Steven Croft

Building faith to move mountains

“when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work”

From time to time in the gospels, Jesus has a particular rebuke to the disciples.  He calls them men and women of little faith.  They are skeptical about God’s power to change lives.  Their vision of God is too small.  Despite the signs they have seen of God’s love and grace, doubt persists.

Psalm 95 is the same kind of rebuke to people of little faith.  The people of Israel have seen God’s power at work again and again in the account in Exodus in the miracle of deliverance, in the Passover, in the crossing of the Red Sea. Yet still they doubt.  They will receive the law on Sinai.  They will travel in the wilderness experiencing the daily miracle of manna.  Yet still they will doubt and when the moment comes for this generation to enter the land of rest, they will lack the faith to move forward at the critical moment.

This verse offers us a second powerful reason to listen to God’s voice this day and each day.  The first is to help us confront bitterness, grumbling and doubt within.  The second, more positive reason is so that our faith can be strengthened and built up and will shape our lives.

Jesus takes time in the gospels to build the faith of the disciples and the faith of the church.  He encourages Peter to walk on water.  He talks the power of having faith as small as a grain of mustard seed and being able to move mountains.   Hebrews 11 in a similar way offers to a discouraged community a catalogue of models of faith to inspire us and to expand our own vision of what we are called to do and to be.

Testing God is the opposite of faith.  All of us will live today and this week in a world and culture which is largely without faith: which has no expectation of God’s love and grace, no confidence that God will hear or answer prayer, no hope that anything can change.  The Church becomes infected daily with that cynicism and shallow expectation.

As I look back on the last hundred years in the life of this Diocese, I see scores of examples of big, expectant faith – not least in the founding of the Diocese itself and in the planting of so many churches down the years (which continues to this day).  I see faith in building projects past and present, in bold ventures of community engagement, in prophetic witness, in people entrusting their lives afresh to Christian faith, in others investing their lives in ministry. I see faith in the daily, sacrificial giving of the people of God in this place.

And that is why it is so important that we come, daily, to listen for God’s voice, to read the very different world view of the scriptures, to recentre our lives upon faith in God.  As we do that we go out into the world believing and expectant that God is at work:  we look for where God is working and where we can join in.

This post is one of a series of daily reflections on Psalm 95 in January, at the start of the Diocese of Sheffield Centenary Year

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Steven Croft

Bitter, Grumpy and Doubtful?

“as on that day at Meribah, as at Massah in the wilderness”

The story of Meribah and Massah is told in Exodus 17.1-7.  It is the story of the water which flows from the Rock.  One of the things which binds the two halves of Psalm 95 together are the direct references to the Exodus story in the name “Rock of my salvation” in verse 1, in the image of the LORD as shepherd in verse 7 and now the direct link to Exodus 17 in verse 9.

The short interlude between the Israelites crossing the Red Sea in Exodus 14 and 15 and the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai is marked by one thing: moaning and complaining.  This murmuring and complaining among the people of God is traced through three or four different phases.  First comes the complaint about the bitter water at a place called Marah.  Moses throws wood into the water and the bitter becomes sweet.  Second are the complaints about food.  The LORD provides manna and quails to eat.  Third (and in a different place) there is anxiety and fear about water once again and Moses strikes the rock with his staff.

It’s interesting that Exodus remembers the first and last of these places not because of the miracle but because of the complaining which came before the miracle.  Marah means Bitter.  Meribah means Quarrelling.  Massah means Testing.

Bitter, Grumpy, and Doubtful might be the nicknames of people know to us today.  They might be the voices in our own hearts and minds which speak the loudest in times of anxiety and fear and transition.

We need to recognize them for what they are: traces of the old man, the old woman, the old community, hangovers from before the miracle of baptism, signified by the crossing of the Red Sea.  We need to apply to them the medicine of God’s written word and God’s living Word.  The medicine for bitterness is forgiveness: reconciliation with God and others.  The antidote to quarrelling is peace between us and between us and God.  The remedy for testing is faith and trust between people and between the LORD and his people.

Every Church is on a constant journey – each Diocese and each local church – between these points.  We need to hear God’s voice of forgiveness, of peace and of faith speaking to us each day as we travel together.

This post is one of a series of daily reflections on Psalm 95 in January, at the start of the Diocese of Sheffield Centenary Year

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Steven Croft

Listening and the conversion of St Paul

Five years ago today, on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, I was consecrated Bishop of Sheffield.  It was on a freezing cold Sunday morning in York Minster with over 2,000 people present in that great church from all over the Diocese of Sheffield and from different points of connection in my own life.  It was an unforgettable day and one I will remember for the rest of my days.

The past five years have been rich, deep, demanding and humbling.  It’s taken me some time to grow into the ministry and the role.  As I’ve said on other occasions, I’ve found throughout my ministry that stepping into a new role is rather like putting on a coat which is several sizes too big.  When I was a child, it was always the case that a new school blazer had sleeves that were much too long.  I had to grow into them and then out of them before there could be a new one.

The story of the conversion of Paul is connected to Psalm 95 by the theme of hearing God’s voice.  It’s not impossible that both Saul and Ananias had read Psalm 95 in the days before the encounter on the Damascus Road.  Saul hears the voice of the risen Lord speaking to him (though those travelling with him hear nothing).  The voice confronts and shakes Saul to his core.  His whole life is turned around.  The persecutor of the Way becomes its greatest advocate.  The one who seeks to murder others will in time die for his faith.  The voice of God overcomes the hardness of Saul’s heart, he turns from his rebellion, he follows in the Way.

Saul’s conversion is a reminder that the second half of the Psalm, like the first, is not addressed only to those who are already part of God’s people.  The call to come and worship the Lord is addressed to the whole world.  The invitation to listen to his voice is similarly a call not just to the worshippers but to every person God has made to listen, to come into a relationship of love and obedience and to find the source of life.

But what happens to Saul is only part of the story. Fully half of the account in Acts 9 is about another person who listens to the voice of God.  Ananias is listening to God that day.  He hears the call to go and seek out Saul.  He has not hardened his heart to what God may be doing even in this persecutor of the faith.  Listening means obedience.  Because Ananias heard and obeyed, Saul is brought to faith and baptized and begins his ministry.

Pray today and through this coming year that many who are like Saul in your community would hear the voice of God speaking to them as they travel about their business and be transformed.  Pray today and through the coming year that you and I (and many in the church) would hear God’s word to us to welcome specific people into the life of God’s church.I am very thankful that I will be spending the fifth anniversary of my consecration with 200 young people from across the Diocese at our first young people’s development day.  Please pray for us and for me as God helps me to keep growing into the role.

This post is one of a series of daily reflections on Psalm 95 in January, at the start of the Diocese of Sheffield Centenary Year

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Steven Croft

Uncomfortable words

“Harden not your hearts”

The Psalm now commends to us something we need to avoid if we are to hear God’s voice today as we attend to scripture in private prayer and public worship.  Something more than stillness and attention is required.

We are not to harden our hearts: we are to be open to receiving what God would say to us.

The heart in the Hebrew bible is not the centre of romantic love and emotion but the centre of our will: the centre of our being and the place where decisions are made.

To listen without hardening our hearts is to come open to acting on what we hear.  This is not simply listening with a view to saying :”That’s interesting or comforting”.  This is listening with a view to saying: “Now I must do something in response”.  This is listening which is prepared to say: “Here I am, send me”.

One of the images underlying the idea of hard hearts is the picture taken from agriculture.  God tells us through the prophets to “plough up our unploughed ground” within (Jeremiah 4.3 and Hosea 10.12).  Before the seed is sown in the spring, the soil is broken up with the plough. One of the key parts of this operation is breaking up the deeper levels of soil.  Unless this happens the seed lies on the surface and is snatched away (as in the parable of the sower).

Hearts become hard through disobedience (as we shall see in the next verse).  Hearts become hard through pride, thinking too much of ourselves.  Hearts become hard through comfort and overconsumption.

These are the words of Pope Francis in “The Joy of the Gospel”:

“Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor, God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt and the desire to do good fades” (2).

Earlier generations who preached the gospel in Britain knew and understood that a vital part of that preaching of the gospel was to call the Church to repent of their hardness of heart towards God and towards others and to hear God’s voice afresh and in such a way as their own lives would change.  Evangelism is about far more than methods or techniques: it is about the Church becoming absorbed again with the holiness of God.

Repentance for the state of our hearts is therefore part of our response to Psalm 95 and part of our response to the Lord who came and preached in Galilee: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Repentance in Greek is “metanoia”: a change of heart and mind.

This post is one of a series of daily reflections on Psalm 95 in January, at the start of the Diocese of Sheffield Centenary Year

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Steven Croft

The Voice

Today if you will listen to his voice

This final part of the psalm presumes an ongoing conversation between the LORD and his people, between the LORD and each person who will hear him.  This is the conversation which began in the story of the Garden of Eden as the LORD God walked in the garden in the cool of the evening.  It continued in the call of Abraham and the friendship of Moses.  It continues in the call of the prophets. It is focussed in the person of Jesus, who is God’s living word to us and who enters daily into dialogue and conversation with the Father. It continues in the gift of the Spirit to the Church, the Holy Spirit who comes to lead us into all truth.  It endures through each generation in the prayers and reflection and dialogue of the Church.  The great conversation will continue in heaven at the marriage feast of the lamb, in the great banquet in the City of God.

To pray the psalm is to step into this ancient conversation: to long to hear God’s voice, God’s living word today.  To pray the psalm is also to find help in our listening.

