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.
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Sunday, 20 January 2013
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.
Sunday, 13 January 2013
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 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
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.
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| 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
Sunday, 6 January 2013
Luke 2. 22-40 Dedicating ourselves for 2013
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| Giotto - presentation of Christ |
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.
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| Simeon theRighteous by Alexey Yegorov. Public Domain |
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
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