Send us a Text Message.On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”John 20:19-29 The church historian Jaroslav Pelikan once said: “If the resurrection of Jesus actually happened, then nothing else really matters. If the resurrection of Jesus did not actually happen, then nothing else really matters”.Everybody wants to say that life and love and peace are stronger than death and oppression and hatred. On what basis could we think that is true? If Jesus walked out of the tomb, if he took the disciples' grief, fear and pain and exchanged them for joy and purpose, then we have a reason for hope. If it’s just made up, then Jesus is just another example of a good person being pulped because he dared to stand up to bad people with power.That's all well and good, you might say - the disciples saw the risen Jesus face to face. They were there! 2000 years on, in our daily struggles, how do we sustain hope? As with Thomas, Jesus doesn't despise these questions - he knew we would ask them! There's a blessing for us too - blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.So our griefs, fears and pains can be overcome too, exchanged for something else. What do we get in return?1. The presence of Jesus, wherever and whenever two or three are gathered.2. The peace of Jesus, given "not as the world gives", which is to say an unconditional peace regardless of our circumstances.3. The pattern of Jesus, a call to sacrificial love and solidarity with the weak.4. The purpose of Jesus, as Jesus was sent by the Father, so we are sent by Jesus, that whoever believes in Jesus might have life.5. The power of Jesus, the Holy Spirit that came when Jesus breathed on his disciples.

Send us a Text Message.Blessed is the one … whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.Psalm 1: 1-3 Not everything in your Bible is always easy to understand.  Not everything in your Bible is even comfortable to read.  However, you do not need umpteen theology degrees, nor do you need to be an unrepentant bible nerd to grasp what is necessary in the Bible to be formed into a resilient disciple - someone who delights in the word of the Lord and soaks it up day and night. The Bible gives us wisdom for any situation across a lifetime by telling us the story of what it is to be human and who God is.  The aim of this story is to shape us into people who, as they read, mature spiritually. To mature spiritually is to begin to know what it feels like in any given situation to be more in line with the will of God instead of less.  We are invited to step into that story, to make it our own, to be shaped by its beauty and to live by its wisdom. Yet, one of the challenges in accepting this invitation is the fact that to fully step into these texts we must train ourselves to see their wisdom and beauty. We have to spend time in the word of God. Even when we don’t understand. Even when we don’t find it comfortable. The good news is our effort needn’t be a sprint.  We aren’t trying to download hundreds of pages into our heads in a single sitting. We should be working at developing a lifetime passion, developing consistency, bit by bit, little by little, day by day. No one gets the Bible in one reading. It is designed to be read again and again in community.  We should be feasting on God’s word, eating this honey so that no other book tastes as sweet.  Other stories may entertain us for a moment. But to be fed, to receive life for the deepest parts of us, we come back again and again to the Bible.  We come to encounter God’s wisdom. We come to be formed by the Spirit. We come to receive revelation of God’s goodness and beauty, particularly through the person of Jesus.

Send us a Text Message.Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you,but you will not always have me.”John 12:3-8True generosity has the power to change the world.As the Roman Emperor Julian tried to turn the Empire back towards the ancient Roman religion, he found that one of the main barriers was the fact that “the impious Galileans [Christians] support not only their own poor but ours as well, everyone can see that our people lack aid from us". The extraordinary generosity of the community founded by Jesus was spilled beyond the boundaries of the church and saw the early Christians forming a prototype welfare state. Or think of the way that John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, chose to live on a few percent of his actual income, giving the vast majority away. It  has been said that “when John Wesley was carried to his grave, he left behind him a good library of books, a well-worn clergyman's gown... and the Methodist Church”. The legacy of his life - the inheritance he left - amounted to absolutely nothing financially speaking. Because of his generosity, and others, there are today perhaps 80 million Methodists worldwide. We celebrate such generosity, but we never imagine that we could emulate it. The story of the anointing of Jesus shows us how we could. It presents us with three options - three patterns that could shape our lives.We could be a religious opportunist, like Judas. However he had started out, by the end he was into Jesus for what he can get out of Jesus. He was a disciple on the cheap and on the take. He is a warning to us all: when we follow Jesus on a condition (this relationship, that promotion, success in this or that ministry) it's not Jesus we're really interested in - it's the condition.We could be a bean-counter. These people are sold on the Kingdom ministry of Jesus, especially if its done in the right way. They want to protect Jesus reputation (read Luke's account of this story) and they want to protect his resources. It can come from a good place, but again we have to guard our hearts. We can talk the language of stewardship, when what we're really reaching for is control. "Give that bottle to me!", they shout. "We'll look after it!" Do you think that if one of them had got hold of the perfume that their story would have been told?Or we can be a worshiper - someone who discerns who Jesus is an prepares themselves to pour out everything for him. Mary senses something about Jesus and his love, and knows that extravagant worship is the only possible response. Her bottle broken and nothing kept back. Jesus body broken, and his life flowing out. Generosity isn't about rules, but about hearts transformed by Jesus - people prepared to 'go big' for him. When this is you, there won’t be any part of your life that won’t be affected by the indescribable joy of knowing that – whatever troubles come – you’re living in exactly the way you were created to.

