On these Sundays in Lent we are taking as our base-line the Lord’s Prayer, but using the set readings, and allowing them to suggest to us various key themes of the Christians faith. Last week the theme was FAITH. This week the theme is HOPE. Guess what the theme is next week is? LOVE. Appropriate for Mothering Sunday. So today we are thinking of Christian Hope, and it would be hard to think of a more appropriate reading than Romans 5:1-11. If we had lots of time, I would begin by handing out paper and pen, and asking you to write down your expectations for the future. Like those opinion surveys that pop up from time to time, I would ask you – on a scale of one to ten – how hopeful (how optimistic) you feel under various headings - yourself personally, the local community, the country, the world in general - where ‘one’ means not hopeful at all, and 10 means very hopeful and optimistic indeed.
If we did that exercise, I have a feeling that the answers would not, on the whole, be very positive. We grow older and not surprisingly health can be a concern. The economy is not doing well, and not surprisingly jobs and money can be a concern. The world is not a peaceful place and that, too, doesn’t fill our hearts with joy when we read the newspapers or listen to the news. I wonder what effect this has on our Christian faith? Does the way we feel about ourselves and our world affect our faith? Does our faith affect the way we feel about ourselves and our world?
Let’s think for a moment about the world of the New Testament. Those first Christians lived in a world not altogether unlike ours. Relatively stable government over most of it, but (if we look beyond our own door-step) a world also full of injustice, danger, great cruelty sickness and short life expectancy, and where human life (let alone human rights) were not highly valued at all. Moreover, Christians often faced vicious persecution, misunderstanding, opposition and the real fear of imprisonment, torture and ignominious death, such as none of us (probably) has ever contemplated.
Yet the New Testament brims over with hope. It is a message imbued with hope from beginning to end. Indeed, you can feel their hope bursting through even when they are writing about persecution, danger and death. Think of a passage like2Corinthians4:8-l0, where Paul’s words match every difficulty with an equal optimism: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
You could actually say that the reason these gospels and letters in the New Testament were written in the first place was to express the almost explosive hope the writers felt, and to convey that hope to the readers.
What is the key to this wonderful hope? The key is that they had actually seen the future - and it is great! People say that it’s impossible to see the future, but not for the Christian. The future has already arrived, embodied in the person of Jesus Christ This is a dimension of the New Testament which many miss.
In the Lord’s Prayer we say: “Thy Kingdom come”. Jesus came pronouncing that the “Kingdom of God has come near to you”. The Kingdom of God is actually confronting you in me. Look, repent and believe the good news!” In Jesus was the fulfilment of everything that the prophets had said would happen at the end-time - the end of the world and the coming of the kingdom.
God would come down and visit his people. Everything that is summed up in the Beatitudes would come to pass. Material values would be reversed (as Mary has understood at the annunciation). The poor and marginalized whom no-one valued would become the important. Those who mourn would be comforted. The lowly would be raised high. Those who longed for God to show his face would be rewarded. The repentant would see their sins forgiven. The sick would be healed. Those imprisoned by every kind of sin or disability would see the prison doors open and be set free. The oppressed would see their chains fall off.
As Jesus moved through Galilee and on to Jerusalem, they saw all this come true, as Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, and healed through the forgiveness of sins. The future would be the Day of Judgement, and in Jesus we see what that judgement looks like.
And as Jesus faced the cross, they saw that love would overcome the power of evil - yes, good really would triumph - and (most important of all) they would witness the surest sign of all that - in Jesus - the last days had come - the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting.
In Jesus they had seen the future – and so have we. Everything that Jesus was and did and symbolised and represented, was the Kingdom of God which will come one day in all its fullness.
No wonder they could hardly contain their hope! Hope is faith in the future tense. It is faith on tiptoe! And - in the interim and with that vision - they could cope with anything. Paul again in 2 Corinthians 4: 16- 18: “Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So our eyes are fixed not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen in eternal.”
What was the most important thing that Jesus gave the Samaritan woman? When Jesus saw her approaching, he didn’t need prophetic powers to see that there was something dramatically wrong with her life. Women don’t go out to a well on their own. They go in groups - for company, for safety, because they know each other and talk about everything going on in the village and (no doubt) the latest rumour or gossip. And the sixth hour is midday. Who would go to draw water at the hottest hour of the day? This woman came alone, at a time she knew there would be no-one there (Jesus was a big surprise in every sense of the word –a man, a Jew, on his own). If other women had seen her, she would have been criticised, insulted or ignored, and possibly even attacked. She was the village scandal, and would be perceived as a potential danger to every married woman. She was hated, isolated, lonely and with no possible future other than as an outcast.
But with the spiritual water of cleansing, and renewal and health, what was the most important thing Jesus gave her? He gave her hope. The possibility of a new life, a new start, restoration and acceptance. Jesus always brings us hope, no matter what our situation or state.
I’m going to have to leave you to study Romans 5, and I hope you will, because it is one of the greatest chapters in the New Testament. But note the sequence. When we turn and put our trust for life and death into the hands of Jesus, we are accounted in God’s sight as accepted, justified through the cross, and at peace with God. Through Jesus we have access into the Holy of Holies - the very presence of God Himself. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
The resurrection of Jesus guarantees our resurrection - the Holy Spirit is God’s signature on the guarantee warrant - and so we can now cope with whatever comes our way, even if it’s suffering, because suffering builds the character we shall become in the new life.
So many of our hopes are frankly trivial, and the material ones pale in insignificance if we are building up treasure of heaven. For, as Peter writes in his First Letter (1 Peter 1:1 -4): As those who put our trust in Christ, God has given us “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Even if suffering and persecution came their way, their eyes were alight with expectation. They could see glory ahead - in fact they could glimpse it already. This was not delusional optimism, or an artificial way of keeping their spirits up, they had seen the future - the Kingdom of God in Jesus. Jesus did not simply point to the future - He is the future - the future has invaded the present - and we have seen his glory. Keep your eyes on Him and your hope will never dim.
QUESTIONS 1. How does your Christian faith affect your outlook on life - personally? In the wider context? 2. In Romans 5: 1 - 11, what do you understand by the word ‘Justified’? Also the words ‘Access into the grace in which we now stand’? 3. Sadly suffering does not always produce character. Consider experiences in your own life or the life of those you know. How can Christian Hope shine through all our experiences?4. Quotation: “We are still deeply aware that the mortality rate is 100%.” Does your Christian hope extend beyond this life? In what way?
Sunday, 2 March 2008
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Sunday 17 February 2007 John 3:1-17 Lent 2 Kim: Faith
Jesus: the Son of God (John 3:1-17)
Our Father: Forgive us…as we forgive: Faith
Nicodemus, a Pharisee, was a member of the Sanhedrin and he was an ‘undercover’ believer. He wanted to learn from Jesus, but not to be seen. He probably got more than he expected – a challenge to a new life. We too have that same challenge – a challenge to a new life. The question is do we want to take up the challenge?
For God’s kingdom is not a country that has borders. It is not in one particular place and I think the best description of God’s kingdom is in the ‘Lord’s Prayer’. In this prayer, we ask for God’s kingdom to come to the earth, so that everyone will obey God, for even the angels in heaven obey God and we ask that this will happen on earth too. A writer named William Barclay said that ‘God’s Kingdom is a society and in this society people do everything that pleases God and that God’s kingdom had already begun because when a person believes in Jesus, they join God’s kingdom’.
