From the vicarage May 2009

This is the second of fourth, “From the vicarage”, first published in the church magazine in May 2009.

I’ve been in post for a whole six weeks. It seems much longer to me, as it might to you. I am beginning to come back to earth after all the disruption of moving (to our eighth home in 14 years of marriage). The dust is settling. I’m beginning to get to know people and become part of church and community life. I have seen various needs and my head spins with ideas and possibilities for church and community. As my feet hit the ground I need to remember to walk before I run. And so this letter is a request to be patient with me as I work out with the wardens and others just what is important and what is possible.

As always, God has reminded me to be patient as I have read his word this week. As keen as I am to rush on, God says “get perspective” and he gives us that right perspective in Psalm 90.

Psalm 90:1-6 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as, a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. (© English Standard Version. With permission)

God has been around for much longer than me, longer than Holy Trinity church, longer than anyone, even before the mountains were made. Our life is here today and gone tomorrow but God is from everlasting to everlasting. To him a thousand years are like a day. And so, as God is eternal he sees things from a different perspective and God’s perspective should be our perspective too.

So what are we to do? What am I to do? The end of Psalm 90 gives us the answer:

Psalm 90:12-17 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. 16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! (© English Standard Version. With permission)

Will you pray this Psalm with me? Pray for a heart of wisdom. Pray that we’ll be able to number our days, prioritise, work out how much time we have to do what’s important. Pray for that deep satisfaction of God’s love, shown to us when Jesus died for our sins, that he’ll make us truly glad. Ask God to show us his work for us and that he’ll establish that work and make it prosper.

Thank you for praying this with me as we look to God for perspective, wisdom and priorities.

With love

Neil

Job Ad: Ministry Trainee Post on-line

The advert for the post of ministry trainee at Holy Trinity is now on the Lichfield Diocesan website vacancies page.

If you are someone or know someone who wants to test and develop gifts of bible teaching, leadership and service please call me to discuss the post. My contact details are on the application form on the link above.

Neil

From the Vicarage April 2009

I thought I’d post my parish magazine letters, “From the Vicarage.” Here’s the first of four so far.

Dear Friends

I would like to thank everyone who has made me and the whole Robbie family feel so welcome as we moved from Wolverhampton to West Bromwich. If you read the Express and Star on the day after my induction you’ll know that we love the Black Country for the friendliness of its people.

When a new vicar arrives in a parish there can be questions about what sort of person he’ll be. Will he be friendly, approachable, easy to get along with? I hope I am nearly always all those things, though I know that sometimes I will need both God’s forgiveness and yours.

Some people wonder if the new vicar will make a difference or just hide behind the curtains. I’m not intending to tuck myself away in my study so do come and see me at the vicarage. I hope that things will change but I know that I won’t be the one who makes the changes. It is God who works wonders and makes his might known as the psalmist sings:

I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
you have made known your might among the peoples.
Psalm 77:11-14

Just as the psalmist remembered God’s wonders of old, his work and mighty deeds, so I pray that God will work wonders among all the peoples of West Bromwich. I pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

There is one mighty deed in particular which makes all the difference; one wonder of old by which God works miracles today. As we approach Easter we have a very good opportunity to remember this deed and ponder it: the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who gave his life on the cross that I might live. He lived the perfect, holy life that I cannot live and died the death that I should have died to make me right with God. This is the wonder of old which changes our eternity and transforms the hearts of sinners who truly trust in him.

I pray that this Easter will be a special one for you, that you will receive the blessing of God. That blessing is peace beyond all understanding as you fall into the strong arms of Christ our Saviour.

With love and prayer

Neil.

When division in the church is illegitimate

Evangelicals in Britain are at present dividing over various (arguably secondary) issues and yet are uniting with Anglo-Catholics and charismatics. These three groups have been historically suspicious of each other and yet they have been brought together by a common sense of outrage at the way liberals have walked all over the historic faith, especially with respect to sexual ethics.

Evangelicals have also formed networks, partnerships, clubs, cliques and parties which put some distance between themselves and other groups. The issues at the heart of these divisions are often complex and nuanced, requiring detailed theological explanation which generally results in greater confusion rather than clarity. Federal Vision, PCA, old school, new school, alumni of various colleges and so on have grown suspicious of each other for reasons which seem rooted in gossip, rumour and labelling.

The following Venn diagram sets out the legitimate boundaries for unity and division. I hope to show that these categories are derived from Paul’s letters to the Romans and Ephesians, both of which were written to avoid illegitimate division in the church.

Christian unity begins and ends with God’s acceptance of sinners through their faith union with the person of Christ. God accepts Jew and Gentile, with all their external differences, on the basis of an acknowledgement of their sin before God and their faith in Christ alone as Saviour and Lord. Thus, anyone who falls within the central yellow circle of the diagram is united to Christ as head (Ephesians 1:10 and 4:15) and should not divide from anyone else who professes the same basic faith in Christ.

Romans 10:10-11 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Everyone in the yellow circle is saved. The weakest believer and strongest saint are one in Christ (Gal 3:28). The blue, orange, green and purple circles represent various areas of emphasis in the Christian life, all of which are important but which we struggle to keep in balance because of deficiencies in our personalities. But these deficiencies must not divide those who are united by faith in Christ as the righteous one who died for the unrighteous (1 Pet 3:18).

And so we find, in Rome, that a group of culturally, experientially, morally and epistemologically disparate believers were told by Paul to accept and love each other with brotherly affection, despite their differences, because the sacrificial love required to love someone who doesn’t think, feel, act or know like us is what makes God look glorious:

Romans 15:7 Therefore welcome one another (Jew and Gentile) as Christ has welcomed you (as penitent sinners), for the glory of God.

The only legitimate question Christians have as a basis for unity is “do you believe in your heart that you are a sinner by nature, saved from the wrath of God by God through the gift of faith in Jesus Christ and for his glory?” If both parties admit their total dependence on Christ for salvation then they are to work toward practical unity without dividing for as long as they maintain their personal confession of faith in Christ. And so, Paul tells Jewish and Gentile followers of Christ not to separate into church networks of their own but remain united in Ephesus:

Ephesians 2:8-9-4:1-15 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast…therefore…walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ

Christian unity is found in the person of Christ and his work alone. Illegitimate division is, therefore, along any fault-line other than saving faith in Christ alone. The tendency, however, is for Christians to divide over matters of obedience to the law, experience, ecclesiastical practice or epistemology. It won’t do. It doesn’t exalt the Christ who died for sinners with all our deficiencies.

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and the danger of a gospel denying fault line

I wrote yesterday about the problems within orthodoxy and liberalism on the issue of human sexuality in the Anglican communion. The debate as it has been conducted has focused on the single issue of the rights and wrongs of homosexual sex. The moral nature of the debate has produced a fault line in the church with “the sexually pure” on one side and “the sexually deviant” on the other. In the sexually pure camp, there are evangelicals, Anglo-Catholics and charismatics. In the sexually deviant camp there are liberals and various sympathisers such as accepting evangelicals.

Whilst is is important to uphold the law on sexual standards and behaviour, there are great problems with this fault line. First and foremost, God only has one fault line; those who confess Christ as Saviour and Lord and those who don’t. Sinners who have been humbled by the love of Christ in his death on the cross for our sins are “in” and proud, arrogant, self confident Christ haters are “out”. Our level of understanding and obedience to the law is not God’s means of dividing sheep and goats.

It is quite possible, therefore, to call oneself evangelical, Anglo-Catholic or charismatic and yet still hate Christ. Such a person could and probably does exist. He is an evil dog who teaches others to put their confidence in the flesh. To him, church ceremony and tradition, church attendance, baptism, bible knowledge, spiritual gifts, speaking in tongues, sexual purity, the law, Christian pedigree, theological training and college or a myriad of other practices are the source of his confidence before God (Phil 3:1-6). It might also be possible to call oneself a liberal and yet only have confidence in Christ as Saviour, the righteous one by whom and through whom and in whom we are made right before God, whilst holding a flawed theology of human sexuality due to indwelling sin and intellectual fallibility, and so be saved.

The fault line which Paul writes about in chapter 3 of Philippians makes Christ looks glorious when we all say as Christians “I am a sinner. Even my theology is flawed and incomplete. But Christ is my great Saviour and I aim to follow him as Lord with all my heart as I listen to him and do what he says.”

