Thursday 31st July - What Did Jesus Write?

DAILY BYTE

In response to the accusations against this woman, Jesus bends down to write on the ground. Now, I would not be exaggerating if I said that speculation over exactly what Jesus wrote has filled hundreds of theology books and biblical commentaries.

I heard a feminist theologian who said that Jesus must have written: “It takes two to tango – so where’s the bloke?” Which is a very good point indeed!

Others reckon that Jesus wrote exactly what the last finger of God wrote in public (as recorded in the book of Daniel) – “You have been weighed and found wanting!” Still others say that perhaps Jesus was writing down the sins of all the woman’s accusers, so that they could face up to reality for themselves.

However, by far the most convincing reason that I have heard, is that the act of writing was for Jesus a nonverbal response – it was a refusal to engage in this condemnatory way of being. In the Mediterranean world of Jesus’ time, such an act of writing in the middle of a conversation would have been recognised as an act of refusal and disengagement.

Jesus was not refusing to answer, Jesus was just refusing to be this way – to enter this state of darkness. Instead, Jesus stood up and said: “Whoever is without sin can throw the first stone.” Then he bends down and writes on the ground again – once more refusing to enter into this culture of angry condemning and foolish self-righteousness.

Of course, most of us know the rest of the story. It’s like when Jesus stood up to speak, he also stood up to turn the lights on. For Jesus is the light of the world, and came to teach us a better way of be being religious in reminding us that God designed this universe around principles like relationship, mercy, forgiveness and freedom.

The Pharisees and Scribes did not like the sudden glare of this light. They didn’t like feeling as naked and vulnerable as they had made the woman to feel, so one by one they filed out leaving Jesus alone with her.

“Who condemns you then. Is no one left?” Jesus asks. St. Augustine says that at this point in the story there are only two things left – the misery of the woman and the mercy of God.

Once we have seen ourselves in the Pharisees, then and only then, is it safe to begin to find ourselves in the woman. This is where the story wants us to progress to. For the mercy, the freedom from dark condemnations as a way of living, the new light to see by that Jesus offered, was not only for the woman, but for the Pharisees as well!

They could also have been made free! They just shouldn’t have walked away.
They should have staying naked and vulnerable before their sins because although it is an uncomfortable place to be, it is still a place of truth, and remember it is the truth which sets us free.

If you been made uncomfortable by some challenge that God has brought into your life, then don’t walk away!

Stay right there so as you might receive God’s mercy.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O’ God, we recognise both our hypocrisy and our need. We ask that your merciful love and forgiveness would cover over every part of us and that the truth you bring into our lives would set us free. Amen.

FOCUS READING

John 8: 6-9 NRSV

They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Wednesday 30th July - Is Jesus Being Soft on Sin?

DAILY BYTE

Many worry that in John 8. 1-12, Jesus is being too soft on sin. After all, adultery is a really bad business, isn’t it? It causes such hurt and damage. Well, of course it does, but Jesus came to switch the lights on for us in issues like this – this is why verse 12 (Jesus being the light of the world) should not be read separately from this story, but as part of it.

Adultery, Jesus once taught, can be committed through just looking at someone lustfully. In other words it is a matter of the heart. Sin is inward not just outward actions, so those who have never committed major ‘outward’ sins, don’t make the mistake of judging those who have.

Someone once said that if our thoughts were written on our foreheads, then we would never take our hats off.

If the worst sin is throwing stones, even if it is only within our hearts, then we are all guilty. If everybody reading this who had ever struggled with self-righteous gossip or thoughts suddenly vanished, then I would be the only one left ... because of course, I would be the only one who hadn’t!

Isn’t that how it always works – everyone else is guilty of it but me? Like the pastor who once said during a sermon: “Everybody who wrestles with gossip, may your tongue stick to the woof of your mowf!”

The worst sin is picking up stones and we only do that when we think that we ourselves have no need of forgiveness and mercy. We become vulnerable and judgemental when we are dissatisfied with our lives. That’s when instead of seeking forgiveness and new beginnings, we distract ourselves with another’s problems.

It’s time that we learnt we are all equally helpless, that we are brothers and sisters in our need ... helpless but certainly not hopeless.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, the ground is truly level when we kneel together at the foot of the cross. Each and every single human being is equally in need of your loving redemption – help us to remember that, but to also remember at the incredible hope we have in you for new life. Amen.

FOCUS READING

1 John 1. 5-9 MSG

This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there's not a trace of darkness in him.
If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth—we're not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.

If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins — make a clean breast of them — he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God — make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.

Monday 28th July - Ships Filled With Sand

DAILY BYTE

It was a dark and violent time for the citizens of ancient Rome. Nero the Emperor was presiding over a city suffering through severe food shortages. The people were hungry, some were even starving, and almost everyone was wondering where their next meal would come from.

At the same time, there was an abundance of food in nearby Egypt, so one would have expected that the merchant ships sailing between Rome and Alexandria in Egypt to be filled to overflowing with corn and wheat.

But instead these ships were filled with sand to be used in Emperor Nero’s gladiator games. There was so much blood being spilt onto the circus floor that they needed tons and tons of sand every week to soak it all up.

Ships filled with sand for gladiator shows of all things! Sand to fulfil deathly purposes rather than the life-giving food that was so desperately needed.

This week’s focus reading – John 8. 1-11 (the story of the woman caught in adultery) is a story about many things. It’s about religious people offering boatloads of sand to a world starving for something more life-giving. Boatloads of sand stained with blood caused by the violence of religious condemnations and accusations.

It is a story about a woman who was caught in the act of doing wrong, but who was shown that the way out for her was through love and forgiveness, and not fear and condemnation.

But mostly, it is a story about Jesus – Jesus who came to teach us that God designed this universe around principles like relationships and love, grace and radical forgiveness rather than hurt, accusations and religious self-righteousness. It is a story about Jesus who refused to engage in dark debates with angry men, and instead began offering people what they were really starving for ... boatloads of food like mercy and truth and freedom.

John 8 is really a story about all of us and a story for all of us. It’s a story that has the atmosphere of a dark, dank dungeon but when Jesus acts and Jesus speaks, it’s like he switches on the lights and throws open the doors and windows.

And when that light comes on – just as in so many different places in John’s Gospel, we are meant to then find ourselves in the story. Different layers of ourselves within different layers of the story because if we don’t do that, then we will just not understand this story as we should.

Read the story carefully and ask God to open your heart up to its truth during the next week.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, thank you for sending us Jesus who brought humanity what we are truly starving for – forgiveness and love. Help us to offer this food to others through the way we treat them and relate to them. Amen.

FOCUS READING

John 8.1-11 MSG

Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them. The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?" They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.
Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?"
"No one, Master."
"Neither do I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin."

Tuesday 29th July - Our Hierarchy of Sin

DAILY BYTE

It all starts when Jesus is interrupted by some angry men - scribes and Pharisees - who were dragging along with them the object of their wrath, a woman that we are told was ‘caught in the act of adultery.’

It is important to realise just how vulnerable this woman must have felt, for as she was dragged before Jesus, she was in all likelihood half-naked at the very least. We also need to know that she was just being used by these men, a pawn in their attempt to catch Jesus out. For Jesus, the ‘friend of sinners,’ either had to condemn her or risk breaking Mosaic law.

You know, like this story suggests, we love making sinners ‘stand in front of us.’ In public. How else could their sins take away attention from our own? And we haven’t changed much from people in those days because we still like to make sexual sins the major one, the ‘hot’ sins.

In ‘Mere Christianity,’ C.S. Lewis wrote that if we consider sexual sins to be the supreme vice then we are quite wrong. He went onto say:
“The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all the sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual. The pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronising and spoiling sport and backbiting; the pleasures of power, of hatred.”

What Jesus does through the course of this story is invert our ‘hierarchies of sin’ – to say there is something worse than what this woman did – it is what you are doing to her! Self-righteousness, gossip, verbal violence, scapegoating, hyprocrisy – these are all far worse. Why? Because they are rooted in self-deception and in them we are blind to our own weaknesses and failings, and to our own need for God.

There is nothing worse than that.

We learn from this story that the greatest sin is to pick up a stone and throw it at another.

It is a terrible mistake to read this story and refuse to find something of ourselves within these Pharisees. We more naturally identify with the woman because we feel comfortable playing the victim – it’s always others who judge and struggle with self-deception, not us! But really, who of us has never picked up a stone or blamed someone else for our issues? Who of us have never engaged in peer-pressured gossip – mob induced verbal violence - about another?

There are no sinless ones, and therefore, no one can cast the first stone.

Holding others in their sin while holding yourself innocent is delusionary and only perpetuates the cycle of sin for everyone.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving Lord, open my eyes to see what I may be hiding, and open my heart so that I may confess it, own it, and entrust you with it. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

John 8. 1-5 NRSV

Then each of them went home, while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to each them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

Friday 25 July 2008 - Our Father in heaven

DAILY BYTE

As we bring this week’s devotions to a close, we conclude by looking at the significance of the last words of the opening phrase of the Lord’s Prayer, as recorded in Matthew’s gospel – the words “in heaven”.

Dallas Willard makes the important observation that in the original Greek the words that are usually translated “in heaven” are in fact in the plural. Therefore, a more accurate translation of this phrase would be something like, “Our Father, the one in the heavens.”

This distinction is of vital significance if one considers the cosmology of the Ancient Near East. In those ancient times it was believed that the structure of the universe was such that above the earth there were no fewer than seven heavens.

The first heaven referred to the atmosphere around our heads, and quite literally the air that we breathe. Each subsequent heaven was higher and wider than the one before, with the seventh or highest heaven being the uttermost reaches of the universe, as understood in ancient times.

The point Dallas Willard makes is that by losing the plural of ‘heavens’ we have robbed the wording of what Jesus intended. ‘Our Father who art in heaven’ has come to mean, ‘Our Father who is far away.’ But a more faithful rendering of what was originally intended would be something like, “Our Father who not only fills the entire universe but is also right here with us, close at hand.”

While we won’t change the words of the Lord’s Prayer when we say ‘Our Father who art in heaven,’ we can change our understanding of what those words really mean. That God is with us. That the realm God inhabits is not far removed from us, but is close at hand. That while God is utterly above and beyond us, God is also fully present with us, around us and in us – like the very air we breathe in which we live and move. What a tremendous encouragement this is for us, that truly we are not alone.

And so, when we pray ‘Our Father in heaven’, this is not just a familiar phrase we can rattle off without thinking. It’s part of Jesus’ core teaching on how to pray, and points to important principles in the life of prayer.

