Daughters of Zelophehad

I preached this morning on the Daughters of Zelophehad, in Numbers 27, 36 and also in Joshua 17.

What a passage! I love these women, not least of all for the way they conducted themselves in the light of unfairness/inequality. As the law stood, they would receive nothing in the Promised Land - with no brothers or husbands; their deceased father's inheritance would not pass to them. They brought their case to Moses who asked the Lord, who said: "What Zelophehad's daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father's relatives and turn their father's inheritance over to them".

Think of the reactions the Daughters could have displayed. I’ve thought of three:

1. They had challenged injustice - there was something that was so inherently unfair in a time where land and property was everything. Without it, they were persons without status. They could have meekly accepted that this was to be their lot and simply given up.

2. They could have – and here follows a heavy theological term - thrown a huge strop.

3. Or, a third option – they could have been very aggressive about their rights.

The daughters did none of these three things. This is such an important story as it demonstrates what I'm calling “gentle assertiveness”. I think this comes out of knowing the one to whom the appeal will be made.

The daughters understood that God cared about them.
This is the true mark of a son and and not an orphan.

Their timing was spot on – they had asked at the right time (Numbers 27), then waited (into the final part of the Wilderness journey from Moab into Canaan), then assertively issued a “reminder” to Joshua (ch 17:4-5) – and then received that which was promised to them - and this followed obedience – marrying right. (Nu 36).

They came before God with their request. They wanted a favourable outcome, but they didn’t want it against God’s will; against his best. Oh that our churches and communities become full of people with this same heart. We might be saying: I want this, I need this, there's unfairness at play fair (real or imagined; it matters not!) BUT ....your will be done O Lord.

I want to be like the Daughters of Zelophehad!

Experimental posting

I'm doing a preaching and communication course. I was given this recording of myself in December. I'm experimenting. Thanks to Talk Rhubarb for technical advice (and THM for technical advice two days ago!!)

My "teach" is in two parts, although it was delivered as one. I don't know how to edit two media files into one, without going into Quicktime (ha. there's an oxymoron!) I haven't the time for that!

part 1 is here. There is a 20 second period of quiet just after I start. I didn't fall asleep. Something happened to the recording. So persevere if you really want to listen to me! There are a few annoying emmms then they die out as I get going....! (think: express train and no stopping)

Then part 2 can be listened to here. Starts with a bible reading.
It gets interactive at the end with folks moving about so it tails off quickly.

It takes a minute or two to download, so a few people have asked me how long it lasts and what's it about. It's got lots of visuals but you can still follow it - it's about calling families to the task of evangelism together using the parable of the wedding feast; in partnership with the Holy Spirit who draws people to himself and with the Father, who goes out again and again and again to invite people to the banquet (Matt 22:1-10)

Kingdom Outbreak

I am attending a Preaching and Communication course organised by these folks and have been very struck by one fact; one we all know; about Jesus' mandate to preach good news, but when I let the realisation of this hit me again last week, it made an even deeper impression on me......

It's from this passage here: Luke 4: 14-20

Jesus preached - or taught - in the open air. I do like the fact that Michael Quick points out that there are nearly 30 words in the New Testamant to describe preaching. Makes me feel goooood - proclamation and teaching and expository preaching and telling good news are all kinds of preaching. So my playground/Costa chatter can all be construed as preaching in a non-confrontatinal form! But to my main point - Jesus' mandate was to bring God's word OUT THERE, not merely to us IN HERE. A couple of books have been referred to on the course and he who presents pointed out the authors assume that preaching happens within a church service.

Hold on, hold on, cultural context today is important. Many people may point out that the early church didn't have buildings where people came to sit and listen; interaction took place OUT THERE so therefore preaching happened OUT THERE - no buildings = street preaching?? Yet every little fact I discover in the Bible is there for a reason, therefore (watch out, here comes Lynn's hermeneutical thought!) my reading of Acts 2 illustrates that the disciples spilled out onto the street i.e. they were gathered in a private place (a house) where presumably words of instruction, encouragement and teaching were used and then they were OUT THERE in the street proclaiming God's words to the assembled crowd.

I've also been reading about the early Anabaptists, gathering in fields and woods to preach God's word, bring people to repentance OUT THERE (because they weren't allowed to preach in the churches; till this decision was reversed....as they were seen as too subversive to be OUT THERE!) and then baptizing the new believers.

I ask the questions: is this something we have lost, to our detriment? Preaching the good news on the street or in the market place? And I press in further with this question: how can effective OUT THERE preaching be done in the post-modern, post-Christendom affluent West? What models work? What can we try? I have to say with all my heart that I believe it can only happen with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, as Paul said in 1 Cor 2: I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

People OUT THERE are fed up with words, words, words (maybe we're not IN HERE. We like words. They make us think and reflect). People OUT THERE need more. "So what?" they might just say to our words. Please note: I am not knocking preaching, my preaching-friends who read this. We need to be prodded, taught, challenged, inspired. But I wonder if something that was meant for OUT THERE and IN HERE has solely become for us IN HERE! People need to see the kingdom of God - I want to see the "now" come to pass. It *is* happening in all parts of the world. I love reading about Dream Teams in shopping malls in the USA and people coming to faith on municipal dumps in Mozambique (and as an interesting aside, children are also involved in all of the above. Contact me for more information if you're interested!)

And so was our theme on 10 Feb in the all age service. Take the good news out. Build our faith. Praying Acts 4:30-31 out together. Being people of all ages of faith and love and power, not of empty words. I showed the video clip (below) - please do watch this amazing story of an outbreak of the supernatural kingdom of God and preaching and conversion - and we all together, grasping people's individual names in our hands (those for whom we wanted to see a breakthrough), cried out to God for that which happened in one wealthy Californian town to be possible here - with our faith firing our vision of what the power of God, the powerful witness of the community of the family of God standing AND the preaching of the Good News can bring.

Head above the parapet

I was speaking today to around 30 parents and carers on the work of Iris Ministries and in particular on the work in the baby houses in one of the five child care centres run by Rolland and Heidi Baker.

If you don't know anything about this particular couple, let me just say that they have spent most of their time since 1994 in Mozambique facing death threats, sickness, corruption and bureacracy. Iris Ministries now has emerged as one of the leading humanitarian organisations working with the poor in Mozambique (and now expanding into Malawi, Sudan and DRC).

They now care for over 3000 children. They have planted 5000 churches, training pastors and encouraging them to adopt up to ten children (I like that touch! - imagine if that were part of theological training here!)

I was speaking to people in the main who don't go to church. And you know what? I didn't feel like watering down the truth of what Iris achieves. The Bakers deliver "good news to the poor" and as Heidi says: what's the point in saying "say this little prayer after me, if the child has no clothes? or is sick? or can't read?" I showed a little of the documentary where she talks of God caring for the WHOLE person. I know a woman from Birmingham who works in the baby house and I told of the miracles she has seen - food appearing on the table when there was none, presents at Christmas never running out as hundreds of children form queues at the rubbish dump church to receive a gift, deaf and dumb children healed, AIDS tests reversed and - perhaps most moving of all for me - crushed and wounded spirits being restored. Most of the children who come to Iris have been abandoned by their parents.

Someone said to me that I was very bold to speak of such things. That it stirred things they'd rather not think about. I want to cry with frustration. Because we have so much, we believe so little. There is no need. Our lives are crammed with things that entertain much, look lovely, taste yummy, suit us beautifully, pass time creatively and fixate us materially that we PERHAPS don't need and long for the kingdom of God to come in quite the same way as a naked, desperate, lonely, sick child.

I'm challenged to the core.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.