Faced with a choice

In the tiny book, Ruth, wedged between books that tell us so much about the backsliding of God’s people, two widows, Orpah and Ruth, were faced with the same choice – whether to stay with their shared mother-in–law, Naomi, or return to their family homes where they could begin life again. As it turned out, Ruth stayed with Naomi and Orpah left. Orpah did no wrong; indeed her choice was a commonsensical one but Ruth made the better choice. Always, always, Lord, help me to choose not what is good but what is best. 

High aspirations? Being a friend will do

Mother Teresa said: “I was homeless – not for a shelter made of bricks, but for a heart that understand, that covers, that loves ..” There are thousands of people wanting shelter and a home in these days in the UK .. but even more crave a friend .. and most of us can reach into being one of them.

Vows … Vows … I believe In Them Anyway (Celibacy)

Yes, I’ve made a vow of life-long celibacy and, believe me, it took me years to make. I am Mrs Slow (sorry …Miss Slow) herself. ‘Yes’, you say, ‘that all very good but what if you find ‘someone’ after making your vow? And anyway, didn’t Jesus tell us not to swear and make vows?’

 OK, let’s think about the swearing first: It seems to me that there is a difference between the careless swearing Jesus condemned in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5: 33-37) and serious, carefully considered vow making before God.

The type of oaths described by Jesus in Matthew 5 were supposedly serious declarations, made with an appeal to God (or something else) to support (or otherwise) the truth of what people said. The result of such a broken oath would be the returning of some sort of vengeance/punishment by the person or thing they had appealed to. It appears that the Jews of Jesus’ day were well into the bad habit of swearing by all sorts of things (but not God) and weren’t always too bothered about breaking their oaths. Jesus was correcting this as well as encouraging His disciples to speak in an honest, straightforward way.

A vow is a promise, often made before God and/or people or a person. As I understand it, a vow is not foremost a declaration of the truth of something present or past but rather the sealing, with a solemn promise, a chosen direction for the future.

I doubt very much if Jesus was repudiating serious, premeditated vow making in Matthew 5. After all, if He was, shall we no longer make or support marriage vows?

In Ecclesiastes Solomon warns us not to be hasty in our heart ‘to utter anything before God’ and tells us that if we make vows we certainly better keep them (Ecclesiastes 5:2, 5)   I have certainly found the very few vows I have made have held me to my resolutions and kept me ‘on track’ in difficult times and, for that, I have valued them. Vows of marriage, celibacy and commitment to God by nature close down some options for us. They also free us for the one person or the one thing that we value so much. Surely, that’s got to be good….

Yes, it can be tough .. there are temptations in marriage as we know. Your marriage partner will probably not be the last person you feel attracted to. Unless you become a celibate hermit, you’re bound to bump into someone you like …

Personally, I have found my vow of celibacy has brought freedom to serve within the church.  Everyone knows where I stand:  it’s not worth asking me out as I’m going to say ‘no.’ I’ll not want to be looking round at anyone with a ‘view’ – no, I just want to be a sister or mother or a friend. Also, I’m not suddenly going to have a new set of priorities as I’m going to get married and have children. Altogether, in a nutshell, in the complicated realm of human relationships, things can be a little more straightforward if you make a vow.  In any church where relationships are all important all these aspects of the vow are a huge plus.

 So … there are some good reasons for making vows of commitment here … but don’t forget … Solomon’s advice. He was a wise crack….

What if? Young women: what is your calling?

 Sometimes church is languishing because we don’t seek God and have forgotten to nag Him; sometimes it’s languishing because we’ve gone our own way (call it sin); sometimes it’s languishing because we‘ve lost our up and go to do the things that Jesus said. Mission, reaching out and telling people about Jesus, has all but slipped from our hearts. After all, church can be warm, cosy and secure, especially if we’ve got lots of good mates (nothing wrong with that.) The icy winds and chill, the anguished cries of this world’s lost and broken people may beckon us – but we choose to be dull to their cries – and leave them to others.
            Come on, let me inspire you .. this time  about the young women of the Chinese Inland Mission. Ready for a history lesson?

China was really only open to European missionaries for about a hundred years, between 1843 and 1949. In these years different missions operated, including the China Inland Mission, founded by Hudson Taylor in 1865. Yes, the mission’s ethos was pretty radical. Missionaries had to respect and follow Chinese customs, wear Chinese dress and eat Chinese style – but none of these was more radical than encouraging single women as well as men to go to China as equal members of the mission. This was an age when most unmarried women in Britain lived under the protection of their families until they were married. It was unthinkable for single women to go abroad alone. If women felt called to go abroad, they had to find someone to marry with the same vision! Missionaries were always men – and usually ordained. Hudson Taylor’s policy to recruit single women as missionaries shocked Victorian Britain and was bitterly criticised by some of his fellow missionaries. Hudson was undeterred: in 1866 he landed in China with the first group of missionaries and this included 8 single women. 

 The single women missionaries (many of whom were in their early twenties when they arrived) taught and evangelised, both in the churches and the many schools they founded. Unlike the male missionaries, they were able to enter the homes of Chinese women who spent most of the time in their homes as semi-invalids, following the centuries-old traditional foot-binding tradition. These missionaries brought many Chinese women to Jesus and enabled them to tell their neighbours and families about Jesus.

Hudson Taylor wanted to encourage the Chinese church to stand on its own two feet; single women missionaries were sent to support and encourage local Chinese pastors. When European male missionaries were around, the Chinese church leaders expected them to lead. The missionary women provided experience and wisdom that could be drawn on but the local Chinese leaders still led the churches.

At first the single women lived alongside married couples in the interior. Later, they were sent to distant places to work alongside Chinese colleagues. Often, they were left in charge of mission stations. Here they went from door to door evangelising and training the new converts both to read and to read the Bible.

Risking their lives, these women crossed the vast tracks of inland China, passing through the inhospitable Gobi Desert and Tibetan foothills, often visiting places where no European man – let alone a woman - had ever visited.  On the way they faced treacherous weather conditions, bandits, civil war, anti-western feeling, superstition and misunderstandings. Many died of cholera and dysentery and others suffered violent deaths. 

Think of the Chinese church today, by and large robust, missionary- minded and definitely multiplying. How much, I wonder, is the result of those intrepid women’s endeavours, risking all as they ventured into the unknown – for God and His kingdom?

So today, what if we could see a rising generation of holy, love-filled dare-devils (excuse the expression) with a passion for reaching out to others with the love of God and the gospel?  What if there should arise a group of adventurous and single-eyed young women who are as keen to win people in our nation for Jesus as those Chinese missionaries were? What if .. what if … could we make the same huge difference those women did in China? What if ….