Belonging and Possessions

I was thinking about the possessions we have and how they help us have a sense of belonging.

Our homes let us belong because they often are where we want to be - the very place where we see ourselves belonging. Our clothes express our belonging to a particular community and our general possessions let us do things others do enabling us to belong to the group of people. There are other possessions which might be described as 'leveraged' devices for belonging.

A mobile phone is more than an object in itself, it is our connection with our world. It is the way we belong in the modern world. It is a means of making communication and receiving information. Try and take away a mobile phone from a teenager and you will see what I mean. No phone and there is no means for belonging for many people.

Another possession with this kind of 'leveraging' are things with significant memories. An old chair is more than a chair. It represents memories and connections with the past - two powerful forces which help us belong. We belong because of the continuity with the past.

The last leveraging I see is in shared possessions. Since they are shared they immediately reflect our belonging together. I have a sense of belonging since we share the possession together

Am I thinking right?


The sense of belonging given by our possessions is very powerful.

I take it that however powerful this sense of belonging is we ought to treat it as nothing compared to belonging to Christ and his people through the power of the gospel of grace (Rom 14:18). Furthermore we need to get our possessions, however valuable we think they are, into perspective:

1Cor. 7:29-31   What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

It is hard to see that we belong to the future kingdom since the things of this world are so tangible, but we must! Paul writes,

"Phil 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. "

Love the building? Love God?

The people who built St Andrew's did so because they loved the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The building was an expression of God's majesty and greatness. It was built to point people to him. Often I meet people who love the building and want nothing to do with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I only wish they would see it is only meant to be a 'pointer' to something greater.

Oh well, maybe we just speak more clearly about the majesty, goodness and greatness of our God. The apostle Paul was happy for the greatness of God to be seen in contrast to his own weakness (2 Cor 1-4). Have a read. In the meantime we will look after the building God has given us, with all due consideration of its heritage, and grieve the fact it frequently fails to point people to him.

Unrealistic expectations?

In the bible talk today I was saying that we don't want to take into marriage unrealistic expectations. It made me think about church life. Do we take into church life unrealistic expectations? What should we expect from each other? Any thoughts?

Pews at church

We've posted some more information about our pews on the church website here. We are really happy to answer questions and explain exactly what we plan on doing.

Greening Summer Hill

I totally love the new bit of green grass down at Darrel Jackson Gardens. I think it used to be an old toilet block.

Thanks for the couch!

Yesterday I bought a nice leather couch on eBay for $10.51. When I went to pick it up it turned out the couple were Christian and just gave it to me. Thanks! Now I just need to get it out of the trailer and into the parents' room at church.

Room

The gift of singleness

In 1 Cor 7 Paul uses the language of "calling". His idea of calling is both of the call of the gospel and the call of a particular situation in life. For example verse 20 says " Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him." Here we see the call of the gospel, but in verse 17 the situation in life is the calling, "Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him" (7:17).

Even though the situation one finds themselves in is assigned by the Lord and his calling on them, some people are free to change their situation. Slaves are able to gain their freedom (7:21) and the unmarried are allowed to marry (7:9,28). Paul's point is to not let your situation in life trouble you, that it does not matter and not to put vast amounts of energy into changing your situation. In light of the coming kingdom of God it just does not matter much (7:29-31). What matters is following the commands of God (19).

The idea of God's calling is primarily of the call of the gospel and then the Lord's assignment of people to their situation in life, particularly their marital situation. Whether you want to be or not God has called you to a particular pattern of life and in the grand scheme of things it just does not matter which one that is. It also does not matter if you change if you are free to do so.

The other piece of language Paul uses is that of giftedness. In verse 7 he says. "I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.". Is this gift singleness itself or being content in being single without the desire to marry? On Sunday I suggested it was the latter, that is the gift is the gift of being single and not desiring to marry (for any reason).

I take it that when Paul describes himself he is not thinking that he is like those in 9 who are single and burn with passion, but is 'happily' single. "8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion."

What it means is that there are people who have been called by God to the single life but are not gifted with the gift of singleness. Paul's instruction would be: get married as soon as you can, don't worry about it too much and use your current state of singleness for undivided devotion to the Lord.




Can you be married and not have the gift of marriage?

We have a problem using the language of gifts. Every good thing from God can be described as a gift (James 1:17). Marriage itself can be called a gift, your spouse is a gift, the power to live the married life in love and forgiveness is a gift. However, in this passage the state of marriage nor the ability to live in a marriage relationship are described as gifts. There is no mention of a supernatural empowering that enables some married people to remain married while others don't have this ability. I take it that all married people have been given the resources in the gospel to lead a married life. Passages like Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3 are directed to all married Christian people irrespective of how long they have been Christians or their own personal psychology etc. Whereas the desire to marry for a single person is something to be honoured and recognised and has a valid expression of changing your situation in life, the desire of a married person to divorce is an indication that the couple need significant help.

What if you don't want to marry but aren't happy being single?

I might have expressed this poorly last night but Paul is really dealing with those who are content in being single and those who are single and would like to marry. There could be a another group who don't want to marry but who aren't happy in being single. My first thing to ask is, "what is it about being single that is causing you to be unhappy." I suppose there could be a million reasons that don't produce the desire for marriage: cheaper accommodation per person in hotels, easily sharing a car, having someone handy who can change the light-globes, someone who can share the driving etc, etc. I think life is just full of things that are hard and for which there is no straight forward solution. Paul was content in his singleness in as much as he had no strong desire to marry. I suppose that did not make him like everything about his life (2 Cor 12:7).

Any more thoughts or questions?

Blokes doing pretty things

Over the last few weeks I have seen blokes doing some really pretty things. The deal with blokes doing pretty things is that there has to be at least twice as much danger as there is prettiness so the pretty element is hidden (but I saw it!).

The first was about 30 blokes riding massive waves off the point at South Avoca. The danger was extreme with the powerful waves breaking across the rocks and the blokes surfing incredibly close to them. Once surfing the blokes are just doing pretty things.

The second was a group of guys twirling flaming sticks at Terrigal. It was dangerous but pretty. If you had put ribbons in their hands they could have been at the Summer Games.

The third was after the Top Gear live show with a bloke doing tricks on a motor bike. I shot some video of him which is below. it was pretty. He named some of the moves, they included one called the flamingo and another the can-can.

What other pretty things do blokes do? Is church dangerous? Is church pretty?

Blog is back

After being sick for three months last year and trying to keep on top of life since then I feel that I have made a come-back with this first blog post!