There are eleven weeks to the General Election.
This week the Evangelical Alliance released results from its research into the views of evangelical Christians ahead of May's General Election. What issues are important? Will you be voting for the same party as last time? (Read the detail here).
Also this week the Church of England has attracted attention for writing a letter in which it encouraged all of its members to take part and vote in the forthcoming General Election. This has received a range of responses - from those supporting all involvement in the election process to those criticising the Bishops for their apparent left wing stance. (Read the full 52 page letter here). (Read the BBC's report here).
There have, no doubt, been those whose view is that the church should stick to doing what the church does and stay out of politics. Such a view is nothing new, and goes hand in hand with those who think that 'faith' is something that is fine for the individual but should be practised at home, behind closed doors. It is a private matter - and has no place in the public sphere. But such thinking displays a total misunderstanding in the way that genuine faith works.
True faith is not something that you can switch on and switch off. It is not, for example, something that you do in church, but outside of church you do something different. Of course, that describes how many people treat church, but it cannot be made to fit genuine faith.
What we believe affects the way that we behave - in every area of life. When there is a difference between our Sunday faith and our Monday-Saturday behaviour we should probably ask whether our Monday-Saturday actions demonstrate what we truly believe and Sunday is just a routine that we go through.
So what is the role of the church in the forthcoming election? Is it to tell people how to vote? Should I start wearing red, blue, purple or green on Sunday mornings to send subliminal messages to my congregation?
Or is the role of the church to equip people with the confidence to read the Bible and prayerfully come to their own conclusions as to how they should vote? As a Christian what should I think about...or...or...? What are the issues that God has created me to be passionate about?
And therefore, I'm going to vote for ...
Of course there will be a variety of answers to that last statement. And that is the way it should be. We each have a little under three months to prayerfully reach a conclusion, so that on May 7, we vote, and our decision is based upon our understanding of God and his world.
This Sunday in our series on discipleship we took a look at part of the Sermon in the Mount - Matthew 5:21-48. The bit where Jesus says things like 'you have heard it said, do not commit murder, but I tell you if you're angry with your brother or sister you will be judged'. Challenging stuff.
And some parts of the Bible are very challenging to read because they highlight an obvious gap between the life we'd like to lead and the life we're actually leading. A gap between what is seen on the outside and what is going on inside. But how do you feel and how do you respond after you've read a challenging passage?
Paul tells us in the New Testament that for the Christian there is no condemnation - because of Jesus. He died to bring forgiveness and peace. But he also tells us that God's word will rebuke us at times, because we will read it and realise that there are areas of our life that do not match up with what God wants. But the Holy Spirit does not reveal these things with the purpose of making us feel rubbish about ourselves and want to give up following Jesus. Rather he wants us to repent of our mistakes and take a fresh start.
I remember someone telling me once that our walk as a follower of Jesus is a bit like someone building a circular tower of bricks. Where each brick represents an area in our lives that God is transforming, and God is the builder. So maybe at the moment God is putting his finger on anger - and once that issue got a bit sorted he moves on to our attitude towards money, and then lust, and then telling the truth and then...and then...and then...
Eventually the first layer of bricks is laid, and God returns to anger - either we need to relearn the previous lesson or God wants to take us on a step further, and then money, and then ... and then ... and then... until the second layer is complete.
And so we keep on going round and round and round, but each time the tower gets a little higher.
This picture is helpful in a number of ways.
- It reminds us that God often works on us one piece at a time - so what is God working on in me at the moment?
- Also just because I see certain sins in others doesn't mean that God is working on those sins at the moment - I need to allow God to work in his time and in his way.
- God's word does challenge us about our behaviour - but not with the purpose of paralysing us, but to allow God transform us a bit more and therefore lay another brick.
- Sometimes it feels as if we're just going round and round in circles, but we're also getting a little higher each time.
Depending on your church background you may or may not 'do Lent'. As someone who is part of a Baptist church, my experience is that Lent is a bit of a hit and miss, take it or leave it, season. Although I get the sense that it has gained in popularity in recent years as churches have seen it as an opportunity to engage with the Bible and their community, and the number of 'Lent courses' have multiplied. Part of this may be influenced by an increasing number of churches of different flavours working together - which is a very positive trend.
Last year as a family we signed up for 40 Acts - rather than a focus of giving something up for Lent, the focus was on actively making generous choices throughout Lent. Some of those were very little things - but as is often the case - small things can have a big impact on someone else.
So I'd encourage you to have a look at 40 Acts and see if this is something you could get involved in this year, starting on Wednesday 18 February.
Every now and again I do click on those external links and videos that people are constantly posting on Facebook or Twitter. Here's one I came across the other day...
I have a bike - but it's not a mountain bike and I would certainly not attempt anything like this. Once this guy is on his bike it's clear that he's not your average cyclist and I doubt his bike cost about £150 from Halfords.
I wonder how many times this guy had to fall off in order to perfect some of these tricks? Obviously you don't go from riding along a residential street to riding backwards balanced on your front wheel or somersaulting over a barbed wire fence over night. You also don't learn that kind of stuff without falling off and hurting yourself a few times.
I haven't just posted this on here because I think it's a great video - although it is. But as I watched this through for the third or fourth time I got thinking about faith. God makes us some incredible promises, including the promise of the Holy Spirit. But when it comes to obeying the things that God has asked us to do, I wonder whether too often I settle for ... a quiet ride of my bike around the local park rather than learn to bunny hop. And then because I can't bunny hop God can't teach me to ... and because I never had the courage to learn how to ... God can't then teach me to ... And so I never make it out of the local park, I never make it to a mountain ridge across the Isle of Skye.
God invites us to trust him and hang on for the ride.
