Friday 29 August 2008 - Ask for what you need

DAILY BYTE

As we conclude our devotions this week, our focus today is on the word ‘Give’. Give us this day our daily bread.

In teaching us to pray, and indeed to live, Jesus is saying, ‘Ask. Ask boldly. Ask directly. Ask persistently, without embarrassment or apology. God wants us to ask, because in asking, simply and honestly and even shamelessly, something wonderful happens. In asking we open ourselves to the one we ask in a quite vulnerable way, because they can respond by saying either ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’

How different to the usual manipulations and schemes and hidden agendas that are used to get things in this world. Like the little boy who was saying his prayers, and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Please can I have a bicycle for my birthday.’ His mother said to him, ‘You don’t have to shout, God isn’t deaf.’ The little boy replied, ‘I know, but granny is!’

How different is Jesus’ teaching, instructing us to be clear and direct in our request. ‘Give us this day our daily bread.

One of my favourite descriptions of prayer comes from Phillips Brooks who once said:

Prayer is not the overcoming of God’s reluctance, it’s taking hold of God’s willingness.

Jesus said, ‘Ask and you will receive.’ Or as he puts it in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ What would it mean for you to take him at his word, and to give it a try?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness; answer me in your righteousness.
I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
Answer me quickly, O Lord. Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust.
Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Amen
(Based on Ps 143)

SCRIPTURE READING

Matthew 7:7-11

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Thursday 28 August 2008 - Us

DAILY BYTE

The third particular point in this line of the Lord’s Prayer I’d like us to reflect on is the word ‘us’. Give us this day our daily bread.

The focus of the Lord’s Prayer is never selfish. God’s concern for our wellbeing, for the meeting of our essential needs, is not a concern for us alone, but a concern for all people. It’s a wide concern that we’re called to share when we pray, “Give us...”

People often say, “If God provides daily for people’s wellbeing, why is it that about 30 000 people die of starvation every day?”

To which the simple response is this, “Is there enough food in the world to feed everyone every day?” And the answer to that question is ‘Yes there is.’ Clearly the problem does not lie with an inadequate supply, but rather with inadequate, unfair and unjust distribution. Clearly, the problem does not lie with God, but with people, and our failure to truly understand what it means to be bound together in a common humanity.

So when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are effectively offering ourselves in collaboration with the cause of justice and fairness and equality. And through us, God’s provision into the lives of others can flow.

There’s an ancient Jewish legend about two brothers who were farmers. They lived next to each other on adjacent farms. The one brother was married with children, the other was single.

When it was time for the harvest, each brother gathered the grain from his own fields and placed it in his barn. But then the unmarried brother thought to himself, “I am single with few responsibilities, whereas my brother has many mouths to feed. Tonight I’ll take some of the grain in my barn and secretly put it in his barn.”

At the same time the married brother was thinking to himself, “I have the joy of a wife and children, whereas my brother has nothing other than his harvest. Tonight, I’ll take some of my grain and leave it in his barn.”

That night, as each of those brothers carried out their plans in secret, they met. And according to the legend, the place they met was the very place where the Temple was later built, because that’s where heaven was nearest the earth.

It is this kind of awareness of others, and sacrificial commitment to their wellbeing, that will enable us to be used mightily by God in God’s great work of providence in the lives of others. What a privilege, and joy, and delight for our lives to find such rich meaning and significance, and to become the very place where heaven touches earth.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Thank you Lord for all those who have given generously of themselves for my benefit. I remember by name before you today those who have invested in me with great sacrifices of love.... May the witness of their lives, and the inspiration of their generosity be an example and encouragement to me in the way in which I live my life. Today Lord, show me one person whom I can love in a similar way. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

1 John 3:16-18

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?

Little children, let us love, not in words or speech, but in truth and action.

Wednesday 27 August 2008 - This day

DAILY BYTE

Today, as we continue to work backwards through the line of the Lord’s Prayer that we’re focusing on this week, we come to the words ‘this day’. Give us this day our daily bread.

The point here is revealed most clearly in the story of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, being fed every day by the manna that fell from heaven. For them it was quite literally a daily provision. They were instructed not to hoard any of it, but to trust the fresh provision of God each day. Those who disobeyed this instruction found that the hoarded manna went bad and got maggots. In other words, hoarding stinks – it still does.

The lesson from the Israelites is this – placing your trust in God, not just every once in a while when times are tough, but as a continual disposition of your heart, allows you to experience the constant provision of God’s goodness and grace. You see, whenever we look to God for what we need, we discover that God has already poured out unbelievable blessings in a most generous way. But so often we are blind to recognizing this. By actively placing our trust in God as a daily disposition of the heart, we come to see in a whole new way what God is really like, and how God continues to give with glorious and magnificent generosity. And Jesus says, ‘Let this happen every day.’

Now some people miss the point of this and think that this means that you should not make sensible provision for the future, like saving towards retirement or for your children’s education. That’s not radical faith, that’s just silly. The point is not to release us from our God-given responsibilities to plan wisely and to be prudent. Our own responsibility, discipline and common-sense are some of the important ways through which God provides for our needs. The point here is to be released from the delusion of thinking that our security lies in our own plans and provisions, because ultimately our hope and strength lies in God alone.

As we take this more and more to heart, so we can let go of obsessing endlessly about the future, constantly worrying about it. Instead, we can look around at this present moment and recognize God’s goodness to us here and now. And as this becomes more and more a part of our daily experience, so we can entrust tomorrow to God, confident that when tomorrow comes we will encounter the same good and gracious God who generously gives himself to us today.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, it is hard not to worry about the future. It is hard to live fully in the present, trusting in the sufficiency of your provision for us here and now. And yet, as we think back on your faithfulness and goodness, we know that you are an utterly trustworthy God. You never abandon us or forsake us. Help us to look to the immediacy of your presence and your provision moment by moment, and to be joyfully content with that. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

Exodus 16:13-20

In the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it they said, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was.

Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather as much of it as each of you needs…’” The Israelites did, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it those who had gathered much did not have too much, and those who had gathered little did not have too little, they gathered as much as each one needed.

And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning; and it bred maggots and became foul.

Tuesday 26 August 2008 - Daily Bread

DAILY BYTE

This week we are considering the phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’. I’d like us to work backwards through the phrase, and so today we begin with the last words in the line, which are ‘daily bread’. It seems pretty straightforward as to what this means, but if we take a closer look at the original Greek some fascinating insights emerge.

In the original Greek, the word that is used for bread is the usual word artos. But the word that is translated ‘daily’ is very unusual. It’s the word epiousion. It’s so unusual in fact that it’s called a hapax legomenon, which is a technical term used by scholars to refer to a word that only occurs once in the written record of a language. This word epiousion only occurs in the Lord’s Prayer, in the parallel accounts of Matthew and Luke, but nowhere else in the entire New Testament or indeed in any ancient Greek literature. And so its exact meaning is unclear.

It’s made up of two words – the preposition epi which means ‘over’ or ‘above’ and the word ousion which means essence, or substance. And so one plausible interpretation of the phrase is that the phrase ‘daily bread’ refers to the bread that covers or caters for the very essence of our existence. In other words, the bread that meets our essential needs.

This means, first and foremost, physical food, or perhaps we could say ‘material provision.’ The point is that our physical wellbeing matters to God, and Jesus teaches us to pray for these needs to be met.

But elsewhere Jesus is also clear that our essential needs are not limited to material needs. On one occasion he said, ‘One does not live by bread alone’. In John 6 he distinguishes between the food that perishes and the food that endures for eternal life, and then goes on to say, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.’

The point is this: God has an active interest and deep concern for the things that we need most of all. This includes our material wellbeing - whether we have an adequate roof over our heads, and food to eat, and clothes to wear. But God’s deep concern for us extends way beyond our material wellbeing, to the things of the soul that make for life in all of its fullness.

In the light of this there are two simple questions I’d ask you to reflect on today. The first is this: Do you really believe that God is concerned about your wellbeing, and is able to provide the things that you need most of all?

And the second question: Do you pray in a way that expresses what you believe?

The invitation throughout this week’s devotions, which arises directly out of this phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, is for us to be bold in the way in which we come before God to ask for the very things that we need most of all.

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO

Forgive me Lord for the times when I have limited the gospel to narrow religious categories, forgetting that you came so that we might know the fullness of life in every part of our lives. Thank you Jesus that there is no hunger within me that you cannot truly satisfy. Come and fill the empty places within me. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

John 6:35, 48-51

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Monday 25 August 2008 - Tough Times

DAILY BYTE

These are tough times economically. All of us, I’m sure, are painfully aware of the rising costs of food and fuel that are putting most household budgets under severe strain. For those who are paying off a bond, or a car, or have some other form of debt, the steadily rising interest rates over the past couple of years have really put on the squeeze. For most people, the levels of disposable income in their pockets today is significantly less than what it was a year or two ago.

According to the old saying - money talks. Unfortunately, all it seems to be saying right now is ‘Bye bye!’

In the light of this situation, I’d like to ask you this important question, “If you’re really feeling the financial pinch right now. If you’re finding that there’s a whole lot more month at the end of your money. If your bank manager’s moaning and your credit cards are groaning and you’re singing each morning ‘I owe I owe so it’s off to work I go’. Or if you don’t even have a job to go to or a stable source of income – the question I want to ask you is this, ‘Where do you go to deal with this?’”

In your mind, where do you go? To fantasies of winning the lotto? Or maybe in your mind you frantically chase down dark alleyways of anxiety until you hit the dead-end of despair. Or maybe your mind simply slips into the slough of resigned hopelessness and utter dejection.

In your behaviour, where do you go? To the bottle? To the casino? To shady business dealings that falsely promise a way out?

In tough times like these, where do you go?

The good news is that there is a compass and a map that Jesus holds before us that can help us navigate through tough times like these. A compass and map that point us to the One who is able to deal decisively with whatever it is that we are facing.

It’s the compass and map of the Lord’s Prayer that teaches us how to pray, and in so doing teaches us how to live.

Over the past five or six weeks we’ve been exploring this prayer in the devotions of the Barking Dog Collar. You may have noticed that up to this point the entire focus of the prayer has been upon God. Our Father, in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This primary focus is important – for prayer and for life. Jesus is saying that our fundamental departure point in everything should be God – honouring God’s name; seeking God’s kingdom; striving for God’s will to be done. According to Jesus, when the point of departure is right, everything follows in its rightful place from that. Including our own needs.

In our devotions this week we discover that the first need of ours that is focused on in the Lord’s Prayer is our need for bread, for physical sustenance, for the material necessities of life. The more “spiritual” issues of forgiveness, temptation and deliverance from evil are still coming in the prayer, but first up – it’s bread.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

In tough times like these, this line in the Lord’s Prayer cuts through any religious mumbo-jumbo and touches us where it really matters. It’s the grace of God declaring that EVERYTHING about our lives matters to God and has a place within God’s loving purposes for our lives.

In our devotions this week we’ll be exploring this line from the Lord’s Prayer in greater depth. May these devotions point all of us to the One who offers real hope and strength, whatever the particular economic circumstances may be that we are facing right now.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Thank you Lord that there is absolutely nothing that can happen to me that is beyond your knowledge or your care. Amen

SCRIPTURE READING

Matthew 6:31-33

Do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the pagans who strive for all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Friday 22nd August - Heaven Meeting Earth

DAILY BYTE

Over the last few weeks we have been slowly journeying our way through the Lord’s Prayer, stopping virtually at each sentence to appreciate the sheer depth of meaning that is there. However, you may have noticed a common theme woven into each sentence so far – one that emerges if we look again at the prayer as a whole.

We pray ‘OUR Father’ not MY father. We pray ‘hallowed be YOUR name,’ not hallowed be MY name. We say ‘YOUR kingdom come,’ meaning my kingdom GO. And then we say ‘YOUR will be done,’ we don’t ask for our will to be done.

Jesus teaches us that prayer is not about aligning God’s will with our own, rather it is about aligning our will with his.

And when we do that, when we pray like that, when we live like that, then something beautiful happens. Heaven finds earth.

For ‘it will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ remember?

Like when Mother Theresa was still alive. We would see images of one of the most famous woman in the world, bending down to spoon porridge into the mouth of a little child in a miserable Calcutta slum. God’s will being done. Heaven meeting earth in a moment of profound beauty.

