The Golden Calf (Ex 32) - An Outline / Handout for a sermon

God willing, in the AM it might go something like this:

Exodus 32:1-14 & 1 CorINTHIANS 10:1-13 - The “FALL” OF ISRAEL

Primitive, irrelevant, stuff of The 10 Commandments film etc.?

A much needed and relevant warning for us – 1 Cor 10:6-8, 11-12

I. A reminder of some key characters and some observations from the story:

(1) The people and their rapid rebellion (v1) cf. Ex 24 etc.

Insecurity? Desire for a physical presence? Impatience.

(2) Aaron and his feeble, compromised leadership (vv2-6, 21-24)

Though in many ways a great man, he gives in to ungodly pleasure

He wants to worship the LORD and the Golden Calf / worship via it

The Golden calf is an anti-Tabernacle – cf. the contribution (vv2-3)

Pray for the clergy and Bishops to give a strong godly lead!

(3) Moses and his effective prayer (vv11-14) cf. Abraham at Sodom

3 arguments:     (a) God’s people – save your own (v11)

(b) God’s name – defend your reputation (v12)

(b) God’s oath – keep your promises (v13)

II. Some key lessons for us today:

(1) The presence and power of sin can quickly overcome us (v8)

Do not presume we could never mess up. Watch out! – 1 Cor 10:12

(2) The seriousness of sin and the holy wrath of the judgement of God (vv7-10)

We dare not mess about with idolatry etc. It brings the wrath of God. Romans 1:18-24. We must stick with Jesus and the Bible and cry out to God the deliver us. Idols can be mental as well as metal: “I like the think that God…”, “The God I believe in…”

(3) The necessity of an Intercessor / Mediator. Moses points to Jesus, the New and Better Moses, the perfect and willing substitute who died so that we might not be wiped out (v32).

Cf. Ezekiel 22:30; 31; Paul in Romans 9:1-4; Hebrews 3:1-6

Trust in Jesus and his intercession, mediation and sacrifice.

Follow Jesus’ perfect leadership.

(Sermon headings adapted from a sermon by The Revd Jonathan Fletcher available at http://www.emmanuelwimbledon.org.uk/Media/AllMedia.aspx - search Exodus 32)

Too busy to think any more about this just at the moment but I wanted to note The Revd Dr Lee Gattis' comment on Facebook:

Wyclif begins Book 4 of his Trialogus with a discussion about whether preaching ("verbal food") is a sacrament.
When it comes to sacraments though, he says, "I am poorly equipped, since I know that much said in this subject has only the weakest foundations."
 

which Dr Ros Clarke, Online Pastor, kindly highlighted to me.

Do they get a footnote in the PhD if it ever gets submitted?

Camp Leaders' Talks

The subject matter is at least in part determined by what I have on file since there is not really time to prepare 7 or 8 new talks just for camp. This year I am thinking of doing Ecclesiastes.


In recent years we have done:
 

2014: Ephesians 1-6

2013: Mark 8-end

2012: Mark 1-7

2011: John 10-end

2010: John 1-9

2009: The 10 Commandments

The Bible...

... is a wierd and wonderful book. It is not mainly made up of blessed thoughts of inspirational encouragement. Nor is it full of 7 point practical How To guides.

And this is no mistake.

It is mainly a story and often a symbolic story.

It requires our time, reflection and prayer. We need to know it really well so that we can see how this bit is both like and unlike that bit and what difference it makes.

The Bible, then, is slow roast lamb with all the trimmings. It is strong drink. In the end, we will find this more nourishing than the ready-meal and a can of diet Coke which are on offer at our local Christian bookshop.

(P.S. This post is not primarily an attack on our local Christian bookshop, wherever that is)

Happy: How, When, Why?

