Been to Church and I don’t know

It’s true to the wind
I don’t know where it blows
But it’s blown us here
A reverse-play building site
Living stones assembled
Drawn by unheard words

In file the called
Drenched in sweet oils
Instruments in His hand
Servants soaked
In the fragrance of heaven
Hear them as they sing

A river tumbling and still
Full of life and lights
Fountains pouring
From a throne unseen
It’s the Bridegroom
Calling to His beloved

Eyes only for Him
He plays one, then another
A word here, miracle there
Yes, I’ve been to church
And I don’t know
Where the wind will blow

Psalm 112 – Part ii

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord
Who delights greatly in His commandments
His descendants will be mighty on the earth
The generation of the upright will be blessed
Wealth and riches will be in his house
And his righteousness endures forever v1-3

The bible asserts that the word of God is ‘living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit’ so we need to put the brakes on if we think that the ‘prosperity gospel’ is either a pernicious distortion of the faith, or that ‘prosperity’ is a faith consequence of the gospel.

Neither does that leave us searching for some middle-ground like a hapless British diplomat succeeding only in fomenting accusations of double standards whilst trying to bridge the gap between those that preach glory and those that espouse suffering. Let us be clear, these verses do indicate financial and small ‘p’ political clout. It’s disingenuous to hit the panic button and spiritualise ‘wealth and riches’ as some form of inner wealth rather than materially in dollars, sterling, or the yen.

So, how do we handle these promises when we worship a man who ended his life virtually naked, hanging on a cross in full public gaze, and owned so very little?

A Christian is a man or a woman who has been crucified with Christ and who has entered an entirely different life, the life of the Son of God, living out His life through you, the Holy Spirit living in your new spirit and on out through your soul (thinking, feelings, will) and body to the world around you. (Galatians 2v20). The old you is gone, and a new creation stands in its place.

As a Christian, then, you hear God speak. To be a Christian is to live in a Spirit-spirit communion. This is, to borrow Watchman Nee’s book title, The Normal Christian Life.

Over 20 years ago, God ‘spoke’ this Psalm into my spirit; it seemed to jump off the page and speak to me. That seems to be how it works. So, to write these posts feels like a kind of homecoming, or a house survey, inspecting the foundations.

At the time, I was financially in a weak position, and my children had yet to enter adult life to build themselves up at work and so on, but these verses leapt from the page and have been living in me ever since, initially as seeds. Seeds are sown underground. Once the soil covers them, there is no visible evidence of their existence; the work of germination goes on unseen, away from public gaze. Twenty years on, I can report…visible growth.

I thank God for giving me a measure of faith, but ‘descendants’ is referring to generations to come. I have four grandchildren at the time of writing, so a further dimension is taking shape. We have to come to terms with the fact that we are of the Abrahamic faith and God spoke to him in terms of generations, it seems that this is God’s ‘normal’, seeing way beyond our horizons and speaking of them to us. We carry His words, believing, but scratching our heads!

We carry His words, believing, but scratching our heads!

Lastly, there is another biblical dimension to the word ‘generation’. The generation of the upright and descendants can, of course, be quite prosaic and mean ‘your kids’, our physical progeny. And we mustn’t dodge that! But it also has a spiritual dimension. The third stage of spiritual growth à la 1 John is fatherhood, in the child, young man, fatherhood progression.

Fatherhood comes in an infinite array of avenues. It is not confined to physical children or the nuclear family. It comes about when whatever wealth inside a man is passed on to whosoever. (Of course, I’m using the term ‘fatherhood’ as a non-gender specific term…though us blokes need to hear this!)

St Paul wrote ‘though you may have ten thousand instructors in Christ, you do not have many fathers…I have begotten you through the gospel, imitate me’.

That’s what father’s say: ‘Do it like this. Imitate me’.

Lastly, none of these promised riches, or descendants, come about automatically simply because we are believers, or because we have trusted in Christ and His work on the cross for us, to forgive us, to take the punishment we deserved and so on. Wonderful though that is, it won’t move us an inch into the fulfilment of these promises.

Fulfilment is dependent on fearing the Lord and delighting in His commandments. The measure to which we humble ourselves by fearing the Lord and obeying his commands is the measure to which He can fulfil these amazingly encouraging promises in our experience.

Psalm 112 – if you dare!

My bank balance forbids me from indulging various personal dreams, none more so than purchasing my ideal property portfolio.

Property number one is a ramshackle house overlooking a beach, veranda, wooden floorboards, random furniture, large fireplace. Property number two is an apartment high above the road in Chelsea with a grand piano…modelled on one of my favourite films, 101 Dalmatians. Number three….and so on. There are five in all.

In my imagination, I live in all five; they are the places I call home. I actually do live in one of these five!

If the bible can be equated to all the houses on earth, Psalm 112 would be one of my ‘homes’ I often return to, and one that I discovered at a time of particular pressure.

I don’t know how many of these posts it will take to show you around my Ps112 house, but that’s the spirit in which these posts are written. Like all properties, each room requires different types of work or decoration…we’re all in the process of dealing with timetables of neglect and action.

Verse 1.

Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments

You may well be thinking ‘This is one of your favourite Psalms, John?’ even if, out of politeness, British reserve, or puzzlement, you say nowt. For one thing, it’s countercultural. We invest so much of our inner philosophical resources striving for ‘freedom’, or ‘individual autonomy’: Brontë’s Jane Eyre famously exclaims, ‘I am an independent woman!’, Martin Luther King intoned ‘Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty we are free at last!’ In the banishment of slavery, and with gadgetry all but replacing household servants, the concept of living within the confines of another’s command has shrunk to smaller domains such as the military. In general, we shudder at the thought of putting ourselves under the command of anyone else so schooled are we in the virtues of freedom.

So verse 1 is a stumbling block. And an issue that we have to confront.

Whilst it is true that Paul in Galatians wrote ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set you free!’ and Jesus Himself said ‘…the truth will set you free…’, the freedom that the bible speaks about is about freedom from sin and freedom from man’s traditions…not freedom from God’s commands. As many have said before, Jesus is not just my Saviour, He is my Lord.

From the outset, as believers, we wear the clothes of a servant, and we know something of the fear of the Lord and yet we also find something else which perhaps we didn’t anticipate: a strange delight in His commands.

There are clues to this unlikely pairing of fear and delight. Look at the dogs you pass in the street or on a country lane. The ones who are happiest are the ones who have learnt obedience! The tale’s wagging, the love for the owner is in their eyes, and seemingly in contradiction to ‘obedience’, they are the dogs that spend most of the time off the leash!

I fear I still struggle against the leash at times. Battles rage.

Many commandments are written, of course, that is the Old Testament way of doing things, obedience to written legislation. In the New Covenant, the Spirit writes the law on our hearts, so we obey from the heart. It can be in relation to a written command e.g. ‘love your neighbour…’, but it can also be in real time, ‘go and speak to that person now!’

The more I obey written commands in the Law of Moses from the heart and the nudges of the Spirit, the more I find that the fear of the Lord and delight go hand in hand.

The key is realising the truth that Paul wrote in Galatians: ‘I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me. The life I now live I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave His life for me’ Gal 2v20

As Christ lives out His life through me, in my form, my soul and body are discipled, or apprenticed, and I learn His way of living in the fear and delight of His Father’s commands.

Jesus, of course, did this perfectly: He expressed this by saying, ‘I only do what I see My Father doing’. That constriction turns out to be perfect freedom.

So, I hope you enjoyed the first room on this tour. It’s delightful…but there’s work still to be done.

I Was There

I was there
To witness the first shove
And the wild, confident
Aggression of the man, Jacob
Who crossed the Ford
At Jabbok, weighed down
With fear and promises,

And I was there each hour
Of the moon-lit night-fight
I saw the lion-man’s eyes
Flash with unearthly colours
And music leak from his lips
In the struggle
Until dawn

I was there listening
To mighty Jacob gripping
The lion-man, yet finally
Disinterested in victory
Reduced to the whisper
Of one request
Bless me

The Lion-man extended a finger
Made of light and word
And touched Jacob’s strength
His hip joint dislocated
As a new name descended
From heaven and a new man
Walked the Earth

Hostage Return: Prisoner Release

‘He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death’ Exodus 21v 16

Is this post written with the release of the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct 7th 2023, from the Nova Music festival and the kibbutz, in mind? Yes…in part.

The other part is to explore the question of how we should distinguish between the OT Law written on tablets of stone and papyrus, and the NT, or new covenant, where the law is written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

I’m writing this on Sunday, 12th October 2025, listening to news reports during the day, hoping that the hostages, alive or dead, are handed back to Israel tomorrow.

If the Old Testament Law were still in place, it would not apply to Hamas; it only applied to Jews and foreigners living within the borders of Israel.

St Paul, writing to Christians, mostly non-Jews, in Galatia, wrote, ‘the law acted as our schoolteacher to bring us to Christ.’ In other words, the Law teaches us right from wrong, but it cannot change our hearts; the bible contends that this can only happen through faith in Christ.

Reading the verse from Exodus, we can discern right from wrong in terms of the outward action of kidnapping; however, the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel foresaw a new covenant, the New Testament, where the Law is written on our hearts. This changes our perspective on the Law.

Those who put their faith in Christ are promised a spiritual heart transplant, after which the spiritual truth underlying the above verse begins will sink in. The Holy Spirit, in writing this verse on our hearts, begins to point out the awkward truth that we are all prone to taking others hostage! If we treat others as commodities, a means to further our plans, or when we manipulate circumstances so that others become pawns on our chessboard, are we not taking others hostage?

(That could, of course, include actual hostage taking, as has been the case with Hamas, but at the heart level, it’s far more subtle, invisible, and unobservable).

Under such conviction, the believer is forced back to the love of God, knowing that Christ took the punishment that we deserved by His death on the cross, to bring us forgiveness and reconciliation with God.

And it is forgiveness that brings us to the heart of the issue with Israel and the Palestinians.

A two-state solution alone will not resolve the problem of Israel-Palestine. Only forgiveness. That’s not to say a two-state solution isn’t a laudable aim or necessary political objective, but, in itself, it could exacerbate the mutual distrust that exists between Israelis and Palestinians as easily as playing a part in solving long-held grievances.

A two-state solution alone will not resolve the problem of Israel-Palestine

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the older brother could not find it in his heart to rejoice at his younger brother’s return and the favour, it seemed, their father gave to the returning prodigal. Despite the father’s best efforts to lift his oldest son’s mood, he failed. If we run the parable beyond its finishing point and revisit the family home the following morning, and the day after that, and the day after that, what do we imagine happened next? Perhaps there are two possible outcomes:

A. The antipathy remains, and the two brothers occupy two different zones, unable to restore their closeness. The bitterness of the older brother prevents any reconciliation. A ceasefire, maybe, a truce, but no peace.

B. Or, mutual forgiveness and mutual respect. Brothers, yes, but not one person. Mutual zones, maybe, but very porous borders, through whose pores, forgiveness, blessing, and peace flow – in both directions. It’s still a two-state solution, but not a standoff.

Today, the ceasefire is holding.

Tomorrow, I hope, along with the world, that the hostage and prisoner exchange goes smoothly and with respect.

The Day after? Phase 2. Far harder. Our prayers ascend to Almighty God.

For Zion’s Sake I will not keep silent – Isaiah 62v1

Whilst the world holds its breath to see if the Israel-Gaza ceasefire will evolve into a lasting peace, we have some space to explore our own hearts rather than our minds. What is lurking there…the good and the not so good, the fears, and the hopes and longings?

The second anniversary of the appalling premeditated attacks carried out by Hamas against unarmed young civilians at the Nova music festival and against those living in the Kibbutz Be’eri was Tuesday of this week, October 7th.

On Tuesday, I travelled to Exeter to attend a lecture at the University, with Keir Starmer’s appeal to pro-Palestinian protestors to desist from protesting on the anniversary as a mark of respect, in the background and on my mind.

What did I find?

Two things of note.

1. No Palestinian flags or protests on campus – that I saw or heard

2. In the Forum, a large open space, containing the library, Sainsbury’s, two coffee shops, and a large atrium area in which various groups set out their stalls, sat two students manning a stall advertising the Jewish society; a young man and a young woman, sitting peacefully and quietly. On their stall, they had photos of the remaining hostages, candles to light, and small yellow ribbons to wear to indicate support.

I lit a candle and fumbled with the pin before managing to wear the yellow ribbon.

I was impressed with the calmness of the two students and the atmosphere of ‘normalness’, if that’s a word, that seemed to pervade the Forum; a remarkable Pacific oasis. I was, unconsciously perhaps, steeling myself en route to Exeter, to wade through vehement, loud, well-organised protestors, waving Palestinian flags and denouncing Israel, Netanyahu, and so on.

I find myself saying, as the years pile up, ‘nothing surprises me anymore’…but the reality was a pleasant surprise: two brave students, manning a stall, whether they would be the target of antisemitic protest, hatred, or something far worse, or support.

Isaiah, also, was brave. He spoke up. He protested. Often against his own government or rulers, the kings and priests of his day. And against Israel’s enemies. The rest of his quote is worth examining.

‘For Zion’s sake, I will not be silent
And for Jerusalem’s sake, I will not rest
Until her righteousness goes forth as a burning torch’ Is 62v1
What is Zion’s sake? What is Jerusalem’s sake?

One of the strengths that democracies espouse is upholding free speech. Whilst I have been staggered at what has been permitted to be stated on banners and in chants during the pro-Palestinian marches – well beyond the bounds of free speech – the sheer fact that such freedoms exist and society doesn’t resort to rioting and civil war is testimony to the strength of our democratic society…at least for the time being.

The final test of the righteousness of a nation embroiled in a war, however, is determined by how it acts after the war

Such freedoms exist in Israel as well. But not in Hamas-controlled Gaza. Israel is a society driven to extremes by this latest onslaught unleashed by Hamas from Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen. Many Israelis, including some of the families of hostages, are bitterly opposed to the conduct of the war in Gaza. Others support the dual aims of the war – the return of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas – and the military option taken by Netanyahu’s government.

The final test of the righteousness of a nation embroiled in a war, however, is determined by how it acts after the war.

I think it would be true to say that most British, French, Norwegian, and Polish citizens and other European and non-European allies after WW2 were able to differentiate between Nazi Germany and the general German population. The rebuilding of Germany into a free, democratic state happened remarkably quickly, with good relations restored between, say, Britain and Germany occurring in double quick time.

Much will be expected of Israel in the recovery from the shock of Hamas’s attack and promise to repeat such attacks, and the chant heard in Western countries, ‘Free Palestine from the River to the Sea’ – a chilling reminder of the combined jihadist and Marxist aim to remove Israel from the map…a publicly declared genocidal aim. And we have permitted this in the name of free speech!

Can Israel delineate between Hamas and the general population in post-war Gaza?

The world holds its breath. I hold mine. Righteousness is on the line.

Will Gazans denounce Hamas in the same way that Germany, largely, has distanced itself from Nazi ideology and created a state that opposes dictatorship and fascism, whether the fascism of the left or the right?

It’s no wonder that Jesus taught us :

‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled’

The world holds its breath. I hold mine. Righteousness is on the line.

I want to see a Gaza and West Bank that seeks to live cooperatively and at peace with Israel, to seek Israel’s security and blessing. I want to see an Israel whose righteousness shines like a burning torch and returns the blessing to Gaza and the West Bank, helping to rebuild a Gaza physically shattered after two years of war.

I worry that the deep sense of injustice that fuels Palestinian antipathy against Israel – and Israel’s largely western supporters - will again descend into the kind of inhumane action taken on October 7th 2023, and that terror attacks will continue against Israel and the West.

I worry that the far-right. ultra-orthodox, ultra-nationalist Jews in Israel will continue to push into the West Bank, claiming it is Judea and Samaria, and seek to displace their neighbours either directly or indirectly.

I worry that Netanyahu will continue along the path to place the government above the Supreme Court in Israel and undo one of the vital lynchpins of any free society to hold its government to account.

I worry that the new international administration in Gaza will prove to be as stable as a paper boat in my morning coffee, will collapse and ruin any prospects of a lasting peace, and, in the end, sow the seeds for a resumption of war.

I have my hopes and my fears, but, to conclude, I’m with Isaiah

But I also have my prayers before Almighty God.

And they are neatly summed up by Isaiah. In fact, I would recommend reading Isaiah chapters 61 and 62 in the light of the delicate political situation – this pause – that we find ourselves in.

A Tabernacles Trilogy 3. Yom Kippur/Manchester/Hostages

I am well aware that I am writing this blog post just a day short of when Jews around the world celebrate Tabernacles, or Sukkot.

This year, as the world holds its breath over Hamas’s response to the Peace Plan on the negotiating table, and as Jewish eyes are blurred with tears not only with hope but grief, Sukkot 2025 could mark real change in Gaza, Israel, and the whole of the Middle East.

Hope, because no one wants war, conflict, destruction, grief, and hopelessness to set up more than a temporary home in the human heart. And hope, for Israeli’s, that the remaining hostages, alive or dead, will be returned during Sukkot. And hope for some Gazans at least that they can wake up very soon from the nightmare that has been Hamas’s regime.

Grief? Of course. The murderous attack on Yom Kippur in Manchester has chilled the bones of not only Jews but also horrified Britons who have had to clear Jewish blood and the blood of the attacker from their streets; blood spilt days before a credible peace plan might bring the horror of the Israel-Hamas war to a close.

Tabernacles, one of the three main Jewish feasts that Jews were commanded to attend each year, and, therefore, which Jesus would have attended many times, is the final feast in the calendar.

It is no surprise then that many bible commentators link Tabernacles prophetically, despite its evident purpose as a reminder of the temporary tents (tabernacles) that the Jews had to erect in the desert en route from Egypt to the Promised Land, to the end of the world and the final judgement (Rev 21v3).

My comment here is not that this is incorrect, but it falls short of the relevance of Tabernacles in this age and its prophetic significance to the church.

Just as William Seymour and others rediscovered the fulfilment of Pentecost to the church in preaching and receiving the baptism of the Spirit…hence the Pentecostal churches and the Charismatic movement in the 20th Century…so we are on the brink of a rediscovery, this time of Tabernacles.

1. Jesus as a mobile tabernacle
2. Christians as mobile tabernacles
3. Church as mobile tabernacles

Jesus
‘The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory’ John 1v14
‘Jesus said “destroy this temple and I will raise it up after three days”…but He was speaking of the temple of His body’ John 2v19-22
‘the Father in Me does the works’ John 14v11

Christians - individually
‘If anyone loves Me…My father will love him and we will come and make our home with him…the Spirit…will be in you’ John 14v17, 23
‘Do you not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?’ 1 Cor 6v19
‘You are the temple of the living God’ 2Cor6v16

Church
‘You are…a building being fitted together and growing into a holy temple…a dwelling place of God in the Spirit’ Eph 2v21,22
‘We know that if our earthly house, this tabernacle, is destroyed, we have a building from God, not built with hands, eternal in the heavens’ 2 Cor 5v1

The question facing us is: What are the implications for our church experience of the Feast of Tabernacles?

The clue comes from the simple ceremony conducted by Jews from tomorrow onwards for a week. They will meet in specially erected booths, the roofs loosely covered with palm branches and the like, and they meet under these roofs with holes to eat and drink, say prayers, and sing hymns. The holes in the roof mean that it is open to heaven.

It is a picture of the church gathering, the ekklesia (those called by Christ, not a human organisation) bathed in God’s presence (the light through the holes). It is not for one week in the year, but a picture of the potential reality of any church, at any time, anywhere.

Those believers who know the church is the temple of the living God will come with expectation and faith, not simply in a future fulfilment à la Revelation 21v3 ‘Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them and they shall be His people…’ but an expectation and living faith in God’s presence now.

If Tabernacles 2025 is to be remembered as the time when the hostages were returned and the dreadful war in Gaza is brought to a close, the world will breathe a great collective sigh of relief

New Testament churches are places where the kingdom of God has already broken in, where the presence of God is normal, and where each believer is functioning as a priest and a king in training…learning, for example, to only do what they see the Father doing. It is a holy place. It is a place where, metaphorically, man removes his shoes, God is there, and the church moves as He moves. It is an awesome place. We become like Moses before the burning bush, where all our doubts, all our fears, all our past sin has been dealt with to such an extent that referring to our ‘old man’ or our ‘old creation’ is irrelevant…we grow in our understanding that God is fellowshipping with churches full of new creations in Christ. Moses lost his arguments with God at the burning bush, ‘I can’t speak’, or ‘I’m afraid’. It’s a place where we lose all our arguments with God. A holy place.

It is now 7pm on Sunday, 5th October 2025.

Jews around the world will be celebrating Tabernacles from sunset tomorrow, 24 hours from now.

If Tabernacles 2025 is to be remembered as the time when the hostages were returned and the dreadful war in Gaza is brought to a close, the world will breathe a great collective sigh of relief. The rebuilding of broken lives, broken homes, broken politics, broken hopes, and broken dreams can begin.

A Tabernacles Trilogy 2. Sports Junkies and Ugly Scenes at the Ryder Cup ?

Oh dear, I confess, my normal early morning devotions have been severely disrupted by a trinity of compelling sports events; a Ryder Cup sandwich, in fact.

Friday: Ryder Cup
Saturday: Ryder Cup + Women’s Rugby Union World Cup Final + Match of the Day
Sunday: Ryder Cup + Match of the Day

Early morning devotions are not exclusively ‘spiritual’ as if the spiritual can be neatly separated from other aspects of life. But my routine, after a few seconds sat on the edge of the bed with as many thoughts as there are gold balls in a bunker…not known for brisk movement, and often plugged, is to perform some limbering up exercises. Exercises over in about 5 – 10 minutes, I can move in a less zombie-like manner. Then follows either walking boots or running gear and an exit for 30 minutes or so of madness, listening to a podcast, if the earbuds are charged.

Back, shower, cereal & toast & tea, I flip the pages of the bible open; these days in the book of Revelation, followed by prayer.

But, if, like me, you’re a sports junkie, this routine can suffer a series of setbacks, particularly in the summer months.

Here’s the thing, before we approach an indirect link to Tabernacles. The unpleasant, rude, coarse, uncalled-for and provocative comments, jeers, and boos from the American crowd at the Ryder Cup are a form of trespass that leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Nothing wrong with being partisan and a passionate supporter of your team, but ugly comments come from somewhere. Jesus said, ‘The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.’

So, what has gone wrong? Why has the normal restraint characteristic of the thousands that watch that curious of all sports – golf – a sport in which all its participants accept such an old-fashioned concept as ‘Etiquette’: behaviour expected that has little or nothing to do with the rules of the game.

Here’s my thesis. Those who abandon self-restraint and cross the line in terms of foul behaviour and Etiquette have misunderstood ‘sport’ altogether.

The unpleasant, rude, coarse, uncalled-for, and provocative comments, jeers, and boos from the American crowd at the Ryder Cup are a form of trespass that leaves a bad taste in the mouth

For sport to exist, there has to be cooperation; surprisingly, perhaps, it is an exercise in respect and humility. Sport cannot exist unless one is willing to lose. If you, as an individual or a team, are unwilling to lose, you spend your life on the practice ground, all alone. For sport to exist, two teams must contact each other, agree on a date to do battle, play within the rules, and defer to the referees on hand to settle disputes, whoever wins.

True supporters understand the tension between partisanship (I have been a passionate supporter of Portsmouth Football Club for 60 years) and respect, admiration, and even applauding one’s opponents, especially if they conduct themselves in the spirit of the competition…including playing to win and within the rules.

To pour scorn on your side’s opponents or make personal remarks about family members not only means you have misunderstood the nature of sport but have impoverished yourself; in demeaning others, you have demeaned yourself, become mean, narrow, and embittered, and, if your support is defined by the level of abuse you can hurl, you are blind and cannot see.

Finally, we arrive at Tabernacles, a picture of not two teams but twelve going at it. The twelve tribes of Israel. Or the twelve apostles of Christ. Or the umpteen apostles of our age.

First, a reminder of the biblical Feast of Tabernacles. Jews from the twelve tribes of Israel would make their way to Jerusalem each year to celebrate the week-long feast. In part, it was a reminder of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt and their journey to the Promised Land, from camp to camp, living in tents (tabernacles) in the wilderness, but it also serves as a prophetic sign, like Passover and Pentecost.

So, if Passover represents salvation and Pentecost the baptism in the Spirit, what about Tabernacles?

Evangelical churches have preached salvation as a free gift, or ‘grace’, through faith in Christ – a Passover faith – since the Reformation. And Pentecostal and Charismatic churches have added Pentecost, preaching the baptism of the Spirit and the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church in terms of supernatural and miraculous gifts and fruit.

But what about Tabernacles? The third major feast of the Jewish calendar, what is its prophetic fulfilment in and through Christ?

So, if Passover represents salvation and Pentecost the baptism in the Spirit, what about Tabernacles?

Jews celebrate Tabernacles today under a roof strewn with palm branches; they eat and drink, say prayers, and sing psalms. The roof has holes open to heaven. It’s a prophetic picture. The whole body of Christ, all believers of all persuasions, under one roof – and, like sport – one referee, God. There is no one leader.

We get two glimpses in John’s gospel that I will end with.

‘The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us’ John 1 v 14

And in John 7 on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, in the temple, Jesus cried out

‘If anyone is thirsty. Let him come to Me and drink…rivers of living water will flow from his inmost being’ This He said about the Spirit who had not yet been given’ John 7 v 37-39

The twelve apostles were not naturally on the same team. One was a zealot (terrorist or freedom fighter), one worked for the Romans collecting taxes, a few were northern fishermen, and so on. But the Spirit was poured out on all of them – and the 120 – and they became replicas of Christ, or ‘mini-Christs’ as CS Lewis wrote, temples or tabernacles of God the Holy Spirit.

There was no leader, apart from the Spirit. Each led by the Spirit and the Spirit trusted to choreograph the whole body. Until they were dispersed, the apostles formed a joint eldership in Jerusalem and reproduced this elders-led congregational model elsewhere.

Just like sport. Real sport. Once the final whistle is blown, both sides meet at the bar for a drink. Rivals but only rivals for the sake of doing what all wanted…to put a small white golf ball in a small hole under the Stars and Stripes and the European flags, each player bringing his unique swing, strengths, eye for the shot, club selection…I could go on…but I acknowledge the parable of the best and the worst from the Ryder Cup serves as a poor parable.

The question is – have we got eyes to see what a Passover+Pentecost+Tabernacles church looks like? What songs will be written? What happens when they gather? I don’t know about you, but, at best, I can only see a small cloud on the horizon.

That’s where we’ll start – small clouds – in the third and final part of this Tabernacles Trilogy in a few days time.

A Tabernacles Trilogy 1. Our green and pleasant land.

There’s something quite magical and evocative about a warm September afternoon. The air may retain its early morning autumnal chill, the grass, which had turned brown until a week or so ago, is green once more, and leaves are beginning to fall to cover the acorns scattered on the ground.

To top it all, the fields have been invaded by hay bales, which sit peacefully, possessing a proportional beauty somehow pleasing to the eye, awaiting transport to who knows where?

Rarely do we see how they’ve formed; it’s an agricultural conjuring trick. You wake up one morning, go for a walk, and the field that not a week or so ago was knee-high in grass or wheat has been harvested and transformed into bales.

There is a certain peace in a field strewn with bales. It’s difficult to put your finger on it, but there is that ‘Ahh, all is well with the world’ feeling, even if it is not. Forget expensive therapies, find a field with haybales and breathe. The quiet, the peace, the lovely aromas, and the light tan colours have only come about after the mowing, cutting, and baling of a combine harvester. There are no screams, of course, but it’s noisy work separating the grain from the straw and the chaff.

That tearing apart of the useful from the useless or the waste is a picture of the sudden polarisation of our society.

With society at large witnessing the formation of Farage’s Reform Party situated to the right of the Conservative Party, Corbyn’s, Your Party, sitting to the left of the Labour Party, and the radical Islamists, everyday Muslims, and Palestinian supporters shouting ‘Free Palestine From the River to the Sea’, it feels as if Britain’s seams are being stretched and tested as never before.

Add to that Scottish nationalism and the ructions over leaving the EU, and we can view the past few years either as a demonstration of the robustness of our democracy or a threat to its integrity.

So, is it escapism or good sense to find a field and simply enjoy the sight of a good harvest and luxuriate in the warmth of a sunny September afternoon?

the choice between escapism and good sense is a false dichotomy

In Old Testament days, the men of Israel were commanded to travel to Jerusalem three times a year to celebrate three feasts: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. That’s at least three weeks ‘off work’ per annum, away from work and wars, in addition to the weekly Sabbath.

There’s some wisdom in that, isn’t there?

Tabernacles, or Sukkot, as it’s also called, is right around the corner, sunset on Monday, October 6th and ends at sunset on Monday, October 13th, coinciding with harvest, the end of the agricultural year. Special ‘booths’ are constructed; it might be a plastic corrugated roof covered with palm branches and pampas grass on top to remind Jews of the temporary tents (tabernacles) they constructed on their journey through the desert to the Promised Land. Jews today meet in replica booths under the roof, to eat and drink, recite prayers, and swap news. It’s provides an occasion to remember the past but also a look into the future, as we all do when we take a break.

It is also a call to unity. Jews of all political persuasions meet under the branches, under the roof, in the booth.

I hope you can see what I’m saying?

In church, amongst Christian believers, there has been much talk and many sermons preached about Passover and Pentecost. But we have a deep spiritual need, whether we are Christians or not, to hear the message of Tabernacles, or Sukkot and to meet together under a roof with holes, somewhat open to the heavens, so that we experience a fellowship that transcends political differences and is open to God in heaven, like the light streaming through the roof; not an atheistic socialist utopia of unachievable equality and unity, or a capitalistic freedom that turns a blind eye to the losers, but a deeper note, a reverberation, the call of the Spirit of God. You know it when you hear it.

It's a call to the satisfaction of harvest, a call to completion, a call home, to feet up, to rest, for barriers to collapse, and friendship with neighbours and God to soak into work and world-weary souls.

So, the choice between escapism and good sense is a false dichotomy. To escape, to take time out, to celebrate, to worship, is time well spent; and it is good sense. There are plenty of days to attend to the affairs of the world of work and life.

Go for a drive, maybe. Find a field with hay or straw bales. Go in. See if you don’t go ‘Ahhh’ and relax to your core.

Unlike the writer

Don’t be duped
Nothing escapes
The onward march to
I don’t know where

Swan Spring quills
Sleek-black biros
Grass-green rollerballs
SmartScreen scribblers, but

Who designed us
To chance upon
A charcoal brew of dyes
To daub, to draw, to draft?

Attached one end, and
Conceived in mystery
Words, hidden in ink,
Flood onto the page

And to mediate?
A handheld instrument,
Twitching to and fro
Emptying its gifts

Until the ink fades
Nib-scratching the paper,
It’s outer outlasting the inner
Unlike the writer

Sunrise amongst acorns

Lumpy and thick white
A surprising layer of ice
Clung to the windscreen
The clouds long since
Had slithered away
Accidentally like a
Duvet discarded
During the night

Ferreting, I find my
Woolly hat and gloves
Hidden away
While the acorns grew
And the horse chestnut
Spiky capsules
Fallen now, the summer sun
Has dried out the twigs

It is this blue-sky snap
That chills the bone and
Hunches the shoulders
A hope drilled in
Splitting the sheath
Rending the cage
Death running backwards
Life following on

Above the car park
Rises a hill and a trig point,
A freezing vantage point
Where water is arrested
And the wind howls
There are no trees here to witness
The broiling globe
Cast its first light

And fail to retrieve
The summer cauldron
And yet, zero degrees and less
Does its work, cracking
Open the seeds
The hidden hopes
And dared-for dreams…
…maybe this autumn?

The Cows of Winscombe 13th September: Cows three days running? Really?

Another unexpectedly sunny morning.

Boots on and with various disturbances in my innermost being (otherwise known as ‘things on my mind’), I set off intending to retrace a walk past the surgery and across fields to Shipham Lane. I’d even spent time searching for my glasses so I could see enough detail on an OS map to know where to find a particular footpath.

In the event my feet took me to a longer route, through Sidcot and up to the radio mast before descending to King’s Wood and on to the Strawberry Line to return home, 90 minutes later.

I did not expect to see cows.

I’ve walked this route a few times and only walked past sheep and lambs in the Spring. So it made me smile when I found some cows happily munching grass far enough away not to notice me gazing at them. The thought went through my head ‘that means I won’t be able to resist a third Cows in Winscombe blogpost’ and here we are.

Two of the uppermost ‘things on my mind’ I could name in specific terms. Better, though, to reflect on the bass notes. Most music is recognisable by its melody, the top notes, and the right hand on the piano. The left hand, which plays the bass notes, plays a background role. Without them, something’s missing, but it’s difficult to recognise the piece or the track simply from the bass alone. Two bands that buck that trend are The Police and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

I digress.

So, it is tempting to comment on Charlie Kirk’s assassination, which was on my mind, probably like yours? And Exeter University. Also bothering me. But I won’t.

On Charlie Kirk, I will leave the floor to Barack Obama, who tweeted (if that’s still a verb?) on X:

We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

On Exeter University, all I need to say in detail is that I’m looking forward, even though daunted, sitting at the feet of expert lecturers. It (an MA in Creative Writing) starts next week…and I still have some hoops to jump through.

What I will attempt to comment on re: Exeter is the difference between modes of communication and actual communication; the harmful drift from simplicity to false sophistication.

And, continuing a heavy theme, to articulate my concerns about suppression via polarisation as the background to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Well? How many of you have taken yourself off for a long walk because you’re carrying some bothersome thoughts that need some time to settle, or to emerge from the brain fog?

Hopefully, I won’t forget the cows and the countryside by the time I finish this. It was a beautiful walk. Another title I considered for this piece was ‘Beauty’. I hope I can link the above to beauty.

In recent years, the term ‘polarisation’ has become a popular term expressing deep concerns about the glue that holds societies together. In the UK, our recent flirtations with polarisation have been, I would argue, over whether to Remain or Leave the EU, and in the last two years over Israel/Gaza. In the States, the antagonism between MAGA and Antifa supporters (rarely reported in the UK) and similar left-right extremist groups and the two main political parties continues to be extremely unsettling.

Why deep concerns? Here’s my interim answer: polarisation leads to suppression.

In the UK, depending on whose company you were keeping, it was wise to keep schtum about your Brexit or Remain views, or your support for Brexit champion Boris or Remainer Cameron, or you’d be shouted down, shunned, ostracised, and vilified. (Even in churches, Christians were nervous about showing support for either side, depending on the political profile of their church, for fear of an unseemly row).

Fear of speaking out was palpable. Wisdom triumphed over Courage. The result: Suppression.

In the campaign to join the EU in 1972, arguments were put forcefully by both sides, but without rancour spilling over into societal unrest or an erosion in civil dialogue.

The glue that holds a democratic society together is free speech, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and the right to a fair trial.

In conclusion, as much as I defend Charlie Kirk’s exercise of freedom of speech, I look to America to ensure that the man arrested for his assassination is given a fair trial.

Really, what is on trial is whether we want to live in a democracy or whether we will slip into fascism, either to the right or to the left. Since Mussolini, who coined the word ‘fascism’, and Hitler, we have associated ‘fascism’ with the far right, but it can be equally associated with the far left. The characteristics of fascism include dictatorial leadership, forcible suppression of opposition, and subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race.

Why deep concerns? Here’s my interim answer: polarisation leads to suppression

Tragically, we have witnessed democracies tumble into the fascism of Hitler’s far-right National Socialism, and then the far-left version in Communist East Germany in post-war Europe. Dictatorships that ruthlessly silenced all opposition and free speech.

Beauty? The freedoms we have taken for granted in the UK – and the West in general - are as beautiful as the air we breathe, the blue sky above, and the sweet smell of autumn. The bible says we should think on these things. It’s good advice.

Let’s just say that my experience of joining Exeter University with its sophisticated e-management of umpteen Apps, email log-ons, an avalanche of communication, and, with less than a week to go before I sit in a lecture theatre here, are the things I don’t know:

1. My timetable

2. Who my lecturers are

3. Where to go

4. The number of days per week I need to be on campus

5. Access to a personal tutor

Here’s my point.

The avalanche of communication with well-designed webpages, links to opportunities, and so on, has relegated the essential information, as above, to a lower league. I have the impression of busyness; an overworked admin staff desperately trying to keep this complex show of e-communication on the road so that, heaven forbid, it never falls beneath the presentational standards of competing institutions.

Meanwhile, I need to know the above. Really, that’s all I need to know.

This disease is not Exeter University-specific. It’s widespread. Sophistication has replaced Simplicity, with the result that priorities are obscured and lost.

Sometimes progress is an inversion of the meaning of the word.

In 1975, if I wanted a doctor’s appointment, I would travel to the surgery, take a board with a number from a hook, and wait until my number came up. Simple. No forms to fill in, no website to log on, no admin staff needed, no telephone calls. During the night, a doctor was on call. Every day. Local. Reached by a landline telephone call.

It wasn’t perfect, of course, and had to expand as Whitstable’s population grew, but simplicity has been replaced by false sophistication.

The beauty of simplicity is that it is democratic; everyone, young and old, understands how to access the information they need. False sophistication leads to a divided and unequal society where those who can navigate the sophistication become a mobile e-elite and those who struggle are discriminated against and, all too easily, fall through the cracks.

St Paul wrote the following words:

‘Finally, brothers, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.’

The walk in the beautiful countryside near Winscombe this morning allowed me to meditate on the type of society I hope we can maintain. Personally, I hope the walk has helped me from getting too drawn into commenting on the awful assassination of Charlie Kirk, or the specific frustrations surrounding starting a Master’s at Exeter. I hope I have been able to reflect on how good and wholesome a society can be if it upholds the above-mentioned freedoms; freedoms I have more or less taken for granted, and that I want my grandchildren to enjoy without fear.

He Took Me There

At my age, I’ll shed this skin
By Christmas
Honestly, when you look at me
Over the bread sauce
I’ll not be the man I used to be
A strange twist of newness
The replacement looking
Older by the day

Some parts are famously temporary
Wobbly teeth hanging by death threads
Nails, already not really us
Our breath, a sojourner at best
But the real you and me,
Living amalgams of all that has passed
Organic unions with our brokenness,
Our crimes, our guilt, our shame
Jealousies, pride, lust
Ambition, our hurt lockers
Can these death notes
Be peeled away like the teeth
To leave us new again?

Sunday by Sunday
The priests intone
O Lamb of God
Who takest away the sin of the world
Have mercy on us
Did the Lamb of God excise
Our sufferings and put them in
A divine supermarket trolley?
Removing our grief and sorrows
Far away, leaving us innocent?

Hauntingly we sing
Were you there
When they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble
No more so than now
When I can offer the only answer
Looking out at His mother
At Magdalene, at the soldiers
At those gathered, and beyond
Through His eyes
Yes, I was there
He took me there

Not just my sufferings
Separated from me, no,
The Suffering One,
He took me there

It is finished, I am finished
Now, at Christmas
When I look at you
I’ll be peering from inside
The resurrection and the life
Ah, don’t you worry about my aging skin
It’s the oldest trick in the book
Just you wait

The Cows of Winscombe 12th September: Running in the Light

I hadn’t written yesterday’s Cows of Winscombe post with any intention to turn it into a series, but that may be what’s transpiring.

The day so far.

At approximately 7 a.m. I donned my ear buds and headed to The Strawberry Line, a disused railway line, for an early morning run. In fact, 7 a.m. for me is quite a late start, but I woke up later than usual.

The forecast was for rain, so I was mentally prepared for a soaking. Not a drop of rain fell. Clouds were moving slowly across the sky from the SW, but the sun shone.

Normally, I listen to a podcast to accompany my sweaty efforts; this morning, I listened to Pete Grieg addressing NC25, a Christian Conference, speaking about the Quiet Revival that has hit the headlines in recent months. It was excellent, funny (naked in a glass-sided shopping centre lift made me laugh out loud), informative, and an appropriate ‘wake-up’ message for an early morning run.

But that’s not what I want to write about.

I moved here approximately 6 months ago, and I realised I was surprised to find myself running in the same soft morning light as in March/April. Not as funny as Pete Grieg’s mishap in the lift, but it made me chuckle. ‘Of course! Doh!’ was how I reacted.

The Earth looked at ease with itself. All was well. It was like an unexpected gift

April 1st Sunrise: 6.36

October 1st Sunrise: 7.01

It doesn’t match perfectly, due to the alignment of the planet with respect to the Sun and the equator, but it’s near enough. And gorgeous.

And, as you can see, I ran past more cows. Today’s cows were illuminated in those soft sunrise rays. I felt calm. They looked calm. The Earth looked at ease with itself. All was well. It was like an unexpected gift, remember, I was expecting to be soaked through, this was like darkness into light, defeat into victory, turmoil into peace…poetically speaking.

If that’s a tad melodramatic, so be it, but I enjoyed the run, stopping every so often to pick a succulent blackberry or take a photo of the light falling on cows, a bridge, and a disused, rusting farm trailer.

For those reading this of a spiritual disposition, you will understand why this morning’s run in the light reminded me of David’s Psalm 30v5

Weeping may last for the night,
But a shout of joy comes in the morning

Adam 2025

4099

Phone numbers from a different land

The feel of a finger pressing into the circle

Of metal, a dial shone

By decades of callers

And turned clockwise

‘Til the gently curved barrier

Puts a stop to all that

3752

It’s 7pm, maybe 8

My heart is pounding

I’ve glanced at the phone box

Red, passive aggressive,

Silent and terribly still

Daring me to risk all

I pull the heavy door

Inhaling a familiar odour

The dialling tone ceases

And I listen to her father’s inquisition

I’m out of depth

01392

Gone are the telephonists

The plug and socket exchanges

People replaced by machines

SDT the Acronym Age has begun

Metal holes replaced by plastic

Plastic holes by buttons

Romance and risk by automation

Reverse charges

A good trick if your pocket

Is devoid of a 10p

Occasional victories from a phone box

And one hollers and fist pumps

As if the Crown Jewels are yours

How sweet it is to outflank the system

Truth is, no one fist-pumped until

The new millennium

Mobliles, Cell Phones, Smart watches, Implants, Ear buds

Flat black screens

Sensitive to the touch of a finger

Have we arrived at where we began?

Eve. What did you feel, when you

Held the fruit, so appealing to the eyes?

Eyes, yes, of course

But how did it feel?

Soft, hard, hairy, smooth

Did it smell of a telephone box?

Or petrol, or the earth?

Text me

My number is…

07…

A distinctive odour…like old rain and decaying leather

Time was

Time ain’t so linear, Sir
See the east wind?
Outrunning the sun’s shadow
Time hopping to what was
Plunging us before time
Into what was tomorrow

Cram time into a box
I tell you
Doors and windows will pop open
Put a mind in that room
And watch it pull things up
Barnacled shipwrecks from the seabed
Or talk of things that are not
As if they are

No, Sir, time ain’t so linear
It doesn’t sit neatly on a ruler
Or a clockface
Between the tick and the tock
A sweet dream will carry you
Into a world full of soliloquies
And shadows selling a different hour

Know what I think, Sir?
No, not really
I am.
Ain’t so far out
That’s what I think

I’ll wear your crown

You don’t know me as I know me
I’ve lusted and lied
Died and risen, risen and died
Jon-ah, what’s the difference?
Been swallowed by a fish
I’ve learnt how to hide

Driven roundabouts
Right to left, not left to right
Got away with it
So I thought
But in here
In here, I’m parched, bereft
Thirsting for…mercy
To bask in the light
To swim in righteousness
Eye salve to my hindsight

I’ve lusted and lied
Died and risen; risen and died
Jon-ah, what’s the difference?
Been swallowed by a fish
I learnt how to hide

But through it all,
You waited for me to come
To cry out
‘Enough of dark mirrors’
Scared, with fears laid down
Under a morning shower
Cascading light
Too strong for shadows
No strength to fight

I yield, I’ll wear your crown

The Punchy Epistle – James (iii) Dessert: Elijah

This is not a scholarly look at the Epistle of James. It’s not an investigation into authorship, manuscripts, historicity, debates over canonicity, or a re-hash of Luther’s famous dislike of its contents.

What I have in mind is a four-course meal, or more accurately, a three-course meal, with two starters.

If the Starters were Abraham and Rahab, and Mains were Job, Pud is Elijah

‘The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain…and he prayed again, and it rained, and the earth produced its fruit’

The context of this section is supernatural miraculous healing of the sick by God through the laying on of hands of the elders ‘and the prayer of faith will raise him up’. I was an elder in a local church for a few years. On one occasion, I was asked to visit a home with a mother and her son, the son was suffering from an inoperable growth on his neck as removing it surgically would have severed many facial nerves.

Two of us, as elders, went to the house. As I walked in, James’s instructions for confession of sins before prayer for healing came to mind. The boy and his mother confessed their sins to each other, including anger; they’d argued earlier that day. It was a sweet moment. We prayed and left. News circulated a week or so later that the growth had disappeared.

The reason I mention that is to make sure we’re dealing with the living God and not an intellectual approach to scripture – vitally important, though, that we do.

James’s first and very important point is that Elijah had a nature just like ours. This great hero of faith, the prophet who called down fire from heaven and who stopped and started the rain, who raised a widow’s dead son, and so on…had a nature just like ours, yours. He was just a man. He had so special powers. It was God working through Elijah. Therefore, God through us can do…well…anything He wants to do!

James’s second point is dynamite to many prayer meetings, huddled around various layers of man-made pretence of faith, or the language of politeness, or religious gobbledygook and jargon. James uses three words to punch a hole in our dreadful, woeful substitution for real biblical prayer: Effective. Fervent. Earnestly.

James’s third point is to use the example of Elijah seemingly controlling the weather with a word. It is SO important to realise that Elijah was a man just like you or me. Nothing special.

The clue to Elijah’s rain miracles is tucked away in the Old Testament, in 1 Kings chapters 17 - 19, the longer version of events that James summarises in his letter.

‘Elijah said to (King) Ahab ‘…there shall not be dew or rain for years except at my word’ 17v1.

A drought followed. Sometime later, Elijah prayed seven times before seeing a ‘cloud the size of man’s fist’ and told the King, Ahab, ‘Get your chariot ready and leave before the rain stops you’ 18v44.

‘…the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was heavy rain’ v 45

How was Elijah able to do this? Is prayer a form of twisting God’s arm? Making Him bend to our will and desires? The clue is hidden midway through one verse, 1 Kings 18v15.

‘Then Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to Ahab today’’’

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, an ordinary man, but he spent time ‘standing before the Lord’. It was in communion with the Lord of hosts that he heard the Lord and presented his prayers.

In verse 2 of chapter 17, just after Elijah had told King Ahab about how the drought would start and end ‘at my word’ we read ‘Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah’.

Jesus said, ‘My sheep know My voice’.

So, this is the punch. Effectual fervent earnest prayer is not a pretence of faith; it is, initially, standing before the Lord, often with nothing except a desire to pray. There is no revelation, no ‘word’ from God. We should pray earnestly until we receive revelation or a word from God, then we can pray, ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven’.

On the occasion above, I heard the Lord remind me about these verses in James, and the boy’s healing followed on. I have also prayed for someone who is sick, without any sense of the word of God, and healing has not occurred. Once, I was a small group leader, and out of a sense of duty, I asked the group to pray for a woman with cysts on her ovary that were preventing her from conceiving. Weeks and months passed, and she was no better.

The Lord convicted me that I should go back and apologise to the group for giving the impression that I had faith for her healing, and asked the group to pray again. I confessed my lack of faith, but we prayed. One member of the group heard the word of the Lord and said very simply to the woman ‘you will be healed by Christmas’ which was a few months away. There was a sense of peace in the room. And that is what happened, no cysts by Christmas, and she went on to have children.

Finally, let’s put James’s first point in reverse. We have a nature just like Elijah. We are men and women with no supernatural power of our own. But we can ‘stand before the Lord’ and pray effectually, fervently (and, yes, you might do odd un-British things in your fervency, like shout, or, like Elijah, bend down and put your head between your knees, or lie prostrate, or kneel), and earnestly. Whilst we are there, in communion with God, through Christ, and in the Spirit, we may hear Him speak. Everything follows on from that.

ps I have been writing this since reading these verses yesterday and the day before, and I am also feeling the ‘punch’ of ‘before Whom I stand’. That is the word of the Lord to me. A renewed call to do just that. Probably, to start with anyway, to take it literally, and stand up, though I acknowledge it’s not physical standing that Elijah is alluding to, but going into the presence of the Lord as you would before a king or a queen. But I will be standing.

The Punchy Epistle – James (ii) Main Course: Job

This is not a scholarly look at the Epistle of James. It’s not an investigation into authorship, manuscripts, historicity, debates over canonicity, or a re-hash of Luther’s famous dislike of its contents.

What I have in mind is a four-course meal, or more accurately, a three-course meal, with two starters.

If the Starters were Abraham and Rahab, the Main course is Job

‘…take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience - indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord – that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.’

In the previous verse, James had indulged in some straight talking,

‘Do not grumble and moan against one another lest you be condemned – Behold the judge is standing at the door!’

Earlier still, he had urged them to do the opposite,

‘If you really fulfill the royal law ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’, you do well’

It is useful to remember the context of the letter. He wrote his epistle to the ‘twelve tribes scattered abroad’; Jewish believers who had been persecuted and scattered as the Jewish authorities tried to stamp out what they considered to be a subversive threat to the state and their own privileged positions within that political system.

In addition to the normal run-of-the-mill reasons we all encounter in life, that cause us to be grumpy, complaining, or angry, even, these Christians were being hounded, arrested, excluded from the synagogue, work, and family life. If anyone had reason to grumble and moan, they had.

Their particular dose of suffering came from external circumstances that had turned against them – like Job.

In both cases, the spiritual foundation of the suffering was satanic. In Job’s case, Satan had asked permission from God to cause Job to suffer, and Satan’s request was granted. Job loses his oxen and donkeys, his sheep, his camels, and his children.

However, the Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than he lost. Later, he had ten thousand sheep, had seven sons and three daughters, and lived to be a hundred and forty.

James’s meditation on Job’s life is that the Lord is ‘very compassionate and merciful’ and urges his readers to consider the purpose of Job’s suffering, that somehow it led to blessing and that however satanic was the origin of the suffering, God’s blessings were greater.

Equally, when the church (i.e. the early Jewish believers James was writing to) was harassed and scattered, suffering the loss and deprivation, it looked as if their enemies had the upper hand, but God’s plan included an encounter with Saul en route to arrest Christians in Damascus. God called Saul/Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles…and here we are, billions of believers later, twenty-one centuries later.

The Punch turns out to be a double punch. First the suffering, then the blessing.

The question James poses us, however, is one that can only be answered in our hearts. In the middle of suffering, how is your heart? Is it singing? Is it singing that ‘the Lord is very compassionate and merciful’ even if you’re singing with tears pouring down your face. Is your confession still that the Lord is good…to you. Or have you resorted to filling your days blaming others, especially brothers and sisters in Christ, ‘…don’t grumble against one another…’

In the aftermath of 9/11, Matt Redman wrote the song Blessed Be Your Name based on Job’s experience. It coincided with a particularly dark time for me. Still to this day, I can barely get the words out. Not because of the darkness, but for His goodness in it and since.

There are many versions on YouTube. This one was performed during Covid. Apt, I think.

Bing Videos

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name
Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still, I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord

The Punchy Epistle – James (i) Starters: Abraham and Rahab

This is not a scholarly look at the Epistle of James. It’s not an investigation into authorship, manuscripts, historicity, debates over canonicity, or a re-hash of Luther’s famous dislike of its contents.

What I have in mind is a four-course meal, or more accurately, a three-course meal, with two starters.

Whenever we read the NT or OT scriptures it’s worth bearing in mind the following verse from Hebrews:

‘…the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith…’ 4v2

The scholarly approach to scripture is vital. We need literary and linguistic experts to build upon our knowledge of the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic languages to enhance the accuracy of bible translations to give the correct meaning of the text. But none of that will ‘profit’ the scholar unless he or she has faith to believe the translated word.

James may have been one of Jesus’s brothers; we don’t know. What we may safely assume is that he was Jewish and was writing to Jewish believers. He refers to Abraham as ‘our father’ 2v21 and states that his intended audience was the ‘twelve tribes scattered abroad’ 1v1. We know from Acts that Jewish Christians were hounded and persecuted by Saul/Paul and others, and ‘scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria’ Acts 8v1 and that the persecution extended as far as Damascus and then pursued Paul and others around the Jewish diaspora from Jerusalem to Rome.

The author, evidently, was steeped in the scriptures - what we call the Old Testament.

Our 3-course meal comes from the OT. James refers to Abraham and Rahab - our two starters; Job as our main; Elijah as our dessert.

Starters: Abraham and Rahab

We seem to be past masters at consigning just about everything into separate categories.

From an early age, it is by learning the differences between objects and feelings, that we make sense of the world. The Sun and the Moon. An ant and a giraffe. And so on. Then it becomes more subtle: the yoke and the white of the egg, and the shell. Distinct yet not truly separate. What James is describing here is a deeper connection between two words, faith and works, and arguing against the false notion that they belong to different categories.

James is contradicting someone who has mentally separated ‘faith’ from ‘works’.

What is faith? James doesn’t offer us a dictionary definition; he illustrates his answer with Abraham, the patriarch, then Rahab, the prostitute.

God spoke to Abraham on two occasions about two different events. The first occasion was a call to leave his father’s house and go into a land that God would show him. Secondly, that he and Sarah would have a son, despite their respective ages; Abraham was 100 and Sarah, 90.

His faith in God’s word to leave his father’s house led him to get up and start walking. Then we have the birth of Isaac. The bible does not teach us that this was due to an ‘immaculate conception’. The implications are clear enough.

Rahab was a prostitute who took in Joshua’s spies. She believed two things. Firstly, that her salvation and the salvation of her family would not be secured by the wisdom of the city elders, who had decided to close the gates to the city and wait out the coming storm of the invading Israelis. She saw that her salvation lay with the ‘enemy’, with Israel. Her faith led her to hide Joshua’s two spies and then escape with Joshua’s help.

Again, her faith and her actions, or ‘works’, as James puts it, were inseparable, or as he concludes, ‘faith by itself if it does not have works, is dead’ and ‘as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also’.

The Punch

Final point. Everything I have written up to this point may satisfy us intellectually, but James doesn’t let us off the hook.

‘If a brother is naked or destitute of daily food and you say ‘depart in peace, be warmed, and filled’ but do not give them what they need, what good is that!’

This echoes John’s statement: ‘whoever has this world’s good but sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word…but in deed and in truth’.

If we truly have faith, our lives will be a demonstration of that faith. Neither Abraham nor Rahab was perfect. Abraham tried to do God’s will and produce the promised son via Sarah’s maid, Hagar, and Ishmael was born. The bible is disarmingly honest. None of its heroes get it right all the time, with the exception of Jesus.

We don’t know the circumstances that led Rahab into prostitution, but what we do know is that God delivered her not only from Jericho but into a new life, free of prostitution, in Israel, and she became the great-great-grandmother of David.