Or like the time Martin Luther King Jnr was preaching and mid-way through the service, he heard news that his house had just been firebombed. He rushed home to find his family shaken but safe. He then addressed an angry crowd gathered outside his home, bent on revenge and already armed with bats and knives and guns. He urged them not to respond with violence, but to follow Jesus in his way of loving enemies. God’s will. Heaven meeting earth.

Or like some ordinary person ... maybe you ... reaching out to another in response to God. Reaching out beyond yourself, seeking to love as you have been loved. Once more, God’s will being fulfilled and heaven meeting earth.

This is why the very centre of the Lord’s Prayer is asking for God’s will to be done because it is the very centre of what is means to follow Jesus.

For let us not forget that when Jesus prayed before his crucifixion ‘Your will be done,’ this was not stoic resignation, it was not ‘what will be, will be’. Rather it was ‘O God, I trust in your love so much, that I will choose your way of love even if it costs me my life.’

For God does not will suffering on us, but he does expect us to courageously follow his way of love even if that leads to suffering.

True to his prayer, Jesus did not back down from loving to the point that he spent his last ragged, dying breath serving the cause of love ... ‘Father, forgive them,’ he said, ‘For they know not what they do.’

Yes, in that moment heaven truly met earth. And whenever a disciple of Jesus, one of us, searches our hearts and struggles our way through these words – ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ – well, that is a moment where heaven kisses earth within us.

And it is beautiful to God.

PRAY AS YOU GO

God of Grace, may you help us to freely choose your will as our way of life. May your will be done, and may heaven meet earth within us all. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Matthew 26. 42 NRSV

Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

Thursday 21st August - Our Will

DAILY BYTE

So if God is not behind absolutely every human moment, including those of suffering, does this mean he lacks power? Not at all! God is all-powerful; it is just that love – the very nature of love – causes us to give up power. Love brings with it vulnerability.

I am not the biggest guy around, but I am certainly far bigger than my daughter of 2 years and my son of 4 months. In fact, I am willing to bet that my son will have to wait until he is at least 5 or 6 years old before he can beat me in an arm wrestle. Yet, my love for them means that there is nothing I would hate more than to use my power over them.

My love for them means I would do anything to see them reach their full potential. My love for them means I would never force a relationship with me on them no matter how much their rejection hurt. My love for them means my heart now resides outside of my body with them. This is why, little as they may be and far weaker than me, they could still hurt me like no other because I love them so much.

We see this truth in God becoming so vulnerable because of his love for us that he took on human flesh and frailties, so vulnerable that he shared in our suffering and wept our tears, so vulnerable that nails were driven through his flesh. Let’s be clear that there is no power in earth, heaven or hell big enough to force God to the cross. Instead, God chose to love us so much that he even gave up his life for us.

This incredible truth is exactly why we can trust the will of God so absolutely. But here’s the thing – because of our free will - we can actually block the will of God. Again, this does not mean that God is not powerful, just that God will never remove our freedom to choose because that would mean he has to stop loving, and that God won’t do.

Our wills are given to us to exercise freely. Like Adam and Eve, we can assert them noisily and brashly, foolishly choosing what is beneath us and thereby diminishing ourselves. After all, who hasn’t been there or done that?

Or we could fall asleep at the wheel like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane (see today’s focus reading). Where we stop caring, and lose all passion and purpose. I don’t know about you but this lack of will for good is very common to me – I can be like a lazy, old dog sleeping by the fireside, forgetting that what is at stake is huge – it is heaven meeting earth through the choices I make.

Or we can choose, like Christ, to say not my will but yours be done O’ God.

For we can’t truly pray ‘Father,’ unless we are striving to live as his children.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God, may you help me to recognise how important my free will is, and may you help me to make constant, daily choices that reflect your will being done above my own. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Matthew 26. 36-41 MSG

Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, "Stay here while I go over there and pray." Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he plunged into an agonizing sorrow. Then he said, "This sorrow is crushing my life out. Stay here and keep vigil with me."
Going a little ahead, he fell on his face, praying, "My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this. But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?"
When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, "Can't you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert; be in prayer so you don't wander into temptation without even knowing you're in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there's another part that's as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire."

Wednesday 20th August 2008 - What is the will of God?

DAILY BYTE

We claim some terrible things in the name of God.

Not so long ago there was an international furore when Sharon Stone said that China’s recent earthquake was cosmic, ‘karmic’ payback for their oppression of Tibet. We hear of so much violence, revenge and punishment being claimed as the will of God that frankly it makes me feel queasy.

AIDS is punishing homosexuals and Hurricane Katrina was the will of God for sinful New Orleans. On a personal level we often think the same way – if something bad happens to us we blame God, wondering what on earth we have done wrong to deserve this!

But is God really like a chess player?

Is each movement in the great human drama directly made by God? Does God use us like pawns on a board to fulfil a plan, and so no matter how devastating and painful an event is, it is brought to us as part of this plan?

“Que sera sera,” we say in response, “what will be, will be.”

I want you to help me illustrate exactly what this point of view is saying. Walk up to a work colleague or family member, lift your hand to their eye level, extend your index finger ... and then poke them in the eye! If they complain, just shrug your shoulders, nod wisely, and say, “Ah my friend, but it was the will of God.”

At the very least that should lead to an interesting theological debate!

Is every hardship in life willed by God? Does every moment where we get poked in the eye part of a plan?

This idea of God as a chess player, that he is behind our suffering does not do justice at all to how God works his will into our world. This is not the loving God that Jesus came to tell us about.

God is always loving and does not will suffering or hardship on us anymore than you would on your own children. However, for true love to exist there HAS to be free choice, otherwise we really would be nothing more than pawns in a game. And for free choice to be real there have to be viable alternatives to God – there has to be consequences and the potential for evil.

The Bible explains that there is a fallenness to this whole planet caused by some of the choices we have exercised as part of our free will. Bad things happen to good people because of this, and not because of God.

God is not behind every bullet fired, nor is his hand on ever plunging knife, or on every steering wheel going tragically wrong. God did not will xenophobic violence, AIDS, or any personally traumatic life incident you may have suffered. Today’s prayer and reading will be replaced by the following quote found in a book by Adam Hamilton which you may find helpful.

