Friday 27 May

1 Samuel 19:1-20:42

Maybe Jonathan had been watching too much Spooks?  I can’t think of any other reason why he would have come up with this convoluted plan of shooting arrows and shouting codes for David.  It was completely pointless wasn’t it?  Because, after playing out the “secret message” he then not only waltzed up to David and spoke with him but he also engaged in an extended emotional farewell.  It wasn’t really very Jason Bourne was it?  This relationship between David and Jonathan is interesting though not because it shows them as being gay (honestly some people have got to get a grip on their exegetical principles) but because it illustrates the character of God.  David is regularly described as being someone after God’s heart (eg Acts 13:22) so his attitudes can be taken to reflect God’s.  David has been told Saul is trying to kill him but he is still willing to play his harp for him to try to comfort him.  David seems to choose to believe the best in others.  David has also become a war hero, and yet he does not regard himself as above playing his hap to try to comfort Saul.  David suffers an attempt on his life by Saul and yet he doesn’t reciprocate but flees to Samuel. David accepts the complexity of life and trusts God to bring justice.  And, most of all in this particular passage, we see David is willing to cross faction lines and build deep, loving friendships with people, even with his enemies.  This is the picture of God.  We were his enemies.  Through our sin we were aligned with those who killed Jesus.  But God crossed the faction line and sought a deep loving friendship with us.  God has made us his friends.  

John 17:6-26

I can’t believe Jesus prayed for me.  I sort of knew he did it but the hammering force of him actually calling it out in words has only just hit me.  My heart feels like its penduluming around in my chest.  That he would think to do that!  It’s staggering.  What he prayed for me though is still puzzling me slightly.  I get what is going on when Jesus prayed for the disciples - protection from the evil one, experience of the full measure of joy and sanctification - this is all good stuff that I long to see happening in my life.  But this request that we all would be “one”?  It needs some thought.  One thing I’m sure of is that it is not just a desire for bland ecumenism; Jesus doesn’t just ask that we will be in organisational unity but that we will be “one” just as the Father and he are “one”.  This, I think, is the key to understanding what this means.  Jesus was one with the Father because the Father was in him.  The Father was in Jesus because Jesus was completely submitted to the will of the Father, saying only the words the Father gave him and doing only what he saw the Father doing.  If we are to be one in Jesus then our call is all to be completely submitted together to the will of Jesus.  To bind ourselves in a commitment to saying only the words that Jesus gives us and to doing only the things that we see Jesus doing.  Our focus is not so much to be agreeing with people as yielding to God.  As we do that, we call other believers into this place of absolute abandonment of personal agendas.  If that is where we get to, then we will really appear to be the body of Christ that God has made us.  Then it will be clear to all of us and to all the world that the Father does deeply love us even as he deeply loves Jesus.

Psalm 68:7-14

“you refreshed your weary inheritance”.  I want to claim that one today...