by John Mason | Mar 12, 2014 | Word on Wednesday
Health.
Browsing the net on the subject of fitness and health I notice that a sedentary lifestyle is a significant cause of death in the US. The evidence indicates we need to watch our weight and keep fit. There were warnings against eating too much hi-carb food, over-drinking and, of course, too much sitting. Over the last decade or so, diet and fitness have been real growth industries. Billions of dollars are poured into both every year. But, why do we bother?
Is it because we reckon that life now is the only one we have, so we’d better make the most of it? We probably also appreciate other benefits – the good looks that come from having a fit body, and the energy surge that comes with the release of endorphins when we exercise.
But the bottom line is we all have to face the facts: as time passes our bodies lose their youthful looks and fitness and, with enough time, we will slip off this mortal coil. No matter how good our diet and how much we exercise, we all face a terminus ad quem. And, there comes a time when most people realize this. What then are we looking for in life? What is our greatest longing, our biggest dream?
Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11ff) focuses at first on the younger of two sons. He’d asked his father, ‘Can I have my share of the inheritance now?’ And his father had given him what he wanted. But the day came when the young man found himself destitute. With no money, no food and no friends his thoughts turned to home and to his father. ‘I’m mad,’ he thought. ‘Here I am, bereft, with no future. I’m going home! But what will Dad say?’
The younger son’s problem was that he wanted the inheritance without any reference to his father – without any responsibility or accountability. Isn’t this what we want to do with God? We have a sneaking suspicion that God is there, but we want him out of the way, dead, so we can do what we want.
The cry of the heart.
Yes, we do have the issues of fitness and aging, but our real problem is facing up to God – for we are his creation. Jesus wants us to feel the impact of his words as he exposes our flawed human heart. Jean Paul Sartre, the French existentialist said: ‘That God does not exist, I cannot deny; that my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget’.
‘But what if we do turn to God? Can God find it in his heart to forgive me?’ we ask. Jesus gives us the answer in this parable. Before the younger son could catch his breath, his father was busy ordering new clothes, shoes and a ring – the best of everything. The most elaborate and expensive feast was prepared and the father tells us why. ‘For this my son was dead, now he is alive, he was lost but now he has been found.’ The wayward, rebellious son who deserved nothing good from his father was to be reinstated as a son.
Generous love.
We have the further evidence of God’s love in the events that unfolded. Jesus, whose life was good in every sense of the word, who came to be recognized as the Messiah, let his life be taken from him so that we, through his death, might find life. His resurrection from the dead assures us of it. Unexpectedly and undeservedly, Jesus lavishes forgiveness on anyone who turns back to him and says from the bottom of their heart, ‘Lord, I am so sorry.’ In a world where our lives have a fading and temporary glory, this is good news indeed. Let’s live with the joy of it in our hearts – and watch what happens.
[Adapted from my commentary on Luke, John G. Mason, Reading Luke Today: An Unexpected God, Aquilla:2012 (available at amazon.com).]
by John Mason | Mar 5, 2014 | Word on Wednesday
‘You Are What You Eat’
was a popular television program in the United Kingdom from 2004-2007. It was based on the idea that what we eat affects who we are and what we are like. A cyber-search suggests that the phrase originated in the 19th century with Anthelme Brillat-Savarin who said, ‘Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are’; and Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach who wrote, ‘Man is what he eats’. Not intending to be taken literally, they considered that the food we choose to eat has implications for our health and state of mind.
It is not my purpose to debate the merits or otherwise of this. Rather, I want to use the phrase as a metaphor for the things in general we choose ‘to eat’ – the films we watch, the literature we read, the people we want to emulate. What we ‘eat’ in this more general sense, draws on assumptions we make about life, and these are usually dependent upon our spiritual values. And our assumptions in the spiritual sphere shape the choices we make in life.
Today’s problem is that so many people, even in the formerly Christianized West, have only eaten a diet of secular materialism. The majority of people in the large cities of the world, including the West, have no clear understanding of who Jesus of Nazareth is. When it comes to Christianity people have been offered a diet that has focused on the ungodly behavior of the few, rather than on the good Jesus’ followers have promoted through the centuries – schools and hospitals, churches and meaningful communities.
What we choose to forget are some of the toughest words of Jesus. In Luke 13:24f, we read: “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able… These words should strike dread in our hearts. One day the great doors of the new age will close, never again to open. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem With Pain: “The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever.”
Jesus goes on to say why many will be excluded from his presence: “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets’” (Luke 13:26). Some of us are too complacent about our faith: we are fellow-travellers. Yes, we attend church and give to the poor, we but do not enjoy a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Our problem often is that we don’t want him to instruct us and we baulk at obeying him. If we pray we tend to bargain or do deals with God; if we go to church, it is to catch up with friends or be seen with the right people. And because our own faith is not real or vital we ignore the plight of ‘the lost’.
Choice.
So Jesus asks us, ‘What kind of diet do you eat? What choices do you make? Do you choose to taste the passing delights of a secular material world, or the lasting food of God’s Word and his kingdom?’ And, if you have truly turned to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, what of others? Do you pray for people you know and look for opportunities to feed them with the truth about Jesus and the hope he alone can offer us? The choice is yours.
Adapted from my commentary on Luke, John G. Mason, Reading Luke Today: An Unexpected God, Aquilla:2012.
by John Mason | Feb 26, 2014 | Word on Wednesday
Justice
‘If God cares and is in control why doesn’t he clean up the mess?’ is a question I was often asked after 9/11. ‘Why doesn’t he intervene and bring to justice the perpetrators of wars, injustice and evil?’ These are valid questions, for our hearts cry out for wrongs to be righted. If there is no ultimate justice, morality itself has no ultimate meaning. For if we do not live in a moral universe, life, in the end, is like playing sport with no referee or final score.
A day of accounting
In Luke 12:35-48, Jesus spoke of the end of time. He assured his hearers that there will be a day of accounting, that God does exist and justice will be done. “You must also be ready,” he said, “for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour” (12:40). And, “…From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded” (12:48).
Be prepared. Jesus used two metaphors. First, he drew a picture of a wealthy man who was away from home at an important wedding. The man’s servants, Jesus said, must be ready for his return no matter how late the hour: “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him when he comes and knocks” (12:35-36).
Jesus’ second picture is that of a householder whose house is broken into. Watchfulness is the overriding theme. With Jesus’ return God’s judgment will be complete. The themes of justice and the temporary nature of money and possessions, about which Jesus had just been speaking will be vindicated (see 12:1-12 and 12:13-34).
The two word pictures suggest three things about the timing of his coming. It is imminent: the master could return at any time; there is delay: the master seems to be taking his time. We see this in 12:38 where Jesus said that it may be the second or the third watch in the night, that is, the early hours of the morning, when the master returns. There is also a third element: surprise. In 12:39 the householder does not know when the thief will come.
Complacency
It’s easy to miss the force of Jesus’ words. He is telling us that we should be living with the tension of imminence and delay. Our problem is that we are inclined to ignore the reality of an end of time. After all, two thousand years have come and gone and nothing has happened, so we let ourselves drift into spiritual complacency.
But the sobering reality is that one day we will all answer to God. While this is a frightening thought, it is also encouraging, for it means that justice will be done. The day will arrive when those who have carried out injustices and atrocities will come under the scrutiny of God who knows all. No-one will escape. His justice will be perfect. Jesus’ resurrection points to the reality of supernatural truths about the universe that have yet to be revealed.
The return of the King
All this suggests that we need to order our lives now in ways that glorify God and glory in God. It also suggests that we should play our part, introducing others to Christ Jesus, so that they too will be prepared for his return, the return of the King.
Adapted from my commentary on Luke, John G. Mason, Reading Luke Today: An Unexpected God, Aquilla:2012.
by John Mason | Feb 23, 2014 | Word on Wednesday
In the movie Up in the Air, George Clooney’s character lives a life committed to getting his ten million air miles. He sees relationships as insignificant compared with the prestige in having the silver card engraved ‘Ryan Bingham #7’. Yet when it is handed to him mid-flight by the captain, along with a public announcement and champagne, he realizes how meaningless it is.
Preoccupation.
On one occasion a man listening to Jesus, interjected: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me” (12:13). Despite the life and death matters Jesus had just been speaking about (12:4-12), this man’s thoughts were focused on an injustice that was gnawing away inside him. And Jesus responded without missing a beat: “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” he asked (12:14). It was hardly a warm response. But Jesus was aware that this man was obsessed with this issue. He needed to awaken him to larger issues in life.
‘Do you really believe that I am an arbiter and judge over you?’ is the implication of Jesus’ question. ‘If you do, then who do you think has given me this authority?’ Apparently the man had not thought about this. Furthermore, in tacitly acknowledging Jesus to be a prophet from God who could adjudicate in his affairs, he was inviting God to judge his own affairs as well. But he hadn’t thought about this either, hence Jesus’ telling words: “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (12:15).