When Jesus told Nicodemus that there is only one way to enter God’s kingdom – a person has to be born again. Nicodemus did not understand that Jesus was not talking about the birth of our physical bodies. He was talking about the birth of our spirits. Now Nicodemus was a very clever man. He knew the Scriptures well and he taught people about them. But he did not understand and because he was clever, he realised this. He was wise enough to ask Jesus some questions. He really wanted to understand and Jesus explained things to him. You do not have to be clever to believe what Jesus said. You just have to have ‘faith’ in him. Sadly, there are many people today who do not understand and they struggle with the concept that they need to believe in Jesus. But when we understand, we are compelled to do something about it. It affects us. We must choose whether to obey Jesus or not.
For when we ‘believe in Jesus’ and begin to trust him, we are made aware of our sins and are sorry because of them. We know we should be punished for our sins but Jesus suffered that punishment on our behalf. He paid the price for our sins. So when we accept him as our ‘Lord’, God forgives our sins and he accepts us. Then the Holy Spirit enters us and God begins to change us. Our spirits are born again! Our spirits become alive and we know God is real. We love him and we want to please him and as the Spirit moves within us we become different people inside our hearts and because He has forgiven us, we too have the urge and the ability to forgive others no matter what.
Everyone who has been born again belongs to God’s kingdom. It does not matter where you live, or if you’re rich or poor, what colour skin you have, or whether you are young or old; God accepts everyone who believes in his Son and are given a ‘New Life’. It is a gift from God.
Sin is like a snake’s bite. A bite poisons our bodies and ruins our lives. But God has provided a way to cure us. He has provided a way to save us from sin and death. Jesus said that people would lift him up, like the snake. He was referring to the time when they would put him on the cross. They would lift him up on the cross for everyone to see and we must look up at him on the cross. To put it bluntly, we must trust him, because of the cross. The only way to free us from the results of our sin is to look at Jesus on the cross. When we look at the cross, God rescues us from the results of our sins. In other words, we must trust Jesus to save us from the punishment for our sins. He died so that God would forgive us. And we are expected to forgive others.
Verse 16 is probably the most famous verse in the Bible. It expresses in only a few words what Christians believe. It tells us the main reason why God sent his Son to die on our behalf. There are several reasons why God did this. He did it because he is fair. If people do wrong things, they deserve a punishment. So Jesus suffered our punishment in our place. He did it because he is holy. God cannot accept us, because we sin. But Jesus, who never sinned, took our place. He died instead of us and when we believe this, we receive Jesus’ righteousness as our own. So when God looks at us, he is so overwhelmed with love for us, he chooses to see Jesus’ righteousness instead of our sin. That’s amazing.
Love is more than just one of God’s qualities. His nature is love and God does everything because he loves. God’s love always reaches out to us, the people that he has made. God’s love is never selfish. He gave to us the most precious thing that he had: his only Son so that we might have Life – ‘eternal life’, God’s free gift to us. We cannot earn it. But we do have a duty to let other people know that the only one way to receive a ‘new life’ is to be born again and to believe in Jesus. To believe ‘in’ means more than just to know that Jesus is God. Even the devil knows that! It means that we should trust Jesus completely. We should allow him to rule every part of our lives completely for He has a plan for each one of us. We must believe that all his words in the Bible are true and we must obey him. We must believe that he gives us the power to change our characters to make us become more like him, if only we would let him. People have gone before us and have done just that – believed in Jesus and when we look at the Old Testament we can see that with our new birth in Jesus, God welcomes us into the family and we can share in the same trust that Abraham and Moses had. But we cannot will this, we can only respond to the Spirit’s will, and receive the Father’s love revealed to us in his Son.
Questions
1. What thoughts come to mind as you read this passage? What do you think God might be saying to you?
2. We pray ‘forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us’. Are you the first to say sorry or do you find it difficult to forgive? Is there anything you would not forgive?
3. Jesus said “You must be born again and have faith in Jesus”. Have you? There are going to be three answers to that question. Yes – No – Not sure. If the answer is no or not sure, then please talk to Bruce, Robert, Melanie or Kim or someone you trust about how you can be sure.
Our Father: Forgive us…as we forgive: Faith
Nicodemus, a Pharisee, was a member of the Sanhedrin and he was an ‘undercover’ believer. He wanted to learn from Jesus, but not to be seen. He probably got more than he expected – a challenge to a new life. We too have that same challenge – a challenge to a new life. The question is do we want to take up the challenge?
For God’s kingdom is not a country that has borders. It is not in one particular place and I think the best description of God’s kingdom is in the ‘Lord’s Prayer’. In this prayer, we ask for God’s kingdom to come to the earth, so that everyone will obey God, for even the angels in heaven obey God and we ask that this will happen on earth too. A writer named William Barclay said that ‘God’s Kingdom is a society and in this society people do everything that pleases God and that God’s kingdom had already begun because when a person believes in Jesus, they join God’s kingdom’.
When Jesus told Nicodemus that there is only one way to enter God’s kingdom – a person has to be born again. Nicodemus did not understand that Jesus was not talking about the birth of our physical bodies. He was talking about the birth of our spirits. Now Nicodemus was a very clever man. He knew the Scriptures well and he taught people about them. But he did not understand and because he was clever, he realised this. He was wise enough to ask Jesus some questions. He really wanted to understand and Jesus explained things to him. You do not have to be clever to believe what Jesus said. You just have to have ‘faith’ in him. Sadly, there are many people today who do not understand and they struggle with the concept that they need to believe in Jesus. But when we understand, we are compelled to do something about it. It affects us. We must choose whether to obey Jesus or not.
For when we ‘believe in Jesus’ and begin to trust him, we are made aware of our sins and are sorry because of them. We know we should be punished for our sins but Jesus suffered that punishment on our behalf. He paid the price for our sins. So when we accept him as our ‘Lord’, God forgives our sins and he accepts us. Then the Holy Spirit enters us and God begins to change us. Our spirits are born again! Our spirits become alive and we know God is real. We love him and we want to please him and as the Spirit moves within us we become different people inside our hearts and because He has forgiven us, we too have the urge and the ability to forgive others no matter what.
Everyone who has been born again belongs to God’s kingdom. It does not matter where you live, or if you’re rich or poor, what colour skin you have, or whether you are young or old; God accepts everyone who believes in his Son and are given a ‘New Life’. It is a gift from God.
Sin is like a snake’s bite. A bite poisons our bodies and ruins our lives. But God has provided a way to cure us. He has provided a way to save us from sin and death. Jesus said that people would lift him up, like the snake. He was referring to the time when they would put him on the cross. They would lift him up on the cross for everyone to see and we must look up at him on the cross. To put it bluntly, we must trust him, because of the cross. The only way to free us from the results of our sin is to look at Jesus on the cross. When we look at the cross, God rescues us from the results of our sins. In other words, we must trust Jesus to save us from the punishment for our sins. He died so that God would forgive us. And we are expected to forgive others.
Verse 16 is probably the most famous verse in the Bible. It expresses in only a few words what Christians believe. It tells us the main reason why God sent his Son to die on our behalf. There are several reasons why God did this. He did it because he is fair. If people do wrong things, they deserve a punishment. So Jesus suffered our punishment in our place. He did it because he is holy. God cannot accept us, because we sin. But Jesus, who never sinned, took our place. He died instead of us and when we believe this, we receive Jesus’ righteousness as our own. So when God looks at us, he is so overwhelmed with love for us, he chooses to see Jesus’ righteousness instead of our sin. That’s amazing.
