Holy Club 33

Is Christ real to me?

Good Friday seems like the right day to ask this question!

It's ironic to wake up this morning to the news that the Americans have dropped the 'Mother Of All Bombs' on Afghanistan - perpetuating the myth that killing your enemies ends conflict.

The good Friday message is that dying for your enemies defeats evil. It was unbelievable then and after 2000 years of Christianity is still counter-intuitive. It seems logical that evil should be overpowered not 'over-loved', but the Easter message is that love wins, not power.

The big picture is straightforward to understand, living in good Friday mode is much harder. I automatically want to win arguments and fight those who are 'wrong'.

Jesus chose to surrender to evil and to forgive. To do the same demands huge courage.

Bible passage to meditate on Luke 23:32-46

Holy Club 32

Can I be trusted?

I find it's often in the little things that my trustworthiness (or not) is revealed. It's taking pride in the little things that says a lot about us. I'm not a detail person so I need to work hard on this one.

The Holy Club focused on the Holy Communion very regularly, so it seems appropriate to look at this on Maunday Thursday.

The Fresh Expressions movement has rediscovered something important about the Last Supper that traditional churches often miss - it was actually a meal not just a crumb of bread and a sip of (in Methodist Churches non-alchoholic) wine. Relationships change when we eat together - they get stronger and deeper.

Of course the Last Supper was not just any supper - it was a passover meal. Jesus took a meal which is all about remembering and transformed it. 

In a traditional passover meal, its the youngest boy who asks 'Why are we doing this?' (Actually a more structured set of questions but that's the gist of it.) It's the head of the house who explains the mighty acts of God in choosing and then saving Israel as his special people. The escape from Egypt is followed by 40 years in the wilderness because God's chosen people didn't have the courage to trust him.

Like many Jewish celebrations its a home-based thing - it's not about going to church/synagogue. A good reminder that the family is an important place for sharing and building faith.

In the Christian celebration we remember that God set us free, but we remember too that Jesus gave his life for us.

If God's way of saving us is about serving and sacrifice, then our way of following must be about serving and sacrifice too.

Bible passage to meditate on: John 17:20-26

Holy Club 31

Do I grumble or complain constantly?

I'm tempted to reply - only when I'm awake! The old hymn 'count your blessings' offers a better way. Do you naturally look for the good and give thanks or look for the bad to have a grumble? My natural inclination is the second - I have to work hard at not being a grumbler.

As we go through Holy Week, there's lots that defies easy explanation, which brings us back to the Holy Club practice of reading the mystic writers together.

They instinctively understood that reason and explanation are important, but can never do all that we need to be Christians. 

We will never fully understand the atonement - the meaning of the death of Jesus. The great theologians give us pointers, but none of them can offer a complete explanation. The death of Jesus is something that we need to enter into, not just think about. The resurrection is in one sense profoundly unbelievable - until we experience it, then its life changing.

The Holy Club consciously sought out an experience of God that would help them to believe in the salvation that Jesus won for us on the cross. Often that experience comes when we meet with others and unite our faith until we have enough.

The Primitive Methodists in the nineteenth century talked about 'getting in faith' not something we work ourselves up to, but something God gives us by his grace.

My hope this Easter is that once again, I'll not just read about and sing about the resurrection, but enter into it as I experience the risen Christ.

Bible passage to meditate on: Matthew 28:16-20

Holy Club 30

Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?

It's easy to think about what others ought to do when relationships are not as they should be. Its also often unhelpful to apportion blame. The Holy Club question rightly focuses on what will I do about it.

How can I take a positive step to restore a relationship that's been damaged - even (or especially?) when I'm the one in the right.

If I'm in the wrong (and I often am!), I have to get over defensiveness and self-justification before I can put things right.

If I'm the one being wronged, I need to get over hurt and self-righteousness before I can be the one making the first step to put things right.

Holy week is full of stories of people failing Jesus:

Judas the betrayer

The disciples sleeping when Jesus needed them most

Peter denying

Soldiers wrongly arresting him

The priests falsifying evidence

A cowardly judge handing down an unjust sentence 

All these make Jesus words from the cross: 'Father, forgive them' unbelievable.

Jesus sets the example, may we find from him the grace to follow it.

Bible passage to meditate on: Luke 6:27-36

Holy Club 29

Am I defeated in any part of my life?

How do you measure defeat? In a competitive world where winning is everything, defeat is something we don't like to talk about. In a men's group some years ago, we began with an ice-breaker. Everyone had to take turns completing the sentence: 'the thing I hate most is . . . .'

Most people had taken their turn when a young sales executive said, ' The thing I hate most is coming second!'

As I looked around the room I could see half the men nodding, wishing they'd come up with such a good answer. Others looked perplexed, they didn't think about life that way.

I don't think that sort of defeat was in the Holy Club's mind when they framed this question (though I suspect many of them would have identified with the driven nature of the sales executive).

They were looking at how we cope with the rubbish that life throws at us. Am I letting life grind me down?  That is being defeated.

Am I rising above the problems with a happy smile on my face, ignoring ill health, the people who are out to get me and the million obstacles in the way of getting 'the job' (whatever today's job is) done? That's a common picture of the Christian life. It's often an unhealthy and unhelpful one.

 Better still, have I found a way to be at peace in the midst of the mess. Rather than praying for God to make me victorious over the mess, have I noticed that God is by my side in the middle of it? This kind of peace is often hard won, though it is primarily God's gift of grace, not a reward for our efforts.

If we are in the midst of big problems, praying for God to 'beam us up' and take away the problems, we don't always notice the peace that God is holding out to us where we are.

At the beginning Holy Week, we remember again that God emptied himself of his rightful status and his power and demonstrated his love for us in weakness and suffering. His death was no defeat! It was the triumph of love over evil.

Bible passage to meditate on: Philippians 2:5-11

Holy Club 28

When did I last speak to someone else of my faith?

Talk about Church and you'll be unlikely to get much of a hearing. Talk of Jesus and people are often more interested than you expect.

In today's world (and particularly with the younger generations) authenticity is vital - talk on its own is not enough. The athlete Kris Akabussi withdrew from speaking at Christian events all over the country and gave the explanation: 'I only talk my talk where people can see me walk my walk.' 

One of the reasons the Holy Club tried to pray regularly through the day was so that they would be 'walking' with Jesus and people would notice.

There are lots of ways of doing this - the digital world is full of prompts to pray that we can take advantage of. One I've used over the years is the Moravian daily text email http://www.moravian.org/faith-a-congregations/moravian-daily-texts/subscribe-to-the-daily-texts/

This web-site sends an email every day with a text and a prayer. It's great to take five minutes when it pings into the inbox and pause to pray.

Take Time is a great new site that helps you to 'take time' to focus on God http://taketime.org.uk with lots of suggested meditations.

There are lots more you can spend hours googling them!

Another good idea is to link prayers with regular activities - if you've got a dog - pray as you walk him/her. If you wash up by hand, pray as you wash for God's cleansing for yourself and those you love.

If you commute, get into the habit of reading the Bible and praying for at least part of the journey.

Eventually the habit becomes so natural you don't even know you're doing it. It's amazing how much more often we hear God speak into our lives (and through us into others) when we spend time praying.

Bible passage to meditate on: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Holy Club 27

Am I proud?

There is a good sort of pride. Pride in a job well done - particularly one that stretched us because we didn't think we could do it.

Often the Bible is negative about being proud. It suggests a hanging on to status. A way of making ourselves seem better than those around us.

Whenever I feel myself thinking 'Don't you know who I am?' I hear a warning bell ringing. The wrong sort of pride is about to surface.

Another unhelpful form of pride is when we imply to those we love that we'll be proud of them when they reach a particular target, earn a particular salary, master a particular skill. It's so easy to put that pressure on those closest to us - especially our children. It's hard to say "i'm proud of you because of who you are', rather than 'I'm proud of you because of what you've done' (or worse - 'I'm not proud of you because you didn't . . .').

One of the standout things about Jesus' earthly life is that he continually associated with people he shouldn't. He didn't look down on people, he came alongside with love and healing. He touched the leper, ate with the tax-collectors, allowed women with dubious reputations to anoint him, talked with samaritans (and praised them).

Getting alongside people who are avoided by polite society seems to be an essential mark of Christian discipleship. The Holy Club did this most clearly in their prison visiting.

Nowadays we can easily make a gift of money to a charity working with the poor and marginalised. It's much harder to sit down with them and share in their lives.

Bible passage to meditate on: Matthew 25:31-45

Holy Club 26

How do I spend my spare time?

There's a  common fallacy around that if you work for God (especially in a paid capacity), that its a 24/7/365 job. In one sense this is true - the great commandment is to love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength. However, that's not the same as working non-stop.

Someone told me at the beginning of my ministry to put one new thing on every Church Council agenda - this way about one in four ideas would be accepted and change would happen gently. In 1990, I went to be minister of South Chadderton Methodist Church and met a council who agreed with every new idea. Sadly, I didn't have the sense to stop suggesting new ideas - about three years later I had an extended time off work because my body swelled up and I couldn't move my joints. After endless tests, the medics decided that I'd simply worked myself into such a state that my body had given up on me.

As a colleague wisely put it: 'sometimes God has to put you flat on your back to get you to look up!' 

After that I did some careful diary watching and journalling and discovered that I could work about 50 hours a week of reasonable quality output. After that, I was better off windsurfing - I didn't get more done, I just worked more slowly. That was 25 years ago, I've not measured my output properly for a while - I suspect it's diminished to 40-45 hours per week. I've met people who can work hard for longer - I'm never sure whether to admire or pity them!

God put sabbath days rests and times of jubilee in creation for a reason! A lot of our guilt could be removed if we understood this well. One of the reasons for keeping a journal is not to feel guilty about what we haven't done, but to notice what we have.

In a conversation with a colleague recently I asked the question: 'If Jesus said, "come unto me all you heavy laden, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light", then whose burden am I carrying?'

Whose burden are you carrying?

Bible passage to meditate on: Matthew 11:25-30

Holy Club 25

Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?

Yet another multiple choice question with six different ways to seek improvement.

At the heart of this question is an attitude of contentment. The Holy Club's aspiration to live a simple life is not just about having few possessions or living on a small budget (both of them highly counter-cultural in the 21st Century). It's about learning to find happiness in our relationship with God.

So often we feel unsettled because we compare ourselves with others who seem to have more money, more influence, more friends or more success (hence the jealousy etc). It's often hard to be thankful for what we have rather than unsettled by what we haven't got.

Perhaps one of the secrets of this sort of contentment is to focus on pleasing God, not on pleasing ourselves. I love the line in the Methodist Covenant Prayer (part of an annual rededication to God) that says:

Christ has many services to be done . . . . in some we may please Christ and please ourselves; in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves.

Whichever way life turns out in this regard, simplicity is found in pleasing Christ - easy to say, much harder to do.

One might also say:

Sometimes we may please Christ and please our fellow Christians, other times we can only please Christ by ignoring the demands of fellow Christians.

No wonder its hard too make life simple.

Bible Passage to meditate on: Hebrews 12:1-3

Holy Club 24

Do I give the Bible time to speak to me every day?

Accountability isn't just about checking up on one another. I suspect I'm not the only one who immediately reacts negatively too being held accountable - most of us carry guilt around with us. One of the joys of good accountability is that we can say affirm one another. 

"Don't be so hard on yourself." "Did you noticed how God used you in that situation?" "That was brave." These are all affirmations I've heard used in small accountability groups. Building one another up is so important. We all remember negative things for a long time and dismiss positive things very quickly.

I've heard the maxim that one should say three positive things for every negative in lots of places. So much so that one friend advised me that if someone says three nice things to you - duck - you know what's coming next.

Hopefully we're a little bit more subtle than that! The principle is a good one and it's really important to speak out affirmation - people rarely take in subtle hints or non-verbal affirmation!

Bible passage to meditate on: James 5:13-20