For God so loved the World that he gave us a Captain and not a Manager!

Well, the festive season is really upon us in earnest now and so I thought I'd share a thought about Christmas. In particular I've been thinking once again about the mystery of the incarnation - of God becoming a human being and being born into our world as Jesus.

I'm not sure where I pinched this next idea from but I'm sure I did! I like to explain the incarnation, particularly when I'm talking to young people, in terms of a football match. God could have chosen to enter the game as a football manager. We've all seen them during the game - either sat on a bench with the team coach or else pacing up and down, waving their arms about frantically whilst shouting commands to the players on the pitch. I've often wondered whether in fact the players have the faintest idea what the manager is trying to communicate!

God could have sat himself down in heaven and watched our world and its affairs from a distance, pausing from his spectating from time to time to shout commands at us: "Don't do that - do this. No, not like that. What are you fools doing? You're messing everything up!" A remote, aloof and ultimately detached God is not one that I would care to worship even though this is the picture that many people seem to have of God.

The reason I love Christmas is that it presents us with a very different picture of God. Instead of becoming a manager in our football game of life, God cares enough for Jesus to come as the team captain. He goes into the dressing room, puts on a shirt and runs out onto the pitch with the other players. He plays the game and experiences all that this means. He takes his share of injuries, diappointments and unfair decisions by the referee. He also takes his share of the joys, excitement and fulfilment too - setting up the goals, the slick passing and the teamwork.

God cares so much that when he became incarnate in Jesus he entered fully into our human life. The only difference is that Jesus lived human life as God means it to be lived - he consistently made the right choices whereas we often don't.

The prophet Isaiah, speaking hundreds of years before Jesus was born, spoke of "Immanuel" - of "God with us". I'm just so grateful that he is with us as a captain not a manager. Jesus is a captain who understands the joys and sorrows of life - who comes alongside us and promises never to leave us.

May you know the love, peace and joy of Immanuel - God with YOU!

I wish you a very Happy Christmas & peaceful New Year.

What is the News and why is it Good?

An important part of my vocation as a minister is to "preach the gospel". For most of my life I've been pretty certain of precisely what this meant. Up until fairly recently if anyone had ever asked me what I understood the gospel to be I would probably have been surprised at the question. After all, the gospel ("good news") of Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith: Jesus preached the gospel as did his disciples and the apostle Paul. Come to think of it the entire New Testament hinges on and testifies to the good news of Jesus.

But what actually is this good news - what precisely is the gospel?

My Christian discipleship thus far has equipped me with a ready answer to this most basic of questions. However, in recent years as I've begun to study the Scriptures more earnestly once again I've been challenged by what I've found (and not found). I've discovered to my surprise that the formula that I took for granted and which seemed almost universally accepted in the Church (at least the Church I grew up in) was by no means as clearly evident as I had expected. I also got a lot more than I bargained for (don't you always with God?!) and my horizons were widened.

After some study and reflection I do feel now that I have an answer to my own question about what the gospel is - but it's a developing answer!

I'm hoping to do some more thinking and then preaching on this topic but before I lay my cards on the table I was wondering how others might answer my question.

What do you think the gospel is?

Please post your comments below. I'll be interested to read what you think.

The Parable of the Slot Machine

I've never been a gambler but I've always been fascinated with those 2p slot machines that you get in the seaside arcades. You know the ones I mean with the massive overhanging ledge of money that looks like it'll all drop off and down the chute with just a couple of coins? But it's never quite as simple as you think. The weight of the coins means that it can take ages before you get anything to really shift at all.

We all just want to rock up, stick a couple of coins in and expect the whole lot to fall obligingly down the chute for us. But the only way we'll win is if we (or someone else before us) is committed enough to feed the same machine. It can take ages and cost a lot of money (even if it is only 2p a go) but in the end it will only take one single coin to produce a win. The reason the house wins time and time again is that most of us don't have the patience (or the money!) to simply keep pouring our coins into the same machine. We get fed up that we're spending so much and winning so little and maybe get enticed away to another more promising machine. Maybe someone else will then come along and drop that 'magic' coin and bingo - the tipping point (quite literally!) is reached and the fruits of all our efforts are enjoyed by someone else.

But whoever wins only does so because of the 'work' that others have done before them. Many of those people spend a lot of time and money on the machine but see very little return for their efforts. But if no-one had a go then no-one would later win. Ultimately it can often be a very small act - just another coin in a slot - that produces a much bigger reward - a reward that many people have been building - slowly - coin by coin until the tipping point is reached.

There is a temptation to view evangelism and discipleship as though we have the 'magic' coin. We want to see instant and obvious results for our efforts and we get discouraged, bored or frustrated when our coins just aren't producing a win. There will be wins - of course - and they are wonderful moments but people only get to those points of decision in their lives because of all that has gone on before.

Billy Graham would always acknowledge that the masses of people who made a decision to follow Jesus at his stadium events where only there in the first place because very often a Christian friend had been faithfully witnessing to them, sometimes for years, and had invited them along.

We all want to see the big wins but these tipping points are just another coin drop in a much longer history. Maybe what we need to do, instead of being fixated with dropping the winning coin and reaping the glory that accompanies it, is simply to persist with feeding the machine - one coin at a time. In other words to love people into the Kingdom of God - one loving act at a time. To help people in their journey of faith and discipleship - just another step - then another.

It's all God's saving mission - it's all part of building his Kingdom - and every single simple act of love counts. Nothing is ever wasted. Be encouraged and keep on keeping on.

Can anyone lend me 2p?

Saved from or saved for?

I've been doing some thinking about salvation for a forthcoming sermon. Just what does salvation actually mean?

I suppose the most common view is that we are saved from something. This is borne out in various biblical texts e.g.

• 'Remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.' (James 5:20)
  
• 'She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.' (Matt 1:21)

Along with being saved from death and our sins there are many people who would probably add 'Hell' to that list too. The trouble with only seeing salvation in these terms is that firstly it becomes a very future-oriented thing - something that might happen now (we are saved in the present) but will only come into play when we die. This has the effect of making our talk of salvation sound like some kind of heavenly insurance policy - one that we hope we don't have to claim on for quite some time!

The second problem is that it reduces salvation to a very individualistic concept - it's all about my destiny, my sin, my life.

But what if we are saved not just from something but for something? What if through Jesus, God saves us for a purpose - so that we can participate in his saving mission to all creation - here and now? That would mean that saved ones would work to bring God's salvation to everyone. This is not just pie in the sky when you die - this is a real task for the present moment. It would also mean that salvation is more than just about me - it's about God and what he wants.

'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. '(Eph 2:9-10)

Salvation is a free gift from God that cannot be earned but it seems clear that part of God's design for us is that we should work for good.

So maybe instead of simply asking whether we are "saved" or not we should consider as well whether we are "saving". Are we working for good so that Jesus' salvation may be experienced by everyone - not just when they die but right now as they live?

Hello World!

Hi there! I've been following a couple of blogs for a while now and thought that I'd have a go myself. I suppose my hope is that it'll give me a space to chuck a few ideas around a bit in a way that it's just not possible in the 'normal' course of Church life.

I ought to point out that this is a purely personal venture and although I work full-time for the Methodist Church of Great Britain the views expressed here should not be taken as representative of that particular organisation.

I'm not sure how this blogging business is going to happen really. I suppose it depends on whether I feel I've got any ideas worth sharing (!) and, of course, whether anyone cares enough to want to read them.

We'll just have to see ...