Send us a Text Message.Blessed is the one    whose transgressions are forgiven,    whose sins are covered.Blessed is the one    whose sin the Lord does not count against them    and in whose spirit is no deceit.When I kept silent,    my bones wasted away    through my groaning all day long.For day and night    your hand was heavy on me;my strength was sapped    as in the heat of summer.Then I acknowledged my sin to you    and did not cover up my iniquity.I said, “I will confess    my transgressions to the Lord.”And you forgave    the guilt of my sin.- Psalm 32:1-5Imagine a world without forgiveness - where a wrong just remains, lodged in our lives. Injuries suffered and inflicted by you, unable to heal. In Christianity Rediscovered, the story of a missionaries work with the Masai tribes of Tanzania, the author writes of a strange encounter with a man who seemed to be on the fringes of the group.It was a simple question but it mystified me. He asked, “Can you people bring forgiveness of sin?” I hadn’t gotten around to forgiveness yet (or confession). I was still trying to get across the consciousness and reality of sin. I thought the man was not paying attention. I did not answer his question. I told him I would get to that some other day. Then, afterwards, I found out who he was. He was a man who had committed a great sin against the taboos of the Masai tribe. So he had become an outcast, belonging to no community… The worst part of it was that the sin in question was unforgiveable. There was no forgiveness possible from God or man. He was destined to live his life as a despicable outcast. No wonder he had asked me if I and my people could bring forgiveness.Psalm 32 shows the journey away from the psychological, spiritual and physical burden of undealt with sin, the result of the corruption of the human heart: incurvartus in se, curved in on itself, so that we pollute and misuse even the good gifts of God. When he confesses, he is forgiven - they are carried, covered and not counted.To offer each other confession and forgiveness is to offer blessing. It is the only way for the wound to heal. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in Life Together, It is the grace of the Gospel, which is so hard for the pious to understand, that it confronts us with the truth and says: You are a sinner, a great, desperate sinner; now come, as the sinner that you are, to God who loves you. He wants you as you are; He does not want anything from you, a sacrifice, a work; He wants you alone. ‘My son, give me thine heart’ (Prov. 23:26).God has come to you to save the sinner. Be glad! This message is liberation through truth. You can hide nothing from God. The mask you wear before men will do you no good before Him. He wants to see you as you are, He wants to be gracious to you. You do not have to go on lying to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner. Thank God for that.”

Send us a Text Message.Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.- Acts 13:1-3Fasting is not a results orientated practice. It will not prove to God how serious you are about unanswered prayer or make God love you more. We fast to achieve greater intimacy with God. John Mark comer says that “Fasting is not eating food in order to feed on the Holy Spirit; being hungry for God with your whole body.”How do we tend to respond to God moving in our lives, to God's forgiveness, or to tragedy? We often respond in our minds. But fasting is a whole body response. In the Bible people fast in response: in response to God moving in their lives; in response to God's grace, mercy and forgivingness; in response to tragedy Fasting is not growing our will power muscle - it's about feeding on the Holy Spirit, drawing power from the Holy Spirit  out of relational connection to God - or what Jesus called abiding. Fasting is not likely to be easy. When we fast those things that are opposed to the Spirit come to the surface - they become more obvious and we will begin to realise just how much power and authority they have over us. Richard Foster said that "fasting reveals the things that control us... if pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately.. anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear.. if they are within us, they will surface during fasting"As you fast reflect on all that God has done for you. Spend some time reflecting on what is happening within your body, mind and spirit when you fast - what’s coming to the surface that you perhaps need to bring before the Lord as you feast on the Holy Spirit. Fasting is a response to encountering God,Fasting is a way to feast on the Spirit of God,Fasting is about freedom.

Send us a Text Message.Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.- Matthew 11:28The image Jesus chooses to use to describe the life of a disciple - someone who follows his teaching - is a picture of a yoke: a heavy object that is put on animals for the purpose of carrying a burden.And yet at the same time Jesus says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. It is even more extraordinary that Jesus explicitly calls those who are weary. He calls those who are already burdened and those who are already at the end of their rope. They are the ones specifically called to take on Jesus’ yoke so that in doing so they find rest.How often do we tell ourselves:  When I get my work life balance right find time to pray, that’s when I can approach God! Almost everyone carries some area of their lives that they insist on trying to sort out all on their own. But according to Jesus, your burden IS your qualification. Realising you are tired and weary, and that you can’t do it on your own, is what gets you in the door.We’re all implicated in this massive human rebellion, the bent of our heart to prove our sufficiency apart from Jesus Christ whether that is through religious striving or some other metric we use to measure our worth. This striving, whether religious or secular, is a struggle under a crushing yoke. It is to labour under a burden we cannot bear and to ultimately miss out on rest - to miss out on life! Jesus never says that this invitation to wear his yoke is without effort. I think the real question is not 'how do I take on a yoke without effort?', but 'how does taking on Jesus’s yoke and carrying his burden actually lighten my load?' Do we live out of the trust, coming to Jesus when we are in the middle of being weary and burdened? Tired and at the end of our ropes? Taking on Jesus’s yoke is an invitation to step freely into his constant presence and to take it all in. Jesus is not trying to teach you new spiritual techniques.... Give you a to-do list the length of your arm.Give you new onerous burdens.He's trying to help you recognize him in all the ways he's showing up in the ordinary life that you already have. At its heart, prayer is stepping into conscious relationship with God. It is about intimacy with God and it is about partnership with God.

Send us a Text Message.May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.- Romans 15:13If someone asked you to tell the story of the 21st century, what would you include?The new millennium dawned with an era defining attack on the twin towers. This heralded conflict in the Middle East which is still playing out more than two decades later. The crash of 2008 put breaks not just on the economy but on the capacity of the nation state to promote and protect the wellbeing of its citizens. Political turmoil is everywhere: formerly responsible powers have engaged in a race to the bottom, while those we perceive as a threat have grown stronger. The pandemic set out in stark terms how vulnerable we are, in spite of all our technological prowess. The natural world is brutally damaged, but we just can’t seem to hop off the consumerist train as it hurtles on to further environmental degradation. We’re learning that progress for us often looks like pain and deprivation for others.This is the age of pessimism. The best people hope for is that they can cushion themselves from  the world with a bubble of career, pleasure, distraction.But Christians shouldn't be pessimists. Jesus is not only risen from the dead, but ascended. Acts 1:9 - After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.To understand the ascension, we should look at the vision in chapter 7 of Daniel. Four monsters come up out of the sea. The last great monster who has come up from the sea stands up in the courtroom, presided over by God himself, and boasts about its power. Like all human empires before and since the monster, which represents human evil, babbles on about all the things it can do. God silences the creature's boasts, and then...“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.Daniel's vision and the ascension of Jesus are the same thing. That’s what the clouds are about… The the power of human and spiritual evil has been judged, and that the Son of Man has been given an authority that will never pass away. This is our faith. This is the Kingdom. Jesus is Lord – of my heart? Of the church? No, Jesus is Lord of everything. As Abraham Kuyper said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”So, we have hope.

Send us a Text Message.After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’- Luke 10:1-11I'm told that good leaders always start by sharing their vision. If they want to achieve something out of the ordinary, a leader should motivate people with a compelling image of the change they want to see.Jesus obviously hadn't read the right leadership books. He sent out the 72 followers to share the good news of the Kingdom not with a vision but with discouragements: a) this task would be too much for these few; b) they'd be like lambs amongst wolves; and c) they would have to go without even basic provisions. On top of this, they're not the elite (the 12 had been sent in Luke 9). All who follow Jesus are sent somewhere or to someone in the end. There are some hands only you can hold. As always, the Kingdom works in ways no-one would anticipate. It doesn't come when or because its representatives are competent, safe, and well-provisioned. It comes because God is really at work. So Kingdom-commissioned people don't go with expertise or stuff. Instead, they go with authority.And then discouragement + danger + deprivation = joy for the 72. The demons submit to their authority. Jesus implies that so much more than that is happening: Luke 10:18 - “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven”. One commentator on this passage said this. Whenever the kingdom of God is truly proclaimed, the work of God is accomplished in ways that even its proclaimers are unaware of.It seems that when faithful Kingdom servants following their orders, even in the most discouraging circumstances, they won't fail. They may never know the impact they have, but no labour in the Lord is ever wasted.

Send us a Text Message.He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.Looking at his disciples, he said:“Blessed are you who are poor,    for yours is the kingdom of God.Blessed are you who hunger now,    for you will be satisfied.Blessed are you who weep now,    for you will laugh.Blessed are you when people hate you,    when they exclude you and insult you    and reject your name as evil,        because of the Son of Man.“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.- Luke 6:17-23Sometimes we think that the essence of Christianity is believing in God and being good. We celebrate when people experience a sense of connection with their Father, and the effect that has on their lives. That’s not wrong. There is a deep sense of connection with God, and we do experience changed hearts and changed minds. But its not the whole thing either, not even nearly.Jesus preached a new Kingdom, a new order, a new system of reality. We’ve just got to pay attention to where Jesus was preaching to catch a glimpse of the significance of this. Galilee is a mountainous region in the north of Israel. The area had a reputation for being a hotbed for rebels and revolutionaries. In the year 6 AD – around the time of Jesus’ birth – Judas of Galilee led resistance to the census imposed for Roman tax purposes by Quirinius in the Judaea Province. He warned people not to register, and burnt down the houses of those that did. He said that the people should have no King but God.So if you have a Galilean preacher gathering crowds and teaching them about the Kingdom of God that’s not a new religious philosophy, it’s a revolution. Not like Judas the Galilean’s revolution, but a revolution all the same. In fact, more revolutionary than all revolutions. Other revolutions change the people in power. This revolution is a complete reversal in of what is valued and prioritised.Blessed are the poor, woe to the rich! That's what God's Kingdom looks like - and that was Jesus' revolutionary manifesto. The question for us is: what manifesto does our life manifest?

Send us a Text Message.People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’- Mark 10:13-17There are two events in the gospels that belong together. They're both about entering the Kingdom. Unless you receive the Kingdom like a child, you won't enter it versus how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Those with social position are welcome but the sorted out, morally, financially, and religiously, will find it hard. There's a deep challenge here. When we meet the real Jesus he will see us deeper than anyone else in the world, even more deeply than we see ourselves. We will have to let go of our means of self-justification. We can’t get into the Kingdom through the religion gate. We can't get in through the good behaviour gate. We can't get in by the winning-at-life gate. What does Jesus say in John 10? I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.The encounter ends with the rich young man walking away grieved. It’s really important that we know that Jesus looked and loved him. Jesus feels exactly the same way about the man as he feels about the children! He is ready to receive and bless him. Readers of these verses have worried for centuries whether this actually means that a disciple has to give up everything - but that misses the point. The point is, are we ready to receive the everything he is giving up for us.

Send us a Text Message.The people walking in darkness    have seen a great light;on those living in the land of deep darkness    a light has dawned.Isaiah 9:2 It is the darkest time of year - and now Christmas is nearly over we'll have to face it without the happy twinkle of decorations. We're probably all feeling at least a little bit SAD.But when the Bible references darkness, it's speaking about something more than the usual seasonal gloom. The Bible begins in darkness. It’s un-creation - the world formless and empty. The Bible ends in light, with a city where God's presence is so bright that the sun and moon are no longer necessary - God's plan fulfilled.In between there's the struggle between Dark and Light - and of course not merely physical darkness and light. The promise in Isaiah is that, even if the night seems total, a great light will come. Here, Isaiah is addressing the spiritual state of God's people. Israel – who elsewhere Isaiah calls ‘a light to the nations’ – is here no such thing. They've turned away from the clear word of God, and towards the hocus pocus of witches and spiritists, plunging the nation into chaos. Isaiah prophesies: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given... We might not be in the same position as Israel, but we still need the light to push back the darkness inside and out. Our friends. families and neighbours need that too. And God didn't just throw a torch into the cave of human experience, the light came and took up residence in the darkness itself. That's the amazing, subversive, promise of Christmas. But thank God - literally - that the Light didn't stay long in his cozy manger.And what can those that live in darkness do, other than head for the Light?

Send us a Text Message.Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.- Revelation 3:20Hospitality is incredibly powerful. We know this is true in our lives. Who we eat with, who we welcome close to us and who we celebrate with is incredibly powerful because it is a tangible demonstration that the person we eat with is accepted, they are worth being in the presence of, that they are valuable. Jesus was always inviting himself to other people's homes to be hospitable with them. We see the power of that hospitality in the gospels. We see how it shaped the lives of the people Jesus hangs out with and spends time with. He goes to have tea with Zaccheus and the guy does a complete 180. He’s a corrupt official when he meets Jesus and after Jesus comes into his house Zaccheaus promises to repay anything that he’s stolen and gives away half his wealth to the poor. And what does Jesus say? Today, salvation has come to this house!Jesus even got in trouble with the Pharisees and religious leaders for having meals with people, partying and celebrating with people all the time. The first miracle Jesus did was turning water into wine at a wedding party.Jesus told his followers and hanger on-ers, and tells us through the Gospels, that the Kingdom of God. That is, to be following Jesus and to be experiencing his presence and experiencing God's rule and reign in our lives, is like a feast. The idea that the God of the universe in Christ wants to come into that level of proximity and closeness to us is just, wow. Amazing. He wants us to know: you are accepted, you are worth being in the presence of, you are valuable. It is an invitation. An invitation To hear his voice and open the door. It’s not an invasion. He’s not about to kick the door down like some super cop.  But he does want to be present with us, he wants to be intimate with us.I want to invite us to stop waiting and respond. This is an invitation not a command. An invitation to be satiated and satisfied with the real thing. The realest thing. Say no to what they world is feasting on and say yes to feasting with Jesus.

Send us a Text Message.“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”- Mark 13:32-37CS Lewis once wrote an essay on the end things. It was called ‘The World’s Last Night’. Here is a flavour.The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. The curtain may be wrung down at any moment—say, before you have finished reading this paragraph.[Christian apocalyptic does] not even foretell, which would be more tolerable to our habits of thought, a gradual decay. It foretells a sudden violent end imposed from without. An extinguisher popped on to the candle, a brick flung at the gramophone, a curtain rung down on the play. HALT.… This seems to some people intolerably frustrating. So many things would be interrupted. Perhaps you were going to get married next month. Perhaps you were going to get a raise next week. You may be on the verge of a great scientific discovery. You may be maturing great social and political reforms. Surely no good and wise God would be so very unreasonable as to cut all this short. Not now—of all moments.But we think thus because we keep on assuming that we know the play. We do not know the play. We do not even know whether we are in Act I or Act V. We do not know who are the major and who are the minor characters. The author knows.There are those who think very little about this part of Christian belief. Why? Probably because some think about it far too much, or at least think about it in the wrong  way. They're full of passionate conviction that this is the time, these are the signs, and so on.We need to resist both extremes. Without the prospect of Jesus' return, we're thinking of a King who never brings justice and judgement, a king who allows evil to grow for ever. If we're constantly trying to predict the moment of his return, then we're going straight up against Jesus' own teaching: only the Father knows the hour. Worse than that, we might lose sight of the fact that the servants are left with their assigned tasks - things like love your neighbours and your enemies, preaching the gospel, and so on. Advent is a time to remember that, "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven". We should watch and wait, but also do the things that the Master has asked of us.

