The Narrow Path

  Thursday September 1 2022 Psalm 1; 2 Zephaniah 1:14-2:3 1 John 2:18-29 Seek the LORD... John is such a joy to read. He is not writing in this passage anything we have not already read in Paul's letter to the Romans, or anything we have been given as examples to learn from in our recent studies in the Old Testament. But he has such a skill for spiritual poetry. We can sense his heart breaking for his “little children”, his church, over his concern that they hold tight to Jesus. Some speculate that this letter was written in direct opposition to two specific ancient heresies that had sprouted out of the wake of Jesus' ascension, but John (and his guide, the Holy Spirit) are wise enough to make these instructions general enough that they will be applicable to every age of the church. This morning, John the Beloved Disciple is calling us his little children. There will always be people who leave the faith. Cultural trends come and go and sweep up Christians ...

  Wednesday, August 31, 2022 Psalm 83 Zephaniah 1:1-13 1 John 2:12-17 Observances: John Bunyan, preacher and spiritual writer (d. 1688); Aidan of Lindisfarne, bishop and missionary (d. 651) Those who do the will of God live forever. Back into the minor prophets we go, but look how well compiled is the lectionary: Hezekiah and Josiah are now old friends of ours, so when Zephaniah says he is the fourth generation after Hezekiah and preached during the time of King Josiah, we know his context exactly. Being able to line up the historical accounts of Kings and Chronicles with the Prophets is very helpful in learning more about how God interacts with people and societies (and, more specifically, God's people and God's societies). But let's return to John for now. See how he dances around his central point according to his Jewish method of logical reasoning? “Children... fathers... young men” are stand-ins for three stages of spiritual development. The central...

  Tuesday, August 30, 2022 Psalms 148; 149 2 Chronicles 35:10-27 1 John 2:1-11 But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also the sins of the whole world. If we find Paul's letters confusing, John's can be even worse. Once we learn how they thought, though, things start to make a bit more sense. Remembering that Paul was a Jew amongst Jews, a Pharisee, of the line of Benjamin, despite all this he was born and raised in Syria: a thoroughly Greek-influenced land. That's why Paul's logic works the way it does: he presents a statement, works through arguments and counter-arguments before presenting his conclusion. (This is also how we in the West today approach logic and reason.) John, on the other hand, was a fisherman who worked on the Sea of Galilee: the Jewish homeland. His logic works slightly differently. John will present his stateme...

  Monday, August 29, 2022 Psalm 145 2 Chronicles 34:29-35:8a 1 John 1 Observance: Beheading of John the Baptist If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The lectionary has brought us to the first letter from John. Something we notice when reading through the works of John (or, the “Johannine literature”, that is, the Gospel, the three letters, and Revelation) is that he likes to use things from the material world to help get his point across. Here we have the first obvious example: light and dark are synonymous with truth and deception. Another thing to remember is that this John is the same disciple who was with Jesus at the foot of the cross, the “beloved disciple” who was reclining on Jesus at the Last Supper. When he says in the first sentence of this letter that he looked at and touched with his hands the “eternal life that was with the Father”, he really meant it. This John got a...

  Saturday, August 27, 2022 Psalm 140 2 Chronicles 34:14-28 Romans 16:17-27 Observance: Monica, mother of Augustine (d. 387) I want you to be wise in what is good and guileless in what is evil. There is a certain scene in one of the episodes of The Simpsons from the golden era where Homer exclaims in exasperation: “Every time I learn something new, it pushes something old out of my brain!” As funny as this caricature might be, he is nonetheless inspired by reality. We humans are made to walk only one path. The earliest catechism we have in the church is called the Didache. Quoting liberally from the Gospels, it teaches new Christians that there are two paths to walk: one to life, and the other to death. (This is in fact one of the first Gospel quotations the book uses: Matthew 7:13-14, and is the same place from where this little devotional gets its name.) Jesus likes to highlight the stark difference between life and death. We cannot walk down two paths a...

  Friday, August 26, 2022 Psalms 137; 138 2 Chronicles 33:21-34:13 Romans 16:1-16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. What does Christian fellowship look like? Your answer might be different depending on where you worship and in which roles you have served. We are given plenty of opportunity to be nasty to each other, but in looking to Christ, we instead look for opportunities to show love. And so, in greeting one another, the church in her first generation of believers kissed one another with a holy kiss. Kissing outside the family is, in Anglo and Anglo-influenced culture, weird. The Normans might have tried to introduce it when they invaded the home islands in 1066, but if they did, it didn't take off. Kissing as a normal greeting remained a firmly Continental quirk. Perhaps our cultural distance can give us some insight as to how special it is. If husbands and wives kiss each other in one way, and parents and children kiss each other in yet another way, wh...

  Thursday, August 25, 2022 Psalm 135 Prayer of Manasseh Romans 15:22-33 The God of peace be with all of you. In case you were confused by the set readings this morning, the Prayer of Manasseh is a short passage written as to be inserted in between yesterday's readings and tomorrow's. It is found in the Apocrypha, a set of writings not considered as being inspired by the Holy Spirit, but still profitable for spiritual growth. See Article VI of our Articles of Religion if you would like to know more about how we view these writings. Let's look at Paul this morning. At the time of writing, he just wanted to let the people in Rome know what he was up to (social media status updates didn't exist back then). The church in Jerusalem was suffering for want of food and supplies (as was indeed the whole region). Paul had decided to take up a collection from the churches around Greece and Macedonia to get the brothers and sisters in Jerusalem the supplies they n...

  Wednesday, August 24, 2022 Psalms 130; 131; 133 2 Chronicles 33:1-20 Romans 15:14-21 Observance: Bartholomew, Apostle and Martyr When he was in distress he entreated the favour of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of His ancestors... Then Manasseh knew that the LORD indeed was God. Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer spoke once about the famous statue of David by the Renaissance artist Michaelangelo. He said that this statue, far from being a piece of Christian art, was in fact one of the art worlds most flagrant displays of human hubris. The idea communicated by the statue was the idea that humans are the ones who take the unshaped piece of rock that is the self, and we then carve ourselves out as who we would ideally like to be. If we spend any more than a fleeting second of time to think as to whether this concept lines up with reality we will see how foolish Renaissance philosophy really was. Not that it was limited to the Re...

  Tuesday, August 23, 2022 Psalms 123; 125; 126 2 Chronicles 32:24-33 Romans 15:1-13 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. The first thing that came to mind with these readings, and this verse in particular, was a popular theme for punk bands in the late 90s/early 2000s. Chumbawumba released a song with the chorus line “I get knocked down, but I get up again”. Rancid had a good song with a similar theme, where they sang “If I fall back down, you're gonna help me back up again”. It is a nice sentiment, but there is a glaring difference between the pagan unbeliever and the Christian when reflecting upon this theme. Hezekiah was a great king, but he was not perfect: “Hezekiah did not respond according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud.” (2 Chron 32:25) This small gap in judgement for the king is the same gap in judgement these p...

  Monday, August 22, 2022 Psalm 118:1-18 2 Chronicles 32:9-23 Romans 14:13-23 For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. A while ago we were reading through some pretty heavy Old Testament prophets. In their condemnation of sin, we were able to get a better idea of what sin is: sin is negative, it decays, it is the opposite of growth. Here we see the inverse of sin. These three words Paul uses to describe the kingdom of God might be tempting to skim over, since we are so used to seeing them written and hearing them said. But let's look closely. Paul did not just throw cliches out at his scribe to write down, but picked these words carefully. We can see the progression of the God's work in the inner life: first, we are made righteous with the righteousness of Christ. Because of the work of the God-man, we no longer need to try and lift ourselves up to a place of acceptance; rather, God looks at us th...

  Saturday, August 20, 2022 Psalms 114; 115 2 Chronicles 31:17-32:8 Romans 14:1-12 Observance: Bernard of Clairvaux, abbot and teacher (d. 1153) Those who make them shall be like them: so shall everyone that trusts in them. The Psalmist is painting a vivid image of the malleability of our human nature. It is like the idiom “you are what you eat” rephrased in spiritual terms: “you become what you worship”. It is interesting to contrast King Hezekiah's response to war with his less faithful predecessors. The history of the nation of Israel is littered with governments making the mistake of looking for alliances with powerful nations in order to protect themselves, only to be undone by the supreme power of God. Hezekiah manages to get away with building defences, yet his will hold firm, because of where his priorities lie: “Do not be afraid or dismayed... with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” Hezekiah has not built defences because he ...

  Friday, August 19, 2022 Psalm 110; 111 2 Chronicles 31:1-12a Romans 13 “ Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat and have plenty to spare; for the LORD has blessed his people, so that we have this great supply left over.” Romans 13 is such a quarrelsome passage. Obey this government? What a ridiculous statement! Wherever one sits on the political spectrum, this passage is upsetting. Without bringing down the mood of such a lovely morning, I will simply point out that the experience of the church in North America during Covid has led to much discussion over this topic. Two of the most vocal churches have been Grace Community Church in California, led by John MacArthur, and Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, led by Doug Wilson. You may disagree with them, but they at least have put in the effort of thought and action. What I would like to focus on is the image of the ideal society we have under the rule of...

  Thursday, August 18, 2022 Psalm 107:1-22 2 Chronicles 30:13-27 Romans 12:9-21 Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “The good LORD pardon all who set their hearts to seek God, the LORD the God of their ancestors, even though not in accordance with the sanctuary's rules of cleanness.” The LORD heard Hezekiah, and healed the people. I don't think I am being presumptuous if I make the claim that Jesus' most famous parable is The Prodigal Son. This parable is somehow both scandalous and entirely consistent with the God of the Bible. Scandalous, because it portrays God not as some overseer up in heaven waiting for us to break the rules, but as a loving father calling us home. Consistent, because we see this theme across the readings today. God's priority for us is not so much to behave, but to share in His love. In fact, God's demand for us to behave is because it is in our own best interests; even the commandments serve as a “love letter”. Hezekiah h...

  Wednesday, August 17, 2022 Psalm 106:1-24 2 Chronicles 29:31-30:12 Romans 12:1-8 And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people; for the thing had come about suddenly. I know I am not the only one who wakes up some mornings feeling like we are being prepared for a revival. I can not say what they are like, because I have never been through one, having only read about them. But they do sound like jolly good fun. Imagine the scenes we would have here in Brisbane: people from all walks of life turning back to God, suddenly concerned about getting themselves right with eternity, worshipping and praising the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit roaring through society like a wild bushfire. My heart aches thinking about it. We cannot plan out how to make revival happen. People have tried, and failed. But we know from our readings today what we should be doing whether we are in revival or not. We need to be worshipping God correctly. H...

  Tuesday, August 16, 2022 Psalm 105:1-22 2 Chronicles 29:15-30 Romans 11:25-36 They sang praises with gladness... Look at the expressions of worship in each of the three readings this morning. The Psalmist is recording the history of the people of Israel from Abraham to Joshua and it makes him want to sing. Hezekiah has a similar experience: when the temple is re-dedicated to worshipping YHWH exclusively, the priests and Levites bring out the full orchestra with strings and trumpets. Paul too, in ruminating on how God will complete the salvation of the world with the inclusion of the people Paul loves, his own people, he cannot help but exclaim the famous doxology in verse 36. Even in modern times, that verse is set to music and is sung when we get to it in the Lord's Supper. Singing is something we do when we stop caring about what other people think. It demonstrates that the thing we are singing for is so good, it's goodness is more important than anything ...

  Monday, August 15, 2022 Psalm 104:1-25 2 Chronicles 28:16-29:11 Romans 11:13-24 Holy Day: Mary, mother of our Lord Bless the Lord, O my soul: O Lord my God, how great you are! The lectionary has set only part of this psalm, but I would encourage you to finish it off. There are only a few more verses to go, and you will then have the whole lot in context as one song. Reflecting on these words make the actions and conclusions of poor King Ahaz seem even more bizarre. He turned from God, lost everything, and decided to double down and follow the gods of those who had taken it all from him. His was an ignominious passing, setting the scene for his son Hezekiah and the revival of true religion in the ancient kingdom. Humility is the name of the game here. We see this attitude in the Persons of God: Jesus, God the Son, humbled Himself and exchanged the glory He had in the spiritual realm for the shame of the cross. Likewise the Holy Spirit, quite happy to stay in th...

  Saturday, August 13, 2022 Psalms 101; 102:1-11 2 Chronicles 28:1-15 Romans 11:1-12 Observance: Jeremy Taylor, bishop and spiritual writer (d. 1667) Then those who were mentioned by name got up and took the captives, and with the booty they clothed all that were naked among them; they clothed them, gave them sandals, provided them with food and drink, and anointed them; and carrying all the feeble among them on donkeys, they brought them to their kindred at Jericho, the city of palm trees. This morning's readings give a brilliant example of how God's thinking works. The narrative from 2 Chronicles as well as the teaching from Paul both give us an insight into what I think of as “God logic”. It reminds me of the dramatic scene in the climax of the movie “Joker”. Joaquin Phoenix plays the Joker, and he tells Robert de Niro's character that “you get what you deserve.” What follows is the city's descent into chaotic violence, triggered by the social inj...

  Friday, August 12, 2022 Psalms 99; 100 2 Chronicles 26:16-27:9 Romans 10:14-21 How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? Paul is coming hard and fast with the cross-references today. I hope your Bible has good footnotes! There is a certain quote you may have heard before, attributed to St Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words!” Reading through this passage in Romans we might be tempted to change the punctuation in this sentence: “Preach the gospel, at all times if necessary. Use words!” Paul is showing that the message of Christ was preached to the ancient Israelites since the time of Moses. Yet, some of them hardened their hearts and refused it. Then he goes on to show how that refusal doesn't mean the end of the story, because the gospel of Christ is embedded in the very structure of the universe: verse 18 comes directly from Psalm 19 (it is a short psalm, go and read it). The “voice” that has “gon...

  Thursday, August 11, 2022 Psalms 95; 96 2 Chronicles 26:1-15 Romans 10:5-13 Observances: Clare of Assisi (d. 1252); John Henry Newman, cardinal and theologian (d. 1890) If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. We have left the prophets for now, and the lectionary has dropped us right into the middle of the historical narrative of 2 Chronicles. History is fun, because it usually records either war or political drama. There will be more to learn as we move through it, but notice the last line of this morning's reading, because it is a recurrent theme: “[The king's] fame spread far, for he was marvellously helped until he became strong.” Paul has spent some time now using illustrations from the history of the people of Israel to prove his claims about who God is. Lest we misunderstand him, he returns to his principle claim concerning the nature of salvation in order t...

  Wednesday, August 10, 2022 Psalms 92; 93 Hosea 14 Romans 9:25-10:4 Commemoration: Laurence, deacon and martyr at Rome (d. 258) Lord, how glorious are your works: your thoughts are very deep. Just as we conclude our study through Hosea, Paul comes around full circle on the line of reasoning he began in chapter 8. We have been through the ringer, doctrinally speaking. First, we were assured that Christ's work on the cross is all that we needed to be saved. Then, the ante was upped with the promise not only of salvation but rising to glory alongside Christ, and the Spirit of God making our bodies His home. We then found some pretty confronting ideas: that God gets to decide for Himself what God does; that God has decided that some people will receive justice and others mercy; and finally, that we don't get to complain about the situation because God is both just and autonomous, while we are not. Now we have to decide whether this God is worth worshi...

  Tuesday, August 9, 2022 Psalm 89:39-53 Hosea 14 Romans 9:14-24 Lesser Festival: Mary Sumner, founder of Mother's Union (d. 1921) But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? I wonder which of these two readings you found more difficult. Was it the prophecy of the horrific war crimes the Assyrians were to commit? Or was it the reminder that God gets to decide for Himself what happens to every individual human being? There are many attributes of God we need to hold together in our mind at once when we sit in our prayer closet. God is loving, merciful, kind, just, and so on. There is one word that describes God really well, that holds all these other attributes within it. We recite it every time we gather at the Lord's Table. Of all the things God is, the one thing God is the most is holy. Holy, holy, holy the angels sing at the throne of God. If we didn't get it the first time, we better have by the third. Holy, a word tragically ...

  Monday, August 8, 2022 Psalm 89:1-18 Hosea 12 Romans 9:1-13 Commemoration: Dominic, priest and friar (d. 1221) But as for you, return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God. In earlier studies, we have seen how God uses real-life events to communicate spiritual truths. (This is quite often the pattern of the Old Testament: everything in history has meaning.) This morning, Paul is doing the work of interpretation for us. He has found a pattern in Israel's history when it comes to the children of the Patriarchs. Abraham had two sons, of only one inherited the promise of a nation. Rebecca too, giving birth to two boys, found one receiving the promise and the other losing his. Paul's point is that this shows something of how God likes to operate: that “even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad”, God chose specifically who was to receive the promise of land. This pattern, Paul explains, extends to...

  Saturday, August 6, 2022 Psalm 86 Hosea 11 Romans 8:28-39 Principal Festival: The Transfiguration of our Lord For great is your abiding love toward me: and you have delivered my life from the lowest depths of the grave. Paul places another warning sign on our path of discipleship today; another place we need to watch our step. He feels very strongly about this one; the first half of the reading is the instruction, while the second half is entirely devoted to ever-increasing grand statements showing how true it is. One commentary even labels this as a hymn: “the hymn of security”. If you have ever been to an Anglican funeral, you will recognise the end of Romans 8. This section is a big deal. Yesterday we read about the danger of listening to the Accuser instead of the Advocate. But what about when the Accuser's words cut through, and we begin to doubt? Not the kind of doubt over whether God exists or not (we have already learned how that viewpoint is ...

  Friday, August 5, 2022 Psalms 82; 84 Hosea 10 Romans 8:18-27 Observance: Oswald, king and martyr ...the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. One of the greatest movies ever made about the folly of man's hubris is the original Jurassic Park. (We ignore the multitude of lesser quality sequels.) There is a particular scene, after the guests have arrived, where they are sitting around the dinner table discussing the ethics and implications of the Park. It is a brilliant example of base, pop-metaphysics and Hollywood armchair philosophy. However, one line from Jeff Goldblum's character (the mathematician specialising in chaos theory) stands out: “Nature finds a way”. We are Christians, not secular materialists, so our God is the living God, not the seemingly chaotic forces of nature. Nevertheless, we recognise that for all our human designs at control, they will ultimately fail in the face of God's will. We read about how ...

  Thursday, August 4, 2022 Psalm 80 Hosea 9 Romans 8:9-17 Observance: John Baptist Vianney, parish priest of Ars, France ...the Spirit of God dwells in you... Anyone who has had to be a part of a family discussion on inheritance knows how unpleasant it can get. For some reason, the death of a loved one becomes an opportunity for greed and spite to pop up out of seemingly no-where. This is a universal human experience that I am confident Paul would have known about. Despite this, he decides to use inheritance as a way to describe a mechanism of salvation. Depending on which Bible you prefer to read, you will either see “children” or “sons” used in verses 16 and 17. I decided to look it up in the Greek; the original word is indeed children. The point of all this is an effort to emphasise this idea of inheritance: everything that the Father “owns” is given to us as “heirs”. The ancient Jewish inheritance law had everything passed on to the first-born, w...

  Wednesday, August 3, 2022 Psalm 78:16-38 Hosea 8 Romans 8:1-8 Principal Festival: Stephen, deacon and first martyr There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We now start our journey of sanctification: we have begun taking baby steps down the path of discipleship towards the open, encouraging arms of God. There are many pitfalls we will have to look out for, and today we will learn of one of the most common. To understand this pitfall, we need a basic idea of a “sin offering”. This is an ancient Jewish religious custom, which Paul is referring to in verse 3. Another word for it used to be “guilt offering”. (“Condemn”; “guilt”; “law”; “free”: this is all beginning to sound rather legalistic.) If we think of “guilt”, we see it comes in two forms: the first, is that guilt is a mechanical state of being. A criminal is “found guilty” by a court. The second form is moral; we “feel guilty” for something we have done that we wi...

Tuesday, August 2, 2022 Psalm 77 Hosea 7:8-16 Romans 7:13-25 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self... One of my favourite scenes in the Peter Jackson adaptation of the Lord of the Rings is when King Theoden is released from Saruman's curse. Wormtongue, that agent of evil, has been whispering lies into the good king's ear for years. Thinking his domain safe and prosperous, it is not until Gandalf comes and banishes the evil counsellor that the king sees who he truly was when held under that spell. Rising from his throne, his old sword placed once again in his hand, he looks with fresh eyes on the people he is called to protect. Sin also is a big fat liar. The nation of Ephraim, thinking themselves wonderful, lovely people, were actually “a cake unturned”: burnt and hard on one side, gooey and raw on the other. They weren't a young, strong warrior; they were more like an old, weak, grey man. We are passing through the section of Rom...