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This week the bishop of Liverpool came out in favour of churches marrying same sex couples and the bishop of Manchester was on the television news describing the recently publicly revealed adultery of the last Health Secretary as trivial ... 'a bit of a fling',he said.
None of this is what you might call biblical - or historical - Christianity, really, and it gets a bit confusing trying to work out where they are getting their ideas from.
So it came as a bit of a relief to see an Evangelical Anglican minister writing:
"Two marriages have broken down, with all the heartache, tears and loneliness of the innocent parties. One wedding ring has been thrown to the floor in the passion of betrayal; another still worn in the sorrow of defiance. It has been a very public humiliation, and six children are now crying every night in their brokenhearted beds. The pain is deep, and their scars will last a lifetime."
All in all, there's been quite a lot of hand-wringing from Bible believing Christians about some of the things being said by members of various ecclesiastical hierarchies in the last few months.
For example there was the Methodist denomination in England which has recently met and, seeking 'relevance', affirmed the validity of marrying people of the same sex.
But what happens when you do that is that you LOSE your relevance by joining the thought world and culture that you are there to move.
You can't speak to it or move it for God, because you've become just the same as it.
The Bible addresses this issue of motivating and moving the people of God in this world to impact this world for God ... and in a few places it does this with reference to trumpets ...
Blowing the right tune
Numbers 10 is a classic case in point here.
Moses had the problem of moving 600,000 men (plus dependents) away from Sinai in Numbers chapter 1, and he had to do that without WhatsApp or Telegram!
The Lord's solution for getting them to advance as one, was to use signalling with two trumpets. He established a well-known protocol of different tunes on those trumpets, to get this vast diverse group into action.
There were tunes for getting them moving.
There were tunes for getting them to stop and
There were tunes to get the people to pitch camp.
But perhaps most significantly of all, there were tunes for 'stand to' for military action, to get the people going into battle:
"When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets.
Then you will be remembered by the Lord your God and rescued from your enemies."
Numbers 10:9
You can see how IMPORTANT it was for them that the correct tune was clearly played to inspire focused and appropriate, united activity.
Correct.
Clear.
But there's no point playing the right tune if it's not played loudly and clearly so all the people who need to hear get the message.
Blowing a clear tune
The Apostle Paul launched a serious point about unclear messaging off this historical background in Numbers as he wrote to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 14.
That chapter is about the use of a miraculous spiritual gift in the church at Corinth of being able to speak languages that you haven't learned.
It sounds a bit spooky but it was something that happened first on the Day of Pentecost at the birth of the New Testament church in Acts 2, but they'd got a little bit carried away with it in Corinth when there were more important things they should have been concentrating on.
"Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?
So it is with you.
Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying?
You will just be speaking into the air."
1 Corinthians 14:8-9
Paul is REALLY taking us to the heart of the matter now, there!
The Point
The correct tune that calls for the right sort of action, and a clear tune everybody can hear and understand ... that's what both church and nation need to hear, and they need to hear it BOTH from 'the Church' and from Christian Leaders.
Without that NO-ONE is going to rally to the cause.
No-one is going to be moved.
Nothing is going to be changed.
We will NOT be getting going in the right direction.
The Takeaway
What have we got coming from the bell at the end of our trumpet, and HOW is it coming out of there?
Low reverberations that come dribbling off the bell end?
Or a clear clarion call that challenges the depths of a person's being and stirs up their blood to go FORWARDS in the faith, in the cause of the glorious God of Heaven?
so, just what sort of leadership are we praying for?
And what sort of leadership will we back?
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