This morning Norma looks at how compassion manifest and how we can be inspired by Jesus and Joseph to practice compassion in our daily lives.
Showing posts with label sermon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sermon. Show all posts
Sunday, 16 August 2020
Sunday, 21 June 2020
Sunday Service 21 June 2020: Our Need for God's blessings
This morning our service is lead by Norma (and her parrot), joined by Maggie, Ann and Jenny (and her dog). Please join us at 10 am this Sunday and be blessed.
Sunday, 10 May 2020
Sunday 10 May- Fear not as you are my beloved
This Sunday Liz will be leading our service along with Trevor and Ann. God want us to not live in fear. He wants us to know He loves us. Have a blessed Mothers day
Sunday, 3 May 2020
Sunday, 10 February 2019
Sunday Service: What is our calling?
This morning our service Anglican and lead by Liz where helps us to think about what is our calling.
Sunday, 3 February 2019
Monday, 22 October 2018
What does God want? (Sunday service by David Williams)
Readings:
Ez 33:1-9,
1 Tim 2:1-8
It is always so sad to stand in front of the church and see empty pews. Why do people not come? (but thanks to those who do!) This demands the question...
Why are we here? What do people want?
They want fellowship, music, to feel God, all good reasons, but really secondary. The essence of Christianity is to relate to God, and to yield to Him. The Bible’s favourite title for God is “LORD”, in both Testaments. In salvation, we are transferred to His Kingdom. So there is a question …
What does God want us to be if he is Lord? 1 Timothy 2:2 gives an answer: Quiet and peaceable, Godly and respectful. In short, in HARMONY with others and with God! In this we reflect the nature of God as Trinity, three Persons in full harmony – we are in His image – incidentally 3 Persons are ONE God (1 Tim 2:6).
What does God want us to have (1 Tim 2:4)? He desires the salvation of all, and that all have the knowledge of the truth, in short, LIFE! – both for now and forever. Again as in his image, this reflects the nature of God, who is life.
This is what God wants; what has He done (1 Tim 2:6-7)? Thank Him for that! God sent His son, to teach and die so we know how to live now and forever. AND God sent His servants, which also means us.
So what should WE do? Obviously seek to live right and proclaim, but Paul puts something else FIRST of all (1 Tim 2:1), our priority …
- Pray! It is God’s work that we need
For all, even those we do not like, irritate us, harm us etc. For rulers, even those who misrule, are corrupt, even persecute. Remember the emperor at the time was Nero
This means that we have a responsibility; we are called to stand in breach to ask God not to bring judgement on those who deserve it (Ps 106:23, Ex 32:7-14)
We are watchmen Ez 22:30, 33:1-20
We are intercessors 1 Sam 12:23
But if we do not …, then we answer to God
Are we serious? If he is our LORD, we MUST pray! Indeed, we must supplicate (1 Tim 2:1), so urge, beseech, implore!
Sunday, 15 July 2018
Paul’s thorn (service by David Williams
Readings:
2 Cor 12:7
Gen 3:1-19;
2 Cor 12:1-10
What do we want for our children; that they grow big and strong! So we want to take away hindrances. We want the same for the church. So we want to remove trials and temptations. They can hinder our spiritual growth by making us concentrate on the problem and not on God. But they can do the opposite and make us remember God!
The Genesis story tells us why the world has thorns (Gen 3:18). It has fallen, and we share in that, so we have disease, problems, cancer and so on. Emphatically these are due to satan; God is good and tempts tempts no one (Jas 1:14). But they are allowed by God, but because they can result in good!
One of these is the thorn, but note it is only a problem if it gets inside! Remember the apple; it did no harm until it was eaten. But we are prone to do so; in the flesh dwells no good thing, because we share in a fallen world. But temptation is not sin. Then Paul was not exempt.
Emphatically, a thorn harasses, it slows, hinders, and so is bad. But does not kill. We are saved, the thorn does not take that away, but it affects our sanctification.
Paul in danger of pride, because of what God had blessed him with. And he could not remove the thorn. Then his weakness allowed God to work. Sometimes our ability means that we hinder God. After all if we trust our ability, we are not trusting God – we cannot have two masters! Then our strength is made perfect in weakness, and that means it must be God’s work, we cannot be perfect.
So in his affliction, “my grace is sufficient” - the thorn a gift! And gifts aid our service. It was grace, and so .undeserved.
What do you do in trials?
2 Cor 12:7
Gen 3:1-19;
2 Cor 12:1-10
What do we want for our children; that they grow big and strong! So we want to take away hindrances. We want the same for the church. So we want to remove trials and temptations. They can hinder our spiritual growth by making us concentrate on the problem and not on God. But they can do the opposite and make us remember God!
The Genesis story tells us why the world has thorns (Gen 3:18). It has fallen, and we share in that, so we have disease, problems, cancer and so on. Emphatically these are due to satan; God is good and tempts tempts no one (Jas 1:14). But they are allowed by God, but because they can result in good!
One of these is the thorn, but note it is only a problem if it gets inside! Remember the apple; it did no harm until it was eaten. But we are prone to do so; in the flesh dwells no good thing, because we share in a fallen world. But temptation is not sin. Then Paul was not exempt.
Emphatically, a thorn harasses, it slows, hinders, and so is bad. But does not kill. We are saved, the thorn does not take that away, but it affects our sanctification.
Paul in danger of pride, because of what God had blessed him with. And he could not remove the thorn. Then his weakness allowed God to work. Sometimes our ability means that we hinder God. After all if we trust our ability, we are not trusting God – we cannot have two masters! Then our strength is made perfect in weakness, and that means it must be God’s work, we cannot be perfect.
So in his affliction, “my grace is sufficient” - the thorn a gift! And gifts aid our service. It was grace, and so .undeserved.
What do you do in trials?
- Firstly, prayer for removal! And so many just do not do that, and put up with the problems unnecessarily. The prayer of Paul was pleading, was persistent, repeated. It was in faith, and here the experience of Paul was a real blessing – he KNEW God.
- Secondly, if not answered, we know that God is allowing the trials for our good! Then remember 1 Corinthians 10:13, and that trials for a Christian must be temporary – we have assurance of heaven.
Monday, 25 April 2016
THE GLORY OF LOVE
Service by Margaret Fourie
Readings:
Acts 11:1-18
Ps 148
Rev 21:1-6
John 13: 31-35
Message
In our reading from St John's gospel this morning, we
have another of these mysterious passages which over the years have become
familiar enough to us, but which may well have not much meaning for us. "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in
him is God glorified. If God is
glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself...." What does this mean? What does all this glorifying look
like? Picture the scene. Jesus and his disciples have just finished
the meal, and Judas has, minutes before, left the group to go to the
authorities. In a few minutes, they will
leave the upper room and go into Gethsemane, where he will, after some prayer
and agonizing, be arrested, tried over and over, and then condemned to death. Not the sort of glory most of us would
choose.
Perhaps we can shed some light on it from this
angle: those of you who are also single
will know what I mean when I say that every now and then someone will tell me,
"You are looking wonderful! Is
there someone special in your life?"
or "You look so radiant you must be in love!"
In other words, everyone knows that when you are in
love, you shine with a special radiance; there is a special happiness about
you, a glory. Certainly being in love is
one of nature's great beauty treatments.
We have all seen the very plain person suddenly become beautiful because
somebody has taken a special interest in them and has perceived them as
beautiful.
Loving and being loved is
transforming, a source of glory.
Perhaps Jesus was feeling very
close to God at that moment: he would
have needed to! Perhaps he was suddenly
very conscious of being surrounded by love - the love of the Father and the
love of these men - and of loving them in return.
In Lystra in Greece, St Paul was preaching the love of
God to a crowd of people when his eye fell on a crippled man: "he fixed
his eyes on him" says the REB. He
saw him and really looked at him, noting his need and understanding his
response of faith. He was more to Paul
than merely someone in the crowd. Maybe
there was something of the glory of God in his face as Paul saw him, for the
Bible says, "seeing he had the faith to be cured..." so it must have
shown. Maybe for the first time in his
life, this man knew himself unconditionally loved as he heard the gospel. Paul's response to this man's faith was to
pass on to him the glorious wholeness of Jesus, and he is healed.
The effect of love is transformational.
You may have had the experience of falling in love,
where suddenly the whole world is beautiful and you are conscious of being
powerful and competent beyond your wildest dreams. Suddenly everything is easy - even getting up
in the morning! Perhaps you have also
had the awful experience of having the relationship terminated - that feeling
of the light going out, of being worth nothing at all, of being unattractive
and of not wanting to do anything at all, in fact not being able to do much.
When we are loved we can do anything; when we are not
loved we are paralysed.
Those of you who get the Hogsback Times will also have been as upset
as I was about Shane’s hurt and
anger. The pain of being betrayed by
those you have loved is extreme. It
would take a closeness to God like what Moses experienced on Mt Sinai, or Jesus
on Mount of Transfiguration to turn that betrayal of Judas’s into glory.
Over the last few days in morning prayer we have been
reading about Moses and his time up and down Mount Sinai. Every time he spent time with God, on the
mountain or in the Tent of Meeting, when he came out he had to veil his face
because it shone so brightly with the glory of God. Being with God, spending time with him in
closeness transformed the shy, stammering Moses who had to speak through Aaron,
into the man who glowed with confidence and glory, and who could address the
crowds himself.
Love is a transforming thing. Jesus tells
his disciples after the last supper, "Love
one another; as I have loved you, so are you to love one another. If there is this love among you, then
everyone will know that you are my disciples." It will show, not only in actions, but also
because love glows and love transforms.
The awareness and acceptance of God's enormous love
for us, and the giving and receiving of love among ourselves will transform our lives.
The main way in which most of us will experience God's
love is through other people: sometimes it is given to us to know that God
is directly involved with us - we may have one of those sudden insights, or
experience a strange outpouring of God's loving mercy, but usually it is the
mediation of other people around us that makes
up our experience of God. It is the
privilege of the people of God to love with God's love.
Sometimes it is not easy (or even possible) to love someone
and we will need help. You;ve heard me tell
of my Mom whose aged mother had moved in with her. She told me, "I cannot love her. I just cannot manufacture love for her. She drives me round the bend. So I said to God, 'I cannot love her, but I
am prepared for you to love her through me'." In this way she became the conduit for God's
love for her mother. It is the
responsibility and the privilege of each of the members of the family of God to
express God's love for each other in tangible, truly caring ways. we are in a real sense the continuing
incarnation of our Lord.
Some of you may be feeling
·
insignificant, unimportant in
the scheme of things. Some of you may be
·
downright depressed.
·
Some of you may have come this
morning in spite of the sense you have of not being ready to face God.
·
Perhaps you wanted to creep in
and then out again without really being noticed, because you hoped that the
familiar rhythm of the liturgy would comfort you.
·
Some of you may have had
disappointments,
·
or be feeling abandoned or
unloved.
You will be having difficulty living life to the full;
you may even be having difficulty with living at all. (We don't like to let others know this, do
we?)
Whatever your crippling situation may be, there is a
chance of glory for you: spend a bit of
time now meditating on the extraordinary love of God for you; look
around you at the people in the pews with you this morning. This is your family and here you can
experience the love and acceptance of people around you and share that love
with someone else. Look to see where you
can exercise your own facility for being loving, and then learn to accept the
love that is offered to you.
For there is glory in love. It transforms us and makes everything
possible.
"As I have loved you, so you are to love one
another. If there is this love among
you, then everyone will know that you are my disciples." Know both these loves - the love of God and
the love for each other so that you too may be transformed and energised, and make everything possible for your
sisters and brothers in the faith.
Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Strength, wisdom, perfection and love
Sermon by Reverend Tony Bethke
Reading
Ephesians 3: 14 – 21
Pray
vs 14 I bow on my knees,
vs 16, to be strengthened,
vs 17 and grounded in love,
vs 18 able to begin comprehending his love,
vs 19 knowing the love of Christ, (Christian Assurance)
vs 20 His power at work in us!
"Prayer does not change God, it changes us!"
Harry Emerson Fosdick told this story:
His father said to his mother as he left the house one Saturday morning: “Tell Harry that he can mow the lawn today if he feels like it.” Halfway down the path he turned and added: “Tell Harry that he had better feel like it.”
We’re taught that we don’t know God if we know Him only as an authority figure, that we don’t know God if we only know Him as One who cares and loves. He is a God of Justice and Love.
The Bible teaches that we don’t know God if we know Him only as an authority figure and don’t know God if we only know Him as One who cares and loves. (Grace).
We don’t know God unless His authority and His love has captivated us.
Until knowing God and living under His love and authority becomes a way of life and not an obligation imposed on us by the Church or by fear of death, God does not become a reality.
Until we truly know God, His love and authority at work in us, and our way of life is not an obligation imposed on us by the Church or by fear of death, He cannot become a reality.
The wonderful thing about God is that nothing can separate us from his love. Romans 8: 38 – 39.
So, we truly know God when His authority, power and love has captivated us and we begin to obey him.
Notice too how Paul, quite unconsciously mentions the the Trinity in this prayer:
v14: “Father”!
v16: “Spirit”!
v17: “Christ”!
v19: “God”!
To truly understand the Trinity Carlo Carretto says, “we need loving communication, the presence of the Spirit….only God can speak about himself and only the Holy Spirit, who is love, can communicate this knowledge to us….The Holy Spirit is the fullness and joy of God.”
Ultimately God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are continually at work in us to complete the work God began in us at our conversion!
Conclusion
How would the Church and the world look if we were all rooted and grounded in the love that is beyond our understanding?
A veterinarian’s 3 year old daughter loved going to the zoo and when her father stretched out his arms one day and said, "I love you this much" she said, "Daddy, I love you all the way to the zoo!" It is a two hour drive to the zoo and that was as far as her mind could take her.
A doxology ends the prayer. From it we get a remarkable idea of what God can and wants to do in and through us.
Strengthened in our inner being; rooted and grounded in love; trying to grasp the love of Christ which is beyond our understanding; filled with all the fullness of the creator of the universe!
Jesus, whose "power is at work within us is able to accomplish immeasurably more than all we can ask for or imagine"......which is illustrated by the feeding of the crowd in John's gospel.
What does it mean to belong to a God who is able to increase our resources?
My prayer for myself is that God's power would work in me to such an extent that I would be able to do the unimaginable - that he would give me the grace to have faith when all my outward crutches have been removed.
