Love won another

Leviticus 19. 17-18, 33-34; John 13. 31-38

We have been thinking about our love for God – in response to the majesty of who he is, and to God's love for us. We finished last time by realising that to respond with love to God, always involves loving people as well. We are going to look a bit closer at that today.

So we can sum up the commands in two: Love the Lord with heart, soul and strength (Deut 6. 4-5); and love your neighbour as yourself (Leviticus 19. 17-18). Neighbour in Leviticus is a wide-ranging word. “All our duties to our fellow men summed up in these words. Jesus and Paul agree about that. (Matt 22.39f Rom 13.9)

But then, Leviticus (chapter 19 verses 33-34) goes on to say “The foreigner living among you must be treated as one born among you. Love him as yourself”. The foreigner or stranger is the person who is travelling through, the person who has just arrived, the person who has no rights. And God's word says “Love his as yourself; love him the same as any other neighbour.”

William Temple says, “My neighbour is anyone with whom I have anything at all to do even by accident and even though he's the kind of person that I naturally hate or despise”.

And both neighbour and stranger, we are to love as ourselves. That is something we struggle with.

Some of us – self included – are not very brilliant at loving ourselves. We are taught to be “Self-effacing, self-denying” But I believe the Lord wants us to have proper sense of love for ourselves. Talking about marriage and Jesus' love for us, Paul says “no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church...” Eph 5. 29

I think we would all agree that self-harming is a symptom of something being wrong. Substance abuse, self mutilation (cutting, hair-pulling), eating disorders, and habitual overwork are all forms of self-harm. As Bible-believing Christians we tend to be more down on alcoholics than workaholics, so we need to be consistent. God doesn't want us to be self-harming. He wants us to live emotionally healthy lives, loving ourselves in the right way. The markers of love are:

• Esteem, and we need a right self-esteem. Secular psychotherapy says “You have to big people up. There are no moral absolutes. Nobody's a sinner: that's bad for your self-esteem.” But Christianity says “Jesus loves me and died for me: that's good for my self-esteem!”
• Enjoyment. Not to enjoy our own company so much we don't mix with other people, or to admire ourselves in the mirror for hours. But to enjoy being the people God made us to be.
• Extravagance. Perhaps that's not quite the right word for ourselves: it's not all about spending on ourselves, treating ourselves. But we need to be able to be kind to ourselves. We need to be able to receive.
• Expectancy. We need to believe in ourselves; to have goals,targets, an aim in life. That doesn't need to be crazy, unrealistic stuff or materialistic ambition; but we need to aim to be the best we can be, and to make the best of each day's opportunities and to be a blessing to other people. That rescues “Self-love” from being simply an exercise in self indulgence.

And loving my neighbour as myself means “I am to care as much of his interest as for my own.” (William Temple) That means loving our neighbours with esteem: we value something in their lives; with enjoyment (we learn to enjoy being with people); with extravagance and generosity; and with expectancy as we believe that whoever they are they can grow and develop and find faith in Jesus. We need to treat ourselves, our neighbours and our natural enemies with equal love.

In John, Jesus gives us a “New Commandment!”: “Love one another as I have loved you!”

This is what Archbishop Ussher called the eleventh commandment. It adds something to “Love your neighbour as yourself”. What is new about the “New Commandment”?

To answer that, let's note where and when Jesus said these words: in the upper room, after washing the disciples' feet and breaking bread with them. And before he goes on to talk about the future: the long-term hope of heaven “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14. 1) the coming of the Spirit (John 14. 16) the call to fruitful service (John 15)

• It sets a new standard. It takes us way beyond “love your neighbour as yourself. Jesus says this after he washes the disciples feet, and says “You must wash the feet of one another. He says it after he takes bread and says, “This is my body, broken for you.” “As I have loved you” means “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15. 13). That is a tough call. Where the Esteem disappears and the enjoyment cools, love continues to be extravagant, sacrificial. It takes us back to loving with all our strength.
• It needs s new power. William Temple says this new commandment is “The impossible thing. [Jesus] himself will make it possible but till then it is not possible.” Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to come and live inside his people. We need the Spirit's power to love as Christ loved us.
• It is based on a new covenant. The commandment is new because it is the law of the new covenant which Jesus is to establish to his death.
• It is for a new people. The new commandment is for the messianic community living between the advents of the Messiah.
• It is based on a new relationship with Jesus. In John 15. 10-12, Jesus says “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love... My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.”

The other thing “ new” thing troubles some people: it seems to have narrowed the focus down to “Love one another.” Is Jesus telling us to become a big, “holy huddle” when he tells us to “Love one another”? The answer is “No!”, a great big “No!” for a number of reasons.

Firstly, Leviticus – and Jesus – say “Love your neighbour as yourself.” And when a clever-clogs asked Jesus “Who is my neighbour” Jesus told a story about an outsider – a Samaritan – who showed love when cream of the insiders – priests and Levites – failed to do so. (Luke 10. 25-37) God's heart is always for the outsiders. Remember, “love your neighbour as yourself – even if he is a stranger.

Secondly, Jesus says “Everyone will know you are my disciples if you love one another.” How does that work?

• Loving one another makes the Church a wee, working model of the Trinity. We keep Christ's commands and love one another as Jesus keeps the Father's commands and loves the Father. What a wonderful privilege to be involved in the things of god!
• Loving community proves that the Good news of Jesus has changed our lives. Francis Schaeffer calls love “The final apologetic.” In the second century the pagans said "behold how these Christians love each other! How ready they are to die for each other. "
• To love like Jesus is to love inclusively indiscriminately and universally. Jesus loved us sacrificially, so the point of dying for us, before we were his people. So we need to love people, before they are our brothers in Christ.
• As we learn to love one another – with Esteem, enjoyment, extravagance and expectation, we gain the skill to love or neighbours – even if they are strangers, with Esteem, Enjoyment, Extravagance and Expectancy.

Jesus doesn't want us to love one another like a holy huddle. He wants us to love one another as a springboard to loving service that can win other people to him. Mother Teresa had a prayer as she ministered to the destitute and dying in Calcutta: “Jesus, my patient, how sweet it is to serve you.”

© Gilmour Lilly March 2016

We love because He first loved us: God's love and ours.

Psalm 47
Psalm 47 has all the excitement of a coronation – and the King is the Lord himself.  He is Lord of all the earth, sovereign over creation, sovereign over the nations.  And he loves “Jacob” – the people of Israel who are his people.

Why should God love Israel – or us?  Not because of their great strength.  They were nothing special....  But God chose them and loved them.   But his plan and his love extend to all the nations.  His plan is that The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham.   

When John says in 1 John 4 that “God is love” that is not a new, freshly invented “New Testament concept”.  It is one that goes back to the beginning. Before Moses says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength”   (Dt 6) he says “Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength”  (Dt 4. 37:  the first mention of of God's love ).  God's love  –  “Ahav” – has always been there.  He made men and women for relationship with himself. 

I have been reading the “minor prophets” - the wee, short books at the end of the old testament.  They record God's anger at the mess his people have got themselves into, his grief over their unfaithfulness to him, his judgement and his promise of restoration and healing. For Hosea it was the unfaithfulness of God's people worshipping idols.  For Amos and Micah, it was oppression violence and injustice.  For Haggai it was the self-seeking complacency that left the temple in ruins.  For Malachi it was giving God second best.  

And that is how he loves, in response to the fact that his people broke their covenant with him.  They went far away from him, worshipping the grotesque fertility gods of their neighbours.  They oppressed each other.   God wanted them back.  He wanted them cleaned, set free, and treating one another with justice. 

See also
Jeremiah 31. 3
God's everlasting (through all generations) love (Hebrew "ahav") and covenant-keeping (Hebrew "chesedh") … not extinguished even by the nation's sin, offers hope of national restoration.  

Zeph 3. 7
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.   He will take great delight in you; in his love (Hebrew "ahava" – feminine form with same meaning) he will no longer rebuke you,  but will rejoice over you with singing.’   There is a tenderness in God's love.  Look how he longs for us to be walking with him.

The love of God is not a hard-nosed, cold determination to pursue us and possess us – it's not a psychopathic love that turns to hate if it doesn't get what it wants.  Stalking, bullying, and physical violence sometimes follow when that happens.  In south east Asia it often leads to acid attacks against young women.  God's love is tough enough to do what it takes to win us back to him – but at heart it is tender and sacrificial. 

Remember from last week?  Esteem?  Enjoyment/yearning for presence?  Extravagant sacrifice? Expectant hope.  God comes to us what that sort of love. 

• We are his creatures; we bear his image; he esteems us.
• He made us for his presence and when we put ourselves at a distance, he yearns for us.
• He goes to extravagant lengths to save us
• He believes in us. 

1 John 4. 7-21
“This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins”

Because God is love, all true love is “of God”, comes from Him.  People who don't follow Jesus can be show much love.  That is because we are created in God's image so when anyone shows love it can only come from God.  But true, real love starts with God, reaches out to us, and takes root in our lives as we respond to God's love by loving him and loving others.  That's the love that shows we are “born of God.”  (verse

This is how we know what love is like.... v 9-10,  love is not just described but defined:  love is God sending his son for us.  Love is reaching out to the beloved.  Love is forgiving sins whatever the cost.   But why does a loving God need a sacrifice?  That is the wrong question.  For John, sacrifice and love explain and illustrate each other.   A loving god aches to heal the hurt so a loving God bears the wounds inflicted on him by mankind.  

See also
John 3. 16.       For god so loved the world...
1 John 3. 16.     This is how we know what love is....
Romans 5. 8    God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2. 4f    But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.

And that is how God wants us to love one another.

“We love” John says “because he first loved us”.  Some Greek manuscripts actually say “we love him” or “we love God”.  Although it's not in the best manuscripts, that seems to be the point.  We love – God  first and then one other – because He first loved us.  

The evidence that our faith is for real, is found in possession of the Spirit and acknowledging  the  truth about Jesus!  (v 13-18). Is is alos found in love – for the invisible God, demonstrated in love for visible brothers and neighbours with often visible faults and weaknesses.
With all our strength. Sacrificial love that bears the pain, takes the initiative, heals the hurt.
With all our heart. Esteem,  Enjoyment, Extravagance and Expectancy in our relationships with each other, and in the way we live in the world.

We finish with two “Jesus” stories: one an encounter with Jesus, the other a parable Jesus told :
Luke 7. 36-50: a woman weeping at Jesus' feet, drying his feet with her hair, pouring her precious ointment on his feet, in an extravagant expression of love, and Jesus says “He who is forgiven much loves much. “
Matthew 18. 23-35: a man owes ten thousand talents (one talent was twenty years wages for a labourer.  So the guy owed about 3 billion pounds! Silly money!)  and is forgiven.  But he then goes and starts beating up one of his mates who owes him a hundred denarii – maybe £4500 (A denarius was a day's wages so a hundred denarii was four months wages: a fair amount of money but nothing in comparison!) God's love and forgiveness is meant to make us love and forgive. 

