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Faith & Doubt(4): The Catcher

08/02/2011 By

In his book Faith & Doubt, John Ortberg describes the act of faith as being like the leap of a trapeze artist from one swinging bar to another. It’s an elegant and dynamic image of jumping, which some people call ‘The Leap of Faith’ from living without faith in God (doubting) to trusting ourselves fully into his hands.

Jumping…or letting go of one swinging bar…and for a moment…a split second floating…free fall through the air….just hoping that on the ‘other side’ there is someone to catch you.

In a way it’s a beautiful image, but it also shows just the risks and dangers involved…this is no decision you can change your mind about half way through. Often the decisions of our life require complete commitment to carry them through.

In order to make the journey of faith…one must relinquish control momentarily and let go. And as you let go, you are suddenly alone…flying…or free-falling in the open air…and through those split-seconds of flight…or falling….you must trust. It is all you can do…TRUST…and reach out… and hope and pray that the person on the other side will CATCH you…

John Ortberg is right to say that Our God…the God of the Bible… Jesus is a CATCHER….he stands faithfully on the other side. Better still engages in the swinging motion and risks of the trapeze catcher to make sure the person leaping is caught. John is so right about this…It is true that Our God is a catcher…or better put The Supreme Catcher.

But would you forgive me if I don’t just close the story there….and tell the story like that:

  • People doubt and don’t trust God
  • People begin to awaken to the love of God and begin to trust
  • People because they trust God….take a risk and jump
  • God because he loves people….always catches them and everything is all right in the end.

I am sorry but that’s not a story I can tell. It’s not what has happened in my life or in the experience of many people I have known personally or have read or heard about in the media. To me that is not the story I know and I’m not even sure it’s the story of the Bible we read either.

Here’s how I think the story goes:

  • People are thrown…hurled if you like… into a world that is both strange and wonderful….
  • They grow up the best way they can…enjoying whenever possible the goodness of the world…and family and friends, food and fun, clothing and shelter…but are constantly being tripped up or knocked back…
  • Some of us get it a lot easier than others…
  • Some of us get it a lot harder than others…
  • But all of us live with a mixture of good and bad in our lives… Sometimes jumping and being caught…
  • Other times jumping and falling flat on our faces…
  • Even worse not having the choice to jump, but being pushed, thrown off a cliff and just ‘praying’ (yes, I use that word deliberately….not for religious people…but for most if not all of us….praying that there will be somebody to catch us before we hit the bottom….

And you know what….?

John Ortberg is so right that God is the ultimate catcher…but you and I also know…

you and I know deep in our hearts….

Maybe we are even afraid to admit it…that so many people don’t get caught…

They get mangled.

They get crushed, as the hope they invested in ‘whatever’ was keeping them going be it family, teachers, friends…justice…fairness…good health….society…God…. fades right before their eyes…

…and they fall

…and they fall

…and they keep on falling until they hit the bottom

…and then…crash…..

Crash…and then silence

…and then tears and wails and fear and pain… or even worse just numbness…an inability to feel anything.

You know the nursery rhyme:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,

All the King’s horses and al the King’s men,

couldn’t put Humpty together again.

You Tube Video Link: Humpty Dumpty animated cartoon

Isn’t that the story so many of us know?

Isn’t this how many people experience life?

The story…without a catcher?

Whether we like it or not this is the story many of us are familiar with.

Sometimes no-one seems to be around to catch us.

Before the Catcher…is the fall

And often after the fall…is the crash….

And then a lifetime of struggle to get by the best we can… with a limp …a broken body and soul…until we die.

End of story.

But is that the end of the story….?

Certainly, some would say there is no divine Catcher (no Catcher God)…just us human beings…you and me…and the mysterious forces of fate…or  Darwin’s evolutionary theory of survival of the fittest or perhaps we make our own luck.

Yet, in a good story…

there are twists and turns….

crises of pain and agony….yes!

But also moments of relief, kindness and love….

For many people although there may be nobody to stop their descent into chaos….there might be someone at the bottom to help pick up the pieces…

Is that someone The Catcher?

Not the person who stops the fall and the hard landing…but the one who gathers you up after the crash landing…

Is that what God means by catching?

And mostly it is a someone…a real person

…not a government system

…or a religious institution

…or a phantom deity…

…but a real flesh and blood person who sees the other’s pain…

…takes a hold of that fallen person

…and picks them up and starts as best they can to help try put them back together again.

When I was preparing for this talk I remembered a story that I had known since I was a child. It is a heroic story of good against evil and for many people it has become a modern myth.

It is the story from a comic strip which I have enjoyed since being a young lad.

A story about a young boy who early in life has a great fall.

A terrible, terrible, tragic fall….

The kind of fall that could break a person’s whole life…

What is his fall?

He loses his parents…

He loses his parents in a pointless and desperate act of crime….

That is to say the child loses his catchers.  The very people God and Nature intended to protect and catch a child when they fall.

This boy loses them.

And suddenly his world is devastated …ruined…

He is left alone. Kneeling on the cold, wet concrete of a dark city street with the two people he most dearly loved lying dead beside him…and gone…

How terrible this wound?

How dreadful this boy’s fall?

The trajectory of his whole life is altered in a moment.

He will never be the same again…

Yet, in all this harshness and cruelty…

In the midst of this young boy’s ultimate loss….

There is  still a glimpse of kindness and love.

A glimmer of light in all the darkness.

Some ONE steps into the gap…

Some ONE sees the need…

And picks the boy up and takes on a fatherly role.

An ‘adoptive father’.

A simple and uncomplicated man, who through attention and care, personal service and kindness and shear determination refuses to allow the grieving boy to be overwhelmed by the evil that has struck his family….

Who is this child?

Well, for many people they relate to this story because the boy could be them. It could be their father or mother who was lost to them as a child. Maybe through an accident, maybe through illness, maybe just through becoming overwhelmed with the struggles of life. We could feel orphaned. Perhaps, for some it wasn’t a literal death of their parents through a bullet shot by a criminal, but it could be through a symbolic loss of care to over-work, poverty, addiction or the living nightmare of abuse….

The boy in the comic book story we know by the name Bruce…Bruce Wayne,

…and the adoptive Father…his catcher, if you like, we know as Alfred…. Alfred Pennyworth… the Wayne Family’s Butler.

In the story, the boy eventually becomes a man…

and the man takes up the mantle of a hero.

The hero we know as The Batman… a great modern mythic, crime-fighting hero….

But before the hero is born… is the story of a little boy’s tragedy….

And the hero is born, not a monster or an emotional cripple, because the tragedy is partially, if not fully redeemed by a man…through the love of an adoptive catcher….not a crime fighting superhero….but the quiet, simple heroism of a man who when he sees a little boy’s life crash…. Chooses to stay with him….

…and take him under his care….

A different kind of hero…no doubt, but a hero nonetheless….a Catcher.

The Batman story is a great story isn’t it? But it is just that isn’t it… a story…that is a fictional story? What about real life?

Are there people whose lives are really so damaged as Bruce Wayne’s?

And are there really men and women who will step in the gap like Alfred and catch a person as they fall, plummeting to the ground?

Reflection

For a moment I would like you just to be quiet and think. I would like you to ask yourself if in your life there have been any people like the character of Alfred the Butler in the video clip, who have helped ‘catch’ you when you have fallen when times have been hard?

Can you think of anyone?

Can you think of more than one person who have gone out of there way to intervene and care?

After you have had time to think in quiet, spend a few moments talking with your neighbour about the ‘catcher’ or ‘catchers’ in your life?

Response

Could most people mention one person?

Would any of you like to say about the people who have been ‘catchers’ in their lives?

Did anyone really struggled to think of one at all?

Could any of you list a few people who had caught them when they had fallen?

Perhaps, not now, but later we could thank God for those people in our lives or if it is still possible thank them ourselves.

A Personal Story

I am very fortunate. When i think of the ‘catchers’ in my life I can think of many or at least more than 2 or 3.

I think about my Grandparents from my Father’s side who took me in to their home for two weeks and gently and calmly loved and cared for me, when I first became a Christian at University in London in 1995. I was 21 and incredibly convicted of my selfishness and guilt. I was also suffering from a nervous breakdown.

I remember one day when I sat in my Nanna and Grandpa’s kitchen dreading the anger and judgement of God, because in my mind I had done such terrible things. My grandpa who had seen active duty in the second World War knelt down in front of me and said: “David, have you killed anybody?”

And I said: “No.”

And my Grandpa said: “Then you haven’t committed the worst sin.”

And in his mind that was the extent of his simple, church going theology…to kill someone was the worst sin…and I hadn’t done that. So, whatever i had done could be forgiven and dealt with. I was terrified of committing sins that were too bad to be forgiven, but my Grandpa knew that whatever my sins they were not impossible to overcome with God’s help and therefore Iw as going to be OK….

And there are many others…. Not least my parents and my brother… so I guess I am a very fortunate man…In fact I don’t guess it. I know it…I am a very blessed and lucky man.

But what about God?

What do these people… these catchers…. tell us about God?

And never mind comics and films… what about the Bible?

What does the Bible tell us?

What does Jesus say about being a catcher?

The passage I am going to turn to is one from the beginning of Luke’s Gospel. It is a passage early on in Jesus’ ministry and work, when Jesus ‘as it was his custom’ stops by on a Sabbath (that is a day of rest, which was and is every saturday for a Jewish person) in a synagogue (a local church to us) and reads a passage from the Prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament.

When need to understand as people looking back 2000 years to the stories of the Bible that if Jesus read or quoted something from the Jewish Scriptures or Bible then it was really important and it meant something significant for him and for the people around him. If the writer of the Gospel of Luke puts it at the beginning of his book about Jesus then it is really important for us to pay attention and listen. Luke is telling us that Jesus must have believed that these words from the Book of Isaiah are REALLY important. We need to pay attention. Here is how Luke tells the story and what Jesus says. Luke writes:

Luke 4: 14-21

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

When Jesus reads this passage he is telling us exactly what He is about…the kind of work he is doing,  the type of society he wants to live in, the kind of values he believes in, and the power he is operating with.

What is more is that it also means that Jesus is telling his audience the Jewish people at the time and all of humanity since, including us… exactly the kind of work, society, values and power that God, Jesus’ Father is also about.

So what does it mean?

Well, marvelously it means that Jesus and God have come to earth to carry out a rescue mission to the ‘fallen’….yes, ‘fallen’ world we live in. Suddenly, a new kind of person…a new dynamic is unleashed on Creation and society and He is  different!

This new thing IS different!

It is different and new because it is about rescuing…it is not about trying the best you can in life to manage with the broken life you have been handed, but it is about renewal…a giving back of life and health and freedom and peace to those who have been living all their lives without it.

Suddenly, Jesus says to the small Jewish community in Nazareth gathered together in that dry and dusty synagogue:

“I am THE Messenger of God.

God’s Breath of Life, his Hurricane, mighty Power is resting on me

And this whirlwind-God-power flows on me, like the oil of a priest and of a king running all down my forehead, not water but thick, rich, perfumed oil…

And you know why I the Messenger… have come as a priest and a king… it is to do one thing…

It is to proclaim to YOU poor people…Yes, You guys and gals, old men and women, babies and children…all of you beaten up and oppressed and suffering folk who have fallen in your lives and fallen and fallen with no one to catch you until you crashed and broke against the unforgiving concrete of life… I have come to you to shout out from the rooftops absolutely, brand spanking new…totally wholesome…totally awesome….Good News!

Do you know what this Good News means?

It means this, people…

It means… freedom for the prisoners….that’s liberty I’m talking about an you spell it capitol FREEDOM….freedom for people trapped in the harshness and barrenness of life’s circumstances.

It means…. blind men walking about, playing football and telling you what  beautiful rainbow colored day light they see…when they used to live in the 24hours 7 days a week pitch blackness of night.

It means you little guys chained up by injustice and cruelty and brutality and meanness get out of prison ABSOLUTELY FREE. Fresh as daisy with a spring in your step with a chance to start life brand new again.

And why, do I hear you ask, has the messenger come with this Holy and Awesome message?

Here’s why, brothers and sisters, because debt-free day has finally come along…Jubilee the ancients called it…well now you know….the day of God’s Big Smile and big handout has finally come about, his big favour for you…and its starting right now in this little, dusty, dry, insignificant town with you lot….God’s Happy Day is starting with You!”

The people are stunned….

That’s not what our normal preachers say…are you quite sure? Are you quite sure you are not out of your mind? And aren’t you from around here? Aren’t you Mary and Joseph’s son? Haven’t we known you since you were a little rug rat, crawling about in the sand pit?

For some people the message is hard to accept…

They have got accustomed to their chains and their poverty and the hierarchy where even the one legged beggar is better than the blind beggar and everyone has someone they are higher up than. Unfortunately, some people are so familiar with darkness that they struggle to see light even when it burst through the curtains of their mind and shines right into their souls….

But Jesus is undeterred…He has stated his mission and he has begun at home…often the hardest place to preach….and from now on he will take this message across Israel and his disciples will begin to take it not just around Israel and Judea, but beyond Israel’s borders into neighbouring lands and eventually across continents and seas and civilizations and time.

A message of God coming back into life to catch those people broken by falls. Their suffering may still be remembered, but their wounds will be completely healed…and happiness and day light and sunbeams and fresh, sweet water will characterize a person life.

And as the Catcher God moves through Jesus and through Jesus’ followers…people will be healed…one by one… and society will begin to change and the cold, short days of winter will be replaced by the glorious warmth and light of summer.

As C. S. Lewis once said: the life after this life will not be like the autumn and winter after the summer, but it will be like the ending of the school term… and the beginning of the summer holidays!

So, it is with the Kingdom of God – Jesus the Catcher and the Redeemer…it’s like the beginning of a new dawn…the start of a summer holidays that will not run out after six weeks, but will go on and on and get better and better forever.

For many people life is a shattered by terrible falls that smash their lives…Perhaps naturally, they presume that there can’t be a God or they reason that God either doesn’t care or has a bitter and cruel streak. As one person said to me recently: “I don’t know if God exists or not, but if he does he’s a cruel bugger.”

Part of me thinks that is a natural…even if a mistaken…assumption to make, and as Christians…as religious believers…we could argue with them and tell them how wrong they are.

Or we could do something else?

We could open our hands and hearts, our souls and minds to the message Jesus spoke 2000 years ago…that God was starting a new thing…where his people his messengers would bring rainbow colored good news of freedom, healing, wealth and love to people brutalized and hurt by the falls of life.

In this way they could…we could put aside the intellectual arguments of who is right or wrong…and start a revolution of love, goodness and peace.

We could become Catchers….Catchers like Alfred the butler in the comic book…Catchers like Clive and my Grandpa in my life…Catchers like Jesus of Nazareth….People…and I emphasize that word…people who go out into the world to lift people up and out of their suffering and set them free from their financial and spiritual and emotional prisons.

Do you want to be that kind of person?

Do you want to be a catcher?

Would you like to be a Catcher living and working for a Catcher God?

My prayer for you, for all of us, especially for the Bridge, but also for the whole Christian Church in this country… is that we will get a new vision of what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It means being a Catcher because our God is a catcher God.

One last story. Heidi and Rolland Baker & Iris Ministries Mozambique

Heidi and Rolland Baker are two American Christians who decided to follow God’s call to live and work as missionaries to the people and country of Mozambique. Mozambique at the time of there decision to move there was according to UN statistics the poorest country in the whole world. They went and lived there with only limited resources and were given an abandoned, but inhabited orphanage to look after. The orphans many of whom had lost their parents (had fallen) during Mozambique’s bloody civil war….were left to scavenge and slept on concrete floors living without food, clothing, education or care in a place without proper sanitation. Rolland and Heidi Baker took the orphanage on and transformed it…They provided fresh water, clothing, soap, medicines and bedding. They renovated the kitchen to prepare fresh bread  for children and local people to eat. They taught the kids about Jesus and the children joined in willingly and freely into the worship services they organized. 100s becoming Christians and all the children calling Heidi and Rolland…Mama Aida and Papa Rolland!

(An excerpt from the book – There is Always Enough by Heidi and Rolland Baker)

Heidi and Rolland took in the poorest and most disheveled and broken and wounded people Mozambique had the abandoned orphans and street children who scavenged and sold themselves in order to survive. In the poorest country int the world. Heidi and Rolland went to the poorest people in the poorest country in the world….the abandoned children.

Somewhere in the Bible one man speaks of the kind of religion God really appreciates. The man is James the Brother of Jesus some called him and he speaks a pretty fiery word. He says:

“This is the kind of religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself being polluted by the world.” James 1: 27

The Bible tells us that God is a Catcher….Our God is a Catcher God. In the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament it is written:

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

Deuteronomy 33:27 (NIV 1984)

These words are so very true.

But I think they should come with a clause. I don’t think that it means that God Himself will catch every person falling and stop them from being hurt. I think what it means is that God in Jesus Christ is sending his people to be rescuers and catchers for those who are broken or breaking. God tells us to go out into the dark, poor and oppressed places of this world to catch the wounded. People will not see that God is a catcher God…until we his people become catchers like Jesus too.

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Men’s Breakfast with Tough Talk – 9am Saturday 5th February

01/02/2011 By

Men Only Breakfast 05 February 2011

Have you been on the New Year Diet ?

Well here is a chance to leave it behind for a few hours, why not come and join us for a Men Only breakfast with Tough Talk.

Tough Talk is a group of men who have turned their backs on their past lives of violence and crime to follow Jesus. Come and watch an impressive display of Power Lifting and listen to their even more amazing stories of personal transformation.

Join us @ St John’s Church Coventry Rd, Hinckley 5th February 2011 from 09.00 for Breakfast

Price £5 / per person

All enquires to Keith Ellis on 07725 557922 or the admin office at St John’s on 01455 611497

And Remember it’s Men Only (16 +)


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The Best 60 Minutes (7) – To Learn to Love in January

17/10/2010 By

Talk (1) – A SUITCASE

I wonder how many of you have moved house recently or perhaps just been on a vacation or a business trip. How did you find it? More precisely how did you find PACKING for your trip?

Was it a matter of grabbing a few essentials and throwing them in the case with a pair of shoes and a wash bag?

Or did you take longer to decide?

Or are you, like me, one of those people who finds packing REALLY DIFFICULT, and just can’t decide what to leave out and GRABS EVERYTHING and just shoves it into your case and then fills about 5 different bags as hand luggage?

Is there anyone here who is a really bad packer?

Is there anyone who is really good? Anyone who can travel so efficiently they can go on holiday with just a compact piece of hand luggage?

I wonder if there were a change of circumstances in your life and you had just one suitcase to put all your life into it…what would you take.

 

Video – Illustration    Up in the Air – Chapter 2 (7:28 -9:20)

In the film, Up in the Air George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham a man whose job is to fly all over the United States being employed by companies to sack their staff. He is the ‘bringer of bad news’ the guy who sits across the room from people working in companies and tells them they have lost their job. Ryan Bingham might not sound like the kind of guy you’d like to be friends with but he is a product of the modern age and he has learnt to manipulate the system to his favour by collecting AIR MILES and LOYALTY CARD POINTS. Anyone here got a club card or loyalty card?

Yet, at the same time although a selfish man he is not altogether soul-less and he has created a simple way of living in a complex world. In all his trips across the continent and after all the people he has seen face life crises as he helped let them leave their jobs, he has become a kind of philosopher and in his spare time he speaks at seminars helping people to downsize their lives.  Through his seminar entitled – “What’s in your backpack?”

Although Ryan is a slick and selfish modern company man he asks a valid and also ancient religious and philosophical question – What are we metaphorically carrying around with us? What is stopping us from being free?

Video 2 – Up in the Air – Chapter 5 (26:00 -28:22)

As the film continues he is asked to show a young woman, Natalie, a new employee of the company, and a product of the POST-modern age and digital culture, how to do his job. She and Ryan’s boss want to replace all the travelling by plane by sacking people via video link over the internet. Ryan is not impressed so the first thing he needs to show her is exactly how to travel light.

Ryan has found a way of coping with the modern world. He travels light. Has minimal commitments, minimal possessions. The story of the film is partially about thinking what is really important to us in life and to realise that we live in a time of constant flux and change – “Moving is living” Ryan says.

Most of us have possessions and earthly commitments – work, family, friends, church, homes to look after, cars to maintain. And we live in a society that encourages us to invest our lives in earthly possessions and pleasures… So, it isn’t a bad thing to ask ourselves from time to time –

What matters most to me?

What am I carrying in my bag?

…relationships or consumer objects?

Or do we carry unresolved feelings – hurts, pride, insecurities, fears, doubts, low self-esteem, worries, anger or resentment?

Do we own our possessions or do our possessions own us?

Are we free to enjoy life or do we feel burdened external pressures and internal drives?

We as a nation are wealthy compared to ancient societies, but are we any happier? Quality of life surveys tell us that we are wealthier than our grandparents and great grandparents, but less happy – why is that?

Tonight we can come to church with our hearts and bodies or our souls filled with luggage – jobs, fears, worries, pains, longings, losses… baggage weighing us down. I know that’s how I have often felt when I have come to church in the past while going through a difficult period of my life. Yet, as Christians we have a friend who has already carried our burdens for us. A friend who speaks to each of us:  

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

 

TALK (2) – LOVING IN JANUARY:

 

How can we live peacefully with ourselves and with one another even when times are hard?

The Bridge over the last few weeks has been doing a series of talks based on the themes of a book called The Sixty Minute Family by Rob Parsons. We have called our series The Best 60 minutes with the hope that the people here can learn something about not just family life, but community life in each 60 minute presentation.  Tonight’s theme is Loving in January. It’s based on a chapter from Rob Parson’s book where he looks at relationship break downs, separations and divorces. It’s a difficult and sensitive issue for anyone to talk about, but for those who are going through it or have been through marital breakdown it holds a special kind of pain.

 

I have asked myself how can I possibly present this topic from a Biblical and Christian point of view, yet try to be understanding, forgiving, humane and compassionate. What follows are some of my thoughts, which I believe God has placed on my heart as I try to make sense of the agony of my own marriage breakdown and divorce as a Christian. I confess that I am still in a process of healing and understanding and I don’t feel I have really come to a place where I can fully explain what happened in my own life, let alone anyone else’s. So,  I hope you will bear with me as I try to put into perspective some of the forces internal and external that I believe pressure people into giving up on relationships…and also look at the way both the Bible and some modern therapists can help us face these pressures and overcome them.

I’m going to begin with the hard stuff…

Scripture Reading 2: 

James 3: 13-18

 17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

James 4:1-10

Submit Yourselves to God

 1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
   ”God opposes the proud
      but gives grace to the humble.”

 7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

 

 

The KEY WORDS in that passage:

Part 1 – Wisdom from heaven

·         pure

·         peace-loving

·         considerate

·         submissive

·         full of mercy

·         good fruit

·         impartial

·         sincere

·         Peacemakers sow peace

·         Harvest righteousness.

 

Part 2 -What causes fights and quarrels among you?

 

·         Your desires that battle within you?

·         You want something

·         But you don’t get it.

·         You kill

·         You covet

·         You cannot have what you want.

·         You quarrel

·         You fight

·         You do not have

 

Why?

·         Because you do not ask God.

 

When you do ask…

you do not receive… Why?

 

·         Because you have  wrong motives,

 

What are the motives?

·         you may spend 

On what? Survival? Helping others? Creating a better world?

·         On your pleasures.

 

 

We live in an addicted society. Many of us…if not all of us… have some kind of addiction. These addictions effect our relationships with another and non more so than in marriage. As James asks: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Your desires that battle within you… But I ask myself, how does the culture we live within effect and manipulate the desires we feel inside us? Often, the media and society don’t help us to manage and control our desires responsibly?

 We live in A CULTURE OF CONSUMERISM

We live in A CULTURE OF CONSUMERISM – MYA – Plastic surgery company and clinic MYA – ‘Make Yourself Amazing’ encourage through glamouress advertising people, and women in particular, to feel inadequate because of their appearance. They say the solution is easy and fun - that is for women to have surgery to alter their bodies to make them ‘amazing’, but this is a terrible lie. You are ALEADY AMAZING!  From a Christian or Jewish point of view, God has made you uniquely and wonderfully. (See Psalm 139 for the wonderful way the ancient scriptures described the process of creation of each human being). In my opinion we live in a society that encourages us to fulfil our natural God given desires to be attractive and appreciated, to be loved through artificial means. Measures which are often costly and potentially dangerous and ultimately don’t take away our desire for love and affection. Both men and women are bombarded with pressures from the media to secure for themselves a ‘better’ lifestyle. Yet the Bible and Jesus teaches us to be thankful for what we have to rest in a loving relationship with God, to honour others above ourselves. The message of the Bible is submit to God, release your fears and worries to him…don’t take your life into your own hands be it your body or your needs for loving relationships and try to make it your own way. Consecrate, that is give yourself, devote yourself to God…as hard as that can be and James says God will lift you up.

A CULTURE OF ENTITLEMENT – PRINCES TUNA – Perhaps many of us would not succumb to the pressures of society to have plastic surgery, but do we feel entitled to take advantage of Nature. This week I got an email from the environmental organisation Green Peace about Princes Tuna. Apprarently, this huge fishing company is using industrial fishing methods to catch tuna that also catch wild turtles, sharks and immature tuna fish too young to be harvested. It shocked me that for perhaps 20-30pence a tin less we humans will buy cheaper tuna even though it causes many innocent, beautiful, wild sea creatures which God has made in wonder to suffer and die needlessly. I ask myself, am I so selfish to believe that my needs for cheap food are more important than protecting the glorious natural world that I believe, as a Christian, God has made.

 

IS HOW CHRISTIANITY HAS USUALLY PRESENTED SIN, SELFISHNESS AND GOD PART OF THE PROBLEM?

Perhaps, part of the problem comes from the history of Christianity and the way peoples’ relationship with God has traditionally been represented.Christianity as we have inherited it has encouraged us to see our relationship with God as one of forgiveness for Sin.

  1. We sinned against God
  2. God was angry with us
  3. God was merciful so he sends us the LAW – the 10 Commandments
  4. We can’t keep the 10 commandments by our own strength
  5. God has more mercy and grace – sends His Son Jesus – to take the punishment we deserve
  6. We are forgiven
  7. We are reconciled to God
  8. We get a ticket to heaven

But what do we DO NOW…before we die and go to heaven…

Well, we try to stay on God’s good-side…we try not to make him angry by doing our best to not break the Commandments…but we still do and then we run back to God and ask for forgiveness again…

Isn’t that what many of us do?

