You’re Blessed

•January 30, 2014 • 1 Comment

It is usually difficult to see the good in a situation you are in when it is difficult.  When our world seems turned upside down, we can feel anything but blessed.  Sometimes hindsight provides a different perspective, but not always.  Sometimes we just have to come at it from a different angle.

Matthew 5:1-12 (MSG)

You’re Blessed

5 1-2 When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

4 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

5 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

6 “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

7 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

8 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

9 “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

10 “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

11-12 “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

Much has been written about The Beatitudes over time, so I have used the version from The Message, it breathes some fresh air.  It is difficult to know what to offer to add to it.  Here Jesus is setting out the new understanding of life that following him will bring.  It is not about all the shiny things you will have, all the many riches that will be poured upon, health, wealth and happiness.  No, what Jesus is bringing is something way beyond that, much deeper – and much better.  Blessings running counter to popular expectation and understanding, and in that way being far more significant, life-changing and useful.

It reminds me in a way of the Covenant Prayer, finding God’s purpose and blessing in the ways we might not choose – in usefulness and in feeling useless, in pain and pleasure, in being busy and in feeling overlooked, in thinking we have everything and feeling we have nothing; but giving ourselves, wholeheartedly, to God and allowing him to do his stuff.  Letting God reach us, touch us, heal us, fill us, take us on a journey with him and allow him to use our lives.

Lord,
I offer myself to you.
In my pain,
my anguish,
my questions,
my emptiness,
my hunger,
when I feel bereft,
hurt,
abandoned
and used.
Work in me,
I pray;
and may I know
that I am blessed.

Praise God

Posted in bible, faith, God, hope, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion, theology
Tags: , , , ,

Such Foolishness

•January 29, 2014 • Leave a Comment

By Illustration: Sapna Khandwala,

I am a great fan of puzzles, but only ones that can be worked out by logic.  I am never very good at seeing pictures in things, or spotting the mistake, but give me something that can be fitted in a grid and put together to solve a whole, and I’m there.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (CEV)

Christ Is God’s Power and Wisdom

18 The message about the cross doesn’t make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God’s power at work. 19 As God says in the Scriptures,

“I will destroy the wisdom
of all who claim
    to be wise.
I will confuse those
who think they know
    so much.”

20 What happened to those wise people? What happened to those experts in the Scriptures? What happened to the ones who think they have all the answers? Didn’t God show that the wisdom of this world is foolish? 21 God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about him.

Instead, God chose to save only those who believe the foolish message we preach. 22 Jews ask for miracles, and Greeks want something that sounds wise. 23 But we preach that Christ was nailed to a cross. Most Jews have problems with this, and most Gentiles think it is foolish. 24 Our message is God’s power and wisdom for the Jews and the Greeks that he has chosen. 25 Even when God is foolish, he is wiser than everyone else, and even when God is weak, he is stronger than everyone else.

26 My dear friends, remember what you were when God chose you. The people of this world didn’t think that many of you were wise. Only a few of you were in places of power, and not many of you came from important families. 27 But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.

28 What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important. 29 God did all this to keep anyone from bragging to him. 30 You are God’s children. He sent Christ Jesus to save us and to make us wise, acceptable, and holy. 31 So if you want to brag, do what the Scriptures say and brag about the Lord.

And so the focus this week is on justice and doing what God wants.  Living God’s ways is not always that makes sense, especially to those who are not living that way themselves.

Jesus dying on the cross, to someone who is not caught up in the rest of the story, seems nonsensical.  How can a man dying achieve anything, surely that is losing everything?  God sent his son into the world, and the world killed him.  How can that make anything any better?  It is nonsense.

You have to see it from the eyes of faith to understand that in Jesus giving up everything, he was gaining everything.

Paul reminds us though, that the wisdom of the world is foolish.  The other side to that is that you do not need to be an expert, a scholar, or someone who thinks they have all the answers to be saved by his work.  It is not to be worked out, but to be believed.  Wisdom and even proof are no help – God’s wisdom is beyond and above that.

No, whoever we are, whatever background we are coming from, we are all equal before God.  We are all welcome and all able to be part of God’s work of freedom and forgiveness.  That is the basis from which our treatment of others must flow, and the place we start in our own relationship with God.

Thank you Lord
that faith is not dependent
on being able to work it out,
that it is not only available
for those who have answers,
or those who have been taught;
thank you that it is
for us all,
because it is given,
freely,
and makes no sense
that we can work out.

 Thank you for saving me,
whether I understand it
or not,
for giving me your
forgiveness
and your freedom.

I pray,
for your enabling,
to show that to others,
through your mercy
to me.

Meekness and Majesty, the ultimate in foolishness for good

Posted in bible, faith, God, hope, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion, theology
Tags: , , ,

12 Years A Slave – My Thoughts

•January 28, 2014 • Leave a Comment

12 Years a Slave (rated 15 – for a reason)

These are my immediate thoughts – there may be more to come…

First to say, this film is maybe not for the faint-hearted, but if you aware of what happened to slaves, it will come as no surprise what happened.  I would put the gruesomeness level down to similar as The Passion of the Christ.

Much has been said, and probably will continue to be said about this film, by those more eloquent, or who know what they are talking about, than me.  My initial reactions as the film drew to a close are two-fold:

  • The greatest disservice we can do is to see this as history and assume that there is no longer any slavery.  There is plenty of slavery around today, including here in the UK.  Please do not think we can rest on our laurels.  If this film does anything, as well as educate about the atrocious past, it must make us look at the world we live in today – and respond.
  • Solomon was a free man.  He had that to keep him going.  If only he could get his papers, he could prove himself free, and be released.  What about those who do not have that privilege?  What hope do they have?  What are we going to do about it?  Solomon was able to find someone who could intercede on his behalf.  What about those who have no one?  Who is going to intercede for them?

The reaction to this film must not be “how awful” and to carry on with our lives. (Interestingly, someone in the cinema actually shouted out at the slave masters wife, sharing exactly what they thought about her.) The reaction must be – what can I do about this, here and now?

AND TO DO SOMETHING

Acquaint ourselves with the facts and respond.

Posted in faith, hope, justice, Rants and Ramblings, response, theology
Tags: , , , ,

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »