Quiet and Gentle

As we return to chapter 42 of Isaiah the surprise of v2 is that the servant will be loud, and will not be overbearing. Read the verses once more:

42 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
    and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout or cry out,
    or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4     he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
    In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

Isaiah 42:1-4

In Matthew’s gospel these verses are quoted just after he has talked about Jesus withdrawing and then healing people. Jesus’s ministry exemplified these verses. There were no big rallies, no mass publicity campaign, nothing loud or aggressive. Simply a compassionate healing of the sick and an avoidance of extra publicity.

He will not shout, or cry out, or lift up his voice in the street.

This is so utterly counter cultural that it takes a while to sink in. God’s way of leadership is quiet and gentle. It doesn’t crush the weak. It doesn’t snuff out their feeble strength. Instead it comes alongside. There is no bullying here.

Jesus never sneers. Jesus never uses language that belittles. Jesus never demeans women. The scandal of the evangelical church right now is that in church after church ministers and leaders are found to have been bullies. They have driven a church to their agenda, they have used words and deeds to keep people working for their agenda.

Jesus was not, and is not, a bully. And yet perhaps as we read this, and as we look at our world there is part of us that wonders if our world could do with a shake up. That we could do with Jesus raising his voice, and taking action.

Gentleness and quietness are all very well. But what about Putin. What about the terrors of war across the world? The final part of verse 3 reminds us that Jesus will bring forth justice. He won’t give up. No one should mistake his kindness for softness.

Kindness and gentleness are offered to all, to bring about repentance. Right now it looks like those who refuse to repent get away with their lies and oppression. But there is a day when Jesus will bring an end to all oppression, and on that day all oppressors will face their day of reckoning.

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.

He will faithfully lead out justice.

Isaiah 43:3b

Justice will be done. Jesus will bring about a world in which all bullying, violence and oppression are done away with.

He brings others into his mission by gently coming alongside us. By bringing life to our weary souls, by fanning into flame the embers of devotion that are ready to go out. By helping us come alongside other weary people. He shows us what his new world is going to look like. He gives us the choice to join him or not.

He does this faithfully. With utter integrity. Which is how he can be both gentle and just. Because he treats us with truthfulness and honesty. He is not swayed by our reputations. With Jesus we are treated in accordance with his faithful character. Gentle to the bruised. Bringing justice to the world.

Read these verses again and reflect. If you are in leadership reflect on how you measure up to Jesus’s ways. If you are bruised then come to the Jesus who will not crush you. If you are weary and the light is almost out, then come to this Jesus for restoration and renewing – and put your hope in the day when he will bring forth justice for the nations.

A Lenten Afternoon with Tamar

Tamar, the 8th woman I have sat with this Lent. Her story as with the other women is not easy to hear. Abuse in so many forms and ways. Men who are supposed to be God’s people. Being on God’s side doesn’t seem to make a difference sadly to the way they act toward others. I will be honest, I am tired of these stories, tired of the mess, the pain. Tired that nothing feels like it has changed for God’s people today in many places. Abuse by God’s men is not simply an ancient biblical historical event, it is not consigned to bygone centuries. It is happening as I write these words.

Judah knows the cultural traditions that means the next brother marries the widow of older brothers. Judah though does not look at the sin of his sons but puts the blame on Tamar before a 3rd son marries her. Blame shifting. Nothing has changed. It is more comfortable to do that than take a long hard look at ones own circle, ones own leadership, ones own parenting. Nothing has changed, the blame continues to be shifted to the abused today. The abused is the one who has to walk away, who lose so much.

Tamar has a deep deep well of strength. She knows how the culture works. Shelah should marry her. Her ways seem questionable to us, but she knows she has to play low in order to reveal what is right. She takes the risk. She knows where she belongs and she is not going to let anyone kick her out. She acts as a prostitute before her father in law who does not recognise her and has no shame in sleeping with her. When Judah hears that his daughter in law is pregnant having acted as a prostitute he is prepared to have her stoned to death until she reveals that the unborn children are his. While he acted sadly with no shame in sleeping with her while she was disguised as a prostitute, he was willing to have his daughter in law publicly stoned for prostitution. So many layers of wrong doing on Judah’s part.

It would be great if it didn’t take a public show for him to recognise Tamar’s righteousness and his wrong doing. He knew all along what he was doing and how both denying Tamar his 3rd son and his sleeping with her were not God honouring. Both acts violated the care and protection Tamar should have been shown.

I may wrestle with how Tamar went about showing Judah up but I cannot help but be encouraged by her willingness to confront Judah. She did not limply disappear and give up. She put herself at great risk, she was alone. I doubt she could have enlisted anyone to agree to help her with her plan. Death was a possible outcome. I am thankful she fought the system. I am thankful she showed up. I just wish she hadn’t needed to.

Father I pray for those who dare to raise their hand and call out abuse, I pray they will not find themselves like Tamar, alone, but have people around them. People who will see them, hear them, stand for and with them. I pray also that it will not take a public confrontation for church leaders to repent if they are guilty or to defend others who are guilty of abuse. Father I ask for courage to be willing to hear stories like Tamar and others. Father forgive us for what we have done with your church. In Jesus name we pray.

https://www.eden.co.uk/lent-books-for-individuals/forty-women/

A Lenten Afternoon with Dinah

Dinah’s story like so many girls and women throughout history is not easy to hear and is wider than the events that happen simply to her. It is twisted and complex. It doesn’t make easy reading and raises questions as to whose side we are supposed to be on. Rape is on all counts wrong but is death of many a right way of avenging it when those who do the avenging are supposedly God’s chosen people?

It is why we must hold onto with confidence that vengeance belongs to God alone. The acts of Dinah’s brothers get caught up in personal motives. It is why we need justice systems that are right and fair. It is why we need churches who understand and teach God’s way, His justice, His mercy and live those out. It is why we need to see churches live out the gospel toward each other and to believe it is big enough for the pain within churches so that we know it is big enough for the events going on around us outside of the church. We need to see the gospel of justice and mercy first lived out in our churches so we can have confidence that God sees, cares and acts and that we can then leave vengeance with Him.

If we can leave vengeance for God it gives us the capacity to repay evil with good, to turn the other cheek. Not because we are being doormats but because we know the One who deals righteously with justice and evil and who will put all things right in the right time. Our aching for justice now is part of our image bearing of God, for He is the ultimate Just One. What He asks of us is to trust, to love our enemies, to treat others as we want them to treat us. That can sometimes feel as hard to read and do as reading the story of Dinah. It can feel wrong, it can feel like we are standing with the perpetrators of wrong. It brings to mind the musical Les Miserables. For Jean Valjean the grace and love he was shown by the priest though he had stolen from him enables him to turn his life around and to do be a blessing to others. For Javert the conflict within himself once he is shown grace is too much and he dies. When we repay evil with good, when we give them our shirt as well as our coat we don’t know how they will respond and that is not for us but between them and God. If we take vengeance into our own hands, in the moment it might feel right, yet the long term outcomes are going to lead only to further unrest and tension for all.

It is why we need people of faith in the police, in the court rooms, as lawyers and solicitors who can be God’s hands and feet here to see righteous justice brought about. Who will treat all as image bearers of God whether they know it or not and holding confidence that vengeance does not come with power or uniform but is God’s alone.

Father no story is one dimensional, no life is lived without layers. Lord give us to courage to leave vengeance to you and be willing to love. Forgive us when we think vengeance is the more heroic courageous righteous path when wrong has been done and give us a renewed vision of what love looks like and the strength needed to live it out. In Jesus name we pray.

https://www.eden.co.uk/lent-books-for-individuals/forty-women/

Spirit of justice

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
    and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout or cry out,
    or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4     he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
    In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

Isaiah 42:1-4

The next phrase of Isaiah 42 reminds us that the servant is one on whom Yahweh places his Spirit. The Spirit was given in the OT for particular tasks at particular times. In Judges and Samuel the Spirit is often portrayed as “rushing” on heroes to enable them to accomplish a particular task – sometimes without seeming to have much impact on the person concerned outside of that task (think Samson or Saul). At other times the Spirit stays for longer – e.g. David.

Often we talk about the Spirit coming to empower us, or to fill us – and I wonder what we tend to think of when we think of this activity. For some it might be: God gives his Spirit so that we can do miracles. Or perhaps God gives his Spirit so that people are healed. Or God gives his Spirit so that his Word can be proclaimed.

So we shouldn’t miss that here Yahweh’s servant receives Yahweh’s Spirit so that he can administer Yahweh’s justice to the nations. In fact this idea of justice is a repeated refrain through this passage. Justice is about things on earth being put in line with God’s rule. It is about people being treated as those made in God’s image, and about people treating others with fairness and equity.

So often we think of salvation in very individual terms – which is certainly part of God’s plan – but from the very beginning the plan is about so much more than just me and my life.

The idea of justice flows right through God’s redemptive plan. In talking about Abraham in Genesis God says these words:

17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

Genesis 18:17-19

Don’t miss this either. Abraham is chosen – and so all who are part of Abraham’s family are chosen (and that includes all who trust in Jesus – Romans 4) – to do righteousness and justice. Part of the way that God’s servant – Jesus – will lead out justice for the nations, is by God’s people learning what it means to live lives of righteousness and justice.

As I’ve reflected on the Ukrainian situation right now, on the terrible invasion and everything else that is going on it is easy to be overwhelmed. But I wonder if part of the answer – as well as thinking of all the practical things that can be done now – is to think of how living lives of righteousness and justice would make it a lot harder for tyrants to gain power and influence.

We could, for example, not tolerate politicians who just take money from the highest bidder. We could choose to lower living standards for those at the top, to ensure that those at the bottom had enough – nationally and globally. There is so much that we could do, even in very small doses, at a very local level.

Justice and righteousness done now may not be world changing. Our small acts may not stop Putin. But they are signposts and they are heralds of a world that is to come. A world of complete and total righteousness. A world whose king comes on a donkey to a cross. A world with a king whose outstretched arms bring healing for a broken world. A world with a king who rose again, promising that his rule had begun now, and will one one day be completed. That world is coming. Even if we cannot see or work out how right now.

We sung this wonderful hymn on Sunday at the church we went – I love especially v3, which seems to fit well with the servant leading out justice. Perhaps use the words to draw your hearts towards the work of the servant, and ask that he would show you how to live out specific acts of justice in your daily life.

1 I cannot tell why he, whom angels worship,
should set his love upon the sons of men,
or why, as Shepherd, he should seek the wanderers,
to bring them back, they know not how or when.
But this I know, that he was born of Mary
when Bethl’em’s manger was his only home,
and that he lived at Nazareth and laboured,
and so the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is come.

2 I cannot tell how silently he suffered,
as with his peace he graced this place of tears,
or how his heart upon the cross was broken,
the crown of pain to three and thirty years.
But this I know, he heals the broken-hearted
and stays our sin and calms our lurking fear
and lifts the burden from the heavy laden;
for still the Saviour, Saviour of the world is here.

3 I cannot tell how he will win the nations,
how he will claim his earthly heritage,
how satisfy the needs and aspirations
of east and west, of sinner and of sage.
But this I know, all flesh shall see his glory,
and he shall reap the harvest he has sown,
and some glad day his sun will shine in splendour
when he the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is known.

4 I cannot tell how all the lands shall worship,
when at his bidding every storm is stilled,
or who can say how great the jubilation
when every heart with love and joy is filled.
But this I know, the skies will thrill with rapture,
and myriad myriad human voices sing,
and earth to heav’n, and heav’n to earth, will answer,
‘at last the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is King!’

A Lenten Afternoon with Leah

This is when I come face to face my hypocrisy. It was uncomfortable with Rebekah and Rachel but there was outward beauty with them. Maybe if people saw me with them they would think I was beautiful too. Leah less so. Do I want to be seen with plain Leah. Yet she doesn’t need my pity either. Yes she has known rejection, she played her sister’s game of using her servant to have more children. She has been the third party, if even that, in a marriage.

She brings raw honesty to my afternoon of how I see others. Of how I see myself. The yo-yo view of myself and with that flows my yo yoing love toward others. To love another needs to flow not out of my view of myself but out of my right understanding of God’s love and His love for me.

Truth be told though I don’t want to sit with Leah long. I know the judgemental attitude I showed Rebekah and Rachel and yet somehow I want them to come back. I am more concerned with how people see me based on the company I appear to keep. In Leah I see how superficial I am, how easily I toss here and there. I want to live a life that honours God but its not all I want. I want recognition, I want to stand out, I want to be noticed.

I don’t think I am alone though in my thinking. If there is one thing life and parenting has taught me is that while we like to think of ourselves as unique, in the good and the bad, the truth is we are not as unique as we like to think. There are a few people I know or have met briefly and in an instant you know they, their life, their identity is in God alone and they truly are content. They are not tossed about like the sea. For me they are also all generally over 70, so that gives me hope as God continues to work in me, knowing He will not give up on me. They have reached that place because through the ups and downs of life God has kept His word and they have kept their eyes however imperfectly on Him.

