Interpretation needed?

'Old men shall dream dreams' (Joel 2:28, quoted in Acts 2:17). Last
night I had a dream (draw your own conclusions). I dreamt that I was in
church, and one of the congregation came up and said, 'Tim, come and see
the thorns in the churchyard. If we don't act soon they'll take over.' I
went outside, and saw a thistle-like plant, except that it was taller
than I was and had seed heads like poppies, ready to scatter seeds
everywhere. I looked around, and saw one that had been there since last
year - it had become a tree, 20 ft tall with a 6 inch trunk and a huge
root system; it would be very hard work to remove. Unless we kept on top
of the thorns as soon as they started growing, they would indeed take
over. And then the dream ended.

The first thought that came into my mind (I must have woken up briefly)
was, 'That was a message. That was about sin. Is there some sin that has
taken root in my life that is going to be difficult to uproot?' But next
morning I remembered the dream and remembered that I had been reading
about the parable of the sower and the seed falling among weeds (I wrote
about this in an earlier blog); and I had been thinking how deeply
rooted the 'weeds' (anxiety, and the deceitfulness of wealth) are in our
culture, even in our church life. Maybe that was what sparked the dream.
But maybe there was a message there: don't let the weeds of life put
down deep roots. We can't stop the seeds landing on the ground and
germinating, but we can stop them growing. Or is there another message?
Or was it merely a dream?

Trials of faith

In the parable of the sower the two groups of people who receive the word of God in vain are those with a shallow faith that is put off by trouble or persecution, and those with a pressured faith that is squeezed out by worries or wealth and their pressures on time and energy. In our world we think that the latter problem is the greater, but there is still a sizeable group who are put off by trouble - their own or that of others.

Part of the problem is due to the pervading thought that those who follow Christ should be kept problem free. He is the good shepherd, after all! Yet the New Testament is full of teaching about the inevitablity of suffering, especially for the Christian - e.g. 'We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God' (Acts 14:22). The reason given for this seems to me two-fold: first, we are in a spiritual battle with those who oppose God's purposes, especially Satan and his forces, and are therefore targets for attack; and second, we are being grown and refined through a process that results in perseverance, character and hope, and that process has to involve some degree of suffering. Unless we take up our cross and follow Christ, we cannot be his disciples.

This does not really answer the deeper questions about why there is suffering, and how it relates to faith in God's protection. What troubles many is the arbitrary nature of suffering: why do some people get all the pain, and others get none? Why does God seem to answer some people's cries for help, and ignore those of other people who are just as good and faithful? Does God need to allow a 7.0 magnitude earthquake killing tens of thousands of people, many of them children, in order to achieve victory over evil or to grow better people?

Two things help me in my thinking. One is the old adage, 'Do not allow the things you don't understand to negate the things you do understand.'  If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then there is no reason to believe in him or follow him, and every reason to go along with those who say there is no God and no ultimate meaning or purpose to life, disasters strike at random and we just have to get on with living. But the evidence for the resurrection seems to me overwhelming, so I see every reason to believe in him and follow him, to believe in his teaching about God as a loving heavenly Father and to try to please him in all we do. It makes sense to me to hold onto his hand in the darkness.

The other thing that helps me is my inability to see how this world would be better if all causes of suffering were removed. I don't like the idea of a flat earth without mountains and valleys, or a world with no risks, or a world where no-one was able to choose wrong. I do believe in a new creation to come, where there will be no evil or suffering or death, a world with different natural laws in operation; but it seems to me necessary for that world to be the culmination of a process in which change and chance and choice have played a full part. And that world in process is the world we live in, with all its suffering and all its beauty - and, through Jesus, all its hope of transformation, a transformation which we all may help to bring about. 'Your labour in the Lord is not in vain.' (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Haiti Earthquake

The following are my notes for a sermon to be preached tomorrow -
whether they bear any resemblance to what I say remains to be seen!

At 9.53 pm our time last Tuesday an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 hit the
country of Haiti just before sunset there. Its epicentre was 10 miles
southwest of the capital, Port au Prince. As earthquakes go, it was not
a huge one – last year there were 14 bigger earthquakes in the world,
with a total death toll of a little more than 1,300. What made this one
so bad was that it was in a capital city, in the poorest country in the
western hemisphere, where buildings were badly constructed and
government so corrupt it was almost non existent. Result: tens of
thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of people killed, large swathes
of the city destroyed including the presidential palace and the
parliament and the UN mission, roads blocked, the port destroyed, the
airport barely functional, the hospital not functional, no water,
electricity or phones, overwhelming need yet all aid efforts with a
mountain of difficulty to climb in order to get going. This is a large
scale catastrophe and our hearts go out to all those involved.

How should we respond? What should we do in the face of such a tragedy?

1) Open our hearts. Love your neighbour – feel the pain, the grief, the
anger. Can't tale all the pain into ourselves, it's too much, but
mustn't therefore close our hearts: bear what we can.

2) Do what we can. Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these my
brothers and sisters, you did it to me. Give. Pray.

3) Believe what we can. Don't let tragedy and disaster destroy our soul
– there is no need for that.

There is a human need to ask questions: why did this happen? Where is
God in it all? In a moment we'll look at some of the questions that
these awful tragedies raise. But we'll do so in the knowledge that we
really don't know all the answers yet. We can answer scientific
questions up to a point. We can answer questions like 'why did God allow
this' only in a very superficial way. But we can't say what is in God's
mind, what is his motive, unless he gives us that information. And God
doesn't reveal things to us just to satisfy our curiosity or to help us
stand in judgement over him; he reveals to us truths that are useful,
that help us do what is good and avoid what is bad.

What does the Bible have to say? How does it help us? I think it helps
us believe three things.

a) Believe that evil events are inevitable in this present age. They are
bound to happen.
We know that from science: this world is constantly changing: tectonic
plates are moving, mountains are building and being eroded, volcanoes
and earthquakes are part of the world we live in. The best we can hope
for is to be able to predict them and to escape them in time, but we
haven't got that knowledge yet.
We also know this from Scripture:
Luke 21:9-12
We don't believe in Jesus in order to escape problems in this life.
Escape some of them, yes, help in all of them, yes. But evil will
happen, even to good people.

b) Believe that bad things aren't usually a punishment for our sin.
There are some who are saying that Haiti is a land of voodoo, and that
God is punishing them for that evil. But is voodoo much worse than
materialism? We cannot assume sin is a cause for a tragedy, as Jesus
made plain:
Luke 13:1-5.

c) Believe that God is good.
Where is God in the earthquake? Do you remember the story of Elijah on
Mount Horeb?
1 Kings 19:11,12.
Note: the Lord obviously sent the wind and the earthquake and the fire.
But he was not in them. And while the Lord has power over nature and
chooses not to stop earthquakes happening in the course of nature, that
does not mean that he is in the earthquake, actively wanting all that
destruction and distress. On the contrary, he told Isaiah when that when
the people of Israel were in trouble:
'In all their distress he too was distressed' (Isaiah 63:9).
Where is God? In the pain and the suffering, feeling it with the
sufferers, regardless of who they are and whether or not they believe in
him. (95% of Haitians would claim to be Christian.)
Where is God? In you and me. We are his hands and his feet, we are the
ones through whom he wants to act. God is good, and he wants to do good
– through you and me. Let us, in this and in other disasters, be good news.

Worry

'Therefore I tell you, do not worry...' What's behind the 'therefore'?
Teaching (in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6) about giving, prayer
and fasting, about laying up for ourselves treasure in heaven not on
earth, not serving two masters. Behind all that is the desire to live
for the God who sees what is going on in secret, and to seek the reward
that he most certainly gives to those who so love him and trust him that
their chief passion in life is to please him, whatever others may think.

How do we do that? First, by learning to open our spiritual eyes and
look at God with the faith that he is what Jesus reveals him to be: a
loving heavenly Father. 'The Lord is my shepherd', we say; let us
believe it! For if we believed it, we would believe he loved us and was
caring for us and looking after us, that he was aware of everything we
were doing and everything that was happening to us, and that he was
actively ensuring that everything was happening for our good, whatever
it felt like. We would believe that our future was very much his
concern, and that he wasn't worried about it.

What is the evidence for that? In one word: Jesus.

So I don't have to worry that maybe one day I'll get alzheimer's, or
that I'll die of a heart attack before I'm 75 as did my father and
grandfather. Maybe I will, but that is not my problem. It's his; and if
he's not worried about it, I must not worry myself. Obviously I can try
to live healthily; lack of worry does not mean lack of planning. But I
can plan with serenity rather than fear. I can... but will I? Lord, open
my eyes!

The Robinson Affair

The troubles of Mr and Mrs Robinson in N Ireland have become public, and
once again religion and politics are mixed into a messy and very sad
story. I'm not in a position to comment, let alone pass judgement, on
the details of their situation. However, a number of general issues are
highlighted by the news and are worth thinking about.

