St James, this Sunday

Reality Check

Jon — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 06:21:50 +0000

Sometimes it is easy to fall into “story mode” when reading the book of Kings, as if the accounts are somehow disconnected from the rest of history, which can be investigated through other texts and archaeology. But this is proven spectacularly wrong when we arrive at 2 Kings 3, and we are introduced to Mesha, king of Moab, whose name is inscribed in a black basalt obelisk from the 9th century BC, which resides in the Lourve. The “Mesha Stele” or “Moabite Stone” is a memorial of Mesha’s victories over King Omri of Israel (1 Kings 16:16-28), and his son, who had been oppressing Moab. It contains references to Moab’s god, Chemosh, and Israel’s God, Yahweh. It also arguably contains references to King David, whose name is only otherwise found in an inscription called the “Tel Dan Stele“. The conclusion is that in Kings we are dealing with accounts of historical events – and that God himself is at work in the history of this world.

Chariots of Fire

Jon — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:10:33 +0000

When I worked in I.T., we had the hit-by-a-bus principle: everyone needs a transition plan, so the next guy can pick up where you left off – should you step out to lunch and get swatted by the 545 to Parramatta. The transition from one Prophet of the Lord to the next is no less vital (2 Kings 2), and no less problematic. This is the finale to Elijah’s career, and he goes out in a literal blaze of glory as a fiery chariot carries him off to heaven. But his departure signals to Elisha that the training wheels are off, which leaves him distraught and insecure about his capacity to continue the prophetic ministry. It reminds us of the difficult transition from the ministry of Jesus to that of the Apostles, and the heavenly fire that invigorated them. It also invites us to stop mourning the glory days of past ministry, and to get on running the race for ourselves, strains of Chariots of Fire in our ears.

Resisting the Word

Jon — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:08:30 +0000

The World Cup having just finished, one of the amazing things to notice about professional sport is the degree to which grown men will argue with a referee. Never once, in any code, have I seen a referee change their decision as a result of back-chat. And yet a huddle of angry players will besiege the ref, hoping against hope that this time they will get their way.

Sometimes the message from God is loud and clear, but we simply don’t want to hear it. So we try again, hoping for another version. Another passage, maybe. Another commentary. Another interpretation. Or we try someone else. Another source. In the end we prove our own rebelliousness, and God’s word remains unchanged. In 2 Kings 1, we find a rebellious king trying to resist God’s word – trying to replace it, trying to attack it. But in the end God’s word stands, and the king only confirms how just God’s decision was in the first place.

The Key to Reform

Jon — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:35:12 +0000

Jumping Jehoshaphat! A mild curse in 19th century, a corny Robin-ism from Batman, and our next King in the long search to find the true Son of David. Jehoshaphat was the son of Asa, the first of the reformer-kings. And like his father, Jehoshaphat is given a rosy commendation: “he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD” (1 Kings 22:41-50). But if we dig into the back-story (2 Chr 17-20), we find a distinctive kind of reform – one based on the systematic teaching of God’s people from his word. In a generation who think with their feelings and who swarm to personality-preachers, we may just have stumbled onto one of the church’s great losses of the last half-century: the equal priority of teaching alongside preaching (1 Tim 5:17).

Discipline, Defeat, Demo

Jon — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:16:23 +0000

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah gives the game away when he prays that God will let people know that he is God and that he is turning their hearts back again (v37). So an international drought, a widow’s son raised from the dead, and the impending defeat of the prophets of Baal are all part of God’s plan to woo his people back to him. He does this in three ways: by disciplining his people, by defeating his enemies, and by demonstrating his power. By the end of the chapter we are forced to confess with the Israelites, “the Lord, he is God”. And we start to recognise that so much of God’s activity in our lives is not mysterious, but simply a Father’s discipline, a clouting of the competition, and a modest sabre-rattling, all calculated to call us back to where we should be. As Elijah says, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, then follow him!” This is the straight-forward logic of the gospel: Jesus declares himself to us and says, “Follow me!” A no-brainer, if he is truly God. But in practice we waver inconsistently between him and the competition, inviting only further disciplines, defeats, and demos.

Minority Rules

Jon — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 01:41:01 +0000

Some people seem to revel in being the minority: Hipsters, Goths, the Greens. But for most people, finding yourself in the minority is when you start to ask yourself some questions. Firstly: am I backing the right horse? Is it possible that the majority are actually right and I’m mistaken? And, secondly: where is this horse taking me? Who is the horse-whisperer that can assure me of the horse’s intentions?
Metaphors aside, in around 880 B.C., the prophet Elijah was the minority, because the bulk of Israel had switched to worshiping Baal. So in 1 Kings 17 the author asks those two questions of the minority: is Yahweh the right god to be backing, and if so, who speaks for Yahweh? This is only the lead-up to the great god-on-god battle of the next chapter. But if Yahweh is truly the living God, and if Elijah truly speaks for God, then we can expect some fireworks when they eventually clash with the majority. For Christians feeling more and more in the minority – within a secularised society, or within a sliding denomination – it is a timely reminder that safety is not always found in numbers.

Reformation Today

Jon — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:24:21 +0000

The 31st of October is famous, not just for Halloween, but for Reformation Day. On that day in 1517, the monk Martin Luther famously nailed to the door of Wittenberg church his 95 objections against the church of his day. His objections were that church teaching and practice had wandered from Scripture – in fact, that they had become abuses of God’s people justified by abuses of his word. In our passage this week, 1 Kings 15:9-24 (cf. 2 Chr 14-16), we meet Asa, the first reformer king. Despite his failings, the overall comment on Asa is that he was ‘fully committed to the Lord all his life’. With that model before us, we’ll look at how a commitment to reform is at the heart of commitment to God.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Jon — Mon, 24 May 2010 01:30:35 +0000

The famous judge Samson is the last in the book (Judges 16:6-31). Despite his famed strength, however, he turns out to be as weak as any other man – with weaknesses for wine, women, and revenge. The final judge turns out to be the most immoral, despite his status as a “Nazirite” – a vow of holiness to God. He fails miserably, both in holiness and in comparison to the military success of other judges. But even when Israel’s enemy, the Philistines, seem to succeed over Samson, the sovereignty of God weaves together themes of success and failure, strength and weakness, to provide one final rescue for his people. And one of the great encouraging themes of the Bible is heralded: weakness turned into strength by the power of God.