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Inspiration
Conversations from the Coalface
Conversations from the Coalface is a series of imaginary conversations between a Christian and the Lord Jesus discussing and sometimes wrestling with aspects of the life of faith. Written by our own Mike Worthing, here are the first three in a series of nine articles.
3. Made in Whose Image?
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
Lord, I’ve noticed that the word ‘spin’ has entered the political lexicon in recent years. Practitioners of the art are known as spin doctors and they are busy people. As experts in damage limitation and image enhancement their job is to massage the truth so that their clients are made to look good. I remember one of our prime ministers addressing the nation on television. He had just devalued the national currency as a result of economic mismanagement and he said to us, “The money in your pocket will not actually be worth less.” We could all recognise spin when we heard it.
It is perhaps no coincidence that many political parties now employ advertising agencies to polish up their images. It appears that image has become more important than substance. This policy has had a disastrous effect on our political life. It also seems to have crowded out Christian-sounding words like truth, honesty, integrity and authenticity. As a result there is now a widespread cynicism towards politicians in general and sadly, the principled ones get tarred with the same brush. We watch them bickering away on television taking seemingly opposite positions and wonder if they are telling the truth or just trying to traduce each other and deceive us. As a result many of us no longer believe what they say and turn away in disgust.
But when I think about it Lord, I’m not above indulging in a bit of spin myself. How many times have I caught myself saying something that makes me look just a little better than I am, or shifting blame instead of taking responsibility for my own actions? But perhaps I’m being a bit picky: after all we do live in a fallen world and we can’t expect perfection from anyone can we? But somehow Lord, that sounds like a cop-out because my mind keeps going back to that scripture about us being made in your image.
I like the phrase “What you see is what you get”. It’s full of authenticity. When you lived among us you seemed totally unconcerned about image. You were born, lived and died in poverty and had no interest in worldly power or wealth. And sometimes, when you did the most amazing healings you told those who were healed not to say anything about it. No blowing your own trumpet there. But you also never hesitated to tell the truth, sometimes in a loving way and sometimes in situations where it was uncomfortable but necessary to do so. In other words, you were a model of honesty, integrity and authenticity all seasoned with grace and truth and that makes me want to believe and follow you. So Lord, I would really like you to help me polish up my image so that the reflection looks a lot more like you.
2. Trouble
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16: 33
I’m angry and confused Lord. I’m angry with myself because I just can’t seem to be a better person. I’m angry because I lost my job and had to cash in my super to pay the mortgage. I’m angry because a Christian friend is dying of cancer and what about those terrible earthquakes in Haiti and New Zealand? There are so many bad things happening, not just to me but all around the world. I’m also confused because you seem to just sit there doing nothing about it. The Bible portrays you as a God who is good, loving and in charge. So why do you let all these bad things happen? I just don’t get it. So now I’ve ended up feeling angry with you as well. But what do I do with these thoughts? They just won’t go away.
When the scientists talk about how we got here Lord, you don’t even get a mention. They tell us that the universe was created from nothing in a big bang billions of years ago. Then, after more billions of years life appeared and evolution produced me. Sometimes I find this idea easier to square with my experience than with the notion that you are in control of it all. If I am alone in a random universe created by an impersonal cosmic accident then goodness, truth, justice and love are just products of evolution that somehow help to hold everything together. There aren’t any absolutes out there that reflect the character of a good Creator. Life is tough in such a universe but maybe that’s just how things are. I have to grin and bear it, get on with life and try not to think about death. Under that scenario at least I don’t have to come back again as a beetle or something, as some people believe. I also don’t have to struggle with the notion that you are a good God in charge of the mess down here.
