Luke's research and writing of the story of Jesus is detailed and knowledgeable - as opposed to most 'information' that is quickly available on electronic devices today.
His account of the birth of Jesus in Luke 2 is rooted in history, in time and place, and people. If Theophilus or any other hearer/reader wanted to get on their horse or donkey and go to where Jesus was born, they could. They would undoubtedly meet some who knew of the events. Members of Jesus' earthly family were still around and could be approached and questioned about what Luke had written.
Today, much scholarly work has gone into determining the truth of the 'historical' Jesus, and the evidence is compelling that Jesus of Nazareth was a real person who lived, taught and moved around Palestine in the early first century - and was crucified by the Romans around AD 33. Such scholars, Christian and non-christian, agree that there is a "Jesus-shaped bump" in history since that time. It is a ripple that has become a global tsunami of the Christian movement.
We believe Jesus was so much more than "just" a historical figure. We follow Jesus because He is so much more, and not just because of what He taught and did, but because He is risen and has overcome the grave, He has ascended and will return.
Peter wrote of his experience, and that of his friends James and John, on the mount of Transfiguration. "We did not follow cleverly designed stories" he wrote to the persecuted Church. "We were eyewitnesses to His majestic glory..", "we heard the voice of God in the cloud...", and "we have this prophetic message for you, the Church, to pass on..."
The Church does not worship or follow an historical figure, but the living Lord Jesus who reigns over all creation.
We worship Him because He is full of grace and truth. In an age of information, knowledge is a valuable treasure.

Luke's Gospel provides knowledge about who Jesus was - and in the sequel "The Acts of the Apostles" Luke provides knowledge about who Jesus is.
If you want to know who Jesus was, and is, read through the Gospel of Luke. Even if you don't believe, at least you can seek to understand. It's better than relying on "information" that could be as useless as it is abundant.

When tough times hit, we need community around us. The account of Esther, in a foreign land amongst the exiled Jews in Susa, a centre of Persian power, is extraordinary. The opportunity created for her through complex circumstances enabled her to not only save the Jews across the 127 provinces from India to Africa, but also offer them new security and a new impetus as they rebuilt Jerusalem, the Temple and their identity as God’s chosen people in Palestine.

Esther was FIT to be not just the queen of Persia, but as an active messenger of the living God.

FIT stands for Faithful, Intentional and Teachable.
We don’t know what circumstances lay ahead for God’s people, the followers of Jesus, especially in this hyper-paced world of connections, communications and technology. But the importance of human contact and community will increase along with their need.
So we will need to be like Esther, FIT for ‘such a time as this’. Ready to speak up in careful and discerning ways, being ‘wise as serpents and innocent as doves’. It’s a slippery tightrope to walk – if Esther had not found the Persian King’s favour, she would have been banished, if not executed. Her family was in the firing line of a particularly nasty character (Haman). One slip could have meant a premature, and ugly end, to these events.

And yet we are to continue to be FIT for service, to build community and relationships, to work on deepening these relationships, and being there for one-another. These are traits of disciples of Jesus, willing to take up our cross daily and follow Him. It’s not a call to wealth or power, but to service and commitment. And for those who receive the fruit of our labour, who find community of welcome, love and growth, it is a true blessing.

God was glorified through Esther’s faithfulness, and she is a potent example of God’s faithfulness to His people in this world – especially in complex circumstances.

Reference: Eugene Peterson “Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work”
 

“Hebel” is a Hebrew word notoriously hard to translate into English. Some options are ‘wind’, ‘vapour’, ‘meaningless’, or as one particularly vulgar writer has said, ‘flatulence’.
An example of “hebel” is the statement: ‘One person in this town will win lotto this week.’ They may or may not. They may win the jackpot or just a couple of dollars. If they do, I can say they did. If no one does, it is of no consequence to me. Hebel.
On the other hand, the word “Amen” means rock solid, absolute, no doubt YES. The chair I am sitting on is AMEN. If it wasn’t, I’d be on the floor. It is absolutely here underneath me, I know it, I feel it, it supports me (and is indeed very comfortable).

When Ecclesiastes was (as we think) compiled, there were numerous religious/philosophical systems of thought across the Jewish landscape, influenced by the traditions of Moses (Israelite), Eastern traditions (Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian, and increasingly Chinese), and Western traditions (Greek and increasingly Roman).
The clear waters of the faith of Israel were more and more polluted with all these other influences, from fresh waters of the Amen of the LORD their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Samuel, David and Solomon, Isaiah and Ezekiel – to hebel water of mixed ideas and confused rituals.
Worse, these septic waters were being bottled and sold by religious teachers to willing buyers who wanted ‘modern’ ideas to scratch itchy ears, ideas that suited their lives and times. Sounds very familiar to me, even if we are thousands of years after Ecclesiastes was written.
Meaningless. Flatulence. Hebel.
We need to remember that we need to hear “No” from time to time. We need to be told “that is not correct” when our itchy ears desire hebel teaching above the biblical Amen. This occurs when the blessing of God (commonly understood of ‘happiness’, or ‘wholeness’) is separated from the God of blessing.

The writer of Ecclesiastes, only known to us as Qoheleth (disregarding for this moment the debates of Solomonic authorship), was trying to rediscover the fresh water of Amen amongst the flowing rivers of hebel. His writings were a warning to his own society, and ours, that there are clear boundaries in this life, outlined in Scripture (in his case, the Mosaic writings of the covenant, for us today the New Testament), granted to us by our Creator.

And we know that there is grace sufficient to redeem us from lives of hebel into lives of Amen in Christ Jesus, to drink the clear, cool, refreshing living water of life.

Reference: Eugene Peterson “Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work”

In the 19th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon,
the 9th year of Zedekiah, puppet-king of Judah,
on the tenth day of the tenth month, the siege of Jerusalem began.
On the ninth day of the fourth month of the next year, all hell broke loose.
On the seventh day of the fifth month… Jerusalem was reduced to a pile of burning rubble.

In the Hebrew, the book of Lamentations is just called “How?”.

Evil and suffering are real and present in this life. War, famine, drought, sickness, cancer, broken relationship, betrayal, violence and corruption are here to stay in this world.
How do we respond?

Eugene Peterson puts forward three ways:

1. Recognition. Call the disaster for what it is, don’t sugar coat it. Recognising is means we acknowledge it, and can begin to work through the experience.
2. Response. The book of Lamentations responds to the disaster of the beloved city of the writer by composing five highly structured poems that describe the event, the effects and the reasons. Responding to suffering, and evil, by putting our thoughts down on paper or screen, or even video, begins to bring order to the chaos. We have to think it through before we can communicate it.
   
3. Context. All evil and suffering has a beginning, and an end. Both may be unthinkable, but are still real. In Eugene Peterson’s words, it is ‘historical’, that is, bound by time. Neither evil nor suffering we experience in this life will be eternal. There is a danger when we are in the midst of suffering to allow it to become our identity, to believe it is who we are. Putting this experience in context is a healthy spiritual step to avoid such a slide.

God knows our suffering, believe it or not, better than we do. He understands every part of it, from the physical to the mental, to the broken-heart and the broken body. He knows the grief and the anger, the fear and the long-suffering.
He took the deliberate action to enter into our history, to teach, to experience, to suffer, to die, and to be the first-fruits of the resurrection life.

The book of Lamentations, read out annually by the Jews on the ‘ninth of Ab’ accompanied with fasting and remembrance, helps us know that while evil and suffering are not yet eliminated, and are almost impossibly difficult to explain, God does understand and is present even in our deepest pain.

