alone with Father was what spearheaded the times of advance – whether that meant going to new places, or appointing an apostolic team (Luke 6. 12-16).  And the thing that enabled Jesus to break new ground for the Kingdom of God, is what can maintain a missionary trajectory for us too.  

In power. The times alone with Father, for Jesus, were the empowering times for Jesus.  It was “one of these days” punctuated by time alone with Father, when the paralysed man was lowered through the roof to Jesus. And Luke tells us that on that day “the spirit was with him to heal.” (Lk 5. 17).  It was another of those days when a huge crowd came together in the open air, and Luke tells us “power went out from him  and healed them”  (Lk 6. 19). Isn't it interesting that Dr Luke with his particular interest in medical things, twice places solitary prayer and significant power together.

Real time with Father, will draw us close to Father's heart; will cause us to feel within us the father's heartbeat for the last the lost and the least, will motivate us to do Father’s will, and maintain the momentum of mission.

Psalm 131: Spirituality and Silence

I wonder when David wrote this Song of ascents?  David the shepherd-boy who tried dressing up in Saul's armour, but couldn't move in it and then took out Goliath with a stone from a  sling.  David shepherd-bard who became more popular than King Saul, and who was forced to live as a fugitive when Saul wanted him killed. David who became King, built a palace in Jerusalem, brought the Ark of God back to the city and got laughed at by his wife for dancing so wildly... David who fell into sexual temptation with Bathsheba. David who had the pain of seeing his own son Absalom stage a coup. David who wanted to build a temple but God said “You can't do it... you have too much blood on your hands.  But at some point David wrote this song of ascents, to use in climbing the hill to Jerusalem to worship god.  

And when he wrote it, this warrior and musician and ruler knew the value of silence. He knew that in climbing the hill to worship God we need to deal with self importance (verse 1: My heart is not proud, Lord,my eyes are not haughty),  self-reliance (“I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me” and self-seeking (“like a weaned child,” no longer fretting for the milk-supply!)   He has quietened his heart.  The word means  “pacified, silenced, made to wait” – just as you do with a child.

And in our approach to God, we need silence: we need to shut down the clamouring voices inside us that are grumbling, complaining, marshalling the arguments, whining, demanding... We need to find a silence that allows God to be the prime mover in our relationship with Himself.  We need to find a  silence that comes to God in simple, confident trust.  Silence isn't the only thing.  It's important that we do have things we say to god – our confession, our thanks, and to “present our requests” and to agree with one another...  But Bible believing Christianity has a  need to learn the art of silence. 

Why is quieting our hearts so important?
Silence allows ...
Treating God as God. Habakkuk 2. 19-20 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.  But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence  before him.  In contrast to the noise of the idol temple, a holy hush recognises the presence of the LORD. Eccles 5. 2 says “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.”

Listening, giving God space to speak. Did you ever carry on a conversation with someone who never stopped talking? The keep ion and on; they never seem to stop for breath. They tell you what's happening. They tell you what’s troubling them; they tell you what's wrong with the world.  They say things that are quite simply wrong. But you can't help with their problems, you can’t correct their mistakes – because yo simply can't get a word in! A lot of our conversations with god are like that.  We need to give God space to speak.

Letting God transform us.  As we quiet our hearts, we know God's strength: he brings healing and transformation to our inner beings.  Isa 30. 15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. (= valour; victorious force)” ...   Isa 40. 31  “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength (= Vigour, productive energy)

Compassion towards others: Careful speech.  Job's friends were at their best when they kept silent vigil with him.  They were at their worst when they opened their mouths and “Occupied themselves with things too great for them.” We could all do with praying the simple prayer from  Ps 141. 3 “Lord, set a watch over my lips!”.  And there are other benefits: Proverbs 17. 27f says “Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.   Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.”

Trusting God.  Letting God come through.   We don't always need to tell God what to do in situations.  He sees and knows before we ask.  (Matthew 6. 8)  Sometimes it's enough just to present a situation to him.

How are we to go about this “Silence” business?
Are we stuck because we live in a place where there is always noise?  Do we need to achieve literal silence, the literal absence of sound? I believe it is good for us to attempt to find space for literal silence, time just to tune into the ambient sounds that are around us – the sea, the wind, the hum of traffic, birdsong; to find a place that is quiet enough that you can hear the beat of your own heart.  It's good, but it's still possible to experience biblical “Quiet” in a noisy place.. For David in Psalm 131, quieting the heart was a deliberate, conscious active engagement.  “I have quieted my heart”.  It means I have pacified my heart, I have quietened it down, caused it to rest.... and we do that through...

Scripture.  You can either read Scripture noisily: that is, you are reading it and thinking about it.  Your thoughts, your wrestling to understand its meaning become the noise.  But it is possible to engage with Scripture in a different way: to take it into your heart, to hold it there, and to let it speak to you. You're not interrogating it, asking it questions.  You are simply holding it within you and getting the flavour of it. It's like the difference between chewing on a peppermint, crunching it up – noisy and maybe painful – and sucking it – silent.   In fact, I recommend using a verse of Scripture – something you have read, something that speaks simply and plainly of god's love, grace, power or sufficiency, so that your silence remains focussed on God.  Don't  “empty your mind." Firstly, it's difficult to do.  Nature abhors a vacuum, and the more you try to “empty your mind” the more you'll find things crowding in – and if you do manage to stop the distractions and really empty your mind, the enemy will find use the space.  Using Scripture is a good way of laying claim to your mind for God.  And it may be that you need to “Tell yoursoul some truth from Scripture! 

Self-awareness. One of the things that may happen as you go through a process of quieting your heart, is that you become aware of things you didn't know you were anxious about, or angry about.  You need to forgive someone; you're embarrassed about something.  Simply give these situations to God, maybe scribble them down so you don't forget. It's part of the process.

Actions may help.  Sit in a comfortable and relaxed position.  Offer each part of you to God. Become aware of your breathing – surrender yourself to God as you breathe out, welcome the Holy Spirit as yo breathe in. It may help to use a simple gesture: palms up to welcome what God wants to give you, palms down to place things in God's hands.

Ask the Spirit to help you.  Paul says ( Romans 8. 26) the Spirit helps us when we don’t' know how to pray, and prays within us with groans too deep for words. Even if that prayer is an inarticulate groan, God hears. It can be part of the silence that sets us free to go beyond our natural understanding, giving God the space to speak rather than simply following our natural inclinations and telling God what we think he ought to do.  Sometimes people say to me “what’s the use of the gift of tongues?” That’s the use of it: when we are intimately and powerfully aware of the reality of who God is and we reach an end of our own words to express our awe and wonder, tongues can speak adoration from our hearts.  When we are struggling to pray for a situation, and we don't know what to ask; or maybe we want to ask for the same thing over and over, and kind of run out of ways to repeat the request, tongues enables us to present that request to God.  It's a way of quieting our hearts.

Touch, particularly in praying for someone else.  I mean decent touch, a hand laid on a shoulder. Maybe you don't know what to pray for, but your touch and your silence or groans or prayer in tongues is a way of simply bringing the person to Jesus. Our Fife Baptist Ministers had a meal last Friday at the Viewfield Centre. I was talking to one of the guys and moved a couple of chairs just a few inches – and experienced a sudden pain in my wrist.  Another of the guys, James, from Leslie, heard me shout out in pain, said “What happened?” and I told him. He simply held my wrist in his hand for about maybe ten or fifteen seconds – and God did something. My wrist was better!  No words.  Just a touch.

In conclusion
The practise of silence – quieting our souls … means that we “hope in God now and for ever” and like David call others to “Hope in God, now and for ever .” As we patiently allow him to be himself, speak to us, transform us and work through us, it's “now and forever.”  In the silence we encounter the Eternal One.  In the silence of that meeting we connect “now” with “Forever.”  In the Now of our lives and the lives of people we speak to, we experience the “forever” Kingdom of God.  That's how powerful and important it is that we make time and space for god to speak, through silence; through quieting our hearts.

Walk by Faith...

Solomon who got the temple built, wrote, “Unless the Lord builds the house the labourers build in vain” (Ps 127. 1)   Justin Welby, the recently appointed Archbishop of Canterbury says: 'The work of God is not done through strength and efficiency but through those who, having encountered Jesus, leak out the love they have received.'    Jesus says “Apart from me you can do nothing. (Jn 15. 5)   Without God – I mean without a real connection with God, Christian service is  a waste of time.   How is that connection with God established?  At the beginning of his public work, Jesus announced that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, and called people to repent and believe the Good news.   Last week we looked at “repentance,”  re-orienting  our lives so that they belong to God.  Today I want to look at Believing....The writer to the Hebrews says “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb 11. 6)

Believing is being persuaded of something: convinced, certain.  It is the substance – the concrete reality  - of what we hope for, and the evidence of things we do not see.  (Heb 11. 1)  And we are all exercising faith, all the time.  We don't see air, radio waves, time, music, or love.  But they all touch our lives....

