Sunday 10 June 2012, Trinity 1, Isaiah 40, Mark 1:1-17, A Journey with the King, Bruce

Today I set off on my walk to Lindisfarne.  The publicity team have been doing their best to drum up interest in the project and have been making contact with people, so hopefully I will be met by people along the way.  It will not be as exciting as the Olympic torch, but you get the idea.

Today we also set off on a three month journey through Mark’s gospel.  We begin at the beginning.  Mark is a master story teller.  This is not a detective story where we are to be kept in suspense; we are told in the opening words that this is the story, the good news, about Jesus.  He is the Messiah – the long promised deliverer who would come to his people in their servitude.  He is the Son of God.  We are told this at the beginning, but we are going to work it out together as we follow Jesus in his journeys and meetings with many different people.

Mark presents John the Baptist as, in a way, Elijah come back from the dead.  He quotes the words of Isaiah, spoken to Israel at a time when they are in exile and defeat, longing for a deliverer.  John’s words obviously strike a chord because the response is tremendous as crowds come out to him; he is echoing the words of Isaiah, to prepare our hearts by repenting of our sins and being baptised.  Also as in Isaiah, he announces that God is coming to deliver them, except that he talks of an individual who will be mighty, and who will baptise not just in water but in the Holy Spirit.  We are to be plunged into, immersed in, God himself!

We are agog.  How will this play out.  Who is coming?

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John on the Jordan.  It’s a man.  But not just any man.  As Jesus was coming up out of the water he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’   There is no indication that anyone else saw or heard this, so we presume that Jesus told his disciples about it later.  But we know because Mark has given us privileged access.  We are going to observe over the coming weeks how different people respond as they encounter Jesus and try to understand who he is and what he is about.  This is a major theme, sometimes spoken of as the Messianic Secret; it is a striking feature that Mark presents us with different audiences for Jesus’ activity and wisdom; different reactions to the authority of this teacher, prophet and healer, this quiet revolutionary.

The first thing that Jesus does is to respond to the Spirit’s impulsion to go into the desert and confront Satan and wild animals.  Jesus will later speak of himself as the ‘strong man’, and we see here the beginning of the authority that Jesus claims as God’s representative here on earth.  This is made explicit when the arrest of John seems to fire a starting pistol for the open public ministry of Jesus.  He returns to Galilee and announces the good news of God.

The good news is the coming of the authority, the kingly rule of God himself.  Just as when there is a takeover in a company and new bosses arrive.  Just as when a football club is taken over and the new regime bring in their own manager and style.  Just as when a new head teacher is appointed and everything we thought we knew about a school can change.  (Digression: should this apply when there is change of leadership in a local church community?).  Just as when there is a coup and the old king or president is deposed and a new regime takes over.  So Jesus is announcing that God is ruler of this world, and that his own arrival is making this obvious.  He is God’s ‘taking charge’ personified.

What are his commands?

We are to repent and believe the good news.

To repent is to have a complete change of heart and mind, that leads to a change in direction and behaviour.  It is not just to turn over a new leaf, or to make a resolution to be good.  It is to have such a changed view of the world and our place in it, that we just cannot conceive of life going on as before.  All sorts of analogies come to mind.  Entering a new relationship, or one coming to an end.   A sudden and terrible bereavement.  A calamity such as war or earthquake or tidal wave.  When the Berlin Wall fell and the former East Germany was reunited with the West, a whole lifetime of repression and double speak was swept away.  It is too soon to know how the events of the Arab Spring will play out, but many were dreaming of a new start and a better future.  In Syria today, we see a tragedy being enacted with many longing desperately for relief.

My point is that when something so momentous happens, everything must be revaluated and we must be prepared to change.  The coming of Jesus was, and is, such an event that we are shaken to the core.  Our comfortable lives are held up for examination.  We will see this many times in the coming weeks as Jesus encounters various people in the gospel, and they respond to him.  Just as Jesus was led by the Spirit into a place of examination and testing, so are we.

To believe the good news is to embrace it, to fling our arms open to embrace any and all things that God sends us.  We may not understand everything.  We may doubt our ability to live up to the high calling of being a follower of Jesus.  We will see, though, that there are many who encounter Jesus who suspect or reject him, and we are invited instead to welcome him into our lives.

