The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity - more by Helen Parry

Living hope

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:02:44 +0100

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 04-08-08)

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. 1 Peter 3:15

Just over 100 years ago, looking forward to the 20th century, Thomas Hardy heard the song of a frail thrush on a bleak mid-winter evening. He wrote:

    So little cause for carolings
            Of such ecstatic sound
    Was written on terrestrial things
            Afar or nigh around,
    That I could think there trembled through
            His happy good-night air
    Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
            And I was unaware.

Hope. Surely we, too, have few grounds for hope. In spite of the vast technological progress of the past century, in spite of unprecedented prosperity, people are more depressed, the inequalities of the world are as great, resentment and envy breed hatred and potentially apocalyptic terrorism, and a new economic crisis threatens our comfortable lives. Most people, particularly in the West, seem to be deeply pessimistic about the future, often hidden behind a mask of cynicism.

And yet it is hope that Peter describes here as the distinctive mark of the Christian, a mark so distinctive that it will arouse curiosity and elicit questions. Always, he writes, be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

So what is Christian hope? Peter is clear about its origin: we are born again, he declares, into a living hope, into a heavenly inheritance (1:3-4). This is not just pie in the sky when I die: it is based on the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection, and on the merciful character of God. But it is far more than the individual assurance of salvation. It embraces the whole world. It is a hope that God can change individuals and that through them he can change societies; that God has good purposes for people and nations; and that eventually he will make all things new.

What is it that makes you different? That’s a question that we shall never hear while we affect the cynicism of those who, being without God, are also without hope. Perhaps being prepared to give an answer doesn’t involve a prepared formula for presenting the gospel, but a spontaneous response from a heart overflowing with hope.

Paul: Carrots or sticks?

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:11:50 +0100

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 28-07-08)

To me, to live is Christ, Phil.1:21. The love of Christ compels us, 2 Cor.5:14

What motivates us? Do we have ideals, goals or ambitions that keep us going? Or do we have to be pushed, by others, by sanctions or by necessity?

And what motivation do we find, specifically, in the good news of Jesus Christ? The promise of heaven or the fear of hell? A carrot or a stick?

Communicable light

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:49:36 +0100

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 30-06-08)

You are a chosen people.., that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9.

A chosen people, God calls us, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. We, 2000 years on, inherit this legacy, bestowed on the people of Israel as they travelled to the promised land (Exodus 19:5-6).

Living in a secular society, in which nothing higher is offered or promised than material prosperity or transient celebrity, we can bask in the glory of our position in Christ – in our election, in our access to God through him, in our calling to be holy before the Lord, and in the enduring fact of God’s love. But is basking actually what we are called to do? The purpose of all this, Peter says, is that we ‘may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvellous light’. Because, of course, God chose Israel, so that they might be a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 41:8-9; 42:6). Jesus came because God so loved the world. He chose his disciples so that they would go and bear fruit (John 15:16).

In a generation that sets such store by personal fulfilment, and feeling good about oneself, Christians need to be reminded of this inescapable biblical fact: we are saved in order to serve, in order to declare the Lord’s praises.

But Peter makes it clear that what we have to declare is not a series of theological propositions. It is a personal testimony of what the Lord has done for us. It starts with darkness – the darkness of ignorance and lostness, of separation from the one who is the light. Then comes the sovereign call, which we each recognise as personal to ourselves. And as we respond to that call we move from darkness into his marvellous light – a light to transform our understanding, to guide our steps in the present and into the future. If we have really grasped this, we must surely desire to share it.

Can we not, in a society in which people so freely recommend their personal trainers and their herbalists, find ways of commending the one who meets all our deepest needs – our Lord Jesus Christ?

Monday Blues

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:54:51 +0100

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 23-06-08)

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. 1 Peter 2:9

It’s Monday morning. How do you feel? Like Mark (Thank God it’s Monday) Greene? Or like Bob (I don’t like Mondays) Geldof? Excited, challenged, fulfilled, raring to go? Or burdened, stressed, overworked, unappreciated, ‘wanting out’? Or perhaps a bit of both?

Paul: when friends fall out

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:04:30 +0100

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 19-05-2008)

Barnabas wanted to take…Mark with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. Acts 15:37-38

Two men set up a business together. They start small, but they have identified a niche in the market, and make good use of the resources they have. They do well. They like and respect one another, and have complementary gifts.

After some time, one suggests taking on a junior partner: he has a particular young man in mind. The other objects – there’s a question mark hanging over the young man’s character. Either his commitment or his stickabilty is suspect. Both are essential qualities in their rather risky endeavour.

This story is, of course, about Paul and Barnabas. Sadly, ‘they had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company’. Each had a point. Paul wanted to be sure that they could rely on their fellow-workers; Barnabas – ever the encourager – wanted to give Mark a second chance. Always a lateral thinker, he probably thought not only that Mark showed promise but also that if the work was going to grow they would need help.

When a small team is working well together, the comfortable thing to do is not to rock the boat – not to enlarge the team by bringing in people of different personalities, different levels of ability. But that is how enterprises stagnate. The visionary founder becomes the obstacle to creative growth.

It would be unjust to apply this to Paul, but it is all too common in our own enterprises. In the case of Paul and Barnabas, regrettable though the discord was, God overruled it. The result was two evangelistic teams rather than one, Barnabas taking Mark to start a new work in Cyprus, and Paul teaming up with Silas.

This story is about training and apprenticeship. It applies both to the workplace and to the church. In the church, it is the essence of disciple-making. Can we seek to reintroduce the idea of apprenticeship, so that young Christians and potential leaders are not only mentored but allowed to learn on the job alongside those with greater knowledge and experience? And am I prepared to take on this responsibility?

Paul: a risen life

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:36:59 +0100

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 14-04-08)

‘Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection’, Acts 17:18

Why is it, I wonder, that some evangelical Christians seem to emphasise the cross, and Christ’s atoning death, to such an extent that the resurrection becomes almost an irrelevance? Witness small booklets on how to become a Christian, and certain types of evangelistic preaching.

For OUR sake?

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:14:55 +0000

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 17-03-08)

“He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” 1 Peter 1:20

“Because you’re worth it”, say the advertisements, or “Because you deserve it”. So – buy our cosmetics, our jewellery, our watches, our holidays, our cars. The key word, of course, is buy. Nobody is offering to give us these things because we are worth it, because we have deserved it. We are, in a sense, being invited, or lured, to reward ourselves.

Paul: we, ourselves and us

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:11:52 +0000

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 03-03-08)

‘While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”. So after they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.’ Acts 13:2-3

Paul’s call to a life of service was sudden, dramatic and exclusively personal. A light, a voice and a sign (blindness) left him in no doubt. It’s likely that he expected his life from then on to be individually directed, his guidance equally unmistakable.

Paul: principle vs expediency

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:48:29 +0000

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 18-02-08)

‘When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was in the wrong.’ Gal. 2:11

The story goes that, in his first job, the young Gordon Selfridge answered the phone for his boss. ‘Tell him I’m out’, said his boss. ‘Tell him yourself, sir’, Selfridge replied, passing the phone over. When the call was finished, his boss turned in fury to Selfridge, demanding an explanation. ‘If I tell a lie for you,’ he replied, ‘I could just as well tell a lie to you.’ He risked – but kept – his job. The rest, as they say, is history, as the London department store that bears his name testifies.

Paul: God’s delays?

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:36:34 +0000

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 21-01-08)

After three years, I went up to Jerusalem… Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. Gal.1: 18, 21

Paul was a man of action, who didn’t let the grass grow under his feet. Immediately after the stoning of Stephen, he went to the high priest, asking for letters of authority to the synagogue leaders in Damascus so that he could arrest any there ‘who belonged to the Way’. Confronted by Christ on the Damascus road, however, and called to proclaim the gospel, Paul ‘at once began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God’. Same man, same urgency.

A purpose beyond our understanding

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:08:24 +0000

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 17-12-07)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John 1:14

Could this be the most profound verse in the whole Bible? The Word, who was with God in the beginning; the Word, who was indeed God; the one through whom the whole universe was made – how and why could he so demean himself, so limit himself, to take on the form of one of the beings that he had created? Indeed, it was not simply human form, human appearance, that he took on, but human flesh – a body with all its limitations and discomforts, its tiredness, its dirt and its sweat.

Paul: a leader taught to serve

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:43:46 +0000

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 10-12-07)

The witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul, Acts 7:58

The zealots and the Jerusalem riff-raff were baying for blood, as Stephen stood undefended before them. They stripped off their outer garments in order to throw their stones more effectively. But rather than cast their cloaks haphazardly on the ground they laid them at the feet of Saul. What was it about this young man that singled him out as a focus for their zeal?

Paul - a wasted past?

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:52:46 +0000

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 26-11-07)

‘ circumcised the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee…’ Phil.3:5

Before his confrontation by the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus would already have merited several column inches in Who’s Who. His was an immaculate pedigree – a pedigree enhanced by his training under the Pharisee Gamaliel, one of the most respected teachers of the law. Saul’s tribe, his family, his upbringing and his education all guaranteed him respect and status in 1st century Jewish society.

Learning from Jesus: Money, money, money

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:05:50 +0100

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 22-10-07)

You fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you. Luke 12:20

Is it wrong to earn a lot of money? Is it wrong to be rich? The man Jesus described in his parable was not criticised because he was rich. No doubt he – or his hired servants – worked hard on the land. And a combination of diligence, experience, fertile soil and good weather brought him a bumper harvest.

Learning from Jesus: I want my rights

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:08:35 +0100

by Helen Parry (Word for the Week 15-10-07)

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Luke 12:15

Scarcely a day passes without the headlines proclaiming a dispute about money. Whether it is Paul McCartney and Heather Mills wrangling over the terms of their divorce, public sector workers arguing about their wages, or children contesting their parents’ wills - settlements and legacies give rise not to thankfulness but frequently to greed and a demand for justice.