What should Christians watch? - Reflection 04

This week we continued our series from the Sermon on the Mount – looking at Jesus’ teaching on adultery, divorce and telling the truth. If you’ve not yet had a chance to listen then you’ll find Keith’s talk here.

I know that some people get a little bit nervous when they hear me say, ‘never do something just because it’s written in the Bible’ – and I understand where they’re coming from. The most obvious concern is over the danger that we can then make the Bible say whatever we want it to say. How do we make sure that what we think the Bible is saying, is actually what the Bible is saying.

But on the flip side – our life is very different to life in the first century – or even earlier. And there is so much of our modern life that the Bible simply does not mention. And so if you restrict yourself to only doing what you read in the Bible you are going to struggle with all sorts of questions and issues that face us today.

One of the things that comes through Matthew 5-7 is that Jesus is calling his disciples to live a life that is radically different. It was a life that was different to their fellow Jews and inconceivable to their Roman and Greek neighbours.

And so whatever this life that Jesus calls us to looks like – the chances are, it’s going to be very different to the lives of those around us – both in terms of what we do and what we think.

And what we think is really important to Jesus. That is clear from these verses. What we think is at least as important, if not more important, than our outward actions. In the section about adultery (verses 27-30) Jesus uses hyperbole and exaggeration to show the sort of lengths we should go to in order to protect what we allow into our minds. (Just to be clear – Jesus is not speaking literally in verses 29 and 30). It’s not just a case of shutting the wrong thoughts down once they are there – it’s also about putting things in place to make sure that those thoughts don’t get there in the first place.

On Sunday I mentioned that for me, one of the choices that I make, is generally speaking, not watching films that are rated above a 12. There is a huge range of content on the internet now. It used to be that if you wanted to watch a film it required a trip to Block Buster and you had to walk out with an actual video cassette. Now, within the privacy of your own bedroom, you can watch almost anything within a couple of mouse clicks. And so setting the filter at 12 helps reduce the temptation of watching something that will be unhelpful in my walk with Jesus.

And each of us will need to make our own decisions – in terms of what helps and what hinders our relationship with Jesus. We need to recognise that some of these decisions may be inconvenient, costly and painful. But are they as inconvenient, costly or painful as the (non-literal) measures mentioned by Jesus? And that’s part of the point. We don’t just need to make choices that are convenient and which fit in with our current lives – but sometimes we need to be prepared to make decisions that will be life-changing and costly. 

Jesus doesn’t mince his words. And there’s no nice way of saying it. But the risk of making consistent choices that pull us away from Jesus is that that’s where we might find ourselves for eternity – away from Jesus.

Reflection 03 - The one about reconciliation

On Sunday we moved into the next section on the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus states that he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it. David Newton, from St. Mary’s, unpacked those thoughts very helpfully for us. If you’ve not yet had a chance to watch or listen you’ll find the video here and the podcast here. 

And then Jesus begins a section where he repeatedly says, ‘you’ve heard it said that … but I tell you …’ (in verses 21, 27, 32, 33,38, 43).

The first of these is to do with murder and anger. Jesus warns us about the dangers of anger and harsh words. He then goes on to a very practical application. A situation where a person is bringing an offering before God. In that process – may be because of a prayer of confession that is being offered – the person remembers a broken relationship. Jesus tells his disciples to stop what they’re doing and go and put things right before returning to the altar and offering the gift to God. This broken relationship is with a brother or sister – not in terms of a blood relative, but in terms of another follower of Jesus.

My Greek is not sufficiently good to know whether the phrase, ‘has something against you’ is specifically talking about a situation where you have wronged someone – so they have something against you. Certainly, for those situations where we are at fault, we have even more responsibility to put things right.

These verses highlight just how important it is to put things right as quickly as possible and how high on God’s list of priorities doing that is.

Few of us like confrontation and many of us will avoid it if we can. I wonder how many of us have unresolved disagreements, hurts or offenses lurking in the background? And rather than deal with it we’ve allowed it to spoil the relationship. You’ll know if you have because God will have just brought that person or situation to mind!

Have a think about the church family at CBC. Is there anyone that you would choose not to sit next to? Is there anyone who, if they invited you out for a coffee, you’d find a reason to say ‘no’? Is there someone you’d not invite to your home for a meal?

Obviously, there are situations where those things would not be appropriate or where strict boundaries need to be in place for our own protection. But hopefully you get the idea I’m driving at.

If God has brought a situation to mind where you need to put things right, then a practical application of these verses is to do that before Sunday. 

Clearly, there are two sides in any relationship and you only have control over one half. You have no idea how the other person is going to respond. They may have no idea that they have offended you in the past. They may have forgotten all about the issue a long time ago. They may still be very bitter and not prepared to move on.

It is quite likely that re-visiting past hurt is going to be painful, and the process of reconciliation is not going to be quick or easy. But fractured relationships within the church family damage our relationship with God and our relationship with each other. That’s why it is so important to stop what you’re doing and go and be reconciled to that person.

Reflection 02 - the one about standing out in a crowd

 

On Sunday Graham introduced our spring teaching series – Living Jesus’ Way. We’re going to be listening in as Jesus teaches his disciples (and the crowd) in Matthew 5-7. We often refer to this section as ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. If you’ve not listened to Graham yet, I would encourage you to do so – you’ll find it here: https://youtu.be/Ngico_9WOMM

Our logo/graphic for this series is a little orange fish swimming the opposite way to a school of white fish. Living Jesus’ Way will often mean that we will think and therefore behave differently to those around us. 

 

Just look again about the list of ‘blessed are the …’ that Graham talked us through on Sunday (Matthew 5:3-12). Very few, if any, of these values and characteristics would make it on to most people’s list of ‘blessings’. And quite a few of these values and characteristics are looked down on and despised – think about humility, meekness, mercy and purity for example.

Some of these values and characteristics are out of our control. Mourning and persecution, for example, are to some extent out of our hands, even if they are to be expected. But how do we respond when they are our experience? 

 

Being different and standing out from the crowd is really tough. We live in an age where diversity and difference is celebrated and yet it is done so within a broader context of conformity. Tolerance often appears to be a value that trumps all others – as long as that means believing everyone is right.

Swimming against the tide is exhausting. It’s much easier to roll over, float on your back and go with the flow. How are you making sure that you’re strengthened, encouraged, refreshed and patched up ready to go again each week?

Our vision talks about being disciples – and part of what church is, is coming together, to meet with others, and to be renewed and equipped to go again because it’s tough being an orange fish.

Adzuki beans have a low carbon footprint

Back at the beginning of December, I talked about an app - Impact Score Shopping - that I have started to use in my attempt to become more informed about the environmental impact of the things that I eat. You can read that blog here.

One of our successes, in terms of eating a lot less meat, has been a meat-free chilli which our three girls didn't actually realise was meat-free until I told them after the meal. We haven't had a lot of joy with meat lookalikes in the past. Two of our children don't like soya alternatives and the other is allergic to Quorn. (Google it - it's a thing - and is to do with the protein derived from a fungus). 

We have tried Plant Chef burgers - and everyone will eat them - but they're not a low carbon footprint product. Obviously, they're healthier than meat burgers and suitable for vegans - but in terms of the environmental impact they're not as good as they could be.

Back to the chilli. The only difference to a meat chilli was substituting Adzuki beans for the mince.

If you've never had adzuki beans before they're very similar to kidney beans but a lot smaller - and as it turns out, if you are an unobservant teenager they're not dissimilar to mince when cooked in a chilli!

I first came across adzuki beans as a substitution for kidney beans in our weekly supermarket delivery. When asked if I was happy to accept the substitution I had no idea what they were, having never heard of them before - nor had the delivery driver.

Adzuki beans are a low carbon footprint product as are kidney beans and tinned tomatoes. They should get 4 out of 6 badges as the tin is recyclable. 

I use a Colman's chilli mix which now comes in a fully recyclable packet - but it may well be better to use chilli powder, a stock cube, garlic and something like cumin - something to look at later.

Fry the onion and then add everything else (400g adzuki beans, 400g kidney beans, 400g tinned chopped tomatoes, packet mix made up with 150ml of cold water) and allow to simmer for about 15 mins.

Serve with rice and top with grated cheese. The only good thing about the cheese is that it is UK made.

Because calculating carbon emissions for individual products is so complicated it is impossible to put an actual figure in terms of kgCO2 as to how much better this recipe is than the meat version. But it is a step in the right direction. It would be even better without cheese.

2022 - Reflection 01 - the one where it's important to get the right balance

Happy New Year.

 

On Sunday we were thinking about how we can be prepared to grow in 2022 – not simply to survive another year of uncertainty, but to grow and see lives transformed. If you’ve not had a chance to listen yet you’ll find it here: https://youtu.be/ZOuOj1qbEWY

I find this a challenging topic to talk about because it can be hard to get the right balance. It’s right that we think about our faith in terms of a relationship with Jesus. That’s why we started with Hebrews 12:1-2 – the importance of fixing our eyes on Jesus. We’re called to follow Jesus. That’s why we use the language of walking in our Vision. It’s also right that we talk about ‘being’ and not only about ‘doing’. Afterall the gospels are littered with people who on the outside did all the right things but didn’t have the heart attitude to match.

 

And so it’s not about finding the things that you need to do in order to grow in your faith. It’s about catching a fresh glimpse of how much God loves us and what Jesus has done for us on the cross and wanting to respond to that love. But how we respond is important.

 

It’s about recognising that when it comes to people who grew in their faith – there are common things that they did which helped them on that journey. It’s about not seeing these as things that I need to do in order to become more like Jesus, but that as I become more like Jesus these are things that I am going to increasingly do.

Another way of thinking about these things is that they are a bit like scaffolding. They are not the tower that is being built but they will help you as you build. They provide a framework for what is being built.

 

It’s also important to remember that healthy human relationships don’t just happen. Even healthy marriages don’t just happen. They take work and effort. When a relationship is new, spending time together is not really an issue – you put considerable effort into being together. But after some time you might find that you have to deliberately and intentionally make sure that certain things happen. 

If you want to go out for a meal with your partner you have to plan weeks ahead, arrange childcare, put it in the diary, write it on the calendar. You will discover that there will be times when you don’t want to put the bins out but you choose to do it because of love. You recognise that you need to put boundaries in place to protect your relationship. 

 

And so it is with our relationship with Jesus – it won’t just happen. Especially when you consider that we are in a spiritual battle and we have an enemy who wants to do everything in his power to derail our attempts to spend time with Jesus. Whether that be a distracting thought the moment we sit down to pray, or pointing out that we’ve already failed in our New Year resolution to read the Bible every day and it’s only the 5^th January so what’s the point…

Or else our enemy goes the other way and we get so absorbed in the box-ticking of our Bible in a Year reading plan that all the joy and time for devotion is sucked out of the experience. We churn through the chapters with no time to speak or listen to God. We read God’s word but we don’t allow it to change us.

 

Whatever it is that you need to put in place to grow closer to Jesus can I encourage you to do it today. Start small if you need to. Be encouraged by the thought that Jesus wants to spend time with you. Like the father in the story of the prodigal son he is on the lookout for the first signs that we are making a bit of space, and a bit of time to sit with him.