Things can only get better

•July 5, 2011 • Leave a Comment

When I finished my initial ministerial training, this was the song we chose to “perform” at our leavers show.  In one sense it was chosen to be tongue in cheek, but in others a statement of faith.  For me my time in training had, rightly, been a time of formation, of knocking down, of testing. At times it had felt like there was nothing left – and yet…

There are times like this for us all – times of illness, despair, hard times, times when we feel all alone, times when life feels desolate…

For the people of Israel, they were in exile.  Far from home, held captive, as the Good News Bible puts it in its introduction to Isaiah, “Crushed and without hope”

When things are bad, they seem very bad.  We cannot see that there will ever be anything other than the wilderness.  It seems a long way out.  Yet God promises that there will be a better time, a time of release and peace.

Into that wilderness, God still brings his promise – there is hope, things will get better.  Where there are now only weeds, there can be strong growth; where there is captivity, there will be freedom; where there is dryness, there will be water.

Things are not over, than can be new life. God steps into the reality of where we are and brings hope.

 

Things not only can, but will, get better.

 

God will bring this to be.

 

Lord,

I thank you,

that however bleak things seem,

whatever the despair,

the depths of the wilderness we find ourselves in,

you bring your hope,

your freedom,

your release.

Thank you Lord

for what you have done

Posted in God, hope, Lectionary
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Can’t have it both ways

•June 29, 2011 • 2 Comments

People can be very fickle.

As they used to say where I come from, “You change your mind when you can’t change your shirt”.

Basically people can change their opinion to suit a situation, they’re not consistent in how they behave – often just to be awkward.

This was clearly a problem Jesus experienced:

Matthew 11:16-19

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

16You people are like children sitting in the market and shouting to each other,

17“We played the flute,

but you would not dance!

We sang a funeral song,

but you would not mourn!”

18John the Baptist did not go around eating and drinking, and you said, “That man has a demon in him!” 19But the Son of Man goes around eating and drinking, and you say, “That man eats and drinks too much! He is even a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet Wisdom is shown to be right by what it does.

People complained about John the Baptist because he fasted and didn’t drink.

They complained about Jesus because he feasted and drank.

What did they want??

It can be so easy to find fault – often for finding fault’s sake.

But, Jesus says, God’s wisdom is shown by results – and actually that meant they could both be right in their approach.  It’s not what someone does or doesn’t do that is right, but the effects of their lives on other people.

Are we quick to find fault with others?  Or do we look at their lives in the light of how it shows God, where it leads others?

Are our arguments like children bickering? Or can we live and let live?

Do we need to have something to complain about? Or can we look at what God is doing.

Let’s not be fickle – but faithful.

Faithful to God and his ways, and supportive in what our fellow christians are doing.

It may not be our way – but the main point is: is it God’s way?!

Forgive me Lord,

that so often

I watch so carefully what others are doing,

and I let it worry me.

Help me to concentrate

only on what you are doing

and what I am doing,

that you may be revealed.

Posted in God, Jesus, Lectionary
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Can’t get to where I want to

•June 28, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Our road causes a lot of confusion.

Theoretically you can get in either end of it, and if you look on a map, or trust a sat nav, that is what it will tell you.  However what they don’t tell you is that there is a traffic restrictor part way along, so you can’t get through.  You can know where you want to go, sometimes you can even see it, but you can’t get there because of something in the way.  People have been known to give up trying to get to us because they couldn’t find the way through, and one delivery man even abandoned his lorry and carried the delivery up the road by hand!

Paul acknowledges that he knows where he wants to go in his life and in his faith.  He knows what are the right things to do, he likes and agrees with God’s laws – but there is something stopping him getting there.  Paul wants to live God’s ways, but the sin within him is stopping him.

Sin is basically anything that is happening in our lives that shouldn’t be.  Hate, greed, wrong priorities… you know what it is for you.  When our focus is on those things, we cannot give our full attention to God, and we fail to get to where we need to be with him.  However much we might want to do the right thing, something is always stopping us getting all the way.

Sometimes I wish our road block wasn’t there. On icy days in the winter it would be much easier to get down the road, than up the steep tight bend, and it would be so much easier to get out of the bottom of the road that our current exit onto a much busier road.  But if I want it to come out I suppose I’ve got to negotiate with someone, or I suppose move it brick by brick myself in the dead of night!

But there are good reasons for it being there, mainly to stop our road being a rat-run or a race track, and to stop delivery lorries to Asda coming through.

There are no good reason for the things in our lives that stop us reaching God’s potential – except that being human our “natural inclinations” fight against us.  But unlike a permanent road feature, there is a way to get rid of the block of sin in our lives:

Who will rescue me?  Thank God he does it through Jesus

The fights that are going on in our mind – Jesus can win them.

From the sin that imprisons us – we are free.

When Jesus can into the world he lived our life, and as he died on the cross he took our sins away – they need no longer hold us back.

Every single block of the barrier between us and God has been taken down.  Now we no longer just know the way, we can reach it too.  We can make it by letting Jesus in.  Letting him break through and make reaching God possible.

That’s what he can do, will you let him?

Jesus says:

If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. Take the yoke I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest. This yoke is easy to bear, and this burden is light.

Lord,

like Paul,

so often I know what I need to do,

even what I want to do,

but I don’t make it.

Things get in the way,

and I can’t reach.

Thank you

that you have broken through that barrier,

you clear a path for me.

Help me to reach out,

to let you clear the blockages in my life

that together

we may reach

the place you want me to be.

Posted in faith, Jesus, Lectionary
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