Stephen McAlpine on Being the Bad Guys

Every month, The Good Book Company make available digital versions of one of their books at no charge. This month (February 2025) it’s Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn’t, by Stephen McAlpine, which is available in exchange for an email address here.

In Exile with Ezekiel #2: God’s Loving Promise

I wrote this week’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’ […] They will return to [the land] and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 11:16-20

The trauma of displacement stamps itself on the visions and sayings of Ezekiel. He even acts out its humiliation and horrors in his own body, becoming a living demonstration of God’s message to those in exile.

That message is poignantly captured in the vision recorded in chapters 8–11 of his prophecy. Ezekiel sees judgment brought on those practising idolatry and perpetrating injustice in the temple and Jerusalem, before then witnessing the sad departure of God’s glory from his sanctuary and holy city.

On the face of it, not the most encouraging message!

But it was one the people needed to hear. Because, for all its sombreness, it insists that the Lord is in charge. God isn’t too weak to stop Babylon defeating the nation and destroying the temple. In fact, it’s the mysterious path he has chosen. It’s part of his larger plan to purify the people and restore his presence among them.

That’s why even this darkest of moments is accompanied with a promise of renewal on the other side of judgment. While God has left the temple, he has not abandoned his people in exile, and promises to be a ‘sanctuary’ for them there. What’s more, he’ll bring them back, give them new hearts, and restore them to a life of service.

Like other sufferers of traumatic events, Ezekiel’s hearers needed a way to reweave their experiences into a larger, more-encompassing, life-giving plot. Ezekiel’s message offered a way for them to understand their displacement within a story which brought together past, present, and future in the light of the Lord’s work – not only in their lives but for the sake of the world in which they were called to live.

God’s promises to us have a way of doing that.

For us, too, trauma can come in different shapes and sizes. For us, too, is the reminder that God’s purposes will never be derailed by the Babylons of this world, whatever form they take. For us, too, is an assurance that in our deepest need, we are secure in him. Even if his hand leads us into exile, he will be present with us there, and will one day bring about our full and final restoration.

Such is his commitment. Such is his love.

In Exile with Ezekiel #1: God’s Empowering Presence

I wrote this week’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the River Kebar, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God […] This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell face down, and I heard the voice of one speaking. He said to me, ‘Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.’ As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

Ezekiel 1:1, 28 and 2:1-2

Until fairly recently, western Christians have enjoyed a sense of being at home in the world. Not completely, of course, but able to exercise significant power nonetheless.

That tide has turned.

We might not be facing outright hostility, and nor have we been completely removed from places of influence, but today’s culture seems more alien to Christianity than it used to be. Increasingly, Christians are having to learn what it means to ‘sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land’ (Psalm 137:4).

Although it’s easy to overstate the case, it’s as if we’re in exile. This description – which reverberates through the pages of Scripture – captures something significant about our identity and our mission. It involves recognising that we do not yet live in our ultimate home, even as we serve the Lord where we are here and now.

Recapturing the language of exile may help us understand some of the cultural changes taking place and allow us to see the life to which we are called – where the goal is not simply to survive in order to get through, but to be shaped into a people who bear God’s saving presence in and for a broken world.

What does being a Christian look like in such a context? What will prevent us from being absorbed into a culture that so powerfully shapes our identity? What will ensure our faith is more than just a bolt-on activity or accessory to an already-full life?

We need what Ezekiel received as he kicked his way along the banks of the River Kebar in Babylon – a vision of the glory of God. A vision which shows God is not restricted or contained, but real and present with his people. A vision which anticipates the one who would himself embody God’s presence, the one who ‘made his dwelling among us’, of whom Christians are able to say: ‘we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14).

If exile provides an opportunity to be faithful to Jesus in the time and place in which we live, Ezekiel’s vision of God’s kingly glory reminds us that God will not abandon us, but will make himself present to us, fill us with his Spirit, and give us a task to do.

Didache 20, 1 (2020)

The latest issue of Didache (sponsored by the International Board of Education of the Church of the Nazarene) is now available, with several of the essays addressing issues related to Covid-19.

Here are some excerpts from the Editorial:

‘We begin in biblical studies with Samuel Hildebrandt, Lecturer at NTC Manchester, who revisits the concept of “exile” in both Jeremiah and 1 Peter to explore identity, pastoral care, and human responses to God’s “good plans” in exile... Reuben L. Lillie and Dr. Charles L. Perabeau, both from Olivet Nazarene University, provide an intriguing treatise on the creation and nature of Nazarene district organization...

‘The journal then takes another turn, this time addressing a contemporary problem affecting the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic. The recent coronavirus crisis continues to challenge the church in both its creativity and faithfulness... Each academically oriented essay serves as a measured response to the pandemic... [R]eaders will note points of continuity among these authors as well as divergence. So, one will discover varying responses from the use of technology in worship and discipleship, to contextuality and people on the margins of society, to faithful sacramental practice and ecclesial adaptation.’

The essays are available from here:

Dean G. Blevins

Introduction

Samuel Hildebrandt

Living in Tension: Exilic Identity in Jeremiah 29 and 1 Peter

Reuben L. Lillie and Charles L. Perabeau

Redefining Districts: Fulfilling a New Model for Administrative Boundaries in the Church of the Nazarene

Essays on Ministry during the Pandemic

Andrew J. Pottenger

‘Insult to the Incarnation?’ Online Technology and Christian Worship After COVID-19

Jan Duce

The Body of Christ: Together in More Ways Than One

Gabriel J Benjiman

Temple Building, Technology and Worship in a Time of Isolation

Gift Mtukwa

Ministering in a Pandemic: Learning from the Apostle in 1 Thessalonians

Albert Hung

Stitching a New Garment: Holistic Discipleship During COVID-19

Brent Peterson

Sacraments in a Pandemic

Joseph Wood

What the Early Church Can Teach Us About COVID-19: Worship Practices, Adaptability, and Concern for the Other

Review

Elliott Clark on Evangelism as Exiles

I wrote the following mini review for November 2019’s edition of Highlights, produced by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

Elliott Clark, Evangelism as Exiles: Life on Mission as Strangers in Our Own Land (The Gospel Coalition, 2019).

Drawing on his own experience of living in a majority-Muslim country and through reflections on 1 Peter, Elliott Clark explores what evangelism looks like when we see ourselves as ‘exiles’ in the world. A proper sense of our identity is crucial to being faithful witnesses to Jesus, where evangelism involves bold proclamation, holy living, genuine respect, and loving hospitality.

Currents in Biblical Research 15, 2 (February 2017)

The latest Currents in Biblical Research recently arrived, with titles and abstracts of the main articles as below.

Andrew M. Mbuvi

African Biblical Studies: An Introduction to an Emerging Discipline

African Biblical Studies (ABS) can be characterized both as innovative and reactionary: Innovative, because it refuses to be confined by the methodologies, ancient concerns, and principles that govern biblical studies in the ‘west’ (used throughout this article to refer to the majority Euro-American scholars while recognizing the presence of other groups), and instead charts a course that is more interested in making biblical interpretation relevant to present realities. Reactionary, because its driving force is partly a critique of the inadequacy of western biblical studies in providing meaningful responses to concerns that are pertinent to African communities. A genuine ABS is therefore an amalgamation of multiple interpretive methods, approaches and foci that reflect a creative engagement of the African cosmological reality and the Bible.

Kelly J. Murphy

Judges in Recent Research

The book of Judges continues to inspire research and interpretation, from an ongoing focus on traditional research methods such as historical criticism and redaction criticism, to newer approaches like cultural criticism and postcolonial readings. This article surveys recent research on the book of Judges since 2003 by separating the discussion into two sections: the first section traces current research on the overall book of Judges as well as specific characters and/or passages, while the second section notes two growing areas of research; namely, reception history and gender studies.

Nicholas G. Piotrowski

The Concept of Exile in Late Second Temple Judaism: A Review of Recent Scholarship

Before Wright published the first two volumes of his Christian Origins and the Question of God series (1992; 1996) the discussion concerning late Second Temple Jewish concepts of exile was a quiet one. Since then, however, more and more scholars have begun to weigh in. Champions of the theory contend that Second Temple texts convey a matrix of concerns that together demonstrate a Jewish consciousness of being in a state of ongoing exile, notwithstanding the residency in the land of a significant population and a functioning temple. Dissenters argue that these scholars are illegitimately privileging one motif within a highly complex ancient religion, and assigning it a metanarrative role it never truly had. Others contend that ‘ongoing’ exile is too narrow of a description to account for the diversity of attitudes across several sects. Only recently, though, have major works been produced that thoroughly examine the primary texts in question. In the process, a growing chorus of voices is supporting, with various levels of enthusiasm, the thesis that a significant number of late Second Temple Jewish groups indeed understood themselves to be languishing in some form of exile: ongoing exile since the sixth century bce, in the throes of recurring cycles of exile, or a set of historic realities characterized with exilic metaphors.

Joshua Coutts

‘My Father’s Name’: A Survey of Research on the Use of Onoma with Respect to the Father in the Fourth Gospel

This essay provides a survey of research for one distinctive feature of the Fourth Gospel, namely, the striking emphasis on ‘name’ (onoma) language used with reference to the Father. The small existing body of research on John’s divine name concept may be situated in the context of a resurgent interest in the question of ‘God’ in the Fourth Gospel, and alongside broader New Testament research focused on the application of ‘kyrios’ to Jesus or on the divine functions attributed to Jesus’ own name. The research that has focused on John’s use of the divine name may be divided into two groups: there are attempts to identify the background to John’s name concept, including proposals for a Jewish hypostatic name concept, targumic tradition or the text of Isaiah; and studies which analyse John’s name language have sought to locate its meaning within the context of the Gospel itself.

Living with Purpose

This article was first published in the June 2016 edition of EG, the quarterly magazine of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

The tide has turned. Or so many now think. Christians are feeling the pinch on the exercise of freedom, the redefinition of marriage, the challenge of bioethics, the nature of family, the growth of Islam. It’s too much of a stretch to say we’re facing outright persecution, especially of a kind suffered by many around the world. But today’s culture seems more alien to Christianity than it used to be, and many of us sense the need to prepare for a period of increasing marginalisation in society.

What does following Jesus look like in such a context? How should we relate to the culture in which we find ourselves?

Possible options are fortification (hunker down and wait for Jesus to come back), domination (take the world for Jesus), or accommodation (give in and blend in). An alternative which has commended itself to many is what sociologist James Davison Hunter has called ‘faithful presence’. A biblical model for this is found in Jeremiah 29, the prophet’s letter to the Judean exiles in Babylon, in which he exhorts them not to dig in or to fight back or to give up, but to live in and work for the well-being of Babylonian society.’

Living in Exile?

It’s easy to overdo ‘exile’ language, particularly when it becomes a way of talking about the decline of society away from Christian mores. It can make us sound more beleaguered than we really are and cause us to forget the relative freedoms we still enjoy.

Still, although the time and situation are very different, the apostle Peter applies this 6th century BC exilic language to his 1st century AD Christian readers spread across northern Turkey. They are both ‘God’s elect’ and ‘exiles scattered’ (1 Peter 1:1), called to live ‘as foreigners here in reverent fear’ (1:17). This is in keeping with descriptions of disciples elsewhere as ‘not of the world’, though ‘sent... into the world’ (John 17:14-18), as those whose ‘citizenship is in heaven’ (Philippians 3:20), who, like Abraham, are ‘foreigners and strangers on earth... longing for a better country – a heavenly one’ (Hebrews 11:13-16).

As such, despite the differences between us and our biblical counterparts, the metaphor describes something of our ongoing status in relation to the world. We are, among other ways of understanding our identity, ‘resident aliens’ in whatever culture we inhabit. And so we can look back not only to Peter but also to Jeremiah for wisdom for today.

Living with Purpose

Jeremiah urges the exiles to establish themselves in Babylon. They still take their ultimate identity from Jerusalem – which remains their true home, and to which their descendants will one day return. Yet, through a combination of presence, productivity and prayer, something of that identity and hope is lived out in ‘foreign’ territory.

Purposeful presence

The very ordinariness of Jeremiah’s instructions in 29:5-6 may come as a surprise – ‘build... settle... plant... eat... marry... have sons and daughters... Increase in number’. It’s not too difficult to see echoes here of the original mandate given to humanity, the commission to cultivate his good creation (Genesis 1:28; 2:15). Here, in 6th-century Babylon is a reaffirmation of the significance of embodied, material, family, and social life, extended across generations.

How are ‘exiles’ to live? By carrying on doing what we have been called to do as those made in the image of God – to steward God’s good gifts to us, in relationship with others, in a way that represents his own gracious rule over all things.

We could still do this largely cut off from society around us, except that Jeremiah calls us to look outwards as well.

Purposeful productivity

‘Seek the peace and prosperity of the city’, Jeremiah tells God’s people (29:7), where ‘peace and prosperity’ translate the single Hebrew word shalom – the wholeness and wellbeing that is a mark of God’s blessing.

The active seeking of shalom means that our ‘faithful presence’ is not a passive compliance with the status quo. Indeed, as those who have been the recipients of amazing grace in Christ, we seek the welfare of the places we live through our everyday work – in doing business, manufacturing goods, providing services, teaching children, writing reports, designing software, mopping floors, stacking shelves, emptying bins, changing nappies – in different ways contributing to the broader welfare of society. It also involves being a neighbour to those around us – in our school, our university, our office, our canteen, our estate, our village, our town. It could involve becoming a school governor, joining a neighbourhood watch scheme, volunteering in a charity shop, getting involved in local politics.

It’s the same for Peter’s readers. Neither abdicating from the culture nor attacking the culture nor absorbing into the culture, his direction for them is ‘to live... good lives among the pagans’ (2:12) – which he then applies to society, the workplace, and the home. It’s precisely in these arenas that his readers will be seen to follow a different pattern – the pattern of Christ, no less – where neighbours and colleagues and family members will be prompted to ask why they do so, even in the face of suffering. 

Purposeful prayer

Then Jeremiah says there is something else we can all do for the city: ‘Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper’ (29:7). This is perhaps the most revolutionary action of all. They were used to praying for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), but this was Babylon – pagan, idolatrous, God-defying Babylon! Again, here in the 6th century BC are echoes of Paul’s call to pray for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2), and Jesus’ command to ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matthew 5:44).

Living in Hope 

This being Babylon, there will be dangers – as the books of Daniel and Esther make all too clear. Daniel and his friends are known for their witness in the face of possible death; they bear the cost of being faithful to God. Even so, they do not retreat into a holy enclave. They remain faithful even while accepting pagan names, learning the language and literature of the Babylonians, and serving in the administration of the ‘enemy’. They serve the God of Zion, even while seeking the shalom of Babylon.

Yet resident aliens often live with opposition as well as affirmation. Jesus warned his followers to expect persecution and that others would see their good deeds and glorify God (Matthew 5:10, 16). Peter also warns us to anticipate harassment, and yet to live in such a way that people will see our ‘good deeds and glorify God’ (1 Peter 2:12).

Through it all we live in hope. Jeremiah promises that God would end the exile and restore them to Jerusalem (29:10-14). For us too, we actively pursue shalom on our frontlines, and we do indeed often see the fruit of that. And we continue to pray ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’, confident that God will one day bring about the restoration of all things. Now as then, living with purpose in exile is a way of affirming that the world is in safe hands, as we set our ‘hope on the grace to be brought to [us] when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming’ (1 Peter 1:13).

Going Further

For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles 

Acton Institute, 2015 

A brilliantly-conceived, beautifully-filmed series of seven short films on how to live out our salvation ‘for the life of the world’.

The Church in Exile: Living in Hope After Christendom 

Lee Beach (IVP, 2015)

An overview of the theme of exile in the Bible and its implications for the holiness and mission of the church.

Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It 

Greg Forster (Crossway, 2014)

Looks at how Christians can bring the joy that comes through the gospel to bear on every dimension of life.

The Whole of Life for Christ: Enriching Everyday Discipleship

Antony Billington and Mark Greene (IVP, 2015)

‘Living with Purpose’ is one of several themes explored in this book. Produced in partnership with Keswick Ministries, the seven Bible studies offer individuals and groups the opportunity to explore whole-life discipleship more deeply.

Didache 16, 2 (2016) on Exile

The latest issue of Didache (sponsored by the International Board of Education of the Church of the Nazarene) carries essays on ‘A Pilgrim People Living in Exile’, flowing out of a conference on that theme.

As the Editorial notes:

‘Exile reflects a change in perspective for many evangelical and “mainstream” congregations... The feeling of exile surfaces in the face of cultural diversity, shifting assumptions of the world around the church (often associated with postmodernity as a cultural and intellectual shift), and the loss of social capitol on the part of the church due to many recent perceived failures... Yet the church remains called to be God’s people, even if congregants often feel they now represent a “pilgrim people” on a journey through unknown territory. Is Exile a helpful image for us, and what does it mean to lead theologically and pastorally in the face of these changes?’

The below essays are available from here.

Tim Green and Roger Hahn 

Peril and Promise of Exile: Biblical Narrative Speaking to us Today

Kathy Mowry

Only One Foot in Exile: Marginalization without Dispossession in North American Congregations 

Timothy R. and Shawna Songer Gaines

Being the Pilgrim People of God: Called to Identity, Mission and Ministry

Dan Boone

Eschatalogical Travelers: Practices of Discernment and Formation for and with Congregations

Gordon Smith

Formation for Ministry in a Secular Age: Equipping Clergy and Laity for the Church in Exile

The Whole of Life for Christ (3): Whole-Life Purpose

I contributed today’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. It’s the third in a series introducing themes explored more fully in the book, The Whole of Life for Christ: Enriching Everyday Discipleship, written with Mark Greene.

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters... Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’

Jeremiah 29:4-7

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

1 Peter 2:11-12

‘Seek the peace and prosperity of the city’, Jeremiah tells God’s people. That wouldn’t be such a big surprise, except that the city in view is not Jerusalem, but Babylon. Babylon – which had ransacked Jerusalem, looted its temple, and carried away the cream of its population – pagan, idolatrous, God-defying Babylon. So, how should God’s people live when their postcode puts them in exile? Some resentment, surely, antagonism even?

Jeremiah urges them to establish their presence there, to get married, have children, build houses, plant gardens, grow produce, start businesses – and to do so for the sake of the place and the people where they find themselves. They still take their ultimate identity from Jerusalem – which remains their true home, and to which their descendants will one day return. Yet, through a combination of presence, public activity and prayer, something of that identity and hope is lived out in ‘foreign’ territory.

Although the time and situation are very different, Peter applies exilic language to his Christian readers spread across northern Turkey, who are both ‘God’s elect’ and ‘exiles scattered’ (1:1), called to live ‘as foreigners here in reverent fear’ (1:17). Neither abdicating from the culture nor absorbing into the culture, Peter’s direction for them is ‘to live... good lives among the pagans’ (2:12) – which he then applies to life in society, the workplace, and the home. It’s precisely in these arenas that his readers will be seen to follow a different pattern – the pattern of Christ, no less – where neighbours and colleagues and family members will be prompted to ask why they do so, even in the face of suffering.

It’s easy to overdo exile language, particularly when it becomes a way of talking about the decline of society away from Christian mores – even if the contemporary climate might make us more aware of our marginalised status.

Still, as one of the ways of understanding our identity as the people of God, the image suggests we are strangers and exiles in whatever culture we inhabit. For us too, where the temptation might be to dig in or give in, we’re called instead to seek and pray for the welfare of others. Living faithfully in exile is a way of affirming that the world is in safe hands, as we set our ‘hope on the grace to be brought to [us] when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming’ (1 Peter 1:13).

Carl R. Trueman on a Church for Exiles

Carl R. Trueman, ‘A Church for Exiles: Why Reformed Christianity Provides the Best Basis for Faith Today’, First Things (August 2014).

Carl Trueman has a long article in First Things on ‘Why Reformed Christianity Provides the Best Basis for Faith Today’. The below quotes are taken from it.

‘We live in a time of exile... The Western public square is no longer a place where Christians feel they belong with any degree of comfort.’

‘But of this I am convinced: Reformed Christianity is best equipped to help us in our exile... It possesses the intellectual rigor necessary for teaching and defending the faith in a hostile environment. It has a strong tradition of reflecting in depth upon the difference between that which is essential and that which, though good, is inessential and thus dispensable. It has a historical identity rooted in the wider theological teachings of the Church. It has deep resources for thinking clearly about the relationship of Church and state.’

‘It’s not surprising that Reformed Christianity equips us well for exile, because it was itself forged in a time of exile.’

‘We do not expect to be at the center of worldly affairs. We do not imagine ourselves to be running indispensable institutions. Lack of a major role in the public square will cause no crisis in self-understanding.’

‘We must also have practical confidence in our own identity and destiny as a Christian people. Paul grounds the imperatives of the Christian life, from domestic duties to social and political engagement, in the reality of our life in Christ. There is a robust confidence at the heart of the New Testament’s description of what it means to be a Christian, and it was vital to Christian flourishing in the world of the first century.’

‘Closely connected to assurance is one of the key theological emphases of the Reformed faith: providence... For those in physical exile, for those suffering for their faith, for those despised and marginalized by the world around them, the knowledge that history is under God’s control provides encouragement. However weak the Church appears to be, however many setbacks it faces, the end of history is already determined in Christ. This knowledge allows believers to taste here and now something of the delights of the end of time. Indeed, combined with the rich New Testament teaching on resurrection and on the fact that death is not the final word for those who live in Christ by faith, a strong doctrine of providence is not only a means of construing the metaphysical connection between God and his creation, but is also a source of personal strength, comfort, assurance, and hope for Reformed Christians.’

‘[I]n the past the Reformed faith has been a dynamic force in the public square. The Reformed faith resists being reduced to a type of private pietism. On the contrary, it has often proved a potent social force, even in situations of marginality and exile... Today’s world is becoming a colder, harder place. Even so, we have ongoing civic responsibilities. Shaped by our faith, we too can speak to those in power. We must remind them of their responsibilities to protect the innocent and to punish the wicked. We must remind them of the fact that they, the magistrates, will ultimately answer to a higher authority... There have certainly been excesses in the history of the Reformed Church’s engagement with the civic sphere, but Reformed theology at its best is no clarion call for a religious war or a theocratic state. It is rather a call for responsible, godly citizenship.’

‘Reformed theology [has] a more realistic understanding of Christian life in the public square and thus of the limits to what we might expect to achieve. People do not call evil good and good evil primarily because they are confused or not thinking clearly. They do so because they are in basic rebellion against God... We do not underestimate the ruthlessness of the opposition. We expect cultural exile.’

‘The question is: How will we survive? The answer is: as Paul did in the first century. First and foremost, we need the simple proclamation of God’s Word in church week by week, reminding us of our identity in Christ. We need liturgies and worship saturated with that Word. We need engagement with the world consistent with the identity formed in us by a clear and confident faith in that Word. In short, we will survive – indeed, we will thrive – through a vibrant commitment to exactly what the historic Reformed faith has emphasised.’

Catherine Playoust on Gathering and Scattering

Catherine Playoust, ‘A Time to Scatter, a Time to Gather’, Pacifica 23, 1 (2010), 1-14.

One of the leitmotifs of London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, where I work, is the distinction between the church as ‘gathered’ (coming together as one body for worship, teaching, sacraments, etc.) and ‘scattered’ (in the various places we find ourselves during the week). While both aspects are crucial and interdependent, ecclesiology can tend to focus on the former to the neglect of the latter.

So, I was interested to see this article (available from here) by Catherine Playoust devoted to the theme of scattering and gathering. She does a nice job of summarising the main uses of this image in Scripture itself:

‘In deciding what to include, I didn’t go in search of particular Greek or Hebrew words, but looked for places in which these ideas came up. They emerged in three main contexts, often interlocking: the sowing of seed to produce a harvest that will be gathered in; the dispersal of a multitude and its subsequent restoration to its own land; and the assembly of a group for a particular occasion, after which the members of the assembly are sent out to various places with the group’s goals in mind’ (2).

A brief exploration of these gives way to a more extended look at the gospel of John, where she notes that ‘instead of the crucifixion being the time of scattering and sorrow, to be followed by gathering and joy at the resurrection, the gathering and joy happen already at the crucifixion’ (11).

Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible (25/50) – A Partial Restoration

‘Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible’, from London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, is a series of fifty emails designed to look at the main milestones of the biblical story, seeking to show how whole-life discipleship is woven through Scripture as a whole, from beginning to end. Here is the twenty-fifth of the fifty emails, this one written by Margaret Killingray.

You have wearied the LORD with your words. ‘How have we wearied him?’ you ask. By saying… ‘Where is the God of justice?’ ‘I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?… Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace…’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.’
Malachi 2:17-3:2; 4:1-2

Still disobedient, still wearying the Lord, the exiles found that their return had only partially fulfilled the promises to Abraham, Moses and David. There was a measure of return, a measure of rebuilding – temple, walls – a measure of restoration for Jerusalem and her people. Yet even as Ezra led the worship in the newly built temple, might they recall in their hearts the great days of David and Solomon when their kingdom was powerful and prosperous, the envy of their neighbours? And that first generation back from exile, would they not remember the Jews left behind in Babylon, and the graves of those who had died there? Would they not look at the neglected villages and fields and the strangers living around them with little knowledge of the Lord God? Did they wonder when other conquerors would come?

There must have been great joy as they sang God’s praises in a rebuilt temple and city. But just as their joy was tinged with some regret, some sadness, some sense of repentance that their ancestors had brought it on themselves, so is all human joy tempered. Whether it’s love in relationships, beauty in art, music and nature, or whether it’s seeing health restored, some justice delivered, some of the hungry fed, our joys are tempered by the partial nature of all good things.

For them and for us these glimpses of joy are heralds of promise – that one day all the promises of God will be fulfilled, that joy will be complete. Malachi looked forward to the day when the Lord’s messenger would come and prepare the way for the Son of righteousness with healing in his rays – the Lamb, the Saviour and Redeemer. He would come, as a man, to this earth as it is, with its broken walls and ruined cities, exiled people, conquerors and conquered. And his death and resurrection would speak of eternity in place of fleeting time. A promise fulfilled for us, who wait for the day of his final coming as judge and king, when we shall see the glory of a world made young again, death defeated and his kingdom complete, a new Jerusalem, with no temple in the city ‘for its temple will be the Lord God and the Lamb’ (Revelation 21:22).

Margaret Killingray

For further reflection and action:

1. Read Isaiah chapter 60. See how the imagery of the land, the exile and return is used to express God’s promises of restoration and salvation. The chapter also speaks of God’s people as a light and beacon, to which peoples and nations flock not as enemies but as suppliants and gift bearers. How would these images apply to the church today?

2. Next week we move into the New Testament. Jesus was born into all the ambiguities and messiness of a nation ruled by puppet kings and priests under Roman conquerors. Some would see John the Baptist as the messenger promised by Malachi, and Jesus as the Messiah. Others would oppose John and Jesus. Reflect on the continuity here with the return from exile – and with the position of the church today.

Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible (24/50) – The Reality of Life After Exile

‘Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible’, from London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, is a series of fifty emails designed to look at the main milestones of the biblical story, seeking to show how whole-life discipleship is woven through Scripture as a whole, from beginning to end. Here is the twenty-fourth of the fifty emails, this one written by Helen Parry.

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dreamed.
Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
‘The LORD has done great things for them.’
The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
Psalm 126:1-3

‘The Return’ is one of the great themes of history and of literature. And none more so than the return of the Israelites to Jerusalem after seventy years in captivity. But it was only when Babylon was superseded by Persia that the time of release finally came.

Cyrus was an enlightened ruler, who followed a policy of ‘multiculturalism’ throughout his empire. Prompted by God, he proclaimed the release of as many Jews as wished to go, to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Unlike many other ‘returns’ – of refugees or exiles, whose first concern is to find their families and homes and retrieve their possessions – this first return was focused on the temple.

The Jewish people’s relationship with God was intrinsic to their identity. It was expressed in terms of place – the land, the city, the temple. The land was lost and the buildings destroyed, but when the time came for the return the first opportunity that was granted to them was to reinstate the worship of God at the centre of their corporate life.

Against opposition, the temple was completed in twenty years amid great rejoicing, but it wasn’t until sixty years later that Ezra, ‘a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses’, led a further wave of immigration. Once again, the emphasis was on the temple and its worship, but Ezra was given administrative and disciplinary authority as well.

The walls and gates of the city, however, were still in ruins, and it fell to Nehemiah, a decade or so later, to organise the rebuilding. Like Ezra, Nehemiah had the blessing and concrete help of the Persian king. Both Ezra and Nehemiah were conscious of the ‘good hand of the Lord’ over all their plans and actions. But what of the people?

They, too, entered fully into the vision of their leaders. They flung themselves wholeheartedly into the building projects. The walls were finished, houses rebuilt, towns resettled. But rather than settling back into a purely material way of life, they never lost sight of the Lord.

When all the work was finished they asked Ezra to bring out the Book of the Law of the Lord, and as they listened, understood and responded to it, they recognised that the restoration of their community rested on the restoration of their relationship with God.

Might this be a recipe for the restoration of health to our own society today?

Helen Parry

For further reflection and action:

1. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah show how the restoration of God’s people involves ‘practical’ matters (like rebuilding the broken Dung Gate in the city wall) as well as ‘spiritual’ matters (like confessing sin). And it deals with both these things in a way that suggests that there’s actually not much difference between what we sometimes think of as the ‘practical’ and what we think of as the ‘spiritual’. What is your equivalent of ‘rebuilding the broken Dung Gate’ today, and how will you serve God through it?

2. How might the church take the lead in challenging the ‘sacred-secular’ divide in society day?

3. For further reflection on this period in the history of God’s people, focusing on Nehemiah 8, see the article by Antony Billington – ‘The Word of God and the People of God’ – available online here.

Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible (23/50) – The Restoration That Follows Exile: All Change

‘Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible’, from London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, is a series of fifty emails designed to look at the main milestones of the biblical story, seeking to show how whole-life discipleship is woven through Scripture as a whole, from beginning to end. Here is the twenty-third of the fifty emails.

I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
Ezekiel 36:24-28

Even while the exile takes its toll, warnings of judgment give way to promises of restoration. Under God’s direction, the prophets who addressed the people with words of condemnation now bring words of comfort. They do so to provide hope where there was no hope, and reassurance where there was remorse. And they do so in terms the people would understand.

Thus it is that Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah between them envision a return to the land, a return which would be a replay of the exodus, as God’s people come back home. They would benefit from the wise reign of a king from the line of David, who would be a good shepherd to them. The temple would be restored, everything in its place, with God himself once again dwelling with his people.

But something more fundamental than land, kingship and temple was required. At the heart of God’s promises is the restoration of the people themselves – inward renewal – which God himself will bring about, as he pledges to cleanse his people and give them a new heart and a new Spirit. That this is nothing less than a resurrection is confirmed to Ezekiel in a powerful vision, showing how God can bring piles of dry bones together, put flesh on them, and breathe his Spirit into them, just as he did with Adam at creation.

The words ‘You will be my people, and I will be your God’ express in a neat formula the covenant between God and his people, and Jeremiah likewise sees the goal of restoration to be a re-establishment of the covenant relationship, with a new covenant written on the heart (31:31-34) – an internal rather than an external reality, and available to all.

Of course, with restoration will come recommitment and responsibility – to be the servant community, a light for the nations. No wonder the latter chapters of Isaiah envisage not just the rebuilding of Jerusalem, but a city filled with the glory of God that finds itself at the centre of a new heavens and a new earth – reminding us once again that the prophets hold out a vision of hope not just for the people of God, but for the nations as well; and not just for the nations, but for the whole of creation.

How good is the God we adore!

For further reflection and action:

1. Given the very specific context in which this promise of restoration is given, how far is it legitimate to use the words of Ezekiel to convey hope today? What sorts of contemporary situations would count?

2. From the period of exile flows predictions of judgment, cries of lament, pleas for forgiveness, instructions to build, warnings of persecution, promises of restoration, etc. Think about when it might be appropriate to take up this language in prayer, and draw on the different types this week as you read magazines or watch the news on TV or engage with colleagues, or as you reflect on your local church situation or where you’re at in your own walk with the Lord.

3. Alongside all these windows into understanding the renewal of the people of God are various ways of conceiving a figure who would bring or mediate salvation. In addition to a ‘shepherd king’ from the line of David, several passages in Isaiah speak of a ‘servant of the Lord’, who seems to represent Israel, and yet who also acts out the fate of Israel and suffers a sin-bearing death on behalf of others. Daniel 7 records a vision of the people of God being oppressed by different world powers in turn, until one ‘like a Son of Man’, who represents God’s people, brings God’s sovereign rule over the whole world. Think about how these resonances carry through to the New Testament where they inform Jesus’ understanding of himself and his mission.

Frederic W. Bush on Esther

Frederic W. Bush, ‘The Book of Esther: Opus non gratum in the Christian Canon’, Bulletin for Biblical Research 8 (1998), 39-54.

In summary, Bush here argues that ‘Esther offers readers an insightful satire of the pagan world and yet at the same time provides a glimpse of the dangers the Jewish people have faced in the diaspora’ (39).

The world of the story is the Jewish dispersion. Outside Daniel and Esther, there is little in the Old Testament about those who remained in exile. Nehemiah starts off in Persia, but his attention is on the restoration of Jerusalem; Daniel, like Nehemiah, serves in the Persian court, but his concern is likewise for the Judean community in Palestine, and he faces Jerusalem when he prays (44-45). The Book of Esther provides a contrast, with its seeming lack of interest in Jerusalem and the temple. The welfare of the Jewish people in the diaspora is its concern (45).

If this is the case, it’s interesting to note the characterisation of the king and the world in which he rules (45-47). The opening chapter can be seen as a satire, which mocks the world in which the Jewish people must live – a mocking which instructs and not just ridicules. However, ‘the satire has a sinister side. It reveals a society fraught with danger. Though it is ruled by law, this does not guarantee either security or justice, for it is easily manipulated by buffoons whose tender egos can marshal the state’s whole legislative and administrative machinery for the furthering of selfish causes’. There are dangers ‘that lurk below the seemingly ordered society of the world of the diaspora’ (47).

Although God seems absent, ‘the book nonetheless predicates the providence of God, as does the rest of the OT, for the deliverance of the Jews is effected not only by the loyalty of Mordecai and the cunning and courage of Esther but also by a series of truly remarkable and dramatic coincidences with which the story abounds’ (49).

Bush concludes:

‘On the grounds of this study of the characterization of the world of the story and its characters, the theme of the story can be stated as follows: In the dangerous world of the diaspora, with its opulence, uncertainty, and evil, the loyalty of Mordecai to the Jewish people and the king, the courage and shrewdness of Esther, and the reliable providence of God delivered the diaspora Jewish community from the terrible threat of annihilation, demonstrating that a viable life for the Jews of the diaspora is possible even in the face of such propensity for evil’ (50).

Along these lines, the institution of the feast of Purim is a celebration from the relief of persecution, along with the joy of deliverance.

‘But the character of the festival of Purim has a word to speak to the Christian, as well as to the Jewish, community. Christians at times have also lived in a dangerous and unfriendly “diaspora world,” marked by hatred and persecution… The story of Esther also holds out to the Church the hope that “relief and deliverance” may indeed be effected by the combination of the providence of God and human effort. Esther and Purim call the Church to celebrate the joy of deliverance in the face of unmitigated and unthinkable evil’ (54).

Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible (22/50) – Life in Exile: Peril and Providence

‘Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible’, from London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, is a series of fifty emails designed to look at the main milestones of the biblical story, seeking to show how whole-life discipleship is woven through Scripture as a whole, from beginning to end. Here is the twenty-second of the fifty emails.

This one written by Mark Coffey. Mark is a teacher of Religion and Philosophy at The Manchester Grammar School and a regular presenter of The Daily Service on BBC Radio 4. An Oxford theology graduate, he has also completed a Master’s degree by research on the theological ethics of Stanley Hauerwas. Mark is linked with the LICC Manchester team, where he has spoken on the theology of work, and has found LICC’s vision to break down the divide between the sacred and secular worlds helpful in his work as a teacher.

Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me… When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.
Esther 4:16

If the God we serve is able to deliver us, then he will deliver us from the blazing furnace and from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.
Daniel 3:17-18

Keeping his head as a young undergraduate enroled in the university of Babylon, Daniel learned quickly when and how the line between integrity and compromise had to be drawn in the sands of exile. Likewise for the young queen Esther, married to the most powerful man in the world (not to mention possessed of a violent temper and a poor track record in married life), there came a time when a stand had to be taken and her identity as one of God’s people declared.

Is it any easier for Christian students today, when parental restraint and church ties can so easily be traded in for the perceived freedom outside the Christian bubble?

And negotiating that line between serving the Lord and Nebuchadnezzar – or Christ and Caesar – doesn’t get easier as life goes on. Workplaces inevitably have their own culture and set of values, where identity can be shaped every bit as overtly and covertly as it was for Daniel and Esther.

Yet with Daniel, ‘They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent’. Even those plotting against him say, ‘We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God’ (6:4-5). For all their jealously, his detractors know that he’s not some ambitious young careerist hacking his way up the administrative ladder. They have the wit to see that what makes him tick is his central motivation to serve God.

Like other captives, Daniel and Esther had to wrestle with what God was doing with them. Back home, the mandate to be a light to the nations, a kingdom of priests for the sake of the world, could be a distant implication of their calling. Now conquered and carried off into the world beyond, the question was whether they would learn the lessons of exile and trust the God who went before them.

In exile – as in universities, workplaces and homes today – God’s people are not called to a leisure-time faith which might affect their private life but have no impact on the public world. Esther and Daniel were no doubt both tempted to wonder if the God of Israel’s reach extended into the hostile world in which they lived. Yet hundreds of miles from the temple in Jerusalem, they gained a grander vision of their God.

Mark Coffey

For further reflection and action:

1. Imagine: Daniel and his fellow exiles would likely have been marched as captives into the capital city of the Babylonian superpower through the imposing Ishtar Gate (47 feet high and 100 feet wide) and would have been confronted with a city more advanced in architecture and technology than any in the world at that time, with displays of military victory and imperial ideology at every turn. Think about your own context today and where you see what counts as ‘evidence’ of superior values.

2. How did the exile challenge and change Israel’s vision of her covenantal God?

3. If you sense that your friends and colleagues are content in their disinterest in God, or even angry/resolved in their dismissal of him, remember that ‘Christ plays in ten thousand places’ (Gerald Manley Hopkins), and as the Psalmist says, ‘Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?’ (Psalm 139:7). So ask God for eyes to see him at work in their lives, and for wisdom to pick up on conversations with the tact and boldness Esther and Daniel possessed.

Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible (21/50) – The Loss That Comes with Exile: Exiled and Forsaken?

‘Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible’, from London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, is a series of fifty emails designed to look at the main milestones of the biblical story, seeking to show how whole-life discipleship is woven through Scripture as a whole, from beginning to end. Here is the twenty-first of the fifty emails, this one written by Margaret Killingray.

In the days of her affliction and wandering
Jerusalem remembers all the treasures
that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into enemy hands,
there was no one to help her.
Her enemies looked at her
and laughed at her destruction…
‘Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
that was inflicted on me,
that the LORD brought on me
in the day of his fierce anger?’
Lamentations 1:7, 12

At the heart of the Old Testament story – and arguably at the heart of all human life – is experience of loss. All of us have some understanding of what loss can mean, whether personal loss through death, broken relationships, theft or ill health, or the more extensive losses of war and destruction, flood and fire.

And this exile involved every kind of loss – the loss of men in battle, as well as all the casual and brutal deaths of executions, occupation and forced marches; the loss of routines and practices that provided daily security in familiar places; the knowledge that the land and city they loved, temple and palace, homes and fields, were a deserted wasteland; the loss of structures and liturgies that supported their communal faith and worship.

The LORD is righteous,
yet I rebelled against his command…
The LORD has done what he planned;
he has fulfilled his word,
which he decreed long ago.
He has overthrown you without pity…
I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
Lamentations 1:18, 2:17, 3:19

And, of course, loss brings the added anguish of questions about meaning and purpose; why has this happened? Why do the wicked and cruel get their way? Is this judgment or simply blind chance? Do we forgive or cry out for vengeance?

The prophets who had spoken God’s word to the people knew the truth – God had said over and over again, ‘If you obey me… If you return to me… then I will not destroy you’. The God of Abraham, Moses and David, their God, had at last lost patience and was willing to see Jerusalem destroyed, all his promises put on hold, and his people killed, or destitute and enslaved in a foreign land among foreign gods. And knowing that made the loss of exile even more bitter.

But, after the anguish of loss expressed in this powerful book, the writer of Lamentations ends with a prayer of humility and acceptance:

You, LORD, reign forever;
your throne endures from generation to generation.
Why do you always forget us?
Why do you forsake us so long?
Restore us to yourself, LORD, that we may return;
renew our days as of old
unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us beyond measure.
Lamentations 5:19-22

Margaret Killingray

For further reflection and action:

1. Read through Psalm 137. How do you react to the last verse? Think about the difference between wanting to see the Babylonians called to account and judgment, and wanting to exact personal vengeance. How should this difference work out in social issues of law and justice, and in personal loss and hurt?

2. In Stainer’s musical meditation, Crucifixion, the words from Lamentations, ‘Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?’ are used in an appeal by Jesus from the cross. Reflect on the view which understands that all the loss of exile and pain of judgment are taken into the self-giving ‘loss’ of Jesus’ death, and dealt with for ever in the resurrection.