Sunday 10 July

2 Kings 19:14-20:21

It has ever been thus.  A crisis leads us to pure devotion.  Like Hezekiah, our vision sharpens when we understand the fragility of our life.  It dawns on us that nothing really matters apart from the glorification of the LORD.  “May all the kingdoms on earth know that you alone, O LORD, are God” we cry.  And we really mean it.  But, just like a car that keeps slipping out of 5th gear, we find it so hard to stay in that place.  The crisis passes, we get more comfortable and we begin to alter our definition of what is good - peace and security in our lifetime become our goal.  We still love God, we are still moving in the right sort of direction but the full-throttle obsession with God’s name is replaced with a trundling journeying towards our own comfort.  Our criteria for what is desirable or undesirable now revolve around our well-being, not His glorification.  We are happy to liaise with Babylonians. They aren’t doing us any harm - at least not in the short term - and we enjoy their praise and their respect.  They make us feel comfortable.  They reassure us of our security.  They help us feel peace.  But it is a sham.  It is just an illusion.  It sullies the name of the Almighty.  Let me not follow the way of Hezekiah O God.  Please don’t let me prefer my peace to your glory.  Please don’t let me desire the comfort of sin.  Smash up that high place within me O God.  Glorify your name in me O God.  And glorify your name in all this land.

Acts 28:1-16

Here is a good picture of what Paul was really like.  Here is a good picture of what it means to be a mature Christian.  He gathered firewood - he was not above menial tasks.  When he had a viper hanging from his hand he didn’t whoop and holler, he didn’t identify the viper as a demon and wail and groan about spiritual attack.  He just shook it off.  And he didn’t get fixated on the miraculous protection that he experienced, he just plodded off to the local estate to find another person to engage with, another person to potentially bring into the kingdom of Jesus.  He happily prayed for those who were sick and went on from that prayer to build fuller relationships with them, to receive honour from them and support from them as appropriate.  He was happy to sail on a boat dedicated to two false gods - he didn’t insist on everything around him being “Christian” or on spotting demons behind every pagan symbol.  He accepted an invitation to spend a week with some fellow believers - seeking out relationships and giving himself to people whenever he could.  And finally, he thanked God and was encouraged by others while at the same time being happy to live alone under armed guard.  Paul cuts me to the core.  He challenges me just to get on with it, not to wax and wane about my surroundings or circumstances or to get stressed about spiritual battles.  He just calls me to a mission, to give myself to people and to be content in the presence of my God.  He just refused to get distracted.  O God would you give me a similar resolve.

Psalm 83:1-18

I must confess I can’t for the life of me remember who Oreb and Zeeb were.  They sound like an illusionist double-act but I’m guessing it’s not good to be like them, right?

Saturday 9 July

2 Kings 18:1-19:13

Nice try Sennacherib.  You’ve certainly got some bluster in you.  You certainly gave your underlings an impressive line of argument.  Yeah, that was a pretty nice try.  Shame you seriously under-estimated your adversary.  Shame you brought a plastic sword to a gun fight.  I do agree that you have good pedigree - that cannot be denied.  But sadly you were up against a vastly superior species.  I hope your sons’ sword did not hurt too much (see tomorrow’s reading for the end of the story).  Echoes of Sennacherib’s voice can be heard all over the place today decrying faith in God, insinuating that belief in God’s protection is idiotic and doomed to failure.  Many of these are full of bluster.  Many of them wax lyrical about the extent of their pedigree.  We do not need to answer them.  God will rebuke them in his time.  We should seek the comfort of the flock though.  We should pray for our brothers and sisters that they would hold firm and not be afraid of what they have heard.  God is totally awesome.  He has protected his people thus far.  He still has the whole world in his hands.  He still knows the number of hairs on our heads.  Some underlings word’s won’t change that.  They are just underlings.  He is the king of kings.  

Acts 27:13-44

Ner ner ni ner ner - I told you not to set sail from Crete.  It’s not where I would have started.  It does sound a little childish.  But then again I’ve never had an angel appear to me at night so I suspect I’m slightly unqualified to speak on the subject.  Where Paul ended though, where he ended is surely admirable and inspiring and something to emulate.  “Keep up your courage, men, I have faith in God...”  Is that not the cry of the Kingdom to the drowning world?  Take courage, people! Take courage! There is hope of your lives being saved.  Align yourselves with us, buy into our faith in our God and he will shield us from real harm.  It will happen just as he has told us.  It won’t be a struggle-free ride - we will still run aground on some island - but we will be saved.  We will see our God sparing our lives from this calamity.  It is certainly a great message.  It certainly is a message of hope.  But do we believe it is necessary?  Do we really believe the storm is raging?

