Navigating Good and Evil - Where does evil come from?

Sunday morning's reflections for the first Sunday in Lent - related to the Bible readings in IBRA's Fresh from the Word for 2016

When Moses led the people to freedom and the promised land and shared those Ten Commandments the people had to cope with 40 years of wandering through the wilderness.  It was a time of hardship, a time of difficulty, and a time of all sorts of things going wrong, and all sorts of temptation.  It took quite some navigating to get through the wilderness wandering.

When Jesus came up out of the Jordan in the strength of the Holy Spirit he went into the wilderness for 40 days.  It too was a tough time, a time of hardship, and for him a time of very real temptation.  It took quite some navigating to get through the time of temptation.

We stand at the beginning of Lent.  40 days of journeying towards Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter.  And Our Bible readings through Lent invite us to go on a journey that takes quite a bit of navigating.  It’s a journey that involves Navigating good and evil.  It’s quite some journey.  And if the first week of readings are anything to go by quite tough at times.

More than one person has said to me, I’m not sure what he’s on about!  And I have to confess I’ve wondered too!

When it comes to navigating we live in a Sat Nav age.  You key in the destination and you follow precise instructions.  Go wrong and the instructions will get you back on the right track.  And it’s all there for you on a plate.

Even if you use what one of the youngsters of one of the Scout leaders in a priceless comment described as ‘a paper sat nav’ – an atlas, the map books we use are accurate and precise so long as we follow them exactly.

I have a feeling people think of the Bible as a Sat Nav – key in the destination and it will get you there as you sit back and follow the instructions.  Go wrong and it will set you right again.

I don’t think the Bible is like that.

It’s not too like to pick up on our course at Explore – though I hope this Tuesday and next you join Michelle at Explore to explore the treasures of our faith in all sorts of creative ways that can then feed into the Christian Arts Festival in April.

Our course on the Bible is called Making Good Sense of the Bible Together.   It’s been great working on the course with Faith Taylor.  Last Tuesday some really fascinating insights about the way the bible works as poetry touching on the mysteries of life emerged through the discussion.  But those insights were not spelled out in the booklet that accompanies the course.  Someone was frustrated that the booklet had directed us to some very difficult verses of the Bible and not given the answer we had arrived at.

Faith’s response was superb – with some feeling and enthusiasm she said, ‘that’s the whole point’.  We’ve arrived at that understanding because we have had the conversation and shared together.  That’s the whole point of the course, she said, very perceptively, We make Good Sense of the Bible together.

It’s good to have a conversation about difficult passages in the Bible.  Not so that someone can tell us what the right answer is, but because in the conversation something emerges that touches the mystery in the words of the Bible.

One of the things that I think is a bit different about the IBRA bible study notes is that they come from a mixture of different people with different experiences of faith, different ways of reading the Bible and you won’t get just one clear definitive point of view.

Think of yourself as entering into a conversation as we share in navigating good and evil, specially in these first readings with Julian Bond as we asked where does evil come from and what is evil like today.

Instead of taking us through one book of the Bible, we jump around different texts.  Some find that disconcerting – and actually I like getting to grips with a whole book at a time.  But I think it goes to something very interesting about the Bible.

The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by probably a lot more than 66 people.  Many of the books have been re-worked by other people, ordered and arranged and then put together into what we see as the Bible.  These are all people of faith who have been touched by God as they have lived in the real world and grappled with the very issues we grapple with today.

One way to read the Bible is to look out for the way there’s almost a conversation going on between different people in the Bible.   Reading the Bible, looking at different passages from different writers at different times is a bit like entering into the conversation.  The great thing about that is that they have all journeyed this way before and they have all had to Navigate Good and Evil.

Actually, come to think of it: that’s another way of navigating today.  Find someone who’s been there before and follow their directions or let them show you the way.  We are going to have a day of prayer thinking of the churches of our area in our SW Midlands Area of the Federation down at our Stapleton Road church in Bristol – it’s in a fascinating area of Bristol and the church is really very much in the heart of inner city work.  When, I think it was Shirley and Dee, were going there they wanted help to get there – I gave them directions.  But it took some finding!   Find someone who’s been there before!

One thing I noticed in Julian Barnes notes is that he says, almost each day, In my opinion.  This is what I think.  At first that riled me. And then I thought that’s interesting.  He’s inviting us into the conversation.

