Tom writes:

Paul continues the same argument. We are back with the delivery man and the Ming vase. We are just servants. We have been entrusted with deeply precious things, even secret things. These precious and secret things have unrivalled power. They have the only power that can really change things and so it’s imperative that we simply serve them up, that we deliver them intact. And - this is the crucial thing - because we live in a hostile and foolish world, doing that exacts a heavy toll on us. To minister pure unadulterated Kingdom into people brings us into disrepute. We become dishonoured. We are slandered. We get treated like scum. The huge temptation when being treated like this is to talk ourselves up, to turn our mission into sounding clever or looking good. The huge temptation is to hype. But true servants of the Kingdom come out in a rash when they smell a whiff of hype. Now I know how controversial that is when church culture has become obsessed with creating a “worshipful atmosphere”, of “winning others”, of “raising the faith” of the flock. None of those things are problems as long as they sit in their proper place, but our obsession with them has become like idolatry. We can something shun the slightest suspicion of having to suffer or feel we must have done something wrong if we end up feeling dumb. You can experience the power of God among smoke machines and flashing lights, we all know that. But they do sometimes give the wrong impression. More normal is to experience the power of God while feeling stupid on the streets or taking an awkward action to minister Jesus to some friends.

We need to rewrite the narrative, recast the vision of what it looks like to be mature in Christ. The “way of life” of a mature believer isn’t prancing from one “supernatural” experience to another but it is rolling from one grubby moment to another, doing your best to get out of the way, serve up Jesus, and praying for God’s extraordinary power to break in. Sometimes we may not even know if that has happened. It might not feel great. This is what it is to embrace weakness. I wonder if you really believe this? When the next chance comes to pray for someone, what will you do? Will you expect to feel “spiritual”, will you wait until some backing music starts in your head… or will you simply act as a delivery man, delivering Jesus to the person and trusting his power to do the job? You may look foolish if “nothing happens” but if you entrust yourself into “the mysteries of God” you might find the mysterious Jesus doing astonishing things with your very ordinary efforts.

Question for reflection

How could you press into doing the stuff and entrusting yourself more to the mysteries of God?

1 Corinthians 4 - Tuesday 21st May