Much in life today is politicized. So much so, that anyone who reflects on life will ask, ‘What’s it all about?’

The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the wisdom books of the Bible. It is a strange book and it’s rather surprising to find it in the Bible. It doesn’t seem to fit into the Bible’s story-line.

In chapter 1 verses 2 and 3, we read: Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

Ecclesiastes is quite depressing. Yet, as it unfolds it raises questions for us all. It’s a like a cleaning machine, cutting through the nonsense that fills our lives, and challenging us to ask what actually gives our lives meaning and purpose.

The writer, self-styled the Teacher, could have been David’s son, King Solomon who lived around 1,000BC. Or it could have been someone who wrote up the wisdom of Solomon. Significantly, embedded in the word Ecclesiastes is the Greek word for assembly: ecclesia. Ecclesiastes is what the Teacher teaches the assembly.

How then does the Teacher view life? What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? he asks (1:3). Gain is a commercial, Wall Street term, questioning the value or the bottom line of life. We work, we throw ourselves into life, we struggle, but what’s it all worth? What’s the point of it all?

The phrase under the sun (1:3), a recurring theme throughout the book, is a metaphor asking how we view life, as it were, from the outside. What sense can we make of life without reference to God?

The answer is most discouraging: Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity (1:2). The word vanity indicates that it’s all in vain, pointless. The word can also mean a puff of wind or a mist. Later in the Book, the Teacher speaks about life itself being like chasing the wind.

A generation goes, and a generation comes, he says, but the earth remains for ever.  The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow (1:4-7).

Like a scientist he writes up his observations: the sun rises, sets, and rises again. The wind blows from one direction, then another, and yet another. The streams run into the sea, but the sea never fills up. In our terminology, he observes the evaporation of water and precipitation: the rain falling on the hills, forming streams that run into the sea, then evaporation, precipitation, and so on.

The endless rising and setting of the sun, the blowing of the wind from every point of the compass, the endless movement of water, go on, and on, and on, and on.

It’s a theme with which he begins verse 4: Generations come, and generations go… But, unlike everything around us, we’re here one moment, gone the next! What’s the point of it all? So much of our life is spent working to achieve wealth, power, prestige. And what’s the point? We’re here one moment gone the next.

What’s more, we’re wearied in the brief time we’re here: All things are wearisome; more than one can express (1:8).Furthermore, he says: The eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing (1:8).

One of Elton John’s songs in The Lion King captures the mood: From the moment we arrive on the planet and blinking step into the sun, there’s more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done. Why do we need new songs? Imagine if record companies said, ‘Instead of releasing new songs we’ll only be making available the best songs from the past’.

But ironically, nothing new ever happens: … There is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? (1:9) Nothing ever changes. Not even the news. It’s only the names, the faces and the locations that change.

And there’s something even more depressing: the time will come when you and I will be forgotten. Consider 1:11: The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.

So, does the Teacher have any solutions? An important test he applies is: ‘Is there anything that’s going to last?’ Ultimate meaninglessness is our issue. What will be left when the waves wipe out the sandcastles of our lives? What will be left when the winds blow on the idols we have erected in our heart? He isn’t saying life is all negative; just don’t stop and think about it.

As we transition from one calendar year to the next, it’s worth taking the time to stop and reflect – maybe read Ecclesiastes. Yes, there is hope for the future, whatever may happen in the coming year. Ecclesiastes 2:26a provides a clue: For to the one who pleases Him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy;…

Ecclesiastes challenges us to look for answers to the meaning of life. Significantly, its answers take us into the larger biblical narrative, where we learn that God supremely holds out the answer to our questions, in His Son, Jesus, whom he has appointed as the Lord over all.

In John 20:31 we read: These things are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and, that through believing you may have life in his name.

At the risk of repeating myself, you may also want to give a copy of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to family and friends. It’s written as a refresher for all who believe and to be passed on at an appropriate moment to anyone who doesn’t know what to believe. It’s available through Amazon.

A prayer. Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

An op-ed on Christmas Eve in The Australian (12/24/18), referenced a lecture by Dr. George Weigel.

The article noted that Weigel “argues that Christianity, including the values highlighted at Christmas, has an important role to play in revitalizing democratic, market-oriented societies … These are struggling on both sides of the Atlantic and elsewhere, including Australia, producing unrest, instability and disillusionment.”

“If free politics and free economies are to produce a genuine human flourishing, Weigel says, the strength of the public moral culture, flourishing institutions that earn public confidence and a concern for the common good are vital. Christmas offers a chance to reflect on such issues and to take stock of the bigger picture…”

While it is not my purpose here to explore the relationship between Christianity, politics and a free-market economy, let me observe that the article is similar to ones often found around the beginning of a New Year, calling for a reawakening of the meaning and application of the real Christmas story.

Articles like this invite us to focus on the themes of the poverty and weakness, the love and compassion embedded in the birth of Jesus – all of which are true.

But here is a problem. Driven by the trickle-down effect of writers who have adopted Nietzsche’s anti-theology – that God is dead – our culture tells us that the Bible is a series of fanciful stories and fictious stuff.

But this conflicts with the opening lines of the longest Gospel – Luke. Dr. Luke wants us to know that he was writing history, not fiction. He followed the principles of writing adopted by historians such as Thucydides. Furthermore, he tells us that he verified his account with eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, people who had been with Jesus during his public ministry – the ‘keepers of the Jesus record’.

In their various ways the four Gospels witness to the reality of Jesus as God who has come amongst us as one of us. His public life reveals his authority and his compassion for a very needy world – especially our need to be rescued from our self-love, captured by the line: ‘me, myself and I’. We have turned aside from the true love and worship of our maker.

To say again what I wrote in January last year, Matthew chapter 2 provides an example of true worship. In verses 1 through 12 he records that Magi – wise men – visited Jesus from the far East to bring him gifts and worship him.

In chapter 1 Matthew tells us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the town where Jacob had buried Rachel and where King David was born. Known from that time as the City of David, the prophet Micah spoke of Bethlehem as the place where God’s Messiah would be born (Micah 5:2).

The legends that have developed around the magi following a star and visiting the baby Jesus in Bethlehem shroud the veracity and the surprise of Matthew’s account. He doesn’t mention the number of the wise men who visited Jesus, nor does he say they were kings. Nor does he tell us their names. Who then were these people who travelled so far?

The Magi were a tribe of priests in ancient Persia and were known for their study of astrology – making predictions from the stars. In the ancient world the movement of the stars and the planets was understood to frame the orderly pattern of the universe. Any interruption to this was seen to mark some new significant event that would impact the human story.

Piecing together the astronomical studies of the past, it seems that the Magi observed a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that occurred in 7BC around the time Jesus was born. In an age before telescopes, the conjunction would have given the appearance of a very bright star, which some of them followed.

Coming from Persia where the Jewish people had been in exile in the 6th century BC they would have known the Jewish Scriptures which include the prophecy of Balaam in Numbers chapter 24, verse 17: I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;…

The conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter occurred three times in 7BC, suggesting that when it had first appeared the Magitravelled westward to Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. Given the distance, they would have arrived there about the time of the third planetary conjunction. It was when they were in Jerusalem that they learned of the baby’s birth in Bethlehem, as Micah had foretold.

Matthew records: Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11).

Their gifts were prophetic: gold, a gift for a king – the greatest king of all time lay before them; frankincense, used by the priests – the highest priest of all was the one they saw; myrrh, for the burial of the dead – this baby, born to be king would be crowned through his suffering on a cross. Significantly, and to us surprisingly, these highly respected, wise, non-Jewish men fell on their knees and worshipped this baby.

At the time when Matthew wrote this Gospel account, non-Jewish peoples from across the known world were acknowledging the crucified and risen Jesus as their king and savior. Matthew here is highlighting yet another facet of the fulfillment of the prophetic promise concerning God’s King: Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn… (Isaiah 60:3).

Articles that call for our world to revisit the Christmas story are a fresh illustration of the way Jesus Christ fulfills Isaiah’s words. They give us the opportunity to take people around us to the true story revealed in the Gospels. And while the percentage of Christians in the US has fallen, Christianity is still the majority faith.

Let me ask, are you praying for family and friends that they might turn to the King of Kings – in repentance and worship? Are you looking for opportunities to live out and pass on the very best news our troubled world has received?

If you will allow me a personal note, you may also want to give a copy of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to family and friends. It’s available through Amazon.

May you know the joy and rich blessing of God’s great news as we enter a New Year!

A prayer. Lord our God, you have given us the life of Jesus in his home as an example: grant that all Christian families may be so bound together in love and service that we may rejoice together in your heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

Catastrophic events such as occurred on Sunday, December 14 at Bondi in Sydney, give us pause and challenge us to see life with new eyes. Many are now looking for their leaders to chart a course to preserve life and secure livelihoods.

Throughout the ages people have expressed their desire for good and just leaders. Plato wrote about this theme with the notion of a philosopher king in his Republic. In recent times JRR Tolkien addressed the longing people have for a trustworthy leader in Lord of the Rings.

Good and upright leaders are rare, and even good leaders are not perfect. Yet, as every election shows, people long for a leader who will use their position to provide for justice and peace, the welfare and security of the nation. Indeed, in a fallen world the freedom to elect leaders is important and very precious.

Now, as we begin a New Year, is there any hope we might find a true and good leader?

Two and a half millennia ago hopelessness was staring the diminished kingdom of Judah in the face. In the 8th century BC the Assyrian imperial army rampaged through the Middle East and sacked the northern kingdom of Israel. A century later the Babylonian armies were on the rise, and it was only a matter of time before Judah received the unwelcome attention of those powerful forces.

How would Judah survive? She had no significant army, no money and no allies. Greater nations had already been cut down. Political obliteration seemed inevitable. Yet despite the odds, Judah’s morale was not destroyed. A glimmer of hope was on the horizon.

Isaiah, one of the prophets who had spoken of doom and despair, wrote about a special leader who would be raised up. In Isaiah chapter 11, features of God’s promised king unfold.

A leader after God’s heart. Isaiah was disappointed by the politicians of his day. They were corrupt: they took bribes, ignored the poor, and turned a blind eye to injustice. King Ahaz for example, had broken every trust given to him. He had even used the gold of the Temple to try to bribe Assyria and prevent her march on Jerusalem. He’d failed. As a ruler he’d let his people down.

Time and time again, rulers and governments do that. In most western democracies today election promises are constantly consigned to the trash.

In chapter 11 verse 1, Isaiah offers hope: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

Jesse was the father of King David, the great king in the Old Testament. Just as David himself had come out of obscurity, Isaiah is saying, so too a new king would emerge, and he would be greater than David and his son Solomon.

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2-3).

Wisdom, understanding and knowledge would characterize this king’s rule. But fundamental would be his willingness to learn from God. There would be no political blunders in his rule. Furthermore, corruption would not plague his government; the media wouldn’t be able to destroy him – either over his personal integrity or his policies. No one would be living in poverty or without a home.

A leader who would use his power for peace. The metaphors in verse 6 are vivid: The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. Peace would be the mark of this leader’s rule.

Periods of world peace are fleeting. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have expunged the view that the world has at last entered a time of safety, security and prosperity. Yet Isaiah insists, under God’s ruler there will be no incompetence, no corruption, no violence – only peace. Could it be true?

A leader who draws his people from the nations. Isaiah doesn’t stop there, for in chapter 11, verses 10 though 16 he portrays people coming from all parts of the world to rally around this ruler. It will be a victorious, redeemed community, he says (11:15). People will come from the East and the West. Highways will be built so that people from every nation can come. It’s a vivid and poetic picture.

Understandably we ask, ‘Could it happen?’ ‘Who is this root of Jesse, this ruler to whom the people rally, who will restore creation to its pristine harmony?’ Jesus!

Some seven or eight hundred years before Jesus came, Isaiah predicted the first coming of God’s king as well as his return. This is one of the amazing things about the Bible that convinces me that it is what it says it is: namely, God’s deliberate, progressive, self-revelation.

Furthermore, centuries before Jesus came, Isaiah opened a window on Jesus’s life and work. Wise men did come from the Far East to pay him homage at his birth (Matthew 2:1-12). And people from around the world have been coming to him ever since his death and resurrection.

The Gospel writers reveal that, unlike many leaders today, Jesus did not just teach, but acted, revealing God’s compassion for a sick and sorry world. He fed the hungry and healed the sick, he stilled a storm and even raised the dead to life. He overcame the forces of evil.

As the New Testament unfolds, we learn that the coming of God’s king is in two parts: his first coming was a rescue operation; his return will reveal the king in all his might, majesty dominion and power. He will bring his perfect justice to bear and, with the unveiling of his own glory, will reveal the glory of all who have truly turned to him.

His first coming we celebrate at Christmas. In the season of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, we focus on the reality of his return.

Hope is bound up in God’s king. For the death of the Messiah on the cross came between God’s good creation, ruined by human sin with which the Bible begins, and the promise of a restored creation with which the Bible ends. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes… there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4).

In the meantime, God has given us all the opportunity to turn to Jesus the true king, with deep, heartfelt sorrow that we have not honored him as we should. He also now calls on us to adopt his moral compass for life and follow his example, showing love and compassion, praying for enemies, and looking for ways to point family, friends and all with whom we have connections, to the one true Lord of heaven and earth.

May you know the riches of God’s mercy and love in the New Year.

Prayers. Almighty God, the protector of all who put their trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply your mercy upon us, so that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal: grant this, heavenly Father, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lord, we beseech you, pour out your grace into our hearts; so that, knowing the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection by his cross and passion. We ask this through Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

© John G. Mason

If you appreciate the weekly ‘Word on Wednesday’ please consider making a year-end donation to the Anglican Connection. Donations in the US are tax deductible. Donations can be made here.

The appalling and deadly attack against Jewish people celebrating the beginning of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach on Sunday, December 14 raises many questions – not least the question of ‘Why?’ Why, in this age of so much scientific and technical achievement, is there still bitterness and anger, hatred and murder in the world? Why do events such as this happen?

Humanly speaking, the responses are complex and many, but when all is said and done, there is a deeper issue at stake – flawed humanity. Despite the wisdom of the wise, such is the brokenness of humanity that we are not able to rescue ourselves. None of us is good enough, wise enough, or powerful enough to achieve it.

And, to take up an idea that is rejected by many elite today; if there is a creator God who is all good and all powerful, why doesn’t he do something to clean up the mess – to inaugurate a world of stability and peace? The answer is found in the story-line of the Scriptures.

Over this Advent season we have noted that some seven or eight centuries before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah foretold that a young woman would conceive and give birth to a son who would be named Immanuel – God with us (Isaiah 7:14). We also read of the time when this was fulfilled with an angelic announcement to Joseph, Mary’s fiancée (Matthew 1:20-23).

But that is not all. In Isaiah chapter 9 we read that into the darkness of Israel’s experience at the time, a light would dawn in the north, the region of Galilee: Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who are in distress, Isaiah says.

Galilee was the region that had been invaded by the Assyrians. As Isaiah chapter 9 unfolds we read that a day of joy would come (verse 3); the signs of war would cease (verses 4 and 5); and the shadow of death would disappear. For, as verse 6 of chapter 9 says: To us a child is born, to us a son is given…

The sign of the dawning of the new day in God’s purposes would be something weak and insignificant – the birth of a baby. Yet, as Isaiah foreshadows, the government will be on his shoulders. His name was to be called, wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (9:6).

Through the lens of the New Testament we see the beginning of the fulfilment of these words – the first instalment, as it were. Matthew chapter 1, verses 21 through 23 records the angel’s words to Joseph – who had a problem: Mary his fiancée was pregnant and he knew he was not the father. “(Mary) will bear a son,” he was told, “and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”.

How important it is we consider afresh the message of Christmas.

Sixty years ago (December 1965), Charles M. Schultz’s A Charlie Brown Christmas was released. “What is Christmas all about?” is Charlie Brown’s question.

When A Charlie Brown Christmas was first released, the overwhelming positive response took the television network executives by surprise. It was watched by an estimated forty-five percent of the television viewing audience that night. Now, sixty years later, it remains a Christmas classic.

Tired of the commercialism of Christmas, Charlie Brown wants to know the real meaning. Snoopy’s answer is his participation in a Christmas lighting and decoration competition. For Sally, Charlie Brown’s young sister, Christmas all about getting.

When once more Charlie Brown asks his question, Linus responds by taking center-stage and reciting Dr. Luke’s record of the event of Jesus’s birth found in chapter 2, verses 8-14:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid: for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will amongst those he favors’.

In an interview later, Charles Schultz’s wife, Jeannie, commented that her husband pushed back against the idea that there is no place for a text from the Bible in a cartoon: he insisted that the Bible is not just for God’s people. It is for everyone.

Schultz understood that Christmas is the twinning of giving and getting. God gave; we get or receive.

So often we simply do not appreciate the full weight of this event. We may believe the baby born in Bethlehem to be the Son of God, but how often do we let the intense meaning of this birth pass us by?

How often do we pause and reflect on the reality that divinity walked the streets of Jerusalem? That infinite Wisdom and Power humbly took on human nature? That God poured his heavenly resources into rescuing us, even though it meant for Jesus the violence and horror of a crucifixion?

It is for our sake that Christ condescended to such monumental humiliation. The lowly birth in Bethlehem points to Christ’s voluntary decision to set aside his glory for our sake. He came and he gave, to rescue us from our brokenness and open a new era of justice and peace that would stretch into eternity.

God’s way of addressing human failure is so unexpected. But let’s remember, our wisdom is finite and imperfect. It cannot be compared with the infinite and perfect wisdom of God.

With the events that unfold in the pages of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings as well as the Gospel records, we learn that God has chosen to involve himself personally and at great cost in the events of the world to open the way for our rescue and restoration as people created in his image.

Colossians chapter 1, verse 13 sets out God’s action for all who believe: God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, …

In response, we will want to emulate, no matter how feebly, the unspeakable generosity of God’s gift. Because God gave, we will want to live God’s way as salt and light and also share with others the gift of joy and hope – not condescendingly or aggressively, but graciously and generously.

You may want to find a way to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas with your family. You may also want to give a copy of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to family and friends. It’s available through Amazon.

May you know afresh the joy and rich blessing of God’s great gift this Christmas!

A prayer. Almighty God, you have given us your only Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin. Grant that we, being born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

If you appreciate the weekly ‘Word on Wednesday’ please consider making a year-end donation to the Anglican Connection. Donations in the US are tax deductible. Donations can be made here.

Uncertain times challenge us with the bigger questions of life and whether a good and caring God exists. Come with me to Jesus’s words in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill.”

These are remarkable claims. The Law, the Prophets and the Writings is the title in the Jewish world for our Old Testament. In speaking of the law and the prophets, Jesus was referring to the Scriptures at that time. What did he mean when he says that he did not come to abolish, but rather to fulfill the law and the prophets?

The events that unfold in Matthew chapter 1 provide an important clue to Jesus’s meaning.

Before Jesus was born, Joseph had a problem. Mary his fiancée was pregnant and he knew he was not the father. When Joseph planned to divorce Mary quietly, an angel spoke to assure him that everything about Mary’s baby was ‘to fulfillwhat the Lord had spoken through the prophet’.

Furthermore, in Matthew chapter 11, verse 12 we read Jesus’s words: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, … For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John”. Jesus is saying that both the Old Testament prophets and the law pointed to him. He was not working in opposition to the Scriptures – our Old Testament. Rather he was bringing everything they said to fruition.

Think of it this way. Imagine the law and the prophets are light waves. They are travelling in parallel lines foreshadowing the coming of Jesus. As we now look back at his life, we could liken his coming to a lens through which the light waves of the law and prophets are filtered. We see that the climactic events of his death and resurrection are the focal point of the law and the prophets.

Jesus said so himself. In Luke chapter 24, verses 27ff, we read what he said to two grief-stricken followers with whom he walked on the road to Emmaus on the day of his resurrection:

“Oh, how foolish you are,” he said, “and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures (our Old Testament).

Let’s think about this and tease out some application. To return to the analogy of the light waves of the law and the prophets passing through the lens of Jesus’s coming to the focal point of his death and resurrection, the light waves are filtered as they appear on the other side of the focal point. Some of the ‘law and prophetic’ waves have come to an end, while others are given a new shape.

So, for example, the laws concerning sacrifice for sin pointed to the need for a sacrifice that would perfectly satisfy God’s righteous requirements. This is uniquely found in Jesus’s death – as we read, for example in Romans 3:22b-25 and Hebrews 12:12, 14-16. The principle of the need for a sacrifice for sin remains; however, the need for further sacrifices to atone for sin is now over. The 1662 Anglican Prayer Book rightly speaks of Jesus’s death as the one perfect and complete sacrifice for the sin of the world.

