Welcome to Monday’s Podcast. My name is Tom Finnemore and I’m part of the staff team here at STC. I have the privilege of building on what my colleague Liam shared last week.

REFLECTION

Today our passage is the end of Chapter 3: 14-21 but I will focus on verse 14-15:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

Today is known as ‘Blue Monday’.

Dr Cliff Arnall came up with a scientific formula to work out when the most ‘depressing’ day of the year would be… According to his formula it’s the third Monday of January. He did it to help marketing companies identify the best time of year to advertise summer holidays.

So today and throughout this week will see more holiday advertisements than at any other time in the year.

Why?

Dr Arnall worked out that the combined factors of January weather conditions, debt from Christmas, for some the already failed New Year’s resolutions = low motivation for life.

So here we are. Monday 15 January. Blue Monday.

As you listen to this podcast right now – driving to work; waiting for the bus; revising for uni exams or looking after your children and if you’re in Sheffield I bet it’s raining – is this going to be a Blue Monday for you?

How can we do battle with Blue Monday? Can we kick blue Monday into touch?

I believe so. I believe today’s passage has something to teach us and inspire us.

The Apostle Paul’s response to what he’s shared in verses 1-13: we are included into God’s family, his oikos; his household – for those who receive Jesus and start that wonderful journey of grace – we are welcomed home. Paul is so overwhelmed by God’s incredible love and grace he responds in verse 14 in his letter by beginning to write a prayer. Not just any prayer – a powerful heartfelt prayer that brings a physical response – ‘for this reason I kneel’.

Men didn’t kneel in those days. In fact, most when most Jewish people prayed, they looked up to heaven and they would stand.

There’s something significant going on here.

This is worship and prayer all mixed up into one – it’s a physical, passionate overwhelming response. Like something that cannot be contained.

Kneeling is subordination. Kneeling is servility – it’s something a servant would do.

God is so good. Paul is so thankful and overwhelmed by God’s love and grace.

His physical response is the very definition of worship. He begins to call out to God that the church maybe strengthened. That they know God’s power. That they be rooted. That they may know how big God’s love is. It’s so big not even the finest minds can fathom it… then he concludes with a blessing – ‘now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine…’

For Paul God is huge. He is powerful. But he is close.

In verse 15 Paul says ‘from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name’. Derive means to obtain something from a source.

Paul deeply believes that God the father, who we understand even has a name for the stars – the object of his creation – has a name for us and as such he is not distant – yes he’s holy and powerful but he comes to close to us in Jesus.

These few verses which I’ll read at the end aren’t just good theology or good practical application. They come out of a heart thumping prayer – they reveal what Paul deeply believes is true for his beloved church – it’s the same for you and me.

And the most challenging bit, in my view is that Paul is actually in prison.

Prison.

Paul is not bound by external circumstance.

His external world may be limited. He’s lost his freedom – but in his inner world his outlook is fuelled by hope.

So how do we not get defined by Blue Monday?

The American church pastor Louie Giglio says this: ‘Worry and worship cannot exist in the same place. One always displaces the other.