Lockdown in Melbourne during the stage 4 Covid-19 restrictions is wearing a little thin right now, even if there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. One day follows another follows another and I can really only leave home to go shopping, to go to work, or to go for a walk close to home… I think everyone is feeling sluggish and stagnant and it really does feel like groundhog day. I am just glad that I can go to work and sit in an office, and chat to few people there in my face mask and whilst maintaining social distancing…
The thought crossed my mind last Sunday morning that I could just stay in bed all day. It was Sunday after all, and I am currently not working on Mondays. I had already played a lot of games on my phone, I listened to the online church service, but I didn’t read anything particularly useful. I did a number puzzle in a puzzle book, so my brain was working a bit, but the temptation was there to do very little with my day, until it dawned on me that there was one particular thing that I wanted to do. I sprang out of bed, showered in around 10 minutes, and I actually had a fairly productive day, which I am sure is overall a lot better for my mental health and sense of well - being.
This scenario got me thinking about temptation we have on a larger scale to stay with the status quo and just aim for the lowest common denominator; to stay comfortable, set our goals at a low level, and so be it. As I write this, Paul Mc Cartney is appearing on the television singing ‘Yesterday’. 55 years ago today, he released this as a lone performer. “Yesterday, love was such and easy game to play. Now I need a place to hide away. Oh, I believe in yesterday.” Sometimes we just want to hide away and dream of the days gone by. But it doesn’t always work. I generally don’t live with too many regrets, but I don’t want to be complacent or stagnant with where I am at, otherwise all that I will have left are the memories from yesterday.
In life we are are either contributing to a cause or taking away from; we are building or tearing down. There is no neutral ground. This is true inn relationships as well. We are either connecting or disconnecting. Again there is no neutral ground. I know, myself, there is a friend that I have in Canada, who I haven’t seen now in over 20 years. She wishes me happy Birthday every year on Facebook and if I remember, I will do the same for her (our birthdays are fairly close together). I wonder if I will ever meet her again, or if one year she will just forget my Birthday and that will be it…. Jesus knew this truth about building up and tearing down in the parable of the talents. Where we invest our time and energy is what we will see grow in our lives, and God will bless.
Matthew 25: 14 - 30
“Again, heaven’s kingdom realm is like the wealthy man who went on a long journey and summoned all his trusted servants and assigned his financial management over to them. Before he left on his journey, he entrusted a bag of five thousand gold coins to one of his servants, to another a bag of two thousand gold coins, and to the third a bag of one thousand gold coins, each according to his ability to manage…..
…..“Then the one who had been entrusted with one thousand gold coins came to his master and said, ‘Look, sir. I know that you are a hard man to please and you’re a shrewd and ruthless businessman who grows rich on the backs of others. I was afraid of you, so I went and hid your money and buried it in the ground. But here it is—take it, it’s yours.’
“Angered by what he heard, the master said to him, ‘You’re an untrustworthy and lazy servant! If you knew I was a shrewd and ruthless business man who always makes a profit, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? Then I would have received it all back with interest when I returned. But because you were unfaithful, I will take the one thousand gold coins and give them to the one who has ten thousand. For the one who has will be given more, until he overflows with abundance. And the one with hardly anything, even what little he has will be taken from him.’
I was recently looking at a friends post on Facebook - he was commenting on the Netflix production called ‘the social dilemma’, which is a documentary that seemingly explores the effect that social media is having on our lives. It suggests that platforms such and Instagram and Facebook do manipulate us by the suggestions they come up with for us (I only saw the trailer, so I have no opinion in regards to this production). They do suck us in with our time and energy, as do the games (or that is my experience). They give the impression we are building relationship and connection and building skills and achieving things, but in reality the level of this is quite shallow.
In my late teens, I used to think that the times a couple of male friends spent playing networked computer games was ‘antisocial’ whilst the rest of us talked, played real games and cooked pancakes in the other room. Back then, in the day of dot matrix printers and microfische systems at the library, the pull of screen time was minimal compared to what it is today. Similarly I was having a conversation with a close friend, just recently, about the younger people of today not taking initiative in their work and taking the easiest route of doing the least amount possible and then spending time on their phones. Yes, that’s what we do these days. I am guilty, too. Just opting not to put in the time and effort or to build social skills or to think about what extra things I can do to fill my time that are constructive for the organisation. I actually found myself guilty of the phone thing at work earlier in the week, just before lunch, and then in the afternoon I was rushing to get my work done. Disconnection.
Sometimes it is the little things that matter, which is a bit like putting coins in a piggy bank and then one day suddenly discovering that you can buy something significant. Or for Peter, it was discovering that he could actually walk on water, as he had enough coins in his Jesus - relational - piggy - bank and he found himself in a position where he amazingly actually believed he could. I love this story about calling and trust, but there had to be something there to start with that inspired Peter to even ask Jesus the question….
Matthew 14:22 - 33
As soon as the people were fed, Jesus told his disciples to get into their boat and to go to the other side of the lake while he stayed behind to dismiss the people. After the crowds dispersed, Jesus went up into the hills to pray. And as night fell he was there praying alone with God.
But the disciples, who were now in the middle of the lake, ran into trouble, for their boat was tossed about by the high winds and heavy seas. At about four o’clock in the morning, Jesus came to them, walking on the waves! When the disciples saw him walking on top of the water, they were terrified and screamed, “A ghost!”
Then Jesus said, “Be brave and don’t be afraid. I am here!”
Peter shouted out, “Lord, if it’s really you, then have me join you on the water!”
“Come and join me,” Jesus replied.
So Peter stepped out onto the water and began to walk toward Jesus. But when he realised how high the waves were, he became frightened and started to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he cried out.
Jesus immediately stretched out his hand and lifted him up and said, “What little faith you have! Why would you let doubt win?” And the very moment they both stepped into the boat, the raging wind ceased. Then all the disciples crouched down before him and worshiped Jesus. They said in adoration, “You are truly the Son of God!”
What was this story really about? Why did Jesus scare the living daylights out of the disciples in the middle of the night, in some high waves, in the middle of the sea of Galilee? Was it just to show Peter’s heart? Was it to encourage the disciples to believe in who Jesus really was; to stretch all of them beyond what they all thought was humanly possible? I think it was primarily to build relationship, and to challenge them that they can actually think outside the box (or boat as it was in this case).
Peter wore his heart on his sleeve. He was a little impulsive and He was one of the disciples who was closest to Jesus as a friend. So there was a relationship and a whole lot of trust there to start with. I think Peter, in his moment of was saying to Jesus, “ All this feeding of the 5,000 and healing the sick, and now the walking on water, and scaring the living daylights out of us, is all a little weird! But I kind of like it and I want to know what on earth you are doing in the middle of those waves. I am not too scared right now because I know you and love you and trust you as a friend, even if you are very weirdly standing on the water in the middle of the night. Can I take this one step further and come out to you? I know you will provide. I trust you. I am willing to give it a go, as crazy as all this is. Show me your ways and let me share in a bit of this adventure.”
I reckon Jesus smiled with Peter’s request and it was a friendly, “Sure thing!! Simply because I love you too.” And Peter was ok until he looked away from Jesus and got scared. Maybe this whole scenario built some of that faith, intimacy, love, knowing and trust in the other disciples too. It was an odd way to do it!
So our relationship with God is also like any other relationship. We have the choice to invest in it, grow it, trust it and build it. Or we have choice to let it slip away. Like Peter, I want to get out of the boat and take that step of faith, in a situation where everyone else is in fear and freaking out. I would love to have that trusting close relationship with Jesus first and foremost, so as that a little walk on water whilst everyone else is having meltdown, is even remotely possible, if I choose to ask for it.
And so I would like to think that I choose to build it (I am preaching to myself here), one step at a time, even in Covid-19 craziness and with Melbourne in Lockdown. Any many ways it is simply an act of obedience. This last week at work, my phone got shut away in a cupboard so it was out of sight and out of mind. No more excuses, and I want to do a bit of research about a new venture at work on my day off. Just to show I am interested and invested if nothing else. Even work, for me, is an act of worship and the small choices I make matter, like coins in the piggy bank. For the one who has will be given more, until he overflows with abundance. And the one with hardly anything, even what little he has will be taken from him.’
Romans 12: 1 - 2
Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvellous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.
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