The New testament will never allow us just to say “Thank-you” for this love.  It is never enough to love God back, in response to the love he has show to us.  Consistently, God's love shown to us in Christ woos us to love him in return – and always to show that by loving one another, loving our enemies, loving the lost and the broken.  

Galatians 3. 20  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

© Gilmour Lilly February 2016

Deuteronomy 6. 1-9

Love the Lord your God...

Twice in the last couple of months, God has spoken to me about my relationship with him. The second time, I was watching a video on the computer, with David Carr, a pastor from Birmingham, who was talking about love for the Lord and love for others.  He linked loving the Lord with loving others and said that when you do love others they will respond to you.  And I sensed the Lord speak to me, challenging my about having “lost my first love” for him.  That's what brought me to this text.

Deuteronomy should really be called “These are the words!”  That is its Hebrew title (taken from the first words on the book!)  And that is important – because we need to hear Deuteronomy as “The words of Moses” - his big “pep-talk” to the people.  It's also important because “These are the words” was a common way to begin a covenant document.  So Deuteronomy is not only Moses' pep-talk, but, as God's prophet, his words are the covenant that God makes with his people and renews when they mess up. 

So we hear the first and greatest commandment in this context:  they are part of Moses' pep-talk, the lynch-pin of the covenant God is making with his people.  Before anything else really – before any other demands, any other rules, Moses tells the people – speaking for God – “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength.”   They once asked Jesus “What is the greatest commandment?”  that question, (Matthew 22, 37-40) and that is how he answered.  But he also added, the second is Love your neighbour as yourself.  (Lev. 19.18)

That's the first thing God wants from us: our love.  All the other stuff follows on from that:
worshipping God alone (6. 14), 
avoiding images the pagans worship (ch 7), spiritualists and fortune-tellers (18. 9-13),
eating the right food (ch 14.1-22)
paying tithes;  keeping the festivals (ch 16) giving the right sacrifices (ch 17),
forgiving debtors and freeing slaves – caring for the lest and lowest (ch 15),
dealing properly with serious crime (19. 21),
marriage and divorce,
and even care for animals (22. 6f) and health and safety (22. 8)

God wants the love of our heart, soul and strength.
Heart means the centre of you – not just (as in English) emotions but thinking, remembering, wanting, happiness, anxiety.  All of these things that are deep inside up, the OT includes under the heading of “Heart”.
Soul means “whole person”. In Hebrew thought you don't have a soul, you are a soul. “Soul” is related to the word “to breathe”.  It includes the drives, experiences and functions that makes us human.
Strength is force, abundance, or muchness.  It's connected with the word for a glowing, red-hot stick from the fire, that can burn what it touches.  It has energy that reaches beyond itself.

So what is this thing we call “love?” 
The Christian faith's greatest theologian, Paul describes what a loving lifestyle is like in 1 Corinthians 13, which is all about actions and attitudes towards one another. It is about decisions we make, to behave and think in a particular way, in our interactions toward other people. We would all do well to dwell deeply in these words and put them into practise in all our relationships including our marriages.  Paul tells us how to love with all our strength: how to reach out to others in love.  But Paul says you can do all sorts of sacrificial things and still not have love.  He recognises that love is an experience as well as a decision.

But what does it mean to lvoe with our hearts?  What is love in the deepest, inside part of us? 
Biologist Helen Fisher talks about lust, attraction and attachment, as three separate systems driven by different hormones.
Another biologist Jeremy Griffith defines love as "unconditional selflessness" that assures co-operation and survival.
Psychologist Robert Sternberg talks about intimacy, passion and commitment: and recognises that these are present both in sexual and non-sexual relationships.
Philosopher James Giles says it is about vulnerability and care.  He also talks about love as an experience and as anticipation. 

C S Lewis and others talk about the four Greek words for love – agape is selfless love, philia is brotherly or friendly love, eros is sexual love and storge is the love between one who is dependent and one who provides (child and parent). But in the Old Testament, ONE word is used for all of these loves.  It's the same word in Deuteronomy 6. 5, (love the Lord...) and Leviticus 19. 18 (Love your neighbour...); the saem word for sexual love – Isaac loved Rebecca (Gen 24. 67) and Isaac loved Rebecca (Gen 29. 18;  Jacob loved Rachel...)   the same s word for family love (Gen 37. 3 Jacob loved Joseph), friendship (Ruth 4. 15 (Ruth loved Naomi, David loved Jonathan, 1 Sam 18. 1) and the same word for God's love (Ps 47. 4 , Ps 146. 8;  Isa 43. 4,  Jer 31. 3.)   Same word, over and over.  God's love for us, our love for God, and for our neighbours, the love between husband and wife, parents and childes, and friends.  It's this Hebrew word Ahav  ....  So I suspect the Greeks were not fully right.  While the four loves are different in intensity and how they are expressed, they also have common ground, some things that are the same in all of them. 

What is happening on the inside of a person, when they experience  this thing we call “love?”  I want to suggest four things that are common to very kind of lvoe – although they have different expression and different intensity in different relationships...  

