Articles

Your kingdom come

This is part of a series called “Into the Lord’s Prayer”, looking closer at how we use the framework of the prayer and making it relevant and useful to us today.

Jesus went to great pains to explain to his followers and critics what his father’s “kingdom” was.  There was a great expectation among the Jews of the time that God would come with an army to redeem his Chosen People and give Israel back to them.  They made a mockery of Jesus’ claims to be the Messiah, not because he spoke a load of lies but because he didn’t come in force.  How could a man of peace drive out the Romans?  How could a teacher who spoke in parables inspire an army to go to war?  Jesus’ answer was to go right back to the base of their argument and challenge the very core of what they were expecting - God’s kingdom was not what they were expecting.

However, it is not as straightforward as saying that God’s kingdom is heaven, and that one day the world will end and his believers will be in heaven, and that is what we’re praying for.  To a certain extent, yes we are praying for that final deliverance, but I believe the main thrust of this line (and indeed Jesus’ teaching elsewhere) is that God’s kingdom is here on earth.  How does that tally up?  God’s kingdom is not a physical kingdom, and yet is based on earth?

(more…)

Hallowed be your name

This is part of a series called “Into the Lord’s Prayer”, looking closer at how we use the framework of the prayer and making it relevant and useful to us today.

Hallowed?  What on earth does that mean?  Even the majority of Christians will probably struggle to answer that question without resorting to a dictionary.  Myself included.  So, for everyone’s benefit, here is a dictionary definition of that word, just for reference:

hallow: to honour as holy, to make holy, consecrate; as adjective (hallowed), greatly revered or respected.

Any clearer?  Maybe a little.  In essence, we are saying that God’s name is holy and that we respect him.  But what exactly does that mean?

As an instruction, it may be taken that we should not swear by taking the Lord’s name in vain.  That’s a fairly well recognised instruction, as seen in the Ten Commandments, but (and I’m aware that I’m pointing the finger here) I know many people who call themselves Christians who say “oh my god” in normal conversation.  Most, if challenged, would probably say it was a slip of the tongue, but in some ways that makes it worse.  For them, the name of the Lord has become so meaningless that when used out of context they hardly even notice whose name it is.

(more…)

Our Father in heaven

This is part of a series called “Into the Lord’s Prayer”, looking closer at how we use the framework of the prayer and making it relevant and useful to us today.

You could think of this line as the start of a letter, beginning with the name of the recipient and their address.  The prayer is directed to God, our heavenly Father, who dwells in heaven.  This may sound simple enough, but there are several important things to remember here.

The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the instantaneous contact we have with God.  There are no rituals to perform to get God’s attention (remember Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel?), no lengthy process to make ourselves holy enough to be worthy of talking to God, no waiting for God to be available.  The moment we begin praying, God is listening, right from the first word.  God may be in heaven, but he’s also right here with us, present at all times regardless of whether we’re in church or at home, in a worshipful mood or shouting at other road-users.  It is an honour and a privilege to have this sort of instant access to God, and we should be humble in our prayer that God should allow for this sort of thing, bearing in mind how often we screw up.

(more…)

Into the Lord’s Prayer - Introduction

Several years ago I attended a Chaplaincy Assistants’ Conference, hosted by a university chaplaincy that shall remain anonymous, and which was attended by a handful of Chaplaincy Assistants from across the country.  My initial enthusiasm for the day was soon diminished as I realised how little God seemed to feature in the lives of the other people there (again, naming no names).  The conversations revolved around what they DID, not what God was leading them to do.  Right at the end of the day, the person leading the day said “I suppose we ought to finish with a prayer”.  Finally, I thought, God does get a look-in after all.  “Let’s do an ‘Our Father’”, they continued, “an ‘Our Father’ is always good.”  My stomach churned.

In fact, that actually sums up the ignorance of a lot of people both inside and outside the church.  Many think of the Lord’s Prayer as some magical prayer that ticks all the boxes; after all, they think, Jesus prayed it so it must be good.  It’s crammed into almost every liturgy you’ll find in the Anglican Church, and is used widely elsewhere too.  It’s a prayer children are taught to recite off by heart.  It’s recognisable, memorable, traditional.  And, for the most part, misunderstood.

(more…)

God the Builder - crutch or scaffolding?

If you take a look at the parables of Jesus you will see a lot of analogies with things people at the time would have known about.  Farming techniques, fishing, dealing with tax collectors, vineyards and olive groves.  All these were common knowledge for the people he was speaking to.  I wonder if the meaning is lost on us sometimes, because we’re not living amongst vineyards and suchlike.  It takes a lot more effort for us to understand the meaning of the parables, because we have to do research into what it was like at the time, and what the significance of everything was.

I was pleasantly surprised, then, when the other day I stumbled across an analogy that was scriptural but relevant to our times.  When I say “scriptural”, it isn’t actually in the Bible, but it does tie in nicely with what is said in the Bible.

First, some background.  It was Back To Church Sunday last week, and as part of the service our vicar invited me up the front to answer a couple of questions.  One of them was something along the lines of “what difference does faith make to your life?”  This isn’t an easy questions for me to answer, because I’ve been a Christian so long that I can’t really compare my life now to my life without God.  However, I did think about it (I had been primed the day before to give me a chance to come up with a suitable answer), and stumbled across this little gem, which is shared in church and felt I could share here too.

(more…)

Prayer e-mails from Laura

(This in no way a rip off of C S Lewis’ Prayer Letters to Malcolm)

Sometimes the Christian life is amazing. Sometimes you walk around and little birds come to rest on your shoulder. They sweetly tweet Handle’s Messiah into your ear, as you walk around the garden in your white sheet and sandals, deeply engrossed in a very ‘deep’ prayer for all of the homeless sea turtles around the world.

But sometimes it’s not like this. Or at least sometimes for me it isn’t like this. Sometimes whilst the rest of the congregation is in a state of religious ecstasy I’m wondering what’s for lunch. There are occasions when everyone else in church seems to be deeply engrossed in the sermon and I’m thinking about rugby. There have been intense prayer sessions where I fell asleep (this by the way is why monks traditionally wear those big hoods - that way no-one can see their eyes when they’re supposed to be praying).

Praying isn’t always easy, reading the Bible isn’t always easy either. God can sometimes feel a million miles away, and during those times you can feel like you are the most rubbish Christian in the world.

I feel like this quite a lot, but one of the big things that has helped me to cope with this has been the knowledge that I am not alone in this struggle. One friend in particular has helped me to realize this through a series of e-mails which I found incredibly encouraging.

So for all of those frustrated saints out there here is my ‘Prayer E-mail from Laura’: (more…)

A Psalm

Inspired by an afternoon of gardening

Thank you, Lord, for grass.
Thank you for the colour of the bright blue sky,
Thank you for frogs and leeches, tadpoles and pigeons
Thank you for resilient goldfish
Thank you for friends, for teamwork, for laughter
Thank you for cake
Thank you for sunshine, and for shade
Thank you for energy and strength
Thank you for the visible signs of progress
Thank you for items found that were lost
Thank you for ground reclaimed
Thank you for surprises
Thank you for fences fixed and flower beds de-weeded
Thank you for hanging baskets
Thank you for rest and comfort
Thank you for pizza
Thank you for sofas
Thank you, Lord, for all you’ve made and all you’ve provided.

Matthew

The Ten Commandments, Part III: Blasphemy

What’s in a Name?

I know that this series is taking the commandments rather out of order, but it’s my series and I’ll do it in any order I want to! This part is on what is commonly known as the blasphemy law. There has been some discussion about blasphemy in the news recently, about whether the blasphemy laws in this country should be repealed or not. I don’t really want to focus too much on that, and instead go back to the Old Testament to try and understand some of the context of God’s name!

So, without further ado, let’s dive in to Exodus. We’ll look at the relevant passage from Exodus 20, if you want to follow along.

The blasphemy law occurs in verse 7:

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

How are we to interpret this commandment? Well, the understanding I grew up with was that we were not to use “God” or “Jesus” as a swear word. Admittedly that is a fairly simplistic understanding, but I think it’s fairly accurate: using God’s name in that way would be completely disrespectful, and - I believe - it’s right to teach people that this law forbids that.

However, as we shall see, the Israelites at the time would have understood a lot more from this commandment. The key thing is, our understanding of “name” is probably a little different to how it would have been interpreted in the ancient world.

(more…)

An Interview with Nicky Gumbel

On 17th September 2002, Crossring was privileged to be granted an exclusive interview with Reverend Nicky Gumbel, a key figure in the running of Alpha courses worldwide.  The interview is reproduced here by permission.

Can you tell us briefly who you are and what you do? What does your job involve?

Well, my name is Nicky Gumbel, and I was ordained at this church (Holy Trinity Brompton) in 1986. My main interest is Alpha though, and I got involved in that in about 1990. Obviously it has been going a lot longer than that, and I had been sort-of involved before then, but 1990 was when I started on it properly! My job here covers various aspects of the church service on Sundays at HTB, pastoral care, and of course Alpha.

Can you briefly tell us about Alpha?

I guess the best way to define what Alpha is would be something along the lines of “an opportunity to explore the meaning of life”. It’s focussed on non-Christians, although of course Christians can also get a lot from Alpha, and covers many issues that everyone thinks about and wants answers to, such as forgiveness and suffering. One of the most important things about it though is the non-confrontational ethos of Alpha. It’s designed to allow people from all walks of life to ask these questions freely in a friendly environment where they can feel comfortable.

(more…)

Heaven on earth

This article is based on a sermon I first preached at Christ Church, Surbiton in July 2006. I’ve adapted it and tidied it up for Focus on Faith (you lucky, lucky people) but for those of you too lazy to read it (I’m with you brother/sister by the way) attached is an audio recording of the sermon.

One of my favourite hymns is ‘How great thou art’. The final verse of this hymn goes like this:

When Christ shall come with shout of acclimation
And take me home – what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great Though art!

I love this song because for me it just captures the majesty and the awesomeness of God and his creation. And this final verse expresses quite how amazing heaven is going to be.

But when you ask people what heaven is going to be like I don’t know how many people would quote hymns to you. Ask the man on the street what they think heaven will be like, and I reckon a popular response would include wings, clouds, harps and Philadelphia crème cheese.

(more…)