Love is more than just one of God’s qualities. His nature is love and God does everything because he loves. God’s love always reaches out to us, the people that he has made. God’s love is never selfish. He gave to us the most precious thing that he had: his only Son so that we might have Life – ‘eternal life’, God’s free gift to us. We cannot earn it. But we do have a duty to let other people know that the only one way to receive a ‘new life’ is to be born again and to believe in Jesus. To believe ‘in’ means more than just to know that Jesus is God. Even the devil knows that! It means that we should trust Jesus completely. We should allow him to rule every part of our lives completely for He has a plan for each one of us. We must believe that all his words in the Bible are true and we must obey him. We must believe that he gives us the power to change our characters to make us become more like him, if only we would let him. People have gone before us and have done just that – believed in Jesus and when we look at the Old Testament we can see that with our new birth in Jesus, God welcomes us into the family and we can share in the same trust that Abraham and Moses had. But we cannot will this, we can only respond to the Spirit’s will, and receive the Father’s love revealed to us in his Son.
Questions
1. What thoughts come to mind as you read this passage? What do you think God might be saying to you?
2. We pray ‘forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us’. Are you the first to say sorry or do you find it difficult to forgive? Is there anything you would not forgive?
3. Jesus said “You must be born again and have faith in Jesus”. Have you? There are going to be three answers to that question. Yes – No – Not sure. If the answer is no or not sure, then please talk to Bruce, Robert, Melanie or Kim or someone you trust about how you can be sure.
Sunday 10 February 2008 Matthew 4:1-11 Lent 1 Melanie
A newly married sailor was told by the Navy that he was going to be stationed for a whole year a long way from home on a remote Island in the Pacific.
It was only a few days after he arrived that he began to miss his new wife. So he wrote her a letter.
‘My love’, he wrote, ‘we are going to be apart for a very long time.
Already I’m starting to miss you and there’s not much to do here in the evenings. We are also constantly surrounded by young attractive native girls.
Do you think if I had a hobby of some kind I would not be tempted?’
His wife sent a letter back, enclosing a harmonica saying, ‘Why don’t you learn to play this?’
Eventually his tour of duty came to an end. He rushed home to his wife. ‘Darling’, he said, ‘I can’t wait to see you and have a cuddle’.
She kissed him, then said: ‘First, let’s hear you play that harmonica’.
Temptation is the theme of the first Sunday of Lent year after year.
Today we are told about the temptations of Christ. In the wilderness, in a solitary, deserted place. No shelter from the searing sun. Or respite from the dry heat of the desert
Struggling to find food and water. Sharing an inhospitable place with other predators. Living with an endless horizon of sand, where only the most hardened could survive.
In this barren desert, he would try to find God.
Find God, in the middle of nothingness.
Find God in a place where little on earth lived.
Find God at the extremes.
What would be wrong with turning stones into bread? Later he would turn 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish into a feast for 5,000.
What would be wrong with relying on Jewish scriptures? Relying on them so much that he trusts the angels to protect him? Later Jesus would walk on water. Surely that is no harder than floating on air.
What would be wrong with Jesus, God’s Son taking control of the kingdoms of the world? Don’t we look to him to do this at the end of time? What would be wrong with doing all of this?
On one level – nothing. And on another level – everything.
The Son of God using superhuman powers to save himself, to give himself glory, to take away his humanity. Yes – everything would be wrong.
It’s a constant debate: Jesus – human or divine? It kept the church arguing for centuries. Even now we struggle with the same problem. Was this Son of God so divine that he lost sight of human emotion? Would he have had sexual thoughts? Fantasised about marrying Mary Magdalene? Shades of Da Vinci Code, and The Last Temptation of Christ spring to mind.
And yet, in this reading we have the evidence. The truth that Jesus was in all ways tempted, yet was without sin.
I wonder what tempts you? Probably not turning stones to bread or jumping off a cliff.
I am usually tempted by good things, not evil.
I can happily say no to things we all agree are wrong. My struggle is between the good and the best. I am so often satisfied with the status quo.
Tempted to let others speak out against social evils.
Tempted to do nothing about world poverty.
Tempted to go with the flow, rather than be a voice that makes a difference.
But then I remember the famous line: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’. Even if our temptation is to do nothing, we are in danger of being caught by evil. ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ at once becomes a necessary, vibrant, living reality. Something that we need to have at the front rather than the back of our minds.
Perhaps we need to be blessed with discomfort when we hear easy answers or half truths.
Blessed with anger at injustice and exploitation.
Blessed with tears for those who suffer.
Blessed with foolishness that says we can make a difference.
Blessed with all of these things rather than being tempted to go with the flow, to do nothing.
Our reading this morning gives us hope.
It shows us once more that we are not alone in our struggle.
We know that Jesus struggled too; that he wrestled with evil, that in the middle of that wilderness he too must have questioned, reasoned, argued, shouted, and cried out to God.
And yet, we are left with his final words to Satan: ‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him’.
We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that nothing living or dead, high or low
angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, thinkable or unthinkable, absolutely nothing can come between us and God’s love in Christ Jesus.
And that is good news.
Questions for Discussion
1. What is the most comforting thing for you about the temptation of Jesus?
2. And what might you find troubling or perplexing?
It was only a few days after he arrived that he began to miss his new wife. So he wrote her a letter.
‘My love’, he wrote, ‘we are going to be apart for a very long time.
Already I’m starting to miss you and there’s not much to do here in the evenings. We are also constantly surrounded by young attractive native girls.
Do you think if I had a hobby of some kind I would not be tempted?’
His wife sent a letter back, enclosing a harmonica saying, ‘Why don’t you learn to play this?’
Eventually his tour of duty came to an end. He rushed home to his wife. ‘Darling’, he said, ‘I can’t wait to see you and have a cuddle’.
She kissed him, then said: ‘First, let’s hear you play that harmonica’.
Temptation is the theme of the first Sunday of Lent year after year.
Today we are told about the temptations of Christ. In the wilderness, in a solitary, deserted place. No shelter from the searing sun. Or respite from the dry heat of the desert
Struggling to find food and water. Sharing an inhospitable place with other predators. Living with an endless horizon of sand, where only the most hardened could survive.
In this barren desert, he would try to find God.
Find God, in the middle of nothingness.
Find God in a place where little on earth lived.
Find God at the extremes.
What would be wrong with turning stones into bread? Later he would turn 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish into a feast for 5,000.
What would be wrong with relying on Jewish scriptures? Relying on them so much that he trusts the angels to protect him? Later Jesus would walk on water. Surely that is no harder than floating on air.
What would be wrong with Jesus, God’s Son taking control of the kingdoms of the world? Don’t we look to him to do this at the end of time? What would be wrong with doing all of this?
On one level – nothing. And on another level – everything.
The Son of God using superhuman powers to save himself, to give himself glory, to take away his humanity. Yes – everything would be wrong.
It’s a constant debate: Jesus – human or divine? It kept the church arguing for centuries. Even now we struggle with the same problem. Was this Son of God so divine that he lost sight of human emotion? Would he have had sexual thoughts? Fantasised about marrying Mary Magdalene? Shades of Da Vinci Code, and The Last Temptation of Christ spring to mind.
And yet, in this reading we have the evidence. The truth that Jesus was in all ways tempted, yet was without sin.
I wonder what tempts you? Probably not turning stones to bread or jumping off a cliff.
I am usually tempted by good things, not evil.
I can happily say no to things we all agree are wrong. My struggle is between the good and the best. I am so often satisfied with the status quo.
