Good times, bad times.

•July 20, 2011 • Leave a Comment

The Novel, A Tale of Two Cities, opens with those immortal lines,

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

I suppose that pretty much sums up life.  It has its highs and it has its lows.  There are times when we rejoice, and times when we despair – and all the shades of hope in between.

And into that, God speaks.

Sometimes I think Romans 8:28 in its traditional form is one of the hardest verses in the bible:

“We know that in all things God works together for good with those who love him”.

That can be really hard to hear when you are struggling – that God is working for good in this terrible situation you are caught up in.  What’s that all about?!  I know it in my head, yet feeling it in your heart in the middle of a crisis is not always easy.

But reading to the end of the passage it begins to sink in:

If God is on our side, can anyone be against us? (v31)

 

Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger and death? (v35)

The answer is a resounding no!  God is always with us.  He is bigger than anything that happens to us.  His love is always there, always loving, always on our side.  Life may throw its stuff at us, that is part of living, but God remains with us.

And we can come to the place where,

In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love–not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!(v37-39)

Praise God for that!  For it is true, even when we cannot feel it.  When we can neither feel nor love God, he is still there.  He has won the victory and is holding it for us.

There will be the best of times, there will be the worst of times, but they are all God times.  He loves you and journeys with you through pain, anger and crisis, through joy and success.

Thank you Lord,

that you are always with me.

Through success and failure,

pain and pleasure,

struggle and ease –

the best of times

and the worst of times –

and every shade in between.

Thank you

that when I cannot see you,

you can see me,

you hold me

and care for me.

 

Posted in God, Lectionary
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Be careful what you wish for

•July 19, 2011 • Leave a Comment

If you were offered for a wish to be granted, something you really, really wanted, what would your wish be for?

This was the offer God made to Solomon.

Solomon had followed his father, David, as king, but he felt young and inadequate.  He could have asked for a long life, a peaceful reign, success and wealth – but none of those are what he chooses.  He knows what he needs, and so he asks God,

Please make me wise and teach me the difference between right and wrong. Then I will know how to rule your people. If you don’t, there is no way I could rule this great nation of yours.(1 Kings 3:9)

That was what he wanted, the wisdom to do the task God had called him to, and being able to know right from wrong.  He wanted to know what was the right thing to do in all situations, to be the very best that he could be at what God was asking of him – and he know he could only do that by having the wisdom of God in his life.

I wonder, if God asks you

What would you like me to give you?

How would you answer?

 

Lord,

there are so many things that I think I need,

that would make life easier,

or better;

but help me to seek the things

that make the world a better place,

to seek the strength

to do the things you have called me to,

to live for you day by day.

Help me to know

what I really need

and to seek it in you.

Posted in calling, God, Lectionary
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Weeding

•July 13, 2011 • Leave a Comment

They say a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place, but when it’s your wrong place they’re growing in weeds are very frustrating.  Though it has to be said, every weed does have it’s place and purpose – it may just not be where we want it to be.

After last weeks advice on sowing, Jesus this week moves on to the thorny (sorry, really bad pun!) issue of weeds.

A farmer has done his sowing.  He has picked good seed, prepared his field and got the seed into it.  What he didn’t know was that someone else had come along and sown rogue seed into his field.  Not the beautiful wheat he had planned and so carefully prepared, but weeds.

His workers wanted to pull up the weeds, to get rid of them.  Perfectly understandable, because they may get in the way or ruin the young wheat plants.  They would certainly make the job of harvesting much harder.

But the wise counsel of the farmer was to leave the weeds.  To go pulling them up would disturb the soil, some good wheat plants may get pulled up too, safer to leave them growing together.

This parable kind of turns what we think of as sensible on its head (how often does Jesus do that?!)

If, as Jesus says, this parable is about the world and people in it, we may think it’s the best thing to do to get the weeds out – to remove all bad influences.  After all, we campaign for debt relief, we work for the removal of hunger and poverty, and this last week has shown the campaign to try to rid our press of bad influences.

But there are some weeds that can stay.  How odd.  As a parent, I naturally want to remove all obstacles from my children’s lives, but that does not always help.  They need to learn how to tackle them themselves.  They need to learn how to live with difficulties.  It is all part of the growing process.  Perhaps that is what Jesus is alluding to in the weeds being left in.

Perhaps there is also something in who decides what is a weed and what is not.  Perhaps what we might pull up as a weed is actually a beautiful flower to God.

We don’t want the good seed choking, but neither do we want good, if different, flowers uprooting and being thrown on the compost heap.

There will come a time for the weeds to be separated out says Jesus – but that time is not now, and the decision as to what are weeds is not ours, but God’s.  He may prompt us to get some weeds out now, but not all.

So, I think we need to be careful.  There are things that will choke the life from the good seed if left in the ground – and they need to be dealt with, but there are things that aren’t. There are plants that to me are strange and unfamiliar – but that does not mean they are necessarily weeds.  They may be an added bonus of colour or texture to the garden.  How often I need to consult a reference to see what a stray plant is, to see if I should leave it to grow or not.  If God is the one who makes the final choice of which and when weeds are pulled up, we need to use him as our reference as to what we get busy with pulling up in the world.  It’s not about our preferences, but his. It’s not about what I think, but what God thinks.

God is the farmer, but we are his workers.  Let’s refer to him and do as he asks.

Lord,

the world is yours.

There is good seed

and bad seed.

We do not always know the difference.

We want to get rid of things that are strange

or unfamiliar,

but they may be guests sent by you;

we may want to get rid of

what seems to make life more difficult,

but perhaps it has a purpose

that we can not yet see.

Yet there are things that need to be got rid of,

and removed now.

Lord help us to weed

with your eye

and your heart,

that we may work with you

and not against you

Posted in God, justice, Lectionary
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