Role model

The ultimate in tee-shirt messages!

Those wanting to print slogans on tee-shirts for the first Good Friday would have been stuck for choice.

HOSANNA!

We have an extra day this year, but what if it was an extra 80 days, or 11 days less? Both have happened!

I often get the feeling that most people look upon Lent as a negative period, regarding it mainly as a time to give up some of the nice things of life for a short while. For Christians, Lent is designed to be a time of preparation for the forthcoming season of Easter. Some may have a negative view of such serious consideration of life and faith but it should really be a positive looking forward to what Easter is all about. There is no more positive a preparation in Lent than to think about the ‘I AM’ statements that Jesus made. Just as our declarations that ‘I am...’ (tired, fed up, hungry, good, bad, etc), whatever it might be, are always definitive, so each of these statements by Jesus is a positive description of Himself, often using metaphors to help us understand who He is. In the Old Testament, God revealed His name to Moses as I AM (Exodus 3.14). When Jesus said, ‘I am...,’ He was both revealing His divine identity and also indicating some of the characteristics of that identity : the Bread of Life (John 6.35) - the source of sustenance for our souls; the Light of the World (John 8.12) - the real light shining in the darkness of this world; the Gate (John 10.9) - the safety of the believer through the promise of eternal life; the Good Shepherd (John 10.11) - the One who loves and cares about us for He knows each one of us and has our best interests at heart; the Resurrection and the Life (John 11.25) - the answer to the greatest questions about life and death; the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14.6) - the pathway of life for us to follow; the True Vine (John 15.1) - the power to enable us to fulfil our calling in Christ. We can see all of these in the acts and ministry of Jesus and in the events of Easter, to which Lent looks forward, as recorded in the Gospels, and in the subsequent growth of the early church as described in the Acts of the Apostles. Perhaps the most significant ‘I am’ statement by Jesus is one which is not normally included with the seven such statements I have listed. It happened when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well near Sychar. When she told Him that she believed that the promised Messiah was coming, Jesus replied, ‘I...am He’ (John 4.26). In that statement, Jesus affirmed both who He was and the work of salvation He had come to do. Lent is a time for the strengthening of faith as we look again at all that Jesus said and did and reflect on the positive statements He made about Himself. Lent is a time to do with our faith what Johnny Mercer’s song recommends - ‘accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative and don’t mess with Mister In-Between.’

It is not always easy to know exactly when things began. Many churches, such as the one I attend, started with a small group of people gathering together in a house on a date now unknown. So the date of origin for the church is often given as the time when a building was erected or when some kind of organising body was established and records began to be kept. Some people make elaborate ‘guesses’ at dates of origin. In the 17th century, Bishop Ussher worked out that the creation of the world was ‘at the beginning of the night which preceded Sunday, 23 rd October, 4004 BC’, and Sir James Lightfoot revised that to be precisely 9am on 3 rd October, 4004BC. However, there is no problem with dating the beginning of the Christian Endeavour movement. It began on the evening of 2 nd February, 1881, which is why the day is remembered as ‘Endeavour Day’ by Christian Endeavourers. On the evening of that day, Rev.F.E.Clark, pastor of the Williston Congregational Church in Portland, Maine, USA, invited some of the young people in his church to form a Society of Christian Endeavour which had as its objects ‘the promotion of an earnest Christian life amongst its members’ and ‘to make them more useful in the service of God’. They willingly responded and so Christian Endeavour began. The first Society in England was formed in August 1887 at Hightown Congregational Church in Crewe after a former member of the church, who had emigrated to America, wrote to the minister, Rev.A.W.Potts, about the Society at Williston Church. Christian Endeavour societies all over the world have been continuing to fulfil the objects of the movement within Church-based groups ever since, providing opportunities for young people and new Christians to develop a strong Bible-based faith and find the talents they have for the service of Christ and the Church. 

In most Christmas celebrations, the account of the three wise men gets conflated with the story of the shepherds and the angels and has them all together in the stable at Bethlehem. Fortunately, they were never there at the same time or the stable would have been rather overcrowded. The wise men arrived some time after the shepherds and their visit to Bethlehem is remembered in the Christian Church by the Feast of Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6 th . The event, recorded in Matthew 2.1-12, is also known as the Adoration of the Magi because of what happened when the wise men eventually found what they were looking for. But what were they looking for? Verse 2 in Matthew’s account says they were asking, ‘Where is the baby born to be the king of the Jews?’ You can feel their excitement in Matthew’s words, as if it would be the best day in their lives when they found this particular child. Perhaps it would be, for it would confirm their interpretation of what they had seen in the stars and make them truly wise men among their fellow astrologers back home ‘in the east’. So were they looking for a child or for fame and glory, status and recognition, perhaps even wealth which would come from these? They must already have had some resources in order to finance an expedition when they only knew roughly how far they would have to go and how long it would take, and they did bring some expensive gifts. But were they gambling all they had on this venture? And it could all be a wild goose chase. Had an heir to the throne been born somewhere in the land of the Jews? If he had, would they overcome the obstacles and dangers they might meet on the way? Would they even be allowed to see the child to confirm their astral prognosis. After all, the only reason for their journey was the sighting of a star and their collective ‘hunch’ as to what it might mean. But they took the chance to find the ‘treasure’. There were times when it looked a wild goose chase for, when they got to the palace in Jerusalem, the obvious place to look, no one knew of a new-born heir to the throne and few seemed interested, except King Herod. After some consultation with his advisors, he suggested that Bethlehem might be the place to continue their search. It was indeed the place. Guided again by the star as much as by Herod’s advice, at last they found the resolution of their quest. Compared to the luxury of Herod’s palace, this was the simplest and poorest of places, but somehow they immediately recognised that this child was special. What had Herod asked his advisors? ‘Where will the Messiah be born?’ That title rang a bell with them. They had heard of the Jewish expectation of a Messiah, a God-given leader who the Jews hoped would restore the nation to its former glory, and they saw that hope in this new-born baby. So they knelt down and worshipped Him. He was indeed the ‘treasure’ they had set out to find. Many people are ‘treasure-hunting’, hoping to find the one thing that will satisfy them and bring meaning to their lives. It could be fame and fortune, status and recognition. But seeking such things is often a wild goose chase, for they rarely satisfy and seldom give peace of heart and mind and assurance for the future. As the wise men discovered, that can only be found in Jesus, the Babe of Bethlehem, who would give His life on the cross as the Saviour of the world. If you are a seeker, like the wise men, then be like them and come to find who the Babe of Bethlehem really is - the Son of God. Learn what His life shows - the best way to live. Discover what His death on the cross and His resurrection means for you - that God loves you and offers an eternal future in His presence to those who live for Him.

People in many parts of the world are on the move to escape from human conflict or natural disaster, seeking safety and survival. As I write this blog, every day the TV news has reports about the Rafah Border Crossing where people trying to escape from the conflict in Gaza hope to cross into Egypt. It is the sole crossing point in the border fence. It is not always open, and then only for limited periods, but it has been the way out for foreign nationals since the present hostilities began in early October when Hamas launched its attack on Israel. Not everyone is allowed to escape into Egypt. Access to Egypt is strictly controlled, so very few Palestinians have been allowed to cross at the check point Even people with legitimate reasons to cross may find themselves denied permission if their name is not on the list for the day. Escape to Egypt was an option for people living in the Canaan/Palestine area throughout Biblical times, though it wasn’t always the best option. Jacob and his family moved there to escape from serious famine at the invitation of Pharaoh (Genesis 45.16-20). 430 years later (Exodus 12.40-41), when they had been reduced to the status of slaves, the descendants of Jacob, the Israelites, left Egypt after God had sent a series of plagues (Exodus 7.14-11-10, 12.29-36) to force a stubborn Pharaoh to agree to their departure. The prophet Jeremiah was taken, reluctantly, to Egypt by a group of people escaping from a threatened Babylonian invasion of Judah (Jeremiah 43.4-7). This did not really help as the Babylonian army went on to defeat the Egyptian army at the battle of Carchemish. When Jesus was born, Joseph was instructed by God to take Mary and the new-born Jesus and ‘escape to Egypt’ (Matthew 2.14) because ‘Herod will be looking for the child to kill Him’. They stayed there, as refugees, until Herod died, when they could safely return home to Nazareth. Times have not really changed in Palestine. People still have to flee from aggression, whether the aggressors are Hamas, Hezbollah or Israel, and it is probably harder now to escape to Egypt or find any place of safety. If the world is distressed by what is going on at present in Palestine, what must it be doing to the heart of God to see the Holy Land anything but holy and His gift of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, ignored. For the sake of the world, He gave his life on the cross to show us the greatness of God’s love and He asks us to ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matthew 5.44) and gave us a new commandment that we should ‘love one another just as [He] loves us’ (John.15.12). We may not be able, literally or figuratively, to ‘escape to Egypt’ to get away from our problems and difficulties, but we can seek the peace of God in our hearts, the peace which Jesus came to bring (John 14.27), and perhaps we can make the world a better place in 2024 by sharing some of His great love for us with other people, be they friends or enemies, family or strangers. May this New Year be a blessed, peaceful, and happy year for you, filled with the love of the Lord.

Christmas can be a very difficult time for many people. Statistics show it is one of the worst times of the year for the break-up of relationships. Gifts given, or received, are not valued, decorations are criticised, effort put into preparation and organisation is not appreciated, and may take up time needed to keep relationships on track. Differences of opinion about everything from the choice of Christmas cards, and who should receive them, to the food to buy, the size of the Christmas tree and who to invite to any party planned, can put a strain on relationships. It could have gone wrong at the first Christmas, when Jesus was a born. How did Mary feel about having to leave her mother back in Nazareth at such a critical time in her pregnancy. She had no experience of child-birth and Joseph was a carpenter, not a mid-wife? How did she feel when she arrived in Bethlehem to find that Joseph had not made any arrangements about accommodation? Not that it was easy to do so in those days without the postal, telephone or e-mail systems that we rely on today. How did Joseph react to any criticism? It could all have gone dreadfully wrong with their relationship. But the Lord was with them and, above the joy of the safe delivery of their first-born child, there were surprises and extra delights. There were the unexpected visits of shepherds and wise men, each in their own way acknowledging that Jesus was special - a Saviour, said the shepherds, quoting the angels (Luke 2.17,11), and gifts from the wise men who bowed down and worshipped the young child (Matthew 2.11). Then there was the opportunity, as they were so close to Jerusalem while staying in Bethlehem, to take Jesus to the Temple ‘to present Him to the Lord’ (Luke 2.22 [GNB]). Where else should Jesus have been taken for this ceremony? The Temple was recognised as the place which signified the presence of God with His people. I’m sure that Joseph and Mary felt that it was only right and proper that they should take their God-given child to the central place in their nation’s religious life to dedicate Him to the Lord (Luke 2.23). It would have been an extra joy for them which they would not have experienced if they had been in Nazareth. Furthermore, there was the additional confirmation of who Jesus was when, as they went into the Temple, Simeon saw the baby and straightway declared that Jesus was the Lord’s promised Messiah (Luke 2.26 [GNB]), and this was backed up by Anna (Luke 2.38). Even if things didn’t go completely as desired at Christmas, give thanks for the things that did and for any unexpected delights that occurred, and thank those who put in so much effort to get your Christmas ready or help you to do so. And don’t forget to thank God for His special gift without which there wouldn’t be Christmas.