Filled with God

Once upon a time, in the heart of a great Kingdom, lay a beautiful garden. And there in the cool of the day the Master of the Garden went to walk. Of all the occupants of the garden, the most beautiful and beloved was a gracious and noble Bamboo. Year after year the Bamboo grew more noble and gracious, conscious of his Master’s love and watchful delight, but modest and gentle as well. And often, when the wind came to revel in the garden, the Bamboo would cast aside its grave stateliness to dance,  swaying and leaping and bowing in joyous abandon, leading the great dance of the Garden which most delighted the Master’s heart.

One day, the Master himself drew near to contemplate his Bamboo with eyes of curious expectancy, and the Bamboo, in a passion of adoration, bowed his great head to the ground in loving greeting. The Master spoke, ‘Bamboo, I wish to use you in a way that will bring glory to me and blessing to others.’ The Bamboo flung its head to the sky in utter delight – the day of days had come, the day for which it had been made, the day to which it had been growing hour by hour, the day in which it would find its completion and destiny. ‘Master, I am ready … use me as you will’ the Bamboo responded

The Master’s voice was grave, ‘Dear Bamboo, I wish to take you and cut you down!?’ A trembling of great horror shook the Bamboo: ‘Cut… me… down? Me… whom you, Master, has made the most beautiful in all your garden? ‘ Not that, not that. Use me for your joy, O Master, but please do not cut me not down!’  The Master’s voice grew graver still: ‘Beloved Bamboo … if I cannot cut you down I cannot use you!’ The garden grew still. Wind held its breath. The Bamboo slowly bent its proud and glorious head. There came a whisper: ‘Master, if the only way you can use to fulfil your purpose for my life is to cut me down… then… do your will and cut!’

So the Master of the Garden took the Bamboo out and cut it down, hacked off its branches, stripped off its leaves, divided it in two and cut out its heart. And lifting it gently, carried the Bamboo to where there was a spring of fresh, sparkling water in the midst of his dry fields. Then putting one end of the broken Bamboo in the spring and the other end into the water channel in his field the Master laid down gently his beloved Bamboo. And the spring sang welcome and the clear sparkling waters raced joyously down the channel of the Bamboo’s torn body into the waiting field. Then the rice was planted, and the days went by, and the shoots grew and the harvest came. And in that day, the Bamboo, once so glorious in its stately beauty, was yet more glorious in its brokenness and humility. For in its beauty, it was life abundant, but in its brokenness it became a channel of abundant life to his Master’s world.

I suspect, that deep in our hearts, we all want to be used by God to make a difference in this broken and hurting and needy world that we live in.  Somehow to be a channel of God’s blessing to others. This is a good and godly desire to have. It is something born of God’s Spirit. We know that, in and of ourselves, we cannot be the source of blessing. The word of the Lord that came to Zechariah in one of his night visions is as relevant now as it was then, 500 years before Christ: ‘“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” says the Lord Almighty’ (Zechariah 4:6). We can no more bless others, or do them real good, or build anything significant for God, than Zerubbabel (the leader of the tribe of Judah in Zechariah’s day) could re-build the Temple in Jerusalem in his own strength. This truth is reinforced by the words of Jesus to his disciples during his Upper Room Discourses shortly before his arrest and trial: ‘I am the vine, and you are the branches of the vine. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. But apart from me you can do nothing!’ (John 15:5).  The good news, however, is that we can all be instruments in God’s hands, channels of his blessing to others. God works in wonderful ways, not always in very dramatic ways, sometimes in seemingly very ordinary ways, often in ways we do not anticipate. It can happen to anybody. Being used of God is not confined to Pastors, Preachers or Teachers. Anybody can be an instrument in God’s hands.

Writing to his young protégé, Timothy – a young man with great potential but low self-esteem – the Apostle Paul reminds him (and reminds all of us) that ‘In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use.Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.’ (2 Timothy 2:20,21). Although written 2,000 years ago this analogy stands the test of time. The majority of us may not literally use jugs or goblets or cutlery of gold and silver today, although we use china cups and plates, and even wooden platters are becoming fashionable again in many restaurants. But we all have articles in our homes that we use every day that are ‘worth their weight in gold’, things that are essential to us in one way or another. Some of these have a special use – the best dinner service for when we entertain guests perhaps. Others have a less spectacular use – the plastic bucket we keep under the sink, hidden from sight, into which we put the vegetable peelings etc. prior to taking them to the compost heap?!

