"Prodigal" Wedding

I was invited to a wedding. People I've known for many years though only as passing friends.
With excitement I was told; "It's happening! Come to our wedding."
The emotion was genuine, as was the invitation.

So of course I went.

Weddings speak strongly of God's love for mankind.
Like the morning sunrise over the ocean, the beauty of a lush green forest and the majesty of snow capped mountain ranges, weddings give witness to the love and glory of God, even when they are theologically silent.
Paul tells us that when a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife it is a grand mystery. It is the deep, unexplainable and illogical but wonderful truth of Jesus redeeming mankind in action.The conclusion of all history will be a wedding. No, it will be THE wedding. The wedding that all other countless earthly weddings have been pointing to. That of the bride and the Lamb, the saved and the Saviour, the church and her Lord, us and Jesus.

As Christians we believe that earthly weddings are ordained by God. It is God who joins a man and a woman, and that earthly union is broken only by physical death.

As Christians we honour marriage by strict celibacy outside of marriage. And we honour marriage by monogamy in marriage.

However today in western society, many choose to cohabit. For many and varied reasons. Even professing Christians are found in these unorthodox circumstances.

Some who clearly plan to marry, feel that once they are engaged, then they may as well start living together.

I don't believe this is how Jesus intended marriage.

I think engagement is the serious promise of marriage, which can be broken if necessary without dishonour to either party, when celibacy is respected. Therefore engagement should remain a time of celibacy in honour of God, and families, and each other. It need not be extended. Paul states that it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Personally I don't believe girlfriends or boyfriends are a tenable Christian practice. As a Christian, either we are seeking/open to marriage, or we aren't. Once we are ready to marry, we seek wisdom and direction on courtship and marriage. Courtship is always with a view to marriage. In the meantime, when we are younger, and not mature enough to marry, friendships should be enjoyed, friendships which honour people's independence and availability for courtship as well as their celibacy.


I am well aware that society does not share my personal views. These views come from my faith in Jesus. It's how I believe we can best serve God as single and as married people of faith.




But what of the rest of society? Those that may have some faith, but are not as "religious" as others. Or those who profess no faith, or alternative faiths?

Sometimes a couple who has lived together will decide to marry. They may already share children or have had previous relationships.

Is this marriage to be shunned? Looked down upon? Ridiculed? Avoided? Is it a farce? What's the point????

I joyfully answer "no" to all these questions.

As a Christian I know everything that has come to me is out of God's grace and mercy.

My childhood, my abilities, my forgiveness, my faith and repentance, my job, my income, my marriage, my celibacy, my children; everything is a gift, nothing is earnt.

(on a seperate note, I have not been "rewarded" with a great marriage because I "suffered" celibacy. Celibacy is a gift that is of great worth, as is marriage.)

Who am I to say that the gift of a blessed marriage is only for committed Christians? What if God is present at every marriage? What if God approves of all marriages, no matter what has gone before?
If it is God who joins a man and a woman, does he do this from a distance? Or does he actually attend the wedding? Jesus certainly attended weddings, and often spoke of them in his teaching.

I guess the point I'm making is that all marriages, even delayed ones, can and should be honoured in a similar way to the returning prodigal son.
The ever loving father waited patiently for the returning son, and reinstated him freely at his own cost and to the dislike of the elder more outwardly compliant son.

Surely we Christians who understand the depth and true significance of marriage would/should celebrate all those who knowingly or unknowingly are witnessing to the coming great wedding when they themselves return/come to God's gift of marriage?



Of course all of these situations are more complicated than how I have described them, but none of us have perfect marriages or perfect celibacy leading into marriage. Yet God chooses us for his perfect Son.

Standing Out (Colossians 3:1-4)

For some reason, I like to stand out in certain circumstances. I suppose pride is the main reason. But there is also the sense of having a gift or skill or ability and receiving some *recognition for that ability.

Western culture is so immersed in television, that we are naturally drawn  to the glory that is bestowed by the media and the millions of viewers on those special few who have climbed successfully onto that stage.

We admire and identify with those idols of pop culture. 

We long for our own day of glory.

But for the Christian, self promotion and boasting has been forsaken in the light of  the great gifts of forgiveness, transformation, renewal and regeneration that God has poured upon us by the cross of his Son, Jesus.

As Christians we know that our hope lies with Jesus in heaven, we are to set our hearts on things above.

Somehow we have been raised with Jesus. We have died. Our lives are hidden. Hidden with Jesus.

When he appears, we will appear with him in glory.

I don't exactly know how to explain this amazing future event, but I believe it will far out weigh winning Masterchef, Idol, Australia's Got Talent, X-factor, Biggest Looser, the Olympics, the Arias. the Dove awards, the Acadamy awards, and any other major competition put together.

Appearing "in glory" will be worth the wait, and won't go to our heads as is often the risk with worldly success.

God does make some people stand out, but he also makes everything beautiful in its time. When is our time?

Soon

When Christ appears.


*The wanting to receive recognition is also a mixed bag. As we mature, the need for this recognition of our gifts lessens, I think.

Atonement

Recently, I had to deal with a complaint in our workplace.
A customer was rightly upset and wrote a strong letter.
I looked up the points that were made and discussed the issues, and realized that, although unintentional, an error was made, involving processes that could be improved, and minor misses by staff. The problem was that the letter was written directly and personally to me, although I had not personally been involved in the events, it even included the words "I should be ashamed".

It was a bad day for me, eventually I calmed down enough to make contact and write a letter. In it, I accepted responsibility for what had happened and apologized. Although I had not personally made an error, my workplace had, and I am a main leader in that workplace. I begrudgingly took responsibility.

Today I reflected on this.

Can I really be held responsible for the situation, even though I did not personally have a hand in it?

Yes.

Legally, I am culpable. Like it or not. This is the price you pay as a business owner.

Likewise, Jesus, by claiming to be our owner, is truly culpable for our actions.

We have an understanding that we have been "redeemed" by Jesus. To reclaim an item given at a "cash for items" loan center (pawn shop), a price must be paid. Once it is paid, the item is legally yours again, and it has been "redeemed". If the price is not paid within a certain period of time, the item is lost forever.

We have sold ourselves to Satan by sinning, and, unfortunately, we cannot afford the cost of being redeemed. Jesus paid the price, by his blood. Because he has bought us, he is now our owner, and is culpable for our actions. Again, he has paid the price for the penalty of our sin, by his blood.

Paying this price made us one with him, and with the Father. This is "at-one-ment", or atonement. We became his body, he is our head. He is the husband, we are the bride. He is the elder brother, we are the adopted children, He is the vine, we are the branches. He is the good Shepherd, we are the wandering sheep. He is the Saviour, we stand in awe.

Unlike me, Jesus was not reluctant to take responsibility. He loved us so much that he willingly laid down his life, knowing that this was the price he had to pay, to redeem us, and to make us his own, warts and all. And he did this before we showed any sign of wanting to belong to him. Willingly.

His incarnation, his perfect life amongst us, especially with respect to moral relationship with us and God, his sentencing to death, his dying, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of God, and his coming again, is all on our behalf, and performed willingly, with his whole heart.

And his commitment to us comes out of the Father's commitment to us. Jesus did only what the Father told him, and he shared his Father's desire to redeem us. God gave us His son. He sent him for this very purpose. The Holy Spirit, equally shares in this commitment toward us. For this reason the Eunuch in Acts chapter 8 wants immediately to be baptized by Philip as he suddenly understands who the suffering servant is, and what he has done for us.  This is amazing grace.

What can we give to God?

We really have nothing to offer God.
He is the originator, designer and maker of everything. Anything that we have jurisdiction over is already his, and already a gift from him to us.
He is not tempted by our possible riches or influence. He is not starved of relationship, such that he needs our friendship. He is not craving influence, fame or power, as he already is all powerful. He is perfectly complete in every sense. If he needed subjects, he could raise them out of stones. We ourselves are originally dust.
More serious is the fact that he hates sin. He judges sin, he destroys sin. And, unfortunately, we are amazing at sinning.

BUT

God chooses to love us. He made us, and loves us and has a plan for us, despite our total and deliberate rejection of him.

Not because he finds something about us ugly, yet interesting, nor because he can see our amazingly disappointing potential.

It's about Gods commitment.

He has committed himself to his creation.

And he can fix it. With blood, wrath and tears.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus can wash away every stain of guilt. It makes a total failure shine with purity. Even murderers, paedophiles, drug addicts, suburban pharisees and even churchgoers, as well as drunkards and thieves, adulterers and liars. Not to mention politicians and doctors.

