Saturday 20 August

2 Chronicles 10:1-12:16

Everybody listens to stuff.  I don’t believe anybody doesn’t listen, no matter what they (or their mother) will tell you.  But the question is what are they listening to - which stuff are they choosing to soak up and then apply.  Rehoboam listened to his young advisors and he didn’t listen to his older advisors.  That’s how I’ve always understood this passage - it is a lesson in respecting the advise of your elders.  But, today I saw there was a much more important lesson that I’d previously overlooked.  The thing that really splintered the kingdom, the thing that really screwed up the covenant was not Rehoboam’s refusal to listen to his father’s advisors but his refusal to listen to Israel (10:16).  Rehoboam had been appointed to shepherd the flock of Israel but he couldn’t be bothered to listen to their bleating.  Leadership is a funny old thing.  Increasingly I think that the foundational biblical picture for leadership is one of being a shepherd.  And at the core of shepherding is listening to your sheep, hearing their concerns and their complaints and their desires and then responding to them with encouragement or care or loving correction.  I think every Christian is a leader in some way because every Christian is a priest and every Christian is called to make disciples.  So for all of us, as we grapple with how to lead, as we struggle to know quite what to do, let us heed the warning of Rehoboam and start by learning to listen.

1 Corinthians 14:1-19

I just love the way Paul slashes through all the super-spiritual, sanctimonious, head-in-heaven-not-on-earth piffle-crap that the Corinthians had been spouting.  I just hate it when people talk up their spirituality so much that it just disempowers everyone around them (if you ever do see me doing it please do shoot me).  And Paul seemed to be against it as well - his primary motive that he comes back to again and again in this letter is building up other believers.  His solid agenda for church meetings is the nurturing of those next to us.  We really do have to acknowledge how dangerous our society’s individualism is for the church.  It would probably say that speaking in tongues - if it worked for you - would be absolutely the best thing for you to do on a Sunday.  Equally sitting at the back and not talking to anyone, or skipping house group because you are a little bit tired.  But Paul takes a different view.  The question is not “what works for you?” but “what works for us?”.  What can we do to best help our fellow pilgrims and what can we do that will best help others come to life?  Encouragement has got to be foundational to it.  Encouragement has to hum and vibe through it.  And that is why prophecy is so glorious.  Human words can massage a pain but only God’s words can take it away.  Human insight can ease a situation but only God’s insight can transform it into goodness.  Prophecy is perhaps one of the purest forms of encouragement that can be spoken into a person’s specific situation.  And prophecy is something that all of us can do.  All we have to do is ask for it; to eagerly desire it.  All we need to do is ask God to speak through us to encourage the people we’re sat next to.

Proverbs 20:15-24

“How then can anyone understand his own way?”  Phew, that’s a relief.