We believe by faith that God is with us at all times.  His Spirit dwells in our hearts through faith.  Christ has promised to be present when only two or three are together.

But certain things are required in order to listen to his voice.  Even though God is with us, we need to come into his presence with thanksgiving. Praise and worship is a stepping stone to stillness.  And then there is the expectant hush: the quietness in which we come to hear God’s voice on the pages of the scripture, in the quietness of our hearts.

The Voice is a (semi-)popular television series in which four celebrity judges look for a new singing talent.  At its best, the Voice emphasizes the beauty and the emotion which can be carried by a human voice.

But the voice of God in scripture is different. Sometimes the voice of God is loud and powerful, like thunder in the mountains (see Psalm 29).  But most often, the voice of God is found not in earthquake, wind or fire (as in I Kings 20) but in the still small voice of calm, speaking within, speaking life to the weary.

Listen to his life giving voice today.

This post is one of a series of daily reflections on Psalm 95 in January, at the start of the Diocese of Sheffield Centenary Year

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Steven Croft

God speaks

Today if you will listen to his voice

We will look tomorrow at what it means to listen. But today we need to pause and think about the clearest and most profound truth which underlies these words: the presumption on which they are based.

The LORD speaks.

The creator of heaven and earth, who made the sea and all that is in, whose hands shaped the dry land, who redeemed Israel, this God speaks.

The LORD desires to communicate with us, with part of his creation.  The LORD desires to speak with us not simply so that we might hear his commands or even understand his ways.  The LORD desires to communicate with us so that we might know him and be known by him.

Listening to the LORD is not like listening to our commanding officer, or listening to a wise teacher.  Listening to the LORD, at its best, is a conversation with a friend:

“Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33.11.

There are moments in life when God speaks to us directly. There is a place in the Christian life for the guidance of God in our daily living.  The next verses of Psalm 95 are an oracle: words from God spoken in the midst of the worship of God’s people.

But the foundation of listening to the voice of God is the discipline of attending to what God is saying to the Church and to us through the Scriptures, and especially to the Scriptures as they speak to us about God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

It is vital for the health of the Church that we attend to the scriptures both privately and publicly.  They are the means by which we listen to God.  From earliest times, one of the distinctive acts of the Church has been to read the scriptures aloud and reflect on their message. This is the place where we attend to what God is saying.  In our own daily walk with God, reading the scriptures needs to find a place: this is where we listen and ponder the grace of God, and find life and guidance in every situation.  This is the place where we put down deep roots to enable us to flourish even in a dry and barren land (Psalm 1).

But for today, try and catch again the wonder of this thought:  God speaks.

This post is one of a series of daily reflections on Psalm 95 in January, at the start of the Diocese of Sheffield Centenary Year

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Steven Croft

Today if you will listen to his voice

Today if you will listen to his voice

At the end of verse 7, Psalm 95 changes gear[1].  The final section of the psalm makes it unique in the psalter.  95.1-7a is a beautiful hymn of praise but like many others in the Psalms (see Psalm 100).  The final four verses take us deeper into what it means to worship not only with our lips but with our lives.  They are the reason that the Psalm has been used to introduce Christian worship since the time of Benedict.

Commentators remind us of the sense of development and contrast between the first part of the psalm and the second.  We begin with praise and processession, with loud cries of joy and shouts of thanksgiving.  We move on to prostration: to peace and stillness before God.  We have remembered that God is creator and redeemer.  We are now in a place where we are able to listen: to hear the still small voice of God speaking to us.  We are reminded of Isaiah in the temple in Isaiah 6 where loud praise gives way to a call of God.  We are reminded of Elijah on the mountaintop in I Kings 20 where God is not in the earthquake, wind or fire but the still small voice of calm.

The first part of the Psalm summons us to joy and to speak aloud our praise.  But the second part summons us to listen.  The first part looks back to the past as we remember God our Rock and our salvation and the stories of the Exodus and the history of God’s people. The second part looks to the present and the future:  how will we live when we leave this time and place of worship.

The Psalms and prophets of the Old Testament wrestle with the tension between the worship of God’s people and the daily life of God’s people.  Israel is called to worship the one true God, the king above all gods.  But that worship is not simply about singing the right songs and attending the temple on the right days.  The LORD is a holy God.  Worship is meant to transform our lives and the life of our community. Therefore an essential part of coming with joy to the LORD is to listen and to understand and to obey God’s word to us today.

Today if you will listen to his voice

This post is one of a series of daily reflections on Psalm 95 in January, at the start of the Diocese of Sheffield Centenary Year

[1] Most English translations move the final part of verse 7 into verse 8 to emphasise the change of mood

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Steven Croft

Guiding and providing

“the sheep of his hand”

The image which lies beneath the verse 8 is the same image as Psalm 23: The LORDis my Shepherd.  It is an image associated with the story of the Exodus.  God leads his people out of slavery to freedom in the flight from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea.  The LORD gives the gracious gift of the law at Mount Sinai.

There then follows the years of wanderings in the wilderness.  The LORD as Shepherd is very present to guide and to provide.  Guidance comes not only through the law which establishes the lifestyle of the community.  Guidance comes through the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, in the midst of the people when they are at rest and going ahead of the people when it is time to move on.

The LORD as Shepherd provides in the wilderness, where food is not regularly available, through water flowing from the rock, through birds landing in the camp and most of all through the gift of manna, the food from heaven, daily bread.

As we reflect on Psalm 95 today, we thank God that he is our shepherd: that he guides and provides in different ways in our own lives, in our families and in the different church commuinities we are part of. We thank God for his guidance and provision for this Diocese of Sheffield over the last one hundred years, that the LORD has been and remains our shepherd.  Like the people of Israel, the calling of the church is to find her way in the wilderness of this world, to remain together, to live in God’s way in challenging times.

Remember that guiding and providing today.  Look back and give thanks and rejoice.  But remember the story and the image of the Exodus, present in the first verse of psalm (the Rock) and this verse.  Psalm 95 has yet more to teach us, rooted in the Exodus story as we journey on.

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Steven Croft

Remembering the church we are part of

“…and we are the people of his pasture”

Remembering that we are the people of God is part of our summons to joy.  It is not only about looking back to the past.  We are also calling to mind the present day.  We bring into our minds the people of God of which we are part: the church throughout the world.

Throughout the whole cycle of day and night, God is praised all over the earth by those who are his people, by our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Through his death and resurrection, Christ has created a new people drawn from every race and people.  Christ has created one people in whether there are no divisions of race or gender. Christ has drawn to himself one people, the destiny of creation.

I may come to worship today cast down, or confused, praying on my own and facing immense pressures.  But I come to worship today, as well, as part of the people of God stretching all around the earth: Roman Catholic and Orthodox, Protestant and Pentecostals and everything in between.  I have Anglican sisters and brothers in every part of the world.  For many of my sisters and brothers, life will be very difficult today.  Some will be persecuted for their faith.  Others are living in great poverty and need.  We are one family.

Even the people of God in this Diocese of Sheffield is greater than I can hold in my mind at one time.  There are Christians living our their discipleship today in Doncaster, in Rotherham, in Goole, in Barnsley, in every part of the city of Sheffield.: teachers, medics, administrators, shop workers, students. There may only be one or two in a workplace or a council chamber.

There may only be a small number gathered in some places on Sunday morning.  But together we are salt scattered through the life of this region.  Together we are light, seeking to reflect the way of Christ to those around us.  Together we are part of the people of God, holding to the faith of Jesus Christ, all across the earth.

Our greatness and confidence does not rest on our numbers or our goodness.  As we will see in the next verses, we are not perfect people.  Our confidence rests in the truth that God has called us, the LORD is our shepherd, the LORD walks with us and before us and behind us, today and every day:

“ we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand”

This post is one of a series of daily reflections on Psalm 95 in January, at the start of the Diocese of Sheffield Centenary Year

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Steven Croft

God’s own people

“For he is our God”

What does it mean to declare in the midst of worship that “he is our God and we are his people”?

Those who prayed the psalms in the Temple and in their private prayers in ancient Israel and those who pray the psalms as members of the Jewish faith today are declaring that they are part of the covenant people of God.

They (and we) are recalling in these words the story which begins with the call of Abram in Genesis 12 and the promise of a people who will be a blessing to the earth.  They (and we) are recalling especially the accounts of the Exodus and Passover, the crossing of the Red Sea and the giving of the law at Sinai. These were the events which created the people of God, Israel, the nation of the earth in a special relationship with God, redeemed from slavery, entrusted with the law and with a particular calling to witness to God’s way’s on the earth.

For the Christian, the words have a still wider and deeper meaning.  As I say these words as a Christian, I am recalling the life and ministry and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It is because of Jesus’s  sacrifice that I am able through faith and baptism to become part of the people of God. It is because of God’s grace in Christ that I and other Christians can be joined to God’s covenant community.

Paul writes profound words about the wonder of belonging to God’s people in Ephesians:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone” (2.19-20).

In similar ways, 1 Peter invites us to remember who we are and the privilege of belonging to the people of God:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (2.9).

Ponder today the story of the people of God from the story of Abram, through the Exodus and the long history of Israel, God’s amazing grace in Jesus, and the story of the church down the long ages, to the local church you are part of, to your baptism, to your faith.  Give thanks and rediscover joy.  We belong.  We are part of something bigger than ourselves.

This is what it means to say: “For he is our God and we are his people”.

This post is one of a series of daily reflections on Psalm 95 in January, at the start of the Diocese of Sheffield Centenary Year

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