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Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity.
One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and striving toward what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.
To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it... to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants... instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
(Jeremiah 717:7-8; Colossians 2:6-7; 2 Peter 3:18; Hebrews 6:1; Philippians 3:13b-15a; Ephesians 4:7,12-13 -- all NIV)
Many of us have a yearning to know something of our historical roots. We all, no doubt, know some individuals who have painstakingly researched their family history. Many of those adopted -- and their natural parents -- are eagerly taking advantage of recent legislation allowing greater access to adoption records. And in many parts of the world there is a burgeoning pride in racial heritage, exemplified by such slogans as 'black is beautiful'. One's roots are important to one's identity.
But more important than our biological and social roots are our spiritual roots. As Christians, we are exhorted to be like trees planted by streams of water, with roots that dig deeply enough to make us strong and stable, and that draw enough regular nourishment to sustain our life and fruitfulness whatever threats our environment brings. However, because we are human beings, not trees, we have a choice as to where we want to be planted, how deeply we will allow our roots to grow, and how liberally we will drink from the water source. If we so choose, we can be planted in an arid area, or near foul water; we can be content with a shallow root system; and we can try to make do with a spasmodic sip of water. Hardly a recipe for a maturing spiritual life!
Further, spiritual roots are nurtured by both historical and contemporary elements, by 'theory' and 'experience'. It is stimulating for us to develop the ability to ponder the nature of God, and his working in history from creation to consummation: but that has minimal value unless we also let our roots go down deeply into the spiritual life that only comes from him. We are enriched by widening our understanding of the atonement as an historical and theological event: but that cannot nourish our souls unless it motivates us to drink freely of the water of life offered to us by Christ in his atonement. There is a place for discussion about the coming of the Holy Spirit and the significance of his work: but that can never be a substitute for allowing him to grow his fruit in our lives, and equip us with the gifts he wishes us to use in the building up of the Body into maturity.
So we face a paradox: growing up is growing down! Whether we identify more readily with the 'riverside tree' or the 'downtown tree' of Ken Medema's 'Tree Song' -- the one with its visibly lush surroundings, the other with its hidden water source -- we can experientially affirm:
I've got roots growing down to the water, I've got leaves growing up to the sunshine, And the fruit that I bear is a sign of the life in me. I am shade from the hot summer sundown, I am nest for the birds of the heaven. I'm becoming what the Lord of trees has meant me to be, a strong young tree.
Many Christians never grow up. They remain beginners in the faith. The time and effort required to secure the treasures of the spiritual life call for too much effort; the moral and social demands of loyalty to Christ are more than they are prepared to pay; so they remain children in the faith.
E. Ernest Thomas
To some people maturity seems to mean questioning everything and being agnostic on all things. Surely, however, the mark of maturity is to arrive at firm convictions instead of remaining forever in an attitude of adolescent questioning and scepticism. There is a distinction to be drawn between openmindedness (the willingness to examine basic convictions) and empty-mindedness (the principle of throwing everything overboard and then trying to make a fresh start). The [Christian] need not be afraid to submit his deepest convictions to scrutiny, for the truth can stand scrutiny. Nor will he let himself be swept off his feet by superior argument, so that he continually vacillates like a broken weather-vane. Rather he will hold fast to the Word of God, and from this position he will have a proper stance to exercise his critical and self-critical faculties.
1. Howard Marshall, from an article 'Towards Maturity'
If prayer were just an intelligent exercise of our mind, we would soon become stranded in fruitless and trivial inner debates with God. If, on the other hand, prayer would involve only our heart, we might soon think that good prayers consist in good feelings. But the prayer of the heart in the most profound sense unites mind and heart in the intimacy of the divine love... It is indeed like a murmuring stream that continues underneath the many waves of every day and opens the possibility of living in the world without being of it and of reaching out to our God from the centre of our solitude.
Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out
Maturity begins to grow when you can sense your concern for others outweighing your concern for yourself.
John MacNaughton, source unknown
The growth and final maturity of the individual Christian contributes to the growth and final maturity of the church, the society of which he is a member. Conversely, this growth and maturity can only be fully attained in the unity of faith and knowledge which typifies the corporate experience of the church. The Christian individual and the Christian society are, therefore, through their mutual organisation about Christ, interdependent.
W.E. Andersen, The Christian Concept of Maturity
Ethical development, as well as intellectual and emotional development, is a necessary condition of maturity... Since ethics always asserts that one kind of conduct is better than another, an ultimate basis for comparison is implied. Therefore, ethical choices are basically theological, since they imply loyalty to God or to some principle that stands in the place of God as an ultimate referent... The intellectual and emotional components of maturity can be developed by effort, such as self-discipline, devotion to learning, and the cultivation of habit. But theological questions demand commitment.
Orville S. Walters, in an article 'Maturity: When.'?'
Temptation is a factor in the psychological and spiritual growth process everyone must go through if we are to become mature individuals, capable of living a full and meaningful life. The function of temptation is always to trigger a choice and provoke a definite stand or action.
Bob Mumford, The Purpose of Temptation
The one who is mature is not he who has achieved all his goals, but who has his goals clearly in mind, and who is, in addition, pursuing them with vigour.
W.E. Andersen, The Christian Concept of Maturity
Real maturity comes when we say to ourselves and to others: 'We know in part and prophesy in part... our seeing now is as through a glass darkly.' This means while I don't now know everything, I do know something, and on the basis of what I do know I can act constructively in the present toward the future... If we will respond in this way, that will be the best proof I know that we have 'put away childish things' and are functioning as mature human beings.
John Claypool, in a sermon 'Absurdity, Causality and Mystery'
Where did the idea ever come from that we should reach total maturity quickly or without lots of falling down and getting up?. If we abandon the expectation that our growth should be another way, then we can live into where we are and use it as an occasion 'to press on to the mark' as St Paul said, rather than giving up in discouragement... Being a slow learner does not disqualify one. It may be death to pride, but not to hope. Listen, the issue is not how long it takes us to be fully graced, but trust in him who, having begun a good work, will see it through to completion.
John Claypool, from a sermon 'Slow Learners and Hope'
The Lord is often in less of a hurry than we are... It was fourteen years from the time of Paul's conversion to the time of his departure with Barnabas from Antioch. Those largely 'hidden' years were not wasted. God was preparing his instrument: tempering and hardening him, hammering him into shape, teaching him. Paul was learning about discipleship.
Michael Griffiths, Give Up Your Small Ambitions
Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people. The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the .depths. They invite us to explore the inner caverns of the spiritual realm. They urge us to be the answer to a hollow world... Our world is hungry for genuinely changed people. Leo Tolstoy observed, 'Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.' Let us be among those who believe that the inner transformation of our lives is a goal worthy of our best effort.
Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline
Our Father, we confess that too often we've put down our roots in the wrong places; we've been more concerned with our human heritage and resources than we have been to experience the riches of our inheritance in Christ; we've not really grown up, because we've not really grown down. Father forgive us.
Lord Jesus, we want to have more than an intellectual understanding of our faith: we want to know you; we want to grow up to be mature in you, to be nourished by the water of life you offer us; we want to be made willing to accept the commitment and discipline of being your disciples.
