Tuesday, April 24, 2012

CP 173 Made to be misfits

Hello friends… this CP is about an insight I had while listening to a sermon on 26/6/2010.  The text was Matthew 5:1-12, ie the beatitudes.

The starting point is that Jesus is addressing his disciples. Yes there are crowds but it is the disciples who come to him for teaching.

Here is what I sense Jesus was saying. As a follower of mine in the world you will discover the ugly depths of your own human poverty of spirit. That is, you will recognise a bankruptcy of (your own) spirit, a hollowness or emptiness. This is good! Yes good, because those who know their poverty before the heavenly Father can be embraced by the Kingdom of Heaven, and that means one is truly blessed.

The same truth applies for ‘those who mourn’. As a follower of Jesus Christ in the world, guided by the Him and his kingdom Word, we will find ourselves mourning our human condition and also grieving over the wickedness and lostness of those around us. That awareness, and the accompanying grief, is part of discipleship. It is not a sign of failure. It is the place of blessing! Those who are convicted by the Spirit in this way will be truly comforted.

Consider the meek. As followers of Jesus we will find in ourselves a freedom not to be pushy or arrogant or stubborn. As we continue to wrestle with how to walk in sync with the Lord Jesus there grows in us a gentleness, a humility, a freedom to defer to others. This does not mean we become doormats, weak and timid, persons with no strength of character or self. It is His gentleness and meekness. To be in tandem with him is to be in a place where blessing flows.  The blessing of inheritance comes to those who have been humbled in and through their relationship with Jesus.

So also will those who are disciples, under Jesus and his Word, find that all the world offers simply does not, cannot, has never, and will never, satisfy our souls and spirits. The ‘disciple-relationship’ with the Lord Jesus will inevitably expose the truth that the world has no lasting bread and no life-giving water to offer. That realisation creates a craving for real food and real drink. Being in this place, as with all the beatitudes, can feel intensely uncomfortable and even threatening, because the world as we knew it, even hoped it would be, has been shown to be false.  But to know this truth is to be blessed because now the kingdom filling can happen.

Let’s follow through with the merciful. A follower of Jesus will inevitably find growing inside himself (or herself) an inclination to be merciful. And won’t that put you at odds with the world! You might begin to wonder if you have become soft and weak. What is happening here is that the heart of Jesus himself is being created and unfolded in the disciple. The changed heart leads to merciful actions toward others and that opens even further the kingdom’s storehouse of blessing and mercy on the disciple.

I won’t go thru them all at the moment… but it is clear it is Jesus, and his Word, (including incarnation, life, passion, cross, resurrection and ascension), who creates and reveals these uncomfortable circumstances and conditions. None of these things are easily bearable. The living relationship with the Master (=discipleship) makes us misfits in the world. Not simply an irritating stone in the world’s shoe, but people like Jesus the Christ who don’t bend to the world’s ways and means. That is why we become a threat, and it is why resistance, and maybe even persecution will follow. However, his Word in us, his heart and Spirit being created in us, will inevitably deliver us to the place of greater blessing.

One last comment. This is all about Jesus the Christ. Before he ever creates the conditions of blessing in us they are already in him. The beatitudes describe the life of Jesus in the world. He draws us into that life of cross-bearing and crucifixion… but that is exactly the position in which the Father’s storehouses are opened over the church. As we respond to this new creation of Jesus’ heart and life in us, as we marvel at the pearl of great price, as we celebrate the treasure discovered in a field, as it begins to grow and be expressed, as we choose daily to live out his call… well, we become salt and light…

Be blessed in Him. Have a good week…

FredHello friends… this CP is about an insight I had while listening to a sermon on 26/6/2010.  The text was Matthew 5:1-12, ie the beatitudes.

The starting point is that Jesus is addressing his disciples. Yes there are crowds but it is the disciples who come to him for teaching.

Here is what I sense Jesus was saying. As a follower of mine in the world you will discover the ugly depths of your own human poverty of spirit. That is, you will recognise a bankruptcy of (your own) spirit, a hollowness or emptiness. This is good! Yes good, because those who know their poverty before the heavenly Father can be embraced by the Kingdom of Heaven, and that means one is truly blessed.

The same truth applies for ‘those who mourn’. As a follower of Jesus Christ in the world, guided by the Him and his kingdom Word, we will find ourselves mourning our human condition and also grieving over the wickedness and lostness of those around us. That awareness, and the accompanying grief, is part of discipleship. It is not a sign of failure. It is the place of blessing! Those who are convicted by the Spirit in this way will be truly comforted.

Consider the meek. As followers of Jesus we will find in ourselves a freedom not to be pushy or arrogant or stubborn. As we continue to wrestle with how to walk in sync with the Lord Jesus there grows in us a gentleness, a humility, a freedom to defer to others. This does not mean we become doormats, weak and timid, persons with no strength of character or self. It is His gentleness and meekness. To be in tandem with him is to be in a place where blessing flows.  The blessing of inheritance comes to those who have been humbled in and through their relationship with Jesus.

So also will those who are disciples, under Jesus and his Word, find that all the world offers simply does not, cannot, has never, and will never, satisfy our souls and spirits. The ‘disciple-relationship’ with the Lord Jesus will inevitably expose the truth that the world has no lasting bread and no life-giving water to offer. That realisation creates a craving for real food and real drink. Being in this place, as with all the beatitudes, can feel intensely uncomfortable and even threatening, because the world as we knew it, even hoped it would be, has been shown to be false.  But to know this truth is to be blessed because now the kingdom filling can happen.

Let’s follow through with the merciful. A follower of Jesus will inevitably find growing inside himself (or herself) an inclination to be merciful. And won’t that put you at odds with the world! You might begin to wonder if you have become soft and weak. What is happening here is that the heart of Jesus himself is being created and unfolded in the disciple. The changed heart leads to merciful actions toward others and that opens even further the kingdom’s storehouse of blessing and mercy on the disciple.

I won’t go thru them all at the moment… but it is clear it is Jesus, and his Word, (including incarnation, life, passion, cross, resurrection and ascension), who creates and reveals these uncomfortable circumstances and conditions. None of these things are easily bearable. The living relationship with the Master (=discipleship) makes us misfits in the world. Not simply an irritating stone in the world’s shoe, but people like Jesus the Christ who don’t bend to the world’s ways and means. That is why we become a threat, and it is why resistance, and maybe even persecution will follow. However, his Word in us, his heart and Spirit being created in us, will inevitably deliver us to the place of greater blessing.

One last comment. This is all about Jesus the Christ. Before he ever creates the conditions of blessing in us they are already in him. The beatitudes describe the life of Jesus in the world. He draws us into that life of cross-bearing and crucifixion… but that is exactly the position in which the Father’s storehouses are opened over the church. As we respond to this new creation of Jesus’ heart and life in us, as we marvel at the pearl of great price, as we celebrate the treasure discovered in a field, as it begins to grow and be expressed, as we choose daily to live out his call… well, we become salt and light…

Be blessed in Him. Have a good week…

Fred

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

CP 172 Hilda Clark, Brigitte Radomskyj and Hymn 301

Hilda Rose Clark was buried on March 19, 2009. It was the last funeral at which I officiated before ending my Call at St Pauls, Sydney. We had met only once. It was sometime in 2007. Only five people at St Pauls could remember that Hilda had ever worshipped there. She was in a nursing home, had been for many years, and had completely succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease. Hilda was actually a founding member of St Pauls and was a sister to Lily who features in my book. I had not visited her for the first 7 years in Sydney because I was told there was no point.

There are no excuses to be offered for my failure to care for her. Eventually I went, taking a Lutheran Hymnal with me. When I sat by her bed and addressed her she was blank. No recognition. Blank. What to do? I pulled out the hymnbook, opened it at Hymn 301, and quietly began to sing. “Take Thou my hand and lead me o’er life’s rough way…” To my astonishment, and the astonishment of surrounding staff, she immediately joined in with her own faltering voice. “With heavenly manna feed me from day to day…” We sang together through the full three verses.

Hilda went blank again. I started singing, “What a friend we have in Jesus…”, and she again sang with me to the end. And predictably blanked. I began, “Jesus loves me this I know…” and she completed it with me. She was gone again until I began the Lord’s Prayer (old form) and we prayed together. I assured her of her heavenly Father’s love and forgiveness and then she joined me for the benediction. “The Lord bless you and keep you…” She closed her eyes and I left, rejoicing that the words of her faith were in her, embedded in those hymns and prayers. More important than her conscious memory was the truth that her Spirit-born spirit memory was intact and strong, and her Father had not forgotten her.

Why write about this today? Because yesterday Brigitte Radomskyj was called from this life, aged 82. Her favourite hymn? LH 301, “Take thou my hand and lead me…” We shall sing it at her funeral on Thursday. There is no surprise that this hymn gripped her spirit. Here is the last verse. Consider its meaningfulness to someone born in Germany between the two world wars with all the accompanying fears, darkness and horror, and crushed hopes:

“Though oft it seems Thou hidest
Thy wondrous might,
Yet me Thou safely guidest
Through darkest night.
Take then my hand and lead me
Till life is o’er,
With heavenly manna feed me
For evermore.

Of course I have a question for us, for myself and for you. Do we have an ‘inbuilt word resource’ like these old folks have? I wonder. It has not been fashionable for many years to memorize stuff. Not in school and not in confirmation. We have access to any amount of knowledge and information through the internet. But what will be accessible in our spirit and to our spirit when the mind and memory can no longer function properly?