This week we have explored some of these principles:
1. True prayer is all about relationship with a personal God. It’s not about religious obligation, or pious pretense – it’s about being real before God, and taking hold of the personal relationship with God that God intends for us all.
2. True prayer is about reorienting our lives and experience towards God. It’s directed beyond ourselves, and moves us out of our narrow self-obsessed world into the wide-open realm of God.
3. True prayer is always a corporate activity. The very act of praying binds us with others, and not just those for whom we pray, but also those who have gone before us and have helped to shape our lives, who join with the Spirit in interceding on our behalf.
4. True prayer recognizes the presence of God in all things. It affirms God’s greatness in filling and enfolding the entire universe, and also God’s grace in filling and enfolding us.

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Father, you are with us. Jesus, you have promised never to leave us nor forsake us. Holy Spirit, you are our friend, our helper, our companion. What a magnificent God you are! Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING
The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn't live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn't take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don't make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn't play hide-and-seek with us. He's not remote; he's near. We live and move in him, can't get away from him!
Acts 17:24-28 (The Message)

Thursday 24 July 2008 - OUR Father

DAILY BYTE

The version of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew’s gospel is a little different from the one in Luke. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus expands the opening word ‘Father’ to ‘Our Father in heaven’. Today and tomorrow we’ll consider what this expansion has to teach us about prayer.

When I was at school there was outside the chapel a piece of charcoal slate with these words inscribed on it: When you pray say, ‘Our Father’. I read those words every day as I filed into chapel, but never fully grasped what they mean. In fact, I still don’t.

But some years back I heard Gordon Cosby from Church of the Saviour in Washington DC speak about these two words that we all use to begin the Lord’s Prayer – ‘Our Father’. He offered a simple insight, and a really helpful suggestion that has transformed the way I pray.

The insight was this: All prayer is a corporate activity. In other words we cannot pray on our own, even when it appears that we are all by ourselves without another soul around. The very act of praying binds us and connects us with many, many other people, and reminds us that we are a product of a wide community through which God’s grace has flowed directly into our lives.

When we pray, when we step over that threshold that reorients our lives towards God, we are exhibiting the grace-filled influence of others in our lives and their ongoing intercessions for us.

To become more conscious of this great corporate activity, Gordon Cosby suggests that whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we consciously allow the opening words ‘Our Father’ to stir within us memories of those who have shaped our lives - grandparents, parents, siblings, spouses, and other family members. Teachers, mentors, authors, artists, poets, gospel ministers, church leaders and friends. It takes a little practice at first, and a little time, consciously calling people to mind, remembering them by name. But with practice this awareness of the great community who have helped to shape who you are comes to lodge within you, and is accessible as you pray ‘Our Father.’

And then, as you say those words, think of the great community that you are called to influence – your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, other family and friends, students, colleagues, fellow congregants. And yes, think how you have fallen short in the influence that has been yours, but how you can get up and try again, with those who have gone before cheering you on, and those who will follow saying ‘thank you’.

And with these and over all these, there is a Father who is the Lord and God of us all who draws us and holds us all together, as one.

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Lord, our praying reminds us that we are not alone! Thank you for all those who have helped to mould and shape who we are, and for their ongoing intercession, together with your Spirit, on our behalf. Amen.


SCRIPTURE READING
Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!

Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise you'll never get so much as a glimpse of God. Make sure no one gets left out of God's generosity.

Hebrews 12:1-3, 12-14 (The Message)

Wednesday 23 July 2008 - Father – Part 2

DAILY BYTE

Today we continue our reflections on the first word of the Lord’s Prayer, which is ‘Father’.

A second insight that arises from this word ‘Father’ is this. According to the teaching of Jesus, in our prayers God must be addressed.

This might seem like an obvious point, but it’s one that Dallas Willard underlines in a compelling way. He writes, “The ‘address’ part of prayer is of vital significance. We dare not slight or overlook it. It is one of the things that distinguishes prayer from worrying out loud or silently, which many, unfortunately, have confused with prayer.”

Now of course we’re free to talk to ourselves and mull over our own thoughts and ideas as much as we want. We’re free to worry out loud or silently, if we choose. But let’s not confuse this with prayer. Prayer is different. Prayer is directed beyond ourselves to another. When we pray we are moving beyond our own little world with our own narrow perspectives. When we pray we are entering into the wide-open realm of God, where all sorts of possibilities exist beyond what we can imagine.

And so, as we address God in prayer, not merely as a force of habit but as a deliberate way of orienting our hearts and our minds towards God, it’s like opening a door and stepping outside into a much wider world, where the agenda is no longer set by us.

Now, ‘Father’ was the particular form of address that Jesus used in his own prayers and in teaching his disciples how to pray. It’s an appropriate and beautiful name for God, for reasons already mentioned yesterday. It’s a name that reminds us of God’s personal, relational character. But we certainly shouldn’t get all legalistic about it, as if ‘Father’ were the only suitable word to address God – because it’s not.

Some people have a hard time calling God ‘Father’, maybe because the patriarchal associations in the word are just too strong, or maybe because their own broken or even abusive relationship with their human father is still too painful. The God whom Jesus called ‘Father’ longs to heal such wounds, but does not need to be called ‘Father’ to do so. God is way bigger than that.

The point is, however we may address God, God must be addressed. It’s what makes prayer prayer. Moving our lives, our circumstances, our concerns, our hopes and our dreams beyond ourselves towards God and the priorities and perspectives God has for us. This is why prayer is such a powerful tool of transformation, because what it is able to do so effectively is to change us!