Mark then recounts the calling of some specific named followers.  Simon, Andrew, James and John all receive their call, and we will follow their journey.  It seems to me that we are also to understand that Jesus is giving to each of us the same invitation: ‘Come, follow me.’  As we repent and believe, we are engaged in a lifetime’s journey of discovery and growth, seeking to be truly open for all that he has for us.  We have little power to achieve anything, but as we follow the king and serve him, so we can be part of the bringing in of his kingdom, and seeing his will being done here on earth as it is in heaven.

Trinity Sunday 3 June 2012, Royal Jubilee, Romans 8:12-17, John 3:1-17, Bruce

This weekend we celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.  I am sure that you will be familiar with the fact that jubilee is a Jewish concept.  We read in Leviticus 25 that every 50 years there was to be a sort of Sabbath year.  Fields would be left fallow, debts and leases cancelled, slaves set free, and there was to be rejoicing and thanksgiving in the provision of our God.

George III was the first king of Great Britain to celebrate 50 years on the throne as a royal jubilee.  There have been only two Diamond Jubilees, Queen Victoria and now our own Queen.  Queen Victoria died when she was ‘only’ 81 years old, and we rejoice that Queen Elizabeth has reached the age of 86 and we pray for her continued good health.  She is not Queen of England (there has not been one since Queen Anne in 1707), but rather of the United Kingdom.

When I visited the school on Friday the children were all being encouraged to wear crowns, as well as to dress up in red, white and blue.   Similarly the library had a crown-making workshop yesterday.  I notice also that you can buy face masks of the royal family.  So I wonder which royal would you like to be?

Of course that is just a bit of fun.  We cannot make ourselves members of the royal family just by wishing it (although Prince Harry is still a bachelor, so if you are a single young lady ....)  Even if a member of the royal family were to decide that they really should be someone else within the family, perhaps even monarch, they do not have that power.

Now the mystery of Trinity Sunday is that we are all invited to be members of the family, the family of God.  Jesus said that we should call God our Father, and I do not think that he was merely using a figure of speech.  When we encounter God and begin to grow in him, his Holy Spirit comes to live within us, giving new life and hope, and bringing about our fresh start, our adoption into the family.  God is our Father, Jesus is our brother, and we are to live as those who enjoy all the benefits of a royal upbringing and lifestyle.  We are not those who aspire to be on the throne, but God in his mercy gives us the same status as his son.  When we read that God said from heaven to Jesus “Behold my son whom I love”, we are to understand that he thinks the same about us. 

How does this happen?  Well, Jesus says to Nicodemus, you hear the wind blowing but you cannot tell where it has come from or where it is going.  I can describe to you how God gave me new life, and that might be helpful to you.  There are other accounts that you can hear or read.  The best thing though is to be open to him, and look out for every clue and indication about him – respond positively and expectantly.  Even your questions or doubts can be indicators helping you on a journey, a pilgrimage of discovery.  God sent his son into the world so that whosoever believes in him, trusts in him, reaches out after him, will have new life.

We are joint heirs with Jesus Christ – this sounds so strange, but we have a lifetime to explore all that can mean.

First, we see that being in the Spirit will have implications for the way that we live.  Just as being a royal means that there is a code of expected behaviour, so we discover that being in Christ leads us to re-evaluate our actions and motivations.  Behaviour that we used to think was acceptable now comes under the spotlight.  We are not trying to keep a code of rules or ethics.  The work goes deeper and further.  We are living with someone and adjusting to the desires and rhythms of someone else takes time and is not always easy.  The point of the bible reading and prayer that we do is to tune our hearts so that we are increasingly aware of what pleases him.  We want to be like Jesus who rejoiced to do only what his Father told him to do. 

Second, we acknowledge that Jesus walked a path of confrontation and suffering.  In the same way we seek to live at peace with all people.  We seek never to start quarrels or arguments.  We are happy to surrender our rights.  And yet Jesus found again and again that he was the centre of controversy and he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  We also cannot expect to be spared the troubles of this world.  From the apparently trivial, like rain falling on our carefully prepared jubilee events, to the much more serious as people take against us for quietly seeking to follow Christ in today’s world, and the tragic occurrences of illness and suffering in those whom we love and care for, we share in the disorder of this world now, as we pray and work to bring in the kingdom.

We pray each week:  We beseech thee also to save and defend all Christian Kings, Princes, and Governors; and specially thy servant ELIZABETH our Queen; that under her we may be godly and quietly governed: And grant unto her whole Council, and to all that are put in authority under her, that they may truly and indifferently minister justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of thy true religion, and virtue.