Reference: Eugene Peterson “Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work”

Probably from the turbulent days of Judges 19-21, the story of Ruth focuses in like a laser on one small family during some global dramas including drought and famine, war and corrupt national leadership. By the end of it, a foreign woman, Ruth, becomes the hero and a key person in God’s story of His people Israel. Her great-grand-son became King David, “a man after God’s own heart”.
Ruth is a reminder that our story is not insignificant, even if we are just one person among six billion and counting. When our story is woven into God’s story, then our story takes on eternal significance. We understand that we are known and recognised by the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
We may not be known by our neighbour, or even our own family, or maybe we are known best by our local barista, newsagent or doctor – but for our story to be used by God for great things we do not know or understand is an honour we will not recognise until we are no longer part of the story of this life.
Ruth never knew her part in God’s kingdom while she was here in this life. David was anointed and then crowned many years after Ruth and Boaz (her husband) died.
When we try to make our lives significant or great in our own strength, we are entering risky territory. But when our being finds meaning in Christ Jesus, in His life now and the life to come, we find that it is no longer all on us to make it all happen. God works through us to do amazing things, and He even lets us see glimpses of these things if we have our eyes open.
Your story, the highs and lows, the awesome times and those dark times of brokenness and secrets, it’s all known to God who loves you and wants to walk with you through all of it. Your story fits into His story, and history will one day come to an end when Jesus returns to wrap all of our stories up and fulfil all of God’s promises.
Eugene Peterson looks at why Ruth was read during the Jewish festival of Pentecost, the offering of first-fruits amongst the Israelites (not the Christian occasion of Pentecost). The story is full of memory and promise, a poignant reminder for the people of God no matter if the harvest has been abundant, or meagre, God is always faithful.
Reference: Eugene Peterson “Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work”

Without going too deep, the ‘Songs of Songs’ is a beautiful love song, exploring the deep longing of a man and woman for one another. The songs of the others reveal how the love of the two is seen and known by those around them.
But these verses are deep and powerful, although Eugene Peterson came at this book in a very unexpected way – drawing parallels between prayer and sex. The common link is the level of intimacy in both.
Imagine a life of prayer that is like the desire expressed in the Song. Prayer filled with joy, that is intimate, prayer that expresses longing to be with our Lord forever.
The tragedy is that many people, let alone Christians, have read the Song of Songs, or if they have, looked for the metaphors and analogies that are clearly present, but missed the simple joy and desire of the work.
It is a beautifully crafted piece of literature because it does speak at numerous levels. It is erotic. It is about physical desire. It is a metaphor for the love of God for His chosen people. It is a story of love known, lost, found, imperiled and recovered.
Just like our daily lives. However messy, however far we have run, however self-obsessed we have become, the love of God has not faded or been taken away from you. We judge God’s love by the way we feel about God or about the Church or about Christians. Judgments based on feelings are notoriously inaccurate. God’s love is constantly focused upon us, ultimately expressed in Jesus Christ. His death was necessary to kill everything that causes us to be separated from God. His resurrection on Easter Sunday was the great victory of life over death, of love over evil.
We are able to enjoy intimate relationship with the living God because He has opened the way for us to do so, to be reconciled to Him. The Song of Songs is a wonderful expression of God’s desire for us to be in relationship with Him, and the open door of prayer that is available to us in this life, before the eternal intimacy of His love, light and life we will live in the resurrection life.
Finally, Eugene Peterson notes that the Song was read aloud during the Jewish Passover ceremony, probably as an antidote to the ritualism and potential religiosity of such an occasion. Imagine if the Song was read out on Resurrection Sunday, in contrast to the religiosity that threatens to obscure the joy of the day!

Reference: Eugene Peterson “Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work”

Over five Sundays in April/May 2017 we will be looking at some of the smaller writings of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) that don't often get a hearing on Sunday mornings.
These are:

• Song of Songs (April 23)
  
• Ruth (April 30)
• (May 7 we have a guest preacher)
• Lamentations (May 14)
• Ecclesiastes (May 21)
• Esther (May 28)

Don't get me wrong - I would love to spend a couple of weeks (at least) exploring every one of these writings. However if people are compelled to grab a Bible off the shelf, or head over to www.biblegateway.com and read through these writings in their own time, I am confident that it will bear great fruit in their knowledge, understanding and trust in the Lord our God.
Now here is the declaration (confession?): I was affected by reading Eugene Peterson's "Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work" and his commentary on these writings. I have unashamedly developed themes from Peterson's work in the shaping of the sermons for Sunday mornings - along with much of my own work in making it relevant and accessible to our place.
I will post a summary of each sermon on each "Writing" here on this page. I pray that you will not just read them, but will seek to read and learn directly from each Biblical book for yourself. It will not be wasted.

