We live in a finite world yet we have a God of abundance. The way we live is based on finite resources, and the fear of things running out is deep within us, we are biased towards preventing famine. We feel fear when we see empty supermarket shelves, we know that there is always a chance that famine will afflict us and we will not have enough.

We bring this attitude to our faith because our brain is almost hardwired to think like this, as our survival as humans has depended on it for millennia. So when I said last night that ‘one drop of Gods love is enough for the whole world’ I was raising up an image of something impossible.

Our reading this morning included the lines

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ,
King of endless glory.

Endless Glory, endless love this is remarkable. It really is, we do not come to God and hope he has enough love left today, perhaps the last person who came took the last bit.

Remember this story when the people of Israel in the desert were afflicted by snakes in Numbers 21:7-9

The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

Well there was no limit to how many people could be saved each day. If you were bitten by a snake you did not think ‘oh dear, quick, there might not be any saving power left perhaps the bronze snake has run out of blessing’

No all it takes is a look and the blessing never runs out. The Love of God never runs out, we can never hear him saying, 'sorry I am all used up today, wait until tomorrow’. His love is truly endless and this is so alien to our existence that we never cease to be amazed.

One drop of his love is enough for the whole world. That is why it is free because there is no shortage, it will not run out with war or famine, there is no inflation there is no point keeping it in the bank, we can give it away because we can always get some more.

God’s Love is endless.

Why have one St. George when you can have two?

A thought about being certain of our calling in mission, and a note about how relationship trumps organisation.

Being on mission should be full of certainty and clear vision, in order to leave home and enter into a foreign culture, to leave the familiar comforts of home and family and become surrounded by strangeness, should require a great certainty of faith. Our call as missionaries is strong enough to overcome the homesickness and the fear that is ever present when you are a foreigner in a strange land.

But it is not like that it seems, we are forever full of doubts and the way is always unclear, there is little certainty. But there is just enough certainty. When we accepted the call to come here to Lebanon we rejected the possibility of going to Africa. This was because we were more familiar with Africa and feared that we would go there confident in ourselves. Coming here to the Middle East we knew would require us to depend more upon God and less on ourselves. This has proved to be true.

We are on mission in weakness the only good things we can do are those that are done with God. What I mean is that if we work with great confidence and strength we may achieve something but it can be difficult to work out if the results have come about because of our own skill and what is God’s eternal result. It is revealed when we leave the field and the pieces of our work that remain give testimony to the work of God in the world.

Returning to my point today, in mission we have just enough certainty to keep us depending on God, we are continually calling out to him to show us what to do next. You would have thought after 4 years in a place it would be pretty easy but no, the way ahead is still unclear and waiting for God to act is just the normal place to be. This dependency upon Him is a good place to be, it makes my prayer life more real, and it undermines my pride, it is not comfortable and often means that when asked by our friends our answers can seem weak and we sound unsure of ourselves. But slowly I am learning that this is a good thing.

a note

Our uncertainty has come about because we are administrators and came on mission to help the local church be better organised. We come as servants but that is not understood in the way we expected. Yet we do see God working.

We have found that our skills of administration although greatly needed are not welcomed whether we have tried to enforce organisation with strength or to gently introduce it the result has been rejection and pain. But in the midst of this confusion we have seen some beautiful things happen despite our personal frustrations. It is often said that the Middle East is a relational culture and that is where we have seen things happen, relationships are important, more important than organisation and the stories of God’s work has been around relationships not organisations.

In fact organisations here including the church are deeply flawed for many reasons, but probably essentially because of the need to keep relationships as more important than any system or procedure which an organisation might attempt to have. This is why we have seen in this context, that a work or ministry is attached to a person, for instance a church ministry belongs essentially to the pastor and when the pastor moves on or dies the ministry goes with him. It is inconceivable in this context that it can be handed on to someone else because with someone else it would be different.

House destroyed by Beirut Blast Aug 4th 2020

Mark 14 41-42 Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

I was reading the familiar story of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, it is an important part of the story of the passion of Jesus in the hours before the crucifixion. And this one word struck me

ENOUGH!

Before this the story is relatively safe, we see Jesus talking seriously about many things preparing his disciples for the future ahead, then we see him gathering with a few friends to pray needing their support. It is a beautiful scene of his humanity he is burdened beyond belief with his destiny and suffering and needing his friends yet they fall asleep.

