Boasting

Boasting is not regarded as a socially accepted activity, but it happens. Someone will loudly advertise his or her skills and achievements and thereby risk being regarded as a bore, someone to keep well away from at a party – that is, unless you feel that by getting close to that person you can use their influence to further your own cause. 

Though they have never claimed as much, it is thought that the Russians are sending out a proud boast to the world by means of their assumed behaviour in my home city of Salisbury. South Wiltshire is normally a quiet rural area where not very much happens, but is now the centre of worldwide attention because of the recent attack on a former Russian colonel and his daughter by means of a nerve agent. The attackers seem to be proclaiming, “If you step out of line, we can hit you no matter where in the world you may try to flee.” The power of Russia to control events right around the world is therefore being boasted of.

Rulers of empires in Bible times were very much given to boasting too. They had enormous statues made of themselves under which they listed in bombastic detail all the territories they had conquered and all the projects completed. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley imagined one of these in his poem “Ozymandias”:

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Shelley had a healthy disrespect for the bloated pointlessness of this boasting. With the ravages of time it crumbles into dust. God’s people were just as sceptical and with very good reason: their trust was in God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Listen to the reply of David the shepherd boy when mighty Goliath boasted of his gods:

“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied ... that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.” (1 Samuel 17:45-47 ESV)

Christians can boast, too, not necessarily in a God of battles but in the cross where their champion Jesus wins the victory over sin, death and hell:

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast

Save in the death of Christ, my God:

All the vain things that charm me most

I sacrifice them to His blood.

Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

Warnings

In mid-January there was a spate of warnings about how ready Britain was or was not to defend itself and its interests from attack. The headline warning seemed to come from General Sir Nick Carter in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute. He announced that if war were to break out between Britain and Russia, Russia would very likely win. Britain needed to study closely the ways other countries were exploiting international situations to gain advantage to themselves.

Cyber warfare looms as a particular threat. In this interconnected world, mischief makers can bring down whole systems and disrupt people’s everyday lives.

How far the warnings from the military top brass will be heeded is not certain. We have learned to distrust experts. I think of the way in which academic after academic was wheeled on to tell us what disasters would befall us as soon as we voted to leave the EU. In the end, nothing drastic happened, and we won’t be nearly so ready to listen to those experts next time.

Warnings are also part of the armoury of any religion that reaches out to people. The public is just as dismissive of these as it is of other self-styled experts. The man with the sandwich board announcing 

“Prepare to meet thy God” 

has long been a figure of fun. Perhaps, the thinking goes, he’s seen a danger that we can’t see … but then again, he may simply be an addle-brained zealot.

Our mediaeval forebears heard their fair share of warnings from preachers about a future in an eternal hell for those who committed the Seven Deadly Sins. Hell was presented in lurid terms. There is evidence that they took these warnings enormously seriously. They could be driven, for instance, to bequeath stupendous riches to monasteries (which probably didn’t need them) to avoid hell or at least a long period in purgatory.

We no longer have that culture. Even those of us who take Jesus seriously (and I do) when He teaches,

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’” (Mark 9:42-48 ESV)

will most likely not spend nearly as much time worrying about going to eternal torment in hell as our distant ancestors. We have every confidence that the work of Jesus Christ on the cross is sufficient to cover all our sin and keep us clear of hell. But that doesn’t excuse us from being grateful for such a great deliverance and from stirring ourselves into action. “Strive,” counsels the Master:

“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24).

Sad times, joyful times

I write this entry at a time of great sadness. Our much loved church secretary, Dick Cole, who was in fact the sole leader of our church for decades before I arrived, has passed from us. We all feel truly bereft and wondering where we go from here.

The memorial service is billed as a celebration of his life. It was an active life well lived, a cause for many happy memories. The celebratory funeral is frequently called for nowadays – for people to be happy for the life of someone rather than grieve because they’ve passed away.

At the same time, we would all surely agree with the old piece of wisdom says that you have to give people space to grieve – permission to feel sad and lost because somebody that they loved has gone. If you deny them this, you may deprive them of an important means of expressing what they may really feel and, indeed, of moving on.

I know this is by no means the intention of the family in this case. They nurse a great sense of sadness and pain and, I am sure, understand that others will react in the same way too.

In thinking about how Jesus would respond to all of this, I found myself turning to John’s Gospel, where He spoke to His followers about the time when He would no longer be with them on earth. He was trying to prepare them for the event, although they were unable to cope with it and mostly blanked it out of their minds. This is what He told them:

“But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you have asked me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:5-8 ESV)

And then Jesus outlined all the benefits that the Holy Spirit would grant to His followers. He would indeed express the mind of the risen and triumphant Jesus, now reigning in heaven, guiding and directing His people still on Earth.