1. Esteem – admiration, respect for who the other is.  In other words, something makes you value the other person – whether that person is your wife, your best friend or your newborn baby.   You admire their beauty, their rippling muscles, their sense of humour, or just value the fact that they are your flesh and blood. They matter to you.  This person is important.   Paul says love doesn't boast about self nor dishonour others.  Love treats people with respect that areise from Esteem. 
2. Enjoyment of, or yearning for, presence.  You want to be with the one you love.  When you are with them, you enjoy their presence.   When you are separated you miss them.  If your husband or wife is away for a few days, don't you get excited when you know they are coming home?  When you have to leave your baby with someone  for a few hours, don't you think “Will she be OK?”   In Rom 1:11 and Phil 1:8 Paul longs to see his Christian friends.
3. Extravagant, generous sacrifice.  Yielding yourself and what is yours to the other.  In love, you want to give.  That balances out the other thing about enjoyment: you don't simply want your life to be enriched by having the other person around, you want to bless and enrich their life too.  And it means that you will be ready to change your life, surrender your preferences, for the other person.  Love is not self-seeking, says Paul.
4. Expectancy, hope for future accomplishment.  A belief in what your partnership can do and be.  That may be a young couple getting married and hoping to have a family who will all, of course, be beautiful, successful and good. Or it may be four lads from Liverpool starting their own rock group.  Paul says love believes and hopes.

So we can think about how these traits work in our human relationships; in the life of the Church, in our families.  We can think about how they work in loving our enemies; and in loving our selves.. But we need to recover these traits in our love for God.  These are the heart things: Esteem, Enjoyment, Extravagance, Expectancy.  Awe and wonder at who he is; yearning for more of his presence; surrendering our lives to him, and living hopefully, by faith.  These things need to be there in our relationship with God.   And when they are, the foundation is laid for healthy loving of others, including our neighbours as ourselves.

But how is this love to be ignited and maintained in our relationship with God? God says “Shema, Israel: Listen....”  The answer is in the text.

Firstly we need to be the “our” in “The Lord our God”.  Israel had seen God at work in their life together.  They knew themselves to be his people.  God draws us into a relationship with himself and calls us His people.   The first of those times recently when God spoke to me about my relationship with him, was the day after Glen Frey, of the Eagles, died. He wrote the song “Desperado.”  I used to associate that song with people who are living messed up lives, far away from God.  But I was listening to  the day after Glen Frey died, and it struck me as being about me:   “You better let somebody love you before it's too late.”  It's possible to be too busy, too angry, too afraid to get close to God. We need to opt in – to choose to love the Lord.

Secondly, it is a response to who God is.   “The Lord our God is one.”  He is one, not many. He is unique.  He is not one god among many.  He is the one true God.  In the pagan world with many gods, that was a game changer, and it still is.  The pagan gods were often kind of like us – only with superpowers.  They squabbled among themselves, they fell in love.  But The Lord our God isn't like us.  He is holy and mysterious.  We love – because he is awesome, powerful, mysterious, indescribable!  We love because he is faithful, reliable, just, fair, and holy.  The ultimate duty – to love God – is founded on the ultimate truth: God is ONE.

Arthur Aron says we are biologically wired to fall in love, if we (1) Reveal to each other intimate details about our lives for half an hour. And (2)  stare deeply into each other’s eyes without talking for four minutes. And I think that is how to fall in love with God, too.  (1) revelation: read God's word, absorb the truth about who God is.  And  (2) Contemplation.  In contemplation we are not looking for revelation.  We are connecting with what is already revealed.  Paul says “we all beholding the glory of God are being transformed from one degree of glory to another.  So, gaze at the truth you have learned about God.  Gaze at it in silence and fall in love with Him! 

© Gilmour Lilly February 2016

John 9: The Sixth Sign

John 9

A disturbing question. v2. Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

This Jerusalem resident is one of my favourites. He is the complete opposite in many ways of the disabled guy at the pool of Bethesda. He's strong, independent, feisty, and courageous, as we shall learn. Sitting at his usual corner, listening intently to the voices that passed by, he probably heard the question – some guys asking their Rabbi who sinned, him of his parents.

That may seem odd to us – but it was part of the world-view of Jesus' time. Disease, particularly something like a child being born blind, was seen a s a punishment for sin. So the disciples' quesiton was “did his parents sin, or maybe he sinned in the womb?” That may seem strange to us – but that's what people of Jesus' day believed. The same idea is still around today. The Hindu doctrine of karma: punishment for sin in a past life. And I have heard people say, " I wonder what I have done to deserve this?"

We understand the idea of mistakes and consequences: stress, diet and substance abuse can all affect our health; and our exploitation greed and aggression can affect other people. We live in a fallen, broken world, where suffering is all around us. But the idea that disease is a direct punishment from God, is one we must consign to the dustbin of history. The point of the book of Job is that God throws out such a shallow and simplistic theology of suffering. And Jesus dismisses it too. It's a horrible idea.

A disturbing answer? v3. Neither, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

But... if Jesus is suggesting that God just randomly sends disease for his own glory, well, that's even worse! (“Even more worser” as my youngest once said.) But that's what some of us believe. We allow ourselves to live in a boxed in world, where everything happens in a predetermined way for a purpose. The inevitable result of that thinking, is that if God has sent along our illness, it must be for the purpose – so who are we are we to argue with that by asking God to heal us?