So, now’s a moment to enter into the conversation.  What do you make of this question Julian Barnes has been asking: Where does evil come from?  Navigating good and evil is quite some challenge.  What do you make of evil?  How do you begin to answer that question or maybe how do you begin to grapple with that question?

Sharing ideas

Let me enter into the conversation and share my thoughts.

One of the things that came out of our Explore evening last week was the thought that so much of the Bible is in poetry and deals with things that are beyond our understanding by using picture language, metaphor and the like. The Bible uses different ways of thinking about evil – different people at different times have different insights.  I think it’s helpful not to elevate one to be the defintivie account of evil but to hold them together as different ways of thinking of something that is unthinkable.

I look around at the world and it can be wonderful – the news this week that a prediction made by Einstein a hundred years ago has actually been seen is remarkable!  But I also look around at the world with its conflict, its poverty and it’s pretty grim.  What do you make of it?

I think I do find it helpful just to think of evil.  There are things that are pretty horrible, beyond words – they happen out there in the world at large, sometimes they come closer to home.  And it can leave you thinking life is ****.  The word I have heard more than once this week rhymes with Kit and for emphasis with Kite.  However you explain it, it’s a reality – and I for one find it helpful in the Lord’s prayer to pray, ‘deliver us from evil’.

Just ‘evil’  Sometimes the Bible speaks of ‘the evil one’ – that’s how some translators translate that line in the Lord’s Prayer.  In Matthew and Luke it is the devil who tempts Jesus in the wilderness and in Mark it is Satan.   You can have a field day exploring the way those words are used and not use in the Bible.  It’s not the only way of thinking of evil.  But I for one find it helpful as one way.  Evil can come in the most personal of ways.  You know exactly what you should do, but something gets at you, niggles away – it is very personal.  That’s the devil at work.  The Lord’s prayer says it all – lead us not into temptation.

There’s a lot of imagery of monsters – in the depths, the chaos of the sea, the lion that’s prowling around to devour.  All imagery that captures the awfulness of evil around – not least the destructiveness of those bent on terror aimed at Christians and also aimed at other Muslims too in the Middle East at the moment.

Those last few words of Romans 8 speak of heights and depths that you think separate us from God – that language of soaring into the heights or plumbing the depths captures something of the awfulness of what can happen to us.  Mass of imagery around like that.

And then it speaks of principalities and powers, cosmic powers.  That’s an image I find really helpful in understanding the way horrible bad stuff gets a hold of institutions and the very fabric of society and the way things work. Individually we don’t want to feed climate change and destroy the wordl.  But we are part of a system that is devouring the earth’s resources and it’s hard to extricate ourselves.  There’s a web.

Julian Bond introduces us to one more thought.  A difficult thought.  An intriguing thought.  Evil happens in the world that is the world of God’s creation.  Maybe we shouldn’t think of that bad and all that goes wrong as a force equal and opposite to God, are a tiny bit less than God but pretty awesome.  Maybe things we sometimes categorise as evil are simploy part of the way God’s world works.

Those gravitational waves came from the collision of two black holes so many billion years ago.  A cataclysmic event.  It is out of cataclysmic events that new stars are born.  IT is the nature of the woirld that cataclysmic things happen.  There’s that kind of insigt in Isasiah 45:5-7

I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness,
   I make weal and create woe;
   I the Lord do all these things.

How do you begin to get your mind round that?  It was a way of thinking common in the time leading up to the exile and through the exile.  You see it in Jeremiah.  When the prophets use the language of judgment think in today’s terms of ‘consequence’.  Jeremiah saw the devastation of a generation that had to live through the most awful destruction as God’s judgment working out.  See it as consequence – and some of Jeremiah’s insights may have something to say to today.  The consequence of the wars we waged in Iraq and Afghanistan and more recently Libya is being worked out at the moment and it may last a generation and more.

My mind is beginning to spin.  There comes a point when that picture by Munch says it all – The Scream.  I just want to go ‘aasrgh’.  I can’t cope with all this.

That’s the point when you need to turn to God in prayer.

Our journeying navigating good and evil is going somewhere.  It’s leading us towards Holy Week, the Passion of Christ and Easter.  The readings this week take us to Jesus.

What makes Holy Week, the Passion and Easter so important to me is that at the heart of our Christian faith is the convication that God does not leave us on our own.  God comes alongside us and in Jesus shares in the awfulness of the world in the inhumanity of humanity at its worst.

The God I believe in is the God who in Jesus has been there before.  More than that the risen Christ promises us something for the journey we have to take.

Don’t think of the Bible as a Sat nav that simply will tell you how to get through life in instructions that simply have to be followed.

Think of it as a conversation – listen to people who have travelled this way before, grappled with these problems and come up with a way through them, a way of navigating good and evil.

But there’s one more way of thinking of this journey the Bible opens up for us.  The best way of navigating is when someone says, I’ve travelled that way before, I’ll take you.  And they accompany you on the journey.

That’s the promise Jesus makes – at that last supper on the eve of his crucifixion.

‘I will not leave you orphaned;

I am coming to you. 

In a little while the world will no longer see me,

but you will see me;

because I live, you also will live. 

And I will ask the Father,

and he will give you another Advocate, 

a Comforter, One who will be with you every step of the way

I will ask the Father

And he will give you anbother Comforter

to be with you for ever.

This is the Spirit of truth,

So overwhelmed by all this talk of evil – take heart, remember that promise of Jesus – I am with you always to the end of the age.

 As we draw to a close maybe Psalm 73 is one of those prayers from the Bible that can resonate for us.

It’s one of those psalms that exprsses the scream – the wretchedness we sometimes can feel … not least when we look at a world where evil seems to have the last word and win the day.

Truly God is good to the upright,
   to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;
   my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant;
   I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 

The Psalm goes on to despair at the way evil has a hold.

Ultimately, the Psalmist senses that such evil does not have the last word.  The victory is God’s.  Navigating Good and evil through Lent our journey takes us through the cross to resurrection victory.

So these words can become our prayer …

Psalm 73:21-28

When my soul was embittered,
   when I was pricked in heart,
I was stupid and ignorant;
   I was like a brute beast towards you.
Nevertheless I am continually with you;
   you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
   and afterwards you will receive me with honour.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
   And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
   but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. 

Indeed, those who are far from you will perish;
   you put an end to those who are false to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
   I have made the Lord God my refuge,
   to tell of all your works.

Navigating good and evil … one thing is sure, we are not on our own on the journey, it’s not just that others have walked this way before us, good though it is to enter into conversation with them.  God in Jesus Christ by the strengthening of the Spirit walks the journey with us.

I am continually with you;
   you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
   and afterwards you will receive me with honour.

For me in navigating good and evil

it is good to be near God;
   I have made the Lord God my refuge,
   to tell of all your works.

Navigating Good and Evil - Romans 7 and 8

Sunday evening's reflections on Romans 7 and 8 - the first of a series for Lent: Navigating Good and Evil, related to the IBRA Bible reading notes, Fresh From the Word 2016

When Moses led the people to freedom and the promised land and shared those Ten Commandments the people had to cope with 40 years of wandering through the wilderness.  It was a time of hardship, a time of difficulty, and a time of all sorts of things going wrong, and all sorts of temptation.  It took quite some navigating to get through the wilderness wandering.

When Jesus came up out of the Jordan in the strength of the Holy Spirit he went into the wilderness for 40 days.  It too was a tough time, a time of hardship, and for him a time of very real temptation.  It took quite some navigating to get through the time of temptation.

We stand at the beginning of Lent.  40 days of journeying towards Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter.  And Our Bible readings through Lent invite us to go on a journey that takes quite a bit of navigating.  It’s a journey that involves Navigating good and evil.  It’s quite some journey.  And if the first week of readings are anything to go by quite tough at times.

More than one person has said to me, I’m not sure what he’s on about!  And I have to confess I’ve wondered too!

When it comes to navigating we live in a Sat Nav age.  You key in the destination and you follow precise instructions.  Go wrong and the instructions will get you back on the right track.  And it’s all there for you on a plate.

Even if you use what one of the youngsters of one of the Scout leaders in a priceless comment described as ‘a paper sat nav’ – an atlas, the map books we use are accurate and precise so long as we follow them exactly.

I have a feeling people think of the Bible as a Sat Nav – key in the destination and it will get you there as you sit back and follow the instructions.  Go wrong and it will set you right again.

I don’t think the Bible is like that.

It’s not too like to pick up on our course at Explore – though I hope this Tuesday and next you join Michelle at Explore to explore the treasures of our faith in all sorts of creative ways that can then feed into the Christian Arts Festival in April.

Our course on the Bible is called Making Good Sense of the Bible Together.   It’s been great working on the course with Faith Taylor.  Last Tuesday some really fascinating insights about the way the bible works as poetry touching on the mysteries of life emerged through the discussion.  But those insights were not spelled out in the booklet that accompanies the course.  Someone was frustrated that the booklet had directed us to some very difficult verses of the Bible and not given the answer we had arrived at.

Faith’s response was superb – with some feeling and enthusiasm she said, ‘that’s the whole point’.  We’ve arrived at that understanding because we have had the conversation and shared together.  That’s the whole point of the course, she said, very perceptively, We make Good Sense of the Bible together.

It’s good to have a conversation about difficult passages in the Bible.  Not so that someone can tell us what the right answer is, but because in the conversation something emerges that touches the mystery in the words of the Bible.

One of the things that I think is a bit different about the IBRA bible study notes is that they come from a mixture of different people with different experiences of faith, different ways of reading the Bible and you won’t get just one clear definitive point of view.

Think of yourself as entering into a conversation as we share in navigating good and evil, specially in these first readings with Julian Bond as we asked where does evil come from and what is evil like today.

Instead of taking us through one book of the Bible, we jump around different texts.  Some find that disconcerting – and actually I like getting to grips with a whole book at a time.  But I think it goes to something very interesting about the Bible.

The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by probably a lot more than 66 people.  Many of the books have been re-worked by other people, ordered and arranged and then put together into what we see as the Bible.  These are all people of faith who have been touched by God as they have lived in the real world and grappled with the very issues we grapple with today.

One way to read the Bible is to look out for the way there’s almost a conversation going on between different people in the Bible.   Reading the Bible, looking at different passages from different writers at different times is a bit like entering into the conversation.  The great thing about that is that they have all journeyed this way before and they have all had to Navigate Good and Evil.

Actually, come to think of it: that’s another way of navigating today.  Find someone who’s been there before and follow their directions or let them show you the way.  We are going to have a day of prayer thinking of the churches of our area in our SW Midlands Area of the Federation down at our Stapleton Road church in Bristol – it’s in a fascinating area of Bristol and the church is really very much in the heart of inner city work.  When, I think it was Shirley and Dee, were going there they wanted help to get there – I gave them directions.  But it took some finding!   Find someone who’s been there before!

One thing I noticed in Julian Barnes notes is that he says, almost each day, In my opinion.  This is what I think.  At first that riled me. And then I thought that’s interesting.  He’s inviting us into the conversation.

So, now’s a moment to enter into the conversation.  What do you make of this question Julian Barnes has been asking: Where does evil come from?  Navigating good and evil is quite some challenge.  What do you make of evil?  How do you begin to answer that question or maybe how do you begin to grapple with that question?

Sharing ideas

I felt I wanted to enter into the conversation this week as well.

Two passages caught my eye, though maybe the way I read them is a little different.

When it comes to navigating good and evil Romans 7 and 8 are very powerful for me.

They kind of ring true.

Paul has in Romans set out his take on the Gospel of Christ.

it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:17

He offers an indictment of Nero’s Rome – then acknowledges we all get things wrong but God sets things right

For there is no distinction, 

²³since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 

²⁴they are now justified by his grace as a gift,

through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 

²⁵whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood,

effective through faith.

Three wonderful pictures – from the law court, the slave market and the temple.  A wonderful transformation for those who come into the presence of Jesus.

There’s something wonderful in the way we can all share in this new life – a life of grace

Therefore, since we are justified by faith,

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 

²through whom we have obtained access to this grace

in which we stand;

and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 

³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings,

knowing that suffering produces endurance, 

⁴and endurance produces character,

and character produces hope, 

⁵and hope does not disappoint us,

because God’s love has been poured into our hearts

 through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

This is wonderful poetry – I have rearranged the words into short lines!

Powerful stuff.

And we share in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Then we come to Romans 7

It’s great.  You would think it would be wonderful.  But sometimes it isn’t.

Something gets in and niggles away and goes wrong.

I do not understand my own actions.

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

 ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 

¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I that do it,

but sin that dwells within me. ¹

⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh.

 I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.

¹⁹For I do not do the good I want,

but the evil I do not want is what I do.

²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it,

but sin that dwells within me.

You know exactly what you should do but you don’t do it.

This rings true for me.  Not least caught up in the system.  I know I want to look after the environment but for all sorts of reasons that are also good I find myself using my car again.  I want to break free from the economic system, but I find myself caught up in the system too.

This is one of those moments when the genius of William Tyndale with his ear and eye fo rhte English language comes into its own in the Authorised Version.

The commonest 20 words in the English language are all the little ones – they tend to be the oldst.  So many words are single syllable words in Shakespeare and also in the AV.  You can almost weigh them.  2 syllable words are twice the weight of single syllable words.

The good that I would I do not.

The evil that I would not

That I do.

Wow powerful stuff.

And it touches each of us.

Then you come to Romans 8.

I counted them. Count them for yourself.  I came to 20 references.

It is in Romans 8 that Paul for the firfst time in Romans talks of the Holy Spirit.

This is where in navigating good and evil the Christian faith becomes good news, gospel.

We are not on our own in making the journey.

We have a strength from beyond ourselves in the Holy Spirit of God who is alongside us.

There are times of groaning when we  are navigating good and evil.  And we cannot cope.

It is at those times that God is with us, the Holy Sp;irit is the strength we need.

There is therefore now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus

 has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

It’s language that works for me.

There is a freedom.  No condemnation.  We are forgiven.

More than that we have that strength of the Spirit with us.

There is a groaning in creation – a groaning that we are all too aware of.  But it is the groaning that heralds something new, new birth, the groaning that is labour pains.

It has to be one of my favourite verses – we have a presence with us in the Spirit of God, unseen yet very real.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness;

for we do not know how to pray as we ought,

but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

Navigating good and evil.

For the journey there is the presence of the love of God in Christ – and nothing can separate us from that love.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

Will hardship, or distress,

or persecution, or famine,

or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors

through him who loved us. 

³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor rulers,

nor things present, nor things to come,

nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God

in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

These are the things that make for the nastiness in our world – as much as in Paul’s world.  And there is nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So then, what next.

Navigating good and evil – we have a path to follow – spelled out in Romans 12

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, 

by the mercies of God,

to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,

holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

 ²Do not be conformed to this world, 

but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,

so that you may discern what is the will of God—

what is good and acceptable and perfect.

9 Let love be genuine;

hate what is evil,

hold fast to what is good; 

¹⁰love one another with mutual affection;

outdo one another in showing honour.

¹¹Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.

 ¹²Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering,

persevere in prayer. ¹

³Contribute to the needs of the saints;

extend hospitality to strangers.

14 Bless those who persecute you;

bless and do not curse them.¹

⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice,

weep with those who weep. 

¹⁶Live in harmony with one another;

do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; 

do not claim to be wiser than you are. 

¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil,

but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 

¹⁸If it is possible, so far as it depends on you,

live peaceably with all. 

¹⁹Beloved, never avenge yourselves,

but leave room for the wrath of God; 

for it is written,

‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ 

²⁰No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them;

if they are thirsty, give them something to drink;

for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.

’²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Gathered together in freedom

It’s good to welcome everyone to our worship today and to give a special welcome to friends from St Luke’s as our two churches once again get together to share worship.  It begs a couple of questions.  What’s the point of getting together to worship?

It’s a bit like different parts of a family getting together.  Each of our churches is made up of a different set of people.  We do things differently.  We think differently.  We have a different history behind us.  But we share one faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour and we are part of the one church that is his body not just on earth but here in this part of Cheltenham.  That makes it important to get to know each other, to share in different ways and above all to sense we have the same mission to serve and make real the love of Christ in our community.

So, in the interests of getting to know one another let me tell you a little bit about Highbury.  In the early 1800’s there was a real movement of the Spirit throughout the land and in many, many churches to spread the Christian faith.  Among those who shared that passion were some who belonged to Highbury Congregational College in Islington in North London.  At the time new towns were springing up in different parts of the country and they wanted to plant churches in those new developments.  By 1827 Cheltenham was rapidly growing and ripe for church planting.  So it was that they teamed up with well-established Congregational churches in Stroud and Painswick to plant a church here in Cheltenham.

They purchased a church building that had been put up about fifteen years before but the church congregation had come to nought.  It was on what is now Grosvenor Street – with Cheltenham’s Open Door at one end and Malham’s auction house at the other.

With preachers riding over on horse back form Painswick and from Stroud services were held Sunday by Sunday and the building took on the name of the college back in Islington – it was known as Highbury Chapel.

That gives rise to the question – when’s a chapel not a chapel?  When it becomes a church.

After they had been holding services for five years there came a moment when about a dozen people who were coming regularly felt ready to make a commitment to each other, share their own confession of faith in God and Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and enter into partnership with each other to form a Church.  They called in Highbury Congregational Church.

What they did is right at the heart of our understanding of what a church is.  Our first records don’t actually use the word.  But lots of churches do.  They made a covenant with each other.  What bound them together as a church family was a sense of partnership in a shared faith, a shared gospel, a shared mission and a shared vision.

They shared in a ‘covenant’ together.

That goes right to the heart of the Bible story and what it means to be the people of God in God’s world.

From the very outset the people of God are in a partnership with each other, in a partnership with God, with a shared faith, a shared message, a shared mission and a shared vision.

Last year at Highbury we had a focus on prayer.  This year we have a focus on the Bible.  A good number of us are following a Bible reading plan with the IBRA and using Bible reading notes called Fresh From the Word.

This week we have been reading through the Ten Commandments.  I can remember at school committing them to memory from the Authorised Version of Exodus 20.  I couldn’t recite that now – but I do sometimes try to go through the 10 and get them in the right order!

Two things struck me in reading through those commandments one by one over the last few days in Deuteronomy 5.

First, the commandments are an expression of God’s covenant with his people.

Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently. 2The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

God’s covenant is not just a historical thing - what is significant here is that the covenant partnership God makes is a living thing made with living people –

3Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.

That for me is the most exciting thing of all about thinking of Church as a covenant partnership.  The partnership we are in is not a human one – it’s a partnership that’s initiated by God – and it is a living partnership as God is in a relationship with each one of us today.

We shouldn’t think of the 10 commandments as way to gain points and gain favour with God – they are simply the expression of that partnership God delights in having with us, a partnership that draws us together with each other too.

The whole story of the Old Testament is the story of God’s wonderful partnership with his people in covenant together.  And that reaches its climax with the new covenant that Jesus ushers in, written on the heart, deep within us.  A covenant partnership.  And again, the commandments are not a means of winning favour with God, keeping on the right side of God, they are an expression of that partnership.

10 2 1 The ten commandments are summed up in 2 – Love God, love your neighbour.  The two are summed up in one.  Do to others as you would have others do to you.  And they all boil down to a new commandment ‘that you love one another’.  One word emerges – love.

That’s the first thing that comes home to me – that the commandments are an expression of that wonderful living partnership we have with God.

And the second – is that they are not a burden.  They are not a burden because they are for people who are free.  That’s a wonderful insight for us all.  It’s in the context of the commandment about observing the Sabbath day that this becomes important …

15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

The commandments give a framework for people who are free to live their freedom to the full.  That’s why there is a rhythm to life that calls for a breathing space – the value of the Sabbath day in that rhythm of activity.

Jennifer Smith in our IBRA notes quotes Walter Breugemann, an Old Tesatment scholar, who describes Sabbath-keeping as an act of cultural-political resistance.  “His observation is that the culture of twenty-first-century Western life treats people like machines to be worked and used, we become commodities to be traded and exploited in a never-ending 24 hour news and economic cycle that prevents us from being present to each other, let alone to God.”

Treasure the Sabbath day’s rest – or campaign for it – it’s what sets you free!

And freedom is at the heart of the partnership Christ draws us into.  Don’t allow the commandments to become a straitjacket – instead see them as an expression of a covenant partnership and see them as an expression of the freedom God gives us all – a freedom that has a framework that sets us free.

And for us as a church family at Highbury that's important too.  We are sometimes described as a 'Free Church'.  For us that means that we are free from the state as we believe in a separation of church and state, we are free from bishops, councils and synods as we gather together in the presence of God in Christ to shape all that we do together.

So covenanted together in a partnership with each other and a partnership with God we are free in Christ to follow the guiding of the Spirit in shaping all we do as a Church family.  A selection of verses from Galatians 5 and 6 captures that spirit of freedom.

For freedom Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters;

only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,

but through love become slaves to one another.

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment,

‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

If, however, you bite and devour one another,

take care that you are not consumed by one another.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is

love, joy,

peace, patience,

kindness, generosity,

faithfulness, gentleness,

and self-control.

There is no law against such things.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Bear one another’s burdens,

and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.

That covenant partnership that makes us church and the commandments that are an expression of that covenant partnership?

That framework for freedom that boils down to love that’s prepared to bear one another’s burdens?

None of it is possible in our own strength.  Let’s not think of the commandments as something to struggle with: let’s think of them as the out-working of the presence of God within us, as the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

love, joy,

peace, patience,

kindness, generosity,

faithfulness, gentleness,

and self-control.