Monthly Archives: October 2011

Opposition: authority.

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We did not get to church last night. I did not set the alarm. My boys dislike the Table — a very emergent style, multimedia type service.

I did not get all the work done I ought to have over the weekend. However, we did watch two old, junky movies. (Zoolander and the Expendables). After last week, that was a good thing.

With teenage boys, the issue of who has spiritual authority would be raised by some. There is no question that parents are responsible for infants, but for those who are old enough to tell good from evil? With any autonomy comes responsibility.

PSALM 5:4–6

4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil will not sojourn with you.

5 The boastful will not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.

6 You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.

NEHEMIAH 6:10–14

10One day when I went into the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his house, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you; indeed, tonight they are coming to kill you.” 11But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Would a man like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” 12Then I perceived and saw that God had not sent him at all, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13He was hired for this purpose, to intimidate me and make me sin by acting in this way, and so they could give me a bad name, in order to taunt me. 14Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

Matthew 13:36-43

36Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

A few small points on the texts.

  1. There will be misguided teaching within those who are part of the congregation. There will e false prophecy (Nehemiah used the old test: you know it is a prophetic word if it comes true), There will e those who engender fear.
  2. We will be at times too busy and too guilty to worship. At times the guilt will be in error — for things we have been forgiven for or things that are not sins. At times the guilt will be for trivia. We may no longer tithe dill and cumin, but we collect carbon credits and then, like the Pharisees neglect justice.
  3. It is true that God cannot tolerate evil. It is indeed a fearful thing to fall into his hands. But… but… Christ died for us, and that in the most painful and embarrassing way this perverted and evil species has developed — so that we may receive mercy. The job of the church is to proclaim this to non believers and encourage believers to live it and do good.

There will be opposition to the order and structure God has designed into us. Some will say this is because men have made too many errors. But the authority is God’s.

Men are broken, frail and tend to evil. They are not worthy of worship. (Neither are women). God is not broken, nor evil, nor without power. He, and he alone, deserves our worship.

Confronting our evil

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It is Sunday, and we are going to the Table tonight, which meant that it his a quiet morning. Yesterday the issue of the kingdom of God, and the rewards for the righteous. There has been teaching on the fact evil people are in the church.
A question then has to be asked: what to do?
Today’s text shows two sides of this: confrontation of the leadership by the leadership: and how priorities and faith stop us worrying.

NEHEMIAH 5:1-9

1Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish kin. 2For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many; we must get grain, so that we may eat and stay alive.” 3There were also those who said, “We are having to pledge our fields, our vineyards, and our houses in order to get grain during the famine.” 4And there were those who said, “We are having to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay the king’s tax. 5Now our flesh is the same as that of our kindred; our children are the same as their children; and yet we are forcing our sons and daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been ravished; we are powerless, and our fields and vineyards now belong to others.”

6I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. 7After thinking it over, I brought charges against the nobles and the officials; I said to them, “You are all taking interest from your own people.” And I called a great assembly to deal with them, 8and said to them, “As far as we were able, we have bought back our Jewish kindred who had been sold to other nations; but now you are selling your own kin, who must then be bought back by us!” They were silent, and could not find a word to say. 9So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God, to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?

LUKE 12:22-31

22He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 26If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.28But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you — you of little faith! 29And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

For those who are in leadership, there is a duty to confront. The nobility were asking interest of those who were working for the common good. There was no debt forgiveness, instead they were being thrown into slavery. Although this was standard practice in the Babylonian empire, Nehemiah as the governer stopped it because it was unjust. This is the beginning of the reforms he made… that ended with the Isrealites divorcing their foreign wives and concubines to preserve the covenant.

You may want to second guess Nehemiah, but confrontation of those in power, when you are in the club, is difficult, Most of us avoid this. Nehemiah had Ezra the scribe and Haggai the prophet — who supported him and held him accountable. The first thing we can do is get the counsel and prayers of those who are around us and are accounted as righteous.

Most of the time, however, we are not leaders. We worry. The financial storms are coming. Winter is upon the North, and Spring is cold and slow in the South. Jesus tells us not to worry about this. If we are seeking the kingdom, we will have provision.  The kingdom of God (which is the people of God) will provide what we need. (It may be a bicycle,It is unlikely to be a Mercedes, in fact it is  unlikely to be anything bigger than the Fiat 500 I used in Canada).

