Silent in the Public Square?

Silent In The Public Square?

Jesus assumed that his first followers would be hated and persecuted by the unbelieving world, just as he was first hated and persecuted (Jn 15:18).

The reason for this is simple: neither Jesus nor his followers belonged to the world. We are different. If our first loyalty is to God and his kingdom we will be ‘strangers in the world’ (1 Pet 1:1). The degree of this will vary depending on the society we are in, but we are bound to be different. In any society, people who are different in any way are apt to face hostility.

Talk of being hated and persecuted seems far from our local reality. The Religious Harmony Act leaves most Singaporeans reasonably free to practice their respective faiths.  Thankfully, we do not face an officially sanctioned totalitarian ideology in which there is a direct clash with religious belief. Some local Christians face a measure of family or institutional hostility and some ostracism for their beliefs. This can be painful but it is not societal persecution in the way that other Christians suffer it.

However, Christians may suffer hostility for other reasons. All societies have evils in their public life. One role of God’s people is to expose these evils in defense of their victims and to help people see their need of Jesus.  Thus the prophet Amos spoke against the injustice and extravagance of some in his day, Wilberforce spoke against the profitable slave trade, missionaries in India spoke against widow-burning, Bonheoffer spoke against the evils of Nazism, and Christians in SE Asia today oppose exploitation of children and the sex trade. Many of these evils involve powerful interest and big profits. Opposition to them can draw much hostility.

Do Christians suffer little local hostility because we are largely silent in the public square? Do we leave our faith behind when we share in public debate on moral and social issues? Can we do this? Some years back a non-Christian man wrote of how he took his religious values with him into public debate and how that enriched the debate. That’s a good point. If our identity is Christian we should be respectfully Christian on public issues. Who are we, if we leave our Christian identity behind in public debate?

We are called to be salt and light (Mat 5:13). Let’s not lose our saltiness and dim God’s light by fitting into the world so well that no one notices who we are.

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence – not in the name of the Father

Domestic violence is a too-common problem behind the door of many homes. The violence may be verbal, psychological, sexual or physical. Husbands may abuse their wives; parents may abuse their children; children may abuse vulnerable parents; or householders may abuse their helpers.

Domestic violence often involves some abuse of authority. One very nasty form is the abuse of religious authority.  Thus a local social worker tells of a supposedly Christian husband who calmly read Eph 5:22 to his wife, told her he would teach her what it meant and then beat her.

Let’s say it loud and clear:  domestic violence is never acceptable or defensible. There should be zero tolerance, especially among Christians.

Why is domestic violence always wrong for God’s people?

·        All people have equal honour and value in God’s image (Gen 1:26-27). We answer to God for violence against another (eg Gen 9:5-6).

·        We are to love all people, including our enemies (Mat 5:43-48). No matter how greatly we may think a family member to have harmed us, we are to love them by praying for them and seeking God’s blessing.

·        Those with authority in families are to follow the pattern of Christ. Their authority is not for self-service but for other-service (Mrk 10:35-45). In particular, husbands and fathers are to serve their families with Christ-like love and gentleness (Eph 5:25-28; 6:4).

Violence against one diminishes us all. It is a communal problem. Family, neighbours and friends often know when violence is inflicted. If we know and are silent, we are part of the problem.

How can we all help with this terrible problem?

·         If we are abusive or violent, seek help before our violence spills over. There is no shame in admitting to this problem and seeking help.

·         If we are being abused, seek help. You don’t have to protect the family member who is violent. You need help and so do they.

In the name of the Father – let us be a people who refuse violence.

For Yours Is The Kingdom, And The Power And Glory, For Ever And Ever

The Lord's Prayer

For Yours Is The Kingdom, And The Power And Glory, For Ever And Ever

 

A prayer for God’s kingdom, power and glory seems a worthy way to end the model prayer that Jesus taught his followers.

Yet, these words were not part of Jesus’ original prayer (Mat 6:9-13; Lke 11:2-4). The ‘extra’ words are found only in Matthew and only in some poorly supported late texts. They seem to be added for liturgical purposes and follow the format of some Jewish prayers. There is no harm in our use of this traditional ending, so long as we understand that it is not from Jesus.

Nonetheless the extra words seem a good wrap-up. They return to the lofty themes of the opening petitions. God’s glory is upheld as we pray for the hallowing of his name. God’s kingdom is sought as we pray for its coming. God’s power is relied on as we seek his provision of our daily needs, along with his forgiveness and protection from tests and from the power of evil.

