Sunday 26 June

1 Kings 16:8-18:15

Tribalism is commonly understood to be a universal human characteristic.  It is reckoned to boil down to an inherent “fear of the other”, a suspicion of anyone who does not conform to your own way of doing things.  Tribalism can be a hugely powerful force.   Many analysts have suggested that it has underwritten and empowered American foreign policy for the last 5 decades (Russia, then Al Qaeda and now China).  Whether you agree with all that or not, you surely can’t help being struck by the way that Elijah seems to completely reject tribalism.  He rejects it to such an extent that he preferred to call a disaster upon his own people and then to cast in his lot with some grubby black birds (which the law had described as detestable - Lev11:15) and then with some foreign woman in some foreign land.  I’m sure tongues wagged.  I’m sure Elijah was labelled a freak, an adulterer, a dirty miscreant and few other things that are approximately four letters long.  But, while Elijah was decidedly unpopular in his time, he was held up by Jesus as an example of the way of the kingdom.  He was a walking illustration of the Father’s heart for the other.  You see God’s tribe (and I would include us in that) is expected to use its power and influence not to reinforce its position over and against other tribes but as a resource for others to draw on.  When God set up his tribe way back in Genesis 12 he said he would bless it so it could be a blessing.  I don’t think his plan has ever changed.  But I do think we’ve lost some of the radical edge of this.  I think we could go further to lavish the miraculous provision of our God upon those who we might be inclined to hate.  Surely that was what Jesus called us to time and time again - to find those who make us feel uncomfortable, who make us feel confused, unclean or afraid and then to demonstrate to them the grace of the Father.  That is loving our enemies.  That is seeking and saving the lost.

Acts 17:1-21

Three sabbaths.  Three measly little Sundays.  I missed as many as that when we were just away on holiday.  And when I came back I must confess that I didn’t expect a huge amount to have happened.  So to see that it only took Paul that long to preach to, convert and then disciple enough Thessalonians to found a small church, well, I feel well and truly reprimanded.  My level of expectation of what the Lord can do is woeful.  I get distracted or inward-looking and lose sight of the awesomeness of the God who I serve.  But Paul and Silas didn’t do that. Paul and Silas believed that the Holy Spirit’s power flowed through them, and would do for the limited period that they inhabited this earth - until Jesus returned or they died or were killed.  So they exploited every opportunity for the gospel.  They gripped and ripped every chance to build people up in Christ, to enlarge their vision of who the Lord had called them to be, to help them step closer to the fullness of living in Jesus.  They pressed in like their lives depended on it and, I guess, in many ways they did.  They knew that they were no longer their own but that their lives had been bought at a price.  They knew that their lives were hid with God on high.  So, in the words of the apostles in Acts 15 “they risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.  The Lord has got our back and his power is surging through our veins.  He could chuck upside down this church, this city, this country, even this world and he could do it in a matter of days. Will we give ourselves to him, will we believe the extent of his power and expect to see him move?  If we do, we could see thousands of people transformed, thousands of churches planted before we pass from this earth.  That is something that gets me going.  That is something to get up for in the morning.

Psalm 78:9-16

Those men of Ephraim must have been well thick.