Silent voices - that still speak

And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. Hebrews 11:4

Last Sunday morning I was brushing my teeth to the accompaniment of BBC Radio 4 when I found myself listening to a tribute to Timothy Dudley-Smith, Anglican clergyman and prolific hymn-writer. He died last August at the age of 97.

His hymns have formed part of the backdrop of my Christian life – I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know some of them. Just two examples: “Lord, for the years your love has kept and guided” (where all five verses are truly meaningful prayers), and “Holy child, how still you lie” (a simple, lilting Christmas carol). The radio programme reminded me how much my life and faith have been enriched by them.

Dudley-Smith’s hymns tend to be fairly traditional in style, and they are rich in biblical truth, always focussed on God first and foremost, genuine poems in their own right, and set to attractive and singable tunes. Though helpful to the individual singer or reader, they are perfectly suited for congregational singing (unlike so many songs which tend to be all about I/me - I must confess a pet dislike of mine!). Sad is any church that doesn’t make good use of his output.

Then, as I put my toothbrush away, I found my mind turning to a more recent death: that of former US President Jimmy Carter, just a week or so earlier, at the age of 100. He too received many tributes, though often they seemed to focus more on his failures as a president than on his stature as a man of God. I suppose that, being known primarily as a politician, that was inevitable; but it was heart-warming and challenging too when people – not necessarily believers - referred to his “devout” and “humble” Chrisian faith.

Of course I never met or knew either of these men – but that doesn’t mean they made no impact on my life. They certainly did, in their different ways, one by writing powerful hymns, the other by setting a challenging example, albeit at a far distance. And so the verse about Abel in Hebrews 11:4 came to mind: “… by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead”.

Go back to Genesis 4, and you find no explanation why God “did not look with favour” on Cain’s offering. But he is certainly portrayed as morose and angry, whereas presumably Abel had a right, good spirit in the eyes of God.

I suggest two practical responses to this ancient story and the comment of the writer to the Hebrews…

First, give thanks to God for people long gone whom we still remember with fondness and appreciation, who, in effect, “still speak”.

Personally, I remember an elderly Sunday-school teacher who, I think, was the first person ever to teach me about Jesus (and who fascinated me with his alarmingly drippy nose). There is no way of estimating the level of his impact on my life – but for all I know I might never have become a Christian at all apart from him. I can only imagine that…

I remember too the young man who was the main influence in leading me to Christ. (Actually, he is still alive, as far as I know, though I have not had any contact with him for probably 50 years, and I think he would be amazed and embarrassed if ever he read this. Hi, Doug!)

I remember too whole battalions of church members I was privileged to pastor, and who taught me far more than I taught them – and pastored me far better than ever I pastored them.

Ordinary people – not by any means Jimmy Carters or Timothy Dudley-Smiths! But people who “still speak” into my life and, I’m sure, into the lives of many others. I hope you too can summon up such a list. If you can, why not take a few minutes to give thanks to God?

Second, take Hebrews 11:4 as a challenge.

The fact is that each of us will leave behind a legacy after we are dead, for good or ill. Of course, we must resist any temptation to try and live a good life and do good things in order to be remembered: God knows the truth about our motives, and we must live good lives and set good examples for no other reason than that it is the right thing to do.

But let’s be encouraged to think that I and you – yes even I and even you! – have the potential to influence generations not yet born. Jesus spoke of seed that bears fruit in God’s good time, and even where we may feel we have failed, the fact is that we will never know how or when some good seed may germinate in blessings we cannot imagine.

Of course, the story also has a dark side, for Cain left a legacy too: falling into jealousy and anger, and becoming the world’s first murderer. And I am sure that we all have memories that fill us with shame and regret, and which may have done real damage in someone’s life: I certainly do. And now it is impossible to offer an apology (though, to be brutally honest, I’m not sure that I would do so even if I had the chance). Can you identify with me in that? The best we can do then is to pray: “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner”.

But let’s be positive. Even long-silenced voices can still “speak” for good. And that, by God’s grace, includes mine and yours.

Remember, Christian, even some trivial little word or act of Christlikeness done today may make a difference to someone’s life a hundred years from now.

Father, I do thank you for long-gone Christlike people who have enriched my life in ways big and small. Please help me every day to do for others – others I may never know – what they did for me. Amen.

Lord, for ourselves, in living power remake us,/ Self on the cross and Christ upon the throne./ Past put behind us, for the future take us,/ Lord of our lives, to live for Christ alone. Amen!

Timothy Dudley-Smith.

 

A woman worth getting to know

Does not wisdom call out?
    Does not understanding raise her voice?
² At the highest point along the way,
    where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
³ beside the gate leading into the city,
    at the entrance, she cries aloud:
⁴ “To you, O people, I call out;
    I raise my voice to all mankind.
⁵ You who are simple, gain prudence;
    you who are foolish, set your hearts on it.
⁶ Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say;
    I open my lips to speak what is right.
⁷ My mouth speaks what is true,
    for my lips detest wickedness.
⁸ All the words of my mouth are just;
    none of them is crooked or perverse.
⁹ To the discerning all of them are right;
    they are upright to those who have found knowledge.
¹⁰ Choose my instruction instead of silver,
    knowledge rather than choice gold,
¹¹ for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
    and nothing you desire can compare with her.

Proverbs 8:1-11

My daily Bible-reading cycle has brought me to Proverbs 8, all about wisdom. Of course the whole book, all thirty-one chapters, is about wisdom, but the focus is particularly intense in this chapter.

Wisdom is pictured as a woman, sometimes called by commentators Lady Wisdom. We are not told she is particularly beautiful (after all, the Bible as a whole takes little interest in any kind of physical attractiveness, female or male), but I for one can’t help seeing her as elegant and dignified. Perhaps surprisingly, she is a wayside preacher, taking her stand at a cross-roads near the city gate, and she seems to have found a natural pulpit – “the highest point along the way” (verse 2). She is gifted with a strong voice, for she “raises her voice to all mankind” (verse 4), so her congregation is, well, anybody and everybody who cares to listen.

Could I invite you to take a few moments to read right through the chapter? – not in order to extract “doctrine” in an intellectual sense (Proverbs is not that kind of book!), but in order to bathe your imagination in a whole variety of hints and impressions. Lady Wisdom is a woman worth getting to know!

Confining ourselves mainly just to the first eleven verses, there is far more to glean than we have space for here, but hopefully we can whet our appetites for more, deeper reading.

First, wisdom is readily available.

She is a public figure, calling out to all and sundry. That means we don’t have to go seeking her out in weird or hidden places like cultic sects or mysterious religions. But it also means that we have no excuse for ignoring her, those of us at least who have been told about Jesus (according to parallel verses in Proverbs 8:22-31 and Colossians 1:15-17 she is supremely to be found in Christ).

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So…You want wisdom? Good! – the message couldn’t be simpler: look to Jesus.

Second, wisdom has many close cousins.

There’s a whole list of synonyms or near-synonyms in just these opening verses: understanding, prudence, trustworthiness, rightness, truth, justice, discernment, knowledge. In other words, if we choose to gain wisdom it won’t just make us “clever”, it will literally change the kind of people we are, transforming our very characters and ways of behaving.

So… You’re weary of being a failure in this bewildering business of life? Be encouraged! And seek wisdom!

Third, wisdom is truly practical.

Perhaps this is where “prudence” (verse 5) is especially important. It’s a slippery word, not easy to pin down, but it conveys the idea of commonsense, an ability to face our troubled world with open and seeing eyes, shrewdness, a “not-to-be-taken-in-ness”. It may mean being cautious, but not over-cautious, discerning but perhaps also adventurous.

So… You feel you lack prudence in a world that’s full of confusion and dishonesty? Well, you know where to look!

Fourth, wisdom is closely allied to holiness.

I nearly wrote “moral excellence” rather than “holiness”. But then I thought, “No, that would sound rather dry, even academic – let’s go for one of the Bible’s most beautiful and important words”. To be holy is, in essence, to be like God himself, and words like “upright”, “true”, “just” make it plain that wisdom means far more than simply being hands on in the business of living.

If we stay for a bit with the metaphor of wisdom as a woman (and why shouldn’t we?), we can imagine that Lady Wisdom has a couple of sisters. One is described in chapter 9 verses 1-5. This woman could of course be the same person in a rather different mode, but I like to think of her as an older and more prosperous sister: she has an impressive house (with “seven pillars”); she is a generous hostess (she has “prepared her meat and mixed her wine”); she has servants at her beck and call; she is compassionate, especially concerned for the “simple” and “those who have no sense”; she is an accomplished teacher (she offers “insight”).

Ah, but what about the third woman – Sister Folly (9:13-18)? Perhaps the less said the better. She is “unruly” and a seductress, not just sexually but also in offering the cheap and tawdry pleasures of life (“stolen water”… “food eaten in secret”). But all that her devotees end up with is… death (“her guests are deep in the realm of the dead”).

Yet Sister Folly could be mistaken for her two holy sisters. She too takes her seat “at the highest point of the city”; she too makes her appeal to anyone who will listen – and who is foolish enough to be taken in.

The challenge of these very poetic verses of Proverbs is clear: am I a disciple of Lady Wisdom or of Lady Folly? Am I heading for life – what Jesus called “life in all its fulness” (John 10:10) – or for death? The choice is ours; there is no coercion with God. His word is right there for us – the living Word of Christ, and the written Word of Scripture.

Lord, help us to choose with our eyes wide open!

Father, our modern world seems to be so often shallow, tawdry and awash with folly, enslaved to sin. God forbid that I should ever be arrogant or self-righteous in judgment – but a true and humble disciple of Lady Wisdom. Amen.

Are you really you?

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

Jesus said, For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person… Matthew 15:19-20

Everything they [the teachers of the law and the Pharisees] do is done for people to see… Matthew 23:5

Many years ago I worked as a part-time hospital chaplain. This involved interacting with staff as well as patients, and one day I met a young man wheeling a trolley whose face seemed familiar, but which I couldn’t place. I said Hello anyway and apologised for not remembering who he was. “Oh, don’t worry about that!” he replied cheerfully, “I decided to change my image a bit”. Ah! As soon as he said that I understood my confusion – of course! he’d drastically altered his hair-style and various other things.

Thinking about it, I found myself pondering, “What a strange thing to do! Why would anybody feel the need to ‘change their image’! How much time, energy and even money might be wasted in changing one’s image? Why would anyone even feel the need to have an image, never mind change it?”

But then it struck me that in truth many if not all of us (certainly me!), tend to be more or less “image-conscious” – we want to feel confident that we come across to other people in a good way. What we are actually like takes second place to what we want people to think we are like.

The word of God through the prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7 puts the key point with crystal clarity: God is not interested in how we look outwardly, our “image”; but he is very interested in the condition of our hearts, what we are really like inside. Don’t worry, I didn’t launch into an impromptu sermon that day in the hospital corridor; but for those of us who claim to be followers of Christ, this surely is a truth which we need to frequently remind ourselves of.

I can think of various ways this simple saying, taken with proper seriousness, can help us to be better followers of Jesus, to be, in fact more like the human beings God wants us to be.

First, it is a safeguard against anxiety.

Many of our anxieties are just inevitable and, as I wrote in a recent blog, it is our responsibility to bring them under control with the help of the Holy Spirit. But how many are self-inflicted? How much anxiety do we load upon our own shoulders by worrying unnecessarily what other people think of us? How much energy, effort and time do we burn up struggling to “keep up with the Joneses”, bothering about our “image”.

I started to go grey in my early twenties. Various people were kind enough to recommend preparations which would keep the dreaded grey at bay; some did this as a friendly joke, others, I fear, more seriously. But such is my sometimes rebellious spirit that I had no difficulty batting that suggestion aside. (I claim no credit for that, of course: I wish I could say the same of other temptations to “go with the flow”.)

I hit upon what seemed to me a good, practical life-motto: Be like Christ -  and be yourself. As long as we get the order right there, that just about says it all, doesn’t it? What a weight of anxiety might be lifted if we learned to consistently snap our fingers at the world’s pressures!

Second, Samuel’s word is a safeguard against hypocrisy. 

Too much of a focus upon ourselves, then, can be a self-inflicted burden, a folly of our own making. But let’s crank it up a notch: it can also invite the sin of hypocrisy.

This word originally meant “play-acting”, pretending, putting on a show, and the link between it and “religion” is no accident. Jesus often used it to criticise the religious leaders of his day, not least in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and in Matthew 23.

Is there anything hostile unbelievers enjoy more than pointing out areas where we Christians display evidence of hypocrisy? Sometimes, of course, their criticisms are unjust; but, sadly, too often that isn’t the case. And we don’t need to be scribes and Pharisees to fall into it.

This week I’ve been following with interest the many comments in the media on the life of former American president Jimmy Carter. What’s been particularly noticeable is the way people – people of all faiths and no faith - have queued up to pay tribute to his humility, honesty and integrity. Some, also - though not many – have drawn attention to his “simple” and “devout” Christian faith. Oh yes, they have commented too perhaps on what they see as his failures politically; but this almost universal respect for him as a person is very striking.

No doubt Carter was far from perfect; he himself was the first to say so. But if “what you see is what you get” is a good definition of the non-hypocritical Christian, it certainly seems to have fitted him.

To sum up: there are two you’s and two me’s; the outer, public one, and the inner, secret one. The question is: Are they in alignment with one another? That is the key to Spirit-filled, Christlike holiness.

Dear Father, forgive please my often unthinking tendency to put on a show, to worry too much what other people may think of me, especially to hide corrupt thoughts and feelings under a veneer of goodness. Help me day by day not only to appear like Jesus, but truly to be like him. Amen.

For further reflection – Paul’s sobering lists in Galatians 5:19-26