Thursday 19 May

1 Samuel 2:27-4:22

Ichabod; the glory has departed Israel.  It is as damning a verdict as could be passed on the ministry of Eli.  As we go through this sordid period in Israel’s history I find again and again that leadership is utterly crucial to the fate of the nation.  So many leaders just don’t seem to cut it.  Perhaps if we look at why then we might be able to learn from their mistakes.  I think there are two main ones - 1) he was complacent.  Eli lost sight of the privilege in which he stood.  He was extremely richly favoured by God and yet it just became normal to him.  He should have treasured the extraordinary grace he had been shown but his treasure became the approval of his sons.  If we want to lead well we need to force ourselves to remember, to repent and then to fall on our faces in gratitude and worship.  2) he didn’t consistently exert the authority God had given him.  It is fascinating to me that Eli strongly rebuked Hannah (1:14) - mistakenly as it turned out - but held back from actually rebuking his sons; he expresses disapproval but does not tell them to stop or use his parental or priestly power to discipline them.  He may have thought this was loving for them but it wasn’t - they ended up slaughtered by the Philistines.  Maybe he was just scared of them.  If we have been given authority by God - which every leader has - we must exert it, no matter how awkward that can feel.  Fear can not be allowed to stand in the way of our obedience to God.  God delegates such hugely important roles to his people and, if we can only be full of gratitude, quick to repent and willing to exert authority then there is very little limit to what we can see him do through us.

John 11:1-44

With 3 words he raised a man.  And one of the words was restrictive; if he hadn’t named Lazarus who knows how many wrapped bodies would have emerged from the tombs?  It’s quite a display of power.  It could make you feel very intimidated.  But he also wept.  He wept.  I must confess I have never wept over someone else’s misfortune.  I’ve cried over the depth of my sin and blubbed with joy while trying to give my wedding speech.  But feeling someone else’s pain to the extent that my heart tears a little?  That requires a depth of empathy seriously beyond anything I have yet acquired.  I like to feel that I’m the one who can get the job done.  I’ve got the stiff upper lip that helps me make the right decisions even in the difficult situations.  Jesus makes that sound stupid.  He blubbed like a baby and sorted out the problem.  To have in one man both the epitome of supportive friendship and the pinnacle of transformative power well, that man would have to be a liberator of epic proportions.  And so we can come to him - the Son of God who has come into the world - both with trepidation and with boldness.  We shuffle towards God Most High, towards the One who wields intoxicatingly potent power.  And we fling ourselves heavily upon the extended embrace of the Lord who Sees Us, the one who came to build solidarity with us.  We know that God feels raging sorrow over the pains that plague us.  We know that the Almighty Maker and Restorer of All is not unmoved by our plight.  

Psalm 64:1-10

We often see the Psalmist telling God stuff that He must have known very well already.  But biblical prayer does not seem to be about passing on information.  Biblical prayer, at least in the psalms seems to be about building into intimacy with God and trust of him.  It is founded upon the disclosure of real feelings, of tangible fears and of impertinent request for God to act.