So here we are in Tenerife for our annual vitamin-D fix. Lots of winter sunshine and seafront walks under blue skies and gently cooling breezes, as I wait for the phone call, once again, inviting me to be manager of EFC.
What I really enjoy, to be totally honest, is sending photos to our winter-bound daughters of Jacqui and I strolling through bougainvillea in brilliantly bright sunshine. "Show off," one daughter immediately responded yesterday!
However, if the truth be told, we are all show-offs, however much we may disguise the fact.
For seeking to impress is a human failing. As Joyce Meyer points out: “If we're really honest with ourselves, most of us will admit that we want to impress people, and this is what's causing us to do what we do.”
There are those who would impress by what they may own – a car, a designer handbag, a posh house. You will know the saying of buying things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.
But we may be more subtle – not seeming to be showing off when, in fact, we are. Furthermore, as I mentioned only very recently to King Charles, I abhor name-dropping.
This need to impress is particularly dangerous when linked to ministry in Jesus’ name. When I preach, for example, what exactly is my basic motivation? Invariably my motives are invariably mixed. In fact, the closer we grow to Christ, the more we become aware of our compulsion to show off.
Jesus, of course, had no need to impress. Secure in his father’s love from the very outset of his ministry, he had no need for acclamation. But even for him, it was a temptation, as the devil sought to exploit during his 40 days of testing in the wilderness.
It would, of course, would have been so easy for Jesus to rely on the esteem of the crowds – but he refused to be taken in by their acclaim. “But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them.” (John 2:24)
The cross of Jesus simply inverts our understanding of status. As the apostle Paul recounts in awe: “When the time came, (Christ Jesus) set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!” (Philippians 2:7).
So when Paul is finally cornered and submits to the Lordship of Christ, as a matter of routine in all his letters he introduces himself as a slave of Jesus. The Greek word doulos always means a slave, not a servant, as some New Testament translations wrongly ascribe. A slave, is at the very bottom of the social order, the ultimate under-class.
This apostle could have shown off in so many ways, given his religious and civic status. He gives a whole list of these to his friends in Philippi. But now, all this is “worthless trash”. (Philippians 3:7).
What’s his secret? Being bowled over by the love of Christ: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.” (Philippians 3:8)
Even so it was a battle. The apostle recalls some remarkable experiences as he shares with the Corinthian church: “So I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty!” (2 Corinthians 12:7).
We’re not told what this “thorn in the flesh” was, a physical ailment or a psychological attack. Whatever, it was God’s way of keeping his apostle reliant on him.
For this is a key ministry of the Holy Spirit, to keep us earthed in Christ. Hence our need to cultivate his ministry within us as he pours God’s love into our hearts. His goal that we may know we are truly and deeply loved; no need to pretend or preen ourselves.
But day-by-day it is a battle, and certainly we need to be open to God showing us when show-off. But the good news is that he knows what we are like and how weak each of us is, and as we saw last week “God never gives up.” (1 Corinthians 13:7)
You probably don’t remember Larry Norman, who burst onto the Christian music scene in the late 1960’s with the very first full-blown Christian rock album, Upon This Rock. He regularly performed before huge audiences, most of whom were experiencing the Christian message in contemporary medium for the first time.
For Norman, this represented a huge spiritual challenge, not least how to handle the prolonged applause of adoring fans.
His response has stayed with me over the years. He simply would raise his right index figure as if to deflect the glory to God. (I guess he prayed at the same time): Jesus is Number One.
One finger - one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:5).
Pero lejos esté de mí gloriarme, sino en la cruz de nuestro Señor Jesucristo.
(Galatians 6:14)*
Un saludo
*Don’t get too impressed. I just copied and pasted from Bible Gateway.
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