WEAK FLESH, WILLING SPIRIT
“Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.’ And all of them said the same.”
Peter spoke for all of the friends on the night before Jesus died. Bold words of commitment to stand by their Lord, master, teacher, brother and friend.
No wonder that just a short while later, as Jesus returned from praying - asking his Father to take the cup he must drink away from him - that he could say over the sleeping disciples “ the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”.
And so it would prove to be. A few hours later, challenged about his association with the one facing trial, Peter would deny Jesus - three times. And then the cock crowed.
Jesus knew. Our flesh, our human nature, is weak even when our spirit , our soul, our connection to God, is willing and enabled.
But the Holy Spirit is strong and wise and willing and able to do more than we can imagine through us. But we need to co-partner with that work.
Our vision at Christ Church is Making Passionate Disciples for Christ. Undergirding this are three things:
- Rooted and grounded in God’s Word
- Led by the Holy Spirit
- Giving it away
There is a diagram on the church door that has been there since the Welcome Tea that encapsulates the elements of how we aim to live that out. We are a worshipping family looking up to God and giving him glory and praise. We seek to grow as disciples (followers or apprentices) in many ways. We invite others into that family by sharing the good news of the Gospel (we call that Evangelism) and we demonstrate Gods love for us in the way we seek to love and care for one another. This is another way others outside of church may see that we are disciples of Christ, by the love shown to each other. And we get the opportunity to share love and evangelise through the community connections we make.
This all accords with the intention of the new book published by two friends from the Evangelical Alliance. “Good News People” is Gavin Calver and Phil Knox’s attempt to capture the hopefulness of evangelicalism “yesterday, today and tomorrow”.
They outline what evangelical means (and what it doesn’t!), the core beliefs and out workings of an evangelical understanding of faith in Christ and then go on to outline ways in which evangelicals can live out that faith.
Evangelical, like the word Gospel, stems from the Greek for “Good News”, therefore Evangelicals should at root be “Good News People”.
Their prescription is a winsome set of pairs:
- brave and kind
- culturally relevant without selling out
- hopeful and realistic
- go for decisions (commitment to Christ) and make disciples
- United and diverse
They outline what Evangelicalism should be and are honest about where it has historically fallen short.
At root the liturgy and formularies of the Church of England assume an Evangelical understanding (all things for salvation being found in Holy Scripture) manifesting in a range of practices to live that out. Not all would agree!
To be an Evangelical means being “rooted and grounded in God’s word”. It means desiring that the Good News be given away , so that others may make the decision for themselves to receive that Good News in their hearts, and by proclaiming with their mouths that “Jesus is Lord”. And, it means a reliance on the Holy Spirit to “open up our minds so that we can understand the Scriptures” and also to equip us and guide us to do God’s perfect will.
Words can get twisted. Meanings lost.
Sin is one that needs to be reclaimed as both a reality of existence and the source of our need to be saved. Without acknowledging the existence of and consequences of sin we cannot repent and therefore we cannot commit to Jesus who saves us.
Another is Evangelical, which has been distorted to mean all sorts of things which are anything but “good”.
Let us both reclaim the meaning of Evangelical and seek to live out the both/ands that Phil and Gavin suggest.
God gave his Word and endowed his Spirit to help us receive that Word as acts of His love for us. We are called in turn to live this Word inspired life in love for him and for others.
That they might know that we are His disciples.
Weak in flesh but willing in spirit, strengthened by His Spirit to do all that he would have us be.
Amen.
Every blessing
Doug
Vicar@christchurchpurley.org.uk
HOW MUCH MORE?