Prop 8 and Rev 19

Wednesday was an historic day in America, as the Supreme Court ruled that the state of California could not discriminate against those who wanted a same sex marriage. The court majority ruled that the DOMA, signed into law by Clinton in September 1996, was unconstitutional because it was written to define marriage as between one man and one woman, and therefore discriminated morally against homosexuals.

It's worth pausing, just for a second, to reflect on how quickly the world changes. Not just the truism that what is taboo, illegal even, in the first generation will be celebrated in the third, but that as recently as 1996, a Democrat government (!) led by Clinton (!) could legislate against same sex marriage. These are extraordinary days we live in.

The Church, as i see it, has a number of options. We can throw out the Bible and jump into the hand basket, because that eerie glow in the distance must be the dawn of a new day. That's obviously exactly the wrong thing to do. Or we can shout and scream and mourn the death of the god of American civil government, and lament the fact that the founding fathers would be turning in their graves, which is also far from the best course of action. We can point out the elephant in the room, the logical fallacy of allowing a man who wants to marry another man equality, but not a man who wants to marry several women. Or indeed an elephant. And the time will come for that. Bad laws take two or three generations to wreak their havoc. You're relegated at the end of the season, not on transfer deadline day.

Or we can do the best thing, the sensible thing. We can wonder to ourselves, why do they nations rage, humming along with Jesus as He walked out of the tomb. We can remember that since the Fall, men's feet have rushed to shed blood. We can remember that the Bible promises us these days, and that God always keeps His promises.

Those aren't the only promises in the Bible though. God promises Adam a serpent crusher. He promises Abraham a country. He promises Moses rescue. He promises David a son. He promises Jeremiah return. He promises us that He'll never leave us. The root, the ground, and the goal of all these promises is found in Revelation 19:11-21. In these verses we find Jesus, not cowed by the Supreme Court, not silence by secularism, riding a white horse. Jesus' robes are dipped in the blood of His enemies, and His victory is sure. He comes, and throws the beast and the false prophet in the lake of fire, he destroys those who follow the unholy trinity. Soon He'll bind the devil too. He doesn't looked perturbed, he doesn't look weak, he doesn't look like a legend or a fairy tale. He looks terrifying. He is. And victory belongs to Him.

No matter what happens between then and now, we have to remember this. Not because we want to destruction of sinners, we long for their God glorifying salvation. That they would see, as Christians do, the irresistible loveliness of Jesus, and come to Him. We need to remember that all God's promises are, quite literally Yes in Jesus, because all too often the Church feels like an overlooked seventh son, headed towards a giant just five stones and a sling shot.

And we all know how that turned out.

Beholding Is Becoming

I joked the other week that the best thing a young preacher can do is get married, because married life opens up a plethora of new sermon illustrations. I was joking, of course, in some ways. You really should get married, to a woman who loves Jesus more than you, and doesn't complain when you construct the world's busiest calendar for the first half of 2013 but off all the wonders of married life, sermon illustrations come well down the list, but on they are on the list.

Last week, after a girls 'soccer' game (I coach our high school team) I came home, and the very first thing I did was put on a load of laundry. It was a tough game against a team we should have beaten easily, but only scraped by with a goal about thirty seconds from time, occasioning a 20 yard sprint and fist pump display from yours truly. I needed a shower, I wanted some time to process the win and what it meant for our season - we've since lost in the play offs - but instead I was doing laundry.

Why?

Because beholding is becoming. As I've lived with Rachel for the last nearly four years, my priorities have changed. I can see the benefit in hovering, laundering and washing up. I load the dishwasher when it's time, I make sure Rachel's clothes are clean, folded and out away. Now, none of this may last beyond the first week of the summer holidays, when Rachel is freed from third grade, but the point remains, it happening now. As I have beheld, as I have loved, I have become.

And we behold Jesus in the Bible, as we love Him in His perfections, in His condescension and in His life, death and resurrection, we become. God's voice changes our categories, it changes our priorities, it changes our desires. We want to go the church, we want to give our money, we want to live the good life of obedience. The light of the Gospel has shone in our hearts, and chased away, destroyed, the darkness.

This is part of the mystery of discipleship. This is part of the exposure of discipleship. Even though discipleship must never be reduced to meeting and mechanics, discipleship does happen in meetings, whether 250-1 or 1-1. As we're exposed to our wives, we become like them, as we're exposed to our saviour we become like Him.

Sadly, it's not just good things that in beholding we become. It's also idols. Psalm 115 tells us that idols have eyes but do not hear, hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk. They are deaf, dumb and insensitive to the beauties of Christ. And those who worship them will become like them. Isn't that what happened to Israel in exile? A kind of living death, cut off from the land and the promises? Isn't that life today without Jesus? Cut off from anything worthy of the name of love, life and hope?

One way or another, for better or worse, we behold, and we become.

Like a Mustard Seed

'Who're Kansas State? The Wildcats?'

'Oh what happened to New England...did they get a safety?'

Both of these statements were uttered by my wife last weekend, and both of them were exactly right. The athletics mascot for Kansas State University is the wildcat, and New England were awarded a safety (the closest thing in American Football to an own goal) in their weekend win over the New York Jets.

How did Rachel know those things? We don't follow Kansas State, they're hardly ever on TV, and we've never been to Manhattan, Kansas, where the school is located. She just knew who they were. The Patriots/Jets game was on in the background in a restaurant, and i've never gone over the finer points of the some of the NFL's more obscure rules with her. She just knew it's hard to get to 16 without a two point play in there somewhere.

I asked Rachel how that happened, and she said after a while things just sink in. And i suppose they do. We still have some ground to cover i suspect. She's probably a bit shaky on the genesis of the Wycome/Colchester rivalry, and might have some trouble in picking out Dave Carroll in a crowd, but after three years of marriage, we're getting there.

Jesus says this is what the Kingdom of God is like. Mark 4 represents a shift in Jesus ministry. No longer teaching plainly in the synagogues, but parabolically in the countryside. This is judgement on those who see but don't perceive and hear but don't understand. Suddenly, for those on the outside, everything is in a parable. Why is this rebel rabbi giving farming advice, and poor farming advice at that? Why isn't he condemning Rome and setting up in Jerusalem? Everything in a parable.

He tells us that the Kingdom of God, and in particular our growth in it is like a mustard seed. The smallest of the seeds producing a plant out of all proportion to it's size. It starts small, but when it's grown it's the largest of all the plants. Just like the Kingdom. Who would have thought that this ragtag bunch of men from the wrong part of the country would change the world? And yet they did. Who would think that 10,20,30 minutes alone in the Bible each day would change our hearts? And yet is does. This is the Gospel way isn't it? From small and insignificant comes the big and glorious.

We should read the Bible persistently and confidently, knowing that by it we're being changed. As quickly as we like? Probably not. But Christian growth isn't downloadable. It comes slowly, first the blade, then the ear,  then the full grain. But come it does. Isn't that encouraging? Just because we don't see something doesn't mean it's not there. Not in the Kingdom anyway.

Martin Luther knew it, he went and preached and then came home to his friends, trusting in the work of the Word. Isaiah knew it, and told us that the Word would not return void. We need to know it too, and keep those mustard seeds being planted in our hearts.

JK Rowling and Happy Endings

I've read a couple of reviews of JK Rowling's new book, 'The Casual Vacancy' yesterday (here and here. Some bad language in the second one). Quite apart from the fascinating thought that one of the most recognizable authors of our day can not seem to get away from the Biblical narrative, what seems to unite the two reviews is a problem with the lack of a happy ending.

There's no Harry Potter in Pagford, no one to overcome evil and set the world aright again. Not eucatastrophe, just catastrophe. Just racism and classicism and an ending that 'makes Thomas Hardy look like PG Wodehouse.' Something about a book, or a film, or any story, without a happy ending leaves us wanting more. Something about a story without redemption makes us feel like the story isn't quite finished yet. When the guy doesn't get the girl, somethings wrong. Why is that? Because the reality of the Biblical narrative is written into our hearts. We can't accept an bleak ending, we can't accept things not turning out alright in the end, because it's not true.


I used to tease Rachel because she just likes movies with happy endings, but now i've come to see that not only is she right to like happy endings, but that she's more in touch with reality because of it.

Tolkien says: (the happy ending) denies universal final defeat, and insofar as evangeliom, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief...When the sudden 'turn' comes we get a piercing glimpse of joy, and hearts desire, that more a moment passes outside the frame, rends indeed the very web of story, and lets a gleam come through.

Happy endings are true endings. Because Jesus has come, and lived, and died and lived, happy endings are true endings. How will the universe end? Happily ever after. This sounds like hopeless wishful thinking doesn't it? And it is, until we put our hands in His wounds and talk to the eye witnesses. If the resurrection isn't true, we're to be pitied more than all men, but if it is true, we can look forward to the happiest of happy ending.

Happy endings are true endings. Morning Glory was a film that was forgotten almost as soon as it was made, but we liked it. Why? Girl from nowhere gets dream job in city, she's given a tough deadline to make things come together in the face of adversity and...well you get the rest. It was a happy ending, and a true ending. We like happy endings because, as Tolkien said, they touch us somewhere deep, somewhere real, somewhere almost primal. Because they're true. Because in the wedding supper of the lamb, time itself has the happiest of endings.

On Being Married

I've been married for just over three years now. This in itself is incredible to me, the time seems to have gone in the blink of an eye. Three and a bit years of marriage is nothing at all, but it is a little bit. And in that little bit, there are maybe three things that i'm learning from marriage, about being a Christian.

First of all, when i said yes to Rachel at St Thomas's Church in Bath on that June evening, i was also saying no to every other woman out there. Rachel is mine, and I am hers. No one else enters this union, no third person, no other voice or passion. Just the two of us. Yes to my wife, no to everyone else. There's a lot of women in the world, but only one of them in my heart.

When we are saved, we say yes to Jesus, and no to every competing god. No to competing passions, no to alluring temptations, no to selfish ambition, or whatever else it may be. There's only room for the Jesus that demands total allegiance, no one and nothing else can get in the way of a Christian's commitment to their Lord.

Marriage is like a long conversation. Rachel and I can be driving down the road and resume a conversation that we left off days ago. There's an ease in the seriousness of our relationship. Isn't that same true for the Christian and Christ? We grow closer to Him knowing that He knows our thoughts, our concerns, our dreams. We can talk to Him whenever we want, we can turn to Him whenever we need. Rachel is always there for me, we're always each other's priority in this world, how much Christ for the Christian.

Everyone says that one of the things they learn the quickest about themselves in marriage is how selfish they are. I thought i'd be the exception that proved the rule. How wrong i was. It was a battle, in those early days, to motivate myself to do anything just because Rachel wanted to do it. There's the first flush of enthusiasm, but once that's passed, it can be a struggle. That's slowly, too slowly, changing now though. I love to just be with her, and do things just because they please her.

In our relationship with Christ, first there's the stage where everything seems new, but then maybe, our love grows cold. But the more we spend time with Him, the more we know Him, the more pleasing Him and being with Him brings us joy. The more we read the Bible, the more we see Christ, the more we want to. The more pleasure and closeness we gain through obedience, the more we want.

There are a million other lessons to learn about our relationship with Jesus from our relationship with our spouses, but those are three of mine.