Glory Hunters

•October 15, 2009 • Leave a Comment

John F. Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” That is the sentiment Jesus is trying to get across to his followers in today’s gospel reading. Not so very long after the conversation about who is the greatest, James and John want to ask Jesus a favour.  They want to know if they can sit at either side of him, when he is in glory.  They have missed the point again.  They think following Jesus is about receiving glory.  He reminds them that it is actually about serving others, looking for what they need – not what we would like.  Not what you can get, but what you can give.

The story goes that a woman accompanied her husband to his doctor’s appointment. After his checkup, the doctor wanted to talk to the wife alone. He said “Your husband is suffering from a very severe disease, combined with some horrible stress. If you don’t do the following your husband will surely die.

“What you need to do is each morning, fix him a healthy breakfast. Be pleasant, and make sure he isin a good mood. For lunch, make him a nutritious meal. For dinner, prepare an especially nice meal for him. DON’T burden him with chores, as he probably had a hard day. DON’T discuss your problems with him. It will only make his stress worse.  You must satisfy HIS every whim. If you can do this for the next 10 months to a year, I think your husband will regain his health completely.”

On the way home, the husband asked his wife: “What did the doctor say?”

“You’re going to die,” she replied.

It’s not easy learning to serve others. That might be an amusing story, but it gets across the point.  We are not always so keen on doing what is good for others – especially if it costs us.  That works right across life, for home life, church life, work and community living.  We cannot always have what we want.  Sometimes we need to think about others and what is good for them.   In the words of Graham Kendrick, “To bring our lives, as a daily offering, of worship to the Servant King.”

Greatness is actually about giving.  Jesus proved that.  He gave everything, even his life , to bring forgiveness and hope to the world.  Greatness is not about getting the best place to sit for eternity, or having an easy life;  it can involve pain, suffering and sacrifice.

The other side of that of course is that we can all be great – because we call all seek to serve others.

Let’s do something great today.

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I know what it’s like

•October 8, 2009 • Leave a Comment

It can be so tempting to think that just because no one sees us do something, it doesn’t matter – it does!  One of the great yardsticks in life is “If my mum/granny/children/best friend could see me doing this, would I still be doing it?”  Sometimes I find that a very sobering thought.

Especially so, when this weeks lectionary reading challenge us over justice, how we keep the commandments in our own lives, and the fact that God sees everything that we do.  If it’s a sobering thought of what someone we love and respect would think of us if they saw what we were doing, how much more so of God?  We should be quivering in our boots – and rightly so, for God is an awesome, holy God, who has standards. And yet there is hope, and mercy, and love, if we come to God, acknowledging what we have done, and seeking his help to turn things around.

Contrary to the belief of my children, I was once younger than I am now!  They like to tell me that ‘things are different these days!’, and they are right, but some things never change, and though the challenges may be different, the issues behind them remain the same.

The major challenges of life continue to be justice, and doing good – not evil.  How that is played out in each of our lives may be different, but the fundamentals are the same.

Amos highlights these issues, and pulls no punches in telling the people where they are getting it wrong, but doesn’t seem convinced that even that will be enough to save them.  Hebrews takes us a step further and assures of the mercy and grace of God if we get things wrong and come to God.  Yes God sees what we do.  Yes it must anger and frustrate him when we chose to do the wrong thing. But God is not without understanding of what it is like to be a human.  Jesus walked on earth.  He was a human, and faced all the challenges and issues that we face.  He understands our weaknesses, he has “Been there, done that”.  Though he may seem remote from our situation, he is anything but.  Whatever we have done, God still welcomes us and accepts us if we come to him.

The problem the rich young man had, was not what he had or hadn’t done, but his inability to let go of it.  He wanted to hold on to the one thing that was dragging him down and stopping him living in God’s ways.  If we bring it to him, God receives us and relieves us of our burdens, freeing us to focus on the important things in life.

The language of mercy and grace is similar to that of a courtroom.  An offence has been committed, but compassion is shown and pardon is given.  God gives us freely his love and forgiveness, he welcomes us with open arms, he judges us – but pardons us.  By Jesus’ sinlessness in those situations, our penalty is paid.

So yes, we need to live well.  To walk justly, live in the right path, serve others, and walk in God’s ways.  We must be ready to give an account of ourselves.  But when we realise we’ve got it wrong, we can come to God, ask his forgiveness and receive his mercy, his love and his forgiveness – that we might start afresh in his ways.

Posted in forgiveness, hope, justice, Lectionary
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We all need somebody…

•October 1, 2009 • Leave a Comment
Dancers FERNANDO BOTERO

Dancers FERNANDO BOTERO you need someone to dance with!

Then God said, “It is not good for the man to live alone.  I will make a helper who is just right for him.”  (Genesis 2:18).

The passage then goes on to describe God making all the wild animals, and birds of the air, and man naming them – but none of them is quite right to be the perfect helper for man.  He needed one of his own kind.

I am very tempted to make all kinds of comments about men needing women – but I won’t!  But just one joke: Why was Adam created first?  To give him the chance to say something! (sorry!!)

God recognised that it was no good for Adam to be all alone in the world, the only one of his kind.  What I find interesting, and I’m not sure I’d noticed before is that Eve is created because he needs a helper.  They need to work together.  Eve is not put there for Adam to tell her what to do, neither is Eve put there to tell Adam what to do, she is to help him.  They are to help each other – they need each other.

According to the dictionary, helping is about contributing strength, providing what is necessary to accomplish a task, to make easier.  They are in this together, they each bring something, they need each other.  Adam has been placed in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it – but he needs a helper.  The task of looking after the world cannot be accomplished alone by any of us.  We need each other.  We may not want to marry them, but we need other people to help us, for us to help them – for the world to be safe and cared for.

The thought of Adam needing one of his own kind to help is carried through in it’s linked lectionary reading in Hebrews.  God had spoken many times through the prophets, and that was good and helpful.  But now he has also spoken through Jesus – who is not just like us, but is like God in every way.  God has sent a total likeness of himself into the world to help us.  To show us how God’s life should be lived, to hold the universe together – and to show us God’s forgiveness for the times we have got things wrong.

I’m never very good at this “Ooh he/she looks just like great auntie Mabel” when a baby is born.  But we cannot deny family resemblances.  When our eldest son was born, the first time our GP saw him, she said “You’ve no chance of leaving him anywhere!  He is so obviously your son”.  They did turn out to be very prophetic words, the poor boy is very much a “chip off the old block” in looks and ways.  That’s what God knew we needed.  Someone who was a chip off his block.  So that is what he sent, that we might begin to get our head around what he is like.

We all need somebody.  We need people who will help us.  We need God, who shows himself to us in Jesus, who comes as one of us to help us, and share with us – always.

Dancers FERNANDO BOTERO Beyond Limits Chatsworth 2009

Dancers FERNANDO BOTERO Beyond Limits Chatsworth 2009

Posted in God, Lectionary
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