Joy in the Journey (8)

The word that sustains the weary (Isaiah 50)

As you wake on this Good Friday morning you may feel weary. Many of us are at the moment - physically and emotionally drained, by different routines, increased demands, confined spaces and cloistered relationships. Weary, but needing to keep on keeping on, day after relentless day.

Please listen to the Servant of the Lord as he speaks of himself:

The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue,
to know the word that sustains the weary.

Words that come from lips drenched in grace (Psalm 45:2). Words that are full of light and space and cooling breezes from heaven's shores. The servant - the Lord Jesus - says "He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed." Fully alert to all the will and ways of his Father. Fully in sympathy with the character and heart of God. And so he speaks with a tongue well-instructed; all-knowing and all-sustaining.

But on this day of all days, look further into these verses. The word that sustains the weary comes from the fully-obedient Servant:

The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears;
I have not been rebellious,
I have not turned away.

And in full obedience he was the Suffering Servant:

I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
from mocking and spitting.

The cost of his suffering was beyond price and yet he set his face like flint - determined, resolute, commited to the very end, the untold depths of the cross.

And it is he who addresses you this morning. Speaks as the one who drank, alone, the whole cup of suffering in order to bring you salvation. Speaks to you of holy love, tested and proved, love that was placarded on the cross; of faithfulness and mercy enthroned in the centre of history, higher than the heavens, deeper than the oceans.

His word is able to sustain you today, in all the weariness of life. He speaks as one who knows the exhaustion, who shared the sorrows, who faced-down all the monsters of evil and chaos, who won peace for you - peace by his blood, shed on the cross.

He is speaking, still, his words to the weary. Let's make his experience our prayer: that the LORD would waken us morning by morning, waken our ears to listen like one being instructed. Let's not try lighting our own fires, to make our way in flawed and failing wisdom, but instead,

Let the one who walks in the dark,
who has no light,
trust in the name of the LORD
and rely on their God.

*********

I have a Friend whose faithful love
Is more than all the world to me,
’Tis higher than the heights above,
And deeper than the soundless sea;
    So old, so new,
    So strong, so true;
Before the earth received its frame,
He loved me—Blessed be His name!

He held the highest place above,
Adored by all the sons of flame,
Yet, such His self-denying love,
He laid aside His crown and came
    To seek the lost,
    And, at the cost
Of heavenly rank and earthly fame,
He sought me—Blessed be His name!

It was a lonely path He trod,
From every human soul apart;
Known only to Himself and God
Was all the grief that filled His heart:
    Yet from the track
    He turned not back,
Till where I lay in want and shame
He found me—Blessed be His name!

Then dawned at last that day of dread
When, desolate, yet undismayed,
With wearied frame and thorn-crowned head,
He, now forsaken and betrayed,
    Went up for me
    To Calvary,
And dying there in grief and shame
He saved me—Blessed be His name!

Long as I live my song shall tell
The wonders of His matchless love;
And when at last I rise to dwell
In the bright home prepared above,
    My joy shall be
    His face to see,
And bowing then with loud acclaim,
I’ll praise Him—Blessed be His name!

C.A Tydeman

Mary Oliver on Fostering the Inner Life

Men and women of faith who pray—that is, who come to a certain assigned place, at definite times, and are not abashed to go down on their knees—will not tarry for the cup of coffee or the newsbreak or the end of the movie when the moment arrives. The habit, then, has become their life. What some might call the restrictions of the daily office they find to be an opportunity to foster the inner life. The hours are appointed and named; they are the Lord’s. Life’s fretfulness is transcended. The different and the novel are sweet, but regularity and repetition are also teachers. Divine attentiveness cannot be kept casually, or visited only in season, like Venice or Switzerland. Or, perhaps it can, but then how attentive is it? And if you have no ceremony, no habits, which may be opulent or may be simple but are exact and rigorous and familiar, how can you reach toward the actuality of faith, or even a moral life, except vaguely? The patterns of our lives reveal us. Our habits measure us. Our battles with our habits speak of dreams yet to become real. I would like to be like the fox, earnest in devotion and humor both, or the brave, compliant pond shutting its heavy door for the long winter. But, not yet have I reached that bright life or that white happiness—not yet.

