Thursday 31 March

Numbers 29:12-31:24

I wasn’t feeling too perky this morning as it was, now I feel emotionally assaulted.  I could just about (and I mean by a very fine margin) cope with the killing of all the Midianite men, accepting that the Midianites had pretty much declared war on Yahweh and that this was how things went in those days.  But the slaughter of the infants and the non-virginal women feels like a huge gobstopper wedged halfway down my throat.  And the gobstopper swells to a suffocating size when I realise that this killing wasn’t Moses’ idea but was a direct commandment of our God.  Surely there must be a nice simple explanation that unlocks something hidden and makes the passage seem more palatable? Surely there must be some way that I can clear my airways and begin to breathe properly again?    No, I don’t think there is.  This is our God - exacting punishment on those who oppose him - and this breathlessness is just something we have to get used to.  The biblical term for it is ‘fear of the Lord’ and we find it all over the place, in the New Testament as well as the Old.  Earlier in this book (Numbers 14:18) we read that “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.  Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation”.  While in Jeremiah 31:29-31 we see the generational consequences of punishment being taken away, the reality of punishment does remain and even Paul attests that the wages of sin are death.  Our God is love, but opposition to him is still not a good idea.

Luke 8 :19-39

Jesus called people into his band of followers and, when they came, he bound himself so tightly to them that they almost became his family.  This was quite extraordinary in a culture that saw family as the source of one’s identity and the channel for one’s hope for the future.  The depth of this calling to cleave ourselves to one another, to eat together, to follow Jesus’ teaching together is a significant aspect of Jesus’ ministry.  It was also a significant aspect of the early church as we see in Acts 2.  Some people call this “table-fellowship” and I really like that term.  It’s something we try to build in housegroup as we eat together and share our lives with one another.  It is a really powerful thing and something, that if we want to truly follow Jesus, we must always be pressing into more and more.  Jesus calls us his brothers and mothers.  What a life-changing experience that is.  As we feel and know that love, let us love one another deeply.

Psalm 39:1-13

A common theme in the Psalms is the fleeting nature of human life.  It sort of puts you in your place to be compared to a mere handbreath or even a breath.  But it also puts all our anxieties and our desires in their place as well.  A house extension or fixing the car or having job security or children’s schools - big issues in life but not really in all of eternity.

Wednesday 30 March

Numbers 27:12-29:11

Moses really was amazing.  The Lord is reminding Moses that he will be punished for his sin and Moses, rather than being defensive, turns his thoughts and prayers to the people who he has let down.  Moses believes that the best possible thing for the people of Israel is to have a God-appointed leader who will be like a shepherd to them and if that can’t be him any longer then he is going to ask God to provide someone else.  The Lord responds to the desires of Moses (if Moses hadn’t asked would the Lord still have commissioned someone else??) and tells him to pass on his authority to Joshua.  This is a fascinating passage for seeing the importance of leadership and the way that it is passed, through the Spirit of God from one person to the next.  It is also deeply inspiring to see a man like Moses so deeply committed to the Lord that he will obey him even when that is giving away all that currently defines him.

Luke 8:1-18

Jesus not only cries out “he who has ears to hear, let him hear” but he also, in verse 18 ties hearing into what we receive (those who have etc).  Listening is important to Jesus.  Hearing is probably even more so.  Lots of people listened to the parable of the sower, lots of people saw Jesus taking out the lamp and putting it on a stand.  But not that many people really heard what he was saying.  Real hearing takes time and it takes effort.  We can slant an ear towards someone and listen to their words but it won’t touch our soul, it won’t take root inside of us unless we really attend to it, unless we choose to hear it.  Listening is something we do with our ears but hearing is something we do with our minds and our hearts.  Hearing is a submissive act that places our agendas and our assumptions at the feet of the one who is speaking.  Hearing is an act of worship and an act of devotion.  That is why Jesus spoke so highly of hearing and why he tied it into our destiny.  Jesus doesn’t want people to just listen to his words and watch what he is doing; he wants people to fix all their senses on him and to be willing to be defined by what he says and does.  If we approach Jesus in this way we will find ourselves continually accumulating more and more of his presence and his understanding.  He (or she) who has ears, let him (her) hear!

Psalm 38:13-22

David actually thinks the Lord will get him out of the terrible real-world situation he is in.  So David calls the Lord his saviour.  I’d not quite grasped that before, and I think it is really helpful for understanding what the gospel writers and others are likely to mean when they call Jesus “saviour”.

Tuesday 29 March

Numbers 26:12-27:11

It often seems to be the way with the bible that fairly major points just get the scantest of mentions.  Almost like a politician trying to bury bad news on a busy day, Numbers sends you well into the boredom zone with its listing out of all the clans and then slips in two major developments; that the rebellious generation has been wiped out and that Girl Power is close to the heart of the Lord.  The rebellious generation thing is significant in that it shows how the ebb and flow of history is always under the control of God and that the things that he says will happen do indeed happen.  Many people and things may claim to give you hope and security for the future but only One can come good on that promise.  Zelophehad’s daughters get such a robust backing from the Lord - “certainly give them property as an inheritance” - that you can almost hear Moses drawing breath in shock.  The Lord is keen to preserve the inheritance of his people and he will not let social assumptions about genders get in the way of his will.

Luke 7:36-50

If I was round a mates house and a hooker wandered in and started caressing my feet I suspect I would feel just a tad uncomfortable.  If she started sobbing as well then I think I would be searching for the toilet window.  That Jesus sits, relaxed and smiling while this excruciating scene is unfolding around him is an astonishing display of his own security.  Jesus just seems to have given people space to expose their true natures to him, whether they be filthy clean, bitterly broken or bitterly proud.  And then, when guts have been spilt, Jesus doesn’t just delight in the intimacy but goes about the dirty work of picking through the bile and prescribing an appropriate cure.  Jesus calls us to deep relationships with him and deep relationships with one another for the sake of our healing.  Dinner parties of embarrassing exposure and life-changing redemption should be part and parcel of our following of the Lord.  We unveil ourselves before one another just as we unveil ourselves before the Lord and, as we do so, we will hear his voice through one another and through the Spirit speaking “your sins are forgiven.... go in peace”.

Proverbs 8:12-21

Wisdom’s buddy sounds a bit dull; couldn’t they have come up with something that sounds a little more attractive than “prudence”?  And don’t you think wisdom is the biggest name-dropper you have ever come across?  Ooooh, so you hang out with kings and rulers?  You govern with princes and run the world with nobles do you?  Don’t make me laugh!  Next you will be telling me that you are fabulously wealthy and have mega-riches at your disposal...

Monday 28 March

Numbers 23:27-26:11

Phinehas was a hot-headed, spear-wielding maniac.  But he was a hot-headed, spear-wielding maniac for the Lord and his zealous execution of the copulating Zimri and Cozbi saved the lives of many of God’s people.  The form of his action is not one we should copy - I don’t think we should be popping a cap in the ass of every couple we see making out on the tube - but we should take note that the strength of his desire to see God honoured, and his willingness to put that desire into action, is highly commended by God.  Indeed, God compares Phinehas’ actions to his own while acknowledging that His spear would have been a little larger and a little more widely used.  We, or at least I, don’t really like the thought of God as a jealous executioner, as one whose anger actually leads to retributive action.  I often hear people say that this doesn’t really fit with the image of God seen in Jesus and I do sympathise with that struggle.  But, as we have seen in Matthew and Mark, Jesus did sack the temple, he did curse the fig-tree, he did verbally roast the Pharisees and he was, in fact, executed by God as a substitute for all of us.  This violent zeal for God’s honour was profoundly present in the life of Jesus even if he ended up being the victim of it as much as its proponent.  And, if we actually look at what the Israelites were doing then we too should feel a deep sense of anger about it (in the same way that we feel angry at our own sin).  They were cavorting with shrine prostitutes, spilling their semen - the bodily fluid that represented their future hope - in ritual sacrifice to Baal, the Moabite god of fertility.  If God didn’t do anything about such sickening prostitution of his people’s worship then could we call him just?  If God just stood by while his people broke their covenant with him and sold their souls and bodies to whoever offered the most pleasure then would he really be God at all?  

Luke 7:11-35

Personal transformation.  That is what Jesus points to as the evidence of his Messiahship.  He doesn’t point John the Baptist to how many followers he has or how many friends he has on Facebook.  In fact, he doesn’t mention his own popularity at all.   Jesus doesn’t mention that he has walked on water or calmed a storm.  He seems remarkably unimpressed by the dramatic wonders that we may have got obsessed with.  What Jesus does is indirectly quote the prophet Isaiah and show how it is being worked out in his life - and this is the outworking; suffering individuals not only being comforted but being set free, excluded people finding a family and deprived people being captured by hope.  I find sometimes I can get caught up in a lot of stuff in Christian life but the key thing, the one thing I always want to come back to is loving Jesus and joining with Him in his transformation of people around me.  That is the true sign of the Kingdom Come.

Psalm 38:1-12

Sometimes David is a miseryguts isn’t he?  I mean, come on! Has he not heard Jesus’ “consider it pure joy when you undergo suffering for righteousness sake...”

Sunday 27 March

Numbers 22:21-23:26

It is clear that the Lord has given Balaam the prophetic ability to hear from Him.  It is also clear that Balaam can choose what he does with this ability without it affecting the raw ability itself. There is no sign of “sin” getting in the way of Balaam hearing from the Lord - perhaps out of a desire to continue with his previous commitment, the Lord communicates to Balaam throughout his whole rebellion.  What may seem like the Lord tricking Balaam (in telling him to go with Balak’s men) I think is actually the Lord acting in astonishing grace towards one of his people.  That grace is intended to give Balaam a wonderful space to repent but he exploits it to cement his rebellion and press into things that are against the purposes of God (working for those who are attacking God’s people and trying to pronounce curses against Israel).  In the book of Revelation this fascinating man Balaam is held up as being a damaging false teacher (Rev 2:14) who people emulate at their peril.  I two big things from the life of Balaam.  Firstly, guidance is not just about seeing which “doors the Lord opens”.  Balaam asked God to open doors and God, in his mercy opened them but Balaam was committing a terrible sin when he went through them!  Guidance is about seeking God’s will and doing it, not throwing up a prayer and pressing on with what we wanted to do anyway.  Secondly, the old chestnut that character is so much more important than gifting.  Balaam really heard from God.  Presumably he could have run a heck of a ministry time!  But his heart had turned from pure devotion to the Lord and he damaged the people of God and ruined himself.  God watches everything and, while gifting may seem to trump character in the now, we know that everything, yes everything will come out in the wash.

Luke 6:37-7:10

More stuff that feels a bit beyond me - huge truths that stand like enormous oaks and that are so strong and true that whole lifetimes could be spent exploring them and nothing else.  But the big thing from today that strikes me is that all of this stuff is made to be put into practice, not just to be debated or considered.  One of the greatest tragedies I’ve seen is people sitting in theology class identifying and picking apart the finest nuances of Jesus’ teachings while their lives are falling down around them.  A Vineyard emphasis that I love is that traditionally bible study has been seen as “training” rather than “teaching”.  I think that is really smart.  Training does not exclude intellectual rigour or active enquiry - just think of all the money sports people spend on psychologists, technological researchers and the like - but rather always looks to turn these skills towards practical action.  So we mine the scriptures - absolutely we do - but we force ourselves to approach each passage looking for treasures to enhance our understanding of God and strengthen our ability to follow Jesus.  We submit ourselves to God’s word and ask the Spirit to change us through it.  That is building a strong foundation for ourselves, a foundation that is deep, and firm and of great benefit to the world around us.

Psalm 37:32-40

Some of the Psalmists promises may not seem to hold true in our world of poverty, disease, tsunami and war.  But his key phrase “wait for the LORD” not only acknowledges the tension but also beckons us to hope, to hope for a better day to come when the Lord will come good on all David’s charges.  Waiting is not something I find easy but there is life there, and there is hope... hope that will not disappoint.

Saturday 26 March

Numbers 21:4-22:20

This bronze snake was referred to by Jesus just before he dropped his Superbowl Soundbite in John 3:16.  He did well (!) in choosing this one as it is a deeply evocative picture of salvation.  The people are living in the wilderness, separated from the promised land due to their contempt for God (see the 12 spies passage from a couple of days ago) and moaning that God is rubbish because he has put them in a situation that is boring and difficult.  (They sound a little like my boys when they moan about being on the naughty step and they, just like my boys, fail to acknowledge that they are only in this less-than-perfect situation due to their own disobedience.)  They then reap the consequences of their rebellion in graphic terms with snakes coming and inflicting them with death.  It is a pretty bleak picture.  But incredible salvation breaks in through a bronze snake being lifted on a pole and people looking at it to live.  It is amazing to note that the salvation was God’s idea (he told Moses to make the snake), was incredibly easy for people to receive (who could help but look at a massive bronze snake being waved around on the end of a pole?) and was a truly miraculous act of mercy - how could looking at something counteract the poisonous effects of a snake-bite? God has always been willing to break rules and defy logic just for the sake of bringing life to his people.

Luke 6:12-36

Will you forgive me if I don’t tackle the bulk of this blessing and woes passage.  I just don’t know how I could begin to do it justice.  The Vineyard has, I believe, often suggested Jesus is talking about an Upside Down Kingdom which is a very intriguing concept and one to ponder on at some length - even Jesus had to pray about it all night beforehand!  

The bit where I feel I can start to say something is in verse 35 - ‘love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.  Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.’  The key themes that Jesus is pushing are 1) the ball is in your court - you can decide what your fate will be by how you choose to live. 2) Factor God into everything - in every calculation you make over what is best for you to do always remember that God is watching and that he will reward you appropriately. 3) Kindness, mercy and generosity will particularly be rewarded by God because they define who He is 4) God’s rewards are not fleeting or temporal but are changes in status and in identity - you become sons of God and he becomes your Father.  

There is so much more to say but time is short and I these four points are more than enough to keep me going for a while!  What an amazing thing we are involved in!

Psalm 37:21-31

To think that the Lord could delight in what we do....

Friday 25 March

** sorry I forgot to post this yesterday **

Numbers 19:1-21:3

They’d been in this place before and poor old Moses seems to get a little bit narky and a little bit self-obsessed and he gets himself a lifetime ban from the promised land. God tells Moses to speak to the rock but Moses decides he actually fancies whacking the rock and giving the people a bit of an earful.  I suspect Moses felt that was a bit more dramatic and would make more of a point of his exalted status and the Israelite’s stupidity.  The trouble is that that Lord doesn’t seem to like his people’s faces being rubbed in the dirt and he certainly doesn’t like people taking on His honour as their own.  The tragedy is that God had been so deeply generous to Moses and Aaron in giving them a key, affirming role in bringing water from the rocks of Meribah but, for whatever reason, Moses and Aaron lost sight of that privilege and decided instead to exploit the opportunity to vent some anger.  This is a serious proof text for anyone who wants to show the importance of character in leadership and is also a serious parameter-setter for anyone who finds themself in some form of leadership.  God’s take on leadership seems to be that it is for helping people, for bringing them forward and for giving honour to His name.  That’s an attractive picture and one that I pray all of the leaders in all of the contexts across all of this city will grow closer to day after day.

Luke 5:33-6:11

Jesus’ claim to be Lord of the Sabbath (or at least that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath) is pretty mega.  We’ve seen in our trek through the Old Testament that Sabbath-observance is banged on about time after time as being a crucial and eternal aspect of obedience to Yahweh.  It’s no wonder that the Pharisees took exception to Jesus moseying along and completely disregarding it (at least in their view) as he was, in this act, was pretty much undermining the whole of the Jewish religion.  You could only derive one conclusion from such heretical activity - Jesus is on a crusade to explode Judaism from within and to redefine it completely around himself.  This puts Jesus either as a dangerous meglomaniac or as the author of redemption pointing out a twist in his plot that suddenly gives you new eyes for all of it.  And, praise God, that the second of these is true!  Praise God that we live post-twist, post Jesus being deployed into the story.  Suddenly the backdrop of the whole tale is clearly one of compassion and of life, of healing and of hope.  Jesus has changed everything and now we live completely obsessed with him, not, as the pharisees, discussing what we might do with Jesus but rather, as the man with the withered hand, utterly delighted at what he is doing for us.

Proverbs 8:1-11

If you think you are thick, don’t worry - listen to wisdom and she will make you smart!

Thursday 24 March

Numbers 16:36-18:32

This covenant of salt thing is quite interesting, especially considering that Jesus calls us the salt (and light) of the world.  I’m undecided as to whether or not Jesus could have been referring to this slightly obscure passage in Numbers as I have never heard anyone make the link but, there is something in it that I think has a bit of a kick.  This covenant of salt was between the Lord and Aaron’s family and confirmed that all gifts that were set apart for the Lord would be made available as gifts to Aaron and his sons and daughters (I’m not sure what Aaron’s wife did wrong but that, I suspect, is a different story).  God’s incredibly generous principle is therefore established that holy offerings to him should be given as a regular share to the Aaronites.  Now, I suspect you will say I am going too far but you could say that Jesus’ declaration that his followers are the salt of the earth is an assertion that his followers are the embodiment of holy offerings to God and that he is giving them as a regular share to all the people of the world (Jesus always extended promises to Israel to the whole of humanity).  I actually think that is quite cool.  Whether or not you think Jesus was referencing this particular covenant, you have got to admit that it is pretty cool that God was so willing to give away all that he had to the people that he had made.

Luke 5:17-32

What did Jesus mean when he said “Your sins are forgiven” to the paralysed man?  I guess you could say that the man’s paralysis must have been caused by his sin and therefore the root to his healing was to receive forgiveness.  You could say that... but I would have to disagree with you.  I think that we often have far too narrow an understanding of sin, thinking it is constrained to failures in personal morality such as greed or lust.  When Jesus talks about sin here, and later when he says that he is calling “sinners to repentance”, I think that he has a hefty, broad understanding of sin in mind.  When Jesus talks about sin I think he means the whole smorgasbord of pain, idolatry and suffering that epitomised life in exile from God.  I think that when Jesus talks about calling sinners to repentance he is not talking just about them no longer coveting their neighbour’s ass but rather he is talking about them walking out of exile and into the newly-available promised land, into the Kingdom of God.  This is important as it sets the tone for how we should be calling sinners to repentance.  This call is not a nitpicking, slightly irritating moan at people not to commit acts of sin but rather is a beckoning, a welcoming of lost, distraught and wounded people into the kingdom of God where they can find hope, intimacy, healing and holiness.  It is a remarkable call and one that will fill people with awe and praise of God.

Psalm 37:10-20

The more I read the old testament, and the psalms in particular, the more I realise that Jesus was like a 1st century Jewish Hip-hop artist sampling everyone else’s work and blending it together into a new, banging, totally whack tune.  The meek will inherit the land wiki-wiki-wawa

Wednesday 23 March

Numbers 15:1-16:35

The interesting thing about Korah is that he wasn’t going off to worship another god, he wasn’t grumbling about wanting to go back to Egypt and he wasn’t even trying to lead people away from holy living and yet God still buried alive both him and his household.  What is going on here?  It comes back to that word “contempt”.  Korah seemed like he was pushing a very virtuous thing - he was saying things like “the whole community is holy, every one of them” - but, in fact, he was refusing to accept that God had ordained Moses and Aaron as leaders of the community, and God saw that as an arrogant rejection of His plan for Israel.  I get worried about the sneakiness of contempt as it can so easily dress itself up in good intentions when in fact, it is us humans thinking we know better than God.  I suffer from contempt a lot, thinking my own plans are so good that I don’t need to work out what God’s are.  And, something that I think may sound more provocative than I want it to, when I read some current stuff about deconstructing the ‘institution’ of the church or having ‘leaderless churches’ I worry that I might be hearing a faint echo of Korah’s voice.   Perhaps the best antidote to contempt is to think on John the Baptists incredible refrain “He must increase, I must decrease”.  The more we seek humility and the more we submit ourselves to whatever yoke the Lord would give us, the more I suspect we will see contempt disappearing into the ground beneath us just like the tents and possessions of Korah.

Luke 4:38-5:16

Verses 43 and 44 are useful for getting a summary of what Jesus was about.  In Jesus’ own words, his role was to preach the good news about the Kingdom of God. And, in Luke’s word, he did this in the synagogues of Judea.  There seems to be a common refrain at the moment that Jesus spent all his time on the streets freely giving away food, speaking kind words to people, healing them and casting out their demons.  There is truth in that.  But, that is not how Jesus described his activity and it is not how Luke described it.  Jesus said his main thing was preaching the kingdom of God - something that we in the Vineyard we have interpreted as proclamation and demonstration - and Luke said he did it in the religious establishments of the day.  Ultimately, as Paul says in Romans, the deposit we have been given by Jesus is one of words, words backed up with power, but words nonetheless.  Jesus was sent to tell and to show, not just to do nice things but also to call people to respond to Jesus.  And, as Acts and all the epistles attest, Jesus’ call was to do this proclamation and demonstration in such a way that affirms and builds up the local church.  He has called us to be rooted in a community and to call others to come and join it.  Jesus said he would build his church and he is doing that today all over the world.  It’s a privilege and a joy to be able to join with him in that activity.

Psalm 37:1-9

It seems David’s gardening skills were about as good as mine.  So much so that all his green plants soon died away.  Amen to that brother, Amen and Amen.

Tuesday 22 March

Numbers 13:26-14:45

It’s a juicy passage this one.  We get the depth of the rebellion of Israel right smack bang alongside the power and the intensity of God.  The major errors that Israel make are called out by God as being contempt and presumption.  Contempt is a strong word but I guess a spade is a spade and when people think they know better than God, they are indeed holding him in contempt.  Presumption is another strong word but it does seem to be an accurate description of why people would think that their fate rests in their own hands.  Perhaps this is a more vivid description of what lies behind that rather bland word “sin” - contempt and presumption.  Combined, they give God too little credit for all that he has done in the past and give ourselves too much credit for what we can do in the future.  I begin to ask myself how Israel could be so stupid just a year or so after seeing the 10 plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea and the pillar of cloud and fire but then I think of myself and I realise it is really not that hard to believe that the people became more focussed on themselves than on God.

But then the good news - even in Moses’ day - the Lord is strong, the Lord is slow to anger, the Lord forgives sins, the Lord has great love for his people, the Lord will listen to prayers of forgiveness and intercession and the Lord will work out his purposes for his people despite all the stuff that they bring.  Now I find that really encouraging, and we haven’t even got onto Jesus yet.

Luke 4:14-37

The sermon on the mount gets a good press and quite rightly; it is a brilliant piece of work.  But, I think that if we really want to understand what Jesus was about and what he thought he was doing on earth then this Nazareth sermon is the very best place for us to start.  For one thing, this sermon gives us a very credible explanation for why people wanted Jesus dead.  I’ve  been thinking about that a bit recently - how many people do I know who people genuinely want to kill?  How many people do I know who have said something so explosive that people have picked them up and tried to chuck them off a cliff?  I can’t think of anyone... except Jesus.  And this is not the bless-everyone-without-expecting-anything-back-in-return Jesus who is often spoken about in charismatic circles.  Who would want to kill him?  No, this is the Jesus who so radically and personally attacked the Jewish parochial worldview that he made people feel so completely lost and angry.  By quoting Isaiah like he does here, Jesus cuts off the crucial final sentence that predicts destruction of the enemies of Israel, thereby declaring that God’s blessing is for all of the world, not just for a chosen few  And then by referencing the widow of Zarephath (a non-Jew) and Naaman (a non-Jew) it is like Jesus is grabbing that teaching and screwing it into the brains of all of his listeners.  They don’t like it! It hurts them!  Jesus is completely undermining their identity and forcing them to take on a new identity that looks on others as partners and co-heirs of God.  This fundamental message of Jesus - of God’s favour being for all the world - but be grasped and owned and acted upon by his church.  We must look beyond our walls and invite the scum and the downtrodden and the pathetic to come on in.

Psalm 36:1-12

The creativity of this psalm is so astonishing and so energising.  I long to see more of this divine creativity springing from the church today.

Monday 21 March

Numbers 11:4-13:25

Oh dear.  If the Lord had asked me, I would have suggested he left this particular bit out of the bible.  I would have said that it doesn’t reflect well on any of the parties involved, particularly him.  Indeed, when it says that God became exceedingly angry I just can’t stop thinking of an evil Mr Kipling.  To see the Lord then say he wants to shove so much meat down the Israelites gullets that it starts coming out of their nostrils and then to see him inflict Miriam with leprosy, well.... it’s quite a shock.  If it had been one of my boys acting like that, I probably would have packed him off to bed for an early night and told him he better behave a bit more kindly tomorrow.  So, what is going on here?  Well, I’ve obviously only told part of the story and the stuff about the prophets does a lot to give a sense of the Lord’s commitment to his people and his yearning to see them walk into the hope he has for them.  But, while this shiny-happy stuff is great and must be attended to, I just don’t think we can ignore the more challenging actions of God as being irrelevant.  To suggest that there is a split in God from Old Testament to New Testament is a heresy for which I personally would tie you to a burning stake (if it wasn’t for that blasted EU human rights law).  No, this is ferocious and responsive being is our God and, despite all the collar-loosening it requires, I am pleased that he is not a bland and placid nodding-dog of a being.  I have to get into my head that God is more expansive and more expressive than any image of him that I may choose to capture in my head.  He should make me feel uncomfortable at times because he is too big for my brain to comprehend.  He should stretch me and press me because his emotions are far too weighty for my meagre heart to capture.  But, throughout all of this difficult grappling, it is an unsurpassing joy that this untamable and uncontrollable God should choose to relate to those of us who are in Christ as a person relates to his friend.