So some of this is being content with what we have. Using what we have, Showing mercy for those who need help. And acting the way the LORD wants us to, so his kingdom grows, and his enemies cannot mock him.

The kingdom of heaven is open

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I’m rying to find words here. The kingdom of heaven, unlike the covenant of Moses is open. It is not limited to those who are of Abraham, nor is access to God limited to the day of atonement, and the service of the high priest.

We do not have rites of cleaness and ritual impurity that keep us from worship.

the church is for all nations, all races, all people. The qualification is accepting the mercy of God.

REVELATION 7:9-14
9After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb

MATTHEW 13:31-33
31He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
33He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

[the qualification around accepting God's mercy is that we are incapable of seeing our need for mercy but for the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus we can say that God chose us from when we were in our mother's womb: it is by his mercy that we are led to salvation, and by his mercy that we remain in him. We are too inconstant].

the Kingdom of God should be acting as a shelter and as salt: providing for the weak and poor and preserving righteous living. We are called to live against the current culture… and at times this is incredibly difficult.

We lose track of our aim, as a church, and as believers. We aim to know God and enjoy him forever, The best is yet to be. Our job is to do good here, and not let ourselves be ground down by the opposition we will get.

The church is not perfect, yet.

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There has been an ongoing debate about what is Christianity, who are Christian, and who or which groups can call themselves this. In this debate, there is a risk of seeing the church that we have as perfect.

It is not. Even the people who take the concept of infallibility the furthest — the Catholics — are aware that not all the teaching from the church is correct, Just because it comes from a churchly institution does not mean that is correct.

 

Matthew 13:24-30

24He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

In the church of God there are people who are not of God. There are weeds. THere are false teachers. There are people who aim to gain power, not serve and do good. That is the nature of the church. The parable teaches us that these people will not be weeded out, that they will cause scandals, and that in this time we have to tolerate this.

The church is not perfect. Any attempt to see it as perfect is moving into a cultic situation: the besetting sin of protestants and Anabaptists. The church is flawed because us humans are flawed.

Despite this, we are called to do good an honour God as a church. Because we will be rewarded for the fruit we produce — or our status as hindrances and heretics will be laid bare, and we will get our wish.

The punishment for this hindrance and evil is simple, moving beyond the imagery of fire at harvest. God will leave us, and that is the second death.

Justice will come, and it will be terrible

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Jesus died around AD 30. The first recorded death of a Christian for proclaiming his resurrection was Stephen, and that was within two years of Pentecost.

Since then, there have been witnesses  to Christ, who have died. I am not talking here about the soldiers of the West (who are doing their duty) but the child whose time of joy as a Christian is but short because her family kill her as an offence to her honour. Or the pastors on Death row in Iran.

This part of Revelation is really more about the persecutors than the martyrs.

Revelation 6:9-11

9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; 10they cried out with a loud voice, “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?” 11They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow servants and of their brothers and sisters, who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.

The Justice of God will come, and it will be terrible.We have no defence. Like Nehemiaih, we can only call for mercy…

Nehemiah 1:5-11

5I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; 6let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned. 7We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that you commanded your servant Moses. 8Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; 9but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name.’ 10They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. 11O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!”

To those of Christ, we are reliant on his mercy. For justice will come. For those who oppress those of God — change your ways. Because Justice is coming, and it will be terrible.

 

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

If we fail there only grief.

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New Zealand is in the middle of an election campaign. Unlike the US, we keep them short — parliament dissolves, and then there is an election six weeks later. This election is coming in a time of crisis.. They are using words of comfort.

Government on track for 2014/15 surplus

The Government is on track to return to surplus in 2014/15, with the recovery continuing to pick up pace, Finance Minister Bill English says.

Treasury today released the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU) which forecasts average annual growth of almost 3 per cent between 2012 and 2016, more than 150,000 new jobs over the forecast period and strong growth in wages and household incomes.

“The Government has put in place a comprehensive programme over the past three years to improve the economy’s competitiveness and build faster growth.

“The economy has now grown in eight of the last nine quarters and growth in the first half of this year has been stronger than Budget 2011 forecasts. This has contributed to the creation of 43,000 new jobs in the past year – 20,000 more than forecast at the time of the Budget,” Mr English says.

