My Adventures with God: 49, Light & Darkness

49: Light & Darkness

A friend from Zimbabwe once told me this illustration of Jesus' words “Light has come into the world but people preferred darkness”.

He said: Back home in Zimbabwe I would sometimes go to the kitchen in the darkness to get a midnight snack. When I reached out in the dark for the light switch and flicked it on there was an instant flurry of activity. Two sorts of activity. From the floor came the sounds and sight of furious scuttling as the cockroaches raced across the floor to find dark crevices to hide in. In the air moths fluttered frantically as they headed towards the light bulb and crowded around it.

My “meat and three vegetable” sermons were shining the light of the scriptures into the congregation at St. Luke's. Of course they had heard sermons before, probably more polished ones at that. But my early diagnosis of this church had been as the spiritual equivalent of kids on a perpetual sugar high. Hence the nutritious if unexciting diet of biblical exposition. And it was working.

One could see that the bulk of the congregation, from the very mature Christians through to the “attenders” were growing real spiritual muscle.

But … the self-styled leadership group who thought that they were more spiritual than every one else began to hate my sermons with a passion.

My early diagnosis of them had been as fake “Charismatics”. They wanted spiritual power, they wanted spiritual “show” but they did not want the real Holy Spirit to train and transform them into people who lived like Jesus and lived for Jesus. As I said earlier, they had fallen for a false gospel:

Real Gospel: Jesus loves me so much that he died for me: so He must be the most wonderful person and I want to die to sin and live for him.

False Gospel: Jesus loves me so much that he died for me: so I must be the most wonderful person and I want to go on living for me.

So near and yet so far!

Once one has spotted their false gospel and its logical flaw (and yes it did take me a long time to spot!) then the behaviour of this group all becomes explicable. Wrong, but explicable!

Let me give you some examples of the effects of preaching.

I said earlier that God offered me a really wonderful gift where my preaching could be like speaking in tongues in English. I have heard of some preachers who had the same experience but it seems to be a very rare gift. But just to set the record straight: No, it is not in-errant! I have been painfully aware of times when I put my own spin on things! But it is a million percent better than anything I could do on my own.

As with all God's gifts, it goes hand in hand with sanctification. Before I got to preach on an aspect of Christian living The Holy Spirit made me deal with it in my own life! Sometimes we had sorted it out in the past. Other times I had only given in to the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit, confessed my own sins in this area and handed that aspect of my life over to the Lordship of the Spirit a day or two before the sermon!

One great advantage of this gift was that while God only took the things I said from the database I had acquired through study or experience, he did control (when I let him!) the selection and presentation. So I could preach on problems in proper innocence – I did not know if a particular member of the congregation had exactly that problem, or if my illustration exactly fitted their case. Obviously if any human knew those things they could not honestly preach. Yet looking around the congregation as I preached I frequently saw on people's faces that the Holy Spirit had got me to say words, and applied them to bring conviction to that person. It was scary, and to use a hackneyed word, humbling! But to be used in any degree by God in his work of carrying out his saving purposes is an immense satisfaction and joy.

One time I was walking across from the vicarage to the church for the second morning service. I said in a playful sort of way “well Lord, what are we going to preach on today.” I believe God answered in my mind: “You don't want to know!”. I thought that was strange, but carried on. I was sitting listening to one of the set Bible readings being read out by the person rostered for that service when one one verse hit me like a sledgehammer – I suddenly realised the implications if I expounded that verse. I said to God: “Oh no! I'm not preaching on that!” Again I truly believe God answered in my mind: “It's that or nothing. Take your pick.”. I preached on that verse!

Going back to the light and darkness theme, here is an example.

I think I only preached once in all my time at St. Luke's on the topic of abortion. Since I took the historic Christian line rather than the “Progressive” line of modern society so enthusiastically endorsed by many church leaders, this resulted in many letters of complaint to the Archbishop!

But the example I want to give is about two women:

Mrs A came to me for prayer after the service (we offered prayer after the services and had a prayer-counselling team with members on a roster) She wanted me to pray with her. She told me that as a young woman she had got pregnant but for economic reasons she had an abortion. My sermon had convicted her that she had killed her baby and she sought confession and absolution. That day she found a peace with God that had eluded her for decades. Mrs A continued as a committed member of the congregation, and as an example of faithfulness to Christ all the time we were there.

Mrs. X assailed me at a church meeting during the week. She was furious that I had dared to preach on abortion. She, as she loudly proclaimed, had in her youth (she was an older woman) been forced to have an abortion to save her life! I pointed out to her that I had very carefully and clearly spelt out in my sermon that an abortion to save the mother's life was a case of “justifiable homicide” and no guild whatsoever attached to it. Her rage was undiminished. Although she had previously been at odds with both Shirley and Nick, from that moment she joined them in lobbying to have me sacked. Interestingly I met her again some years after my time at Vermont. In place of the strident powerful and implacable figure of the past was a hollow deflated old woman actually trying to be friendly! It struck me forcefully then how if we let the devil use us, the power and passion with which he infuses us is both destructive and transient. When we are of no further use we are discarded like an old snakeskin! So different from the results of serving God in the power of the Holy Spirit!

My Adventures with God Ch45: Early Diagnosis of Vermont Church

Ch 45 Early Diagnosis of Vermont Church.

Certainly I had been warned in a dream or vision (I don't know exactly what it was) that God was going to send me to Vermont Anglican Church, and that there was going to be a fight with the choir, but I went there determined not to be the cause of any fight!

However I was on the qui vive to determine what was the situation and spiritual health at this church.

My first impression was a purely sociological one. It was that the people in this suburb were predominantly in small business or middle management, and brought those models over into the running of the church. They wanted it organised, with planned growth targets. They also wanted to run everything themselves. In Australia we have a term “D.I.Y” meaning “do-it-yourself” which is applied to everything from home renovations to car repairs. My wife Sue called Vermont a “D.I.Y. Church”.

Now I had worked really hard in my first parish trying to encourage lay involvement in the work of the church. I had read the books and been to the conferences which at that time were all for every member ministry. So I was all for encouraging this, and indeed years later when we were building up again after the “unpleasantness” we achieved a very solid and functional form of having lots of people involved in ministry. So I was genuinely disappointed to find that this church had a dysfunctional sort of lay involvement

This church shared one of the pitfalls of D.I.Y. thinking.

D.I.Y. renovators seldom have the expert knowledge of a master builder – they just think they do! The main doers in this D.I.Y. church considered themselves experts in every field.

My fist brush with this involved the music ministry. Keen both to show my support for the people who sang and played instruments in church, and to familiarise myself with the songs for the coming Sunday I tried to attend music practice. I say tried because the moment I walked up the isle of the church I was challenged with a decidedly unfriendly: “what are you doing here?” from the music leader. When I explained, I was curtly told: “We don't want you here” As they had only electronic organ and acoustic guitars, I said I played the trumpet and would be happy to accompany them sometimes. This evoked an: “We don't need a trumpet, so-and-so is going to learn the French Horn” Of course so-and-so never did learn the French Horn!”

Their arrogant assumption was that as I came from a country parish I could know nothing about music. In reality I was used to both traditional and Charismatic music, people who had genuine expertise in music – for instance our band leader John who could write out arrangements for all the different instruments in the band – his “Onward Christian Soldiers” was brilliant; and people with genuine Spiritual gifting in music like Rosalie and Ross. By contrast this music leader at Vermont could not even read music!

My second brush was at a bible study I had organised for vestry members on ministry. I was expounding the Biblical nature of “The Church”, when one of the younger men openly challenged me. It was not a case of disagreeing with my doctrine – in fact what I was saying, had he known it, was standard teaching of the churchmanship he represented. Hewas simply disbelieving that I could possibly know any more about doctrine than he did!

It was the old D.I.Y. attitude: for renovators “what could a builder possibly know that I don't know” for churchers “what could a priest possibly know about Christianity that I don't know”. The answer in both cases is frequently: “Lots!”.

My third brush came a little later and would have been funny if it had not been so disturbing. At this time I had worked out that that the people who liked to think of themselves as the spiritual elite of the church were more like kids who had been fed high sugar diets. They were all fizzed up, but not in good health. For children the first thing to do is cut the sugar hits and give them a good balanced diet. I have always heard this referred to a “Meat and three veg (vegetable)” meal which was the traditional Australian dinner. So I resolved to give them “Meat and three veg” sermons. I didn't tickle their ears. I didn't preach psychology or other junk. I expounded the Bible reading set for the day and in amongst that taught them how to interpret scripture correctly, and cross reference with other passages. In the process I quoted a lot of scripture – but I quoted it from memory.

Some of the “spiritual elite” came and complained that I didn't quote from the Bible in my sermons! They were used to the preacher stopping, finding the passage in the Bible , and reading it out. When I quoted from memory, I assumed that the congregation had read the Bible enough themselves to at least recognise the quotation! These folk thought they were super Christians when they were actually biblically illiterate!

So that was an important diagnosis. I needed to solidly preach and expound the scriptures because, just as Paul complained to the church in Corinth, for all their pride they had not learned the ABC of the faith. Sadly in many other ways too St Luke's Vermont shared the faults of the ancient Corinthian Church.

I also found talking to some of this group that they were eager for the “gifts” of the Holy Spirit, and wanted to obtain the “power” of the Holy Spirit, but they did not want to be sanctified. That is of course impossible! The power of the Holy Spirit is first and foremost so that under the coaching of the Spirit we can fight sin in our own lives and be re-formed into the image of Christ. The gifts are not for our titillation but so that we can effectively serve others in Jesus' name. They had some very mistaken thinking!

The last thing I will mention which troubled me early was this: The people who occupied official positions of authority in the congregation were not the ones in control.

The shock of this discovery was a bit like seeing a vehicle (some garbage trucks have this) with the driver in the near-curb side of the cab. For a moment you think there is no one actually in control of it!

However this discovery continued to disturb me. Some sort of authority structure is just a sociological necessity in any human enterprise. Even pirates elect a captain! Churches have different doctrines and cultures and so have differing authority structures. But they all have some. So in any church to have the real power wielded by people other than the ones who occupy the position which should wield it should raise red flags!

It was to address this problem that I took my first definite action some six or seven months after arriving in the parish. Next post I'll say what that was and how it went!

During all this time I was not doing nothing! As well as the normal parish duties, and concentrating on “meat and three veg” sermons, I was watching, thinking, and above all praying.

For any ministers going into this sort of situation let me stress: Praying is incredibly important. Praying for wisdom – because both the problems and the solutions are rarely simple or easy to see.
Praying for your congregation individually – well, because that is your job! They are the “flock” which has been entrusted to your care, and God will demand of you an accounting for the spiritual growth and safety of every one of them. If that prospect does not fill you with a godly fear and drive you to prayer then you are in the wrong job! Also to be praying for them individually you have to be among them knowing their needs and their situation.

Praying for protection – because we only see the physical world but there are things we cannot see which can debilitate or even destroy us – so we need to run to God continually for protection, and rest safe under the shadow of his wings.

Praying for God to move mountains, because as the Bible stresses, it is not by our strength but in Gods strength that his purposes are achieved. This includes praying for God to send the human helpers he has equipped and chosen to assist in this situation. You won't be given all the skills and spiritual gifts needed – most of them will come attached to other people – one Biblical image of God's people is a body remember! 

William Wilberforce 1779 : Ch III Sect I cont.

Objection!

Objectors will reply that it is unfair to say they love so little it is obvious that they believe little.

They will say that they are just not hypocrites like those who put on an extravagant show of religious fervour. Objectors will say that these people are being over emotional. They may also say that different people express their religion differently.

They will also object that they don't want to be like the “Holy Spirit People” either the absolute fanatics of the past or the ones today who are less dangerous only because they are less successful.

“Just look” I almost hear objectors say “how their leaders use all the old tricks of deception to make money out of the gullible”. “Just look at how they peddle the Holy Spirit as an easy path to being 'healthy, wealthy and wise'. We on the other hand are not shirking doing the hard yards to remove evil from our lives and grow in virtue.”

“And talking about zeal”, the objector will say: “what about all the wars and persecutions that have come from religious zeal – is that the sort of behaviour you want!”

Objection Discussed

“That the sacred name of Religion has been too often prostituted to the most detestable purposes; that the furious bigots and bloody persecutors and self-interested hypocrites of all qualities and dimensions ... have falsely called themselves Christians … none will more readily admit than they who best understand the nature and are most concerned for the honour of Christianity. We are ready to acknowledge also without dispute, that the religious affections, and the doctrine of divine assistances, have at all times been more or less disgraced by the false pretences and extravagant conduct of wild fanatics and brain-sick enthusiasts. All this however, is only as it happens in other instances, wherein the depravity of man perverts the bounty of God. Why is it only here to be made an argument … ? ”

As the saying goes: “The best things when corrupted become the worst”. Even science has been used for evil, do we then throw out all scientific achievement?

Look again at the French Revolution: they did throw out religion on these grounds. Look what they got instead: terrible crimes all in the name of “Liberty”. So do we ban liberty next? Then we will have to ban “patriotism” too because of the crimes done in its name. Then reason, speech and every other human faculty will have to be banned: they have all been put to evil use at some time.

Many bad people have pretended to be wise and /or honest. Do we then say there is no such thing as a wise or honest person? No. So why let the objector get away with claiming that because there are evil people who pretend be Christians that there is no such thing as a Christian? Remember what Jesus said in his parable of the weeds: “ 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field, where did the weeds come from?' 'An enemy did this' he replied”.

Also the objector to religious “enthusiasm” is often just being xenophobic – poking fun at people who speak with a particular religious jargon that sounds strange, or poking fun at their different or working class culture. Be careful of intellectual or social pride! Remember Jesus talked about his truth being hid from the wise and revealed to the simple. These people who are so easy to poke fun at because they are of a different social class or sub-culture in our society may be living more moral and godly lives than the objector. The objectors need to grow up and learn to see past cultural and class appearances to what lies beneath.

My Adventures with God - An Incredible Gift

Ch.30 An Incredible Gift

In the face of all these calamities, you might ask: “How did you survive?” The answer is both simple and deep: God !

I would not wish our trials on anyone. I would not wish to re-live them. But I could not wish to have avoided them. Our experience of God through these trials is indeed more precious that any suffering. Our knowledge that God is and that God is faithful makes these seem – well I won't say “light and momentary” as St. Paul does – but the benefits were certainly so much more than worth the cost!

The other thing is that it gave God the opportunity to show that he can provide. Not only provide but provide in advance!

My first example of Gods provision is an incredible spiritual gift which made it possible for me to continue as a minister through the darkest days, a gift He has let me keep.

The story starts some months before the events of the last few posts:

While the revival was on we had been taking in church growth conferences, as well as reading avidly and listening to tapes by successful pastors and teachers we also used holidays as an opportunity to see what other churches were doing..

I had taken a group of men up to a conference in Sydney where Paul Yonggi Cho leader of the then world’s biggest church (Sunday attendance then I think 500,000) was the main speaker. It was a great conference and there were many other speakers from Australian churches (well Australian AOG churches!) talking about the problems of building up from small beginnings …. I remember one was “breaking the 200 barrier” and the organisational changes necessary as growth proceeded.

The “breaking the 200 barrier” speaker was from a church in Brisbane which had grown to an attendance of about 2,000. We were going on holiday the Brisbane, so I contacted him and asked for an opportunity to talk to him about our work at Lang Lang.

Sue and I duly went to see him. But he didn’t want to talk; he wanted to pray for us to have “the gift” (i.e. speaking in tongues – What is it with Pentecostals and tongues!). So he prayed for us. Well, Sue did but I didn’t. I think it was a sign of God’s sense of humour, but it was perplexing at the time.

So holiday over we went home. One day shortly after, I was praying and said to God “So why didn’t I get to speak in tongues” God replied “Why don’t we try English first? Give me your next sermon” My stomach knotted up.

Now as usual God had prepared the ground. I had been finding the actual composing of the sermon harder and harder. Not the background preparation, that is just rote work: Study the set bible reading; possibly translate it myself from the Greek for New Testament passages; consult the commentaries etc. You just sit down and do that part. But as for finding the words to convey something of the results of that research to my particular congregation; that part was becoming increasingly burdensome. I had been starting preparation earlier and earlier. By then I was starting next Sunday’s sermon the Monday before, and still I was drawing a blank late into Saturday night.

So although my stomach knotted at the thought of it I said “OK Lord”. I did the usual background work for all the bible readings. But I made no plans or notes about what to actually say. Yes, I was nervous,

Kooweerup was the earlier service that week (they alternated). The hymn before the sermon was ending. As usual I prayed silently during the hymn. I had no idea what I was going to do. The Hymn ended, I walked out to the lectern. I turned and faced the congregation. God said in my mind “The Epistle: Go!” I started on that theme and out of my mouth came what sounded to me a pretty good sermon on the epistle of the day.

Lang Lang service was next up. I was feeling much more confident this time. I thought I could even tweak some bits. As I faced the congregation to start the sermon God said “The Gospel this time: Go!” Oops! I didn’t have time to think! I was off talking about the Gospel reading set for the day!

It was the most phenomenal gift – actually having God “ghost write” my sermons. It is from my subsequent reading a less common spiritual gift – but tremendous fun!

That is not to say I adjusted easily to the change! I always felt “naked” going to preach, no matter how much background study I had done, without having some words or structure planned.

An early hurdle was a civic service. This was to be held in Lang Lang after a parishioner there became Shire President. All the shire notables were to be there. I was scared! God was very kind, he told me the opening few words. So I knew I had to get up there and say this opening sentence –I just didn’t know what went next! There is a joke about a politician who fires his speech-writer, only to find that for his next speech after a brilliant start when he turns the page all that is written on it are the words “you’re on your own now”. I knew that joke. I went up to the lectern with some residual trepidation!

I shouldn’t have worried. God had it all sorted. It was a really good and appropriate sermon. Better then anything I could have cooked up!

I would like to say that from this time on I simply trusted God with my sermons. But that would be stretching the truth! I still had low grade anxiety for some time when I got up to preach, and sometimes acute fears. But I did get more relaxed as time passed.

One advantage of this arrangement is that I could never be caught by surprise. If anyone said – even at the absolute last minute “can you do the talk / sermon?” it was always “no problem”.

It is to this day a gift I cherish and continually thank God for. It has let him do things using me that no amount of rhetorical skill or training could have accomplished. I will give you two examples.

I was about to enter one of the darkest periods of my life. For months on end I was unable to do even the background study for sermons. For some time I don't think I even had the energy to open my Bible. Mostly by the time I dragged myself into church on Sunday morning I hadn’t even read the scriptures set for the day. Yes, often I just heard them read out in the service then got up and preached on them. Yes, I did listen to my own sermons, and yes they were theologically sound. I was amazed to hear things come out of my mouth that I knew as I heard them were things I had learned in theological college but which I had long forgotten I ever knew.

God’s wonderful gift of preaching kept me functional as a minister through the darkest valley.

Later when things were getting better, I never quite knew who was going to be my audience. Time after time the usual ten or so were seated, then half a dozen or a dozen strangers would walk in! God would craft the sermon, the vocabulary and idiom to suit the actual audience. I heard myself do it time after time, I could tell it was totally appropriate, but I know I could not have thought it out.

It really is an incredible gift.

William Wilberforce 1779: Chapter III Section I

Chapter III : Inadequate Popular Christianity

Sect I : Scripture Doctrines

That: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

That: our blessed Lord willingly left the glory of the Father, and was made man.

That: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain.”

That: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.”

That: “The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

That: “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross.”

That: “Jesus Christ who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and also interceding for us”

That: “being reconciled to God by the death of his Son” “we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need .”

That: “(our) Father in Heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

That: “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.”

That: “(we) are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” & “the trumpet will sound (and) the dead will be raised imperishable.”

These are the leading doctrines concerning our Saviour and the Holy Spirit that are taught in the Holy Scripture. They are repeated in our liturgy. Surely everyone has heard them. If only people took them to heart and learned their power in their lives!

Most people who call themselves “Christians” have a defective faith. Surely anyone who really feels the weight of their sins jumps for joy at Jesus' invitation “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest”. But most people think their sins are so trivial that they set a low value on what Jesus offers. It is amazing how different the strong language of the Scripture the creeds and our articles of religion is from the wishy-washy sentiments of many so-called Christians.

You may object: “The general population yes, but not the church-people surely.” I say: “yes even them”. You may reply: “How do you know – you can't read their minds.” Jesus said: “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” So the test is: how do church people talk when we lead the conversation to Jesus' life and teachings – if you can actually get them to talk about it? I'll tell you: they fluff around so much that it is obvious they are not accustomed to thinking about it at all. They show no passion about the fact that he did all this for us. No loving wonder at him who “loved us and gave himself for us” and who “was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification.”

But these great truths – even though preachers so often neglect them – shine out of our liturgy. Despite this, people hear them and even repeat them in the liturgy just as though they were only old fashioned fairy tales! Once church is over they are dismissed from thought. How can this be! What Jesus did for us – delivery from eternal misery and the gift of eternal joy and a crown that never fades – this should make anyone who receives it absolutely bursting with love and gratitude. They shouldn't be able to stop talking about it. It should be a delight to tell of his kindness. It should be a joy to worship him. Caring for others he loves should be our natural disposition.

So what does this tell us about the inner faith of most church goers?

They love little that we can say they believe equally little.

The doctrines of the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life they treat even worse. They don't seem to even believe in the Holy Spirit. They also seem to think that sanctification is so easy that they don't need any help from God.

Next: Objection Discussed & Answered