Postscript to the Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Isaac

I've been preparing a sermon the last couple of days on Gen 17 to give next week at RUCU main meeting. One thing I never pondered the significance of when I wrote this post, was the name of Abraham's miraculously born son: Isaac.

So what?! I hear you cry.

And I understand your cry. In modern Western culture we love to choose nice names for our kids, even ones that are profound. However, we don't normally give them a name that tracks either our own life story or, even more spookily, prophetically sums up what their life would be about. But that is exactly what goes on in the strange world of the Bible, and Isaac's name falls into this prophetic second category.

Isaac means "He laughs." It's a mocking kind of laughter. But that begs the question: Who's laughing and why?

God is laughing. He is laughing at Abraham's attempt (in his puny OAP strength) to try and help God fulfil God's promises to him, (by "puny attempt" I'm refering to the birth of Ishmael)

Moreover, through the birth and life of Isaac, God would further show off the great theme of history: his laughter at human choice and human wisdom, in it's effort to try and set itself up in God's place do what God does, rather than just trusting him.

Isaac's life is a picture of Christ's. Through the eternal Son, God the Father laughs at the so called wisdom of the world in trying to set itself up in God's place.

Abraham couldn't help but laugh at the incredulity of God's promise to him, but God had the last laugh in his life and God will have the last laugh in history, as he vindicates his choice and his wisdom before the eyes of all people.

On Escaping Pin Tails and Donkeys and Other Things

Those of you who live in Reading East like me, may have noticed that there's a new independent candidate in the running as of yesterday. If anyone knows anything about her or what she is standing for, do let me know. So far, the mighty Google has given me nothing.

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If you're like me and trying desperately to move yourself from an eenie-meenie-mynee-mo approach to your ballot paper in the forthcoming General Election to one that feels somewhat more purposeful, then heres some thing that may help...

Whilst the Ends may be the same (at least in the rhetoric) the Means are very different. To that end, the BBC have a nifty little site where you can compare the major means of the major parties. I'm hoping there'll be enough detail there to help me cut through the utopian rhetoric and platitudes and get a real whiff of where the main parties really are.

There are 15 days to go (at time of writing) and I aim to look at 1-2 issues a day (starting with Key Priorities) so that my brain doesn't get too fried in any one sitting, although I'm probably hopelessly optimistic about that.

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In other news, will Christians swing the UK vote? The journalists give their view here. Of course, the article makes no reference to the power of prayer. It has never been an odds and numbers game.

Whatever happens on 6th May, we will get the government we deserve, if for no other reason they are the product of our national spirit. If they are sound, it is because the nation is. If they are compromised, it is because we as a nation are. That's not a call to cynicism, but rather a call to the kind of prayer that flows from the kind of heart that's full of grace.

All the Trinity in 1 Kings 19

Given John 1:1-18, how do I read 1 Kings 19?

Here's my starter for 10:

Key:

Father

Son

Holy Spirit

The Trinity

And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him."

Full text here.

Don't know about you, but I get a sense of deja-vu.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Isaac

Much of Issac's life is a beautiful picture of the Trinitarian gospel. Consider the following:

His birth is foretold a long time before it happens.

His conception is miraculous.

He is persecuted by his older brother who was not born according to the promise of God.

He is offered up by his father as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. No one but father and son are involved in this.

Isaac obediently and submissively follows his father, carrying the wood for his death.

He is received back from the dead (if only metaphorically) and reunited with his father, due to the intervention of the Angel of the LORD.

Afterwards, when Isaac is of age, his father Abraham charges his servant to go and fetch his son a bride.

The servant diligently goes far away from their place of sojourning to their own people.

He finds Rebekah and tells her all that his master has sent him to do and that if she is willing, she will become the bride of his master's son.

The servant lavishes his Master's gifts on Rebekah and her family.

She agrees to go to Isaac without delay and travel to Abraham country - the land of Isaac's inheritance, and they enjoy marital union for the rest of their days.

Whilst Abraham had other sons, Isaac was his only heir.

Consider then, Jesus...

His birth is foretold a long time before it happens.

His conception is miraculous.

He is persecuted by his own brothers, the Jews, who refuse to recognise him as the offspring of promise.

He is lifted up by his Father on the cross at Mount Moriah. Father, Son and Spirit deal with the wrath of God for sin amongst themselves. No one else is involved.

Jesus willingly and obediently submits to his father's will, carrying the wooden cross beam on his own back to the place of his execution.

He is raised from the dead and returns to his Father. No metaphor here!

The Father sends the Holy Spirit, to get for his Son a bride, a people to be his very own.

The Spirit goes from Heaven, the place of their sojourning into the world.

He finds a bride - the Church - a people gathered in from all the nations, testifying of all the father has sent him say and that if she is willing, she will become the bride of his eternal Son.

The Spirit lavishes all good gifts from the Father on the Church, betrothing her to the Son and preparing her for him.

The church responds quickly and desires eagerly to be with Christ throwing off all known worldly comforts and familiarities in order to be found united with him in the New Creation of the Father - that is the land of the Son's Inheritance - and enjoy union with them for eternity.

God the Father has no other heir in creation other than his Son. There is no other way to enter into that blessing but to be found in the Bride of Christ - the Church, and being joined to Christ.

This is the Bible plot-line in an easy to understand, story-fied nutshell.

Canvassed

The Today Programme had a nice little piece on the potential benefits of tonight's TV debate between the three main party leaders.

Last night, I had my first proper foray into Election '10 when a Conservative Party rep knocked on the door and asked me who I would be voting for. No doubt the rest will be knocking soon.

When it comes to which party to vote for, I feel a little bit like this guy - confused an bewildered.

As Mary Beard said, all parties are essentially the same in their vision of prosperity, security and fairness for all (who would dare argue against those kind of catch all ideals?)

How much they differ in their means of bringing us those ideals I don't know, and if the truth be told I ain't got the appetite to go wading through all the spin only to find myself at the foot of a mountain of small print that leaves even the best-intentioned and well-educated punter bewildered. (for example see this video from 5:11 onwards). Even if I did manage to cram up on the detail, I'm not sure I'd come away much the wiser.

So what's to do?

Given that I haven't yet identified one issue from any of the parties that would either stop me from voting for them or mesmerize me so much that I couldn't help but pledge them my unswerving allegiance, I am leaning towards going on what I feel about my local candidates - irrespective of their political colour.

I would love to attend a hustings, so if you know of any going on in the Reading East area, then let me know!! I'm pretty sure if I have seen our candidates face to face, I will have a much better idea who to vote for and a much less apathetic reaction to the media election merry-go-round.

So I will endeavour to engage in this election. I chose to encourage politicians in the good, to hold them to account in the bad. I chose not to set my hope on a (selfish) vision of utopia (for me and my mates) in this life and I will fight my tendancy to have naive and infantile expectations of politicians that let me abdicate my own responsibility both for my own destiny and those around me.

Whatever the future holds post 6th May, if you're a Christian, commit yourself to a faithful creator and continue to do what is good by doing justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with Jesus.

Work for the peace of the community in which you live, for in its peace (lit. shalom) you find your own.

Solomon's Temple

This morning I read about Solomon's construction of the Lord's Temple. Here's a video to help you get your head round what it could have looked like.

(I have never seen the front of the temple depicted as being so high - not sure what to think on that one, but it's worth a watch, even if it sounds like you have stumbled across a clip of Superman in the opening music.)



Click on the picture and scroll down for the key to the numbers.

Jesus Was A Middle Class Architect?

The following article appeared in the Daily Mail last week. It was brought to my attention by my favourite of all Radio 4's satirical comedy offerings.

Whilst I don't like the essentially political undertones of the article, i.e. casting Jesus as a mere social maverick/reformer rather than Son of God, I think there may be something in it for the following reasons:

1. The Hebrew word used in Proverbs 8:30, speaks of Christ as a master workman/architect of everything. So it seems to me eminently appropriate in the prophetic symmetry of God that he should mirror this reality by being the son of one in his earthly life too.

2. Whilst Jesus was the Son of God and full of the Holy Spirit, he would, in his humanity, have had to study the scriptures (and his two times table) like anyone else. (For more on that, click here.) Psalms 1 and 119 are prophetic about Christ in this regard, because he loves the law of his Father more than anyone ever could or ever will and shows it in his obedience. To love it, he had to know it and that meant study - lots of study. At least 10,000 hours! ;-)

Now it needs to be stated that this is all an argument from silence and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, but the question remains: is Bradford wrong or is he helping to cut through some of our sentimental myth making about blond haired, blue-eyed, meek and mild boy Jesus?

I personally think he is onto something, but then you may prove me otherwise.

Comments are open...!

:-)