Finishing Luke

Have you noticed the final words of Luke's gospel?

and were continually in the temple blessing God.

It is the description of what the disciples were doing when they discovered that the mysterious individual who had been appearing among them was, as some suspected, the Lord Jesus risen from the dead.

Remember at the beginning of Luke that the reason he writes is for Theophilus,

that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

By the time that Luke finishes his gospel, he thinks he has achieved his goal. The result? Those who have certainty are in the temple 'blessing God'.

The Christian life is characterized by thankfulness, focussed on and inspired by the mighty work of God.

Thankfulness

Over breakfast the girls and I were talking about the difference between Christians and non-Christians. I don't know how we got onto that.

Anyway, it seems to me (as I explained to the girls) that the main daily difference between Christians and non-christians is thankfulness, or the lack thereof. Christians give thanks to the Lord Jesus for his goodness. Non-Christians are either not thankful, or they understand that they have been blessed and don't know who to give thanks to. Another word for this is sin, which Christians still suffer from and indulge in most grievously, but they know that they have been forgiven. And they know who to give thanks to, namely the Lord Jesus, who loved us and gave himself for us.

I believe that Paul is making this sort of point in Acts 14, in this ripping yarn (Luke is good at writing ripping yarns, isn't he!):

8 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, [2] 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. 11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.

It occurs to me that Roman Catholics are not able to be thankful, because they fear God as judge and can never be certain that they truly are forgiven. Hence their prayers are full of pleading and anxiety, and sometimes they cannot bring themselves to address God directly but seek to go to his 'mother', or some other dead person. This is unwise, and only adds to their guilt before the Lord Jesus.

Anyway today I am giving thanks for my three beautiful girls, the bursting health of an early autumn garden and the genius of Fifi in giving that garden shape. A well constructed garden is like a slow seasonal fireworks display in many shades of light green.

Thankfulness

I used to think that the first thing that disappeared from a distinctively Christian life under pressure was prayerfulness. But it's not.

Like Israel in the wilderness hardening their hearts, the first thing to disappear is not prayerfulness but hope, followed by faith and love. The disappearance of these three great Christian characteristics is evidenced outwardly and firstly by thanklessness.

Israel in the wilderness, as recorded in the Exodus story, still made their desires known—more food! more water! more meat! better leadership! (sounds not unlike Australians in the lead-up to an election campaign). They did so in an indirect way, addressing Moses and not God, the way complaining people often do. But most of all they did it with a singular lack of thankfulness for the extraordinary grace and goodness of God both past and promised.

So with me, and a lot of other people I see experiencing suffering. They don't stop praying, at least at first. Their prayers in fact become more urgent and more desperate, even to the point of bargaining with God, like the proverbial drowning man who cries out for rescue and promises to serve God forever if he will only save him. They pray because others around them are praying. They pray because it is a part of their routine.

But the idea of being content with God and his good gifts is as far from them as the east is from the west. Even the suggestion that we should be thankful meets with bitterness and incredulity.

It is understandable, of course, and I have done it myself and will do it again. But I don't think it's very good.

1    Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6    Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”

-Psalm 95

Slightly frightening here is the note of final judgement.