There is a second question I have for us. What is the content of the worship songs we do sing? You might be astonished at the way much of modern ‘songnody’ delivers only ‘faith and discipleship lite’, if it delivers it at all. I have a theory that the reason choruses have become so popular is that the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is using that medium to sing simple scripture into the hearts of children. Why? Because children, let alone the culture, are largely illiterate in the things of Jesus Christ. Whatever we do, let us at least sing songs and hymns which carry the Gospel in its fullness, which honour Jesus as the Christ and Lord, and which reveal the heart of the Father.

***

Now, a related coincidence of no particular importance… Some of you are aware that I met Rosemarie (Birthday today) at Coogee Beach in Sydney. That was in 1968. While in Sydney she boarded at 6 Marion St in Coogee. Sometime around 1980, as a Pastor in Eudunda, South Australia, I was skimming the Marriage Register for St Stephens at Neales Flat and came upon the marriage of the daughter of our next door neighbours in Eudunda. Her husband had boarded at 6 Marion St in Coogee! Then when I took Hilda Clark’s funeral in 2009 I noticed that she had lived at 4 Marion St in Coogee. The first person I spoke to at that funeral had lived at, you guessed it, 6 Marion St in Coogee. Our Father’s world can be a small world indeed.

Be blessed in the Risen Lord.

Fred

Friday, April 13, 2012

CP 171 Superlative Truths of Grace and Glory...

Hello fellow travellers. This week's offering is is a 'gathering together' of as many of those 'lost for words' bits of apostolic revelation as I could find in the New Testament. Some of you might already have come across this in my draft booklet of Psalms of the 'better covenant'. Your response to this type of material is both sought and welcome.

Superlative Truths of Grace and Glory...

All those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who call upon his mighty name,
who are called ‘saints’ in his honour,
let us gather together to give him praise.
We have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.

We worship him who is the embodiment of divine love.
We bless him whose journey through Calvary
revealed the breadth and length, height and depth,
of the love which defies knowing,
and which, in its holiness and mercy,
is impossible to comprehend.

Let us celebrate the unbreakable bond of holy love
between the Father and the Son,
and let us rejoice in the Spirit-given conviction
that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Together we adore and bless him
who came from unassailable light
and established an unshakeable kingdom
as our unfading inheritance.
Now reigning in unsurpassed glory,
he whose life is indestructible,
and whose priesthood is permanent,
brings hope that is living and unchangeable.

Together in Word-driven, Spirit-filled worship
we honour Jesus Christ,
whose astonishing life and worthy sacrifice
has released for us, in our poverty,
the inexhaustible riches of his grace and glory.
Acknowledge him who gives life,
eternal life,
life in all its fullness and abundance.

As the priests of his kingdom,
with unshackled reverence and awe,
we laud the unsearchable and infinite wisdom
which gave us the Christ, Jesus our Lord,
in whom are hidden
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Amen and Amen.

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

CP 170 The heartache no tablet can fix...

CP 170 The heartache no tablet can fix…
[First part, source unknown!]

*** I remember that there was a single moment in time when my mind formed the words, “So…this is what heartache is.”

I was experiencing an actual sensation in the centre of my chest. Not a pain. No… that wasn’t it. I don’t remember fearing for my health.
I can only describe it as a ‘hollowness’. Like something had been removed. Like there was air in there where it shouldn’t be. Similar to indigestion, I suppose… but higher. It persisted. And persists, these years later. Oh, it has certainly diminished. Slowly. But I have accepted it as part of my physiology. I live with heartache.

I was (and am) surprised by that. I expected that death to change me. My mother and I were unusually close. She died too young. She suffered too long. I expected that death to change my attitude… my emotions… my perspective. I expected to cry. I expected to miss her. I knew it would change me… and change the world for me. But I didn’t expect that it would change me permanently… PHYSICALLY.

And yet, I have come to embrace that part of’ me - that heartache. It has become for me a persistent reminder that that love was REAL… and STRONG… and is PERSISTENT. That love, like that loss, has changed me. Is that what our now glorified Lord thinks as he ponders the marks in his own hands… the hollowness in his own side? “My love has changed me. My love… for YOU.” ***

I have not the foggiest idea who wrote the above. It’s one of those snippets I’ve collected over the years. I’ll acknowledge the author as soon as I know who it is. It struck a chord when I first came across it. Today, as I’m presenting it to you, I’m moved by it. What a notion! My Lord Jesus the Christ has an imprint in his heart, for eternity, as a consequence of his love for me. Our Lord is forever changed because he loved!

Think about that. Receive it. Meditate on it. Inwardly digest it. Our glorified Lord is different, even deeper in heart, aching for us, because he loved us.

(One final question which I should probably ask next week, not this week. “Have you ever loved with such risk of hurt/rejection, that you are indelibly changed, for good?)

My friends, may you be challenged, confronted, pummeled and brought to your knees as you discover, in spirit, your place and role in the Calvary story in the next few days. And may you then be comforted by those eternally valid words, “It is finished!” To know the meaning of that phrase is to know that the Father in heaven is at peace with you.

Catch you after Easter.

Fred