"ALL THOSE IN AUTHORITY"

We shall shortly be voting to put people into the highest authority in the nation, people who will make the law and who will govern the nation. The existence of that highest authority depends in the last analysis entirely on the fact that we vote. So we have to vote, because if we don’t there will be (at least theoretically) no authority and there will be anarchy! That is why we have a duty to vote, even if we haven’t the faintest idea who to vote for.
It’s a privilege to vote, because most people in the world actually don’t have a say in who takes the highest authority in their land. They are stuck with ambitious, corrupt and often violent autocrats who are there to get as much out of their authority as they can for themselves. That’s another impelling reason to vote.
What we need from such authority is rule that gives the possibility of peaceable living, such living being based on godliness and mutual respect. That, at any rate, is what Paul tells Timothy that his churches should be praying for when they consider those in authority (1 Tim 2:1). It is highly unlikely that any authority will deliver such peaceableness unless those who make up such authority uphold in their own personal lives godliness and mutual respect. One of the modern fallacies about politicians is that it doesn’t make any difference what sort of a personal life they lead, and that it is no business of the electorate; they should only be judged on their abilities. But if a person cannot be trusted in their private life (if they betray their spouse or their business associates) then they cannot be trusted in public life where trust and honesty is actually of great importance. Indeed the besetting sin of politicians seems to be their economy with the truth! Dishonesty is not a disease which can be kept isolated in one part of the human psyche – it spreads. A very able person who cannot be trusted is not always a good thing – we have seen the effects of that in the recent banking scandals where the cleverest of men have caused the greatest chaos simply because they were corrupt and lied, and were clever!
So “Party” talk and policy is not everything we have to look at. It is at least worth a good look to see what sort of a person the candidate is. Probably that’s as good a reason as any for the local “hustings”. If you can’t choose a party, choose a person!!
Most important, it is a time to pray, with supplications intercessions and thanksgivings – that is clearly a scriptural injunction.

Bob


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CLOUD OF ASH

The editor of the Times newspaper wrote this week, “There is something unavoidably symbolic about the cloud of volcanic ash hanging over Britain”. I agree. He said it “should have prompted a serious election debate about the environment”. I can’t quite follow that extraordinary conclusion! I felt a sense of complete anti climax!
Two phrases had previously come into my mind as I had thought about any meaning or symbolism in this volcanic eruption; they were “human vulnerability” and “frightening immediacy”. A simple confluence of volcano, ice and wind direction (all totally outside of human control) had produced millions of tons of ash that incapacitated the latest aviation technology and grounded hundreds of planes. Staggering! The impact is huge with thousands stranded and perishables in danger of rotting. The vulnerability of this tightly knit, sophisticated human society we live in has once again been completely exposed. This volcano will do more damage yet if it continues.

It all happened so suddenly – that really is the frightening bit. One day all is well; the next day there is chaos. There’s no time to prepare, no time to get back home before the ash is in the sky, no time for alternative arrangements. It’s an instantaneous moment of reckoning.
I don’t need to use “judgement” vocabulary in this reflection, even if it were appropriate. I find myself much more drawn to a verse in Ps. 90 “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (v.11). God teaches us “to number our days” by making our vulnerability obvious. It’s a lesson that a self-centred consumer society needs to learn before it crashes along with its pride in its achievements and its growing mind-set that says it has a right to have what it needs and wants. When we face our vulnerability, then we start to ask questions about life that are rather deeper than just what we are going to buy on the next shopping spree. When the psalm talks about “gaining a heart of wisdom” it is talking about getting divine “wisdom”, that is to say a God centred life, righteousness and care for others.
We live on an “angry planet”. This is not just “unfortunate” or “cruel”. It’s very anger can be a blessing when it takes us down a peg or two, brings home to us our dependence on God, and lifts our thoughts to the way we live and to the fact that there is an eternal life to be lived beyond this planet.
No, the volcano is not symbolic of the environment! It’s symbolic of the need for humanity to really face up to itself and the way it lives.


Bob


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POST EASTER PREPARATION

There were fifty days from the resurrection of Jesus until Pentecost, that great day which marked the beginning of a great move of the Spirit and the birth of the early church. Those fifty days were essentially preparation days for that event. It’s always good to look at the times of preparation that bring about revival. That’s a big subject, so forgive a short comment.
It could not have happened without the ascension of Jesus (all revival starts with the ascended Jesus), and it was forty days after the resurrection before Jesus took that exalted position and took the gift of the Spirit from the Father. One can scarcely say, however, that Jesus needed any preparation for his ascension. It was his disciples that needed the preparation, and it seems clear that those forty days of continued earthly physical appearances were for their sakes. What they really needed was some further teaching, alongside a deepening of their personal experience of a risen, living Lord.
The subject of that teaching is no secret to us, even if we cannot perhaps imagine the sheer power and conviction with which it was communicated by Jesus. In the resurrection stories we are told that even on Easter day he began to “teach them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”. One might have thought that they had learned enough in seeing the resurrection, but, no, they had to learn thoroughly why he had died. They could have no valid ministry that was not accurately focussed on his death and clearly presented his total sacrifice for sin. Moreover, they had to learn that there were prophetic scriptures about a ministry that Jesus would continue to exert through the Holy Spirit from his ascended position. The disciples had been a part of his earthly ministry and now they had to understand what it would mean to be part of his ascended ministry. They had to learn afresh the crucial place of the Holy Spirit in that ministry.
So it was that after his resurrection Jesus appeared to them from time to time “speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God”. His post resurrection teaching was utterly crucial, for he dealt with matters that his disciples simply could not have grasped with any sense of reality before the resurrection. Informed understanding is vital for revival.
In context, Jesus was preparing his “church” to be (amongst other things) a blessing to the Jews even though he knew there would be a severe judgement that they would inevitably bring on themselves. Then, as now, whatever the context, he works his grace.

Bob


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