Mary Oliver, from Habits, Differences and the Life that Abides, in Long Life: Essays and Other Writings

Joy in the Journey (7) - Do not let your hearts be troubled

Troubled hearts need comfort. Lives that have been engulfed by the storms of sorrow need healing and hope. John 14:1-3 is a large serving of 'just what's needed':

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Jesus has told his disciples some very disturbing news. He is going away from them and they cannot follow him, at least not for now (13:33). He has repeatedly spoken to them of the fact he will be taken by the Jewish leaders and killed. That time is now at hand.

Yet they are not to let their hearts be troubled or afraid (verse 1 & verse 27). That's a tall order! But the reasons are laid out in verses 2 and 3, in some of the most well-known words in John’s gospel, words that have been read at countless funerals (I've done so myself often). They are words of deep and lasting hope for the future.

But they're not just for the future. They're not even primarily for the future. When Jesus speaks of going away and coming back we probably think he means going to heaven and then coming back at his second coming. But elsewhere in this chapter, he speaks of coming back and he clearly means after his resurrection (verses 18,19) or he means his coming to them by his Spirit (verse 23). It's very likely that he also has that in mind here.

Jesus is going away to prepare a place for them - and for us - in his Father's house, where there are 'many rooms'. His Father's house is his Father's household, his family (that's how the term is used in 8:35). And a 'room' is a place to rest and be refreshed, a place to remain, to dwell. Jesus is going away, through the agony of the cross, to prepare a place for us in his Father’s family, as beloved sons and daughters, a place in which there is rest and refreshing, safety and security.

That is a present reality for disciples, then and now, but wonderfully it is also a permanent reality: "a slave has no permanent place in the family (house) but a son belongs to it forever" (John 8:35). Forever belonging in the family of God in a place prepared by Jesus' going away to Calvary and coming back from the tomb.

Yes, it is true that there is more to come. We are not wrong to see these verses as having great future significance, when our adoption as God's children will be fully realised and we see him face to face. But in the here and now, the ‘now’ of many fears and anxieties, and of deep-seated insecurities, Jesus’ words offer us the solvent for our fears and the tonic for our troubled hearts: in our Father’s household are many resting places.

Your present troubles are not evidence that you are unloved and unwelcome. In the kindness of God they might even become occasions to discover the truth of his loving embrace more deeply. For in the Father’s heart we will ever remain as his cherished children.

********

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy  hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be for ever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed, we shall meet at last.


Katharina von Schlegel b. 1697;
tr. by Jane Laurie Borthwick 1813-97 

Joy in the Journey (6) - The faith that fails not

No prayer of Jesus could ever go unanswered, could it? He always intercedes for his loved ones, always prays with wisdom and insight, always with the keenest concern for our welfare and maturing in faith. He always prays in full recognition of the will of his Father. Nothing is lacking from his prayers; they could never fail.

"Simon, I have prayed for you [singular] that your faith may not fail." Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, wants to winnow your soul, wants to bring you down to the lowest low, wants to see you utterly fall and fail. He cares nothing for you; longs only for your harm, Simon. But I have prayed for you - for unfailing faith, for faith that stands the test.

And then the test comes and Simon Peter fails it by a country mile. Three times he has the opportunity to affirm his faith in Jesus, his connection to the despised Galilean, his willing and glad submission to him as Lord, and each time he fails. He's a denier. He's a coward. He's completely unworthy.

His faith has failed - and so, too, it seems have the prayers of Jesus.

Except that isn't the whole story and it isn't the full picture of what faith in Jesus is and means.

