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.
