Paul, having expressed his confidence in God’s faithfulness to keep the Corinthians blameless and steadfast, is not afraid to tackle a question of misplaced loyalties (1 Cor 1:10-17). He has been informed by some members of the church of divisions, behaviour which reflects immaturity and a focus on the external rather than the eternal. Factions, people preferring one leader above another, have arisen and he is appalled, pleading with the church to agree and be ‘perfectly united in mind and thought.’

“Division has always been a problem among God’s people, and almost every New Testament epistle deals with this topic or mentions it in one way or another. Even the twelve apostles did not always get on with each other.” (Warren Wiersbe ‘Be Wise’, P 22) The blessedness of unity is described in Ps 133:1-3; Jesus prayed for unity in the church (see John 17:20-21). It is largely because of the unity in the Godhead that unity in Christ’s body is seen as so essential. Paul tackles this topic in a number of letters (see Eph 4:3, Col 2:2, 2 Cor 13:11). The fact that unity is our goal is not in dispute, but the ‘how’ of achieving unity is sometimes harder to define.

Paul clearly points out that unity is essential, for Christ is not divided. It’s pointless to follow human leaders slavishly, for they were neither baptised for us nor crucified for us. Only Christ can be our Saviour and He must be the focus of our message (a fact he goes on to emphasise in the rest of the chapter.)  Our eyes can be on messengers for a variety of reasons (including the fact that we understand some better than others, like some better than others, and are more comfortable with the message of some more than others), but our focus must be on the message, not the messenger. For us to learn to take others into consideration and live harmoniously alongside those who can be very different to ourselves requires maturity. We must study Christ (see Phil 2:1-11) in order to learn to put aside our selfish ambition and belief that only our way of doing things is correct, striving to allow love to be the motivation for all we do and working together with a common purpose and aim. Unity is not the same as uniformity. There will be times when we have to learn to agree to disagree; not everything has to be done in the same way, for example. But there is only one gospel (Gal 1:6-9) and only one Saviour (1 Tim 2:5), only one way to the Father through Jesus (John 14:6), and we must learn to be restored to that position of harmony and fellowship which is possible in Christ.

Prayer involves ‘an attentive listening and speaking relation to the God who listens and speaks’ (Eugene Peteson, ‘The Word Made Flesh’, P 138) and is essential to life itself. It is a ‘universal venture into intimacy with God’ (ibid., P 135), but so often, we are content to stay on the periphery, not really plunging into intimacy. Religion is easier to deal with than intimacy. The very forms that encourage us to delve deeper can become empty, redolent of meaning. The rich interior maturity of prayer can easily deteriorate ‘into a kitchen midden of pious clichés.’ (ibid., P 136)

I was unfamiliar with that term ‘kitchen midden.’ (One reason I love reading Eugene Peterson’s writings so much is that he introduces new vocabulary to me, something I relish!)  A kitchen midden was a prehistoric refuse heap which marked an ancient settlement, chiefly containing bones, shells, and stone implements. Basically, it was a dump for domestic waste, of interest to archeologists because it reveals facts about how people used to live, but of no real beauty or use to anyone else.

If prayer is reduced to ‘pious clichés‘, it may sound impressive to ourselves or to others, but it is of no real beauty or value. It is easy to deceive ourselves and others, easy to cling to externals and be unaware of the state of our hearts. Prov 4:23 urges us to ‘guard our hearts’, for everything we do flows from it. Prayer has to involve desire and discipline; it requires attentiveness and a quiet listening to the voice of our hearts and the voice of God’s Spirit. If we are not careful, hypocrisy grows like the weeds among the flowers, hypocrisy which is ‘the lazy replacement of a strenuous interior life with God with religious makeup and gossipy god-chatter.’ (ibid., P 140) Prayer has to involve fresh perceptions of grace, new understanding of mercy, thankfulness and gratitude so that we do not simply rely on empty words. It has to involve actively engaging with God, not simply ‘going through the motions.’ As such, it requires time, commitment and effort, but the benefits of persistently, faithfully and trustingly coming before God, submitting ourselves to His sovereignty, confident in His benevolence and actions, are enormous.  Prayer that ‘is not personal and ordinary… not embedded in the immediate and personal relationships and language of everyday life’ (ibid., P 144) is going to be of no long-term benefit, even to an archeologist!

We also had two birthdays to celebrate:

Dave spoke tonight from Phil 2:5-11 on the humanity of Jesus. Jesus is truly God, but He is also truly human; many heresies stumble on either one of these truths. Arius taught that Jesus was not equal with God; Apollinaris wrote against Arius, declaring that Jesus had a human body but a divine mind. Nestorius propagated the belief that Jesus Christ was a separate human united, but not identical, to the divine Son of God. The Bible teaches that Jesus was a real man (see Heb 2:14, 2 John 7), that the Incarnation represents the union of God and man.

The Gospel narratives show us Jesus’s human history, demonstrating that He shared in our humanity. Our redemption depends on it, for this was the only way that we could be saved (1 Tim 2:5). In the NIV, the title ‘Son of man’ features 86 times, emphasising His humanity. He grew from childhood to adulthood (see Luke 2:40); He became tired as a man (see John 4:6), and did not know the time of His return (Mk 13:32); He knew temptation as we do. He grew thirsty on the cross; He died as a man. Even after the Resurrection, He still had flesh and bones (see John 20:27).

Jesus the man demonstrates prayer for us, showing us that He needed the power and guidance from His Father, just as we do. He was just like us in every way, except that He did not sin (see Heb 4:15). This sinlessness was absolutely crucial for our salvation. No one could convict Him of sin (see John 8:46) – and the Pharisees desperately wanted to be able to! 2 Cor 5:21 shows us that He who knew no sin became sin for us (see also 1 Pet 2:22, 1 John 3:5). Human nature is not the same as sinful nature; Jesus, as the second Adam, shows us what humanity, including obedience to God, can look like.

As we approach Easter, let’s not forget the human suffering of Jesus and how He chose not to call on angels to rescue Him but suffered as a man in order to bring about our salvation. He is our high priest who understands sorrow and suffering and can help us in our times of need, but He is also our sinless Saviour who has rescued us from sin in order that we might become the righteousness of God.

The Mums and Toddlers made fruit smoothies on Friday:

At the service at Cherry Tree Court this morning, Garry spoke from Ps 18:25-31 about the perfection of God’s ways. In the Message version, Ps 18:30-31 says ‘What a God! His road stretches straight and smooth. Every God-direction is road-tested. Everyone who runs toward him makes it.’ We can be sure that God’s way is perfect, without flaws and is straight and smooth.

When Garry first got a SatNav, he used it on what should have been a perfectly straightforward journey up the A1 to Amble in Northumberland.

En route, the SatNav urged us to leave the A1 earlier than we had anticipated, which seemed to  make no sense. Heeding its advice, we were taken on minor roads and even through a farmer’s land… thus avoiding the accident on the A1 which meant there was no progress at all following that route. On that occasion, we had to trust the directions of the SatNav because we were on unfamiliar territory. In the same way, we have to trust God’s directions for our life, for He can see much further ahead than we can.

Adverts are biased, because they are produced by the manufacturers and have an ulterior motive behind them (urging us to buy the required product.) We are more likely to be influenced by the less biased recommendations of friends, people whose opinions we really value. The Bible urges us to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Ps 34:8) and we have the testimony of all the Biblical heroes (and also of people we know today) who assure us of God’s trustworthiness and reliability. We need to trust God to lead us even when we are unsure of the direction in which we are travelling, for He knows the way better than we do and cares for us in every detail of our lives.