When the cock crowed the third time, Peter remembered Jesus' words, "the word the Lord had spoken to him...and he went outside and wept bitterly." He recognises his bravado was an empty boast, that what his Lord knew he now knows: his boasts were fleshly and ignorant of his crippling weakness. He weeps to know that he has denied the one whose life and character has shone before him the redeeming love and glory of God.

And it is in this repentant weeping that we see his faith has not failed. This isn't bare regret; this isn't worldly sorrow. This is full ownership of his sin (how else would we know the details of what happened by that courtyard fire?). And in owning his sin, he remains with the disciples, as a follower of Jesus.

That our faith may not fail isn't about uninterrupted victories, going from strength to strength as Christians, never falling backward but our every step an upward one. No, the faith that does not fail is the faith that, when it sees and feels its sin, owns it and continues to look to Jesus for mercy and forgiveness. The faith that knows and clings to the fact that there is a way back to God from the dark paths of sin.

Maybe these weeks without an expected routine, cloistered in ways not of your choosing, are revealing aspects of your heart and mind you'd rather not see. That there are pressure points which, when pressed, not only yield pain but cause you to hurt others too. You're overwhelmed by what feels like faithless anxiety and are drowning in shame.

Jesus has prayed for you, by name, that your faith will fail not. He knows, far more truly than we ever could, the vulnerabilities that haunt our souls. He foresees the looming lunges for our faith that the world, the flesh and the devil will make. And he prays for us, prays for you. That your faith would not fail. That in any fall, from whatever hole you've tumbled into and for whatever reason, you would look to him. That your hope would not be in keeping your clothes unsoiled but that you would be given grace to look to the one who alone can make them clean.

And the faith that, then, looks to others, to brothers and sisters equally wrestling under a groaning weight, and holds out the helping hand of prayer and sympathy and the loving embrace of mercy offered and received. That when it turns, strengthens others.

********

Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, oh, leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am,
Thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with Thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound;
Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
Freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart,
Rise to all eternity.

Charles Wesley

Joy in the Journey (5)

​'My life' is a quintessential Iris DeMent song - bittersweet and sung with pathos and a lyrical purity. It laments the brevity of life:

My life, it don't count for nothin'
when I look at this world I feel so small
And my life is only a season, a passing September
that no-one will recall

It is achingly honest about the fruitless struggles and the futility of much of human life:

My life is half the way travelled
and still I have not found my way out of this night
And my life is tangled in wishes
and so many things that just never turned out right

The song takes its own small stand against that wall of emptiness by celebrating the possibility that love can bring joy and comfort in pain, but even they can only "make things seem better for a while".

In Psalm 8, David also movingly reflects on his own finitude against the backdrop of the endless starry sky, but he finds meaning and comfort in knowing that the living God cares for humankind and is mindful of them:

"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory in the heavens...
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?"

David is humbled and amazed by the sight in the sky and the significance it bears.

And yet, within the beauty of this psalm, all is not well. Embedded within David's meditation are enemies - the foe and the avenger. In this vast cosmos, home to the blended kindness of God, a darkness prevails.

Will it always do so? How can it be banished? The questions that are hinted at are left unanswered but are taken up in Hebrews 2 where the writer is quite plain: yes, it's true that we do not see humanity flourishing as God intended; evil is present, terrorising souls with the endless waste that is death. A great shadow hangs over all of human life - the foe and the avenger are fully present. Tragically, we don't see humanity raised to fulness. But we do see Jesus!

"Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while,
now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death,
so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone..."

Having drained the cup of suffering and judgement, he calls to us in our bittersweet days, telling us that we are not simply noticed and named but that we can be lifted and loved and filled with immeasurable joy.

Through his cross the darkness has been endured and overcome and a great shadow has departed. The foe and the avenger are silenced through the praises of the redeemed, from the lips even of babes and infants.

********

Jesus, Jesus, all-sufficient
Beyond telling is Thy worth;
In Thy Name lie greater treasures
Than the richest found on earth.
Such abundance
Is my portion with my God.

In Thy gracious face there’s beauty
Far surpassing every thing
Found in all the earth's great wonders
Mortal eye hath ever seen
Rose of Sharon,
Thou Thyself art heaven's delight.


William Williams
(tr. Bobi Jones)

Joy in the Journey (4)

Moses saw a bush ablaze, yet not consumed. The ground where he stood was holy, because the living God was present in his burning majesty. And Moses was made to keep his distance. (Exodus 3)

Isaiah saw the LORD, high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. All was smoke and sublimity. And he was so deeply conscious of the holiness of God that his own uncleanness became a palpable, damning reality. (Isaiah 6)

Peter listens to the man on the shore and casts his nets where he had no expectation of finding fish. He and his friends were overwhelmed by the haul. In the catch, he caught a glimpse of God’s otherness; in that sign, he saw his sin and was humbled to his knees. (Luke 5)

Three men, awed by God’s majesty, made deeply aware of their own fractured and soiled humanity.

And in each case the LORD deals graciously with them:

• Moses the exile is reminded that this is the God of his fathers, the God of promise
• Isaiah’s lips are scorched by coals and told his sin is atoned for
• Peter is told not to fear, because fear has to do with judgement and he is now in the presence of redeeming love.

And in each case the LORD speaks to them of his mission to rescue a lost and broken world and calls them into the service of that rescue plan:

• “So now, go…” (Ex. 3:10)
• “Go and tell this people” (Is. 6:9)
• “From now on you will fish for people” (Lk. 5:10).

Three men shown God’s glory - not to crush them but to commission them; to humble them that they might be raised into serving God and his gospel of grace.

And in that expectation we pray, Lord show us your glory. Amen.

********

Lord, speak to me, that I may speak

In living echoes of Thy tone;

As Thou hast sought, so let me seek

Thy erring children lost and lone.

O lead me, Lord, that I may lead

The wandering and the wavering feet;

O feed me, Lord, that I may feed

Thy hungering ones with manna sweet.

O strengthen me, that while I stand

Firm on the rock, and strong in Thee,

I may stretch out a loving hand

To wrestlers with the troubled sea.

O teach me, Lord, that I may teach

The precious things Thou dost impart;

And wing my words, that they may reach

The hidden depths of many a heart.

O give Thine own sweet rest to me,

That I may speak with soothing power

A word in season, as from Thee

To weary ones in needful hour.

O fill me with Thy fulness, Lord,

Until my very heart o’erflow

In kindling thought and glowing word,

Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show.

O use me, Lord, use even me,

Just as Thou wilt, and when, and where,

Until Thy blessed face I see,

Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share!

Frances Ridley Havergal

(1836-79)

After the crisis is past, what then for the church?

This time of crisis will pass. Our lives will return to some kind of normality (no doubt changed and chastened in a variety of ways). There will undoubtedly be an eagerness to reflect on our experiences as churches and to learn from them, from the different way of life we have been forced to live, to highlight the things that need to change and how those changes can be made.

It will be crucial, however, for us to take notice of the right things as we come through this crisis. A prime example, among many, would be technology and its helpfulness. But we must be very careful not to so much ask how technology can help us post-crisis (yes, ask that question, but in the context of a renewed exploration of the biblical portrayal of the church in its life and worship). Ask, rather, how can we take forward the emphasis on corporate prayer, on the simplicity of fellowship expressed in practical service, on a renewed appreciation of and desire for the Word of God, and on a daily, personal reliance upon him. How do we continue to worship him more fervently, in Spirit and in truth. How do we convey to the world the crisis that is humanity before God in its sin and hopelessness.

Because if a church comes through the crisis and isn't more prayerful, isn't more convinced of its need of and dependance upon the Lord and his Word, isn't wanting to be ever closer to him and to each other, then that church would seem to be destined to be endlessly shallow and superficial, that even if it improves and polishes its outer appearance it will only remain a husk, devoid of a quickened life. And what will be true of that church will, of course, in large part, be true of its members.

