Tuesday 21 June

1 Kings 8:22-9:9

And I used to think that my brother’s prayers went on a bit!  In addition to his immense wisdom and fabulous wealth Solomon also clearly had a significant amount of stamina, but I guess any of us who have heard about his 700 wives had worked that bit out already.  This prayer, aside from being a tad lengthy, is so richly studded with spiritual jewels that it will be impossible to do it any justice in this blog.  The real highlight for me is how Solomon begins and ends his prayer reveling in the covenant promise and activity of the Lord God.  God’s character and his word are always fruitful places to root and embed our prayer life.  After that, I find it incredibly striking that the missionary heart of God is so clearly displayed here (v41-43).  Often this is said to be absent in Judaism but it is there, lurking under the surface, pleading for mercy on behalf of foreigners and non-Israelites.  Powerful prayer will remember those outside the kingdom of love.  And, thirdly, I love the way Solomon is so real about what numpties we are.  He lists a range of ways in which people may sin against the Lord and no doubt we could add an argos-catalogue-sized collection of our own but he always brings it back to God’s desire and willingness to show mercy.  Liberating prayer will always acknowledge our wickedness and fickleness while rejoicing in the forgiving nature of our God.  I’d love to wax lyrical about the 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats that Solomon sacrificed but space does not permit.  I’d love to swoon over the appearance of God to Solomon but again, I fear I can’t do that here.  But what a thing, in view of all of Solomon’s faults and all of Israel’s reckless disobedience, that God would elect to consecrate the temple that Solomon has built.  What a thing that he would choose to put his eyes and his heart in the undignified dust in the midst of his people.  Immanuel - God with us - is a incalculable privilege.  The Holy Spirit living in us is a stupidly enormous gift of grace.  Thank you so much Jesus that you have given me all that you have.

Acts 14:8-28

Wow, this one taps right into some of my biggest issues.  If it had been me, I suspect I would not have been quite so ready to rush out to the crowd and stop them sacrificing bulls in my honour.  It it had been me I suspect I may have paused for a minute, enjoying the appreciation before gently suggesting that perhaps the people were going just a little too far in their praise.  Perhaps I may have quietly set up a TomZeus twitter account, telling myself that I was meeting the people where they were at and speaking a language that they would really understand.  All of this would have been entirely for the sake of the gospel of course!  I must admit that I utterly love it when I think people respect me.  A lot of me yearns for it.  A lot of me yearns for it too much.  And a lot of me will do nearly anything it can to avoid being stoned and dragged out the city as if dead.  There is very little limit to what I would do to prevent people disrespecting me.  But the kingdom of God is a funny place and it is a funny place that cuts right into my deepest insecurities.  It doesn’t say, but it doesn’t seem like Paul was anything like as distraught about his attempted assassination as he was about his attempted deification.  I feel like I’m a million miles from Paul in this but maybe I can take some comfort in his words to the Lystrians - “we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”.  This journey is not mapped out as an easy one.  When we struggle we know that we are not struggling alone.  And perhaps there is also a pointer forward in what Paul told the church in Antioch when he returned to them.  What was first in his mind was not the worship he received or the beating that he took but the work that the Lord had done.  Fixing our memories and our attention and our aspirations on him, and not us, is perhaps a way to walk forward into the deeper pastures of the faith.

Proverbs 15:11-20

I feel like I’ve spent too long trying to provide people with a fattened calf when all they really needed was love.