“A solid growth outlook, combined with the Government’s responsible economic management, has ensured we remain on track to move from a forecast deficit of $10.8 billion in the current year to a surplus of $1.5 billion in 2014/15

I’m aware that Bill is doing his duty as he sees it. He’s a highly intelligent, conscentious Catholic man who does care for the poor and downtrodden (which annoys the hard right in NZ). His gov’t has borrowed to sustain the social welfare net. They are assuming that the country will grow…

But this is a time of risk. Greece has a bank run, that could lead to Europe collapsing.: the USA is greatly indebted. The global economy is fragile. This could destroy the estimates of three percent growh that are built into these projections.

If that happens, the comfort Bill English has given will be false.

LAMENTATIONS 2:10-15

10  The elders of daughter Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth: the young girls of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

11  My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns;my bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people, because infants and babes faint  in the streets of the city.

12  They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city,as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom.

13  What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter Zion? For vast as the sea is your ruin; who can heal you?

14  Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen oracles for you that are false and misleading.

MATTHEW 13:10-14

Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 13The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ 14With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

What has happened is that people have been told falsehoods, and ignored the warnings. It is not pleasant to list the things that are going wrong, or to confront our own sin, our own wastefulness. It is not pretty to change, to repent.

Our people are in the position of Isreal and Judah as their kingdoms failed. The prophets — both the preachers of the word and the bean counter saying you cannot afford — are seen as quaint. Instead there is a sense that if you have a vague sense of spirituality — of generalised good will to those around you, and you keep the commands of those false prophets of ecology, you will do well.

We forget that Jesus preached repentence, for the kingdom of God is coming. We forget that tis is not our kingdom. We need to be the preservatives that keep the good in the West, for if we fail, we will be out of words of comfort. There will be but grief.

Restoration?

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Yesterday was Labour Day, meaning today will be the first day of the week. One of the commentators yesterday stated that it was indeed fortunate that NZ won the rugby world cup,

But in New Zealand, Rugby is the official state religion. And after last night’s game, where the New Zealand team won the World Cup by a single point, the overwhelming feeling seems to be not one of jubilation, but relief. For New Zealand has had it rough recently. A decade suffering under hard-left socialism. Rejecting the hard left at the end of 2008, only to find it had been replaced by soft-left socialism mixed with a curious racial appeasement combining to drive the country officially out of the OECD as quickly as possible. Its third-largest city (officially named the Village of the Damned) destroyed not once, but twice by earthquakes. The watermelons getting a decade’s-worth of propaganda with an explosion in one of the country’s very few resources mines (which they caused in the first place by not allowing open-cut mining). So, the country teetered on the brink. Had the All blacks lost to the cheese-eating surrender-monkeys last night, tomorrow morning (today is the Labour Day holiday) the markets would have crashed. Literally crashed. And it would all have been the coach’s fault. It’s ridiculous I know, but that’s life in a third-world South Seas banana republic.

I was in Canada for the semi finals: missed the game, but Mum (Thanks Mum!) told me the score. I watched the final When I was in Canada the papers were full of all kinds of news. In NZ, the issue was the injuries of the team. On the front page.

This is disproportionate. And it refers to an underlying instability in the confidence we have — it should nor rely onf 15 (well 22, allowing for the bench) fallible professional athletes.

We have fallen. What does restoration as a nation look like?

Ezra 5:1-2

1Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. 2Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak set out to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of God, helping them.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

I would add that they did this in the teeth of opposition from the Imperial governer. But let’s look at this.

  1. The Spirit of God was on the prophets, not any ideas from the flesh or the world. They were not preaching social justice, feminism, mens rights, ecology, anti slavery… they were preaching a return to the law of God and that it was time to rebuild.
  2. The people listened and acted. This was different from the time of Jeremiah, when the people did not listen.
  3. In obedience, they built what they could. They were, collectively not rich, nor powerful. Solomon in his glory was both. The new temple was humbler (and remained that way until Herod rebuilt it — finishing but 40 years before Trajan destroyed it).

What is clear is that for Israel restoration comes at a time, and for a remnant. God softened the peoples hearts and moved a king to allow this to happen. But the people, in obedience, did some hard work.

