The Upside Down Kingdom

When a child prays, "Dear God, please bless Mummy, please bless Daddy, please bless Auntie Joan and Uncle Bob, and please bless Buster the dog" the thought behind the prayer is usually a request that 'good' things will happen to these people (and the dog) - the sorts of things that will make them happy.

Yesterday at CBC, as a part of our series looking at the Kingdom of God, we looked at the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) - helping us to explore a bit more what life in the kingdom looks like and recognising that the kingdom Jesus is inviting us to be a part of is very much an upside down kingdom. 

That is to say, those values and people which are usually looked down on and despised suddenly find themselves at the top of the pile rather than at the bottom.

We'll have a look at the individual Beatitudes later in the week but today I want just to think about what it means to be 'blessed'.

The word used in the New Testament here is 'makarios'. In the NIV this is mostly translated 'blessed' but is also translated in a few verses as good (e.g. Matt. 24:46), fortunate (Acts 26:2) and happier (1 Cor. 7:40).

Some translations, such as the Good News, translate 'makarios' here in Matthew 5 as 'happy' - e.g. "Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!"

In his Life Builders Bible Study notes on the Sermon on the Mount, John Stott writes, 

...it is seriously misleading to render makarios "happy". For happiness is a subjective state, whereas Jesus is making an objective judgement about these people. He is declaring not what they may feel like ("happy"), but what God thinks of them and what on that account they are ("blessed"). [page 56].

A while ago at CBC we started singing a few songs by Rend Collective, and for Christmas I got their latest CD - As Family We Go. One of the tracks on this album is 'Joy of the Lord' and the story behind this song demonstrates the Upside Down nature of the kingdom - how that even at times of great personal difficulty and pain we can still choose joy.

Listen to Ali and Gareth from Rend Collective talk about a difficult time in their marriage due to a miscarriage and how the song "Joy Of The Lord" came about.

Missing Videos

If you're following the Read Scripture plan, but have not subscribed to their emails, and are relying on the single sheet print out that was available at church a couple of weeks ago, it is possible that you may have missed out on a couple of theme videos.

Although this sheet had all the book videos listed, it did not contain the theme videos. A new two sided version is now available which includes all the videos. You can download it from here, or they will be available at CBC on Sunday. I would also encourage you to subscribe/sign up to their emails, follow them on Twitter etc etc ...

In the meantime here are the videos that you may have missed.

2 January - Heaven and Earth



3 January - The Covenants




Today, 16 January - The Messiah

Being Community

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

Last week we began a weekly series of Friday posts exploring and unpacking our Vision here at CBC. If you miss any of the posts as we go through you can access them easily by clicking on the link to the relevant word above - or by clicking on the 'Vision' label which you will find at the bottom of this post.

This week I want to think about what it means to be 'community'.

If you were to do a search on the word 'community' in the NIV New Testament you would only get one hit (Acts 25:24) - but the Greek word used here occurs elsewhere in the NT but is translated variously as 'crowd', 'assembly', 'group' etc.

But within the NT account of the early church we certainly find the first Christians committed to meeting together for worship and fellowship - e.g. Acts 2:42-47. The writer to the Hebrews warns against no longer meeting together - for when we come together we are able to encourage each other and spur each other on (Hebrews 10:24-25). The language of the NT speaks of disciples as brothers and sisters - the language of family.

Jesus was accused of eating with the wrong kinds of people - and we find this practice - of eating together, and sharing hospitality - continues into the life of the early church. Jewish Christians share the hospitality of Gentile Christians - something that would not have happened without the transforming power of the Holy Spirit - and an outward sign of a deeper inner change. 

Contrast, for example, Paul's comment in Acts 10:28, "you are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with Gentiles of visit them" with the invitation just 30 verses later, "Then they (a household of Gentiles) asked Peter to stay with them for a few days". This Peter presumably did because of the charge against him in Acts 11:3 "you went into the house of the uncircumcised and ate with them". Similarly Lydia sees the offering and acceptance of hospitality as an outworking and sign of her new faith (Acts 16:15).

Clearly the picture we find in the NT is of believers in Jesus who are sharing their lives together - not just 'in church' but also opening their homes to each other and eating together.

In our journey of discipleship we will all be at different points. There will be some people we learn from and there will be others we teach. We saw last week that life is often messy and therefore we need to be authentic and real. Young children learn by watching and copying - and it is the same with our faith. We learn by watching and copying - but we can only watch those who we share life with.

CBC is not a big church but it is probably too big for everyone to know everyone - it is certainly too big for everyone to know everyone really well. If you wanted to invite everyone round for Sunday lunch - either you would need a massive house or it will take you months and months and months. But you can know a few people really well - people who you can share your life with. For many of us this smaller group of individuals may be our home group, but there are also other groups who meet regularly (e.g. the musicians/singers, men's breakfast, the Bumps & Babes team). There will be things that are going on in your life that you don't want to share publicly but hopefully there will be one or two people that you can share with for support and prayer - and just to 'off load'.

In their latest Idea magazine the Evangelical Alliance highlight the positive impact on health - both physical and mental - of living in a community where people feel they have a strong support system where people can open up, talk and experience the power of prayer. (Two copies of this magazine are available in the centre for you to take away and read.)

But within any larger group of people there will be those who are not a part of any smaller group, those who are on the fringe for one reason or another - there will be those who choose to remain on the edge of what is happening. It is our vision that CBC will be a place where no one feels isolated, where everyone feels welcomed and a part of what is going on, everyone feels supported and is supporting others, a place where we do life together.

One of the challenges we face is how do we develop community when circumstances, shift working, family commitments etc mean that patterns of church attendance are changing. If you were to ask someone 15 years ago - regular church attendance meant Sunday morning, Sunday evening and midweek Bible study (as a minimum). Regular church attendance today (in terms of Sunday) can mean twice a month. So how do we ensure that we still share life together...?

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.