Psalm 82:1-8

“defend the cause of the weak”

Friday 8 July

2 Kings 16:1-17:41

This is major news.  10 of the 12 tribes are no more.  For a God who claims to be faithful and strong, that could be quite a troubling statistic.  If my bank’s prospectus stated that 83% of their clients lost all their money last year I’m not sure I’d be feeling too secure about my savings.  So a huge chunk of this passage addresses that fear.  It stresses that this seemingly catastrophic performance by God was actually nothing of the sort.  Those 83% of clients did not in fact lose their money - they had it confiscated by the authorities for continual, extreme bad behaviour.  It was as if the 83% of clients were actually terrorists having their assets frozen.  So my bank did the right thing.  They showed their integrity by refusing to harbour terrorist’s assets and they showed their authority by actually being able to take action against their own clients.  The 10 tribes being thrown out of the land showed God’s integrity, not his infidelity.  It showed his power, not his puniness.  God will not tolerate an ever growing catalogue of sins.  And the major sins of the 10 tribes - the thing that made them terrorists in God’s eyes - are defined by the single thing that we saw yesterday God cannot stand.  The heinous sins of the 10 tribes were primarily sins of idolatry.  They were primarily giving allegiance to and placing hope in things other than God.  When the going gets tough (and in fact even when it is easy) we can so easily look to false gods for a promise of comfort, hope and a future.  If only we had more money, if only I had more qualifications, if only I was married to a rock star, if only I was a bit more buff... then I would be happy and well.  The Lord is jealous for our affections.  He wants all our hopes to be placed in him and he won’t stomach it being any other way.

Acts 26:24-27:12

It’s quite fashionable to say you’re not trying to convert people.  It’s what hip Christians say.  A while back I reached the point where I was so freaking fashionable that I never even thought about trying to convert people, let alone spoke about it.  Flip-mode that one in your area with respect to your mother.  Then I read Paul’s little interchange with Agrippa (he should have been a rapper or something with a name as cool as that).  Paul admits he is trying to convert Agrippa.  He even admits he is trying to convert the whole world.  I suddenly started to feel a bit sad.  And a bit silly.  Paul had a long list of people who were eternally grateful to him for showing them life and I didn’t really have anyone on my list.  Paul had people who wept and clung onto him on the beach because he said they would never see him again.  The only person who had wept because of me was my aunt who misunderstood when I said she was a woman who was totally wicked and totally phatt.  Paul had really, really helped people.  I just had a few people who thought I was quite a nice bloke.  Sure, a good number of people had tried to murder Paul or assassinate him or smash stones into his head but they were just the side-show.  The ones who had been set free by his preaching, who had been transformed by his God - they were the defining narrative in the story of Paul’s life.  If I really think that God is amazing and that knowing him is amazing then surely I should be more upfront about telling people I want them to share in that.  Surely that would be the loving thing to do, even if some people don’t think it is very cool.

Psalm 81:8-16

“If my people would but listen to me...”

Thursday 7 July

2 Kings 14:23-15:38

The judgement is brutal. Menahem might have expected a few more reverential words to have been written about him.  After all, he had held the most prestigious position in the land for a whole decade.  But the bible doesn’t seem to care much for such things - it has very little to say about him except to dismiss him as an evil fool.  Looking so far back into history we get the benefit of seeing which things really matter to God, which things he looks for in his people, which things he judges us on.  Ripping open pregnant women is not a good start.  Extorting money from people, even if they are wealthy, does not seem to go down too well either.  But, the thing that really went down badly with the Lord, the thing that really got his goat was not Menahem’s abuse of his subjects - that was just seen as being symptomatic of the bigger sin.  The thing that Menahem did which defined him as being evil in the eyes of the Lord was his following of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat.  Jeroboam son of Nebat was the one who established the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.  Jeroboam son of Nebat was the one who led people away from worship of Yahweh.  Menahem did evil in the eyes of the Lord because he led people away from worship of Yahweh.  When I think about this I I fear I have spent way too little of myself focusing on the priorities of the Lord.  I fear I have spent far too long fretting about things that wouldn’t even feature in God’s verdict on my life.  I don’t want to do that any more.  I want to give myself to the big thing in the eyes of the Lord.  I want to help people offer worship to Yahweh.

