MattGlover.com

I’m home!

I went in to theatre at 2pm on Monday for a microdiscectomy and was back in the ward by about 5:30pm. The anaesthetic they gave me was fantastic - I asked three nurses and the neurosurgeon to marry me in the time that I was waking up!

Seriously, the procedure went as well as it could, and when I did come around, I was totally pain free and could feel my left foot again. Quite amazing how instantaneous it was. Of course, when the pain killers wore off, the actual wound where the surgeon ‘went in’ started to sting like crazy, but that’s to be expected.

Anyway, an hour or so after I woke up, I was walking the corridor with my wife. After a great night sleep (it must be the quietest hospital ever!) I was sent home. I slept most of the rest of Tuesday and today have alternated between taking short walks, lying down and sending emails from the lap top perched on top of the ironing board. I’ve got to take it easy for a while yet, but everything is looking great so far.

Thanks again for all your encouraging messages.

Sorry I haven’t got around to posting summaries of my messages from the last few months, but if you’re interested, one of the guys from church has been converting them to podcasts and posting them on the web.

Check out the last few in the Lord’s Prayer series by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Just managed to successfully (I think) upgrade to Wordpress 2.5

I hate doing these things as I’m almost certain that the blog will disappear off the face of the blogosphere as soon as I press enter. Anyway, so far so good.

Computer time has been limited of late because of the back situation. I’m now scheduled for surgery on April 28th and I’m starting to get nervous!

Still, it will be good to have it fixed once and for all.

From October, every time I walk into a room, you will have to bow down in front of me and call me Reverend.

Well, not really, but I will be ordained by the Baptist Union of Victoria as a recognised and accredited minister of the gospel.

It’s staggering who they let in these days!

Seriously, it’s nice to be at the end of that part of my journey - who knows what comes next!

But before then, I have to head off to surgery and get this back of mine fixed once and for all. Everything that can be tried, has been tried, so it’s time for the last resort. Fortunately it’s a short procedure and the recovery, while limiting, is not anywhere near as bad as I was expecting.

2008 is not turning out anything like I had planned - it’s funny how life does that to you.

The Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, was the core of Jesus teaching. When he was walking around 2000 years ago, many of the stories and parables he told started with the words, “The Kingdom of God is like…”.

So it’s probably no surprise that when Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray, he included the words, “Your Kingdom come.”

On Sunday night we looked at a few elements of the Kingdom of God and what they might mean for us to pray them.

Nowhere does Jesus actually define what he Kingdom of God is. It is clear it is not a geographic place, but instead something more like the rule or reign of God. We could even use words like the ‘impact’ or ‘influence’ of God. But we do get little glimpses of some of the characteristics of what this impact is like. We looked at just four of those on Sunday

The Kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and there’s nothing we can do to stop it (Matt 11:12)

The Kingdom of God is all inclusive, embracing the unclean and the outcast, where everyone is equal (Matt 9:20-22)

The Kingdom of God is counter culture, valuing many things the world does not (Matt 18:1-5)

The Kingdom of God is worth everything we have (Matt 13:44-46)

And most surprisingly, the Kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:20-21)

So for all of these things to become a reality in our world, for God’s Kingdom to have a lasting impact on lives and communities, then it happens through us.

These three words, “Your Kingdom come”, become the most powerful part of the Lord’s prayer because not only do they change us in dramatic ways, but they change the world around us too.

It takes a bold person to pray this prayer. Feeding the hungry is a sign of God’s Kingdom breaking into the world, so if we pray “your Kingdom come” we should expect to be eating with the hungry, giving up our own food if necessary. We should expect to be rubbing shoulders with the homeless, the outcast, the addicted and the different because this is all part of the impact God has through his people.

The worst thing we can possibly do, is pray the prayer and not expect to be part of the answer.

Two weeks ago (yes, it’s taken me a while to get these notes up) we looked at the next phrase in the Lord’s Prayer - Hallowed be Your Name.