If we belong to God, it's not because we've done something to earn it.

Not because we have dedicated our filthy lives to him.

But because he wants to own us. He desires it. He makes us hunger and then he feeds us. He makes us thirst for righteousness, then he opens our hearts and minds and lives to the cross.

We have nothing to offer him.

And after coming into life changing faith, and devoting our lives to serving Jesus, carrying our cross, and foregoing the way of the world, we have twice as little to offer him.

We really have nothing to offer God.

It's not about "now"

Christian faith, following Jesus, can get bogged down in day to day issues;
Improving the music at church, growing the congregation, finding the next minister, turning up on Sunday's, pleasing the congregation, making our church relevant and up to date with our society,  publishing something, being successful.

Yes, it's part of western church culture.

But trusting Jesus is much more about the future, and by that I mean eternity.

I think one problem we have today, and this certainly includes me, is that we are busy making heaven of our own environments. Eternity is not in our minds.

We want a great home, a great garden, a nice car , a good income, good health, a pretty wife, a good body, great holidays, great weather, the latest technology, some degree of fame, and as few problems as possible.

The list can go on of course.

Maybe never before in history, has there been the general understanding that this is not only possible but also reasonable.

And society accepts and encourages this expectation. Church culture may also support this.

As a result, heaven and hell are not big on our agendas. Heaven is unnecessary as we achieve heaven through our daily lives. Hell is irrelevant as long as we can keep living, and our health holds out.

But it's not like this everywhere, and it wasn't like this in the past.

Many early Christians were martyred for their faith. Today, Christians are also martyred.

It's a difficult word.

Suffering.

Jesus knew where he was going. His life reflected that attitude.

And he said he was going to prepare a place for us too.

It's hard to imagine something better than suburban bliss?

It's what we see on TV, on the big screen.

But it's a bit like Jonah's vine.

God provides a worm and its gone.

Apart from greed, corruption, crime, taxes, violent weather, cancer, inflation, unemployment and other issues that interfere with our nest building, there is always God himself making sure that we are not so comfortable as to forget that this world is passing, deteriorating, groaning.

It is going to drastically change.

That is what Christians believe.

And we believe it is going to be soon.

"Soon" is ambiguous, imprecise.

The point is not exactly how long it will be but rather that the coming events are worth prioritizing for, i.e. being ready.

When a wedding is "soon" then we have to prioritize certain actions such as replying to the invitation, preparing a gift, and having the right clothes to wear.

"Soon" means we need to be prepared to meet Jesus.

He is coming.

And it's a wedding!

Not for me?

People are fearful of church.

As Christians we forget that the overwhelming sense of gratitude, love and forgiveness we enjoy and take part in when we gather on a Sunday outweighs any sense of moral obligation, or moral limitation, or moral judgement.

But to an outsider, the unspoken yet assumed moral standards can feel judgmental, old fashioned, maybe even repulsive, no matter how great the music is, or how nice the people are. "The rafters would fall on me!".

Sunday school for young children might be acceptable, but the Ten Commandments for adults, in combination with weird, unnatural Jesus language and happy-clappy smiley faces can be simply uncomfortable and off putting.

Thinking back to my own experience when I was un-churched, firstly you are confronted by your own lack of "Christianity", then you remember how normal and acceptable your own non-hypocritical, non-judgmental, non-church-going-but-still-believing and praying-when-it-counts type of life is, and that you don't want to pretend you are in love with Jesus when you're not, or impose your beliefs on somebody else, after all it's private isn't it?, and lastly, you are reminded of all your bad childhood experiences of church and "religious" people and how you prefer to do other things on a Sunday, so why give up precious rest time for something you don't really fully agree with?
So until a crisis of conscience comes, church is really for those who "need a crutch".

But for those of us who have had a crisis of conscience, who have seen something of the ugliness of sin (evil stuff) manifesting itself in our lives, and have had a deep desire to be made whole, knowing that there has to be a way to be free from the weight of guilt we feel as we remember the ways we have failed, time and again, (failed to love, failed to not be selfish, failed to control our lusts, failed to control anger and violent behaviour), sometimes we feel our sin when we see an example of love, self control, self giving, in someone else, in contrast to our own behaviour. Suddenly we realize how much we lack, how inhuman we have become, and we are awestruck by the beauty of someone else's example of holiness.

In that moment God is whispering to us, "This is how you were meant to be, come to me and I will fix you up. Come and be my servant. "

And as we turn, Our Father guides us, the Holy Spirit guides us, Jesus guides us. He guides us to relationships with people who help us come into that amazing forgiveness and new life.

Church then becomes our meeting place where the overwhelming sense of gratitude, love and forgiveness we enjoy and take part in outweighs any sense of moral obligation, or moral limitation, or moral judgement.

Who touched me?

Mark 5:25-34 The woman who was healed when she touched Jesus robe.

There are so many thoughts that well up as I consider this message.

Firstly, how did this woman know she would be healed by touching Jesus' robe?

Most of the miraculous healings in the gospels took place with some form of interaction between Jesus and the sufferer.

Yet this lady seemed to have no opportunity to approach Jesus due to the great crowd. Like Zaccheus, she had to think of something on the run.

Zaccheus decided he would climb a tree.

This lady decided she would touch Jesus' robe.


Faith directed her mind.

What is this faith?

It is a special part of a human being.

We all have some faith in something(s).

No matter how talented we are, faith is needed to express or exercise that gift.

At some point we take the plunge.
To some it seems obvious, to others risky, but either way, a chance is taken, based not on scientific reason, logic or proof, only trust, or maybe a hunch. This faith is also coupled with hope. It must overcome fear and self-doubt. This implies that courage and faith are connected.

Trust may be placed in something someone else has told us, or something we understand inside our hearts.

That trust can be broken or disappointed. But true trust in Jesus never disappoints.

This lady, somewhere inside herself, in the face of realizing she would not be able to present herself to Jesus in the expected manner for someone seeking help, somewhere deep inside, she was inspired. "Just touch him. If you can just touch him you will be healed".

Was this the Holy Spirit inspiring her. Was it God the Father, Was it simply the awesome presence of Jesus himself ?
It was all of these things, and it was none.
It was in fact, her faith, which we understand is a gift from God, but a mysterious and powerful gift that is only present in it's exercise.

And so this woman somehow squeezed through the crowd, reached as far as she could, and at just the right moment, the tips of her fingers brushed the edge of his robe. Nothing very significant. Just a tiny act of faith. Unlikely to be felt by Jesus. But immediately she knew and felt in her body that she was fully healed. All the money, all the effort, all the faith she had place in her previous efforts to receive healing by more accepted ways had failed, but this little act of faith, which cost nothing but  the effort required to reach through a crowd, had achieved everything she had ever hoped or dreamed.

How interesting it is that Jesus felt power go out of him.

I used to read this in my "superhero mind-set", thinking Jesus had a certain amount of energy which could be sapped out of him leaving him weakened. A bit like "kryptonite".
But that is me reading Hollywood into the scriptures.

Is it not possible for Jesus to feel power go out of him yet still be full of power?

It is clear that Jesus not only "speaks healing" but imparts something of himself to those he heals. Something more than words leave his body. Something that can be transmitted through touch. Yet Jesus can heal without physically touching, as he did with the centurion's servant.

But Jesus always knows when he has healed, even if he doesn't always know who he has healed, not immediately anyway.

In the crowd he could not pick out the woman, or so it seems.

Maybe he did know. Maybe it was important for the woman to publicly acknowledge her healing.

Maybe, if she had slipped away anonymously, she would have always felt uneasy about her healing, as though she had received it illegally, without the true favour of Jesus, the Messiah.

In that moment when the woman realized she was found out, what were her thoughts?

Was she now to lose her healing?
Was she to be publicly humiliated for her impetuous action?

She fell on her knees trembling with fear. She humbly confessed her action prompted by faith; faith in Jesus.

Instead of rebuking, Jesus reassures and comforts her.
He addresses her as "daughter"( Implying "daughter of Abraham", "daughter of faith", "daughter of God")
And he explains that her own faith actually healed her! Time and again we see Jesus explaining to the healed sufferer, that it is their faith, not Jesus alone, that has healed them, or maybe even not Jesus at all?

He cheerfully dismisses her with his blessing. She is forever reassured about her own faith and the love of Jesus.