UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

DAY 27 MORNING Read 1 Corinthians 15:50-58

ESTHER:  THOUGH THE ENEMY TRIES TO DESTROY GOD’S PLANS, CHRIST HAS WON THE VICTORY

Jesus Christ is our advocate our saviour, and deliverer and these themes figure prominently in this delightful story of a Jewish girl, Hadassah who is raised up to be queen of Persia, in Susa at a critical moment in the history of the Jewish people. God’s covenant with the Jews was honoured, his promises were kept when they faced a genocide at the hands of King Ahasuerus’ advisor, Haman. When King Ahasuerus commanded his wife Queen Vashti to come to a feast he was holding for all his nobles and governors and she refused, a search was precipitated for another queen. Hadassah a young beautiful Jewish girl found favour and delighted the king shortly before Haman plotted to annihilate the Jews.  

When Mordecai, Esther’s uncle discovers this plot, Esther was challenged by him that maybe she had been brought to prominence ‘ for such a time as this.’ After 3 days of intense fasting and prayer be Esther and her  ladies-in-waiting  and all the Jews in Susa, Esther asks Ahasuerus that he might come to a  feast and shortly after to a second one . Over the course of these two feasts there was a dramatic reversal of fortunes.  Mordecai is revealed as a man worthy of honour as providentially the king wakes up in the middle of the night,  and while reading  the book of memorable deeds recording his reign,  discovers that Mordecai had not been rewarded for his service in protecting the king for a couple of eunuchs who intended him harm. When Haman’s plot to murder the Jews is revealed dramatically by Esther to the king while he is having a meal with Esther and Haman, the king acts swiftly to condemn Haman to be executed. Ironically the huge gallows that Haman had erected to kill Mordecai ends up being used for his execution. Queen Esther’s brave intervention after fasting and prayer is critical in precipitating the deliverance of the Jews from the hand of Haman at the very last moment. Haman and his ten sons are hanged and thousands of the Jews’ enemies are destroyed and the Jews gained mastery of those that hated them. The feast of Purim was inaugurated to celebrate their deliverance. The book of Esther is a beautiful and dramatic story highlighting the wonderful truth  that though the enemy tries to destroy God’s plans, Christ has won the victory.       

MISSIONARY MONKS: RAYMUND LULL 1233-1315[1]

Raymond Lull was born in Majorca. He had an aristocratic background. After having repeated visions of Jesus Christ on the cross, he made sure his wife and family had sufficient provisions, gave his remaining possessions to the poor and then focussed on his faith.  For nine years he learnt Arabic he started training centres for missionaries focusing on the Muslim world. He longed to see the Mongols come to Christ, before accepting Islam and he tried to persuade the Pope to establish monastries to prepare missionaries. He succeeded in persuading the Pope to introduce as part of the curriculum for universities in Europe, Arabic and Oriental studies. His missionary zeal was directly mostly to moslems. His approach was to go to a city and make invitations to muslim leaders to debate Islam and Christianity, and the virtues of each. He did not hesitate to criticize Mohammed.  He took 3 missionary journeys to Algeria and Tunisia in North Africa. On the first two he was arrested and deported and on his third and final journey when he was over 83, he was stoned to death by the muslims listening to him. [2]

CLICK ON BOLD and you will be directed to Joshua Project website with more information for prayer.

PRAY for The Algerian Arabic speaking in France, the eleventh largest unreached people group in Europe. “The Algerian, Arabic-speaking in France whose language is Arabic, Algerian and whose primary religion is Islam They are 474,000, 0.6% Christian and  0.10% evangelical. ”[3]  Thank you Lord, for Raymond Lull, who spent long years learning Arabic and then started monasteries to train missionaries. Lord we pray for the Algerian Arabs in France. There have been many waves of Algerians moving to France. We pray for a new wave of missionaries to reach these Algerians. 

DAY 27 EVENING Psalm 131-135, Re-read Psalm 133

PSALM  133: THE BRETHREN DWELL TOGETHER THROUGH CHRIST: JESUS CHRIST ALONE IS OUR UNITY

Psalm 133:1-3 “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” It could be argued that when Luther left his monastery, the church moved further from the pursuit of godly character, which had been the original focus of monasticism. Alasdair McIntyre convincingly argues, in  “After Virtue” [4] that the western ‘Christian’ world has no longer been pursuing ‘virtue’ and godly character, following the Enlightenment. The academy stopped reading the Old Testament in the light of the resurrection, as Jesus did on the road to Emmaus. However it is not just the Enlightenment, that has hindered the church reading the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament. The Reformation,has also been responsible for hindering the Bible being read by the community of faith, together. If character is transformed in community, then when Luther left his monastery, the church moved further from the pursuit of the Christlikeness, which had been the original focus of monasticism. Not only did the Reformation split the church it resulted in the diminishing importance of the monastery and the increasing importance of the university in shaping the modern world, and consequently a less intentional pursuit of godly character fashioned and honed in community.

Eric Metaxes’ describes the underground remote seminary called Finkenwalde in Germany in 1935, in his biography of Bonhoeffer [5]. As Europe descended into chaos and the world war with the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany, Bonhoeffer devoted his time to developing a beautiful Christian community. Shortly before his death he produced two books, “Life together” and “The psalms.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer began his book “Life together” with the words from Psalm 133:1. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” He says [6]“It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the cross he was actually alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. So, between the death of Christ and the last day, it is only by gracious anticipation of the last things the Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick the scattered, the lonely, the proclaimers of the gospel in heathen lands stand alone.” It is not enough to read scripture in an ivory tower, it is important to read scripture in communion with others. More recently, Stephen Fowl and L. Gregory Jones[7]emphasize the importance of embodying scripture. They contend that “because of the distance between biblical context and contemporary contexts, Christians need to develop moral and theological judgement and that judgement requires the formation and transformation of the character appropriate for  disciples of Jesus. They say Christians develop such character in and through the friendships and practices of Christian communities.” Reading in communion with others is important, and not only with the Christian community today, but with the saints that have gone before us. 

The world stage is becoming increasingly threatening. The church needs to seriously address its priorities. Trying to fellowship around right doctrine (after the councils of the church and after the Reformation) is less important than fellowship as one body around the person of Jesus and reading the bible as a coherent story with the community of faith in the light of the resurrection.  Bonhoeffer ends his first chapter of “Life Together” repeating psalm 133 verse 1, saying [8] “we can rightly interpret the words ‘in unity’ and say, ‘for brethren to dwell together through Christ’. For Jesus Christ alone is our unity. He is our peace. Through him alone do we have access to one another, joy in one another, and fellowship with one another.”

PRAYER of Saint Francis of Assisi. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

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[1] Latourette, R.S. A history of Christianity beginnings to 1500 volume 1, Prince Press, 2003, 404-5 (summary).

[2] Smither, E.L.  Missionary monks, Cascade books, 2016, 162-163 (summary).

[3] Data provided by Joshua Project https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/10379/FR

[4] MacIntyre, A. After Virtue

[5] Metaxes, E. Bonhoeffer,

[6] Bonhoeffer, D. Life Together, 7.

[7] Fowl, S. and Jones, L.G.  Reading in Communion. Quote from.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJtBoTM0v9Y

[8] Bonhoeffer, D. Life Together, 26.