But now that I’ve cooled down a bit I find myself thinking about why you left the glories of heaven and came to live among us. You spoke wonderful words, telling us about a Father God whose very essence is love. But you also immersed yourself in our suffering, experiencing the dirt, violence and evil at first hand and you backed up your descriptions of God by bringing wholeness to many broken people. Finally, you tasted the world’s full horror when we crucified you. But then you did something wonderful that no one has ever done before or since; you rose again showing that death is not the end, there is something beyond the grave. By your death and resurrection you opened up the way of salvation to us. I can only grasp at the meaning of this but it fits with the idea that all the bad stuff that happens down here is a temporary symptom of a damaged world; a sort of disease whose eternal power to kill was broken by your passion. The deeds you did when you lived among us were a first glimpse of the final healing that will occur when you return.
This also fits with the experience of one of my friends who was seriously abused as child. All his life he struggled with the effects of what had happened to him. Finally, he went for healing at a Christian retreat. During a prayer session you gave him a vision. In the vision he saw a large manly hand gently holding the hand of a little boy. My friend knew that the boy’s hand was his. But the really moving thing about the vision was that the manly hand bore the open wound of a large nail that had been driven through it. When my friend saw the vision he broke down and wept receiving the healing he had sought. When he had recovered and had time to reflect, he realised that in some mysterious way Lord, you had borne the effects of that abuse at huge cost to yourself and redeemed it in a way that was beyond time and my friend’s understanding. So I think that’s the way it is with all that bad stuff I got worked up about. It’s an answer that does not fully satisfy my mind but somehow I can take heart and find it in me to trust you and live with it.
Thank you Lord.
1. Faith and Works
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no man can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do, Ephesians 2: 8-10.
Do you remember that visit to the hospital the other day Lord? As I approached the entrance, the automatic doors opened in front of me and I walked straight in. I know it sounds silly but I started to think about the Pearly Gates, and for a moment wondered if they operate the same way. You know, you just turn up and they let you in. A lot of us down here somehow think that if we don’t commit major sins like adultery, murder or bank robbery then heaven’s gates will swing open when we die. Telling the odd white lie and perhaps cheating a little on our tax return doesn’t matter too much. After all, let’s not get too religious. I often find myself thinking in this way; if I live a reasonably good life then admission to eternal bliss is automatic. Put another way, I think I can buy a ticket to heaven by my own efforts. Poor old Martin Luther was like that wasn’t he? He punished himself for years trying to obey all the rules in the book so that he would be a better monk. In reality, he was trying to gain your favour by his own efforts. That’s serious Lord isn’t it because it means that we think that your death on the cross wasn’t quite enough to save us. You needed a little of our help.
But there’s another angle to this isn’t there Lord? Do you remember the time when I received that internet message about a prize? I was at work at the time. A flashing message on my computer screen told me that I had been specially chosen out of thousands of others as the winner of a fabulous family cruise in the Caribbean, all expenses paid. All I had to do was phone a number in Florida. I was really excited and rushed off home to make the call. A smooth sounding voice on the other end said that to claim my prize I had to give my credit card number and pay a small registration fee. At that point alarm bells started to ring and reality kicked in. A cynical inner voice told me that this offer was too good to be true and was also very likely to be a con. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, the voice said. So I hung up.
But we can learn something from that Lord can’t we? We can miss your offer of salvation simply because it sounds too good to be true. In 1508, after years of searching, Martin Luther finally discovered a simple truth that had been staring him in the face through all those years of struggle. He realised that salvation is not a prize to be won but a free gift to be received; a gift given out of the abundance of your grace and love for us. Grace, I like that word. It means unmerited favour. We can’t earn our salvation, it’s a free gift. We just have to believe that you died for our sins on the cross and even the ability to do that is a gift from you. Why? So that none of us can boast, claiming that we achieved salvation through our own efforts. Now that really is good news. Thank you Lord.
Now we’ve got that sorted, what about those jobs you wanted me to do for you?
- – -+++++- – -Letter to GodA 6 year old came home from school, sat down and wrote a letter to God which said.“To God,how did you get invented?From Lulu x.”Her father sent the letter to a number of people and churches. This is the letter she received in response from the Archbishop of Canterbury.Dear Lulu,Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers.It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this -‘Dear Lulu - Nobody invented me - but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised.They discovered me when they looked around at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.They invented ideas about me - some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints - specially in the life of Jesus - to help them get closer to what I’m really likeBut there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up a story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’And then he’d send lots of love and sign off.I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf.Lots of love from me too.Archbishop RowanWhen asked what she thought of the reply, she thought a little and said‘Well, I have very different ideas. But he has a good one.”–+++–My Faith – Bear GryllsOne of the best things I found in my last few years at school was a quiet but strong Christian faith. My faith has provided me with a real anchor to my life and has been a secret strength to so many great adventures since, from the SAS to Everest and beyond.As a kid I had always found that a faith in God was so natural. It was a simple comfort, unquestioning and personal. But once I went to school and had to sit through somewhere in the region of 900 Latin-liturgical chapel services, I just thought that I had got the whole faith deal wrong.Maybe God wasn’t intimate and personal but was much more like chapel: tedious, judgemental and irrelevant. So, somehow, and without much thought, I threw the baby out with the bath water. If church stinks, then faith must too.It took a low point to shake me into searching a bit harder to re-find this faith I had once known. When my godfather died suddenly of a heart attack, I was devastated. He had been like a second father. I remember sitting in a tree one night and praying the simplest, most heartfelt prayer of my life. “Please, God, comfort me.”Blow me down , He did.My journey ever since has been trying to make sure I don’t let life or church overcomplicate that simple faith. And the more of the Christian faith I discover, the more I realise that, at heart, it is simple.To me, my faith is all about being comforted, forgiven, stengthened and loved - yet that message gets lost on most of us, and we remember only the God of our assemblies.I meet a lot of folk who hate religion. And I sympathise. But so did Jesus. In fact, He didn’t just sympathise, He went much further. It seems more like this Jesus came to destroy religion and to bring life.This really is the heart of what I found as a teenager: Christ comes to make us free, to bring us life in all its fullness. He is there to forgive us where we have messed up, and to be the backbone of our being.Faith in Christ has been the empowering presence in my life, helping me walk strong when so often I feel so weak. It is no wonder I felt I had found something remarkable that night up that tree. I had found a calling for my life.. . . . . Bear Grylls is a survival expert, explorer and Chief Scout.–+++–You keep us waiting.
You, the God of all time,
want us to wait,
for the right time in which to discover
who we are, where we must go,
who will be with us, and what we must do.
So thank you…… for the waiting time.You keep us looking.
You, the God of all space,
want us to look in all the right and wrong places,
for signs of hope,
for people who are hopeless,
for visions of a better world which will appear
among the disappointment of the world we know
So thank you…… for the looking time.
You keep us loving.
You, the God whose name is love,
want us to be like you -
to love the loveless and the unlovely and the unlovable
to love without jealousy or design or threat;
and, most difficult of all,
to love ourselves.
So thank you…… for the loving time.And in all this,
you keep us.
Through hard questions with no easy answers;
through failing where we hoped to succeed
and making an impact where we felt we were useless;
through the patience and the dreams and the love of others;
and through Jesus Christ and His spirit,
you keep us.
So thank you…… for the keeping time,
and for now,
and for ever,
Amen.From the Iona Community Worship Book.
- This is a picture of a eucalyptus shoot growing out of a burnt out log destroyed in a Tasmanian bushfire. Australians would instantly recognise the significance; the birth of life out of death. Jesus said “You must be born again” John 3, 7.
This picture was taken at dawn from the window of our flat on St Mary's Island. Jesus said "I am the light of the world" John 8, 12.
Conversations from the Coalface is a series of imaginary conversations between a Christian and the Lord Jesus discussing and sometimes wrestling with aspects of the life of faith. Written by our own Mike Worthing, here are the first two in a series of nine articles.