“Suffering is not God’s desire for us, but it occurs in the process of life. Suffering is not given to teach us something, but through it we may learn. Suffering is not given to punish us, but sometimes it is the consequence of our sin and poor judgement. Suffering does not occur because our faith is weak, but through it our faith may be strengthened. God does not depend on human suffering to achieve his purposes, but sometimes through suffering his purposes are achieved. Suffering can either destroy us, or it can add meaning to our life.”

Tuesday 19th August - Trust

DAILY BYTE

Now, because it is all about loving relationship, we need to know that whenever we pray this line of the Lord’s Prayer, we can trust the will of God implicitly.

For until we know we are loved by God, we will always struggle to ask for God’s will to be done because we will find it hard to trust what exactly that may imply for us.

In fact, I have to say that the most common question I get asked as a pastor is: “What exactly is the will of God for my life?” Most of the time, I can’t answer that because we all have our own unique stamp to our calling and life direction. It is something that has to be discerned, tested and wrestled with.

Recent archaeology has discovered something fascinating about the Temple in Jerusalem. The ancient Temple was raised above the rest of the city meaning that from some directions it would be quite a steep ascent to its entrance. Most especially the southern steps from the Tyropean Valley, which entailed a steep climb of several hundred feet.

It has been discovered that these particular steps were an absolute engineering nightmare. The rise of the step varied by several inches while the stretch varied by as much as a couple of feet. This led archaeologists to wonder if the design engineers of these steps were either incompetent or intoxicated!

Yet, ancient Rabbis have an explanation for the design of these steps that is rooted in spiritual formation. They explained that the engineers knew to approach the Temple hurriedly, and without thought, would be spiritually ill-advised.

You must approach the Temple as you would approach God and his will ... with a deep awareness of the journey.

Knowing that just as no two steps are the same, so there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach in respect to God’s will for us. The uneven steps to God’s presence were a reminder that we can’t bluster up brashly thinking that we understand it all before we even get there.

However, to not go up at all, to not seek God’s particular will for our lives just because the journey is hard, would be equally foolish. For there are certain overarching principles that can be used as compass and map in negotiating the uncertain steps of doing God’s will.

Some of these principles were alluded to yesterday: for example, that God created us in love and by love and for love meaning that love is always central his will. This also means that relationships and serving and giving are God’s will rather than power and achievements and getting.

For as much as the journey may be crazily haphazard at times, and we may slip and stumble our way over missteps, we can always trust the will of God because we know that its essence is always loving and good.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving Lord, there is so much I do not understand in life, so I ask that you may help me to trust in the goodness of your will even amidst the confusion that often dominates my landscapes. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Monday 18th August - Will!

DAILY BYTE

‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’

This line in the Lord’s Prayer contains a powerful image meant to capture our imaginations: That when God’s will is done by ordinary individuals like you and me, then something of heaven meets something of earth.

Now this is by no means a new thought invented by Jesus - that the heavens and earth would meet when God’s will is done. The ancient Jews believed the Temple, quite literally, was a physical place where heaven and earth integrated.

They knew that even the very best of them was bound to mess up at times and so couldn’t keep the Law perfectly. This is why they believed that the Temple with its systems and structures, daily worship and regular sacrifices, kept the Law perfectly and therefore did God’s will perfectly on behalf of the whole nation.

This perfection meant the Temple was a place of immense divine presence. It was where heaven and earth kissed, and the whole world was made lighter for the experience.

However, Jesus didn’t necessarily see the Temple in this way. He agreed that doing God’s will was a moment where heaven would meet earth, (we see that in the Lord’s Prayer), but Jesus consistently taught that good deeds of keeping Law was not central to God’s will.

Rather relationship is.

Loving and vulnerable intimacy with God and through God with others. God’s will is not about buildings but people, it’s not about outward religious practices but relationship, and then, and let’s be clear about this, it is about the deeds that flow out of that relationship.

This relationship with God is opened up to us through Christ. This is why Jesus spoke of tearing down the Temple and replacing it in 3 days. He was teaching that God’s will shall be done and heaven would meet earth not through systems and structures, but through a loving relationship with God.

How do conversations about the will of God make you feel?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving and Gracious God, through this week’s devotions may you open us up to your will. May you teach us obedience and courage. May you fire up our spiritual imaginations to see the endless possibilities of heaven meeting earth through our relationship with you. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Matthew 6 : 9-10 NRSV

Pray then this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Friday 15 August - The politics of God’s kingdom

DAILY BYTE

As we have looked at different parables of the kingdom this week, the closing observation I would like to make is this: the kingdom of God has radical political implications that have a profound impact upon us individually and collectively as we live out our lives within this world.

There is no denying it – the kingdom of God stands in sharp and direct opposition to the kingdoms of this world. And so when we pray, ‘Your kingdom come’, we are effectively entering the political fray and daring to challenge the status quo of our world.

In Mark 1:14 we read about the start of Jesus’ public ministry in which he announces that the Kingdom of God is near. But interestingly the passage is situated in an explicitly political context, in that it begins with these words, “After John was put in prison.”

John, the forerunner who had been sent to prepare the way for Jesus, had been arrested. This tells us that he was seen not as some religious nutter living out in the desert, wearing camel-hair underpants and eating grasshoppers. No, he was seen as a threat to the political establishment. His presence and the message he proclaimed were profoundly challenging to the status quo – and so the prevailing political powers of the day, deeply threatened, silenced him instead.

His arrest forms the backdrop for the start of Jesus’ ministry, and provides the clearest indication of the nature of the kingdom that Jesus came to inaugurate. A kingdom that stood in sharp and direct opposition to the kingdoms of this world.

That’s how it began. And that’s how it continued throughout Jesus’ ministry. And that’s how it culminated at the cross, with the political execution of a young man charged with sedition.

It was Karl Marx who said famously that ‘religion is the opiate of the masses’. In other words, religion dulls people to the painful realities of this life by promising them spiritual release from this world. But nothing could be further from the truth of what the Kingdom of God is like, as revealed to us by Jesus. The kingdom Jesus came to bring near is not some airy-fairy, spiritualised escapist fantasy – but tackles the kingdoms of this world head on.

And so when we pray “Your kingdom come”, there is something incredibly risky, subversive and downright dangerous about that. For one thing we’re praying that all of our earthly systems should be displaced and brought under God’s rule. For another, we’re praying that God’s radical alternatives would infiltrate every aspect of our lives. As we pray, ‘Your kingdom come’, we’re aligning our lives with the redemptive purposes of God in history, and we’re declaring that our ultimate allegiance belongs to God.

Praying in this way may seem so futile in the face of the mighty kingdoms and powers of this world. From the terrifying military-industrial complex in America and its never-ending war on terror, to the belligerence of Robert Mugabe, genocide in Darfur, corruption and evasion and political manipulations at the highest levels of our civil society, a heartless AIDS policy, and the shameful reality of xenophobia – there is much in our country and world that seems insurmountable. Beyond hope.

Except for one thing. There is another kingdom not of this world but at work within it. There’s another reality, another rule, another throne – infiltrating our lives, individually and collectively - bringing light to the darkness, hope to despair, and life where before there was none.

And every time we earnestly pray ‘Your kingdom come’, we are adding to the groundswell of grace and the rolling mass-action of our God that will ultimately heal and transform our world.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Kingdom of Christ for thy coming we pray
Hasten O Father the dawn of the day
When this new song thy creation shall sing
‘Satan is vanquished and Jesus is king!’ Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

Mark 1:14

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said, “the kingdom of God is near...”

Thursday 14 August - The Cellist of Sarajevo

DAILY BYTE

Over the past couple of days we’ve explored some of Jesus’ parables of the kingdom. Today, I’d like to share with you a true story that I think can stand as a modern-day parable of the kingdom.

It’s about a young man who has become known as the cellist of Sarajevo. This is his story:

On the 27 May 1992, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, a mortar shell exploded in the streets of Sarajevo, during the bloody Bosnian War. The shell instantly killed 22 people who were queuing for bread outside a bakery, and left a massive crater in the street.

The gruesome incident was witnessed by a young man by the name of Vedran Smailovic. He was a musician, a cellist in the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra. The next day, 28 May 1992, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon Vedran Smailovic, dressed formally in evening tails as he would for a concert performance, took his cello down into the crater, and started to play.

For 22 days, one for each of the people killed, Smailovic played the same piece of music at the same time in the same spot – even as bullets and mortar shells continued to rain down on Sarajevo.

He played to honour the memory of those who had died. He played for human dignity and to highlight the senseless waste of war. He played to fill a monstrous time and place with a little beauty, even if only for a moment. He played to give expression to the seemingly futile hope that joy and laughter and singing and dancing would once again be known in those desolate streets. He played amidst the rubble and ruins of his bombed-out city because something within him compelled him to play - a dissonant solo against a backdrop of death, a defiant witness in celebration of life.

The piece he chose to play was Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor. It’s a moving piece of music that has a remarkable story of its own. The arrangement that is played and popularly known today comes from a manuscript fragment found amidst the ruins of Dresden after the Second World War. Music that miraculously survived the horror of the firebombing that obliterated much of that city and the cultural treasures it contained.

As the haunting strains of this piece sounded from Vedran Smailovic’s cello, who would have imagined that these tremoring notes would even be heard amidst the hideous screeching of falling bombs, the anguished screams of bullet-seared flesh, or the hysterical sobbing of mothers cradling lifeless children in their arms?

And yet today, the Siege of Sarajevo has ended and its architects are being brought to justice, while the story of Vedran Smailovic continues to be told as an inspiration to millions around the world. And though the notes have long since died away, the rich resonance of that faith-filled music of the cellist of Sarajevo continues to stir people’s hearts and imaginations even now.

That’s what the kingdom of God is like.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Meditate on these words from a well-known hymn, and let them lead you into a time of prayer:

Hark we hear a distant music and it comes with fuller swell.
Tis the triumph song of Jesus, of our King, Immanuel….
For his angels here are human not the shining hosts above
And the drum-beats of his army are the heart-beats of our love.

SCRIPTURE READING

Acts 16:25-26

In the dead of night Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.

Wednesday 13 August - Mustard Seed and Yeast

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday we starting our reflection on a duet of parables in Matthew 13. It was suggested that the point Jesus was making in telling these parables was not simply that the kingdom grows from small beginnings, but rather it’s how it starts and what it grows into that really matters, for this is what distinguishes God’s kingdom from the kingdoms of this world.

Read these parables again, and then we’ll explore the subversive imagery that Jesus uses in them:

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” (Matthew 13:31-33)

First, the mustard seed that grows into a tree. In the thought-world of the Ancient Near East, a great tree was a common metaphor for the imperial might of a nation. Firmly rooted, standing strong and tall, with branches reaching up to the heavens – this was the picture that was commonly used to describe the great kingdoms of the world.

But Jesus radically subverts this picture by using a bushy garden herb to describe the kingdom of heaven. His hearers would have got it – you would NEVER find a mustard plant on an imperial coat of arms of the Persians, Greeks or Romans. Clearly, this kingdom was radically different from every other. This distinction was seen in a multitude of ways in Jesus’ own life and ministry. Think, for instance, of him riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, rather than a majestic war horse. Or stooping before his disciples’ feet with towel and washing bowl in hand. Or being raised up, not on a great throne, but a cross.

To drive the point home Jesus tells another parable, this time using the image of yeast. Yeast that is literally ‘hidden’ (this is the meaning of the Greek verb that is used) in a massive quantity of flour, where its subversive influence quietly goes to work. The shocking thing about this image is that yeast was almost always used as a symbol of corruption in Jewish tradition, even by Jesus himself later in Matthew’s gospel. (“Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” he said in Matthew 16:6.)

This is not to suggest, of course, that the kingdom itself is corrupt or lacks integrity. But it is to suggest that the traditional categories of understanding what is right and wrong, what is acceptable and unacceptable, what is included and excluded are turned upside down in the kingdom of God.

We see this being lived out by Jesus again and again in his ministry. Those whom the religious establishment dismissed as impure or unworthy were consistently embraced by Jesus, and many who were regarded as outsiders in the eyes of the scribes and Pharisees found that with Jesus they had a place.

“The presence of God’s kingdom in our own world may scandalize our own biblical and traditional ideas of where and how God’s kingdom is supposed to be present.” (Eugene Boring)

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO

Truly Lord, yours is an upside-down kingdom, that stands in such stark contrast to the kingdoms of this world. A kingdom that affirms that the impact of undefended vulnerability is ultimately greater than the exercise of domination and might. A kingdom that rejoices in the disarming power of forgiveness and the subversive influence of compassion in a world awash with vengeance and callous indifference. Help me to seek today your kingdom, and your righteousness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Tuesday 12 August - Size ain’t Everything

DAILY BYTE

This week we’re reflecting on the phrase from the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Your kingdom come.’ To deepen our understanding of the kingdom and to give richer content to our praying of this prayer, over the next few days we’ll explore different parables of the kingdom that help us to grasp its true nature.

The parables of Jesus are a bit like a good joke – either you ‘get’ them, or you don’t. One of the difficulties that we have ‘getting’ the essential point of Jesus’ parables is that we are far removed in terms of time, culture and geography from the original setting in which the parables were told. And so it’s easy for us to miss nuances of meaning that would have been obvious to Jesus’ first-century audience.

The two parables in Matthew 13:31-33 – the mustard seed and the yeast – are an excellent case in point. It seems obvious to us that the point of these two parables is that from something very small – a mustard seed or a little yeast – big consequences can flow. And the conclusion we draw is that this is true of God’s kingdom. From small, seemingly inconsequential beginnings – maybe a little faith, maybe an act of kindness, maybe a shaky testimony offered in vulnerability – big things can flow. And this is true! It’s part of the wonder and the miracle of God’s kingdom, for which we can give thanks.

But this is only half the story – maybe even only half the truth. And as we know, half truths are really not much help to those serious about seeking the whole truth. Think about it – to simply say that the kingdom starts from small beginnings and achieves impressive proportions is really saying very little at all, because there are many things in this world that exhibit this same pattern that have nothing to do with the kingdom of God.

The largest multi-national corporations can usually be traced back to fledgling business ventures. The industrial-military might of the USA began with a handful of founding fathers and a declaration of independence. The monstrosity of Nazi Germany started off with the twisted thinking of a man by the name of Adolf Hitler – who would have thought that such unimpressive beginnings could end in such wholesale destruction.

Starting small and finishing big isn’t a value of God’s kingdom per se. Sadly, this is something that many churches forget, thinking that so long as they’re getting bigger and bigger it’s a sign of the coming of the kingdom in their midst. But what’s far more important is what kind of small you start with, and what kind of big you end with. And that’s the point that these two parables of Jesus drive home with radical force. It’s something that his first hearers would have instinctively ‘got’ because of the particular images that Jesus chose.

Tomorrow we’ll explore these two parables in greater detail to ‘get the point’ that Jesus was making, to help us reassess our obsession with bigness and hopefully grasp in a fuller way the impact of the kingdom on our world.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, we live in a world that is obsessed with size, with the mistaken belief that bigger is always better. But the nature of your kingdom is so different. Yes, it is impactful for sure, yet its influence operates in subtle, and often subversive ways, which our world often fails to recognise. Release us today to allow our seemingly insignificant lives to be planted like seed or hidden like yeast in this world, and may your kingdom come, even through us. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

Matthew 13:31-33

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Monday 11 August - Your Kingdom Come

DAILY BYTE

This week in The Barking Dog-Collar we continue with our reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, as we consider the phrase in the prayer, “Your kingdom come.”

It’s pretty tough getting biblical scholars to agree about anything. But one of the few things they do agree on is that the central theme in the teaching of Jesus is the kingdom of God.

Jesus begins his ministry by announcing that the Kingdom of God is at hand. When he heals the sick and casts out demons he says that it’s because the Kingdom of God has come near. Over and over again he tells stories of what the Kingdom of God is like. And he continually points his followers to recognise the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom in their midst.

On this point the biblical scholars are all in agreement – that the Kingdom of God was the dominant theme in the teaching and ministry of Jesus.

And so it should come as no great surprise that in his great teaching on prayer, Jesus instructs his disciples to pray for God’s Kingdom to come.

We know the words well, but what exactly do they mean - ‘Your kingdom come’? If we’re honest we’ll acknowledge that at best, we’re unsure. Which means that if we are to pray as Jesus taught us, not just by rote, but with a mindfulness that seeks deeper understanding of what we are praying for, then ‘the kingdom’ is a crucial concept that we need to strive to grasp as best we can.

The common working definition of the Kingdom that is usually offered is that it refers to the kingly rule or reign of God. But no sooner is this affirmed than all sorts of further questions arise:

Does this refer primarily to a future, or a present reality?

In which realm does this kingdom operate – in the transformation of individual hearts and lives, or in the transformation of communities, social institutions and political structures?

Can Christians work toward the coming of God’s kingdom, or is it ultimately something that God alone brings about as a pure gift of grace?

In almost every period of Christian history, these dichotomies of the kingdom have been present in the church’s thinking and have been reflected in the Church’s teaching:

The kingdom is both a future and a present reality.
The kingdom operates in the realm of individual human hearts, but also in the corporate structures of society at large.
The kingdom is something that only God can bring about, but we are called to work towards.

In other words, when we talk about the kingdom, we are talking about mystery. Which is not to say that it cannot be understood, but rather that it is something that can be endlessly understood, having layers upon layers of meaning that can never be exhausted or fully comprehended.

We do well to remember this, and to resist the urge to define the kingdom too narrowly. To do so is a sure guarantee to miss the point. The example of Jesus is helpful here, for in describing the kingdom he didn’t try to tie it down, but rather to break it wide open. He did so by telling many different parables of the kingdom. Each one casts a different perspective on the great mystery of the kingdom and allows us to see it in slightly different ways – a bit like the reflected light of a multi-faceted diamond that dances before our eyes in unrepeated patterns of shimmering beauty.

This week, as we consider what it means to pray ‘Your kingdom come’, we will reflect on a few parables of the kingdom that can give rich content to that prayer.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O Lord, we stand in reverential awe and humility before the great mystery of your kingdom. We are conscious of our inability to grasp its magnitude, yet grateful that it is a reality that touches and transforms our lives here and now. Help us in our devotions this week to come to a deeper understanding of the nature of your kingdom, that we might be able to pray with greater insight and conviction for your kingdom to come. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

Matthew 6:9-10a

This then is how you should pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come...”

Friday 8th August - Never Again!

DAILY BYTE

So this is it. Heading the list, central, overarching and all-encompassing. The first thing that Jesus tells us to ask God to do in the Lord’s Prayer is to cause God’s name to be sanctified – to be made sacred and holy.

This little line in the prayer that we tend to throw away or hardly notice is actually dangerously profound in that it challenges our core motivations for living.

Who is this life of mine all about?

Me?

Or God?

As Dallas Willard writes: “This request is based upon the deepest need of the human world. That human life not be about human life. And that nothing will go right in it until the greatness and goodness of its creator is grasped and lived. That his very name be held in the highest possible regard. Until that is so, the human compass will always be pointing in the wrong direction, and individual lives will suffer from constant and fluctuating disorientation.”

We can only find the essence of who we are, the deepest part of us, when we realise that God’s name is written on our souls, and when we choose to bear that name out in our lives in a way that effects our environments, and changes our worlds.

So never again may we say these words lightly, or gloss over them!

Instead, may we partake of them and let them sink deep into us.

As we pray them may they be compass and map for us, may they reorient us and may they change our deepest motivations for living – that our lives not be about us, but about God.

PRAY AS YOU GO

So truly, O God and Father, may your name be hallowed within us all.
Amen.

FOCUS READING

Matthew 6. 7-9 NIV

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name

Thursday 7th August - Name?

DAILY BYTE

‘Hallowed be your name.’

This part of the Lord’s Prayer challenges our deepest motivations for living. Every time we pray this line, we are asking ourselves this following question: Today am I living to hallow God’s name, or am I living to hallow my name?

I have to confess to you that often the only name I am interested in hallowing is my own. All too often my main interest is other people recognising what I have done. All too often I take credit for things I don’t really deserve just because it makes me feel good.

But am I the only one who does that?

Am I the only who lives with mixed motives, not clear about exactly whose essence (or name) I want to shape my life around.

There is this quite scary story in Acts 12 that I can’t pretend to fully understand, where King Herod had been arguing with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They realised that since they depended on the king for food that they should make up with him, so they invited him to give a speech.

They decided that no matter what happened and no matter what he actually said, they would suck up to him. So the Bible tells us that on the appointed day, ‘Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne and gave a public address.’ All the while, the people continuously shouted, ‘This is the voice of a god not a man!’

Immediately, we are told, because Herod did not give the praise to God, he was struck down, eaten by worms and died.

Sounds pretty harsh and disgusting, but I can’t escape the feeling that to live our lives based around our own selfish motivations – based on hallowing our own names – can really eat away inside of us like worms.

Whose name do you wish to hallow?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God, whenever I pray ‘Hallowed be your name’ I am reminding myself to turn away from basing my life on selfish motivations, and also committing all my efforts to living in a way that brings you glory and honour. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Acts 12. 18b-23 NIV

Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there a while. He had been quarrelling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. Having secured the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king's country for their food supply.

On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man." Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

Wednesday 6th August - Space

DAILY BYTE

We carry God’s name within our souls and we hallow God’s name by how we live.

Because the essence of who we are will always effect our environments. Who you are will always affect the space that you live in – you can make it sacred or you can profane it by your actions and choices.

Just a couple of silly examples. My car, or the space of my car, is greatly affected by who I am. While I am no neat freak (which my wife will gladly testify to), I also cannot handle papers or any mess lying around my car. I like my car to have certain spaces provided for my cell phone or to hold coffee mugs. So when I get into my car, I can think ‘Ah, this car bears my name.’

Or what about my office? I have to have my books ordered in a certain way and like certain things to be in certain places. My desk can be messy all week, but must be neat before I leave at the week’s end. So when I walk into my office on a Monday morning, I can think ‘Ah, this office bears my name, my essence.’

Or even my home. I walk in to find an easy chair positioned right in front of the TV, with both remote and newspaper in easy reach. There is a little tub of hot water right in front of the chair, all prepared with bath salts and ready for me to soak my feet in. There is a hot cup of coffee waiting for me on a nearby table. When I walk into this house, do you know what I think? ‘Ah, how embarrassing, I seem to have walked into the wrong house!’

This part of the Lord’s Prayer is challenging us to orient ourselves around the truth that the essence of who we are will affect our environments greatly. Homes, offices, relationships – wherever and whatever.

We are challenged to ask ourselves – do I carry God’s name with me into those environments? Are the qualities and character and essence of the God I know and love allowed to make the various spaces of my life sacred?

When we pray – ‘Hallowed by your name’ – we are praying that we would remember that the way of Jesus is the best possible way to live.

That being generous is a better way to live. That forgiving others and not carrying around bitterness is a better way to live. That having compassion is a better way to live. That pursuing peace in every situation and yet relentlessly standing for justice is a better way to live. That engaging others in real relationships across our many diversities and differences is a better way to live. That prizing meaning and purpose over money and achievements is a better way to live.

That carrying the essence of Jesus, the character of God, the NAME of God into the various spaces of our lives is the ONLY way to live. That’s what we are praying for with this little throwaway, but oh so dangerous line in the Lord’s Prayer.

We hallow our lives and the spaces in which we exist, by living in a way that is consistent with everything that God’s name stands for.

What spaces in your life do you need to ‘hallow’ at this point in time?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Great and Loving God, we confess how often we don’t hallow your name within various parts of our lives. We ask that you would help us to reorient ourselves around the truth that we need to base our lives on everything that you represent. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Psalm 10. 7-10 NIV

The LORD reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
He will judge the world in righteousness;
he will govern the peoples with justice.
The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Tuesday 5th August - Hallow

DAILY BYTE

To understand this part of the Lord’s Prayer – ‘Hallowed be your name’ – we also need to understand the term ‘hallow’.

Hallow is not a word we use much these days but it means to sanctify or make holy. The Greek word for hallow is ‘hagiastheto,’ and is the same word used by Jesus in his great prayer of John 17 where he asks God to sanctify or ‘hagiastheto’ his people into God’s ways.

The term means to relocate or reorient people into a new reality ... God’s reality. To make sacred the various spaces of our lives by God’s name.

So when we pray this part of the Lord’s Prayer, we need to know that we are praying that God’s name (remember yesterday’s discussion – this means God’s essence, character, nature and way of being) be sanctified, made real, and given highest priority within our hearts and within the realm in which we live, move and breathe.

This is a hectic part of the prayer! To gloss over it, without paying proper attention to it, is somewhat dangerous.

If the Lord’s Prayer is compass and map, if it is a signpost taking us to deeper places, then it is this line that turns us around and challenges our core motivations for living.

Keeping God’s name hallowed is not about stopping swearing as we sometimes tend to think, but more about how we live. We hallow God’s name by how carry that name into the various spaces of our lives.

As today’s focus reading reminds us – we are Name Bearers. That deep within our souls, the place where our identity springs from, there is written something sacred and holy – the name of God.

We carry the name of God on our souls!

There is this wonderful story in the book of Genesis where Jacob spends the night physically wrestling with God, and at the end of this experience has his name changed to ‘Israel’. Israel, of course, means ‘God contends’ or ‘the God wrestlers’.

From Jacob onwards, God’s people – Israel – literally bore his name.

The earliest Christians liked to call themselves ‘The Way’ – people called to walk in the way of Jesus reality, but perhaps it is significant that the name Christian eventually took hold as a description, for as you probably know, the term Christian means ‘little Christ’s’.

We are literally and metaphorically Name Bearers! We carry God’s name within our souls, it is part of our very essence.

So when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer – ‘hallowed be your name’ – we are praying that we would live in a way that is true to that name.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving Lord, you have written your name on our souls and so we carry it with us wherever we go. Help us to learn to live in a way that does honour to your name. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Jeremiah 15:16

When your words came, I ate them, they were my joy and delight, for I BEAR YOUR NAME, O Lord God Almighty.

Monday 4th August - Name!

DAILY BYTE

This week we are continuing with our series on the Lord’s Prayer and will be focussing on the phrase – ‘Hallowed be your name.’

After the opening address, it is the first thing Jesus tells us to ask God to do. It heads the list, it is central, overarching and all-encompassing: To cause God’s name to be made sacred, sanctified and holy.

‘Hallowed be your name’ – it is so terribly easy to miss. Have you ever read a book where the author is just waffling on and on, and as you sit there reading you find yourself missing whole chunks of what is being said (it might be happening to you right now for instance)?

Well, that’s what we tend to do with this line of the Lord’s Prayer.

We say it but we don’t hear it.

It doesn’t fully compute or register because we just don’t really get it. No offence but we don’t. We don’t truly understand what we are saying but we say it anyway because we are taught to.

Like the little boy who prayed ‘Our Father in heaven, Harold is your name.’

With that in mind, this week’s devotions will begin by making a couple of explanations. Firstly, we need to look more carefully at the Biblical concept of names. In our culture, we just don’t understand names like they did in Jesus’ time. A name was everything in the Bible, for it was understood to capture the very essence of a person.

The names people were give always had significance, for instance, Nabal, (a man who foolishly offended King David), well, the name Nabal means ‘fool’. Or what about red haired Esau with the fiery temper? Well, the name Esau means ‘Red’.

If a person went through a significant life change, then often their name would change to reflect that. For example, Abram means ‘father’ but after receiving God’s promise to bless him with a whole nation of children, he had his name changed to Abraham which means ‘father of multitudes’. Simon the disciple became Peter the ‘rock’. Saul became Paul and so on.

In fact, names were so significant in the ancient Near East that they were considered part of someone’s soul because they were believed to characterise that soul. Like ‘Red’ characterised Esau’s fiery soul and looks, or ‘Fool’ summed up Nabel’s poor decision making abilities.

To know that name of someone was to know their essence – it gave you some sort of a handle on them.

Read today’s focus reading carefully – the story of Moses’ call – what do you learn from this story regarding God’s name?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, you call us and know us by our names. We ask that through the course of this week, you would teach us what it means to ‘hallow your name’. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Exodus 3. 12-15 NIV

And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

Friday 1st August - Misery & Mercy

DAILY BYTE

Only two things were left at the end of this story – misery and mercy. The only problem is that when we find ourselves standing in this woman’s place, we often don’t hear Jesus’ next words. “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”

Jesus says this to us, and we reply ... “Pardon?”

If we have heard many voices of condemnation throughout our lives, then sometimes those voices tend to live within. We replay them constantly on the tape recorder of our minds. Then, when God offers forgiveness, new chances and new life – we just don’t hear it! Those inward voices of condemnation drown out everything else.

We are NOT meant to stand in naked vulnerability and misery forever. We are meant to be clothed in God’s love and cloaked in his grace.

Finally, I guess we tend to think that when Jesus said: ‘Go and sin no more,” that he was talking about sexual sin. And I am sure he was in a way. But if the primary focus of this story is that the greatest sin is to pick up stones against others, then maybe that is what he was talking about too.

It’s like he was saying: “Woman, those who have condemned and wronged you, those who have battered you with their verbal violence, don’t you go out and do the same to them now, don’t go out and pick up any stones of your own!”

As we are meant to see layers of ourselves within the layers of this story, so we need to end up by seeing ourselves in Jesus. We need to move through a process of identifying with the Pharisees, to identifying with the woman, to finally identifying with Jesus – in whose image we are made after all.

This story needs to finish in us by beginning a new Jesus-way of mercy, a Jesus-way of refusing to participate in any form of hatred towards others, even the greatest sinners of our day. We need to carry around within us not sand to soak up blood caused by our verbal and mental stones, but the food and light of God’s love.

As Jesus brings light to us, so we are meant to live by going around and flicking on light switches for others. So the next time you come upon someone else’s failings, and are tempted to bend over and pick up a stone, remember that you also have the power to let them go.

For rather than living in the dark dungeons of condemnation and self-righteousness, we have been created to live within the wide open lands of God’s mercy.

So just let go of your stones, and reach for the nearest light switch.

PRAY AS YOU GO

God of Grace, thank-you for sending us Jesus the Light of the World. Help us to live by him, and to offer others the light and food of his mercy. In His name we pray. Amen.

FOCUS READING

John 8. 9b-12 NRSV

Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.