Steve

During the four Sundays of Advent in 2016, we have explored the awe and wonder of "the Word become flesh". This is the power of the Christmas event, greater than jolly red-suited characters and the mad rush of Northern hemisphere winter meals in the midst of our baking summer.
John's book about Jesus, the 'Gospel of John', opens with a heavy hit of combined Hebrew theology and Hellenic (Greek) philosophy: In the beginning... (Hebrew) was the Word (Hellenic "logos") and the Word was with God... and the Word was God. (John 1:1). Those who sat and listened to these words read out in the original Greek language, and even Aramiac, would not have missed the double canon blast of theology/philosophy.
And yet, there is so much more.
John sets out who Jesus is, before His time here in our history, and forever.

On the first Sunday of Advent (Nov 27), we looked at Jesus the Life. For Christians who know and love the Lord Jesus, life is never just 'done' until we die. Jesus came so that all who call on His name wll "have life to the fullest" (John 10:10), and that He is "the Way, the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6). Life is not limited to this wordly existence, but the eternal life we recieve when we share Christ's Easter Day resurrection life, a theme Paul strongly illustrates in his letter to the Romans.

On the second Sunday of Advent (Dec 4), we looked at Jesus the Light. If general (scientific, natural, reasonable) knowledge is like sunlight which illuminates everything, then Jesus is light the focussed ray of a spotlight, or even a laser, with intense, focussed revelation of the God who created and sustains all of us. He attracts our attention, and calls us out of the darkness into His marvellous light, which is inextinguishable and eternal. In Paul's letter to the Colossians (1:12-14) he explains concisely just what this means.

On the third Sunday of Advent (Dec 11), we looked at Jesus the Word. Here we briefly looked the themes already considered above, of Hebrew theology and Hellenistic philosophy. But we also looked forward in the Revelation (19:11-16)  to where we meet a very different image of Jesus the "Word of God". Here is a mighty warrior king ("the King of kings and the Lord of lords") who defeats every enemy through the power of His Easter Day resurrection, and has the final, almighty victory when all His people will be victorious with Him.

On the fourth and final Sunday of Advent (Dec 18), we considered what it meant that Jesus was full of grace and truth. As fully God, even as fully man, Jesus's grace overcame all sin and evil, 'super-abounding' even where sin prevailed (Romans 5:20-21). And as He is the Truth (John 14:6), His 'super-truth' is greater than any human understanding of truth or meaning, just as He as the One through whom all things were created (John 1:3, 10) is greater than we, His creation.

The Christmas event is one of awe and wonder - the Magi from the East exemplified this with their response in searching travel, expensive gifts and humble honour before the child God-man Jesus. Let us also bow our knee before Him, and confess with our tongues that Jesus Christ is Lord, the light, the life, the Word and full of grace and truth - and forever was, is and will always be.

