Saturday 10 December

Zechariah 12:1-14:21

“When he prophecies, his own parents will stab him”.  Eeek.  I’ve never heard anyone quote that verse before!  I just can’t think what to say about it.  Nor can I think of much to say about this plague that will rot people’s flesh while they stand, nor the lack of rain for the Egyptians who don’t celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.  And, while we are on about it, I have not a single syllable of sense to utter about the lack of Canaanites in the house of the Lord.  But, while I am lost on the detail, I am deeply convicted that the overarching message is one of the establishment of justice in this real world of ours.  Maybe one of the greatest tragedies about all this “End Time” discussion has been the growing idea that it relates to bizarre, supernatural events in a distant, supernatural place at a distant, slightly-supernatural time.  But that is closer to Return of the Jedi than the prophecies of the bible.  The coming day of the Lord that Zechariah spoke about is so scary and hard to digest because it is so earthy, so grounded in everyday experience of life.  The Day of the Lord will come on this earth and will have implications for this earth.  It is not a ‘heavenly’ thing but an earthly one.  The Day of the Lord is the justice of God - the way of God - coming to the Gerkin and the ferries on the channel and the Syrian parliament and the Masai tribes.  The Day of the Lord is Immanuel - God with us.  The Day of the Lord is two bits of wood on a hill called Golgotha.  The Day of the Lord is a stone rolled away from a burial cave.  The Day of the Lord is the sound of a mighty wind around the heads of the early believers.  The Day of the Lord is the Roman swords  slashing and conquering the stronghold of Jerusalem.  And the Day of the Lord is still to come.  Injustice still reigns.  Poverty still remains.  Sin and idolatry and arrogance are doing their thing.  And God will come again to sort them out.  And to bring his goodness to bear on this land.

Revelation 2:1-17

Hear me.  You are doing great! Good job!  But there is something that is not right.  Repent from it!  Then listen to me!  The best is yet to come!  It is the same format for each of the three letters to the three churches and I believe it is the same format as the word of the Lord to us.  He invites us to lean towards Him.  He is the one speaking, he is taking the initiative - and he wants us to start by listening.  If you are anything like me, that takes a moment to act upon, it is not something that I naturally do.  And once we listen he lavishes us with such bewildering encouragement that we start to think that he has the wrong guy.  But the look in his eye and the warmth of his tone gradually assure us that he really means us.  Again, if you are like me, you may find that hard to take in.  But you really must - give it the time it deserves.  And then, when we are safe in his arms he begins in his love to cut out the cancerous cells.  It’s like pulling grass-seeds out of my parent’s dog’s ears.  He identifies the seed - the sin - and he asks our permission to tackle it.  Our repentance is our ‘yes’ and by his forgiveness he pulls it out.  We need to stay alert to our sin.  We need to be quick to repent.  And after the repentance comes a further invitation to intimacy, a second request to be still.  And He closes the conversation with an even greater promise, a sweeter kind of word, a yet more brilliant hope.

Proverbs 30:1-10

“give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread”