As long as you both shall live

June 2015

I have conducted two weddings this weekend, one in Burton and one in Holme, and have been reminded what an enjoyable part of my job that is.  It seems to me that most people still think that weddings are worth a great deal of effort – everyone dresses carefully, great care is taken over the smallest details of the day and large amounts of emotional energy are invested, especially by the bride and groom.

Although most of us have heard the same vows made many times it would be hard to deny that something very significant is happening as bride and groom face each other and speak those gripping words of commitment.  We are witnessing the beginning of true love, not the first feelings of attraction and desire but the public commitment to love, to do good to another person.  We hear them promise that they will maintain this true love not until the sparkle appears to have gone out of the relationship but all the way to their dying breath.

But the church marriage service says something about the bride and groom that may seem puzzling:  “It is God’s purpose that they shall be united in that love as Christ is united with his Church.”  What does that mean?  It means that God himself designed human marriage to be a miniature reflection of the big event that lies at the centre of our world’s story, a marriage to eclipse all marriages, the forming of a deep eternal bond between the perfect groom, God’s own Son Jesus, and the people called together by God to collectively form his Son’s bride.  (‘Church’ literally means ‘the called out ones’.)

Imagine the delight that a young child feels at the GP surgery when she sees that her plastic toys exist in the real world too – there really are stethoscopes and thermometers and syringes!  In the same way our weddings are small-scale copies – the real thing exists too, there is a dream wedding and for those who trust in Christ it’s our big day!

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

Lost and Found

May 2015

If you walked through Burton just before Easter you may have noticed sheep sheltering in various windows in the village, looking a little lost.  Fortunately some children were willing to use part of their Easter holiday to search for the sheep and to report their whereabouts to us when they arrived at our ‘Lost and Found’ Holiday Club. 

The Club was run by a team from the churches in Holme and Burton and was held in the Burton Memorial Hall.  About 30 children from both villages came for teaching, games and other activities.  Over the three days we heard three stories that Jesus told to explain his own mission.  He is like a shepherd who leaves the flock while he searches for a sheep that is lost.  He is like a woman who loses a silver coin but who turns the house upside down until the coin is found.  When a son walks out of a family and makes a mess of his life, Jesus is like the father who longs to be able to welcome his wayward son back into the heart of the family. 

With each story Jesus is explaining why he, a man whose life was beyond criticism, gained a reputation for eating and drinking with those thought to be less-than-wholesome.  Jesus says that no-one should be surprised – that is exactly what he came for, to find those who have distanced themselves from God and bring them back into his family. 

In Jesus’ story, there is also an apparently loyal older brother who ends up outside the family; he is self-righteous (unable to see that he too is lost) and angry with his father for forgiving his brother. Jesus is challenging us:  Do you think it is a good thing that I’m finding lost people or not?  Are you with me or against me?

Our ‘Lost and Found’ Holiday Club was a small part of the task that Jesus gives: to let everyone know that he is searching for lost people to bring them home to himself; he loves doing this.

“The Son of Man (that’s Jesus) came to seek and to save lost people” (Luke 19:10)

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

A different kind of hero

April 2015

Alexander the Great was just 20 when he became ruler of Macedonia in 336 BC.  For the next 13 years he led the Macedonian army on an incredible military campaign, capturing the whole of the Persian Empire and adopting for himself the title ‘King of Kings’.

Alexander was a Classical hero, a ruthless warrior-king with a huge ego.  Such a man would not be acceptable to us today as a leader of Britain.  We want our leaders to be strong but we expect them to serve us (the Prime Minister is the First Servant).  We want them to be on the side of oppressed people everywhere, not to go conquering and robbing other nations for us.  Our heroes are not those who selfishly dominate others but those who jump into icy water to save others or who remain at the controls to steer the plane away from houses.

So what changed our definition of true heroism, and why don’t all cultures in the world agree on this?

The Indian writer Vishal Mangalwadi* has given a simple answer which is all the more compelling because he has looked in on Western culture from the outside:  he says we have been deeply influenced by one man and by the book that tells his story.  This man’s influence has been growing for 2000 years but has been most deeply felt in those countries where the Bible has for hundreds of years been read and absorbed – in North America and Britain, and elsewhere in NW Europe.

Far from making us proud we should be grateful for this moulding of our minds, but also alarmed that the source of this influence is now largely blocked up.  How long will it be before the reservoir of habitual self-sacrificial love dries up?

Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant”.  Even he, Jesus, had “not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Good Friday has given us a very different kind of hero.

Happy Easter!

Graham Burrows

*in ’The Book That Made Your World’ (Thomas Nelson, 2011)

Better than a dusty old book

March 2015

How many Bibles do you have in your house?   Most houses have acquired some: the Bible presented at school, an old family Bible, a baptism or wedding present.  And, of course, Bibles are available free on-line.  So why aren’t more people convinced that Jesus is all-important?

Surely (some would say) if God really wants us to believe in his Son he’ll have to do better than give us a dusty old book!  Could he arrange for some writing in the sky, personally addressed to me?  Or answer my prayers in a miraculous way?  If his Son was willing to put in an appearance in the 1st Century could he perhaps show up again in the 21st Century, here in England?  Or could God send someone back from the dead to give us some clarity about the life to come?

