Praying the Psalms

We're now nearly two weeks into the new year, and for those who are following the Read Scripture plan by The Bible Project that means we're approaching the end of Genesis, currently in the middle of the story about Joseph.

One exciting part of this programme is the prospect of praying through the book of Psalms two and a half times during 2016. If you've printed out the reading schedule the instructions for the Psalms state,

One Psalm is listed each day for you to slowly pray through, making its words your own. By the end you'll have prayed through the book of Psalms 2.5 times.

Someone asked me this week what it means to pray through the Psalms - how do you do it?

Already in these two weeks you will have noticed that there is a great variety in the Psalms. You may have also come across a few verses that you're not too sure about praying - for example 3:7 says, "Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked" - doesn't seem to be a very 'Christian' prayer to me.

One of the other things you've probably noticed about these first few Psalms is that they are not always written from a 'happy place'. Quite a few are clearly written from a very low point "why Lord do you stand far off, why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" 10:1 and yet still hold on to the knowledge that "the Lord is King for ever and ever" 10:16. Or today's reading from Psalm 13, "How long Lord? Will you forget me for ever? ... But I trust in your unfailing love..."

(Psalms like today's do reassure us that when we pray God is able to cope with our honesty, he can cope with our questions and our doubts.)

At other times there are words of praise, "I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds... 9:1.

It may be that on a particular day you are able to identify with the emotions and thoughts of the Psalm you are reading, and therefore make the words your own, but on other days that may not be the case.

One approach to praying the Psalms is to read the Psalm through slowly a couple of times and then to think about:

• one thing the Psalm teaches about God that you want to give thanks for;
• one thing the Psalm reveals about yourself that you could repent of;
• one thing the Psalm shows you you could aspire to, ask for or act on,

and then allow these thoughts to shape our prayers.

Timothy Keller, author of 'My Rock, My Refuge: A year of daily devotions in the Psalms' also points out in this short audio interview that simply reading the Psalms on a daily basis will give us the language to pray.

Understanding Matthew's Gospel

This morning we're starting a new series at CBC looking at the theme of the 'Kingdom of God'. We're going to be focusing on Matthew's gospel - of the four gospels Matthew says most about the Kingdom of God (although he often uses the phrase the Kingdom of heaven).

We won't have time on Sunday to look at the structure of Matthew's gospel in any detail but here are two introductory videos that will provide us with a good overview of Matthew's gospel.

Those of you who are following our Bible reading programme will recognise these videos as the work of the great people over at The Bible Project.

Being authentic

Seeking to be an authentic community of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God, alongside each other and seeing lives transformed

Today we're starting a weekly series of Friday posts looking at our CBC Vision in more detail, exploring a bit more what each of the words means and why they've been used.

When we came together as a church in November to listen to God and to each other one of the words that came through the feedback again and again was the word 'authentic'. Some people used the word 'real' or 'genuine'. 

But what does this mean?

One of the things it means to be authentic is that church is a place where we don't feel we have to wear masks - to try to pretend to be someone that we're not.

We know that God sees us for who we are and God loves us regardless. But there is sometimes a real fear that if other people in the church saw us that way they wouldn't be so loving or forgiving or gracious. And so we wear a mask.

One of the privileges of my job is that I get to talk to a lot of different people about things that they might not talk to anyone else about. Sometimes these are things that are a real challenge - and it is surprising how often these individuals think that they are alone in facing this issue. We come to church on a Sunday morning - and obviously we know all about our 'stuff' and our 'baggage' - but then we look around at everyone else singing the hymns and we convince ourselves that everyone has life sorted - except us.

But usually life is messy. Our understanding of 'church' has to be wider than just what happens on a Sunday morning. Authentic church cannot happen in 90 minutes one day a week. Authentic church will create space for people to respond to what God is doing - whether this is after a Sunday service, or at a home group, or over coffee on a Wednesday morning.

Part of what it means to be authentic is to recognise that life is messy and to be honest about that. Part of what it means to be authentic is that when we read the Bible we're honest about the questions that it leaves us with - questions that don't necessarily have any answers - certainly not any easy answers. Part of what it means to be authentic is that people feel comfortable and able to be themselves knowing that they won't be judged but will be loved and supported.

But being an authentic church can only happen when we are centred on Jesus, and when we are obediently following him. Otherwise our faith cannot be authentic. We might be doing all kinds of great things but if we are not following Jesus then whatever else we may be we are not an authentic church.

My hope for this series of posts is that it will encourage us all to think more deeply about our vision and what it means for us to be and do church. There is more I could say here. But maybe there are things that you want to say or ask or question - feel free to comment, either in person, or here, or on the church Facebook page...

Next Friday we'll think about what it means to be 'community'.

Vision Statements - who needs them?

One of the things that we did at our service at CBC on Sunday was to launch our new Vision and Values to the wider congregation. And although we had a chance to explore what it means briefly, and although there will be some home group resources to help us think some more, I want to spend the next few weeks on here looking at both our vision and our values in more detail, and unpacking the different words and thoughts.

What we don't want to happen is that this simply becomes a piece of paper that is filed away and forgotten about. Instead it should give us an idea of where we're heading and how we're going to get there. The choices and decisions that we make are made in line with our vision and values.

A vision is not about where we are - but about where we want to be. Our new vision states:

Seeking to be an authentic community of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God, alongside each other and seeing lives transformed.

There is a sense in which there is nothing new here. I know that some people really like the idea of vision and mission statements and other people are a little more sceptical - people who might say that this is always what we've been about.

And that is right - the purpose of the church has not changed. We are God's church and that has been the case for the last two thousand years. Central to our faith is the person of Jesus. We encounter God through his Spirit and in his Word. So why do we need a new vision - and what's new about it?

As we unpack this vision statement over the next few Fridays hopefully we will see the value of setting out our goal in such clear terms. And how having this goal clearly defined and known by everyone at CBC will help us in the process of knowing what it is that God is calling us to be involved in. 

I quite often get people in the church coming to ask me about whether it is OK for them to organise this event or start up that project. And I think that that is appropriate - not because I need to have the final word on everything, but because I am probably more aware than anyone else about the bigger picture of what is going on across the whole church. But the next time you come to ask me - you'll need to be prepared to answer the question, 'tell me - how does X,Y,Z fits in with our vision?'

Come back on Friday so see what it means to be 'authentic'.