Ghosts, ghouls and saints

It's coming to the time of year when we see ghouls, ghosts and saints. There are lots of sweets and chocolates which are advertised with ghoulish pictures and the promise of slime inside!! Then of course we have the joy of the saints.  As I was thinking about the readings for this Sunday I was thinking of all of the upcoming events with All Hallows eve on 31st October and All Saints day on 1st November. I have always liked thinking of the saints in glory, shining and happy.  It is a good thought, darkness is defeated and we can one day be united with the saints.

When I was a child we used to have a saints and angels fancy dress night, with lots of halos and wings. It was a fun party and was always about defeating fear and sadness with joy and the hope of being with God forever in heaven.

As I got older I remembered the wonderful promise that we are all saints when we follow Jesus. This feels like a lot of pressure but then I remember Zacchaeus from the gospel reading (Luke 19:1-10) for this Sunday. The small man, desperate to see Jesus. We don't know what he was expecting, but he climbed a tree so that he would be able to see Jesus amongst the crowds. Of course, this also meant that Jesus would see him.

I wonder if we try to do things to make sure Jesus has noticed us. Although we know underneath that He has. But then does that mean we put too much pressure on ourselves to be a perfect saint? To be a saint is to follow Jesus, to be numbered in the glorious company of those who have gone before us, even Zacchaeus. 

Zacchaeus wanted to be noticed and not just that but he gave himself to Jesus,  as after his encounter with Jesus he wanted to be a disciple, by being better and helping those who he may have defrauded. Zacchaeus the small man who changed his life for Jesus.

This, of course, makes him a saint. He was forgiven by Jesus and knew what it meant to experience salvation.  This is what being a Saint is, to know forgiveness and to follow Jesus. Zacchaeus, I'm sure, didn't suddenly become perfect as a character, after all, he was human just like us and if you're anything like me you won't always get things right! But what is important is knowing Jesus’ love for us and his forgiveness. Zacchaeus, the man who is portrayed in Sunday school songs as a very little man, and who may have seemed insignificant, was noticed by Jesus. 

Even when we might feel insignificant Jesus notices us, and not only this we will not always be immediately perfect. After all, even the most perfect saints had faults. 

In the Psalm (32:1-7) for this week we are reminded of the sheer joy of forgiveness. I wonder whether part of being a Saint isn't just shining but is also joy. Zacchaeus knew it and we can as well.

“Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” Ps. 32: 1-2

Bible Sunday

This Sunday is Bible Sunday. I always smile when I realise Bible Sunday is on its way. I absolutely love the Bible. When I was a teenager I had a collection of different Bibles and matching Bible covers. I had special highlighting pencils for my favourite verses. I even got tabs to go on the side of the books in the Bible so that I could easily find a particular book whenever it was mentioned at a Bible study. I was a Christian bookseller's dream. I had all the gadgets.  

I couldn't get enough of the Bible. Of course, the appearance is nothing compared to the words. I don't want to sound as if I am showing off, and having all the various aids to help me read the Bible didn't always mean that I read it as much as I could.  

The most important bit then and now is  making time to read the Bible. Time to pray about what we are reading. The Bible is the way in which we learn about God, and it gives us advice on how to live. 

In the gospel reading (Luke 4:16-24) we heard of a time when Jesus took scripture and used it to surprise people. Imagine the scene. The well known son of Mary and Joseph was  back home, and as would be customary, He went to the synagogue. He then read a passage of Isaiah. The passage was certainly well known, in the passage was the promise of all that the long awaited Messiah was going to do. 

The people had been waiting in hope of God intervening by overthrowing the Romans who were in control of their land. The people knew that they had been promised a better way. They had been promised an anointed One, the Messiah who would make life better. 

They were waiting.  When Barack Obama was president of the United States there was an occasion when he was asked a question to which he gave a great answer. An answer that made it clear that he knew what he was talking about. He then dropped the microphone as a sound that all was completed. In the gospel reading Jesus has His own microphone drop moment. This was that after reading from Isaiah about the one who was to come, the one who would bring freedom, Jesus announced that His presence meant that the reading and the promise had been fulfilled. 

A microphone or even a pin drop moment. I always love picturing the scene afterwards where the people said, ‘isn't this Joseph's son.’ I am never sure whether the people were impressed or whether they were thinking, ‘who does he think he is?’

Either way, there is a surprise. The surprise that the promises of God were being fulfilled. Jesus was the fulfillment. Not only this, but the one they had been waiting for had arrived.

There is an element of surprise. Of course the scene doesn't end there as immediately Jesus responds by saying that He knows what they are likely to say as He quotes a proverb to them. Then He says that He can’t do in his hometown what He has done elsewhere as He wouldn't be accepted or listened to.

I could shake my head at them for not understanding who Jesus was. I could be rather exasperated. Then I wonder if I forget sometimes that God can speak to me through scripture in a way which surprises me. It may be through something that someone else says about the  passage. It may even be something I have read.

The Bible is God's word to us. Why wouldn't we expect to be surprised by what He is saying? The Bible challenges us. The Bible isn't meant to gather dust. It is alive and we need to make sure we read it. 

I was once a helper with the under 5’s at a Christian conference called Spring Harvest. One of the leaders of the group I was with had written a song. It often runs around my head 25 years later!!! 

The words are, “The Bible is a special book, it tells us that God love us. The Bible tells us what to do, we want to do what it says.” 

It is very simple, and of course, there is more that can be said but maybe 25 years later some of the children who were there remember that the Bible is special.

The song is not that different to the beginning of the Psalm (119:) for this Sunday.

“Your decrees are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.”

This Psalm is all about keeping God's word and commands. It is almost a love song of joy at God’s word. 

Bible Sunday is special not only because we remember that the Bible can surprise us, but also because we can love the fact that God continues to speak to us through it. 

Persistent in faith

I love the fact that our readings for each Sunday follow on from each other. It helps to know that at certain times of year we will hear and read particular readings. In the last few weeks, we have moved from thankfulness to treating the word of God correctly to another big word this week. We are on ‘faithfulness’.

In the gospel reading (Luke 18:1-8) we heard of persistence. I have always pictured this by trying to see the point of view of both the judge who is constantly questioned by the widow to the widow who cannot get justice. I feel slightly sorry for the judge. This is not the most obvious way to feel perhaps, but can you imagine someone constantly asking you for something that you don't want to give. If you thought it may be acceptable, but didn't want to back down that would be embarrassing. Of course, I feel sorry for the widow as you can almost picture an impoverished hard-done by figure who persists in asking. 

Of course, this tells us a lot about the need to keep asking God for things to change. The biggest problem with this is that we don't want to equate the judge who doesn't fear God, to God Himself.

We must indeed be persistent in prayer. However, here is where the big faithfulness word comes in. Maybe we are to be faithful in our prayers as well.  This makes sense, we are to go to God praying faithfully knowing that He hears us and will not ignore our cries for ourselves and for others. We are to be faithful in persisting not only in the prayers we promise to make for others but also in how we practice our faith.

To me being faithful means being true, and not giving up.  It is persistence. Someone asked me once how we can stay faithful and believe even when things go badly wrong and make no sense. I answered that we believe in spite of things going wrong. It made sense to me on the one hand. It suggested that no matter what happens we keep believing, we are persistent in staying faithful. Now I think I would add that whilst we believe and stay faithful in spite of everything that may suggest otherwise, we do so because we know and worship God who is always faithful. This is another reason why He can never be ignorant like the judge in the parable. Rather, the judge represents all that tries to stop me from being faithful, all that makes me doubt the need for persistent prayer and faithfulness. After all the judge didn't even fear God.

In the epistle reading (2 Timothy 3:14-4:5) there is an encouragement and a command to stay faithful. Timothy had known about faith since childhood. I am always so grateful that like Timothy I was taught about faith from a young age.  I was able to decide for myself whether I made that faith my own as well. This is great, and Timothy was encouraged in his faith and reminded that the use of scripture (which would have been the Jewish scriptures) was to instruct and train him.

The part that sticks out for me, particularly in the reading from 2 Timothy is chapter 4 verse 2 where we are reminded to proclaim the message and to be persistent in doing this - 

“proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.” (NIV). 

We need to be faithful and persistent, always proclaiming the gospel

Bible trivia

 This week I have been struck by a particular reading from the Sunday readings this is the epistle reading 2 Tim. 2:8-15.

The reason I was struck by the passage is that it speaks a lot to me about one of my favourite things. This is discussing the Bible. In the last week, I downloaded an app which was called Bible trivia. I did this to test myself.  It was really easy. However, the game came with an image of Jesus and words in a speech bubble saying, ‘ how well do you know me?’  this made me delete the app. I didn't want to be guilted into testing my Bible knowledge. Although, I may have given up anyway, in case I embarrassed myself by not knowing the answer. 

Our knowledge of the Bible is meant to help us. It is good to know lots about the Bible but it is a living and breathing document which needs to speak to us. The Bible allows us to hear or read God's word to us. In the passage from 2 Timothy we are given an example of how we should use the Bible and our knowledge of it. In verse 14 there is a warning to not wrangle with words. I love words, everyone who knows me will understand how much I love words and talking. The difficulty that Paul, the writer of the epistle, was warning about was not to disagree over small parts of interpreting the Bible to such an extent that people stop listening.

The whole point comes in verses 8 and 9. In these verses, there is a reminder that Jesus is always the most important. His is the gospel we proclaim.  As he wrote the epistle, Paul, was chained up. He couldn't go out and preach the gospel. However, he pointed out, God's word is never able to be chained up.

Well, that puts a stop to me getting arrogant over my Bible knowledge. Regardless of my circumstances, the word of God continues. The wonderful, life-giving message of Jesus can't be chained up. This is amazing.

This is all well and good. However, I am still to make sure that I am not challenged by a computer app masking as Jesus asking me how well I know Him. 

The beginning of the passage tells us to remember Jesus. We are then told that as we do this we need to present ourselves to God as a worker with no need to be ashamed. Not only this but later in the passage we are told of our need to explain the Word of truth. To tell people about Jesus. 

The major challenge is not to spend time arguing about what we think the word of God, the Bible, means if it causes us to stop thinking about Jesus. The word continues unchained and our job is to make sure that we do not need to be ashamed before God. As we remember Jesus so we know that we are, to tell the truth about Him,  to love as He loves and to proclaim the good news of salvation.

We are all able to have a relationship with God. The Bible teaches us, but we are to use it to help us and others know the amazing saving power of God. After all no Bible trivia game can ever beat a relationship with our God.