Just as gold and silver can easily become tarnished, so our love for God and for other people can become tarnished. The church in Ephesus was hard-working and zealous but was chastised by Jesus for forsaking its first love (Rev 2:2-5). We have to be careful to maintain our intimacy with God and not allow the ‘little foxes‘ to ruin the vineyard (see Song of Songs 2:15).

Barriers to intimacy include a misuse of time, busyness, wrong priorities, mistrust and familiarity. When we first fall in love, we make time for the one we love, but so often, busyness creeps into our lives, communication becomes functional and informational rather than relational and we allow our focus to wander, setting wrong priorities. Jesus reminded us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matt 6:33) rather than to spend all our time and energies on the pursuit of things. Trust is fundamental to all relationships, for if we are fearful and suspicious of the other’s intentions and love, we will hold back. Prov 3:5 reminds us to trust God with all our hearts; He is not after an arm’s length relationship!

Familiarity breeds contempt, the proverb says, and we have to be careful to value those we love and not become indifferent to them. If we truly want to maintain intimacy with God, we must:

1. give Him the firstfruits of our time (see Ps 5:3, Ps 141:2)
2. guard against over-busyness, learning to say ‘no’ to the good in order to say ‘yes’ to the best
3. make God and people a priority over things and activities that do not have eternal value (see Ps 127, Matt 6:25-34)
4. learn to trust God and rely on Him wholly (recognising that intimacy means vulnerability, but we serve a wounded Saviour who knows what it is to be hurt and betrayed, but who still forgives and urges us to love even our enemies)
5. allow wonder, awe and gratitude to shape our lives so that familiarity does not breed contempt

Our relationship with God is based on the covenant He has made with us (see Jer 31:32-33). A covenant is a promise made between two parties, reflecting a relationship of love. That is the kind of relationship we have with God which He wants to fuel every day. Let’s allow God to lead us to His banqueting hall and let His banner over us be love. (Song of Songs 2:4) His food will nourish us; His words will captivate us; He will be ‘altogether lovely’ to us (Song of Songs 5:16) and we will then ‘spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.’ (2 Cor 2:14)

In the last of the ‘Everyday Church’ series, tonight we looked at ‘everyday intimacy.’ Love is the hallmark of the Christian, but intimacy conveys the closeness of the relationship which God wants to have with His people. Intimacy is not just about sex, as is often thought nowadays, but  is about ‘developing relationships in which love is successfully expressed and received and shared,’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work’, P 24) There is perfect unity in the Godhead and perfect relationship; since we are made in God’s image (Gen 1:27), it is obvious that both our vertical relationship (with God) and our horizontal relationships (with people) are of prime importance.

God uses metaphors to describe the importance of relationships in the Bible, one of which is the description of God as the husband, the bridegroom (see Matt 25: 1-13, Is 62:5, Matt 9:15, Rev 21:2) and the church, the people of God, as the bride (see Rev 21:2, John 3:29, Rev 19:7). Even when Paul is teaching people about human marriage, as he does in Eph 5:21-33, he is keen to remind people that this is really just a picture of spiritual things: ‘This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.’ (Eph 5:32) When there are problems between God and His people, the metaphor which is used is that of adultery or harlotry (sexual promiscuity), because these things are the very antithesis of intimacy. God clearly places a high value on intimacy as we can see from the Song of Songs, ‘a collection of romantic love lyrics in which sexuality is pervasive and explicit.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work’, P 37) This book is not only about human love, however; it also has much to teach us about the passionate love of God for us and our response to Him.

The Song starts with the fervent words ‘Kiss me!’: ‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—for your love is more delightful than wine.’ (Song of Songs 1:1) Kissing is incredibly intimate, but it is also the word used frequently for worship (Greek ‘proskuneo’, Matt 2:2, 8, 11; Matt 18:26; Luke 24:52; Rev 4:10.) There are passionate descriptions of the two people in love (see Song of Songs 4:1-15, 5:10-16, 6:4-10, 6:13b-7:9) which may seem over-the-top or embarrassing to us, but they remind us of the urgent need for personal communication between lovers and how, as we express our pleasure and our adoration, not only is our perception of the beloved changed, but their perception is also affected. Love changes our perception of ourselves, our attitude towards others and our values and our goals. As we reflect on God’s love for us, our view of ourselves and other people is inevitably changed: ‘We see God’s people (and ourselves) not through the dirty lens of our own muddled feelings, and not through the smudgy windows of another’s carping criticism, but in terms of God’s word.’ (ibid. P 64-65)

Knowing that we are unconditionally loved by God, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by Him (Ps 139:14) and that we are invited to come into His presence with confidence (Heb 4:14-16) frees us to live in a new identity of children of God and enables us to love God, ourselves and others as He truly wants us to.

This morning’s sermon looked at the topic of imagination and vision. Imagination is similar to vision, and we need God to help us to use imagination to keep the vision He has before us. Looking at comparisons between the Garden of Eden and the book of Revelation, Stephen contrasted the idea of the river of life (see Rev 21:6), the tree of life for the healing of the nations (Gen 2:9 & Rev 22: 2) and light (contrasting the created light in Gen 1:3-5, 14 with God being our ultimate light. (Rev 21:23)) Man was banished from Eden after sin’s fall but we will one day be in God’s presence again, feasting on His delights and seeing Him face to face.

Can we grasp this vision? Can we hold on to the fact that we will see the splendour of the King for ourselves? The vision in Revelation is the conclusion of the Second Coming of Christ. We don’t know when He will come, but if we accept that Jesus died for us, this vision will one day become reality in our lives; we will dwell with God forever and will know perfect peace and joy.

‘The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
⁵     It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
    like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
⁶ It rises at one end of the heavens
    and makes its circuit to the other;
    nothing is deprived of its warmth.’ (Ps 19:1-6)

Igor (our church mascot and faithful iguana friend) has been enjoying the scenery in the Yorkshire Dales!

Hiding in a maze at Bolton Castle:

Being found in the maze:

At Richmond, advertising the ‘Influence’ church’s series on ‘Landmarks’:

Being welcomed by a shopkeeper in Middleton-in-Teesdale:

En route to look at High Force:

Seeking out the motorcyclists for Garry:All in all, Igor had a great time!

The Renaissance philosopher Machiavelli is said to have coined the phrase ‘the end justifies the means’, meaning by this that the way in which we do things matters less than our actual goal. If an end goal is justifiable, the argument goes, it doesn’t matter how ruthless and selfish we are in reaching that goal; all that matters is achieving our ends.

Most of us reject that way of living  as both impractical and unworthy. For Christians, it is also a betrayal of everything Christ taught, for He showed that motives and methods are just as important as end goals. He is not only the Way in terms of the road we must follow, but also demonstrates the way we must live.

When I was involved in writing funding applications, I learned that it is important to clarify the end goal and distinguish this from the means used to reach that goal. I would often go into a project wanting something specific (a year’s salary for a community centre worker, money to create a play facility, money to build an extension to a community centre, for example.) To me, that was the ‘end’, the goal. I soon learned, however, that this was, in funders’ eyes, simply the ‘means’ they could provide. The goal (or ‘outcome’, in their jargon) of the project was actually something entirely different: the provision of a community facility which could only be continued if a worker was paid to manage that facility, the enrichment of a community’s ability to come together through play through a new minigolf scheme, the enhancement of a community and improvement of community cohesion through larger premises (which would enable more varied activities to be held there to benefit the community.) These lofty-sounding ‘ends’ were achieved through very mundane ‘means’ (all of which ended up needing someone else’s funding!)

The process of writing funding applications required a rigorous, and often difficult, separation of means and ends. It also involved understanding that my ‘end’ goal was actually nowhere near the end; I had to learn to see a much bigger picture. This is true of our individual and church lives as well. The things we often see as ‘ends’ – the cooking, the cleaning, the going-to-work, attending church services, worshipping, learning, studying the Bible – are not actually the ‘ends’ at all. They are simply means by which we live our daily lives. The ‘end goal’, the outcome God is patiently chipping away at through every means at His disposal (even moulding our stubborn sinfulness into His master creation), is transformation into the image of Christ. (Rom 8:29) When we view life through this lens, rather than seeing the amassing of wealth or the provision of a holiday as the end goal, the whole way in which we live is changed.