Friday 1 March 2024

The Scapegoat

March 2024

Dear Friends

Perfect justice is appealing: those who’ve betrayed us, or trampled on us, will get all they deserve, either at the hands of men or by the hand of God (see my February letter). Perfect justice is appealing – until we remember that we must answer for our mistreatment of others and, even worse, we remember that we have lived our lives trying to keep the God who made us out of the picture. ‘I did it my way,’ is the confession of rebels who must expect to be overthrown by the One who rightfully belongs on the throne of our lives.

Many know what Jesus said about this – that he had not come, initially, to execute judgment but to offer forgiveness. ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’ (Mark 2:5) were Jesus’ startling words to the paralysed man lying on his mat.

But how is forgiveness possible?  Not by God sweeping our rebellion under the carpet, ignoring the things that we have said and done to others; rather by Jesus taking our place. On that first Good Friday, Jesus’ body was horribly broken on the cross by the penalty that should have been mine and yours.

But how is it just for Jesus to be punished for something he didn’t do, and for me not to be punished for the things that I have done?  No-one made a scapegoat of Jesus against his will. Jesus said that no-one would take his life from him, “but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18). 

If Jesus and those he is rescuing were legally separate persons then it would still be immoral to punish ‘the wrong person’. But the Bible says that those who trust in Christ are more closely joined to him than even the ‘two-become-one’ bond of marriage. Jesus takes on himself the unpayable debt that we owe God and he gives to his people all that he is, and shares with us all that he has. Despite the objections of some, the cross of Jesus is actually the place where God demonstrates his perfect justice (Romans 3:25).

So, that leaves one question: Do we want to continue to bear full responsibility for our actions, or are we willing to accept Jesus’ invitation and let him shoulder the burden and blame for us?  (Galatians 2:16)

Happy Easter!

Graham Burrows

Thursday 1 February 2024

In the Open

February 2024

Dear Friends

Have you ever been blamed for something you did not do?  Even for a minor classroom offence the false accusation can sting.  Especially if others knew who really threw the ball of paper but no-one was prepared to speak up.

For the postmasters who were accused of theft, their anger and despair must have multiplied as the years went by without a way to prove their innocence.  And that is just one example among many in our country where people seem to have concealed, distorted or spun the truth to suit themselves.  How can we live in such a nation without despair?

Here’s three convictions that, if they were widely held, would transform life in a world of lies:

  1. Objective truth exists.  Whatever is true is true for you and it’s true for me.  There’s no such thing as ‘my truth’.  Believing that truth is relative leads to the depressing conclusion that nothing is certain and no-one’s word is better than another’s.  But there is truth that is objectively, eternally, truly true because there is an eternal God who is not part of creation and who knows and speaks the truth about all things.  “I am the Lord, and there is no other … I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.”  (Isaiah 45:18-19)

  2. Always speak the truth.  With very few exceptions (like preventing enemies causing harm) we should always speak truthfully.  We do this because we want to live in an honest nation, and because we don’t want to destroy ourselves by giving lies a foothold in our hearts.  But most of all we speak the truth because God commands it: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.”  (Exodus 20:16)

  3. Trust God to judge justly.  Human justice is always prone to fail; no-one can discern the truth about everything.  But God will judge justly.  No facts will be forgotten and no cover-up will survive.  God knows every keystroke on every Horizon terminal in every Post Office.  “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened … [They] were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”  (Revelation 20:12)

Perfect justice is appealing, until we remember that our own lies will be exposed too.  How will we survive such an examination?  Can God forgive and still be a just judge?  I’ll answer that next month.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

Friday 1 December 2023

Where are the soldiers?

December 2023

Dear Friends

Some people are missing.  We’ve got a few behind doors all set to tell the travellers that there are no vacancies.   Others, with tea-towels on their heads and smelling of sheep, are ready to kneel before their future king.  Kings are waiting in the wings carrying beautifully wrapped, expensive presents.  And here comes the foot-sore young man with his exhausted pregnant wife.  But shouldn’t Herod’s soldiers be here somewhere, brandishing swords with which to carry out Herod’s terrible massacre of the young boys in Bethlehem?

We understand why children’s nativity plays usually end the story before the soldiers arrive.  But there are good reasons not to forget that the soldiers are very definitely part of the story in Matthew’s Gospel.

Soldiers are part of the violent world we live in, and that Jesus was born into. Tragically, children are all too often the victims of the self-centred actions of adults – whether they’re unwanted, caught in the crossfire, or deliberately targeted.

Secondly, the soldiers remind us that the violence of our world was directed against Jesus Christ himself.  From Herod’s attempt to kill him at birth, to the Jewish leaders’ later death plots and the Roman authorities’ collusion with their wishes, Jesus Christ was in the firing line.

In fact, Jesus came into our world knowing full well that this would happen, that the whole world would oppose him and crush him and that he would absorb in his own body all the guilt and horrifying  consequences of our hostility towards him and his Father.

Amazingly, Jesus, knowing how we would treat him, still came. 

Wonderfully, death could not hold him, and no human plot could prevent his enthronement as the invincible sovereign of our world.

“Unto us a boy is born!
King of all creation,
came he to a world forlorn,
the Lord of every nation,
the Lord of every nation.”

You will be warmly welcome at any of our services or family events, at Christmas or at any other time.

Happy Christmas!

Graham Burrows

Wednesday 1 November 2023

Fractured


November 2023

Dear Friends

Fractured.  Would that be your description of relationships in our world?  As I write, hundreds of Israelis have just been brutally murdered by those who crossed the nearby border driven by intense hatred.  The expected response from Israel will lead to many deaths on both sides and huge suffering and destruction in the Gaza strip.  

On 12th November many will gather at our village war memorials just before 11am to remember with gratitude and sadness the sacrifice of those who defended our nation and allies when conflict engulfed the world.  We would like to think that such cataclysmic days are long past but I doubt it.

Our relationship with creation is broken too.  I’m not talking about our current climate panic but our long-term world-wide struggle to produce the food and other resources that we need without despising or desecrating all that God has made.  I’m writing from a cottage on the Outer Hebrides and it is sobering to see what it took for crofters to live here in this cold, boggy, weather-beaten land.

Then there is our relationship with ourselves.  How many of us are happy with who we are and feel at peace with ourselves?  Sometimes our anger and frustration with others springs out of our disappointment with ourselves.  Why do I find it so hard to change?  We are, so often, our own greatest enemy.

But the root of all this brokenness, according to the diagnosis of the Bible, is a much, much deeper fracture - our broken relationship with our creator.  We complain that he is distant and unwilling to help us or we complain about the unjust way he runs his world, but mostly we suppress all knowledge of him not wanting to serve and worship him as we instinctively know we should.  He seems nothing like a ‘heavenly Father’ to us.  We cannot fix this fracture from our side.  But what if God made the move from his side, what if he has stepped across the barbed-wire border to offer peace with his wayward creatures?  What if reconciliation with him is the essential first step to a long slow mending of all the fractured relationships with each other, with creation and with ourselves?  What if the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has plans for deep peace on earth?

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

Sunday 1 October 2023

A Trivial Question?

 

October 2023

Dear Friends

“What do you think of him?”  That’s the question that was being asked about Jesus all over 1st Century Judea.  He was discussed down by the River Jordan (John 1:46), among the ethnic minorities in Samaria (John 4:26), by the festival crowds in Jerusalem (John 7:26) and by the religious elites at the temple (John 7:51). 

Aware of all the whisperings, Jesus asked his friends directly, "But what about you?  Who do you say I am?"  (Matthew 16:15).  He wanted to know if they thought he could be the man they were all waiting for – the ‘Christ’ promised by the prophets.  ‘Christ’ (or ‘Messiah’) means ‘King’, a royal Son with God’s authority to rescue a people who knew that their nation was in trouble - trapped by powers beyond their control and by the self-destructiveness that afflicts us all. 

Some people at the time thought that Jesus was a fraud or worse but others pointed to the evidence – would the real Christ do more miraculous things than Jesus had done? (John 7:31)  He opened blind eyes, but others testified to something deeper; that he had opened their mind’s eye to the truth and they knew their lives were changed forever (John 10:21). 

Amazingly, although this all took place in three short years and in one little corner of the Roman Empire, it wasn’t all that long before people all over the world would answer the question, “What do you think of Jesus?” with a resounding, “He is King of Kings forever, and my Rescuer and Lord!” 

Some people today hope that this delusion, as they call it, will wither and die as humanity throws off the shackles of primitive thinking but (despite what is happening in our culture in the short term) across the world there seems to be a continuing rise in those who believe that Jesus is the Christ of God.  Didn’t Jesus say that his kingdom would be like yeast that is mixed into a large amount of flour to work its way right through the dough?  (Matthew 13:32) 

What about you?  Who do you say that Jesus is?  It may seem like a trivial question but what if true life can only begin when this foundation block is in place?  (John 6:40)

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

Friday 1 September 2023

Growing Up

September 2023

Dear Friends

On 24th September it will be 10 years since I began as the minister of Burton and Holme.  I sometimes think that nothing has changed much in that time (I don’t look that much older!) but children are an inescapable reminder of the passing of years.  Those who were in Reception when I began are now entering Year 10 to study for their GCSEs and many of those who were in the top year at our primary schools are now working or at university.  As of July, we no longer have teenagers in our own family. 

Children, of course, are meant to grow up!  Parents and teachers have a responsibility to train children, to pass on wisdom and a love of learning and maturing, so that they grow in body, mind, character and abilities.  But that’s not enough, for our children or for us.  Because we can only grow up to be like our teachers or our parents.  And that means sharing the same disappointments in life and the same destiny – decline and death – that our teachers and parents faced.

God’s Word says that children and adults also need to grow up in Jesus because he is the head of a new human family that will not be subject to frustration and decay.  If we want to know what it is like to be truly human then we must look at Jesus – loving, trustworthy, self-controlled and fearless.  If we become part of his family and grow up to be like him, then we will share in his glorious and forever-secure future.  And in the same place (Ephesians 4) Paul says that church ministers have a foundational responsibility to make sure that the truth of the Bible, spoken in love, is bringing people to maturity in Christ.

I hope that you’ve been growing in Christ.  I’m sorry if I’ve not been a help to you in that.  I wish I could have been more fruitful over the last 10 years but I hope that you’ll give me a chance to help you in the next 10, whether that’s through our Sunday Services, our regular study and discussion groups like Christianity Explored, or in conversation whenever I meet you.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

Tuesday 1 August 2023

A Mountain of Evidence

 

August 2023

Dear Friends

When I wrote to you in July I encouraged you to drag out a garden chair (not knowing how much rain we were going to get!) and read an eyewitness account of the man of truth, Jesus.  But what evidence is there that these short biographies (aka Gospels) are indeed eyewitness accounts and not bad history with little connection to real events?

Firstly, we can have confidence that the Gospels available to us are reliable copies and translations of the originals.  Compared to other ancient writings (that are widely accepted as genuine) we have in existence today far more – thousands more – ancient copies of the New Testament books.  This mountain of copies of whole Bible books and fragments are far closer in time to the originals than for any other ancient text.  The oldest surviving New Testament fragment is on display at the John Rylands Library in Manchester and is believed to date from the 2nd Century.

Secondly, we have copies of many letters, sermons and other writings of early church leaders from the first few centuries AD.  Between them they tell us that

  • The Gospels of Matthew and John were written by those two members of the original 12 disciples
  • Mark (who was not one of the 12) accompanied Peter on his extensive travels and recorded what Peter was teaching from his personal knowledge of Jesus.
  • Luke, the doctor, used eyewitnesses as his sources (See Luke 1:1-4)

So, their claim is that the four Gospels are all, in one way or another, eye-witness accounts of the things that Jesus said and did.

It is these eyewitnesses who claimed that Jesus had no deceit in him at all, and who heard Jesus say that those who hold to his teaching “will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

I still have some free Gospels left so I’ll repeat my offer – just send me a text or email and I’ll be delighted to deliver one to you.  I’m sure that summer is not over yet and that there will be some sunny days for you to sit and read and allow the authentic Jesus to appear before your mind’s eye.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows