Starting well

At the beginning of any new year, the most important question is always going to be “will we go for God this year?“.  Do we want to grow in our faith? Change? Mature? Bear fruit?

If you do, you need to fix your eyes/gaze/focus on Jesus – the author and perfecter of faith. One of the ways we do this is to read the Scriptures and allow them to inspire and inform us, to bring revelation and transformation to us.

For me personally, Ephesians 1:3-14 is a key passage on which to meditate at the start of a new year.  Paul opens this letter to Ephesians with a breathtaking vista of Jesus – who He is and what God is doing through Him.  It’s a great place to start if we want to see Jesus work in our lives.

Paul says God is at work in Jesus bringing us three things. Three things we all need, and need afresh in 2011: blessing, redemption and restoration.

1.  BLESSING

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Paul launches into this amazing letter with praise to God for the blessings we receive as a result of His eternal plan being worked. And it’s an amazing passage isn’t it ?  Full of praise and worship for who God is and what He’s done.

In the original Greek, vv.3-14 are one complex sentence of praise… it’s as if praise bursts out of Paul’s mouth. He neither pauses for breath or punctuates his words with full stops. And in his praise, we discover what Paul is so excited about !

Paul’s intention is to have us focus on who Jesus is and what He is doing in the cosmos. To take the attention of ourselves and our fears, worries and anxieties, and get lost in the wonder and majesty and love of God revealed in his unfolding plan, and the amazing invitation to be part of that plan.

Paul says a number of mind-blowing things here that he wants the church to grasp hold of. And notice, as we go through this section the focus is on God’s actions, through and in Jesus.

The rest of Ephesians is about what we – i.e. all Christians – have in Jesus, or what we have begun to experience through the Spirit. What Paul wants us to grasp is that because of what God has done through Jesus, salvation has been inaugurated and assured in Christ. Note that Paul does not say we have received every spiritual blessing now. He qualifies his statement, saying that we have been blessed in the heavenly realms…. with every spiritual blessing in Christ. In other words, because the story we find ourselves in is still unfolding – the plan is not complete – it is not until the final chapter is completed that we will receive every spiritual blessing.

Paul is saying to us the blessings of the age to come – cf. 1:21 – often called the kingdom of God – have been released to us in part because they have already been decisively bestowed upon Jesus who now reigns at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms, and so are therefore assured to us, through him.  This is what Paul means when he says we are in Christ.

Furthermore, we read in v.14 that…

Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Whilst we do not take hold of all that Jesus has achieved for us yet – we can know we will receive our full inheritance when the work is finally completed. We are given a seal – literally, a signet ring seal – one that would have been used to imprint into a hot wax seal on a contract, the image of the person… in the form of the Holy Spirit.

2.  REDEMPTION

⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

In short, God’s plan is the redemption of humanity in Jesus – v.7, 14. Paul wants us to see that our salvation in Christ allows us to be restored to our true identity, our true reason for existing – to be God’s holy people in His creation. Paul tells us that we have been redeemed by the work of Jesus – our sins have been forgiven…. Jesus came to redeem mankind – to make us fully human again – so that we might once again love, worship and glorify God and expand the garden – the kingdom of God.

Note here that Paul singles out that through the blood of Jesus we have received the forgiveness of sins. Blood is a Biblical metaphor for sacrificial atoning death – originally it was the blood of the substitutionary animal sacrifices that atoned for our sins.

In the same way, Jesus is the Lamb – just as He is the lamb at Abraham’s altar, the Passover lamb in Exodus… John the Baptist exclaims “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”…. in Revelation, the great multitudes cry out “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb”.

Paul doesn’t single this out because this is the only part of the future blessing we already experience now, but because it is at the root of the others.   Until sins are dealt with, humankind is alienated from God.

So the redemption plan of God, designed before we were even created, was set in motion with the coming of Jesus.  And now we find ourselves in the story of God, beneficiaries of the outworking of that plan: cosmic reconciliation.

Paul’s purpose in writing Ephesians is to explain to the church that this longed for cosmic reconciliation has been begun by Jesus and will be completed by Jesus.

3.  RESTORATION

⁹And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

What is His will? His will is to bring all things together again under Christ:

²²And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Paul is saying that through Jesus, God has begun the process of bringing restoration to His creation.  These are the things that the prophets said would happen. Note as well, that this ultimately is for the glory of God – v.12.  We exist to glorify God.  God created us to bring Him glory.  He is restoring His creation, and in that, ensuring that once again, all His creation will glorify Him.

¹¹In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹²in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

CONCLUSION

Paul prays therefore:

I pray for you constantly, ¹⁷asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. ¹⁸I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people,

¹⁹I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power ²⁰that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. ²¹Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else in this world or in the world to come. ²²And God has put all things under the authority of Christ, and he gave him this authority for the benefit of the church. ²³And the church is his body; it is filled by Christ, who fills everything everywhere with his presence.

The True X-Factor

I spoke on Sunday evening at All Saints Worcester on the X-Factor, exploring why it “works”, and what it tells us about where our culture is at and what it needs.  I then sought to show how Jesus is the true X-Factor.

You can listen or download it here.

A prayer of blessing for Worcester

A prayer of blessing for Worcester

Heavenly Father, we take upon ourselves the mantle of authority that Jesus delegates to us and in his name we speak to every household in Worcester and in the surrounding villages and communalities and say to you:

We bless you in the name of the Lord. We bless your marriages that they may be strong and whole. We bless the relationship between each partner, that it may be loving, forgiving, merciful and strong. We bless every intergenerational relationship within each household that there may be peace and love and understanding flowing between each one.

In Jesus’ name we bless every network of wholesome and supportive friendships.

We bless your health that you may be strong and well. In Jesus’ name we resist any sickness or disease, which seeks to invade this city and the surrounding communities. We say, be well, be strong, and be healthy. To any who are sick right now we say bless you in Jesus’ name with a speedy recovery.

We bless your wealth that you may have plenty to replace poverty. We bless you to have enough to live and enough to give. We bless the work of your hands that whatever you turn your hand to which is wholesome may be profitable. We bless every wholesome enterprise that is conducted by you that it may prosper and be successful. We bless the local economy and businesses that they may prosper and bring jobs and positive development.

We bless the local schools, that they may be secure, safe places for teachers, and students alike. We bless the children and young people’s capacity to learn and develop relationships and we bless their simple trust in Jesus that their trust may grow and become enriched.

We bless the local colleges and the university that they may be secure, safe places for lecturers and students. We bless the student’s ability to learn and develop relationships. We bless them so that they may learn of you and all you want them to know about you.

We bless the local government and pray you will raise up voices in places of power and influence in this city and the surrounding areas. May there be advocates for the kingdom opening the gates that need to be opened within this government.

We bless the social and community development agencies that operate locally. May there be a move of your Spirit through the broken corners of this city and the surrounding areas. Would you bless those involved in bringing relief and change to many in this city.

We bless the single parents, the orphans and the widows of this community. May you reveal yourself to them that they may see your hand at work in their lives. May they come to know you and find a place of refuge, healing and restoration.

We speak to the Cathedral, the churches and chapels in Worcester and the surrounding areas and we say, bless you in the name of the Lord and we pray that the Holy Spirit and the word of God may flow out from you in power. We bless the hearts of all who live in Worcester and the surrounding areas that you may be quickened to hear and respond to the voice of the living God.

We bless all who live and work here, that the overspill of blessings of the presence of the kingdom of God may fall upon you.

Amen.

- used at “SEEK” on Sunday 18th July 2010, All Saints Worcester

Good Friday sermon 2010

In our culture the Cross is a fashion symbol.  But when we hear again these readings of Good Friday, I hope we see once again it’s a scandal.  The cross offends us, challenges us, but if we can see it for what it is, it can also change us.

It’s a scandal because it gives us what we don’t deserve; reveals a God we don’t expect; offers a life we feared impossible; and asks us to pay the highest cost.

The Greeks, Romans and Jews at the time of Jesus found it a stumbling block – they wanted a powerful or wise God. We too find it a stumbling block.  We want a God who says yes to our plans.

Good Friday is about remembering, but also re-enacting, revisiting the story so that we might find ourselves in it and be defined by it.  The cross invites us to say no to our way of life, individually and corporately, in which we try to be God.  And to say yes to His way of life – life under the loving rule and reign of the one true God.

And yet, what does that mean?  In our sophisticated 21^st Century culture, it all sounds very dark ages.

Good Friday only makes sense in the context of the whole story – the birth, life, death, resurrection and future return of Jesus. Jews were expecting a Messiah but a human one, not a God one.  A perfect human who would fulfil the law, lead Israel back to God and defeat the Roman Empire that enslaved them.  They got a fully human messiah, but He claimed to be God, incarnated in humanity.  They didn’t expect a messiah to die a victim on a cross, let alone God to die.

No wonder on that first Good Friday, despondency filled the air after Jesus’ death.  And yet three days later, resurrection life burst out of the tomb.  The promised new creation life that Jews expected to enjoy at the end of time just broke free in the midst of human history; through the same messiah.

Easter is about life, but life that had to come through death.  A brutal death in which Jesus gave up His life to give us life, in which the blood was shed that we might know blessing.  Resurrection life was fought for in the tomb and death was conquered.  The gospel is this: God loves you and offers you life.  And it’s free.  But not cheap.  There is no room for cheap grace.

Today – we come to join with the global church to sit at the cross and reflect on death in order that we might embrace life.

In exchange for His life, we give our lives in service and sacrifice.  The end is not yet – the good news – He is risen, will soon echo again throughout creation.

Today we wait in the darkness, remembering what it cost the author of life to conquer death.

Remembrance Day

Here is the text from my talk given at All Saints Worcester this morning for our Remembrance Day service:

At times like this, when we attempt to grapple with the contradictions and tensions of human life, questions of faith and the existence of God, naturally rise to the surface.

This week we have had news reports from both the British and US military of soldiers being murdered by their own.

We hear increasingly of our soldiers losing their lives to hidden incendiary devices.

My job is not to pass comment on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It is to help us pause and find God in all the madness and mayhem.

At times like this, many understandably reflect and come to the conclusion that with so much violence, evil, tyranny and death being experienced by people all round the world, God cannot possibly exist.

Or if he does, he must be a distant, disconnected, disinterested and angry God who has left us to kill ourselves off.

Many conclude that God, if he exists at all, cannot be good if he causes or allows such horrendous suffering to occur. He certainly appears to be doing nothing to bring an end to conflict and war.

On this basis, many decide they want nothing to do with him at all.

This of course, raises another question. One which fewer people dare ask, never mind seek to answer: without God, what hope do we have?

Some conclude that our hope is to be found in scientific and technological advance.

For others, it is a mix of Dawkinsian and Darwinian evolution that will eventually help humanity to conquer it’s own dysfunctions.

A shrinking number still put their hope in our global leaders to find ways for peace to prevail. Indeed, President Obama’s campaign used the idea of “hope” brilliantly to reinforce perceptions that he truly could change the world.

A trip through Worcester city centre on a Friday night would suggest that an increasing majority do not hold out much hope at all, and so instead lose themselves in the moment.

The reason why across the country churches are remembering is because there is another perspective.

God is not distant and disinterested. God is doing something about evil and war. God has already done something about it.

God does not cause the suffering, and nor has He stormed off in a huff, leaving us to deal with our own mess.

He has stepped down in to it, right in to the hurt, pain, conflict and death, to bring new life.

The prophet Isaiah told us that “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; for unto us a son is given, the Prince of Peace”.

Not a peace-broker, or peace-keeper. A peace-maker. God has come as a peacemaker. The ultimate peacemaker. The Prince of Peace.

Jesus Christ.

He is the answer to our questions:

• Where are you God? Here I am.
• What are you doing to stop the madness? Conquering death.
• What is our hope? The promise of a redeemed and restored creation.

There is an irony worth noting here.

When the Prince of Peace finally arrived he, too, was cut down in his prime, as the brutal military empire of the first century did what brutal military empires have always done.

And so this morning we remember not only the many who have lost their lives in the quest for peace, but also the One who came in peace, who in dying, made it possible for the world to be changed.

The purpose of remembering is to draw us into a hopeful future.

We live between the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and the final establishment of the kingdom be came to bring, the kingdom in which justice and peace shall be knit together at last and for ever .

And as the church of Christ – people of peace – we are entrusted with a mission.

Not simply to save a few souls from the wreck of this world, since God so loved the world and has promised to redeem it. Nor simply to tinker with the world’s own systems, merely to do things a bit differently here or there.

No: rather, by prayer and courage, and holiness and hard work – and it will be hard work – we are called to discover the practical ways in today’s and tomorrow’s world of seeking justice without violence, of making and maintaining peace without tyranny.

The world says it can’t be done.

We who honour those who gave their lives, and who do so in the name of the Prince of Peace, are committed to saying it can be and will be.

That is why every act of Remembrance must also be a moment of decision and faith – perhaps for someone here today, to follow the Prince of Peace and become a peacemaker.

It is a rededication of our own lives, to serve the God of justice and the Prince of Peace and to follow wherever they may lead.

Let us pray.

Me

A dear friend just emailed me, saying she’d “figured me out”.  Here is her conclusion:

one topic per email.

..preferrably sent to Rach (my P.A.).

pack cars efficiently.

drive safe but quick.

lasagne.

chocolate.

coffee.

kingdom living.

She just missed two things…

1. My family.
2. Good red wine.

That makes 10.

What are your ten?

How I… work (1)

I’ve had four emails this month from younger leaders asking me how I work.  An interesting question, and one that I think it’s worth actually answering in a blog post.  Often what trips up leaders is not a lack of vision or focus or gifting or opportunities.  It’s not having the right systems and habits in place.

Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about these sorts of things.  Many people think I am very organised and administrative.  I’m actually not.  Trust me.  Ask my wife or my p.a.!  My wife has the gift of patience, and my p.a. has the spiritual gift of administration.  Both make me look hopelessly disorganised in comparison.  But I’ve put some systems and habits in place to ensure that I work as smart and effectively as possible.  Some are things I need to have in place to compensate for my weaknesses, other things are there because they are simply good ideas or things to do that will work for all, and others still are just plain common sense.

So… as a starter in this series, let me outline how I work with technology on a general day-to-day basis and why.

I only use one computer.  It’s a nice 2.4Ghz MacBook running OSX Leopard, iLife, iWork and Microsoft Office for Mac. It syncs to our church server and I backup to our personal external hard drive.  I also use MobileMe for certain backups (more on that another time).  In my experience, having two computers – e.g. a personal one and a work one – gets too confusing.  I want everything in one place.

My phone is just a phone. I have a simple Nokia phone which I use for making calls and texting.  I don’t have one that I can do anything else with – no web, no emails, no diary, no music.  My phone is just that… a phone.  I spend the minimum possible on it – on average $25 pay-as-you-go credit/month, and use it as little as possible.  I encourage people to call me at home or work, or to email/Tweet me/text me.  I happily give people my direct dial at work so they can call me directly.  When I get home after work I switch it to “Home” profile – filtering out most work calls (not my “boss” or p.a.).  I turn it off during all meetings and all meals.  People know where I am and so if there is an emergency they can always get hold of me another way.

People often ask why I don’t have an iPhone.  Part of me would love one, but I consciously don’t for the following reasons. I’m not important enough to need a Blackberry or iPhone.  I think that from a productivity point of view there would be limited gain (if any) from me having a phone that is part computer.  From a more holistic self-care/boundaries perspective, I have decided that I simply don’t want to be online all the time.

Facebook is great for some things and terrible for others.  I use it as purely to keep in touch with my friends and family, primarily those in other countries to us.  I do not follow any work-related people on Facebook, nor have friends on there who are not genuinely friends.  I do not use the Facebook inbox and my friends know that.  I have disabled all notifications and set it to say no to all those pesky “application invitations”! I have very few applications installed other than the standard ones and I have turned off the chat function too.  I do not update my Facebook status.   All of this means that I use it in a controlled way, that does not invade my time or my family time, and in a way that works for me.

Twitter is a different beast to Facebook and I love it. Again, I have a clear rationale for how I use it.  It is to network, communicate and keep up to date with trends/blogs/resources/ideas.  I do not use it to keep up with my friends or family (that’s what Facebook is for!).  I use it connect with my colleagues, peers, the people I lead and mentors.  I follow certain people whose work/blogs/ideas feed and resource me.  I don’t follow celebrities or randoms.  Anyone can follow me, but I don’t automatically follow someone just because they decided to follow me.  I will say more about how I use Twitter in a separate post.

Email.  I have a love-hate relationship with email!  I love it because it can be efficient and effective.  I hate it because I have so much of it.  I have three accounts I use: work, home, professional.  I do not use Facebook or Twitter as a surrogate email client.  My work account is for all St Paul’s related work, but nothing else.  My home account is for all personal/family stuff but not work or my wider professional work.  My professional account is used for networking beyond work and my involvement in trusts and boards.

I only check my work email three times a day: when I first sit down to work, after lunch, before leaving for the day.  I do not have my work email set to notify me beyond these times.  I do not check it at home (unless working from home) or during my days/time off.  I direct as much work related email to my p.a. as possible, who filters out a lot, responds to a lot and then passes on what I should/must respond to.

GMail chat and Skype are vital tools for us as we seek to maintain long distance relationships, but also connect with others in ministry around the world.  I have set GMail chat up on both my home and professional email accounts to only allow certain people to see my online status.  Those are people I don’t mind being interrupted by, but don’t expect to be constantly nudged by.  Skype is great for connecting with parent, close friends, God-children etc.  I only place one limit on Skype – I only Skype if both parties have video, otherwise we just call on the phone – the line quality is not good enough to justify a free, faceless call when we have GoTalk phone cards that give us 1000 minutes for $20!

There are some other more assorted things I do which I find helpful.  I always carry around with my a 2GB USB stick for file transfers, quick backups and when I don’t want to lug my laptop with me.  I carry a digital dictaphone with me at all times, to capture inspiration for teaching/preaching.  I often get an idea that is best captured by me speaking it there and then.

Interesting? Helpful? Want more?  Let me know.

The boldness of Bono

Everywhere U2 have gone to promote their latest album “No Line On The Horizon”, Bono has sung “Magnificent”, which is one of the highlight songs on the album.

Check out the BBC rooftop gig version here.

Here are the lyrics:

Magnificent
Magnificent

I was born
I was born to be with you
In this space and time
After that and ever after I haven’t had a clue
Only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

I was born
I was born to sing for you
I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice
From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise…

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love unites our hearts

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent
Magnificent

If that is not bold, from the rooftops worship and proclamation, by a man who walks with Jesus, then I do not know what is.

Here’s where we gotta be

Here’s where we gotta be
Love and community
Laughter is eternity
If joy is real

- Bono (“Get On Your Boots” from No Line on the Horizon)

Joke du jour