Tempted to let others speak out against social evils.
Tempted to do nothing about world poverty.
Tempted to go with the flow, rather than be a voice that makes a difference.
But then I remember the famous line: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’. Even if our temptation is to do nothing, we are in danger of being caught by evil. ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ at once becomes a necessary, vibrant, living reality. Something that we need to have at the front rather than the back of our minds.
Perhaps we need to be blessed with discomfort when we hear easy answers or half truths.
Blessed with anger at injustice and exploitation.
Blessed with tears for those who suffer.
Blessed with foolishness that says we can make a difference.
Blessed with all of these things rather than being tempted to go with the flow, to do nothing.
Our reading this morning gives us hope.
It shows us once more that we are not alone in our struggle.
We know that Jesus struggled too; that he wrestled with evil, that in the middle of that wilderness he too must have questioned, reasoned, argued, shouted, and cried out to God.
And yet, we are left with his final words to Satan: ‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him’.
We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that nothing living or dead, high or low
angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, thinkable or unthinkable, absolutely nothing can come between us and God’s love in Christ Jesus.
And that is good news.
Questions for Discussion
1. What is the most comforting thing for you about the temptation of Jesus?
2. And what might you find troubling or perplexing?
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
Sunday 3 February 2008 The Presentation Hebrews 2:14-18, Luke 2:22-40, Bruce
Our Father, who art in heaven
At the hinge point between Christmas and Easter, we are reminded that heaven’s only Son was fully one with us. Humble servants have waited long years for a glimpse of heaven on earth. His parents are doing all they can humanly do, and they must trust …
Last week we began a series of associated talks, on the theme of the Lord’s Prayer.
Today we remember the Presentation of our Lord. Arising from the regulations in Leviticus in the Hebrew scriptures, a woman need to be ritually cleansed after childbirth; this took place forty days after the birth of a boy and sixty six days after the birth of a girl. Until recently it was customary for women to be ‘churched’ after a birth.
In addition, it is part of the Exodus story that the first born son belonged to the Lord, and had to be ‘redeemed’. This is connected with the story of the Passover, and the concept that the nation of Israel is God’s special son among the nations. The son was to be redeemed by the offering of a lamb.
And so Mary and Joseph come on the fortieth day with their son to the temple. The prescribed offering is a lamb for the son and a dove or pigeon for the mother. However if the couple are too poor to afford a lamb, they may offer a dove or pigeon, and that is what we find happened in this case.
And so we tell for the last time this season the Christmas story: angels from the realms of glory, shepherds in the field abiding, sages, or wise ones, leaving their contemplations, all have passed before us. And now we have these faithful ones who have dedicated their lives to waiting for the coming of the promised saviour. The prophet Malachi had promised that the promised one would appear “suddenly” in the temple (page 961), and they were determined not to miss it!
And so this wizened old man, probably with a bald head and a white beard, rushes up and seizes their child! Simeon praises God with the words that generations of Christians have known as the Nunc Dimittis, calling Jesus the light for the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel. It is from these words that we have the custom of lighting candles at this time, to acknowledge the light of Christ shining out.
For Simeon, Jesus is the presence of heaven here on earth. The darkness of this world will be dispersed by the brightness heaven’s glory. As we take this last look back to Christmas, so we also take our first look forward to the cross. Jesus will bring the light of heaven by causing many to fall, perhaps as they become conscious of the darkness within them; he will cause many to rise, as they trust personally in Jesus for forgiveness and wholeness. As the writer to the Hebrews says, Jesus has become fully human. He has come to suffer temptation and suffer and die for us, in order to atone for us. He will be spoken against by many, but many will also find their thoughts and motivations exposed and made clear.
For Mary, there is puzzlement and pain: a sword will pierce her soul also.
All this backed up Anna, who has been waiting for this moment and joins in the songs of praise. This special child will grow up to make a difference, to bring about heaven on earth as the fortunes of God’s people are transformed.
What are we to make of this?
Every child is special. We are here to baptise little Abi, rejoicing in the potential and hope that her young life brings us. On her behalf her parents and godparents pledge a life of obedience to Christ and walking in his ways. She will be part of the bringing in of the kingdom. Can we guarantee this? Of course not. Rather, we are writing a cheque of faith on her life. Through the prayers and example of us all, as we welcome her into the family of God, we will do all that we can to help her.
Mary and Joseph offered up their child to the service of God. We humbly come to do the same today. Perhaps we have here a teacher, a doctor, an engineer, a railway worker, a prime minister or a bishop! Whatever paths she takes, we offer her and entrust her to God’s keeping.
And each of us is called to live out those baptismal promises - to reject evil and turn to Christ. Today, as we say the words of the service together, we each have an opportunity, as Simeon and Anna did, to respond to the presence and love of Christ, living in the presence of our Father, who is in heaven.
May the light of Christ shine in your life! Amen.
At the hinge point between Christmas and Easter, we are reminded that heaven’s only Son was fully one with us. Humble servants have waited long years for a glimpse of heaven on earth. His parents are doing all they can humanly do, and they must trust …
Last week we began a series of associated talks, on the theme of the Lord’s Prayer.
Today we remember the Presentation of our Lord. Arising from the regulations in Leviticus in the Hebrew scriptures, a woman need to be ritually cleansed after childbirth; this took place forty days after the birth of a boy and sixty six days after the birth of a girl. Until recently it was customary for women to be ‘churched’ after a birth.
In addition, it is part of the Exodus story that the first born son belonged to the Lord, and had to be ‘redeemed’. This is connected with the story of the Passover, and the concept that the nation of Israel is God’s special son among the nations. The son was to be redeemed by the offering of a lamb.
And so Mary and Joseph come on the fortieth day with their son to the temple. The prescribed offering is a lamb for the son and a dove or pigeon for the mother. However if the couple are too poor to afford a lamb, they may offer a dove or pigeon, and that is what we find happened in this case.
And so we tell for the last time this season the Christmas story: angels from the realms of glory, shepherds in the field abiding, sages, or wise ones, leaving their contemplations, all have passed before us. And now we have these faithful ones who have dedicated their lives to waiting for the coming of the promised saviour. The prophet Malachi had promised that the promised one would appear “suddenly” in the temple (page 961), and they were determined not to miss it!
And so this wizened old man, probably with a bald head and a white beard, rushes up and seizes their child! Simeon praises God with the words that generations of Christians have known as the Nunc Dimittis, calling Jesus the light for the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel. It is from these words that we have the custom of lighting candles at this time, to acknowledge the light of Christ shining out.
For Simeon, Jesus is the presence of heaven here on earth. The darkness of this world will be dispersed by the brightness heaven’s glory. As we take this last look back to Christmas, so we also take our first look forward to the cross. Jesus will bring the light of heaven by causing many to fall, perhaps as they become conscious of the darkness within them; he will cause many to rise, as they trust personally in Jesus for forgiveness and wholeness. As the writer to the Hebrews says, Jesus has become fully human. He has come to suffer temptation and suffer and die for us, in order to atone for us. He will be spoken against by many, but many will also find their thoughts and motivations exposed and made clear.
For Mary, there is puzzlement and pain: a sword will pierce her soul also.
All this backed up Anna, who has been waiting for this moment and joins in the songs of praise. This special child will grow up to make a difference, to bring about heaven on earth as the fortunes of God’s people are transformed.
What are we to make of this?
Every child is special. We are here to baptise little Abi, rejoicing in the potential and hope that her young life brings us. On her behalf her parents and godparents pledge a life of obedience to Christ and walking in his ways. She will be part of the bringing in of the kingdom. Can we guarantee this? Of course not. Rather, we are writing a cheque of faith on her life. Through the prayers and example of us all, as we welcome her into the family of God, we will do all that we can to help her.
Mary and Joseph offered up their child to the service of God. We humbly come to do the same today. Perhaps we have here a teacher, a doctor, an engineer, a railway worker, a prime minister or a bishop! Whatever paths she takes, we offer her and entrust her to God’s keeping.
And each of us is called to live out those baptismal promises - to reject evil and turn to Christ. Today, as we say the words of the service together, we each have an opportunity, as Simeon and Anna did, to respond to the presence and love of Christ, living in the presence of our Father, who is in heaven.
May the light of Christ shine in your life! Amen.
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Sunday 27 January 2008 Luke 11:1-13 The Power of Prayer to Change the World. Bruce.
Welcome to the last of our series on discipleship, Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. We have been looking at ten areas that concern the Christian who wants to follow Christ. Before Advent we looked at:
· CARE FOR CREATION
· COMMUNITY ON THE PILGRIM ROAD
· RHYTHM OF PRAYER, WORK & RECREATION
· ABSORBING THE SCRIPTURES
· SIMPLE LIFESTYLE
· HEALING FRAGMENTED PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY
· OPENNESS TO GOD’S SPIRIT
· MISSION
Last week Robert preached on UNITY.
Which is ironic as I come to look at this passage on prayer. If you gather a representative group of Christians from different churches and say “Our Father”, you can never be quite sure of the result.
Is it Our Father, which art in heaven? Or Our Father, who art in heaven? Or since 1980, Our Father in heaven… ? And there are various permutations after that.
If you compare the version from today’s Gospel with the more familiar one in Matthew 6 (page 970), you will see at least two versions in scripture. The two gospel writers each have their own interests and ways of telling the story, of course, but it may be enough to imagine that Jesus will have given this teaching on many occasions, and perhaps did not feel the need to stick to a precise script.
In other words, the Lord’s Prayer was not originally a piece of liturgy to recited, but a pattern for engagement with the Father, for us to live in the same way that Jesus lived.
Boiling the concerns of Jesus down to the basics, they seem to have been: Father, Name, Kingdom, Bread, Forgive, Temptation. It would be good to devote a few moments to each one.
Jesus taught us to call God our Father. Everything springs from relationship. The serpent tempted Eve in the Garden: “Did God really say? God does not want the best for you…” But Jesus had no doubt that Father is absolutely for us, on our side, wants the best for us. The best of human fathers, Jesus says, will let their children down, but they do their best; if that is so, then how much more can we trust Our Father to less us? And if it is all about relationship, there will be ramifications which we will return to.
To hallow God’s name is to honour him, to worship him, and to seek to lead lives that do justice to his name. It is not just to refrain from cursing, but to positively live in ways that powerfully suggest that God is at work. We do not need to protect his name, but our desire is to see him praised.
And then Jesus tells us to pray for the kingdom to come. We struggle to understand scripture unless we come to terms with the ancients’ conception of two worlds, above and below. Everything here on earth has its counterpart above. Our army prevails if the battle is going well in the heavenlies. If there is peace and order in heaven, then it should be so here on earth.
But it is not.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, and there are holocausts today. The heart of faith is change; the world is not perfect as it is, and we cannot rest. An article in the Church Times tries to explain the continuing popularity of Songs of Praise on BBC on Sunday evenings. The Dean of Windsor suggests: “There is, deep down in each human being, some spiritual impulse and energy that is constantly yearning and aching for a fuller life and a better world.”
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Kaj Munk was a Danish priest martyred by the Gestapo in 1944. He wrote: “Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature… we lack a holy RAGE - the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to RAGE when justice lies prostrate on the streets and when the lie rages across the face of the earth… a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To RAGE against the ravaging of God’s earth and the destruction of God’s world. To RAGE when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To RAGE at senseless killing of so many and against the madness of militaries. To RAGE at the lie that calls threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To RAGE against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will change and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God. Remember the signs of the church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove and the Fish, but never the Chameleon.”
Ray Simpson is the Guardian of the Order of Aidan and Hilda, based on Holy Island. He writes: “The purpose is ‘to overcome evil with good’ (Romans 12:21). No initiative to change what is wrong can succeed unless it begins in a Godward movement of the heart – and that is intercession. Intercession is not just something we say, not even just what we do – it is an outpoured life. Christ ever lives to make intercession (Hebrews 7:25). Christ is the head of the body of which we are each a member; thus, as we unite ourselves with him, we too share in this outpouring of lived prayer.”
Give us our bread for today … We are commanded to ask God for what need. Food, shelter, health, every thing, comes from him and we seek him for it.
And I know there are problems with this.
There is a persistent suspicion that prayer does not “work”. It does not do what it says on the tin. We ask ourselves “Are we “making it up”? Talking to ourselves?” Does God answer prayer?
Yes, but God is not a slot machine. When we pray, God is moved; but he is not at our beck and call. We are not doing magic, so that if we get the words and actions just right, we can guarantee the required result. I have been helped by reading the book “God on Mute” by Pete Ward, which I have found humbling, instructive and above all encouraging.
I really believe that God can and does answer prayer. Not every prayer immediately, perhaps, and not always to our preferred timescale. But I trust him. At the heart of this is to desire what God desires. Prayer is not to be learnt and recited by rote, but to be lived.
Not every prayer that Jesus prayed was answered. Jesus prayed for unity, and we are still waiting to see an answer to that prayer.
Jesus prayed in the garden that the cup of suffering might be taken from him; but he went forward to the cross anyway, believing it to be God’s will.
Forgive, as we forgive … There is no escaping the call to relationship, to encounter God and grow in him. It is because we yearn for perfection, and are so aware of our shortcomings, that we hardly dare to believe that we can be accepted into the Father’s love. And only when we have been received and welcomed and forgiven so undeservedly do we find a space to accept and forgive ourselves, and to accept and forgive others. Our relationships on earth can begin to reflect something of the quality of the love and grace that are the reality of heaven.
Lead us not into temptation. Or do not lead us to the time of trial. We are to pray this because the Christian life is not a magic carpet ride to heaven. We hope and pray for the best, and often get it, but we know that this life is often a vale of tears. Jesus lived his life according to this pattern.
As an example, consider him in the Garden of Gethsemane. On this occasion he does not pray: “Our Father, who art in heaven”, but “Abba Father, everything is possible for you.”
He makes himself the answer to his prayer, replacing “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” with “not my will but thine be done”. Instead of “lead us not into temptation”, he has told the disciples to stay awake and pray so that they will not fall into sin.
He does not pray for bread, but perhaps he is aware that he is offering himself as the bread that will be broken for many. He does not pray “forgive us our trespasses”, but he is soon to say “Father, forgive them ...”. He does not pray “deliver us from evil”; he is about to deliver himself into hell.
There is much more I would like to say. Our readings over the next few weeks will use the Lord’s Prayer as a reference point, giving us time and space to pray the prayer, study the prayer, live the prayer.
The PCC is leading us in a project to renew St Michael’s. What sort of people does our Father God want us to be? What needs to be changed in us, so that we can bring in necessary change to his world? Wherever we find ourselves on our pilgrimage now, what are the next, small, tremulous steps that we can take, on the road to be more like Jesus?
Please join me as I seek to discover a deeper relationship with the Father, to align earth and heaven, to rely upon him to provide all that is necessary, and to avoid temptation. God does have power to change the world, and he does it in response to our prayers; he does it by changing us.
· CARE FOR CREATION
· COMMUNITY ON THE PILGRIM ROAD
· RHYTHM OF PRAYER, WORK & RECREATION
· ABSORBING THE SCRIPTURES
· SIMPLE LIFESTYLE
· HEALING FRAGMENTED PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY
· OPENNESS TO GOD’S SPIRIT
· MISSION
Last week Robert preached on UNITY.
Which is ironic as I come to look at this passage on prayer. If you gather a representative group of Christians from different churches and say “Our Father”, you can never be quite sure of the result.
Is it Our Father, which art in heaven? Or Our Father, who art in heaven? Or since 1980, Our Father in heaven… ? And there are various permutations after that.
If you compare the version from today’s Gospel with the more familiar one in Matthew 6 (page 970), you will see at least two versions in scripture. The two gospel writers each have their own interests and ways of telling the story, of course, but it may be enough to imagine that Jesus will have given this teaching on many occasions, and perhaps did not feel the need to stick to a precise script.
In other words, the Lord’s Prayer was not originally a piece of liturgy to recited, but a pattern for engagement with the Father, for us to live in the same way that Jesus lived.
Boiling the concerns of Jesus down to the basics, they seem to have been: Father, Name, Kingdom, Bread, Forgive, Temptation. It would be good to devote a few moments to each one.
Jesus taught us to call God our Father. Everything springs from relationship. The serpent tempted Eve in the Garden: “Did God really say? God does not want the best for you…” But Jesus had no doubt that Father is absolutely for us, on our side, wants the best for us. The best of human fathers, Jesus says, will let their children down, but they do their best; if that is so, then how much more can we trust Our Father to less us? And if it is all about relationship, there will be ramifications which we will return to.
To hallow God’s name is to honour him, to worship him, and to seek to lead lives that do justice to his name. It is not just to refrain from cursing, but to positively live in ways that powerfully suggest that God is at work. We do not need to protect his name, but our desire is to see him praised.
And then Jesus tells us to pray for the kingdom to come. We struggle to understand scripture unless we come to terms with the ancients’ conception of two worlds, above and below. Everything here on earth has its counterpart above. Our army prevails if the battle is going well in the heavenlies. If there is peace and order in heaven, then it should be so here on earth.
But it is not.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, and there are holocausts today. The heart of faith is change; the world is not perfect as it is, and we cannot rest. An article in the Church Times tries to explain the continuing popularity of Songs of Praise on BBC on Sunday evenings. The Dean of Windsor suggests: “There is, deep down in each human being, some spiritual impulse and energy that is constantly yearning and aching for a fuller life and a better world.”
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Kaj Munk was a Danish priest martyred by the Gestapo in 1944. He wrote: “Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature… we lack a holy RAGE - the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to RAGE when justice lies prostrate on the streets and when the lie rages across the face of the earth… a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To RAGE against the ravaging of God’s earth and the destruction of God’s world. To RAGE when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To RAGE at senseless killing of so many and against the madness of militaries. To RAGE at the lie that calls threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To RAGE against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will change and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God. Remember the signs of the church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove and the Fish, but never the Chameleon.”
Ray Simpson is the Guardian of the Order of Aidan and Hilda, based on Holy Island. He writes: “The purpose is ‘to overcome evil with good’ (Romans 12:21). No initiative to change what is wrong can succeed unless it begins in a Godward movement of the heart – and that is intercession. Intercession is not just something we say, not even just what we do – it is an outpoured life. Christ ever lives to make intercession (Hebrews 7:25). Christ is the head of the body of which we are each a member; thus, as we unite ourselves with him, we too share in this outpouring of lived prayer.”
Give us our bread for today … We are commanded to ask God for what need. Food, shelter, health, every thing, comes from him and we seek him for it.
And I know there are problems with this.
There is a persistent suspicion that prayer does not “work”. It does not do what it says on the tin. We ask ourselves “Are we “making it up”? Talking to ourselves?” Does God answer prayer?
Yes, but God is not a slot machine. When we pray, God is moved; but he is not at our beck and call. We are not doing magic, so that if we get the words and actions just right, we can guarantee the required result. I have been helped by reading the book “God on Mute” by Pete Ward, which I have found humbling, instructive and above all encouraging.
I really believe that God can and does answer prayer. Not every prayer immediately, perhaps, and not always to our preferred timescale. But I trust him. At the heart of this is to desire what God desires. Prayer is not to be learnt and recited by rote, but to be lived.
Not every prayer that Jesus prayed was answered. Jesus prayed for unity, and we are still waiting to see an answer to that prayer.
Jesus prayed in the garden that the cup of suffering might be taken from him; but he went forward to the cross anyway, believing it to be God’s will.
Forgive, as we forgive … There is no escaping the call to relationship, to encounter God and grow in him. It is because we yearn for perfection, and are so aware of our shortcomings, that we hardly dare to believe that we can be accepted into the Father’s love. And only when we have been received and welcomed and forgiven so undeservedly do we find a space to accept and forgive ourselves, and to accept and forgive others. Our relationships on earth can begin to reflect something of the quality of the love and grace that are the reality of heaven.
Lead us not into temptation. Or do not lead us to the time of trial. We are to pray this because the Christian life is not a magic carpet ride to heaven. We hope and pray for the best, and often get it, but we know that this life is often a vale of tears. Jesus lived his life according to this pattern.
As an example, consider him in the Garden of Gethsemane. On this occasion he does not pray: “Our Father, who art in heaven”, but “Abba Father, everything is possible for you.”
He makes himself the answer to his prayer, replacing “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” with “not my will but thine be done”. Instead of “lead us not into temptation”, he has told the disciples to stay awake and pray so that they will not fall into sin.
He does not pray for bread, but perhaps he is aware that he is offering himself as the bread that will be broken for many. He does not pray “forgive us our trespasses”, but he is soon to say “Father, forgive them ...”. He does not pray “deliver us from evil”; he is about to deliver himself into hell.
There is much more I would like to say. Our readings over the next few weeks will use the Lord’s Prayer as a reference point, giving us time and space to pray the prayer, study the prayer, live the prayer.
The PCC is leading us in a project to renew St Michael’s. What sort of people does our Father God want us to be? What needs to be changed in us, so that we can bring in necessary change to his world? Wherever we find ourselves on our pilgrimage now, what are the next, small, tremulous steps that we can take, on the road to be more like Jesus?
Please join me as I seek to discover a deeper relationship with the Father, to align earth and heaven, to rely upon him to provide all that is necessary, and to avoid temptation. God does have power to change the world, and he does it in response to our prayers; he does it by changing us.
Sunday, 20 January 2008
18 JANUARY 2008 JOHN 17: 13 – 26 IN THE STEPS OF THE MASTER:UNITY. ROBERT
Between October and Advent last year we ran a series of eight sermons on the theme of the Christian Pilgrimage, which we called FOLLOWING IN THE STEPS OF THE MASTER.
We looked at the Christian life in terms of a journey (rather like John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress) and took as our inspiration the life and spiritual example of Jesus.
Advent, Christmas and Epiphany have intervened, but today and next Sunday we complete the series. Today the theme is UNITY. Next Sunday the theme will be THE POWER OF PRAYER TO CHANGE THE WORLD.
