Blessed Are You Who Have Not Seen

In John 20.29, Jesus says, 'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed'. Seeing Jesus would be a wonderful experience but it's given only to a relative few in number.

Peter also says to his readers, 'whom having not seen, you love' (1 Pet 1.8). Why are we promised blessing but don't share in the blessing of seeing the Lord?

One preacher I've just heard declaiming on Rom 10.8-21 says a fascinating and helpful thing about the Christian faith. He says that most faiths (the notable exceptions being the Abrahamic faiths) require the use of a god in tangible form for worshippers to see something. The Abrahamic faiths, particularly Christianity emphasise the fact that God speaks with the corresponding theme that we are invited and commanded to listen.

Some years ago, Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) wrote He is There and He is not Silent (1972). Apart from all of Schaeffer's other achievements, the emphasis he makes upon the speaking God is important.

And it's important because it presumes that the most singular part of our faith is the ability to hear what God is saying to us both individually and corporately.

The preacher talked also about the four soils in Jesus' parable about the Sower (Matt 13.3-23): the pathway areas, the rocky ground, the thorny ground, and the good soil. The parable is more about the four places that the soil lands than the Sower or the seed as such. In the first case, the 'heart' of the listener to the Word 'does not understand it' and it is snatched away 'by the wicked one'; in the second, the heart first receives it 'with joy' but when the inevitable trials and tribulations come his lack of a 'root in himself' means that 'he stumbles'. In the third heart, the thorns are the 'cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches' which choke the Word and the person 'is not fruitful'.

But the heart the receives the Word on good ground are those who receive it, understand it and are fruitful.

Accepting the Invitation Matt 22.1-10

I'm often struck by the avoidance of the unpopular and awkward in bible texts by preachers and speakers. I'm sure I do it too! Recently i heard presentations on this passage above and noted how the acceptance and non-acceptance of the invitation was lost sight of and the text got turned into a social gospel apologia! 'Do good works and you will get into the feast'!!

Of course, the background is Jesus' struggle with the chief priests and the Pharisees (21.45f) who perceived that Jesus' parables were about them but who couldn't arrest him because they feared the people. They are the ones who are initially invited to the marriage feast of the King's son. The point is, they refuse to come showing their disdain of the king by even killing his servants. And the king angrily destroys both them and their city.

Since those who were originally invited refuse to come, the king invites all, both good and bad, as many as can be found. and of course, they respond to the invitation and come and fill the wedding place. To be there at the wedding begins with the king's (God's) invitation and follows with our acceptance. We don't just fall into the kingdom, we respond to the Lord God who is always drawing us in mercy to come.

The landowner and the labourers

I was at church today unexpectedly. No priest to consecrate the elements so we used the reserved sacrament. No priest to deliver the sermon so a Warden gave the sermon. The landowner and the labourers. It never ceases to amaze what God can bring out of His word when we least expect it. Whenever I had reflected on this parable on earlier occasions I had always focussed I think on the payment of the workers, or more especially, the 'unfairness' of the workers who had worked all day. But, the most wonderful word that occurs in this passage is 'generous'. God is a generous God and treats all of us generously. Not because of the level of our work or because of our status but because it is his nature to be generous with us..