(This could be November's parish magazine item, I think. It was provoked by this notice of a book http://hadleyrectory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/god-and-art-of-happiness.html and some silliness on Facebook)

Our society is obsessed with happiness. Facebook is covered in exhortations to be good to oneself and take responsibility for one’s own happiness. Some of us might have said to or about our kids: “As long as you are happy…”

Whether we like it or not, human beings seem to pursue happiness. We do stuff because we want to – because we think it will make us happy. Some of us do that more effectively (or wisely) than others. Some of us actually enjoy a bit of grit or melancholy. There can be a delicious poignancy to a small amount of misery, as our desire to sometimes watch a weepy film shows. The question is not whether to seek happiness but how.

Some people seek happiness in obviously wicked ways. If you can bear it, think for a moment of the child abuser, for example. No doubt the dysfunction is complicated, and more often than not follows on from prior abuse, but seeking some kind of thrill or satisfaction (a species of happiness) is presumably part of it.

If how we seek our happiness is one issue, when we seek it is another. Delayed gratification is a key to happiness. Patience can lead to greater happiness in the long run. And some even believe it is better to travel in hope than to arrive. There can certainly be some pleasure to be had from anticipation. In fact, the idea of that Michelin starred dinner can sometimes be tastier than the reality – or so I’m told, anyway.  

Christians have had something of a conflicted relationship with happiness. Puritanism, for example, has been rather unfairly described as the suspicion that someone somewhere might be enjoying themselves! Some Christians have spoken of joy (good happiness) rather than happiness (bad happiness).

Certainly there is such a thing as duty and sometimes we should do things whether we want to or not. But no one really wants the giver of a bunch of flowers to have gritted teeth. Ideally we should do our duty happily! We should want to do what is right. The magic sweet spot is where duty and delight combine – and the Bible says they not only should but can. God can begin to transform our hearts so that increasingly we love him and want to please him.

According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, that most serious of documents, the chief end of humanity is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever. That is meant to be one thing, not two. Glorify God by enjoying him. Delight yourself in the Lord. At his right hand are pleasures forever more. He is the blessed, Happy God, who wants to share his happiness. He overflows with joy. As John Piper, a contemporary American Baptist preacher has put it: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” He wants us to be happy, but rightly so.

So, to recap: granted that we all seek happiness, what does Christianity say about the how and when of it? How: in the love and smile of your heavenly Father. May the joy of the Lord be your strength. When: in part, really now, and increasingly, whatever our outward circumstances, but fully and finally in the glory that is yet to come for all who trust in Christ. There is more. This is not all there is. “Fading is the wordling’s pleasure, all its boasting pomp and show. Solid joys and lasting treasures none but Zion’s children know”. And the Christian can say why too. For the glory of God, which is not unbridled egotism on his part, but what he deserves. The glory of God is not only our duty but our delight, our highest good. Our happiness, it turns out, is not only desirable but properly considered it is an ethical imperative. Rejoice in the Lord always is a command. Like all God’s other commands, it’s not one that we are always very good at keeping. But we ought to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and this too will be added to us. Ironically, if we pursue happiness we are likely to find that it is always beyond our grasp. But if we go after God, we might very well find that happiness creeps up on us unawares.  

Unclean!

It is well known that the Old Testament has a whole system of clean and unclean, and holy and normal things.

Now, a moment's reflection shows that it is absurd to think that a table or a pair of tongs, say, could be really spiritually unclean. Physically unclean, sure. That it sorted out with hot soapy water and antibacterial spray. But spiritually unclean? Surely not.

The clean / unclean system is clearly symbolic.

And it seems most likely that it is related to the only things in the world that can be really spiritually unclean: sinful human beings.

This is obviously true in the case of the sacrifices. The sacrificial animal represents and takes the place of human beings.

Or think of the concept of unclean and holy ground. Why is the ground unclean? Because in Genesis God curses it because of human sin. The ground cries out against people for vengance from God. That is why people wear shoes: they don't want the unclean ground on them. It is why Moses takes off his shoes at Sinai when he is on holy ground. It is why the priests don't need shoes in the holy ground of the temple. It is why animals without shoes (with the wrong kind of feet) are unclean.

Simple, eh?

(I owe this stuff to The Revd Dr James Jordan's Lectures on Exodus)

A literary tabernacle

We don't have a physical tabernacle here on earth today. God hasn't given us one. Neither has he given us a model of one, nor a photo, nor a picture, nor a diagram, nor a video, nor an interactive online experience, nor a holo-deck.

Now, you will say, "Rector, some of that stuff hadn't been invented when Exodus was writ." I know that, but God is Almighty God, so that wouldn't stop him, would it?

What God has given us is a literary tabernacle. A detailed description. But a selective one. There's all sorts of interesting and amazing stuff. But it's not a schematic drawing nor a blueprint. You could probably build something based on the Biblical description, but many assumptions and a lot of guesswork would be required. That's because God doesn't want you to build a tabernacle. But he does want you to reflect on what he has said about it, including the details. And I reckon you and the church have some way to go on this.

Is this the most urgent and important part of the Bible? The clearest? The great need of the moment? Well, maybe not. But it clearly matters to God so it matters. He has preserved this lengthy material for his church to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. You need not spend the next 3 years entirely devoted to tabernacle studies, but the church ought to get to it in due course. It would benefit us in ways we do not yet fully grasp if we did.

(I owe the idea of a literary tabernacle to The Revd Dr James Jordan's lectures on Exodus)

Carol Service Sermon: A Biblical Nativity Scene (introduction)

Do you have a nativity scene at home?

Or perhaps you've seen one when you're out and about?

Or on a Christmas card?

Who and what is in it?

What ought to be in it?

Whose been smuggled in who doesn't belong there?

And whose been missed out?

Today I want us to think about Herod's soldiers. They weren't there at Jesus' birth, but then neither were the Wise Men and they're often in the nativity scene. In fact, the soldiers only arrived later, perhaps up to 2 years after Jesus was born. And by the time they got there, the Holy Family had already sarpered. But wicked king Herod and his hired thugs are the essential background to this story. And they'll appear in it again. Oh, it'll be a different Herod and different soldiers, no doubt, but they're going to be at the heart of the climax of this story. Pilate the Roman Governor will be behind them and the Emperor behind them.

And what is the sound that echoes around the empty stable? It is weeping. Inconsolable weeping. Unending broken sobs.

That is the nativity scene.

(I owe the idea of Herod's soldiers at the nativity scene to Douglas Wilson's Rule for Reformers, though he adds that it's something he's fond of saying!)

Camber Sands Thoughts

Durring the decade I have lived in Sussex, I have been seriously over-estimating the difficulty of getting to a lovely sandy beach.

But it is a warning of over-breeziness if someone has seen fit to install a series of wind turbines at your beach of choice. Tents and windbreakers were called for even on a sunny temperate day.

Nevertheless, no day on which you have flown a kite has been entirely wasted.

Some shells are blingier than others but many are prettier on the inside than on the outside. There's a usable sermon illustration or at least a primary school assembly.

Goliath = Satan

We all know that David is a type of Christ. Which makes Goliath...

And unlike David he is covered in scales of armour. He is a snake.

David / Christ wounds Satan / Goliath in the head, just as Genesis 3 leads us to expect.

(HT Douglas Wilson in Rules for Reformers)

Frozen III, or More on stories: epic, tragedy, comedy

(Possible parish magazine item for October 2015)

I am either stuck in a rut or on a roll with these articles – I’ll let you decide. Two months ago, as I have done before, I wrote about stories and how the story of the Disney film, Frozen, reflects the story of our world and how God means to save it. I argued then that there is only one real story – God’s. All other stories reflect that story, or revolt against it. Our storytelling is part of the story God is telling and we’d do well to get with the programme!

Last month I tackled this a little more philosophically. In particular, I took on Postmodernism, which can be characterised as a rejection of over-arching narratives. To insist on my story or God’s story can seem to some like a sinister power play. Truth claims are a means of control. There are lots of stories – your truth and mine, and they may be mutually incompatible. Who is to say What Is Truth? I dared to suggest that all our stories have some “given-ness”. Jesus, I believe, is the Truth.

This month I want to say something a little more about the stories we tell. I argued previously that all stories go something like: Creation, Fall, Redemption. In other words, we set the scene, something goes wrong, it gets sorted out (and probably made even better) and we all live happily ever after. That is the basic story arc and the arc of the universe: life, death, resurrection life – good, bad, better. But if we think about it in a little more detail, we know that it is not always so. Sometimes the author disappoints or infuriates or surprises us, or something, by killing off the hero on the last page and leaving it all a mess. That’s still a comment on the classic story, I’d argue, but admittedly it’s a bit different.

I want this month to comment on three types of stories as identified by The Revd Dr Michael Jensen (an Australian pastor and theologian who had the good sense to come to Oxford for his doctoral studies). Below I plagiarise a lecture, ‘The Human Story’, he gave on 10^th August in Oz:

First, there is the Epic. Epics are all about human mortality and the hunger for immortality. These stories are a super-human quest for greatness. They tell us about heroism and significance, but often that the prize is not fully within our grasp. It gets complicated when, to some, John Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost can begin to seem like the real hero of the work. Is there really meaning and greatness and immortality? Will the true Hero please stand up! No prizes for guessing who I think He is. For that we’d need to turn to Paradise Regained.

Second, there is the Tragedy. This is the kind of story where everyone ends up dead. King Lear stupidly puts his wicked daughters in charge and lives (for a while) to regret it. He can’t see who the good and true hearted characters are and he therefore rejects those who might have rescued him before it was too late. It’s madness and confusion. “Tragedy tells us that paradoxically we are the agents and the victims of our own condition”. Here is another profound comment on the fallen, sinful human state. We did this to ourselves but we cannot help ourselves. Who will save us from this body of death?

And third, the Comedy. As anyone who has studied Shakespeare knows, Comedies in this technical sense don’t necessarily concern gags – or at least not good ones, we might say. These are the Rom-Coms of the literary world. Typically they end in a wedding, as the Bible does. The prince kills the dragon and gets the girl and they all like happily ever after. We know this is not quite our world as we see it, but it reminds us that we long to live in a moral universe where the good triumphs and the baddies get their comeuppance.   

Again, we might say that the Bible is an epic tragi-comedy. But in the end comedy wins. Silly old Man is mortal and only immortal because of the hero, Jesus – only in him is there true meaning and a happily ever after. The tragedy of death gives way to the comedy of resurrection and the feast which celebrates it. Jesus fulfilled his epic quest. Love won. Death died. Winter is over. Summer has come – and welcome! He bids you to come, share his meat, toast his victory, sit and eat. Will you come?

Single issue politics

Just imagine for a moment that you believed that the unborn child is a person with rights. If there were one political candidate or party who promised to end abortion except where there is a real risk to the life of the mother, and that person or party stood a realistic chance of election, would that single issue not trump virtually any other today? Even if you violently disagreed with almost every other policy the person or party espoused, that single act could save around 185,122 lives a year in England and Wales.

Is our country full?

In one sense, obviously not. I live in the countryside and I can tell you there are is lots of it. I would welcome some more people in my churches and at our local schools.

But there are issues. I would be less keen to have nearer neighbours or have the view from the Rectory affected.

Some of our roads, hospitals, prisons and schools are far too full. There are issues of integration. People who come to our church or school would need to learn English pretty quickly and whilst we would be enriched by them and would want to change in various ways, we have a good idea of the culture and values which we want and to which everyone (new-comers and oldies included) needs to conform.

But on the whole it is likely that immigrants will contribute to our nation ecconomically. Now, we need to make sure our system serves work not unfounded welfare, but the thing about immigrants is that they had the get up and go to get up and come. It is a compliment (in both senses) that they should want to come here. It is unlikely that they will want to settle down on a friend's sofa forever once they get here. But they need to be allowed to work legally so that they have an investment in our society and pay taxes. They may "take [some of] our jobs" but that will create more jobs. There is not a finite ammount of pie and immigrants who "take our jobs" will want us to make and serve them with more and bigger pies. Eveyone will get fatter.

One God, One Church

On the Lord's Day the Rector Emeritus kindly preached for me on Ephesians 4. I would be away on holiday if our car did not have a sudden and probably terminal illness.

I was struck more forcefully than I remember by the connection between God and his church. Since God is one (and many!) so is the church. The unity of the church is complete and indestructable at one level. Our many churches, whilst they are a painful scandal proclaiming false gods, cannot touch the essential unity of the people of God and the work of redemption, for the praise of the Father's glory, in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Expressive Individualism or Frozen II

(My parish magazine item for September)

Last month in these pages I said something about the Disney film, Frozen. This month I want to try to have at some similar ideas in a more general or abstract way – analytically or philosophically, we might say, if we were feeling pretentious! Sorry if it feels as if I’ve swallowed a dictionary. Please do feel free to go and do something else instead!

As with last time, I owe some of these ideas to a short talk given in the UK by New York pastor and author, The Revd Dr Timothy Keller, and he no doubt got them from someone else.

The stories that we tell, Frozen included, represent a kind of worldview, that is, a way of describing and understanding reality and seeking to make sense of life. Indeed, the best stories suggest a way to live.

One dominant worldview today is called Postmodernism. That worldview is a distrust of worldviews, a questioning of the confident scientific pronouncements of Modernism, for example. Or to put it differently, it is a turn away from metanarratives or big stories. There is not The Truth perhaps handed down from heaven or from the University, but many truths, your truth and mine. We have to find our own truths, Man.

Allied to this is the Frozen worldview which could be labelled “Expressive Individualism”. This is one of the main stories that we tell ourselves in the 21^st Century West. The quest here is to find out who you really are and to be yourself, express yourself. You will only be happy, you will only be “good” and fulfilled, we are told, if you live authentically. Look within. We might sometimes say to the kids, “You can be whoever you want to be, do whatever you really want to do.” Is that true?

This raises all sorts of questions about the self. Do we decide who to be or do we discover who we are? Can we change? Should we want to be someone else?

We tend to trumpet freedom and even personal autonomy, but to what extent do these things really exist? How much are we determined by our genes, our upbringing, our society, our breakfast? What is freedom anyway? To some extent our relationships make us. I am who I am as a person in community.

One of the basic clashes between theistic world views such as Christianity and atheism is around “given-ness”. Everyone accepts, or ought to, that there are some givens. We are embodied, temporal “creatures” whether we like it or not. Sparing rapid advances in technology, we are all going to die. But what status do we give to these givens? Does “is” lead to “ought”? As the atheist might say, do we just make the best of it, as best we can, in this meaningless universe, or is the given reality (at least to some extent) good? Should we try to live according to the grain of the universe or be damned to it and do what we like?

 When we reflect further on this question of given-ness it has profound implications. For example, is my life mine to do with as I please, or do I belong to God? For the Christian, that one question shows that suicide is never right. Or take the issues around sexuality. To what extent is our sexual life given or self-determined? And however I might have been born, what status might those desires have? Should I seek to fulfil all the desires I have, or can some desires be disordered? Are there any God-given standards to which I ought to conform?

Big questions. It won’t surprise you to hear that the Rector thinks the Christian faith has convincing answers to them. Not that mystery and struggle don’t remain, but that we can really know something of who we are and why we are here and where we are going in Jesus Christ, the True Human Being who entered our story and redeemed it. He is The Way, The Truth and The Life. We find our true and proper self in him and we seek to express his inestimable praise. That is real human flourishing. That is the true story.

Missing the main thing

An important reminder from 19th C fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, William Mandell as quoted on The Proclaimer blog:

it is evident, that unless from the Scriptures we attain a practical acquaintance with Jesus Christ, as the Saviour of sinners, unless, in this respect, we find Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, however, correct or extensive may be our information as to matters of a merely critical, historical, chronological or geographical nature, we do in fact, overlook the great end of their promulgation, we lamentably fail to derive from them that most important instruction which principally they were intended to convey.

Exodus 23:20-33

has a very obvious structure:

God says to Israel:

(1) I am sending my angel ahead of you (v20)

(2) I will send my terror (v27) / the hornet (v28) ahead of you