-----------------
If we see ourselves as Christian pilgrims, it stands to reason that we travel better if we walk together rather than singly, and that we make every effort to be in harmony, otherwise the journey is hindered instead of helped.
If we look carefully at today’s Gospel Reading from John chapter 17, we see further very important reasons for Christians, and the Christian Church in general, to be united. This Gospel passage is part of an enormously important and deeply moving prayer which Jesus prayed, and which is recorded for us. At its heart are the following words from verse 20: “I pray for those who will believe in me...that all of them may be one....” (in other words, totally united in heart, mind and action).
And we need to note the reasons Jesus gives for this impassioned plea.
Jesus wants us to be united in the same way as He is united with God the Father. “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me, and I am in you.” It is impossible to think of a more fundamental reason for Christians living together in unity and harmony than that. When we place our faith in Christ, we become one with him in the deepest sense, and so we are caught up eternally in the perfect union that exists between Christ and God the Father. There can be no greater incentive for us to put aside our differences, and live and work together for the sake of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. St Paul calls the Church ‘The Body of Christ’.
Jesus prays that we may all be one “so that the world may believe...”. A Church that is disunited must be ineffective in mission. We need to keep asking ourselves ‘How do we look to the world outside? When people look at the Church, do they say to themselves – what a wonderfully loving and harmonious group of people! I want to join them! In this prayer of Jesus you will have noticed that Jesus says that Christians are ‘in the world’ but ‘not of the world’. When we become Christians we are not suddenly transported to heaven. We go on with all the same relationships and problems, but we become new people. And at the heart of that ‘newness’ is love. One of Jesus’ last commands to his disciples was: “Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:12). Why should people want to join us if we look just like secular organisations or their work-places – competitive, and marked by criticism, gossip, envy and the rest? We need to be radically different – and at the heart of that difference is harmony created by love.
So there is a huge onus on us to be in unity and love, one with another. And we mark this each year with a special week of prayer for Christian Unity in January.
We need to look at this in practical terms at three levels.
The first is the personal. Are we at odds with someone – or some people – in our own Church or Christian circle? So far as in us lies, we need to put it right. At the heart of our service of Holy Communion is the stated requirement for us to be at peace with God, and at peace with our neighbour. The ‘Peace’ is intended to be much more than a British polite handshake. It is intended to be symbolic of a deep harmony and Christian love. We need to examine ourselves and, if necessary, repent and take practical action to put our relationships right. Not easy – but highly necessary. Each one of us needs to think, to look, and to pray.
The second concerns our Church. We have very necessary, important and ambitious plans for this year. They are all part of our essential mission to the world on behalf of Christ. We will not accomplish them unless we are all totally united. Now that is actually very difficult. It won’t come naturally. But it can come super-naturally if we all commit ourselves to pray.
The third concerns the worldwide Church. We need to work and pray about how the Churches in Camberley can unite to bear witness to our faith and to Christ so that we become much more effective in mission than we are at present.
And 2008 is the year of the Anglican Lambeth Conference. The Anglican Communion is deeply split – especially between the African and American Churches on the issue of homo-sexuality. It promises to be the most difficult and contentious conference imaginable. And it promises to be an absolutely dreadful advertisement for the Christian Church and for Christ himself. The media will have a feast – and none of it will be good. It will serve only to bring the Church and the Gospel into disrepute. We need to pray for our Church Leaders, for love and listening and understanding, and – above all – for the Holy Spirit to give humility and discernment.
Each sermon in this series has a Key Verse. This week’s is from the letter to the Colossians 1: 19,20 – and with this I close. It reads: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
We need to have always in the forefront of our mind the cost of peace, reconciliation and harmony. Christ died on the cross to bring us together in faith and love and peace. What Christ went to the cross to bring together, let no man put asunder.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Do you agree that Christian fellowship and unity are vital? Or is being a Christian more a matter of personal faith and individual pilgrimage?
Does Unity mean mainly agreeing with everybody, or is there a place for honest disagreement? What should we do if there is?
Thinking about St Michael’s, how can we get to know, understand and love each other better? Consider the place of small groups, prayer meetings, personal hospitality, special events, and setting aside Thursday as a day of fellowship and prayer. This is a time for new year resolutions – is there some action or commitment you think you should make?
Do you think the major building and other necessary works planned for this Church will bring us closer together, or tend to divide us? How can we make sure it is the former?
Which of the arguments for Christian Unity do you find most convincing? Does it lead you to any specific conclusion or course of action?
We looked at the Christian life in terms of a journey (rather like John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress) and took as our inspiration the life and spiritual example of Jesus.
Advent, Christmas and Epiphany have intervened, but today and next Sunday we complete the series. Today the theme is UNITY. Next Sunday the theme will be THE POWER OF PRAYER TO CHANGE THE WORLD.
-----------------
If we see ourselves as Christian pilgrims, it stands to reason that we travel better if we walk together rather than singly, and that we make every effort to be in harmony, otherwise the journey is hindered instead of helped.
If we look carefully at today’s Gospel Reading from John chapter 17, we see further very important reasons for Christians, and the Christian Church in general, to be united. This Gospel passage is part of an enormously important and deeply moving prayer which Jesus prayed, and which is recorded for us. At its heart are the following words from verse 20: “I pray for those who will believe in me...that all of them may be one....” (in other words, totally united in heart, mind and action).
And we need to note the reasons Jesus gives for this impassioned plea.
Jesus wants us to be united in the same way as He is united with God the Father. “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me, and I am in you.” It is impossible to think of a more fundamental reason for Christians living together in unity and harmony than that. When we place our faith in Christ, we become one with him in the deepest sense, and so we are caught up eternally in the perfect union that exists between Christ and God the Father. There can be no greater incentive for us to put aside our differences, and live and work together for the sake of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. St Paul calls the Church ‘The Body of Christ’.
Jesus prays that we may all be one “so that the world may believe...”. A Church that is disunited must be ineffective in mission. We need to keep asking ourselves ‘How do we look to the world outside? When people look at the Church, do they say to themselves – what a wonderfully loving and harmonious group of people! I want to join them! In this prayer of Jesus you will have noticed that Jesus says that Christians are ‘in the world’ but ‘not of the world’. When we become Christians we are not suddenly transported to heaven. We go on with all the same relationships and problems, but we become new people. And at the heart of that ‘newness’ is love. One of Jesus’ last commands to his disciples was: “Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:12). Why should people want to join us if we look just like secular organisations or their work-places – competitive, and marked by criticism, gossip, envy and the rest? We need to be radically different – and at the heart of that difference is harmony created by love.
So there is a huge onus on us to be in unity and love, one with another. And we mark this each year with a special week of prayer for Christian Unity in January.
We need to look at this in practical terms at three levels.
The first is the personal. Are we at odds with someone – or some people – in our own Church or Christian circle? So far as in us lies, we need to put it right. At the heart of our service of Holy Communion is the stated requirement for us to be at peace with God, and at peace with our neighbour. The ‘Peace’ is intended to be much more than a British polite handshake. It is intended to be symbolic of a deep harmony and Christian love. We need to examine ourselves and, if necessary, repent and take practical action to put our relationships right. Not easy – but highly necessary. Each one of us needs to think, to look, and to pray.
The second concerns our Church. We have very necessary, important and ambitious plans for this year. They are all part of our essential mission to the world on behalf of Christ. We will not accomplish them unless we are all totally united. Now that is actually very difficult. It won’t come naturally. But it can come super-naturally if we all commit ourselves to pray.
