Acts 2. 13-41 The Presence of the Spirit.

So, the Spirit has come on the Day of Pentecost.  Heaven has broken in a fresh way into life on earth.  120 Jesus-followers are out on the streets, talking in languages they don't understand, and many of the bystanders, foreign visitors to Jerusalem, hear God's praises in their mother tongues. They're amazed. But some make joke:  “Look at that bunch of alkies!”  That gives Peter his lead-in.

The Promise and Word of the Father.
Speaking as a good Jew to his fellow Jews, he says, “These men are not drunk as you suppose, for it's only nine o'clock in the morning.”(v15) Good Jews only drank wine at the end of the day.    It's not just a matter of their not having had the time to get properly drunk – they were stone cold sober.  Rather, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel (v 16)  Peter relates the Presence of the Spirit to the  Promise and Word of the Father.   Basically, this is what God said would happen. 

“I will pour my Spirit over all flesh.”  Peter has affirmed the Disciples' well-behaved Jewishness; he speaks to his fellow Israelites.  But the coming of the Spirit is bigger than Israel.  His coming – indeed the plan of God – enfolds the whole world, every tribe, every race, every age, every class, male and female  This is a world-touching event that is immediately bigger than Judaism.

And when the Spirit comes on all these people he will bring revelation: “Sons and daughters shall prophecy; old and young shall dream dreams.”  The Father always wants to speak to his people – and to the nations.  Hence the Presence of the Spirit always brings revelation.

The prophecy Peter quotes is that of Joel, where God speaks through the horrible experience of a locust plague, to warn of an invasion by an army that will swarm like locusts... there is judgement as well as blessing in the book of Joel.  It is in that warning that the promise comes, that the Spirit will be poured out.   John the Baptist prophesied that Jesus would baptise with the Spirit and with fire.  The Spirit is the “Eschatological” Spirit.  He is given in the last days.   The last days will and do involve God's judgement on the sin and evil that are present all around us.  Greed, Hatred, Idolatry, Injustice, Racism, Sexual immorality, Terrorism, Thieving, Violence, these things we see around us in a broken world – will stand under god's judgement.   But they will not be eradicated until Jesus comes back.  We are living in the last days and have been since Jesus announced God's Kingdom.  When Peter preached at Pentecost, it was only seven weeks since the sun had been darkened (while Jesus died on the Cross – see Lk 23. 44).   It's part of the Father's plan. 

And everyone who calls on the name of the lord shall be saved.  Joel says in his next chapter,  Multitudes, in the valley of decision!  (Joel 3. 14)  Can we see that, with prophetic imagination?  

The Presence of the Spirit, comes in fulfilment of the Promise of the Father... and that promise enfolds the world, includes judgement, and beckons us, in the power of the Spirit, to see the multitudes in the valley of decision.

The Person and Work of the Son.
The promises of God, the salvation God for all who call, the Kingdom,  he wants to establish; these things are brought in by Jesus...  So Peter starts again, a second point: “Fellow Israelites, Jesus of Nazareth...(v22)”  ...has poured out what you are seeing and hearing.(v33)   Peter relates the Presence of the Spirit to the Person and works of Jesus.,.,. 

Jesus was attested to you my many works and miracles.  The early Church's Message began with the truth that the time of fulfilment had arrived.  So does the Message of Jesus, in Mk 1. 15.  And the signs that the Kingdom had come, were the healing that he did. (Lk 7, 19; Lk 9. 11)  Jesus brings the promised Kingdom
“You, with the help of wicked men, put him to death” Peter says it twice, in verse 23 and 36.  “You did it!”   Those three words are part of my story of finding faith in Jesus.  It was when I realised that the wrong stuff in my life had contributed to the death of Jesus, that I knew I really had to hand my life over to god in repentance and faith.   The Cross was God's way of dealing with the sin of the world.   Jesus brings salvation by his death.

“But God raised him..” (v 24) t Peter doesn't dwell on the crucifixion but sees it as one piece with the resurrection...  He quotes Psalm 16. 8-11 and Psalm 110. 1 to show that the death, resurrection and ascending of Jesus to heaven, were part of God's plan. David's ancient words have to point to someone more important than old, dead-and-buried King David.   Jesus today is seated at his Father's right hand in glory.   (Eph 1. 20; Col 3. 1; Heb 1. 3)   Jesus is the Victor.

All he did – his teaching, healing, compassionate and challenging service; his sacrificial death, and his resurrection – they all lead to this: triumph; victory; glory, seated at the right hand of the Father. 
And it is from there, from Father's right hand, that Jesus has poured out the Holy Spirit.   Tee Presence and wonders of the Spirit, flow from the risen Jesus. They flow from the Person and Work of Jesus. 

The response: “Brothers, what should we do?” (v. 37)
The trinitarian message, the presence of the Spirit, rooted in the promise of the Father and the Person of the Son, demands of us that we ask “What should we do?”  Now sometimes, just occasionally, I muff things up a bit.  Isn't that right?  We have this discussion about how to encourage response to the word; how to encourage everyone to receive from God and to commit to following Jesus.  Why do I keep saying “If you want prayer, go to the front, wait behind after the service” or whatever...?  Simply this: because we need to do something.   God gave us bodies, voices, minds.  We need to respond.  We need to take clear steps. 

The steps Peter calls for are:

• “Repent”  (Μετανοήσατε) means “all of you (it's plural) once and for all, undergo a change in frame of mind and feeling, of principle and practise.” It involves a total turnaround in a person's life.  A change in the principles we live by; a change in how we think and feel, leading to a change in how we behave. 
• “Be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”  βαπτισθήτω  means (let each one of you be baptised).  One at a time, we need to come to Jesus and admit to him that we need the forgiveness of sins. No-one else can do that for you.

 
Do you need to be baptised in order to become a follower of Jesus, to have everlasting life? No, you need to repent and trust.   That's the plain teaching of the New Testament.  But if you are not prepared to obey the clear instructions of the Lord Jesus, the thing to do, what does that say about our repentance and our faith? Are we trying to get salvation on the cheap?  

And as a result, people received forgiveness of their sins; they received the Holy Spirit; they were added to the Church.  The three belong together. You can’t really pick and choose which bits you want and which you don't want.  Repentance, faith, baptism, lead to forgiveness of sins, the power of the Spirit, and being part of the body. 

Now, that word is for all of us.  If you have never really had a relationship with God, you need to come to Jesus today in repentance and faith and obedience.  Then you will receive forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit as a gift.  If you are thirsty for a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit in your life, - and even if you're not – you need to come to Jesus in repentance and faith. 

© Gilmour Lilly May  2013

Acts 2. Pentecost: Filled with the Spirit

Acts 2.  Pentecost: Filled with the Spirit

Luke tells the story of “The Acts of Jesus – part two” with tremendous skill and theological insight... Just as his Gospel begins with the miracles of coming of the Spirit to Mary to bring about the birth of Jesus, so Acts begins with the miracles of the coming of the Spirit to bring to birth the Church.  And he begins this story of the coming of the Spirit, with the countdown to the Day of Pentecost,  which means the fiftieth day. But the fiftieth day from what?

For Jews, it was fifty days since the beginning of Passover, when among other things the the very first harvested sheaf of barley was offered to god.  Fifty days later was the end of the harvest season, and Pentecost was the second harvest festival.

And that means that for Christians, it was fifty days since the resurrection of Jesus. Luke exploits the sense of anticipation.  You just know something’s going to happen... .  Just as the resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of the harvest, Pentecost in the climax of it.  

But the disciples who gathered didn't know what was going to happen.  They were waiting for the promise... but they had no way of knowing it would happen on the day of Pentecost.  And they had no way of knowing what it was going to be like when it did happen. But they were together in one place... doing what Jesus had told them to do... waiting for the promise...

And then it happened...  Suddenly there was...

Firstly a sound – like a rushing mighty wind that filled the place..  A sound so intense you could touch it.  Bruce Springsteen's “wall of sound” was tame by comparison!!!.   This sound was reminiscent of occasions in the Old testament when God moved by his Spirit.  In fact the Hebrew word ruach and the Greek word pneuma both meaning “air in motion”: Spirit, wind or breath. 

• So David sings praise that God “soared on the wings of the wind” and “the  foundations of the earth [were] laid bare... at the blast of breath from his nostrils.” (2 Sam 22. 11, 16)
• Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones is told to ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.”’ (Ezek 37. 9)
• In the New testament, Jesus says to Nicodemus, who is seeking the truth about the Kingdom of God: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (Jn 3. 8)

But Luke describes the experience as “Like” a wind.    It reminds me of Ezekiel trying to describe to describe his vision of God, and three times he says “it was like...” (Ezekiel 1  verses 16, 22 and 26)  In the end he says such was the “appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. (v 28)  Both Ezekiel and Luke are trying to describe the indescribable.

Secondly,  a sight: that looked like tongues of fire, dividing and settling on each of them. Again, it's the indescribable: it is like fire... And again,  fire was a sign of god's presence and his awesome, holy character. 

• Ex 19. 18 describes what happened when God started to lead Israel through the desert: “Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.” 
• When Elijah encountered the Lord the prelude to it all was earthquake, wind and fire (1 Kings 19)
• John the Baptist prophesies that Jesus will “baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3. 16)

Thirdly, an internal experience: they were filled with the Spirit and began to speak in tongues... as the Spirit gave them utterance.  From our point of view, we may have heard people speaking in tongues or done so ourselves; or at least we have heard of it.  But for the first disciples, it was a new thing.  It wasn't just new in their experience.  It was totally unprecedented and unexpected.  Nothing like it had happened before.  It had not even been prophesied directly and clearly.  Yes in 1 Cor 14. 21 Paul quotes from Isa 28. 11 “with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people” – but in its original context that prophecy was about God speaking to Israel through foreigners. No-one had any reason to expect speaking in tongues to happen.  Nobody knew it was supposed to happen. Nobody was trying to make it happen.   It just happened. The Spirit filled them and gave them this flow of speech.

The first thing to note about this event, is not its significance as an expression of mission.  The first thing to notice is its significance as an encounter with the Almighty. Before it was an outreach  moment, it was a God-moment. It was part of the overwhelming, surprising thing that the Spirit was doing in their lives. They weren't thinking “ I'll go out and evangelise a few Persians or a few Libyans in their own language.”  They were thinking,  “Hey, God is so holy, so good, so powerful, so gracious, so generous.  Thank you God”  and what came out of their mouths, was God's praise in words that they didn't know but that made sense to Persians, Libyans, and so on.

(That, incidentally is how tongues is supposed to work. The Spirit searches our hearts and gives expression to what is in our hearts: see Rom 8. 26-27)

But the disciples who were together on the day of Pentecost would learn all that later on.  When the Spirit came, the focus isn't on the results of Pentecost but on its source.   The expression of mission flows from the encounter with the Almighty.   Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, was right when he said, “It is not the church of God that has a mission in the world, but the God of mission that has a church in the world...”

Conclusion

Andromeda Galaxy. NASA photo

This is a hugely significant cosmic event.  It is right up there with creation, the incarnation, the death and resurrection of Jesus, as a moment when eternity made a permanent, lasting effect on the  physical universe.  These 120 followers of Jesus, were together, waiting for the Promise,  and they were overwhelmed with the presence of God.   The Spirit had come.  And he still wants to come.

This is what God wants to do.  He wants to overwhelm us with the presence and power of Jesus through the Spirit.  Peter tells the crowd in Jerusalem, “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2. 39)   Paul prays for the Ephesians “That you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God  (Eph 3. 19).

The Spirit comes to seal us in what the blood of Jesus has bought for us: to baptise us into all that God is and all that God is doing.  The Spirit comes, and when he does, we are

• Overwhelmed
• Surprised
• Empowered. 

All the other stuff the Spirit does, prayer, gifts, service, compassion, mission, outreach, and fellowship all flow from and are the results of that moment of encounter with God. 

Our understanding and experience of the spirit are all different.  Some of us rejoice that God gave us his Spirit when we became Christians, but know little of gifts; some of us have sought to be filled with the Spirit; some have spoken in tongues or prophesied r been used in evangelism.  But whatever we have or have not received from God, there is always more to receive.  All of us can say to God today “Send your Spirit again. Overwhelm me; surprise me; empower me!”

© Gilmour Lilly May  2013

Acts 1. 12-26: A week is a long time...

The story so far...
They say a week is a long time in politics.  The ten days between when Jesus ascended to Heaven, and Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came, was long enough for something to happen.  Peter stood up “among the believer and said they really needed to find a replacement for Judas, who had betrayed Jesus.  He had been one of the twelve Apostles. He had then taken his own life.  So there was a gap: the Twelve were now only Eleven and to Peter it didn't feel right. So he told the group to choose someone to take Judas' place as an Apostle.  It must be someone who – like Judas – had been with Jesus from the very start of his ministry, and who was a witness to the  resurrection.

There were two men who seemed equally suitable: they had been following Jesus throughout his ministry and had met Jesus again after the resurrection; presumably they had other strengths that made them seem particularly suitable.  But their discussion could only narrow their selection down to two...

So they prayed, and asked the Lord to show which of the two He wanted to become the twelfth Apostle.  Then they wrote the names, Joseph and Matthias on stones or pieces of broken pottery, put them in a jar, shook it up and picked or threw one out.  Matthias was declared to be the twelfth Apostle. 

What's the point?  
Now, When I read this, I wondered what Luke wanted us to teach us by giving us this story?  And I wondered what God wants to teach us today through this story.

Luke gave us the story, primarily, because it happened. Luke tells the story positively and without comment.    But what does he see in the story?   I believe the good things about this action were: 

1. They believed the bible.  Peter interprets Judas' action from Scripture, quoting Ps 69:25 and Ps 109:8...  Luke is happy enough to use the story to remind us that what we do is rooted in God's historic dealings with people as recorded and prophesied in the Bible.  We need to be confident in the Bible, to trust its authority and to be taught and guided by it.
2. They wanted clear and effective witness to honour Jesus.  Central to what they were about, was the message contained in the Jesus story.  Jesus is central.  As Luke tells the story it’s a reminder that Jesus is central and that the mission of the Church is foremost.
3. They were thinking apostolic, by appointing someone to be Apostle (Someone sent out) and “witness with us...”   They are accepting the importance of witness and preparing for the task.  Before, they had been asking “are you restoring the Kingdom now?” In choosing another Apostle, their actions show  that they were beginning to think in terms of getting ready for the long haul.  I don't believe that Paul was meant to be the twelfth apostle.  His ministry was a different kind of apostleship, and a pointer to the fact that we will always need the apostolic anointing. We're all meant to be sent out ones.  C H Spurgeon once said “Every Christian is either a missionary – or an imposter!” 
4. They prayed - eventually.  (Although doesn't it look like they only made it a matter for prayer when they got stuck?)  But once they narrowed the field down to two men, they asked God to show by the process of casting lots, whom he had chosen.
5. And just in case you think it seemed a bit odd that a position like that in the leadership of the church should be decided by pulling a name out of a hat, casting lots was a recognised traditional way of finding out God's will in Old Testament times. The “Urim and Thummim” that the priest had attached to his garment, were a means of casting lots to find out what God was saying.  They were probably two stones with the words “Curse” and “Perfection” engraved on either side.

What's the problem? 
Firstly, finding a replacement for Judas, was not something Jesus had told them to do.  Waiting in Jerusalem, for the Holy Spirit to come, was what he had told them to do.  After all, if it was that important, Jesus would have told them to find someone.

Secondly, nowhere else in the New Testament was casting lots used as a way of making a decision – except by the soldiers who crucified Jesus!   Jesus spent a night alone with the Father before appointing the twelve.  The Church talked things out, and made decisions (Acts 6. 1-5); or else, when they were praying, the Holy Spirit gave clear and direct instructions (Acts 13. 1-3).  As John Chrysostom, Bede, and others point out, the Church were in an “absence” situation.  They no longer had the direct presence of Jesus with them; and the did not yet have the Holy Spirit inside them.  So they resorted to methods which were good – they were Biblical, prayerful, well-intentioned, rooted in tradition, and things God had already used.  But they were the means of absence rather than presence. 

I believe if they had simply waited on God, the Holy Spirit when he came would have led them to the right person, if indeed they needed to appoint the twelfth apostle at all. 

These are two weaknesses the Church keeps coming back to. 
1. We find it difficult to wait: just to wait on the Lord. We're very good at finding other things to do with waiting time.  Pam worked in Africa with mission partners who wouldn't sit down to take part in an evening of fellowship without bringing their knitting or crochet.   We plan. We find jobs for people or people for jobs.  We tidy things up.
2. We find strategies for coping without God.  We do good things, Biblical things, sensible things, well-intentioned things – but things that betray a lack of expectancy that God will act; things that seem as though it all depends on us, or activity, our  decisions, our resources.  We do things that are based on God's absence rather than his presence.

What's the difference? 
What is God saying to us through this story?  He calls us to faith.....

Firstly, faith to believe he is able to work through and in spite of  our weaknesses and foolishness.  Okay, Jesus didn't specifically tell the disciples to appoint another Apostle, but I don't think Matthias was the wrong guy,  Sure, he is never mentioned again in the NT: but only three of the Apostles are clearly referred to again in the Acts: Peter, James, and John. That doesn't mean that  Thomas or Batholomew didn't achieve anything. Far from it: I believe that what they did , and what Matthias did, still mattered.    Even though some of our structures are clunky, God can still use them. Even though we are not perfect, and we have our weaknesses, God can use  us, because he is sovereign.

Secondly,  faith to wait instead of assuming we always have to be busy.  We have a message and a mission.  There is a lost world out there and there is an urgency about the kingdom of God.  But we must have the faith to wait upon the Lord.  Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They that rush around like headless chickens shall definitely NOT renew their strength...

Thirdly, faith to believe and expect God to be at work, to speak, to act where we are. Faith for presence not absence.  Faith to let God act, instead of acting for him. 

A week is s long time in politics.  But time spent waiting on God is never wasted. And he can work mightily in a split second!

© Gilmour Lilly May  2013

Acts 1. 1-11: Wait for the promise

The Proof
People have sometimes suggested that the Acts should be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit.  But it would be better to describe Acts as ”The Acts of Jesus – part 2”, as Luke makes clear in his introduction (v 1).  Everything about the book called the Acts of the Apostles, is about Jesus. 

Jesus is central and all that goes before – the life,death, and resurrection of Jesus, is certain...  So in that period between rising again and being finally taken into heaven, Jesus “showed himself alive, by many convincing proofs.”, providing the proof that this resurrection thing was not just some airy-fairy idea that the Church believed, that somehow Jesus was still with them in spirit. It was concrete reality. He has dealt with sin.  He  has conquered death. Jesus is still in the business of bringing God's Kingdom. He teaches about the Kingdom and that's the bedrock on which Luke builds his story.  “The Kingdom is still the message of the Church” (Marshall)  In the death and resurrection of Jesus, that message has been developed and grown: now the decisive victory of the Kingdom has actually been won.  Jesus has died and risen again!

The Pause
On one occasion when Jesus was spending time with the disciples, probably eating a meal with them, he told them: ”Don't leave Jerusalem, but wait ...”  There are a number of instincts the Disciples have to curb: the temptation to go back home and see friends, maybe the need to earn some money (Peter had already been up to Galilee on a fishing trip); possibly a feeling of impatience for the next stage in the adventure of the Kingdom. But they are not to rush ahead into a project – however good or well-intentioned. They are to wait in Jerusalem.  This is deliberate, purposeful waiting, together, as a  community.  We need to take time to wait.  This month, as we journey towards Pentecost, we are going to wait, inviting the Holy Spirit to come. 

The Promise
They are to wait for the promise to be fulfilled: “You shall be baptized with the holy spirit”   They had to wait specifically for an encounter with the Holy Spirit that is so comprehensive that the picture of water is inadequate on its own.  This “Baptism” from God's point of view was an “outpouring”: God says “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh...” (Joel 2. 28-32).  From the Disciples' point of view it meant that they would be immersed, drenched, in the Holy Spirit, and in that drenching, initiated into life in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit would come upon them in power.  “Don't leave town without the Holy Spirit!”  There is quite literally nothing we can do without the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. 

The Purpose : 
The promise of a “Baptism of the Spirit” excites these disciples, as it recalled the words of John the Baptist about the Messiah a few years earlier: “He will  baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  And they knew Jesus was the Messiah.  He had won the big “Kingdom Victory” on the Cross.  So as he says “You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit”, they naturally thought such a baptism would precede the final triumph of the Kingdom.   They were getting  this baptism to enable them to be part of that final triumph. 

Well, yes... and no.  Yes, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was part of the Joel Prophecy of the “Last days”.   There are three problems  with this question, that Jesus tackles in his answer...
Tribe.  The disciples were asking about Israel. But the coming of the Spirit was about witness to all people: Jerusalem,   Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth – even Scotland!
Timing.   The disciples wanted the final victory now; Jesus had already talked about troubles before the end (Lk 21) and wanted the time for the Gospel to go to all nations. The “Last days” means that extended period when the good news goes out to all nations. 
Triumph.    The disciples thought the restoration of Israel would mean political authority and power for them.  They had already shown their desire for positions of authority (see Mark 10. 35ff).  Jesus says “These dates the Father has set by his own authority.  It's about God's authority not yours.  But you shall have power, and shall be my witnesses.”  The disciples craved political, fleshly authority and power.  Jesus offered Spiritual authority and power,

The very experience of being a witness is a fulfillment of Old testament Prophecy: see Isa 43.10.  So when the Spirit comes, the immediate Kingdom event is not the triumph of Israel, but witness. They were being baptized with the Holy Spirit in order to equip them for witness, continuing the ministry of Jesus, that was going to be a vital, long-haul necessity until he returns. 

We sometimes regret the loss of power in our world. So we talk about a time when “this was a Christian Nation”, people “respected the Church”' and the country was run on Christian principles.  But the world at the time of the Early Church was certainly not run on Christian principles. The Roman world was as debauched, cynical and violent as ours.  Yet that godless world was the one in which the Church experienced exponential growth.

We want to live in a world that says “Jesus is Lord,” and looks to the Church to tell them how to live.  That is fleshly authority – it comes from man.  Spiritual authority can live in a world that says “Caesar is Lord” and has the authority and power to say “No, Jesus is Lord!”.  Spiritual authority comes from God. It enables us to be prophetic, compassionate, and effective witnesses in our hostile world.

The Parting.
And those were his last words... Having  insisted that the Spirit's coming would equip the disciples for witness, Jesus was taken up from the disciples in to the clouds.  And that means that everything has changed.  They – and we – don't have Jesus in physical form to run to with our questions.  As He said to Mary at the tomb, “Don't hold on to me...”  No wonder they were looking up at the clouds as though wishing they could turn the clock back just a few minutes.
But that doesn't mean absence. It means anointing, in anticipation of his return, when he will triumph completely.  He is going to come back, in the same way they saw him go.  The anointing is for that period, between his ascension and his return... so that we can be witnesses... to Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth – even Scotland! 

© Gilmour Lilly May  2013

Luke 10. 38-42... Friends not servants...

Jesus calls us friends not servants...

Martha was the home owner probably; certainly she was the home manager.  Her name means “mistress” (i.e. not a lover but the female version of “master”) A woman of some energy, drive, ability, determination. She had the presence of mind to recognise something special about Jesus, the desire to honour him, and the generosity to welcome him into her home. Martha had a mission statement. She had an agenda. She wanted to honour the Rabbi Jesus. She was going to host the Rabbi for a meal.  She had a project; she had a programme...

Don’t fall for the lie that Mary was this weepy, emotional, lassie swooning at Jesus' feet. Mary was smart too. She had a mission statement.  She was going to be a Rabbi's disciple at least for a day. She recognised a teacher of quality; and she  revelled in the rare privilege of sitting at the feet of a Rabbi, something that as a first century Jewish woman she would have no chance of doing, humanly speaking.  But here she was, being Jesus' student, his disciple. To listen to someone is probably the simplest way we can honour them.  (Incidentally, here is Jesus honouring women and challenging the accepted norms of what women could do!)

Now Mary's mission statement didn’t fit with Martha's mission statement...  she was distracted (the Greek word means “pulled in different directions” possibly hoped to hear what Jesus had to say but couldn’t concentrate) by her much serving.  She was getting stressed, I imagine Martha banging  pots and pans, getting more and more irate.  She was developing a sense of injustice at the situation;  getting cross at Mary and at Jesus.  So made an entrance.  The Greek is quite clear – she stood over Jesus, and had this wee rant...  “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”  Tell her to grasp with opposite me, to take her share of the work.  To co-operate with me.  It's the sort of word I would have liked to be able to use when trying to get my boys to help fold up a tent!  “Get hold of it with me – opposite me.  Take the other end of this... "

Now to be fair to Martha, a Rabbi’s student was supposed to be willing to do the menial tasks for the master.  Such was the humble nature of he relationship between Rabbi and student, that the student was also expected to serve – and could be expected to untie the Rabbi's sandals.   Martha felt she was kind of justified to suggest, “Order your student to get up and help in the house!”

It certainly wasn't Martha's finest moment. You can imagine the embarrassed silence...  some are thinking “Poor Mary... Poor Jesus”, others are thinking “Quite right, Martha”, and others “Perhaps we better be  going!”  It was unjust that Martha should cook all the food while Mary had a good time listening to Jesus.  But it was a self inflicted injury.  Why should Mary be deprived of her once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sit at the feet of Rabbi Jesus, just because her sister had set the agenda to produce a fantastic feast for Jesus.

But Jesus, lovingly, gently, challenges Martha.  Now Jesus isn't saying to Martha “Martha, you're wearing yourself out making a spread when a sandwich is really all I need....”  He's not rejecting Martha and what Martha has offered to do. He's not actually suggesting that the contemplative life and the activist life are opposites and it’s better to choose the contemplative.

But what he does say goes a lot deeper. “Martha, Martha (There's tenderness, and maybe a hint of firmness, too, in the use of Martha's name twice.) you are careful, (The Greek word means to take thought or care, from root word to divide or part: it suggests the lady with the eye for detail: you know, the salad perfectly arranged in the dish...) thinking about every detail, thinking about so many things all at once... and troubled (The Greek word  means to be disturbed, in an uproar... ) as a result.  There's only one thing we really need in life...”

What is the “one thing?  What made Mary's choice so good?  What was Jesus teaching?  We don't actually know what Jesus was saying in his teaching time... But we can guess it was about the Kingdom of God – that was Jesus' regular theme: to announce that the Kingdom was at hand; to define the characteristics of the Kingdom and describe its demands; or to refer to the ultimate cost of bringing the Kingdom through his death on the Cross...  Mary certainly had a deep appreciation that Jesus was going to suffer and die (John 12. 7)  And that is the most important thing; the one thing we really need.   Jesus said “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Mt 4. 4)   The Word of God not just teaching and more teaching but teaching put into practise, the living word that births the reality of the Kingdom of God.  The Word, experienced in the Kingdom, its simplicity, its justice, its compassion, its power. is what we need: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Mt 6. 33)

The Kingdom was there, among them in the person of Jesus.  But up to that point in the meal the kingdom has passed Martha by.  Mary has chosen the Kingdom.  That's the thing we need.  That's the point Jesus was making.

But we need that to have arms and legs; otherwise we are left with the choice between "contemplative Mary" or "activist Martha".   But in this story,  the medium is the message...  although I don't know what Jesus said about the Kingdom in his teaching:  I do know what Jesus said about the Kingdom in his actions and his response to Martha.  Because Jesus is modelling the new wine of the Kingdom and Martha is modelling the old wine of conventional, organised religion.

Organised religion

1. Puts people in boxes
2. values Programmes and Projects
3. Expects compliance to achieve success
4. activities matter so relationships feed activities
5. Can depend on manipulation and coercion
6. challenges mistakes harshly
7. Trusts in man

Kingdom approach

1. Sets people free
2. Values people and  “presence”
3. Encourages growth towards fruitfulness.
4. Relationships matter, so activities build relationships (including working together!)
5. avoids manipulation and coercion
6. challenges mistakes lovingly and gently,
7. Trusts in God

 We have a Mission Statement as a Church.  “Learning to show the Father’s Love.”  But I have a problem with mission statements... if they are about targets and programmes and success.  A misisn statement can so easily be an expression of a "Martha" church.  But “Learning to show the Father’s Love”  is about being a "Mary" church.  It is consciously rooted in something God has said to us and has to be about relationships, people, and fruitfulness. God wants our Christianity to be relational, not institutional.  It's about friendship, about listening, about taking care of each other.

Now Luke finishes the story right there: he doesn't tell us what Martha did, how Martha responded. To do that would have been to take the focus away from Jesus and back onto Martha.  The focus remains on Jesus and the main point that shouts at us as we read Luke's story.  Luke was a careful historian, an eminent theologian and a skilful story teller...  Here he unashamedly tells the story in such a way as to teach theology... Choose the most important thing – choose the Kingdom, choose the relational way – and win!

...But I wonder how you and I are going to respond?


© Gilmour Lilly April  2012

1 John 5

John has been writing to build joyful fellowship between people, rooted in fellowship with God himself! (1. 3f)As he finishes off he wants to leave his readers utterly confident in who Jesus is and who they are in him. (v13).   Three times, John uses a very similar and slightly unusual structure and language – This is the victory – this is the testimony – this is the confidence. He's giving us three keys,  three certainties, three essentials for “confident Christian living...

This is the victory – our faith.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God (v 1) John lists a cluster of realities that are core to Christian experience. New birth, love for God and his people, obedience, victory, and faith.  It's meant to work like this:  we are born again; we literally become new people. As  a result, we love God and we love each other. Once again John insists that any other way is unthinkable, and he reminds us that this is God's command, and is not a burden.  Really? 

It doesn't always seem like that. Loving one another is at times scary; to walk in love is to make ourselves vulnerable, in the real world.  It is the world   - the fallen messed up society around us generated by humanity cut off from God. But being born again, born from God, makes us new people who ... overcome the world! Day to day, present tense, day by day, moment by moment.

This is the victory – our faith.. the faith we have within us is the victory that has overcome the world.  That's why we are overcoming the world. Now god wants everyone who knows him to be living in victory over the world...

How, we ask ourselves, can we live a life of love in an environment like we do.  The self-sacrificing life of a believer, a life of love, is potentially costly, scary.  We make ourselves vulnerable; but in so doing, we take a step of faith. As individuals, we have the call and the responsibility to be the the ones who are overcoming the world through our faith in Jesus.

This is the testimony  – we have eternal life through Jesus
Jesus is central... We overcome, through faith that Jesus is the Son of God.  We can rely on who Jesus is, because he really is the son of God.  He came by water and blood.  When he was baptised in water, his father declared “This is my Son...”  When he died on the cross, one of the soldiers said “This guy has to be the son of God” (Mk 15. 39) and John recognises that this supremely is how God shows his love to us. The Cross is the greatest miracle.  And this Spirit who came upon Jesus at his baptism, also lives in every believer... so the Spirit, the water and the blood say something: they agree together to speak of who Jesus is and what he is all about. 

It's good when we can make a witness statement about Jesus; but the greatest witness statements are the ones God makes about his son. Becoming a Christian, is receiving that testimony about Jesus.  And as we receive that testimony, we become part of the testimony.  There is in our lives the witness statement : we are part of the evidence... When God gave eternal life to us, through Jesus, he was bearing witness to who Jesus is.  

Jesus is central in his Church.  Through the fact that we are here, experiencing eternal life, living that eternal life, God is saying something: the reshaping work of the Spirit in our lives, is evidence that Jesus is the Son of God. 

This is the confidence  – as we ask, he hears
If you've got the son, you've got life and can be bold in your approach to God.   This is the confidence... having eternal life is meant to be fruitful: it is not just to be enjoyed in private, but rather to be fruitful.  It gives us a relationship with God characterised by confidence, boldness, the freedom to be outspoken...
It reminds me of the stories Jesus told – of a friend who comes at midnight, asking for bread, banging the door, because he's in an embarrassing situation and needs help – of a woman who keeps on pestering the judge, waiting to pounce every time he comes out the front door, because she wants justice.  There's a pushyness, a cheek about it, that God is actually pleased with... 

But there's a condition: “When we ask according to his will.”   There's always a condition to this promise: it's about faith – an inner knowing that we are right in line with what God plans to do (Mk 11. 24); it's about praying in Jesus' name that is, speaking as his agents (Jn 14. 13); it's about walking in intimacy with Jesus (Jn 15. 7).  It is the intimacy with Jesus that releases the faith, the confidence about what he is going to do. Sometimes we struggle with all that – we love to be in control and we're not in control!  What matters more than anything, is not getting the things we want; it is walking intimately with Jesus! 

John gives one example of a prayer we might pray: for someone going away from God, into sin.  Poem churches believe in two kinds of sins: some cut you off from God's grace, others cause only a partial loss of grace. Paul tells us the wages of sin is death (Romans ) but can be forgiven. The “Sin that leads (inevitably) to death” is what Jesus calls “blasphemy against the Spirit”, which means we are so determined to reject the way of God in our lives that we make black into white and white into black.  When we pray for someone else, we are engaging in a dynamic supernatural event which involves God's plan, our desires, and the will of the person we are praying for. I guess that is part of the reason why we don’t always get what we ask for. But the miracle and mystery is, that God hears and answers when we pray. 

In Conclusion
John finishes off his letter by saying, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”   “Little Children” is a John word.  Paul used it once. Jesus used it once in the Gospels.  And John uses is seven times in this letter. This is John being himself; and speaking to the people he loves.  The whole flavour of John's letters, and indeed the whole flavour of the NT vision of Church is about relationships and community.  How do we imagine Church?  Is it a group of individuals who love Jesus?  Is it an organisation that expects individuals to play their part and offers individuals benefits – teaching, worship, kids ministry, and so on...  Is it an institution that is there to do good in the world or get more people to sign up for Christianity, or both?  Or is it a living thing, an organism, a family, a real community that has an identity of its own, in which the members fit perfectly, fulfil their destiny, and are nurtured to growth and maturity.  That is rather nearer to the vision of “Church” we find in the New Testament. That is what Paul describes in Eph 4. 16  “the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly...  builds itself up in love.”

Every culture has its weaknesses: the weakness of our “Global capitalist” culture is its individualism. Ancient, tribal cultures are by no means perfect. Anyone who has seen on TV Bruce Parry's adventures in tribal cultures will know that tribal customs can at times be barbaric and brutal; but generally there is a strong sense of the tribe rather than the individual.   We need to dip into the culture of Biblical times and rediscover the idea of community, of the family, the village, being more important than the individual.  A Christian is someone who has asked Jesus to be his own, personal saviour. We somehow think that our Christian faith is totally personal.  But we are in community.  We are in this together.  One of the biggest idols of our world, is the cult of the individual.  “Me, me, me me!”

By contrast, I'm amazed at how John – like Paul – talks in corporate terms.  “We know... our faith... God gave us eternal life... the confidence that we have... if we ask”    Remember the game you play with tiny children? “This little piggy went to market”?   God wants us to be like the fifth little piggy....  “We, we, we ,we, all the way home.” 

© Gilmour Lilly April  2012

1 John 4... What's God like?

1 John 4...   What's God like?  
God is Father (1 Jn 3. 1); He is Spirit (Jn 4. 24); He is light  (1Jn 1. 5); He is Love; He is like Jesus. 

God is spirit...
When John wrote his letter there were people coming into the Church who claimed to be “led by the Spirit.”  John writes that God has given us his spirit; then he imagines the situation where someone turns up to preach: they are shaking with emotion; their voice is charged with passion; the words flow freely with a persuasive power; maybe they have even healed one or two people, or spoken in tongues, or prophesied something that happened.  How do you know if all that power is from God?

Just because a person has a supernatural experience, just because they are speaking out under some powerful influence, does not mean that the Spirit of God has come upon them.  And yet you can't get away from the reality that the Christian life is life in the Spirit.  God is Spirit (Jn 4. 24) and has given us his Spirit (v. 16) so we know we belong to him. 

The dangers are that, as we enter into this realm of spiritual experience – which we should do because God has given us his Spirit – we can be confused, deceived, by spirits  and spiritual experience that are not from God.  The answer isn’t' whether you like what the person is doing.  Having the preacher heal your arthiritis may be quite appealing.  You may be put off by the shaking or the shouting.  But what John is saying is that we shouldn't be affected by that one way or the other.  John's question is “What do they say about Jesus.?”  “If a person claims to believe in Jesus, it is proper to ask “Is your Jesus the real Jesus.”

