Today’s Kirk was not following the lectionary. We are not quite that liturgical. Instead Richard talked about Kirk as like a staff meeting. It is a time of planning, of encouragement, of correction, but it is not a time of work, of production. His point was that the work of the church is not done within the building, but in the week.
Following that I went on a long drive: during that various nations were compared and the way cultures react to modernism was rehashed. Again. Since my boys have a Chinese Mother, and have had deep exposure to that culture, the differences in assumptions between the Chinese, the English New Zealanders from the North (such as myself) and the Anglo-Celtic New Zealanders of the South are quite obvious to them.
But we need to recall that it is only by the mercy of God that any nation or culture has a future. Cultures and Nations have diminished and died throughout history. We should not see ourselves as an exception.
Psalm 67
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. 7 May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.
Now we cannot praise God if we do not obey him. None of us are righteous: none of us are pure. But… and this is where the Asians can teach us much… we can honour the effort of trying. The decrease of measurement error, the fine tuning of a mechanism, the increase in density of information, the careful craft of engineering, meta analysis, study, and work are all worthy. We never achieve perfection at work, but we seek it. The same should apply in our lives.
James 1:19-27
19You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act – they will be blessed in their doing.
26If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Kirk is like a staff meeting. It is not enough to turn up and hear the word. It is not enough to be pure. It is not enough to do good.
Instead we are to keep ourselves undefiled. We are to also do good, starting with those who are of the Kirk who are in need, and extending out to the wider community. If we concentrate on that, we will indeed be practicing true religion.
For our sanctification does not depend on our spouses, or our words. It depends on Christ, and our individual obedience. Not in the hour at Kirk (although that is important: our liturgy has meaning) but the 167 hours that make up the rest of the week.
I mean, the time we have is short, the need is not small and getting bigger, and the number of faithful has diminshed. We need to pray for the heart of God for our people, our nation. We need to treat Kirk as like a staff meeting: we use it to motivate and plan, and then go and do the tasks ahead of us for this day, this week.
And let us pray that God grants mercy to allow us time to see the fruits of this in our nations and in our time.