Wednesday 7 December

Zechariah 1:1-4:14

This feels like a jigsaw scavenger hunt; there are pieces dotted around these chapters that we need to gather together to see what the Lord is saying.  The corner pieces are the sense of exile, of a need for forgiveness of sin and restoration to the land.  The straight pieces are the inconceivably generous invitations from God to return to Him and receive his welcome and love.  We will never make sense of any life at any point in history unless we frame it with the twin truths of our overflowing rubbishness and God’s overwhelming love.  Then the core of the picture starts to form.  It is one of abundance and prosperity for the people of God.  This is a jigsaw of hope. Zion will be comforted and the temple will be rebuilt.  But it won’t quite be like it was.  Jerusalem will have no walls (so any old bloke could stroll in) and the sin of the land will be removed in a single day (as opposed to through the sacrifice system) and each person will invite their neighbour to sit under his vine (as inclusivity and welcome become the order of the day).  And, finally, the piece that completes the picture - and which proved so inflammatory to the scribes and the Pharisees - this will be done not by human actions or by the work of the temple priests but by the Spirit of God - by his Branch, his servant.  Jesus is his name.

3 John 1-14

I love this last letter of John.  And that is not just because it is tiny.  I love the reality it exposes about what the apostles had to deal with.  Life wasn’t dramatic miracle followed by dramatic miracle - it was dramatic miracle followed by someone slagging you off followed by encouraging another believer followed by dealing with someone who wants to be first followed by dramatic miracle.  And what I love most is John’s statement that he has no greater joy than hearing that his children are walking in the truth.  (I suspect he wasn’t talking about his biological children so this does have a broader application.)  John must have seen so much.  He said in his gospel that if he wrote down all the things he’d seen Jesus do then there wouldn’t be enough books in the world to fill them.  His journey had been a heck of a ride - he’d seen the fledgling Jesus movement spread and grow.  But John had never got above the joy of seeing one person doing well with Jesus.  And I must confess that I have never been able to get past it either.  I really don’t think there is any pleasure greater than meeting someone for coffee and having them rave about what Jesus is doing in their life.  There is something so deeply joyful and richly encouraging about that, and only part of it can be down to the cappuccino.  So I’m going joy hunting.  I looking for chances to talk face to face with my brothers and sisters who are walking in the truth.

Psalm 139:11-16

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.