Lord, inspire us by your example of growth in obedience, so that our goal will be to grow up into you, our Head.
Holy Spirit, we don't want to remain infants, grieving you by our immaturity; we don't want to have such shallow roots that we are unable to produce the fruit you wish to see in our lives; we don't want to ignore the challenges of receiving and using the gifts you allocate to us so we can fulfil our proper functions as part of the Body of Christ.
Spirit, thank you for your power which enables us to grow down, in order that we may grow up.
Our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we accept your forgiveness, your inspiration and your empowering with grateful hearts. Amen.
A Benediction
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge: that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19, NIV).
>From Rowland Croucher ed., Still Waters Deep Waters (Albatross/Lion) chapter 9
You have learnt how it was said 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth'. But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole. And with his stripes we are healed.
You have learnt how it was said 'you must love your neighbour and hate your enemy'. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
For Christ suffered for you and left you a personal example, and wants you to follow in his steps. He was guilty of no sin, nor of the slightest prevarication. Yet when he was insulted he offered no insult in return. When he suffered he made no threats of revenge.
Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.
(Matthew 5:38-40, JB; Isaiah 53:4-5, RSV; Matthew 5:43-44, JB; Peter 2:21-23, Phillips; Luke 23:34, NEB)
Should we permit the behaviour of others towards us to change our standards, ideals and behaviour?
In fact, the behaviour of others towards us does evoke changes within us. If we respond to our highest ideals and insights, we try to act patiently, tolerantly and lovingly. But when we receive in return nothing but misunderstanding, indifference, accusations of insincerity, and hostility, then we begin to change. We lose patience, we become defensive. Like Peter, we think it's a big deal to forgive up to seven times. But seventy times seven? No way.
The change in us is the consequence of our allowing the attitudes and actions of another to gain power over us.
We may even rationalise. We argue that it is in their interests that we do not allow them to get away with it.
We may also argue that whilst Jesus' teaching is ideal, we've got to be practical and realistic.
Jesus' prayer, 'Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing,' exemplifies his characteristic reaction to hostility and violence throughout his life. He dared to stake his whole being on the veracity and ultimate power of love. He refused at any point to allow the abuse and attacks of others to change one whit his attitudes or reaction towards them.
Never once did he change his nature -- which was to save those who reviled him -- to accommodate or adjust himself to others.
The cross is foolish not only to the unbelieving world. In his personal life the Christian also has a struggle with the foolishness of the cross -- the symbol of the uncompromising and unconditional love demonstrated by Jesus and demanded of his disciple.
Yet it is the way the Master went. And a cross-less Christianity is a distortion and a travesty.
An old man in India sat down in the shade of an ancient banyan tree whose roots disappeared far away in a swamp. Presently he discerned a commotion where the roots entered the water. Concentrating his attention, he saw that a scorpion had become helplessly entangled in the roots. Pulling himself to his feet, he made his way carefully along the tops of the roots to the place where the scorpion was trapped. He reached down to extricate it. But each time he touched the scorpion, it lashed his hand with its tail, stinging him painfully. Finally his hand was so swollen he could no longer close his fingers, so he withdrew to the shade of the tree to wait for the swelling to go down. As he arrived at the trunk, he saw a young man standing above him on the road laughing at him. 'You're a fool,' said the young man, 'wasting your time trying to help a scorpion that can only do you harm.' The old man replied, 'Simply because it is in the nature of the scorpion to sting, should I change my nature, which is to save?'
William Sloane Coffin, The Courage to Love
Love will conquer hate.
Mohandas Gandhi
Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done, or putting a false label on an evil act. It means rather that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst which creates the atmosphere necessary for a new beginning. Agape is sheer unqualified, creative and redemptive goodwill for all people. Love alone is capable of transforming with redemptive power.
I have lived with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive. There are some who still find the cross a stumbling block, others consider it foolishness. But I am more convinced than ever that it is the power of God to social and individual salvation.
Martin Luther King, Strength to Love
The meek only inherit abuse!
Unknown
The spirit of self-denial and the spirit of service coming together produce a new being: the most formidable being on earth -- the Terrible Meek! They are terrible in that they demand nothing, and hence cannot be bought or tempted, and that there are no lengths they are not prepared to go for others. Christ in the presence of Pilate is a picture of the terrible meek. He could not be bullied -- he could not be changed. Nothing could make him love less. He wanted nothing, except to give his life for the very people who were crucifying him. The future of the world will be in the hands of those who serve the world, suffer for the world, and so save the world.
E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount
Lord, in my head, and deep in my heart, I know that the way of Jesus is unquestionably right. The purity of his love leaves me wondering. But, Lord, you also know, better than I understand it, the struggle I have inside. The sheer practicalities of daily human interaction all tell me it won't work. I want to save myself. But then, didn't Jesus? The difference between us is that his final choices -- not to save himself -- were always the right ones. Mine almost never are. My natural impulse, Lord, is to defend myself, to protect myself, to refuse to become vulnerable to the hostility of others.
The cross is so much heavier than I thought. In the first flush of discipleship, and the glow of my young faith, I picked it up readily. But now? I've discovered that the cross is not a comfortable symbol. It impinges on almost every decision I have to make -- even the small ones. I Want to choose against the path of pain, involvement, personal cost. I can easily love my friends -- and forgive them when necessary. But my enemies? Those who hurt me? Every day I let the attitudes of others determine my reactions.
Lord, I see all this. And I know that your way, not mine, is right. Please help me, however stumblingly, to pick up the cross -- in little things and big -- until, by your grace, I become a little more like Jesus. Please help me. Amen.
O Holy Spirit, who so deeply disturbs our peace, continue, we pray, your probings and promptings and goad us until we go your way, to our own greater blessing and deeper peace. In Jesus Christ our Lord.
George Appleton, Journey for a Soul
A Benediction
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ make us gracious.
The love of God our Father make us loving
And the fellowship and power of the Holy Spirit fill and empower us
Until we show, in our lives, more of the spirit and the marks of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Still Waters, Deep Waters ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 238-241
God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken and mountains fail into the ocean depths; even if the seas roar and rage, and the hills are shaken by the violence.
I am the Lord: why don't you fear me? Why don't you tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, a permanent boundary that it cannot cross. The sea may toss, but it cannot go beyond it; the waves may roar, but they cannot break through.
Come and see what God has done, his wonderful acts among us. He changed the sea into dry land; our ancestors crossed the river on foot. There we rejoiced because of what he did. Who is a God like you, who pardons sin... You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
There will be strange things happening to the sun, the moon, and the stars. On earth whole countries will be in despair, afraid of the roar of the sea and the raging tides... Then the Son of Man will appear... When these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads, because your salvation is near.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth... and there was no longer any sea.
