An article on Monday reported a speech given by the US Attorney General, William Barr at Notre Dame Law School last Friday. Caleb Parke reported (FoxNews, 10.14.19), that the Attorney General ‘blasted “militant secularists” and their attacks on Judaeo-Christian values…’

According to the report Barr observed that “the problem is not that religion is being forced on others, the problem is that irreligion is being forced – secular values are being forced on people of faith”.

According to the report, Barr said that “Among the militant secularists are many so-called progressives.” “But”, Barr asked, “ Where is the progress? We are told we are living in a post-Christian era, but what has replaced the Judaeo-Christian moral system? What is it that can fill the spiritual void in the heart of the individual person? And what is the system of values that can sustain human social life?”

In this age of change, how should the Christian community respond? Two thoughts come to mind – the first I will take up today; the second, next Wednesday.

First, we have Jesus’ words in his Sermon on the Mount that his followers are to be ‘salt’ and ‘light’ in the world (Matthew 5:13-15). Significantly, Jesus continued: In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven”(5:16).

‘Everything you are, everything you do,’ Jesus says to everyone who claims to follow him, ‘must reflect all that I have taught you. Your lifestyle, as well as honoring God, will also draw others to the truth.’ This is an awesome thought. All of us are called upon to reflect the light of God in our lives to the world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer remarked: ‘Flight into the invisible is a denial of the call. A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him.’ 

It’s important to remember the world in which Christianity was born. In his First Letter, Peter writes to people who were experiencing intolerable oppression. Yet he says: Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.  

Although Peter speaks of his readers, as ‘resident aliens’ in this world, he says that their lifestyle can draw others to God’s truth. Abstain from the sinful desires which wage war against your soul, he writes.

He is speaking of the desires of our hearts that are out of step with the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount – lies, false-witness, anger, greed, theft, the lustful look, the adulterous relationship – anything that stands against the mind of God.

Blaise Pascal, the 17^th century French philosopher wrote: ‘Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is just to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show them that it is.’

In our changing world, let’s resolve, by God’s grace, to play our part in his unfinished task of searching for and rescuing the lost. So, we need to help one another identify the flaws of today’s morality. We need to help others see the logical inconsistency of making tolerance the value that determines all values – that tolerance and moral objectivity can coincide.

What is more, we need to expose the lie that the centre of truth is the self – Me! We need to show our family and friends that we do not live in a world without a moral compass, a world in which all opinions are as valid as each other. Whether we like it or not, when people come to know that we are Christian they will look at us. They want to know whether we are genuine, whether what we profess is true, for underneath all the cries for tolerance, the cries to do what it takes to get what I want, there is a cry for help.

Too often our own lives reflect the narcissism of our culture. Like lost sheep we go astray, following the devices and desires of our own hearts rather than heeding the voice of God. We fail to be ‘the salt of the earth’ and ‘the light of the world’.

Let’s plan to confess our sins to God daily, with truly repentant hearts and, knowing the Lord’s forgiveness, resolve by his grace to press on in the new life he has given us. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

I have a question: What do you really think of prayer? When you pray, do you pray with confidence? I ask this because prayer is integral to our partnership with the Lord in outreach.

In Luke 9 and Luke 10 we read of two mission groups that Jesus out. In Luke 9:1, Jesus sent the twelve on a mission to Jewish people. In Luke 10:1, he sent out seventy to both the Jewish and non-Jewish peoples. These missions foreshadowed Jesus’ commission to his disciples, “You will be witnesses of me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the world” (Acts 1:8).

Furthermore, in Colossians 4:2-3 we find that the Apostle Paul writes: Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ,…

I am sufficiently chronologically enriched to have been a young teenager at the time of the 1959 Sydney Billy Graham Crusade. I well remember that many thousands attended the 3-week mission.

But I also remember this: the significant numbers of God’s people from churches in Sydney who were praying for two years before the Crusade. I also recall Billy Graham’s comment that the success of his ministry was dependent on the thousands of people who prayed for his work.

Prayer is one of the essential keys to lives being transformed. So, I come back to my question: What do you really think of prayer?

In Luke 11:2-13 we read significant words from Jesus on the subject of prayer. In Luke 11:9-10 we read his specific promises: “Ask, and it will be given you; Seek, and you will find; Knock, and it will be opened to you.”

And, on either side of these wonderful promises he answers two questions: First, ‘Can God be trusted to hear our prayers?’ (Luke 11:5-8); and second, ‘Do God’s answers have my best interests at heart?’ (Luke 11:11-13).

Let me pick up today Jesus’ answer to the first of these questions.

In Luke 11:5-8 we read his parable – often known as ‘The Friend at Midnight’. The parable falls into the category of sayings that have an underlying, unspoken question: ‘Can you imagine…?’ ‘Can you imagine a man talking like this to a friend in need?’ Jesus is asking.

The key to understanding the parable is found in the words usually translated, ‘the man’s impudence’ or ‘boldness’ in verse 8. Let me suggest that this is one place where most of our English translations are unhelpful for they have followed a translation that probably goes back to the 12th century.

The late Dr. Kenneth Bailey brought some new and helpful insights to the parables from his work on Middle-Eastern culture.

We need to look carefully at the text of vv.7 and 8. The flow of the pronouns ‘me’ and ‘my’ in verse 7 refer to the householder who is in bed. Further, the flow of the sentence into verse 8 and the pronouns he and his, also refer to the householder.

What is more, as Bailey pointed out, the word translated, impudence in v.8 is better translated sense of shame. The flow of the syntax, the narrative impact of the story, has the sleeper in bed as the focus – not the man who is knocking on the door. In Jesus’ story God is represented as the one who is in bed.

The unwritten laws of mid-eastern hospitality, which are an important sub-text of the parable, required a man to get up and help his neighbour in need. If he didn’t he would be shamed, and bring dishonor to the whole community. ‘Can you imagine,’ Jesus is asking, ‘anyone saying to a neighbour in need, even at midnight – ‘Get lost’.  ‘Don’t disturb me’?

So it is with God. Jesus is saying that because of God’s very nature he will respond and act. If he didn’t he would bring shame to his name.

This understanding of the parable is consistent with what Jesus taught his disciples to pray in the model prayer he gave them.

Pray: ‘Father in heaven, may your name be honored, in earth as it is in heaven’. Because of God’s honor, God’s integrity, God’s name is at the heart of the way he will not only hear but he will also act.

When we go back to the prayers of Moses and Daniel, we find that central to their prayers is the humble but bold request that God will act for the sake of his name or honor.

Prayer: Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen. (A prayer for the Gospel, An Australian Prayer Book: 1978)

It is sometimes said that the most difficult thing for the Christian church today is to get people to believe. I think the opposite is true. Most people will believe almost anything, providing that what is said is communicated with a voice of authority. GK Chesterton once observed, ‘When a man (or woman) stops believing in God they don’t then believe in nothing, they believe anything’.

Today we come to the 7^th Coffee Conversation based on Luke’s Gospel. In Luke 24 three scenes portray Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead.

In Luke 24:36-37 we read: …Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them (the disciples), “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified, thinking it was a ghost.

And even when he showed them his hands and his feet – no doubt with the imprints of the nails on them – in their joy they were still disbelieving and still wondering (24:41). These hard-headed men were confused and perplexed, even doubting what it all meant. ‘Is this really Jesus or just a spirit, a ghost?’ they were asking.

Aware of their questions and doubts, Jesus, brilliant teacher and counsellor that he is, addressed one issue at a time. “Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones…,” he said. He then asked for food (24:41). They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence (24:42-43).     

One of this century’s influential voices has been that of the late Stephen Hawking. According to Dr. John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, Hawking says of miracles such as the resurrection: “We either believe them or we believe in the scientific understanding of the laws of nature, but not both” (John C. Lennox, God and Stephen Hawking(Lion, Oxford: 2011, p.82).

Dr. Lennox observes that many scientists would say that, “miracles arose in primitive, pre-scientific cultures, where people were ignorant of the laws of nature and so readily accepted miracle stories”. However, he responds: “In order to recognize some event as a miracle, there must be some perceived regularity to which that event is an apparent exception!” (pp.84f)

We don’t need the benefit of modern science to define an extraordinary event.

Lennox also notes that a second objection to miracles is,  “now we know the laws of nature, miracles are impossible” (p.86). However, as he observes, “From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God and the likelihood of his intervention in the universe is plainly false” (p.87).

 It’s important for us to consider these matters. Followers of Jesus Christ accept the laws of nature that science observes. They are observable regularities that God the creator has built into the universe. That said, such ‘laws’ do not prevent God from intervening if he chooses. When he does, we are able to identify the irregularity and speak of it as ‘a miracle’. So, with respect to the resurrection of Jesus, the New Testament does not speak of it as a result of a natural mechanism. Rather, it happened because God intervened, using his supernatural power (Romans 6:4b).

To return to Luke 24. In each of the three scenes, the Scriptures and Jesus’ own words provide an explanation of what has happened. In the third scene these elements are brought together: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you”, Jesus said. Everything he had taught and done had been foreshadowed in the Scriptures – even his death and resurrection.

Jesus’ resurrection has no significance without his death. It cannot point to forgiveness unless sin has been dealt with. The resurrection is a glorious message because it makes sense of Jesus’ death. At first the disciples felt his death was the end of all their hopes. But then they discovered it is the foundation of all their hopes. 

Malcolm Muggeridge, former editor of Punch, speaker, and author once wrote: ‘Confronted with the reality (death is the one certainty in life), we may rage or despair, induce forgetfulness, solace ourselves with fantasies that science will in due course discover how we came to be here and to what end, and how we may project our existence, individually or collectively, into some Brave New World spanning the universe in which Man reigns supreme. God’s alternative proposition is the Resurrection – a man dying who rises from the dead… I close with, ‘Done’…: Christ is risen!’

Ask questions. Over these 7 weeks I have suggested points in Luke’s narrative to discuss with your friend(s). Luke has introduced us to someone who is like no other. You may want to return to the words of the angel to the shepherds: “…Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (2:10f).

It’s worth observing that if this is true we need to give Jesus the highest level of attention. Ask what your friend believes. If they agree with Luke’s account but find it difficult to take a step of faith in Jesus, suggest that they ask God for help – help to make the step of turning to Jesus, help to ask for forgiveness, help to know the deep joy of knowing the love of Jesus in their life.

‘Money can’t buy life’ were reportedly the last words of the musician Bob Marley. How can we prepare for life in the hereafter – assuming such a thing exists?

In a 6^th Coffee Conversation let me suggest you explore with your friend(s) the question that a young magistrate who lived twenty-eight life spans ago (a life-span being seventy years) put to Jesus: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18).  

This young man seemingly had everything – status and success. Matthew and Mark also add that the man was wealthy. If the car you own, the property you hold, or the opinion that others have of you, have anything to do with life now and in the hereafter, this man had it.

He also had religion. When Jesus quizzed him about keeping the commandments, “…Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,” the man responded that he had done so from boyhood.

Furthermore, he showed respect to Jesus. He called him, ‘Good Teacher.’ It would have taken courage for a young ruler to ask someone like Jesus publicly about life matters. Jesus was a nobody: he had no social standing and no formal education. Yet despite the differences, this impressive, self-possessed young man asked him a significant question.

Consider Jesus’ response. ‘You know the law,’ he says. ‘Do you keep God’s rules of neighbor love? Do you respect other people’s marriages, their property, their reputation and, do you truly respect your parents?’ ‘I do all that,’ the young man replied.

Significantly, without commenting on that, Jesus pushes further. This time, drawing on the essence of the first commandment, he says: “One thing you lack. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Luke 18:22).

When we look carefully at Jesus’ words here we see that the key verb is not ‘sell’ or ‘give’, it is ‘follow’. Jesus does not command everyone to sell their property or cash in their shares, but he does demand discipleship. In the young man’s case discipleship meant selling everything. Money dominated his life. He couldn’t follow Jesus as long as he was entangled in his wealth.

Jesus is brutally frank: ‘You really want to love your neighbor as yourself? Sell what you have and give to the poor. How can you say that you love your neighbors while they go in rags and you live in prosperity? Do you really love the Lord your God, with all your heart, mind and soul? Let’s see if you are willing to give up your idolatry of wealth that has gripped your greedy heart.’

Money not only couldn’t buy him life, but ironically could prevent him from obtaining life.

As the man turned away, Jesus’s comment is graphic: “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:24f).

‘Who then can be saved?’ the disciples asked. And we must ask the same for, generally speaking, most people in our western world have riches that exceed those of the disciples. “What is impossible with men and women is possible with God”, Jesus replies (Luke 18:27).

We need to remember the young man’s question: ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Do,’ Jesus says. ‘You can’t do anything to inherit eternal life through your own efforts. You simply don’t come near God’s just requirements’.  

But there’s another verb in the original question we usually overlook. It’s the verb, to inherit. We usually inherit something through the death of someone with whom we had a relationship.

When we understand this we can begin understand why Jesus says, ‘What is impossible for men and women, is possible with God.’ We can’t inherit eternal life because of what we have or what we have done. The good news is that eternal life is a gift from God. But to become beneficiaries we need to form a relationship with Jesus while we have life now. It means turning to him in repentance and faith, committing to follow him as our only Lord all our days.

C.S. Lewis once observed: ‘All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. 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.’

PS. You may want to suggest that your friend(s) read Luke 21-24 for a 7^thCoffee Conversation.

In his Road to Character (Random Press: 2015), David Brooks writes, ‘…We have seen a broad shift from a culture of humility to the culture of what you might call the Big Me, from a culture that encouraged people to think humbly of themselves to a culture that encouraged people to see themselves as the center of the universe’.

He observes, ‘…In 1950, the Gallup Organization asked high school seniors if they considered themselves to be a very important person. At that point, 12 percent said yes. The same question was asked in 2005, and this time…, it was 80 percent.’ Brooks comments, ‘…As I looked around the popular culture I kept finding the same messages everywhere: You are special. Trust yourself. Be true to yourself… This is the gospel of self-trust.’

Which brings me to a fifth Coffee Conversation with your friend(s). Although I omitted mentioning it, I assume you have suggested that your friends continue to read on through Luke – specifically, chapters 10 through 14.

Again, ask if they have any questions. If you are unable to answer, speak with your minister or email me. Luke 12:13-21 is the focus of the fifth Coffee Conversation.

While David Brooks rightly identifies the rise of self-focus in American culture, it is true for Western culture in general. Furthermore, it reflects the human story as exemplified in Luke 12:13-21.

Jesus was speaking about eternal matters, when a man in the crowd burst out: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” The man was focused on his own interests.

“Friend,” Jesus replied, “Who appointed me a judge or an arbitrator over you? Take care,” he warns. “Be on your guard against all greed (or covetousness), for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions”.

Greed stands out as a dominant feature of the human heart. We crave things that delight our senses and feed our self-worth. Jesus’s parable is a warning: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly,” he began. “The man thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops.’

‘Me…’ He was today’s wealthy man or woman with a surging investment portfolio, the single person or couple greedy for the perfect house, the retiree with the multi-million dollar nest egg. He was someone who was blessed, but who had no personal consciousness of God in his life. Nor did he give any thought for the poor and the needy. He thought only of himself.

The first-person pronouns that Jesus uses to portray the man’s self-interest are telling: ‘My crops,’ ‘my grain,’ ‘my barns’. The man oozes self-confidence. ‘What shall I do?’ he asks.

Then he said, ‘I will do this…  I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink and be merry.’”

“But God said to him, ‘You fool!  This very night your life is required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

“You fool!” What chilling words! What words for an epitaph. This man’s tragedy was that he had forgotten the rest of the proverb, ‘Eat, drink and be merry… for tomorrow we die.’ Death for him would not be put off until tomorrow. It would be tonight.

He had forgotten that his life wasn’t a gift. A day would come when the owner would insist upon its return: ‘your life, yourself, your soul will be demanded from you.’ It is the language for calling in a debt. Life is not ours to do with as we want. It is something for which we will have to give an account.

Jesus puts his finger on the real tragedy: “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God” (12:21). God is not a kill-joy: he gives us good things to enjoy. Jesus isn’t saying that money and possessions, success and recognition are sinful. Our problem is that we spend our lives focused on ourselves without reference to God. That is the ultimate foolishness.

True riches. How important it is that we are rich towards God. We find true riches only when we genuinely turn to Jesus Christ, asking for his full and free forgiveness. For the true riches of life – love and joy, happiness and contentment – we need to pray. We can’t obtain them by our own efforts. The good news is that it is God’s delight to give them to us.

And as we begin to grow in the riches of his love, more and more we will want to put aside self-interest and put the Lord God and others first.

PS. You may want to suggest that your friend(s) read Luke 15 – 20.

Back in the nineteen-sixties the Beatles sang: “All you need is love …” The problem is, as the 60s generation discovered, it’s one thing to sing about love but quite another to live it. People talk about the need for ‘love’ in the world today, yet everywhere we see the outcomes of humanity’s failure to love – and not least in the terrorist attacks carried out in the USA eighteen years ago today. Yet love and its true practice lie at the very heart of genuine Christianity.

On one occasion a lawyer asked Jesus: ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25) It was a good question, but Luke tells us the lawyer’s intention was to test Jesus. It was a ‘Gotcha’ question. Jesus knew this but he didn’t miss a beat as he responded with a question of his own: “You know the law. How do you read it?”

