The Narrow Path

  Thursday, August 1, 2024 Psalm 74 Hosea 4:1-9 Romans 5:12-21 Observance: Holy men and women of the Old Testament The Land Mourns (Hosea 4:3) When God made the first human being, he told Adam several things. These things God told Adam were the responsibilities and rights that Adam had been given. One of these things was that Adam was responsible for the material universe; to name all the animals, and to subdue the earth. It is fortuitous that we have gotten to the bit of Romans that talks about Adam, and how his responsibilities and rights were given to every other human being as well. We are all made in God’s image, like Adam, and we all have the same duties. As well as this, however, we also suffer the same problem of sin. This sin stains the spiritual realm; but it also transfers out into the material realm. And so this is why that, in Hosea, we hear from God that the fact that there is “no knowledge of God in the land” has resulted in the ...

  Wednesday, July 31, 2024 Psalm 59 Hosea 2:14-3:5 Romans 5:1-11 Observances: Joseph of Arimathea; Ignatius of Loyola, priest & founder of the Society of Jesus (d. 1556) Speaking Tenderly in the Wilderness (Hosea 2:14) These two tools we wield, the sword and the trowel, depend on the person who uses them for their effectiveness. We are working on turning back from future calamity, and on building the kingdom of heaven on earth. Yet we mustn't fall into the trap of thinking that all this is as simple as the laws of thermodynamics: that certain actions result in certain reactions. God often uses hardship in our lives as a way to grow our character. He doesn’t seem happy with merely redeeming a people; of simply leaving us as he found us. God is also involved in the work of sanctification, of building us up into mightily holy people. St Paul is proud of the fact that his heavenly Father loves him so much that he has been given a tough life. He...

  Tuesday, July 30, 2024 Psalm 72 Hosea 2:1-13 Romans 4:13-25 Observance: William Wilberforce, social reformer (d. 1833) Seek But Not Find (Hosea 2:7) Have you ever been asked what the difference is between religion and a cult? If someone asked you that now, what would your answer be? Fortunately for us in this digital age, there is plenty of material online provided by faithful Christians who can point out exactly what those differences are. One of the biggest differences is that, in a cult, you never reach the end. Pick any belief other than Christianity – spiritual or material – and you will see that this holds true. In every thought system there is a lofty goal held ever before us, and we always just one step behind reaching it. You just need to speak to another guru, or read another book, or work a little bit harder, and then you’ll get there – but you never do. This is why we love the Lord Jesus. Seek and you will find, he said to u...

  Monday, July 29, 2024 Psalm 69:1-16 Hosea 1 Romans 4:1-12 Observance: Mary and Martha of Bethany Forsaking the Lord (Hosea 1:2) Have you ever sat down and read through any of these minor prophets before? (We call these prophets the “minor” prophets not because they are less important, but because their books are shorter.) I wonder if you ever paid attention to the names before? Because, if you have been following along for awhile, you may begin to recognise some of the names such as these kings listed in verse one. Do you remember evil King Ahaz? What about good king Hezekiah? Or poor old king Jeroboam, with his ups and downs? When we move from historical narrative to prophecy, such as we have by moving from Chronicles to the Minor Prophets, we start to get a real sense of just how bad national apostasy is. The historical flow of Chronicles could even be considered somewhat hopeful, particularly in contrast to the way the same content is treated in the b...

  Saturday, July 27, 2024 Psalm 68:1-20 Amos 9:7-15 Romans 3:21-31 I Will Restore (Amos 9:11) Reading through these ancient prophesies can make one’s head spin, particularly when God starts talking about this “Day” that is coming. That Day could have been the Day the Assyrians finally conquered the northern kingdom; or when the Babylonians did the same to the south. Or it could be the final Day which is yet to come, when Christ returns. Or it could be the day when Christ hung on the cross and said “it is finished”. Or, it could be all of them (and, to one degree or another, it probably is). When we get through these prophets preaching doom and gloom and terrible judgement from heaven upon the wicked of the earth, we usually get a happy ending, such as today. When the ground will be so bountiful that the planter will overtake the harvester. But this happy ending always happens after God has executed judgement and justice. So does this mean we have to wait u...

  Friday, July 26, 2024 Psalms 65; 70 Amos 9:1-6 Romans 3:9-20 Observance: Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Lord Standing By The Altar (Amos 9:1) Having spent time in a number of different Anglican churches, I must say that the idea of an “altar” is not the same in all places. Some Anglican churches will have an altar bedecked with linen, groaning under the weight of candles, hidden behind incense smoke and surrounded by fresh flowers. Others are less of an altar and more of a table, with not much to distinguish it from its surroundings other than a rustic wooden cross. Most Anglican churches sit somewhere in between these two extremes; but the extremes exist, too. There is something valid in both of those expressions. On the one hand, the Lord is holy and unsearchable in his wisdom; the invisible Creator Spirit who upholds all things with ease and perfection, and we humans are mere creatures, approaching in humility and wonder. On the oth...

  Thursday, July 25, 2024 Psalms 62; 63 Amos 8:4-14 Romans 2:25-3:8 Observance: James, apostle and martyr When Will The Sabbath End? (Amos 8:5) There’s a film about a small village on a little island off the coast of Scotland during the Second World War. Suffering from wartime whisky rations, the people rejoice when a cargo ship founders off the coast, allowing the crew to escape, leaving the ship’s hold full of whisky just off shore, waiting for the villagers to go and claim it. Their stern Calvinist pastor, however, forbids them from carrying out the whisky rescue mission until the next day, as no work is to be done on the Sabbath. Waiting at the docks in the freezing night, the men of the village count down the seconds to the stroke of midnight, at which they then set out and rescue as much of the amber liquid as they can. As fun as that scene is, it does make one ask the question: what is the purpose of keeping one day of the week set apart as ho...

  Wednesday, July 24, 2024 Psalms 56; 57 Amos 7:10-8:3 Romans 2:12-24 The Time Is Ripe (Amos 8:2) Amos lived on the land. He looked after sheep, and from what we read today, we discover he also ran cattle, and dabbled in fruit growing. These “sycamore-figs” that he refers to need a bit more care than other fruit, requiring the grower to go and tend the fruit as it hangs on the tree, to make sure it grows and ripens correctly. So when Amaziah tries to tell him off, accusing him of being a professional prophet, Amos responds by telling him he knows what he’s talking about. Amos is in connection with the world around him in a way that Amaziah, in the court of the king, is not. He can read the times. And the time is ripe. The time is ripe now, too. We stand on the edge of a historical precipice, where global and local events can go either way. As Christians, we are in connection with the world around us in a way that those who ignore the spiritual signs ...

  Tuesday, July 23, 2024 Psalms 54; 55:1-12 Amos 6:8-7:9 Romans 2:1-11 The Lord’s Plumb Line (Amos 7:7) For all these terrifying words about death and destruction, can we find any positive words about God’s judgement? First, there is a vision of locusts devouring a harvest. This seems pretty bad; and Amos intercedes for the people, and God says that “this will not happen”. Then there is an enormous fire that devours everything, a supernatural nuclear holocaust. Again, Amos intercedes, and God replies that “this will not happen either”. But God is coming to pass judgement. And it is not a judgement of a capricious or arbitrary type. It is a fair judgement. It is the judgement of the eye of the careful builder. God sets a plumb line against his people. We use something similar, and we call it a “level”; that small capsule filled with water, with a single bubble within, set on a straight piece of metal or timber. Line it up against whatever ...

  Monday, July 22, 2024 Psalm 51 Amos 5:18-6:7 Romans 1:26-32 Observance: Mary Magdalene The Pitch-Dark Day of the Lord (Amos 5:20) So we have our trowel in hand, building the cathedral of kingdom of heaven on earth. God is giving us directions on how to do this: where the wall should be built, and what it should be made of. But what happens when it is finished? What is the end result of our labours? There is a Day coming. We read about it all through the Old Testament and the New. For the people to whom Amos was prophesying in the northern kingdom of Israel, that day came pretty suddenly when the Assyrians invaded. Those in Judah to the south saw it happen to themselves later with the Babylonians. But Biblical prophesy always seems to speak about more than one event, and so we can also read into this about the final Day, when Christ “will come again to judge the quick and the dead”. So there is a Day coming, and Amos challenges those who are looking...

  Saturday, July 20, 2024 Psalm 48 Amos 5:1-17 Romans 1:16-25 The Times Are Evil (Amos 5:13) Have you ever found yourself wondering why people can’t just behave? Why are some people inclined to greed, or crime, or bribery, selfishness? Why can’t everyone just get along and look after one another? This general sense of unease and depression can get to us. There’s a line in today’s prophecy that sounds like it could have come out of the book of Proverbs: “The prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time”. St Paul then twists the knife: people know the truth of God, but deliberately darken their own minds, becoming foolish. And we are living in the result of that. So what is the solution? Has God just left us to our own self-made misery? Far from it! “Seek me and live” proclaims the voice from heaven. Seek the Lord and live, the Lord who made Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn, and darkens day into night, who calls for t...

  Friday, July 19, 2024 Psalm 45 Amos 4 Romans 1:1-15 He Who Turns Dawn To Darkness (Amos 4:13) Fixing the world can seem a big task. Note that I say it can seem like a big task; fixing the world is, in fact, quite simple. Not that a cursory scan across today’s two readings might suggest so. In Amos, God is talking about the weather, and who can do much about that? And in our second, we are reading more of St Paul’s letters, the great Apostle to the Gentiles, the man who quite possibly did the most out of anyone to spread the gospel across the world. But look again, and read who St Paul is writing to: “to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints”. You may not be in Rome, but aren’t you loved by God? And aren’t you called to be a saint? As we stand here in our time and in our place, at a turning point in history, where we are looking at turning away from God’s displeasure and building the cathedral of the kingdom of heaven, arme...

  Thursday, July 18, 2024 Psalms 41; 44:1-9 Amos 3 Galatians 6:11-18 You Only Have I Chosen (Amos 3:2) Our Australian Constitution opens with these words: “Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessings of Almighty God , have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth…” Rather exciting, don’t you think? And so, with sword and trowel in hand, as the Christians of our generation tasked with living faithfully and with the duty of blessing the land in which God has placed us, we read the third chapter of Amos. God had blessed the nation of Israel: them only had he chosen of all the families of the earth. Yet they had turned from God, and “therefore” - God’s special blessings that they had rejected – God was going to punish them. One particular crime pops up in this chapter, and it is fantastically dragon-y: “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “wh...

  Wednesday, July 17, 2024 Psalm 40 Amos 2:6-16 Galatians 6:1-10 But You Commanded… (Amos 2:12) Today, as we bring out our sword and trowel to see what work needs to be done, we get a reading that is more of a trowel sort of reading. Amos is telling us how to build. And in our building, we need to see how there is a connection between religion and morality; between faith and justice. Israel is turning away from the religion that God has given them, and at the same time, has turned away from moral living. The loss of faith has resulted in a loss of justice. We can see this today too, if you’re willing to look. Christian living is the branch upon which we are sitting, enjoying our rights and freedoms. But if we try to get rid of all the stuff about Jesus, then we end up chopping off the branch – and then where will we be! As Reformed Christians, it can be easy to fall into the trap of claiming that because Jesus has fulfilled all the righte...

  Tuesday, July 16, 2024 Psalm 38 Amos 1:11-2:5 Galatians 5:16-26 Pursued With The Sword (Amos 1:11) The title of our theme is “The Sword and the Trowel”, and today we get our first mention of a “sword”. But it is not a particularly pleasant use of the word. An unchecked, flaming fury; a continual, raging anger; a stifling of compassion; pursuing the brother with the sword. When we speak of a sword, we have to be careful with how we are using it. And we have to know where to point it. Jesus taught his disciples to sell their clothes in order to buy a sword; yet he also taught that anger against a brother was the same as committing murder. So in this great project, of Christianity in our time, we have a trowel to build the church, and a sword to use for… what? St Paul talks today in his letter to the Galatians about the desires of the Spirit and the desires of the sinful nature. They are opposed to each other; opposed not only in how we fe...

  The Mighty Dance of Faith   2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 When was the last time you danced? I reckon you could make a video about dancing and Christian denominations. All the Anglicans would be only be dancing to set moves – we like to dance to the rubrics of the prayer book. The Orthodox would be gently swaying up the back of the hall, eyes closed, half-smile on their faces. The Baptists and Presbyterians would be having an argument at the bar. The Pentecostals would be up the front in the mosh pit. Dancing does not, on the face of things, seem very productive. Dancing seems, to me, to be deeply personal. And dancing seems to happen when we have something deeply personal within us that we just can’t help but express. We have to show how we feel, and we don’t care if anyone else knows about it. At least with visual art we can see and appreciate the link between the artist’s technical skill and our own emotions. And with music, all you really have to do t...

  Monday, July 15, 2024 Psalm 37:1-17 Amos 1:1-10 Galatians 5:1-15 The Lord Roars (Amos 1:2) I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get a bit suspect of the continual claim that “things are getting worse”. Is there really an increase in global war? Is there really an increase in poverty? Is our society really deteriorating? Or has humanity always been this way? Apparently archaeologists find graffiti in ancient ruins in Greece and Rome, complaining about the next generation, who don’t listen to their elders, who follow novel trends, and even wear their togas inappropriately! Perhaps things aren’t getting worse, but we just notice things more as we get older. But it is hard to shake off this feeling that the kingdom of heaven may not be growing as inexorably as the Bible promises. That feeling that there used to be some “golden age” of Christendom, and we are living in the decline of that golden age. Reflecting on this is the purpose of our reflectio...

  Saturday, July 13, 2024 Psalm 35:1-17 2 Chronicles 25:5-26:1 Galatians 4:21-31 Observance: Sydney James Kirby, bishop, pioneer of outback ministry and Bush Church Aid Society (d. 1935) Children of the Free Woman (Galatians 4:31) There is a bit of an opportunity for confusion when we in the church speak of “law”. If you’ve ever tried to read the rules of an organisation, you might get the impression that “law” is a really boring and difficult to read type of prose. But when the Bible speaks of the “law”, it does not just refer to subsections and canonical instructions for professional behaviour. Take today’s second lesson, for example. St Paul opens today’s section by asking “are you not aware of what the law says?” and then proceeds to talk about a historical narrative. The grand adventure of Abraham and his wife Sarah, with all their ups and downs, is part of what we call “God’s law”. The apostle does say we are to take this law “figuratively...

  Friday, July 12, 2024 Psalm 31 2 Chronicles 24:15-25:4 Galatians 4:8-20 Known By God (Galatians 4:9) Personal relationships are tangled, messy things. There are different types: acquaintances; friends; comrades; professional; family; lovers – and each of these have their own degree of depth, preference and choice. And we all have a relationship with God – even those who claim to “not believe”. Elsewhere in his letters, St Paul boldly asserts that there is no such thing as an athiest, and this claim is made elsewhere in the Old Testament, too. People’s relationship with God can be antagonistic, or cause for despair, or a mild annoyance. Or they could be an exciting relationship, or a peaceful one, or joyful, intimate, or not-quite-yet intimate. In today’s second lesson, the apostle is making an application. He is saying that we have been set free from trying to have a healthy relationship with God on the basis of following certain rules and routines...

  Thursday, July 11, 2024 Psalms 28; 29 2 Chronicles 23:18-24:14 Galatians 3:27-4:7 Observance: Benedict of Nursia, abbot (d. 550) With Rejoicing And Singing (2 Chronicles 23:18) The thing about reading the Bible, that makes it so different from reading any other book, is how it speaks right into the human soul. One could read a book of facts, and feel quite smart for doing so. Another could read an adventure story, and feel thrilled. But reading holy scripture takes the soul out of complacency and turns the lights on; it makes us both think and feel, and do both of those things at a higher level. When we did our study through Leviticus, I wonder what thoughts popped up as you read through it? Or what feelings emerged? Because for much of that book, it deals with specific actions one was to take in order to participate in a sacrificial system that no longer even exists. Other parts seem to make up a sort of “common law” system of rules that might hel...