What a Japanese Maple tree teaches us about the Holy Spirit

Recently at church I shared the story of our Japanese Maple tree in the church yard. Apparently these trees are supposed to turn this beautiful, bright red colour each autumn. But until this year this particular tree was refusing to do that. The grass of the lawn had grown up around the base of the tree preventing the roots from soaking up the nourishment they need.

About two years ago, Claire set about bringing nourishment to the roots of the tree. She cut back the lawn and began laying mulch…a particularly potent home grown mulch full of worms!

I’d watch Claire doing this most days and also look at the tree and see very little change.

But about a month ago, Kay (a long term dearly loved member of our church and expert gardener) walked past the tree and winked at Claire and said ‘well done!’

It struck me that this is precisely how the Holy Spirit often works in our lives.

Internally, gradually, but powerfully.

As we’ve been working through 2 Corinthians we see this dynamic often. In a nutshell Paul says that the Holy Spirit brings about change when our hearts are affected by the gospel. This is what Paul speaks of when he writes to the Corinthians:

'You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.'

2 Corinthians 3.3

The Holy Spirit is the marker of the new covenant God has established with his people. The old covenant, was not bad, it just served its purpose. The new covenant far surpasses the work of the old covenant in that it takes God’s word deep into the core of our being. God’s powerful, personal presence has now taken up residence in our hearts, applying the work of Jesus into the deepest recesses of our hearts. Remarkble!

Like the transformation that has taken place with the maple tree, the work of the Spirit often goes unnoticed. This seems to me because of where it takes place, in our hearts. So the work of the Spirit is primarily internal. And according to the bible, the heart is the control centre of our lives. You can’t see what is going on in the human heart, but over time you will see the outward affects of what is happening internally.

It follows then, that the work of the Spirit is often a gradual work. Looking at the tree each day I may not notice the change that is taking place in the roots. But when I take a step back and look what that tree has now become compared to what it used to be it’s striking. The same dynamic is often at work in us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Because it’s gradual it would be a mistake to assume it’s not powerful. The Spirit’s work in our hearts is so powerful that Paul likens it to a moment of new creation. As powerful as that moment when God spoke the world into being:

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ

2 Corinthians 4.6

How have you seen the Spirit gradually, but powerfully, transforming the life of a brother or sister?
I’ve found this to be a helpful question to reflect on as it causes me to take a step back and notice what God has been doing in someone’s heart over time.

Why not reflect on this question, and ask someone to do the same for you.

We have a problem

Over the last week the news has shifted slightly away from COVID-19 to another crisis in America. Last week George Floyd was killed in custody. His tragic death, captured on video, has fanned a flame of protest after a number of African American people have been killed in police custody. Floyd’s death has rightly affected many people around the world. 

We are coming to the end of reconciliation week here in Australia. I didn’t realise this until earlier in the week, but reconciliation week can trace its origins back to a Christian movement of prayer for our nation. 

The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made 339 recommendations to the government, most of which have never been implemented. The final recommendation was this: 

Initiate a formal process of reconciliation between Aboriginal people and the wider community.

Interestingly it was a movement of Christians who picked up on this recommendation and in 1993 called for a ‘week of prayer for reconciliation’. Three years later, a wider societal movement began, National Reconciliation Week. 

The events in the US this last week have shown us two things. First, and sadly, that racial tension and injustice is a prolific problem across the globe. But secondly, it has put the spotlight on our own nation and the need to tread carefully here. Many people have condemned the crisis in the US without reflecting on the continuing crisis in our own land. 

Since 1991, and despite a Royal Commission, another four hundred and thirty Aboriginal people have died in police custody. No police officers have been convicted. In fact, since 1991 things have actually become worse. The rate of incarceration of Aboriginal people has doubled and a 2019 study found Aboriginal Australians are more likely to be imprisoned than African Americans. 

The Australian Law Reform Commission reports that ‘Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults make up around 2% of the national population, they constitute 27% of the national prison population’. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women it is 34%.

There’s a huge problem in our country. Whatever you think about the reasons for this problem, or what solutions are at our disposal, we need to acknowledge that this is a huge problem. 

Since the early days of the church the gospel has been applied vertically (between us and God), and horizontally (between each other). And so Paul wrote to a fractured church in Ephesus: 

For he himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Ephesians 2.14–18)

Our context in Australia is very different. But it’s interesting to note that every time Paul spoke of the new, free, justified stance of the Christians before God he also related this to the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. The vertical gospel must be applied horizontally.

We might disagree about what we can actually do, or what part we play in this problem, but can you imagine if the church had kept leading society in prayer over this? At the very least let us draw near to God in prayer for our nation. Below is a prayer we’ve often used at church written by the Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group:

Holy Father, God of Love,

You are the Creator of all things.

We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history

and the sufferings of Our peoples,

and we ask your forgiveness.

We thank you for the survival of Indigenous cultures

Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus

to reconcile the world to you.

We pray for your strength and grace to forgive, accept and love one another, as you love us and forgive and accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.

Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history so that we may build a better

future for our Nation.

Teach us to respect all cultures.

Teach us to care for our land and waters.

Help us to share justly the resources of this land. Help us to bring about spiritual and social change to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities, especially the disadvantaged.

Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families, our communities and our Nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group 13 March 1997 Brisbane, Qld).

Calling Me Home

The most vivid memory I have from my early childhood is of running down the footpath from my house to meet my father, with the expectation of seeing his arms opening wide ready to embrace me. The reason I remember that day is because he didn’t meet me there. It was in that moment at the end of the road that I remembered he had left and wouldn’t ever be coming home again. It was only then that I understood what I had been told and I was left with the pain of deep rejection, feeling sad and unworthy, knowing that my father had chosen to be somewhere else.

That rejection cut deep within me and brought with it a great emptiness and longing. As a child I carried with me the burden of this sadness and the weight of not feeling worthy of being loved. I felt broken and often wondered if I would ever feel truly happy.

From an early age I believed that God was real and over the years that followed he gradually used the hurt that I felt to draw me near to him. I wanted desperately to relate to God but felt sure that he could never really love me. Despite hearing God calling me to him as I read the Bible and tried to pray, it took many years before I truly believed that my heavenly Father would never let me down, and even longer for me to give myself completely to him. God gradually helped me to trust him and to learn to find shelter and refuge in him, even when around me all else seemed to be going wrong.

It was so hard to fathom that the creator of the universe wanted to welcome me and that he loved and cared for me like no other. But in sending his son to die for me the depth of his love was unmistakable.

More recently, I experienced rejection from my earthly father once again. Although still painful, the difference this time was that I was aware that my value doesn’t lie in the things of this earth. I have meaning because I am a child of God. I know that my heavenly Father is trustworthy, dependable and true, and that his love for me is deep and endless and without condition. To this I hold onto tightly.

God, my heavenly Father, who waited so patiently for me with his arms wide open, has called me to him and welcomed me. He loves and cares for me like no other and he alone makes me whole.

I have chosen to run without fear towards my heavenly Father and to kneel at his feet. Because in him, and only in him, can we find true refuge and true peace. He will never leave us or let us down and he is our true protector. He is not only capable of bearing all of our burdens but when we trust him wholeheartedly, he gives us wonderful rest and peace.

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’. (Psalm 91: 1–2)

Being an adaptable church

There’s a fascinating book that has been doing the rounds recently called The Spider and the Starfish. It’s all about how decentralised organisations can adapt much quicker to changing situations than highly centralised organisations.

The author likens centralised organisations to spiders. Spiders are controlled by their head (like most of us!). If the head is cut off then very quickly the spider dies. Starfish are different. They have no head. And its major organs are replicated throughout each arm. Cut it in half and instead of killing the starfish you now have two starfish. 

Starfish organisations don’t have headquarters.

For those from St Paul’s you might recall in our recent sermon series in Acts we reflected on the adaptability of the early church. This is one of the hall marks of the church. It is a dynamic, decentralised movement that can easily adapt to ever changing situations because our Head is not human authority but the Lord Jesus, whose headship is permanently affixed to every part of his body, the church  

We’ve seen this in Acts as persecution was applied to where the gospel movement first broke out, Jerusalem. The very centralised opposition - the pharisees and saducees - tried to lock down Jerusalem. This resulted in a scattering of the early christians and a decentralisation of the church. Now it was no longer just the apostles who were preaching the gospel, it was everyone. And new gospel outbreaks popped up in unlikely places like Samaria (see Acts 8). 

There are no two ways about it, COVID 19 is a crisis, and one that is rapidly changing the way society functions for the time being. This includes the church. 

Friends I want to remind you that this won’t defeat our church. We know that. We sing about that every week, and we read endless promises in the scriptures that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Matthew 28.20); That our help will come from God, the Maker of heaven and earth. The One who doesn’t slumber nor sleep (Psalm 121.1-3); That Jesus is the bread of life and those who come to him will not go hungry (John 6.35)

And I want to encourage you to be like a starfish. To already begin thinking, how can we adapt to this crisis? 

This is our spiritual strength - something up our sleeve that will help us get through this. Here are some thoughts to get us started:

Creating community online

A small team of helpers is preparing to move our Sunday services online. They will be streamed at the usual times of 9.30AM and 5PM. This Sunday will be a dress rehearsal and from the following Sunday we expect to have our services running completely online. 

It is not the same, by any means. There’s a real grief in not being able to greet one another with a hug and sit and pray to our Father in heaven together as a beautifully diverse congregation of people. 

But there’s an opportunity here too. We can also adapt to share our church community with the broader community. Doing short, for example, devotions online that speak into the felt needs of millions of people right now.

God, in his common grace, has connected people together online in a way that empowers our capacity of sharing our hope - those promises I just reminded you of - with a world that is right now devoid of hope. 

A recent video we put on Facebook was seen by more than 5,000 people. 5,000 people reached with quite minimal effort! We couldn’t fit 500 people into our hall. It’s not the same, but it is an opportunity for us to bless the city we live in right now with the good news of Jesus. 

Decentralising pastoral care - a care network

Crises force you to reassess what’s really important. As a pastor these last two weeks have reminded me that the beating heart of my vocation is the ministry of the word of God and of prayer. To pastor God’s people by reminding them of his promises, by praying with them and for them, and by caring for the flock of Jesus I have the privilege of serving.

Another opportunity before us is to maximise this care by decentralising it.

You may have seen that just yesterday I invited everyone in the congregation to sign up to a care network. The idea is simple. A network of church members who will commit to receiving, and distributing prayer points for those in need. A network who will also be up for helping those most vulnerable and isolated - that may mean a daily phone call to an elderly friend from church, or dropping off some groceries to someone unable to get to the shops. Adapting to this crisis enables us to come back to the basics of what the church does - pray for one another and care for one another. 

The analogy of the spider and the starfish falls over at one point though. We have a head, the Lord Jesus. The one who sits enthroned in heaven. And that’s the key. As long as our head is in heaven he cannot be defeated, and neither can we. In fact his ascension - empowers him to be more present over all the earth through the witness of his body, the church.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Colossians 1.15-20

Let Your Light Shine

2020 has been a particularly dark, dreary and fearful time for many in our city and our nation—from the endless bushfires that quite literally darkened the skies, to a virus that has captured the imagination (and fear) of many. Like it or not, this coronavirus will impact life for the foreseeable future.

In our recent sermon series in the book of Acts we have been exploring the beginnings of a movement that changed world history: the church. The dynamics of the early church and its exploding influence on the first-century world have caused us to reflect on our own engagement with the twenty-first-century world. 

Take the famous story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9.1–19). In that story there are obvious themes of light penetrating the dark.

Saul sees a light flash from heaven (Acts 9.3) that flaws him, and he hears the voice of the once dead Jesus. But what is most surprising is that rather than condemn him, Jesus commissions him for service. He says of Saul:

This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel (Acts 9.15).

Having seen the light himself, Saul is then required to reflect it to a dark and fearful world.

I remember as a kid being shocked when I learnt that the moon doesn’t have any light in it. There is nothing shiny in it. It’s just a clump of dust and rock (pardon my lack of scientific knowledge). This shocked me because sometimes on a cloudless night, as I stood on my bed and peered out of my window at the night sky, the moon was so bright it would light up the night sky.

Saul is called and commissioned by Jesus to be like the moon. This new way of being for Saul taps into a great theme of the Bible. The prophet Isaiah spoke of one to come who would be a light to the nations (Isaiah 49.6). Jesus came and said, ‘I am the light of the world’ (John 8.12), and now he says to Saul—go and shine as a light to the gentiles.

Saul’s post-conversion life is a life lived for others; a life that reflects the light of Jesus into a dark, dark world. I’ve not met another Christian with a story like Saul’s, but I’m reminded that all of us share a similar story. For all who call on the name of Jesus have seen the light, and we are all called to shine brightly as a city on a hill—to be a new movement with a new way of being.

It seems to me that right now there are some really obvious ways we can reflect that same light that led Saul into a dark, dark world.

At a personal level, we can shine a less panicked, less fearful way of being. When we draw upon the endless spiritual stockpiles that we have in Jesus, perhaps it would cause us to be less panicked, less fearful and more concerned with the interests of others.

This would enable us to reflect a community that doesn’t exist for its own interests but for the interests of others. The church would be less concerned with stockpiling toilet paper and more concerned with caring for the most vulnerable people in our city: the sick and the elderly. What effect might this way of being have on our city? It may just look like a light shining into a dark room.

It’s also worth noting that this way of being is not new for Christians. 

The early church faced a far greater threat in the early fourth century. The world had already been engulfed by a devastating war and famine when a plague broke out around the region of Caesarea. People did what people continue to do—they were gripped by fear, panic and self-interest, and so many fled the city and went into the countryside. There was one group that offered a different way of being: the church. Eusebius, a historian and bishop of the church wrote:

All day long some of them [the Christians] tended to the dying and to their burial, countless numbers with no one to care for them. Others gathered together from all parts of the city a multitude of those withered from famine and distributed bread to them all. 

Eusebius, The Church History, trans. Paul L. Meier (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 293.

If you’ve ever been to a baptism service at St Paul’s, or another church, you may have noticed this theme of light and dark. Baptism is all about commissioning someone to this new way of being. So, fittingly, we end the baptism with this commissioning:

God has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Shine as a light in the world to the glory of God the Father.

Some Tips for Reading the Bible

I have a friend who knows the Bible better than anyone I’ve ever met. At first I thought he was very intelligent but then I found out that he was just very quirky. It turns out he had developed a habit that he had kept quiet for many years. For most of his Christian life he had woken at 5.30am to read ten pages of his Bible. After some trial and error, he realised it was too tempting to go back to sleep. So he decided to put the alarm on the other side of his room so that he had to pull back the covers and walk over to it. He would then stand up and read his Bible while it rested on a music stand, again because he knew his inclination for sleep. I asked him once how many times he had read through the entire Bible and he couldn’t tell me. It was something like four times a year for most of his Christian life. The entire Bible. Four times a year.

Most of us aren’t as disciplined (or as quirky!) as my dear friend, but the single best thing you can do for your growth as a child of God is to get into a habit of regularly reading God’s word. Over the next few posts some members of our church will share how God has grown them through Bible reading. Here are some brief tips to start with.

1. Know what the bible is and isn’t

The Bible isn’t a collection of fables to live your life by. Nor is it a roadmap to discern God’s will for what you should do on any particular day. It’s a story. I know it sounds cheesy but it is the greatest story ever told. It’s God’s revelation to the world about Jesus Christ. The resurrected Jesus said to his disciples:

This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. (Luke 24.44)

The author of Hebrews also put it like this:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. (Heb 1.1–2)

2. Read the different genres of the bible differently

Not many people get stirred up by reading the dictionary. But reading poetry can be a different experience. We read different genres all the time. And when we do, we read them in varying ways. The same is true of the Bible. It is made up of history, highly symbolic poetry, songs, humour, long sections of civil and moral law, and even some down right raunchy sections (see Song of Songs).

3. Develop a habit of reading large chunks of scripture

There are many ways you can grow as a child of God through reading the Bible. In some seasons of my life I’ve picked a book of the Bible, read it in smaller sections and then meditated on those words. I repeated this until I knew the book intimately.

The model I find myself returning to most often, though, is regularly reading larger chunks of the Bible. My current aim is to read through it all in one year. Although this sounds like a lot, it’s quite doable. Every week in our church email we have five readings that will take you through the entire Bible each year. Five readings over seven days. It works out to be about 10–15 mins of reading per day.

I have found this habit has helped me to understand that the Bible is one story all about Jesus.

4. Remember that reading the bible is a means to an end, not an end in itself

At the end of the day, how you read the Bible isn’t anywhere near as important as why you read the Bible—to grow in your knowledge and love of God. The goal of any spiritual discipline is to grow in our maturity in Christ (Col 1.28).