But that is not what Jesus says and it is not where Jesus' thinking leads. Look carefully at the words the disciples used and Jesus uses. "Who sinned that this man was born blind..." (v. 2) "… that God's works might be displayed." There is the same word, the same sentence structure, in both the question and the answer. Neither is talking about purpose but about consequence. The disciples aren't suggesting the parents sinned deliberately to cause their child to be born blind. Rather, that his blindness was a consequence of their sin. And Jesus isn't suggesting that God send the disease in order to bring about his glory, but rather that the consequence of the disease could be his glory.

We live in a fallen world where suffering in general is the consequence of the fall. Where bad stuff happens. Bruce Milne says “there is a dimension in suffering which defies 'explanation'...” The nearest we come to understanding the mystery of suffering is at the cross – and even there, even Jesus asks the question “Why?” (Mt 27.46)" No wonder – with ideas like “somehow we deserved this” or “God sent it for a purpose” – we have problems with the healing ministry.

See God work

“The Message” helpfully translates v3 – “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. Look instead for what God can do.” Jesus isn't interested here in the question “Why?” he is interested in demonstrating the works of God. The positive consequence of the man's blindness is that god's works may be brought into the light, plainly seen, And that is what Jesus is all about: verse four says “We must be working the works of him who sent me, as long as there is daylight to work by!” For Jesus, the right question isn’t “Why did this happen?” but “How can the works of a loving Father be worked in this situation? So Jesus spits on the ground and makes a wee paste of mud, puts it on the man's eyes sends him off to wash in the pool of Siloam and he comes back his eyes open seeing! The outcome of all that can be that God's glory is seen.

The story tells us about healing; Bruce Milne says “the existence of human suffering and blindness is a call to work.” We are called upon to engage in a broken, darkened, struggling world. We are called to do the Father's works – to make them visible – with Jesus, in the power of the Spirit.

Now I see

At first, as the man walks around town, people are nudging each other and saying things like “What happened to him – I'm sure that's the blind beggar guy, and it looks like he can see as well as I can” and “Nah – it's just a look-alike.” Being the kind of outgoing guy he was, when he heard that sort of thing, he was straight in there: “No, really it's me; I'm the same guy! The guy they call Jesus did it, with a bit of mud; sent me to wash my face in the pool of Siloam, and it worked!”

In an effort to understand what is happening, some of them go to the rabbis and law teachers, and eventually take the man who had been blind along. What's the official line on all this? Well, the Pharisees give the man a grilling – loads of questions: who did this? How did it happen. He must be lying, bring in his parents: they will soon discredit this rubbish... Well, the parents confirmed his story – although they seem a bit scared of the authorities and they would rather let their son speak for himself. He's well able to do that.

The whole story and many of the details shout – repeat like a football chant – the glory of God, revealed in Jesus, and who Jesus is.

• Siloam means “Sent” – and John sees the co-incidence: Jesus is the one the Father sent into the world.
• He cheekily breaks the Sabbath by making some ointment. What he uses – dust – reflects the creation of the world and suggests a new creation.
• One of the marks of the coming kingdom is the receiving of sight by the blind (Isaiah 29. 18 , 55. Five)
• In the background, the feast of feast of Tabernacles (full of lights) is being played out.
• Jesus says he is the light of the world (v5). Those who trust him do not walk in darkness.

You can hear it coming across in every action: Jesus! Messiah! Jesus! Creator! Jesus! Light of the world! Jesus! Son of God! The works of the father are being seen; the son is being identified for who he is. The one who restores physical sight can open our eyes to spiritual truth as well.

Are we blind?

The Pharisees can only see the world through their own narrow lens: their eyes are already blinded to the realities of who Jesus is. Jesus has broken the law (healed on the Sabbath) so he can't be an good. But the man replies “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” (I love him!) When they keep asking him questions he comes back at them with “Why the questions: do you want to become his followers too?” (v 27) Eventually they get so angry they throw him out of the synagogue and cut him off from the worshipping community.

When Jesus hears about this he goes looking for the man, introduces himself to him, and invites him to take a step of faith. It's simple. The blind man can now see, spiritually as well as physically.

Jesus says, “For judgement I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” The Pharisees – religious, intellectual, respectable people – are shown to be blind – and not only blind, but guilty, because they don’t admit they are in need.

So there two ways to respond to Jesus, the light of the world. You can put your faith in him – which begins be admitting you are blind, don't see, don't understand. Or you can remain blinded by your own presuppositions, and turn away form the light.

© Gilmour Lilly February 2016

John chp 6: 1 – 15. (- 70 ) 4th Sign Feeding of 5,000

Talk by Pam Lilly

Today we are looking at John chp 6: 1 – 15. (- 70 ) John's 4^th Sign Feeding of 5,000

Don't you just love the Gospels. Try reading them as books from start to finish. Lets get to know Jesus better.

Apart from death and resurrection of Jesus, Feeding of 5,000 is only miraculous sign that appears in all 4 Gospels. Here's where they are in:

Matt 14: 13 -21

Mark 6: 30 - 44

Luke 9: 10 – 17

Matt Mark Luke called Synoptics: “view together” Scholars who studied the texts believe Mark first to be written , then Matthew wrote with Jewish readers in mind, including most of Mark in a shortened version, and his own data. Luke wrote keeping Gentile readers in mind, again most of Mark abbreviating Marks text, and adding his own data.

John stands apart with much original material. John's account of feeding of 5,000 includes much more detail.

Challenge: Compare 4 accounts, see similarities and differences.

All agree Jesus and his disciples had gone to a solitary place most likely in the hills east of sea of Galilee known today as the Golan Heights. MAP , John says,they were followed by a vast crowd of people excited by the miraculous signs of healings. Jesus went up the mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The crowds streamed up after them.

The synoptics comment Jesus had compassion on the crowd and taught them until late in the day.

All have Jesus then presenting the disciples with a challenge, a seemingly impossible challenge.

In John's Gospel Jesus is in command of the situation and takes the initiative. He addresses Philip who came from the local town of Bethsaida, and so most likely to know where provisions could be bought.

Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? An interesting question. By asking this question. And by using “we “ Jesus not only accepts responsibility himself to satisfy the needs of the crowd, but also draws the disciples into the problem as well.

Philip is dumfounded. He takes Jesus literally, blurting out 8 months wages wouldn't be enough to buy them even a bite of bread. Andrew looks for what resources they actually had and discovers a boy with his meager lunch. Maybe the child had come forward on his own initiative and offered to share what he had. 5 small barley rolls and two small fish.. minnows! The food of the poor. Andrew also voices the impossibility of the situation “what is that among so many?”

In the synoptics it is the disciples who point out the problem to Jesus, its late, this is a remote place the people are hungry. Their solution to the problem was not to take responsibility, but put the responsibility on the crowd to satisfy their own need “ send the people away so they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat”

But , Jesus again puts the responsibility in their court, and gives a blunt, again seemingly impossible challenge

“ you give them something to eat”..

Continually throughout all 4 Gospels Jesus challenges people to work out the meaning of his teaching and his miraculous acts. He stretches the imagination of his disciples, pushing them out of their comfort zones. The same for us. He wants us to to examine what we hear and see, to allow the Holy Spirit to instruct and inspire us. Another example: Remember when he asked in the synoptics “ who do people say that I am? The disciples replied. (John Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of prophets)Matt 16: 14 . But who do you say I am... have you worked it out yet? Peter was straight in with “You are the Christ, Son of the living God.” Jesus acknowledged God himself had directed Peter's thinking “ this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”

Nothing is handed to us on a plate!!. He gives us seemly impossible challenges and situations to deal with. Hands up who thinks Christian Life is easy?

There was a time in Gloucester when life was very hard for me. I can remember sitting in our back garden feeling how hard the Christian life was. I looked up to see thick black clouds. (SCOTLAND!!!) Just like my problems black and oppressive. I then noticed the clouds were moving. Then reality dawned. behind the clouds would be blue sky and the sun was shinning. ON A PLANE This was the reality. The sun always shines and the sky is always blue. The clouds come and go, the sun continually shines, we just can't see it when the clouds are there.

We may feel alone, abandoned, in a dark place, but the reality is that God is always there with us. The hardness of our circumstances may block out what we can see or feel for a time, but this doesn't take away the reality of the eternal presence. In these times we have to go on faith.

Heb 11v1 “ Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” We need to believe God's promises like “ I will never leave you nor forsake you...

We may not feel Jesus is with, don't trust feelings, they can lie. We go on the truths of scripture. Jesus actually did mean it...and for us !!!

Remember Paul's prayer in Ephesians....now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine... In another difficult time I felt Jesus was far away, I can remember saying to myself... yes I know Jesus is able to do this....but does he want to for me? He is able to do it for......you all, but me?
Suddenly I believe I heard the Lord saying to me “I am able and I am willing!!!” Whenever I read that prayer I now say to myself Jesus is able and willing to do immeasurably more for me...

We read in John's Gospel, Jesus set the disciples the challenge to feed the crowd, but he already knew what he was going to do. Jesus already knows the way out of our difficult situations. We have to continually trust him, quote scriptures to ourselves … and allow him to carry us through. He is able, and willing to do it for us!!!

The disciples seemed to have forgotten their master changed 120 gallons or more of water into wine and were unable to imagine what Jesus could do with a small amount of food. Still they obeyed his instructions and had the people sit down, about 5,000 men. With women and children the number must have been at least twice this. They watched whilst Jesus took the 5 rolls and 2 small fish and thanked his heavenly father for them and broke them up..

Then came their turn.

Although John doesn't say explicitly, Jesus must have used the disciples to distribute the food or the process would have taken too long. Matt says clearly he broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples and the disciples gave them to the people.

John Wimber imagines this humourously. Fishermen, huge hard working hands small piece of bread looking even smaller.. hiding it in their cloaks, looking embarrassed as they pulled they hand out of their cloak to offer the crumb and finding it a loaf.. They put their hand in again and there was another loaf..... until all had eaten all they could.

When we obey Jesus and step out of our comfort zones he provides the means.

We offer Jesus what we have, not bemoan what we don't have. Jesus didn't despise the boy's offering, he took the little basic lunch . He didn't turn it into steak and chips, he takes what we have and makes it more than enough to accomplish his purposes.

This miracle is very relevant for us today in the light of many desperate situations in our world,. He challenges us to face the crowds of the starving, the refugees, the homeless. Not to dismiss the problem as too big for us to deal with, or our resources are too small to make any difference.

We put into his hands who we are, what we have. And trust him to meet the need. We are starting to do this as a church aren't we? we are rising to refugee challenge through Andrew and Maria... Is God prompting us to do more???

What about our situation?

Don't we wish we had more people coming to RBC, more families, more young people, more resources, more time, more money, more energy...more power of the Holy spirit.

All these would be good to have. But if crying out for these things leads us to immobility, there is something wrong.

