Monday 30 May

1 Samuel 26:1-28:25

It’s a cracking yarn this one.  I haven’t got a clue about the theology of this spirit of Samuel though.  Was it actually him or an image of him or the resurrected version of him or something else?  I guess it’s one we could mull on forever and still not know.  Maybe we can ask Jesus when we see him but somehow I don’t think we will be too bothered about it by then.  Something that is a bit more “main and plain” is David’s obsession with speaking about the Lord.  In the single verse of 26:23 David mentions the Lord 3 different times in 3 different ways.  David sees the Lord in everything - in opportunities, in roles people play and in principles of how life works.  To get stuff right we need to hold all three together in an intimate tension.  To get stuff right we need to rest in daily submissive interaction with God, not just following one particular set of rules or principles.  The message seems to be that we should not blandly ask God to show us the way and then grasp the first opportunity that arises while saying “God opened the door...”.  That doesn’t really speak of real confidence in the power of God to bring about goodness.  It doesn’t really seem to be obsessive enough about engaging with God in a meaningful way.  Finding Saul asleep with a spear next to his head sounds like a pretty open door to me but God may open doors that he just doesn’t want us to take.  Why?  To invite us to intimacy.  To prompt us to write our own cannon of psalms just like David did.  This whole thing is about relationship with God.  This whole thing is about daily looking for God, speaking with God, listening to God and acting with God.  Anything else is just like looking for a flea.  It’s like hunting partridges in the mountains.

John 19:1-27

The cross is so baffling.  Every time I really come back to it I feel my ears ringing with silence, I feel my soul having the carpet pulled from under its feet, I feel my tear ducts swelling into action.  It just completely undoes everything that is self-seeking and proud in me.  It leaks away the tension of trying to be best and of wanting to win.  Most kings who are on crosses are pretty rubbish kings.  Most kings on crosses are being proven to be failures.  But this king on this cross at this particular moment is at the height of his powers.  That doesn’t make sense.  Not in 21st century London at least it doesn’t.  You can’t lose in order to win - you need to fight to win.  You can’t die in order to gain - you need to beat others to gain.  But the cross carves up all of that in me.  It convicts it and smashes it and clears it all away.  Maybe the cross challenges different things in you - I suspect few people are naturally as selfishly ambitious as I am - but it does need to challenge you.  If it doesn’t then think on it for a bit.  Don’t move on in bible-in-a-year until it grips you and tips your life on the floor.  If we come away from the cross not thinking that everything is up for grabs then maybe we have not really come to the cross at all.  We need to spend some time at the cross.  We need to be picking up the cross and carrying it around in our life.  We need to let the cross scar us and challenge us time and time and time again.  For if we don’t really come to the cross then we can’t really come to the empty tomb either.  And the empty tomb is the bit to get excited about.  We really don’t want to miss out on the empty tomb...

Psalm 68:21-27

What the heck are these hairy crowns that the psalmist wants crushed? (v21)  Surely he didn't have a run-in with Donal Trump did he??