In other words, we look to the civil authorities, under the direction of the Queen, to work for the good of us all and for the improvement of society.

In the same way, we pray (perhaps daily) thy kingdom come, thy will be done.  This is our family prayer that we pray together as sisters and brothers.  We are led by the Spirit of God as children of God, to be and to act in such a way that we are part of the transformation of this world.

This is most certainly about each of us as individuals having our own personal encounter and receiving life from above, being born into the royal heavenly family.  It is also about us living out the reality of God’s authority and rule here on earth now.  This is not visible to those who choose to be blind to it.  For those who are open for all that he has for them, God makes his love known and we can share it as we work and pray to anticipate the coming fulfilment of the kingdom by making things better on earth right now.

May you know a jubilee of rejoicing and freedom, both as you honour Her Majesty and also as you encounter the Triune God and grow in him.

Discussion Starters

1.       The talk concentrates on relationship with God.  What would you have liked to ask about the doctrine of the Trinity?

2.       How do you respond to the thought that God calls you his beloved son or daughter?

3.       In what ways have you been aware of being led by the Spirit of God?  If you do not feel this applies to you, how could you make progress in this important area?

Pentecost Sunday 27 May 2012 Acts 2:1-21, John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15, Bruce

I n two weeks time I will leave on a walk to Holy Island.  In part this is a fund raiser and publicity event for the Renewal Project.  It is also a pilgrimage to a Celtic holy place, in which I will seek to connect with the Celtic saints who walked this land 1400 years ago.

But I have a problem.  A symbol of the Holy Spirit in Celtic thought was the Wild Goose – free, untameable, unpredictable.  There are stories of Celtic monks going on mission who cast themselves adrift in their coracles, content that wherever the waves and winds took them would be the place that God’s Holy Spirit was directing them.

In contrast, I have done my best to map out a route and pre-book accommodation along the way.  Partly this is lower anxiety levels among those I am leaving behind, partly it is to aid the publicity effort that will accompany the walk, and partly it is because I know what it is like to have total strangers show up at the door requesting hospitality.  It does make the walk a bit tamer.

Here’s another problem.  The book I have been reading this week by Frank Viola has made the case that much of what we do in church life has pagan origins.  In particular, the sermon as we know it today derives its origin from the methods of Greek orators – a carefully constructed speech that is delivered to a largely passive but hopefully appreciative audience.  This is different, it is claimed, from the preaching and teaching we find in the New Testament.  So why I am preaching a sermon this morning?  Doesn’t that sound a paradoxical way to lead us in thinking about the person and work of the Holy Spirit?

“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come ..” is how the KJV translates this.  The disciples had been waiting and praying, just has Jesus had commanded them.  One suspects that they did not really know what they were waiting for.  When they hear the noise like a mighty rushing wind and see what look like flames, they rush out into the streets declaring the wonders of God, speaking in languages that they have never learned.  They were obviously excited, so that some passersby thought that the disciples were drunk.

I was asked the question on Friday evening, would I like to see this or a similar phenomena at St Michael’s?  I rather ducked that one, because I thought I would like to ask you all what you think?

How ready are we to encounter God the Holy Spirit and grow in him?  Many of us are attracted to the gentle Spirit who comes down like a dove, inspiring love and unity.  He is the Spirit of Jesus, an Advocate or Comforter just like Jesus, who comes to live in us and to motivate us for life and service.

How ready are we, though, to encounter the Holy Spirit who if we lie to him can bring about death (Acts 5);  who if we sin against him can cause us to be denounced (Acts 8); who can change our travel plans (Acts 16:7).

He is the one who testifies about Jesus.  We are not trying to live model lives to convince people to live like us.  We are not trying to convince people to adopt our philosophy or system of ethics and morals.  We are merely those who have come into a living relationship with the living Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the work of his Holy Spirit – we can claim none of the credit.

The Holy Spirit is first the one who motivates and empowers us to continue the work that Jesus began.  He works through us as individuals and us united as the church, to prove to people that they have been wrong, sinful, not to depend on and trust in Jesus.  Second, the Spirit is he who has demonstrated God’s righteousness by raising Jesus from the dead, and he continues this work as we live that resurrection life out in the midst of the brokenness that we see all around us today.  Third, he shows by the life of his church that all the rulers and power structures of this world have been judged and found wanting.