(Psalm 46:1-3, GNB; Jeremiah 5:22, GNB; Psalm 66:5-6, GNB; Micah 7:18-19, NIV; Luke 21:25-28, GNB; Revelation 21:1, NIV)
Every day we are made promises. Advertisers promise us cheap peace, translating our wants into needs. A trouble-free existence is ours, for a price. Sometimes preachers, too, promise serenity without strife, tranquillity without turmoil, resurrection without Gethsemane or Calvary. Whilst we must not let anyone crucify us who cannot resurrect us, Jesus said there is no life except through death. As one mystic put it, the Spirit of God and our own spirits strive together in a storm of love. In this 'strife of love' each spirit is deeply wounded by love. Gethsemane is not a detour. The primal sin of Adam and Eve was to try to get knowledge without working for it, to 'arrive' without the pain of the journey, to attain 'instant godliness'.
God is a sea, says Ruysbroeck. The sea, for the ancient Hebrews, was a turbulent place where danger lurked. (So the Jews did not make good sailors; they left that to the Phoenicians.) Deliverance from the Red Sea was a recurring theme for wonder-full recollection. Apocalyptic writers pictured great beasts coming out of the sea. In heaven there will be 'no more sea'. But the 'second death' is symbolised by a 'lake of fire' (Revelation 19:20, 20:14).
So the sea of love, where we meet God, is sometimes a fearful place. Love is always enhanced by courage and hard work. The objects of temporal love eventually die, so the more we love, the more risks we take. The opposite of love is inertia, doing nothing.
As we begin this journey, sometimes through uncharted, unfamiliar seas, let this text encourage us: 'When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you... for I am the Lord your God, who saves you' (Isaiah 43:2-3).
Here begins the sea that ends not till the world's end.
Where we stand,
Could we know the next high sea-mark set beyond
these waves that gleam,
We should know what never man hath known, nor eye of
man hath scanned...
Ah, but here man's heart leaps, yearning towards the gloom
with venturous glee,
From the shore that hath no shore beyond it, set in all
the sea.
A.C. Swinburne, 'On the Verge', from A Midsummer Vacation
The enlightened man shall go out and observe God in his glory with all saints. And he shall behold the rich and generous outflowing of God, with glory, and with himself, and with inconceivable delights towards all the saints, according to the longing of all spirits; and how these flow back, with themselves, and with all that they have received and can achieve, towards that same rich oneness from which all bliss comes forth.
This flowing forth of God always demands a flowing back; for God is a Sea that ebbs and flows, pouring without ceasing into all his beloved according to the need and the merits of each, and ebbing back again with all those who have been thus endowed both in heaven and on earth, with all that they have and all that they can.
Ruysbroeck, quoted in David Walker, God is a Sea
The ebbing and flowing of the tide is a continuing phenomenon. Each day the tide comes in and draws out. It is the same with the divine tide. The Father has not simply poured his graces into our hearts on an isolated occasion in the past; he continues to do so in the life situation of each person. The divine love floods the universe. Each situation is a graced situation, a sacrament in which the divine is present, open to us, reaching out in love. This ever-present divine love draws us to itself within each situation. The love of the lover draws the beloved to a love of which he alone is not capable.
There are two attitudes with which we can confront this overwhelming truth. We can be like the beach over which the tide flows and ebbs. It is open and unresisting; it receives and it gives; it lets its mood be determined by the tide. On the other hand we could be like the rocks on which the same tide runs but which are hard and stand fast, resisting -- even fighting -- the tide and refusing to be affected by it. We must imitate the openness and unresisting character of the beach, for it is only then that the divine power within the Father's approach is able to draw us to him... So long as the beach awaits patiently the inflowing of the tide and yields generously to its ebbing, the pattern of nature is fulfilled. In the same way, it is only when the person patiently and humbly opens himself to the divine approach and lets himself be drawn out in response by the divine power within it that the divine plan achieves its fulfilment.
David Walker, God is a Sea
Don't let yourself be torn between yesterday and tomorrow.
Live always and only God's today.
Dom Helder Camara, A Thousand Reasons for Living
Acknowledging mystery, then, does not prevent authentic 'asking and seeking and knocking', but it does not stop there. It also encourages one to take the best light one has and do what one can to bring glory and not resentment out of any given situations. We do not have to understand perfectly why the waves flood over us to make certain creative responses to them. There is much that can be done with what we do know now that need not wait fuller explanation.
John Claypool, adapted from a sermon 'Absurdity, Causality and Mystery'
God is good... he who gives us our lives not only rules over us but loves us, likes us, is for us and not against us. Out of this realisation comes the ability to receive the events of life with gratitude, not resentment, and to regard them as expressions of mysterious love rather than as acts of hostility. It is amazing the difference a stance of gratitude can make in the way we cope with difficulty. If we begin to look on the things that happen to us as good gifts of a Father, then even the problems take on a different shape. Instead of seeing them as hopeless obstacles to our happiness, we come to see them as the challenges that give life its meaning and excitement. What would our existence be like, really, if no effort were ever called for or no challenges ever posed?. Such a levelled-off existence would be intolerably boring. G.K. Chesterton was right in saying that a positive challenge is a difficulty rightly understood. Problems cease to be overwhelming when we see them as something to be received in gratitude.
John Claypool, The Light Within You
Just as it is the nature of the tide to flow in and to draw out again, so it is the nature of the Father not only to reach out in love but also to draw all things to himself. The Father is the fountain and source of all life. He shares that life with his Son and his Spirit in a communion in which what comes forth returns to him. It is this same life which the Father extends through the Son and the Spirit to mankind in a communion in which what comes forth from him is meant to return to him. The Father presents himself as love, openness, self-offering, invitation, sharing, in a way to which every person has the capacity to respond and to find in him his ultimate goal.
David Walker, God is a Sea
Accept surprises that upset your plans, shatter your dreams, give a completely different turn to your day and -- who knows7 -to your life.
It is not chance.
Leave the Father free himself to weave the pattern of your days.
Dom Helder Camara, A Thousand Reasons for Living
Lord, I am prone sometimes to imagine that the tides of my life are buffeting me without purpose, tossing me to and fro without meaning, battering me painfully against the hard rocks cruelly.
Sometimes the storms really are fierce, the skies are grey, and you seem to be absent. It's just not true that 'my life is all sunshine in the sweetness of the Lord'.
Lord, remind me that you have never promised to deliver from struggle and agony and conflict. In the world we shall have trouble. Your own experience of life among us was a parable of struggle in hope.
But in that struggle you overcame the world. Just as a stone becomes beautifully smooth only in constant friction, so in the mystery of your purposes for us, you create a thing of beauty only in our chastenings. Conflict is the price to be paid for spiritual creativity and growth. That which resists us perfects us.
So Lord, when the waves are huge, and I feel so helpless, let me not move against them in rage, or go under them in helplessness, but flow with them in faith and hope.
'You have given so much to us, give us one thing more, a grateful heart; for Christ's sake. Amen'(George Herbert).
A Benediction
May you experience the peace of God in your trouble, hope when you are tempted to despair, joy through your pain, faith and courage when the heavens seem silent, and the sure knowledge that the Lord has been through it all too. He understands, he cares, and he loves you, very much.
Lord, may we live by faith, walk in hope, and be renewed in love until the whole world reflects your glory, and you are all in all.
Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen.
Rowland Croucher, from Still Waters Deep Waters (Albatross/Lion) chapter 18.
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. The gifts that he gave were that some should be... teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity... We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness... But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up. Do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults. Therefore let us go on... leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation... Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the work of truth. I want their hearts to be united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown : when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold. O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous ordinances. Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes. With my lips I declare all the ordinances of your mouth. I delight in the way of your decrees as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times. Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. Put false ways far from me; and graciously teach me your law. I run the way of your commandments, for you enlarge my understanding. Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes, and I will observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. See, I have longed for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life. I shall walk at liberty, for I have sought your precepts. I revere your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end. I am your servant; give me understanding, so that I may know your decrees. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is the truth. Your decrees are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live. My eyes are awake before each watch of the night, that I may meditate on your promise.
1 Corinthians 1:27; Ephesians 4:11-15; 1 Corinthians 14:20; Hebrews 6:1; 2 Timothy 2:15; Colossians 1:2-3; 2:6-7; 3:1-2, 16-17; Mark 4:14-20; Psalm 119:6-7,12-16,18,20,27,29,32-25,40,45,48,66,73,93,105, 112,125,130,135,142,144,148.
'Theology' comes from two Greek words - theos, God, and logos, word, thought. Theology is about God, and how God's will is to be done on earth as it is in heaven. 'Every Christian is called to be a theologian' (Karl Barth): it isn't a specialized, abstract discipline reserved for academics (Luke 10:21). Indeed the best theology doesn't come from 'top down' (from the dogma of 'authorities' Mark 1:22), but is done from bottom up: theology is about life. Because God is beyond our finite understanding, our questions will always outnumber our answers, so we come to this task not as proud know-alls but as humble and teachable learners. Everything we do, individually or as churches, has a theological dimension. Theology is about ultimate reality. Theology helps us to know who we are, to discover our identity. It aids our understanding of the church's and our denomination's roots, and to reflect on how the past relates to the issues we face today. Good theology also studies the faith-stories of others, and helps us understand what God is doing in their histories. Every church should be a miniature theological seminary (Elton Trueblood). It is amazing that church leaders may be highly skilled in their profession or trade, but still be in kindergarten theologically. As one layman said, 'We are better trained in our secular jobs than in the great ideas of our faith'. Pastors are the churches' resident 'professional theologians'. Their role as teachers is to make theologians of every Christian. There is a lot of bad theology around, and bad theology can lead to bad behaviour - bigotry, greed, self-interest, sexual immorality, ignoring or rationalizing injustices, etc.
There are eight tests of a 'good theology': CHRISTOLOGICAL. Good theology begins with 'The Lord our God, the Lord is One' (Deuteronomy 6:4) and quickly adds 'Jesus is Lord' (Romans 10:9, 1 Corinthians 12:3). Jesus is both fully divine and fully human. Western Christians have been more preoccupied with Christ's divinity: he is 'very God of very God'; third world theology with his humanity: God's solidarity with suffering 'nonpersons'. A good theology agrees with Jesus' emphases - particularly about love and justice. Theology is the study of God and his ways.
For all we know, dung beetles may study humans and their ways and call it humanology. If so, we would probably be more touched and amused than irritated. One hopes that God feels likewise. Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, London, Collins, 1973, p.91.
Benediction: May God who is light illumine your way, May God who is truth enlighten your mind, May God who is love enrich your heart, May God who is grace fill you with his joy through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Rowland Croucher
The full article is here
The holidays have begun - (C.S. Lewis)
Love not the world neither the things that are in the world... For the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. And I know that after this body has decayed, this body shall see God! Then he will be on my side. Yes! I shall see him, not as a stranger, but as a friend. What a glorious hope[
For our homeland is in heaven where our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ is.
We know that when Christ appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he really is.
I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: 'Now God's home is with mankind! He will live with them and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.' Then the one who sits on the throne said, 'And now I make all things new!'
(1 John 2:15,17, KJV; 1 Corinthians 2:9, KJV; Job 19:25-26, LB; Philippians 3:20, LB; 1 John 3:2, GNB; Revelation 21:3-5, GNB)
When I was young the idea of heaven didn't appeal to me much. When I looked at artists' impressions of the biblical imagery they seemed artificial and unsatisfying. Streets of gold and pearly gates seemed a poor substitute for blue skies and snowy mountains and crashing waves. And I could not get excited about an endlessly extended church service, however glorious the surroundings. Heaven might be very pleasant but on the whole I preferred to stay at home.
I first began to explore new ideas about heaven when I failed in sports. I was always the duffer in the team and I felt the humiliation deeply. Perhaps in heaven, I pondered, I might be able to play netball without falling over or dropping the ball. I could imagine Jesus standing on the sidelines cheering and saying, 'Well done!' As a teenager I rejected these childish notions and returned to the vision of an eternal mass meeting. Yet I feared even the Hallelujah Chorus might wear thin after a century or so.
It was years before I discovered that other people shared my feelings. We would all dutifully agree that heaven must be great but our hearts were not in it. Then one day I got the mumps. In the enforced break from routine I began to read books which challenged my stereotyped ideas. New thoughts overturned my previous imaginations.
What would it be like, I wondered, to live outside the limits of time and space?. No sense of waiting, no boredom, no monotony, no sequence of passing years. Instead there will be just one great joyful "now'.
What will it mean to be eternally 'like Christ'?. We certainly won't be clones or robots, for he is eternally unique. Rather we shall still be ourselves yet sharing the qualities of his life. At last we shall be exactly the way God planned us -- with all our possibilities realised. Maybe I might even get to play netball.
When God creates his new kingdom surely it will be no less splendid or original than this world of ours?. He isn't impressed with gold or pearl or rubies. His handiwork is perfect in detail and beautiful beyond belief. Probably the new world will be like ours, only more real, more natural, more breathtaking.
Will we know one another there?. Probably we will, not by our outward appearance but through a spiritual intuition. This means there'Il be no pretence, no dishonesty, no misunderstanding. Nor shall we be idle. God knows how much we need satisfying activity.
For the first time I began to get excited about heaven. Sometimes I even feel homesick for that unseen country and its King.
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God's glory: and Jesus standing at the right hand side of God. 'Look,' he said, 'I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand side of God!'
Acts 7:55-56
Now you must note that the City stood upon a mighty hill; but the pilgrims went up that hill with ease, because they had these two men to lead them up by the arms; also they had left their mortal garments behind them in the river; for though they went in with them, they came out without them. They therefore went up here with much agility and speed though the foundation upon which the city was framed was higher than the clouds.
John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress
Thy years neither come nor go; whereas ours both come and go. Thy years stand together, because they do stand; nor are departing thrust out by coming years, for they pass not away; but ours shall all be when they shall be no more. Thy years are one day; and thy day is not daily, but Today, seeing thy Today gives not place unto tomorrow, neither doth it replace yesterday. Thy Today is Eternity.
St Augustine, Confessions XI
In that blessed city there shall be this great blessing, that no inferior shall envy superior, as now the archangels are not envied by the angels, because no-one will wish to be what he has not received... And thus along with his gift, greater or less, each shall receive this further gift of contentment, to desire no more than he has.
Neither are we to suppose that because sin shall have no power to delight them, free will must be withdrawn. It will on the contrary be all the more truly free, because set free from delight in sinning to take unfailing delight in not sinning.
St Augustine, The City of God XXII
I rekindled me with a new vision, such as no light is so pure that my eyes could not have withstood it. And I saw light in the form of a river glowing with effulgence, between two banks painted with marvellous spring. From this stream were issuing living sparks, and on every side were setting themselves in the flowers like rubies which the gold encompasses. Then as if inebriated by the odours, they plunged again into the wonderful flood and, as one was entering, another was issuing forth.
O splendour of God, through which I saw the high triumph of the true kingdom, give me power to tell how I saw it!
Dante, The Divine Comedy
Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; world's wildfire, leave but ash:
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, since He was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,
Is immortal diamond.
G.M. Hopkins
Nature is not done away but is perfected by glory.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country; every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as it if meant more. I can't describe it any better than that: if ever you get there you will know what I mean.
It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right forehoof on the ground and neighed and then cried: 'I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.'
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
In heaven we will live and live more fully and satisfyingly than ever before. And that life will involve all the really important elements of what we know as life: relationships, development, knowledge, communication... We shall recognise our loved ones but more by who they are than by what they look like. But better than that, we shall know them with a depth and insight and love unimaginable in our present human existence.
David Winter, Hereafter
That is our destiny in heaven -- to be like Christ: not Christ limited, as he was on earth, to the confines of time and flesh, but Christ risen, the great, free, timeless Christ of Easter morning.
David Winter, Hereafter
You!
Never seen before
Yet I have known you all my life.
You were there in that vague and misty face
That o'er my cradle focussed into love.
You in the noise and clamour of the place
That taught my mind to think and act and move.
You, in the frank and warring friends of youth
Whose loyalty persisted to the grave.
It was your beauty, your appeal, your truth,
When teenage hero-worship held me slave.
You were there that dazzling morning when serene
Contentment was reflected in his smile,
Whose love has held me all the years between,
Who mourns yet, now that I am gone awhile.
In all I could achieve, imagine, prize,
All that could stimulate my thought and wit.
Those mischief-calculating infant eyes
That dared my wrath and made a game of it.
You even there[
And now, Familiar Stranger, we have met
And joys of earth are caught in joys above.
For you were there, you were the joy –
Whom, never seen before, I truly love.
Lorna Jenkins
'You do not look as happy as I meant you to be.' Lucy said, 'We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back to our own world so often.'
'No fear of that,' said Aslan. 'Have you not guessed?' Their hearts leapt and a wild hope rose within them.
'There was a real railway accident,' said Aslan softly.'Your father and mother and all of you are -- as you used to call it in the Shadowlands -- dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.'
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
Lord, I have to admit that many times I find this present world of mine more dear than the world you have promised in the future. For all its difficulties and frustrations, this is the world I know and I cannot imagine what life with you will be like.
Help me to believe that a God who can create giraffes and snowflakes will inhabit a world where there is still beauty and humour, as well as the sublime.
Help me to love you so well and to desire your companionship so much, that when I come into your presence it will be a joyous reunion of old friends.
Help me to live each day so completely that if you called me tonight I would go without reluctance or regrets.
Help me to see this world through the perspective of the kingdom of heaven so that I may be able to distinguish which are the really important things and which are insignificant in the long view.
Lord, when I enter your final kingdom there will be many things that you will need to correct in me. Some of my attitudes would find no place there. Some of my ideas are warped and twisted. There are people I've rejected or misunderstood. Help me to submit my life into your hands now so that your purifying work can begin at once. For I will not be able to bear the joy of your presence until sin has no place in me and I do not want to delay the judgment of my sin until I am in your presence.
Rather, O Lord, I long to come to you with eager expectation, grateful for the life you have already given,! ready to undertake whatever plan you have for me in the future.
A Benediction
Now to God Almighty, whose plans for us do not end in death, to our Lord Jesus Christ, who entered our world so that we might enter his, and to the Holy Spirit, who works in our hearts constantly preparing us for that great day, be all our praise and love until we meet him face to face. Amen.
Still Waters, Deep Waters ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 197-203
Here's one version of a sermon I've preached 800+ times (that's not a misprint)! You ask, 'Should anything be preached that often?' My response: anything I believe is worth saying is worth saying again. This little-understood story has themes implicit within it which are pivotal to our understanding of the Christian faith.
Rowland Croucher
Text: Acts 4:32-5:11
Preachers don't like this story, apparently. I once spent a morning in a large seminary library hunting for sermons on Ananias and Sapphira and couldn't find any. The two most read preachers' magazines - Expository Times and Pulpit Digest - didn't have a single sermon on this passage. Folks dropping dead in church (it happens occasionally) isn't nice.
There are some big questions here. Why did they do it? How did Peter know? Why was the punishment so severe - and so swift? Why did God deem this sin so bad? "Did they go to heaven?" one woman asked after I'd preached on this passage.
There are no easy answers. And yet with all our questions this story is an acted parable of the Christian gospel; it's about sin, judgment, and the possibility of grace.
SIN
In most of our English translations the story begins with the little word "but". Luke, the author of Acts, sets up a study m contrasts. There are Barnabas, a man filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:24), and Ananias, whose heart was filled with Satan (5:3). One was utterly truthful, the other a liar. Here are counterpointed faith and unbelief, selflessness and selfishness, goodness and deceitfulness, sacrifice and sacrilege, trust in God and the worship of self ("hubris," pride), total commitment and base hypocrisy.
The setting was "paradise regained." They had all things in common, real community: shared resources, sensitivity to others' needs, security - not in material things, but in the risen Christ. It's the closest to Utopia the world has ever seen. Sinners - even murderers of the Lord Christ - were repenting and being forgiven and accepted; the sick were being healed; great grace was upon them all.
But in the midst of all this beauty and harmony, the serpent enters the garden again. It's an horrific story. And yet, we feel, Ananias and Sapphira were just ordinary people like us. Don't we sometimes engage in "impression management" to manipulate others' opinion of us? Who of us hasn't sometimes pinched stuff from our employer for personal use? Or falsified our tax return a little bit? Or withheld the truth, or covered up with a "white lie"?
Their motives were probably pretty ordinary - perhaps even defensible. Perhaps their generous or heroic selves were inspired by the generosity of Barnabas. Their fearful selves wondered what would happen in their old age if they gave away all their assets. Their critical selves asked questions about the "bums" on the receiving end of these handouts. Their distrustful selves may have raised questions about the apostles' honesty; the church hadn't appointed auditors yet. But in the end their egocentric selves won; they wanted glory without sacrifice, the kudos Barnabas had received without having to pay the price.
Yes, they were ordinary people - very ordinary. What sins might we have committed if we were sure we'd never be found out? If you had carried out some of the evils you planned or dreamed about, you'd be in jail for life. The sin of Ananias and Sapphira was not greed, but deception, hypocrisy - and who of us hasn't done worse?
But there's something more insidious, subtle, dangerous here,.. Ananias was engaged in an act of worship. Barnabas had laid his gift "at the apostles' feet," and this same expression is used of Ananias. Their offerings weren't merely to the apostles, but to God. Their motivations, the "thoughts of their hearts," were therefore God's concern. Here is the worst kind of hypocrisy - the sort that got Christ so angry - hypocrisy bordering on sacrilege. It wasn't just a matter of pretending to be devout but really being a liar and a cheat; though they were that.
Sacrilege goes a lot further; it's robbing God of what is rightfully God's, "stealing Divine glory," withholding what we have professed as belonging to the Lord. Ananias and Peter are not just two mortals confronting each other. Here the battle is joined between God and Satan, whose instruments they have become.
Astonishing. Perhaps this man and his wife were in the group on which the Holy Spirit fell so dramatically at Pentecost and had also been baptized in water as they joined the church. Previous to that Ananias may even have been among the seventy apostles preaching the Kingdom, healing the sick, casting out evil spirits (Luke 10:9, 17). Let us never forget there is no sin that is impossible for any one of us to commit. There but for the grace of God we go too.
JUDGMENT
Such was the spiritual power among those people that this sin was immediately detected and judged. How do we explain this sudden death? Members of traditional societies - our Australian aborigines, village people in Papua New Guinea have no problem at all with a story like this, with their experience of the power of "pointing the bone" and of witchcraft. In the (ignorant) West we have to explain it - psychosomatically. (William Barclay, for example, with his penchant for naturalistic explanations of the biblical miracles, reminds us that when Edward I blazed in anger at one of his courtiers the man dropped dead in sheer fear.)
Interestingly, a similar thing had happened twice before. In Eden a man and a woman tried to deceive God, and the result was death. Then there was Achan "stealing" what rightfully was God's: he and his whole family and possessions were destroyed. Adam, Achan, Ananias - at the beginning of each "fresh start" God was making with God's people, the same thing happened. Surely these things are written for our instruction.
Awesome, fearful. As a pastor I wonder what kind of worship service I would have led for the following three hours?! Nothing in our clergy handbooks helps us here. Then, imagine the moment of horror when Sapphira wanders in: every face would have told her the story, if she'd noticed. In the awful silence, they could then hear the footfalls of the young men who'd just buried her husband.
But why this immediate capital punishment with no opportunity for repentance? It's not fair, you say. Negatively, the responses tumble over each other: Who said life was supposed to be fair? Who sets up valid criteria for fairness? Human categories of what's fair are constantly changing. And who's in charge, anyway, in the ultimate sense?
And who's to know whether, as it's been put simplistically, God was somehow "destroying a body to save a soul"? We'll have problems in this "bent world" if we put our faith in systems of fairness - or in our systems of anything. Our trust is in a righteous, just God, who can handle the moral judgments of the universe without too much help from us. On the other hand, we can reverently say: "God has a lot to answer for."
C.S. Lewis, in The Problem of Pain, says God's attitude to sin is analogous to that of a surgeon to cancer. The destructive tissue has to be removed. God!s judgment is love at work destroying what is destroying us. Sometimes the divine surgery is radical (as in this story); sometimes it's postponed.
GRACE
Peter makes it very clear that Ananias didn't have to follow the course he did. He was in full control at every point (5:4). This wasn't "primitive communism." Private property had not been abolished; no one was being forced to sell his or her possessions. The sharing was voluntary, not a precondition of entering the church. And I'm sure we can say that even after Ananias and Sapphira decided to bring only part of the money, they still had an alternative course of action open to them.
John Claypool imagines another scenario:
If they had just said: "Here is where we would like to be - with Barnabas' kind of trust and generosity. But we find we are not there yet .... All we can do now is give part of the proceeds. Would you help us grow toward what we would like to become?"'
Then there would have been healing and nurture and grace mediated through others in the caring fellowship. But instead there were deceit and death.
The way of Ananias is not only an ancient way, it is practiced in politics and business every day. Wasn't it President Theodore Roosevelt who called those people on Capitol Hill "the Ananias club"? I wonder what might have happened if President Richard Nixon had come clean and told all he knew about Watergate a year before his resignation?
Ananias and Sapphira had a warped view of God - apparently as a sort of cosmic "neurotic perfectionist" who could not accept them if they were imperfect. Occasionally I visit or counsel people who are perfectionists; they got the impression from someone that life has to be highly organized for them to be happy. Often they had parents who rarely praised them for anything. If only Ananias and Sapphira had realized that God is not like this. God is a grower of persons and not in the business of mass production. There's no such thing as instant sanctification.
But they also had a defective view of their fellow Christians. They were fearful about their inability to measure up, and obviously felt they wouldn't be accepted by others if they confessed to being less than Barnabas. Hypocrites also have another problem - a huge inferiority complex. They are unable to accept their own uniqueness and imperfections. Maturity is all about living with imperfection, your own, your parents', others'. Hypocrites have to play a sort of one-upmanship game in which they come out best in every comparison.
The essence of grace, on the other hand, is acceptance - by God of us, and of others and of ourselves. Grace is love-before-worth. It creates worth in another rather than responding to worth in the other.
So grace abounds where sin abounds. And as the church is a society of people on the receiving end of God's grace, it's the community par excellence where we accept others fully on the same basis as God has accepted us (Rom. 15:7): solely on the basis of grace - not law, not doctrine, not sacramental observance, but grace alone!
If only Ananias and Sapphira had understood this! By their behaviour they were denying the most fundamental truth in the Christian faith: we cannot earn significance. We can't achieve wholeness, salvation, through our own efforts. Greatness in Christ's kingdom is a given, a gift, that we gratefully receive in spite of our failures and our sin.
So, Ananias, Sapphira, you didn't have to earn what you'd inherited.
Don't strive to be a luminary; just let your light shine. You don't have to be like Barnabas. You are intended to be your own person, to be what no other is and to do what no other can do. So you can "go to church" and be just who you are. You don't have to play the sick "over-under" games our society forces on us. Church is the place where grace reigns and where all acting stops. You can hang up your mask with your hat at the door. That's why Christ's Church is "glorious," according to the New Testament - not because it's perfect, but because it's being redeemed.
Here's where nobodies become somebodies, "no-people" become "God's people" (1 Peter 2:10).
1. John Claypool, unpublished sermon "Growing is Acceptable," preached March 2 1975, at Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas.
Happy is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. (Psalm 128:1)
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24) Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4) My soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his deliverance. (Psalm 35:9) Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10)
My heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body rests secure... You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm 16:9,11)
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:3-12)
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. (Luke 6:20-23)
Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. (Psalm 32:1) Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers. (Psalm 1:1) How happy is the one whom God reproves; therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. (Job 5:17) The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes. (Psalm 19:8)
All the days of the poor are hard, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast. (Proverbs 15:15) Happy are those who consider the poor; the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble. (Psalm 41:1) We must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' (Acts 20:35)
I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:11) Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)
A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22)
Happy people are easier - much, much easier - to live with.
