Exodus 1 - jottings in place of sermon headings

(9 finely crafted and memorable headings which any homoletics class would be proud of, as ever. I would have been interested to talk about whether or not the midwives lied and, if so, were they were right to do so, but I have decided it may not be the most pressing issue for people).

God had been blessing his people and keeping his promises (vv5 & 7)

God’s people sometimes face terrible suffering -

trusting Jesus isn’t a magic insurance policy guaranteeing an easy life.

Suffering isn’t a sign that we’ve necessarily "done something wrong" or somehow "stepped outside God's will".

God's purposes are unstoppable

Pharaoh might think he’s in charge, but God is really in control.

 

The Hebrew midwives are right (v17) to fear God more than they fear Pharaoh.

 

These midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, are a great encouragement to us that God can wonderfully use ordinary people who put him first.

It’s possible to know God’s blessing even in the midst of suffering (vv20-21)

God will eventually deliver his people from suffering. 

Trinity

Today is, of course, Trinity Sunday. 

I realise that the very mention of the Trinity might be a total turn-off to some people. Perhaps we expect incomprehensible metaphysical speculation and we can’t see the cash-value of this seemingly esoteric doctrine. Too often Christians have treated the Trinity a bit like a mathematical problem or a theological riddle for those who like that sort of thing.  

It’s certainly true that the Trinity involves mystery. But if we think about it, that makes sense. We would expect God, if he is worthy of the name, to be beyond our understanding. An entirely comprehensible God, measured according to our sometimes meagre mental capacity, would hardly be worth believing in.

The Christian claim is that God has revealed himself clearly, though, of course, not exhaustively. We can genuinely know God, even though there is always more of him to know.

And God has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Indeed revelation is Trinity-shaped: God the Father sends the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. As theologians have put it, the Triune God has revealed himself as one God in three persons. God is the loving fellowship of Father, Son and Spirit – that is who he really is deep down, that’s his essence, his being, his very life.  

One way of grasping the importance of that is to consider the alternatives and their implications. For now, compare the Trinue God with a single monadic solitary deity – the kind of god a philosopher might imagine.

The Bible tells us that “God is love” but it’s hard to see what this would mean for the solitary god. Whom did he love before the world existed? Did he create the universe so as to have someone to love? Was this lonely god lacking? In contrast, the Trinitarian God is the loving embrace of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. His love overflowed in the creation of the world. He creates out of his abundance and fullness, rather than so as to have someone to whom to talk.

The solitary god might be The Ruler or even Right, but it is hard to imagine him as Father. Such a god may have wanted to create slaves but it is the God of the Bible for whom it is natural to create children to enjoy fellowship with him, since this reflects the eternal relationship between Father and Son. The Christian gospel is an invitation to join this family.

Because we are made in the image of this Triune God, it is no surprise that loving relationships are so important to us. We were made for loving fellowship with God and with one another.

The Trinitarian relations give us a pattern for our relationships. They show us equality with difference since the persons of the Godhead are equal but different. The Trinity points the way for unity without uniformity, for happy diversity and for self-less, self-giving love.

This is an inexhaustible subject, of course, but I hope we can begin to see that the Triune God might be good news. The Trinity should be a practical doctrine we can delight in.

For more on the Trinity, you might try Mike Reeves’ relatively slim book (112 pages), The Good God: Enjoying Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Paternoster, 2012)

Some Reflections on our Passion For Life Events Week Mission with students from Oak Hill College

I might have more to say by the end of the week / after all the reports are in and Christianity Explored has finished but here are some initial thoughts so far:

(1) leafleting the entire parish and putting up many posters seems to have produced no one whatsoever coming to an event. If that is the aim, as I guess it was, the many person hours and the expense put into this were utterly wasted. I have stressed many times the crucial importance of personal invitations but I have been really struck by the utter uselessness of these traditional forms of advertising. Facebook has proved to be of some use.

(2) Small events can be good. If the hall doesn't cost too much and isn't too vast and a certain number of customers are not needed for an event to work it is quite easy and risk free to put on a good, useful, enjoyable event. 4 teams of 6 are enough for a quiz night, for example. 20 people can get together to watch a film and discuss it. 10 people could come to a grill a Christian / Any Questions evening. Events which could cope with an unknown number between 10 and 100 where pre=booking is not essential are valuable.

(3) There is value in an outside team for freshness, interest, maybe youth, energy, conviction. Our team have been brilliantly charming, helpful, can-do and encouraging. They have been flexible and laid back without being careless or casual and confident without being brash. People have enjoyed just chatting to them and significant conversations have taken place. It has been really good to have them staying in different places and eating with different people even if it has presented some logistical challenges. 

(4) A mission can really benefit regular church members.

(5) There are things (perhaps like some of the above) one can learn by having a go at stuff.

(6) Perhaps even your most keen people are unlikely to come to everything as some people might in say a student mission but some people may come back more than once. A concentrated series of events can have a certain sort of momentum though numbers might be higher if events are well spaced out.

(7) Sunshine helps morale and makes life so much easier for kids work

(8) A holiday club can be quite relaxed and informal in parts. The helpers need not pre-prepare much. Sporty games can work well. Music on a CD or laptop can be fine. A double act upfront can be fun.

(9) People enjoy going up the church tower and that isn't hard to organise. Paper planes and teddy bear parachutes can work.

(10) Screwing down some of the admin to the Nth degree is worthwhile - e.g. hosts need numbers and timings of meals confirmed in advance. Last minute changes of plan are not great.