Luke 3:23-4:13

In housegroup last week it was asked why God ever bothered with the whole Jewish thing if he was always planning to bring salvation through Jesus - why didn’t he just start with Christ?  This passage, especially sat alongside the Numbers passage, speaks into that conundrum.  We see first of all in the genealogy a clear desire to tie Jesus into King David and Abraham (and to Noah and to Adam).  Luke is making it clear - Jesus is a continuation of the promises to all the big players of Jewish history.  Then, in the temptation narrative, we begin to see Jesus being put in the position that Israel was put in 1000 years previously but, with Jesus fulfilling the promise of God where Israel failed.  Jesus goes into the desert as Israel went into the desert.  Jesus is in the desert for 40 days as Israel was in the desert for 40 years.  Jesus is hungry as Israel was hungry but whereas Israel rebelled and cried out for quail, Jesus puts his desire for God above his desire for grub.  Jesus is led to a place where he is to see the land that he will inherit (the whole world) just as Israel were led to a place (The Desert of Paran) where they could see the land they would inherit (Canaan) but, where the Israelites faultered, Jesus refused to waver and held tight to God as the means of receiving his inheritance.  Jesus was given the blessing and protection of God just as Israel were given the blessing and protection of God but whereas Israel turned that into something for their own benefit and their own exaltation Jesus refused to test God, staying true to God’s desire to give his blessing such that all the nations of the world be blessed.  Effectively Jesus takes on the role God gave to Israel and fulfills everything that his forebearers flunked.  So it is not a case of Jesus being a new plan for salvation of the world but rather He is the fulfillment of the old plan.  Jesus did not come to overthrow the law but to fulfill it.  He is the hope for the nations that Abraham, David, Elijah and many many others all spoke about.  To live in relationship with Jesus is a huge and precious privilege that many millions of devout and holy people longed for but did not receive.

Proverbs 7:21-27

There can be absolutely no doubt about the bible’s advise on how to raise children - tell them what is important, then tell them again and then tell them again.  For a parent like me, that is incredibly useful direction.

Sunday 20 March

Numbers 9:15-11:3

It is such a captivating and inspiring image of God’s desire to draw near to his people.  Could anyone ever have dared to consider such a possibility as God clinging to little particles of dust and moisture and revealing himself as a cloud to guide his people?  I suspect it may have been slightly frustrating for the Levites when they had spent all day putting the tabernacle together only for the cloud to up and leave the moment they sit down for their evening meal but, that would have been a small factor compared to the incredible reassurance and delight of having the command of the Lord so clearly manifested.  I have occasionally thought that life would be much simpler if I had lived in those days but, of course that is to deny the overwhelming great gift of the Spirit of God living in me and empowering me rather than just directing me from afar.  No, we are far, far better off now, with the Spirit that gives life and that says “this is the way, walk in it”.  The immense appeal of this cloud though is the immense appeal of intimacy with God, of seeing God and of knowing his will.  And, on that, the message of the Book is consistent from start to finish - we serve a God who loves to disclose his will to his people.  If we approach Him with due fear and careful attention God will only be too pleased to reveal to us his desires.

Luke 3:1-22

I don’t remember hearing a sermon on John the Baptiser other than to focus on what he said about Jesus.  But what he preached as his own message is actually really helpful for understanding the fundamentals of the message of the Christ.  Luke tells us that John’s message boiled down to one thing - a message of repentance.  This repentance, as Luke goes on to explain, is firmly rooted in the conviction that being a child of Abraham is not enough for salvation - God is opening this whole thing up to all mankind, so if you want in on it, sort yourself out and start living right.  We see unleashed in John’s declaration of repentance, therefore, the two mega-themes of the “good news”. Firstly, this thing will be defined by right living - generosity, integrity and being baptized in the holy spirit. Secondly, there will be an unstoppable commitment to benefit the whole of the globe - through God’s miraculous action and signified by baptism.  Appetites having been awakened and minds alerted, John slides to the back of the narrative to leave Jesus front and centre; the Son who is deeply loved by God, the one who will baptize in the Spirit, the one who will bring right living and mission to the attention of the world.

Psalm 35:19-28

I like the way that David, even though he is struggling, has not become intraspective but is praying for those who sympathise with him - for his people, as much as for himself.

Saturday 19 March

Numbers 7:66-9:14

Those imposters in Mexico may have tried to claim it as their own but the truth is layed out here in black and white - the so-called-Mexican wave was, in fact, the “Levitical wave” that Aaron instigated way back at the dedication of the tabernacle.  How else could Aaron have presented the Levites as a wave offering if not through the sea-like raising of their arms one after the other?  I even suspect that these enrobed, hairless priests would have whooped and hollered as they celebrated their dedication to I AM WHO I AM in much the same way that the football fans cheered in support of their own national team.  This setting-apart of the priests is not only critical for understanding the mechanics of Old Testament worship - so the subsequent books should make better sense - but is also, as we have said before, a powerful indicator of the character of our God.  God is not content to watch from the sidelines and cheer us on.  He wants people to give him specific, constant and particular attention, to continually recognise his importance and to order their lives and their community around the worship of him.  And, as we do that, we see again here the remarkable paradox that people and things and time that are set apart for him, that are given to him, he then gifts back to his people.  The Levites were God’s own and the gives them as gifts to Aaron and his sons.  That is why we can celebrate when we set things apart to God (by wave offering or otherwise); not only are we pleasing the heart of God but also we are freeing up gifts to be given to our fellow believers.

Luke 2:41-52

Here’s a question to ponder on; as Jesus sat there in the temple at the age of 12 did he already know that he was going to come back and sack it 20 years later?  And, more than that, did he already know that this passover festival was going to be given a dynamic new twist through the shedding of his own blood?  At what point, if any, did Jesus go from muddling through life, seeing in part, doing his best to discover the rest, to being a fully-clued up, all seeing, all knowing master of his surroundings?  I think there is room for debate in this issue but consider this - Jesus was both causing amazement with his understanding and sitting and asking questions to the temple teachers.  Jesus was both certain of who his Father was and was obedient to Mary and Joseph.  Wherever you land on the first question (and I think it is an important one to think through) you can’t get away from the fact that any inkling about his identity that Jesus did have led him not to arrogance but to humility.  It is extraordinary that God would be asking questions to seek to learn from his people and that he would submit himself to following the instruction of first-time parents.  Luke, draws us into these early years of Jesus as no other gospel-writer does.  And, in doing so, he lifts the lid on the awe-inspiring way in which Jesus grew in wisdom and stature.  As we look, surely we can’t help but find Jesus growing in our favours and our affections?  How could he have trodden the tricky path of life quite so well?  How I wish I could be more like him in each and every way.

Psalm 33:11-18

For all that I’ve bleated on about David verbally ravaging his enemies in these psalms, for all I’ve baulked at how David has called down all kinds of hellish calamities on his opponents, it is interesting to see that David was, in practice, so committed to his enemies good that he would mourn, fast and weep for them.  Suddenly I don’t feel so smug about the more restrained nature of my prayers...

Friday 18 March

Numbers 7:1-65

Flipping heck.  Was it really necessary to list out one by one the gifts of each of the twelve leaders when each and every one brought exactly the same thing!!  Surely the writer could have just summarised it all in one paragraph by listing the gifts and then listing the names of the leaders?  Obviously the writer was a complete dufus.  Either that or he was trying to make a very particular point about the value of each tribe’s contribution and the way that the Lord deeply values each and every act of sacrifice that is made to him.  Worship, it seems, means so much to God that he is perfectly willing to bore us senseless in telling us about it.  When we gather on a Sunday morning to sing songs to Jesus I don’t think Jesus just hears one of each song.  I think he hears 300, one from each of our mouths, and I believe that he delights in each and every one.  When we lay out chairs for housegroup, put out someone’s rubbish, take time to talk with a shop assistant or cheerfully greet a traffic warden we are (or, rather, we can choose to be) committing acts of worship to God. Slow, steady, slightly unremarkable alongside everything else that everyone else is doing but deeply pleasing to God nonetheless.  He is the God who watches us, and he values each and every thing we do for him.

Luke 2:21-40

Luke’s gospel, as I should have said at the start of it, is, as you know, part 1 in Doctor Luke’s 2-part epic of Luke and Acts.  It is amazing that we see here at the start of the series Luke flagging up major themes that will run through the rest of the account.  Firstly, Luke majors on the importance of the Holy Spirit.  Secondly, he speaks of Jesus being the Light to the Gentiles.  God’s Holy Spirit is getting grimy in the detail of this story, revealing His intentions to Simeon and even prompting him to go into the temple courts so that he would come across the young Jewish couple who were consecrating their young son to the Lord.  While the Spirit blasts into centre-frame at the start of Luke at the festival of Pentecost, Luke is at pains here to point out that even before that time, the Holy Spirit was working hard to draw people into the plans of the Father.  If we are to see all that the Lord has for us in this life, we would do well to become close friends with the Holy Spirit.  

And these thoroughly Jewish people, set in the most Jewish of contexts are, at the start of this remarkable story, already preempting the work of God that is to come - salvation and redemption are in the air, and it is not to be constrained to one particular people group.  This work of God is already seen to be a light that just has to spread, not just to Jerusalem, but from there to the world.  Again, we would do well to pick up on Luke’s urgings and regard ourselves as people called into the spreading of this light. As we go along we will see how this will happen.  For now, the establishment of the understanding is enough to start forming an evangelistic desire within us.

Psalm 35:1-10

We have seen the like of this before but it is still useful to note the benefit, and the biblical mandate, for venting in prayer the frustrations we feel in relationships.  I believe this is a thoroughly healthy method of coping with the tensions and strains of life.  After all, if we are to truly forgive others we must first identify and ‘own’ our anger over their sin.  That way we truly invite God’s presence into the situation and beckon him to deal with us and our life as they truly are, not as we might like them to be.

Thursday 17 March

Numbers 5:11-6:27

I don’t know about you but I think I’m going to let this “test for an unfaithful wife” slip down the side of my bible-study-sofa and remain there, never to be thought of again.  This Nazirite stuff though, for me, is one of the best bits of the whole old testament.  I just love the idea of these half-crazed radicals mooching around Israel, wafting their long, unkempt locks here, there and everywhere.  You’d have to be close to crazy to even consider being a Nazirite - looking like a maniac, giving up booze, giving up grapes and raisins, giving up spending time around dead bodies.  This last bit in particular is interesting as it places devotion to God even above the cultural obligation to bury close relatives and thereby brings into stark relief the Nazirites single-minded pursuit of holiness over and above all other ties.  I think the church and the Vineyard has had its fair share of Nazirites in recent years.  People who have given up good and enjoyable things in their frenzied search for holiness.  I deeply appreciate such people, people who push me to treasure holiness more, to be more willing to sacrifice all for the single greatest prize of intimacy with Christ.  They help me continually re-adjust my perspective on the world.  I pray that we will see more and more Chritians with the spirit of the Nazirite emerging across our church.

Luke 2:1-20

We see in the angels’ song the twin goals of the birth of God on earth.  These two things are so deeply entwined that it is impossible to separate them no matter how determined you are.  The first is the glorification of God.  This is glorification, not in the literal sense of deposits of glory actually being passed to God such that his stock of glory is increased.  He already has all glory that has ever existed wrapped up in the cloak of his being and the glory that we humans give is woefully insignificant by comparison with that.  No, we can never make God bigger or more famous or enhance his being in any way at all.  This glorification is rather a recognition among the created that the creator is, and always has been, the highest, the most brilliant and the most powerful being that could ever have existed.  Glorification is people and angels and all living things coming to their senses to acknowledge what has always been the truth about God.  But embedded within this glorification and, which makes the glorification all the greater, is the fact that wherever the truth of God is acknowledged, peace will reign.  God’s character is so endowed with goodness, it is soaked so richly in generosity that to realise who he is to benefit yourself.  To spend time acknowledging God is to spend time bringing favour upon yourself.  This is not the crass form of favour that focusses on health, wealth and happiness but a truly divine favour that imparts knowledge and instills hope.  Where this is true in every place that truth is revealed, it is brought to a monstrous and climactic pinnacle in the birth of Jesus, the direct revelation of truth on earth.  As people who have seen and who can testify to the reality of Jesus in our life, our days are now defined by the twin goals of glory to God and peace to humanity.  To focus on one in the absense of the other would be to step away from the biblical witness and the nature of this good news of great joy.

Proverbs 7:6-20

As fun as this sex-fest would have been, the writer of the proverbs is clear (although, a bit like an episode of 24, we have to wait 4 days to find this out); indulging your sexual desires with someone other than your spouse is like a deer choosing to step into a noose or a bird choosing to dart into a snare

Wednesday 16 March

Numbers 4:1-5:10

God bless those sea cows!  Who would have imagined that such an undignified looking animal would end up being used in so sacred a place?  The thrust of this section is the holiness of God and a further reminder of the great lengths that humans must go to to make this impossible relationship work.  Like trying to store molten lava in a piece of tupperware, there are layers upon layers of precautions and protections that need to be in place to even begin to make this interaction work.  Indeed 8,580 people spend their whole lives trying to maintain the precipitous state of God living among his people.  It is really quite amazing to compare the size of the industry that was essential for facilitating indirect relationship with God under the old covenant and the complete, unbridled, direct relationship that each and every person can have with God under the new covenant.  When Paul talks about the riches of God’s grace, you can really see that riches doesn’t even get the half of it!  Oh that we in the church could grasp the sheer reckless superabundance of what God has made available to us.