Send us a Text Message.When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.- Matthew 25:31-33Were constantly fascinated by the idea that the world might one day end - disease, ecological disaster, asteroids, zombies etc etc.The Bible agrees that the world will end, but it doesn't agree with how the end is often pictured. Instead of alien invasions or massive earthquakes, there is a judgement. A division between sheep and goats.There's a children's song about the story of the Sheep and the Goats. It goes something like:I just wanna be a sheepBaa, baa, baa, baaI just wanna be a sheepBaa, baa, baa, baaI pray the Lord my soul to keepI just wanna be a sheepBaa, baa, baa, baaDon't wanna be a goat…nopeDon't wanna be a goat…nopeHaven't got any hope…nopeDon't wanna be a goat…nopeIf you can bear it, it's here.As much fun as the song is, it's wrong. The Bible's end of the world story doesn't predict that you or me will end up as a sheep or goats. Instead, it is the 'nations' that will be gathered and separated by the Son of Man (a title Jesus used of himself) according to whether they have helped "the least of these brothers and sisters of mine". And who are Jesus brothers and sisters? He tells us in Matthew 12: "whoever does the will of the Father in heaven is my brother or my sister or my mother".So... the end will be a time when those who have been kind or unkind will receive the judgement and consequences of their actions. But kind or unkind to who? Not people in general, to those that fear God and faithfully follow Jesus.There's a snag. These brothers and sisters will be hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed, sometimes in prison, sometimes sick. At the least, these followers will not be those that have social prestige and wealth. Saying yes to Jesus means saying no to some other things, knowing that he will say the biggest 'yes' to us at the end.

Send us a Text Message.So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,  that all may honour the Son, just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.- John 5:19-24The Apostles' Creed ends with us accepting the promise given to us by Jesus that we will see a life everlasting. It is the ultimate hope that one day, not only will death be overcome, but that in our everyday lives we will draw closer to God, the creator of all things. Its not just about living forever. Its about the kind of lives we can start having right now - lives devoted to the worship of the one who made us. Human beings have tried all kinds of things to fill us up. Power, money, fame, lust, knowledge, you name it. But each one of those leaves us empty. At best, we're distracted for a little while but hungry for more. When we say Amen to God though, we taste eternity. When we praise the one who made us, we glimpse what we were made for. That is the everlasting life on offer to us through Jesus. And every day, we get a choice: do we choose more of that life? Once we take on the hope of eternal life, once we make the conscious decision each day to live that life out, our perspective changes. Our greatest fear, that of death, can be overcome. How differently we might behave when we don't live in fear of death and scarcity! How differently the world we build around us might be!We can live extravagantly generous lives, sure in the knowledge that God the Father has made a place for us by his Son. Waiting for us to come home. Waiting for us to say Amen.

Send us a Text Message.To fully face the cost of the forgiveness of our sins is to allow Jesus’s healing love to transform us into a people who can handle offence when they come at us. People who can be a part of a deep, reconciled church community that can go the distance.I think at its heart the issue of forgiveness comes down to an issue of control. We want to be able to say what is good and what is not for our own self interest.   We don’t want to give our forgiveness and we don’t want to accept forgiveness because to do so would be to let go of our desperate attempts to maintain the illusion of control we try to maintain for our own existence. Remember the story of Jacob? His name literally means “the manipulator”. Jacob is born hanging on to his brother’s heel and continues climbing over other people all along the way. Jacob manipulates his brother Esau out of the birth right that belongs to him as the firstborn. He then manipulates his father to receive the blessing that traditionally went to the first born.  Jacob often gets as good as he gives. In his father-in-law Laban, Jacob meets his match with Laban first swindling him out of 7 years’ service to marry his daughter Leah instead of Rachel and then manipulating him out of another 7 years of service for his daughter Rachel. Jacob and Laban continue to go at each other until eventually Jacob must flee again, having taken the best of his father-in-law’s flocks, herd and cattle. And Laban catches up with him and they make an agreement. They set up this marker, this boundary stone and agree, in essence: You stay on your side and I’ll stay on mine otherwise may God strike us dead. Jacob can't go back and then who comes to meet him? Esau. Coming with an army of 400 men.  Jacob can’t go back; Laban is behind him. What does Jacob do at this point? He puts all that he has between himself and Esau: all his cattle, all his flocks, all of his herds, all of his servants, even his wives and his children. Everything and everyone is expendable to save his own skin. Jacob is left alone, he has nothing more to manipulate with. He has lost it all now. It is all out there between him and his brother. And then Jacob wrestles with God. And as they wrestle God says to Jacob, “What is your name?”Of course God knows Jacob’s name. What God is saying to Jacob is, “What kind of person are you, really?” Jacob answers God, “I am Jacob. I am the manipulator”. Jacob has come to the point of acknowledging before God the kind of person he really is and inherent in that action is a relinquishing of control. Of letting God be God.   And the outwork of that encounter can be seen immediately. The next morning Jacob is out in front of everyone going to meet his brother. No longer is he manipulating others for his own benefit. No longer is he doing what seems best in his own eyes for his own self-preservation.He has humbled and surrendered himself. He has come to the end of himself and has put his trust in God and in doing so he is able to go out to restore the brokenness in his human relationships. To seek forgiveness and reconciliation with his brother.

Send us a Text Message.They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.Acts 2:42-47The Apostles' Creed says, "We believe in the holy catholic Church". What does that mean?The Church is Holy not because it is perfect, but because it is the work of the Holy Spirit and the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.The Church is 'catholic' because it 'catholic' means universal. It has one source: God. It has one message: the gospel of the Kingdom of God, breaking in through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. And what do we mean by Church? Through a quirk of translation, we have a word there which primarily has come to mean a physical building or social institution. But the biblical word - ekklesia - means people. That doesn't mean that buildings or institutions are a bad thing, but biblically speaking the Church is that called people of God across the world, and across history.And what does the Church do? Every local church is an expression of the universal catholic church. We shouldn't assume the early church was perfect, but in Acts we have a model of what local church should look like.1. They met. In the temple for worship. In each others homes to eat together. And they did these things with joy - glad and sincere hearts.2. They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching. Their desire to know about about Jesus drove them to those that knew him and followed him find the Apostle's teaching in the Bible. Our love for the Word should take us to the word, if you see what I mean.3. They broke bread. For us this too often becomes a sort of optional extra, but the bread and the wine are the great articulation of the gospel. It speaks of our individual and collective dependence on God's grace. 4. They deepened their fellowship. Koinonia is the Greek term for a deep togetherness, a belonging to each other that churches often honour in theory but fall short of in practice. 5. They prayed. They prayed alone and they prayed together. I sometimes hear people say, “if Jesus were around today he wouldn’t be in the church”.I know what that person is trying to say, but it’s just not right. We can set Jesus and the church apart any more than we can set you and your body apart. Jesus loves the Church, in spite of all it's failings and mistakes, and in spite of the way it seems weak, peripheral, even silly. This is what the Scriptures say - (Ephesians 1.20-23 from Peterson's, The Message)All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the centre of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.

Send us a Text Message.As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”G- Matthew 3:16-17 We believe in the Holy Spirit - the first line of the third article of the Apostles' Creed. He’s least tangible, the least talked of. God the Father – we get that. God the Son - Jesus, a man who went round and did stuff. But the Holy Spirit…? It's sometimes hard to have clarity and the Spirit and his identity.The Bible helps us by giving seven (or more) word pictures to describe the Spirit. The Spirit is wind, air, or breath. The invisible but animating force behind creation itself (see Job 32:8). The Spirit is fire - the refining holiness of God's presence, and his power for every believer (Matthew 3:11). The Spirit is water, the cleansing and restoring and refreshing goodness of God (John 7:37). The Spirit is a seal, a first-fruit, a guarantee - the first part of the fulness of life in God which is yet to come and the now of the not yet (Ephesians 1:13). The Holy Spirit is consecrating oil, the way in which we are set apart for works of service to God and our neighbour (Zechariah 4:6). The Holy Spirit is the wine of celebration and joy.And the Holy Spirit is a dove, descending on Jesus after his baptism - such a rich image! The dove is a sacrificial animal. It's also the symbol of Noah's discovery of a new world after the flood. And it's gentle. "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased", is a reference to Isaiah 42, a prophecy of the 'Servant of the Lord'.I will put my Spirit on him,    and he will bring justice to the nations.He will not shout or cry out,    or raise his voice in the streets.A bruised reed he will not break,    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.The Servant will come - Jesus comes - to bring justice to broken people and to a broken world, but with incredible gentleness. So it is with the Spirit - not just a rushing wind, or a tongue of fire, but a gentle dove.

Send us a Text Message.Jesus told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed ears, then the weeds also appeared.‘The owner’s servants came to him and said, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?”‘“An enemy did this,” he replied.‘The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”‘“No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling up the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”’- Matthew 13:24-30I recently read what is probably the most famous sermon ever preached. 'Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God' was delivered by the theologian Jonathan Edwards on 8 July 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut. Historians of religion think it was catalytic for the First Great Awakening.It is an incredible piece of rhetoric, and such was the panic and intensity in the congregation that Edwards had to pause for people to calm down. But it doesn’t feel like good news. It's the opposite - the most terrible news imaginable. In Edward’s view, God exists, he’s personal and he is furious with our sin. Cast yourself on his mercy, and hope that he will save you from the flames!This isn't really a biblical way of understanding the way Jesus will judge the living and the dead. Look at how Jesus teaches in the parable. There are four stages even in this short story - 1) the action of the farmer, 2) the action of an enemy, 3) the patience of the farmer, and 4) the sorting. The action of the farmer a picture of the work of God and the people of God. But the plan is disrupted by an enemy in such a way that it is hard to tell the good from the bad - the wheat from the weeds. Therefore, there's a time of patient wait for the fruit to become clear, and then a judgment and a sorting. Whenever we look at the evil of the world, and we think to ourselves that some action, word, or pattern is destructive, and that it doesn't belong, we exercise judgement. The ultimate judgement of Jesus is of the same kind - there are words, or actions, or behaviours that do not belong in God's kingdom. They will and cannot be allowed to roll on into eternity, so they will be separated.But we could never doubt that the judgement will be merciful. It's will be the judgement we should expect from a kind of judge who has climbed down from his bench and stood alongside the accused.

Send us a Text Message."Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."- Hebrews 12:2We believe that Jesus rose again and went to take his place at the righthand of the Father, sharing the authority of God the Creator over all. The right hand is a place of honour throughout the Bible. All things in creation are under the authority of the throne of God. The throne is where Father and Son rule. It is also where we are called to bow down and worship. The Bible makes it clear this is where Jesus is, forever reigning. But its not enough to read the words and hear them on a Sunday morning. We have to feel it. We have to receive it. We have to know it at a fundamental level. To help us know who Jesus is, the Father and Son work through the Spirit. Since Pentecost we all have access to the Spirit, the Breath of God, that has been at work throughout Creation since the Beginning. So that we can know both from the Word and through the Spirit that Jesus has authority.What does Jesus do with this authority? What is Jesus's role in our world today? What Jesus is doing at the right hand of God is he is interceding on our behalf… as he did on the Cross. "Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."- Romans 8:34Jesus protects us from the judgement that might otherwise be rightfully ours. But he does not let us go blindly on in sin either! He asks us to repent. Just as he protects us and forgives us and takes pity on us. Jesus’s death on the Cross means our debts have been paid. Our sins forgiven. Jesus is the bridge between our falling short and God’s perfection.