Has such a thing as this occurred in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

From ‘The Last Judgement’, a triptych by John Martin, created 1851–1853

I’ve just read the Book of Joel, which is only a few pages long, nestled near the middle of the Bible. You can read it very quickly, and it is so worth it. If you don’t have a Bible, you can start online, here.

It opens with the words:

Hear this, you elders;
give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?

I chose to look through Joel today because its themes include

1. an unprecedented calamity;
2. a call to return to worship the Lord, and
3. an encouragement for God’s people in their suffering.

So, Joel opens with this cry that something is happening in his land which is unlike anything that had happened ever before in the memory of the people. Joel evokes devastation,

“Awake and weep, like a virgin bride whose bridegroom has died…

describing scenes where “the storehouses are desolate and empty” (1.5, 8, 17), which reminded me of empty shelves in supermarkets. He says, “joy and gladness has been cut off before our eyes” (1.16), and so describes it as 

a day of darkness and gloom (2.2)

which is the kind of language we use still today to describe depression and despair.

As I come to the end of my ordination training – a very different end to what I had envisioned – and am anxiously wondering if it will be possible for ordinations to go ahead in September, I was particularly struck by Joel’s priestly language,

“The daily grain offerings and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests mourn, who minister to the Lord” (1.9)

I’m mourning the bread and wine of communion, and wonder how long it will be before we can meet for a Eucharist.

In Joel, the people are summoned to,

consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the leaders and all the people, and cry out to the Lord… gather the people, gather the children and the infants, let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride out of her chamber…

[in the Torah, certain people like newlyweds are exempt from prayers, military service, and so on while consummating their marriage, but everyone is included in Joel’s summons]

Let them say, ‘Have compassion and spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your people an object of ridicule, a humiliating byword among our enemies. Why should they say, ‘Where is their God?’ (1.12; 2.16-17)

God replies,

‘Even now,’ says the Lord, ‘Turn and come to me with all your heart…

Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate,

Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness

Then the Lord will have compassion, will answer and say to his people,

‘Behold, I am going to send you grain and wine and oil, and you will be satisfied in full with them’, for he has done great things.

Do not fear, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things (2.12-13, 18-21)

This, for me, brings to mind a song, Way Maker, which started showing up in churches again relatively recently, and Great Things.

Joel follows this with a beautiful section about the pastures of the wilderness turning green, the trees producing fruit, and pleasant rains falling, (2.22-23), and Joel 2.14 promises God will “leave a blessing, even a grain offering and a drink offering” from the abundance he will provide – he will restore the daily offerings so abundantly that “The mountains will drip with sweet wine” (3.18).

Finally, Joel gives us two fairly famous verses. One is “I will compensate you” for the time of loss, “you will have plenty, and praise the name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you” (2.26). St. Paul may be echoing this in Romans 8.18, where he says “I consider that our present sufferings are nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.” The other (even more) famous verse from Joel is his prophesy of Pentecost, which St. Peter himself quotes in Acts 2:

And it shall come to pass,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

I will show signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Joel 2.28-32; Acts 2.16-21)

Joel ends, then, with words of comfort, that “the Lord is a refuge for his people, and a stronghold of protection”, promising “a fountain will go out from the house of the Lord” (3.16, 18).

Why not read Joel this week, even today, as we anticipate the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost – next Sunday 31st May.

Veni Sancte Spiritus

The Slow Work of God

The following is a reblog of a reflection by my colleague Revd. Phil Wales. You can find the original here: https://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/news-events/latest-news/the-slow-work-of-god/

 

The prayer of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin begins, ‘Above all, trust in the slow work of God.’

This prayer, and these words, seem especially relevant at a time when we are all adjusting to a new way of life. A new way of life which requires everyone to pay full attention to the deadly effects of Covid-19. Though it is true, right now, that there are many unexpected opportunities to discover more of the wonders of God’s creation, there is also a great deal to lament. So many have become ill or have died. And many more will yet.

It is understandable, given the risks, that we are on a heightened state of alert. Yet, this can create fear which, in turn, means we may fail to be open to trust in the slow work of God. I have noticed in recent weeks how some of the new language in circulation generates impatience in me and pulls me further away from reflecting on what it means to continue to trust in this slow work. ‘Social’ distancing is necessary. However, keeping a safe distance need not mean that we avoid all eye contact or the usual pleasantries that pass between strangers when taking our daily exercise or shopping. Retreating inwardly may unintentionally amplify a sense of isolation and fear. This is precisely why some people now advocate the term ‘physical distancing’ as a more accurate description of what it is that we are being asked to do.

We are soon to begin moving from the initial phase of our response to the second, the easing of restrictions. This phase will need to be negotiated carefully if we are to avoid a second wave of the epidemic. Of course, we do not know what the end of this second phase will look like or when we might reach it. Initially, hurriedly, some put their faith in the idea of a ‘bounce back’ as a remedy to the fear of living with potentially overwhelming uncertainty. But, placing hope in this cheery, breezy description of the world after coronavirus now seems misplaced. Talk of ‘bouncing back’ may sound glib, distasteful, or even offensive to those whose lives have been profoundly changed in recent weeks.

Historian Peter Hennessey has sought to emphasise the magnitude of our predicament by describing the world as ‘pre and post’ coronavirus. But his deft, and perhaps intentionally provocative, use of the abbreviations ‘BC’ (Before Coronavirus) and ‘AC’ (After Coronavirus) still points towards a person-centred, rather than God-centred, perspective. It seems to me that in searching for better descriptions we may still end up racing towards ones which are born from a desire for premature certainty.

Living with so much uncertainty may well push us to search for new language to make sense of these times. But we should not rush headlong towards the first, second or third idea that attracts our attention and embrace it unthinkingly. Instead we must own, rather than deny, our impatience to get to the end. And then, having owned our impatience, we still need to resist the impulse to rush headlong towards it. Instead we need to return to, and go with, the slow work of God.

The prayer of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability –
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually – let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

Amazing Grace

On this day, 10th March, in 1748, the author of Amazing Grace became a Christian.

John Newton was the captain of a slave ship, but he converted to Christianity during a storm at sea. He had been reading the Bible and Thomas a Kempis’ spiritual Christian book ‘The Imitation of Christ’, and was struck by a line about the vulnerability of life, and the question of where he would spend eternity.

He renounced the slave trade and became a leader of the movement to abolish slavery.

From 1764, he served as a priest in the Church of England. He was a mentor and pastor to William Wilberforce MP, whose own Christianity was the crux of his abolitionist work.

Poet William Cowper also worshipped in Newton’s church, and the pair collaborated on a volume of hymns together. Newton particularly appreciated four-part-harmonies, intended to be easy to learn.

He was a friendly ecumenist, working closely with Christian colleagues in other denominations.

Finally, his preaching was so popular that his congregation had to add a gallery to the church to make room for all the people who came to hear him share the Good News!

He is memorialised with his self-penned epitaph on his tomb at Olney, Buckinghamshire:

JOHN NEWTON. Clerk. Once an infidel and libertine… by the rich mercy of our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST preserved, restored, pardoned and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy. Near 16 years as Curate of this parish and 28 years as Rector of St. Mary, Woolnoth.

Lectio Divina on Matthew 26.20-56

Bible study at Morning Prayer today in church was very moving. I keep thinking about it.

We read Matthew’s account of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. I’m particularly wrestling with three things:

1. Jesus knew it was coming. He tells his friends just two days before his arrest, “the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” Likewise, he says at the Last Supper, “I tell you, one of you will betray me.” Judas even says, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” Guilty conscience.

2. Jesus lets it happen. After the Last Supper, Judas brings a squad of soldiers and thugs from the Temple to arrest Jesus. In reaction, Peter reaches for his sword, draws it out, and cuts off the ear of one of the men arresting Jesus.

But Jesus says, “Put your sword back in its place,” and reminds Peter that Jesus could call down an army of angels if he wanted to fight. Instead, he heals the man’s ear, and lets his arrest happen.

He adds, “How else would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” Jesus knew it was coming – and the Jewish Scriptures had actually foretold it hundreds of years in advance – and he lets it happen.

3. Jesus calls Judas “friend”. When Judas brings the soldiers and thugs over to arrest Jesus, Jesus says to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” I’m really floored by the fact that Jesus calls Judas his friend even in the midst of his betrayal.

Minutes ago, Jesus had been “sorrowful and troubled”, knowing what was about to happen to him. He even told his best friends Peter, James, and John “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow”. Luke’s Gospel records the detail that Jesus was so stressed that he literally sweated blood.

But now in the moment of betrayal he is able to summon the grace to address Judas as “friend”.

I’ll keep working through all this for a while, I reckon. Jesus knew his own death was imminent, he lets it happen, and is able to call the betrayer who caused it his friend.

You can read the passage we read this morning, and some context, here:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26%3A20-56&version=NIV

Some of the extra details I’ve mentioned are in Luke’s account, here:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+22%3A41-51&version=NIV

You don’t have to play the roles people cast you in

The local nativity play won’t be the only drama happening this Christmas. Some folk will be trapped playing out the destructive ‘Drama Triangle’ in their lives.

The Drama Triangle is a model for describing common dysfunctional behaviours in relationships (couples, families, work, friends), whereby people play set roles of ‘Victim’, ‘Persecutor’, and ‘Rescuer’. All these roles harm the actors’ welbeing, and the welbeing of the people around them.

Playing the Victim is (perhaps surprisingly) the easiest role to play. Victim, here, refers to anyone who feels or acts like they’re hard done by, a victim of circumstances or other people’s behaviour. The Victim’s feels like everything is going wrong and none of it is their fault. “Poor me!” they cry. They cast around for someone to play the role of Persecutor – fabricating crises or imagining attacks so that they can wallow in feeling oppressed and hurt. They then desperately seek a Rescuer to save them from their Persecutor, a Rescuer to sweep in and save the day.

The Rescuer feels like it’s their responsibility to fix everything for the Victim, and they feel guilty if they don’t rescue the Victim from their Persecutor. And yet the Rescuer’s rescuing has destructive consequences for everyone. For example, it stops the Victim from taking responsibility for their own situation and discovering ways to rescue themselves.

The Persecutor is often a constructed or an exaggerated figure – the Victim needs someone or something to be out to get them, completely opposed to them, so that the Victim can avoid taking responsibility and can blame their Persecutor for everything that is wrong in their life. But a Persecutor can also be someone who feels frustrated by the Victim, and expresses this aggressively, with blame.

In conflict, people often switch roles around the triangle, casting others in roles to suit them as the relational drama unfolds. For example, if a Rescuer fails to rescue a Victim, or a prospective Rescuer refuses to rescue a Victim, the Victim may recast the disappointing Rescuer as their new Persecutor. This means the Victim can still blame someone else, instead of taking steps to ‘rescue’ themselves. But the Rescuer might now feel like a Victim, and recast the original Victim as their new Persecutor.

The Drama Triangle also self-perpetuates (keeps itself going), because it allows the ‘actors’ to meet some of their psychological needs. For example, when they are rescued by a Rescuer, the Victim doesn’t have to face up to trying to help themselves. Similarly, the Rescuer gets to feel validated when they sweep in and ‘save’ the Victim. The Persecutor (if they’re aware they’ve been cast into the triangle) may entrench in their position, and feel justified and right.

The Triangle also causes ongoing harm, whereby the Victim continues to cast people as Persecutors instead of taking responsibility themselves. The Rescuer may seek to keep the Victim trapped and needing their help, or the Rescuer may become exhausted from trying to rescue a Victim, and then find themselves re-cast destructively as a Persrcutor when they fail to rescue.

The actors thus toxically create a situation in which they get to feel feelings like anger at the Persecutor or superiority over the Victim. They can also take or avoid taking actions, like the Victim inviting a Rescuer to do stuff for them, instead of doing it themselves. Playing these roles is destructive, a poor substitute for honest and adult interactions that would be more healthy for all involved.

I know I’ve played all three roles before. Playing a Victim and blaming others or my circumstances made it easy to wallow in despondent inactivity, despairing that there was no point trying anything at all, because I felt defeated before I even began. It was easier to blame Persecutors than to try to make changes in my life myself. This passivity in the role of Victim thus felt safer than the risk or the strain of starting to make moves for my own betterment.

Playing the Rescuer was gratifying for a time in several different contexts. It gives you a sense of empowerment, because at least you’re not the Victim! It’s also easy to be tricked by a Victim into playing a Rescuer – they make you feel like you have to rescue them, and you feel good about helping them, too.

But it fosters toxic co-dependence: in my case, I came to think I was responsible for whatever mood the Victim threw at me, and I thought it was my job to find solutions for them to their problems, when in fact their main problem was their Victim mindset!

I’ve also played a Persecutor, for example in situations when I have failed or refused to play Rescuer, and I’ve experienced Victims quickly recast me as their new Persecutor.

Of course, this is just another way to get a prospective Rescuer to try harder to rescue the Victim, or to stop refusing to rescue them, or indeed a way to drag someone else into rescuing them from your failure or refusal. All these outcomes allow the Victim to stay in their role of Victim, enlisting you as a new Persecutor to carry their blame, and enlisting new Rescuers to do the hard work of rescuing for them.

The salve to the triangle is to opt out of all three available roles. If you find you are casting yourself into a role, or you notice someone else trying to cast you as one of the roles, you can refuse to play.

Likely they’ll recast you as the Persecutor, but really that is inevitable anyway. None of us are good or powerful enough to perpetually rescue someone from everything, and it isn’t our responsibility anyway. If we did, we’d be disempowering them, and denying them their full potential.

Only God is good enough, and only God is powerful enough to rescue everyone from everything. Our human attempts will inevitably always fall short, and so we will get recast as Persecutor. But also note that God refuses to rescue us in ways that keep us disempowered and in Victimhood. Instead, he invites us to grow and learn, and develop the skills we need to progress and mature.

So, Christmas may well offer you opportunities to cast yourself as Victim, Rescuer, maybe even Persecutor, and you may find yourself being cast as Victim by a would-be Rescuer or Persecutor, or cast as a Rescuer or a Persecutor by someone who’s stuck as a Victim, and so on.

Keep reminding yourself, you don’t have to play.

Instead, know that we are all a little bit of all of those things. And so is everybody else.

Your Victim isn’t a complete write off – they’re a human being with potential and agency all of their own. If you are a Victim, you are acknowledging your own vulnerability, but learn that you have power and agency, too.

Your Persecutor is also part Victim – they are not monolithically opposed to you. And when you catch yourself persecuting others, instead of keeping them down, can you find ways to help them up?

Your Rescuer will inevitably fail you – they are only human. And if you find yourself trying to rescue others, can you find ways to empower them to find their own solutions?

Victims can be encouraged to be more self-aware and begin to discover their own agency and potential. Persecutors can be encouraged to ask for what they want, to engage with others as equals. And Rescuers can be show concern and be caring, but not try to solve problems for others in a way that keeps them down. That’s an unequal dynamic that allows them to get away with using you, and leads to you disempowering them from helping themselves.

Ultimately, you are a Victim – but you need to make some effort towards rescuing yourself, rather than getting a Rescuer to do it for you and blaming a Persecutor as an excuse for you to stay in Victimhood.

Ultimately, you are a Rescuer, but you’re not God. You can contribute helpfully towards a Victim progressing their situation, but it is not your responsibility to do it for them – that would disempower them from developing themselves. And anyway, you can’t fully rescue someone yourself – they need to choose to stop being a Victim themselves, or they will keep using you as Rescuer and never getting anywhere at all.

Ultimately, you are a Persecutor, and that’s just part of being a fallible human being, and not God. You will let people down, and they will also misunderstand you, misrepresent you, and miscast you to play the role they want you to play in their drama.

But you don’t have to play a role in the Drama Triangle.

Happy Christmas.

St. Augustine’s Day

Today is St. Augustine of Hippo’s Day. Augustine was born in 354 in Tagaste in north Africa, now Souk Ahras in Algeria. (He goes on to live in Hippo, now Annaba, also in Algeria. His name is therefore nothing to do with hippos!)

This hippo is disappointed

Augustine’s dad, Patrick, was a pagan, and his mum, Monica, was a Christian. From a young age, Augustine was interested in exploring the faiths and worldviews of his day. He had a passion for truth, was fascinated by the human condition, and wanted to understand the causes of suffering in the world.

As a teenager, he vehemently rejected Christianity, having read a badly written Bible translation, and deciding that Christianity was for idiots! Subsequently, his beliefs and behaviour became so un-Christian, in fact, that his mother Monica threw him out – although they reconciled later!

“He had a passion for truth, was fascinated by the human condition, and wanted to understand the causes of suffering in the world.”

As an intelligent, sceptical young professional, Augustine started a high-profile career in lecturing, with a view to going into politics. But while he was working as a professor in Milan, his mother and several of his friends were all nudging him to re-examine Christianity. For example, while in Milan, he met the bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose. Ambrose was a persuasive preacher and engaging public speaker, whose skill with words impressed Augustine.

But it was Ambrose’s humility and simple lifestyle – he had sold all his wealth when he became a bishop and gave it to the poor – that provoked Augustine to self-reflection about his own hedonistic lifestyle. This Ambrose, intelligent and influential, clearly believed in Christianity deeply enough for his whole life to be changed by it.

“It was Ambrose’s humility and simple lifestyle that provoked Augustine to self-reflection about his own lifestyle”

Ambrose took Augustine under his wing and treated him like a son, and Augustine grew fond of him as both a wise mentor and a friend. Around this time, several of Augustine’s Christian friends shared with him the testimonies of some other previous converts to Christianity, such as St. Anthony. Anthony, too, was another man whose conversion to Christianity had completely changed his life to one of humble, simple living.

Consequently, wrestling with guilt over his own unrestrained lifestyle, Augustine picked up a Bible one day and began to read the book of Romans. Suddenly, he saw that transformation to a better way of being was possible, if he would only give his life to Jesus.

Conversion of Augustine

In response, he quit his job, abandoning his promising career, and wrote to Ambrose, to tell him he’d become a Christian. Influenced by Augustine’s decision, another of his friends also converted. Soon, Augustine, his mother, and a group of his friends moved to the country, and started a religious community where Augustine could continue to think and write and go deeper into faith. He went on to get ordained, and became a bishop, as well as a great communicator of Christian truth and thought.

“He was loved into the Kingdom by a network of persistent and gentle family, friends, and colleagues”

Augustine’s journey to Christianity evidences a number of factors still important today. Firstly, it shows the positive influence a person’s Christian family and friends can have on them, through the integrity of their lifestyles, and their encouragement and words of witness. Ambrose’s preaching and close mentoring was clearly hugely influential for Augustine. Similarly, stories about the changed lives of other converts, like St. Anthony’s, gave Augustine role models to follow and a road map for changing his own life. And finally, the Bible provided the last push Augustine needed to change his life.

As such, Augustine was impacted by two things simultaneously: he was persuaded that Christianity is intellectually defensible, and he discovered that it is morally good, as he was loved into the Kingdom by a network of persistent and gentle family, friends, and colleagues. It is significant that because of all this, he came to realise that his own resistance to Christianity wasn’t intellectual, but was because of his lifestyle, and that he needed God’s help to overcome his addictions and disorder.

“He was persuaded that Christianity is intellectually defensible, and he discovered that it is morally good”

After his conversion, Augustine devoted himself to analysing other faiths and worldviews, assessing their strengths and exposing their weaknesses, and debating their leading supporters in public. He fleshed out his own ideas by writing books such as commentaries on how to read and understand the Bible, and published works of theology about free will and God’s grace.

For example, his book On Christian Doctrine outlines fundamental Christian beliefs from scripture, equips the reader to teach these truths to others, and counters attacks against Christian beliefs by setting out a robust framework for Christian belief on the one hand and challenging the beliefs of its critics on the other.

He also wrote an autobiography, called Confessions, which reads like a series of prayers. Confessions is shockingly honest about his lack of holiness, but this is core to Augustine’s theology about sin and transformation by God’s grace. He recounts his regrets about his immoral youth and his gratitude for his conversion to Christianity.

For example, he recalls a time he stole some fruit when he was 11, not because he was hungry, but to throw it to the pigs, just “for the pleasure of doing something that was forbidden”. However, he sees that this behaviour led him to become a “slave” to sin as an adult, stuck doing things that in his conscience he knew were wrong but which he couldn’t stop himself from doing.

“You are slaves either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness” – Romans 6.16

The overarching theme of Confessions is Augustine’s conversion, and he praises God that through his conversion, God broke the chains that bound him, and helped him to live differently in light of God’s saving work.

Another of Augustine’s greatest works is City of God. Written at a time of great political and social upheaval, Augustine uses City of God to argue that there are two types of people in the world: those who live according to God’s will, and those who live according to the ways of humanity.

He is perhaps best known for his teaching on Creation and the Fall, original sin, free will, salvation and grace. In City of God Augustine explains from Genesis that demonic angels and humanity disobeyed God, causing the Fall. Consequences of this original sin include guilt and death, and in Confessions Augustine uses examples from his own immorality to argue that everyone is naturally inclined to sin. This inherent sinfulness is what Augustine sees as separating a person from God.

Jesus bridges the gap between us & God

However, Augustine emphasises throughout his work that, through grace from God, everyone has the ability to align themselves with God instead of fallenness. Augustine stresses that God’s grace leads us to repentance. His teaching about sin and salvation is good news familiar to many Christians today.

Finally, Augustine teaches that transformation is possible for believers in this life, also by God’s grace, reordering our desires and turning them towards God. Augustine sees humanity as on a journey where the end destination for believers is eternal happiness in the next life. God is both the destination and the way, as he graciously offers forgiveness from sin and transforms Christians’ lives here and now.

“Do not conform to the people around you, but be changed within by a new way of thinking.” – Romans 12.2

In summary, Augustine’s personal journey is quite wonderful: as a former sceptic, he interrogated Christianity for intellectual believability. As well as being persuaded by intellectual arguments, though, he was helped on his faith journey by his Christian mother, friends, and mentor. Seeing transformation in other believers’ lives showed him that transformation was possible in his own life.

His written works are a sustained effort to articulate a strong framework for Christian belief, explain his own conversion, and apply Christian ideas to living life in the fallen world as we find it.

Ultimately, Augustine addresses fundamental issues for us all: the problem of sin, our need for reconciliation to God by his grace, and the possibility of changed lives, not by our own efforts, but with God’s help.

St. Augustine is therefore remembered on 28th August, the date he died, in A.D. 430, aged 75.

Father

The following post is a reblog of a reflection from Easter Pilgrim. You can sign up to receive these reflections here: https://www.churchofengland.org/pilgrim

 

There are just 63 words in the Lord’s Prayer in contemporary English. They are meant to be said by every disciple every day. The words have power to shape the deepest places in our lives. They are the gospel – the good news. They are life-giving medicine for hungry, confused and weary souls.

“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

– Matthew 6.7-15

The first four words help us find our place again each day in the vastness of the universe. We are not here by chance, as random collections of atoms in infinite space. We are people and we are called into a relationship with our creator.

That relationship is defined by love: not our weak love for God but God’s strong love for us. The love of a Father for his children. God made you. God loves you powerfully and personally. God calls us by name into a relationship of love and trust, which forms us and recreates us as God’s children: ‘Our Father in heaven’.

 

Challenge:

Set an alarm on your phone every hour today. When it sounds, simply say these four words: ‘Our Father in heaven’. What do you notice?

 

Pray

“Almighty God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you: pour your love in to our hearts and draw us to yourself.” – Collect for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

Advent: Where is God? (4)

Advent – the coming of Jesus

Over the course of advent, I’ve been posting about some of the ways in which God has come to humanity, including:

1. Creation.

2. Revelation.

3. Incarnation.

Today, let’s look at how God makes himself known to us in the present by his Holy Spirit, and how he will make himself fully known in the future.

 

Advent 4 – Spirit

Because God loves his creation, he has not abandoned it. We can seen that in his actions to be with us and save us as recorded in the Bible, and especially in the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

After he was raised from the dead, Jesus ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us (John 14:2). But he also promised to be with us through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:20; John 14:17) This promise of the Spirit is one of the most remarkable promises in the Bible. About 570 BC, God promised:

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove the heart of stone from you and… I will put My Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

This promise of God’s Spirit is freely available for anyone who will receive it.

God’s Spirit:

• Guides us to know the truth about God (John 16:13)
• Reveals to us his wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:10)
• Helps us connect with God in prayer and to overcome difficulties (Romans 8:26)
• Comforts us (John 14:16)
• Transforms us (Romans 12:2)
• Produces good ‘fruit’ in our life, like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)

 

The promises of the Holy Spirit are to empower us to live in this ‘in-between time’, between Jesus’ earthly ministry and his coming return.

The Bible repeatedly promises this future hope, that Jesus will return in great glory to save us (e.g. Titus 2:14, Hebrews 9:28). He will replace injustice with justice, war with peace, and there will be no more mourning, crying, or pain (Isaiah 32:1; Micah 4:3; Revelation 21:4).

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” – Revelation 21:4

The Bible is realistic that creation is currently fallen – full of suffering and wrong. It even explains that this is because we have turned away from God’s goodness and tried to do without him. But it promises that he won’t give up on us despite our rejection of him. He made us with joy (God loved making you!) and gave us good things in the world to enjoy.

God loved making you!

Despite our rejections of him, he came in person in Jesus and in the Spirit to encourage us, to make a way for us back to him and his peace, and to empower us while we wait for his rule.

And he promises to make right every wrong, overthrowing injustice and suffering and replacing it with paradise for all who will receive him.

Will you receive him this Christmas?

1. Which work of the Holy Spirit do you most need right now – knowledge of God’s truth, his wisdom, help with prayer, his comfort, him transforming you, or his help to grow spiritually ‘good fruit’ in your life?

2. What are you most struggling with in this fallen world?

3. What are you most looking forward to about Jesus’ return?

 

3 common heresies and why they’re wrong

Some dudes with beards. Stern, but fair

I recently wrote a blog post about the doctrine of the trinity and why it is a necessary synthesis of the claims of scripture that there is only one God, and that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all divine persons, for example in the work of creation and salvation, and are thus worthy of worship.

I thought it might be fun to follow up with a blog post or two about some historic heresies which still pop up from time to time today, and outline why their understanding of God is inadequate compared to orthodox Christian belief.

So, here is my first list of three Christological heresies, and why they are wrong…

 

1. Subordinationism:

This heresy claims that Christ the Son is not equal to the Father.

Key dates: 1st-4th Centuries

Key supporter: Arius of Alexandria

Key text: “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28)

Implications: Christ is not God

Examples: LDS (Mormons)

Answer:

The fact that the Son consents to do the will of the Father does not prove he is inherently inferior to the Father. Scripture shows that the Son shares the Father’s divine nature and is therefore ontologically equal with the Father, by nature.

Key dates for answer: 320, First Ecumenical Council (the First Council of Nicaea) and 381, the Second Ecumenical Council (the First Council of Constantinople)

Key hammer: Athanasius of Alexandria

Key text: “all may honour the Son, just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father” – John 5:23

Implications: the Son is equal to the Father in divine nature. He is therefore God, worthy of worship.

However, the Son consents to be ‘relationally’ and ‘operationally’ subordinate to the Father, despite their equality of natures.

For example, Christ is the mediator between God the Father and humanity, so that he can bring us to the Father.

“Christ is the mediator between God the Father and humanity, so that he can bring us to the Father.”

Nevertheless, only God is good enough to pay the price for our sins. So, for Christ’s death on the cross to be enough to pay for our sins, he has to be God in incarnate.

In subordinationism, Christ cannot offer salvation. In Christianity, that is exactly what he offers.

 

2. Adoptionism:

This heresy claims that Jesus was just a human, and that God chose (‘adopted’) him to be the Messiah, perhaps because of exceptional goodness or faithfulness on Jesus’ part. Adoptionists vary as to when they think Jesus was chosen – possibly at his baptism, possibly the transfiguration, possibly some other time.

Key dates: 2nd & 3rd Centuries

Key supporter: Praxeas

Key text: “You are my son; today I have become your father.” – Psalm 2:7

Implications: Christ is not God.

Examples: Christadelphians

Answer:

Jesus is God incarnate. Scripture asserts this repeatedly.

Key date for answer: 213, ‘Adversus Praxean’

Key hammer: Tertullian

Love the hair, Tertullian

Key text: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” – John 1:1

Implications: Christ is God come to Earth. This means that God is not uncaring and distant, but reaches out to us and can be known. Additionally, as with subordinationism above, only God is good enough to pay the price for our sins. So, for Christ’s death on the cross to do this, Christ has to be God incarnate.

 

3. Arianism:

This heresy claims that Christ was created by the Father at some point in time. Even if he is semi-divine, he doesn’t have the same divine nature as God, and is a junior god at most, or maybe just an angel.

Key dates: 3rd & 4th Centuries

Key supporter: Arius

Key text: The LORD made me as the beginning of His way, the first of His works of old. – Proverbs 8:22

Implications: Christ is not God

Examples: Jehovah’s Witnesses

Answer:

We can deduce from scripture that the Son is of the same – co-eternal – substance as the Father. Although he is a different person to the Father, scripture shows they are both part of the same one God.

Key dates for answer: 320, First Ecumenical Council (the First Council of Nicaea) and 381, the Second Ecumenical Council (the First Council of Constantinople)

Key hammer: Athanasius

Key text: “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning” – Proverbs 8:23

Implications: Because the Son is consubstantial with (of the same divine nature as) the Father, they are equal by nature. As with the answer to subordinationism above, which is closely related to Arianism, just because the Son chooses to do the Father’s will does not mean he is of a different, inferior nature. They are equally God.

To some people, the debate over whether Christ is of the same or similar nature to the Father has seemed like a fairly insignificant debate. Arianism admits that Christ is of a “similar” nature to the Father, the first creature created, and therefore very important. It might seem like splitting hairs to insist that he is not just of “similar” nature but of “the same” nature.

Nevertheless, in terms of salvation, this is essential. As with the answers to subordinationism and adoptionism above, only God is good enough to pay the price for our sins. For Christ’s death on the cross to be sufficient, he has to be God incarnate, not a ‘semi-divine’ junior ‘god’ who is “similar” to God. Christ has to be God incarnate for the crucifion to be enough.

Conclusion:

There is a common theme throughout all three of these heresies, and a common reason for rejecting them. The common theme is that they all claim that Christ is not God, whereas orthodox Christianity points out that Christ has to be God incarnate for his death on the cross to adequately pay the price for our sins.

If Christ is somehow ontologically inferior to God, like a human adopted by God, or just a semi-divine being or angel who is not God, then he isn’t good enough to pay the price for all our sins. We need Christ to be God, and the fact that he is God incarnate means that he alone can pay the price for our sins.

Pray: Hallelujah. Thank you Lord that you took on human flesh and came to the earth you created, walked among us, taught us and guided us, and healed and delivered us from our sicknesses and demons. Thank you for taking our sins on yourself, suffering brutal death so the price of our guilt is paid. Thank you that your resurrection proves you have power to defeat death, and promises our own resurrection to life forgiven by you.

Thumbs Up for Christian Unity

• 120,000 Christians @ over 30 events
• Symbolic act of unity
• Travelling prayer scroll

 

Well over 120,000 Christians at over 30 events are expected to be involved in the new 17:21 initiative to showcase unity between Christians across the UK.

Following the launch at Spring Harvest earlier this year, the 17:21 scroll is journeying 10,000 miles across the UK with visits to Big Church Day Out and more.

Pete Greig, the event’s host, invited the vast crowds to show their identification with Jesus’ great John chapter 17 prayer of unity, in a symbolic act by raising their thumbs and adding thumb prints to a scroll that says, “We are ONE”.

The programme concluded with a great moment of prayer as the crowds were encouraged to celebrate all the Christian festivals that are happening in 2017.

https://1721.org.uk