There is something wrong if we say:

if only we had....we could.... implying... but as we haven't ..we can't...

I keep crying out to God for more of the HS in RBC...It is right to do so.

At same time I need to see what HS is already doing in our midst, and thank LORD for this.

As each one receives giftings from God we need to offer them back to Him and he will multiply them to meet our needs as a fellowship.

Next instruction was to pick up all the broken pieces that were left so “nothing would be wasted”

The disciples collected 12 basketfuls. Jesus showed he could meet the needs of his whole people, the 12 tribes of Israel. After all had been satisfied there was more left over than there was at the beginning. Jesus resources are without limit; he can meet all our needs and more.

Nothing must be wasted. We have the priviledge, don't we, of knowing love of Jesus “We must not squander that love” as Matt Redman says. We are called to share that love with others. We are called to use the gifts he has given us...Remember the parable of the talents..use them and not not bury them .. not keep them to our own private lives out of sight.

Jesus is pushing us out of our comfort zones. Challenging us to go out of the comfort of our 4 walls of our church...not to darkest Africa.. possibly simply just to next door!!!

(This has begun...a few of us going to meet in public bar at Goth to open word and pray together.)

Let's look more closely at John's choice of The Feeding of 5,000 as his 4^th miraculous sign.

The sign can be interpreted at many levels.

Bread has particular significance. It is called the staff of life, the basic food of all. Jesus is for everyone. John points out that the Passover was near (v4) The passover meal was lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread. You remember that the Passover was a nationalistic festival recalling Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt.. Jesus has already been equated with the passover lamb...John the Baptist called Jesus the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Jesus also said in the teaching that follows this sign, “I am the bread of life. This bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world.” The next passover Jesus celebrated was the night before he was betrayed, when he took bread and broke it. John was aware of the Lord's Supper. We read. V 53...56, 57

Eating flesh and drinking blood of Son of Man..we understand Jesus is talking about an intimate relationship, …...Just as we live because of bread we eat, so we live because of Jesus As we take in bread, the bread becomes part of us.

Jesus transforms us from the inside.

In the sign, Jesus provided bread in the desert place, as through Moses God gave Manna to the children of Israel during their desert wanderings. This had not escaped the notice of even the Galilean country folk. They declared that Jesus must be the Prophet, like Moses,who was foretold should come in Deuteronomy, or he was even the Messianic King. There was a ground swell to seize Jesus and make him King by force. John tells that Jesus withdrew from the situation and climbed a mountain by himself.

The crowd had missed the point. Jesus was more than the Prophet, He was the Messiah, but more than the political leader they were expecting. The sign revealed that Jesus is God incarnate. Only God can cause such an abundance of food to come into being.

John shows in the verses that follow that the crowd continued in their rigid shut minded attitude despite the miraculous signs and all Jesus revealed about himself, they were not able to accept Jesus as anything but a human being. We can see how wrong rigid, shut minds can be. They are determined they are right. They have it all sewn up. God will send his Messiah who will get rid of their oppressors and set up a Kingdom in Israel. They knew Jesus parents so how can he have come down from heaven? His teaching about his flesh and blood was the last straw for them, they left following him in disgust.

Is this a warning even to us? How much of the things that we hold dear are are just preferences, or unimportant rules and regulations that we get annoyed about if someone suggests something different.

We must hold on to the truths of the Gospel, truths of who Jesus is, and allow the holy Spirit to enlarge our understanding. What is he revealing to us today ?

(we haven't time to read all the rest of the chapter, do so at home and enjoy the wonderful truths.)

So This sign reveals Jesus is

God incarnate who challenges us, stretches us, allows us to go through “trials of many kinds” (Peter)

He is the one who already knows the way out of these trials, he is there with us. All we have to do is to believe in him, trust him, accept his Lordship of our lives, take him into ourselves and allow him to transform us to be more like him, and he will raise us up at the last day.

©Pam Lilly January 2016

John 5. 1-15 The Third Sign: The lame man at the pool

John 5. 1-15  The Third Sign: The lame man at the pool

This sign points to the fact that Jesus is trouble.  Or to put it more reverently and theologically – that Jesus as Lord and God, challenges our individual and cultural attitudes and ways of being.

This story is simple enough.  Back in Jerusalem, Jesus sees a disabled guy at the pool of Bethesda, apparently waiting for the waters to be stirred so he could get healed.  He asks the guy if he wants to be made better, and the guy begins to explain that he can never get into the water on time when it is stirred up.  Jesus orders him to pick up his mattress and go home. On the way he is stopped by some of the Jewish leaders because he is carrying something (his bed-roll) on the Sabbath.  He excuses this (the man is good at excuses!) by saying “the fellow who healed me told me to pick it up!” but he didn’t know who that person was. Later Jesus met up with him, and warned him to change his life, stop sinning – or something worse might happen to him (Jesus probably means on judgement day).   And he went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.  As a result, they began to oppose Jesus: following him around, picking arguments with him....

The point is clear:  Jesus pays no attention to the Sabbath, because of who he is.  He says “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” (v. 17)  The Jewish leaders interpreted that, as we should, to mean he was equal with God (v. 18)   As God's Son, he is King and Lord. (Psalm 2 associates sonship with kingship.)  Indeed, he is God the Son.  Yes he functions in submission to the Father (verse 19) but he does so with the full authority of the Father.   He is clothed in an authority that reveals who He is.  He is king.  He is Lord.  He is The Word.  He was in the beginning with the Father.  He is the Only begotten Son.  He is God.   