We will need to focus relentlessly on the right things, on the heart of the matter. Not leaving other things undone or unconsidered but making sure the weightier matters are given their due weight.

How old American hymns became important to Marilynne Robinson

I have reached the point in my life when I can see what has mattered, what has become a part of its substance—I might say a part of my substance. Some of these things are obvious, since they have been important to me in my career as a student and teacher. But some of them I could never have anticipated. The importance to me of elderly and old American hymns is certainly one example. They can move me so deeply that I have difficulty even speaking about them. The old ballad in the voice of Mary Magdalene, who “walked in the garden alone,” imagines her “tarrying” there with the newly risen Jesus, in the light of a dawn which was certainly the most remarkable daybreak since God said, “Let there be light.” The song acknowledges this with fine understatement: “The joy we share as we tarry there / None other has ever known.” Who can imagine the joy she would have felt? And how lovely it is that the song tells us the joy of this encounter was Jesus’s as well as Mary’s. Epochal as the moment is, and inconceivable as Jesus’s passage from death to life must be, they meet as friends and rejoice together as friends. This seems to me as good a gloss as any on the text that tells us God so loved the world, this world, our world. And for a long time, until just a decade ago, at most, I disliked this hymn, in part because to this day I have never heard it sung well. Maybe it can’t be sung well. The lyrics are uneven, and the tune is bland and grossly sentimental. But I have come to a place in my life where the thought of people moved by the imagination of joyful companionship with Christ is so precious that every fault becomes a virtue. I wish I could hear again every faltering soprano who has ever raised this song to heaven. God bless them all.

(from the essay Wondrous Love in When I Was A Child I Read Books, p.125)

Joy in the Journey (3)

In the cool of the day, the LORD God walked in the garden. Instead of running to welcome him, to worship him, the man and his wife hid among the trees in fear of him (Genesis 3:8-10). Sin had entered their lives, spoiled the world and cast a devastating shadow over their relationship with the Creator. And death would follow in its wake.

Fear is a mark of the damage sin has done. It ruptures relationships and is intimately connected to death. It is exploited by evil in all manner of ways to hinder and harm. Fear breeds suspicion. Fear grows selfishness. Fear paralyses and kills love. We know that all too well, to our deep shame.

And so to an upper room…

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.

(John 20:19,20)

Once again it is evening and once again there is fear. But this time it’s fear of man, not the Lord. A fear that the same fate will befall the disciples that had consumed Jesus, their beloved Master. A fear of beating and humiliation; a fear of death.

And then, wonderfully, “Jesus came and stood among them”.

He’s there alive and speaking words of peace. He shows them his hands and his side, the evidence of his slaughter at the hands of his enemies. And their response to such a sight, to the devastating display of the horrors of death and the mauling meted out by sin and evil? “The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” The one standing among them, whose ruptured side and battered hands are in full view, is the LORD.

And his presence is evidence that the wounds have not won, that death has been dethroned. Far from denying his lordship, these scars are the crown he wears, the vindication of his reign, the symbols of his victory.

And they are the reason why evening fear - all fear - can (and ultimately will) be banished forever.

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?

The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?

To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?

On Jesus’ bosom naught but calm is found.

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?

In Jesus’ keeping we are safe, and they.

Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?

Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.

Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours?

Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers.

It is enough: earh's struggles soon shall cease,

And Jesus call us to heaven's perfect peace.

(Edward Henry Bickersteth 1825-1906)

Joy in the Journey (2)

"He will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart"

(Exodus 28:29)

Are you suffering from an unquiet heart? As soon as you wake your mind is hyper-vigilant, the cares and uncertainties of the day flood in and you struggle to regain any control over your thinking and emotional response?

It's hard isn't it. And at a time like this especially difficult. But maybe there are some things we can do to help ourselves. Rather than suggest strategies that might or might not help you, I'll mention a few things later on where my own thinking has gone on this (thinking does not, alas, mean practice).

