Weekend Reflections: Relationships, Relationships, Relationships

Wednesday, 30 June 2010 | Subjects, Weekend Reflections

Anyone else notice that there has been a bit of a theme to the Sunday Talks over the last few weeks?

Sometimes we go through seasons when the underlying theme for Sunday talks is planned, at others we leave it open to the Holy Spirit to move the people bringing the talk. This time it’s a bit of both. Ian Higginbotham has planned for a while to do a set of three talks on relationships: making, maintaining and ending. We’ve had two so far:

• Relationships (1) – Making: Ian Higginbotham
• Relationships (2) – Maintaining Healthy Relationships: Ian Higginbotham

These are both excellent practical talks about how we interact with people on a day-by-day basis. But beyond Ian’s planned talks we’ve also been asked to think again about our attitude towards relationships in the evening in messages from Mark Sleet and Paul Jackson:

• Luke 15 – The Parable of the Loving Father: Mark Sleet
• A better way to live…:Paul Jackson

Sometimes I, for one, can get wrapped up in the programme of things, the activity, the doing. These talks remind us of the things that are important to God, and God is a God of relationship.

God is love.

1 John 4:16

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:4

In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:45

Working on the technical side of things means that I see all sorts of things when we meet on a Sunday morning – I notice problems, things that shouldn’t be the way they are, gremlins. If we were there for a performance this would be a problem, but we aren’t there for a performance we are there as a family to meet our father. I try to imagine our meeting a bit like an old time gathering around the fire, there’s no TV so everyone brings a song, or a poem, or a story. While the event is entertaining, it’s real purpose is to bind everyone together and cement everyone into the family. It’s about the relationships.

We should take note of the themes in the Bible that reoccur, and you can’t read far in the Bible without coming across a section on relationships – people to people, people to God, God to people.

When God repeats a theme to a body of people we should, likewise, sit up and listen.

What is God saying to you about the relationships that you keep?

• Are you a relationship builder?
• Are you a relationship bleeder?
• Are you a relationship maintainer?
• Are you a relationship destroyer?
• Are you enthusiastic in your relationships?
• Are you passive in your relationships?

Taking the challenge from Paul Jackson – what would it mean for you to lead a one-plus-one life?

Weekend Reflections: Psalm 23

Saturday, 29 May 2010 | Subjects, Weekend Reflections

It’s only Saturday and I already know what the preacher is planning to preach on tomorrow morning – how? Because it’s Sue’s (my wife) turn to preach tomorrow.

When you see someone preparing a sermon you start to realise the amount of effort that they put into it. It’s not as simple as just chucking some words down and hoping that it’s what God wants you to say.

There are times at work when I could present for an hour without needing any preparation, I know my subject and I know what needs to be said in a given context. Preaching isn’t like that, preaching is about hearing something from God and bringing that.

Even when we are doing a series I know that the preachers are all trying to bring the thing that they believe God would want them to say.

There’s a challenge in this preparation to those of us who are going to sit and listen. If this person is going to say something that God wants to be said; is that the way in which we listen to it. I am sure that if I knew that God had sent a special envoy to say something specifically to me I would take full attention of what they have to say. Is that the way we treat the preachers?

Jonah was given a message to bring to Nineveh. He hated the people from Nineveh, and with good reason, they were awful. But God had a message for them and he wanted Jonah to deliver it.

Jonah ran away, but God had other plans and eventually Jonah was back in Nineveh.

From the accounts in the Bible it doesn’t sound like Jonah was a great orator, he wasn’t funny, he didn’t soften them up with a witty story, he just brought God’s message.

"Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned."

Jonah 3:4

That’s apparently all he said, not that great a sermon really, but it was a message from God and the people heard it and changed.

If you are going to church tomorrow who are you expecting to hear from?

Missing Church – Seeing the World

Friday, 21 May 2010 | Subjects, Weekend Reflections

On Sunday evening the rest of the family all needed to be at church early for one reason or another – I didn’t so stayed back.

We’d had friends around for Sunday lunch and had spent all afternoon talking and enjoying the fine English spring weather. This meant that we hadn’t done the washing up, so that was my job while everyone else was out.

About half way through the washing up a started to wash one of the cooking dishes, but instead managed to break it, and in so doing put quite a nasty gash across my thumb.

While trying to stop it bleeding I wondered to myself whether I should just patch it up, or whether a trip to A&E was in order. Knowing that A&E gets busy on a Sunday evening later on I decided that I’d go early, rather than leave it and wait even longer. I’d managed to stop the bleeding enough to enable me to drive, so off I went.

Having checked in I sat in the reception waiting for my turn to see the triage nurse.

As I looked around I wondered about each of my fellow casualties story.

For some it was obvious what they had done, but how did they get that gash on their head.

For other’s it was obvious that alcohol had played a significant part in the story.

For the couple in the corner she’d clearly had something to do with his cut hand, and he wasn’t happy about it.

There was another couple and he was getting more and more frustrated with her lack of understanding of how Sudoku works.

There was the lady who was struggling with stomach pains for more than three days.

I whole mix of society.

There were those who you could tell were well paid and then there was the bearded man who looked like he was carrying all of his earthly belongings.

I couldn’t imagine any of them went to church, or that Jesus was even a consideration in their life – but I heard a sentence in my head over and over again:

“I love these people”

I had my thumb x-rayed and dressed and then drove home wondering…