It all comes back to the work of the Holy Spirit, exciting, disturbing, potentially discomforting.  We try to be organised, but are continually reminded that the way to make God laugh is to tell him our plans.  We aspire to worship in a reverential, orderly way, but there is always the suspicion that God’s Spirit would like to burst our banks and flow out to bless and bring life in ways that will surprise, perhaps even shock us.

Today on this feast of the giving of the Spirit, may we open for all that God has for us, open for all that he would teach us, open to help all those who seek after him, and open to follow him wherever he leads us.

In Groups

Pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Sermon for Sunday 20th May 2012 - Acts 1: 15-17, 21-26 and John 17: 6-19 – A Relationship with God

If you had to help to choose your next vicar, what qualifications would you look for? In some parishes: they look for an Oxford or Cambridge graduate only. That would weed out an awful lot. We want a learned man, but is intellect the prime importance? A degree in theology may impress but it does not guarantee that the owner is a committed Christian! There is a big distinction between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. 

The disciples had to face this problem with the death of Judas. They were used to working as a team. They went in twos; rarely did they work alone. Eleven was definitely an odd number. Twelve is a special number, like the twelve prophets or the twelve tribes of Israel. If the apostles were like the new Israel they would need to make up their team to twelve. If we play with a team member short, it will affect our overall performance. They needed to find a replacement, so they got together and asked what was required.

They decided together it should be someone who had been with Jesus from the beginning, from the baptism of John until Jesus was taken up from them. (Here we discover there were more than just the twelve going around with Jesus, but nevertheless twelve is a special number).  They needed a team member. They would require that person to witness with them to the resurrection. If they were able to put an advert in Situations Vacant it might sound like this:

Due to the untimely death of an apostle,

one person needed to join a team of twelve.

Will normally be required to work with others. 

Needs to  know Jesus personally and

to be ready to witness to the resurrection.

The important things became obvious. They wanted someone who knew Jesus, not someone who had just heard of him. The person had to have followed and loved Jesus. What mattered was their personal experience of the Lord. What would such a man see as his work?

Take services, look after churches, do social work? Above all he would have to witness to the resurrection. He would have to show others that Jesus is alive. Jesus is not a figure of history or just a holy man of the past: he is the LIVING LORD. We need to know him in the present tense, to know him now.

There seemed two obvious candidates, Joseph and Matthias. Now the followers of Jesus wanted to show that it was God’s choice, not theirs. They prayed, ‘Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen.’ Then they cast lots. We may find this is a little strange but they wanted the choice to be God’s and in those days this was a natural way of seeking their choice. The names of the candidates were written on stones. They were then placed in a vessel and shaken until one stone fell out. He whose name fell out was the chosen one. In this case Matthias’ name came out and be became apostle number 12.  Their relationship with Jesus, the Father was such that they knew they could count on Him to respond to their request.

In the John reading prayer comes up again, this time Jesus prayed for His disciples. Why would Jesus pray for these men? On one hand you could say because they were His friends but it goes deeper than that, Jesus had a relationship with them and they had a relationship with Him. Jesus based his prayer for the disciples on the relationship he bears to them. These men have been given to Jesus by his Father. “They were yours”, says Jesus. They belong to the Father but in a way far different from the simple affirmation that all creation belongs to God. No, this relationship is different. They are given to Jesus “out of the world”. That phrase highlights the Father’s choice, free and deliberate. This also suggests that, like us, they had previously belonged to the world and were entrenched in its sin and rebellion against God. There was nothing inherently special about these men that drove the Father to choose them; it was simply the free and mysterious grace of God.

They were a Father’s gift to his Son – And the Father who chose them has given them to his Son and so the Father and Son share in all things together. The Father will accomplish redemption for this world through his Son and will remake all things in and through him, so anyone who is to have a share in that future (US) must be joined to the Son – and that is what has happened to these men, by the sovereign will of God. They are a gift to his Son, in order to bring glory to the Son through their sharing in all that the Son is and has achieved.

Jesus made the Father known to them and they obeyed the Father’s word to believe in his Son. They accepted what Jesus said and knew with certainty that he had come from the Father and believed that he had been sent by the Father.  In these words of Jesus we see the work of God being acted out in the experience of the disciples – he chose them and, as Jesus revealed him to them, they received and believed his words.

