nobrokenreed

Archives for June 2016

Who is God?

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“for he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God” – John 5:18

In general, people have a hard time getting a clear picture of who God is. Religions of all sorts, have different ‘types’ of God, which go a long way to determining their culture. India, as an example, has nearly 300 million Dalits, or untouchables who believe that they are like they are, because of what they have done in a previous life. CS Lewis once noted that “that is why horrible nations have horrible Gods; they have been looking at him through a dirty lens.”

Even Christians have a hard time defining him – it’s almost as if we can’t quite believe the possibilities that he extends to us. While we marvel at the great escapades in the Old Testament, the book of Revelation leaves us bewildered.

The person of Jesus Christ only seems to amplify that difficulty for many. Almost all Christian sects – the Mormons, JWs, Christian Scientists and others reject Christ as God, not to mention Jews. The Gospel of John, above all Gospels emphasises Jesus’ deity and his claims amongst the Jews especially. But the debate about his deity is not really the point here.

Once and for all, Jesus painted a much clearer picture of the nature of God and who he actually was. This is the first passage in John where Jesus actually begins to outline who God really is, and Jesus’ relationship to him. For the Jews, and for many today, the notion that God is a loving Father is difficult to swallow. We prefer the God who causes mountains to tumble, and lightning to strike us. Here though, Jesus talks of a Father who dwells intimately with his Son, grooming him for the authority that he will one day receive as Lord of Lords. If you want to see the eventuality of that, read Revelation 1 – Christ as the King of the Universe, coming down to restore order and claim his bride.

His statement in this passage, comes at the end of a string of miracles amongst ordinary people; It is as though Jesus says to us, ‘look at what I have done before I tell you who I am.’ By stating his own deity and relationship with God, by emphasising again and again that ‘I and the Father are one’ Jesus gives us a clear picture of who God is. God is Love and he is concerned with his world.

There needs to be an emphasis on God’s holiness alongside this, his willingness to carve evil and all who represent it, away from his creation. But, somehow, we don’t seem to have too much difficulty in accepting that. I wonder if most of us could write a job description for God, whether ‘hurling fire and brimstone at people’ would come near the top.

The Bible paints a different picture, and it is shown through Christ. That is why we must keep him uppermost in our thoughts, as he says here, ‘so that everyone will honour the Son, just as they honour the Father.’ What is our role in all this?

It seems easiest for us to see things in terms of the wedding that is referred to throughout Scripture. Marriage is portrayed as the foundation of our relationship to God, through Jesus Christ. It would seem that, at the foundation of everything even prior to creation, the Father loved the Son and poured his love into him. Creation – us in other words, was the Father’s gift to the Son, and also an outlet for the Son to pour his love into. But it wasn’t easy. There was an enormous cost, a dowry payment for the bride that cost the Son his [earthly] life, which he willingly laid down for his bride. At the end, there will be a final consummation of the marriage, centred around a feast before the Son and his Bride live together, overseen by the Father.

Once we see God through this lens, we see a very different God; a God full of compassion who reaches out continually to heal, to love, to restore, forgive, shower with blessing and mercy. In the Son, we see a person with the power of the divine, yet one who reaches out with the most tender of touches, and gentlest of words.

Of course, we sense that always in the background there is evil; evil in ourselves, evil in others that seeks to damage the good that we see. It’s way the world is still awry. Some reject the Son, and in doing so reject God for all eternity. They prefer their own twisted fate to that of a permanent relationship with God. “So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him” it says earlier. We are reminded continually of the long term, eternal consequence of that, as well as the way such a decision affects us in the day to day. We are warned not to harden our hearts.

Who is God?  When we stand before him, it says we will see him face to face – there are angels in his throne room who cannot see him face to face. I think the world will be astounded not at his power, but at his humility, his vulnerability and willingness to love all who would receive. Until then, let us cling onto the Son, the visible image of the Father and one who promises to bring us home safely.

Sick and Dying

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“Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches” – John 5:3

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, used to come home at night bloodied and black and blue. His wife spent long hours at night praying, and you wonder whether a good portion of that was for his safety. Booth’s mission field was the pubs and dens at night, where he would wander in and begin preaching the Gospel. Needless to say, a few people took exception.

Throughout the Gospels, indeed the entire breadth of Scripture, God spent most of his time looking out for the poor and marginalised. Jesus in the Gospels, has a special affinity with those for whom the phrase “things can’t get worse” rang true. He reiterates that many times, with angular comments to the establishment; their attitude clearly didn’t impress him. Does ours?

This man at the pool had been sick for 38 years, lying in a hot climate and probably remaining there for days, even weeks at a time. Nobody wanted to look after him. The smell must have hit Jesus at a 100m, but those issues never seemed to bother him; hugging lepers, eating with prostitutes, halting the sermon to talk to tax collectors, Jesus was always stopping his agenda to tend to someone’s needs.

Where is this going? We’ve travelled overseas the past few weeks, largely to see family. It has been a delight, seeing family and friends we hadn’t seen for some time. We honoured parents long term marriage (and health) and feasted and celebrated. While occasionally things go wrong in our lives, we came away from that trip realising that life is as good as it gets, at least on this earth. We have had our share of problems, but compared to many, it doesn’t get much better. I don’t want to sound arrogant here, not at all – but for white middle class people living in Sydney, Australia, life is good. Add to that the security of knowing Christ, and I believe it is as good as it can be.

