Monday, 2 August 2010
Sunday, 4 April 2010
Life After Death and Life Before Death – The Double Whammy
HAPPY EASTER
Today we celebrate life in all its fullness. This is the day that Jesus rose from the grave and therefore first and foremost we celebrate his life. But because, as Paul constantly reiterates, we are ‘in Christ’, we also celebrate the new life we have experienced through his cross and resurrection.
Christians have been mocked throughout history for worshipping a crucified messiah. As the Romans used to say, a crucified messiah is no messiah at all. But we don’t just worship a crucified messiah; we worship a crucified and risen messiah. The resurrection is at the very centre of the Christian faith. Here’s how Paul states it in 1 Corinthians 15:
If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith… But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
On Good Friday we remember that Christ died for us (as our representative). That means we also died on that horrendous day. In Christ’s crucifixion the old humanity that was covered in sin and shame said its last farewell. However, today on Easter day, we celebrate that he also rose as our representative. As Paul says, ‘in Christ as will be made alive’. His resurrection (the firstfruit) acts as a guarantee of our own resurrection when he returns. He walked through the door of death into resurrection life so that we too might one day walk through that door.
But the resurrection is more than just life after death: it’s also life before death. Here’s what Paul says in Romans 8:
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
That means resurrection life begins early: it’s already coursing through our veins as we remain open to the Spirit’s work in our lives. It’s as if the Spirit gives us a foretaste of what is to come. Or as Paul says to the church in Ephesus:
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.
We might not have our own resurrection bodies yet, but we have resurrection life, and that is more than enough cause for celebration!
Today we celebrate life in all its fullness. This is the day that Jesus rose from the grave and therefore first and foremost we celebrate his life. But because, as Paul constantly reiterates, we are ‘in Christ’, we also celebrate the new life we have experienced through his cross and resurrection.
Christians have been mocked throughout history for worshipping a crucified messiah. As the Romans used to say, a crucified messiah is no messiah at all. But we don’t just worship a crucified messiah; we worship a crucified and risen messiah. The resurrection is at the very centre of the Christian faith. Here’s how Paul states it in 1 Corinthians 15:
If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith… But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
On Good Friday we remember that Christ died for us (as our representative). That means we also died on that horrendous day. In Christ’s crucifixion the old humanity that was covered in sin and shame said its last farewell. However, today on Easter day, we celebrate that he also rose as our representative. As Paul says, ‘in Christ as will be made alive’. His resurrection (the firstfruit) acts as a guarantee of our own resurrection when he returns. He walked through the door of death into resurrection life so that we too might one day walk through that door.
But the resurrection is more than just life after death: it’s also life before death. Here’s what Paul says in Romans 8:
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
That means resurrection life begins early: it’s already coursing through our veins as we remain open to the Spirit’s work in our lives. It’s as if the Spirit gives us a foretaste of what is to come. Or as Paul says to the church in Ephesus:
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.
We might not have our own resurrection bodies yet, but we have resurrection life, and that is more than enough cause for celebration!
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Holy Saturday - When God is Silent
A Reflection by Iona Ledwidge
Growing into maturity – whether it’s in a romantic relationship, a child-parent relationship or in a relationship with God – always involves a steady process of recentring from our own priorities and preferences to those of the other. That’s why our centre of gravity shifts as we mature spiritually. We begin to pray that God would change our hearts and rewire our motivation. We long to become more like Jesus. We ask God to help us become more humble, more loving and more faithful.
It is in answer to these very prayers that God may decide to deny our requests and even withdraw a little from our lives. As long as it makes perfect sense to serve God and to live for Him, our faith can only mature so far. There’s nothing very selfless or sacrificial in obeying God as long as it remains in our best interests to do so – enjoying His love, receiving miraculous provision, hearing His voice clearly, experiencing His reality in worship, gaining stimulating insights from the Bible, knowing God’s comfort when we are hurting and so on. Until these things are removed from our lives and we are left to stand alone without any reason for continuing except steadfast loyalty, we cannot truly mature from an us-centred relationship with God to a truly Christ-centred one. It isn’t until the facts that once reinforced our beliefs are removed from our lives that we can truly ‘live by faith and not by sight’ (2 Cor. 5:7).