Just about everybody wants to be happy. You dream of happiness, you plan for it, and perhaps pay any price to achieve it. Searching for happiness, one person will make a lot of money; another will give all their money away. In the same search a woman will have five or six children; another enters a convent. Ask the average person what he or she wants out of life, and the chances are they'll reply without hesitation, 'I just want to be happy.'
Occasionally in my counseling I meet someone who enjoys being miserable - and gets a perverse delight in making others unhappy. Woody Allen apparently wasn't joking when he said, 'If my film makes one more person miserable, I've done my job!'
Where do you find happiness? Bumper stickers tell us Happiness is... a German Shepherd, Being Single, Being a Grandmother, Being Italian, Dreaming in Colour, or whatever. Happiness is being a nonconformist, according to Emerson. Happiness, said Rousseau, is a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion.
Although we know in theory that happiness is in the mind, many people lead lives of quiet desperation. Sure, most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be; certainly if you 'keep your face towards the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind you'; but there's still a vague unease... The old Scottish proverb can invite us to 'Be happy while y'er leevin' for y'er a long time dead,' but the blues still come uninvited, and overstay their welcome...
Jesus doesn't offer you happiness; but he promises you'll be 'blessed'. Indeed he essentially promised three things to his followers: constant trouble, constant joy, because of his constant presence. The purpose of life is not to be happy, but to be useful, to be loving, to be unselfish, to have made a difference... Happiness is a by-product of having worthwhile attitudes and doing worthwhile things. Happy people serve others, have goals, are close to nature, are in touch with the child within...
And yet, and yet... Deep within just about all of us is the elusive promise of joy, somewhere. As C S Lewis put it, memorably, in The Problem of Pain: ALL YOUR LIFE AN UNATTAINABLE ECSTASY HAS HOVERED JUST BEYOND THE GRASP OF YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS. THE DAY IS COMING WHEN YOU WILL WAKE TO FIND, BEYOND ALL HOPE, THAT YOU HAVE ATTAINED IT, OR ELSE THAT IT WAS WITHIN YOUR REACH AND YOU HAVE LOST IT FOREVER. [C.S.Lewis, The Problem of Pain, London: Collins (Fontana), 1957, p. 136] [47]
Happiness, as the song says, is different things to different people. The OED defines it as 'the state of pleasurable content of mind which results from success or the attainment of what is considered good.'
Happy people are 'free' people. Cat Stevens (Harold and Maude) picked up this theme (though their sentiments need some Christianizing): 'If you want to be free be free/ If you want to be you be you/ There's a million things to do/ If you want to be me be me/ There's a million things to be'.
The fundamentalists are not really free. They try to be free from complexity but are not free from fear or doubt. The theological liberals may be free of dogma, but are not free to be sure about too many things. The Pentecostals may be emotionally free in some ways, but they are not free from stress...
Happiness - whether you're a Christian or not - is not attained by trying hard to be happy. Happiness is 'serendipitous' - the art of making happy discoveries while looking for something else. The most beautiful adventures, said Robert Louis Stevenson, are not those we go to seek. You can only be happy, according to George Orwell, when you do not assume that the object of life is happiness. Make happiness the object of your pursuit, said Nathanial Hawthorne, and it leads you on a wild-goose chase. Rather, as Ashley Montagu claims, the moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. We do not seize them, they seize us. Happiness is where we find it, rarely where we seek it.
Happiness is the by-product of what happens in three relationships - with God, with others, with self.
# C S Lewis wrote somewhere, 'God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.'
# Confucius said, 'Those who wish to secure the good of others have already secured their own.'
# Ultimately, your real self-worth is in yourself, not in the things you do or the offices you hold. Being rich or famous doesn't make you happy. Aristotle Onassis said just before he died, 'I've just been a machine for making money. I seem to have spent my life in a golden tunnel looking for the outlet which would lead to happiness. But the tunnel kept going on. After my death there will be nothing left.' Richard Burton tried to drink himself to death. Voltaire wrote, 'I wish I had never been born.' Gould, the American millionaire, when he was dying, said 'I suppose I am the most miserable devil on earth.' You know the definition of a celebrity: someone who works all their life to become famous enough to be recognized, then goes around in dark glasses so no one will know who they are!
Happiness is not in the ideas others have about you. After all, a diamond remains a beautiful and precious stone whether embedded in a crown or thrown into the garbage bin. Happiness is enjoying living with yourself. It's the art of being yourself. Happiness is being your own best friend.
But - and this is an important footnote at this point - all authentic Christian spirituality, from the first century onwards, encourages both self-affirmation and self-denial. You are an unrepeatable miracle of God's creation, made in his image. But you must not just live for yourself. This, of course, is in remarkable opposition to the 'I gotta be me' message of many secular self-esteem gurus...
Happiness comes from fulfilling the primary purpose of life - to love God and to love others. The happy person has something to do, someone to love, somewhere to call home and something to hope for. You may not yet be the happiest or best put together person you know - but the Lord hasn't finished with you yet!
Happiness is not the fulfilment of desire. Fulfilling the desire does not liberate from it, but creates a new desire for its repetition. The cycle repeats itself, the need for greater gratification increases each time, as all earthly pleasures are subject to the law of diminishing returns, and frustration sets in. The cycle has to be broken, that is, attachment has to be dropped. Learn to enjoy things in freedom: if I have it, it's fine, and if I don't have it, it's equally fine. The way to enjoy everything is to stick to nothing.
Happiness is enoughness. The secret is to be content with what comes our way, rejecting nothing and hankering for nothing... to take what comes and let go what goes. God gave and God took away. Blessed be his name forever!
Carlos G. Valles S.J., Mastering Sadhana: Anthony de Mello, New York: Doubleday, 1987, pp. 36-37. [135]
Don't be afraid of misfortune and do not yearn after happiness. It is, after all, all the same. The bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don't freeze in the cold and if hunger and thirst don't claw at your sides.
If your back isn't broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms work, if both eyes can see, and if both ears can hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart and prize above all else in the world those who love you and those you wish well...
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Source unknown, quoted in Australian Presbyterian Life, September 1985, p. 25. [117]
On more than one occasion I have raised my eyes to heaven and said: 'Could not You have made it a little easier, God? Was there no way to create a world without such pain at the middle of all things human?' And when I have stayed with that question long enough to work it through, the answer comes back clearly: 'No, this really is the best of all possible worlds if the experience of personal joy is the goal of all things.' Stop and think about it for a moment: if there were no choices, how could any sort of personhood exist? If we could have everything, and never had to evaluate or set this over against that or go through the process of deciding, it would be simpler, but would it be better...? It is true, we can't have it all, and not to realize that is pathetic. We can't have it all, and to choose among many options is painful, even tragic. But do not forget, we can have some things. The trees that are available, the roads that can be taken are all rich in potential beyond reckoning... The very capacity of self-transcendence is a joy in itself...
Eugene O'Neill once wrote: 'I can partly understand how God can forgive us humans, for we are so weak and foolish. But what I cannot understand is how can he forgive himself for creating so painful a world?' I honestly do not think God is losing any sleep at this point. The joy he wanted us to experience could be on no other terms than our being persons of choice, and long ago he concluded, I think, that such a prospect was worth the risk... The point of this whole sermon: There is abundance and we can choose. Let us begin...!
John Claypool, 'You Can't Have It All', unpublished sermon. [304]
[Bishop Fulton Sheen] put his arm around my shoulders and said, 'God loves you. And you know something? So do I.' I found tears in my eyes. It was the love power of that man...
Jesus Christ loves you. Your mother loved you; your father loved you; your wife loves you; your husband loves you. But nobody loves you as Jesus loves you. And that makes us happy, because it tells us we are of infinite worth and value. If you are loved like that by the Son of God, then you have a value that is beyond any material thing. And your life will be continuous into eternity because value, in the highest form, never deteriorates. Love! Love! Love! That is the secret of happiness.
Norman Vincent Peale, 'Meet the Happiness Giver', Creative Help for Daily Living, Part III, Vol 31, No. 9, Pawling N.Y.: Foundation for Christian Living, 1980, p. 34. [123]
A day so happy. Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden. Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers. There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess. I knew no one worth my envying... Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot. To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me. In my body I felt no pain. When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.
Czeslaw Milosz, 'Gift,' 1973. Quoted in Newsweek, October 20, 1980, p.54. [72]
The three greatest enemies of happiness [are]... worry, boredom, and self-centredness... Christianity slays them all! Worry...? Even though the worst should happen, even though your whole scheme of things were to collapse... nothing, absolutely nothing can pluck you... out of the great Father's keeping! Boredom...? Christianity [fills] your life full with the glory of a friendship whose wonders are unending... Self-centredness - Christianity finishes that. How? By taking you, once and for all, right out of yourself...
Why be a Christian? The Christian life is happier than any other. [But] the Christian life is also harder than any other... The life in Christ is holier than any other... [And] the Christian life is more hopeful than any other.
James Stewart, 'Why Be a Christian?' in The Gates of New Life, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1956, pp. 23-29. [119]
Brother Masseo once tried to test how humble Francis of Assisi was. 'Why you? Why you? Why you?' he asked. 'The whole world seems to go after you, all seek to see you, to hear you, to obey you, but you are not a handsome man. You are not a man of great knowledge or wisdom. You are not noble. Why, therefore, does the whole world come to you?' When Francis heard this... he stood [silently] for a long time, his mind turned to God. He came to himself, fell on his knees, and with praise and thanks to God with great warmth of spirit, turned to Brother Masseo and said: 'You wish to know, and know truly, why the whole world comes after me. This comes to me from those most holy eyes of God which everywhere observe both good and evil. Those blessed and most holy eyes saw... no greater sinner, more useless and vile than me. Therefore to do the wondrous work he had in mind to do, since he could find on earth no one more vile, he chose me, for God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, the mean, contemptible, feeble things of the world to confound the noble and the great, so that the grandeur of goodness should proceed from God, and not from that which God has created, so that no creature and no flesh should boast in his sight, and that to God alone should be honour and glory for ever.'
Then Brother Masseo was amazed at a reply so humble and so warmly made, and truly knew that the holy father was grounded in true humility, a true and humble follower of Christ.
E.M.Blaiklock and A.C. Keys (trs.), The Little Flowers of St Francis, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985, pp. 42-43. [288]
[A girl from Mauritius, highly educated, entered Mother Teresa's society in India]. 'The next day I sent her to work in a home for the dying. For three hours she lovingly cleaned a woman who had been picked up on the street. She came home radiating joy. "I have been touching the body of Christ for three hours," she told me...'
[To her fellow-workers among lepers]: 'Be kind and merciful. Let no one come to you without coming away better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness, kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, in your warm greeting...'
'Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is Love... God loves a cheerful giver! You give most when you give with joy. The best way to show our gratitude to God and the people is to accept everything with joy. A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love... Never let anything fill you so much with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ risen... We all long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in heaven with him right now - to be happy with him now means - loving as he loves, helping as he helps, giving as he gives, serving as he serves, rescuing as he rescues, being with him 24 hours, touching him in his distressing disguise.'
Mother Teresa in Peter Dwan, Apostle of the Unwanted (Mother Teresa), Melbourne, Australia: ACTS Publications, 1969, pp. 5, 10-11, 19-20. [221]
For the happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open to chance...
Every now and then you run across radiantly attractive people and you're delighted to find they adore you, till you realize that they adore just about everybody - and that's what's made them radiantly attractive.
Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, quoted in Reader's Digest, date/page unknown. [48]
Happiness is being a Christian. To put it as Peanuts does, that is what happiness is. He has said... that happiness is a nice warm bed, happiness is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, happiness is your first loose tooth, and a hundred other things... He should try this on for size and you should too: happiness is being a Christian.
Sometimes we use the word Christian to mean simply nice and kind and good... When I say happiness is being a Christian, I don't mean Christian in that very broad sense. There are of course millions who are Christians in the sense that they are citizens of Christian nations, but they are not a bit happy at all.
The Bible connects happiness and Christianity... It leaves no doubt that those who believe that Jesus is their Saviour and their Lord will experience his presence in their lives. They will be new people who begin to participate in Christ's victory right now. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ is the key to happiness and joy. There is no other way.
Joel Nederhood, 'Happiness is... You'd be Surprised', Back to God Hour pamphlet, undated. [180]
Christians are free of vindictiveness because they trust God's justice; but they are free for blessing because they know God's goodness.
Edmund P. Clowney, The Message of 1 Peter, Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1988, p. 141. [21]
Make me, Lord obedient without complaint, poor without regret, patient without murmur, humble without pretence, joyful without foolishness, truthful without disguise.
Thomas Aquinas, cited in Praying with the Saints Dublin, Veritas Publications, 1989, p.64. [21]
Eternal God, you dwell in light unapproachable, beyond the power of our thought to comprehend or our imagination to portray. Yet you are revealed to us in the beauty of the world we live in, in the truth our minds discover, in the inward presence of your Spirit, and above all in Christ, your Son. With reverent hearts we worship you.
We bring our fragmentary lives into the presence of your wholeness. We bring our transient thoughts into the light of your eternity. We bring our restless spirits into the calm strength of your everlasting purpose.
We have complained about the circumstances that have fretted us, about enemies who have wronged us, and even about the justice of your order that has hurt us. Teach us, nevertheless, we earnestly ask, to search our own lives, to see that each has our own destiny, each soul its own heaven and its own hell. Send us back into our souls to find there, by your grace, peace and power and adequacy to conquer life. May we be victors and not victims. Amen.
Eternal God, Grant us this day and every day such readiness and delight in following Christ, that whether our lives are short or long we shall have lived abundantly. Amen.
A New Zealand Prayer Book, Auckland, Collins, 1989, p. 106. [30]
A Benediction
May God, from whom to be turned is to fall; to whom to be turned is to rise; and in whom to stand is to live forever: may this God grant us in all our duties his help, in all our problems his guidance, in all our dangers his protection, in all our sorrows his peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Adapted from a prayer of St. Augustine, cited in Praying with the Saints Dublin, Veritas Publications, 1989, p.22. [62]
By Rowland Croucher
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