Hallowed, or holy, is not really a word we use much now apart from describing an extra special place. For instance, the ground of the MCG if sometimes described as ‘hallowed turf’.

The dictionary defines hallowed/holy as something that is extra special, something that is devoted to or used by God. So when we pray this part of the prayer, we are asking that God’s name be set apart and regarded as more special than any other names.

But what is God’s name?

The story of Moses in Exodus chapter three helps understand a little bit about God’s name, as well as how we can understand what holy means.

Moses, at this point in the story, is a shepherd, looking after his sheep on Mount Horeb. There he sees a bush that is on fire, but not being consumed. Out of the fire, god speaks, telling Moses to take off his sandles for where he is standing is holy ground. This place, and this point in time, is special becasue it is the beginning of the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and the birth of the Jewish nation. Moses is unsure if the people will respond to what God is asking him to do, so he asks God to reveal his name to convince the jews that his story is legitimate. God responds with I AM WHO I AM.

It might seem a strange name, but it speaks of god presence with us at every point in the past, presence and future. In everything that happens, I AM.

So the Lord’s Prayer is asking that at every point in time, the name of the eternal, ever present God be regarded as special.

There is a danger to think that because we are praying this prayer, somehow God’s name mustn’t be holy already. Of course, the Bible tells us that it is, and there is nothing that will ever change that. However, we’ve also heard that we are the ones that are changed the most when we pray.

In Galatians, Paul describes us as God’s children and heirs. As such, we, as a community, bare God’s name. When people look at us, they form opinions of God.

For God’s name to be kept holy thus means that our words, thoughts, actions and attitudes as individuals and as a community must never take away from the holiness of God’s name. We must never cause people to curse God nor should we simply stand by and let God be ridiculed. It’s a fine line, but one that we need to be conscious of all the time.

We finished the night with a challenge to write I AM WHO I AM on a piece of paper and write it in a prominent place where it would be seen at least once everyday. Every time we saw it, we were to pray the words “Hallowed be your name” and then be open to whatever it is the Spirit might be saying to us through the circumstances of the week.

If you’re reading this for the first time, give the exercise a try and let me know how it goes!

Well, it seems that that the epidural injection, as fun as it was, hasn’t worked and I’m back to square one with my back.

The pain is progressively becoming worse and a few times today I endured spasms that more or less paralysed me.

Needless to say, I’ve returned to spending most of my time flat out on the floor. It’s frustrating, but I don’t have much choice!

I’m off to see the surgeon again in two weeks time (the earliest appointment I could get) and until then will live on a diet of pain killers and chocolate!

Thanks for all your emails wishing me well!

On Sunday night we began a new series on prayer, using the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:5-15 as a framework for our exploration. I’ve spoken on prayer many times now, but this time around I wanted to avoid getting into the theological/academic questions surrounding prayer and just look at what it was Jesus was teaching when he spoke these words to his disciples.

The sort of questions I’m avoiding are things like, “If God knows everything, why do we have to pray?” It is good to ask these  questions, and searching for the answers makes prayer, and faith, more fulfilling. But for the purpose of this series, I’m assuming prayer is something we are required to do because Jesus himself prayed and he taught others to do the same. If it was essential for Jesus, it must be for us.

On Sunday night i concentrated on the first four words of the Lord’s prayer; Our Father in heaven.

Given the paragraph that comes immediately before the Lord’s prayer, it seems strange that the first word of the prayer is ‘Our’. Jesus has just described prayer as an action where you disappear into a private place in your home, where nobody can see or hear you, and where it can be just you and God. You would expect a prayer in this setting to begin with a personal address to God, but the word ‘our’ acknowledges that even when we are alone, we are still part of the Body of Christ. Faith is expressed the community of people known as God’s. So we are a group, owned by God.

There are many instances where more personal expressions of prayer are recorded in the Bible, with Jesus’ “My God, my God…” from the cross being the most well known. But in this teaching about prayer, Jesus seems to make the point that prayer is a community task, and the community is owned by God. We don’t engage in new age spirituality or post modern belief that constructs faith as a personal possession that can be manipulated and changed. Together, we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.

The next word of the prayer has been a stumbling block for many when it comes to prayer. Calling God ‘father’ is an impossibility for anyone who has had bad experiences with their own father. “If God is anything like my old man, then I don’t want anything to do with him…” is something I’ve heard a few times now. But in context, I think we can move beyond the word itself to see what Jesus was getting across.

The Jews had an instruction book called the Talmud, which outlined the rules for living as a Jew. The instructions for Jewish fathers were quite specific - teach your kids the Torah (things of faith), teach your kids a trade (the things of education/work), and teach your kids how to swim (be involved in their upbringing). Addressing God as ‘father’ thus meant an acknowledgement that God was involved in every part of life.

You might choose to use a different name for God, but I think it’s helpful to use a name that reminds us of the action of God in every part of life. “Living God, “Loving God”, “Creator God” and so on are all fine to use. I guess the good old “Dear God” is fine too, but to me it seems a little bit limp without some sort of expression that describes how God is involved in our lives.

The final part of the first line is “in heaven”. At first glance, it seems to run counter with what we’ve just said about God being involved in life. “In heaven” makes God seem distant and far away, not involved in anything we are doing on a day to day basis. But we are always in danger of thinking of God as part of creation when we only think in terms of our daily lives. The reality is that God is not part of creation but is THE creator. God is far more than we can see, feel, taste and touch, and can’t be limited to our experience of life. Addressing God ‘in heaven’ reminds us that this is the same God that reaches out to embrace us, his creation, and be involved in our lives as individuals and as a community.

The more I think abut it, the more I’m amazed at the profound truth that is contained in the first four words of this prayer. I’m also convicted about my own prayer life and how much I take for granted how I address God - I know we talk of the relationship with God as important, but after looking at this part of Scripture, something doesn’t seem right about viewing God just as one of my mates. God is so much more than that…

Anyway, we will continue to look at the Lord’s prayer next week and tackle “hallowed be your name”. What does ‘hallowed’ mean afterall. And what exactly is God’s name?

Feel free to leave any of your own thoughts or questions in the comments section below!

Well, I’ve survived the injection, but only just…

I went into the surgery and the doctor laid me face down on the bed before giving me a little anaesthetic in the lower back. With a kindly, “This might hurt a little,” he started to give me the epidural injection.

Well, the pain was excruciating. For the next thirty minutes, little by little, he injected all the stuff into my back as I gripped the sides of the bed and screamed into the pillow. The nurse held my arms down and told me it would be over soon.

As it turned out, it was far more painful than it should have been. The prolapsed disk didn’t leave enough room for the fluid to be injected, so as the doctor pressed the syringe, the disk was pressed further into the nerve and hence the pain…sheesh!

Anyway, at about the twenty five minute mark, I started to go into shock. My heart rate and blood pressure dropped, so he squirted the rest of the juice in before whisking me away to recovery where I spent the next hour and a half.

I was exhausted, so slept for most of this time. When I got home I felt pretty crook and spent the day in bed trying not to throw up.

A day later, things are feeling much better. I have very little back pain, though the full use and feeling on my left side has not returned. This isn’t such a good sign, but nothing can be decided until the end of the week when the drugs should have taken full affect.

Not a great way to spend my boys fifth birthday, but at least the lego made things a little better!

So, the back is getting no better.

I’m still here on the floor, swimming in pain killers thankful for a wireless network so I can still sermon prep and the like.

I saw my doctor on Wednesday morning, who then pulled some strings and got me in to see a neuro surgeon on Thursday, who then promptly ordered me off to hospital this coming Monday for a “CT Directed Epidural Injection” straight into my spine.

It’s a last ditch effort to avoid surgery, and while I’m hoping it will work, I’m also wondering if I should just get the operation now and get it over with.
 
I don’t like these sorts of decisions very much…