In reply the lawyer quoted: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself”. These two verses are found in the Old Testament, but not in the same Book. The first is from Deuteronomy 6:4, the second from Leviticus 19:18.

The rabbis of Jesus’ day rightly understood that these two commands distil the law of love. And indeed, Jesus’ responded with: ‘Correct. Do this and you will live.’ There the conversation could have concluded.

Which brings me to a suggested fourth coffee conversation with your friend(s).

Having touched on questions of ‘authenticity’, ‘Christmas’ and ‘transcendence’ over three conversations, it’s worth focusing on this fascinating exchange between a lawyer/theologian and Jesus (Luke 10:25-37). But first, don’t forget to ask your friend(s) if they have any questions about Luke chapters 7-10. (If you don’t know the answers, say so, and speak with your minister; or you may want to check out my book, Luke: An Unexpected God – Aquila: 2019, 2nd Edition)

Hearing Jesus’ commendation: “Do this and you will live,” the lawyer wasn’t happy. His plan to upstage Jesus hadn’t worked. So, lawyer-like he asked Jesus to define ‘neighbor’.

The story that unfolded that day and the flow of the questions around it, were important then, as they are today. Most people, if they believe in an afterlife, think they can attain it by their own efforts.

Knowing that he needed to puncture the mask of the lawyer’s self-satisfaction, Jesus told a story: “A certain man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead…”

These opening lines would have drawn Jesus’ hearers into a scene they understood – a traveler on a road notorious for bandits. And the unfolding story would have resonated – a priest and a Levite seeing the unconscious man and asking themselves whether the man was a ‘neighbor’, requiring their attention.

But the priest and the Levite didn’t feel the need to stop and help. They may have thought, ‘I didn’t beat up this man and leave him for dead. It’s nothing to do with me.’

Many of us can think this way today, turning God’s positive command to love our neighbor into a passive form: ‘I haven’t done anyone any harm; I haven’t killed or defrauded anyone; I haven’t cheated on my spouse. I must have kept the law of love’.

“Who is my neighbor?” the lawyer had asked. Jesus’ hearers would have expected him to introduce a godly Jewish layman. Instead, a Samaritan is introduced – not only an unexpected figure, but a hated one (10:33-35).

Yet it was the Samaritan who showed compassion, applying first aid and sacrificing a month’s wages to cover the cost of the man’s recovery. He did everything in his power to aid this unknown, unidentifiable, possibly Jewish man. “Which of these three,” Jesus asked, “proved to be neighbor to the man in need?” (10:36)

By turning the lawyer’s question around, Jesus invited him to put himself into the place of the victim. He was challenging the lawyer to think about the way he defined and practiced neighbor love.

“The one who showed mercy,” the lawyer responded. He couldn’t say, ‘the Samaritan’. Yet his word mercy suggests that Jesus had at least begun to change the lawyer’s thinking: he needed to understand and practice neighbor love from a victim’s perspective.

“You go and you do likewise” – ‘if you can’, Jesus commanded (10:37b). The personal pronoun you is singular, making Jesus’ words personal and challenging. God’s law of neighbor love means we need to care for anyone in need when it is in our ability and wise to do so.

Over the centuries the model of the Good Samaritan has set a pattern for compassion and care. God’s people especially have been involved, positively, sacrificially, joyfully, assisting people in pain – the hungry, the lonely and the elderly, the victims of abuse and of injustice, unemployment and poverty.

But this was not the primary reason Jesus told this story. “Who is my neighbor?” was the lawyer’s second question, refining his first: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

‘Do?’ Jesus is saying, ‘you can’t do anything about your eternal state because you don’t keep God’s law. Your life is not good enough.’ The parable of the Good Samaritan reveals how morally bankrupt we all are. If we truly kept God’s law the gates into eternal life would be open to us. But we all fall short.

Consider the lawyer’s first question, “What must I do to inherit… ?” We inherit something, not because of what we have done, but because we are beneficiaries of someone with whom we had enjoyed a relationship and who had subsequently died.

As Luke’s Gospel unfolds we see that Jesus is not only transcendent: he is also wonderfully good. For he is the ‘Good Samaritan’ who out of his ‘neighbor love’ for us has stepped out of his story and done everything necessary to rescue and restore us. When, in response to his love for us, we form a truly repentant relationship with him, we become his beneficiaries.

You might suggest to your coffee conversationalist(s) that they read on through Luke 11-15.