But that’s not what we are meant to do…that’s not what the Bible teaches us about God or about our relationship to him…

A STORY – LEARNING FROM A MONK

When I was first a Christian and I was a student in London and there was a massive old fashioned Christian bookshop nearby Regents Park, where I used to run and walk. I mean it was massive…thousands of books…old and new…And I remember once that I saw a book by a monk and I read the title of the book and I couldn’t believe it…I mean I thought it was something really ‘not-kosha’, Unorthodox’ Heretical…The title of the book was:

GOD IS NOT ANGRY

GOD IS NOT ANGRY

You see the truth is God is not angry with us anymore…we have sinned and gone against God…but God sent his Son to free us from the consequences of Sin…to take the WRATH as the Bible calls it…the ANGER of God…Jesus has already done that…so WE DON’T NEED TO WORRY ABOUTSTAYING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF GOD…BECAUSE HE LOVES US…HE LOVES US…LIKE A FATHER A CHILD…WE ARE HIS BELOVED (as Song of Songs says).

The PROBLEM IS NOT: ‘TRYING TO AVOID MAKING GOD ANGRY’…the PROBLEM IS US…inside of US…we are the angry stubborn ones, we are the ones who make life difficult for ourselves and others…it is our stubborn selfish nature which the Bible calls our ‘SARX’ or our ‘flesh’…that’s not the same as the body…it’s selfishness within us that wants to be Boss in our lives instead of being free to be a servant of God or a child playing at God’s feet we want to RULE or CONTROL our world…

So, I ask again, what is the answer?

The answer according to James is ‘submit’

Part 3 – The Solution

  • Submit yourselves, then, to God.
  • Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
  • Come near to God and              ….he will come near to you.
  • Wash your hands, you sinners
  • Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
  • Grieve
  • mourn
  • Wail
  • Change
  • Laughter to mourning
  • Joy to gloom
  • Humble yourselves before the Lord,
  • …and he will lift you up

What does this mean? Practically? Spiritually?

It means…DEATH!

It means…DYING!

It means …RUNNING AWAY from the World…the TV…the internet and your e-bay account…fleeing the shopping mall…

Maybe you think this is un-Christian, maybe it sounds legalistic – it’s not meant to be legalistic… it’s meant to be HEALTHY…HEALTHY, LIFE GIVING DISCIPLINE

According to Jesus submission looks like a CROSS…it looks like DEATH…not physical death, or spiritual death, but a death to our selves…our selfish will

23Then he said to them all: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 

24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.

25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 

Luke9: 23-25

Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? 

Luke 9:23-27 (The Message)

Purgation + Consecration

 

12 STEPS PROGRAMME:

The best way the modern world has come up with to help people be set free of those selfish cravings and desires is called the 12 steps programme – It is a process used with drug addicts and alcoholics across the world. Do you know what the first steps are in this programme?

  1. We admitted we were powerless over (our addiction) – that our lives had become unmanageable.
  2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Effectively, they are ancient religious practices in simple, modern language… They are what James says:

Submit yourselves to God

Come near to God

Get rid of all the rubbish behaviours and ambitions in your life!

Wash your hands

Purify your hearts

How’s that going to feel?

Well, Jesus says it’s like being executed on a Cross. It’s going to feel like dying…

YET DEATH ISN’T THE END THERE IS RESURRECTION

But the GOOD NEWS for Christians is that AFTER DEATH…comes NEW LIFE…AFTER DEATH …comes RESURRECTION…after RESURRECTION …comes The COMFORTER…GOD’S SPIRIT..to help us live out this process of de-addiction…de-attachment…freedom..day by day from now until eternity…when in Heaven we will completely set free from our internal baggage forever.

Purgation + Consecration = Simplicity + Devotion

Purgation + Consecration = Emptying our suitcase of excess baggage + Embracing the Cross

In the end, the aim is freedom, life and love

Let’s pray…

by David L Fletcher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Best 60 Minutes Ever – (2) Time to Catch Up

12/09/2010 By

THE ROAD TO EMMAUS

 

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

 

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

 

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that happened there in these days?”

 

“What things?” he asked.

 

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.

“He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

 

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

 

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly,

“Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.”

So he went to stay with them.

 

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other,

 

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

 

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying

“It is true! The Lord has risen and appeared to Simon.”

Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

 

Luke 24:13-35 (NIV)

 

SOMETIMES THE PRESSURE GETS TOO MUCH + WE HAVE TO GET AWAY FROM THE CENTRE OF THINGS TO GET SOME TIME TO THINK

 

I don’t know about you, but I know there have been times in my life when I just wanted to get out of the stress and pressure of circumstances as quickly as possible and get some fresh air; to go somewhere quiet and give me a bit of time and space to think.

 

As we listen to this story we hear about two disciples trying to get out of Jerusalem quickly. They turn their backs on the community of disciples they had spent the last few years of their lives with and head out for the countryside. We get the sense that they too needed time to reflect on what had happened in the previous few days. Or maybe they were just scared, frightened of what the Pharisees might do to the disciples of the charismatic figure they had just murdered. Whatever their reasons they had decided to move away from the hotspot of pressure and give their selves some time to think.

 

JESUS’ DISCIPLES DIDN’T TRAVEL ALONE

 

It’s interesting because they didn’t travel alone. Jesus earlier in his ministry had sent the disciples out in twos and maybe these two had become friends during their preaching missions in Judea. But the significance is they weren’t on their own they went together with their spiritual friend. God didn’t intend for us to be alone, especially in times of crisis and trouble. We need our spiritual friends.

 

GOD CAME UP TO THEM WHEN THEY WERE MOST DISHEARTENED

 

 

‘Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognising him.’

 

How often in our bleak times, does Jesus walk beside us and yet we are kept from recognising him?

 In times of confusion God can seem very far away and yet perhaps that is the time when he is right beside us, but we can’t see him. I think this is a wonderful passage because it shows us that God is besides us when we are most downcast, when the situation seems impossible to overcome, then as we travel to escape the pressure Jesus comes and looks for us. Suddenly, we are not alone there is one more travelling with us.

 

LISTENING TO OTHER PEOPLE FIRST

 

What I love about this passage is that Jesus let’s the disciples tell their own story.

 

‘He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

 

Does a man who is raised from the dead need to be told what his own disciples are talking about?

 Does a supernatural human who can disguise his appearance from his friends need to be filled in on the story? No, but Jesus asks the disciples to TELL…

 …their story,

…their worries,

…their confusion

 …and in doing so he brings out their mixture of faith and disappointment.

 He allows them to articulate their own pain.

 

So, often when we are in pain we need someone who will listen to our side of the story. We need someone who will listen TO US?! And that’s what Jesus does, he begins the healing process of storytelling by asking them to pour out their pain and that’s what they do. One of them says:

 

“He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”

 

‘…but we had hoped…’

 

Those words echo so much pain and disappointment.

 They had hoped,

They had given their hearts and their souls to a man who they thought was destined to overturn the tables of injustice in the world and save God’s people Israel,

 …but how harshly they had been disappointed

 …and yet they were sure they hadn’t been deceived.

 

In our lives too WE can become tainted by disappointment and failure. The circumstances of life can press in on our precious faith and security until it breaks. Suddenly, what he had hoped for appears a cynical illusion and our hearts at one time filled with hope become clouded with pain and loss.

 

 

NEW STORIES OF HOPE

 And yet their shattering of dreams at the crucifixion was not all.

 There were also these new stories abounding…

…that the tomb was empty…

 

…sightings of angels…

 

…and claims that Jesus was alive.

 

 

How could this be true after all that had happened?

Were they now being asked to hope again? Hope against hope.

 

 

JESUS’ RESPONSE – SUFFERING WAS ALWAYS PART OF THE PLAN

 

Jesus’ response to the disciples seems a little harsh…but perhaps from his perspective he was just bursting at the seems to open their eyes to the good news of what had happened. I think Jesus was just longing to cry out: “Don’t you realise this is everything that was meant to happen?! The Messiah was meant to suffer before he would enter into glory!”

 

The disciples don’t understand – the circumstances of the world, the facts of what they saw have clouded their vision and the far off dreams of a place of future glory have perished in the storm. They don’t understand the story, so Jesus tells them the story again, this time taking it from the beginning.

 

‘And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.’

 

 

I don’t know about you, but that’s one story-time I would have loved to have listened in to. That’s one walk I would love to have been a part of. Perhaps when we get to heaven we’ll be able to hear that story again and find out just what the scriptures were saying about the Messiah from Jesus’ mouth, but for the moment we can only make an educated guess.

 

JESUS RE-TELLS THE JEWISH STORY OF IDENTITY

But what Jesus does is a skilful re-telling of the disciples’ basic story. They had the same Scriptures as Jesus, 

…they were Jews,

 …but they hadn’t grasped the meaning of what was going on.

 

DISCIPLES HAD A DIFFERENT STORY OF TRIUMPH WITHOUT SUFFERING

They had a different story – of triumph for Jesus and defeat for Israel’s enemies – a story that had disintegrated under the pressures of reality. They had the same scriptures, but a different story…

 

 JESUS’ STORY HEALS

BUT Jesus speaks his healing words again softening their hearts, touching their souls and renewing their hope. In the light of Jesus’ story suddenly the facts began to make sense, gradually their vision began to return, reframed and re-orientated and the hope of their hearts was rekindled.

 

WE TOO CAN HAVE THE WRONG STORY

 So often, our stories also collapse. 

 Under the weight of demands and pressures from the world around us, from work, from family and church and sometimes from our own internal pressures to try and secure ourselves a happy future our understanding of the world around us begins to crack.

 In this moment,

 …being a good person doesn’t equal having a happy life.

 In these situations

 …attending church faithfully doesn’t equal spiritual satisfaction.

 Reading the Bible doesn’t seem to help against the pressures we face at work or with study.

 

The old stories no longer work and we can’t find the answer on our own.

 

 WE NEED GOD’S SPIRIT

 It is at these times that we need God’s spirit,

 …Jesus’ voice…

…or perhaps just the voice of an unknown stranger or friend to retell the stories we believe in.

 To take us back to the beginning,

…to reassess the facts

…and to tell the story once again with a different meaning,

 …without the simplistic equations and by doing so give us hope to live again.

 

Sam’s Speech – The Great Stories

 In the film production of The Lord of the Rings there is a touching scene where the hero Frodo Baggins is just about to give up. All around him is bloodshed and war and the powers of evil appear to be overwhelming. Still a long way from the end of their mission and in the heat of the battle, Frodo is overwhelmed by the enormity of the task that lies before him. Losing sight of his own hope and innocence he begins to despair. Having lost hope the powerful attraction of the ring tempts Frodo to abuse its powers and there by give in to the powers of evil. However, Frodo has not travelled alone.

 

 Frodo has a travelling companion and even though evil is all around, his friend is right beside him.

 In a daring leap of courage and bravery Samwise Baggins wrestles Frodo out of the path of danger, risking his own life in doing so. At the last moment Frodo wakes from his stupor and cries out:

 

 Frodo: “I can’t do this, Sam”

 

And Sam, like Jesus, begins to retell Frodo the story. He uses his words to restore hope.

 

Sam: “I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here, but we are.

It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really  mattered – full of darkness and danger they were and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to how it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come and when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why.  But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now.

Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t they kept going because they were holding on to something.”

 

Frodo: “What are holding onto Sam?”

 

Sam: “That there’s something good in this world Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”                                                       

 

SAM, LIKE JESUS, TELLS THE BIGGER STORY

 Like, Jesus and the despairing disciples, Sam tells Frodo that they are part of a story that is much bigger than the small stories of peace and safety without risk they had believed in before they started their journey of discovery. There is RISK and PAIN in this bigger epic, but there is also hope – hope of a world worth fighting for. There is faith that there is still something good in this world.

 

 

THE JOURNEY, THE COMPANY + THE STORIES LED TO RENEWED SENSITIVITY + HOPE

 

On the road to Emmaus, the disciples had begun to reawaken to the hope that the crucifixion was not the end of the Messiah. Evening was approaching and they wanted their new found travelling companion to stay with them. Perhaps, they were concerned for his safety. Perhaps, they just longed to spend some more time with this mysterious stranger who had given new hope to their lives on just a few miles walk. Whatever the reason, they asked him to stay with him. The feelings of affection for this man were already kindled……even, if his appearance was, as yet, hidden from them.

 

The rest of the story, we know.     

 

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

 

In an instant, over a rustic meal the disciples’ eyes were opened and the man they had travelled with they suddenly recognized and he disappears.

 

We can only imagine what feelings they had at that time, but I find their response illuminating.

 

‘“Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”’ 

 

The one thing that validated their visionary revelation was the ‘burning of their hearts as he talked’.

 2000 years later,  

…in a different society,

 …in a very different world,

 …visions of Jesus are pretty rare to come by – not impossible, but rare.

 But I love the fact that the disciples could recognise Jesus not just by his face, but by his words. ‘Were not our hearts burning within us…?’ The power of God’s love for us today is often carried to us in words, in stories, words that set our hearts on fire. We are a long way away from the times of Jesus’ life on earth, but the stories of his life still have the power to deeply affect us. These are the stories that we the church tell to encourage each other on the journey. As travellers on a long and sometimes demanding and difficult journey – may we make the time to listen to the stories of old.

May we travel together as companions who need each other

 

…may we have time to listen to each other as friends because every one has a story to tell

 …and may we encourage one another so the burning words of God’s story stir our hearts to hope and love again. So, that when we are ready to get out, to give up…

  …we become transformed to turn around and set off, back to our community and tell them the good news that we have experienced;

 …that Jesus is not dead, but alive…

 

because we met him travelling on the road.

 

 

 

 

by David L Fletcher

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Visitors – God

21/12/2008 By

6 For a child has been born—for us!
the gift of a son—for us!
He’ll take over the running of the world.
His names will be: Amazing Counselor,
Strong God,
Eternal Father,
Prince of Wholeness.
7 His ruling authority will grow,
and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.
He’ll rule from the historic David throne
over that promised kingdom.
He’ll put that kingdom on a firm footing
and keep it going
With fair dealing and right living,
beginning now and lasting always.
The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies
will do all this.

Isaiah 9:6 – 7 The Message

The guests were starting to arrive for the centenary celebration, and the deaconess was standing at the door waiting to greet the new mayor. She wondered how she would recognise him, but was assured that other people wouldn’t be wearing chains round their necks. When a chauffeur-driven car pulled up at the specially coned-off area, she came forward and greeted the impressive-looking gentleman who emerged, and led him into the building. But after being introduced to one or two people, he tactfully informed her that he was not the new mayor! She apologised profusely, only grateful that she had not already ushered him to a VIP seat.
Meanwhile, however, she had missed the real mayor. He had passed her in the corridor, but how could she have known? Not only was he chainless; he looked so ordinary! Furthermore, he had walked to the church, and come in at the back door. It was the caretaker who pointed him out to her. ‘Yes, I know Bert,’ he said. ‘I used to do the soup run with him.’

They said, ‘John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, Are you the one who is
to come, or are we to wait for another?’”
Luke 7:18-23 The Message

Jesus, are you the one?
It is hardly surprising that people missed your coming when even John the Baptist wasn’t sure.
They were expecting such a different kind of messiah.
The unmistakable kind.
Chauffeur-driven, on a VIP throne, with a gold chain.
How could anyone be expected to know who you were when you came in at the back, looking ordinary?
There were plenty who did recognise you, of course:
the blind man who cried, ‘Son of David, have pity!;
the disturbed one who screamed, ‘Stay away!;
the woman who touched the hem of your coat,
the folk who knew you from the soup run.
But are you the one, Jesus? We still have to ask.
In a world of paths and promises, how can we be sure?
Your reply is your work amongst the sick and oppressed. ‘Decide for yourselves!’
you say- as if it isn’t the doctrines, or even the miracles,
but the company you keep and the priorities you hold
and the kingdom of possibilities and joy
you unpack amid our ordinariness.
So help us to be on the look-out for your coming,
as the people and events crowd in.
Open our eyes to see you in the guise of friend and stranger. Whatever the path,
wherever the place,
however you come to us,
may there be recognition.
And joyous welcoming.
Taken from Advent readings from Iona, Brian Woodcock and Jan Sutch Pickard, Wild Goose Publications, 2000.

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