The Vicars Husband

[Day 188]

Matthew 23.1-3

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples.  “The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses.  Therefore do whatever they tell you and observe it.  But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach…”

My Father used to joke, “Do what I say, not what I do!”  One of my concerns being a parent now myself, is that children are very good at recognising hypocrisy.  Our actions need to match our words – we need to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

Jesus tells His disciples to listen to the scribes and the Pharisees and be obedient to what they say.  Now, they have just been questioning Jesus and trying to catch Him out – so you’d be forgiven for thinking that Jesus might be harsh with them and tell His followers, “Whatever you do, pay no attention to those scoundrels!”

But the key to what Jesus says is in the phrase, “…seated in the chair of Moses…”  The scribes and the Pharisees represent the Law given by God to Moses himself.  Therefore the scribes and Pharisees speak with the authority handed down by God to Moses and passed through the generations.

Sometimes it’s easy to criticise those in spiritual authority over us – our vicars, rectors, archdeacons, bishops, even archbishops.  But we need to pay attention to these words of Jesus and humble ourselves and submit to the authority of those that God has put over us.

But as obedient as we are to their words, we need to be careful not to simply copy the actions of others, especially if they are wrong actions. 

Indeed, I would go even further than that and say it is not a question of copying; not a question of “What Would Jesus Do (WWJD)?” or “What would the vicar do?”  Rather it’s about having a close and personal relationship with our Heavenly Father, and knowing His heart and being obedient to His commands – while at the same time submitting ourselves to the authority of those over us.

What is God saying?

I believe that God is saying: 

Light pouring into St Mary’s Church, first in spots and then flooding the whole building

[Day 187]

Luke 20.34-38

Jesus told them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.  But those who are counted worthy to take part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.  For they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and the sons of God, since they are sons of the resurrection… He is not the God of the dead but of the living, because all are living to Him.”

I love being married.  In fact, one of the startling things I find about heaven is that when we die, even though both Sarah and I will be heaven, we won’t be married to each other anymore.  In a way, that makes me feel quite sad.  But it shouldn’t really.  The reality is that God has got something better than that planned.

It might be hard for us to comprehend what could possibly be better than a perfect (and in heaven it would be perfect) marriage union. 

But the thing that is better than that is the union God promises us with Himself.  All our energy and love and affection will be poured into worshipping our God.

These verses are in answer to a question from the Sadducees, who are trying to trick Jesus.  They didn’t believe in resurrection, so, they thought, by asking Him a complicated question about the legitimate husband of a woman who married seven times, they could prove that resurrection was not a reality.

They forget two things.  First, that throughout Scripture it is clear that the dead are raised.  God, as Jesus says, is still the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Second, getting bogged down in the minutiae of the Law is never going to disprove God’s plans and His eternal Word.

That tells us of a time when we will be with our Heavenly Father forever, enjoying Him and delighting in being in His presence.

What is God saying?

I believe that God is saying: 

It’s Autumn and a good time to get snuggling in the warmth inside.  Are you used to being that close to the Lord?  Take time today to enjoy being in His presence

[Day 186]

Matthew 21.13; 22

And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer’, but you are making it a den of thieves!’ “…And if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer”

I wonder what we think of when we talk of a ‘house of prayer’.  Maybe we think of some nice quiet and tranquil spot.  Maybe we think of candles and smooth stones with gentle music and even a water feature trickling quietly.

Prayer is not ‘quiet time’.  It is dynamic time.  Jesus says, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”  And He gives the example, “If you tell this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’, it will happen.”

Prayer is knowing the heart of God and having the faith to believe His eternal word.  That is why using the Temple as a means of extorting money from the poor was such an outrageous thing to Jesus.

The start of Pope Benedict’s visit to the UK has provoked the expected amount of media hyperbole and secularist vitriol.  Among the comments that caught my attention was one by the Government Minister Baroness Warsi.  She said that the Government would “create policies to unleash the positive power of faith in our society”.

I suspect that if Christians prayed with the faith that Jesus talks about in this passage, that any government policy to unleash our power would be completely insignificant!  For goodness sake, we have power to move mountains!

But although governments, however well meaning, cannot unleash that power, we certainly can, as we allow the Holy Spirit to course through our veins.  And as that happens, then God’s temple – our bodies – will truly be honouring houses of prayer to Him and for His glory.

What is God saying?

I believe that God is saying: 

Picture: A ‘Pentecost’ wind howling through St Mary’s Church.  It began in the hall and went through to the church.  It was incredibly powerful – everyone in the packed hall was prostrate on their faces.

[Day 185]

John 12.3

Then Mary took a pound of fragrant oil – pure and expensive nard – anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped His feet with her hair.  So the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil

A pound of fragrant oil is a huge amount.  There is so much significance in this single act.  By pouring oil on Jesus Mary recognises that Jesus is the Messiah – in Hebrew Meschiach, which literally means ‘the anointed one’.

Oil was poured over someone in recognition of them being anointed – chosen and set aprt – by God.  Instead of a crown during coronations, Hebrew kings were anointed with oil.  The amazing aroma that stayed for days would have been like an invisible crown.

Everyone who smelled like that would have been instantly recognisable in a Jewish setting as someone who belonged to God in a special way.  He would have had a royal aroma.

And the smell would have lingered around for many days.  Imagine, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; Jesus on trial mocked by Roman soldiers; Jesus whipped and stripped and beaten.  And, here’s the amazing thing – all the time smelling with a royal aroma, an invisible crown, the Messiah, the anointed one.

But the story goes on – right up to today.  Paul writes to the Corinthians, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.  For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.” (2 Corinthians 2.14-16).

Mary’s act wasn’t just a generous act.  It wasn’t simply preparing Jesus for His burial.  It was an amazing act that symbolised in a striking way Jesus’ anointed Messiah-ship throughout His final days. 

And, still more amazingly, it is the same fragrance of being anointed that God pours out on us.  I guess the question is – what do you smell of?

What is God saying?

I believe that God is saying:

The only thing that matters is that you smell sweetly to the Lord.  And because of Jesus you do!

[Day 184]

Mark 10.46-52

And as He was leaving Jericho… Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road.  When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!”  Many people told him to keep quiet, but he was crying out all the more, “Have mercy on me, Son of David!”… “Go your way,” Jesus told him.  “Your faith has healed you.”  Immediately he could see and began to follow Him

Bartimaeus must have thought this was his last chance.  He had heard about Jesus, sensed the excitement as Jesus and His disciples came into town.  But now they were leaving and He had missed out.  Or had he?  Maybe if he could get His attention.  So he shouts out.

The reaction from the crowd is immediate.  “Shhh!”  “Don’t make a fuss!”  “Don’t draw attention to yourself!”  “Calm down!”  But Bartimaeus shouts out even more.

Jesus stops and calls Him.  He immediately jumps up and comes over to Jesus.  Now, it must have been obvious that he was blind, but Jesus asks him what he wants.  And he speaks it out, “I want to see.”  And so Jesus heals him.

We don’t just have one shot at meeting with Jesus, thankfully.  But equally, we need to make the most of the opportunities we get to meet Him, to spend time with Him, to know His presence with us.

And it doesn’t matter what other people think of us, how they react to us wanting to spend time with our Lord.

It’s also important to be honest with Him, to tell Him what it is that we want, whether it’s healing, provisions, a spouse, children, friends.

A healed Bartimaeus immediately follows Jesus on the road, leaving behind his old life.  And we too must immediately follow Jesus, leaving behind our old past lives of failure, hurt, disease, sickness.

What is God saying?

I believe that God is saying:

“Be honest with Me.  Tell Me how you are”

[Day 183]

Mark 10.14-15

When Jesus saw it, He was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to Me.  Don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I assure you: whoever does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

We can be incredibly intellectual, rationalistic and clever – can’t we?!  Our education system teaches us to question and argue.  We look up to and admire clever people.  Our Parliament in Westminster has become an international byword for clever debate.  Our best schools pride themselves on children who don’t simply accept things as they are, but question and argue, debate and correct.

And yet Jesus says that the kingdom of God isn’t like that.  The kingdom of God needs to be approached in an open minded way, with childlike fascination. 

Annabella is at the stage where she in intrigued by everything.  She found a caterpillar the other day – and in her fascination promptly squished it between her fingers!

The kingdom of God is not about debate; it’s about faith.  It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to rationalise God’s work, to reason out miracles, to question meetings with God.  In fact, I suspect that an awful lot of ‘theology’ has been written precisely because we want to question and to justify our unbelief rather than have a childlike faith.

We need to return to our unquestioning childlike expectation that the kingdom of God can and will breakthrough.  We need to rekindle our childlike excitement that God can and does and will heal the sick, raise the dead and deliver the oppressed.

It is as we return to our childlike expectations and excitement that we will see God at work in and around us, behind the walls of intellectual cynicism and away from the decay of debate.

What is God saying?

I believe that God is saying: 

Do you approach the Kingdom of God like a little child?

[Day 182]

John 11.25-26

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.  Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die – ever.  Do you believe this?”

Perhaps one of the best known verses of Scripture, made more famous by the funeral service liturgy.

However, Jesus does not say that He is the resurrection and the life after He has died and be raised to life – He says it before.

He doesn’t, in other words, become the resurrection and the life because He died and rose from the dead, He already was the resurrection and the life – and He rose from the dead because that was who He was.

Martha, who often has a bad press because she wanted her sister Mary to help her with the food preparation and Jesus told her that Mary had chosen better by sitting at His feet, has faith.  She understands that Jesus in the Messiah, the chosen One.  But more than that, she knows that Jesus can “ask from God and God will give [it] to You.” (verse 22).

Martha has faith and knows the answer in her mind.  But she doesn’t have incredible, unbelievable, faith.  When Jesus comes to raising Lazarus from the dead, she instinctively replies, “Lord, he already stinks.  It’s been four days.”

We often have faith and can often give the right answers intellectually.  But I wonder how like Martha we are.  Are we good at giving the right answers, but not really believing them to be true?  Do we know that God can do all things, but really fail to believe that in our hearts?

When we do truly believe that God can do all things, it can become an uncomfortable, even frightening, place to be.  But also a deeply exciting place!

What is God saying?

I believe that God is saying: 

Do you truly believe?

[Day 181]

Luke 14.27

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple

Discipleship can be an easy word to say and a simple concept to teach about.  But there is nothing easy or simple about being one of Jesus’ disciples.  The criteria, as laid out by Jesus, is to carry a cross.

In fact, Jesus sets out that His disciples need to choose between what they hold dear to them, including their closest relationships, and Him.  Nothing can come between Jesus and His followers.  As someone once said, “Water is thicker than blood” – the water of baptism and of being a Christian is a stronger bond than that of any family relationship.

Jesus goes on to say that “everyone of you who does not say good-bye to all his possessions cannot be My disciple.”  Not only does Jesus trump all human relationships, but He trumps any love of possessions that we might have too. 

This isn’t negative.  Jesus isn’t saying, “All family relationships are bad; you can’t own anything.”  Rather He is saying that He is better than anything else – so why would you want to settle for anything less good? 

And when we understand that, then we also learn the joy of having a relationship with Him, even if it means having to sacrifice relationships and possessions to give our whole beings to Him.

And yes, there will be times when we have to make sacrifices, hard choices, and costly decisions.  We will have a lifetime of carrying our cross and following our Master.

But as we focus on Him, and the cross that He had to bear, and the sacrifice that He bore for us, then we will also know the joy of following Him, and know that there is really no other way.

What is God saying?

I believe that God is saying: 

Do you want to be one of Jesus’ disciples?  Are you willing to give up everything to follow Him?

[Day 180]

Luke 12.39-40

But know this: if the homeowner had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.  You also be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect

With a new academic year has come lots of attention on schools, and a reminder of my own school days.  We had one teacher who was so absent minded and unobservant that if we hung up a jacket on a hanger at the front of the class room, would walk into class and immediately out again, thinking that there was already a teacher in the room!  However, one day the prank went too far, and just as we were praising ourselves on our little jape, the Headmaster walked in and we were all in a serious amount of trouble – the poor teacher included.

Now, obviously, if we had known that the Headmaster was on the prowl, we would have behaved ourselves.  But we didn’t – and we couldn’t have foreseen it.

In this illustration, Jesus tells of a time when He will return.  He expects His followers to be ready, waiting faithfully for their Master.

This might seem harsh and alarming – that we need always to be on our toes and alert.  But there are two truths in this story worth highlighting.  First, that we are indeed slaves and that our Master is Jesus Christ Himself.  The second is that if we are working when He returns, we will be rewarded (verse 43).

It might sound all a bit too much carrot and stick – but the reality is that we can all quite easily slip back into ‘fallen’ behaviour.  And the great news for Christians is that there is an alternative – choosing to follow and serve the Lord with every fibre of our beings. 

Yes, it can be hard work – but the rewards are immense and eternal.

What is God saying?

I believe that God is saying: 

Are we ready for our Master?

[Day 179]

Luke 12.19-20;34

Then I’ll say to myself, “You have many goods stored up for many years.  Take it easy; eat, drink and enjoy yourself.”  But God said to him, “You fool!  This very night your life is demanded of you.  And the things you have prepared – whose will they be?” … For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

It is easy to talk to the talk.  Two heavy weight boxers exchanged un-pleasantries this morning on the radio ahead of their fight.  Goodness, they could talk the talk.  But the reality is that only one of them will be victorious.

As Christians it’s easy to talk the talk.  It’s easy to talk about other people’s greed, or about giving to the poor of our communities and of the world.  It’s much harder to sell everything and give it to the poor.

I have personally been grateful for the reminder during this recession of the many groups of Christians who give sacrificially to the poor around the world.  And challenged by it too.

It’s easy to need just one more thing, or to need the comfort of new clothes to cheer you up, or the luxury of a bigger house, a better car, a nicer whatever.  But Jesus reminds us of the reality for Christians – “Watch out and be on guard against all greed because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.”  Our lives cannot be dictated to through acquiring more. 

Equally, it’s easy to fall into the trap of becoming obsessed with not having enough money, with worrying about money for food or for clothing.  Jesus is equally hard about this.  If God can provide for wild animals then can’t He also provide for us?  Don’t be anxious about finances.

So, it’s easy to talk the talk – to talk about giving to the poor, to talk about everything belonging to God, to talk about not being anxious about finances.  But the truth is, when we have a Godly view of finances, then we learn to rely on God, and as our faith grows and we learn to walk in it, then we will begin to build up great treasure in heaven.

What is God saying?

I believe that God is saying:

Where is your treasure?  Honestly?