This prayer is specific to their calling as disciples, as those who both know God and are called to make him known. One big thing this tells us is that the divine mission is not in danger, never has been and never will be. Everything is in the hands of the Father and his Son. What comfort that gives to us in terms of our own security and what hope in terms of the progress of the gospel!

He prays for their protection. Jesus knows his disciples no longer belong to this world.  So He prays for theirs and our protection from the world  - Satan. He is the one who stands opposed to God and his mission of mercy in the world and he is the one who stirs up trouble against the Lord and his people. And Jesus says, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world”. There you have it, straight and to the point. That means that all our attempts to evade the world and to run from any engagement with it are contrary to the praying of Jesus. We often think safety is only gained by removal (“Lord, get me out of here!”) but that isn’t necessarily the case. Jesus is not praying that we be removed from the heat of the kitchen; rather, he is praying that we be protected whilst still in the world. “Protect them”, Jesus prays, “by the power of your name”. Whilst in the world, Jesus protected his own – kept the powers of evil at bay, corrected and rebuked his disciples and so on. As he prepares to leave, he is asking his Father to continue that same work of protection through the Holy Spirit. Jesus doesn’t simply pray for protection, he prays too for sanctification. God’s will, declared in his word, has the power to set people apart for God, to call them out of the world in order to belong to him. Jesus here prays that this will be accomplished in the lives of his disciples.

As Jesus prayed for his own disciples we should pray for ourselves. We must pray that the Lord’s Word would do its sanctifying work in our lives, that we would visibly be the fruit of Jesus. It isn’t enough simply to sit under God’s Word or to read it privately; we must couple those activities with earnest prayer that we would benefit from that same word. Jesus prayed that we might know God and have a personal relationship with Him.

This may seem like a great burden on us but Jesus is not like the Pharisees. Yes, to live on a battlefield and to seek to win over the enemy is a great burden – but Jesus has prayed and does pray for us now. And so these words are intended to breed not gloom but joy within our hearts.  No calling was heavier and more burdensome than that of Jesus yet he was a man of joy. He wants us to share in that joy – not by running from the battle, nor by isolating ourselves far from the spot where mission hits the road, but through knowing his protection and his deep work of sanctification in us. As we embrace our calling and commission, the words of Jesus breathe an abiding joy into our hearts. Amen.

Questions:

1. Who is Christ directly referring to? Who else?

2.       Why would Jesus pray for their protection?

3.       What does Jesus want for his disciples (and for us)? How would hearing this prayer bring that joy to the disciples?

4.       The disciples were a ‘gift’ from the Father to Jesus.  That also means you and me.  How do you feel about being a ‘gift’ to Jesus from the Father bearing in mind that ‘God has chosen you to be witnesses’ and has ‘called you by name’.

Sunday 13 May 2012, Acts 10:44-48, John 15:9-17, Bruce

On Sunday 3 June we will celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee.  We will do this by remembering her in our prayers here in church, and perhaps by taking part in a street party or other celebration.  She is our monarch, our ruler, and yet I wonder if there is anyone here who has ever received a direct personal command from her.  When I was installed here as vicar I had to take to repeat the vow of obedience to Her Majesty, as well as the oath of canonical obedience to the Bishop of Guildford.  I have only, however, seen her at a distance.

She nevertheless remains the queen, and we should obey her.  Of course, our laws come from parliament, and the prime minister and other government ministers.  I suspect that if Her Majesty did knock on our front door, we would be amazed and thrilled, and would probably do whatever she asked.  But perhaps we would do the same if it were Tom Jones, Lewis Hamilton, Meryl Streep or Michael Caine at our door; we might react the same, out of politeness if nothing else.

In our passages today we see the power of God at work and receive his summons to obey.  Of course they are snippets of much longer works, and so it is as if we had heard one song from a musical; it perhaps only makes sense if we know the whole story which gives our snippet meaning.

Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet, predicted his own betrayal and death, predicted that Peter will fall away, told them not to allow their hearts to be troubled, that he will be the way, the truth and the life who will lead them to the Father, and that he will send someone to take his place – the Holy Spirit.  He says that he is the vine and they are to remain in him.  He tells them that he has loved them as the Father has loved him, now he says that they are to remain in his love and keep his commands.

The strange thing is that carefully tells them that they are not slaves.  They are his friends, and he is explaining to them what he is doing, almost as if they are equals.  They are in a relationship of love and trust.  He is coming to his own, and inviting them to receive him.  It is the same language that we use when we talk of encountering God and growing in him.  It is up close and personal.  In fact we need to be open to all that he has for us, all that he would teach us.  If we read it again, can we hear Jesus speaking:  I have loved you.  You, keep my commands.  You, remain in my love.  You are my friend.  I chose you.

So we learn that God is in charge, that Jesus has designs on our lives.  The initiative is God’s.  His ways are not always our ways.  We can and will be taken by surprise.  Adam and Eve thought God was making a number of suggestions for them to consider, and the one about the fruit was up for debate.  There was a lot of trouble about that.    We ourselves veer between renegotiating what we believe to be good and true and God-given on the one hand, and feeling desperate and guilty about our own disobedience on the other.

But God is in charge.  He welcomes us into his forgiving ways and invites us to submit to his will.  Jesus calls us friends.

We are amazed at the gifts that he gives us. We cannot earn them or aspire to them.  We are amazed when he chooses to give his gift of life to others.  In the snippet from Acts, Peter has just been sharing the good news that Jesus died on the cross for sins, when his Gentile audience grasps this truth, believes in Jesus, is filled with the Holy Spirit and receives the gift of tongues.  We learn from this first that we are not in control; God loves to bless.  We learn second that it is all free, unearned grace; when we talk of gifts, it is never in the context of our achievement or worthiness or us seeming to take the credit.  It is always God demonstrating his love, grace and power as he entrusts us with gifts and abilities to be stewarded and used to bring in his kingdom.

We see that in Acts and we see it also in John.  Jesus is bringing in his kingdom and commanding us to fall in with his ways.  He does this, though, as the suffering servant whose love is so great that he lays down his life for his friends.  He comes to his own, to each of us, to you, and gives the invitation to receive him.  To align ourselves with him.  In the garden he said that he was willing to obey.  We also delight to obey.  That is what we are really saying when we repeat “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. 

May we each be open, open to the work of his Spirit, open to the fullness of his love, and open to share his love with each other and the wider world that is his.

Discussion Starters

1.       What do you think that Jesus means when he talks of our receiving joy (v. 11)?

2.       Why do you think we need to be reminded to love one another?

3.       You have been chosen to bear fruit ...  What do you think Jesus is trying to tell you?

ST MICHAEL’S SERMON 6 MAY 2012. KEEP YOUR CHRISTIAN LIFE ALIVE! Acts 8 : 26 – 40 John 15: 1 – 8

Personally I find the conversion and baptism of the high ranking Ethiopian court treasurer in our first reading very moving to read. A highly important and intelligent man from an entirely different culture, reading Isaiah’s prediction of the suffering and death of Jesus, being moved by the Holy Spirit to acknowledge him as Lord and Saviour, and asking for baptism.   Afterwards, we read that he went on his way rejoicing but wouldn’t it be great to know how his Christian life progressed after that? Did Queen Candace herself become a Christian – and possibly her family and court? We don’t know.

Usually when individual stories appear in the New Testament it means that they were known to the young Christian Church. But then they generally are described by name. To take just one example, when Jesus became too weak and unable to carry his own cross any further, the Roman soldiers picked a strong-looking man at random out of the crowd. Have a look at Mark 15:21. He is named as Simon, his home town is known as Cyrene, and we are told he is the father of Alexander and Rufus. This certainly means that this man became a Christian and, with his sons and family, were known to those who heard Mark’s Gospel read. That’s another truly moving story.

But when Luke wrote The Acts of the Apostles, the situation was somewhat different. Luke was writing for a Greek (Gentile) audience as well as a Jewish one, and he may have decided to include this story because it demonstrated that the Gospel was already spreading to a far-flung audience, going as far as the upper reaches of the Nile south of Egypt, far beyond the Roman Empire. We are left to guess whether this man remained strong in his faith, although surely (I believe) he did, because the extraordinary way in which Philip met him in his chariot reads almost on a par with Paul’s Damascus Road experience. He was a top level financier too, so we can assume that even bankers are sometimes not far from the kingdom....!

He was reading from Isaiah chapter 53. We need just a bit of background here. The Jews didn’t just live in Palestine. After the Babylonian captivity many had dispersed to the far reaches of the Persian, Greek and then Roman Empires. They were called the ‘Diaspora’ which simply means the ‘dispersion’ and these communities of Jews could be found in virtually every town and city you could name. And many Gentiles found them and their religion attractive. They worshipped just one God, who was Lord of all creation, unlike the pantheon of often unpredictable and less-than-admirable gods of the empire. Gentiles often admired their strong family life, their generally strong moral and religious code and way of life. Not a few attached themselves loosely to a local synagogue. They even came to have a special name, these Gentile adherents to the Jewish faith and way of life. They were called by a Greek name which translates as ‘God-Fearers’.

They had access to the Jewish Scriptures, because what we now call the Old Testament had been translated into Greek and had been available in its full and polished form for well over a hundred year before the time of Jesus, and most of it for long before that. So there was no difficulty for any reasonably educated Gentile in reading and meditating on the Law and the Prophets - what we call the Old Testament.

This Ethiopian clearly belonged to this large group of adherents, and he had actually been to Jerusalem to worship. It would have been surprising, so soon after the crucifixion and resurrection, and with Jerusalem still buzzing with argument and conflict about Jesus, if he had not picked up something of the events surrounding Jesus.

And he comes across Isaiah chapter 53. This is that most extraordinary chapter in which you read and feel as if you were reading an eye-witness description of the crucifixion. Remembering that there was no such thing as the New Testament at that time, what better place could there be for Philip to start telling him the good news of the gospel and leading him to faith. And this important man is moved by the Holy Spirit and comes to a living faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Then he is not too proud – in front of all his no doubt astonished attendants and entourage -  to ask to be baptized by Philip down in the river or lake they were passing. He went on his way rejoicing. It’s a moving story that makes the heart and the spirit glad.

But, as I suggested at the beginning, what happened after that? He would have returned to his Queen and court and resumed his official duties amid a community with its own gods and rituals and culture. It must have been difficult to say the least.

In some ways, it’s not so different for us. We may find a true and living encounter with Jesus at a church gathering or in the privacy of our own homes, and feel (like John Wesley) our hearts strangely warmed, our faith coming alive, and our relationship with the risen Jesus becoming real. But what happens when we get back to the office on Monday morning, or resume what we call ‘normal life’? As in the parable of the sower, does the seed fall on good ground and bear fruit? Or on shallow soil, or among all the rocks of secular life, and sadly fail to grow to maturity?

Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel reading from John Chapter 15 how we must maintain that vital, living relationship with himself. We have to ‘remain attached’ or ‘abide’ in him, in exactly the same way as a branch must remain attached to the tree stem if it is to remain alive. The moment we become detached, we start to die spiritually.

The life-giving sap which is the life of God himself, is drawn up through the main trunk, which is Jesus, and feeds that life into the branches, the leaves and the fruit. There is no spiritual life if that link is broken. So what is necessary for the life-giving link to remain and grow and give birth to a fruitful Christian life? Here, briefly, are four ways..

1. Bible Study. In the Bible Study Group to which I belong, our leader John Kane told us that he felt that, by careful reading of the scriptures, he was coming into a closer relationship with Jesus. We are studying Mark’s Gospel and I know we are all having that same experience as we follow Jesus through his life and ministry. However much (or little) time we can give to it each day, and whatever form of discipline and help in the way of notes we use, every Christian draws the sap of God’s life into ourselves as we prayerfully draw close to Jesus through our reading and meditation on the scriptures.

2. Prayer. Prayer is the channel of communication which is so vital in keeping the relationship alive. How can any relationship survive if the people concerned never talk to each other? Whatever method of prayer we adopt, we need crucially both to share our thoughts, our needs, our joys, our sorrows with our Lord, and hear carefully what He has to say to us.

3. Fellowship. The story is told of a man who went to visit a Christian friend, and as they sat in front of a coal fire, he shared the fact that his Christian life was growing cold. The friend lent forward with the fire-tongs, took a red-hot lump of coal out of the fire and laid it in the grate. Silently they watched as it lost its glow and gradually became cold. No words were needed. The point was made. We need each other – we need encouragement, if necessary admonishment. We need each other’s prayers and practical help. Our faith is always best nurtured within a warm and lively Christian fellowship.

4. Sacrament. When we come to Holy Communion, we receive under the symbols of bread and wine, the promise of the very life and presence of Jesus within our hearts and lives. They tell us that, for our physical health, we need five types of vegetable each day. For our spiritual health, we need all four of these spiritual lifelines, and no doubt more as well.

There is no time to expand on these this morning – we could easily have a sermon series on each. But the picture I want to leave in your minds is of the tree, the branches and the fruit. Imagine a tree in full fruit, and beside it on the ground the sad sight of a branch that has become detached. The life-giving sap of the tree can no longer reach it and it is relentlessly on its way to death. It is an immensely sad sight and there is now no possibility of re-attaching it to the main stem.

Fortunately for the Christian, and however far we may have fallen back in our Christian life, there is – by the mercy and grace of God – always, but always, a way back. It is never too late to renew our living and life-giving relationship with our Lord. Let’s review our Christian life and practice and make sure that we are each truly living and healthy branches that bring forth much good fruit to the glory of God.

Robert

Sunday 15 April 2012, Easter 2, Acts 4:32-35 John 20:19-31, Bruce

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 20:19
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

John 20:21
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

John 20:26
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ....

What is the gospel reading about?

It is about Jesus bringing us peace.

The disciples were not at peace; they thought they might be arrested and killed. Even though there were puzzling rumours that Jesus was not in the tomb, and some of them even thought they might have seen him, still they were afraid.

Then Jesus appears inside a locked room. I wonder how they responded? Jesus felt the need to say again: “Peace be with you”. And they were overjoyed.

But one of them, Thomas, the Twin, was missing, and he missed out on seeing Jesus. So for the next week Thomas was not at peace. Then Jesus appears again and repeats: “Peace be with you”.

What lessons can we learn from this? You might think that the most important lesson is that it is risky to miss coming to church or group; so often good things happen and we miss them!

There is another, more important truth here. Jesus is very concerned that we should know the peace of God. He does not want our hearts to be troubled. He knows that we face all sorts of difficulties in this world. We are to take heart because he has overcome the world. Almost his last words to his disciples before his arrest were that he had taught and instructed them so that they would know peace; and his first words to them as a group after his resurrection was that they should be at peace.

Know that God wants you to be at peace. There may be, and almost certainly are, all manner of factors conspiring to give you trouble and distress in this world, but Jesus really wants you to know his peace.

But how?

First, be open for an encounter with the risen Lord Jesus. The doors were locked, but I am sure that the hearts of the disciples were open. Jesus has promised that anyone who seeks will find, that he stands at the door and knocks. All we have to do is open. He will breathe his Spirit into us – just take a deep breath of God, as it were.

But is your life in turmoil, not ready yet to meet God? That is why his first words to us are that we should be at peace. As we trust him and receive forgiveness, so we are at peace with God because of all that Jesus has done for us and yearns to do in us.

Second, realise that we find peace by knowing the will of God for us and carrying it out. Jesus gives to his disciples his peace so that he can give them their calling. Who were they to go out and forgive the sins of others? They were obviously incapable because of their own sins and compromised lives. But Jesus chooses to give them his peace and fill them with his Spirit. He commissions them, us, to lives of service, to be of benefit to others and to bring in his kingdom.

But what if we get it all wrong?

Jesus has made his choice to include Thomas in this calling, and so he appears the second time and brings him peace.

How often do we think that it is all up to us to get it right? And of course we do not get it all right. We think that because we keep falling down on the job, as it were, that we are not fit to follow Jesus. We can make ourselves more unhappy than those who do not know Jesus, because we do want to know him and serve him, but all seems so hard.

The good news, the gospel, for us today is that Jesus knows us and loves us and says to each of us: “Peace be with you”. Look at pebbles from the beach. Each one is different. Some are smooth, some broken and jagged. Some large and obvious, some are dainty. God writes his peace on each one; sometimes on the smooth whiteness on the outside, sometimes on the broken cut surface inside. Let us each, whoever we are, receive the peace that Jesus has for us.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ....

This is a peace that we ask for and receive when we turn to God in prayer. This is a peace that we share with each other (it is not a pointless ritual during the communion service). This is a peace that we share with family members, friends, neighbours and colleagues when we pray for them to know Jesus, and seek to share the forgiveness that we have received.

Peace be with you.

Discussion Starters

1. “Forgive us our trespasses as we ….” What are the factors that make it easy for us bring peace to others? What makes it hard?

2. Are you a smooth white pebble, rolled in millennia of waves and surf? Or are you broken and chipped? Where is there space for Jesus to write his peace into your life?

3. Take a moment to pray for each other, for any specific troubles, and to know his peace.