When does a review become axe-grinding?

Evangelicals Now have run a negative review of Lee McMunn’s Identity Course which I recommended here.

In a piece that reveals far more about the reviewer than it does about the resource, Simon Ward concludes that the course “cannot be recommended.”

He bemoans the teaching in which – horror of horrors! – “enquirers are encouraged to ‘Come to Jesus as you are… put your trust in him… put him in charge!’”  He then complains that the actual terms “sin” and “repentance” aren’t used, failing to appreciate, a) that both concepts are thoroughly explored using appropriate synonyms, and b) John’s Gospel (on which the course is based) never uses the word “repentance” once.  In the same breath he criticizes the use of a “sinners prayer” at the end of the course and makes an unsubstantiated broadside, claiming that “there is an absence of the free and sovereign grace of God in salvation.”

From these criticisms you’d think that Lee was Charles Finney himself rather than (I hope Lee won’t mind me saying) a conservative evangelical and thoroughly reformed thinker.  He’s Scottish for goodness sakes – how much more sound does he need to be!

Given that the reviewer gives virtually no biographical information, I did a Google search and found only one relevant lead about his identity – a speaking engagement at a Strict and Particular Baptist Chapel.  Those coming to hear Mr (Reverend?) Ward were encouraged to “Please bring AV Bibles and Gadsbys Hymns if possible.”

Culturally it seems that Mr Ward is coming from a very different place to a young evangelist reaching a new generation with a DVD resource.  It would have been helpful if Mr Ward had declared his hand from the outset and revealed that he comes from a theology and practice of evangelism that is quite a bit different from both Lee McMunn and the majority of EN’s readership.

I for one would be fascinated to read Mr Ward’s approach to evangelism and might well find myself in agreement on certain issues.  But those discussions should be kept away from the reviews so that Christians can get a clearer sight of the actual resources.

Do check out the course here.  And, if the review irks you (as it’s irked a few of us!) perhaps you could drop EN a line.

My Favourite Three Preachers: Paul Blackham

I don’t think I’d ever heard preaching until I heard Paul Blackham.  I’d heard a thousand exhortations.  I’d heard hundreds of expositions.  I’d heard autobiographical apologies and inspirational tales and world-weary battle-plans and state-of-the-nation addresses but not preaching.  Not a heralding of the living Christ.

And then I saw Paul Blackham climb into the All Souls, Langham Place pulpit.  He was younger then than I am now, but he opened his mouth like a prophet of old and said “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”   Then something unprecedented happened.  He preached as if he actually believed his introduction.  He spoke as one speaking the very words of God (1 Peter 4:11).  He didn’t weary me with the debates of the commentators, he didn’t show off his knowledge of the original languages, he didn’t waste my time trying to appear culturally relevant, he just – amazing to say it – he just preached.

I’d never, ever, heard anything like it.  And I rarely hear the like of it today.

Paul’s preaching is declarative in tone, doctrinal in content, devotional in aim.  In Old Testament or New, he is crystal clear that Christ is the point.  His life, His work, His blood, His glory.  This is the fire in his bones which he cannot hold in (Jeremiah 20:9).

I know that none of us are going to match his gifting – but can we please aim for these characteristics. Otherwise, really, why bother.

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Recent Sermons:

Christ’s Sayings From the Cross (Seven 20 minute talks)

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Older Classics:

Why isn’t good, good enough (Philippians 3) - video  audio.

Jesus Christ: Hope of the Ages (Genesis 3) – video  audio.

What of those who have never heard?  (Colossians 1)  audio.

To A City That Repented (Jonah)  audio.

Romansfest – 15 talks on Romans with Tom Parsons

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Happy Friday

Church is also an event

I wrote this two years ago in response to the views of an influential minister who I respect greatly.  I haven’t kept up with the minister’s views on this subject and he might be saying different things now so I’ve removed reference to him specifically.  But I think the issue is still very much out there in the evangelical ether, so I’ll address the issue more generally…

I long for church communities that are Christ-centred, grace-filled, all-of-life and intentionally missional.  I love ministers and ministries that emphasize these things.  But let me raise one caution.  It’s common in such circles to affirm church as an on-going family life and to deny that church is an event.

I can understand, to some extent, why language of “event” grates on people.  It can seem like an ungodly waste of resources to turn Sunday morning into a grand performance.  So true.  I’ve heard people speak in hushed tones about some gold standard of sermon preparation – an hour in the study for every minute in the pulpit.  Yowsers!  If that’s the cost of gathering around word and sacrament then I can well understand the desire to re-balance the expenditure of resources.

But there’s something deeper to discuss than the re-allocation of resources or the degree of formality to our meetings.  What I want to establish is the absolute necessity of the event for the life of church.  Church is not just family, it is also an event and irreducibly so.  I’ll say it that starkly because I know how popular it is to speak of church as ongoing-missional-community in opposition to chuch as event.

Church has its being in becoming.  It ever becomes what it is as it hears God’s word.  In this way church is the community called out (ekklesia) to listen to its risen Lord in the proclamation of word and sacrament.  This is the centre of the life of the community.

Let me just take one Scriptural example from Paul.  We are one body because we all share in the one bread (1 Cor 10:17). That is pretty stunning language – and it’s very ‘eventist’.  Here is a consummation of one-body-ness in which we become what we are. The event and the on-going life of the body are inter-dependent.

Think of marriage.  The covenant reality is that husband and wife are one flesh.  But there is an event in which they become one flesh (if you were Presbyterian you might even call it covenant renewal!).

It’s commanded in Scripture (cf 1 Cor 7) and it takes time and effort and a measure of ritual and it’s irreducibly an event.  Of course the degree of ritual and cost and time-expenditure will vary according to many factors.  But to imagine I can think of an ongoing covenant life without also thinking about the one-flesh event is a big danger in marriage.

And, by parallel, church life needs to be maintained by consciously enjoyed, anticipated and ritualised “events” in our church life together.  We can’t do without them.  And however much it’s necessary to speak of day-in, day-out community life we dare not lose language of event either.  The old reformed ecclesiologies speak of gathering around word and sacrament.  They didn’t forget that we were family, but they did highlight that there were foundational “events” at the centre of church life.

So we say Yes to shared life, Yes to Christ-centred community.  But the way in which our community is “centred” around Christ takes a certain form.  The centre is an actual, concrete centre around which we orient ourselves.  As Christ’s community therefore we order ourselves around the place where Christ is given to us. And He is given to us supremely in word and sacrament.

Therefore we must maintain language of “event”.  As we do so we are upholding two related concerns:

1) We are communities of grace.

Christians keen to ditch “event” language are usually big on “grace.”  They commonly reject rituals in the name of gospel grace.  But I would urge caution here.  If we want to be communities of grace we need to orient ourselves around where Christ is given to us, not primarily around what Christ would have us do.  To be a community of grace requires us to centre on events.

2) We are communities of proclamation.

Where we honour the “event” of Church, we honour “proclamation”.  While our community life preaches to the world (John 13:35; 17:21) I’d want to co-ordinate this to a centre of verbal proclamation that constitutes and re-constitutes the community.

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I’m well aware that many who reject the word “event” bang a big and important drum for “grace” and “proclamation”.  But I want to say, “grace” and “proclamation” requires “events.”  We must never lose our centre.

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Living under law is a lot like…

This time of year I always feel guilty.  When it comes to the end of May and the weather turns nice, there’s a feeling I get.  A rising panic has dawned on me ever since I was a teenager.  You know the feeling – you step out into the sunshine feeling free and all of a sudden it hits you: I SHOULD BE REVISING!

Are you the same?

I haven’t sat any exams for years.  But the weather turns nice and instantly I feel burdened by the weight of exam season.

It’s a horrible feeling.  And it’s exactly like living under law.  Let me list some similarities between being in “Revision Mode” and living “under the law.”

In revision mode…

1. You never know if you’ve done enough.  Until you see the exam you can’t know what you should have been revising.  Therefore, no matter how much revision you do, you could always be doing more.
2. If you blow off your revision and enjoy the sunshine you never really enjoy it.  The knowledge of your coming exams overshadows any fun you might have.
3. If you stay in and study you spend the whole time feeling like you’re missing out.  Everyone else is having the summer of their lives, and you’re stuck in the library.
4. Negotiating the exam becomes the whole point of study.  Not learning.  Not love of the subject.  Everything is reduced to these arbitrary hoops through which you must jump.
5. Techniques become almost as important as understanding.  In exams, the ability to conceal ignorance is every bit as useful as actually knowing stuff.   Being good at exams can be worth more than being good at your subject.
6. The end results for which you aim are all about personal advancement – getting the job or university place that’s best for you.

Living under the law is exactly the same.

1. The relentless drum beat that drives you is guilt.  ’Do more, do more, do more’ says the law.  And more is never enough.
2. You can ignore the law’s demands and ‘cut loose’ in sin, but unless you’ve been set free by Christ you won’t enjoy it.  There’ll always be the lurking feeling that you should be shackled in religion.
3. On the other hand, you can clutch those shackles to yourself in self-righteous pride, but only you know how jealous you are of the cool kids cutting loose.  Resentment is rising in you, even (and especially!) as you resolve to be good.
4. Loving your neighbour in self-forgetful joy is not your heart-beat.  Instead you need to be told what to do.  In measurable, manageable, bite-sized chunks.
5. Concealing your badness is just as important as showing your goodness.  Keeping up appearances is everything.
6. The end goal is not Christ’s love shared, but your status secured.  Your goodness is all about you.  Which means it’s not actually good after all.

What’s the answer?

Well at some point our exams come to an end.  There’s that beautiful moment when the invigilator says: “Please finish the sentence you’re on…  PENS DOWN!”  And right there – the summer holidays begin.  What a moment!

In Galatians 3 Paul likens the Law to “a strict governess in charge of us.” (Gal 3:24, JB Phillips).  But now we’ve graduated. Christ has passed our exams for us and earned us the A* (Gal 4:4).  The Law has done its job for us and now goes into honourable retirement (Gal 3:25).  We can still learn much from its wisdom, we can still consult the old lesson plans.  But we’re not in revision mode.  It can’t give us a detention.  And its grades no longer apply.

School’s out for summer!  We’re free.

Like the graduate who picks up a book for love of learning, now we can actually pursue the life of Christ without fear, pride, pressure or guilt.   Now that there’s nothing we have to do we’re finally in a position to actually do good!  Now that all judgement has been cleared away, altruism is possible!  For the first time in our lives genuine love can begin.

The Christian lives under the banner of John 19:30: “It is finished!”  So no more “revision mode” spirituality.  You’ve passed the test – with flying colours.  Let the summer begin.

A Trinity Sunday / Jubilee Sermon

A Jubilee Sermon (on Trinity Sunday)
An alternative Trinity Sermon here 

“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service.”

So said Princess Elizabeth to the whole British Empire on her 21^st birthday.  The year was 1947.  And as we look back on her 60 years as Queen, who can deny that her long reign has been devoted to “service.”

What an incredible marker for a monarch!  Not power, or wealth, or prestige, but “service.”

The Queen is not simply Head of State, Head of the Commonwealth, the Fount of Justice, Head of the Armed Forces, the Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England.  She is also patron of over 600 organisations and charities.

And, routinely, Queen Elizabeth II is referred to as this country’s greatest public servant.  A sovereign who serves.  What’s her motivation?

She has told us.  In her Christmas message of 2000 she said this:

For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ’s words and example.

The Queen is following the example of Christ: the ultimate Sovereign who serves.  And this evening I just want to think about that remarkable combination of sovereignty and service.  Because there’s a reason we respond so positively to Sovereign Service.  When our Rulers are servants they show us something very profound.

Today is not only the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations.  In the Church Calendar it’s also Trinity Sunday.  Today, ministers all over the world attempt to put words to the truth that our one God is Three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Trinity is the truth that God is a unity of three – a tri-unity – a Trinity.

But perhaps you’re thinking, what on earth does the doctrine of the Trinity have to do with our Jubilee Celebrations?  Actually Trinity Sunday and the Queen’s Jubilee truly belong together.  Because with both we are dealing with that wonderful combination of sovereignty and service.  Let me explain…

John’s Gospel begins with these famous words:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning.

If we were in any doubt about who the “Word” is, our song has just told us.  Jesus is the Word of God the Father from before the world began.

So John introduces his biography of Jesus by affirming that Jesus did not merely found a religion, He founded the universe.  Jesus, “the Word”, existed before the world began, with God His Father and with the Holy Spirit.  So John gives us a picture of “the beginning” that is unlike any the world has imagined.

The world’s creation myths are full of conflict, killing and chaos.  They speak of wars in heaven, or cosmic storms.  Powers collide and the universe is the debris.  But John casts a very different vision.  In the beginning, there was love.

That’s the doctrine of the Trinity in a nutshell: “In the beginning there was love.”  Because in the beginning there was the loving relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Before there were people or planets or protons, there was love.  Love is the one thing God didn’t need to create because God is love.  The Father has always loved His eternal Son in the joy of the Holy Spirit.

And so at this Jubilee Celebration we remember that the Sovereign of Sovereigns is not a heavenly Tyrant – a distant individual, ruling in splendid isolation.  Before there was anything to rule, the Father, Son and Spirit related.  Their life is a life of caring, sharing, give and take, back and forth.  Before God’s life was a life of sovereignty over the creation, God’s life was a life of service among the Persons.  The Father pours His love and life into the Son in the power of the Spirit.  The Son offers up His love and life in the power of the Spirit.  The very essence of our Sovereign IS service.  God’s life is a life of mutual self-giving.

We have a saying don’t we: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Well apparently not.  Apparently the absolute power in this world is not a corrupt Dictator, but a loving Family in which service is supreme.  Do you start to see why Trinity Sunday and the Jubilee belong together?

Because of Trinity, no wonder we’re so attracted to the Queen’s humble example.  The servant-heart of the sovereign is a glimpse of something holy.  Because of Trinity: sovereignty and service belong together.

Now imagine if this were not the case.  Imagine if God were just a solitary individual. Think of him there “in the beginning”, with no-one and nothing besides him, just his own thoughts for company.  Such a god could not be a god of service.  There’s no-one and nothing for this god to serve.  There’s no caring or sharing.  This god would be defined by supremacy, not by love.

But not with Trinity.  With Trinity: service IS supreme.  With Trinity: self-giving is ultimate reality.  With Trinity: God is love.

And this love was too good to keep to themselves.  In John 1 verse 3, we see that the God of love wanted to share.  John writes:

Through the Word all things were made.

This is where we’ve come from.  From the overflowing life of the Father, through the Word – the Lord Jesus – in the power of the Spirit, the world was born.  It was as if the Father, Son and Spirit had said “This thing is too good to keep to ourselves.”  And so a world is made, that we might share in their love.

What’s the meaning of life?  It seems like such a bold question, but Trinity Sunday has the answer.  Trinity Sunday tells you: “God is love and you’re invited.”  The meaning of our lives is to be drawn into the love which both predated and produced the universe.  The meaning of life is to come home to the ultimate Royal Family.

Some of you, I’m sure have met the Queen.  Some of you have been honoured by the Queen.  One of her titles is “The Fount of Honours”.   For one thing, she writes to those who make it to 100 and to 105.  She also congratulates subjects on their diamond wedding anniversaries, as well as 65^th and 70^th anniversaries.  I won’t ask any of you if you’ve been so honoured.  But I can only imagine how proud a person must feel to appear on the New Years Honours List or the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Yet however wonderful that is, there’s something much greater.  The Queen can bestow honours on you, she can even make you a Lord or a Baron or a Knight.  But she can’t make you her child.  She can’t give you her inheritance.  She won’t adopt you into her family and take you home to the Palace.  That’s not how it works.

But with Jesus, there’s an honour that is out of this world.  He can and He does invite us home.  This is the meaning of our lives – not simply to be honoured by Jesus but to be adopted by Him INTO His loving Family life.

John chapter 1 verse 10 says this:

¹⁰ Christ was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-

The Son of God offers Himself to us.  All who receive Him are invited into His life.  We receive His Father as our Father and His Spirit as our Spirit.  God is love and Jesus invites us INTO the God of love.

