What do you Say?

•March 11, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Beautiful, awesome skies, make the world seem so vast, so full of might and wonder.

Psalm 19

(A psalm by David for the music leader.)

The Wonders of God and the Goodness of His Law

1The heavens keep telling

the wonders of God,

and the skies declare

what he has done.

2Each day informs

the following day;

each night announces

to the next.

3They don’t speak a word,

and there is never

the sound of a voice.

4Yet their message reaches

all the earth,

and it travels

around the world.

In the heavens a tent

is set up for the sun.

5It rises like a bridegroom

and gets ready like a hero

eager to run a race.

6It travels all the way

across the sky.

Nothing hides from its heat.

7The Law of the LORD is perfect;

it gives us new life.

His teachings last forever,

and they give wisdom

to ordinary people.

8The LORD’s instruction is right;

it makes our hearts glad.

His commands shine brightly,

and they give us light.

9Worshiping the LORD is sacred;

he will always be worshipped.

All of his decisions

are correct and fair.

10They are worth more

than the finest gold

and are sweeter than honey

from a honeycomb.

11By your teachings, Lord,

I am warned;

by obeying them,

I am greatly rewarded.

12None of us know our faults.

Forgive me when I sin

without knowing it.

13Don’t let me do wrong

on purpose, Lord,

or let sin have control

over my life.

Then I will be innocent,

and not guilty

of some terrible fault.

14Let my words and my thoughts

be pleasing to you, LORD,

because you are my mighty rock and my protector.

What a wonderful Psalm of praise to God’s might and majesty.

Just two thoughts:

The Psalm begins with the well-known phrase

The skies declare the wonders of God

There is indeed something about the sky, it lifts our eyes “to the heavens”.  But if the skies declare God’s glory, do we?  Do we reflect his majesty, his awe?  Do people look at our lives and declare the wonders of God – for that is what should happen.

Tom Wright points us to verse 13, and the question of whether God’s loving provision has penetrated every corner of our personality (p 65).  Are there flaws that need to be dealt with?

This leads us to the other much used phrase from this Psalm

May my words and my thoughts be pleasing to you

– the words prayed at the beginning of many a sermon.  Do we pray them at other times in our lives?  Aren’t our whole lives a sermon?  Not just those that are preachers, but each one of us in the way we live, speak and love?  Are my words and my thoughts pleasing to God?

Lord,

each day

may my life declare your glory,

and my words and thoughts be pleasing to you

This year, I am again following the Big Read using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in God, lent
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Bring It On

•March 10, 2012 • Leave a Comment

A few years ago there was, I think an advert, going around saying,

Gentle Jesus, as if…

and citing this reading:

Jesus in the Temple

13Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. 15So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins.16Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, “Get those doves out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace.”

17The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, “My love for your house burns in me like a fire.”

18The Jewish leaders asked Jesus, “What miracle will you work to show us why you have done this?” 19“Destroy this temple,” Jesus answered, “and in three days I will build it again!”

20The leaders replied, “It took forty-six years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?”

21But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. 22And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus.

Now Jesus is doing something, now he’s showing them who’s boss…  Bring on the revolution!

I love this picture for the mayhem it shows as tables are turned over.  What mayhem Jesus can bring when he starts his work!

“They” had assumed that when the Messiah came, he would make the Temple even more glorious (Tom Wright p 59), but what Jesus starts by doing is cleansing it – getting rid of what had no place there.  God’s new work was about far more than the Temple building.

God is doing his new thing.  Jesus is over-turning the abuses, the short-changing and the profiteering that is going on in the place that is meant to be holy – God’s house.  He is angry that these things are happening and throws them out.  Bravo for Jesus.

But as we stand by and cheer, I am brought up short.  I am left to think on what tables are there that need turning over in my life?  What is there in me that is turning God’s holy space into no more than a market place?  What is being short-changed in me?

God has come to do a new thing is the recurring theme of Tom Wright’s book, it is the recurring theme of Jesus life – is it the recurring theme of my life?

Thank you Lord

that you come to do a new thing,

that you come to turn over tables,

that you come to throw out injustice,

abuse

and short-changing.

Begin it in me,

Lord,

I pray

This year, I am again following the Big Read using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in Jesus, lent
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All at Sea

•March 9, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Children, it seems, are pre-programmed to ask

Why,

it’s how they find out how the world works, how they begin to work things out for themselves.  If they know why, they can see how the rules work.

We all like to be able to explain things, to grasp what is happening, to just know what it’s all about.  It makes us comfortable when we can set something in its place.

Jesus Walks on the Water

45Right away, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and start back across to Bethsaida. But he stayed until he had sent the crowds away. 46Then he told them good-by and went up on the side of a mountain to pray.

47Later that evening he was still there by himself, and the boat was somewhere in the middle of the lake. 48He could see that the disciples were struggling hard, because they were rowing against the wind. Not long before morning, Jesus came toward them. He was walking on the water and was about to pass the boat.

49When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, they thought he was a ghost, and they started screaming. 50All of them saw him and were terrified. But at that same time he said, “Don’t worry! I am Jesus. Don’t be afraid.” 51He then got into the boat with them, and the wind died down. The disciples were completely confused. 52Their minds were closed, and they could not understand the true meaning of the loaves of bread.

The disciples find themselves again in a scary place.  They are struggling hard, rowing against the wind.  They are getting nowhere fast.

They must have been struggling hard in other ways too, trying to work out what all this that Jesus was telling them was about.  What was it going to mean to them?  They are all at sea in more ways than one.

Tom Wright writes a beautiful narrative on this passage (p 55-57), which needs no further comment from me.

He ends at the point that perhaps the things of God do not need to be explained, he doesn’t need that from us.  It isn’t a difficult calculation to be worked out, we do not need to explain it, just follow him.

There is a school of thought that says any god who we can explain, is not much of a god at all.  Who wants a god that small. God is much bigger than our comprehension, but also much bigger than any of our struggles.  And so, we can trust him, whatever new thing he is doing in us.

Tom’s prayer for today:

“Surprise us,

loving God,

with your unexpected power

and presence,

and help us not to be afraid

when you do new things

in our lives”

This year, I am again following the Big Read using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in Jesus, lent
Tags: , , ,

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