Don't Knock It!

The fact that you’re reading this blog almost guarantees that you will use other social media, too.  It has become almost universal in recent years.  I expect many of you will also know of, if not be familiar with, ‘text-speak’.  Articulate texters, for example, use strange words where a single character replaces a whole syllable.  This tends to appeal to the younger generation – perhaps in this context that's the under-fifties – to some of whom this language has become almost ‘2nd n8r.’

E-mails have also brought with them another, and more gentle, linguistic phenomenon.  This is a whole new generation of acronyms.  I occasionally see SKS, in an appeal for favours from ‘some kind soul’, and an amusing comment may be terminated by LOL.  This could mean either ‘lots of laughter’, ‘laughs out loud’ or - as in an embarrassing political context not long ago - ‘lots of love’!  Someone who is uncertain of his authority, but wishes to join in an exchange of views, might add to his offering FWIW (for what it’s worth); a bolder participant might begin IMHO (in my humble opinion).

As usual, there are two sides to the debate about these, and many critics say they are contrived, a mere novelty, and degrade the rich heritage that is the English language.  Before you condemn them, though, I want to suggest that even these can direct our minds to God.  Let’s focus our Christmas thoughts on those last two items.

‘For what it’s worth’ – Jesus taught that we are of high value to God.  In Matt. 10:29-31 He tells us that we are worth more than many sparrows, each of which is individually precious.  Later in his Gospel, Matthew gives an account of separating ‘sheep’ from ‘goats’.  This decision will be based on the way people have treated each other, particularly those of  a lower level of society, the needy, the sick or those in prison.  Jesus says that the treatment offered or not offered to them is done ‘to Him’ (Matt. 25:32,40,45.)  We should be in no doubt of the worthiness to God of people who, to many, are the dregs of society.  Peter underlined this universality of God in his talk with the centurion Cornelius: ‘... God does not show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.’ (Acts 10:34-35).

‘In my humble opinion’ is just an embellished form of the more familiar term ‘with respect.’  My dictionary tells me that humble is ‘having or showing a low estimate of one’s own importance’, and respect is ‘deferential esteem felt or shown towards a person or quality’.  In other words both terms imply placing a lower value on oneself than on the other party.

These phrases are rarely used with genuine feeling these days, however.  Often they are no more than a formula, an attempt to excuse an outrageous statement; and the expanded ‘with all due respect’ may well indicate that the speaker has no respect at all for his protagonist, and is by no means humble himself.

So, where do we look for real humility?  It ought to be found in someone whose high rank is in no doubt, but who doesn’t stand on his own importance, rather seeking out the lower echelons of society to join them instead (Phil. 2:6-8.)

Our Lord came to earth, not in a palace fit for a King, but to join common folk, people of equal worth to the king, in the person of the illegitimate child of a carpenter’s fiancée.  He was born in squalor and laid in a manger because there wasn’t a place in the inn for ‘people like them.’  We shouldn't really be surprised that true humility was found in an animals' feeding trough ... and soon was to live the life of a refugee!

Falling Leaves

Last weekend, we had a leaf-clearing morning at my church.  Tools were brought and shared, paths were swept and the grass was relieved of a generous covering of leaves and twigs.  Bags were filled and taken for disposal and donuts and coffee were enjoyed.  Aching backs were soothed later in the weekend.

Now that the leaves are all down from the trees, passing motorists get a far better view of the mock-gothic of the church building, and all around can see the trees in a new, naked splendour with the branches twisting and almost dancing around each other as they reach up to the autumn sunlight.  We can see the underlying structure that forms the basis for the familiar green shapes that will once more greet us next spring.

This weekend has seen the start of a new church year, a year that traditionally begins with the first Sunday in Advent.  Advent means 'coming', and that's a good way to start the year: reminding us what belonging to a church and being a follower of Jesus really means.  When Jesus left this earth at the end of His ministry here, his disciples were gazing after him; suddenly, two men in white - angels - were beside them and told them, "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way ..." (Acts 1:11).

From that moment until now, and beyond, history carries us with it towards this specific point, the return of Jesus in glory, to judge and rule over the earth.  We don't know - any more than did those early believers to whom Paul wrote in Greece - when He will come.  However, we do know that it will be sudden (I Thess. 5:2) and we're told to be ready for his return, working to share His gospel so that others, too, can share in the blessings to come.  That's what the church is all about.

Like Lent, Advent is known as a 'solemn season', a time when we pay special attention to looking at ourselves, reviewing how we spend our lives, and trying to move closer to God's ideal, the way He wants us to live.  Just as we can see and measure the structure of the trees, now they haven't any leaves, so we can measure ourselves in this period of thoughtfulness.  We can examine the structure of our lives and see how they fit into that eternal structure, the blueprint for which we were created.

The verses in Paul's letter that follow the one I've quoted above  - indeed the whole of that first letter to the Thessalonians - are a good guide to living the Christian life.  Thessalonica was the chief city of Macedonia.  It lay on the Egnatian Way, the principal highway of its day, stretching from Rome to the Orient.  As such, it was very much the centre of an international, cosmopolitan culture, and thus presented the infant church with a whole range of glamorous worldly temptations.  Paul was well aware of this, and sought to encourage the members of that infant church as each tried to deal with all these threats to a new life as a believer in Jesus Christ.

As the preparations for Christmas dominate your life in these coming weeks, you may be looking for a 'breathing space', some relief from all the commercial pressures.  I invite you to read this letter - it will only take half an hour or so - and ask yourself whether your life reflects what you say you believe ... or not.  Paul, and his friends Silas and Timothy, had a great influence on the Thessalonians because they not only talked the talk ... they walked the walk.

Does your life do the same ... or is just masking the view, like the leaves on the trees?