Accruing foolishness.
To make his point he told a searching parable about a wealthy landowner who thought too much about himself (12:16-20). Using a string of first-person pronouns, Jesus painted a picture of the foolishness of accruing wealth. The rich man was consumed with ‘my crops, my grain, my barns, myself, my life, and my soul’. It was a picture of arrogant self-satisfaction.
The man had failed to understand that his life was ultimately not his own. ‘Tonight your life, your soul, will be demanded from you,’ Jesus concluded. Life is not ours to do with simply as we want. It is something for which we all have to give an account. This wealthy man thought only about himself. He didn’t give a passing thought to the second command about neighbor love (10:29ff), nor the first commandment about love for God.
“You fool!”
“You fool!” God said. What a chilling verdict. To be obsessed with things is the ultimate foolishness, for none of us can speak with certainty about tomorrow let alone many years hence. Materialism offers neither real security nor true and lasting satisfaction.
Priorities?
Jesus had turned the question of a self-centered, thoughtless man into a provocative moment in his life. In contrast to laying up treasure for ourselves, Jesus tells us we should settle for nothing less than becoming rich in our relationship with God. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” Jesus went on to say. God’s people who trust Jesus at his Word generously invest in God’s agenda – local church and outreach ministries, education, care for the needy and the outcast. The question is, ‘What about you?’
Note: This week’s ‘Word’ is adapted from my commentary, John G. Mason, Reading Luke Today: An Unexpected God, Aquila: 2012, p.176ff
by John Mason | Feb 12, 2014 | Word on Wednesday
Leaders.
There seems to be something in the human heart that longs for a leader – a leader whose integrity is transparent and who is worthy of our trust. In fact, tough times make us realise how grateful we are when we have leaders who use their position and power to serve our welfare. Leaders like Winston Churchill not only win loyalty but respect. Down through the ages people have expressed their desire for leaders like this. Plato wrote about it with his notion of a philosopher king in The Republic. J.R.R. Tolkein’s, ‘King’ in the Lord of the Rings is another example of a trustworthy leader who fulfills people’s longings.
A unique leader.
As Luke’s narrative about Jesus of Nazareth unfolds we see that many came to see him as a leader who used his remarkable powers with integrity. He was a leader who could be trusted. But Jesus did not make it easy for potential followers.
Expectations.
When one man made what seemed a promising commitment, “I will follow you wherever you go” (9:57), Jesus’ response was terse:
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (9:58).
He wanted the man to consider carefully what ‘following’ would mean. Jesus was born in a manger and would die on a cross and, in between, had nowhere to lay his head. So he asks us: ‘Are you willing to join me on a journey through life that may be without material comfort and security? Are you prepared to go without for the sake of bringing others into the kingdom?’
Even family demands must not stand in the way of serving God’s kingdom. Luke tells us about two others who, like the fans of celebrities, were following Jesus.
The first man’s request seems reasonable: “Lord, let me first go and bury my father” (9:59). But, if the man’s father had died he would have returned home immediately. In fact, his parents had some years to live but he was using their ultimate demise as an excuse. ‘What is more important?’ Jesus was asking, ‘cultural expectations or the announcement of the kingdom of God?’ Yes, children are to honor parents and care for them, but God has first claim on us.
The second man’s request also seems reasonable: “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me say farewell to those at my home” (9:61). Jesus knew a lengthy Middle-Eastern family farewell would be used by the family to overturn this man’s resolve to follow a leader like him.
We might be impressed with Jesus and may even want to follow him ourselves, but we are not always willing to commit – yet. Augustine, the 5th century bishop of Hippo said, O Lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. Jesus is a demanding leader. He wants our total commitment. He calls us to be willing to leave the security of the world’s wealth; the security of a comfortable home; the security of family and friends. We have a choice to make.
A leader to be trusted.
Jus showed extraordinary trust and confidence in God’s Word. He invites us to do the same. Yes, to follow Jesus is to join him on a road through life that may be tough. But it is worth it. We will increasingly discover that he is an exciting, creative, risk-taking but trustworthy leader – a leader we long for. ‘What does it profit a man or a woman,’ Jesus asked, ‘to gain the whole world yet lose their own soul?’ It was to save us from losing our souls that Jesus came. If we spend our life for him, paradoxically we find it.
