Reflection 2023                    Word on the Week                30^th December 2023.

Let’s do it differently.   Instead of a Crystal Ball let’s use a mirror!   Let’s see if we can find faith.   The image reflected back spells ‘doubt’.   The Bible says “the righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1 verse 17) so we had better find faith.  

But how?    Doubt comes naturally; Envying someone else is natural; worry is natural; Fear is natural; Wanting to give up is natural; It’s natural to wonder if all my good habits will make a difference in the end; It’s normal to occasionally be stumbled by the question of whether what I have staked my life on is really true?

But faith isn’t natural.

No matter how hard you try to work it up, lasting faith is the gift of God.  “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2 verse 8).  

But how is this gift given?

This gift of God is Jesus.   Believing that He is, as his name implies, – Saviour. This follows by being born into His family.   As the Gospel says, “to all who receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1 verse 12).

The invitation to accept this gift is put well in Joseph Hart’s hymn; Come ye sinners, poor and needy.   Verse 3 is particularly helpful; Let not conscience make you linger, Nor of fitness fondly dream; All the fitness He requires is to feel your need of Him: This He gives you – ‘Tis the Spirits rising beam.

In coming to Jesus, like the Prodigal, you are accepted.   Just as in the parable there is the ring of relationship, the robe of righteousness and feet shod for service.   As a child of God you are an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5 verse 20).

God will equip you.   Never fear that you will have to hide in guilt when your walk of faith slips off the path.  Your hope in Life no longer depends on your faithfulness but on Jesus faithfulness.   It is on Jesus who said that no one would ever be able to snatch one of his flock out of his hand (John 10 verse 28).  It is in His words and what He has done that we place our God given faith.

So back to the mirror!   Our faith is found not in ourselves but in Jesus who lived and died for others.   Always remember that our faith is not like it used to be – in our own abilities but now it is on what Jesus has done (Romans 4 Verse 25).   2024 will look a lot different.

The Eternal Word        Word on the Week       23^rd December 2023.

The Word on the week is about to ‘come out’.   He has always existed!

We first learn of Him in Genesis chapter 1 as the author of creation.

John’s Gospel chapter 1 verse 3 simply says ‘He made it all’.

The Gospel goes on to say the Word became human and lives with us.

“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – verse 14.

This is the embodiment of the Word.   He is known as Jesus Christ.

The Angel gave the name to Joseph and Mary and also his job-description of ‘saviour’ (Matthew Chapter 1 verse 21).

When we took over the new church building in Pearse Street we asked the builder to put the text Matthew chapter 24 verse 35 over the door.  It reads: –

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Our instructions were to write it on stone.   The builders wrote it on the glass panel above the interior door!   They corrected their mistake and now we have the text written twice!  

The Bible goes one better having this text, which was spoken by Jesus, in each of the three synoptic Gospels!   This underlines the importance of the Word – both the written Word – the Bible and the living word – Jesus.

Have pity on my paltry efforts to have the Word of God address weekly some of the important matters that arise.   The most vital is always the salvation of the reader.   This comes about when you bow the knee to God to repent of your sins and open your heart to receive the living Lord Jesus as your personal saviour.  

Then go on to serve Him by living out the Word for the remainder of your life on earth.    May this Christmas be the one when this transaction takes place in your life.

Food at Christmas           Word on the Week                     9^th December 2023.

This is the time of year that food comes into its own.   Turkey and ham with sprouts etc. followed by a plumb pudding with a sprig of holly on top.   Sometimes we venture into more exotic dishes and sample foods seldom eaten except on birthdays.

One of these dishes is the shellfish called mussels.   They normally come in numbers, shiny black shells, cooked in salty water and sprung open ready to be eaten.   These mussels are mainly harvested in the sea around shallow waters where they adhere to ropes fishermen anchor in the water.

These delicacies were on the list of prohibited foods in Old Testament times.    They come under the general heading of shellfish which were declared unclean (Leviticus 11 verses 9 to 12).    Presumably this was to avoid the danger of food poisoning as mussels require to be cooked as soon as they are harvested.   No refrigerators then!

The menu in those days would have had many omissions!   The Israelites were God’s ‘treasured possession’ and were to be distinguished from other nations by various things including their diet.    

Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark’s Gospel 7 verses15 to 19).    Mussels are on the menu!

As a child I gathered freshwater mussels for the fishermen to use as bait.   The flesh of the mussel was dried in the sun, salted then wrapped round the hook.   The hook had to end up entering the tiny heart of the mussel so as secure the flesh from slipping off the hook.   The empty shells were spread on the village paths and trampled into the earth making a firm paving.   A practice akin to throwing out damp salt which had lost its savour (St Matthew 5 verse 13).  

Another practice was to crack open mussels to see if they contained a pearl.  The pearl would be formed by a piece of grit entering the mussel and its defence was to coat it with pearl.   We collected these tiny pearls in a small glass tube (which once contained aspirin) and sold them to the local chemist!

As you can imagine the rewards were tiny but there was always the hope of coming across a big pearl!    The Merchant in Jesus’s parable was more persistent and, we are told when he found the big one went and sold everything he had in order to purchase the place where it was to be found (St Matthew 13 verses 45/6).

Today it is found in Jesus.    There is great joy in coming to faith in Him.   If you haven’t placed your trust in Jesus this would be a good time to do so (Luke 15 verses 7 to 10).

Musk Unmasked              Word on the Week                     2^nd December 2023.

Elon Musk planned to turn Twitter into the marketplace of ideas, a bastion of free speech but something has gone sadly wrong.   It was always going to be a high wire act having public space in private hands but then Elon Musk could be the man to control the media platform.

He lays claim to be the wealthiest man in the world with his worth over $200 billion and this after paying 44 billion for Twitter in 2022.

He made most of his money making electric cars in gigantic factories.   His Tesla car is a market leader.   He has an attraction to space travel and has built a number of rockets.   One of his goals is to colonise Mars!

This week his management of Twitter, now known as X, has come under attack.  It stems from his absence of auditing the platform content which has attracted dubious contributions largely from the far right.    Fake news goes undetected and his own recent entry appears to be anti-Semitic.

The Mayor of Paris has publicly stated her disapproval by describing it as a sewer and cancelling her X account.   The downward spiral of the company, in the 13 months he has owned it, stems from Musk firing around 50% of its staff to arrest the loss making situation it was in.   A number of big brands who advertised on X have pulled out in recent days, incurring Musk’s ire.  

Without the goodwill of advertisers, survival will depend on funding from Musk’s other companies, some of whom assisted in meeting the purchase price.   It is a long way from becoming like the Areopagus in Athens.   When St Paul visited it he had been heard preaching in the city and was invited to state his case there before the Athenians and foreigners gathered there (Acts 17 verses 16 to 34).

There had been a sounding out of the Apostles ideas.   The Areopagus was not for anyone, a lesson Musk is learning the hard way.   The Athenians enjoyed free speech which Musk is trying to create but even speech requires to be edited and kept within ethical boundaries.

What did the Apostle say in Athens?   We are told he preached Jesus and the resurrection.   He emphasised both to the extent that the listeners thought there were two gods! (verse 18).   Their decision to hear more from Paul was a good one and their public square, the Areopagus, could be replicated today by a suitably cleaned up X!

Perhaps Elon Musk, who has access to all this world can give, could benefit from the repentance the Apostle preached and look for the cleansing from sin that Jesus offers (St Matthew 19 verses 23 to 26).