PRACTICALLY SPIRITUAL

In the gruesome movie series, The Godfather, there is a remarkable moment of redemption that I find deeply moving. Michael Corleone, the Godfather of the Mafia, has journeyed to the Vatican to settle a financial dispute with them. He is a man who is suppressing a lot of guilt and his tired, worn-out, failing body, betrays this fact. He tells the Cardinal Lamberto that a corrupt Archbishop has defrauded him. The Cardinal picks up a pebble from a fountain and says, “Look at this stone. It has been lying in the water for a very long time. But the water has not penetrated the stone.” The Cardinal then cracks the pebble. “Look!” he invites Michael Corleone, “Perfectly dry! The same thing has happened to men in Europe! For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity. But,” continues the Cardinal looking up to the sky, “Christ has not penetrated – Christ doesn’t live within them.” And for Michael Corleone, who has been carrying the guilt of a life of murdering innocent men, including his own brother, it’s all too much. But Cardinal Lamberto points out to the Mafia boss that there is no sin which Christ has not borne to lift the burden of guilt and shame from off the shoulders of weary sinners. I am particularly reminded of this scene as I prepare to preach in Europe next week. 

“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.”
Exodus 31:2-5

If hardened criminals who spend most of their lifetimes suppressing their consciences can turn to Christ and find forgiveness, there is hope for us all. There will be some, though, who cling to the false notion that they cannot be “spiritual” because they are more concerned with practical matters. I think this confuses two important aspects of life. Firstly, even under the Old Covenant’s division of laity and priestly class, there were those whom God anointed with the Spirit of God to carry very practical things, such as art and metal-work (Exo. 31:2-5). We think of the great Apostle Paul who took pride in his leather-working and tent-making trade (Acts 18:3). I hardly think anyone would accuse the Apostle Paul of not being spiritual!

¶ And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the LORD.” And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.
Zechariah 14:20-21

The prophet Zechariah, in looking forward to the day when the New Covenant would become a reality, described as a day when even the common bells on horses would have “Holy to the LORD” inscribed on them, and every pot and pan in the city would similarly be regarded as an cause for worship of Lord. It’s a beautiful picture of how Christ has made a way for everyone who has surrendered their lives to Him can have immediate access into the holiness of God’s presence. This means that if you are a carpenter, your hammer and nail-gun are instruments of worship to God. If you a school teacher, your students are an occasion for your worship of God. If you are a retailer, your store displays, products, and cash registers, are all an occasion for you to worship and to enjoy God’s presence as you work. Being heavenly-minded does not have to mean that we are of no earthly good!

¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Colossians 3:1-2

There may be some who scoff at the possibility of anyone who has spent their entire life resisting Christ, finally surrendering to Him and experiencing the transforming joy that can only come from having sin, guilt and shame, washed away by the eternal sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. But, as I close, consider one of Australia’s most outspoken atheists who rose to the very top of political power in Australia. He attributes his atheism to being raised in home filled with domestic violence. But what he never told anyone, until a few weeks ago, was that he was having terrible doubts about his atheism. His biggest problem, as he tells it, was that met so many sincere believers in God whose lives demonstrated their conviction that the God of the Bible was present in their lives by the way they sacrificially cared for others. Eventually, it led Australia’s former Governor General, Mr Bill Hayden, to surrender to Christ, and was baptised in an Ipswich (Queensland) church the other week.

According to Mr Hayden, his conversion was largely provoked by how he saw the intersection of practical service and authentically deep spirituality. Let’s pray that more people will be similarly provoked.

Pastor Andrew Corbett

REPEATING PATTERNS AND BREAKING CHAINS

REPEATING PATTERNS

 Who do we blame? You might think that the opening sentences of this brief article are missing. After all, what’s gone wrong? What’s happened? Who’s involved? But those details are less important. First, we need someone to blame.

 Somehow, we have, as a society, confused blame with solution. Some politicians blame and win electors’ votes. Some media commentators blame and increase their ratings/subscriptions/followers. Some sports coaches blame and get their contracts renewed. It seems we blame because it works – if by works we mean that we don’t have to accept any blame. 

 The blaming lifestyle is relatively easy to detect. It always has a pattern. That pattern looks something like this:

Person A enters into Context A and a Type 1 Problem results.

Person A enters into Context B and a Type 1 Problem results.

Person A enters into Context C and a Type 1 Problem results.

Person A enters into Context D and a Type 1 Problem results.

  What reason does Person A think caused a problem in each of the different Contexts? Before I point out the cause of the problem resulting in each scenario, there is only one thing that is consistent in each of these scenarios – and it’s not the different Contexts!

 It can be an almost impossible task for a blamer to recognise such obvious patterns. This task becomes even more complicated when the various Contexts actually do share some small measure of blame for the recurring problem. But until a blamer recognises the repeating patterns in their life – and does the one thing that can break this cycle – they will, like Sisyphus, be doomed to repeat the very thing which causes their pain and frustration.

 What is this one thing that can break this cycle of pain and frustration? When our parental forebears, Eve and Adam, rebelled, God’s presence somehow exposed them as blamers. Adam now blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. And the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on. God ignored this blaming and took the responsibility for solving this catastrophe. Responsibility breaks the cycle of blaming which leads to pain and frustration.

 The most catastrophic problem we each face is the eternal guilt and shame resulting from our sinfulness and sin. A solution has been made available by Christ, The Burden-Bearer and Great Solution-Provider. The solution is offered freely to all but requires some responsibility from us: acknowledgment of our guilt, confession of our sin, an appeal to the Saviour. Our propensity to blame is so rooted in our natures’ that it takes initiating-responsibility from the Holy Spirit for its bondage to be broken so that we can exercise our responsibility to take this responsibility of being honest to God in order to receive His forgiveness and grace. This is not just a matter of our conversion event either. It is the ongoing means for us to be transformed from a hurt, pained, frustrated, blamer – into a healed, whole, fulfilled responsible spiritual adult.

CHRIST, THE CHAIN-BREAKER

 Some blamers go from church to church to church always being ‘hurt’. I hope that hundreds of these hurting and frustrated people will be drawn to our church and the pattern of their church experience will be broken as the Holy Spirit brings them to healing wholeness and fulfilment as they discover different strategies for dealing with difficult people and circumstances. Like any family, we will have times of disagreement and sharp reminders of our fallen-yet-redeemed human natures. But like any family which becomes stronger and closer by resolving such disagreements, we too can grow closer and stronger as we learn what the Gospel means when it commands God’s people to patiently bear with one another. This involves breaking those cyclic chains that come from blaming which causes us to run and once again repeat the very patterns which have led us to be hurt, pained, and frustrated.

Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
First Corinthians 14:20

 Hurt, pain, and frustration can become a very comfortable set of clothes. It has many benefits after all (sympathy, attention, support, and so on) but it has one glaring disadvantage: it keeps us in bondage and denies us the blessing of becoming mature. I hope that our church becomes a place where the chains of blame are broken from off the lives of those seemingly forever wandering like immature Israel in the wilderness and that these formerly hurting broken lost and lonely souls can find their way across the Jordan and enter into the Promised Land of God’s blessing (a Land of giants, battles, toil, and hard-work – by the way). I pray that those who have only ever known the milk of God’s Word will begin to enjoy its milk and honey and meat.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Hebrews 5:12-14

 Blame alone cannot provide solutions. It is my hope that we as a church will an agent of God’s solutions to people. By so doing we will fulfil our motto of helping to make life better.

Pastor Andrew

WILL WE EVER SEE REVIVAL AGAIN?

Uncontrollable weeping. Deep heeving. Intense prayer. Thorough conversion. These are just some of the traits of what church historians call: revival. Revivals throughout history are rare. But it seems that there is an observable ground-work that takes place before each revival. This ground-work includes - (i) intense, fervent prayer, (ii) confession of sin, and (iii) deep repentance.

When God visits a church, community or city with revival, there is an extraordinary sensitivity to God. Christians become deeply aware of God's presence. Those who are not Christians become aware of their need for God. Churches fill. Prayer meetings grow. Giving increases. Violence decreases. It was said of Robert Murray McCheyne's church in Dundee, Scotland that after months of intense preaching, evangelising and prayer, the congregation became overwhelmed with the presence of God to the point that people were seen spontaneously dropping to their knees and sobbing heavily with heads bowed and hands clasped in prayer. Many of these people were shaking uncontrollably as they cried out to God for forgiveness and cleansing. The result was that the tiny church grew to thousands and Robert Murray McCheyne was so overcome with the demands resulting from the revival that he died of exhaustion at the age of just 29.

But rather than his life being a waste, his intense ministry had an affect on Scotland that not only touched his generation, but generations to the present day. Winkie Pratney says that the reason revival is so rare is that too few Christians are prepared to pay the price it demands. But history says that for every generation and town that experienced it, the price was worth it.

Perhaps God may move upon us more intensely at Legana to pray for His presence and power. Perhaps we too may see sin for what it truly is and be driven to relentlessly seek holiness (sin's only remedy). Perhaps God may grace us with a generation who are more interested in pleasing God than finding pleasure.

Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Psalm 85:6

Andrew Corbett
Legana, Tasmania