by John Mason | May 28, 2014 | Word on Wednesday
Jesus’ words: “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12), can be puzzling.
Miracles. No one today is performing miracles on the same scale as Jesus was, two thousand years ago. Today’s instant mass media would be on to it and we wouldn’t be able to get near because of the TV cameras. This suggests that Jesus was either not telling the truth or that he had something much more in mind than the healing of physical ailments.
God’s passion. We need to read text in context. In John 15 and 16 we read about the coming Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s coming was dependent on Jesus’ going. The Spirit’s work would be to breathe new life into the lives of men and women everywhere, opening their eyes to the truth about Jesus. He would also enable Jesus’ followers to recall and to understand Jesus’ words, and to have the boldness to introduce Jesus to people everywhere. On the day of Pentecost following Jesus’ death and resurrection, more people were converted on one day through the disciples’ preaching, than during the three years of his public ministry.
Furthermore, John 20:31 sums up the purpose of John’s Gospel: These are written so that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
If we saw things from Jesus’ perspective we would understand that conversion is a greater miracle than healing the sick. On one occasion, he said something like it himself – ‘Which is more difficult,’ he asked ‘to say your sins are forgiven or rise, take up your bed and walk?’
One minister tells the story of an alcoholic whose life was a total mess. A friend introduced him to Jesus Christ and his life was changed. He worked at his drinking problem and began to put his life together. But work colleagues mocked his new faith. ‘You can’t believe in miracles,’ one man said. ‘What about the story of turning water into wine? You’ve never seen that happen, have you?’ ‘No, was the reply, ‘I haven’t seen water turned into wine, but I have seen wine turned into furniture for my home.’
There’s evidence for this kind of change all around us – lives being touched and transformed as people come to know Jesus. We have only to ask any true believer and they will tell us their story of the good that God has done in their life. So Jesus goes on fulfilling his words – even the promise we read in John 14:14: “…If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”
This is not a blank check. It’s not a promise that God will supply all our wants – success in every aspect of life. Again, reading text in context, we see that Jesus’ words: ‘In my name’ are key. Prayers he promises to answer are those that he would have prayed himself were he praying in our place. They are prayers that are consistent with his person and purpose.
Prayer and the lost. Jesus’ promise is a great incentive for us to pray without restraint, knowing that we are not working magic spells that might go wrong. No. We are petitioning a loving, all-wise Lord who never makes mistakes and whose greatest passion is to rescue the lost.
Recent research indicates that almost one in five would respond positively to an invitation to go to church. Why not pray for five people you know – that you will have the opportunity to invite them to church so that they might come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior?
by John Mason | May 22, 2014 | Word on Wednesday
We live in a world of uncertainty and the unexpected. Where do we look for security and hope?
Bewilderment. At the end of John 13 an ominous cloud hung over Jesus’ disciples. For three years they had been with him, increasingly confident he was God’s promised king. But at the Passover meal he had told them he was going away.
“Don’t be troubled,” he said. “Believe in God, believe also in me… I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:1, 3-4).
Thomas’s response expressed a frustration we all can feel: “Lord, we do not know where you’re going…” (John 14:5).
Jesus’ reply is astonishing: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He didn’t say, ‘I’ll show you the way’ but rather, ‘I am the way’; he didn’t say, ‘I’ll tell you the truth’ but, ‘I am the truth’; he didn’t say, ‘I’ll give you eternal life’ but, ‘I am the life’.
At the heart of the universe is not so much a theory of unification, but a person. The only way we make sense of our human existence is by recognizing the one who is the truth – the Word of God incarnate. Jesus is the One we need to know – hear him, love and honor him, and every day, walk with him.
This is not a fantasy. John the Gospel-writer candidly reports that Thomas thought for a while it was. He didn’t believe the other disciples when they said that they had seen Jesus risen from the dead. And then when he saw him he responded, humbly and honestly, “My Lord and my God”.
Were those first followers dreaming? Six weeks later Peter preached the first Christian sermon less than two miles from Jesus’ tomb, yet no one contradicted his claim that the tomb was empty.
In uncertain and tough times we can remember Jesus’ words, “Believe in God, believe also in me.” Just how real is your walk with Jesus?
Prayer:
Almighty God, we confess that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: keep us outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, so that we may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, Lent 2 – adapted)
by John Mason | May 14, 2014 | Word on Wednesday
What is God really like? Who is he and what should we expect from him? We are left with the possibility that there is no way of knowing God. And of course, there are always those who tell us that there is no God – Nietzsche in the 19th century and some scientists like Richard Dawkins today.
The fact is that the idea of God is embedded in every culture that has existed for more than three generations. So it’s not surprising that even in popular music, questions of God arise. Back in June 1996 the pop singer Joan Osborne came and went with a #1 single, ‘One of Us’. The music was catchy and the lyrics asked some good questions: If God had a name, what would it be? If God had a face, what would it look like? In essence it asked the question, ‘What would God be like if he were flesh and blood?