Lord give me the courage to spend time with Leah, to lean in and learn. In Jesus name we pray.

https://www.eden.co.uk/lent-books-for-individuals/forty-women/

An Lenten Evening catch up with Rebekah and Rachel

Its not a comfortable catch up. I don’t look up to Rebekah and Rachel as mothers of the faith to emulate. I see their choices, their actions and I judge. Not outwardly, but inwardly I tell myself that I don’t act like them, that I am better than them. I lift myself up, my whitewashed faith up. I wonder how long I need to sit with these ladies and listen to them. I am thankful that God is long suffering and slow to anger. My heart and mind are slow to repent and humble themselves and recognise my failings.

Rebekah is determined to seek out God’s blessing for her younger son, Jacob. She dismissed her husband, she gives God no thought other than for her own plans. She writes everyone off but her youngest son. Ros Clarke points out at the end that one can love one child without hating the other child. We can love our neighbor and our enemy. The outworking of that love may look different but in loving one we do not by default hate the other. This is an idea that we need today at home and wider afield. Our love for Ukrainians and desire for an end to war does not mean we need to hate Russians. We may have strong feelings against certain leaders and the way they are calling their armies to act toward others. We need to hold onto the truth that vengeance belongs to the Lord. He is the God of justice and mercy. Our actions of protection, care and prayers for Ukrainians does not need to come with the cost of our hate, our apathy, our indifference to Russians.

Rachel is filled with envy. It is easy to see in her, its not something I want to give time to noticing in myself, so its more comfortable to dismiss her. To place all the envy on her. Old habits reappear; servants being used to provide heirs. And we discover that two can play at that game with Leah her sister doing the same thing. While these actions lead to more children, the envy and cycle of bitterness continues. This is not the building of loving, stable, secure families and unsurprisingly we see the hate, jealously and rivalry between mothers flows into the brothers relationships later on in their stories.

Spending time with both of these women are making me feel uncomfortable. I know others I would rather spend time with. Yet if I am willing to sit longer with them, to be as honest and real with my own story then maybe I will be still long enough to know and taste the mercy of God in my own life. To know what it is to love others, to be content and not envious so that I am free to love rather than hate. To know what it means to move toward others I would not naturally choose to be with. And then coming full cycle maybe sitting with Rebekah and Rachel would be a gift to treasure rather than time to be endured. God has given me, given us, these women and their stories. He gives only good gifts. There is goodness to be found in their lives for us.

Father, thank You that You first loved us. You show us what love without envy is like. Help us to be content in You and to love as You love. In Jesus name we pray.

https://www.eden.co.uk/lent-books-for-individuals/forty-women/

God’s Delight

Here, back to Isaiah 42 I come:

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
    and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout or cry out,
    or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4     he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
    In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

Isaiah 42:1-4

Behold. Pay attention. Notice. Notice the servant. Notice God’s chosen one. See that Yahweh upholds his servant. See that Yahweh delights in his servant. See too that before the servant does anything, Yahweh has chosen him, and delights in him. The servant’s mission comes because he is the one chosen by Yahweh, and it can be carried out because he is the one who Yahweh delights in. Identity comes before task.

I find it fascinating that Matthew, when he quotes this passage changes it slightly, and emphasises this reality even more strongly:

“Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
    the one I love, in whom I delight;

Matthew 12:18

Here the order is swapped slightly, and instead of ‘uphold’, Matthew has love. No other version, as far as we know, does this – so perhaps Matthew is deliberately linking this servant song to Jesus’s baptism and reminding us that the servant is also the beloved Son.

Israel as a nation had been called Yahweh’s son (Exodus 4, and Hosea 11), and Matthew uses Hosea 11 to talk how about Jesus fulfills Israel’s role as Yahweh’s son. Here in Matthew 12 he inserts “the one I love” into the servant song of Isaiah 42 to make the point that Jesus is both Servant and Son. He fulfills both the roles Israel failed to live out, and he has the perfect relationship with the Father that belongs to his identity as Son.

Twice in Matthew’s gospel we hear the words “This is my Son, whom I love” – at Jesus’s baptism and at the transfiguration. At the start of Jesus’s ministry and at the start of Jesus’s road to the cross. Jesus’s mission flows from his identity. And so with those who in the Son are called children of God. When we trust in Jesus we become God’s children, and we share in the mission of God’s servant.

And so we too can hear these words of God addressed to us. We are God’s children, whom he loves. We need to hear those words – and we need to believe them – before we do anything for him.

I need to hear those words because it is far too easy for me to find significance and meaning in what others think of me. A few years ago we left our church, also our place of work, and moved away from the area. In the time immediately afterwards I had some counseling sessions which were extremely helpful for me in processing what had happened.

I remember listening to a sermon, where the preacher shared some of their struggles, and as I listened it clicked – I too wanted, even at times, craved, approval and respect from certain people. I don’t necessarily want to be liked by everyone – but I do want certain people to think well of me. To consider me wise. To ask my opinion. To seek out my knowledge.

At the same time I don’t want to be involved in conflict. I want peace. I don’t want to struggle, and I hate to get it wrong. I hate to impose on people, or do something which will mean they don’t know how to respond. I want to be the one who makes it straightforward for them. And it is easy to let those desires be the ones that move me to shape my identity by how others see me and how I want them to see me.

And yet, there is one who sees me totally. Who knows how much I get it wrong, and how confused and conflicted I can be. Yet in Jesus I am counted as one of his beloved children. As one he delights in. And when I see this I am freed to move towards others in love. Knowing that I am loved, and that I don’t need approval – because the one who sees all has already declared his verdict and assures me of his love for me.

Any ministry I might do needs to flow from this love. Because if any of us minister out of the desire for approval – whether that is to be liked or respected, or feared, or obeyed, or whatever the manifestations of that desire look like in our hearts we will eventually create havoc in the lives of those we are ministering to.

We need to come back and we need to listen to the Father speaking to the Son:

“You are my son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased”

And then we need to remember that the Father loves us with the same love he has for Jesus.

Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Jesus in John 17:23

And we need to take the time. To remember, as Roz reminded us in the post on Hagar, that God is the one who sees us. When he sees us he sees us as we really are. And he loves us just the same. Whatever we think ourselves we need to come and sit and listen to the one who calls us his beloved, and listen to his love.

And then, and only then, when we have listened to that love and let it seep into our lives can we show that love to others in a way that will actually reflect God’s love, and allow them to become the people that God would have them be.

A Lenten Afternoon with Hagar

She may not be in my circle of friends, she is a servant. I may not keep servants but neither am I one, so she is not in my circle. Yet she comes this afternoon to sit with me and has someone she wants me to see, to meet. She wants me to meet God, to see Him and to know that He sees me.

Philippians 2:5-11 became my pivot for Advent readings and for Lent it is that image of God giving Adam and Eve clothes as they leave the garden.

Gen 3:21  The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Ros Clarke shares Hagar’s story in such a great way there is little to add. No thought is given to Hagar by Sarai or Abram. They show no compassion or grace and yet she is not with child because of her own doing but because of Sarai and Abram.

God does not give Hagar an escape route out of the circumstances in this case but He shows her He sees her and that is enough to give her strength to go back and carry on. That is not a blue print to be used to tell women to go back to abusive situations today. It is in Scripture though so we don’t skip over it. Maybe it is there to encourage us to be the one who says to someone else we see them, we hear them and to give them the courage to do what they need to do. Be it to escape abuse, be it to keep loving someone who is prickly in the family, be it to keep studying, be it to keep applying for work. To be the one who goes after the person who flees in tears, the one who slips out of church during the last hymn, to sit with the one no one else sees.

Hagar challenges me about who I consider is ‘in my circle’. May I take her up on her invitation.

Father, so often we talk about being the hands and feet of Jesus. May we also be the eyes that see others and go to them and comforts them. Remove the blinkers that we place over our eyes to stop us seeing the brokenness around us. In Jesus name we pray.

https://www.eden.co.uk/lent-books-for-individuals/forty-women/

Chosen

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
    and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout or cry out,
    or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4     he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
    In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

Isaiah 42:1-4

The next description of the servant we are asked to pay attention to is ‘my chosen one’. In Deuteronomy we see Israel reminded again and again that Yahweh had chosen them. In the prophets we are reminded of the responsibility that goes with being chosen.

Israel were chosen, fundamentally, to carry out God’s mission to bless all nations through Abraham. Yet when these words in Isaiah 42 are spoken Israel is in exile paying the price of wilful refusal to participate in that mission.

And so the servant is Yahweh’s chosen. To be the one who will bring blessing to the nation’s. He lives in himself the mission Israel were called to. This servant is all Israel should have been, but failed.

And so we read these words, and we read them knowing that Matthew will one day quote them – notice the subtle difference in ordering of the first verse – perhaps we will return to that in another post:

“Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
    the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
    and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
19 He will not quarrel or cry out;
    no one will hear his voice in the streets.
20 A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he has brought justice through to victory.
21     In his name the nations will put their hope.”

Matthew 12:18-21

Jesus is Yahweh’s chosen one, who brings about God’s mission in the world. Chosen, to bring justice to the nations. Chosen to bring hope to those on the brink of giving up altogether. Chosen to bring justice to victory, and to be the one in whom the nations put their hope.

And in that chosen one, all who put their trust in him become participants in that mission. We are known and loved from before the world began to be a part of God’s plan. As Eugene Peterson puts it reflecting on Jeremiah in Run with Horses:

God is out to win the world in love and each person has been selected in the same way that Jeremiah was, to be set apart to do it with him. He doesn’t wait to see how we turn out to decide to choose or not to choose us. Before we were born he chose us for his side…

Eugene Peterson – run with horses (p40)

To be chosen is not to enter a community from which some are excluded from any hope of ever joining. Instead to be chosen is to be brought in to the community of God’s love and to share in the mission of bringing that blessing to others and drawing them in.

There is a lovely hymn by the Iona community that expresses this truth more clearly than I can. Read these words, and listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rg_hkI47w8

We rejoice to be God’s chosen
Not through virtue work or skill
But because God’s love is generous
Unconformed to human will
And because God’s love is restless
Like the surging of the sea
We are pulled by heaven’s dynamic
To become not just to be

We rejoice to be God’s chosen
To be gathered to God’s side
Not to build a pious ghetto
Or be steeped in selfish pride
But to celebrate the goodness
Of the One who sets us free
From the smallness of our vision
To become not just to be

We rejoice to be God’s chosen
To align with heaven’s intent
To await where we are summoned
And accept where we are sent
We rejoice to be God’s chosen
And amidst all that we see
To anticipate with wonder
That the best is yet to be

We rejoice to be God’s chosen – John Bell & the Iona Community

A Lenten afternoon with Sarai

Abram’s wife is my companion this damp grey afternoon. Ros Clarke speaks to Sarai’s infertility, to her use of Hagar, to her mistreatment of Hagar. How easy it is for us to take matters into our own hands. Even when the initial vision, promise is from God and His word that He will bring something about. God works on a different time scale to us and it is all to easy to jump the gun even when trying to see His promises fulfilled because it feels like time is running out.

God has brought me back time and again recently in different conversations to the Garden of Eden and how God provided clothing for Adam and Eve that was more than the fig leaves they had rustled together. They still experienced pain, hard toil, death, family devastation out of the garden but that did not mean God sent them out with nothing.

In Sarai’s story there is much pain and brokenness that need never have happened to herself or to Hagar. We cannot escape that and yet in time Isaac was born to Sarai and Abram. God did not forget His promise. He did not hold a grudge. He did not hold back a son. He did not forget Hagar.

We may try to jump the gun, sort things out ourselves. We can tie ourselves in theological knots over whether to do something or wait? We go round in circles asking what is the right answer, do we get proactive or do we wait? I know that if I have sensed a vision, a calling of God, I want to make it happen. I want to get from A to B as quickly as possible. The reality is more often then not that is not God’s way with me. I have found myself like Sarai wanting to take matters into my own hands.

When we see brokenness and pain we wonder why God allows it to happen. Why doesn’t He stop it, prevent it. What Sarai teaches us is that God does see, He does care, He cares for all involved and He does not cancel His promise to us because of the fall out from our actions. He will not cancel His promise to us who believe.

With Eve, though she had eaten the fruit, the consequences were not fully felt till they left the garden and yet God provided for them before they left, before the pain hit. With Sarai, the fall out has happened, the pain has rippled out across lives and then God provides. God is faithful to provide.

Father God, thank You for providing for us with no restrictions, no limits. Thank You for doing more for us when we ask for daily bread than we can imagine. In Jesus name we pray.

https://www.eden.co.uk/lent-books-for-individuals/forty-women/