Jesus once told a story about a man who, having failed to prepare to meet his maker, ends up in hell (Luke 16).  When he realizes there is no way out for him, he starts to worry about his five brothers who, he suspects, are going to end up in the same place.  Could someone be sent back from the dead to warn them?  When he is told that his brothers can easily read their Bibles he makes a final plea: “No!  But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.”

How many people today feel the same?  Miracles done in front of other people or in a past age don’t count; I demand evidence individually presented to me before I will believe.

The punchline in Jesus’ story is striking: If the five brothers “do not listen to Moses and the Prophets (ie the part of the Bible that they already have) they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”  The irony is that Jesus knows that he himself will rise from the dead and be seen by hundreds of eyewitnesses, yet many will still refuse to trust in him.

Because the Bible can be a difficult book to understand we regularly offer opportunities to join a small group where its message is clearly explained and questions can be asked.  If you ring or e-mail me I will happily tell you when the next group is getting together.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows 

Baptism Pictured

February 2015

The candle flickered as William blew dust off the yellowed paper.  It must have lain hidden behind the rafters of their little one-room cottage for many years.

Uncurling it William saw the crest of Lord Grace who lived in the manor house at the head of the valley.  The neat writing was badly faded but it appeared to be about the entry into service of a child.  He was “from this day forward, without end, to be available as required for work in the house, on the estate and elsewhere” and, if necessary, “to defend the property and family of Lord Grace”.  He was expected to report regularly to the House for instruction.  But these were no ordinary terms of service; William, in amazement, saw that Lord Grace was promising that this child would “enjoy the rights and privileges of a son” and, in time, a full share in all his estate and wealth.

At the bottom of the paper, under the signatures, was a date – why, the paper was nearly as old as he was!  And then suddenly a terrible thought pierced William’s mind.  He held the top of the paper close to the candle flame and peered hard at the faded name.  And there it was: William Marshall.   He was the child! It was his own Father’s signature at the bottom!  Why had he never heard about this? Why had his parents not told him about his obligations while they were alive?  To think he had struggled here in poverty all these years unaware of his benefactor!

What should he do?  Put the paper back and pretend he’d never seen it?  But surely Lord Grace had not forgotten?  If he was in deep trouble now how could it help to add further years of indifference?  But how could he turn up at the manor house after all this time?  He sat for an hour or more unable to do anything.

And then William remembered the promises.  He didn’t deserve them, but he had heard that Lord Grace was both severe and generous.  Even after all this time was there a chance that he would still honour his promise and welcome William as his own son?  Might he forgive?  The thought burned within him as he rolled up the paper, tucked it into his waistcoat pocket and grasped the door latch.

Graham Burrows

He's one of us!

December 2014

So your little spacecraft catches the top of a xylon tree, and crashes with a terrifying splintering into the thick undergrowth.   There you lie, half in and half out of your cockpit, trapped and in great pain, breathing the strange air of planet Eremos.

Hours later you hear a rustling in the bushes; something heading your way in a hurry, beating back the undergrowth.  Could this be help?  But what kind of rescuer could you expect on this strange planet?  What kind of creature is approaching?  Even if it wants to help will it talk your language, will it understand what you need, will it know how to help you?

What a relief then to see the bushes part and a man appear.  It’s an earthling!  He looks like you.  He’s dressed as you are.  He calls out, “Are you alright? Hold on there!”  Here’s someone who understands human bones and blood, and cries and tears, someone who knows what you need.  He’s one of us!

When God comes to rescue men and women how does he come?  As an alien being?  As one of the other creatures he has made – perhaps a strong lion or a friendly dolphin?  No, he comes as a man.  Jesus is God in the flesh – but it is human flesh.  He’s one of us!

Why does this matter?  Because the rescue cannot succeed otherwise.  We human beings have got ourselves and our world into the mess that we’re in.  A human being must get us out, but there is no man on earth who can do this – we’re all trapped and injured in the wreck of our spaceship. 

So God becomes man.  Jesus is the man who lives the life that all men should live but none do.  Jesus is the man who takes on himself God’s just punishment of the rebellion of all men.  Jesus is the man who goes where no man has been able to go before, breaking through death and emerging victorious on the other side with the prototype new life that can never be destroyed.

And he does all this for his brothers; it is his rescue mission to fellow human-beings.

The rescuer has arrived and he’s one of us!

Happy Christmas!

Graham Burrows

We will remember them

November 2014

At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.  We will remember them because they gave their own lives for the sake of others.  We will teach our children to remember them because generations are inextricably linked; even though our children were not alive in either World War they can truly say these people died for me.

When we say ‘we will remember them’ we intend that they will be remembered long after we have gone; we place an obligation on our grandchildren and great grandchildren, even on those yet to be born, not to forget.

We remember too God’s kindness to us as a nation.  We make no claim for our own innocence when we say that God brought down some nations and raised up others.  We take nothing away from the bravery and sacrifice of our fathers and mothers when we say that it was the Father of the Lord Jesus who gave us victory and peace and prosperity.

The people of Israel were commanded to keep alive, down through the generations, the memory of all that God had done for them.  “I will utter hidden things, things from of old – what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.  We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done” (Psalm 78:2-4).  They placed an obligation on their children to teach those yet to be born about the Lord.  They feared the rise of “a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him” (Psalm 78:8).

It is a tragedy when a nation forgets its heroes and a greater tragedy when a nation forgets its God.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows