Together Forever

•November 6, 2014 • Leave a Comment

As we come towards Advent, we begin to think of God’s final coming to earth.  We balance remembering his coming as a child, but along side that look forward when he comes back again.  This would tie in with last weekends All Soul’s Day and All Saints Day, as we remember the faithful departed.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (CEV)

The Lord’s Coming

13 My friends, we want you to understand how it will be for those followers who have already died. Then you won’t grieve over them and be like people who don’t have any hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and was raised to life. We also believe that when God brings Jesus back again, he will bring with him all who had faith in Jesus before they died. 15 Our Lord Jesus told us that when he comes, we won’t go up to meet him ahead of his followers who have already died.

16 With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God’s trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. 17 Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the sky. From that time on we will all be with the Lord forever. 18 Encourage each other with these words.

It is difficult to know what this passage has to say to our daily lives.  I thought several times about just ignoring it, but didn’t want to do that.  It is important not to ignore what we find difficult, but sit with it and see what it says.

Ultimately this is the foundation of our hope and a promise of God.

Yes, we will die.  To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, death and taxes are the only two certainties of life.  But the promise is that when Jesus returns, he will bring with him all who have died in the faith.  His return is not some triumphant ego trip, but a return of joy with all his saints.  Then there will be life for all.

Much is made of what kind of life it will be when this happens?  Will we recognise people, will there be pets, flowers?  What will we look like?  I don’t know the answers to those questions.  I don’t necessarily feel I need to.  The important bit is that God is there and we are – together forever.  No matter when someone died, they, and we will be with God.

That is our hope and our promise.  The rest is detail.

Posted in bible, faith, hope, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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Your Time

•November 5, 2014 • 2 Comments

(edit) It turns out somehow I’ve managed to get a week ahead of myself, but it’s here now – so enjoy!  And you’re ready for next week 🙂 (but if you really want this weeks Psalm, it should be 70

This is such a beautiful Psalm.  No other words are necessary.

Psalm 90  (CEV)

God Is Eternal

90 Our Lord, in all generations
    you have been our home.
2 You have always been God—
    long before the birth
    of the mountains,
    even before you created
    the earth and the world.

3 At your command we die
    and turn back to dust,
4     but a thousand years
    mean nothing to you!
They are merely a day gone by
    or a few hours in the night.

5 You bring our lives to an end
    just like a dream.
We are merely tender grass
6     that sprouts and grows
in the morning,
    but dries up by evening.
7 Your furious anger frightens
    and destroys us,
8 and you know all of our sins,
    even those we do in secret.

9 Your anger is a burden
each day we live,
    then life ends like a sigh.
10 We can expect seventy years,
or maybe eighty,
    if we are healthy,
    but even our best years
    bring trouble and sorrow.
Suddenly our time is up,
    and we disappear.
11 No one knows the full power
    of your furious anger,
    but it is as great as the fear
    that we owe to you.
12 Teach us to use wisely
    all the time we have.

13 Help us, Lord! Don’t wait!
    Pity your servants.
14 When morning comes,
    let your love satisfy
    all our needs.
Then we can celebrate
    and be glad for what time
    we have left.
15 Make us happy for as long
    as you caused us trouble
    and sorrow.
16 Do wonderful things for us,
    your servants,
    and show your mighty power
    to our children.
17 Our Lord and our God,
    treat us with kindness
    and let all go well for us.
    Please let all go well!

Posted in bible, faith, God, hope, Lectionary, life, Religion, theology
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Sitting in Judgement

•November 4, 2014 • Leave a Comment

How does the idea of being judged make you feel?  To feel that someone is weighing you up against their standards and norms?  I’m not very good at it.  It makes me feel immediately defensive and as if I have to justify myself and my actions – usually wrongly.

On the other hand, how good I am at sitting in judgement on other people… Imagining I know why they do what they do, where they are coming from, comparing their actions with ‘what I would do’ – because of course I know best.  How foolish I am.

Of course I do what I do mainly because I believe it to be the right thing.  It fits in with my understanding of the world and myself.  But does it fit in with Gods?  If I look at my actions through his eyes, might they seem different, less satisfactory, not sharing his ideals?

God is probably the one person entitled to sit in judgement on us.  The one who holds the big picture, who understands our motives, who sees people trying to do their best – and those trying to make everything fit their way.  Where would I fit in that picture?  How does my behavior weigh up?  I might think I will be vindicated and shown to be right all along.  I wonder…

Amos 5:18-24 (CEV)

When the Lord Judges

18 You look forward to the day
when the Lord comes to judge.
    But you are in for trouble!
It won’t be a time of sunshine;
    all will be darkness.
19 You will run from a lion,
    only to meet a bear.
You will escape to your house,
rest your hand on the wall,
    and be bitten by a snake.
20 The day when the Lord judges
will be dark, very dark,
    without a ray of light.

What the Lord Demands

21 I, the Lord, hate and despise
your religious celebrations
    and your times of worship.
22 I won’t accept your offerings
or animal sacrifices—
    not even your very best.
23 No more of your noisy songs!
I won’t listen
    when you play your harps.
24 But let justice and fairness
flow like a river
    that never runs dry.

We don’t like to think of God sitting in judgement.  We want him to be a nice God, always on our side.  Yet if God is God, he has a Grand Plan, a right and wrong way for things to be done.  Not because he is high and mighty, but because he truly knows what is best for us, loves us and cares for us; and longs for us to have the best.

So, God is not looking for us to say all the right things, but to actually do them; not to just put on a good front, but truly aim to live his ways; not to make a lot of noise, but to live those things out.  God looks, not at the show we put on, but the reality of our lives lived day by day.

They are the only criteria anyone should be judged by.  And the judging is not ours, but Gods.

Forgive me Lord,
the times I am quick to sit in judgement,
believing I know what is best,
or what is in the heart of another.
Forgive my arrogance,
my short-sightedness,
my focus on me.

Forgive me Lord,
when I have got things so wrong,
yet believed I was so right.
When I have missed the point,
not understood
or failed to ask.
When I have been so focussed
on what I thought,
that I have failed to hear your voice
or ignored it
and gone my own way.

Thank you
that you are a God of forgiveness,
of hope,
of renewal,
and of new possibilities.

I offer myself anew to you today.
Help me to hear your voice clearly
and respond to all you ask of me.

Posted in bible, faith, forgiveness, God, hope, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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