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Lord, it is such good news to remember that we do not have to carry the load of our lives on our own shoulders. Forgive us for the arrogance of thinking that we can, and for the times we have forgotten that you are the God who has promised to hold us and carry us. Release us from our self-obsessions, and help us to look continually to you. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING
And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.
Matthew 6:5-13 (The Message)

Tuesday 22 July 2008 - Father – Part 1

DAILY BYTE

This week, and at various intervals over the next couple of months, we’ll be studying portions of the Lord’s Prayer, which has much to teach us about the principles of prayer in general.

Today and tomorrow we will focus on the very first word of this prayer, which is ‘Father’. In Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer we read that Jesus said to his disciples, “When you pray say, ‘Father!’”

Matthew’s version of this prayer is a little different from Luke’s. But in both Matthew and Luke, in the original Greek, the first word of the prayer is the same – Pater, which means ‘Father!’

According to the teaching of Jesus, when we pray the first thing we should say is ‘Father’, which in its essence is a personal, relational word. Don’t get tripped up by what may seem to be a gender bias in the word. This is not about God’s gender, as if God could be confined to the categories of ‘male’ or ‘female’. And this is not to exclude God being thought of in mothering terms.

The 14th century mystic Julian of Norwich famously said, ‘As surely as God is our Father, just as surely is God our Mother.’ That is true. And the scriptures are full of motherly images of God.

But that’s not the point here. In calling God ‘Father’, Jesus was making a bold assertion. The God whom we approach in prayer is not some impersonal organizing principle of the universe. Neither is this God a distant, inaccessible deity, nor a frightening presence before whom we should cower in terror.

No, according to Jesus, God is our Father. A personal, relational being with whom intimacy, and tenderness, and love can be shared. A God before whom we can stand with confidence, with a trusting conviction that we can come without fear of being crushed, but with the expectation of being heard and embraced.

Jesus encourages us to come before God, not as sniveling worms, but as cherished children. Jesus encourages us to come with the bold and persistent expectation that God will deal with us with tenderness, kindness and compassion.

This is an important principle of prayer that we need to take note of. Prayer is not so much a religious thing, it’s a relationship thing. As soon as it becomes about religious requirements and legalistic obligations and formulaic do’s and don’ts, it’s no longer prayer as Jesus understood it – namely the building of relationship with a loving heavenly Father.

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
God of love and grace, thank you that you have given yourself to us, and simply ask that we give ourselves to you. Thank you that you want a relationship with us. Thank you that we can come to you as we are, without pretending or having to perform. Thank you that the truest prayer you desire is simply when we are honest and real with you. Help us to pray more and more in a way that builds our relationship with you. Amen.


SCRIPTURE READING
Luke 11:10-13
Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing—you're at least decent to your own children. And don't you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?"

Monday 21 July 2008 - Lord, teach us to pray

DAILY BYTE

The request made by one of Jesus’ disciples in Luke 11:1, is a request that resonates within many many people: “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Who of us has no need for any help or guidance when it comes to the subject of prayer? Who of us can honestly claim that our prayer lives are exactly as they ought to be?

If you’re anything like me you’ll know that prayer really can be a struggle at times. You’ll know how easy it is to get sidetracked from your very best intentions to pray. You’ll know how quickly your mind wanders, and how sometimes the words and thoughts and images you do manage to formulate seem sterile and empty. If you’re anything like me you’ll know how little you in fact understand of this great mystery that is prayer.

Paul was spot on target when he wrote in Romans 8, “We do not know how to pray as we ought.”

It reminds me of the story of a little boy who was kneeling at the front of a church saying the alphabet out loud. The minister came in and asked him what he was doing.

“I’m praying,” said the little boy.

“But that’s not how you pray,” said the rather unimaginative, narrow-minded minister.

“I know,” said the boy, “but I don’t know what to say so I thought I’d just say the letters and let God arrange them into a prayer for me.”

Actually, that little boy was closer to the truth than he realized. When Paul writes in Romans 8, “We do not know how to pray as we ought,” he then goes on to say, “but the Spirit helps us in our weakness, interceding with deep sighs that words cannot express.”

That’s good news for us who feel like inarticulate children when it comes to prayer. But it further highlights our deep need for help in this area. “Lord, teach us to pray,” is a cry that comes from all of our hearts.

In responding to this request from one of his disciples, Jesus offered his famous teaching that has become known as The Lord’s Prayer. The words of this prayer are so familiar to us, we know them so well and can rattle them off so easily, literally without thinking, that we forget that this prayer is not some empty religious mantra, but in fact is Jesus’ core teaching on how to pray.

Imbedded within this prayer, simple as it is, are profound principles that can help us and guide us and mold us into a people of prayer.

Eugene Peterson writes, “The act of praying is no uncharted wilderness where we hack and forge our way. It is well travelled, with rich traditions and deep culture. Jesus’ words [in the Lord’s Prayer] are compass and map for finding our way to the deep interiors.”

If we are serious about growing and deepening in this dimension of our faith, then the Lord’s Prayer is essential teaching that we have to attend to with diligence.

At various intervals over the next couple of months the Barking Dog-Collar will focus on different portions of the compass and map that is the Lord’s Prayer, as we risk pushing out from the shallows to venture into the depths of the life of prayer that beckons us all as the people of God.

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Most gracious God, thank you for the guidance you offer us in the life of prayer. Thank you for the intercessions of your Spirit who helps us in our weakness, when we do not know how to pray as we ought. Thank you for the example and the teaching of Jesus that can lead us and guide us along this path. By your grace, help us to take to heart all that you offer, that we might become more and more the people of prayer that you have created us to be. Amen

SCRIPTURE READING
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
Luke 11:1

Friday 11th July - For lepers who can’t change their spots

DAILY BYTE

In the bible, 'leprosy' was an umbrella term that was used to refer to a whole host of skin infections and diseases. It was a dreaded condition because the social consequences that it carried were severe. Leviticus 13 -14 deals with the regulations regarding leprosy, and the consequences of contracting the disease:

“The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be dishevelled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, "Unclean! Unclean!" He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” (Leviticus 13:45-46)

The bottom line was that leprosy carried with it a sentence of alienation and isolation. In a society that was far more communal in its orientation than what our modern Western society is, this was a living-death sentence. Lepers were outcasts, unable to interact with the rest of society, unable to be economically productive and so unable to provide for themselves, forced to eke out an existence like that of scavenging dogs living on the fringes and outskirts of society.

What is more, because of their 'uncleanness' lepers were barred from worship. Encountering God through any of the recognised religious structures of the day was an impossibility. They were regarded as cursed by God.

The severe socio-religious stigma attached to leprosy is an essential dimension of a faithful interpretation of the encounter between Jesus and the man with leprosy in Mark 1:40-45. For this is far more than a common-old-garden healing of someone who was sick. Jesus' response signifies far more than his compassion towards someone in need. A closer reading reveals that Jesus is in fact attacking the religious system, the so-called 'purity code', that could isolate people within society, and attempt to alienate them from God.

The religious regulations pertaining to leprosy were built on two essential convictions. Firstly, the disease was communicable. That is to say, its effect (ritually speaking) could be handed on simply by touching. That is why lepers were separated from the rest of society as the 'untouchables'. Secondly, it was the priest who was responsible for determining the leprous status of a person.

Jesus challenges both of these convictions. He touches the man, and he says, "Be clean!" He subverts the religious system that could pronounce a person untouchable and unfit for the presence of God.

According to most English versions he then issues the man a strong warning not to tell anyone, but to fulfil the ritual requirements for cleansing as a testimony to the priests. This is actually a fairly feeble translation, as the Greek is much stronger. The word rendered 'strong warning' actually has the sense to 'snort with indignation or rage'. This suggests that Jesus, angered by the legalistic lovelessness of the religious system and its purity code, recognises that it is not the man's testimony of what has happened to him, but the ritual fulfilment of the religious requirements, that will convince the priests and change his status in their eyes.

But then a glorious twist happens. The man disregards the correct procedure as he bypasses the priests and their ritual requirements. Instead, he boldly goes to the very people and places from which he had been barred, no longer shouting out "Unclean! Unclean!" But proclaiming freely the news, the good news of what Jesus had done for him. The touch and word of cleansing that came from Jesus had liberated him from the oppressive religious system of which he had been a victim, and ushered him into the glorious freedom of life in God's Kingdom.

PRAY AS YOUGO

Lord, the Scriptures declare that NOTHING can separate us from your love. Thank you that there is no condition of ours that makes us untouchable to you. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING
Mark 1:40

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the leprous man.

Thursday 10th July - A tale of two daughters – Part 2

DAILY BYTE

Today we continue our reflections on the two healing stories found in Mark 5:21-43.

Jairus comes to Jesus, pleading on behalf of his daughter who is dying. He is a distraught father who is oblivious to any others around him. His concern for his daughter is such that he falls on his knees before Jesus and begs for his help. His reputation, his dignity, his social standing in the community are irrelevant. All that matters to him is his little girl.

It is at this point that the bleeding woman enters the scene, and interrupts the journey of Jesus to Jairus' house. Imagine Jairus' frustration. His daughter was on the point of death. Every second was crucial. Hers was a critically urgent situation. And now this unknown woman who was ritually impure was delaying Jesus. Did she not know that he was the ruler of the synagogue? Whatever her need, surely Jesus would realise that it could not possibly be more important, or urgent, than his.

Yet, Jesus stops. Notice that the interruption was Jesus' doing, not the woman's. She would have been happy to snatch a healing touch and slip away unnoticed. It is Jesus who stops. Who turns. Who asks.

Jesus was intentional about engaging the woman - for her sake and for Jairus'. The healing that he offered was interested in far more than cure. Jesus' healing was about reconnection, validation, acceptance and assurance. Had this woman been allowed to slip away unnoticed into the crowds, she would never have had the opportunity to declare publicly the whole truth of who she was, what she had suffered, what she had done. She would never have been given the opportunity to hear the words of peace and blessing that Jesus spoke to her.

Maybe for Jairus these things didn't matter - she was after all an unnamed, marginalised woman. But to Jesus they mattered. To Jesus this woman mattered. Unlike Jairus' daughter, she had no father to plead her cause, no one to look out for her, no one to make her feel special. Quite beautifully, Jesus addresses this 'fatherless' one as 'Daughter.' An acknowledgement of her intrinsic worth that he couldn't bear for her not to hear.

All the while Jairus was witnessing this entire episode. How would Jesus' use of the word "Daughter" have rung in his ears? Could he see a reflection of his own daughter in the face of this poor woman? Did he recognise their shared humanity when she, like he had just done, fell at the feet of Jesus? Did her healing give him hope for that of his own child? Maybe so, but then it was quickly dashed as the awful news that he had been dreading arrived. They were too late. It was all over. His daughter was dead.

But then Jesus speaks. "Don't be afraid, just believe," he tells Jairus. The words sound simple and trite. How could a father who had just heard news of his daughter's death not be afraid? How could he 'just believe'? Maybe then it would have dawned on Jairus. That he had just been shown how. For he had just witnessed this very thing. How a simple woman's belief had overcome her fear, as she risked seeking out Christ and took hold for herself that which she needed, which she (rightly) believed Jesus could give.

Suddenly everything was changed. Nameless, nuisance of a woman no more. Here was another daughter, a companion, a partner, a helpmate in faith. Indeed, the Good News that she had received was the same Good News that Jairus would know that very day, as the other daughter in the story felt the life-giving touch of Christ also.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Thank you Lord that in our sufferings we are not alone. Thank you that your healing work always seeks to connect us with others. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING
Mark 5:30,33-34

Aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”...the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

Wednesday 9th July - A tale of two daughters – Part 1

DAILY BYTE

Over the next two days we will explore that wonderful passage from Mark 5:21-43. The passage recounts two healing miracles of Jesus - the reviving from the dead of the daughter of Jairus, one of the synagogue rulers; and the healing of a nameless woman who had suffered from a bleeding condition for twelve years.

The contrast in social status between these two needy people could not be more stark. On the one hand there was Jairus, a man, known and respected as a leader in the religious life of the community. On the other hand there was this nameless woman whose condition rendered her ritually unclean, and was thus barred from participating in the corporate life of worship. Two needy people, from opposite ends of the social and religious spectrum. Yet both of them, in their need, recognise something special in Jesus. Both of them find themselves at Jesus' feet.

It's a great leveling place, the feet of Jesus. What other place would be shared by a respected ruler of the synagogue, and a nameless, marginalised woman? But these two individuals share far more than simply the ground before Jesus' feet on which they kneel. The story, as told by Mark, reveals a deep connectedness between these two unlikely associates. Herein lies the heart of the passage, but it is something we easily overlook.

The passage is a classic example of the literary technique of interpolation. That is to say, the one story (that of the bleeding woman) is inserted, or interpolated, into the other story (that of Jairus). Jairus' story is interrupted by the story of the bleeding woman. By writing it this way, Mark's clear intention is for these two stories to be read together. Indeed, the story of Jairus and his daughter cannot be fully understood by skipping over verses 25 - 34, which are about the nameless, bleeding woman. Reading the passage with this intention in mind, a few significant things emerge.

Notice that Jairus' request to Jesus in v23 concerning his own daughter articulates with startling accuracy the need of the bleeding woman. Jairus tells Jesus that his daughter is dying, that the life is gradually flowing out of her. But if Jesus could touch her, she would be made well and would live. This expresses exactly the need of the woman. We read that she had suffered from a bleeding disorder for twelve years.

Now in Jewish thought the blood contained the life, and so her condition signified that her life had been draining out of her for all that time. This is made all the more poignant if her flow of blood is understood as being a menstrual discharge, for menstrual blood has even closer associations with life, in that it feeds and nurtures and gives life to the child in the womb. A touch from Jesus was what she needed for healing and life.

We will continue our reflections on this passage tomorrow, but for today maybe you would like to reflect on this question: “In what ways has life been draining out of you, maybe for a very long time?”

Maybe you’re in an abusive relationship. Maybe you’re having an affair. Maybe you’ve been compromising your integrity at work. Maybe you’re addicted to gambling, or pornography, or alcohol, or shopping, or exercise, or drugs. Maybe you’ve been living a great big lie, or there’s something bad you’ve done that you’ve never taken responsibility for.

In whatever ways life has been draining out of you, a touch from Jesus is what you need. What might this entail for you right now?

PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, I bring to you that part of my life that is draining the very life out of me. I know Lord that this cannot carry on. I need your touch. Please help me. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING
Mark 5:22-24

One of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.

Tuesday 8th July - Dealing with Cholesterol

DAILY BYTE

Some time back a friend of mine suddenly felt a sharp pain in his arm which then moved to his chest. Turned out he was having a heart attack. Fortunately it wasn’t fatal and he survived, but it was certainly a pretty rude wake-up call. The cardiologist told him that he had a cholesterol problem, caused mostly by unlucky genetics but made worse through poor lifestyle choices. He had to start watching what he ate and start seeing regular exercise not as an optional extra to his life, but a vital non-negotiable necessity.

The medics tell us that cholesterol is a steroid alcohol that promotes arteriosclerosis. For the rest of us, it's those naughty little globules of "stuff" that clog up the arteries and can take a lot of the fun out of eating certain foods. The problem of cholesterol is a real one, and if allowed to proceed unchecked, can be life-threatening. There is often a genetic basis to this condition, but it can always be made better or worse by the healthy lifestyle choices we do or do not make.

There is a parallel here with the spiritual life. For there are things that can clog up our spiritual arteries, much like cholesterol, inhibiting the free and steady flow of the life of God within us. What are these things, and how do we cope with them? Much can be said in this regard, especially about the "cholesterol" raising effects of sinful and selfish living. Our sinful human nature is a bit like a genetic predisposition that makes us particularly vulnerable to making choices that can block the life of God flowing through us.

But it is interesting to note that even the good and noble things we do for God carry the danger of being "cholesterol" inducing. Especially when the life of faithful ministry leads to a sense of self-sufficiency, or fatigue, or a loss of perspective or vision. This was a danger which Jesus clearly recognised. And so we see him, right at the start of his ministry, establishing a rhythm between the high, extroverted times of teaching, healing and exorcism, and the private, solitary moments of silence and prayer. As Karl Rahner has written, "Prayer relieves the hardening of the spiritual arteries."

Maybe you have a sense that something is clogging up your spiritual arteries right now, and you're not experiencing the life of God freely coursing through your veins. If there’s some sinful behaviour that you are aware of that is causing this, then I urge you to confess that to God, repent, and by God’s grace start living in a new way.

But if the hardening of your spiritual arteries arises out of a sense of fatigue, disillusionment, cynicism or despair – then get down on your knees, and pray, and pray, and pray.

It’s the best anti-dote to spiritual cholesterol you’ll ever find.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, I know that there are so many things that can block your life-giving grace from flowing freely in me and through me. Thank you for the example of Jesus, who recognized the need to keep the channels between himself and you wide open every day, and how he did so through regular times of solitude and prayer. Help me to follow his example more and more. Amen

SCRIPTURE READING
Mark 1:32-35

That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Friday 4th July - Go Deeper!

DAILY BYTE

Phillip Yancey tells the story of his church’s pastor who was struggling through a time of profound exhaustion to the point he was teetering on the edge of burn out. So he arranged to spend some time on a directed retreat. The spiritual director appointed to him on this retreat was a little, German nun. As he told her his story of endless meetings, heavy counselling sessions, constant sermon deadlines and the fatiguing pastoral demands of a busy church, he half expected her response to be one of telling him to cut back and slow down.

Instead after listening carefully, she said to him: “When your well is drained by the busyness of life, the only solution is to dig deeper to find fresh sources of water.”

Go deeper! That really sums up everything that Jesus is saying in these rather scary words. To change fundamentally, we have to go all the way to the bottom.

So Jesus’ words are NOT a Dear John letter at all, but rather a warning and challenge: Don’t spend all your time and effort working on your outer world, or on looking good through achievements and accomplishments.

That’s what the world may value, but it just doesn’t cut it with God.

Your heart, your soul, your inner world – that’s what really, really counts. So go deeper!

The Kingdom of God must go through you! It must be worked into your soul. It’s not a home addition but the home foundation; it’s not some spice you casually throw onto your meal, but must be kneaded into the very dough.

Frankly, I hope Jesus’ words do scare you, as they do me. They are a powerful reminder of what is truly important to God, which if you consider it, is actually good news. Because these words aren’t about Jesus dividing into good and bad, successes and failures, but rather they challenge us to enter into the great truth of the way God has designed the universe – that it is all about relationships and love.

It’s not about jumping through hoops and endlessly having to please a performance-addicted and petty God. It’s being loved and learning to love. It’s knowing God and being known by God. That’s it. That’s life. That’s meaning. That’s purpose. That’s God’s will - everything else will flow out from there as naturally as fruit grows on trees.

It really is that simple. So simple that the church often fails to get it, as do all sorts of very religious people. So then, wrestle with it, embrace it, open your heart to it, build your world upon it.

Because it really is this simple ... may you know and be known, may you love and be loved.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God, you have founded the universe upon the incredibly simple and yet amazingly profound principles of relationship and love. Help us to journey ever deeper and found our lives upon these very same principles. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Matthew 7. 21-29 MSG

"Knowing the correct password—saying 'Master, Master,' for instance— isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.'
"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
"But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."
When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying—quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard.

Thursday 3rd July - The value of storms

DAILY BYTE

A couple of seasons ago on the popular reality show ‘Survivor,’ one of the contestants spoke about the pressures she had faced:
“I had no idea that this was going to be as tough as it is. I have woken up in the morning and gone through an entire day wondering who I am. Things come out of my mouth in frustration and hunger and stress that, after they come out, I want to suck them back in, because it’s not the same thing I would normally say or do.”

One day your fruit will reveal who you really are for there is only so long you can hide it. I remember once saying to my mentor in frustration: “I hate who I become when I am stressed.” His reply was hard-hitting but nonetheless true, “How you act when you are stressed is part of who you REALLY are. The stress just means you struggle to hide it.”

And what will often bring these important moments of self realisation and revelation is the storms of life we all seem to encounter. Notice that the storm occurred for both the wise and foolish men, a reminder that storms are a life event that we all have to face at times.

The tremendous value of these inevitable storms is that they reveal to us where we are truly founded – what we have built the foundations of our lives upon.

The earlier tale of the fruit is spelt out more clearly by Jesus in the storm story. Two houses can be built the same way, with exactly the same materials, but when the crisis of the storm hits it will reveal where they are truly founded.

If your life so far has been all about what you can do, rather than about who you are, then you will probably struggle to hold everything up when you encounter a severe crisis. We see this time and time again within our society, most notably in the many Christian leaders who publicly collapse because they have not taken enough care of what is within.

However, for every famous person who collapses, there are many others, more anonymously perhaps, whose lives crash and burn with devastating effect to all concerned. For if we neglect our inner worlds, then we will not be able to sustain the weight of events and stresses that press upon us.

What do you learn about your life’s foundations from these stormy moments? It would be wise for you to carefully consider this question long before the storm clouds draw up above your life. For by then it may be too late to begin giving your inner world the focus it needs to sustain you through these tough times.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Great God, you are my rock and foundation. I commit myself to building my life entirely upon you, and ask that you would guide me in such an effort. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Matthew 7. 24-27 NRSV

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell and great was its fall!

Wednesday 2nd July - I just did not know you

DAILY BYTE

The story is told of a very diligent scholar who visited a rabbi renowned for his wisdom. The scholar was middle-aged so the rabbi asked him what he had done with his life so far.
‘I have gone through the Talmud three times,’ the scholar answered.
‘Yes, but how much of the Talmud has gone through you?’ the rabbi queried.

Jesus will say to them, ‘but I just did not know you.’ This is a vivid reminder that relationship and not achievement is central to our faith.

So how much of yourself do you allow to be known? Does God know you? Do you know yourself? How much of God’s Kingdom has gone through you?’

There is this fascinating Greek word used by Matthew’s Gospel – ‘Poeio’. It occurs eleven times during Matthew 7 alone and it means ‘to do’ but in a way that affects your heart. It is doing in the sense of becoming, where your outer actions touch and transform your inner world.

This word is used by the Gospel to connect the story before Jesus’ Dear John words with the story after – see the focus reading by way of example. (Every word used by the NRSV to translate ‘Poeio’ is in large print).

In other words, the illustration before about the fruit, and the story after about building houses are both connected to this Dear John statement by the same word constantly repeated.

This is because these two illustrations open the door for us into understanding exactly what Jesus means by ‘I just did not know you.’ They are about how we become known!

The interesting thing about fruit is that it never lies – it tells the truth. By looking at fruit you can tell exactly what kind of tree it comes from, and even discern the general health of the tree.

The true fruit of our lives will not be seen in big public world accomplishments and achievements like throwing out demons, rather it will be found in our relationships and other matters of the heart.

Like how we treat loved one’s behind closed doors ... that’s a fruit. Or how we treat others on busy roads (not much good fruit for me there I am afraid). To know someone’s fruit, it would be far more useful to observe how they treat a beggar on the street, when they think no one’s looking, than it would be to ask for their opinions on God.

These kinds of things – these fruits – will tell us who we really are.

Your fruit will reveal your inner world, and getting to grips with it is how we get to know ourselves and how we open ourselves to being known.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, we invite you to truly know us. We open every dark corner of our hearts to your love, and we pray that you would help us courageously know ourselves so that we might make ourselves known to you. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Matthew 7 and the word ‘Poieo’.
The words the NRSV uses to translate poieo are in large print.

7:12 In everything DO to others as you would have them DO to you; for this is the law and the prophets.
7:17-19 In the same way, every good tree BEARS good fruit, but the bad tree BEARS bad fruit. A good tree cannot BEAR bad fruit, nor can a bad tree BEAR good fruit. Every tree that does not BEAR good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
7:21-22 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who DOES the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and DO many deeds of power in your name?'
7:24 "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and ACTS on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
7:26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not ACT on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

Tuesday 1st July - Missing the point

DAILY BYTE

If I had to try to sum up what Jesus is meaning through these words, as set up against his teaching in the preceding chapters (the Sermon on the Mount), it would be in the following way:

Don’t centre your spirituality on achievement rather than relationship, or on performance rather than grace, because if you do that, you will be missing the point of everything that is important to God.

But of course it’s about grace, you may be thinking, we hear that message again and again. However, there is a very big difference between knowing something in your head and knowing it in your heart, and I can’t tell you how often my own spirituality warps into performance fixation – desperately trying to prove my worth to God and others by what I can do.

There is no doubt that we live in a performance-orientated culture. We define people’s worth around their achievements, and we look to achieve our own purpose and meaning through our own accomplishments.

Gordon MacDonald talks about attending a granddaughter’s soccer match, where after the match the children spilled off the field in a mad rush to find their parents. He remembers one little boy sprinting up to his day to excitedly exclaim: ‘Hey Dad, I scored a goal today.’
To which his father replied: ‘Yeah, but you missed two others’.

It seems we imbibe with our mother’s milk the lesson that our culture’s priority is achievements and accomplishments, and that these things will bring us approval and meaning and purpose.

And then we bring that achievement mindset to our spirituality, as seen in these words: “Lord, but in your name we accomplished great things like prophesying and throwing out demons and performing miracles!”

But Jesus is saying that if one day we stand before God and try to define ourselves by our spiritual achievements, then God will say, ‘So what ... you are missing the point. All I have really cared about is getting to know you, but you have not let me do that because you don’t even know yourself. You have worked so hard on your public world accomplishments but it’s your inner world that counts with me, and that’s what should have been your priority.’

So do you centre your spirituality on achievements and not relationship? On performance rather than grace?

One way you can answer that is to assess how much time over the last week you spent working on your outer world accomplishments and achievements as compared to your inner world relationship with God.

What do you learn about yourself from such an excercise?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving Lord, we ask that you would help us to see what is truly important to you and to shape our lives around that. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE
Matthew 7. 22 NRSV

On that day many will say to me, ‘ Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name and do many deeds of power in your name?’