One issue is this: When Christians are involved in a fall from grace, is
it too glib just to say that God forgives us? Yes, if forgiveness is
seen as letting us get away with it so that we can go and repeat the
performance. I'm sure that is not the case here, but too often Christian
talk of forgiveness is seen simply as an easy way out. At the root of
the issue is our attitude towards the one we sin against: do we want a
relationship with that person, or not? If not, then to receive
forgiveness is a matter of liberation from guilt or debt, so that we can
get on with our lives without feeling bound in any way. But if we want a
relationship with the one we have sinned against, then forgiveness takes
on a deeper significance. First, there is a recognition that our sin has
caused hurt and damage, and that the person who forgives us is giving up
the right to receive compensation, as it were. That is a costly thing to
do; yet without it there can be no rebuilding of the relationship.
(Unless of course compensation is paid in full - but in these cases it
usually means the offender receiving equivalent injury, hardly the best
way of rebuilding a relationship.) Secondly, there is a recognition that
the relationship needs to be worked on: it won't 'be all right' by
itself. We need to learn to trust each other, and to be completely
honest with each other. This too, is costly.

Christians see that whenever we sin against someone, we also sin against
God, and that is the primary relationship that needs to be rebuilt. The
cost of forgiveness has to be paid by the one doing the forgiving - and
Jesus paid that price on the cross. It was not an easy option for him.
Nor is receiving God's forgiveness an easy option for us: we need to
work at the relationship from our side, learning to trust both God's
love and his will, and to respond appropriately. Forgiveness does not
mean life carries on as if nothing has happened. There are often
consequences to our sin which cannot be avoided. (2 Samuel 12:13,14.)
But with God's forgiveness our relationship with him can grow. Without
his forgiveness, there is no relationship, and no hope. Without a desire
for a growing relationship with God, we cannot expect to receive his
forgiveness.

A second issue (briefly): should religion and politics be mixed? I'm
always surprised that people even ask this question, for it shows little
insight into religion. A person's religion is the source of their
values, and their values determine their decisions and actions. Our
values can't be compartmentalised so that we have different values for
different areas of our lives - any that can be switched on or off are
not really our values. Our religion affects the whole of our life, and
if we are political beings, our religion has to affect our politics.
From another angle, if Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and
on earth, he must be interested in politics and his servants are right
to be involved.

Hearing God

Much of my inspiration comes at random moments. Driving to one of my
churches this morning I was thinking about a phone conversation last
night, in which a friend was saying how important it was for Christians
to hear God speaking to them. Feeling sorry for myself, because I wasn't
aware of hearing God speaking to me except on rare occasions, I was
surprised by sensing a rebuke, and the realisation that God speaks to me
very often in exactly that kind of way - through my sensing or realising
something. With my scientific background I have always looked for
alternative explanations - it's just an intuition or a random thought,
everyone gets them. But one explanation does not necessarily rule out
another; I could explain what I'm doing now in physical terms, or
psychological, or whatever, and all could be true. So I don't have to
feel sorry for myself (!), I can appreciate and enjoy those senses and
intuitions and thoughts, and accept them as from God - providing of
course they are in line with Scripture and reality.

MOD and 1994 helicopter crash

The news today is of evidence that it was grossly unfair of the MOD to
blame the pilots for the Chinook helicopter crash in the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland, and that
it is possible that computer software was involved. I jumped
to conclusions, and assumed that there was a cover-up - and I
felt very angry indeed. Then I read a comment written long ago about the
fury of God, saying it was right for God to be angry with things that
spoil or corrupt the world. That is true - and it is right for us to be
furious about evil. Only we need to be sure that our anger is rightly
directed: I haven't heard the MOD side, at least, not in any way that
convinces me.

At the same time, anger against wrong must not be our main attribute.
Love and appreciation of what is good is far more important.

Epiphany

In my sermons yesterday I used the verse quoted to the wise men about Bethlehem: 'Out of you will come a ruler, who will shepherd my people Israel.' I spoke about how a shepherd looks after the sheep, and why, but not in great detail.

As I was thinking about God as shepherd, I wondered why God values us, his sheep, so much. I don't think it is because we meet his needs (for someone to love, for someone to appreciate him, or whatever) - I'm sure he could get by without us! Deuteronomy 7:7,8 tells us he loves us because he loves us. It struck me that there is an appreciative side to God that really enjoys the results of his creativity, especially us. Not in a possessive way that won't let us make a mess of stuff, or even reject him completely; he wants us to use our free will, and loves it when we freely choose what is good - especially when the odds are stacked against us doing so.

It struck me also that our own creativity is part of being in the image of God, and that God wants us to enjoy being creative, however limited our abilities. And he wants us to enjoy other people's creativity - it's a godly thing to enjoy a good performance or story or whatever!

Maybe appreciating God, and appreciating other people, and appreciating the good things of life, is nearer the heart of spirituality than I thought...