Author Archives: Stephen Sizer

Serving: What has love got to do with it?

What has love got to do with it? from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

Yesterday our daughter, Louise was married to Hillman here at Christ Church. They are beginning a new life together in Hong Kong. It must surely be rare for parents with three beautiful daughters, to have them all get married in the same year.  I was in South Sudan recently. My hosts were in awe at how wealthy I must surely have become as a result. In Dinka culture the father of the bride receives many cattle in exchange for each daughter. I had to explain that our society was not as enlightened and that I would probably have to wait until Michael gets married before starting my herd.

Our reading today is 1 Corinthians 13, the famous “love” chapter. It is probably most widely read at weddings. True, it is indeed the most beautiful description of love in the Bible – yet the context of the passage is not about marriage. The context is clear – I Corinthians 13 is sandwiched between teaching about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and chapter 14. Why is that? Because, like marriage, Christian ministry is not primarily about gifts and talents, its about serving in love.

These three chapters explain the relationship between the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. In this series on service and on Pledge Sunday, I want us to consider our motivation for all that we do. What is driving us – really driving us? What is our motivation in giving? In serving? I have three headings:

Love is Essential in Service (12:31-13:3)
Love is Expressed in Relationship (13:4-8)
Love is Evidence of Maturity (13:8-13)

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Unarmed but Dangerous: Spiritual Gifts Today

“It wasn’t too long after creation that the animals got together to form a school. They wanted the best school possible; one that offered each student a well-rounded curriculum of swimming, running, climbing and flying. In order to graduate the animals agreed that they would each have to take all the courses. The duck was excellent at swimming. In fact, he was better than his instructor, but he was only making passing grades at climbing and was getting a very poor grade in running. The duck was so slow in running that he had to stay after school every day to practice. Even with that, there was little improvement. His webbed feet got badly worn from running and with such worn feet he would then only be able to get half his grade in swimming. Now average was quite acceptable to everyone else, so no one worried much about it except the duck. Now the rabbit was top of her class in running, but after a while she developed a twitch in her leg from all the time she spent in the water trying to improve her swimming.

The squirrel was a natural in climbing, but was constantly frustrated in flying class. His body became so bruised from all the hard landings that he didn’t do too well in climbing and ended up being pretty poor in running. The eagle was a continual problem student. She was disciplined for being nonconformist. For example, in climbing class she would always beat everyone else to the top of the tree, but insisted on using her own way to get there. Each of the animals had a particular area of expertise. When they did what they were designed to do they excelled. When they tried to operate outside their area of expertise, they were frustrated and ineffective. Can ducks run? Of course they can. Is that what they do best? Definitely not!

Just as every animal has been designed uniquely for survival, so every Christian has been given unique gifts and talents to grow the Church, the Body of Christ.[i] We were planned for God’s pleasure. This is our deepest need, our first and most fundamental purpose in life. To know God and enjoy him forever. Our second purpose in life is to discover we were formed for God’s family. In his family we find a place to belong., a place to serve and be fruitful, a place to grow.

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Why are we wired so differently?

Why are we wired so differently? (1 Corinthians 12) from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

What was your worst life experience ever? Do you ever reflect back on the trauma and with the passage of time, now see the hand of God at work, even in your darkest moment?  A while back I spent an eventful night visiting various local emergency health centres after three different antibiotics had failed to deal with an infection. A subsequent enforced stay in hospital left me physically drained but curiously refreshed and deeply aware about what matters most to me in life. I can’t say I found spending a wakeful night in pain lying on a 2.6 wide trolley in Accident & Emergency exactly heaven. Or indeed the next few days in a ward at St Peters.

I did however meet many angels from a wide range of countries serving in the NHS.  In the space of 72 hours, as I observed the world going by my temporary home on wheels, in my enforced child-like dependence, I realised that a hospital is far more than just a loose collection of doctors and nurses. It is a highly disciplined, multi-dimensional 24 x 7 operation including paramedics and ambulance crews, receptionists and porters, nursing staff, auxiliary’s, ward sisters, surgeons, anaesthetists, junior doctors, consultants, pharmacists, technicians, lab assistants, cleaners, chefs and a hospital chaplaincy team. These highly qualified and deeply motivated guardian angels, used their skills and talents with one objective in mind – to help me get well again. Each has been trained, equipped and recruited for a specific role within that organisation. Each knows their job description, what is expected of them and to whom they are accountable. Despite their different uniforms, positions and titles, most have one thing in common – the desire to serve, to heal the sick, listen to the troubled, counsel the confused and comfort the dying, with patience, grace and humour. Continue reading →

What are you really passionate about?

What are you passionate about? I mean really passionate about? Or put another way, What do you care about most?  It may be a burden we carry, a call we’ve received, a dream we have, or a vision we’ve glimpsed. Whatever you call it, passion is the God-given desire to make a difference somewhere. What you are passionate about? We are all passionate about someone or something.

It might be your wife or your husband, a girlfriend or a boyfriend, maybe its your children, your grandchildren, your family, a hobby, some cause, a sport or maybe the armed forces. Today we are remembering with gratitude those who gave their lives in the service of their country. Passionate about defending our country. Passionate about protecting our democracy. Passionate enough to give their lives. You may not be called to give your life up but if you are a Christian you have been called to invest your life in His majesty’s service. What are you passionate about?  Others can easily tell even if you can’t. When someone asks you about your passion, you come alive, your eyes open wide, your pupils dilate, you raise your voice, you become animated, your skin has more colour, you can’t stop talking about it, you feel energized. What are you passionate about? In John’s gospel we find Jesus encouraging us to be passionate about three things. To develop a passion for God, a passion for the Church and a passion for the lost.

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Evangelical Theology & American Politics in the Middle East

On September 12th, following the tragic news of the murder of Ambassador Stevens, together with members of his staff, sheltering in the US Consulate in Benghazi, a grief stricken Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton asked a simple question. A question that was on the lips of many Americans: “How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?” Andrew Bacevich, writing in Newsweek, asks,

“Why the Arab anger against the United States? Why the absence of gratitude among the very people the United States helped save, in the very countries Americans helped liberate? The way Secretary Clinton frames the question practically guarantees a self-satisfying but defective answer.”

The question, he argues, is predicated on three propositions that are regarded as sacrosanct by most US politicians and policy makers.

“First: humanity yearns for liberation, as defined in Western (meaning predominantly liberal and secular terms). Second: the United States has a providentially assigned role to nurture and promote this liberation… Third: given that American intentions are righteous and benign (most of the time) – the exercise of US power on a global scale merits respect and ought to command compliance.”[i]

I would add a fourth proposition, assumed as self evident, especially among Evangelicals, that, as God’s ‘chosen people’ the security of the State of Israel is synonymous with US interests in the Middle East and her God ordained role.

The problem is that the Arab world and Muslims, in particular, do not only not share these propositions, they repudiate them theologically. It is not that they do not aspire to political freedom from despotic rulers and oppressive governments. The Arab Spring has shown that many do indeed hunger for freedom. The problem is, observes Bacevich, “that 21st century Muslims don’t necessarily buy America’s 21st century definition of it – a definition increasingly devoid of moral content.”

Freedom of speech is assumed sacrosanct even if it offends those of other religions. Whether the movie, Innocence of Muslims was indeed responsible for sparking Muslim outrage and the subsequent violence against US interests is irrelevant. The promotion of the film by Fundamentalist Christians and their antipathy toward Islam certainly is.  What we tend to ignore, while Muslims cannot forget, it the simple fact is that for more than 100 years, Christians in the USA and Europe have sponsored, defended, funded and sustained the Zionist enterprise in preference to developing normative relations with the Arab world.

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Broken Promises: The Road to Balfour

A paper on the historical link between proto Christian Zionism and the Balfour Declaration delivered at a conference organised by the Balfour Project in association with the Church of Scotland at the Quaker Meeting House in Edinburgh on Friday 2nd November.

Introduction

In this presentation we are going to trace some of the significant events and individuals that led to the Balfour Declaration.

1. Puritanism and the Conversion of the Jews

The road to Balfour began in the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation brought about a renewed interest in the Old Testament and God’s dealings with the Jewish people. From Protestant pulpits right across Europe, the Bible was for the first time in centuries being taught within its historical context and was given its plain literal sense. At the same time, a new assessment of the place of the Jews within the purposes of God emerged.

Puritan eschatology was essentially postmillennial and believed the conversion of the Jews would lead to future blessing for the entire world. In 1621, for example, Sir Henry Finch, an eminent lawyer and member of the English Parliament, published a book,

The World’s Great Restauration (sic) or Calling of the Jews, (and with them) all the Nations and Kingdoms of the Earth, to the Faith of Christ.

By the late 17th Century and right through the 18th Century, especially during the period of the Great Awakening, postmillennial eschatology dominated European and American Protestantism.[1] The writings and preaching of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758),[2] as well as George Whitefield, were influential in the spread of the belief that the millennium had arrived, that the gospel would soon triumph against evil throughout the world. God’s blessings of peace and prosperity would follow the conversion of Israel, prior to the glorious return of Christ.[3]

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Does God have a Purpose for my Life?

Does God have a Purpose for my Life? from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

Over the next few weeks we are going to discover God’s plan for his Church and your place within it.

Each week we will ask one question. As we begin the series today, the question I want us to answer is this, “Does God have a purpose for my life?” Yes he does. In fact the Bible tells us that God has at least five purposes for our lives.

  1. We were planned for God’s pleasure – to know him and love him (John 17:3).
  2. We were formed for God’s family – to find a spiritual home and family (Acts 2:42).
  3. We were created to become like Christ – revealing his character (Galatians 5:22-23).
  4. We were shaped for serving God – with a unique mix of talents, skills and passion for serving in the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12).
  5. We were made for a mission – to introduce other people to God’s five purposes for them too – to win, build and send (Matthew 28:18-20).

Without knowing our God-given purpose we can so easily become driven by destructive influences. Here are three of the most common that drive people.

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