(The above is an extract from Pete Greig’s book ‘God on Mute’ – p246-247)
There may be times in our lives when we don’t feel God’s presence tangibly, when our prayers remain unanswered and we wonder if He really cares. Pete Grieg talks about how God may step back in order to help us mature, just as a father takes the stabilisers off his child’s bike to help them ride independently. When I first became a Christian, I experienced an incredible high and an injection of passion and exuberance for God. But the honeymoon period eventually wore off! A few years later, I was challenged to think more about what I could do for God rather than what He could do for me. I am no longer all take, take, take and am able to look around me to see what the needs of others are. As I’ve gone deeper with God, there have been times when He has withdrawn further into the shadows. These are the times when I’ve learnt what true faith looks like. Perhaps you have experienced seasons of loneliness, sickness, lack of provision, heartbreak and bereavement without much sense of God’s intervention?
The excerpt I have taken from ‘God on Mute’ is in a chapter entitled Holy Saturday. This is the day after Jesus died, a day of emptiness, bewilderment, anger, fear and overwhelming sorrow. This is the day when every question Jesus’ disciples asked remained unanswered. Pete Grieg talks about how we want to rush ahead to the resurrection when we talk about the Christian faith, and even more so when we live it out. But there may be times of darkness, emptiness and unanswered prayer in our lives. It doesn’t make God any less God – it is just a scary place to be in.
I remember a time when I was temping, jobless after applying for probably about 50 jobs over a period of 6 months. God had not yet answered my prayers for a job which I could enjoy and which used my talents. Perhaps you have had similar experiences where you felt led in one direction but it didn’t work out? Perhaps you feel God has let you down, or even that you have done something wrong? But here is a truth which I keep coming back to. It isn’t until the facts that once reinforced our beliefs are removed from our lives that we can truly ‘live by faith and not by sight’ (2 Cor. 5:7).
I love this following poem – it could have been written by one of Jesus’ disciples on Holy Saturday. It expresses something of the anger, the pain, the loneliness and desperation of that day, and of those agonising times in our lives when we are crying out to God in the emptiness.
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W.H. Auden
16th Century writer St John of the Cross called the Holy Saturday times in our walk with God ‘the dark night of the soul.’ Mother Theresa wrote in her journal ‘[people] think that my faith, my hope and my love are overflowing and that my intimacy with God and union with His will fills my heart. If only they knew.’ It is reassuring to me that the great mothers and fathers of the faith experienced times of incredible pain and doubt. It allows me space to know that I too can be in pain and this is reconcilable with the God I know and love. No wonder then if ‘we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory’ (Romans 8:17), we experience such times of darkness in our walk with God.
Prayer:
Lord, help me to seek you when you are nowhere to be found. Help me to hold onto the truth of your love when the reality is I sometimes don’t feel loved. Help me to worship you when you are answering the prayers of others but none of mine. Lord, meet with me when I feel desperately alone and the cost of taking up my cross and following you seems too much to bear. Help me trust that you are the God that brings beauty for ashes and a garment of praise from a spirit of despair. For you are the God that rose from the grave and have power to bring me to life. Fill me with your resurrection life this Easter time I pray. Amen.
Growing into maturity – whether it’s in a romantic relationship, a child-parent relationship or in a relationship with God – always involves a steady process of recentring from our own priorities and preferences to those of the other. That’s why our centre of gravity shifts as we mature spiritually. We begin to pray that God would change our hearts and rewire our motivation. We long to become more like Jesus. We ask God to help us become more humble, more loving and more faithful.
It is in answer to these very prayers that God may decide to deny our requests and even withdraw a little from our lives. As long as it makes perfect sense to serve God and to live for Him, our faith can only mature so far. There’s nothing very selfless or sacrificial in obeying God as long as it remains in our best interests to do so – enjoying His love, receiving miraculous provision, hearing His voice clearly, experiencing His reality in worship, gaining stimulating insights from the Bible, knowing God’s comfort when we are hurting and so on. Until these things are removed from our lives and we are left to stand alone without any reason for continuing except steadfast loyalty, we cannot truly mature from an us-centred relationship with God to a truly Christ-centred one. It isn’t until the facts that once reinforced our beliefs are removed from our lives that we can truly ‘live by faith and not by sight’ (2 Cor. 5:7).
(The above is an extract from Pete Greig’s book ‘God on Mute’ – p246-247)
There may be times in our lives when we don’t feel God’s presence tangibly, when our prayers remain unanswered and we wonder if He really cares. Pete Grieg talks about how God may step back in order to help us mature, just as a father takes the stabilisers off his child’s bike to help them ride independently. When I first became a Christian, I experienced an incredible high and an injection of passion and exuberance for God. But the honeymoon period eventually wore off! A few years later, I was challenged to think more about what I could do for God rather than what He could do for me. I am no longer all take, take, take and am able to look around me to see what the needs of others are. As I’ve gone deeper with God, there have been times when He has withdrawn further into the shadows. These are the times when I’ve learnt what true faith looks like. Perhaps you have experienced seasons of loneliness, sickness, lack of provision, heartbreak and bereavement without much sense of God’s intervention?
The excerpt I have taken from ‘God on Mute’ is in a chapter entitled Holy Saturday. This is the day after Jesus died, a day of emptiness, bewilderment, anger, fear and overwhelming sorrow. This is the day when every question Jesus’ disciples asked remained unanswered. Pete Grieg talks about how we want to rush ahead to the resurrection when we talk about the Christian faith, and even more so when we live it out. But there may be times of darkness, emptiness and unanswered prayer in our lives. It doesn’t make God any less God – it is just a scary place to be in.
I remember a time when I was temping, jobless after applying for probably about 50 jobs over a period of 6 months. God had not yet answered my prayers for a job which I could enjoy and which used my talents. Perhaps you have had similar experiences where you felt led in one direction but it didn’t work out? Perhaps you feel God has let you down, or even that you have done something wrong? But here is a truth which I keep coming back to. It isn’t until the facts that once reinforced our beliefs are removed from our lives that we can truly ‘live by faith and not by sight’ (2 Cor. 5:7).
I love this following poem – it could have been written by one of Jesus’ disciples on Holy Saturday. It expresses something of the anger, the pain, the loneliness and desperation of that day, and of those agonising times in our lives when we are crying out to God in the emptiness.
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W.H. Auden
16th Century writer St John of the Cross called the Holy Saturday times in our walk with God ‘the dark night of the soul.’ Mother Theresa wrote in her journal ‘[people] think that my faith, my hope and my love are overflowing and that my intimacy with God and union with His will fills my heart. If only they knew.’ It is reassuring to me that the great mothers and fathers of the faith experienced times of incredible pain and doubt. It allows me space to know that I too can be in pain and this is reconcilable with the God I know and love. No wonder then if ‘we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory’ (Romans 8:17), we experience such times of darkness in our walk with God.
Prayer:
Lord, help me to seek you when you are nowhere to be found. Help me to hold onto the truth of your love when the reality is I sometimes don’t feel loved. Help me to worship you when you are answering the prayers of others but none of mine. Lord, meet with me when I feel desperately alone and the cost of taking up my cross and following you seems too much to bear. Help me trust that you are the God that brings beauty for ashes and a garment of praise from a spirit of despair. For you are the God that rose from the grave and have power to bring me to life. Fill me with your resurrection life this Easter time I pray. Amen.
Friday, 2 April 2010
Good Friday
2 Corinthians 5:13-21
13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It is easy to see how celebrating the death of our leader might cause people to think that we are out of our mind. Why would anyone celebrate death?
I recently heard a preacher use the phrase 'death is the engine of life'. It's one of the laws of the universe evident all around us: death enables life. One can almost hear Jesus' words from John 12 in the background. "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” On Good Friday we celebrate Jesus’ death in anticipation of Easter Sunday when we rejoice in new life. But we don’t just celebrate history. We equally celebrate what God is doing today in making the Easter story part of our own story and reality. In Paul’s language, by the Spirit we participate in what Christ did at Calvary. We die with him in order that we might live with him. As our reading states: “one died for all, and therefore all died”. But how does Christ’s death relate to us dying?
We can all hopefully acknowledge that we fall short of being the people we were created to be. We regularly neglect the poor and disadvantaged. We pursue our own dreams and ambitions often at the expense of others. We compromise our identity and integrity almost on a daily basis, and only when we’ve given up the pursuit of faking it through life can we admit that we’re broken and wounded and need some help. Though made in the image of God, it’s as if that image has been distorted. The mirror is so cracked that we can hardly see who we were meant to be.
Here’s the gospel message: Jesus didn’t just come to show us what true humanity was meant to look like, he came to restore in us the image of God that had been corrupted. And he accomplished this healing through his death. Through the cross our sinful humanity waves farewell so that a new humanity can be welcomed in. As verse 21 suggests, he dies our death (the result of sin) so that we might embrace his life (and righteousness). This is the divine exchange that takes place at Calvary.
Julian of Norwich, an English mystic of the 14th century, therefore spoke of the cross as the labour pains of the new humanity. So this Good Friday as we look back, let’s celebrate our freedom from sin, death and all that robs us of being the people we were created to be. Let’s celebrate death in the knowledge that death is the engine of life. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
One final note: let’s try and remember to share communion together tonight. Though we’re not gathered together, wherever we are and whoever we’re with, let’s remember what took place 2000 years ago. My encouragement would be to crack open your best bottle of wine, and together with the bread, make a toast to the one who gave his life so that we might experience the life we were created for.
13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It is easy to see how celebrating the death of our leader might cause people to think that we are out of our mind. Why would anyone celebrate death?
I recently heard a preacher use the phrase 'death is the engine of life'. It's one of the laws of the universe evident all around us: death enables life. One can almost hear Jesus' words from John 12 in the background. "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” On Good Friday we celebrate Jesus’ death in anticipation of Easter Sunday when we rejoice in new life. But we don’t just celebrate history. We equally celebrate what God is doing today in making the Easter story part of our own story and reality. In Paul’s language, by the Spirit we participate in what Christ did at Calvary. We die with him in order that we might live with him. As our reading states: “one died for all, and therefore all died”. But how does Christ’s death relate to us dying?
We can all hopefully acknowledge that we fall short of being the people we were created to be. We regularly neglect the poor and disadvantaged. We pursue our own dreams and ambitions often at the expense of others. We compromise our identity and integrity almost on a daily basis, and only when we’ve given up the pursuit of faking it through life can we admit that we’re broken and wounded and need some help. Though made in the image of God, it’s as if that image has been distorted. The mirror is so cracked that we can hardly see who we were meant to be.
Here’s the gospel message: Jesus didn’t just come to show us what true humanity was meant to look like, he came to restore in us the image of God that had been corrupted. And he accomplished this healing through his death. Through the cross our sinful humanity waves farewell so that a new humanity can be welcomed in. As verse 21 suggests, he dies our death (the result of sin) so that we might embrace his life (and righteousness). This is the divine exchange that takes place at Calvary.
Julian of Norwich, an English mystic of the 14th century, therefore spoke of the cross as the labour pains of the new humanity. So this Good Friday as we look back, let’s celebrate our freedom from sin, death and all that robs us of being the people we were created to be. Let’s celebrate death in the knowledge that death is the engine of life. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
One final note: let’s try and remember to share communion together tonight. Though we’re not gathered together, wherever we are and whoever we’re with, let’s remember what took place 2000 years ago. My encouragement would be to crack open your best bottle of wine, and together with the bread, make a toast to the one who gave his life so that we might experience the life we were created for.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
The Journey Begins
Can you believe it! After years of waiting, dreaming and praying, KXC is finally underway. We had our first service last Sunday and had around 140 join us to celebrate the birth of a church in King's Cross seeking to recklessly give itself away to God, each other and the world. We had a great time and it was unbelievably exciting to finally get going. There was a great sense in the room of anticipation - of people expectant of God to do some great things in the days ahead as we follow his lead and seek to build God's kingdom here in King's Cross.
To follow the journey, feel free to check out my good friend Bruce Kissell's blog. He's decided to document our journey as a church. I can't wait to read his next entry!
To follow the journey, feel free to check out my good friend Bruce Kissell's blog. He's decided to document our journey as a church. I can't wait to read his next entry!
Monday, 14 December 2009
Kings Cross Church (KXC)
Bee and I have been dreaming and preparing towards church planting for the last few years, and now is the time when some of those hopes and dreams are becoming a reality. Having been commissioned by the Bishop of London, we will be launching KXC in the new year (around February), and for those that are interested, feel free to check out the dvd below or visit the website www.kxc.org.uk
Also, in case you can't read the text in the intro, the beginning of the dvd is from a BBC One documentary about the King's Cross redevelopment that is taking place in the run up to the 2012 Olympics.
Also, in case you can't read the text in the intro, the beginning of the dvd is from a BBC One documentary about the King's Cross redevelopment that is taking place in the run up to the 2012 Olympics.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
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