To take another example, the Ten Commandments set out God’s expectations of his people for their relationship with him and with one another. Unlike us, Jesus throughout his life perfectly kept God’s law. His life and teaching are the perfect exemplar of Godliness and goodness – not least in the way he honored God by loving and serving us, his neighbors, in our deepest need, in his sacrificial death on the cross.

Furthermore, to return to my analogy, as the filtered ‘light waves’ emerge on the other side of the focal point of Jesus’s death and resurrection, we come to understand more fully the high standards of God’s kingdom that Jesus sets out in his Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapters 5 and 6 especially, Jesus opens up the deeper meaning of commands concerning murder, adultery, love and prayer for enemies, prayer and possessions, self-righteousness and hypocrisy.

Jesus commands his people to practise and teach these things. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 19 we read: “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Significantly, we will only ever begin to keep them if we have discovered God’s love for us. For only then will we want to turn to him in honesty and deep repentance, asking for his forgiveness. We will also want to pray that his Spirit will so change our hearts and his Word so teach our minds, that we will want to honor and serve him with thankfulness in our hearts.

Furthermore, as we read in Matthew chapter 24, Mark chapter 13 and Luke chapter 22, Jesus specifically speaks of a time when he will return in all his glory and power, to judge the world and to gather his people into his kingdom. The world as we know it, will pass away. How important it is, as Jesus warns, that we remain alert and are prepared for his coming.

These truths are so encouraging in the midst of the uncertainties of life. They awaken within us true hope and a spirit of thanksgiving to the Lord, especially in this the season of Thanksgiving and as we begin the season of Advent – when we focus on the return of God’s King. In Revelation chapter 21 we read:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men and women. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away’ (Revelation 21:1-4).

In Jesus fulfilling the law and the prophets, we learn of the God who serves – the God to whom we have every reason to give our heartfelt thanks at every twist and turn in life. And so, rejoice. With these thoughts in mind, may you enjoy a truly Happy Thanksgiving!

A Prayer of Thanksgiving.

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your amazing love in the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace and for the hope of glory.

And, we pray, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be truly thankful, and that we may declare your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

Do you have any regrets? Perhaps words you have spoken and can’t take back? Or a relationship you should never have started?

Second Samuel, chapter 11 tells us of the time when King David was relaxing on the roof of the palace when he saw a woman bathing. Attracted by her beauty he invited her over. But she was the wife of one of his officers. He’s away, he may have thought. And, I am the king.

But Bathsheba became pregnant, and David’s attempts to arrange for her husband, Uriah to return home and sleep with her, failed. So he developed a more devious plan. Uriah was sent back to the battlefield and positioned so that he would die. Like the ophthalmologist in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors who had an affair and then arranged a murder, King David seemed to have committed the perfect crime.

But David had forgotten God. In Second Samuel chapter 12, we learn that Nathan the prophet arranged to meet the King. Knowing the power of kings, Nathan told a story of a wealthy man who had many sheep and a poor man who had just one little lamb. When the rich man needed a sheep for a meal to entertain a guest, instead of taking a sheep from his own flock, he took the poor man’s lamb. David, a former shepherd, was furious: ‘The man should be brought to justice,’ he said. Nathan’s response? ‘You are the man!’

The heading of Psalm 51 reveals that David wrote it following his affair. It is a complex, very personal psalm, but is timeless in its application as it also speaks to us about ourselves and about God. It is so important that I am repeating, with tweaks, what I have written before.

Have mercy on me, O God, David begins. His cry for mercy reveals that he understood he had no right to expect God’s favor. But because God had sent the prophet Nathan to speak to him, David understood that God had not forgotten his promise. He therefore not only cries for mercy but also appeals to God’s covenant love and compassion: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. Have me mercy on me, O God, according to your abundant mercy (51:3).

Confession. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me, David continues (51:3). Fully aware of his guilt before God, he didn’t just regret what he had done. He truly repented of his actions.

It’s important we think about this. David had tried to cover up and excuse what he had done. It’s something we’re all tempted to do. Over the last 100 years or so, academia has provided us with more and more excuses for what we do. Freud taught us to blame our parents. Marx taught us to blame the capitalist system. And 21st century medicine tells us to blame our DNA. But our guilt can fester and re-appear. It’s sometimes why we can’t sleep.

We need to do as David did: speak to the Lord. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, he said. But what about Bathsheba and Uriah? With his words David is voicing something we all have to reckon with: our sin is first and foremost against God. Adultery and murder are second commandment issues. But when we break the second commandment – love your neighbor as yourself – we are in fact breaking the first, for the second is consequent upon the first. Sin against our neighbor is primarily sin against God.

Contrary to what psychology and psychiatry might tell us, guilt is not just a psychological hang-up. It is something objective, something real, because it arises from thoughts, words and acts that stand between us and our Maker. The God who rules the universe is not just some impersonal force. He is a moral being, an awesome holy judge. When we fail God, we offend him. As David recognizes, God’s anger towards him, as it is towards us, is just.

The pricks of conscience we feel, reflect our awareness of an objective moral order and the existence of God. It’s not enough for the psychotherapist to help us come to terms with our guilt. It’s not even enough for the human beings we have hurt to tell us they forgive us. We are all accountable to God.

See how David puts it: You are justified, God, in your judgment, for against you alone, have I sinned… And, he adds, Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me (51:5).

David knows that his sins are the outcome of a self-centered nature. He’s not speaking against his mother nor the nature of his conception; nor is he blaming her for his actions. Rather he makes a chilling statement about human nature: no one of us is intrinsically good. As Psalm 130 says, If you, O Lord, should mark our iniquities, Lord who could stand? And as Paul the Apostle writes in Romans, chapter 3, verse 23: We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Yet human wisdom today fails to recognize this reality. It is something that impacts every arena of life – politics and the courts, economics and education, family, local community and international relations. Malcolm Muggeridge, one-time editor of the English Punch magazine wrote: The depravity of humanity is at once the most unpopular of all dogmas, but the most empirically verifiable.

Cleansing: You desire truth in the inward being, David continues; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart (51:6). If we are going to find peace of mind and heart, it’s in our minds and hearts that the process of acquiring God’s wisdom must begin. What’s buried in our thoughts needs to be exposed before God.

Consider David’s further words:  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities (51:7-10).

We need more than the band-aid of education or more laws. It’s not just isolated acts of sin we need to be cleansed from, but the powerful grip of our self-centerdness.

Yet, as even the Old Testament reveals, God is willing to forgive. Psalm 130 tells us, But there is forgiveness with you (Lord)…

However, it is not until we come to the New Testament that we learn the true cost for God to cleanse us. In Colossians 2:13 we read: And you who were dead in your trespasses … God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Heart-Change. Create in me a pure heart, O God, David continues (51:10). Too often our problem is that we don’t want to pray this prayer. Indeed, unless God’s mercy and grace are at work within us, we won’t want to change. But David also knows that he can’t presume on God’s mercy. That is why he also says, take not your Holy Spirit from me (51:11).

How we need to pray with David: Restore to me the joy of your salvation (51:12). Restore reminds us that God was no stranger to David. He could recall times when things were different, when he had enjoyed an intimate close friendship with God. Now, more than anything else, he wanted to experience again the joy of that relationship.

‘All I can bring, Lord,’ David continues, is a broken and contrite heart (51:17). He knew that as well as being pure and just, God is also willing to forgive us and set us on a new course of life that is good and honors him. How often we need to meditate on this.

There it is. A very personal, complex psalm with many layers. King David’s cry for God’s mercy is not so much a psalm for a General Confession in the gathering of God’s people, but a psalm for our own personal reflection and prayer in the privacy of our own relationship with the Lord.

Before you go to sleep tonight, let me encourage you to reflect on your own relationship with the Lord with this psalm open before you. Be honest with him, asking him to forgive you for failing to honor him at all times in your life. Pray that his Word and his Spirit will bring about the changes that God in his perfect wisdom knows are for your best, so you may know the joy of his perfect forgiveness and love. Pray further that the Lord will give you the opportunities and the courage to share with family and friends the joy you have found in him.

Where is our hope in life? It is in Christ alone because of God’s amazing grace.

A prayer. Lord God, without you we are not able to please you; mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason