Well, this last week, Esther had her 12 week ultrasound scan. So in case you haven’t heard the news yet, there will be a new addition to the Cook clan arriving in late August/early September!

We were surprised at how much the technology has developed in the 4 years since Kaity was born. We were in with the sonographer for a good 90 minutes, whilst she checked absolutely everything you could think of checking on a 12-week old fetus. I think what amazed me the most was when baby turned, and you could see the spine and vertebrae.

I thought of Psalm 139:

you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Psalm 73

Introduction & Background

Before we look at the text of the Psalm itself, I wanted to explore a little bit of the background of this Psalm.

Who was Asaph?

Along with Heman and Ethan, he was one of 3 men David put in charge of music. (1 Chron 6). Their job, as we’re told in 1 Chron was to “minister with music before the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting…they performed their duties according to the regulations laid down for them.” These three guys were the first appointed worship leaders. If you like, they were the Redman, Hughes & Layzell of their day!

We can assume that part of their job description, like a lot of worship leaders today, was song writing, and Asaph is credited as having written a number of Psalms, particularly Psalm 50, then 73 through to 83.

Psalm 73 in relation to the book of Psalms

The Book of Psalms is divided into five books, and Psalm 73 is the start of Book III. So it is a linkage between Books II and III, but also between the two halves of the Psalms, being practically the midpoint of the book.

What is interesting with Psalm 73 is that it follows the same typical pattern within itself, as the Psalms do in the order with which they appear in the book. Let me explain…

Psalm 1: If we do what God wants, He will be good to us and bless us.

Books I & II: That’s too simple. Life doesn’t work like that. But also a sense that despite that, God will be good to his people

Final Psalms: These give a climax of praise and worship: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” is the end verse of the final Psalm.

Compare this to the overall structure of Psalm 73:

Verse 1:                  God is good to the pure in heart.

Verses 2-12:         “Painful candour” (Brueggemann). God isn’t good to the pure in heart. His people suffer, and the wicked prosper.

Verses 13-17:         This is where things now become to be seen from God’s perspective

Verses 18-26:         Grateful hope

Verses 26-28:         “It is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign LORD my refuge”

Psalm 73 is often referred to as a “wisdom psalm” – one that almost belongs with the proverbs. It gives teaching or instruction. There’s a parallel to Proverbs 23:17-18:

“Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord. There is surely a future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off.”

I don’t know what was going through your mind as Julie read this psalm but you might have been reminded of the Book of Job.  One commentator has described Psalm 73 as “the book of Job in a nutshell.”

There’s three words that I’d like to focus on this evening: Faith. Justice. Hope.

Faith

Verse 1 of the Psalm is a bit like a rhetorical question. Its like the Psalmist is saying “I know its true really, but I’m just checking.” We then get all the reasons for his questions and doubts. He talks about experiences he’s had…what he’s seen. And he’s finding it hard to make a correlation between his experiences and what he knows to be true. Ultimately, he’s saying “its not fair!”

How many of us think like that? Who’s thought to themselves at some point “how do they get away with it?” or “why do they always land on their feet?” We may even have directed anger at God. Lord, how can you bless them? How come they have so much when I want what they’ve got?”

On a bigger scale we can ask questions about suffering. Why did God let the earthquake in Haiti happen? Why are so many children in the world starving?

The psalmist had the same doubts and questions. It’s not that his faith was slipping into unbelief. “Doubt is something only a believer can experience, for you can only doubt what you believe. Doubt is to unbelief what temptation is to sing. A test, but not yet a surrender.

We will all experience doubts and questions about our faith. The challenge for us is in how we respond.

We live in a world of tension where we things go wrong, and there are so many hurting people. Yet we believe in a God who loves us, who cares for us and who wants to bring healing, who wants to make us strong.  God allows us to come close to him in prayer. He is our rock, and our solid foundation.

We experience uncertainty in our lives too. There may be uncertainty over jobs, finances, relationships.  Yet still He’s our solid rock and our foundation.  We can put our trust in him.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Philip Yancey: “Faith means believing in advance what only makes sense in reverse.”

But sometimes things just don’t happen in the way we want. We’ve prayed for healing for people and they’re not healed. We don’t know why. We don’t know the mind of our creator.

Jesus speaks against the idea that bad things only happen to bad people in Luke 13. The Romans killed some Galileans while they were offering sacrifices, and people were telling Jesus about what had happened.

Lk 13:2-3 “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners because they suffered this way? I tell you no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Jesus doesn’t say why these people died. But what He does say is that everyone is a sinner, and anyone who doesn’t repent faces a fearful end.  The psalmist realises this too in verses 18-20:

“Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
They are like a dream when one awakes;
when you arise, Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.”

Justice

What changes the psalmists view? As he entered into worship in the sanctuary he understood. The penny dropped. He realises that despite the perceived success of the wicked people, at the end of the day, God is their judge. And what He has to offer is much better than any thing we can experience on earth.

The psalmist recognises that those who turn to God will be taken into glory. That God will never leave them. (v23-24).

The wicked in this psalm are those who do not accept God’s authority over their lives – v11 “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?”

James 4:12 says “There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.” And its here we come back to faith. Because God has promised that He will save those who turn to Jesus. (Jn 3:16)

The standards by which God judges are so different to the world’s view. Having money, possessions, good health, isn’t necessarily a sign of God’s blessing. Yes, of course we can ask God to provide for us. We can ask him to heal the sick.  But that might not be God’s plan. In the bigger picture outside of time and space, that might not be what is best.

In the same way that Jesus said those Galileans didn’t suffer because they were the worst sinners, the reverse is also true – just because some people seem to have a great life doesn’t mean God’s ok with what they’re doing!

Its impossible to achieve the perfection that God demands. No one can do it. As the psalmist writes in verse 26 “My flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever”

Imagine that everything we’ve ever done could be written on an index card in God’s heavenly filing system. And when we become a Christian, when we give our life to Him, it like Jesus signs the back of our card. He’s the one taking responsibility for us. So when we get to heaven, and standing at the gates, St Peter pulls out our card, he might read the front and see all the stuff we’ve done, and say there’s no way we can get in to heaven. And we’re standing there thinking turn it over, read the back…

Eph 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”

It makes absolutely no sense from where we are today. And that’s why it takes faith. Again “faith means believing in advance what only makes sense in reverse.”

Hope

God is a God of justice, and that means he will honour his promises. When we doubt, when we can’t understand why certain things happen, when we can’t get our minds around it, the faith which God gives us to trust in his justice means we can have hope for the future.

The psalmist ends by summarising probably what he already knew at the beginning. Verses 27-28:

“Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.”

Our hope comes from having God as our refuge. From having him as our place of safety. If we put our hope in material things, or even in our health, or our friends or family, those things may go wrong. There is no guarantee that they will stay around forever.

1 Tim 6:17: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

Faith. Justice. Hope.

Whatever point you’re at tonight, if you’re doubting, if you’re questioning then that’s fine. God’s ok with that. He knows what we don’t know. For the psalmist, it was when he worshipped, when he entered into God’s presence with God’s people that his eyes were opened, and his questions were answered.

If you’re having trouble understanding God’s justice, if you’re saying “its not fair”, why is that happening, remember that God sees the bigger picture. We cannot know the mind of our creator.

And if you’re feeling like everything’s been taken away from you, and you don’t know where to turn, then one thing to can know that we can put our hope in God. He wants the best for us, and even if we can’t see it at the time, He will use our situations to bring him glory.

About half-way through the journey, the guard came through and commented about how heaving it was on the train. I’d been completely unaware of this, and had no idea what the rest of the train was like.

This made me think about how churches can seem like that 1st class compartment, shut off from the rest of the world. Its so easy for us to sit in our own comfortable surroundings, doors closed and completely ignorant to what’s going on outside of our own little bubble.

Image by gwaar

Delirious

I’ve seen Delirious live many times, but last Sunday was the end of an era as the boys called it a day, with a farewell concert at Hammersmith Apollo. The support act was the Cutting Edge Band (Delirious before they attempted to conquer the charts), and the evening kicked off with the evangelist’s anthem “I’m Not Ashamed of the Gospel”. This set took me back to my teenage years, and I certainly remember belting out many of these songs at a school in Littlehampton, and at football stadia across the country in the late 90’s when the Christian thing was to hold worship events in various sporting arenas. Martin gave a bit of a testimony to introduce the first song he’d written at the age of 19 – Thank You for Saving Me. We were even treated to one of the “spontaneous sections” from the Live and In the Can album. Yes, I still have the Can!

After a short break, the boys came back to the stage, this time with all the pedals, lights and other flashy stuff you can expect from Delirious. All the usual songs were played: Deeper, History Maker, Majesty, Solid Rock, Paint the Town Red, See the Star, Kingdom of Comfort, and their latest hit, My Soul Sings. It was a fantastic greatest hits gig. Stew Smee made a return as drummer for a couple of items, playing alongside newest band member, Paul Evans. Having two drummers playing in unison demonstrates the musicality of these guys.

Martin jumped into the crowd on more than one occasion to stand on the shoulders of those in the audience, as has become his typical style. One guy who attempted to copy this move was rewarded later in the evening by Martin giving him the megaphone used in the song “Solid Rock”.

Other guests on stage included the Delirious Kids (I think I counted about 16 altogether, probably ranging in age from 2 – 16) who acted as backing vocalists/dancers for a few numbers. Their wives also came on at the end, and it was an emotional farewell, but what I loved was the reality from the band. They were obviously sad to be leaving all this behind, but having their families present, showed what was important to them. There was an amazing atmosphere of worship throughout the evening, and these guys have been so obedient in using their musical talent to take the message of Jesus to the nations of the world.

The catchphrase from the night was Fabula est vestri… the story is yours. Just because Delirious are no more, the world still needs its History Makers. If you missed the gig, fear not. GodTV will be having a Delirious night on Sunday 27 December, and I’m pretty sure a DVD will be out before too long.

The prayer after the psalm was:

God of Jacob,
when the earth shakes
and the nations are in uproar,
speak, and let the storm be still;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In all that’s going wrong in the world, (just for starters e.g. credit crunch, wars & rumours of wars, MPs losing credibility through the expenses issues) of course we need God to calm the storm. We can’t sort out these sorts of crises in our own strength. It reminds me of a line from Matt Redman’s song, We Shall Not Be Shaken: “When fear is found all around, You’re the solid ground.”

Which is why I don’t quite know what to make of David Cameron’s interview over the weekend. He was talking about his faith on Songs of Praise, and said that although he would describe himself a Christian, he doesn’t turn to God for help. He said:

Do I drop to my knees and ask for guidance whenever an issue comes up? No, I don’t. But it’s part of who I am

The cynic in me thinks he’s trying to make himself appeal to a broad range of people. Its like he’s saying to the Christians “I’m one of you, you can trust me” but at the same time, he’s saying “don’t worry, I’m not a religious nut”.

But then yesterday’s Morning Prayer Gospel reading was Matthew 7, i.e. the “Do Not Judge” passage. Do I turn to God to ask for help with every problem I face? Maybe I should take the plank out of my eye! Maybe Cameron is just being honest.

One thing we can be sure of though is that over recent months, the nations most certainly have been in uproar. If our political leaders aren’t falling to their knees then there’s even more reason for the church to intercede for our nation and our world.

Image by Luca_M

Talk for Café Church, St Philip & St James’ Church

Sunday 8 November 2009

View Keynote slides

A young family were witnesses to a car accident, and the police asked each member of the family to give a statement explaining what had happened. The dad was a bit of a petrolhead so knew the make and model of each car involved. The mum recalled how many people were in the cars. The little boy didn’t know anything about cars. All he could remember was the puppy that ran out in the road that caused the cars to swerve.  His sister saw a toy get thrown through the open car window.

Each witness gave a different statement. Each person’s version of events was slightly different, according to their perspective. Not only of the angle they saw things from, but according to what interested them, what made them stop and look in the first place. Even though they all had different accounts, they were still each telling the truth,.

In the same way, the NT gives us four accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus – the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each document tells us the same basic narrative of Jesus’ life, but one might focus on the parables Jesus told, whilst another may skip over these to focus on the nature and character of Jesus. When we put all four accounts together, we get a much fuller and richer portrait of the life and work of Jesus.

But is it that simple?

Postmodernism

In this Post-Modern age, one of the biggest challenges we face as Christians is what is truth. People will say, how can we claim to know the truth. Truth is relative, or as the German writer Bertolt Brecht said “truth is a black cat in a windowless room at midnight”. People will argue that if you something is true for you then that’s your truth, but that’s not universal. Similarly, there is no ultimate meaning in words, only the meaning that individuals give to them. So people can take the words of the Bible and make them mean what they want to.  Any attempt to assign words a particular objective meaning is to use force and assert power over others.

So when it comes to the Bible, the argument goes that we should be suspicious of the writers who are exercising power over us and even more suspicious of anyone who might try to help us interpret what the Bible means. Any attempt at preaching from or explaining the Bible is just a sinister attempt to gain power over someone else.

Postmodern culture throws up all kinds of questions about the possibility of tests or words having any meaning. However, there’s an interesting failure to recognize the inconsistency of thought here. After all, how can anyone tell us this? If words have no meaning, surely those who believe this can’t use words to explain this to us?

Text of the Gospels

As Christians, we can often fall into the trap of using the Bible as evidence for our beliefs assuming that everyone thinks the Bible is authoritative. We point to the Bible as evidence to support our doctrines but if we’re talking to a non-believer, that in itself isn’t going to hold any weight. We need to be able to also explain why the Bible is so important and how we believe it is genuine. These are not easy questions to grapple with, and Christians can often feel uncomfortable asking questions about the reliability of the Bible.

Questions of reliability

The integrity of any ancient document can be tested by how many documented manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts still exist. These can be compared to work out how accurate the copies are. Today, there are less than 10 copies of the ancient manuscripts of Plato. The oldest of these is about 1400 years after the original document was written. Despite this, the text is respected in the present day.

Compare this to the NT. There are 5,300 known Greek manuscripts, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 early portions of the New Testament, giving 24,000 manuscript copies. No other historical document comes close. The nearest is Homer’s Iliad with 634 manuscripts.

Show table & quote

Other writers

Flavius Josephus

o      Books include History of the Jewish War & Antiquities of the Jewish People.

o      Mentions The Herods, Pilate, High Priestly families of Annas, Caiaphas and Ananias, Judas the Galiliean who led an uprising (Acts 5:37) and “James, the brother of the so-called Christ”

o      Crucifixion (read p52 Why Trust the Bible)

Also Thallus, Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger

Content

As we saw from the quiz earlier, Luke gives his reasons for writing his Gospel. (Luke 1:1-4). He wants to give Theolphillus evidence for believing the things he’d heard about Jesus. John also gives a reason for writing his book – John 20:30-31.

If we look at authors’ intentions, there are three questions we can ask:

• Is it possible that the author has genuine motives but has been deceived and is passing on mistaken information?
• Is it possible that the author knows the information he is writing down is false and he is intentionally trying to deceive the reader?
• Is it possible that the author has genuine motives and that by and large he is recording what actually happened?

Intentional deception?

• Disciples are portrayed in quite a bad way (lack of faith, slowness to understand Jesus’ teaching);
• Lots of teaching about the cost of Christianity.
• Would have included lots more to resolve quarrels (e.g. Gentiles & circumcision, spiritual gifts etc)
• John Stott quote

Is that it?

I’ve only scratched the surface looking at the reliability of the Bible. But of course the Bible is much more than just a historically sound record of events. The main point of the Bible is to show us how we can have a relationship with God, through Jesus.

John 5:39-40

A former Bishop of Rochester (Dr Christopher Chavasse) said this:

“The Bible is the portrait of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospels are the figure itself in the portrait. The OT is the background leading up to the divine figure, pointing towards it and absolutely necessary to the composition as a whole. The Epistles [letters] serve as the dress and accoutrements of the figure, explaining and describing it. Then while by our Bible reading we study the portrait as a great whole, the miracle happens, the figure comes to life and stepping down from the canvas of the written word, the everlasting Christ of the Emmaus story becomes himself our Bible teacher, to interpret to us in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Its no good studying the Bible if we never accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. If we don’t meet with Him as we read it. The writer to the Hebrews says when quoting the Old Testament “As the Holy Spirit says…” (Heb 3:7). The HS spoke in the past when He inspired the authors of the Bible, but He also speaks to us today through what He spoke then.

Martin Luther “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me”

The Bishop of Oxford, John Pritchard at the start of his sermons prays “May my spoken word be faithful to the written word, and point us to the Living Word, Jesus Christ.”

We need to read the Bible and feast of the word of God, but we also have to open the book and through the power of the Holy Spirit see beyond the words on the page to hear what He is telling us.

Resources

“Why trust the Bible?” (Amy Orr-Ewing)

“A question of life” (Nicky Gumbel)

www.bethinking.org

Religion Flowchart

HT: Human3rror

Supermarket hosts harvest service

I got the impression that the reporter wasn’t himself overly impressed making some sarcastic comments, and I loved the comment from the boy who said “this has never happened to me before” (in all his 6 or so years!)

+Stephen talks about the church getting out of its buildings and going to where the people are, and I think this is a brilliant way for the church to engage with the community. A few weeks ago, the Bishop commented how people perceive  the Church of England to be the supermarket equivalent of Marks and Spencer, so great to see him frequenting Asda!

This may be more down to the BBC report, but it seemed to portray a “typical” view of church with traditional hymns. Of course, you can argue that people will recognise tunes like “We Plough the Fields and Scatter”, but I’m not sure if that is really the case. Whilst the older generations might, in this post-Christendom age where a significant proportion of people are “un-churched” rather than “de-churched”, this may have reinforced people’s stereotypes of the church.

Its encouraging to see a big national chain such as Asda up for involving the church. They must think it will be commercially viable for them to do it, and not going to upset their shoppers. Just a shame the BBC weren’t a bit more up-beat!

Thoughts anyone?

One question I have is where do people think that any repaid expenses will go? Is it going to fund education or healthcare? Will it help reduce the tax deficits? I’ll be very surprised if the money goes anywhere other than back into the coffers of the House of Commons for their operating budget.

Of course that doesn’t mean fraudulent or excessive claims shouldn’t be repaid, but don’t expect these repayments to actually make a material difference to the country’s finances!

Since reading about the Revision Committee’s press release this morning, I’ve been trying to work out what I think about women bishops.

In case you’ve missed the announcement, the Revision Committee (as I understand it) are suggesting that a category of “super-bishop” is created, who will have episcopal oversight for parishes that cannot accept a female diocesan, or a male bishop who is involved in the ordination of women. The main issue is that these “super-bishops” will have their authority from legislation, rather than by a female diocesan agreeing to delegate responsibility to another bishop. Essentially, this means that a female diocesan bishop will not be the recognised leader of her whole diocese. Dave Walker has given a round-up of thoughts on this news from various media and bloggers.

I can understand to a certain extent why the committee have come to this decision. Those from traditionalist/conservative backgrounds are concerned that if delegation of authority was voluntary, then the Bishop could decide not to delegate her authority, leaving conscientious objectors forced to either leave the C of E, or accept the episcopal ministry of women, creating a schism in the Church. By having the right to seek alternative episcopal oversight engrained in statute, that risk is mitigated.

This doesn’t leave a very nice taste in the mouth, and I don’t think is respectful of the women who will become bishops. It implies mistrust, and that women bishops (and male bishops who ordain women) are second-class ministers in the church who can ignore them if they wish. What will happen if a female diocesan makes decisions that are unpopular? Will churches be able to use this rule as a way of choosing which bishop’s authority they accept?

Summarising this policy in a secular context, what about those who have an objection to accepting the authority of a Conservative Prime Minister? Should David Cameron become PM next year, can they seek alternative rule from a separate Labour/Lib Dem/UKIP/Green government?

This is obviously a hot potato, and the Revision Committee and General Synod are caught between a rock and a hard place. There is no possible way of pleasing everybody. Which begs the question, is it worth it? The Church of England is built upon the foundations of scripture, reason and tradition. If trying to change tradition is going to cause so many difficulties, then why do it?

Surely it is only worth all the pain and anguish this will cause if those who are in leadership in the church believe under God that it is the right thing to do. And if they believe that to such a certain extent that it is worth pursuing, then it has to be right for everyone, without any opt-outs. Because you can’t believe God is calling the church to a particular course of action, but say that not everyone has to follow it.

If the legislation to appoint women bishops was passed without any opt-out options for objectors, of course, significant numbers of people would leave the C of E. But if that’s what the leadership of the church believe is right, then that’s the risk to take.

Nailing my colours to the mast, I don’t have any problem with the ordination of women to the priesthood or episcopate. My understanding of scripture is that there have consistently been women appointed by God to positions of leadership, from Deborah in Judges, through to Lydia and many others in the New Testament. But I don’t want this issue to divide the church. And I don’t want women to be appointed as bishops, but then have others in the church not recognise their authority. I would rather retain the status quo.

What would I do? Prepare the legislation to consecrate female bishops with no opt-outs, no concessions, and see if it passes a vote. If General Synod aren’t sufficiently confident that women should be bishops, the motion will fall. If they are, it will pass. This would mean the church has to trust those elected to General Synod, that they discern the will of God. Those that can’t accept the leadership of Synod in this situation may well go elsewhere (whatever the outcome were), but that’s a risk leaders should be willing to take if they believe strongly in something.

Photo by Scott Gunn