Did you think Trinity was a dry, academic doctrine?  Did you think it was a tortuous logical problem? Did you think it was something impossible to understand?  No.  Trinity is the good news that God is love; that the ultimate sovereignty is self-giving service; and that we exist to find our place in their love.

Do you know how it happens?  It happens through the meekness of the Monarch.

Famously, John chapter 1 verse 14 says:

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, we have seen His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son who came from the Father full of grace and truth.

How do we enter into Christ’s life?  He entered into ours.  The Word became flesh.  Our Maker became a man.  A member of the Trinity became a member of the human race.

It’s the ultimate riches to rags story.  We all know the fairytales of Princes becoming paupers.  Well the myth is a reality.  The true Monarch did empty Himself.  As Philippians chapter 2 says “Christ Jesus made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!”

We love to hear stories of Royals who climb down off their thrones.  Apparently on V-E Day, Elizabeth and Margaret escaped out into the celebrations in London.  They wandered around anonymously, enjoying the moment along with the rest of the people.  The Queen still likes to get out anonymously – sometimes visiting a West End show with Prince Philip.  Only rarely are they spotted.

We like to hear about our Royals moving among us as commoners.  But what about the ultimate Royal becoming the ultimate commoner.  Incredible!

From heaven to earth, and not just to earth, He became a single cell in Mary’s womb.  And then a wriggling baby on the straw.  And then a defenceless refugee, on the run from Herod.  And then a builder’s labourer.  And then a penniless preacher.  A homeless dissident.  A stooping servant.  Yet He descends even further to be a victim of cruelty and injustice.  And finally a human sacrifice – dying a godforsaken death on the cross.  Never has anyone so Mighty become so meek.  Here is our Ultimate Sovereign – the ultimate Servant.

And because this is Trinity Sunday we see the true nature of Christ’s sacrifice.  Trinity Sunday tells us: Jesus is not just an example of human service.  He is God the Son.  He is our Maker.  His arms outstretched to the world are God’s arms – and they are opened for you.

What does Majesty look like?  When we think Majesty, we think Palaces and Crowns and Thrones.  Christ traded His palace for a manger.  His crown was made of thorns.  His throne was His cross.  The Great Prince became a Pauper.  More than a Pauper – a Bleeding Sacrifice.  And He did it for you.

For almost 2000 years the church has used a simple phrase to describe the Christian message.  It just says this: He became what we are, so that we might become what He is.

He – the Son of God – became flesh.  He entered into our predicament with all our sufferings and sins.  But He didn’t flinch.  He entered in and became what we are.  Why did He do it?  So that we might become what He is – a child of God.  The Son of God became human so that we humans can become children of God.

These are the Royal Honours that Jesus wants to bestow.  He is the true ‘Fount of Honours’ and He can bring you in to the ultimate Royal Family.

But His invitation requires a response.  It means a reality check for each of us.  We must realize that we live in a broken world with broken hearts and broken lives.  We need to acknowledge that our lives, naturally, are estranged from God’s Family.  That we need the forgiveness which Christ offers through His death.  We need Jesus in order to be reconnected to the love of God.  Do you recognize that need?

It’s something the Queen articulated so beautifully last Christmas.  Her televised message was, surely, the greatest Christmas sermon preached that day.  Perhaps you heard it.  She spoke of our need for Jesus – our need for forgiveness.  She said this:

Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed.

God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive.

Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love.

In the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, there’s a prayer:

O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us we pray.
Cast out our sin
And enter in.
Be born in us today.

It is my prayer that on this [Christmas] day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord.

What a preacher our Queen is!  Do you have room in your life for the love of God through Christ our Lord?  He is offered to you, to forgive all your sins, to reconnect you to the Father, to give you His Spirit, to adopt you into the life and love of God.

The Ultimate Sovereign became the Ultimate Servant for you.  Our Queen trusts Him as her Saviour.  Do you?

John writes:

To all who receive Jesus, to those who believe in his name, he gives the right to become children of God.  (John 1:12)

Happy Friday