#whoever read all this up to this point hAVE A WONDERFUL 2025 AND WISH YOU ALL THE FUCKING BEST❤️

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Thought for the day:8th July

Hi Church: hope all continues to be well with you all.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one  might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1.20-29)

I expect many of you, like myself, have spent at least part of the last few months looking for things to do. Early on I even cleaned both our cars which I never do; I’d rather pay a fiver up the road. Among other things, some useful and some not so useful, I have read a number of novels, a couple written by the post war novelist R E Delderfield that I’d missed and, along with a few others, a new novel by Robert Harris. I bought it on publication day from Amazon; don’t normally do that either!

‘The second sleep’ is set several centuries in the future in a post apocalyptic world. The nature of the apocalypse is not clearly defined however it’s result is; the complete collapse of the World Wide Web. This results within twenty four hours with the collapse of banking (money simply vanishes) and the total collapse of food distribution. ‘Most Londoners are six meals away from starvation’ a report to government had said in 2022. The apocalypse came in 2025. What has emerged several centuries later is a totally none industrial society, as yet no one has re-invented the power of steam, let along electricity. However what I found fascinating about this story was that in this post apocalyptic world England is ruled by a King who administers law and order through the Church of England. The Church of England itself has reverted to the 1549 Book of Common Prayer of Thomas Crammer, so much so, the common language of the people is Elizabethan English. Needless to say life is not a bundle of laughs. There is more than a passing nod here to ‘A Handmaid’s Tale’ (Margaret Atwood, published in 1985) although generally speaking life in Tudor style England is probably preferable to that in Gilead; despite power crazy Bishops.  

The Church with coercive power reminded me of a sermon, talk, address (which ever) I heard many years ago given by Tony Campolo. For those of you who didn’t go to Spring Harvest in the 80’s and 90’s Tony Campolo is an American Christian speaker with a background in sociology who, when he does speak, sounds like a member of the Italian mafia. On this occasion he was talking about power being contrary to the nature of God and there were two sentences that I particularly remember. “You can love someone or you can exercise power over someone but you cannot do both at the same time” and “the worst thing that ever happened to the Christian Church was the Roman Empire got a born again Emperor.” Tony Campolo’s pitch was that such is the nature of God’s love he is unable to exercise power over us. Consequently as Jesus followers to seek to exercise power over another person is un-Christ like.

In order to get our heads around this we must first look at two Greek words. Usually when we come across the word power in the New Testament it is a translation of the word dunamis (δΰναμείς). Dunamis often refers to helping, enabling, strengthening or making things possible. The power of the Holy Spirit enables or strengthens the believer for instance. The second Greek word is exousia (εξουσιά) and it refers to control, domination and manipulation. In Mark chapter 10 we read: “So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’  Here the Greek word is exousia and Jesus goes on to say that his way, the Jesus way, is totally the opposite. When Jesus goes on “to give his life a ransom for many” he is showing that the apparent powerlessness of love is the only power that God has at his disposal.

There is something very profound here. God will never seek to control us. God will never seek to impose his will on us and he will never bully or badger us. Why? because he cannot. The reason why it appears God allows bad things to happen is because “love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13) This is the only way that God can function because love is always an invitation, an opportunity, it is never a demand. If truth be known we sometimes find such a reality deeply frustrating for the lure of power, the easy fix of control, is deeply attractive. “This is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?” (Clint Eastwood - Dirty Harry 1971). Where would Hollywood be without problem solving gunmen? Or aliens. In the re-make of ‘The day the earth stood still’ aliens save the planet Earth from humans by quite literally switching everything off; very apocalyptic! If ever we dream of God taking total control of the planet I wonder if we would really be up for the consequences. Take a look at the Sermon on the Mount for instance. Western life style would be a huge casualty.

In 1 Corinthians 13 love is a translation of our old favourite agapa (άγάπή) which is not the easiest word in the NT Greek lexicon to translate. In the Authorised Version it is often translated as ‘charity’ which gives us a better clue. If I give to charity or put a fiver into the hands of a street homeless person it is at a cost to myself for which I can expect nothing in return. God’s love for us is mega costly for it ends on a cross but nowhere does God say look at what I have endured for you so now you have an obligation to respond and if you don’t I will make you. In Luke 17 only one of the ten lepers Jesus heals returns to offer thanks to God. Perhaps one of the most amazing aspects of God’s love is that it causes him to be constantly ignored which of course the Bible recognises as sin and the path to self destruction. “Your choice” we hear God say. “I have shown you the alternative but you have to decide.” This is tough stuff but it helps to explain much of what goes on in our world.  

So where is this taking us? Coercive control is now enshrined in law as a recognised form of domestic violence but taking the log out of our own eyes before removing the speck from others the question for all who seek to be Christ like, followers of the Jesus way, is this. How often do we all subvert loving behaviours with controlling behaviours be it in our marriages, our families, at work, at college, in church? By how much do we contribute to the mindset of a society that often seeks controlling solutions rather than loving solutions, recognising that the latter will cost us time, energy, money and understanding. Having worked as a prison chaplain in HMP Holloway my wife Lynda will tell you that 70% of women in prison have been subject to sexual abuse and coercive control and that whilst the justice system usually sees them as perpetrators they are in reality very often victims. Of course the Daily Mail will tell you otherwise but surely Jesus followers don’t adjust their mindset according the Daily Mail!

The reality is that the Jesus way is so radical, so counter cultural and so challenging that most of us will take a life time getting our heads round it and even then will probably still not fully succeed. When Jesus talks about the narrow way that few will enter he is not just referring to deciding to become a Christian he is pointing to the reality that the way of the cross demands a totally different world view, a totally different life style, a totally different mindset that eschews power and control and requires the giving of self at whatever cost with no promise of a return. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” (Luke chapter 9)

To take up the cross daily requires abandoning all controlling behaviours for nowhere was Jesus less in control that on the cross. The Apostle Paul says that to the Greek/Roman mind such a concept was ludicrous yet “the folly of God is wiser than human weakness and the weakness of God stronger than human strength.” 1 Corinthians 1:25

A number of years ago Tony Campolo posed this question to right wing American evangelicals. “When you have spat on gay people, when you have beaten gay people to the ground and when you have put gay people in prison how will you ever tell them that God loves them?” Good question.     

Stay safe - wash your hands - Jesus loves you

Michael Hughes