Devastation – and new life

•August 31, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Today we went to Ashby de la Zouch Castle.

This is one of the corner towers of the old castle wall.  Alongside it was a lifeless tree – no leaves, no buds, no nothing.  The tower is clearly crumbling and a shadow of its former glorious self.

And yet in this corner of damage and decay, life grows.  Not the same as the old life, but life.  Just visible in the bottom left hand corner, is the plant that is winding its way around the old, apparently dead, tree.  What was has gone, but has found new life and purpose as a support for another.

Things may not be the same, but there is still purpose and usefulness.

In the words of 2 Corinthians 5:17,

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

Life changes, circumstances happen, but God has never finished with us.

Posted in life
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Priorities

•August 31, 2010 • Leave a Comment

One of the things I have had to do over the time I have been ill is prioritise.  With neither the energy or the breath to do much, I now have to decide what really needs doing, and conversely, what could quite easily manage without being done.  For me, as someone who never has done just sitting around, that has been a very interesting situation.

It has also made me have to sit back, and let God speak, to allow him to touch me in my vulnerability, and to reflect on where he fits in my priorities – and where he has fitted in my busy busy life.

It can difficult to prioritise in life.  And so God invites us all to make a choice.  We can choose life and success, or death and disaster.  The Israelites are about to cross the Jordan into the land that God has promised them, and they have to decide how they are going to life their life there.  Are they going to get it right or wrong?  Are they going to choose God’s way, or another way?  Is he going to be their priority, or is something else?

They are urged to choose life, to be completely faithful to God, love him, and do whatever he tells them to do.  In other words to make him their number one priority. Then they will live a long time in that land.

If God is our priority in life, then it is my experience that everything else falls into place.  There are many things to worry about, many things to sort out, but if we sort out the things of God first, then everything else will follow.

Jesus offers us the same challenge.  Following him demands that we put him above all things.  He’s not asking us to disregard our nearest and dearest, he’s not offering us an excuse to ignore them to “get on with the work of the Lord”.  He’s not advising us to never start a task, and he’s not telling us to never take on a fight.  But in following Jesus and loving him first we will get all those tasks right.  They will be in a proper perspective.

Life can be difficult, or it can give great pleasure, but neither extremes should detract us from God.

Jesus says, “You cannot be my disciples unless you give away everything you own”. He’s not necessarily asking us to give up everything, but to be willing to.  We should carry the things of life lightly.  Everything we have and do is held in the context of loving God and choosing his way.  As we are willing to relinquish – God gives back to us.  Maybe not what we expect, perhaps not in the way we imagine, but living in the love and life of God  brings us everything we need.

So who and what will be our priorities in life?  Choose God.  Love him and be faithful to him – he will always be faithful to you.

Posted in follow, God, Lectionary
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Who’s invited?

•August 24, 2010 • 2 Comments

Its great to get an invitation to a party.  But I always wonder who else will be there.  Who will have been invited?  You don’t always like to mention it to others in case they haven’t been!

Sometimes you can reel off quite predictably who will be there, and sometime there are some surprises – people who you wonder why they are there.  How do they know the host?  What have they done to be in that circle.  And you know that at most parties there are some people there because they had to be invited – it’s the “right” thing to do.

The account of the meal that Jesus was invited to, gives us God’s insight on who is the in – or out – crowd – and it’s quite surprising.  Jesus and the Pharisees are still caught up in the argument about what can or can’t be done on the Sabbath, and Jesus moves it on to humility and hospitality.

There are two lessons: don’t think of yourself as better than you are; and think about who you invite to your house – do it for the right reasons.

As Proverbs puts it, “When you stand before the king, don’t try to impress him.”  When we stand before God, he doesn’t see our outward show, but our inner hearts.  The way to please God, is not to put on our best clothes, or be seen with the right people – but to do the right thing.

Hebrews reminds us that this means being concerned for each other, welcoming strangers, not forgetting those who are suffering.

Jesus command is to bring to your hospitality, not those who will invite you back, but those who can’t.  The poor, the crippled the lame.  Those who have no resources.  Those who would be invited by no one else.

That is what God asks of us.  For in inviting them, we are inviting God in.  Remember, when Abram offered hospitality to strangers, they turned out to be messengers from God.  When we welcome people in God’s name, we are entertaining angels.  We are not asked to prefer one over another, but to look for, and rejoice in the good in others.

We need to see the possibilities – not welcoming people because of what they can give – but welcoming them because they are.  Welcoming, accepting, allowing them, not just to the edges, but into all that God has given us and more.

All are welcome by God.  Not just those that think they have a right to be there, but those who need encouragement, who need a special invitation from us.  Those who the world might look down on, but in God’s eyes are special and more than welcome.

Whether we understand God’s love for us, or feel unworthy, poor and lame before him, he wants us with him.  None of us is worthy to be in God’s presence, we are all people who have got things wrong – but he welcomes us all, graciously including us as his guests.

There is a balance of self-esteem and self-worth.  Not pushing ourselves to the front, but realising that we have value.  God wants to honour us.  Today he invites us to feast with him.  And he asks us to invite others to feast with him too.

Posted in Jesus, Lectionary
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