Category: Through the Bible in a Year

Through the Bible in a Year – April 19

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The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Jos 1-3; 1 Tim 5-6; Psalm 129-131

‘Those who want to be rich fall into a trap . . .’

The desire to be wealthy is almost universal and yet it is deceitful, for it is founded upon a deceit from the Father of lies – that we can secure a life for ourself. The life we secure for ourself is no life at all, for it is the rejection of the life that is given. It leads to ultimate loneliness. Thus Jesus when he meets the Rich man counsels him to give up the life he has made for himself. To share in Life with the company of disciples

However much we may wish to ‘spiritualise’ Jesus’ words and plain teaching on worldly wealth, and we have all tried one way or another – it comes back to us over and over. Woe to you who are rich now – for you have received your reward. This is the material counterpoint to Jesus’ counsel over our spiritual practices. If we do them publicly then we get our reward. We get what we seek. So if we seek security in this life we will find it.

But the life we make for ourselves ends with the death of our body, and then we discover it is all we have.

Of course this isn’t to say that there are wonderful riches to be had in this life having given our self construction project up in favour of the Life that comes fom above, that is Gift. Peter tells Jesus – look what we have given up – and Jesus’ reply to him is ‘Open your eyes – behold the riches of life shared with so many who have heard my voice’

As so often it comes back to what does it mean to be the people of God – that is the Church. That is Shared Life – Life in abundance – a life we discover when we come together, not as individuals but as Christ’s body – as great a challenge as that of letting go of our wealth.

Through the Bible in a Year – April 18

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The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Deut 33-34; 1 Tim 3-4; Psalm 126-128

Reading here in Timothy the qualifications for Bishops and Deacons, it is not at all difficult to read that the early church must have been a very mixed bag of believers. Given that these are probably by the standards of the times very exacting standards, they suggest to us a church which is rife with all sorts of goings on. Which of course it was, as we know if we take but a moment to read any of Paul’s letters to the churches. Notoriously of course, the church in Corinth was accepting of incest amongst its members – and we may well say, ‘We thank you O Lord that we are not like that!’

Certainly, on the whole the moral standards of the church as we know it is ‘higher’. Certainly we wouldn’t have too much trouble finding a good number amongst us who might fill the qualification for Bishop or Deacon. But that is to miss the point. For whilst there was much amiss in terms of ‘good living’, the early church as we know was full of Good Life.

We may consider the early church in some sense morally dissolute – but it had a spiritually vibrant in a way that few churches are today, certainly in the West. We may well have an enticing, culturally acceptable, morally clean shop front, but is there any Life to be had?

Is it perhaps the case that we have confused middle class mores for Christian Life? So often I hear from those outside the church, ‘I am not good enough to be part of the church’. However much we might say that isn’t the point, few of our churches reveal in their common life the truth of that. It may seem rather perverse to suggest this, but is there any chance that those who come amongst us find that their culturally unacceptable lives are welcome?

The room has been swept clean, but have we allowed the Living One to come amongst us. Indeed we may well ask if we’d let the one who had nothing in his appearance that we might desire him in . . .

Through the Bible in a Year – April 17

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The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Deut 32; 1 Tim 1-2; Psalm 123-125

The reading from Deuteronomy is a song of Moses – its basic theme is that we have forgotten whose children we are.

God is ‘without deceit’ – ‘yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him’

In other words, we do not reflect the image of the one who created us.

But . . . that said, God in Christ has renewed that image in humankind. Thus in Him we once more reflect the Image of God. This is the meaning of St John’s words ‘to all who believe in his name he gave the right to become children born of God.

All too often we hear of the work of the cross in terms of a mechanism for dealing with sin – which at a very basic level it is. But the reason for the Cross is not primarly sin, but the renewal of the divine image. That is the goal of the cross and that is why John in his gospel will speak of the cross in terms of Glory – a term associated with the Life of God, a Life which is restored in those who abide in Christ, those in whom Christ abides.

Through the Bible in a Year – April 16

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The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Deut 29-31; 2 Thes 3; Psalm 120-122

Tradition is to some a dirty word.

Literally it means nothing more than that which is handed on, but for some it has come to mean ‘dead religion’, or ‘praying by rote’. It has in some circles come to exemplify lifeless religion – except properly understood this cannot be so, for what do we have that we did not receive?

Paul here interestingly speaks of tradition in a way with which we might be unfamiliar. We might think of tradition in terms for example of liturgy, or hymnody. Perhaps if we are a little more biblically alert, we might think of it in terms of doctrine. But Paul here has in mind something more profound than this. He speaks of tradition in the light of his way of living. This for most of us is an alien way of considering tradition, and certainly viewed in this light makes it far from ‘a lifeless thing’.

Essentially that which is passed down is a life, the Life of the Risen One. This life is communicated through the laying on of hands, through baptism, through the liturgy of the church, all means which the Spirit uses to impart the Life of Christ.

It is perhaps no surprise that when Paul again commends ‘tradition’ [remember that the letters to the Thessalonians are the earliest of Paul’s letters we have], in 1 Corinthians 11, it is the handing on of the Tradition concerning the Lord’s Supper, the Tradition of the ‘life imparting heavenly manna’.

Through the Bible in a Year – April 15

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The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Deut 28; 2 Thes 1-2; Psalm 119:161-178

As we come to the end of Psalm 119, it may indeed feel like a tremendous accomplishment – it has been a long road.

But in the Christian Life we are always beginning and the Psalmist forcibly reminds us of this. In the End we are utterly dependent on the mercy of God, which is good news. The Psalmist does not rejoice in his steafastness, indeed as the prophet Hosea expresses his devotion to God – ‘it is like a morning cloud’. The Psalm ends not on a note of confidence in the righteousness of the one who prays, quite the opposite.

‘I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek out your servant, for I do not forget your commandments’

Faith as a mustard seed is enough

Through the Bible in a Year – April 14

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The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Deut 25-27; 1 Thess 5; Psalm 119:145-160

The law of tithing is a thorny issue at best. As more than one observer has noted, it provides an easy out for the wealthy who can easily afford it . . . (cf the story of the pharisee and the publican) – yet at the same time it is a remedy for our refusal to live as God’s children, that we are called to live in imitation of him who doesn’t hold back at 10%.

As we read these verses from Deuteronomy “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns,” note the reason given for the tithe . . . So that various people who have no land on which to grow their own food, those excluded from the means of production of that which our bodies need for life, those who cannot have bread – have bread.

The Law of the Tithe is not given as a means of righteousness, it is given as a guard against our ungodliness, as indeed is all Law. Thus there is Nothing to be gained by the one who keeps the Law, for all the law does is ensure that the person and those around them live at the bare level of decency and do no further damage to the Imago Dei, than their otherwise self-centered lives do, demeaning the name of the one in whose image they are made.

We are called to meet the needs of the needy – this is the new Commandment, the Law of Love. Still, sadly to this day there are too many of us, all of us to a degree, who see ‘love’ as affection, rather than action. The True contemplative does not live a life in what one writer calls, ‘The desert of nonparticipation’ Life is only known in relationship – Life is Love. And Love Acts – Love takes on flesh – Love gives to the needy, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked – actually This now in the light of Christ is that bare level of human decency (Luke 3:11), apart from the gift of the Spirit. This is Basic humanity. It is only the beginning of the life of discipleship – in a sense it is no more than the law of the tithe . . .(Matt 19:21)

Through the Bible in a Year – April 13

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The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Deut 23-24; 1 Thes 3-4; Psalm 119:129-144

‘Therefore, when we could stand it no longer . . .’

In the last verses of yesterday’s reading from Thessalonians, we heard of Paul’s profound love for his new brothers and sisters.

Just take a moment to consider this.

Then he carries on with the words at the top of this post. Now remember, Paul’s relationship to these believers is at best sketchy – they don’t go back years and years, he has no blood tie – his only bond with them is that they are his fellow Christians. Yet he speaks of his affection and his desire to be with them in terms which frankly few of us use outside of profound romantic attatchments, or as parents to children.

Perhaps in this latter there is an echo of what is going on, for Paul has ‘parented’ these Christians. But I think in these words there is a HUGE challenge to us in terms of our Devotion to one another as borthers and sisters in the LORD.

Is this how we relate to those people with whom we worship Sunday by Sunday? Put another way, do we truly recognise Christ in one another.

Our devotion to Him is only in truth as deep as our devotion to one another . . . and vice versa.

Through the Bible in a Year – April 12

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The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Deut 20-22; 1 Thes 1-2; Psalm 119:113-128

Twice in these opening chapters of the first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul speaks of the imitation of these Christians of the way of life of the Apostles as the confirmation of their election. This Imitation is no mere copying though, throughout it is tied to their reception of the Holy Spirit. The word is not merely received, i.e. agreed to, no it comes with the Spirit and power that lives are transformed.

This aspect of conversion is more and more neglected in an age where faith is a matter of believing certain facts. A Sign of our elcetion, that the Gospel has gone home is that our lives are transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ, and that change brings with it persecution. Christian Life is not socially acceptable, for it calls the world to something New – to change.

The further emphasis on the word as being more than a message to be ‘believed’ is found as St Paul speaks of the ministry of himself and his companions amongst those at Thessalonica. He begins (2:1-7) by saying that they have spoken in such a way not as to win approval from men, as in the same way he speaks of bringing the gospel to Corinth. The words are not cover for something else, there is no flattery, no pretext for greed. The Apostles do not seek anything for themselves through the ministry. We might, were we to stop half way through verse 7, imagine Paul go on to say that they proclaimed the truthful word. We might imagine how we are commended to Truthfully proclaim the word, in and out of season – but at this point Paul changes the reminder of their mission to the words – ‘we were gentle’ amongst you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our very selves . . .’

Paul’s model for evangelism is not ‘pure proclamation’, but the vulnerable an gentle sharing of lives. A model I suspect we have largely forgotten in the years since this the earliest account of Christian witness was written.

Through the Bible in a Year – April 11

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The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Deut 17-19; Col 3-4; Psalm 119:97-112

To turn for a moment to the writing in Deuteronomy – we find ‘limitation’ written into many aspects of the law. In particular this is expressed in 19:15 where there is a prohibition on moving boundary stones. This is rooted in the deep apprehension that the land is The Lord’s – it is gift and not for others to acquire. The Royal Law of Jubilee, which Christ  comes to enact (Luke 4:19), is primarily concerned with allowing all to live the life they have been given, rather than allowing some to take life from others, to accumulate – which is always the outflow of Greed. Indeed anyone who enlarges his own land at the expense of another is under Curse (Deut 27:17). This of course is contrary to the spirit of this and any other age, for the Prince of this world holds sway over so many – the same one who in the beginning spoke to our ancestors calling them to live beyond their creatureliness. ‘You shall be like God’.

The parallel between this temptation and that of acquiring land and wealth at the expense of others is striking. The Earth is the Lord’s – it is not ours to acquire, and yet our eyes are so easily captivated. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

Our limitedness is for the sake of others – it extends to every realm of life. Something which we are slow to learn. It is only those who have accepted this limitation who discover unlimited life, life eternal. Those who realise that life is not something they secure for themselves, through effort and hard work, it is not ‘their just deserts’ – rather it is gracious gift. And it is The Lord who has fixed your neighbour’s boundary marker, allotting to them also the place where in limitation, unlimited Life is discovered.

This limitedness we also read extends even to the King. Thus the Terrible transgression of Ahab and Jezebel, over Naboth’s vineyard, a story we see replayed over and over in the world today as the powerful move the ancient boundary markers, or as in the case of David, the roving eye sees a person whom he may acquire. All are limited, that all might till their own soil and therein find Life.

Through the Bible in a year – April 10

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The Scheme for March – April can be found here

Deut 14-16; Col 2; Psalm 119:81-96

‘See to it that no-one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit . . .’

How easy it is to be taken captive. Of course this is not a frontal assault. This is not as if someone has stormed into our house and taken us all hostage. No, such captivity is ‘welcomed’ – we are ‘captivated’, entranced is a good word. Ideas, images, take hold of our thinking. We who were just a few verses ago seemingly captivated by the one who ransoms us, who liberates us, are now pondering those things which are upon the earth. We find ourselves caught up in controversy, a mass of words and thoughts which draw us in and then we find that they do not give us life.

There is so much in the world that so captivates us – it is all too easy. There is but one remedy, to through patient meditation root our minds in the Truth that is The Living One. To be alert to our souls anchor in Christ. As Jesus says, Abide in me, as I Abide in you. To dwell in Christ, to be at home in him, to know ourselves aas at home in him as he is in us reveals the falsity of those gleaming things which so tempt us away from the Hearth of God’s hospitality, as was the Prodigal, as were all the lost sheep.

There is but one problem, that he comes to us in ‘distressing disguise’ – so trained are our minds that we mistake the passing glory of the world for the Eternal Glory of Christ. Once more we are called to meditate upon Christ and him Crucified – there is nothing ‘captivating’, or entrancing there. Nothing to delight our passions and desires, just the pure appeal of Love. There is nothing in Him for our senses, just His presence as Gift.

The Christian walk is a long apprenticeship in learning the truth that Christ Crucified has become for us Wisdom from God, to become true philosophers, that is ‘Lovers of Wisdom’, The Wisdom present through all eternity. All else has been nailed to that Cross.