He has left behind a blessing

Compressed into a few sentences is a heart-breaking tragedy that opens the book of Ruth. It is easy to think of this story as a beautiful romance. But it begins with drought, destitution, and a flight to a land with better opportunity for survival. Here are needy economic refugees. Elimelech migrates with his family to survive.

And then in the foreign land Elimelech dies. Naomi is a widow with two sons who marry local girls. Then the sons die. Naomi's only family are her daughters in law. All local Moabites. She is a foreigner, resident in Moab only ten years.

It is no wonder she wants people to call her by a new name. No longer Naomi (pleasant) but Mara (bitter). Tragedy upon tragedy. Grief upon grief. Sensibly she decides to return home. But she returns bitter and empty.

But with one of her daughters in law. How wonderful family love can be. Something has stirred in the heart of this young Moabite woman. She clings to Naomi (the same word that is used in Genesis 2.24!). Today is Mothers' Day. Not all families are happy, and not all “in-law” relationships are smooth. But some are. Here is a young woman who clings to her bitter and empty mother-in-law and goes with her to what, for the young woman, is a foreign (and potentially hostile) land.

Why? I suppose we need to read the rest of the story to find out. But there is a clue in this first part. Despite Naomi's claim that the LORD's hand has turned against her, Ruth wants the LORD to be her God. Through her husband and mother-in-law she had come to know something about their God. She wants to have their God as her God.

And rightly so because the LORD has brought Ruth into Naomi's life as a blessing. Amidst the suffering and grief the LORD has left a blessing. And although later on Naomi may see Ruth as a burden (she will have to find her a husband who likes foreigners), she will later rejoice in the blessings.

Many of us can also testify to the LORD's blessings in the midst of grief and trouble. We can say indeed “he has left behind a blessing” (Joel 2.14).

Dale

Lowly friends?

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet...”. So many things in the Bible are told us by way of pictures and drama.

Here is a humiliating drama. Peter was offended and embarrassed by Jesus’ actions. The rest of the disciples, presumably, were dumbstruck. They didn’t know how to respond to this gross breach of decency and respect.

Washing feet was for slaves. So why did Jesus do it? Was it a picture of the cross? Did it point beyond itself to a greater event? Both the foot-washing and the cross were degrading in the extreme. And both pointed to something beyond itself. The horrible, disgusting, shameful, unimaginable suffering of crucifixion pointed to a judgement on sin that was far worse.

At the same time washing feet was an act of love. Dying the death of sinners in their place was also an act of love. The foot-washing pointed to the depths of his love. His death showed the extent of it. Foot-washing was a humiliating and degrading act that showed how far Jesus was prepared to go for his disciples. But of itself it did nothing. It pointed to something else. It helped us understand something about his death.

Jesus told his disciples to do what he had done. Did he want them to become washers of feet? Did he really want such a tradition to continue in lands of sealed pavements, clean socks and closed shoes? He clearly wanted them to do something – but what?

Later he told them that they should love each other the way he had loved them – by giving up his life for them. To give up one’s life for one’s friends – there is no greater love than that, he said.

We are his friends if we do what he has commanded us, he said. When he told them to wash each other’s feet he wasn’t starting a new religious practice. He was telling us that we must give up our life for each other. For what end?

So that we can become his disciples. So that, by our love, it can be seen that we are his disciples, and his friends.

Dale

Following?

Did you know what you were letting yourself in for? When you ... said you would teach Sunday School, help with a church roster, serve on Church Council, or do some other ministry?

Most people have a kind of bemused awareness that the job turned out to be bigger than they thought (or were led to believe). But most of us grow with the job and the challenge.

Following Christ is the same, only more so. We do not know what will happen. It is the great life risk – to let someone else take complete charge of our life. Many of us have struggled with this – we want to know what it will be like, we want to negotiate some guarantees in advance.

Following Christ is not walking in the dark. He said it was walking in the light – since he was the light of the world. And he did give some clues to what following him was like.

The wind blows where it wills, you hear the sound but don’t know where it comes from or where it goes to – it is like that with those who are born of the Spirit – sounds a bit unpredictable and insecure!

Those who follow him are also on a dangerous road. His road (and therefore the road of his followers) goes via a cross. Via a cross, not just to a cross. In fact you can’t start on the road until you have died to yourself at the cross. Even then danger awaits. But the most secure security is to walk the road with the great Guide.

We don’t know what we are letting ourselves in for, but we do know who we are travelling with. We can try to protect our own security, to guard our life ourselves. But it is not the same as travelling with him on his road.

Dale

No Longer Lost

Jesus told a story about a rich man who wanted to inherit eternal life (Luke 18.18). But the cost was too great for. Jesus said that it was very difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God (18.25). But there was a rich man who found salvation (19.9). What is the difference?

Zacchaeus is a chief tax-collector. This means he is probably an experienced contractor who has been collecting taxes on behalf of the Roman authorities for some time. He is not very tall. So he cannot get to the front of the crowd to see Jesus. But he is resourceful. He climbs a tree because he wants to see who Jesus is.

Who is Jesus? Zacchaeus finds out over lunch. Zacchaeus is very happy to have Jesus in his house. Others in the crowd are not happy. They don’t think Jesus should visit “sinners”. But we know already that tax-collectors and sinners are just the people Jesus does want to meet (15.1).

Zacchaeus says he will give half his possessions to the poor, and repay anyone whom he has cheated. The rich man in the previous story was told to sell all his possessions. What is the difference? That man loved his wealth more than he loved God. This man is different. He is just rich and selfish. Now he says he will change his attitude and be both honest and generous.

Jesus says he has found salvation. Although some others think he is a “sinner” he is also a son of Abraham. God’s blessings are meant for him too.

