A Spiritual Drought

Many in our land have been experiencing drought this summer. I believe many more are continuing to experience spiritual drought and here’s why.

When in conversation I mention God, the other person often moves into self-justifying mode! Introducing the notion of God seems to bring with it a sense that we need to justify ourselves. This is, I suggest, borne out of the religious idea that we must earn God’s favour or, at the very least, have a reasonable defence as to why we aren’t managing what we think he requires of us.

This way of thinking is common and is called “works righteousness”, whereby we think we need to be earning brownie points if we are to secure God’s final favour.

Wages or Gift?

When we work, we earn wages. The one for whom we have worked is obligated to pay us and, until they do, they are in our debt. When we think we can earn God’s favour, we actually demean him; after all, how could God our Creator ever be in our debt? No, if we are to receive his favour it must be as a gift and God does offer this; it’s a gift which makes our efforts to earn his favour unnecessary.

What is that gift and how may we receive it? God gave his son, Jesus; he is the gift that does away with our religious self-efforts. He does this by paying off those debts that separate us from God.

The Place of faith

Before going further, we need to realise that a personal Christian faith is important. This faith, or trust, is not a religious work in itself but simply the means of receiving that which God offers to us.

Imagine you are in a desert literally dying of thirst and then you are made aware that there is a spring of water just behind that large boulder 50 feet ahead. Those last dozen or so steps won’t themselves re-hydrate you but they are the means of getting that life-giving water into you. That is precisely how it is with Christian faith: it is the means of receiving God’s good favour described by Jesus as living water. He says, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink”. Whoever believes in me… streams of living water will flow from within him." It is our standing and identifying with Jesus through faith that gives God pleasure.

What might we expect from a new Prime Minister?

Since David Cameron resigned in 2016, we’ve had six prime ministers. Now that we have Andy Burnham as Prime Minister, do you feel a sense of optimism or have you lost faith in government?

Writing in the second half of the 19^th century, Liverpool’s Bishop J.C. Ryle told voters, ‘We must each do our duty conscientiously, and learn to expect little from any political party. If those we support succeed, we must not think that all they do will be right. If those we oppose succeed, we must not think that all they do will be wrong. To expect little from any earthly ruler is one great secret of contentment.’

 A Christian’s responsibility

Christian teaching instructs believers to pray for, ‘all kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour.’

In the middle of the first century, the message of the death of Jesus and his rising to life soon spread right across the Mediterranean. The followers of ‘the Way’, i.e. Christians,  had little interest in trying to change the governing political authority, namely Rome. Neither did they wish to exercise any violence against some Jewish groups, which vehemently opposed them and their teaching. The Christians simply wanted to speak about Jesus and what his life, death and resurrection meant for all people: Jews, Gentiles, slave, free, rich, poor, men and women, whether powerful or of little influence.

A Ruler par excellence

In those days, one Jew named Paul, who’d converted, becoming a follower of Jesus, spoke to people in Athens at what was the equivalent of Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner. He said that he recognised their understandable ignorance about the true God, his ways and the ultimate plan for a Ruler who would surpass all earthly governance: A King who would wisely administer justice and mercy, right all wrongs and so silence all critics.

He said, ‘In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.’

Whilst we await this Ruler par excellence, that is Jesus, I thank God that we don’t live in a land of anarchy or under a dictatorship.

Football needs Rules and so does Life

‘The beautiful game’ has to have rules and regulations in place otherwise chaos would ensue. These rules are overseen by the referee and his final decision stands. When God spoke his beautiful creation into being, he introduced rules to govern the way things were to proceed and thereby not dissolve into chaos. Just as footballers sometimes ‘try it on’ with the referee and hope to get away with it, so we may think that we can stretch the boundaries of God’s law and he’ll turn a blind eye.

Contravening the rules of the game is called a foul. Transgressing God’s rules is called sin. In football, a foul may result in the referee issuing a caution, a sending off or a penalty. His decisions will not always be perfect. God, on the other hand, is all-seeing, all-knowing and perfectly just in his pronouncements. Nothing that we think, say or do is hidden from him. As a foul may result in a penalty kick or banishment from the pitch, so our breaking of God’s laws will ultimately result in the penalty of banishment from God himself.

Still relevant today

Now at this point, you may be thinking, “This is all very well but haven’t we moved on from thinking that God made everything, that he lays down impossible rules, (which we can’t keep) and then punishes us, even threatening us with hell? Anyway, what happened to the God of love?”

God is perfect in all of his ways. We cannot play off his love against his justice, since both are essential elements of his character. Indeed, God is compassionate, kind and loving but each of us will only know this by experiencing the way that he rescues us from the penalty that comes from our flouting of his laws. How does this rescue happen?

Consider the notion of a substitute. In football, a player may be withdrawn from the scene and a substitute will take his place. When Jesus died on the cross, he was taking, in our place, the punishment/ penalty due to our rule breaking.

Getting onside

The Christian message is a call to turn away from our wanting to push the boundaries, from disregarding God’s ways and to stop questioning his right to rule. Then we should hold onto Jesus as our substitute. In this way, we can know God’s love has forgiven and saved us.