Category Archives: Christianity

Arts, Christianity, Culture

Luke’s Gospel: A signpost for seekers

NEW TESTAMENT

IF Matthew is the Gospel for the Jews, Luke is the seeker’s Gospel. Written in stylish language, it is carefully researched and easy to read.

Luke, who was a doctor and a travelling companion of St Paul, has several special interests. He includes, not unnaturally, some helpful details about Jesus’ healings. He also shows how Jesus regarded women and the poor with special compassion at a time when they were usually seen as second-class citizens or outcasts.

At the other end of the scale, he has strong warnings for the rich. His chief concern, however, is to show that Jesus is the Saviour of the world, sent by God to rescue people from the kingdom of evil and darkness.

Luke alone tells the familiar parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan: he alone records the joyful conversion of the corrupt tax inspector Zacchaeus. And only Luke gives us real insight into Jesus’ birth and records the encounter of two ordinary people with the risen Jesus on the Emmaus road. It all makes the book user-friendly and faith-inspiring.

A narrative – God’s magnificent manifesto

Luke 1:46-55, 67-79

MATTHEW’S Gospel launches Jesus’ ministry with the revolutionary teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. Luke launches Jesus’ life with an equally revolutionary sound of music.

The two poems found here (Mary’s is more of a song, Zechariah’s more of a prophecy) speak theological volumes. They lay down the themes to which Luke will return time and again.

In both cases the praise is directed to God, not simply for what he has done for Mary and Zechariah personally. That is the nature of true worship: lifting us from the immediate to the eternal, from the personal to the corporate.

Mary’s song called the Magnificat, in some ways resembles that of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. Both their sons were to be special servants of God, but Hannah was married and unhappily childless.

Mary’s ‘humility’ was genuine in terms of her human poverty as well as her attitude of heart. She could offer only the poor person’s traditional sacrifice (2:24; Leviticus 12:8) and for some while she lived as a homeless refugee (2:7; Matthew 2:14).

But her God is not only holy, he is also merciful (v 50), an implicit acknowledgement that Mary considers herself tainted by original sin.

God’s holiness and righteousness are expressed by the way he turns the tables on the rich and powerful (vv 51-54), a constant Lucan theme. This is a prophetic declaration of righteousness which may have its spiritual dimension in terms of personal salvation, but which is far wider-reaching.

To that Zechariah also turns, in the prophecy known as the Benedictus. He sees his son’s birth as a stage in God’s purposes not just for himself and his wife, but for the nation. He focuses on forgiveness (v 77) but as a Jew this was never separated from God’s wider purposes (v 74).

Christians cannot separate the spiritual and personal message from the wider context of God’s plan for the world. John the Baptist called for a radical change in lifestyle, and neither he nor his cousin Jesus were afraid to confront the authorities with their unrighteousness. The Christian gospel is both personal and corporate.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Ezekiel 1: God is everywhere at once

OLD TESTAMENT

Narrative – Ezekiel 1

THE number of closed-circuit TV cameras in public places has mushroomed. Used both for crime deterrence and detection they create the impression of Big Brother watching us. We are always in view.

And so we are to God. That is what Ezekiel perceives in this vision of the cherubim and their wheels. For the prophet and his contemporaries this was not frightening, it was encouraging.

The exiles were in Babylonia, far from Jerusalem. God, in their understanding, was in Jerusalem if he was anywhere, but how could he hear them, let alone help them, from 600 miles (900 km) away as the crow flies?

The vision in Ezekiel 1 shows how. God’s rapid response unit is not restricted by space or time. He does not have tunnel vision or short sight. He is everywhere at once, and nothing escapes his gaze. Omnipresent.

When you go into a strange, hostile place, God is just as much there, and just as powerful, as he was the evening before in the church prayer meeting. When you travel miles (literally or metaphorically) from a church, where Christians may be thin on the ground, God just blinks, shifts gear, and gets there ahead of you.

This vision also reminded the exiled Judeans of God’s holiness (the light and fire of vv 4,13, and of the sparkling gems of v 16), and of his strength and wisdom (the animal heads are of strong beasts and the human head speaks of understanding, v 10).

They would recall the cherubim from Isaiah’s vision 200 years earlier (Isaiah 6), as we should from John’s vision in Revelation 4:6-8. These angels, in their constant attendance on God, model for us the life of worship and service that we should always be living. God never changes; he is the same yesterday, today and for ever (Hebrews 13:8). We need that reminder as we move into new places, new phases, during our ‘exile’ in a God-ignoring world.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL

THE Book of Ezekiel is all part of God’s rich tapestry as he uses all means to drive his points home. Parts of Ezekiel will be shocking and puzzling, but one in which the prophet would be at home in the Tate Gallery. If you bear in mind the principles of art appreciation, readers of this Old Testament Book will get a lot out of it.

The Context is the decade between Nebuchadnezzar’s first major incursion into Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem, c. 597-587 BC. Ezekiel was one of the first exiles to be transported like slaves across the Near East. There, he is called to prophesy to his fellow prisoners, and tells them what’s happening back home.

A contemporary of Jeremiah (who stayed in Jerusalem), Ezekiel brings a similar message to explain why God has allowed the defeat, and a similar long-term hope that reconstruction will occur. Keep that as a theme for the exhibition, but take each canvas, story and performance on their own. They could enlarge your vision of God, and deepen your understanding of yourself.

Essentially, the Book of Ezekiel uses vivid symbolism to convey God’s teaching.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Galatians: The heart of the gospel is here

THE BOOK OF GALATIANS

“Galatians”, the sixteenth-century theologian Martin Luther once said, “is my Katie.” She was his wife and this letter was his love. He lavished his attention upon it. Galatians focused entirely on the central truth, forgotten by much of Christendom and which was then being rediscovered.

It asks the most important question a person can ever ask: what do I have to do, in practical terms, to gain a right relationship with God? Paul’s answer is simple: nothing. Admitting there is nothing you can do and putting your faith in Christ, as the one who has already done for you everything that is necessary, is all you need.

Which is an answer few human beings except the selfish type can accept easily. We value our independence and our ability to look after ourselves. When we become dependent on others we feel worthless.

The Galatians certainly found it hard to accept. They wanted to work their passage to the kingdom of God, to pay their entrance fee into heaven. On his visit Paul had explained that the price had been paid already; they just had to get on board. But as soon as he left they developed a set of regulations (including male circumcision) which they insisted must be kept by anyone wishing to remain right with God.

That, Paul claims, is “another gospel”, a denial of what Jesus had done and the apostles had taught. So after a lengthy resume of his own credentials as a reliable teacher, he explains again what it means to be “justified by faith”.

It is the heart of the New Testament gospel, whatever Christian tradition you come from or whatever emphasis of Christian living you espouse. By understanding it, rejoicing in it and applying it to your worship and daily living, you will be able to enjoy the privilege of developing a personal relationship with the living God.

That explains Paul’s passion in Galatians. For him, as for Luther, this concept was his true love.

How To Grow God’s Fruit – a narrative

Galatians 5:16-26

YOU do not just pick berries off bushes and eat them. Some are poisonous. You need to distinguish between good and bad. Jesus usd that analogy in Matthew 7:15-20, referring to the black berries of the Palestinian buckthorn which, when seen from a distance, looked like grapes. Paul tells us how to “grow” good fruit: the genuine, visible product of our inner faith.

But he first warns us of what we know but which still surprises us: that we must expect a conflict (vv 16-18). Our imperfect human nature (some versions of the Bible use the word “flesh”) has been “crucified” with Christ (v 24), but it will not lie down. However, we do have the “new nature” of the Holy Spirit to counter it and conquer it.

Our task, Paul says, is actively to cultivate that new nature and weed out the old. Only God can make the fruit grow (another example of living by his grace through faith) but we have to prepare the soil by keeping “in step with the Spirit” (v 25): allowing his holiness to penetrate our lives.

It is not an option but an obligation. Bishop J C Ryle said in his book Holiness that “there is far more harm done by unholy and inconsistent Christians than we are aware of . . . They supply the children of this world with a never-ending excuse for remaining as they are.”

Christians are under new management. They have been given a spiritual make-over. But sometimes we still look a mess. Moment by moment, ask: what fruit should sprout in this situation?

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