Seeing it in your face

•February 10, 2010 • Leave a Comment

We’ve all, I’m sure, seen the plethora of  adverts for clothes washing products (you can’t say powder anymore can you – tablets, gel, liquids…).  Each one of them claiming that they are cleaner, brighter, fresher than the others.  They would have us believe that the difference is noticeably visible and obvious.

Being visibly changed seems to be the theme of today’s readings.

Moses had been up the Mountain, where God had given him the Ten Commandments – the terms of his law.  He had been in God’s presence and “his face had become radiant, because he had spoken to the Lord”.  Subsequently, each time he went into the Tent of  Meeting to meet with the Lord,  the people could see the glow on his face.  It changed him.

Mount Tabor - The Mount of Transfiguration

Jesus also had a visible change when he met with God.  He had taken Peter, James and John up the mountain to pray.  As he was praying his face was transformed and his clothes shone a dazzling white.

Spending time in God’s presence clearly makes a difference.

I wonder if people notice when I have been in the presence of the Lord.  Does it show on my face?  In my life?  Does meeting with God effect me?

But that is not all that happens for the disciples up the mountain.  Two other people, Moses and Elijah, appear with Jesus and begin talking – and it is a glorious sight.

It was obviously such a glorious experience that Peter wants to hold on to the moment.  He wants to build shelters for them, memorials to what he has seen.  But it cannot last – there is still work for Jesus to do.  They have had their experience of God’s glory – and now they must go and get on with God’s work.  So they come down the mountain, and are met by the crowds, clamouring, and with people to be helped.

We’ve all had those mountain top experiences – a time when something has been absolutely right and special, but life is not always like that.  There is the mundane and the downright awful too.  We cannot stay on the mountain top – we have to come down and get on with real life.  Moments of experiencing the glory of God serve to spur us on, equip us for the task he has called us to do.  Yes we should bask in God’s presence – but then we need to take that presence out into the places we go.

We need to spend time in God’s presence, but we need to distribute it.  Jesus took time to go up the mountain to pray and had an amazing experience of God – but he didn’t stay up the mountain, he came down and continued his ministry.  Moses went in to The Tent of the Meeting with God – but he came out to share what God said with the people.

It’s a both and.  Lets spend time with God, letting him change us and equip us – and then lets live that in our lives.

Posted in God, holy
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Getting it wrong – and God putting it right

•February 3, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Not such a good day at the office for this juggler – or the person who they hit!

We can all get things wrong.  We all have accidents, but some of the things we do wrong are intentioned – we know we are not doing the right thing.  Some of those things have few consequences, other thing can have far greater ramifications.  We’re talking about sin – pure and simple doing wrong.

And yet still God continues to call people to serve him.

This weeks readings have an array of people acutely aware of how unworthy they are to be God’s workers:

Isaiah has a vision of the holiness of God, and is acutely aware of his unholiness.

Paul is aware of how much he had got wrong in his life, and knows he doesn’t deserve to be called an apostle.

Simon Peter in the presence of Jesus, knew that he was a sinner.

There is not one of us who can say that we are not a sinner; that there is nothing we have got wrong; that there have not been times when we have lived unholy lives.

In the words of The Pet Shop Boys:

When I look back upon my life

It’s always with a sense of shame

I’ve always been the one to blame

For everything I long to do

No matter when or where or who

Has one thing in common, too


It’s a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a sin

It’s a sin

Everything I’ve ever done

Everything I ever do

Every place I’ve ever been

Everywhere I’m going to

It’s a sin


At school they taught me how to be

So pure in thought and word and deed

They didn’t quite succeed

For everything I long to do

No matter when or where or who

Has one thing in common, too


Father, forgive me, I tried not to do it

Turned over a new leaf, then tore right through it

Whatever you taught me, I didn’t believe it

Father, you fought me, ’cause I didn’t care

And I still don’t understand


So I look back upon my life

Forever with a sense of shame

I’ve always been the one to blame

For everything I long to do

No matter when or where or who

Has one thing in common, too

It’s a sin…

Tennant/Lowe

But God still calls each of us and takes us on.

Isaiah is touched by God – and forgiven.

Paul knows that God has been at work in his life, and turned it around.

Simon Peter is blessed, and called by Jesus to a new task.

God knew where they’d been and what they’d done – but still loved them and called them.

Whatever place we know ourselves to be in, whatever state our lives have become – God still calls us and still uses us – for by the death of Jesus, the touch of God in our lives, we are made clean.  We are forgiven and called onwards.  We do nothing by our own power, or our own worthiness – but by God’s grace working within us.

We may not be worthy – but God is.  Forgiveness is offered.  Jesus died to get rid of all the things that stand between us and God.

We can rise up and follow God.  Our sin is forgiven.  We are called to walk with Christ, to work for him, to live in his forgiveness and power.

Posted in forgiveness, holy, hope
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Chosen

•January 27, 2010 • 1 Comment

The seed catalogues have been dropping through the door since Christmas – most of them whilst we had over 20cm of snow on the ground! I like looking through the catalogues, but mainly in a fantasy kind of way.  I dream of growing cucumbers – but I don’t have a greenhouse.  I’d like to grow cabbages, but I can’t do the digging.  So I have to stick to what I can manage to grow in pots.  It’s about choosing what is appropriate to my situation.

God chose Jeremiah.  There was a task to be done, and as far as God was concerned, Jeremiah was the man for it.  Jeremiah was not so sure! He reminded God that he was not a good speaker and that he was too young.  He was not the man for the job, he was, he believed, very much the wrong choice.

But God is not stuck by these problems in the way that we are.  He promises Jeremiah that he will give him the words to say, and will protect him in his calling.

God chose Jeremiah to be a prophet, to speak to the nation on his behalf.

God calls each one of us to work for him.  What has he chosen you for?  What is your task?

It’s easy to think that there is nothing we can do.  That we can’t speak publicly, or do great works.  We can think that we are not the person for the task – we’re not suitable, or inappropriate in some way.  But God calls us.  God has chosen me and you.  There is something he needs us to do for him – and he equips us for what that task is.

One task that we are all called to is to love.  Love is one thing we can all do.  Whatever our physical abilities, our own personal weaknesses and our strengths, we can all live in love.  Indeed whatever we do, be it overtly for God or not, we must do it with love or it is worthless.

We must love – and love properly:

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

Love is the greatest thing we are called to.  This world is calling out for love – and we can be the ones to bring it.

Picture from Capt Kodak

God has chosen you!

Posted in calling, God, love
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