We can all think how great it would have been had Jesus stayed on: how many more miracles would have been performed, how many more questions answered, how much more depth of impact achieved for the people that Jesus was trying to lead. On the other hand, His sphere of influence did not extend much outside His native area of Palestine in His earthbound days. With the coming of the Holy Spirit the message was able to go, as the Bible says, all through Judea and Samaria and away to the ends of the Earth. It is only by His leaving for heaven that we in our country and day have been able to hear the message and benefit from it. While sharing the first disciples’ disappointment that He had to leave this earth, we rejoice in the outcome.

I guess we were all praying that our church secretary would recover: he certainly put up a tremendous fight for life. But now that he has gone it is just possible that we will be able to face up to certain realities which perhaps we avoided in time past. These are issues we need to grasp hold of in our little fellowship as we face the future. Maybe the cause of Jesus Christ in our village and beyond will benefit as we grapple with these things. Maybe this is a page in the book of our history which was waiting for a line to be drawn at the end of it. That line can only now be drawn and a new page turned. It is to the credit of our secretary, and builds on his legacy, if we can now make up our minds and turn that page.

The Value of Work

This morning I felt really pleased with myself because I had managed to change an electric socket (I’m no handyman). Perhaps I felt even better when I switched on the radio in time to listen to Any Questions.

Imagine my amazement when Leanne Wood, the leader of the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru, talked about a school in Wales that had been built using a Private Funding Initiative (PFI). These are hugely controversial because the contractors who help fund the projects often demand to have a monopoly on maintaining the buildings. This means that they can virtually charge what they like for repairs. In the case of this school they asked for £2500 – to change an electric socket!

I mused about my morning’s activity. It was a job I had put off for months, anxious as I was about the hazards of working with anything electrical and unsure that I could carry it out with any competence. There were many false starts and anxious moments before I completed the wiring, put the socket together again, reconnected the power and tried an appliance on it to see whether it worked. It did. But never in my wildest dreams did I imagine, when I paid £1.29 for a new socket and gave my labour free of charge, that my anxious toil would be worth a four-figure sum of money in the setting of that school. Perhaps I should retrain as an electrician …

There are many circumstances where one person sees more value in a thing than another might do. Estate agents will tend to advise you that a property is worth no more and no less than what someone else is prepared to pay for it – there is no authorised scale of values for such things. And … what about the human soul?

O teach me what it meaneth,

that cross uplifted high,

with One, the Man of Sorrows,

condemned to bleed and die!

O teach me what it cost Thee

to make a sinner whole;

and teach me, Saviour, teach me

the value of a soul!

Lucy Ann Bennett, 1850-1927

Yet, for the man or woman in the street in the secular and materialistic Britain of today, the going rate for the human soul is low and the call for a saviour of souls non-existent. Yet Jesus thought it worth His while to give up His life for sinful souls. Not only that, He also gave up 30 years of the enjoyment of His eternal glory with God His Father, which is a massive enough sacrifice in itself.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31 ESV

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8

Many people are literally dying today for lack of self-worth. Do you recognise how valuable you are to the Saviour? Will you respond to His valuation of you?

A Declaration of No Faith

All over the world, people of various religions are taught that it is good policy to declare your faith. These declarations or confessions of faith come in various forms.

The Christian declaration of faith probably started out with something as simple as:

“Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:11 ESV)

a revolutionary and indeed dangerous truth for that time, because to call Jesus “Lord” would hugely offend both Jews and Romans, for different reasons.

This simple early confession and is elaborated a little in Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 10 verse 9 –

“…  if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Other Christian declarations of faith include the ancient confessions which were drawn up centuries ago, like the Apostles’ creed.

Muslims also are used to reciting or hearing a simple sentence that encapsulates their faith. The Mormons, who knock on our doors from time to time, are taught to declare to whoever they are trying to reach that they believe in a particular point which the other person might have questioned.

But now I discover a new trend. It is a (for me) depressing development which I call a Declaration of No Faith. You meet somebody in the street and you happen to mention something about Christianity to them. Where at one time they may well have nodded politely and then moved the conversation on to another topic, now they will frequently retort quite loudly that they are not religious or don’t believe anything.

It all seems very strange and disturbing. The unbelieving culture used to favour private and personal religion. In this, people keep their beliefs (or non-beliefs) very much to themselves:

“What I believe is private and does not concern anybody else, and I don’t meddle in what others believe”.

If asked to write down on a form what their religion was, those indifferent or unbelieving would once put simply “Christian” as the polite and expected thing to do. But now, with almost missionary zeal, they seem very ready to declare their non-faith that the drop of a hat.

What, I ask, is the point of parading the fact that you believe in nothing? What good does that do you or anyone else? There is no real value to anybody in someone making an offer of nothing.

If only you could meet an equal number of people on the street who would be just as enthusiastic about claiming, 

“For me, Jesus Christ is Lord!” 

Whatever your beliefs, you have to say that that is at least offering something.

Speaking for myself, my thought life and my personal life, the whole quality of my living, are richer and more meaningful because I have met people like that. I am well aware that some of the key points of what we believe will look quaint to sceptics, yet on closer inspection these things have a depth to them that we all need. They are firm and important building blocks for a person’s being and life.

How anyone can be excited about declaring they have nothing to live by beats me. Maybe one day somebody can explain it so that it makes sense to me.

Meanwhile I am glad to regard faith in Jesus Christ as Lord as a precious gift from God which I cherish and invite others to share in.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 ESV.

I may be prepared to look some gift horses in the mouth … but certainly not this one.

Immanuel revisited

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14 ESV)

God tells King Ahaz that He will send him a sign. A virgin would find herself pregnant. This is such a surprising picture that scholars over the ages have tried to argue that the word simply means “young woman”, not “virgin”. However, careful analysis suggests that this word was perhaps the handiest one that our author could have found to describe such a person. Astoundingly, she will go on to bear a son while still a virgin and will have a ready-made name for Him,

“Immanuel ... God with us”.

“God with us” – or, perhaps, “May God be with us”. A cry of despair, perhaps, of a young woman who found herself pregnant and felt that she was about to be publicly shamed? But a cry of alarm would hardly fit the description of someone in receipt of a sign from God, a special, startling message that would make a king sit up and take notice. No, here is somebody who, quite outside the usual order of nature, is pregnant by God’s plan and design without having known a man. What is she going to call this portentous child? This is nothing other than a work of God. This is “God with us”.

Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus (1:18-25) tells us that God dwelling with His people is at the heart of Christmas. Quoting Isaiah 7:14, Matthew points us to Jesus as fulfilling it. This is the One about whom an angel spoke to Mary’s husband-to-be Joseph when he told him that the child would be born by the power of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of being our Saviour. So important is this truth to Matthew that he echoes the Isaiah verse again, right at the end of the gospel, when he quotes the risen Jesus’s words to His disciples:

“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

I, Jesus, am “God with you” – this time by my Holy Spirit.

A Scottish preacher once used these words in a prayer:

“He came a long road tae find us, and a sore travail He had afore He set us free.”

Has the truth of the huge distance in time and space which God covered to find you and transform you really dawned on you yet?

May you have a truly blessed and meaningful Christmas and much to celebrate in this coming year of grace 2018.

Your Invisible Battle

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15 ESV)

These words, not long past the start of the Bible, are often regarded as the first inklings of the great news of salvation which came to fruition in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They are often used near the beginning of services of lessons and carols to mark the opening of the unfolding gospel story.

The serpent has induced Eve (and, through her, Adam) to rebel against God by eating fruit which He has forbidden to them. God has found them out and now pronounces sentence, first to the serpent, then to Eve, then to Adam. The words above are said to the serpent. They predict a battle between his descendants and the woman’s, spanning the generations. They suggest that the woman’s offspring will win, ultimately delivering a fatal blow to the spawn of the serpent.

As this year closes I have been looking at an extraordinary passage in the very last book of the Bible, Revelation. It comes in chapter 12. A pregnant woman with a heavenly crown including twelve stars is about to give birth to a male child. A great red dragon confronts her, eagerly awaiting the birth so that he can devour the child.

The woman is not the iconic Virgin with Child of the postage stamp but most likely Israel, and the twelve stars are the twelve tribes of Israel. The man child is the Messiah to whom Israel gives rise. The dragon is His enemy and ours, the Devil. Happily the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will win.

We are too little aware of the unseen spiritual war that is going on around us.

It reminds me of something I experienced years ago. It was in connection with the security of the manse I was going to live in when I moved to Banbury as a minister. Unknown to me, a church official had long since directed that security bolts be fitted to the windows of the manse.

One week I was away on holiday. I had dutifully activated the security bolts before I left. Thieves at some stage tried to get in. The security was just enough. There was one weak point where they probed very hard indeed, but they didn’t get in. A battle to make my property more burglar-proof had been won - though I did not even know till later that it had taken place.

There is a spiritual battle going on around each one of us that is every bit as real. We may never suspect the unseen forces that are trying to destroy us and our interests. Yet they are absolutely real. Let nobody kid you that Satan doesn’t exist.

Believe also in the existence of a God of battles who fights for you. His Son, Jesus, prays for us, that our “faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32). And the praying Saviour is the Saviour who wins - despite the fact that He seemed to be defeated on the cross.

Do you know the battle that is going on around you? Your children? Your friends and family? Take nothing for granted.

Don’t ever underestimate the strength, the cunning, the determination of Satan. But also don’t overestimate how vulnerable Jesus seems to be. Satan may be the comeback kid, but our Jesus always has the last word.

Salvation to God
Who sits on the throne!
Let all cry aloud,
And honour the Son:
The praises of Jesus,
The angels proclaim,
Fall down on their faces
And worship the Lamb.

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

And to end with the words of Revelation 11:15 that Handel harnessed so magnificently in the Messiah:

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”