But more than practical steps, important as they are, what truths can we focus on to help centre our thinking and ground our hearts?

Exodus 28 is a beautiful chapter, full of detail about the priestly garments that Aaron and his sons were to wear. Sacred garments, bestowing dignity and honour (v.2). Garments woven and adorned with care and delicate attention - the work of skilled hands (v.6). An ephod and a breastpiece, both mounted with precious stones representing the tribes of Israel, and other garments all radiant and holy.

Read it slowly and notice all the details - the colours, the shapes, the names, the descriptors. It's gorgeous. But notice especially what is to happen in verse 13 and verses 29,30:

“Aaron is to bear the names [of the sons of israel] on his shoulders as a memorial before the LORD..." (v.13)
"whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continual memorial before the Lord” (v.29)
"...Aaron will always bear the means for making decisions [the Urim and Thummim] for the Israelites over his heart before the LORD.

This is a precious portrayal of the high priestly ministry of our Lord Jesus. As we wake and we enter a new day, possibly anxious and perplexed, he stands before the Lord with our names on his shoulders and upon his heart, holding our days and destinies in his hands - bearing all our hopes, shaping and forming our hearts, watching over our paths, aligning our times with the gracious purposes of God’s heart which stand for ever (Ps. 33:11). He "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3) is the one who yearns over his people and directs all their ways.

All the way my Saviour leads me:

What have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt His tender mercy,

Who through life has been my guide?

Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,

Here by faith in Him to dwell!

For I know, whate’er befall me,

Jesus doeth all things well,

All the way my Savior leads me:

Cheers each winding path I tread,

Gives me grace for every trial,

Feeds me with the living bread.

Though my weary steps may falter,

And my soul athirst may be,

Gushing from the rock before me,

Lo! a spring of joy I see,

All the way my Savior leads me;

Oh, the fullness of His love!

Perfect rest to me is promised

In my Father’s house above.

When my spirit, clothed, immortal,

Wings its flight to realms of day,

This my song through endless ages -

Jesus led me all the way.

(Frances Jane Van Alstyne)

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So, those practical steps I’m trying to take?

• Limit exposure to news first thing in the morning - if I really need to catch up then do so briefly and not in excessive detail.
• Reading helps to slow the mind, to 'cool' it, so most mornings I try to read a few pages just to make the cogs of vigilance turn more slowly. It might be a Christian book or it might not - this year I've read a couple of books by Robert Macfarlane (The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind) that have been wonderfully calming, just because they take my mind to other places.
• Reading poetry can also be helpful - if that sounds a bit too cultured, it's not about getting all arty. Why read a poem, if you don't like them, don't get them? Again, it slows your thinking down by exposing your mind to words, things that will make you ponder - or even move you in wonder.
• Reading the Bible - as you settle down to read the Bible, you may find all those thoughts and anxieties forcing their way in, uninvited, and taking the best seats. Try reading the Bible out loud (this helps with focus in prayer too). Or perhaps listen to someone else reading the Bible to you - for some months a little while ago I struggled to quiet my mind to read the Bible so I let David Suchet read it to me (he was always happy to do so, a charming man).
• Using set prayers, not exclusively but as part of your prayer time. There are some great resources out there and you might find yourself breathing air that is somehow clearer and more rarefied.
• As you read, turn off the notifications on your phone or put it into airplane mode - dire emergencies are very rare and will still get through somehow.
• More broadly, why not limit the inputs you allow into your mental space. Each one takes a toll on your ability to attend to what you're truly wanting to focus on.

Joy in the Journey (1)

Something I wrote for church members this week

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I'd like to try to write something, perhaps a couple of times a week, to encourage you during these strange and dislocated days. My prayer is that the Lord will encourage you and strengthen your heart in all his goodness.

The title I've given to these emails is a nod to a lovely song by Michael Card (Joy in the Journey).

All blessings be yours in Jesus,

Richard.

*********

Trimming the lamps

“In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the LORD from evening till morning.”

(Exodus 27:21)

Life can be so hectic at times and time itself can seem so pressured that some things end up being squeezed into the margins. That can happen to all kinds of things but maybe that's how you've found your times for prayer and Bible reading over some time now. You long for more space, more unhurried time, but it all seems so elusive.

It may well be that these next weeks will give you something of an opportunity to reconnect, to be renewed in prayer and in God's Word. But it’s likely to not feel easy, for a number of reasons:

Where to start?  You feel ‘out of practice’, even awkward. So recognise that it’s going to take time to set a new pattern, maybe even a whole new template, for your time in God’s presence. Don't feel you need to reach your goal overnight; this isn't putting a stake in the ground, but growing a tree (Ps. 1:3), forming your heart.

It might be helpful to remind yourself what it’s all for: that the centre is not gleaning information or bundling requests to lay at God’s door, but rather “to worship the LORD in the splendour of his holiness” (Ps. 96:9); “to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Ps. 27:4). Above all else, it is about sitting at Jesus' feet (Lk. 10:39).

The shame of failure  But it feels like there’s so much accumulated failure to sit in his presence in joy and wonder, so much shame at having lived at such speed that his glory has been a blur, half-seen and unappreciated. Then bring that shame and regret to the LORD who bore it all on the cross, the God who declares “I will put my dwelling place among you and will not abhor you...I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with head held high” (Lev. 26:11,13). Not abhorred. Not rejected. You can hold your head high.

The light that never goes out  And, remember, the true fulfilment of the lamp that doesn’t ever go out (Ex 27:21) is not the flame of your own devotion but the unwavering love of God, revealed in the cross of Jesus and poured into your heart by his Spirit. His is the light that is never extinguished; not all the squalls of life and its alarms, nor the gales of sin and bitter regret can make it ever burn low. The lamp of Jesus’ glory and grace are undimmed and shine brightly through all our darkness.

None other Lamb, none other Name,

None other hope in heaven or earth or sea,

None other hiding-place from guilt and shame,

None beside Thee.

My faith burns low, my hope burns low;

Only my heart's desire cries out in me

By the deep thunder of its want and woe,

Cries out to Thee.

Lord, Thou art life, though I be dead;

Love's fire Thou art, however cold I be:

Nor heaven have I, nor place to lay my head,

Nor home, but Thee.

(Christina Rossetti)

May God bless you deeply and richly as you seek him.

Michael Reeves on the difference between teaching and preaching

In preaching I seek to do something I don't do in teaching: in teaching I'm conveying information with the best clarity I can; in preaching I am heralding - I'm heralding Christ in such a way that the truths that I'm preaching might not only shape your mind and your convictions but also affect your heart - how you feel about things, what you desire, what you want. So I want who Christ is to affect you at a heart level so that your life changes...I want people to understand the text such that their minds are clearer but I want then for their hearts to change and primarily I want to see them come to love Christ and find a joy in him and love him, adore him more than they adore their sins - so that they're weaned off their sins towards Christ...Preaching changed at the reformation when the reformers were saying 'We're not just trying to change the behaviour of those we're preaching to, we want their very hearts to change so that they do not simply behave better but actually love Christ, love the Lord, and therefore their behaviour changes.'

(from the Equip podcast)

People are actually moved by good language

Marilynne Robinson on being asked about the language of public discourse (which could also be helpfully applied to preaching, methinks)

I find that people are actually moved by good language. I think that one of the things that is an affliction and has been kind of increasingly an affliction is that we condescend to one another. This has bothered me forever. When Abraham Lincoln - a virtually totally uneducated man - wanted to speak to people, he did it with a degree of refinement that is extraordinary by any standard because he had that kind of respect for the people he was speaking to...To whom are we condescending? How have we let ourselves have such negative assumptions about people in general?

(Balm in Gilead, p.186)

prayer in study

Ministers must pray much, if they would be successful...Some ministers of meaner gifts and [abilities] are more successful than some that are far above them in abilities; not because they preach better, so much as because they pray more. Many good sermons are lost for lack of much prayer in the study.

Robert Trail, quoted in Sinclair Ferguson's Some Pastors and Teachers p.188

Preaching is...

"the extraordinary moment when someone attempts to speak in good faith, about something that matters, to people who attempt to listen in good faith. The circumstance is moving in itself, since we poor mortals are so far enmenshed in our frauds and shenanigans, not to mention our self-deceptions, that a serious attempt at meaning, spoken and heard, is quite exceptional. It has a very special character...to speak in one's own person and voice to others who listen from the thick of their endlessly various situations, about what truly are or ought to be matters of life and death, this is a singular thing. For this we come to church.

Marilynne Robinson, The Givenness of Things, p.146

Sermons turning to ash in the presence of Love

For Ames, writing sermons was a spiritual discipline that was unseated by an apophaticisim of sorts. The spiritual discipline fails in the face of actual Love. That's something all preachers know too; probably all pursuers of any spiritual discipline know - at least, we hope we'll come to know, if we persist long enough in the Christian life. We hope to know that the disciplines fail in the face of Love, that in Love's company we feel the poverty of our efforts, as Ames's sermons turn to ash in his mouth when Lila is there.

Lauren Winner, Thinking about preaching with Marilynne Robinson, in Balm in Gilead p.88

Learning from the preaching of Peter

Peter's foundational preaching in the earliest days of the church provides a model for preaching to every generation. It must be practiced in the power of the Holy Spirit, as the natural outflow of a life lived for and empowered by the presence of God, humbly submitted fully to him. It must be authentically proclaimed by one who has first personally come under the convicting power of God's truth and also responded in repentance and received God's forgiveness. And the message must always be Christ-centred, gospel focussed, rooted in Scripture, and relevantly applied to contemporary circumstances. The response to such preaching is in the hands of a sovereign God, and all the glory is his.

A Legacy of Preaching, Vol 1 (p.61f)

The willingness of leaders

Then the leaders of families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the king’s work gave willingly. They gave toward the work on the temple of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron. Anyone who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the temple of the Lord in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite. The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly.

(1 Chronicles 29:6-9)

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

(1 Peter 5:1-4)

Dorothy L Sayers on language for God

Trying to get God into a verbal formula is like trying to force a large and irritated cat into a small basket. As soon as you tuck in his head, his tail comes out. Once his back paws are inside, the front paws appear again. Even when you finally manage to squeeze the cat into the basket, his “dismal wailings” make it clear that “some essential dignity in the creature has been violated and a wrong done to its nature.”

(from "Mere Discipleship: Growing in Wisdom and Hope" by Alister E. McGrath.)

My favourite reads of 2019

The books I most enjoyed reading this year, without any why's or wherefore's - you can go check them out if you so desire.

(Oh and they're listed here in reading order, not preference of any sort)

1.  All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment
2.  Lewis on the Christian Life: Becoming Truly Human in the Presence of God
3.  On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books
4.  Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
5.  Some Pastors and Teachers: Reflecting a Biblical Vision of What Every Minister Is Called to Be
6.  The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
7.  Walking Through Twilight: A Wife's Illness-A Philosopher's Lament 
8.  The Lord Is Good: Seeking The God Of The Psalter
9.  Thirst
10. Virgil Wander
11. Taking the Long View: Christian Theology in Historical Perspective
12. Strangers in Their Own Land Anger and Mourning on the American Right
13. Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
14. Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing
15. The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart
16. Christina Rosetti: Poems (Everyman's Pocket Poets)
17. Old Testament Wisdom Literature
18. Confessions of St.Augustine
19. Disappearing Church
20. Grace & Glory
21. Sacred Endurance: Finding Grace and Strength for a Lasting Faith 
22. The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity