Paul: Of Mice and Men

Since I have been longing for many years to see you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through, and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while. Romans 15:23-24

The best laid plans o’ Mice and Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy
wrote Robert Burns. And most of us – although we might not know the exact meaning of the Scots word agley – know what he meant. In spite of believing in God’s providence and guidance, our best-laid plans frequently go agley. We might assume that Paul – that great man of God – had no such problems. But we’d be wrong.

The churches in Macedonia and Achaia had made generous gifts, which Paul was taking for the relief of the believers in Jerusalem. But thinking ahead to his next journey, he confidently planned to go to Rome and then on to Spain. Even as he travelled towards Jerusalem, however, the omens were not good. In every city, he told the Ephesians, the Spirit warned him of imprisonment and hardship (Eph.20:23), and prophetic voices reinforced these warnings. So it was hardly a surprise when, on reaching Jerusalem, he was arrested, and handed over into the custody of the Romans.

What, then, of his plans - plans, no doubt, made in faith and with prayer?

Paul did reach Rome – though not in the way he expected. As far as we know, he never got to Spain. But towards the end of his life he was able to claim that he had ‘finished the course’ (2 Tim.4:7).

How liberating it is to know that we can amply fulfil our calling even when things turn out differently from our hopes and expectations. Disappointment, failure, tragedy – everything from revolution to a broken ankle – may make our plans go agley, and sometimes change the whole course of our lives. But the Lord, who can see so far beyond our horizons, is constantly at work to achieve his purposes in other ways and through other people.

And even in redundancy and disability…(and I would add 'retirement'...Mike)no Christian is redundant in God’s economy, and no Christian is disabled from blessing others.

Helen Parry (LICC)

A timely word

(The Message)

But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you.
He's gathering strength to show mercy to you.
God takes the time to do everything right—everything.
Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.
Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you'll find it's grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he'll answer. Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road." You'll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You'll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, "Good riddance!"
God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Isaiah 30: 18-23a (from 'The Message')

Honouring inheritance

Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12

Margaret Killingray (LICC) writes:

All the new discoveries in DNA and genetic inheritance* have given me some sense of the continuities from parents and grandparents right back to human origins, of genetic parameters within which we function as human beings. But our wider cultural and social inheritance comes from our wider social upbringing, and our parents whether linked to us genetically or not.

These thoughts have brought a new focus to the final clause of this command. The call to respect and esteem our parents is linked to long life, to land and place and therefore, by extension, to the inheritance of cultural and social patterns of behaviour and the handing down of these to children and children’s children. When the majority of sons and daughters in any society take the command seriously, then they are contributing to stable social structures that encourage human flourishing. Healthy relationships between the generations are a crucial source of stability, especially in a time of accelerating change.

My father and mother are long dead; the obligations have been discharged. Apart from still having a momentary flash on Mothering Sunday that I have forgotten to send her a card, I am at peace about them. I am grateful for a warm and easy-going pattern of upbringing, for security and affirmation, for support and for their letting go. It is only now that I have become fully conscious of that gratitude, realising that I have to some extent honoured them by incorporating what I learnt from them into my own patterns of parenting.

The word used is honour, not obey. Honouring doesn’t carry overtones of blind obedience. Honouring our inheritance involves assessing and reconsidering the patterns of living we have inherited before we pass them on. Sometimes it involves repudiating, and, indeed, seeking to redeem, destructive patterns of parenting and socialisation. We may honour our parents and yet act in different ways. We inherit a mixed bag – genes we can’t change (yet) – but we can seek the Spirit’s power to understand and transform, and, in the process, honour all that has been handed down to us.

contentment

On the theme of contentment....see my latest Sermon (link on the right)

An American consultant was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."
The American then asked, "Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said, "Well, I catch enough to feed my family."
The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor."
The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard graduate and Icould help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then, senor?"
The American laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions, senor? Then what?"
The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."