The launch of The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FoCA) must be met with a mixture of hope and caution. The fellowship is based on the Jerusalem Statement which was produced at GAFCON and emphasises Christ as Saviour and Lord in its articles 1. and 5. Issues of human sexuality appear at item 8. It is hopeful as it clearly calls all Anglicans to unite under Christ as Prophet, Priest and King in his word. Members and leaders of FoCA must exercise caution, however, in case Christ’s office of Priest is lost in the media circus and on-line debate which will doubtless follow its launch. We are very easily led into debate on the law without confessing that Jesus loved us and gave himself for us. His threefold office must be loudly proclaimed above all.  But there is a very real danger that the fault line in the communion will become the law of human sexuality and not Christ crucified for sin, raised as Lord and whose word will endure forever.  If human sexuality becomes the fault-line then the gospel will have been denied.  We must proceed with caution.

[For the record, I believe the bible teaches that homosexual sex is the end point of worshipping the creature rather than the creator (Romans 1:22-27). It is only when people stop worshipping God through faith in Christ and start worshipping the human form, including human physical form, emotions and intelligence, made in the likeness of God, that our hearts are given over to lust which leads to sexual activity outside life long heterosexual marriage. Anyone calling himself a Christian whilst engaging in sex outside marriage, including the habitual use of pornography, has stopped worshipping Christ and is in mortal danger. He needs to turn his heart to Christ and in doing so repent of his sexual sin. For more on how to overcome fallen sexual behaviour through faith in Christ, see For men Only]

Evangelicals on homosexuality

I’ve posted before on the way evangelicals and liberals have been talking past each other in the debate on homosexuality. I believe the debate needs to move from a detached moralism to the offices of Christ as Prophet, Priest and King.

At the recent Oak Hill School of Theology, Mike Ovey spoke on the fourth century Augustinian-Donatist schism. He argued that a lack of fraternal love from the Donatists and a lack of divine love from some in the Augustinian camp led to the schism. In the Donatist camp the lack of fraternal love was shown in an unwillingness to forgive and accept others who had publicly sinned, underplaying the priestly office of Christ as the one who died for all our sins, public and private. The Augustinian camp, perhaps, lacked divine love by being unwilling to confess that some traditores had sinned against God, underplaying the kingly office of Christ as the one we are accountable to. [I plan to blog my notes on Mike's lecture soon].

Drawing parallels between then and now, the threefold office of Christ can be applied to the present situation in the Anglican communion. Evangelicals and other “orthodox” Christians have clubbed together around the issue of sexual holiness. The “orthodox” (with their otherwise mixed bag of theology, especially on justification) talk extensively on the authority of Christ as Prophet and King whilst arguably underplaying the office of High Priest. Liberals have clubbed together around inclusiveness. These liberals talk extensively, it seems, about Christ as Priest whilst neglecting language of Prophet (his words are true) and King (he rules), and so believe there is nothing to confess in areas of human sexuality.

Evangelicals, on their part, need to talk up the office of Christ as Priest and publicly recapture the language of humble confession and a great love of Christ as Saviour. “I am a sinner, God defines how I sin and I know Christ saved me from it.” We must not give the impression that we are somehow practically holier or even more obedient than the inclusivists when in secret, or in different ways, we all flout God’s law. I might even need a liberal to tell me my moral blind spots. That’s why we all need Christ the High Priest.

Liberals on their part need to stop thinking they know better than Christ and that they’ll get away with rebelling against their King. Humble confession and a great love of Christ as Prophet, Priest and King is necessary all round if Christ is to be exalted in this generation.

Jordan and Pete, Gen X again

It’s hard to escape the news this week that Jordon and Pete Andre have split up. Apparently Pete has had enough of the way Jordan treats him. When they first met, Pete was confident and funny and today he’s angry and hurt.

Jordan is reported in the News of the World as saying

I’m in complete hell, this is a living nightmare for me. I could never imagine life without Pete.” But despite her fury, Jordan admitted how SHE had started to drive a wedge between the couple. “I always thought I treated him well but maybe I did take him for granted and could be cruel sometimes. But I never thought he had it in him to do this.”

Pete Andre’s sense of confidence and fun seems to have melted away because of Jordan’s sharp-edged tongue and cruelty. It is sad that their marriage only lasted four years.

I’ve written on this before. There is a pattern in many relationships today which begin when confident, happy, fun men attract beautiful women, but the power of the woman quickly saps the man’s confidence and with that confidence gone, the relationship ends.

This is what seems to have happened to Madonna and Guy Ritchie. His “Lock, Stock and Two smoking barrels” confidence was sapped by Madonna’s power.

I hear lots of discussion in church about men and women having exchangeable roles and even attributes, macho women and gentle men. I hear very little about the male-female power dynamic. What are we to do with power in relationships?

When it comes to confidence in relationships, where does that confidence come from? If we try to find it in ourselves it doesn’t take long for the intimacy of marriage to expose our sin. With sin exposed, our confidence drops. And so, our confidence must always be in Christ, who makes us right with God by faith in his death for our sin. No matter what sin our marriages expose, it has been dealt with on the cross and we are given something to aim for in Christ.

Philippians 3:3 we are the real circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh-

Philippians 3:8-9 For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-

Preaching wrath and grace

I find one of the most difficult areas of preaching and teaching about God is how to communicate his wrath and his grace so that sinners know God is primarily for us and not against us; that he wants what is best for us and goes to great lengths to show it. Ebenezer Erskine’s sermon, “the sure and solid grounds of Faith’s assurance” is a great example of a demonstration of how to show God is not only an enemy but merciful and kind.

so long as we conceive God to be an implacable enemy, our prejudice and enmity against him will remain and while enmity against God stands in its full strength, against it is absolutely impossible we can have any trust or confidence in him; instead of drawing near to him with full assurance of faith, we flee from him like our first parents, under the awful apprehensions of his wrath and vengeance: but let us once be persuaded that he is a God of love, grace, pity, and good-will in Christ, then, and never till then, will we put our trust under the shadow of his wings (Ps 36:7). And, therefore, to break the strength of our enmity and prejudice, and so to conciliate our trust in him, he is at the greatest pains imaginable to persuade us, that he bears a hearty liking and good-will toward us in Christ. And there are more especially these three ways God takes to convince us of his good-will toward men upon earth.

1. By solemn proclamations and declarations of his mercy and grace. e.g. Exodus 34:6-7 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty

2. By solemn oath. e.g. Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.

3. As if his word and his oath were not enough to convince us of his mercy, love, and good-will toward us, he hath given the most convincing and practical demonstration of it that was possible for God to give, and that is, by giving himself; in the person of his eternal Son, to be incarnate, or manifested in our nature; yea, to be made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted. O how great is this mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh! Without controversy, great and unsearchable is the mystery of love and good-will that shines with a meridian bistro in an incarnate Deity. If God had not loved us, and borne such a hearty desire after our happiness and salvation, would he even made such a near approach to us as to dwell in our nature, when he passed by the nature of angels? Yea, he was not content to become one with us in nature, but he goes further, and becomes one in law with us; he puts his name into our debt-bond, and becomes “sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” e.g. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Sermons 4 kids

I am doing an assembly later today on “How we can know God”, and am using a mixture of the parable of the tenants and Hebrews 1:1-2 memory verse in a song by Colin Buchanan.

I’ve found a brilliant website called sermons 4 kids.  Henry Martin, a vicar in Salford, has published his sketches of various parts of the gospels which can be used for free (or a donation) on Powerpoint.

Job ad: Ministry trainee at Holy Trinity

If you are someone, or know someone, who is looking for experience in Christian ministry, training in bible teaching and who wants to make a difference for Christ in West Bromwich where social deprivation is relatively high, we have a post starting in September 2009 for a volunteer ministry trainee.

The details of the post are given in the following profile:
Holy Trinity West Bromwich Trainee Scheme

Highlights of the scheme:

1. Training through Midlands Ministry Training Course.
2. Living allowance, including travel to and from home.
3. Accommodation provided.
4. Opportunities at church to develop ministry skills, works of service, bible teaching and leadership.

Our church website is under development but gives an idea of where we are and what we do. htwb.org.uk

Applications are not limited to UK citizens.

My contact details are on the profile.  Feel free to call for a chat about the post if you think God might be calling you to serve his church and grow in this way.