The difference is that the Son of Man (Jesus) has come to look for the lost and to save them. The rich man in the first story came to the one who could save him but refused the salvation. This man accepts it, and shows it by his repentance.

He is no longer lost.

Dale

Love in residence

God started it off. He loved us first. While we were still ignoring him. He loved us while we turned our backs. And now he has taken up residence in us. Love in residence. We know this because he keeps on breaking out of us with love.

It is a bit difficult having a resident God in us. He keeps on disturbing our life by trying to keep on loving – not just us but people we know. And he doesn’t do this himself, on the quiet, while we are occupied doing other things. He does it any time – sometimes when we are occupied doing other things.

It’s the way he has always worked. Taken the initiative, decided himself who needs help, and sent the help. Originally it was his own Son. He sent him to rescue us by offering his life for us. Atoning for our sin by his death. And not content with removing our guilt, he adopted us into his family. Gave us the Spirit of his son. Made it possible for us to call him Father.

You can tell the people that know that God loves them: they are the ones who love God. You can tell they love God because they really want to do what he says – they want to be like him in fact. You can tell also because of the Spirit of God in them. Which is to say, you can tell that God has pitched his tent in their life. That they have a house guest who has kind of taken over their life. Filled it with his life.

You can tell it is God’s life because of the way they love. They don’t always do what you might have expected, but that is because they love through God’s eyes. They see things differently. They see what really matters. They are like triage nurses who can see where the real needs are.

And how wonderful that his love for the humans is still being put into action through other humans in whom he lives. Who know the story and have the experience of God loving them so much.

Dale

Why did Jesus die? - Part 2

One answer is, “Because of death.” Why should there be death if God created everything. Did he make things to die? No. He made them so they could live with him forever.

But something went wrong with the humans he made. Actually, the humans went wrong. They had a difference of opinion with God as to who was the boss. They tried to have a kind of coup, a takeover, a rebellion, you could say. The only trouble is they weren’t capable of running the world like God.

Needless to say God was not too happy about this attempted coup – not that it made any difference to him acting as God. But it did make a difference to the humans acting as humans. Now they had god-sized swelled heads. And they continued to act as though he wasn’t really God.

So God was in the right to condemn them to death – especially since he had warned them beforehand. Death was the only solution for humans who now had it in their make-up to act as pretend gods. There was no other way to rid the race of that delusion and corruption.

But it did spoil God’s plan for a wonderful human race that he could enjoy friendship with. Who can be friends with people who are all the time treating you as though you don’t exist, except when they want you to do something for them? So what to do?

What if God became one of these humans? What if he acted on their behalf, as their representative, and died as they did? Died a death that rescued them from their deaths. That carried their condemnation for them. So they could escape condemnation.

But isn’t the result just one more dead human? Yes, but what if God brought that human being back to life in a body that was no longer in danger of death? Then at least one human being could have a future friendship with God that would never end with death.

And what if God promised all the other humans that this man’s death could be their death and that by believing his promise they too could look forward to a resurrection to life with God forever. What if?

Dale

Why did he die?

And so we come to the last day. The pressure and plotting against Jesus has reached a climax. The great Creator, Son of the Father, has left his glory behind and now faces the final humiliation. Not enough to be unrecognised as the Son of God. Not enough to be rejected and opposed as the King of Israel. Not enough to be misunderstood as the revealer of the Father.

Now the ignominious death of crucifixion awaits him. Why does he need to die this way? Why not a more humane death? Why does he need to die at all, for that matter?

His death shows the real state of human opposition to God. Fierce, vengeful, intolerant, uncompromising. His death shows the depths of human sin and the wickedness of which humans are capable. Any study of history, or of current affairs, shows the same viciousness, cruelty and evil that can be perpetrated by all kinds of people on other human beings.

His death shows the terrible nature of the judgement of God. In turn it shows the dire consequences of human rebellion. It points to the holiness and justice of God. His death shows the love of God at the same time. Why does he need to die? From one point of view he doesn't. He chooses to die in the place of sinners so that they can finally enjoy the great blessing God intended when he first created them.

His death opens the way for sinners to live in the presence of God without sin, and without accusation. It enables sinners to finally be like the true image of God. To be like the Son. The destiny God intended all along, can finally be realised because of the Son's death. Now there can be many sons and daughters who live with the character of the Son and not of Adam.

We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.

Dale

Search and rescue

Have you ever lost a person in a crowd? Sometimes it is another adult who is in no danger but it is just annoying that you have to spend all that time finding them again. More annoying if they are the wandering type who don’t tell you where they are going.

It is a quite different matter to mislay a child in a crowd, horrifying if it is in a strange country. The emotion that surges both in the search and then in the finding is very powerful

The intensity of feeling comes from the loving relationship we have with the lost person. We dearly want them back. We fear for their safety. We bend every effort to find them. We make unrealistic demands on others to help us, All for love.

It is easy to understand God’s search and love for the people he created. It is easy to see the depth of love he has for ordinary creatures for us. It is a wonder to be sure. Hard to grasp that he might actually love us that much. But it is the truth.

We can see the extent of his effort and the depth of his love when we see Jesus. God become a human. Teaching, urging, demonstrating the Father’s love. Calling his people back to their God. And dying on the cross to make it possible for them to be friends with God again.

No wonder there is such an outpouring of feeling in heaven when even one of us sinners turns back to God. God and his angels have a huge amount invested in the search and rescue of humans. He really wants you and me to be his friends, not distant acquaintances, and certainly not cold-shoulder stand-offs.

God’s search and rescue mission ought to take away all feelings of inadequacy we might feel (some of us feel we are not good enough for God).  Of course we are not good enough. That is who he is rescuing! His search is especially for those who are not good enough.

And those who don’t need rescuing? Who are good enough? Who are not lost? The only ones in that group are those who have already been rescued.

Dale