Mark’s continuing saga of Joseph’s life and dreams looked at Gen 43:15-44:17 this morning. At this point in the story, Joseph’s dreams seem to be coming true as his brothers do bow down to him, as ruler of Egypt. The true fulfilment is not yet complete, however, as they are still unaware of his identity.

For the brothers, this scenario of returning to Egypt after Simeon has been taken hostage is fraught with danger. They are worried that the unexpectedly returned silver will cause problems when they return, but the severity of the famine at home has left them no further options. Their relief at not being punished for this soon turned to bewilderment, however, as they are invited to dine with Joseph and then seated in age order. They must have wondered how he could have known this and what it meant. For our part, we see that Joseph is greatly moved by the sight of his youngest brother (and gives him extra food!), but still did not reveal his identity to him. Was this due to stubbornness or some sense of wanting payback on his brothers? It is not clear, but at this point, Benjamin has gone from famine to feast and is revelling in the unexpected blessing. God’s grace is such that at times we receive His blessing and are simply commanded to ‘enjoy’!

All does not go well, however, for Joseph lays an elaborate plan to incriminate Benjamin for the theft of a silver cup. This cup was clearly valuable, being made of silver, but its significance seems also connected with divination (something which was forbidden ultimately to God’s people, as Deut 18:9-14 makes clear.) It is not clear if Joseph, whose ability to interpret dreams is clearly ascribed to God in other parts of this story, was actually involved in divination (the process of foretelling the future from the patterns made in liquids in a goblet, rather like ‘reading tea leaves’ today), but certainly after having lived in Egypt for thirty years or so, there was a danger that he had absorbed Egyptian practices and assimilated them into his own behaviour. We have to be very careful what we get involved with on our journey through life. There are things that are acceptable in our culture nowadays which are plainly not acceptable to God, and we need to constantly keep His word before us so that we can remain set apart and holy, a distinct people living for His glory and not by the world’s standards. (1 Pet 1:13-14) Practices which involve the occult, such as horoscopes, seances, visiting mediums to have our futures foretold or contacting the dead are all common nowadays but are part of the culture we should shun as Christians.

Joseph is never presented to us as perfect, however. Whatever mistakes he may have made – and we cannot be sure of his motivation for the delay in revealing his identity to his family – God was able to bring the dream to reality. He is the One who finishes what He starts and who is not daunted or surprised (or ultimately hindered) by our mistakes and failures.

The brothers responded to the accusation of theft with whole-hearted protests of innocence. Imagine their shock and fear when the silver cup is found in Benjamin’s sack! Their promises to have the guilty person killed and the rest of them committed to slavery must have sickened their stomachs as they considered the future. If nothing else, their response reminds us that where words are frequent, sin is often not absent! (Prov 10:19) It is clear from their response that they felt the guilt of their previous actions keenly, even if they were not actually responsible for this current predicament. (see Gen 44:15-16) Admission of guilt is actually the first step towards forgiveness, and maybe Joseph was attempting to see if they would acknowledge their guilt. Confession of sins brings forgiveness and fulfilment (see Ps 32:1-5), and the stage is set for the final reconciliation planned by God…

The ‘Churches Together’ meeting at Furlong Road Methodist Church tonight looked at the topic of Christian unity. We had the fun of making a fruit salad, full of different fruits:

Everyone then added orange segments:

The point of the activity (apart from providing us with a lovely dessert to eat at the end of the meeting!) was to remind us how each church is different (just as the fruits were different), but the combination of churches is vital to unity and that diversity and unity can go hand in hand:

After readings from John 17, Karen (from the Methodist Church) spoke about unity, showing us how there is strength in numbers (Brenda could tear up the individual paper or newspaper, but couldn’t manage to tear the phone book!)

Being united is important, since it shows the power of God’s love. Karen looked at the word ‘unity’, splitting it into the words below and spoke about how unity nourishes us and allows each individual  and each church to contribute our giftings and abilities, how being together enables us to be stronger than we would be on our own and how God uses us all. We have to come just as we are, with our strengths and weaknesses, knowing that we are all accepted and useful in His kingdom.

Many thanks to all who attended (especially given the sleet and cold!) and to the ladies at Furlong Road for providing lovely refreshments after the meeting.

Further details of ‘Churches Together’ meetings will be forthcoming soon, but don’t forget the Women’s World Day of Prayer which will be on Friday 6th March at St Peter’s Church in Barnburgh.

For those of you who have followed the saga of our chilli-growing experiences over the past fifteen months or so, you may be wondering how things are going after our summer batch of chillies.

The tops of the chilli plants (where all the growing activity has been located up till now) look forlorn and rather sad. For weeks we assumed this was the end of the chillies and wondered if they would need pruning back and would then grow again next year, or if that was the end of the story. Then, just before Christmas, we noticed new signs of life lower down the plants:

New shoots are appearing; on Mummy Plant there is even a new flower lower down, so life is clearly ongoing. One area may not be yielding fruit any more, but the plant is clearly still thriving and the cycle of life and growth is ongoing. Even Runty, our little feeble plant, is still growing!

For us, this is a parable of growth. Periods of apparent stagnation, where nothing visible is happening, are deceptive. New life bursts forth when we least expect it. We are reminded of Is 43:19: ‘See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.‘

Don’t despair if you can’t see growth in your own life or in those for whom you are earnestly praying. New shoots will appear in God’s timing as you nurture godly habits and continue in God’s teaching.

In what must be a record for our church, we not only completed a whole chapter in the Bible study in one week, but a whole book! Admittedly that book was 2 John, which is one of the shortest letters in the New Testament, but even so, there was a real sense of achievement in the group tonight!

2 John contains many of the themes expounded at much greater length in 1 John: truth, abiding in Christ, acknowledging the humanity and deity of Jesus, belief in God the Father and in Jesus His Son, obedience to God’s commandments and the supreme importance of love. It too was written to counter heretical teaching (those who seek to deceive and are antichrists), to the extent that John warns the Christians not to show hospitality to those who teach false doctrine. He is at pains to remind us of the grace, mercy and peace which are found in God the Father and Jesus Christ and to show us that truth and love are not mutually incompatible, but necessarily go together. ‘Abiding in the truth is essential to maintaining brotherly love,‘ Dr Thomas Constable says, and certainly John warns us against those who would run ahead of God, claiming superior spiritual insight that goes beyond  historical, biblical truths. John Stott, commenting on these verses, writes “Christian faith is rooted in the historical events of the incarnation and the atonement, the revelation and redemption that were finished in Christ. To advance beyond Christ is not progress, but apostasy.” (The Epistles of John, P 211-212) We must seek to communicate truth in as relevant a way as possible to today’s society, but we must never compromise the truth – scandalous though the cross continues to be – in order to be more ‘relevant’ or to assume that we have ‘progressed’ beyond truth.

Heretics love to claim special insight, an insider knowledge which renders faith and obedience redundant. Marshall says “When the teaching of the Bible needs to be supplemented by some ‘key’ to the Bible or by some new revelation, it is a sure sign that ‘advanced’ doctrine is being put forth.”  We need to walk with God, continuing in His teaching, not lagging behind or running ahead if we are to live as God decrees.

John’s tone throughout the letter is one of affection and concern for the church. He asks them to follow God’s commands, rather than commanding them (see also 1 Thess 4:1, 1 Thess 5:12), even though his authority as ‘the elder’ was unquestioned. Christian leadership will always follow the principles of humility and service rather than dictatorship or authoritarian diktat. God calls us to relationship, with Him and with each other, and the concern John feels is rooted in that relationship. He longs to see them face to face (literally, ‘mouth to mouth’) so that their joy may be complete. Face-to-face communication allows misunderstandings to be resolved quickly, tone of voice to be understood immediately and relationships to be deepened. How we long for that face-to-face meeting with our Saviour! (1 Cor 13:12)

Many of you will probably remember English lessons at school and having the meaning of ‘simile’ and ‘metaphor’ drilled into you. A simile is a figure of speech when you say something is like… or as… something else. (eg “For hope grew round me, like the twining vine.” (Coleridge – Dejection)) A metaphor is a figure of speech when you actually say something is something else. (God is a rock.)

Similes and metaphors introduce us to language that goes beyond the functional. They help us to see beyond the tangible and visible precisely by using what is known, seen and familiar and linking these to something invisible or unfamiliar. A metaphor goes further than a simile in that it actually puts the two ideas together without any linking or comparison, and that often jolts us and makes us see something in an entirely different light.

The Bible study tomorrow will be looking at 2 John, which is generally understood to be written to a church rather than to an individual, despite its opening greeting ‘To the lady chosen by God and to her children.’ Metaphors such as this abound in the Bible. Why? What’s the point in saying something is something when it really isn’t?! To the literal-minded among us, metaphors are frustrating because even when you know the plain meaning of a word, they don’t really make any obvious sense.

 ‘A metaphor takes a word that is commonly used to refer to a thing or action that we experience by means of our five sense and then uses it to refer to something that is beyond the reach of our immediate senses.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Jesus Way’, P 25) Metaphors are useful precisely because they convey ‘in a single word the indivisibility of visible and invisible, of seen and unseen, of heaven and earth.’ (ibid.)

When we say God is a rock, we know full well what a rock is like and can picture it clearly. God is invisible, however, and we cannot easily picture what He is like. The images we have of God are refined by our understanding of a rock. Clearly, God is far more than rock-like, but the known object leads us into contemplation of the unknown. Furthermore, metaphors often leave us puzzled, surprised or even confused. They require us to think about the description, to enter into the imagery and to use discernment and imagination to see what was previously invisible.

It’s rather like the ‘Night At the Museum’ films, where the exhibits in the museum come to life at night, leaving the night watchman bemused and bewildered! During the daytime, the exhibits seem staid and rather boring, but adventures galore happen after the museum is closed. In the same way, words can seem very dry and boring, but metaphors lead us into the open air and show us all the different ways in which we can see this invisible world inhabited by God. Our eyes are opened and our world of drabness and pragmatism is suddenly invaded by light and life, miracles and angels, eternity and hope. These two worlds are not separate, even though they may appear to be. The two aspects – drabness and colour, darkness and light, life and death – are indivisible and metaphor allows us to move freely between these two worlds.

We also had a birthday to celebrate last night!