Building Expectations

•November 14, 2012 • Leave a Comment


You cannot help but admire stunning architecture and beautiful buildings.  They give shape and grandeur to our streets and our lives.  But, ultimately, however amazing and well crafted they are, they are just bricks and mortar – and plenty of glass in the case of modern buildings.

Mark 13:1-8

The Temple Will Be Destroyed

13 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look at these beautiful stones and wonderful buildings!”

2 Jesus replied, “Do you see these huge buildings? They will certainly be torn down! Not one stone will be left in place.”

Warning about Trouble

3 Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives across from the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him in private. 4 They asked, “When will these things happen? What will be the sign that they are about to take place?”

5 Jesus answered:

Watch out and don’t let anyone fool you! 6 Many will come and claim to be me. They will use my name and fool many people.

7 When you hear about wars and threats of wars, don’t be afraid. These things will have to happen first, but that isn’t the end. 8 Nations and kingdoms will go to war against each other. There will be earthquakes in many places, and people will starve to death. But this is just the beginning of troubles.

The disciples were very impressed with the Temple building, no doubt with some justification, as Solomon had put a lot of effort into its construction.  It was meant to be impressive – it was built for God.

But before they get too carried away, Jesus reminds them that it is not the buildings that are important, but the God they represent.  It drives me to distraction when people insist on keeping buildings in their original condition.  Yes they may be beautiful, but do they serve the purpose they were intended for?  If not, they should be adapted to serve the needs of today.  It is more important that a church (or any other building for that matter) should be useful than kept in a museum like state.  The Temple was to facilitate worship of God, not be the object of that worship itself..

Jesus reminds us to worship God, not the house we have built for him.  Bricks are temporary – God lasts forever.  Nothing, however impressive, should get in the way of our relationship with God.

  • Are there other things that we have put in the way of God? Things that we focus on instead of him?

Lord,

may I not worship the trappings of church

– but you.

May I focus,

not on things that are temporary,

but on you who is eternal.

Posted in bible, church, God, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion
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Encouraging

•November 13, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Whatever you do in life, it is always so much easier if you have someone cheering you on and supporting you.  Everything from sport, performing, going for a job interview and even giving birth.  It is better to know there is someone on your side.

The writer to the Hebrews goes on with expounding the fact that Jesus has made the only sacrifice that is necessary, and nothing can keep us from the presence of God.  They then move on to the practical outworkings of that in the Christian life.

Hebrews 10:11-14 and 19-25

11 The priests do their work each day, and they keep on offering sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But Christ offered himself as a sacrifice that is good forever. Now he is sitting at God’s right side, 13 and he will stay there until his enemies are put under his power. 14 By his one sacrifice he has forever set free from sin the people he brings to God.

Encouragement and Warning

19 My friends, the blood of Jesus gives us courage to enter the most holy place 20 by a new way that leads to life! And this way takes us through the curtain that is Christ himself.

21 We have a great high priest who is in charge of God’s house. 22 So let’s come near God with pure hearts and a confidence that comes from having faith. Let’s keep our hearts pure, our consciences free from evil, and our bodies washed with clean water. 23 We must hold tightly to the hope that we say is ours. After all, we can trust the one who made the agreement with us. 24 We should keep on encouraging each other to be thoughtful and to do helpful things. 25 Some people have gotten out of the habit of meeting for worship, but we must not do that. We should keep on encouraging each other, especially since you know that the day of the Lord’s coming is getting closer.

As we live as a community of people of faith, we should be encouraging one another – cheering each other on.

Living out the Christian faith can be hard at times.  We need to support one another when the going gets tough, to encourage each other to step out and try things, to help remind each other what it is all about, to love and accept each other as we work it out together in our place and time.

So let’s get practical and specific:

  • How can we go about encouraging each other?
  • What can you do to encourage the Christians in your church and community?
  • What do you do to support those who need it?
  • DO we know each other well enough to know how to support each other?

Posted in bible, church, community, God, Lectionary, Religion
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God in the Pain

•November 12, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Life, at times, can be painful.  Experiences can break our hearts.

I’ve struggled over writing this post.  Probably because it means so much to me, and I appreciate the power of pain in the lives of others.  I hope it offers some help, and not cause more pain.  Please join in the conversation and the journey with me.

I’m also aware I use the word ‘pain’ a lot – but no other one quite encapsulates the feeling I mean…

Hannah was broken-hearted.  She wanted to have a child, and had never had one.  A situation that brings with it feelings of failure, of desperate longing, of hopes dashed again and again.

Your pain, may have a different source, but pain it still is.

1 Samuel 1:4-20

4 Whenever Elkanah offered a sacrifice, he gave some of the meat to Peninnah and some to each of her sons and daughters. 5 But he gave Hannah even more, because he loved Hannah very much, even though the Lord had kept her from having children of her own.

6 Peninnah liked to make Hannah feel miserable about not having any children, 7 especially when the family went to the house of the Lord each year.

One day, Elkanah was there offering a sacrifice, when Hannah began crying and refused to eat. 8 So Elkanah asked, “Hannah, why are you crying? Why won’t you eat? Why do you feel so bad? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

9 When the sacrifice had been offered, and they had eaten the meal, Hannah got up and went to pray. Eli was sitting in his chair near the door to the place of worship. 10 Hannah was brokenhearted and was crying as she prayed, 11 “Lord All-Powerful, I am your servant, but I am so miserable! Please let me have a son. I will give him to you for as long as he lives, and his hair will never be cut.”

12-13 Hannah prayed silently to the Lord for a long time. But her lips were moving, and Eli thought she was drunk. 14 “How long are you going to stay drunk?” he asked. “Sober up!”

15-16 “Sir, please don’t think I’m no good!” Hannah answered. “I’m not drunk, and I haven’t been drinking. But I do feel miserable and terribly upset. I’ve been praying all this time, telling the Lord about my problems.”

17 Eli replied, “You may go home now and stop worrying. I’m sure the God of Israel will answer your prayer.”

18 “Sir, thank you for being so kind to me,” Hannah said. Then she left, and after eating something, she felt much better.

Samuel Is Born

19 Elkanah and his family got up early the next morning and worshiped the Lord. Then they went back home to Ramah. Later the Lord blessed Elkanah and Hannah 20 with a son. She named him Samuel because she had asked the Lord for him.

This passage can be such a painful one.  Many women, and men, long for a child and are not blessed with one as Hannah eventually was.

There are other reasons in society we are made to feel inadequate, situation that cause great agonising.  But whatever the reason, the pain, the longing, the anguish, the sheer unfairness of it all runs through it.  We may think that we will just get on with life, but the feelings catch up and overwhelm – when you’re expecting them to, and when you’re not.

So what has this passage to say to that pain?

One thing it says it that though she had produced no children, Elkanah loved Hannah.  Her worth was not bound up in her fertility.  That’s an important lesson in a society that still places a huge emphasis on ‘producing the next generation’.  No pressure, no questions – just love and acceptance.

Peoples worth is not caught up in what they have or haven’t done in their lives – especially things they have no control over. You have an intrinsic value and place in the world.

Your worth is in you, the person you are, not what you produce.

Peninnah, by contrast, made Hannah’s life miserable, constantly making a point of Hannah’s childlessness.  I wonder if she quite grasped the agony?  Or if she just enjoyed finding Hannah’s weak point and turning the knife in it? There’s a lesson here too for those who enjoy others pain, or are sometimes too quick to use it.

Hannah came to the Lord in her pain, and cried out to him.  Who knows why on this occasion his answer was ‘yes’, and Samuel was born.  His answer had been ‘no’ enough times before.  I’m sure Hannah hadn’t only this day decided it was time to pray about it.  I’m sure she’d shared her frustration and anger with him before.  When accused of being drunk, she assured them that,

I’ve been praying all this time, telling the Lord about my problems.”

That is a good place to start – but not an easy place.  To let go, to open ourselves up, to really pour your heart out to him, is in itself a real act of faith.  To bring our problems to God does not always mean an easy solution – I guess we only hear in the bible about the ones that were.  No one recounts the apparent non-answers, where would the story be in that?  But I’m sure there were.  Even Jesus didn’t receive the answer he might have wanted from God, but had to go the painful and apparently defeated route.

But for Hannah it was also about more than motherhood.  A child was seen as a sign of God’s blessing.  Hannah needed to know that God loved her and wanted to bless her.  In fact she did not even want to keep the child, she was willing to give him back to God to serve in the Temple.  She just wanted to know that God was with her.

Are you longing for something that you think if only God gave it to you it would show how much he loved you?  Something emotional, physical or material?  Are you waiting to feel that God loves you?

I can tell you that he does, but you’ve probably heard people say that.  I know from my experience that God loves us and is faithful to us, whether he gives us the things we think are important or not.  I can tell you that God loves you immeasurably – even in the depths of your pain and despair.

But that’s something you need to know for yourself.  And perhaps a good place to find it is in Hannah’s example.  Can you tell the Lord your problems?  Pour them out to him – and allow him to wrap his arms of love around you. Let him hold you as you cry, hear your shouts and screams, touch the rawness of your scars?

Because that’s what he wants to do.  His love is so bound up in you already.

Lord,

I come to you.

I bring you my problems,

whatever they are.

You know my pain,

my anger,

my anguish,

my feelings of inadequacy.

Lord may I know your love

and feel it deep within.

May I know that I have worth

and am valued.

Touch me Lord,

at my place of need,

I pray.

Posted in bible, God, Lectionary, Religion
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