Water Flowed From the Temple
Ezekiel saw a vision of water flowing from the temple into the community. It poured off the the altar and at first it barely wet the ground, but as it continued to flow it became waist deep and then flooded the whole culture. This vision speaks to the church’s mission, our mission. Worship is to overflow from our church and pour into the lives of the people all around us. Picture your Sunday morning worship overflowing with love and power into the communities where you live, everywhere within reach. Picture it like water carrying the life-changing grace of Christ. Then realize that the church is you and me. Worship changes everything, and worship is everything.
Archive for the ‘Ancient’
Worship Changes Everything
In Time of Doubt
IS THERE A GOD?
Have you ever looked into the cluster of stars that fill the blackness of night and felt really small? Like there was no way that some invisible guy was up there in the midst of all that infinite space looking down at you? Suddenly the whole idea of faith in a God seemed like an exercise in group hypnosis? Like we are all just singing songs and holding hands in celebration of the emperor’s new clothes, except we can’t even see the emperor? Have you ever felt that way?
I have.
The thing is, I can’t sustain the disbelief for very long. (more…)
Advent Thoughts
I am coming to the end of my time in London which is provoking a lot of different thoughts. I have lived in the USA since 1991 and indeed have become a US citizen but still there is a remnant of Britishness and Scottishness that does not go away. All those childhood memories form an indelible imprint on your personality and they don’t just leave you, they stick. It has been good to be reminded of them again. (more…)
Bible Study - The Choosing
I have tried to convey in my thoughts about Genesis one of its foundational ideas which is, of course, therefore one of the foundational ideas of our faith. It is the idea that God is not passive, he acts, and so acting chooses life for his creation over death and destruction.
The first word after the fall was to the serpent who was told, “because you have done this cursed are you” (Gen 3:14). When God saw the evil of the time of Noah he was sorry he had made mankind and yet “Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord” (Gen 6:8) and when God acted ultimately he would save Noah and command him again to fill the earth, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 9:1). Abram too, a good man, seems still to be wandering without purpose until God confronts him in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your great reward” (Gen 15:1). And then again when he becomes Abraham and God says, “I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless” (Gen 17:1).
If there is just one verse that captures the thread here it is Gen 17:1, “I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless”. It shows God acting but it also shows why we must be profoundly grateful for what these mighty acts do in our lives. We walk before God and are blameless because of his mighty acts of salvation. But is it just about God acting, do we do nothing? Consider the story of Jacob.
22That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.30So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
It is a strange story isn’t it. This person or thing that Jacob wrestles with seems neither god, nor angel, nor man. Yet it seems that it must be God or and agent of God because only the creator would have the power to change the name of a patriarch (remember Abram to Abraham). So what do we learn from this? (more…)
Sagrada Familia
When you walk around London the churches are old, and some are truly ancient. Parts of Westminster Abbey were started in the 12th century! So they are fascinating but, for the most part, dead. To prove a point, this year I took several friends to Westminster Abbey. This is a truly magnificent building created over centuries and a witness to world shaping history. Even so, the only photograph I can remember my friends taking was standing next to the gravestone of a “Mr. Peesgoode”. It is a photograph, of course, that only men could take. Walking around Westminster Abbey there isn’t any doubt that the abbey is the creation of a world changing faith but it is a faith that, sadly, defines the past of the cities of London and Westminster. Christian faith does not, it seems, shape the future.
Or maybe not. Over the summer I visited another cathedral that seems, in contrast, filled to the brim with life. In Barcelona Spain, growing like a living thing out of the ground, is Europe’s largest modern cathedral, the Cathedral Sagrada Familia. Sagrada Familia is not like anything you have ever seen. It has an Alice in Wonderland quality that defies easy description unless you have seen the other buildings designed by its architect, Antoni Gaudi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD Gaudi’s buildings (and there are many of them in Barcelona) seem frivolous but in fact are the product of the deeply held Christian beliefs of the devoutly catholic Gaudi. Buildings were to have the shape and form of things created as opposed to merely drawn and constructed. The buildings therefore do not have straight lines of the architect but instead the sensuous curves of the creator. They seem to affirm life in its chaotic beauty rather than seek to control or capture the life of mankind. driving around Barcelona you get to see several of Gaudi’s buildings and they are wonderful in the true sense of the word because, as you look at them, you are driven to wonder and awe at the vision of the man who could see these buildings in his mind.
It is the vision of Sagrada Familia that first overwhelms. The scale and scope of the story the building tells stretches the mind in wonder. It is a living building where statues of the saints, sculpture of the life of Jesus, and stone en-carved quotes from ancient scriptures grow out of the rock walls. Combine this with the work which continues inbside the building (even after 100 years of construction), where stone masons chip and carve their creations from rough rock, and you have a testimony to the faith that lives in the hearts of believers. Gaudi devoted his later life to this masterpiece and when it is finished it will be a fitting monument to his genius for sure but more to the ever living power of God’s Holy Spirit to enliven the creation with this overwhelming creative force that spills force in the works of art that enrich our lives.
It is too easy sometimes to think that the faith is for the last generation and that those who follow us will somehow not be captivated as we were by the life of our Lord. But that confuses cause and effect as if we had better knowledge or insight than our children will have. The constant thing will be the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ who continues to work in the hearts of men and women moving them, quickening them as the ancients said, towards a life lived with God. Sagrada Familia shows that the faith still lives and inspires, indeed defies description in its unbounded creativity, and that we live in wonder at the works of our Lord.
Why So Many Rules?
One day Adam was in the Garden having a pretty good day. It was before the Fall, so every day was a pretty good day. God walked up to him and said, “I made something for you.”
Adam turned to look at God, he was always glad to see Him. “What is it?”
“It’s a little nic-nak, I think it’s pretty cool, it’s a symbol of my love for you.” God said this as He handed the fragile figurine to Adam.
“Wow, It’s beautiful. It’s also very heavy. Thanks.” Adam was holding it in his hands and examining the marvelous detail.
Then God said, “Just don’t drop it. If you drop it, it will break.”
Well, Adam couldn’t wait to show it to Eve, so as soon as God went on His way, Adam ran over to the flower garden where Eve was busy arranging a bunch of Phalaenopsis orchids into a mathematical pun (she was always a very clever florist).
“Look at this amazing thing that God gave me!” Adam was still running when he said this. Eve looked up from her work and was stunned by the aching beauty of the miniature symbol of God’s love that Adam held in his hands.
Well, you can probably guess where this story is going. There is something about a snake, maybe a lie or two, a couple of bad choices, and CRASH! The gift that God gave to Adam was dropped and broken. It shattered into a thousand pieces and spread all over the ground in every direction. The tiny pieces were sharp and jagged, they couldn’t take a single step without cutting their feet. The shards were ugly and seemed to change the way the whole garden looked. It was the first bad day.
Later that day God comes and sees the mess they have made. He sighs. Then He grabs a stone tablet and carves a long list of instructions of how to put it back together. If they gathered all the pieces, and if they had the right kind of glue, and if they followed the instructions perfectly, then … well … actually it looks pretty hopeless. God knows they can’t find all the broken bits, and He knows they won’t be able to fix it. He gives them the instructions anyway. That way they can at least know what it once looked like.
See, there was one rule: don’t drop it. But, once it was dropped, then there became a thousand rules. One for each broken piece. That piece over there, that one is “honor your mother and father” … that one over there is “do not murder” … another says “God hates divorce.” Each of the rules point back to the time before it was broken, when it was complete. Each of the rules shows what the broken pieces mean, where they really belong. It explains why there are broken shards of love all over the garden.
But, they can’t put it back together. And they cut themselves on the pieces when they try. It’s a pretty bad place to be. Their relationship with God is broken and they really don’t have much of a desire to read the instructions and hurt their hands trying to pick up all the razor sharp shards. Even if they did find all the pieces, there is no glue that can hold it together, and the cracks would still look terrible. It’s hopeless.
But, don’t worry, God didn’t leave them hanging. He gave them a new symbol of His love. He became Jesus. A living incarnate symbol of God’s love for them. He forgave them for breaking His love, and He replaced it with Love Himself. He made everything new again.
Then He gave them some gloves and a bottle of glue, because the place was still a mess.