Flanders and Swann wrote a song called ‘The Gas Man Cometh‘ (listen here) which seems very apt to me at the moment as we continue with the decorating work at church! It’s a song of repairs in a house and when the painter comes, ‘with undercoats and overcoats, he painted every part, every nook and every cranny‘; that’s certainly how it feels at the moment!

Today saw lots of undercoats in the corridor:

… and in the alcove leading to the stage and children’s room:

… and to woodwork in the disabled toilet:

New door knobs were fitted:

In addition, the ceiling received a second coat of paint and one door in the corridor was glossed, plus a number of other jobs were finished off (including cutting some skirting board for the corridor and deciding on signage for the new notice board.)

This kind of effort can only be done by teamwork, and as one person remarked today, ‘teamwork makes the dream work’! For reasons known only to Himself, God entrusts us with work to be done for His kingdom and allows us to participate in His work. Whether that’s painting doors or making cups of tea or any other kind of job, we are all needed to make the dream work, all vitally important members of His body, all given gifts by His grace to be used for His glory (1 Pet 4:10). We are truly grateful for all who continue to help in this most practical of tasks.

Week 3 in the GPCC household, and the decorating continues…

Filling in:

After the glosswork was finished in the community room, work began in the corridor:

  Getting rid of the fluff behind the radiators:

Sorting the alcove from the corridor:

Under-coating one of the doors:

In reminding us that service is the way to follow, Jesus turns our ideas of greatness upside-down. His very life speaks of this paradox, of how God takes the foolish and apparently insignificant things of the world and breathes His power and life into them. 1 Cor 1:18-25 shows us how different God’s ways and thoughts are to our own and this is demonstrated constantly in the Bible when we see the underdog triumphing through God’s power alone.

It defied logic to think that one young inexperienced shepherd could defeat a powerful warrior like Goliath, but amazing things are possible when God is with us! (1 Sam 17:1-58). It made no sense to think that Gideon ( ‘my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.’ (Judges 6:15)) could rout the Midianites with an army whittled down to 300 men (see Judges 6 & 7). But as Joshua said, ‘one of you routs a thousand because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised.’ (Joshua 23:10) The Bible is full of underdog stories, where the least experienced wins because God is fighting for them!

The most astonishing underdog story in the Bible is told in the Gospels: how ‘God brings about world-changing salvation when a young, unimportant Jewish girl gives birth to a baby of mysterious paternity’ in a stable in Bethlehem, far away from the pizzazz of the palace at Jerusalem (quote taken from ‘Faith-Mapping’ by Daniel Montgomery & Mike Cooper, P 143) The story of Jesus is the story of God moving in unexpected and mysterious ways, His wonders to perform (William Cowper), for Jesus was not a conqueror or a scholar, but a simple carpenter whose three-year teaching ministry ended in ignominious defeat on a cross on the hill called Golgotha… yet whose sacrifice ‘is the hinge of history, shaping everything before and since in relation to his execution.’ (ibid.) We have to lay down our desire to know and our human way of reasoning to embrace God’s ways and follow the example of our Servant King:

‘This is our God, the Servant King,

He calls us now to follow Him

To bring our lives as a daily offering

Of worship to the Servant King.

So let us learn how to serve

And in our lives enthrone Him

Each other’s needs to prefer

For it is Christ we’re serving.’ (‘The Servant King’, Graham Kendrick)

Last night’s family service looked at the whole question of servanthood, focussing on John 13:1-17. In this acted-out parable, Jesus demonstrated to his disciples what his teaching on servants really meant. He had taught that the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve (Mark 10:42-45), but still the disciples jostled for positions of authority and failed to understand the paradoxical nature of the kingdom of God, where the first shall be last and the greatest a servant (see also Matt 16:25, Matt 23:12, Acts 20:35).

In washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus, their Lord and Teacher, performed the task of the lowliest slave. Michael Card says ‘Jesus finally gives up on words. He has told them numerous parables about slaves, now he will portray the most humiliating of slave roles, the washing of feet.’  (Michael Card, ‘A Better Freedom’) The proverb tells us ‘actions speak louder than words’, and Jesus demonstrates this in His actions. Peter protests at first, but we must learn that whatever Jesus does or offers us is enough for us.

It’s a challenge to live a life of service to others, largely because we are selfish, tainted by sin, and also because we live in a ‘me-first milieu’, where it’s common to celebrate selfishness instead of seeing it as a monster far bigger than Goliath. But it is also the way to blessing and life, because this is what God created us for. ‘We weren’t made to serve ourselves, and doing so sends us into a spiral of misery.’ (‘Faith-Mapping’, Daniel Montgomery, Mike Cooper, P 155) Such selfless service can only be practised by those whose identities and purposes are secure in God (‘Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.’ ) As we revel in God’s love and provision for us, we are set free from the bickering and self-importance which drives the world, and we can serve freely: ‘As people who have been given everything we need in Christ, we can look at the world around us with eyes open for the opportunity to share our abundance.’ (ibid., P 154) 1 Pet 4:10 reminds us that the gifts God has given us through His grace should be used to serve others; the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matt 25) shows us that this is done by serving those in need.

‘In any ordinary place

On any ordinary day

A parable can live again

When one will kneel and one will yield.’ (‘The Basin & The Towel’, Michael Card)

Last night’s family service looked at the question of servants. Our quiz started with questions about servants (those who were fans of ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ and ‘Downton Abbey’ did well on this!)

Then we had an egg-and-spoon race which tested our gracious servant spirits…

We had to ‘spot the differences’ on pictures of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and complete wordsearches from this passage:

We also had to match verses on servanthood to their respective Bible passages:

In keeping with this theme, the prizes were all about minions! (featured in the recent film of that name and the ‘Despicable Me’ films):

We also had a birthday to celebrate, our first in August!

Garry started his sermon with the provocative statement ‘the promises of God are not enough on their own.’ To illustrate his point, he gave us a lesson in electricity…

A coal fired power plant takes coal, pulverises it and feeds this into a furnace; the burning coal when heated produces steam which drives the turbine which is connected by a shaft to a generator. When part of the generator revolves, this produces a current. The output of the generator feeds into cables which are connected to the power grid.

High tension pylons are required, along with transformers and lower tension pylons:

However, even with all this power, the light bulb will not light unless a switch or PIR is used:

In the same way that we cannot use the electricity to make lights work without the light switch or PIR, for God’s promises to be effective, we have to either do something (likened to flicking the switch) or be something (the PIR works by detecting movement.)

Some of God’s promises are unconditional (eg Gen 8:20-22), but others require faith to be added to the mix for them to work (see Heb 4:1-2). We need to believe and act on the promises of God, asking God for what we need (see Js 4:1-3). God’s promises are backed up by His power and they never ‘go off’ (as paint does if left unusued), but we need to overcome our fear and lack of faith if we are to see them become reality. Matthew’s gospel shows us that Jesus often referred to His disciples as ‘little faiths’ (see Matt 6:29-31, Matt 8:23-25, Matt 14:25-31, Matt 16:5-8). When we energise our faith, the promises of God can become active. Our faith and trust are like the switch or PIR which enable the power of God to become active in our lives.

Josh 1:1-3 reminds us that Joshua had to set his foot on the places promised by God in order to claim them. He was urged to ‘be strong and courageous’ (see also Josh 1:4-6). Courage is not the absence of fear and trembling, but a pressing on in spite of fear. Faith as small as a mustard seed can achieve great things; our ‘pocketful of faith’ (Nick Herbert/ Tim Hughes) is all that is required to see the promises of God come alive in our lives.