Willing from the Outset

A desperate man, his life blighted, nowhere else to turn, one option left ... to beg before the man Jesus as he passes his way. This is the scene in Luke 5:12 - 13. The man famously asks 'If you are willing ...', and Jesus (just as famously) replies 'I am willing ...'.

But lets dig deeper. Why was Jesus willing? Was it the passion of the man, the emotion of his request? Were the appropriate heart-strings pulled in this, the right moment?

I believe not. I think it is because Jesus was about His Father's business (John 5:19), and He knew His Father was willing. Yet not just willing for this man in this moment ... but willing from the outset. This was his mission, to show, to declare, to act on God's willingness to heal and restore.

There may be times when our hurt translates into emotions bubbling over, so that we are passionately calling, even begging, for the outcome that we need. That is to be human. But we do not need to contrive such emotions, we do not need to work them up ... as if somehow they might tip a celestial balance and turn on the tap of willingness on the part of God.

No, that is not necessary, because God is willing ... and has been from the outset.

Genuine Alternative Community

Now we are all waking up to the fact that there is clearly widespread dis-enfranchisement in our Western democracies, its time for us as 21st Century Christ followers to take seriously our call to be genuine alternative communities.

People have been talking about the issue of the 2% ruling it all for the 98% for a while now (my favourite is Graeber in his book 'The Democracy Project'), but perhaps we hadn't anticipated the unpredictable and erratic outcomes this might eventually generate.

While these unsettling winds swirl around us, remember that our hope is rooted in a more certain reality - as I wrote back in June. With our ultimate citizenship firmly in focus, political events - no matter how significant - can be viewed as second order effects!

That should inform how we are, and how we live. Furthermore, God calls us into communities and not simply to live in hope-filled yet isolated bubbles of individualism. And communities, clusters of ordinary people uniting around a common vision and purpose, can achieve incredible things ... all the more incredible when the grace of God underpins them!

So with people up and down our countries desperately grasping for some kind of alternative, seemingly any alternative, let us quietly model the genuine alternative. Centred on the one who truly comes alongside, who saves, redeems and re-builds. Someone who, as we become united with him, enables us to connect more deeply and properly with our neighbour. One who establishes a Kingdom that is characterised by the 100% desiring peace with the 100%.

Grace Over-rides Law

Time and time again we need to come back to a basic principle in the heart of God: if people finally desire to turn to him then God will receive them, trumping any 'barriers of law' that might otherwise be in the way. At the point of a human heart returning, grace over-rides law.

A great example is in 2 Chronicles 30. Hezekiah has instigated something of a spiritual homecoming for the wider populace, and is marking it with a passover celebration (the first in many years apparently). The passover came with regulations, conditions, rules about 'how it should be done'. In the gathering momentum of so many turning up to take part, there are a good number who don't meet the requirements but join in anyway. Hezekiah's prayer is instructive:

May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets their heart on seeking God ... even if they are not clean according to the rules.

See verses 18 to 20: The Lord heard this prayer! Grace over-rides law.

Interestingly we are told that the Lord 'healed' the people - as if they had an ailment or condition. But just as God can heal our medical issues, He can resolve our spiritual-uncleanness issues as well (cross reference Jesus and the man lowered through the roof, e.g. Matthew 9:1-8).

When our understanding of the Christian faith somehow slips back to rules and requirements for newcomers (or even home-comers!), let us remember and use Hezekiah's short prayer, and the grace-trumps-law principle it embodies.

Why are we in this mess?

I love Gideon's question found in Judges chapter 6, verse 13. In my own words it reads something like this: "If the Lord is with us, why are we in this mess?".

Gideon is told that the Lord is with him, but his logic is based on the circumstances around him. And those circumstances were bleak: Midianites had leached away prosperity and left many cowering in caves. Gideon himself was using a winepress to thresh wheat as his own way of eeking out survival for his family. 'In this mess' is a good description for their plight.

The angel's reply is simple: "Go in the strength you have and save ...". The circumstances were irrelevant, and thus the logic that went with them rendered redundant. There was a calling from God, and that transcends everything on the ground.

Of course Gideon misinterpreted 'the strength you have', foolishly equating it with his own personal strength (which wasn't much). It was the Lord's strength, something given by God for the purpose. Again human logic redundant.

Seek the Lord, discover His calling and purposes, and learn to go with it. There may be mess all around, which logically might suggest to you that little can be achieved. Yet in the light of the Lord's calling such logic is redundant, the 'why are we in this mess?' effectively irrelevant ... because there is a God-called task to get on with, and He will give the strength to do it.