Day 106
Deuteronomy 26:1-28:14, Luke 17:11-37, Psalm 46:1-11
Community is a very important thing. The government keep talking to us about big society, the way that community can sort the problem out, and we often hear that a lack of community spirit is what is causing all the problems in the first place. But what is community?
We may have a group of friends at school or at work, we may have outside friendship groups or just neighbours. But who would you identify as the people that you could go to when the chips are down? Who are the people that you can truly rely on? We may think that it is an obvious statement that the people of Israel were a community, after all they had just spent 40 years wandering around in the desert together, but check out ch26 v15. "Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel". This whole section was about a bit of personal piety, what the people are to do individually, but the response is a corporate one. Not a case of "bless me, bless me", but bless all of us Lord,
There is then a bit of theology that needs to be ironed out. It is passages such as this that can lead to a "prosperity gospel", I am good with God so God is good to me, ie money, wealth, property and the list goes on. The trouble with this kind of Gospel message is that it goes back to me, me, me. If we read it in the context of Acts, when the disciples flogged everything and shared it amongst themselves, we go back to this idea of community, less me and more us. "I have tried my best" (noting that even those who are good with God are not perfect) "so please bless this your community". And what blessing could we want more than the presence of God. "Riches I need not", just God to be with us and that happens through thick and thin.
So just think about the people who are there for you through the worst times and the God who is there for you through the worst times. It is then that we realise that we can't go it alone. When we think of the blessings that God might lavish upon us, we realise that those people we have just thought of are a blessing more prosperous than money and the gift of his son is even more precious. Then we know what the blessing of God truly is.
Community is a very important thing. The government keep talking to us about big society, the way that community can sort the problem out, and we often hear that a lack of community spirit is what is causing all the problems in the first place. But what is community?
We may have a group of friends at school or at work, we may have outside friendship groups or just neighbours. But who would you identify as the people that you could go to when the chips are down? Who are the people that you can truly rely on? We may think that it is an obvious statement that the people of Israel were a community, after all they had just spent 40 years wandering around in the desert together, but check out ch26 v15. "Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel". This whole section was about a bit of personal piety, what the people are to do individually, but the response is a corporate one. Not a case of "bless me, bless me", but bless all of us Lord,
There is then a bit of theology that needs to be ironed out. It is passages such as this that can lead to a "prosperity gospel", I am good with God so God is good to me, ie money, wealth, property and the list goes on. The trouble with this kind of Gospel message is that it goes back to me, me, me. If we read it in the context of Acts, when the disciples flogged everything and shared it amongst themselves, we go back to this idea of community, less me and more us. "I have tried my best" (noting that even those who are good with God are not perfect) "so please bless this your community". And what blessing could we want more than the presence of God. "Riches I need not", just God to be with us and that happens through thick and thin.
So just think about the people who are there for you through the worst times and the God who is there for you through the worst times. It is then that we realise that we can't go it alone. When we think of the blessings that God might lavish upon us, we realise that those people we have just thought of are a blessing more prosperous than money and the gift of his son is even more precious. Then we know what the blessing of God truly is.
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