On one hand here, Paul is attempting to explain why the Church – most commentators take the reference to ‘a large house’ to refer to the Church – is always made up of a mixed bunch of people. On the other hand he is seeking to encourage Christians – like Timothy – who feel they haven’t got much to offer, to see that God can still use them as his ‘instruments’ and that they can still be ‘useful to the Master’ whether they are made of ‘gold and silver’ or ‘wood and clay’. Some may indeed be used for ‘special purposes’ although the majority of us will probably be for ‘common use’. What counts, however, is that we make ourselves available!  Every person, who names the Name of Jesus, is a potential vessel for God to use. Personally, I have found what is both encouraging and humbling at the same time is that the Bible suggests that God is not too choosey about whom he uses. Scripture reveals that God uses people like King David (an adulterer and a murder), a pagan such as King Cyrus, a religious hypocrite such as Caiaphas, someone as rash and flaky as Peter, and even Balaam’s donkey … as well as those we consider to be ‘good and Godly’. And even those we consider as ‘good and Godly’, like the Apostle Paul himself for example, often saw themselves somewhat differently. Paul may have begun his ministry exhorting others to ‘be you followers of me’ (1 Corinthians 11:1) but he concluded it by confessing himself to be the ‘chief of sinners’ (1 Timothy 1:15).

Furthermore, as Christians, we already have within us that with which we can bless others, do them real good, build something significant for God! The Apostle John tells us that at the conclusion of the Feast of Tabernacles – just as the Temple Priests poured the water they had drawn from the Pool of Siloam on the altar recalling the water drawn from the rock during the wilderness wanderings (Exodus 17) – Jesus stood where all could see him, and shouted in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them’ (John 7:37,38). John goes on to tell us that, ‘By this (Jesus) meant the Spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive’ (John 7:39). We, of course, live this side of that first Day of Pentecost in the Christian era. As Christians we have God the Holy Spirit living within us, we have those ‘rivers of living water’ welling up within us wanting to overflow from us to bless others, to irrigate dry and barren ground, to make us channels of abundant life to the Master’s glory and for the good of others!

How I praise Thee, precious Saviour,
That Thy love laid hold of me;
Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me
That I might Thy channel be.

Channels only, blessed Master,
But with all Thy wondrous power
Flowing through us, Thou canst use us
Every day and every hour.

Just a channel full of blessing,
To the thirsty hearts around;
To tell out Thy full salvation
All Thy loving message sound.

Emptied that Thou shouldest fill me,
A clean vessel in Thy hand;
With no power but as Thou givest
Graciously with each command.

Witnessing Thy power to save me,
Setting free from self and sin;
Thou who boughtest to possess me,
In Thy fullness, Lord, come in.

Jesus, fill now with Thy Spirit
Hearts that full surrender know;
That the streams of living water
From our inner self may flow.

Mary E. Maxwell

Jim Binney

There is an amusing and poignant story told of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the famous 19th century Baptist Pastor, and a member of his congregation. Apparently this lady approached him after a morning service and told him, ‘Mr Spurgeon, I am pleased to tell you that I haven’t sinned for six months!’ Spurgeon smiled knowingly at her and responded, ‘Thank you for sharing this feat with me … you must be very proud?’ ‘Oh! I am!’ she replied. Pride, of course, is one of the so-called ‘seven deadly sins’ and, although we cannot really classify sins, I suspect that ‘pride’ and particularly ‘spiritual pride’ is the sin that God hates the most.

God hates pride simply because it was pride that caused Lucifer to rebel in the first place and start this whole sorry mess we are in. Ezekiel 28:11-19 and Isaiah 14:12-15 paint a powerful picture of a prominent angelic creature – possibly an arch-angel – who, before the creation of the human race, rebelled against the Creator and became Satan, the chief antagonist of God and humankind. According to the creation narrative it was Satan, in the form of a snake, who tempted our first parents into sin, again through the sin of pride (Genesis 3:1-13). It is because pride is so subtle, and so dangerous, that the Apostle Peter exhorts us to ‘clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble … humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time’ (1 Peter 5:5,6).

Jesus himself, told a story about two people – a Pharisee and a tax collector – who both went up to the Temple in Jerusalem to pray (Luke 18:9-14). All prayer was considered efficacious but especially that prayed in the Temple. Devout Jews prayed three times a day in the Temple – at 9.00 a.m., 12 noon, and 3.00 p.m. The problem with praying in the Temple in this way was that it led to some people praying ostentatiously – praying in such a way that their prime motive was to be seen to be praying rather than simply praying for the sake of praying to God. In this way they fell foul of the temptation of pride. Thus the Pharisee in the story – the Pharisees were a politico-religious sect or faction among the adherents of Judaism at the time of Christ known for their rigid religious zeal and legalism – prays, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get’ (Luke 18:11,12). We can picture this as we read this prayer – the loud voice to attract the attention of bystanders, the prolonged sideways glance at the tax collector in question when it comes to the appropriate words in his prayer. In contrast the tax collector – well aware of what the general public thought of him, and probably very self-conscious about actually being there in the Temple to pray even though his sense of contrition had driven him there in the hope that praying in the Temple would make his prayer more efficacious – finds a gloomy corner somewhere where he will not be noticed, shies away from even looking up to heaven, beats his breast, and simply prays, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner’ (Luke 18:13). Jesus tells us that it was the tax collector who went home justified before God rather than the Pharisee, and draws a significant moral from the story – ‘All those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted!’ (Luke 18:14).

In one of my former churches there was a guy who simply could not pronounce the word ‘humility’. Whenever he tried to say it, it always came out as ‘humbility’! Even though this word does not exist in the Oxford English Dictionary, I rather like it. It seems to me to capture the very essence of humility. I was therefore recently pleased to discover the word in the Urban Dictionary where it is defined as ‘the act of being humble while having a sense of humility’… in other words ‘actually being genuinely humble when you display or talk about humility’. It is far too easy for us – even as Christians – to be like Charles Dickens’ fictional character Uriah Heep, notable for his cloying humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own ‘humbleness’!? Arrogance, pride, especially perhaps spiritual pride, pride about our own humility even, are huge barriers to experiencing the blessing of God … which is why the Lord responds to Solomon’s prayer for God’s blessing to be upon the people at the dedication of the Temple with the words, ‘If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways … then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land’ (2 Chronicles 7:14).

It was Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (1805-1873) – one of the greatest orators of his day – who exhorts us to ‘Think as little as possible about yourself. Turn your eyes resolutely from any view of your influence, your success, your following. Above all speak as little as possible about yourself. Guard especially against those little tricks by which a vain man seeks to bring around the conversation to himself and gain the praise or notice which his thirsty ears drink in so greedily.’ Wilberforce goes on to support his statement by reminding us of Jesus’ exhortation to believers not to bask in the adulation that comes from our fellow human beings but rather to seek the glory and approval of God (John 5:44).

Humble yourselves
Under God’s mighty hand,
So that he will lift you up.
Humble yourselves
Under God’s mighty hand.
So that he will lift you up.

~ Dave Bilborough (based on 1 Peter 5:6)

Jim Binney

I recently saw a photograph of a broken pot that had been mended using the kintsukuroi method. Kintsukuroi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold or silver lacquer. It enshrines the belief that the piece in question can actually be made even more beautiful for having been broken. I am used to mending broken pots – my mother-in-law is a potter and our large garden is full of her creations that sometimes get broken by either the elements or wild animals. I have become an expert in the use of ‘super glue’ … but none of my repaired broken pots are as magnificent as those put back together again with the use of kintsukuroi.

There is a story in the Bible – a story concerning an incident that occurred towards the end of Jesus’ earthly life, shortly before his arrest, trial, crucifixion and death – involving a broken jar and a broken woman, and something very wonderful about the way in which Jesus fixes broken people. The incident was obviously so intriguing that each of the four Gospel Writers has a version of it (Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; Luke 7:37,38; John 12:1-8), although there is some debate as to whether or not there are actually two similar incidents referred to rather than just the one?

Jesus and his disciples had been invited to a meal at the home of a Pharisee, Simon the Leper – probably a well-known victim of leprosy who possibly had been healed by Jesus at some time or other. Whilst they are enjoying their meal the dinner party is gate-crashed by a woman. Luke tells us that she was a ‘woman who had lived a sinful life’ (Luke 7:37). This is code language for someone who had earned her living as a prostitute. There is some speculation as to who this particular woman actually was? John tells us that her name was ‘Mary’ leading to speculation (since the meal was in Bethany and Martha was the cook) that she was Mary of Bethany or Mary Magdalene or even that they were one and the same? It is suggested that Mary Magdalene was formerly a prostitute until her life was transformed after an encounter with Jesus. We certainly know that she had serious problems. We are told that Jesus delivered her from demonic influence (Mark 18:9; Luke 8:2) which at the very least is indicative of a set of complex illnesses and possibly more.