When the Bible talks about believing, it means specifically believing in God.  It does matter what you believe!  You remember the musical “Joseph”?  One of the songs said “Any Dream will do”  NO! Andy dream will not do!   It isn't enough to believe in something.  The statement “It doesn't matter what yo believe so long as you are sincere” is a load of rubbish.  When I am driving my car, it doesn’t matter how sincerely I believe that the pedal on the far right is the brake.  If a child runs out in front of my car and I put my foot down on that pedal, the car won't stop, it will hit the child even harder!   At its centre, “Faith” is believing in God, in who he is and in the big truths of the Christian faith.  It is being certain, convinced, about these truths: so convinced that you are prepared to build your life upon them.
Mark 1:15  "The right time has come," he said, "and the Kingdom of God is near! Turn away from your sins and believe the Good News!"
Rom 10. 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Jn 20. 25-27   Jesus said to Thomas, “Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
Heb 11:3  It is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by God's word, so that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.
Heb 11:6  No one can please God without faith, for whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek him.
That’s faith: a confident, persuaded certainty that God is there; that he is good; that he has revealed himself in Jesus, his Kingdom has come; that Jesus died for our sins and rose again.  

Sometimes what we "Know" from life's experiences challenges our faith
But lots of people go through tough times: once a father brought a messed up sick boy to the disciples, looking for for Jesus,  and hoping for healing.   And the disciples tried to get him better, to get rid of the spirit that was damaging the boy's life... they thought “What did Jesus do last time?  They prayed; they told the thing to go; they laid on hands... they believed... or tried to... and nothing happened.  When Jesus himself came on the scene with Peter, James and John, the nine were in the middle of an angry looking crowd.  Have you ever been there?  Jesus sees unbelief everywhere: disciples, the crowd, the boy’s dad... : “Faithless generation,” he says (Mk 9. 19) and the dad has got to the stage of saying “If you can, please do something” (v. 22)   Jesus responds that all things are possible for those who believe, and the man answers “I believe, help my unbelief”... A lot of us struggle with unbelief, a failure of that certainty, of that assurance of things hoped for... I believe, help my unbelief...   That's all it takes....

I had  a retreat day on Monday; in the Blairadam Forest.  As I was driving out there, I listened to a CD and God got my attention through one track: the song “My redeemer lives” says “I know, he rescued my soul, I believe! ... my redeemer lives!”  It felt like God had something to say to me about faith. So as I walked I asked God to show me what the hindrance was to my faith.  And this is what came back: “You know too much!  You rely on your own understanding.”  Now if you know me well, you'll know that I am one of the last people to suggest that we all leave our brains at the door of the church, like gunfighters have to take off their gunbelts when they go into the saloon... “You can't bring that in here – it might go off an any minute!” We are called to “Love the Lord with all our heart, and soul and mind and strength.” (Dt 6. 5)

There is good knowledge, and bad knowledge; there is good understanding and bad understanding; there is good belief and bad belief.  The good belief, trusts in the Lord.  It factors in the God facts,   and builds everything on the big truths – who God is, what God is like, what God has done. 

There was a man who lost everything in human terms –  family,  health, fortune, and the respect of his friends.  In the middle of his struggles, and the rubbish his friends heaped on him as they tried to counsel him (ever been there?) Job comes out with this amazing jewel:  “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.”(Job 19. 25) That's astounding. That's faith. It's built on the big truths – and applies them to his own  messed up little life.  David echoes some of that in  Ps 27. 13: “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” 

We all need to filter out wrong beliefs - things that are rooted in...

•  Bad growing up (or other) experiences.  Some people learn from parents and teachers, “Authority figures – parents, teachers – can't be trusted. You never know when they are going to turn nasty and violent.”  Poem people learn “I'm stupid; I can never be smart/good at football/like my brother”.  Some people learn “the only way I can give and receive love is through sex.”   If there's something in your head that tells you something like that it's a bad belief. It's become part of your own understanding and you need to trust in the Lord, to build your belief on the big truths of who God is, what God is like and what God has done.

William Carey.

•  Folk-wisdom.  Paul calls it the wisdom of this world (1 Cor 3. 19) and James says it's marked by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition.  (James 3. 14-15)  You know the sort of wisdom I mean. It's about looking after number one, getting to the top, getting the best job, the best bargain, never being a doormat.  It's cynical about authority, pessimistic about the future and tends to treat everything as  a joke. Bad beliefs. False facts.  And remember that sometimes worldly wisdom can dress itself us as theology: the “Prosperity Gospel” is one example; another is the extreme Calvinism (the belief that only those God chooses can become Christians) that made Nottinghamshire Baptists tell William Carey the father of modern world mission, in 1786, “Young man, sit down; when God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid and mine”

• Pseudo-science and fake philosophy. I don't mean sound research-based science; I mean the trendy, rather sneering way that some in the scientific world like to suggest that science has totally disproved faith in God and people of any faith are a dwindling moron minority; and the way some books and films portray as unquestioned fact what are usually groundless and tired old theories about the origins of Christianity. These guys are what Philosopher David Bentley Hart calls the fashionable enemies of faith.  Bad beliefs. False facts.

Bad belief leads to fear, frustration, despair, disappointment, frenetic activism of complacent, hopeless inaction.  Good belief releases God's power into situations: It moves mountains (Mark 11) it enables us to live courageously and to face all sorts of odds for Jesus.  (Heb 11)

It takes faith to allow oneself to be misunderstood and not feel one has to defend oneself.  It takes faith, in fact, to take the servant approach to mission (ministry in the world) and to live generously in our society.  It takes faith to be generous to people who are different, not to demand conformity; to speak the challenging prophetic word, without fear of offending, and to be silent without the fear of compromise. and to let the holy spirit do it his way way.  And God calls us to walk by faith! 

© Gilmour Lilly January 2012

Luke 2. 22-40 Dedicating ourselves for 2013

Giotto - presentation of Christ

This is a good story to look at on the first Sunday of a new year – because of one word that is used in the first verse (v. 22).  “To present him to the Lord.”  The word means dedicate, devote, consecrate.  It means to make something available for someone. When the Romans needed to get  Paul safely from Jerusalem to Caesarea  the officer in charge was told to provide (same word) mounts for him: to make them available.   It is a military word.  When Jesus was arrested, and Peter drew his sword and cut off someone’s ear,. Jesus said if he asked, his Father would send more than twelve legions of angels...(Matt 26. 53) It's the same word. Father would put those angels at Jesus' disposal.  At its root, the word literally means “to place alongside”. 

Luke (who was not Jewish so can be excused for not knowing all the details of Old Testament) tells us about three things that it looks like Mary and Joseph chose to do at the same time. 

(i) 40 days after the birth of a baby boy, an offering had to be made for cleansing after the ritual impurity associated with birth. (Lev 12. 6)
(ii) The first born child belonged to God (Ex 13. 13) and had to be redeemed – bought back from God.  This dated back to the death of the firstborn in Egypt just before Moses led the people out across the Red Sea.
(iii) Offering Jesus “back to God” for his service like Hannah offered Samuel  (1 Sam 1. 24)

At the beginning of the year, when we all make new year's resolutions, it is a good time to renew our commitment to Jesus and to one another. It is a moment of dedication; a point when we can devote ourselves to Jesus, consecrate our lives for this year.  And that actually means making ourselves available, it means setting ourselves alongside each other and alongside the stuff that God is calling us to.   And God is calling us to purity. He is calling us to freedom, to live in life instead of death; and to live in surrender.

So I want to look at the people involved in this dedication service, and to hear what God wants to say to us through their experience.

(1) There were two – maybe slightly bewildered – young people, Mary and Joseph. There are challenges to face.  There is a job to do.  There is a new life to nurture; there is a kingdom coming and their parenting is to be part of it.  “Here I am, wholly available”.

Now Mary and Joseph had already been through a lot. Parenthood is a big enough challenge at the best of times. But add in angel visitations, unplanned and miraculous pregnancy, being part of a supernatural event... being misunderstood and criticised, and to crown it all the birth happening away from home.  I would not be surprised if this young couple's  heads were spinning a bit. This dedication took place 40 days after the baby was born.  In that time they had either found some sort of lodgings in Bethlehem or travelled back to Nazareth.  They had the usual sleepless nights. They had shepherds come to visit.  They had the responsibility for bringing up this special child. 

Also, they were trying to do what was right. They knew – and respected – the Old Testament laws about purification and about every firstborn child belonging to God. 

And then, they we desperately poor.  The law required a lamb as a burnt offering and a pigeon as a sin offering: but Mary and Joseph brought two pigeons: that was what you were allowed to bring if it was all you could afford.

Maybe they are like a lot of our younger, family people.  Busy lives. Been through a lot. Struggling to come to terms with what God is doing.  Encountering this supernatural life and unsure how to engage with it. Trying to do what’s right. Struggling with financial challenges. Wondering what lies ahead....

And you stand today, on the first Sunday of 2013, at a moment of dedication, of consecration. A moment when you can say to God “Here I am, wholly available”.  I want to invite you do a moment of dedication to god.  To being clean for him; to being whole and free for him. To serving him.. But I'm not calling you first and foremost to a programme or a “new Year resolution.” I'm calling you to belonging. The cleansing, freedom, healing or service that God wants of you will flow from that.

Simeon theRighteous by
 Alexey Yegorov.
Public Domain

(2)  There were two – relieved and grateful –  old people, Simeon and Anna.  They weren't  as far as we know, related.  They possibly didn't know each other that well. Simeon was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.”  That phrase means the coming of Messiah.  Simeon, then, was desperate for God's Kingdom.   And he had received this promise from God,  that he would see Christ with his own eyes. Anna had been a widow for decades. She had married as a young girl, but after seven years of marriage she had been widowed. And she lived as a widow until she was 84... or maybe for 84 years, which would make her well over 100! She more or less lived in the temple.  Every day she was there, praying, fasting, waiting God to act.

These older saints had their spiritual, supernatural experiences, too. Luke tells us simply that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon.  Anna was a prophetess. The lived in this divinely inspired atmosphere of expectancy, waiting for the coming of the King.  God had clearly spoken to Simeon.

They, these older saints, had been through pain, too.  Anna, certainly, had known the sadness, loss and anxiety of widowhood at an early age and a sense of loneliness through the years.  There is definitely a tinge of weariness about Simeon's little hymn: “Now you can let me depart in peace”.  

So they had experience. They had the Spirit, his gifts and insight.  They had knowledge and history behind them.  It might have been tempting for them to think that they had everything behind them and nothing in front of them.  But there they are at this moment of dedication, of consecration.  They have something to bring: prophecy, affirmation, warning, encouragement.

Maybe some of our older people feel a bit like that. We've been faithful. We're waiting for God to bless his people. Maybe we know we have our limitations: we can't get out as much as we used to. And how we long for revival.  And at this moment of consecration, you can be there.  You are part of it.  You are still called to be clean, to enter your freedom, to be available. You can pray, prophesy, bless and encourage.   You too can say “Here I am , wholly available.” 

(3) There was the baby!  Jesus.  It was he who was being dedicated to the Lord, in ceremonies that dated back to the time of Moses.  Mary and Joseph took Jesus and offered the purification sacrifices, like every other young mum had to be purified after giving birth.  And they had to “redeem” him with 5 shekels of silver, like every firstborn child. This baby, God's Son, was fully human.  And Jesus was dedicated to God, made available to God, set in God's presence for him to use.   That's what Mary and Joseph were doing. 

But what was different, is that his Heavenly Father had already dedicated him, presented him to us, made him available to us, set him alongside us... in his coming to earth.  And what is perhaps even more amazing is that in his earthly life and ministry, Jesus affirmed and lived out these dedications that were made over him....   When he was twelve, and got so absorbed in the teaching at the temple that he didn’t join his parents and the others travelling home to Nazareth, he repeated that dedication: “I must be about my father’s business" (Lk 2. 49)  When he was baptised, he re-affirmed that dedication, to do his father's will and stand alongside us .  When Peter told him off for talking about dying on a cross, Jesus said “Get behind me Satan”.  (Mk 8. 33) He was restating that commitment to serve his Father and save his world.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed “not my will but yours be done.”  (Lk 22.42) Always making himself available – on the cross. And after the resurrection, still giving of himself: he breathed on his disciples and said “receive the Holy Spirit.”  (jn 20. 22) Jesus dedication was to his Father's will, and to us.

We are called today to consecrate, to devote, ourselves to living for God – to present (same word) our bodies as living sacrifice to him (Rom 12. 1).  To consecrate ourselves to holiness.  To commit ourselves to discovering and living in the truth, to doing what we need to do to get free and healed. To be available to God and to place ourselves alongside those he wants us to serve.  And we do so because – on the Cross –  he has given and – by his Spirit –  he does give himself to us.

© Gilmour Lilly January 2012