The Eight O’Clock
News Read this in COLOUR at www.cck.org.za
April 2015
8 am Service, Christ Church, Kenilworth
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus Imagine re-issuing the song Moon River in Japan under the title ‘Beef Stew’. How bizarre, you say. Well, the Japanese-language song, Ue o Muite Aruko is best known under the alternative title, Sukiyaki, a hot pot dish, with actually nothing to do with the lyrics or the meaning of the song! What struck me more than the title being catchy and recognizable to most English speakers as well as the fact that it reached the Top 100 chart in 1963, was the story that the lyrics tell. When translated into English, the words can be understood in at least three different ways—the mindset of a man facing execution, the thoughts of a person trying to be optimistic about life’s trials or as the story of an ended love affair. The lyrics describe a man who LOOKS UP and whistles while walking so that his tears will not fall. As once again we contemplate the meaning of the resurrection of our Lord this Easter, we are at the same time grappling with the tragedy and horror depicted daily in the news. We cry out to God for the pain and suffering of the world. Where are You, God? Jesus did too, on the cross—He also lifted His eyes heavenward as He cried to God for our sins. Instead of being cast down, let us Turn our eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of the earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His Glory and Grace. CS Lewis in Miracles, writes: Glory, that He triumphed over death: The New Testament writers speak as if Christ's achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe. He is the first fruits, the pioneer of life, He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because He has done so. April 2015 Eight O’Clock News
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CS Lewis, in The Weight of Glory, On Forgiveness, writes: Grace that we are forgiven: To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. ‘But how?’ we ask— ’only by accepting an Invitation from the Living God’. ‘Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee’ (Psalm 50:15). Let us be quick to cry out to Him with humility, sincerity, and faith. He ‘will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him: He also will hear their cry, and will save them’ (Psalm 145:19). As the man in the Sukiyaki song, no more need we fear death; we can be optimistic despite life’s challenges and we can end the love affair with self. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him, everything else thrown in (CS Lewis, Mere Christianity). Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus - Cheryl Anderson
Hebrews 12:2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. (TNIV) Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in.
(The Message, Eugene Peterson)