Then eventually after all the preparation it cannot alter what is happening now, Jesus says enough, let us go and face the betrayal.

There comes a moment when we need to draw a line and say enough, enough analysis, enough praying, enough discussion, enough time has passed it is time to move.

Even if moving on means facing failure and shame.

From that moment when Jesus said enough, it is as though the gloves were off and all becomes chaos, safety is abandoned and we see betrayal, violence, noisy mobs and political manipulation, tragedy and pain, abandonment and loss, disappointment and crisis.

The gloves were off indeed from that moment on we see the action begin, before this the whole history in the old testament and Jesus birth and life up to this moment were just preparation.

When Jesus said  

‘ENOUGH’

He meant it, everything is ready and now I can move on and from this point on Heaven will come down to earth, the world is ready to see what God can do. From that moment on though the disciples did not yet see it they would soon be taking the news to the whole world.

Enough preparation God is moving on the earth. Today we see individuals in the farthest corners of the world are receiving this message. Enough of the old life, they are receiving a new life.

A life that does not lie down and accept injustice and sickness, but fights against them because they have ruled for long enough.

A life that does not abandon the broken and handicapped the poor and the sick but does something about them.

A life that does not accept that ignorance is acceptable but brings education to those without any hope

A life that is prepared to face the shame and failure because knowing Jesus is worth all the suffering because having once tasted his love there is no going back

A life that says our environment is meant for us to live and thrive in and we have ignored it for long enough

A life that says enough of the evil that men continually invent we will continually fight them for the sake of the future.

If you listen carefully to your own heart maybe you can find something that has gone on for long enough, and it is time to draw a line and see the new life that is found on the other side of that line.

Jesus said

Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

We also go where he went. It is not safe it can be chaotic and disturbing, decidedly uncomfortable and full of unwanted passions. Yet in this we find a richness of life that is not available any other way. I see this in the faces of my friends who have suffered and say that their faith is greater because of that suffering. They have fought to find faith when met by betrayal and injustice and they have found it, and it was worth it. Faith like this is the faith that changes the world for everyone.

Faith like this says, ‘Enough!’

Every Background Under The Sun

Acts 10.34-35 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

I am thinking today about the situation we have in mission where we refer to new believers with reference to the background they have come from. According to their background they will face different challenges which is why we make the distinctions, but essentially we are all disciples following Jesus just like Peter and the centurion in Acts chapter 10.

For instance we may have a new believer who comes from a Muslim background, this becomes abbreviated to an MBB which is a ‘Muslim Background Believer’. They face particular challenges because this is viewed as apostasy by the Muslim community and is punishable by death. Also while they have many of the same old testament stories and also know about Jesus theirs is a different understanding and it needs to be reinterpreted for them.

Then we also have people who have come from a Christian background knowing the tradition but perhaps not the faith, who then awaken to a new and living faith in Jesus, these can be called Christian Background Believers abbreviated to CBB. Here I particularly think of a friend from Iraq whose business was burnt to the ground by Islamic fundamentalists because he was a Christian, he and his family fled for their lives. But when he came to Lebanon he started asking what is it about Christianity that makes Islam so angry. As his questions were answered his Christian faith came alive and prayer and worship were now things he wanted to do and not a duty. His whole life became alive and his Christian traditions suddenly made sense to him.

I am used to talking with Christians here in Lebanon who find it difficult to believe that a Muslim would ever become a Christian and they say they only do it to receive help from the church or to get a visa to travel to the West. Undoubtedly there are some MBB’s where this is true but not all and many who started like this have been won over completely by the gospel message and the love of the Christians.

But here in Lebanon we are seeing a new thing, the economic crises are causing the Lebanese Christians to search for answers in their own faith and the evangelical churches are seeing many CBB coming regularly to Sunday services and attending prayer meetings. Here we see an awakening of their dormant faith, the Good News is changing lives for the good.

But here is the thing, I was talking to an MBB and he was saying about the CBB’s he see’s in his church, he says ‘they aren’t real Christians they are talking the talk but they are not walking the walk’. They are both new christians in their way and we all struggle to walk the walk. How sad it is that we are so quick to find fault with each other simply based on a persons background. Peter had to learn this by revelation in the verse quoted at the top in Acts chapter 10. We all make judgements based on past experience or hearsay and can easily deny the truth when God is doing a ‘new thing’. By definition we cannot view the ‘new things’ with the old lenses.