How do we apply this? Can we apply this? I’m not that exegetical… but the temple of our families has been destroyed, and it may be that it is our duty, as adults, as a church, to restore the family. But we need to get rid of the habits of thinking that have been entrained into our generation (antinomianism and its rainbow of offspring: feminism, identity politics, and socialism).

We then need to individually do the hard work of getting our families back together.  Rebuilding the structure. Restoring faith and trust. It took 70 years of Babylonian exile to soften the hearts of the Jews so they were receptive to the preaching of Zechariah and Haggai.

Let us pray that we soften faster, and without as harsh a period of travail.

Boring is good.

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Acedia, from Deviant Art

I really like Dalrock and Susan Walsh. One of the things that they continually talk about is the current glorification of the state of singleness, and of being flighty.

it’s not called that. It is called looking for your potential, empowerment, and self actualization. And it is rubbish. As Grerp says

Bolick tells us that she isn’t lonely, that her life is rich and fulfilling and full of friends who support her and offer her their plush digs in which to crash. She doesn’t know if she wants children, and the men available to her now are unpalatable. Under those conditions who needs a husband?

The problem with this whole thesis is that while being permanently single may be a fulfilling and rich way for women like Bolick to lead their lives, it doesn’t work as well for women who are 1) dumber, 2) poorer, 3) less intrepid/independent or 4) not possessed of generous friends of significant means. And it works really badly for women who want to raise healthy, well adjusted, non-poverty stricken children. The fact is, most women aren’t very much like Bolick at all – which is why most women want to get married, because subconsciously they know, despite all the feminist propaganda that portrays marriage as a one-way trap to stifling, abused servitude, that marriage is a good deal for women. Women are smaller, weaker, more risk averse, more comfort seeking, and are rarely the kind of trail-blazing, money-making geniuses who can sit alone atop a heap of money and adulation. Almost all of them will eventually want babies too which will make them physically, emotionally, and financially more vulnerable than women like Bolick.

It seem that the boring, adult parts of life: living within the budget, cooking meals, mowing the lawns, helping with homework, going to work (or school) are seen as non-essential, but the spiritual and romantic are seen as essential. The experience in the present counts. One’s future, as one ages, is less important.

I don’t want to steal all of Grerp’s essay, but in it she describes an uncle — whom she thought was an absent-minded professor, tenderly caring for his wife of 50 years in her final illness. That is what we want when we get married. We want the care from those we love when we need it. And we want to care for our family before then.

This is boring, but that is the point. Boring is good. Boring comes out of security — that one can trust your wife, that your children are safe. it is better than adversity, and it is much better than the shattering dislocation of divorce.

But it involves commitment, and giving up some fun. It involves respecting your body and that of your spouse (from feeding him good food to being fit to paying attention to what your partner likes and dislikes). It involves paying attention to that which we have, and doing as well as we can where we are now. None of this is romantic. But we over value romance. We under value fidelity, constancy, and we over estimate the length of our days.

Otherwise we will find ourselves looking at the impending winter of our lives with neither the spiritual strength nor the familial structure that will allow us to resist the temptation of acedia.

Given the post modern instability that has replaced marriage, there is a high chance that we will end up alone. We need to build into our lives the habits that keep us doing good and glorifying God. Here the church, the family, and the disciplines of the faith are bulwarks. But these need to be habitual… and that is a better word than boring.

What really awaits.

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Over the last few days I have been thinking about what it means to grieve the holy spirit (a little) and muttering about how prosperity doctrine is wrong.

Today most of the passages in the lectionary are not about that. There are two: Jeremiah prophesied to Baruch telling him not to seek prosperity, and that his prize was his life, and Jesus was teaching on evil spirits as his family came — to take him away — because he had been accused of having an evil spirit.

At church yesterday we got diverted onto inclusive language, and Baz’s realisation that we cannot use inclusive language all the time — that statements about nursing babys or fathers guiding children are gendered.  Which is seen as wrong in the People’s Republic of Dunedin.

Today I was struck by this passage, which confronts us. This is what

Revelation 1:4-7a

4John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

We get distracted. We forget that God loved us, died for us, and we are part of the Kingdom of God. We are going to be his priests and his people. We have been freed from our sins.

What really awaits is glory. But this is lost by the noise of the trivia of everyday life.