John Stott

John Stott's death yesterday ends a wonderful life in this world that made the Bible live for generations of us.  As a young professional in London I can remember hearing him expounding the Word of God, in those days as Rector Emeritus of All Souls Church, Langham Place.

Expounding the Bible is not the Baptists' strongest point.  A testimony here, a thought there, a cup of coffee, a prayer meeting for revival . . . I think I would have never understood the richness of Bible exposition were it not for those days in All Souls.  My Council Estate ears struggled with his Queen's Chaplain voice but that was a small discomfort in return for understanding that the Bible speaks when the preacher allows it to do so.

Thank God that today there are others of influence, not least in North America, who are dedicated to letting Scripture speak.  Blessed indeed is the Church that, although it has different expositors, only ever has one speaker - the Word of God.  And in John Stott's ministry All Soul's was extraordinarily blessed over a generation, and so were countless others throughout the world.  I thank God for him.

Duilisc before Carcair

Activist Christianity struggles to grasp this but, honestly, the work and worship of God transcends filled diaries. Look at this section from a wonderful old Celtic prayer-poem, attributed (possibly correctly in this case) to Columba;

At times kneeling to beloved Heaven -

At times psalm singing;

At times contemplating the King of Heaven

Holy the chief;

At times at work without compulsion

This would be delightful.

At times plucking duilisc from the rocks

At times at fishing;

At times giving food to the poor;

At times in a carcair:

The poem pictures a life devoted to God in which formal worship is offered at times to the Chief of Heaven. But there are also times to pluck duilisc.

Although beaches often feature in today's commercials the people on the beach are almost always running or jumping (or surfing, or horse-riding, or driving).  Even the sea edge has become a busy place in our society.

Columba, in common with all Celtic saints, knew that God would not be neglected by taking time to enjoy his handiwork. Thus we imagine the breezy summer Atlantic shoreline and a man in a habit plucking juicy seaweed (duilisc) from the rocks just because he can, and it's free, and God is there. Duilisc washes in on the tides from June to September; you won't get to pluck any in January even if you can stand upright on the windswept, gloomy, wave-lashed shore. Get plucking because there are also times in a carcair.

We don't know exactly what carcair meant for Columba. A carcair was a prison - it may have meant the enclosed hermitage or imprisonment by hostile communities. But either way it was a great loss of the freedom that the seaweed-plucker enjoys!

We are wise to remember how, a little further inland, the Lord said in his greatest discourse, 'Consider the lilies of the field how they grow'. He credited us with the intelligence to realise that such consideration would only happen by taking the opportunity while it blooms and before the carcair, or in his case the cross, at a time yet to be.

Natural Wastage

There's nothing like a Church committee as a setting for making bizarre new theology.

The Daily Telegraph carried a report on the General Synod at which a member was quoted as follows:

“The perfect storm we can see arriving fast on the horizon is the ageing congregations,” he said. “The average age is 61 now, with many congregations above that.  … 2020 apparently is when our congregations start falling through the floor because of natural wastage, that is people dying."

The Salvation Army coined the term 'promoted to glory' for its members passing through death to life everlasting (a vertical contradiction of falling through the floor).  The Apostle Paul liked the phrase fallen asleep in Jesus.  John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress famously described arriving in a Celestial City:

Now, while they were thus drawing towards the gate, behold a company of the heavenly host came out to meet them: to whom it was said by the other two shining ones,

"These are the men that have loved our Lord when they were in the world, and that have left all for his holy name; and he hath sent us to fetch them, and we have brought them thus far on their desired journey, that they may go in and look their Redeemer in the face with joy." Then the heavenly host gave a great shout, saying, “Blessed are they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb.” Rev. 19:9.

There came out also at this time to meet them several of the King’s trumpeters, clothed in white and shining raiment, who, with melodious noises and loud, made even the heavens to echo with their sound. These trumpeters saluted Christian and his fellow with ten thousand welcomes from the world; and this they did with shouting and sound of trumpet.

This done, they compassed them round on every side; some went before, some behind, and some on the right hand, and some on the left, ... And now were these two men, as it were, in heaven, before they came to it, being swallowed up with the sight of angels, and with hearing of their melodious notes. Here also they had the city itself in view; and they thought they heard all the bells therein to ring, to welcome them thereto. But, above all, the warm and joyful thoughts that they had about their own dwelling there with such company, and that for ever and ever; oh, by what tongue or pen can their glorious joy be expressed!

Alternatively, you can call it natural wastage . . . 

Christians would be wiser to value older people and reach them with the Good News of eternity in glory with Jesus than, "Hey, join us and soon become our natural wastage".

Cats and Dogs

A king can see a cat but a cat can never see a king.

This famous saying refers to the issue of perception: the cat sees a king but not as a king, the king sees the cat as a cat.

Dogs don't see kings either though they have no proverbial saying to say so.  I heard a preacher refer to his dog as a ministering angel.  He had been in a time of quite deep despair in which nobody he felt understood him.  Except his dog.  It, he said, looked at him and ministered to him as others couldn't.

Preachers think too hard sometimes.  Instead of seeing the proverb in the dog he saw an angel there.  The despairer saw the dog but the dog did not see the despairer. 

But this is not the good news.  The good news is that the One who loves us best sees us the most clearly!  God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were sinners Christ died for us.  He knows me and he loves me.