Daniel was a one-of-a-kind. Handsome and young, smart and humble, incorruptible and courageous. Perfect to become a Wise Man of Babylon, to deal with a dizzying array of responsibilities from across the empire Nebuchadnezzar and his dynasty had established and was enlarging.
Daniel's writings were targeted at his contemporaries who had experienced the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of all they thought meant security and strength. He wrote to those who had been exiled with him right through the seventy years, and to those who would follow them in expectation of the imminent work of God to send His Messiah to restore the place of the Jews in the world.
The two sections of Daniel's book are like an ongoing fireworks display - on one hand, the noise, light and unrelenting sensations that go with it make you want to yell at it to stop, while desperately wanting it to go on when it is finished. The first section deals with God's work within the historical day-to-day life in the royal courts of Babylon through political upheaval, intrigue and manipulations, while the second half reveals God's dealing with Daniel in visions and dreams that leave him exhausted, fearful - and driven to deeper prayer. In these we are granted brief glimpses behind the veil into the heavenly kingdom of God in its interactions with the kingdoms of this world.
It is difficult to understand much of the apocalyptic writing of the New Testament (the big, scary stuff) without first coming to terms with what happens in Daniel. Jesus, Peter and the "Seer" of Revelation all look back to Daniel and quote him in trying to describe their own visions, and in Jesus' words, the end times. Many Christians shy away from Daniel's writings, and consequently Revelation and New Testament apocalyptic writing through simple ignorance. This is disappointing because of the amount of material there to provide comfort and assurance for the Christian, especially those in the early days of the Church when violent persecution of the Church was the norm. Perhaps this may be the case for the modern Western Church, too - and if so, these writings should be our go-to for guidance.
Daniel's writings, along with the others in the "Big Guns" (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) all remind us repeatedly of God's sovereignty over all creation, this world and the next. We may face elected governments, dictators or monarchs, civil and social media persecution, violent blood shedding and even death as too many of our Christian sisters and brothers suffer across the world - and God is still sovereign over all, and His will will be done. His kingdom will come.
Rather than terrify, these writings comforted and encouraged God's people in the worst of times - and continue to do so. I hope you will take the time and the effort to read through these four "Big Guns" yourself, and turn to the LORD your God in faithfulness and humility.

Ezekiel was thrust into the midst of the chaos around Jerusalem and the forced exile to Babylon. He and his family were forced marched to their new home in the philosophical, military, and scientific centre of the known world at the time.
Ezekiel's writing as a prophet is unique as it is relayed entirely in the first person, from Ezekiel himself, reporting the Word of the LORD. His writing exhibits an expansive knowledge across a variety of fields, probably reflecting his learning and experience in Babylon. However he maintains a strong theme about the LORD's temple in Jerusalem, which was still standing for the first seven years of his exile before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. His prophetic writing about the future centered on a vision of a new Jerusalem,  new Temple and detailed measurements, all of which are overwritten by the final words of his book: "And the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE." (Ezekiel 48:35).
Ezekiel was primarily writing to the remaining people in Jerusalem who faced either deportation or destruction. Ezekiel reported vivid heavenly visions, and being transported by the Spirit to see some ungodly, and downright evil, activities of the so-called Temple leadership, inside hidden rooms. There was no faithfulness to the LORD their God, and their religious activity was a sham. Ezekiel wrote to the Jerusalem leadership and exposed the corruption. Of course, the Temple leadership had no idea how this exile so far away could know of their sinfulness - and not believing God's power, they never would.
Ezekiel's writing resonated well into the New Testament times, as his prophecies were read and pondered upon - especially his prophecies regarding God's future plans. Just as Ezekiel lived during the days of Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Solomon's Temple and David's Jerusalem, so the New Testament writers witnessed Rome's full-scale invasion and destruction of Herod's Temple and the Sanhedrin's Jerusalem. Thus Ezekiel's writing of an even greater Temple, and God's impending nearness, were sweet themes to their ears. Of course, for the New Testament writers, the translation came through the coming of Jesus, God the Son.
Indeed, Ezekiel wrote of God's departure from the Temple and His disobedient, unfaithful people. In the same way, the last time Jesus, God the Son, entered the Temple, it was to violently cleanse out the corruption of the traders and money changers in the courtyards. He left - and God never returned to it. The Temple curtain was ripped in half on Good Friday, and a generation later, no stone was left upon another on that site.
The Christian hope is not in buildings, nor institutions. Our hope is in the faithfulness of the LORD our God, who promises that He will dwell with His people forever, in a place purpose built for them. There will be no Temple, no sun, no fear and no suffering, all because of these four words at the end of Ezekiel's book: THE LORD IS THERE.