Helping those who are sorry they messed up

'IF A MAN IS OVERTAKEN IN ANY TRESPASS...RESTORE SUCH A ONE IN A SPIRIT OF GENTLENESS.' GALATIANS 6:1

When somebody messes up, God says; 'Restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.' But what if they've disgraced themselves and provided fodder for the sceptics who already think all Christians are hypocrites? Why bother with somebody like that?
Firstly, : Because the Bible says, 'If a man is overtaken [caught by surprise]...[consider] yourself lest you also be tempted.' If it happened to you you'd want somebody to help you, right? And if you're thinking you would never embezzle money, have an affair or slap a child in anger, think again. When you're under financial pressure, sleep deprived, lonely and depressed, or your marriage is on shaky ground, you might be surprised what you'd do. Paul says, 'We are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don't be so...self-confident...You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else' (1 Corinthians 10:12 TM).
Secondly, : Because Jesus is your example. While He had no time for Pharisees who hid their sins under a religious facade, not once did He condemn anybody who was 'overtaken' by temptation and failure. When they repented He forgave and restored them. Theologian Victor Shepherd writes: 'When we're face-to-face with someone who's been surprised because trespass overtook them, do we deflect their shame back into their face, or do we own it as ours? Do we rub their nose in it, or do we absorb it, put an arm around them and affirm our solidarity-in-sinnership? Do we regard ourselves as superior, or do we say, "Take my hand...I know the way to the cross?"'
The word trespass comes from the word 'misstep,' which means to take a step in the wrong direction or to make an error in judgement or conduct. When you lose your footing or you slip on an icy sidewalk, you didn't intend to fall but now it's happened and you need help to get back up again. That's the kind of trespass the Bible talks about when it says, 'Restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.' In Greek the word restore has two shades of meaning:
1. Resetting a broken bone. Paul says, 'Christ makes us one body...connected to each other' (Romans 12:5 GWT). When you think about it, your spiritual family is even more important than your physical family because it will last forever. By reinstating a brother or sister who has been overtaken by sin, you help to heal their pain and enable them to become a vital, functioning part of Christ's body again.
2. Removing a tumour. Malignant tumours are life-threatening and spiritual tumours are soul-threatening. By removing one you not only help save somebody, you obey the Scripture, 'Bear one another's burdens, and...fulfil the law of Christ' (Galatians 6:2 NKJV). And make no mistake, sharing their shame and humiliation is a burden. Nevertheless, 'We should do it... [giving] special attention to those who are in the family of believers' (Galatians 6:10 NCV). In God's army we are not supposed to shoot our wounded. Indeed, if the wounded can't find mercy in the ranks of the redeemed, where are they going to find it?

The Word for Today 25/26 Sep 2008 www.ucb.co.uk

shift to thrift

It has often been said that Jesus talked about MONEY (in one form or another) more than any other subject. In our culture the challenge comes to us something like this: 'What are you doing with your money, posessions, gifts, skills and time? Are they invested for God's glory?'
On the other side of the coin (!) is the issue of debt. How about this for a question?: 'Are you getting credit for something you really need, and can you afford to repay it?'
Peter Heslam (Director, Transforming Business, Cambridge University) has written this excellent article on 'thrift', which I recommend you read more than once. Entirely pragmatic, he also effectively tackles the knotty question of 'laying up treasure on earth' v 'putting your money to work' . What do you think?

Recovering Thrift to Solve the Credit Crisis

The credit crunch stems from a deeper moral and spiritual crunch. At stake is a virtue on which capitalism depends - thrift. Resolving the crisis will involve a recovery of this virtue.

Most westerners have long had access to grassroots saving institutions, such as building societies and credit unions. But recently, while commercial banks have focused their investment opportunities on 'high net worth individuals', financial institutions targeting the 'sub-prime' market have proliferated. The growth of this anti-thrift sector is partly responsible for the high levels of consumer debt that have become an accepted feature of advanced economies, but now threaten to undermine them.

This raises questions not only about the morality of debt, about which today's moral and religious leaders are generally outspoken, but also about the importance of thrift, about which such leaders are generally silent.

Despite this silence, Hebrew and Christian scriptures support a theology of thrift. Literally, thrift means 'prosperity' or 'well-being', meanings encompassed in the Hebrew notion of shalom, which is central to the biblical theme of redemption. True, Jesus warned against laying up treasure on earth. But his warning is against greed and miserliness, which undermine thrift. In fact, the fear that generally accompanies these vices is evident in the words and actions of the third servant in Jesus' parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). This servant's fear, based on a harsh picture of God, led to actions that were unimaginative, unproductive and risk-averse.

In contrast, the fearless words and actions of the two servants who 'put their money to work', reflect a God who inspires the imagination, productivity and risk-taking that characterize the thrift needed to convert barren money into fruitful capital. Having made this conversion, which underlies all investment and entrepreneurship, these two servants are welcomed into God's shalom economy: 'I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness.' Their thrift leads to stewardship and happiness. This resonates with two further meanings of thrift: 'prudence' and 'providence', words that appear in the names of two large companies that began as explicitly pro-thrift institutions: the Prudential and Friends Provident.

Opinion formers emphasizing 'happiness' should draw inspiration from the way happiness is obtained in Jesus' parable, to mount a public education campaign on thrift, linked to government-backed bonds to be sold at National Lottery ticket outlets. Millions of consumers, currently bombarded with gambling and credit options, would thus be offered the freedom and opportunity to save. This is the freedom and opportunity of the market economy - an economy built on thrift.

I know the plans.... PAUL and GUIDANCE

'Well, obviously not this way....'

We've been challenged by God so much recently about Jeremiah 29:11 'I know the plans I have for you' says the Lord.... (see parallel 'sermons' blog and also below).
I got this article today from LICC which takes us a further step along the way...

Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us'. After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Phil.16:9-10

At a critical juncture in Paul's life, thwarted and unsure, he received an unambiguous vision. And so began the journey into Europe of the good news of Jesus.

Luke tells us that immediately before this, heading north towards the provinces bordering the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, Paul and his companions were 'hindered by the Spirit'. These few verses in Acts show us that guidance wasn't a simple matter for Paul. Only three times do we read that he had a vision. Often he was no doubt guided by common sense, as, in this same chapter, when, arriving in Philippi, they sought out the Jews by the river 'where they expected to find a place of prayer' (v.13).

When Paul set out on his first journey, the Spirit spoke to the church, not to him personally. So he and Barnabas were sent out ('by the Spirit') together. Perhaps the decision to go first to Cyprus was simply because that was where Barnabas came from. Later, a quarrel between the two of them resulted in their going off in different directions - and thus two evangelistic teams grew out of one.

Elsewhere, Paul describes himself as being stopped by Satan from going to Thessalonica (1 Thes.2:18); the visit to Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15 was not part of his plan, but was dictated by circumstances; his longed-for arrival in Rome was not according to his own agenda, but as a prisoner, under guard.

Most of us struggle with guidance, particularly when critical decisions have to be taken. Paul's experience shows us that there are no simple, formulaic solutions. So appropriating to oneself a single verse or example from scripture can be very unhelpful. Even more unhelpful is the friend who says, 'God guided me like this, so he will guide you in the same way'.

God had a purpose for Paul's life, but it wasn't a blueprint. Motivated by his calling, and his love of Christ, he constantly 'pressed towards the goal'. Sometimes his guidance was clear, sometimes not. Whether or not we have a clear calling, or explicit guidance, we, too, seek in everything to govern our lives by the principles of Christ.

thanks again to LICC (Helen Parry)

The Power of Story

A hotel executive tells this story:

'The hotel I manage is located near a renowned hospital. Recently, we noticed that a man and a boy were visiting regularly and surmised that they were father and son, and that the son was undergoing treatment at the hospital. One evening, the father sent the boy up to bed and called over the head waiter. "My son is about to start chemotherapy tomorrow," he said. "He's really upset at the prospect of his hair falling out, so he's decided to shave it all off tonight. I'm going to do the same to support my son. When you see us tomorrow morning, please don't react."

'The head waiter was touched by the story and briefed his colleagues. The next morning, father and son came down with bald heads, feeling rather nervous. But, as they went in to breakfast, they gradually realised they weren't the only ones who looked a bit different that day. No fewer than ten members of staff had shaved their heads out of solidarity with the boy.'

'That,' she concluded, 'is how my staff live the corporate value, "Show you care."' (As reported by Hashi Syedain in People Management magazine.)

It's no surprise that business is beginning to exploit so movingly 'the power of story' for its capital gain. It's only natural, surely: we make sense of life by sharing stories with each other, so why shouldn't we make sense of our work in the same way? It seems there is life after 'death-by-PowerPoint', after all.

And what of our faith? We talk much, in Christian circles, of 'the power of story', as custodians of the Greatest Story Ever Told (GSET). But do we still prefer to leap to the 'moral' of the tale, rather than inhabit the story itself - with its unresolved tensions, suspense and wonder?

It takes courage to reflect upon our own story: where we've come from, the characters who've played their parts, the times when the plot has twisted for good or bad. And it takes creativity to demonstrate how it fits with the GSET - the masterful narrative that imbues our smaller stories with meaning, yet is somehow, mysteriously, shaped by their very unfolding.

Hardest of all, perhaps, is to attend, with grace, to the story of others. Yet surely the power flows most fully between those who are usually denied a voice, and those with ears to hear. Thank you for listening.

Brian Draper (LICC)

Hero or model?

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1

I had a friend whose father was a very well known church minister. She had two heroes, her father and the apostle Paul!

Paul a hero? Yes, surely - a man courageous, single-minded, passionate, motivated by love for God and humanity. A man who changed the course of history, launching a movement that has shaped human values and behaviour for 2000 years.

But are our biblical heroes intended to be models for all Christians at all times? What about Jacob, Samson, Jephthah, Ruth or Daniel? All were used by God in significant ways. We can learn positive lessons from some, but mainly negative ones from others. These were real fallible people, behaving in certain ways in particular circumstances. God used them, certainly, but that doesn't mean that we, whose personalities and situations may be different, should seek to emulate them in everything.

So what did Paul mean when he wrote 'Follow my example', or when he resolved to make himself 'a model for you to follow' (2 Thes.3:9)? Never is he so arrogant as to set himself up as perfect: in each case he is illustrating a particular principle that he embodies in his own behaviour. So we do not have to imitate Paul's personal attitude to women and marriage, for example, any more than we have to imitate Gideon's experiments with a fleece (Judges 6:36ff).

Even in the case of Jesus, we don't know WWJD (what would Jesus do?) - all we know is what Jesus did. And perhaps what we need to know is what Jesus would have me do. Jesus washed his disciples' feet, and told his disciples to do the same (John 13:14-15). Some Christians, in spite of shoes and changing culture, obey this literally (though more as a ceremony than an everyday act of hospitality). But each of us, according to our personalities and circumstances, must seek to live out Jesus' example of humble servanthood.

In a society that is desperately short of positive, wholesome role models, all of us - in our gloriously different ways - should be seeking to embody the principles of the gospel, which were so perfectly exemplified by Jesus and earnestly pursued by his less-than-perfect apostle, Paul.

Helen Parry (LICC)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3170908278495640769