Rupert’s Blog

I will write a follow up to a previous post, engaging with Scripture, soon. I you haven’t done so, so drop a comment on what you do to interact with the Bible.

But here is the next parable in our series. I am passionate about us taking some time to allow the passage to percolate in us, for God to speak, for insights to come, to see ourselves in relation to God more clearly.

This Sunday we will create some space, in silence, for us to listen to the words of the Jesus, and to what Jesus might be saying to us today. There will then be three people who be sharing for 5 minutes some of their personal reflections, followed by some more space to integrate all together. Leave a comment below if you have some insights you want to share.

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant - Mt 18: 23-35

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.

But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’

But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.

Questions for Reflection:

Something different this week. Image you are in the story, rather like a movie; you could play each of the three main characters in turn. As you see the scene unfold before you, ask yourself some questions: What are you seeing? Hearing? Or other senses? What do you notice about the other characters? What are you feeling? What motivates each of the characters?

As you do this, what you learn about yourself and God? Where do you identify with the story? What might Jesus be saying to you today?

Tags: Community Church Edinburgh, Listening to God, Jesus, Parables, Bible, Meditation, Parables of the Kingdom, Lectio Divina

I have been having a few interesting conversations recently with people about how we engage with Scripture. I am really passionate about this at the moment, and the series we are currently doing in church on the parables of the Kingdom was inspired by this.

Bottom line: I think we need to be engaging with Scripture.

I think often we lose sight of the wood from the trees on this one, and become dogmatic about HOW people SHOULD engage with the Bible. I think there are huge number of different ways that we can do this, and each person, and probably each generation need to find fresh ways of doing this that brings them life.

I will write some of my thoughts in a few days, but in the meantime I would be really interested to hear your experience:

What do you do to engage with the Bible? Use notes, read, sermons, study, lectio divina, meditate, Bible in a year, random pickings, listen …

Which of these have brought about the most personal change and transformation in your life?

It would really help my thinking in this to hear your experience, so please don’t just lurk, but add some of your thoughts. Go on…

Tags: Bible

Sorry for the lateness of this going up this week …

The next parable in our series is actually two very short ones found in Mt 13: 31-34. Jesus uses these brilliant little pictures to communicate something about the Kingdom. Often I think he is deliberately ambiguous, allowing for different interpretations; sometimes it is uncomfortably clear what he is getting at.

However, he always seems to expect us to identify with the story or the picture, and somehow discover our true selves in what he says. They are a mirror that we can put in front of us, to see our lives more clearly in light of the Kingdom. What do you see as you reflect on these parables? … do leave a comment below …

The Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast. Mt 13: 31-33

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Questions for reflection:

These parables would have been a surprise to the disciples who were expecting a triumphant and very visible kingdom. What surprises you here? What might you miss of the Kingdom as it does look the way you were expecting?

What qualities of yeast is Jesus alluding to? What implications does that have for your life?

Tomorrow we have a staff retreat day at the Bield retreat house near Perth. The Bield is a fantastic, beautiful place with converted barns and stables made into meeting spaces, prayer cells, a lounge, and some bedrooms for those who stay overnight. It has all been done very tastefully.

Over the last few years the staff team from Community Church have gone for a day away on retreat 3 times a year - a day of retreating from our work to pray. Most of the day we spend on our own with God, but at the beginning and the end of the day we gather together to “check in” and feedback at the end.

I find the surroundings, the peace of the place, the locally produced food, and just having some time to be still, pray, and allow God to speak is invariably refreshing and increasing essential.

I am going tomorrow wanting to know something of God’s heart and wisdom for me. I am hoping to find something of the silence I found on holiday. I have a sense that the season I have been in with the Lord is nearing an end (which would be wonderful!) but I want to learn all I need to as I cross this particular terrain of my journey with God. I would appreciate your prayer for tomorrow.

Tags: The Bield, Retreat, Prayer, Community Church, Community Church Edinburgh

This Sunday we are looking at the parable of the wedding banquet, found in Mt 22: 2-14. Andrew (aka “guest-blogger”) is sharing his insights and no-doubt thought provoking ruminations on the text. But, if you are going to be there, lets not let him do all the work, but come having grappled with the text ourselves. Here it is:

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet - Mt 22: 2-14

The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

For many are invited, but few are chosen.

Questions for reflection:

As you reflect on the parable and attempt to honestly evaluate yourself, you may like to consider the following questions:

The King initially invites the worthy, the good and the great … but they turn down the invitation. In what ways do you see yourself deserving God’s blessing, but miss His grace?

The invitation is to everyone, the good and the bad, the worthy and the unworthy. Everyone is indiscriminately “in” until they choose to be “out”. What reactions does that kind of generosity provoke in you?

I’m back. Andrew has done a great job of posting some stuff on the parables (and I will do the next one tomorrow) while I have been taking a bit of a break from blogging, reading and commenting. But now I am back!

We have had a great holiday in France in my blog absence … this was a deluxe outside BBQ and the view from our gite (holiday house). It was a great time to hang out the family, swim, read, sleep, think, pray (a bit), listen to music and talking books, explore French towns and markets, eat and drink, and see some friends.

This gite was up a mountain, about 900m high, in Voges region of France … a small village at the end of a treacherous road, miles from nowhere. And it was so quiet (when the nearest neighbours stopped mowing their huge meadow!). When all man made noise stopped, and the kids had gone to bed, and the Ipod was turned off … silence. Well actually it wasn’t silence so much as loads of crickets, wind in the trees, birds singing, and if you listened very carefully the sound of a stream a few hundred yards away at the bottom of the valley.

All these sounds were there all the time, but in the midst of the lawnmower, everyone talking, music, the very occasional car there was just too much noise to hear the other sounds …

… and when all the other things were “off”, it took me many moments to tune into the different sounds.

And isn’t that so like the still small voice of God? Drowned out by the crashing sounds of life around us. And even when they cease, it takes some time to tune into a different frequency.

How do you find silence? What helps you tune in?

Tags: Prayer, Listening to God, Holiday, France