The third concerns the worldwide Church. We need to work and pray about how the Churches in Camberley can unite to bear witness to our faith and to Christ so that we become much more effective in mission than we are at present.
And 2008 is the year of the Anglican Lambeth Conference. The Anglican Communion is deeply split – especially between the African and American Churches on the issue of homo-sexuality. It promises to be the most difficult and contentious conference imaginable. And it promises to be an absolutely dreadful advertisement for the Christian Church and for Christ himself. The media will have a feast – and none of it will be good. It will serve only to bring the Church and the Gospel into disrepute. We need to pray for our Church Leaders, for love and listening and understanding, and – above all – for the Holy Spirit to give humility and discernment.
Each sermon in this series has a Key Verse. This week’s is from the letter to the Colossians 1: 19,20 – and with this I close. It reads: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
We need to have always in the forefront of our mind the cost of peace, reconciliation and harmony. Christ died on the cross to bring us together in faith and love and peace. What Christ went to the cross to bring together, let no man put asunder.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Do you agree that Christian fellowship and unity are vital? Or is being a Christian more a matter of personal faith and individual pilgrimage?
Does Unity mean mainly agreeing with everybody, or is there a place for honest disagreement? What should we do if there is?
Thinking about St Michael’s, how can we get to know, understand and love each other better? Consider the place of small groups, prayer meetings, personal hospitality, special events, and setting aside Thursday as a day of fellowship and prayer. This is a time for new year resolutions – is there some action or commitment you think you should make?
Do you think the major building and other necessary works planned for this Church will bring us closer together, or tend to divide us? How can we make sure it is the former?
Which of the arguments for Christian Unity do you find most convincing? Does it lead you to any specific conclusion or course of action?
Monday, 14 January 2008
Sunday 13 January 2008 Epiphany 2: The Baptism of Christ; Matthew 3:12-17; Melanie
So Jesus goes out, and gets baptized.
Why would Jesus go and do that?
Why go to a river and be immersed?
Get wet, when he wasn't even dirty?
What's the point? Seems like wasted energy. Going to a river, stuck way out there
on the far side of the wilderness.
What could Jesus be thinking? Why should he even care? What good does it do?
With galaxies to energize, constellations to choreograph,
With worlds to ignite, and worlds to incinerate,
With shooting stars to hurl around for sheer fun,
With all the pyrotechnic possibilities at his disposal,
Why would Jesus go to a river and be baptized?
The answer is so simple, it almost takes your breath away'. Jesus knows that water is powerful
There is something powerful about water.
The world saw it several years ago with the Tsunami in South Asia.
The US saw it in the aftermath of devastating hurricanes.
We saw it here over the summer last year.
Who could have imagined that water could be so powerful?
Yet here we have a throng of people from all walks of life coming to the water.
People who have made a pilgrimage into the wilderness to see a travelling preacher wearing
a coarse camel's hair tunic with a leather belt
People came because they were ready to listen to a new voice.
And this was a powerful voice.
Then one day it happened... Jesus. The request for baptism
John' s initial reluctance-then acquiescence
Finally the dramatic climax:
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. Heaven was opened
The spirit of God descended like a dove and lighted on him
A voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, Whom I love', with him I am well pleased'.
This was the start of Jesus three years of public ministry.
He was no longer one of the crowd in the Temple at Jerusalem; no longer listening to other rabbis in synagogues; now he announced to the world that he would fulfil all righteousness.
John the Baptist had foretold his coming; now through this act of baptism, Jesus was confirming that his ministry had begun. And all through the symbol of water
This changed everything!
Jesus' baptism ushered in a new baptism; Christian baptism became not just a washing away of sin but a baptism that brings the power of the Holy Spirit and a special relationship with God.
All of this happened at the start of Jesus work.
This was his commissioning service.
Now, almost twenty centuries later when someone is baptized in the church, whether infants or adults
it is no different. We still have work, we are receiving our commission.
If that sounds a bit scary, there is one more piece of good news about your baptism.
Remember that picture at the Jordan. There is the crowd, John, Jesus, and the dove - the Holy Spirit.
Don't forget the dove. From this moment on, Jesus and his ministry are empowered by the living presence of the Holy Spirit..
In just a few weeks time it will be the 29th anniversary of my own baptism. It was a special occasion.
I was 13 years old, and as I look back on it now I find my emotions welling up , words choke on the way out.
Not because of some warm fuzzy, “isn't this a nice family picture” kind of feeling, but because this is when the church gets dangerous.
This sets someone on a journey that has the potential to change the world
And maybe because it is so dangerous
So threatening
So radical
That people either flee the church as they get older
Or they weep when they have the opportunity
to reaffirm their baptismal vows
Who knew that water could be so powerful?
Trick question : The church has always known !
Why would Jesus go and do that?
Why go to a river and be immersed?
Get wet, when he wasn't even dirty?
What's the point? Seems like wasted energy. Going to a river, stuck way out there
on the far side of the wilderness.
What could Jesus be thinking? Why should he even care? What good does it do?
With galaxies to energize, constellations to choreograph,
With worlds to ignite, and worlds to incinerate,
With shooting stars to hurl around for sheer fun,
With all the pyrotechnic possibilities at his disposal,
Why would Jesus go to a river and be baptized?
The answer is so simple, it almost takes your breath away'. Jesus knows that water is powerful
There is something powerful about water.
The world saw it several years ago with the Tsunami in South Asia.
The US saw it in the aftermath of devastating hurricanes.
We saw it here over the summer last year.
Who could have imagined that water could be so powerful?
Yet here we have a throng of people from all walks of life coming to the water.
People who have made a pilgrimage into the wilderness to see a travelling preacher wearing
a coarse camel's hair tunic with a leather belt
People came because they were ready to listen to a new voice.
And this was a powerful voice.
Then one day it happened... Jesus. The request for baptism
John' s initial reluctance-then acquiescence
Finally the dramatic climax:
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. Heaven was opened
The spirit of God descended like a dove and lighted on him
A voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, Whom I love', with him I am well pleased'.
This was the start of Jesus three years of public ministry.
He was no longer one of the crowd in the Temple at Jerusalem; no longer listening to other rabbis in synagogues; now he announced to the world that he would fulfil all righteousness.
John the Baptist had foretold his coming; now through this act of baptism, Jesus was confirming that his ministry had begun. And all through the symbol of water
This changed everything!
Jesus' baptism ushered in a new baptism; Christian baptism became not just a washing away of sin but a baptism that brings the power of the Holy Spirit and a special relationship with God.
All of this happened at the start of Jesus work.
This was his commissioning service.
Now, almost twenty centuries later when someone is baptized in the church, whether infants or adults
it is no different. We still have work, we are receiving our commission.
If that sounds a bit scary, there is one more piece of good news about your baptism.
Remember that picture at the Jordan. There is the crowd, John, Jesus, and the dove - the Holy Spirit.
Don't forget the dove. From this moment on, Jesus and his ministry are empowered by the living presence of the Holy Spirit..
In just a few weeks time it will be the 29th anniversary of my own baptism. It was a special occasion.
I was 13 years old, and as I look back on it now I find my emotions welling up , words choke on the way out.
Not because of some warm fuzzy, “isn't this a nice family picture” kind of feeling, but because this is when the church gets dangerous.
This sets someone on a journey that has the potential to change the world
And maybe because it is so dangerous
So threatening
So radical
That people either flee the church as they get older
Or they weep when they have the opportunity
to reaffirm their baptismal vows
Who knew that water could be so powerful?
Trick question : The church has always known !
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