Two things, then: firstly, the church in the West is packed with believers who live a similar life. White, middle class – wealthy, educated, safe, secure and Christ to boot. It all looks pretty good. It wasn’t always like this though, and may not be for much longer, but that’s another story. The second issue is the crux, and that is this: what am I going to do with all that God has given me?

Reading Revelation at the moment, I am simply staggered at what is being held in trust for believers, and also by the magnitude of the authority and status of my Lord, Jesus Christ. Yet, for a few years he condescended himself to mix not just with humanity, but the lowest of the low. The people for whom there was no way out, found a way out in him.

He lowered himself to such a position as to ensure they felt they could approach him. Shunning robes, wealth and position, he made his dwelling in their neighbourhood. Further, he went out each day, seemingly looking for such people. Jesus knew, as the disciples knew, and as we have discovered what many thousands of missionaries already know, that the poor and the marginalised, the sick and dying are more responsive to God. Sadly it seems, and friends, this is something that God warns us of continually, those with a great deal of [wealth, status, prestige, power et al] will also have dual allegiances and a lacklustre faith. Undeniably, it is the story of the church in the West.

Throughout history, those who have made their mark for God in this world, are those who have gone out into it and preached to those who would listen. Those who would listen, are not usually those who already have it all. They usually have nothing, including much hope. These preachers have simply followed their Lord, realising that any sacrifice made here would more than be made up for later on. Sacrifice?  We can say without hesitation, that the joy of seeing someone come to Christ as their Lord, outweighs anything this world has to offer.

In our experience of going out to share Jesus, there is undeniably a similarity between those who receive him now, to those who received him then. In a word, the marginalised. People to whom others give little due.

We need to go and search for such people, as it is unlikely that we mix with them now. We must stop expecting anybody to embrace our white middle class church culture. That phrase may be offensive to some, but I have my doubts that he wants to be defined by such culture – he certainly didn’t in his day. Let us delight in the fact that Jesus has already prepared the hearts of many before we even go, he is just waiting for us to go.

What joy, when after 38 years somebody finally came not only to put him the pool, but to give him back his life. It’s the same when we offer Christ to somebody though, we offer them life.

Pray this week, that the Lord will show you someone to whom you can offer life. Don’t be surprised when it’s not someone you expect though.

God loves us

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 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die – John 4: 47

We’ve been overseas for the past weeks. As we wandered around England, we saw opportunities for the Gospel everywhere. The world is broken. Seemingly ordinary people are suffering; financial stress, relationship distress, disease, addiction, hurt, pain, sickness. Nobody escapes. The motivation to write nobrokenreed, is to encourage new believers and wonderers to find out who Jesus really is, and to push all of us over the edge to tell others of him.

The one thing that we find is that everywhere, people are looking for answers and meaning.

The most beautiful thing of God, is that he came to heal the brokenness. While it is true that one day he will make it all right once again forever, such a statement can appear trite to those who need his love today.

The overwhelming characteristic of Jesus Christ, is his deep compassion for people in the here and now. He engaged with people who were sick and sinful, and cared deeply for them. No matter how much of it was ‘their fault’ he simply embraced them. They were never left unchanged, because God loved them in a personal way. In John’s Gospel, you see this very clearly. The Samaritan woman was a despised person, living an illicit life and the impression is that she had all but given up on life. Who cared about her, other than to use her for sex and comfort?

Yet Jesus’ response is never to blame or discard, but to reach out to heal and to offer life. Such was his response, that people begged him to come to them. Immediately after the Samaritan woman, Jesus heals the boy of a government official. If he was Jewish, he would belong to a group of people who would ultimately execute Jesus, and if he was Roman, he had a nerve to expect the conquered Jews to provide him with anything other than contempt. Christ’s response maybe exasperated, but he still reaches out.

So, to you today. The distressed, the hurting, those reading this numb with pain, what will you beg of him? Will we firstly condescend to come to him with our tears and our tattered lives, admitting our brokenness. It is always the first step. Are we able then to sit in his presence, and accept that he, not us can fix our brokenness; are we able to let go of our need to control everything and allow Jesus to do what he alone can do?

Will we just accept that God loves us, and cares for all of us deeply. For those privileged to have a special relationship with him through Christ Jesus, we can walk in that every day; if you don’t feel that’s you today, then you must know that still God reaches out to you to come to him. Who you are, what you are carrying, the burden you bear – his longing is that you will come to the only one who can do anything about it, him.

Many have uncertainty about the love of God, but his love for us is not based on our feelings or uncertainties, his love for us is based on his unchanging character, the one true God. Such a God, sent his son Jesus Christ to reveal to men exactly how he does respond to us on a daily basis; with compassion, open arms and willingness to forgive, to heal to renew, to restore, and to love for all eternity.

Jesus’ response to the official was “go back home, your son will live”, the same life that he offered the Samaritan woman, the same that he offers to me and you.

So today, let us put time aside to sit at his feet and accept who he is; allow him to embrace us with his love, let him care for us as the one true God.

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