Hindus tell us that there are many different gods (Shiva, Vishna, and so on); Judaism insists that there is only one. Buddhism denies the notion of God and Islam insists that everything is directed by the will of Allah. So, who’s right? Certainly not all of them. Perhaps none.
It’s this kind of question that makes Joan Osborne’s question so relevant. The only way we can really know what the creator God is like is if he lived as one of us. If he stepped into our shoes for a while we could see him from his birth to the grave. We could observe where he was born and the school he attended. We’d hear of his interests and life-style, what music he listened to and what social events and pubs he might check out. And we’d see the way he’d treat people – the politicians and the celebrities; the poor and the outcast; or just the average guy on the street like you and me. And if he had to die, we’d see how he would cope with it.
One of the striking things about Christianity is that it is grounded in history. The Gospel writers insist that Jesus of Nazareth not only lived but was unique. He was not just a prophet, he was more than a prophet. He was not just a man, he was God’s Messiah. He was not just an extraordinary man, he was both God and man.
In the hours before his arrest one of Jesus’ friends asked him a question that wasn’t very different from the one in Joan Osborne’s song. We read it in John 14:9: Philip said, “Lord show us the Father. That’s all we need.”
Philip wanted to know what every religion has always wanted to know: What is God like? He wanted some tangible experience of God that would sweep his doubts away. Perhaps he was thinking of God’s special appearance to Moses in the burning bush. Or maybe he was influenced by the Greek mystery religions and had in mind some inner ecstasy, a spiritual trip that would lift him up to new levels of consciousness. Either way he wanted to see God.
Jesus’ response is electrifying: “He who has seen me has seen the Father…” He was saying, ‘Philip, don’t you get it? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’ How many people think of Jesus merely as the ultimate good guy or one of history’s great teachers? Both ideas are no doubt true, but neither comes near what he was saying. He was saying that he was not just God’s emissary or ambassador, but God himself. He was claiming to be God in our shoes.
It’s a startling, astonishing claim: ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father…’ Do you really believe this? And if you do, what will your answer be next time someone asks you about God?
by John Mason | May 7, 2014 | Word on Wednesday
This Sunday is Mother’s Day. Towards the end of the 20th century there were major shifts in the thinking about the role of women and motherhood. Television sitcoms reflected some of these changes – from the nuclear family in ‘Lassie’ with the stay-at-home Mom, through to the late 1980s when 75% of American TV’s female characters worked outside the home.
However, in the last decade or so there has been the realization that the superwoman image of women who strive for perfection at work and at home, is unrealistic and potentially dangerous. The New York Times occasionally runs an article touching on the tension and competition between full-time mothers and full-time professional women.
I suspect it would come as a great surprise to many today to read Proverbs 31:10-31. Considering the things she does and the pace of her life she would make a good New Yorker! However we see here not just characteristics of an ideal wife but also a picture of the Bible’s view of womanhood.
Proverbs 31:10-31 is written as an acrostic, using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to set out features of the woman it describes. While she is a woman of means with a household staff, there are lessons that apply across societies and time. We see a range of qualities in her life. She is a manager and multi-competent – responsible for the management of her household.
Capable yet caring. The woman of Proverbs 31:14-22 is an entrepreneur, taking on significant responsibilities. She’s a business woman, known in the market place, buying and selling produce and property. She has an eye for property and investment opportunities, as well as trading, turning in honest profits. Physically fit and strong, her lamp does not go out. Yet she is compassionate and caring giving a percentage of her profits to the poor, reinforcing the biblical principle that prosperity is to be shared with those who are less well off. She ensures her family are well clothed and that their linens and garments are the finest quality.
One of the outcomes of her competence in running her household and in getting good returns on her investments, is that her husband is freed up for public life: ‘city gates’ indicates that he may have been a magistrate or judge. Another outcome of her wisdom and her work is that she is economically secure (verse 25). Idleness is not part of her makeup or lifestyle.
Her conversation is not simply small talk or gossip. Verses 26 and 27 tell us that that she uses opportunities to speak words of wisdom to her family and her household. She brings God into her conversation – his revelation and his wisdom for life. In her life God’s teaching is intertwined with her lifestyle. It shouldn’t surprise us that the Bible takes women seriously and treats them as men’s equals, for in Genesis 1:27 we read: God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
What is the key to her success? Her independence? Her entrepreneurial gifts? No. We read in verses 30-31: Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. These words form a fitting conclusion to the Book of Proverbs for they bring us back to chapter 1:7: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise wisdom and instruction. This is what this woman has learnt – a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Pray. Every woman is a unique combination of temperament, gifts and passions that demand unique expression. Let’s commit to pray that God’s grace will be so poured out upon the women in our lives that they will receive the praise, respect and honor due to them.