Having gate-crashed the party this woman does something both extraordinary and immensely significant. She produces a small but very expensive alabaster jar containing an equally expensive perfume called nard (Mark 14:3) and then proceeds to break the neck of the expensive jar and anoint Jesus with the equally expensive perfume. The alabaster jar containing the nard would have been a sealed unit so that the only way to release the perfume would have been to break the neck of the jar. The jar and its contents would have been very precious to the woman not just in terms of monetary value but sentimental value as well since it was most probably a family heirloom passed down the generations. But for the perfume to be released it was necessary for the jar to be broken.

This extravagant gesture was highly significant not only because, coming as it did so close to Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion, it was indicative (as was the gift of myrrh by the Magi at Jesus’ birth) of his sacrificial death on the behalf of sinful people such as ourselves, but for all that it testified to concerning the woman herself.  Here was a woman who’s life had been broken, for one reason or another, and yet she was at one and the same time someone who’s life, through the touch of Jesus Christ, had been enabled to release something beautiful and fragrant into the world as a result of that brokenness! We do not know if that brokenness was initially self-inflicted or as a result of damage done to her by others. We do not know if her ‘demons’ came from within or without or both? What we do know is that this extravagant gesture was symbolic of all that had happened in her own life.  She had been broken but Jesus had fixed her, and despite her brokenness – perhaps even as a result of her brokenness – something even more beautiful and fragrant and valuable had been released into the world, rather like a kintsukuroi pot!

All of us, in one way or another, are ‘damaged goods’. Perhaps the most damaged of all are the people who don’t think they are damaged?! Some of us have been seriously ‘broken’ at some time in our lives – broken health, a broken relationship, a broken marriage, a broken heart, broken in spirit, and so on. Sometimes this damage has been self-inflicted, and sometimes it has been inflicted upon us by others, or even just by an unfortunate set of circumstances in which we have found ourselves at the time? Sometimes our ‘demons’ have risen from within, and sometimes they have afflicted us from without like those ‘fiery darts’ the Apostle Paul warns us of in his Letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians 6:16). Most of us are all too aware of our imperfections and we do not need to be continually reminded of them by the church or anyone else for that matter? What we really need to know is, ‘Is our brokenness terminal … or can we be mended?’

The great message of this particular story is that with God there is always a way out, always a way back, always a way up! Even if we are seriously ‘broken’ – whether through our own fault or the fault of others – we can not only be ‘fixed’ but actually be made even more beautiful, even more fragrant, even more valuable, for having been broken in the first place … just like a kintsukuroi pot!

Beauty for brokenness
Hope for despair
Lord, in your suffering
This is our prayer

~ Graham Kendrick

Jim Binney

On any public beach in the summertime, when the weather is sunny and warm, you will find three distinct groups of people. Firstly, you will see the swimmers – out in the deep water, some with flippers and snorkels, having a wonderful time. Invariably they will greet you with shouts of ‘Come on in! The water’s perfect!’ Secondly, you will find another group of people, some distance from the water – these are the spectators. They are sitting about on deckchairs or blankets, reading or chatting together. For one reason or another they have decided that they will not go swimming or even paddling and so, sensibly, they stay far away from the water. Thirdly, there is a final group made up of those people who are having a miserable time – these are the hesitant. They have come prepared to swim but they cannot bring themselves to make that first plunge into the sea. They run into the waves and then retreat to the shore. They envy their friends out in the deep but are afraid to join them. No doubt you have noticed these unhappy souls who stand shivering and undecided, often ankle deep in the water, but without the courage to plunge right in or the sense to retire?!

It was the late Chuck Colson, I believe, who first suggested that ‘Christianity in north America is 3,000 miles wide, and half an inch deep!’ In some ways this is an unfair criticism. Firstly, because there are plenty of Christians who live in either the USA or Canada who think very deeply about their Faith, and take their commitment to Jesus Christ very seriously. Secondly, such criticism cannot be simply limited to ‘north America’ alone … there are plenty of shallow Christians everywhere else in the world, not least here in the UK?!

Concern about the shallowness of much Christianity today has led to a revival of interest in what has become known as ‘Deep Church’. ‘Deep Church’ is a response to what Andrew Walker, describes as exasperation with the ‘fad-driven one-dimensional spirituality of modern evangelicalism’ and the desire to ‘reconnect with and be deeply rooted in the common historical Christian tradition as well as the evangelical heritage.’

The phrase ‘deep church’ was first used by C S Lewis in a letter to The Times in 1952, in which he urged the Catholic and Evangelical wings of the Church of England to make common cause against the pretensions of modernity and recover the historic foundations and practices of the Christian church. Although Lewis expressed these views over 60 years ago now, many of us share his yearning for such a recovery and its ecumenical implications. Edited by Andrew Walker and Luke Bretherton, Paternoster have published a very interesting book on this subject, entitled Remembering Our Future: Explorations in Deep Church. It is a collection of essays by various authors, setting out the basis of the ‘Deep Church’ initiative and exploring the implications for hermeneutics, worship, making disciples and spirituality. These various contributions are an attempt to update Lewis’ proposal, calling evangelicals (and others) to value afresh the convictions, spirituality and ecclesiastical practices of historic Christianity.

A number of issues are explored including the shape, practice and mission of the church in the emerging culture; the relationship between scripture and tradition; how we are to read scripture today, especially in a multi-faith society; discovering a more catholic, yet Spirit-inspired, approach to worship; recovering proper preparation for baptismal candidates; developing more helpful approaches to spiritual formation and everyday spirituality … and so on. All of these areas seem to me to be very worthy of our consideration if we are serious about wanting to go deeper with God?! The overall thrust is clear! We need to drink deeply and draw gratefully on the historic resources of the church, paying particular attention to the documents and practices of the historic church, whilst at the same time refusing to be bound by narrower traditions that deprive us of a broader and richer heritage.

The Apostle Paul writes to the Christian Church centred in and around the ancient city of Ephesus to assure them, amongst other things, of his prayers for them. In particular he prays that they (and all God’s people right across the world and down through time) will be able to grasp hold of the ‘width, and length, and height, and depth’ of God’s love (Ephesians 3:17-19). Whatever else these few verses may contain, they encourage us to see something of the expansive nature of the Living God and his love for us and the world. Paul’s prayer for us is that we should realise, discover, explore, reach out into, plumb the depths of, the expansive nature of God himself and his love for us all  supremely demonstrated to us in Christ … rather than limit ourselves to simply a fragment of it! ‘Depth’ here is the Greek word bathos which is normally used in the Bible of ‘deep water’ (Luke 5:4) but also metaphorically of the depth of God’s wisdom and knowledge (Romans 11:33), of the deep things of God himself (1 Corinthians 2:10), and of God’s activities and love (as we see here in Ephesians 3:17-19).

When Paul encourages us here to be ‘deep Christians’, to be ‘deep church’, he does not mean ‘deep’ in the sense of being academically incomprehensible. We have probably all listened to sermons that are so complicated that nobody understood them … probably not even the preacher himself (it is usually men who are like this)?! Some of us have attended academic seminars that have been equally incomprehensible to the vast majority of those present. I am not against academics by any means – but the true academic is able to use his or her God-given abilities to take the deep things of God and make them clearer for the rest of us. Like a rock pool, the deep things of God can be both deep and clear at the same time! To be a ‘deep Christian’ or to do ‘deep church’, means to take God, and the things of God seriously. It means to put in the time and effort to prayerfully think through the deep things of God – things revealed in Scripture and tradition, through reason and the Holy Spirit – and to put these things into practice in our daily lives both as individuals and as church!

Deeper, deeper in the love of Jesus
Daily let me go;
Higher, higher in the school of wisdom,
More of grace to know.

Deeper, deeper, blessed Holy Spirit,
Take me deeper still,
Till my life is wholly lost in Jesus,
And His perfect will.

Deeper, deeper! though it cost hard trials,
Deeper let me go!
Rooted in the holy love of Jesus,
Let me fruitful grow.

Deeper, deeper in the faith of Jesus,
Holy faith and true;
In His power and soul exulting wisdom
Let me peace pursue.

Deeper, higher, every day in Jesus,
Till all conflict past,
Finds me conqueror, and in His own image
Perfected at last.

~ Charles P Jones

Jim Binney

Jesus, the Light of the World

A Pastor accepted a call to a certain Baptist Church in a country town in the Midlands. The buildings dated from Georgian times and the chapel was somewhat dingy, being lit only by an ancient electric central candelabra arrangement. When the Church Secretary telephoned the new Pastor prior to his arrival, to ask if there was anything he wanted doing in the church, the Pastor asked them to buy a new chandelier. When the Pastor arrived a few weeks later, however, nothing had changed, so he asked about the new chandelier. ‘Well …’ said the Church Secretary, ‘firstly, no one in the church could spell ‘chandelier’ so we couldn’t order one! Secondly, even if we managed to get hold of one, there is no one here who could play it! And thirdly … what this church really needs is more light!’

On Sunday the 6th January we celebrated the Feast of Epiphany – the revelation of God Incarnate in the Person of the Infant Jesus, to the Magi, or Wise Men, or Kings from the East. ‘Epiphany’ comes from the Greek epiphainō which means either ‘to give light’ or ‘to make visible’ (looking at it from God’s point of view) or ‘to be enlightened’ or ‘to have light shed on our darkness’ (looking at it from the human point of view). Now the Feast of the Epiphany is both the end of Christmas and the beginning of the Church’s Epiphany Season which she keeps until the Feast of the Presentation (or Candlemas), on the 2nd February. On the Sundays of this Epiphany season it is traditional to move from this first great ‘epiphany’ or manifestation of God’s presence and glory to the Gentiles, to contemplate the other ‘epiphanies’ that mark the beginning of Christ’s Ministry.

For a number of years now I have been an advocate of following the Church Year. If I were to ever return to the ministry I would certainly seek to do this in the church that called me to be their Pastor. We need breadth as well as depth in our preaching programme in church life. Depth comes from opening up the Scriptures in the power of the Holy Spirit in an intelligent, interesting and applied way. Breadth comes from making sure that we preachers cover ‘the whole counsel of God’ (Acts 20:27), and we do this not only by preaching through the whole Bible but also by making sure that we regularly cover the major Christian Festivals and Seasons. Of course preaching alone will not do it! We need to accompany the preaching-teaching programme of the church with daily notes and an efficient small group system within the church where this preaching-teaching is followed through in a meaningful way. The Sunday preaching-teaching is a start, however.

As far as the preaching goes, in order to achieve breadth as well as depth, we need to make best use of the key days in the Church Year such as Christmas, Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Ascension, Pentecost Sunday and Trinity Sunday. But we also need to make best use of the Seasons in the Church Year such as Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and so on. You may think it strange for a Baptist Minister to advocate following the Church Year in this way, but for some years now I have felt that we Baptist Christians have missed a trick or two here. We rightly claim to have a love of the Bible coupled with a desire to open up its teaching for others, but all too often the depth has not been accompanied by the breadth, which has limited the effectiveness of our preaching.

The Season of Epiphany is a classic example for me because it presents us with an opportunity to spend a few weeks exploring the whole concept of ‘epiphanies’ – the way in which God reveals himself to us, the way in which he suddenly breaks into our darkness and confusion. This encourages us all to realise that none of us is beyond the pale, and no situation is hopeless. At any given moment God can break into our situation and reveal himself to us in a new way. We should not be surprised at this because the Apostle John tells, us in the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel that bears his name, that in the Person of Jesus Christ ‘the true light, which enlightens everyone, came into the world’ (John 1:9).

Thus in the Epiphany Story itself (Matthew 2:1-11) we are reminded that God revealed himself to the Magi – Zoroastrian Priests, members of a false religion, people fascinated by astrology and fortune telling – who nevertheless were seeking to walk in the limited light they had received in order to find the Living God for themselves?! As far as we can tell they were genuine ‘God-seekers’ and God honoured that. He gave these ‘star gazers’ the brightest star of all to follow – a star that eventually led them to an even brighter light in the Person of Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God! What we see here, amongst many other things, is that the Gospel contains hope even for heretics?!

In much the same way the various other ‘epiphanies’ that occur during the early ministry of Jesus himself can be profitably explored in a way that enlightens our minds and warms our hearts. Heaven’s opening at Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:13-17), the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the voice of God the Father from heaven, were all confirmations to Jesus himself no less, that he was indeed the Son of God, the promised Saviour. The calling of Jesus’ disciples, especially the ‘epiphany moment’ granted to Nathanael (John 1:43-51) in which Nathanael receives the assurance that God already knows all about him and loves him just the same. The first of Jesus’ miracles, the ‘signs whereby he revealed his glory’ (John 2:11) at the Wedding in Cana in Galilee, which brought joy to a dull party and imparted faith into the hearts of disciples. All of these ‘epiphanies’ contain inspirational, encouraging, and faith imparting truth that bless and help us. They are so much more worthy of our prayerful consideration than the ‘You suck, try harder!’ exhortations that one hears so often today from many pulpits!

Light of the world
shine your light into my heart
God of love,
pierce my soul with your mercy

So we might know your glory
So we might see your face
So we can feel your heart beat
And hear you call our name
~ Craig Musseau

Jim Binney