What Matters

Confession

Confession arises from conviction, is necessary for repentance and makes possible restoration.  This the second message in our four-week series on prayer.  Listen in here: Download Postures of Prayer _ Confession  Or you can read the manuscript here: Download Confession Manuscript

 

Religion and Politics

From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” (John 19:12) Politics and religion were firmly enmeshed in 1st century Palestine. The Roman occupiers were despised by all, actively resisted by some and reluctantly accommodated by others. Their presence literally cast a shadow over the temple precinct in the form of the Fortress of Antonius where Roman centurions were garrisoned ready to ruthlessly repress any Jewish revolt. Political/religious factions - the zealots, Pharisees, Essenes, Sadducees - had widely divergent approaches to the Roman problem and often fought as much with each other as they did with Rome. Religion and politics always makes for a murky mix. It was politics as much and religion that called te loudes for the crucifixion of Jesus. In Australia we make a clear separation between church and state. Unlike much of Europe where the state has its own sponsored church in many countries, we keep the lines of demarcation clear. That is not to say that religion, Christianity in particular, is not political. It is and always should be. In announcing his ministry, Jesus proclaimed that his gospel was good news for the poor, the oppressed and the prisoner. Jesus challenged the religious and political status quo that repressed the marginalized. He courageously and prophetically confronted systematic evil and injustice, making a point of spending most of his time with the poor and dispossessed, so much so that he came to be known as a friend of sinners. Following Jesus always will have political overtones. It is in the business of politics that we decide what sort of society we will become. And that is a conversation Jesus and his followers should always be right in the thick of.

Denial

One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow. (John 18:26-27) Peter's denials haunt me. They haunt me because they are so mundane. They haunt me in their familiar ordinariness. They are denials I could have uttered - have uttered. Too many times I have had the opposing to bear witness to my faith, only to let those opportunities slip. Often it hasn't been fear that had held me back, rather it has been placing too much stock in the opinion of others that has smothered words before they have been spoken. Every day I have the opportunity to point to Jesus or not. Every day my words and actions can bear witness to my faith and his life. I am called to be a witness, in the original greek language of the bible - a martus, or martyr. A true witness will die to their own agenda and live for God's agenda. I can only be such a witness in God's strength and power. It is the Holy Spiri that empowers and emboldens us to speak when otherwise we would be silent (Acts 1:8) One of my personal goals/prayers for 2012 is that I would be bolder in my witness, and with it, more effective. This is my hope/prayer for the community I lead as well. So fill us Holy Spirit with fire and courage!

The Glory of Unity

My prayer is not for them alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  (John 17:20-21)

There is so much in the final prayer of Jesus before the events of his betrayal, arrest and crucifixion take over.  Amongst its riches I am always struck that in his prayer, Jesus prays for me.  For me!  He prays for those who will believe in him through the witness of the first apostles.  My faith is traced back to the witness of the Pentecost church.  Jesus prays for me 2000 years before I am born.  Wow!

So if Jesus takes the time to pray for me and us, the content of that prayer is of critical importance.  What is he asking of the Father for us?  He is pleading for our unity - that our life would be caught up in the unified Life of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  He prays that we might experience the fulfilment and joy of living in perfect unity.  He asks that we might be brought not to partial or surface-level unity, but to complete unity.  (17:23)  Why?  Because our unity will witness louder than any words to the truth of the reconciling power of the gospel.

I love our church.  I really do.  Perhaps more than anything else I love our diversity.  We have 34 different birth nationalities, people aged from 0 to 96 years old and from with all sorts of occupations.  We are one, big, happy and sometimes dyscfunctional family.  The genius of God is that he offers his gospel to the world through this family.  There is more at stake in our unity than our comfort; at stake is the visibility of the gospel in our world.  So Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, unify us!  Take us deeper into your Life that we might live for you.

 

Persecution

They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. (John 16:2)

In the farewell discourses Jesus prepares the disciples for the trouble and hardship that is to come.  While their grief will turn to joy  (16:22) Jesus warns them that in this world they will have trouble (16:33).  Decades after Jesus spoke these words, Rome crushed Jerusalem, destroying the temple.  In the aftermath, the simmering antagonism between Jewish Christians and synagogue leaders erupted into outright conflict it seems.  Not long before in Rome, Emperor Nero lead one of the first great persecutions against the church, amongst other barbarities, burning believers on poles as grotesque human torches.  These were some of the first martyrs - those who witnessed to their faith with their lives.

Roll forward almost 2000 years, and it has been estimated that more believers have died as a result of their faith in the last century than in the previous nineteen.  Even today, in Muslim extremists kill hundreds of Christians in northern Nigeria. Iraq's Christian minority has been decimated by post 'liberation' atrocities and Christian leaders continue to be persecuted, tortured and imprisoned in countries like China.  We must not, should never forgetour brothers and sisters persecuted for Jesus' name.  It is so important we keep informed regarding persecution around our world, and that this information prompts us to prayer.  One website that can help is: http://www.persecution.com.au/

Finally, Jesus' warning that I will have trouble in this world haunts me with a question; Do I experience enough trouble?  Now, I am not a masochist searching out pain for the sake of it, but if I am truly living in the world and not of it then I should feel the friction.  Is there enough God-honoring friction in my life.  I wonder.

 

 

The Pain of Pruning

He cuts off very branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  (John 15:2)

The language of vines, branches and fruit is vivid for me having lived in the southern vales and hills of Adelaide.  There vine trellises dot the landscape, fighting with urban sprawl for available land.  Over a year I would watch vines bare of any leaf or fruit gradually grow greener and heavier until harvest, after which green leaf would turn to beautiful red and brown before falling and the whole cycle beginning again.  Grape growing is/was a labor intensive task.  The vine-grower would frequently walk among the trellis rows tending to the vines and their branches.

Jesus uses a common image from his day to describe his mission and the community (church) that joins him in it.  He is the vine; we are the branches.  The branches are to bear fruit as they draw from the life-giving power of the Vine.  A fruit-less branch is useless - that much is clear.  But even a fruit-bearing branch needs sometimes drastic attention.

Pruning is the act of cutting back in order to provide room for healthy growth.  It is essential for a healthy grape vine and equally so for a healthy, fruit-bearing Christian life.  In Christian discipleship, pruning is experienced as God's discipline.  In assisting us to bear the fruit we can and should, God in his love cuts back and prunes that which is no longer required or should not exist in our life in order that new growth can come.  As with the pruning of a grapevine, this can be experienced and even appear as unnecessary - painful even.  But pruning - discipline - promotes, rather than stunts growth.  It is necessary and temporary pain.

Clarity

Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.' (John 14:6)

I have a confession to make.  I find these middle chapters of John, the so-called farewell discourses of Jesus, hard to absorb.  John's record of the words of Jesus are dense and circular.  Jesus is teaching some of the most difficult concepts for the finite human mind to comprehend, in particular the infinite mystery that is the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  While it is hard to comprehend, careful reflection draws me deeper into the wonderful mystery that is God.

In the middle of all this is the very clear response of Jesus to the question Thomas asks; How does a disciple know the way to the place where Jesus is going?  Jesus speaks with clarity; the way to God is though him.  Only him.  For many, this is the scandalous exclusivity of the gospel that needs to be ignored or rationalized away.  We live in a multi-faith, melting pot world where the fashionable ideaology is that all religions lead the the same God.  Such thinking is of course illogical and non-sensical as most major (and minor) religions disagree on the very character and nature of God, let alone the way to find him/her/it. 

The direct response of Jesus reminds me of two things; the Christian faith has something (or Someone) unique to offer our world and that message should always be offered with confident humility.  We should never resile from the exclusive claims of the gospel (Jesus made them), but we should speak of them with grace-filled humility.

Adoration

This week we commenced a new four-week series titled Postures of Prayer.  Over the next month we we explore adoration, confession, thanksgiving and then supplication.  This week we begin with adoration - or bowing before the beauty of God.  Listen in here: Download Postures of Prayer _ Adoration  Or you can read the manuscript here: Download Adoration Manuscript

Doing as Jesus did

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:14-15) Jesus shattered expectations. In getting on his knees and washing the dusty feet of his disciples, Jesus ignored and overturned generations-old social rituals. It was an outrageous example of role-reversal completely consistent with his paradoxical teaching that in his kingdom that first shall be last and the last, first; that to discover kingdom life we first must die. I imagine the 12 disciples being in a constant state of bewildered resignation during the three years of Jesus' public ministry. What would he say or do next? (Interestingly, it seems that only in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit did it all begin to make sense.) To be a disciple was and is to cover one's self in the dust of the Rabbi's feet. Where he goes, we go, what he teaches, we obey and the example he sets, we follow. Such was the importaance placed on Jesus washing the disciples feet, it seems the early church a least considered giving it sacramental status alongside communion and baptism. In washing the disciples feet Jesus demonstrated in graphic form that his mission was to serve, not to be served. If we claim him to be Lord we will seek to mimic his action in all our interactions. We live in a dog eat dog, do what you can to get ahead world. To do as Jesus says and does is to swim against the tide. I cannot serve like Jesus apart from Jesus and the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. May I serve today and every day as Jesus did.

Shocking Devotion

Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair.  And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  (John 12:3)

Mary's act of devotion is rich in possible meaning.  Is Mary preparing Jesus in advance for burial as a prophetic act pointing to Jesus' torture and death?  Is the anointing with oil of a king?  Perhaps it is simply an act of shocking devotion.

John tells us the perfume is expensive (worth a year's wages).  A woman touching a Rabbi, let alone with her hair, would have scandalized many who watched, or later heard about it.  Judas, seemingly pragmatic, self-righteously questions the opportunity cost of squandering such an expensive resource.  Jesus simply accepts Mary's action as one of devotion.

John never wastes words.  In the narrative he makes a point of telling us, the reader/listener, that the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  Well, of course.  Such an amount in a small, confined space would.  Why tell us the obvious?  Perhaps John  is telling is something at a deeper level.  Perhaps we are being reminded that total devotion to Jesus has a beautiful fragrance about it that will fill the space in which we offer it.  All who are near will sense it.

We are called to offer nothing less than total devotion to God.  We do this in response to the One who gave his all for and to us.