Reliant Calling

Paul takes a counter-intuitive approach to weakness - he celebrates it! 2 Corinthians 13 verse 9 gives an example of this: if it comes down to a Christian 'them and us' style comparison, he would rather be found as the weaker one ...

For Paul knows deeply two things in his own life and ministry:

1. That he is called by God to minister God's good news for the world
2. That he is to be, and can be, reliant on God at all times.

Weakness, in Paul's self-understanding, reminds him and connects him with his reliance on God. He does not need to worry or doubt, because he knows he is called (thing 1) ... so he is free to trust and rely, with weaknesses highlighting or amplifying that need to trust (thing 2).

Paul therefore lives a reliant calling: assured by God's calling, able to be glad in weakness since that simply throws himself back on God all the more.

We need to get a handle on this approach, since it is all too easy for us to look for things or measurements that act as signs of strength. Whether it is size of church, amount of activities, or a host of other parameters, it is possible that we can lose our true reliance, and drift from our original calling.

We might forget that Jesus doesn't actually call us to build His church. In fact he doesn't even call us to build His Kingdom! Rather he calls us to faithfully bear the good news, creating conditions in which people can experience His Kingdom, and so be drawn to it that they might receive/inherit it themselves.

And through this process, Jesus will build the church.

So let us get back to our calling, rely on Him, and see what He does through us. Jesus summed it up, when He said 'Seek first the Kingdom, and all these things will be given to you as well".

Yikes - there's a moo cow in my path

Ever walked in a field or along a footpath to discover some cows standing in your way? What do you do? Give up, take a massive detour, get worried? Where I live they have a knack of standing right in front of the gate, so you have to go through them to get past!

But of course these cows are actually quite timid, and not that fussed if you just look straight ahead and walk among them to get through to the gate and on to the next stage.

How often in our Christian faith do we see things that we perceive as big or intimidating obstacles - ones that we think will force us to turn back, take a huge detour, or worry us endlessly?

Maybe many of these obstacles are really just like these cows - we can walk straight through them. Yes we will want to walk carefully, yes we will want to respect their presence (they do weigh a tonne or so after all!), but we press on nonetheless!

Fight Poverty - Meet People

I am always struck by Jesus' question to the blind men calling for attention in Matthew 20. "What do you want me to do for you?". On one level a stupid question, considering his ability to give sight to the blind. Yet maybe it is us who are not so intelligent ...

The point is that Jesus met with people. He related to them to hear their side, rather than simply assuming and dispensing one directional aid.

A paragraph in the middle of this post, relating to a talk about poverty, sums it up well. Suggesting that the 'core problem of humanity is isolation rather than mortality', the call is made to invest in relationship. My own experience, both locally through the Foodbank, and by visiting people in very difficult circumstances in Zambia, confirms this. To be met - to be acknowledged as a person - in itself lifts the spirit. Of course there is the need for the practical help to flow as well (Jesus did restore their sight), but in the context of a newly formed relationship.

We all want to fight poverty. Make a start by meeting people!

God Made a Deal

In the beginning, when God created, He created mankind and made a deal with them to live in fellowship with Him and populate the earth to take it forward to its fulfilled purpose.

As we know things went wrong. Wipe it all and start again kind of wrong. But God showed kindness in saving Noah and family, and again made a deal. There wouldn't be that kind of wipe out again, leaving Noah to re-populate and take creation forward.

But it didn't really work out.

Some meandering later God chooses one couple and graciously makes it possible for them to have a family. He made a deal with them, that they could become a race who would be a people who bring blessing, and thus take the whole world towards God's purposes.

From that race God kindly saved them out of cruel oppression, and came as near face to face with them as might be possible. With Moses as a mediator, out in the sticks, He made a deal for this people to be the example nation, the race through which God's purposes can be seen, and therefore ultimately the whole world might be blessed and brought into His presence.

Yet sadly that didn't work out either.

Then, God enters creation Himself, lives, lays down his life, and then takes hold of it again. Through this life/death/resurrection business He once again makes a deal. A new deal, one through which His Spirit can be liberally poured out to allow many, many people of all races, geographies and backgrounds to be included in the deal. Once again this people can demonstrate to the world, and bring creation towards God's intended purposes.

This deal still stands, here in the 21st century. It connects all the way back to that first deal, and the ones that followed on. It is the Spirit-enabled deal that you and I are invited to be part of.