A
Letter from our Chairman
Dear
Friends
I
have been thinking a lot lately about our condition as a Nation and a Church.
How can we, in a world controlled by international financial interests,
be the Church Jesus wants for the Nation?
I don’t think the priorities ever change, and we have all the guidance
we need in Scripture and history.
Consider
the following:
‘The
Church should spend most of its time preaching the gospel.’
‘The
number one priority for Christians must be down-to-earth involvement in
community issues like housing and unemployment’
‘Without
signs and wonders in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel will
never radically change
our
society.’
Many
of us have heard, or said, statements like these.
Individuals and churches seem to have their different priorities and
emphases -
but
what
are Jesus’ priorities? In which order would he put the three statements?
Maybe
his answer would be this: “The
Spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the
poor. He
sent me to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to blind, to set
at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the
Lord.”
(Luke 4:18)
Jesus
is here quoting from Isaiah 61; and his three years of public ministry, followed
by the experience of the early Church, demonstrate a perfect balance of the
three facets of evangelism:-
Proclamation
—
the
good news announced in words and warnings
Presence
—
the
good news demonstrated by a worshipping community and by
works of mercy in society
Power
—
the
good news authenticated by wonders in
healing
and deliverance
At
different times throughout the history of the Church varying emphases have been
given; sometimes one of the facets is ignored, at other times one aspect is
magnified to the exclusion of the others.
Perhaps
one of the temptations for us today is to seek more of the signs and wonders in
the power of the Spirit, but at the expense of the social action side of the
gospel. If
that is
so,
then we need to remind ourselves that good works are definitely on God’s
agenda for the Church (Ephesians 2:10), that our involvement in them, or not,
affects our destiny as ‘sheep’ or ‘goats’ (Matthew 25:31), and that good
works, inspired by the Holy Spirit, bring glory to our heavenly Father (Matthew
5:16).
God
is grieved by oppression, corruption and exploitation, and by hunger and
poverty. That
is one of the reasons that Leviticus 25 was written.
It talks about the Jubilee which was to be observed every 50 years in
Israel -
a
year of liberty and release for slaves and debtors -
designed
to build justice and righteousness into the structures of Jewish society.
Israel largely failed to live out Jubilee teaching, hence the many
warnings of the Old Testament prophets against evil and injustice.
Much
of Jesus’ teaching uses Jubilee precepts as its foundation - indeed, the
Church, God’s new humanity, can be seen as a ‘Jubilee Community’; sharing
resources, giving to the needy and feeding the hungry (Acts
2:44).
The
answer for us does not involve withdrawal into a spiritual ghetto - though I
often long to do just that, because I find the rapid rate of change, and the
power of “outside” influences, overwhelming.
In the end you and I stand where we are just like Jesus had to, and we
must grow up in the answers that He gave.
Phil