Joy to the World: Mary's Song.

The Magnifcat (Luke 1:46-55); It’s sung across the globe around this time of year in thousands of churches. It’s called the Magnificat because that’s the first word in the Latin version. My soul magnifies the Lord – we’re talking magnifying in the telescope sense rather than microscope. We’re not taking something small and making it bigger, we’re looking at something huge and getting a detailed glimpse of a fraction of it.

It’s exciting. My Soul Glorifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my saviour!

We’ve lost the music and the tune she sang it to but you can almost hear the passion and excitement and wonder and amazement in Mary’s voice as this incredible experience begins to sink in. It’s like when an athlete becomes world champion all the interviews afterwards are loaded with phrases like ‘I can’t believe what has happened, it hasn’t sunk in yet’. People trying to put into words the extreme emotion they’re bursting with. And that’s what Mary is doing... but why?

She’s maybe 13/14/15 years old. She’s just been told she’s pregnant. She’s signed up to nine months of scandal because Nazareth, where she’s grown up and where she lives and where she’s engaged to the local tradesman, is a small town where everyone knows everybody else’s business. And a pregnancy outside of marriage will not go untalked about – oh no! Conversations over garden fences, outside Sainsbury’s, on buses, in the street – they’ll all be about Mary. Poor little knocked-up Mary.

But still she sings.
And what she sings gives us a hint of the kind of girl she is.

New Lyrics: You Say

You say 'love the poor', and 'seek the lost', and 'help the weak'
You say 'shout for those who have no voice; who cannot speak'
Putting others first, living life with joyful mercy
The purpose of the Church is to live in humble service
Here I am use me

You call us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves
You call us to give selflessly, to share the wealth
Loving those hurt, binding up the brokenhearted
the purpose of the Church: to carry on what Jesus started
Loving those in need

You will not forget or leave us, God, you're always here
You give us a hope that never fails, that perseveres
Not left in the lurch, your Spirit is our help and comfort
The purpose of the Church, empowered by our loving Father

Christ my Lord
O I adore you
Here I am use me

Jimmy Orr ©2010

Don't just talk, Tell the Story

We are officially in a very magical time of year. It's December. There is snow all across the UK at present. But more importantly, we are in the season of Advent.

Traditionally advent is the period before Christmas when the Church awaits the coming of Baby Jesus, the King, the Christ. It's a time punctuated with carol services and nativity plays and various other Christmassy events. Candles are lit and advent calenders help countdown the days until 25th December. It's all very, very exciting and can often see the most reserved of grown-ups transform with the giddiest, childlike anticipation of Christmas Day and all that brings.

In the church environment preparations increase for the expected rush of people craving carols and free mince pies and mulled wine. It's a time of year when people, who would not usually set foot inside a church without good reason, may decide to venture inside the door to experience the religious side of this holiday.

It is for this reason that I offer this advice, which I saw on a whiskey advert recently and that struck me as the Lord working in mysterious ways: 'Don't just talk; tell the story'

To those who lead churches or have the opportunity to speak this Christmastim - Don't just talk, Tell the story. Don't just churn out another sermon, tell the story of the Word of God becoming human. Tell the story of Mary and Joseph - God using ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Tell the story of sheperds - the socially despised work force being the first to be invited into the adventure. Tell the story of a child born a king, who inspired wise men to travel huge distances just to pay respect. Tell the story of a child who set a whole city on edge, how he would grow up to be the most famous person in history.

And to those who may not be speaking to the masses but will have conversations this festive season, Don't just talk, Tell the story. Follow the shepherds' example. They told everyone they met about what they had seen and heard and 'all who heard were astounded'.

Don't just talk - don't waste words on complaining about the inconvience of the snow and how stressful the journey to work is and how we're never prepared for snow yada yada yada -

Tell the Story

New Lyrics: 'This is the Church'

The broken, the beaten, the 'outcasts', the 'heathens' arrive
The rich and the poor enter through the same door; side by side
Those who rejoice stand with those with no voice; hand in hand
Cultures together with pleasure. United we stand.

We can all find a home here
A place to belong
Where brothers and sisters
Can sing out one song
And the love that we find here
Quenches our thirst
It’s the body of Jesus
This is the Church.

A family of strangers arranged through the dangers of life
To talk to, support you and walk you through hardship and strife
Let’s celebrate great things. Relationships growing so strong
Standing on touchlines at all times, cheering us on!

Jimmy Orr © 2010

Manly Worship?

It has been argued time and time again that contemporary worship songs are 'too feminine'. Love songs to Jesus are labelled 'Jesus is my Boyfriend' songs and regarded as stumbling blocks for the 'man's man' in the church. There are too many phrases like 'pouring out my heart', 'you're beautiful', 'I love you'; songs are filled with lyrics loaded with girly words such as precious, lovely and 'darling of heaven'.

I have three initial thoughts on the subject.

Firstly, a lot of the 'Jesus is my boyfriend' style songs are in fact written by men. Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and a whole host of other male contemporary song-writers. How does singing these songs written by these men of God make worship 'too feminine'?

Secondly, How is it that men are happy to use 'feminine' language to say that a curry was 'beautiful' or that their team's goal was a 'lovely' strike, or that their car drives 'like a dream' but as soon as they're in church trying to engage in worshipping God - who is far more beautiful and lovely than any dish or sporting achievement or vehicle - feminine language is a stumbling block?

Finally, I do agree that variety of language, themes and styles can only be a good thing in the Church's worship repertoire. The psalms are full of a blend of masculine and feminine poetry. We do need to widen our scope for describing our emotions and thoughts and theology and expressing our worship. But refusing to worship using songs because they're 'too girly' is not the answer.

Blokes of the church, Man Up!

The Big Story: Part 1

The Bible. It’s true the 'good book' is actually a collection of 66 books and that those sixty-six books are divided into two testaments, the old made up of 39 books and the new with the remaining 27.
It’s true that some of those books are historical books, same are poetry books some are visionary books some are letters and prayers and songs.
It’s true that many different authors from different eras in history contributed to the books that have been canonised (that is they’ve been especially and prayerfully selected and compiled and set apart as being holy)...
But while all this is true, there is One Big Story that threads its way through each and every page. Whether it’s blatantly obvious and explicit or shrouded in mystery and hidden away in some kind of cryptic prophesy... the Big Story is there. All the books are interconnected and entwined and meshed together. All part of The Big Story.

** This picture illustrates all the cross references between every chapter of every book of the Bible**

And so it begins, Genesis chapter 1, beginning at verse one...

“In the beginning... God”

The Big Story began long before the first words of Bible were even scrawled on the first piece of parchment. And like all good stories, we’re introduced to the leading Character - God.

Throughout this story we discover all about his character and personality as he gradually reveals more and more about himself. This story is all about him, and he was there at the beginning, in fact, he was there before it began. He has always been there. He is truly eternal, which doesn’t just mean that he will never die but it means he has always been. He is God.

When he calls himself ‘I AM’ in the Second Book, called Exodus, he isn’t lying. He just IS. He always has been, he is right now and he always will be. And he is Perfect and Unique, and he’s unique in his perfection. He is unlike anything or anyone else ever. The One and the Only. Supreme and Sovereign... He is God.
Thankfully for us he knows that he is God – because if he didn’t know he was God it would prove that he wasn’t God but he does know that he is God and he loves the fact he’s God and so all is right with Everything.

So, we have our lead character. We are introduced to God. A God who is and always has been one and three - a mysterious trilogy of deity within one perfect and unique God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in an eternally perfect and loving relationship – “God in three persons, Blessed Trinity”. The Hero of our Story, God, is different. He is perfect community and yet he is one. He is love, and also lover and beloved. He is God. He is Holy, set apart, distinct. And before time began, before anything was ever created, before even the slightest hint of a big bang, God was – Father, Son and Spirit – in perfect loving community within Himself. Worthy of all glory, all honour, all praise…

Hello?! he hasn’t done anything yet! Often in our songs and in our prayers we praise God for what he’s done, which is a good thing, but He hasn’t done anything at this point and yet that doesn’t have any effect whatsoever on how worthy he is, on how amazing he is, on how holy he is, on how great he is. He is God which means that by his very nature, the very essence of who is he, the very core of his being, by the innate, natural, inherent basis of who he is… he is entirely and exclusively worthy to be worshipped! We worship him primarily and wholly for Who He Is because He. Is. God!

It’s a good start to a story isn’t it?

Don't React. Respond.

In our relationships, whether at home, work, out and about wherever we may be and whatever we may be doing we can either react or respond. At first glance the two are not all that different but there is one distinct difference between the two that makes one for better for us to use than the other. The main difference between the two is control.

Reactions are automatic. Isaac Newton said "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." You can’t help it. It just happens. It's like watching someone belly flop from a high diving board – the moment you hear that slap of flesh on water you can’t help but ‘oooooohhh’ That’s a reaction.

Responses are controlled. They involve time to reflect, consider one’s actions and make your move. Responses are far more helpful in relationships than reactions. But they take a lot more work to master.

If there was one person who lived a lifestyle of reactions and learned this lesson the hard way it was a guy called Peter. Peter was one of Jesus’ closest friends. He was one of his apprentices, his followers. Peter had a habit of reacting rather than responding to various situations... and we’re going to look at a couple examples of his rashness and see how we can learn from his mistakes.