Let’s look back over the whole of the Lord’s Prayer …

·         It is a God-centred prayer rather than one centred on the one praying.

·         It rises to big horizons (God’s name, kingdom and will) rather than just the day to day.

·         It seeks help for our most important needs, rather than our self-indulgences.

·         It is a prayer for corporate use and thus well suited to our church gatherings.

The Lord’s Prayer can be prayed ‘as is’ and used as a pattern for our own prayers.  (The same applies to many of the other prayers recorded in the Bible, including those of Jesus.)

Note again that the Lord’s Prayer is not a magical saying for just anyone. It is a prayer for those who can call God their Father. This is the people who have become God’s adopted children through faith in his Son Jesus Christ. Let us pray that God uses his power to extend his kingdom by adding new believers and thus glorifies his name.

Lead us not into temptation

The Lord’s Prayer

 … lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one

Why pray that the Lord will not lead us into temptation? God is neither tempted nor the source of temptation (Jas 1:13). Rather, we are responsible for our own temptation as we allow evil desires to take root, entice us and then lead us to sinful actions (Jas 1:13-15). In short, responsibility for our sin belongs with the person in the mirror and not God or even the Devil.

The word tempted is a common word for testing or affliction Some Bible translations carry this through into the Lord’s Prayer. Testing certainly includes enticement to sin, but also much more. Unemployment, illness, disappointment, persecution, challenging tasks, weariness and such like can test our faithfulness to the Lord. 

Tests can become temptations. For example, consider the person who is weary of being good and weary so much Christian service on top of all else. They may look at a non-Christian and envy what we think is a life of ease. This is a test. It can become a temptation if we dwell on the enticement.

Whether it is a test or a temptation, the good news is that we are not alone. God promises to supply the means to escape any test that comes to us (1 Cor 10:13 – this verse uses the same word as in the Lord’s Prayer). Do we use the helps that he provides – such as Scripture, prayer, Christian friends?

The battle is bigger than us and we need God’s help.  For example, all temptations pitch us in a battle against which we are defenceless by ourselves and in which we need God’s armour (Eph 6:10-18).

We can now better understand this part of the Lord’s Prayer.  Our weakness means that all tests can become temptations that drag us from God. Because we are so frail we need God to keep tests from us and especially to deliver us from the awesome power of the evil one and his temptations.

There’s another way to look at all this. School tests are an opportunity to pass and grow. The tests and temptations of the Christian life can be seen as an opportunity to lean on God, pass the test and grow in faithfulness.  Fail or pass … its up to us as we choose to lean on ourselves or lean on the Lord.

 

Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven

The Lord’s Prayer

- Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors

Forgiveness of our sin-debt is the greatest need of humanity. It is no surprise that it is singled out for extended attention in the Lord’s Prayer.

Mathew writes of our ‘debts’ being forgiven to us but Luke uses the words for both ‘debts’ and ‘sins’ (Lke 11:4). The word ‘debts’ reminds us that every sin puts us into deficit with God. Every sin increases our liability to judgement.

Note carefully who our sin is against and who our debt is to. Our sins may or may not hurt others, but the sin and the debt is to God even when someone else is hurt (eg Ps 51:4 / 1 Sam 11). It is God’s law that is broken, God’s glory that is robbed and God’s creation that is hurt and thus it is God alone who can forgive. We must first face our debt to God and then also face any others whom we have hurt (eg, Lke 19:1-8).

This prayer for forgiveness comes with a rider and an explanation. (Mat 6:12,14-15).  Our search for God’s forgiveness must be matched by our forgiveness of any who have harmed us. This is a question of integrity. We must do for others what we want God to do for us. Jesus tells us to extend this forgiveness by going to the person concerned to settle matters directly and in private, if possible (Mat 18:15-17).

It is not always possible to forgive personally those who sin against us - for example if they have gone away or passed away. However, it may be good to find another way to express forgiveness if we realise that we have a legacy of bitterness and hurt.  We may need to do that to move on with God, ourselves and life.

Forgiveness can be sought with confidence. Any denial of sin is a lie to ourselves and makes God to be a liar - since he says that we all sin (1 Jn 1:8  – 2:6. However, if we confess our sin we gain the benefit of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice where he fully paid our debt to God. Notice however the rider – we must walk with Jesus in the light, such that sin is our aberration of character and not our habit.

Let us therefore forgive others their sin against us, confess our sins and then pray together that God will forgive us our debts. 

Give us this day

The Lord’s Prayer - Give us this day our daily bread

Bread was like rice in the world of the Bible. It was the staple carbohydrate   which could be accompanied by many other ingredients to make a fulsome meal.

If you have baked bread the old-fashioned way you know the satisfaction that comes from hand-kneading the dough, adding your own ingredients, watching it rise and delivering it to the table with an enticing oven-fresh aroma. Bread is best baked and eaten daily rather than stewing in plastic on a supermarket shelf or being resuscitated from the freezer.

Bread was not only a staple in Bible times, but it was a day by day food. You cooked and you ate. Bread was the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

All that lies behind the prayer that God will give us bread for this day.

This prayer worships God by depending on him to meet our needs. It’s a prayer that expresses contentment with a simple staple rather than a fussy gourmet meal. It’s a prayer that lets the needs of each day be sufficient for that day. In short, it’s the prayer of a simple piety that recognises our need of food, depends on God to meet it as the need arises and which keeps food in balanced perspective. We need ‘bread’ but we do not live by bread alone (Dt 8:3).

Do note that ‘bread’ is used elsewhere in the Bible in a spiritual sense – see Is 55:2; John 6:26-51 and also consider the place of bread in the Lord’s Supper. However, the reference in the Lord’s Prayer is probably just to bread as food.

This prayer is a contrast to Israel’s complaint during the exodus from Egypt (Ex 16). They had daily bread from heaven but were discontent. They wanted the meat, fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic of Egypt and forgot the slavery that went with it (Ex 16:3, Nos 11:5).  Some were not content with their daily bread but tried to hoard beyond their needs (Ex 16:15-20).  This faithless grumbling against God was part of the story that led to their forty years of judgement.

Let’s trust God to meet our needs. Let’s trust him day by day. Let’s be content and mean it when we pray: Give us this day our daily bread. 

The nature of worship

The Nature of Worship

NOTE: this piece is posted as a conversation opener. Responses are warmly invited.

A working definition of worship

Worship is submission to the Lord and all that flows from it.

The first act of worship submission is to quit our rebellion and enter the covenant relationship with God on the terms he sets and through his appointed saviour/ king who is Jesus.

The second act of worship submission is to live faithfully in that covenant relationship on the terms that God sets and under the rule of his appointed saviour / king who is Jesus. This primarily means living a life of faith, hope and love. It also includes specific acts of intentional devotion, whether in private (quiet time), with our earthly family (family worship) or with the family of God (church services). 

 

Notes

This definition derives from study of the key Hebrew and Greek words for worship and from the way that worship is discussed within the flow of the Bible.

For example, God saved his people from Egypt (Ex 12ff), initiated a covenant relationship with them (Ex 19:1-6) and within that gave instructions for the life of covenant obedience. This instruction primarily covers a whole-of-life obedience to God within which, and only within which, the specific instructions on corporate acts of devotion take place.

That is, intentional acts of devotion are a derivative of the primary meaning of worship as entering and living within God's covenant. This does not reduce their importance but puts them into perspective within covenant and kingship theology. This needs present emphasis because of the trend to invert the Biblical order and push devotional acts into prominence as the primary meaning of 'worship'.

Note also the emphasis on all this happening on God's terms. As the saving king who initiates the covenant relationship and makes all this worship possible, God sets the terms. We worship in the way that pleases him not us. The Scripture must thus be carefully studied to know what pleases God in both the principles and the actions of worship.

David Peterson’s Engaging With God is the primary inspiration for this definition. It steers between views that equate worship purely or mainly with church services (or parts of them) and between views that reject use of the word ‘worship’ for church services.

 

Implications

The primary worship task is to help bring people into right relationship with God as they enter his kingdom by faith and then go on to live under the rule of Jesus.

Congregational acts of intentional devotion are very important for fostering this right relationship and for giving opportunities to worship God by declaring his praise, depending on him to meet needs (both temporal and eternal), listening to his word, supporting his work and both preparing and  encouraging one another for the worship of life. Because these acts are so important, care is needed in their planning and presentation – including care that we don’t unwitting foster a reductionist theology of worship as just being these corporate acts of devotion.

Words matter and the way we use them matters. Care is needed to use the word ‘worship’ in a way that reflects the wide sense discussed above. For example, it is right to speak of church services (or any part of them) as worship but the word should not be used such as to imply that church services (let alone any one part of them) are the sole, main or primary meaning of ‘worship’.