Luke 1:57-80

I don’t think I’ve ever bothered reading Zechariah’s song before.  I don’t know why the editors call it a song as the text actually says it was a prophecy.  Maybe it was a prophetic song? If so, I’d love to know how Zechariah sung it.  I’m sure there must have been some guitars in there somewhere, and a nice syncopated rhythm.  But, now I come to think of it, as Zechariah hadn’t spoken for nigh on 12 months, maybe it just came out like a tiny little squeak that he embarrassingly had to write down later.  I fear it’s one of those mysteries of the kingdom that will not be disclosed until we know fully even as we are fully known.  This song is fascinating as it shows how John’s ministry was not only disclosed to his father in advance but was also accepted by him as being a thoroughly Jewish ministry in continuation of God’s promises to Abraham.  This is significant as it shows that Luke affirms the call and promises of the Old Testament and builds an understanding of John from those Hebrew scriptures.  This is why bible in a year is so helpful - it begins to construct for us the beginnings of an understanding of what people like Zechariah were expecting from God so that, when we see Jesus appearing, we can understand him in his own context and be less likely to impose upon him our own Western, 21st Century opinions.  The two themes that define Zechariah’s understanding of God - salvation and mercy.  Salvation and mercy have always been God’s business and they always will be.  Let’s step up and ensure they are absolutely the church’s business as well.

Psalm 34:11-22

Even under the old covenant people saw that “no one will be condemned who take refuge in (God)”.  What a wonderful thing.  I want to continue to grasp for myself and convey to others this complete lack of condemnation that is found in Him.  It really is an astonishingly refreshing thing to get hold of.

Tuesday 15 March

Numbers 2:10-3:51

Lots of skim reading today and some super-crazy arithmetic switchy-swatchying the Levites for the first-borns.  I find that a fascinating idea, although the inspiration is not hitting and my tired brain is struggling to grapple with it properly. I suspect it should be crying out to me about God’s willingness to redeem people from death by providing something of his own as a substitute for them.  I should probably also be amazed by the generosity of God that he would allow the redemption money paid to him to be enjoyed by the Levites rather than burnt up or destroyed in some particular way.  It does seem to be quite an interesting picture of God working out the tension between his demand for justice and his desire to generously bestow his riches upon his people.  Even when God is placing exacting requests upon his people he is finding a way to turn those obligations into a blessing for others.  It seems that this is the economy of God; as we give what we owe others richly benefit.  How much more must God spread the love when we choose to go beyond our obligations and give simply out of the gratitude of our hearts.

Luke 1:39-56

I love the way Mary breaks into a Glee-style musical number in the midst of a ante-natal conversation with Elizabeth.  I suspect this is another one of those things that makes us feel that Mary’s experience is grossly detached from our own.  But, as we said yesterday, that would be a terrible shame.  This time round of reading Luke I’m really striving to ground every single verse in my everyday life.  I want to imagine myself meeting a friend or a relative and seeing all that God is doing in them and calling it out and celebrating it.  I want to think of myself spontaneously thanking God for how good he has been to me and reveling in the gloriousness of his character.  And, most of all, I want to recognise and drub into the core of my soul the deep conviction that God is close, that God is working out his purposes, that God is ambushing person after person to capture them up into his will and that he is doing that in me and through me, morning after morning, lunch-break after lunch-break, KFC after KFC...

Psalm 34:1-10

I think this is the only time I have ever seen “when he pretended to be insane” in the credits to a worship song.  I just can’t believe the sheer audacity of David, that he would dare to claim “those who seek the Lord are radiant, their faces are never covered with shame” while, at that very moment, he is gibbering around pretending to have less sense than a chimp dressed in underpants.  Maybe he has a different definition of shame from us?  

Monday 14 March

Numbers 1:1-2:9

I don’t think I’ve ever envied anyone less than Moses on this first day of the second month of the second year after they came out of Egypt.  I can imagine his joy when the Lord called him into the tent of meeting and his utter dejection when he was told he had to count by name every single male Israelite who was over the age of 20.  Scholars have long wondered how it could have taken Israel 40 years to cross the Sinai wilderness but now that mystery is solved - 32 of those 40 years were spent sitting around while Moses called out 603,550 names from a clipboard.  I don’t think there is anything significant about how many there are in each tribe other than to note that Judah, who received Jacob’s blessing of the first-born, now has the bragging rights and that God’s is giving Abraham as many offspring as stars in the sky.  We have so far seen God’s redemption narrative ebbing and flowing, we’ve seen it going through triumph and tedium but there can be no mistaking it - God’s story is being written, his purposes are being accomplished and he is coming good on every promise that he has ever made to his people.

Luke 1:26-38

What I love about Luke’s gospel is that he has just said how he is writing an orderly, almost scientific account of Jesus’ life and then he slips in the phrase “God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth” as if it were no more unusual than popping to the shops for some groceries.  His birth narrative continues with miraculous event after miraculous event and each time Luke’s brow seems remarkably unfurrowed by the supernatural explanations that are creeping into his account.  Indeed, you could be forgiven for suggesting that Luke’s account is not merely infiltrated by the occasional supernatural happening but that the entire edifice is constructed upon the slightly gullible conviction that supernatural events can and do occur.  And this is the bare-faced-cheek of our faith and the thing that we must doggedly cling to - that these angelic visitations and this miraculous stuff is not just an other-worldly religious hang-up but is the meat and drink of living in this desk-by-8am, gym-by-7pm, pinot grigiot-drinking, sushi-eating world that we see around us.  This is the message that we receive from Luke and that we pass on to those around us; that this is God’s world and that every single moment, every single breath is in itself a miracle of his grace to us.  And that God, if he is able to create and sustain such a world as this, can be relied upon to do absolutely anything he desires.  We are not bound by the limitations of the visible but we live in the knowledge that nothing is beyond the ability of God.

Psalm 33:12-22

So often I focus on me seeking God and trying to find him but the truth is that he spends his time watching me and keeping his eye on everything I do.  And that is a deeply reassuring thing.

Sunday 13 March

Leviticus 26:14-27:34

This final section of Leviticus (not that I’m delighting in the fact that it has finished, of course) starts to sound a little more like a book of prophecy than a book of law.  The reward for obedience outlined yesterday is diametrically opposed to the punishment for disobedience that is outlined today.  What is fascinating is that while God has regularly prescribed the death penalty for a ream of personal sins, he just doesn’t seem to have the same appetite when it comes to disobedience on a corporate level.  God layers five levels of disobedience on top of each other - “if you will not listen...if after this you will not listen...” and at each level you think that it surely must the end of the game but each time when the punishment is meted out, the covenant relationship is still left standing.  There is something significant in this.  God’s covenant and his mercies seem to be applied not at the individual level but to the people as a whole.  God seems perfectly willing to change the exact make-up of the people - with presumptuous individuals and stiff-necked generations being swapped out for humble aliens and God-seeking foreigners - but God is not so flexible when it comes to his people; the whole Israel project could never be abandoned (at least at this point in the story).  So here is the challenge for us.  How ingrained in us is the idea that it is the whole church that God is deeply impassioned for?  How much do we see ourselves relating to God as one of a people rather than just as an individual?  It is certainly true that God loves us and has wonderful plans for our lives but the biblical focus is on God’s love for Israel and his love for the church, on his plans to come into the midst of Israel and come into the midst of his church.  In our individualistic society I think it is crucial that we cling doggedly to the biblical teaching that we are in this together with others and God’s desire is to see us all, together, moving deeper into him.

Luke 1:1-25

It’s useful to remember that each of the gospel writers has organised the material about Jesus in a certain way to make certain points.  Matthew shows has Jesus embodying all that Israel was meant to be and then defining the new Israel as the followers of “the Way”.  Mark seems to me to be a missionary pamphlet possibly used by Paul to give a flavour of Jesus to the gentile churches - no nonsense in style and arresting in content.  Luke pretty much nails his colours to the mast at the kick off of his gospel.  He says that he assumes knowledge of Jesus and a seeking of God and is aiming to bring certainty and clarity to a developing faith.  We would therefore expect his gospel to be very carefully considered in tone and lay-out, alert to the various ideas that are flying around and tackling them by showing the true emphasis of Jesus.  I love the fact that each gospel brings its own slightly different slant to things.  Some people point to the slight discrepancies these slants inevitably bring but I think that is disingenuous.  We have a bible that is so rich in character and so diverse in approach that every personality type seems to be represented.  Praise God, and I mean really praise God that we don’t have a rigid, uniform, expression of the divine but a varied and liberating mishmash of thoughts and ideas and language and intentions all of which together somehow allude to the awesome majestic creative nature of our God.

Proverbs 7:1-5

If you ever worry that you are preaching at your children then take heart! If you haven’t elastic banded pages of the bible to their digits then you have not gone as proverbs suggests!

Saturday 12 March

Leviticus 25:1-26:13

Yet more on the Sabbath here - I really must think about that properly at some point - but more captivating is the concept of the Year of Jubilee.  If my hair was a little longer and my clothes a little baggier I may be tempted to say this concept is totally gnarly man (according to the urban dictionary gnarly is when you have gone like so totally beyond radical).  At it’s root the Year of Jubilee seems to codify and smash down into economic reality the idea that were are but tenants on God’s land.  I know it is a long way from our current economic experience and seems more than a little alien but, coming as it does as the culmination of the legislation of Leviticus, I think we can consider the concept of the Year of Jubilee to be pretty majorly important to the Lord.  His desire is plainly laid out here - he wants his people to organise their buying and selling in such a way that it is simultaneously an act of compassion towards others and an act of worship towards him.  It’s another example of the enthralling and terrifying freedom that he has given to us as his people.  It’s awe inspiring and reassuring that God wants “no man to be left behind” in our economic progress but is is discomforting verging on haunting that he holds us responsible for making sure this is so.

Mark 16:1-20

I love the idea that Mark’s gospel originally ended at verse 8.  The descriptions of Jesus’ followers in the run up to this finale are “alarmed”, “trembling and bewildered” and “afraid”.  Isn’t that how we should feel when we realise what we are actually dealing with in Jesus?  I don’t think we should expect to be able to glide smoothly through a faith that confounds everything that we know about life and which calls us to chuck a hunk of wood on our back and freely walk towards a hill where we can be nailed to it.  I think I need a bit more fear and trembling in my faith. Fear that I am dealing with a power so great that even the slightest drop of it could scatter me to the ends of the earth and trembling that the my miserable contribution is being regarded as valuable for the cause.  Having made my way to that state of mind, I’ve no doubt that verses 9-20 are also authentic even though they slightly change the feel of the ending.  They have more triumph in them, more of a guide as to what the empowered church is meant to be doing and what the result of their activity will be.  We need to the feel of both endings in tension with one another.  We must always be focused on mission, on empowered speaking and dynamic praying, but at the same time we must cling to trembling reverence and fearful focus on Jesus.  He is the one who reassures us.  He is the one who soothes us and comforts us.  He is the only one of us who holds all this stuff together.  But he does all of this not just for our sake, but for the sake of our world.

Psalm 33:1-11

I’m sure it is down to my huge level of ignorance but I just can’t seem to imagine someone plucking tranquilly at their harp and then breaking at every coda to summon-up a mighty roar to the Lord.  They just seem so incongruous. Maybe that is where the ten-stringed lyre came in.  Maybe that was the distorted electric guitar of David's day?

Friday 11 March

Leviticus 23:1-24:23

Aargh! I was all jacked up ready to talk about the Sabbath (which seems to be mentioned nearly every second page - an interesting indication of its importance) and then this grisly stoning episode comes in and hogs all the attention.  Well, let’s start on the easier bits; first of all, it is very reassuring that God wants there to be “the same law for the alien and the native-born”.  This is exactly the sort of thing I expect from God - exposing and challenging my tendency to have one rule for people who are like me and another for those who seem strange or unfamiliar.  Secondly, it is reassuring that stoning is a highly restricted practice, only being used in the case of the most heinous crimes and only in a corporate manner rather than through lynch mobs or the like. Thirdly, there would have been no prisons in this nomadic community so stoning, or some form of execution, would have been one of very few options for ensuring serious offenders didn’t pose a threat to the rest of the community.  Fourthly, and this may be something that starts to slide into the “more difficult” category, death was a punishment that had been prescribed by the Lord well in advance of this particular act and therefore could not be criticised as being an angry over-reaction or the result of a particular whim.  All of which has layed some positive context for tackling the question of “how can I worship a God who tells people to stone someone?”.  Well, I guess it is one to seriously chew on.  Another thing to chew on would be “how can I worship a God who lets people act however they want?”.  At the end of the day, there are spread across the whole of the Old Testament so many examples of God acting in grace that I feel I can relax, content in the knowledge that God is good.  But, even if that were not my conclusion it would not change the fact that God is God and he can do whatever he ruddy well wants.

Mark 15:33-47

I don’t know what to say about this.  It just seems really, really sad.  I remember seeing my grandfather’s body being carried out in a coffin at his funeral and that was fairly eyeball-scarring.  The thought of Jesus, the Lord of Life’s, body wrapped in cloth, being carried away and put in a cave is almost completely overwhelming.  I know it had to happen and I know that unbelievable amounts of goodness came out of it but it still just seems so throat-chokingly sad.

Psalm 32:1-11

This is a good, robust, sound-bitable psalm.  A really great one for coming back to and using in prayer times.