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A student survey conducted at one of our local schools determined that young people see the church as being full of old people and pews. And they think that the pews have to go. There’s some good news in that survey, they didn’t say the old people should go, only the pews.
Think for a moment: How does their perception match reality?
We might immediately begin to defend the pews. They've been good enough for generations. They keep us awake. They haven’t killed anyone.
Or we might be offended that they’ve labelled us as old. We might argue that we’re not nearly as old as our grandparents were at the same age.
We might want to join James and John to ask Jesus whether we should call down fire from heaven and destroy them.
But before we get too defensive, these young people are crying out for the church to recognise and value them. They don’t think the church cares about them, they don’t think we care. They think the church is only interested in the people who’re already involved, which to them means old people.
I wonder whether they’re any different to those of any age who aren’t connected to our churches. Would the whole ‘unchurched’ and 'previously-churched’ community agree that we don’t care. Would they contend that we’re only interested in ourselves.
If we’re so busy polishing and defending our pews then they have to go. If there’s anything in our church that uses up our time at the expense of living our lives for Jesus then it has to go.
Even more urgently we have to go. Not leave the church, the community of God’s people, but go with the good news that because God loves and cares for every single person in this world so do we.
“As you go”, Jesus says, “make disciples of all nations.” Jesus cares about this because he has ‘skin-in-the-game’. He died for each and every one we encounter as we go about our lives.
How do we, as individuals and a church, need to change so that no one in our community will feel that we don’t care about them?
God knows what’s inside us
by Tim Klein
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
In all Israel there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom (2 Samuel 14:25a).
Read 2 Samuel 14:25–33
Here’s a song that had some sort of resonance with my younger self – or perhaps not, maybe?
Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble
When you’re perfect in every way
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
I get better looking each day
Did you read about Absalom’s hair? Lustrous, luxurious locks. He cut it once a year, weighed it and valued it greatly. He was the golden boy of the kingdom with visions of the throne in mind. ‘From the top of his head to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him’ (verse 25b).
I suspect when we look in the mirror, we are hoping to see something like that – rather than our lost and wrinkled dreams.
The blemish we can’t see is the mess inside – sin’s blemish, and it can’t be hidden. It will emerge.
Under the physical beauty, Absalom seethed against his half-brother, who had raped his sister, ultimately having him killed. Absalom’s rage against his father, David, led him to plot David’s downfall so that he could seize the Kingdom of Israel. (More to come in the following devotions.)
While at war with David, Absalom suffered a tragic death. Ironically, it was his beautiful hair that tangled in the branches of a tree, suspending him where he died at the hands of Joab, a general of David’s army.
Despite all that Absalom had done, David mourned his death. He was heartbroken for the son who tried to kill him and steal his throne. You can read more of Absalom’s story in chapters 13 to 18 of 2 Samuel.
How amazing that David could still love this son of his, whose anger had led him to war against his father. Finally, it was Solomon (Jedidiah), another of David’s sons, who became king of Israel.
We are children of the King – our King Jesus! Give thanks that he looks beneath our surface, recognises the blemishes of sin in our lives and still loves us.
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good – his love is everlasting.
Father God, we are humbled by your love. Thank you for your mercy and grace that forgives sin’s stain in our lives and keeps us in your kingdom. Amen.
Tim is a recently retired LCANZ pastor. He enjoys spending time with family, connecting with neighbours and gardening. This is the season of flowers: beautiful irises, anemones, proteas, leucodendrons and leucospermums – and roses! They all give witness to God’s glory and grace.
Where there’s death, there’s hope
by Tim Klein
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat! (2 Samuel 12:21)
Read 2 Samuel 12:15–31
From time to time, we use the phrase ‘Where there’s life, there’s hope.’
But it seems the Lord has other ways of dealing with life, death and hope. Here in today’s word, where there’s death, there’s hope!
While David’s son, born to Uriah’s wife, lies dying, David is fasting and pleading with the Lord for his life. He had hope that the Lord would rescue this child from death. When the child finally dies, David, instead of entering into mourning, gets on with life. Life continues with a new hope, a new way ahead. Solomon, David’s son from Bathsheba, is born. He is also named Jedidiah. This name, given by the Lord through the prophet Nathan, means ‘beloved by the Lord’.
So we have this situation where, while the child from Uriah’s wife is dying, David has hope, and when the child dies, it’s not the end! A new hope emerges: new life, new plans.
That’s how it can be with life and death among us. There’s always something dying – life ebbs away in so many ways. Yet the Lord, with grace and mercy, will be at work doing new things. He says it in Revelation 21:5: ‘He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”’
You could consider some of the things that are dying or broken around you right now. Death is there: from a loved one dying to church decisions with which we disagree to international losses and griefs. In any of these sorts of situations, would you also consider this as true, that while there’s death, there’s hope? Hope for new life, for something new. Hope for the present and future.
Jesus’ death is the death that gives us hope in the middle of our sin and related struggles. In Robin Mann’s song ‘May We Be One’ comes this wonderful truth: ‘Dying our death he restores our life; heaven has begun, he makes us one!’
God of the living and the dead: through Jesus, fill us with new hope every day, even in the face of our dying. Amen.
Tim is a recently retired LCANZ pastor. He enjoys spending time with family, connecting with neighbours and gardening. This is the season of flowers: beautiful irises, anemones, proteas, leucodendrons and leucospermums – and roses! They all give witness to God’s glory and grace.
Living in eternity
by Tim Klein
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive (Luke 20:38).
Read Luke 20:27–38
What an irony, and we can be sure this is not lost on Jesus. Here in Luke 20, the Sadducees, who do not believe in resurrection, ask Jesus a question as if they did believe in resurrection. They are, once again, trying to trap Jesus, and he knows it. Yet Jesus gave them a serious answer: ‘He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.’ Where do they go with that eternal wisdom?
And now to us.
We confess in the creeds that we believe in the resurrection of the dead. What Jesus says is significant for us. He calls us ‘children of the resurrection’ (verse 36). He also calls us ‘people of this age’ who marry and are given in marriage (verse 34). As children of the resurrection, we belong to both ages. We live in the context of eternity. We are people of the age to come, where the Lord’s surpassing riches of grace will be fully revealed (Ephesians 2:7). In our brokenness, we live in this hope.
By God’s grace, I am the husband of one wife – but in this age, that could be another story completely (as the Sadducees described). We all know people to whom God has extended grace and gifted a new partner in life.
We all live with the brokenness of sin and its consequences.
To him, even after we die, we are all alive. In the meantime, we all rely on the never-ending mercy and grace of God. Jesus’ death was for you and me. His resurrection informs us that his sacrifice has paid the price for our sinfulness. He forgives – he lives. His life assures us of life as children of resurrection: here and now, and into eternity.
Because he lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because he lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know he holds the future,
And life is worth the living, just because he lives.
–Because he lives by William and Gloria Gaither, 1971, Gaither Music Company
Father, in Jesus’ name, I praise you for all you have done. Keep my eyes fixed on you. Keep hope alive – even when I am caught up in sin. Thank you for your mercy and grace and for the new things you are doing in my life. Amen.
Tim is a recently retired LCANZ pastor. He enjoys spending time with family, connecting with neighbours and gardening. This is the season of flowers: beautiful irises, anemones, proteas, leucodendrons and leucospermums – and roses! They all give witness to God’s glory and grace.