The Spirit of God will confirm that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.  The Spirit of Antichrist will deny that Jesus has come in the flesh.  Spiritual power, in other words, takes you into truth about Jesus.  That means at least three things:

1. Pre-existence.  He “Came” from somewhere – from God's presence.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the word was God...”  Jesus is really, truly, eternally God. It's not enough to agree that Jesus was a nice guy. It's not enough, to say that Jesus showed us something of God's character.  To say that Jesus has come in the flesh implies that he came from Heaven, that he is fully God.
2. Personhood.   He came in the flesh.  He didn't just look human. He was and is really human.  He was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.  When he was in the desert and saw the stones, thought how like loaves they were, something inside him said “That would be a great idea!”  When he talked about the cross and Simon said to him “That will never happen to you”  his humanity said “Come to think of it, I don’t have to do this: maybe I should back of...”  When an attractive young woman was crying on his shoulder, he felt the pull of sexual temptation.   He came in the flesh.  To say he came in the flews h is to say he was fully human. 
3. Permanence.  .. Jesus came once for all in the flesh.  He did not adopt a human body. He didn't borrow someone else's flesh.  He became a human person and retains his humanity today.  To say he came in the flesh is to say that he is fully God, and that he was fully human, at he same time.  

To say that about Jesus is to accept that there is a supernatural, spiritual reality to life; and that such reality isn't locked away in its own realm beyond our reach.  Jesus has come in the flesh.  The other worldly dimension is a reality, and one that is seeking us. God is seeking us, because God is love.

God is love...
What is God like?  God is love.  John repeats that astounding definition of the nature of God twice, in verse 8 and 16.   Let's allow that truth to sink in.  God is love.  He isn't just loving.   On Thursday morning someone was upset and needed a hug and Rosemary gave her that hug.  Now you could say Rosemary is a loving person?  But God isn't just loving. He is love...  Love defines who and what God is.  God isn't someone who does loving things.  God is love and all he does is an expression of that love. Even the things we don't initially understand.   Listen, we don’t  have a vengeful, cruel, narrow, nasty God.   We have a God who is love.  Everything he does is done in love.   His very nature, the heart of who he is, is love. 

That doesn't mean that everything of love is “God.” To make “love” into “God” is to make an idol – and one all too common in our world; secondly, because we need to define love correctly, in the way that God defines it; “Human love...falls short if it refuses to include the Father and the Son as the supreme objects of its affection.”   What is true is that because God is love, all true love is “of God”, comes from Him.  We are created in God's image so when anyone shows love it can only come from God.  No definition of love is adequate that does not start with god and his Son. 

That means God is personal, not just a force. Creation is about a God who is love, relational in Himself, (therefore triune?) Father, Son and Holy Spirit living in a wonderful dance of love with one another,  extending that love, creating worlds, in love.  Creating mankind in his image (complex like God, male and female equally human as Father Son and Holy Spirit are equally God) is an act of love.  Judgement, driving sinful man out of Eden, is an act of love.  The Covenants,the agreements God made with his people, are an act of love. 

Sending his Son is an act of love. The Kingdom Jesus brought and that is yet to be completed, is a gift of love.  The death of Jesus on the Cross is an act of love.  We have seen God through Jesus.  Jesus shows us what God is like.  He shows us what God's Kingdom is like. And he deals with the stuff that prevents God's Kingdom from happening in our lives and in the world: our sins.  In his amazing love he sent Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins... 

God's Spirit, God's love and us...
When John tells us, twice, that “God is love” he does so for one very specific reason.  He does so because he wants his readers to be loving one another.  It is as simple as that. God's love calls us to love each other (v. 11). We love because he first loved us (v. 19) anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister (v. 21).  John is describing the natural flow of how things are meant to be, how the whole Christian, Spirit-filled, Jesus. Believing life is meant to work. It's the most natural thing that should follow from loving God.  The most unnatural thing by contrast, is a failure to love one another.  That, says John, is  absurd, a joke in very bad taste.  It can't happen, it's a contradiction in terms. 

We want to be close to God. So close to him that he is our home and we are his home.  To know he lives, in us, and the we live in him (v 12, 13, 15).   “If we love one another, God abides in us...”   Is loving each other is both the condition and the evidence of God abiding in us.  God's presence nurtures the love, which welcomes God's presence.   Love welcomes the Spirit and is evidence of the work of the Spirit. We journey together as  from Easter to Pentecost: we want to welcome the Spirit and all he wants to do. The environment the Spirit chooses to operate in, is one of love.

There are three things that prove who're real who who isn't
1. Right wonders: the power of the Spirit (v 13)
2. Right words: the truth about Jesus. (v 15)
3. Right works: the love of the Father. (v 12)

Love makes us fearless: in this life and on judgement day we have nothing to fear, because we are in that perfect two way relationship of love, that produces love in our lives for others.  We are in no doubt, we have no fear.  We are secure.  

The reason I am here is to teach you to show the Father’s love. We are learning to show the Father’s love.  Because people outside the Church are looking at us and asking, “So what's God like?”   


© Gilmour Lilly April  2012