And that is trouble.  It is always trouble.  The problem with authority is that you can either submit to it, or you can oppose it.  You cannot co-exist with it.  And the Problem with Jesus' authority is that it cuts right across all other authorities. 

Individually   This man who got his healing – and he got healed on the outside only – is one of the least likeable characters in the New Testament. He's pretty well right up there with Herod, and Judas Iscariot. He's petty, wants to shake off any responsibility for his own actions, and is a tell-tale to boot.  He had no friends (nobody to help him into the water!) and frankly, I'm not surprised!  At the end of the story – and that is as much as we know about him – he had not really become a “believer”.  He eventually knew who it was that had healed him, but wasn't ready for the “sin no more” challenge.  And maybe he wasn't really ready for the challenge of the healing itself. 

What's not to like about healing?  Illness or disability can
1. be part of our identity.  After 38 years of being a paraplegic, the man possibly didn't know who he was apart from his disability. 
2. Manipulate those around us.  Some of us may have lived in a  family where it was said “Don't upset your mother – you don't want her to have one of her turns!”  Or where someone could get their own way just my threatening an asthma attack or a stomach upset.
3. Bring material advantages – allowing someone to claim benefits, for example. 
Now there are times when people who are disabled or unwell need extra TLC, or need financial support.  But if someone would rather remain unwell and enjoy the pampering, there is a problem.

So, maybe he was resentful because Jesus had force the issue of living without his disability; and maybe because Jesus had raised the issue of “sinning no more”.  Did he have a score to settle with Jesus?  Maybe he was just a dependent, whining sort of individual who was used to blaming his misfortunes on others.   He certainly seemed more concerned about currying favour with the Jewish authorities than showing gratitude to the One who had healed him.  And the reality is that Jesus challenged him.  As Lord, Jesus came with authority to ask the awkward questions.  To point out flaws in his thinking and behaviour. 

Now as individuals, each of us – disabled or able-bodied – can find our identity in something we hold on to; we can all be manipulators and opportunists. We can all whine, point the finger at others, blame them for our circumstances and fail to take responsibility for our own actions.   And for each and every one of us – disabled or able-bodied –   Jesus comes as  Lord. He comes to challenge our dependency; he comes to challenge our manipulation. He comes to challenge our reluctance to take responsibility for our own actions and behaviour.  If we don't like that, and are not prepared to yield to it, we will make the decision, to keep Jesus at a distance. 

And culturally – for the Jewish authorities, Jesus' authority had deliberately challenged their rules about the Sabbath.   John is highly selective in his choice of material. His “Seven signs” include three healings, three nature miracles and one raising from the dead. And only once does John record a healing on the Sabbath – although we know from verse 16, and  the other Gospels, that Jesus did so repeatedly.  By healing on the Sabbath, Jesus is effectively saying, “I'm not keeping your rules, because I am above them”.

So in this sign Jesus asserts his Lordship over our religious institutions and our secular cultures and the way we think about God, each other, and the values of society.   Societies have to accommodate the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  “Make way, Make way, for Christ the King in splendour arrives... We call you now to worship Him...”

What are the “cultural norms” in the 2016 post-modern secular, selfish West, in Scotland, that Jesus would want to overturn?  The godlessness of the various party political ideologies that have taken root?  The “wanton selfish gladness” of shop-till-you-drop materialism?  The tough-guy culture that dominates a lot of work-places?  The “anything goes” culture of alcohol and drug fuelled nights out. The secular relativism where the only thing that could possibly be wrong is believing something to be wrong.   

What makes the difference?  When the Jewish leaders started their campaign against him for breaking the Sabbath, you remember Jesus answered “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” (v. 17).  Then he added to the offence of breaking the Sabbath, the worse one of making himself equal with God.  But immediately, he goes on to say, “the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”  (v 19)    Jesus claims equality with the Father, but also expresses dependence on the Father.  He claims equality with God, and defers to the authority of the Father. In other words, Jesus expresses big truths about himself.  He points to his two natures: fully God and fully man.  Having made himself equal with God he then reaffirms that that there is only one God.  He is hinting at the idea of the Trinity. 

And these big truths make the difference.  Knowing who god is and who Jesus is, makes the difference.  He counters the wrong ideas “There's only one God.  If you are for Him you will keep our rules...”  with big statements about himself that imply big statements about who God is.

Jesus challenges our culture – and the individual sin of each person. In our response to our culture, we need not to make Jesus more trendy; we need to know the big truths.  Our world doesn't need to hear about Jesus the carpenter – “I wonder how much he charged for chairs?” one sixties poet asked). And it doesn't need to hear about Jesus the long-haired radical who preached about turning the other cheek.  It needs to hear about Jesus the Lord, the King. It needs to be introduced to a God who is there and is transcendent.  About the God who rules, and who has grace to transform.

And it needs to see the signs – the evidence of the Lordship of Jesus, the signs that point to the reality and transcendence and mystery of who God is and what he is like.  Some of these signs will be in the power of he Spirit, in answered prayers, on the prophetic, in miracles of healing and provision.   And some of them will be the work of the Holy Spirit bringing holiness and transformation in our lives.  If we would want to be able to make that challenge to our world with integrity, we must be prepared to let Jesus the Lord overturn our religious icons and rule over our personal sins and hang-ups.

©Gilmour Lilly January 2016