Acts 25:23-26:23

Oh how I would love just once to be described as arriving somewhere with great pomp.  I can’t see it happening while I’m scuffing around in my tatty shoes and stained T-shirts but it is nice to dream.  “Oh Tom”, they would say (I’m not sure who the ‘they’ would be, perhaps the esteemed journalists of the Kingston Guardian) “Oh Tom, you truly have made an entrance at this opening ceremony of the new shower wing of the Malden Centre. No, Tom, in fact I fear we have underplayed what you have done here.  I believe that in fact the only appropriate way to describe your arrival would be to say that you arrived with pomp, nay, even that is not enough.  Truly you have arrived with great pomp”.  If that happened, I would die a happy man.   But however people arrived to meet Paul, he seemed equally willing to tell them his story about how he came to realise that Jesus is real and that he brings light to all people.  This is now the third time we have heard Paul’s story.  Each time he slightly adapts it for the audience but each time it points to Jesus as being electric, attractive and accessible.  His stories are generous in letting people into the reality that Paul has been caught up into.  His stories are also provocative in suggesting that this Jesus stuff is not just some dusty confession but a real force that really impacts real people’s lives.  I believe we all have stories of how Jesus has impacted our lives, how he amazed us by his power, wooed us with his love and empowered us for his purposes.  I believe it is time for us to get as good at telling our stories as Paul was at telling his.

Proverbs 16:18-27

I love the winsome nature of this proverb - “There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death”.  Tell us the way, man, tell us the way!!

Wednesday 6 July

2 Kings 12:1-14:22

I’m getting pretty sick of this. Why can’t the numskulls work out that it is a pretty simple formula - tear down the high places and the Asherah Poles, don’t make sacrifices to Baal, don’t attack your brothers and, about everything else, just ask God what he wants you to do.  Why can’t they manage it?? If I was in the place of God my patience would be burnt to a crisp - I would be more than ready to close the book on them.  But the LORD is far more gracious than I.  He is far more compassionate than I.  He is far more true to his covenant than I ever would have been.  This is the incredible thing about our faith - it weds us to one who surpasses us in every way.  He abounds in compassion.  He sees beyond meanness and murderousness to see people whom he loves and wants to redeem.  He is the very definition of grace.  He looks past idolatry and infidelity to see children whom he wishes to forgive.  He cannot be unfaithful to his word.  He overlooks corruption and conspiracies for the sake of keeping his promise to his people.   His emotions and his intentions towards us are compassion, graciousness and concern.  His commitment to us can never be shaken.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God, a love that is high and wide and far and deep, a love that refines us and soothes us, a love that was formed in those early days at the origin of this universe and a love which will stretch on through until this world crumbles into the sea.  He is unwilling to destroy us.  He is unwilling to banish us from his presence.

Acts 25:1-22

Christianity is about a dead man called Jesus who Christians claim is alive.  So said Festus (pretty much).  It’s an interesting summary isn’t it?  Does it work for you?  Does it cover all the bases?  I like it.  I think it is a pretty good starting point.  It is quite intriguing  in pointing out the peculiar paradox at the heart of this thing.  If you are going to take Christianity seriously while also keeping your brain switched on you have got to do battle with this pretty mega idea.  A man was dead but now his friends say he is alive.  If the idea is correct then it performs a judo nage-waza on everything we know about life, whipping it off its feet and smashing its back onto the cold padded floor.   Wisdom and knowledge and understanding say that death is the end.  Wisdom and knowledge and understanding don’t see a way back from the shutting down of bodily organs.  According to the nugget of the idea at the heart of Christianity, wisdom and knowledge and understanding are mistaken.  Christianity doesn’t just ask us to remain as we are but try to be good.  It doesn’t even ask us to remain as we are but to repent from our sins.  Christianity calls us to step out of one understanding of the world and step into another.  It bids us to repent AND believe in a whole new thing.  Believe in a paradox, believe that after death comes a return to life, a better life, a more substantial life.  Believe that the standard way of going about life is fundamentally mistaken.  Believe that there exists in Jesus a force so potent and so unruly that it refuses to bow to the one certainty for the whole of humanity.  Believe that Jesus brings real life.  And what is the evidence for so bold a claim?  What could possibly support this statement that Christianity is making?  I think Jesus said something about us loving one another.  I think Jesus said something about us speaking out the truth.  I think Jesus said something about us being empowered by the Spirit.  We carry with us the aroma of Christ.  It’s an aroma with the potential to perform nage-waza.

Psalm 81:1-7

“Their hands were set free from the basket”.  Is it wrong that my first thought was of clothes washing?  Does that make me a modern man??  Hey, maybe the Lord is speaking to me... maybe he is setting me free from doing laundry...

Tuesday 5 July

2 Kings 10:1-11:21

Bloody.  That’s what these chapters are.  I’m not surprised the Lord began to reduce the size of the land of Israel - the few survivors of Jehu’s massacre-spree must have been rattling around the land like crumbs in a biscuit tin.  So thank the Lord for Jehoiada who took some initiative and started to sort out this shambles.  Interestingly, Jehoiada’s great trait was not his prayerfulness or his preaching or his holiness but his skill in administration.  He simply brought a bit of organisation to the temple.  Administration is described by Paul as being a gift of the Spirit and, based on this, you can see why.  It may not be sexy and it may not be exciting but it can cause the people of the land to rejoice and can bring peace to the city.  Thank God for the administrators among us!

Acts 24:1-27

It’s a bit funny, this last part of Acts.  It was so blazingly exciting back in those early chapters with tongues of fire, cripples walking and thousands coming to faith.  Now all we get to satisfy our palates is the inner workings of some Roman bureaucrat’s court.  I mean Luke has got some seriously twisted ideas about what makes a fascinating finale.  But, I think what is helpful for understanding Acts is to see the Roman Empire as the defining power network in the whole area.  With that in mind we can understand this interchange with Felix not as a rather verbose retelling of the same old message but rather as an injection of the grace of the Kingdom into the corridors of power.  Paul is taking the Kingdom of God into the heart of the Kingdom of Rome.  He is bringing the power of the True King Jesus to bear upon the empire of the Sham King Caesar, not to over-throw it or destroy it but to transform it from within.  You see Paul, and Luke, had this curious notion that the work of Jesus wasn’t a small thing.  They believed that the force unleashed upon the world through the resurrection of Jesus and the impartation of the Spirit was so big that it could, and should, claim every power base and every suggestion of authority in the land.  That is what they prayed for and that is what Paul gave his life to.  Seeing the message of King Jesus smuggled into the very centre of the Roman Empire so that it could be released there to work its transformative magic and then spread from there to the ends of the earth.  It’s time for the church to reclaim this big vision that so excited Paul and Luke.  It’s time for us to see this message infiltrating and transforming every power base and suggestion of authority in this land.  It’s time for us to think and dream and pray big.  Our God is worthy of nothing less.

Psalm 80:8-19

The image of Israel as a vine is a big one across the Old Testament and is crucial for understanding some of the parables Jesus told.  When you think of the sweat and time put into harvesting grapes for wine and the importance of a good harvest for a wine-grower, well, the image starts to feel pretty intoxicating.  

Monday 4 July

2 Kings 8:16-9:37

More mayhem.  More holy subversion of the run of events.  I think we have covered this ground before - God loves his people too much to stand by aloof and disinterested as they wrap themselves up in toxic strands.  He just won’t let his people be poisoned to death.  So he sends in his antidote - Jehu son of Jehoshaphat who drives like a madman, Jehu the boy-racer, Jehu the murderer of men.  And Jehu sets about annihilating the chief poisoners - Joram king of Israel, Ahaziah king of Judah, Jezebel the evil queen and, in tomorrow’s even more bloody sequel, all Ahab’s family and all the priests of Baal.  It might be appropriate to see Jehu a bit like chemotherapy; a brutal and savage assault on the body that you would never dream of using in healthy times but which is the best way of bringing about recovery from serious cancer.  God is committed to bringing us to full health.  He’ll do whatever he can to set his people free from the things that bind them.  He takes serious action against the things that corrupt and poison his people.  He went to the cross, he disciplines, he convicts of sins, he asks us to rebuke and correct (and encourage) one another.  All expressions of his love.  All expressions of his understanding of what is best for us.  He will not leave us to be poisoned to death.  He takes action to bring us to health.

Acts 23:12-35

Maybe the moral of this story is that it is good to have a sneaky nephew.  There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot else going on here except perhaps one thing - that Paul is not passive in receiving his fate.  He has said to live is Christ and the die is gain but that doesn’t mean he passively sits back and waits for the grim reaper to approach.  He takes action to escape from the plot on his life.  So a second interesting point is that Paul doesn’t just pray (in fact it is not clear whether he prayed at all!) but he works to use his connections and his skill to get the result that he desired.  I like it that in the Vineyard we believe in the powerful and real presence of the Spirit on earth.  I like the fact that we believe God answers prayers, that he is sovereign and that he can be trusted.  But I also like the fact that we don’t get super-spiritual.  We don’t lose sight of the world we live in that God made and that he gifted to us to use for his glory.  We don’t transfer every single thing into the spiritual realm as if that were where God dwelt separate and away from the people and the things that we see before us.  Paul, the super-apostle had a problem so he thought about it, spoke to someone he knew and asked them to fix it.  Now that is real authentic spirituality.

Psalm 80:1-7

“Bread of tears”?  I must say that isn’t a metaphor that would jump instantly to my mind.  Still, I guess it gets a meaning across...