Let us expect and believe that Jesus is doing a new thing, and look to see it springing forth from every background under the sun. New Life is being born when the Good News of Jesus encounters a humble repentant heart.

Isaiah 43.19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Creation

We come now to the last cause of separation, well actually it is the catch all, the miscellaneous, the expression is ….. nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God… If there is anything missing in the list, do not worry there is still nothing that can separate us.

If tomorrow we were to discover some dreadful new thing that is opposed to God’s Love Paul is reminding us that God’s love will still be stronger. God’s Love is stronger than the unknown.

Creation is an aspect of our faith that I personally appreciate deeply, there is so much of the created world around us that draws me closer to God, inspires worship and reminds me of the nature of God. From a great mountain panorama down to the intricacies of the minute flowers of the field, I am constantly being thrilled and surprised at the patterns and creativity on display. When I see a flower breaking through the cracks in the pavement in the human cityscapes that most of us live in, I am excited because I am reassured that humans are not as powerful as they pretend and there is still some aspects of life that are free of the concrete.

Creation is trendy, we are living in a season where there is a great deal of thought and effort being put into how we should relate to the creation. Well at least in the more affluent developed parts of the world. Living here in the Middle East and also considering the subsistence farming that still occupies much of the world, I think they are not really occupied in the same way.

When we consider simply how creation separates us from God’s Love I see another twin aspect, two different opposing attacks that Paul would have recognised in his churches.

Firstly creation and the created world was a problem to be overcome, farming, fishing getting food to live involved taming and battling nature in order to extract our food from a hostile world. Famine was a real threat. There are also natural predators that constrain the lives of everyone, maybe the large predators were not present such as Sabre Toothed tigers, but snakes and scorpions are even today threats found in the nature around us. This fear of nature causing us harm can hinder us in connecting with the Love of God because such fears cause a loss of trust. But Paul says that these things are not to be seen as any threat to our connection with a Loving God because God is our security. Rather than depending on our shelter for protection from storms or our storehouses for protection from famine, we are to depend on the the Love of God.

Secondly coming from the completely opposite angle the created world is so stunningly beautiful that many have found themselves worshipping it instead of the creator who made it. Taking created things and making them part of our happiness and security instead of relying on an invisible God has been a consistent problem for humans throughout time. This separates us from God’s Love because we are being disobedient (sinful) and will feel guilty, and also because the idol will always deceive us and let us down eventually.

What about other Humans

Anything else in all creation includes other humans and although we talked about powers and status we have not yet discussed our own humankind. Just prior to our passage Paul talked about this in romans 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered."…..

Paul deals with the familiar human problem in his list there and still says confidenty nothing is stronger than the love of God even in the most cruel and destructive human activity. It is the words and actions of humans that have probably caused the most separation between us and God’s Love. We have been assailed by criticism and violence, unjustly treated or simply ignored, sometimes in the name of Christ, these things can be too much to bear. At Easter, we see our Lord Jesus also suffered these things and we know that we have a true friend and that God in Jesus understands us.

Romans 8 has two lists of things that can separate us I have picked up the second concluding one because it encompassed everything including human interference.

Between the two lists there is an interesting statement.

Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

I have not dwelt upon this connecting verse because it worried me somewhat, the expression ‘more than conquerors’ rings alarm bells, lest we use it to claim our own superiority over other people. I see the idea of being a conqueror as associated with my own vindication in the eyes of the world and therefore an instant remedy to my vulnerable status. But I am happy to consider it now in this Holy week, when we see what it means to be more than a conqueror, we see Jesus crucified and only in him is my own vulnerability truly understood. In this true understanding, my weaknesses enter into a silent tomb before breaking forth on Easter Sunday with a cry of victory. In this cry we are indeed more than conquerors, not over anybody else, but over the sin which is the cause of all the suffering in the world, our own sin and our persecutors sin. In this way I can avoid the trap of pride, by always seeing my conquering through the eyes of the cross of Jesus Christ crucified.

As I say creation is trendy, and I would wish to talk a lot about the issues and challenges that I see but this is Pauls word to the Romans and he was not really being trendy here. I will save my thoughts for another day.

But I woud say that the fear of famine and disease which was common to human life since we started out on this planet, explains a lot of our problems with caring for our planet. Paul speaking into his world was more aware than we are, that nature being ‘red in tooth and claw’ took no prisoners but killed humans easily. He was speaking to a people who understood nature only in terms of this battle for security. If our security is in God rather than in our ability to tame the natural world, then we are better placed to make decisions about how to look after it. Our nature unfortunately is conditioned over millennia to fight hard to avoid famine, and now we have the tools to do it. Our modern technology has the ability to shape the whole planet to prevent us suffering famine. But in our time we have also seen that the world is too complex and just because we can do it does not mean that we should. But if we should not tame the natural world in this way what can we do? These questions are the ones facing the world more clearly each day it seems.

Summary

• Anything in all creation includes the unknown and undefined futures
• Fear of famine (death) and disease are normal but God’s Love is greater
• Worship of created things is a trap, idols always deceive
• Humans are the biggest causes of separation but our Jesus experienced this and understands
• We can be more than conquerors only through the cross of Christ

Our message is so powerful, it overcomes all our fears and makes us see things in a completely new way. As we consider creation I think of the power in seeds, and God’s word is like a seed. Jesus as he approached the cross used this image to explain what was going to happen.

John 12:23-25 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

As we travel through this Easter we sow seeds and though they appear to die they contain the ‘germ’ of life and will bring forth new life with the dawn on Easter Sunday.

He is Risen, I am Risen, Alleluiah!

Space

After a lot of invisible things in Pauls list in Romans 8 38-39 we are now considering more physical things in our list.

For I am convinced that ….. neither height nor depth….. can separate from the Love of God..

We are now considering perhaps less spiritual things or at least how the physical world can influence the spiritual. In our western worldview we tend to hold physical and spiritual as quite separate things but in the East there is a lot of overlap and the scriptures and the world of Jesus would have had no problem seeing that everything is interrelated.

Where can we go to escape God? Nowhere. There is no place we can go to hide, the whole physical world is open to God he is everywhere and we cannot escape him. Alternatively, there are no special places that are more sacred where Jesus is more present.

Sure, there are places that can help us connect better, places where we are less distracted and more centred but that is about us sorting ourselves out. God will come to us wherever we are when we call to him, if we remember in the Garden of Eden God does not always wait for us to call, sometimes He comes looking for us. Conversely there are places where it is difficult for us to connect with God especially if those places awaken our sinful nature and these are places we should choose to avoid if possible.

We can if we so choose, use space to separate us from God, we can rearrange our lives so there is no reminder of him. We can avoid visiting places such as churches where we are reminded that He wants to connect to us. We may live in a context where Christ is not recognised and any symbols of him are removed, but that does not make any difference if we desire to connect with Him, he is still there and waiting for us. We can therefore if we so choose, also use space to draw close to him, we can build a sanctuary surrounded by things that help us or visit places that help us to focus and reduce the distractions that are around us and also those within us.

Finding a physical space where we are more rested and feel secure and at peace, can be a positive help. Initially when finding this quiet place, we can feel the rush of distraction and imperative demands which can be quite disturbing. But with practice and perseverance we can learn not only to find a quiet place but also to quiet our own soul, to still the mind and learn to listen in the stillness.

What about the heights and depths of the emotional world?

When I was defining this Lenten series I saw heights and depths as referring simply to the physical world, our immediate environment. But on discussion with my wife she pointed out that this can also refer to the emotional world, it is also subject to the expression heights and depths. I find it quite amusing that it needed my wife to point this out to me, we men can be a bit dense sometimes.

And yes, whatever our emotional world is like, there cannot be anything in it that can separate us from the love of God. This does not mean that we can always feel his presence. Indeed a lot of the time our feelings deceive us and can cause us to doubt. Again Paul draws attention to the two sides and says that neither can cause a separation. The obvious separation is the feeling when we are in the depths, the ‘slough of despond’ or worse actual depression, separation from God’s love could almost be a definition of this place, and it is difficult to see where or how God’s love could ever reach us. Yet this word from Paul reassures that God is greater and although we feel separate that feeling is a lie.

John also writes in 1 John 3:19-20  

19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 

……God is greater than our heart….This is a great comfort.

The other extreme would be the heights, the high or happy feeling which can be a trap simply because it is such a nice thing. If God’s Love was only there when we felt good about life then it would be a pretty shallow thing and not to be depended upon. If we commit ourselves to always being happy and needing everything to be in a good place we have allowed our feelings to tell us whether God Loves us or not. This is also a lie, God Loves us whether we feel good or bad and we must avoid the temptation to associate God’s love with particular feelings and not others.

But certainly  we need to learn the right appreciation of our feelings they are there to be enjoyed and when we are aware of their place in our lives we can find a freedom. Our feelings are not our masters that is a place only God can take. Yet to deny our feelings any place in our lives can remove us from one of the aspects of our humanity that we should be able to enjoy.

The Easter story is very much about spaces or places and feelings. We have very important places which carry great significance, and each place carries also an abundance of feelings. So as we approach Holy week we will encounter these places afresh and we will travel through depths and heights of emotion with our Lord Jesus. From the Last supper with friends, on to the Garden of Gethsemane with the earth shaking tears and the closeness of Jesus with the Heavenly Father, and then through the pain of Betrayal in the same place. The public trial and shame in a unjust courtroom, on to the place of the skull and the crucifixion. Then the silence and mystery of the Tomb when time stood still, followed by the transforming of the place of death into a sepulchre of resurrection.

Everything is transformed though. The room of the last supper was transformed into a place where Jesus walks through walls and shows his scars. The garden of gethsemane has been superseded by the mount of transfiguration. All these physical places are associated with Jesus’ journey amongst us and speak to us in our own heights and depths.

Summary

1. God is everywhere and we cannot escape Him
2. He is there when we need Him wherever we are
3. Our feelings can deceive us both heights and depths
4. Our feelings are not though to be despised
5. Easter is rich with heights and depths both physical, emotional and spiritual.
6. Jesus rose from the dead transforming the deepest darkest chasm into the triumphant light of God’s Love.

We can go anywhere without fear of separation from God’s Love. This word encourages us to walk confidently through the darkest valley and happily through the green pastures of Psalm 23.

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;

he leads me beside still waters;

3 he restores my soul.

He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil;

for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

Status

In our list of things that can separate us from God’s Love most of the things are listed in pairs but this week there is just one item. There is no ‘power’ that can separate us from the Love of God, let us just stop there a minute and consider what that means, it is very simple and very reassuring to know there is no power able to separate us from God’s Love.

Why is this so comforting, is it because we are small insignificant humans surrounded by all sorts of powerful things that threaten to overwhelm us, storms, earthquakes, diseases, wars, large predators. We are clever and resourceful because we have to be, because on our own we do not possess enough power. We are therefore very relieved to know that our God is more powerful than anything.

Power is invisible, and power without control is dangerous, the world land speed record is 763 mph and if anything unexpected happens at that speed like a stone or  pothole the car can so quickly lose control and disintegrate. Yet we are all on the surface of a planet revolving at over 1000mph on the equator. And this planet is itself hurtling through space at 67,000 mph around the sun. If the Earth were to hit a solid stationary object (like a ‘brick wall’) there would be a big mess. The power involved is beyond our comprehension. Yet we can sit here in our kitchen and calmy boil a kettle and talk about how long a 2Kw kettle takes to boil a litre of water.

You see power is contained in the laws of physics and because it is predictable we can manage it and we are safe. So it is with God he has defined the rules around us so we are secure within these rules.

Therefore, physical power cannot separate us from God’s Love, but what about spiritual power. Well we have already referred to angels and demons, and the same logic would seem to apply they are constrained by the power of God which is greater.

But I have labelled this section status, because there is another sense to the word power which we are all very familiar with, that is the power of humans both individually and in community. Status particularly refers to

the amount of respect, admiration, or importance given to a person, organization, or object

The power of people we are talking about are the powers we know here on a daily basis, namely human power whether that be physical brute force or political power.

Power and status are related as follows

Power, defined as the ability to get what one wants despite resistance, and status, defined as a position in a group based on respect or esteem, both lead to influence.

We are very familiar with this power we have to navigate our way through this maze of expectations and obligations every day. We try to keep our dignity in the midst of threats of many kinds and can feel threatened and afraid because of the society in which we live. We gain influence and in turn we are influenced. Unlike the laws of physics there are variable laws of human social interaction, which form forever moving goalposts. And it is very tiring.

Yet we are reminded by our passage in Romans that God is greater. Jesus thankfully came as a person of low status politically and suffered death as a criminal with no status, yet at Easter all over the world ordinary low status people rejoice that this Jesus is greater than all, he is now Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

For some people naming Jesus as saviour has direct implications for status and ability to find work and friendship. The choice is obvious and although life is hard their testimony is that this cannot separate from the Love of God.

But the other way this comes to us is from within, when we desire status, when we look to have the respect of society then we can be tempted to scorn the things of faith, to compromise on moral issues and to separate ourselves from brothers and sisters. The thought police can try and limit our speech and cause more division so that we find ourselves hiding behind a series of barricades and that can come between us and God’s love.

Our status in society is important to us and Paul challenges us with these words. If we see a conflict between our walk of faith and our status, then we must choose the walk of faith. The challenge then is to trust that God will give us the status we need to continue to walk in this world. We must surrender our status into his care and let him protect it if we are to stay close to his Love.

The love of our status in the west is closely linked to our lifestyle and there can be difficult choices sometimes. The allure of status is subtle and addictive the loss of status is painful. Our status should come from our place before God rather than our place before men. Our status in our community is sometimes threatened by moral choices which are very complicated.

Daniel was given a clear choice and chose to suffer loss of status rather than become separated from God’s love. And God restored his status after the going through the lion’s den. May we also learn to rely on obedience for our status rather than our own wisdom.

And the best possible example is that of Peter denying Jesus in Matt 26:69-75 three times Peter was too afraid of his own status and even his safety just because of association with Jesus, and as Jesus had told him the just hours earlier he failed to live up to his own standard. This is a key part of the Easter story look it up now and feel the tears that Peter cried as we identify with his weakness. Yet later Peter became the chief spokesperson for the disciples, this is only possible when we relinquish our need to have our own power for the freedom that is found in living in the power of Jesus. Freedom from power and the need for power is a real freedom that is a key part of our Gospel story shown in the weakness of Jesus on a cross where all the power of God was displayed in weakness.

Summary

• We are weak and vulnerable, but we are comforted to know that God is ‘all powerful’.
• Power is all around us physical and spiritual powers are both subject to God’s laws and cannot separate us with our permission.
• Power is invisible
• Power and status and lifestyle present moral dilemma’s that can quietly seduce us into thinking we are able to ‘have it all’
• Peter and the crowing cockerel is a perfect example of our own need to protect our own power (status).
• Jesus had all the power available yet lived a perfect life without needing to use it

If we try and protect our status and stay close to God’s Love then we are sure to fail, but if we are focused on staying in God’s Love whatever our status, we can trust God to give us the status we need.

I want to create a new word to counter the word ‘powerful’ because we are never powerful the power is always God’s power. Rather than being powerful we find in Christ we are ‘powerfree’.

Time

This week we move onto the next pair of things Paul talks about as having the potential to separate from the Love of God.

Romans 8:38….. neither the present nor the future,…

Here Paul confidently states nether the past nor the future can separate us from the Love of God.

We are people who inhabit time and space, and we are very aware of this, a lot of our thinking is spent trying to manage our navigation through this arena. For instance, we make plans to visit friends and we have to work out both a good time to meet and work out how to be in the same place at that time.

Our past also affects our future, for instance we know very well that in the past things have sometimes gone badly for us, and we can therefore predict that in the future given a similar set of circumstances things could go badly for us again. You could say that our memories of our past control our ideas about the future. Both of these things can have a big impact upon the present moment and how you feel about life.

Our current state of mind, our expectations of the future are therefore coloured by our past experiences, and we can spend a lot of time dealing with these issues. There is much to consider here and probably some deep psychology which may be needed but I am not qualified to write about that. But it is important to think about these challenges and not allow them to separate us from God and his love even if we need help to unravel it.

What I would say is that when Jesus and Nicodemus in John chpt 3 talked about being ‘Born Again’ we have a powerful way of seeing how it is that God can take us and remake us whatever our past history.

How can time separate from God, well when we say that we will be blessed in the future but not now, when we say that in another time then we will have time to pray, then we are allowing time to separate us. Now is the only moment we have control over, the past is fixed and the future is unknown, but now is the moment that is for us. I would like to say that God is imminent for each one of us, it is a wonderful mystery that our God can be with us always and at all times. We don’t have to wait while he is finishing up with the previous client before we have His full attention.

I chose the word ‘imminent’ because it has the meaning like immediate of ‘about to happen’. I like the idea that our connection with God is not a static thing we watch impassively but it is something that happens. Being connected to God’s Love is an event and it changes things.

This great mystery is I believe an important part of the kingdom of Heaven that Jesus brought when he came to earth. When we say the kingdom of heaven has come down to earth we are talking about this connection with God that cannot be broken. It is not a kingdom in a political sense it is something else, less tangible maybe but just as exciting.

Jesus came at a fixed point in time and demonstrated that by living in a fixed time and place it was possible to fulfil the purposes of God and to defeat the evil that tries to hold us captive. By accepting the challenge of being present in a fixed time he was then resurrected to become present again for all of us in all our times.

There is no time like the present.

Summary

The past can affect the present moment

The past can affect the future

The future can be ‘born again’

God is imminent or present for us and this is the Kingdom of God Now

Ps. I love the fact that the word present refers both to a point in time and place and a gift. We have been given the present of the presence of God in the present moment.

Spiritual Life

Spiritual definition = relating to peoples thought and beliefs, rather than their bodies and physical surroundings

As a scientific person I have some problems it is hard to be precise about anything here and definitions are hard to pin down. Angels and demons would definitely come under the heading of supernatural but I was thinking to look at the spiritual under the same heading. Therefore I asked Google

‘what is the difference between supernatural and spiritual?,

One answer was

‘Given that no one can ever define what they mean by “spiritual” a definitive answer is unlikely….’

I am not going to define these things either just to say that science, and logical structured thinking may not be helpful and language itself is also inadequate. Words we can use like wonder, mystery and even love itself give a better sense of what we are talking about I think. Anyway let us not be afraid to go further just because the words we use are inadequate.  

Under the heading of Spirituality, I am referencing where Paul talks about Angels and Demons, what I mean by referring to these as ‘spirituality’ is that that there is a realm, a dimension if you like which is not visible to us and which we can only vaguely appreciate. I doubt that there any humans who are expert in this it is beyond our natural comprehension. This is the place for stories and fantasies where weird and wonderful things happen which are normally impossible in our created physical world.

In modern language we can think of ‘aliens’ or ‘superpowers’ and in books and films we have fantasy and sci-fi genres and because of this we are able to imagine many possibilities as to how this dimension operates but there is no definition and certainly no science. Paul assures us that neither demons nor angels can separate us and we need not be afraid of them, like a hurricane or an earthquake they may have power which we cannot truly comprehend but that does not matter. They come under God’s authority they are only able to operate inside His will, which means something quite profound. God is still connected to us even when we don’t understand what is going on. It is not up to us to understand what to believe about the spiritual realm we can trust him. I would suggest that there is no way we can possibly understand this realm except that it is under the authority of God our Heavenly Father.

Again we are presented with two cause of separation like life and death where one seems obvious and one seems a bit odd. I mean it is obvious that demons and the demonic world would be actively trying to separate us from God’s Love. But Angels? Why are they listed here? Well we have the benefit of hindsight, I think we can see that in the history of the church Angels have appeared and have indeed interfered in the lives of saints, but it seems whenever or wherever these events occur there is a need to make some sort of shrine or holy relic and these things become a problem. Humans are apt to turn to superstition and worship the inanimate objects and even the Angel rather than only worship God. We have access to our loving heavenly father, every individual has the same access and no medium or intermediary is required. In fact, I think this substitution of other things or people for a direct connection is positively harmful to us.

I love the story of St Antony of the desert fathers who one day was praying and saw a vision of many angry demons and monsters being aggressive to him and in his praying vision (whatever that is) he said to them. ‘I know that you cannot harm me, because if you had any authority to do me harm then there would only be one of you, but because you cannot harm me you are trying to frighten me with your numbers and aggressive ways. Begone!’

There are many things that we cannot understand but that is no reason for our connection to stop if anything it drives us to be more connected. We are sensibly afraid of power that we don’t understand but we can take shelter in the presence of one who is bigger than both the alien power and also our own fears.

Summary

The spiritual world – is not visible and not easily explained, this can seem alien yet to God it is familiar and He is greater we should not be worried

Demons are against us but God is greater

Angels are for us but we must not become distracted or overly fascinated

We need to be connected to God to navigate the spiritual world

At Easter we see a physical cross and see a physical Death, and we see evidence of a spiritual battle with Angels and Demons. At this moment in physical history all physical and spiritual worlds met in one place and Jesus through his physical death released all physical and spiritual worlds from bondage and restored the right relationship with the creator Heavenly Father God.

Let everything that has breath praise Him.