The more reading the Bible becomes a habit for you, the more you will grow as a child of God. And that will be obvious to those who see you.

One day I’d love to introduce you to my friend. He’s by no means perfect but the fruit of his daily habit is obvious to anyone who meets him. You can see how his knowledge of the Bible has developed in him a deep love of Jesus and other people.

In his book, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis describes what it’s like to meet someone like this:

Every now and then one meets them. Their very voices and faces are different from ours: stronger, quieter, happier, more radiant. They begin where most of us leave off. They are, I say, recognisable; but you must know what to look for. They will not be very like the idea of ‘religious people’ which you have formed from your general reading. They do not draw attention to themselves. You tend to think that you are being kind to them when they are really being kind to you.

What about you? What have you found helpful in reading the Bible?

Learning to Pray

Learning to come before God each day in prayer has certainly helped me to grow as a Christian. I say learning as it’s not something that always comes naturally or has been easy to do.

I remember saying my first heartfelt prayer with a Scripture teacher in primary school. This teacher made a life-changing impact on me for she demonstrated that God was relational—that he wanted me to know him.

When I was younger, I used to worry that I hadn’t ever really been taught how to pray. I realise now that it’s much less about what I say to God than my attitude when I do come to him. All that I need to bring to him is myself. I don’t need to worry about the right words or my own efforts, but just to come humbly as I am, acknowledging him as my Lord and Saviour.

There have been moments in my life when I’ve tried to pray and haven’t been able to find any words. I also recall a time more recently when all that I could pray for days on end was the Lord’s Prayer, over and over again. But I’m aware that he already knows all of my needs and that even when I am unable to express myself it honours God to kneel before him.

When I pray it helps to go somewhere quiet, although finding uninterrupted time can be hard. So sometimes I pray in the middle of the night, behind a closed door, in the backyard, sitting in the corner of a quiet room, or with my eyes and ears covered in a noisy one. Where and when doesn’t matter. It just matters that I do. That I learn to pour out my heart to God, and that I learn to be quiet and to listen to him.

Shift work, sickness, babies and family issues are some of the challenges over the years that have made it tough to spend time regularly with God, but through all of these things I’ve been taught the importance of prayer, and now I yearn to do so. God has shown me in so many ways just how faithful he is, and I want to grow to know him more.

I know that God desires for us to spend time with him. So, this year, I plan to continue with God’s help to set aside some time each day, just for him, and to fix my eyes on Jesus. I encourage you to do the same.

Why and How to Grow as a Child of God in 2020

I don’t know about you but I’m a sucker for new year’s resolutions. In December and January, I sit down with my journal and come up with ten goals that I hope will shape my year. It’s so easy for these goals to be gobbled up by my work, my physical health and by my relationships. And it’s so easy for my spiritual growth to be neglected, or maybe just to assume that it will happen on its own.

Now you don’t need a list of ten goals to help you grow as a child of God, but you and I do need to have a concern for spiritual growth.

Over January we’ll be hearing from some of our friends from church who will share about different things that have helped them to grow as children of God.

To help us as we begin, I want to mention two brief things.

1. Why you need to be concerned with growth

God’s vision for you is to grow in maturity in Christ. You can see this quite clearly in Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

He (Jesus) is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. (Col 1.28)

The thing about Christian growth is that you will never simply arrive. There will always be more room to grow as a child of God. There are many, many other verses we could reflect on here. But pursuing maturity in Christ is something every Christian is called to do.

2. How growth happens

In the upcoming posts we will hear some really practical thoughts about a range of spiritual disciplines. Each of those spiritual disciplines (e.g. prayer, Bible reading, service, solitude) are an outworking of the gospel. This is so important to grasp. 

Fundamentally, you can only grow as a child of God by the grace of the gospel. 

Notice how Paul puts it in Titus 2.11–14:

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Paul says that the grace of God doesn’t just save us, it changes us. It helps us to grow in godliness. To put it another way, the gospel isn’t just about knowing the ABC’s of the Christian life, it’s the power that will enable you to live out the A to Z’s of the Christian life.

As you look to 2020 and develop a plan to grow as a child of God, make sure you develop a habit of applying the grace of the gospel to your own heart.