For me, the unimaginable is:
Father, through your Spirit, give us that strength in our inner being. Christ, dwell in us and cause our roots to search out the Living Water and to discover that our foundation is in you alone.
- that you may be strengthened in your inner being.
Sanctifcation - that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Faith - that you be rooted and established in love.
Maturity - and grasp the fullness of Christ’s love.
The Saving love of Jesus - filled with a measure of the fullness of God’s love.
Perfection
vs 14 I bow on my knees,
vs 16, to be strengthened,
vs 17 and grounded in love,
vs 18 able to begin comprehending his love,
vs 19 knowing the love of Christ, (Christian Assurance)
vs 20 His power at work in us!
"Prayer does not change God, it changes us!"
Harry Emerson Fosdick told this story:
His father said to his mother as he left the house one Saturday morning: “Tell Harry that he can mow the lawn today if he feels like it.” Halfway down the path he turned and added: “Tell Harry that he had better feel like it.”
We’re taught that we don’t know God if we know Him only as an authority figure, that we don’t know God if we only know Him as One who cares and loves. He is a God of Justice and Love.
The Bible teaches that we don’t know God if we know Him only as an authority figure and don’t know God if we only know Him as One who cares and loves. (Grace).
We don’t know God unless His authority and His love has captivated us.
Until knowing God and living under His love and authority becomes a way of life and not an obligation imposed on us by the Church or by fear of death, God does not become a reality.
Until we truly know God, His love and authority at work in us, and our way of life is not an obligation imposed on us by the Church or by fear of death, He cannot become a reality.
The wonderful thing about God is that nothing can separate us from his love. Romans 8: 38 – 39.
So, we truly know God when His authority, power and love has captivated us and we begin to obey him.
Notice too how Paul, quite unconsciously mentions the the Trinity in this prayer:
v14: “Father”!
v16: “Spirit”!
v17: “Christ”!
v19: “God”!
To truly understand the Trinity Carlo Carretto says, “we need loving communication, the presence of the Spirit….only God can speak about himself and only the Holy Spirit, who is love, can communicate this knowledge to us….The Holy Spirit is the fullness and joy of God.”
Ultimately God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are continually at work in us to complete the work God began in us at our conversion!
Conclusion
How would the Church and the world look if we were all rooted and grounded in the love that is beyond our understanding?
A veterinarian’s 3 year old daughter loved going to the zoo and when her father stretched out his arms one day and said, "I love you this much" she said, "Daddy, I love you all the way to the zoo!" It is a two hour drive to the zoo and that was as far as her mind could take her.
A doxology ends the prayer. From it we get a remarkable idea of what God can and wants to do in and through us.
Strengthened in our inner being; rooted and grounded in love; trying to grasp the love of Christ which is beyond our understanding; filled with all the fullness of the creator of the universe!
Jesus, whose "power is at work within us is able to accomplish immeasurably more than all we can ask for or imagine"......which is illustrated by the feeding of the crowd in John's gospel.
What does it mean to belong to a God who is able to increase our resources?
My prayer for myself is that God's power would work in me to such an extent that I would be able to do the unimaginable - that he would give me the grace to have faith when all my outward crutches have been removed.
For me, the unimaginable is:
- To know the love of Christ in such a way that it sustains me in love for others even when they hate me, abandon or are absolutely unlovable.
- To be held in the love of Christ even when all material and physical comforts have fled.
- To stand firm in faith even when I'm being encouraged to curse God and die.
Father, through your Spirit, give us that strength in our inner being. Christ, dwell in us and cause our roots to search out the Living Water and to discover that our foundation is in you alone.
Amen.
Monday, 17 August 2015
Be filled with the Spirit
Sermon by Reverend Tony Bethke
Reading:
Ephesians 5: 15 - 20
“Be careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is."
Paul teaches believers to live wisely and productively, investing in eternity and remaining in relationship with God, knowing his will. Rom 12: 2. A work of the Spirit.
What does it mean to live wisely?
Wisdom is not intellectual knowledge but a way of life that begins with knowledge about God and leads to avoiding all that displeases him.
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
A juggler was driving to his next performance when he was stopped by a traffic cop. "What are these matches and lighter fluid doing in your car?" asked the cop. "I'm a juggler," the driver answered, "and I juggle flaming torches in my act."
"OK!" said the doubtful cop. "Let's see you do it."
The juggler got out and masterfully juggled the blazing torches.
A couple driving by slowed down to watch. "Wow," said the driver to his wife. "I'm glad I stopped drinking. Look at the test they're doing now!"
There is a difference between being drunk on alcohol and being filled with the Spirit. The question is, who or what is the controlling influence in our lives?
Drunkenness affects one’s behaviour and character. Moderation is what we need.
An Evangelist once said, "All Word and no Spirit and you dry up. All Spirit and no Word and you blow up. Equal parts of Word and Spirit and you grow up!"
Speak to one another with psalms hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Worship has everything to do with an encounter with God. That means worshipping a God who is in the present and who responds by helping us to think and act differently to the world!
Catechism: What is the primary purpose of a Christian?
It is to worship God and enjoy him forever.
Worship helps us to express our emotions towards a loving God who enjoys our praises.
We are also drawn to one another. It engenders true fellowship and a desire to live for God in the world.
We must remind ourselves that if we feast on Sunday and fast for the rest of the week, we become weak by Wednesday and starved by Saturday. If we feast on Sunday and eat junk food (foolish behaviour) for the rest of the week, we will be spiritually sick by Wednesday and violently ill by Saturday.
Worship is the heart, mind, soul and spirit of our connection to the holy. Jesus told u to worship God in this way: “Love the Lord your God….Worship should be full of wonder (mystery), joy and certainly shouldn’t be boring. It should lead to loving action!
Being filled with the Spirit and singing? How often I wonder if we could only get people to celebrate in church as they do at parties. Apparently being foolish is more attractive and more fun.
CONCLUSION
Jesus said, "Those who eat of my flesh and drink of my blood abide in me and I in them." Perhaps the most NB thing the Spirit does is to draw us to Jesus (Prevenient grace) and enable us to abide in Him to be grafted into the Vine.
Jesus lives in us, takes up residence in our spirits and promises not to leave us. Paul says “…those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. The Spirit himself
testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Rom 8: 14, 16.
There is a story about minister walking along the beach with his small son. The boy questioned his father
about Sunday's sermon. He said, "Dad, I cannot understand how Christ can live in us and we live in him at the same time." A little way down the beach, the father noticed an empty bottle with a cork in it. Taking the bottle, he half filled it with water, re-corked it and flung it out into the ocean.
They watched the bottle bob up and down, he said, “The bottle has some sea water in it but it is also in the water. That’s how Jesus lives in us and we in him!”
Reading:
Ephesians 5: 15 - 20
“Be careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is."
Paul teaches believers to live wisely and productively, investing in eternity and remaining in relationship with God, knowing his will. Rom 12: 2. A work of the Spirit.
What does it mean to live wisely?
Wisdom is not intellectual knowledge but a way of life that begins with knowledge about God and leads to avoiding all that displeases him.
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
A juggler was driving to his next performance when he was stopped by a traffic cop. "What are these matches and lighter fluid doing in your car?" asked the cop. "I'm a juggler," the driver answered, "and I juggle flaming torches in my act."
"OK!" said the doubtful cop. "Let's see you do it."
The juggler got out and masterfully juggled the blazing torches.
A couple driving by slowed down to watch. "Wow," said the driver to his wife. "I'm glad I stopped drinking. Look at the test they're doing now!"
There is a difference between being drunk on alcohol and being filled with the Spirit. The question is, who or what is the controlling influence in our lives?
Drunkenness affects one’s behaviour and character. Moderation is what we need.
An Evangelist once said, "All Word and no Spirit and you dry up. All Spirit and no Word and you blow up. Equal parts of Word and Spirit and you grow up!"
Speak to one another with psalms hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Worship has everything to do with an encounter with God. That means worshipping a God who is in the present and who responds by helping us to think and act differently to the world!
Catechism: What is the primary purpose of a Christian?
It is to worship God and enjoy him forever.
Worship helps us to express our emotions towards a loving God who enjoys our praises.
We are also drawn to one another. It engenders true fellowship and a desire to live for God in the world.
We must remind ourselves that if we feast on Sunday and fast for the rest of the week, we become weak by Wednesday and starved by Saturday. If we feast on Sunday and eat junk food (foolish behaviour) for the rest of the week, we will be spiritually sick by Wednesday and violently ill by Saturday.
Worship is the heart, mind, soul and spirit of our connection to the holy. Jesus told u to worship God in this way: “Love the Lord your God….Worship should be full of wonder (mystery), joy and certainly shouldn’t be boring. It should lead to loving action!
Being filled with the Spirit and singing? How often I wonder if we could only get people to celebrate in church as they do at parties. Apparently being foolish is more attractive and more fun.
CONCLUSION
Jesus said, "Those who eat of my flesh and drink of my blood abide in me and I in them." Perhaps the most NB thing the Spirit does is to draw us to Jesus (Prevenient grace) and enable us to abide in Him to be grafted into the Vine.
Jesus lives in us, takes up residence in our spirits and promises not to leave us. Paul says “…those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. The Spirit himself
testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Rom 8: 14, 16.
There is a story about minister walking along the beach with his small son. The boy questioned his father
about Sunday's sermon. He said, "Dad, I cannot understand how Christ can live in us and we live in him at the same time." A little way down the beach, the father noticed an empty bottle with a cork in it. Taking the bottle, he half filled it with water, re-corked it and flung it out into the ocean.
They watched the bottle bob up and down, he said, “The bottle has some sea water in it but it is also in the water. That’s how Jesus lives in us and we in him!”
See John 14: 16, 17.
To be filled with the Spirit is easy, all we have to do is ask. Of course the experience that precedes this is to be connected to Jesus, i.e. to be converted and committed to His way, his truth and his life. Luke tells us in 11: 9 – 13
Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.
Let us ask him to fill us now!
Amen
To be filled with the Spirit is easy, all we have to do is ask. Of course the experience that precedes this is to be connected to Jesus, i.e. to be converted and committed to His way, his truth and his life. Luke tells us in 11: 9 – 13
Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.
Let us ask him to fill us now!
Amen
Jesus: Liar, Lunatic, Legend, or Lord?
Sermon by Reverend Tony Bethke
Reading:
John 6: 35, 41 - 51
C.S. Lewis, in his book "Mere Christianity," said this about Jesus: "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."
The seven I am sayings of Jesus:
What Jesus was saying was scandalous to them and seems to have been interpreted as cannibalism. These were veiled statements with regard to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, and they simply misinterpreted his words. The statements were not about the Eucharist - formalised a long time after.
This is really the crux of the matter, either He is who he says he is or he’s a liar, etc!
In a film based on Ernest Hemmingway's story, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" there’s a scene in which two men discuss the difficulty of finding meaningful goals in life. Both are hunters, both of them know what it is to pursue something, yet neither has found what will really satisfies.
One man tells of an incident, which provides the theme of the story. One day while he was high above the snow line of Mt. Kilimanjaro he found the remains of a leopard, frozen to death in that most unlikely place. The two speculate about what the leopard was doing at that high altitude and conclude that whatever it was, the leopard was seeking the wrong thing, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and it destroyed him.
The implication is that this is the way it is for humans as well: we aspire to something, pursue it and if it is the wrong thing, or if it is sought in the wrong way, it leads to destruction.
It must be obvious as we consider the seven “I am” sayings of Jesus that in him we will find what we need.
Consider: He is the doorway to life, he offers bread, light, the way, the truth and the life. He is the good shepherd! He is the vine and we are the branches and at the end of life there is the resurrection.
Years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick was a tourist in the Middle East. He was invited to give an address at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, where the student body comprised people from many countries and sixteen different religions. What could one say that would be relevant or of interest to so mixed and varied a group? This is how Fosdick began: "I do not ask anyone here to change their religion; but I do ask all of you to face up to this question: What is your religion doing to your character?"
This was a call to consider one of the great issues of religion, of belief, of life, and ultimately of Christian character. Emerson once said, "What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear a word you say." Jesus said, "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." By this he meant that those who appropriated his spirit, i.e., fed upon him as the bread of life, would find, thereby, a fulfilment and satisfaction no other means could give.
We find our life and satisfaction in Jesus the Christ!
Amen
Reading:
John 6: 35, 41 - 51
C.S. Lewis, in his book "Mere Christianity," said this about Jesus: "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."
The seven I am sayings of Jesus:
- To the crowds in Galilee after the Feeding of the 5000
6: 35 – Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst." - To "the Jews" in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles:
8: 12 – Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." - To "the Jews" just after Jesus gives sight to the Man Born Blind 10: 9 – "I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture." V11 “I know my own and my own know me,"
10: 11 –"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." - To Martha of Bethany, just before Jesus raises her brother Lazarus back to life:
11: 25 – Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live," - To his disciples at their last meal together (the "Last Supper Discourse"):
14: 6 – Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." - To the disciples in the upper room.
15: 1 – "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser."
15: 5 – "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." - Jesus says of himself "I Am" (Gk eimi) 45 times in John's Gospel. 24 of these are emphatic, explicitly including the pronoun "I" (Gk ego eimi – bold), ego is not necessary in Greek grammar. Therefore, Literally Jesus is saying, “I, I am!”
What Jesus was saying was scandalous to them and seems to have been interpreted as cannibalism. These were veiled statements with regard to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, and they simply misinterpreted his words. The statements were not about the Eucharist - formalised a long time after.
This is really the crux of the matter, either He is who he says he is or he’s a liar, etc!
In a film based on Ernest Hemmingway's story, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" there’s a scene in which two men discuss the difficulty of finding meaningful goals in life. Both are hunters, both of them know what it is to pursue something, yet neither has found what will really satisfies.
One man tells of an incident, which provides the theme of the story. One day while he was high above the snow line of Mt. Kilimanjaro he found the remains of a leopard, frozen to death in that most unlikely place. The two speculate about what the leopard was doing at that high altitude and conclude that whatever it was, the leopard was seeking the wrong thing, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and it destroyed him.
The implication is that this is the way it is for humans as well: we aspire to something, pursue it and if it is the wrong thing, or if it is sought in the wrong way, it leads to destruction.
It must be obvious as we consider the seven “I am” sayings of Jesus that in him we will find what we need.
Consider: He is the doorway to life, he offers bread, light, the way, the truth and the life. He is the good shepherd! He is the vine and we are the branches and at the end of life there is the resurrection.
Years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick was a tourist in the Middle East. He was invited to give an address at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, where the student body comprised people from many countries and sixteen different religions. What could one say that would be relevant or of interest to so mixed and varied a group? This is how Fosdick began: "I do not ask anyone here to change their religion; but I do ask all of you to face up to this question: What is your religion doing to your character?"
This was a call to consider one of the great issues of religion, of belief, of life, and ultimately of Christian character. Emerson once said, "What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear a word you say." Jesus said, "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." By this he meant that those who appropriated his spirit, i.e., fed upon him as the bread of life, would find, thereby, a fulfilment and satisfaction no other means could give.
We find our life and satisfaction in Jesus the Christ!
Amen
Sunday, 12 July 2015
SAFE IN THE STORMS
Today is Sea Sunday when we think
especially of all those who sail our oceans, in merchant fleets, fishing fleets
and in the national navies of our world.
We pray especially for those known to us – Diane and James, for example
- and we give thank for those who risk their lives to provide us with both
safety on our shores, and with the rich harvest of the sea. We also remember the National Sea Rescue
Institute and their brave and dedicated volunteers.
The real, physical storms that batter the
ships and boats are part of the everyday life of seamen, and part of the risk
they voluntarily take when they go to sea.
Let’s consider some of the noteworthy storms in the history of our
faith: the storm of Jonah; the storm on
Galilee; the storms in the Mediterran-ean when Paul was on his way to Rome, the
storm that led to the conversion of John Newton; the storm on the Irish Sea
that changed John Wesley’s idea of grace, to name but a few.
Notice that all of these were
life-threatening, but God was not absent.
He took each of them, and without
making them any less violent, used them as the raw material for something
quite marvellous.
Storms are always dangerous. They have in them the possibility of
disaster, and it is a real and immediate possibility, We do well to be afraid. But they have another possibility as
well. They may be exhilarating,
energising and the beginning of something valuable, as the storms on the
Highveld are.
It depends on who you are and where you are
and whether or not you are sheltered and safe.
It is Bastille Day on Tuesday, which, if
you are not French, you may well have overlooked! This
is an example of quite another sort of storm – no less dangerous, but not a
wind and rain storm. Jesus and his
disciples experienced that sort of storm when Herodias’s nasty little daughter
requested the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The senseless killing of good and holy people
causes an storm in our hearts and in our faith.
Today we are going to look at what our
faith means and how it holds up in terms of the storms that we encounter in
life.
A vast and life-shattering storm broke on
France on Bastille Day in 1789. Nothing
would ever be the same again. For some
it was the end; for others it was the beginning. For some it was a judgement; for others it
was justice at last. It was, as Dickens
said, “the best of times, the worst of times”.
It was a storm of vast proportions that engulfed an entire nation, and,
in time, the whole of Europe.
We have been through stormy times in our
land, too, though not like the storms that have hit Burundi, Congo, Sudan,
Nigeria and the Muslim world. Our storm
is not over, however, and the wind may at any time change.
For some of us the storm comes even closer,
and there are few in our congregation this morning who have not experienced the
evil face of violent crime in their own lives or in those of their
families.
The storm may come even closer than that,
and be inside us. Perhaps you have just
heard a diagnosis of an illness that you didn’t know you had, and that
threatens to alter the shape of your life, or even bring you to the end of it
here. Perhaps you are in the midst of a
family turmoil that threatens to destroy the very fabric of your life and
home. Perhaps you are being knocked this
way and that as you wrestle with a difficult decision, or a situation that has
got out of hand, and you can see no way out.
Perhaps you have been pulled down into depression and you have lost all
hope, and you are adrift on the ocean without sail or rudder.
I think that maybe that is the picture we
need to see. Imagine the sea in a storm. The waves get higher and higher and the wind
whips up the foam, driving all before it.
All on the surface is tossed about and maybe even be broken up. At the same time, however, a little deeper
down, the fish go about their business as usual, probably unaware of the
violence on the surface. At the bottom
of the ocean, where the bedrock is, there is complete calm. The only movement is gentle, along with the
voluntary movement of the sea creatures.
That bedrock is absolutely unaffected by any storm. If a vessel is securely anchored to the
bedrock, it too will be safe from being driven ashore, or of losing its
way. The surface is part of the ocean,
but it is not the whole of the ocean. It
is enormously important, the source of light and air in the water, but it needs
the balance of the depths as well.
The things I mentioned above - the storms
of this life, are the events that happen at the top of the ocean of our
existence. They happen in terms of our
temporary lives, as it were. At the base
of our existence is the bedrock of our God.
Is this what Jesus was saying when he talked about the man who built his
house upon the rock?
There is a promise for all of God’s
children who are at the moment in the middle of a dangerous storm. We will find it in the first verses of Isaiah
chapter 43. Listen to it.
“Fear not, Jacob (put your own name in
here), for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be
with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk
through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
Note that the waters and the rivers will
not dry up or go away, and the fire will not go out. The promise is two-fold. God is with you, even if you cannot discern
him; you will not be destroyed. In fact
you will not be damaged. You may by
hurt, but it will not be damaging. Make this your own.
And, even better, the ‘river’ you are
crossing is not an ocean. It has another
bank within sight, and the further you go into it, the closer you are to the
other side. Claim the promise of safety
while you swim desperately for the other shore!
When my elder daughter Elizabeth was 13
months old, she had pyelo-nephritis, compounded by one or two other conditions
and it looked pretty bad for a while. While
I was nursing her, day and night, my father sent me this verse and it was for
me the turning point. I was, after that,
able to pray to God himself, rather than just to mouth prayers. And I was able to accept that he not only knew
about what was happening, but was also able to deal with it. I am happy to say that she has just turned 46
and is as healthy as the day is long.
There is another bank to the river of trouble, and you will reach it,
along with the Heavenly Father who holds your hand as you go.
He has not promised to keep you safe from the storms of life, but he has
assured us that we will be safe IN
the storms.
Sunday, 28 June 2015
The Problem of Suffering
Readings for this Sunday
2 Sam 1:1,17-27
2 Cor 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43
Sermon notes from Rev Margaret Fourie.
Our readings are all about suffering today, and our collect underlines this. How often haven’t we been able to call out with the Psalmist, “Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord..!”
Here in Hogsback, as I look around the congregation today, I am aware of the huge amount of suffering of various kinds represented here.
Some have experienced physical illness and ongoing pain. We have had how many diagnoses of cancer, followed by surgery, chemo, radiation and pain and illness. Some of the congregation have died of it. Others are living with the pain, and the daily limitations and weakness. And again and again, there is the question, “Why?” “Why doesn’t God answer our prayers?” We prayed for Rose and she got steadily worse until she died. We prayed for Ansie’s young friend and she is not getting any better. How long have we been praying for Rudi and Ollie?
Then there’s Parkinson’s. We prayed for our Dominee and he got worse and worse till he died; we have been praying for John Bowker, and his Parkinson’s has only got worse. We pray for Peter all the time, too, and see no real improvements.
Where is God when we need him and call out to him?
Some of us have arthritis, or bone problems and manage daily with various ways of coping with the pain. Some of us suffer from migraines and nothing seems to help, to say nothing of the ulcers, digestive problems and reflux. Some have to carry TNT for the angina attacks.
But it’s not all physical. What about loss? Betrayal? Bereavement? Alienation? Family distress? Mental anguish?
Some of us suffer from the kind of depression that needs life-long medication and is always just one wobble away from paralysing us again, from sending us into suicidal hopelessness.
Some of us suffer agonies of uncertainty and doubt in our faith journey, or are deep into the Dark night of the Soul.
Oh dear!
So let’s look at the bible. Our gospel reading today told the stories of the suffering of the woman who had tried everything she could find, but her illness went on, making her a social pariah, and even preventing her from attending worship services; and Jairus’s family, with his little daughter dying. We hate it when children die – it seems such an offence to life, Mind you, these two stories have happy endings.
What was their secret? Well, they turned to Jesus, didn’t they? And there it was. Their faith solved the problem. So may be I can say, Go and do likewise.
But I won’t.
It’s too easy and facile to say that we should look at these stories and learn from them how to have all our problems of suffering go away. It is simply not true. We know that our Lord does not always heal, and sometimes suffering just goes on and on, and in the lives of people who are not obviously deserving of it at all.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Back to the bible. Let’s look at Job. He was an extremely good man, and the most dreadful things happened to him. He was angry with God, and with his friends who kept defending God. He could make no sense of his suffering, and this is exactly where so many of us are. It just doesn’t make sense. We do everything we are told to do – anoint with oil, pray with faith, lay hands on people...and nothing happens.
It seems as if either God is all-loving and is weak, or God is all-powerful and does not care.
And so Job goes on demanding an explanation of God. But read chapter 38 and God’s answer – Where were you when I formed the earth? Can you call up the wind or the snow, or even stop a storm on a lake, like Jesus? In other words, “WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU COULD POSSIBLY UNDER-STAND MY ANSWER? SUFFERING IS A MYSTERY!
That makes sense to me. There are things which we can never understand – great mysteries. God himself is the greatest Mystery – three in one, having no beginning and no end, all the things we know of him – our minds can never comprehend God.
Evil, for another example. We truly do not understand evil and why it is in the world. We can apply our logic to it and come up with some great suggestions, but we will find flaws in that logic, and will never arrive at a good, satisfactory answer. We can observe it, study it, describe it, but not understand it. It will still catch us out.
Falling in love is a mystery. Scientists suggest chemistry; Plato suggests a soul-mate type of other half; esoteric theorists may speak of cosmic connections. Whatever it is, we know when we experience it, and it happens without our permission, usually.
Mysteries don’t have solutions Problems can be solved, though. So where evil is a Mystery, resisting it is merely a problem that can be solved.
Suffering is a mystery, but coping with it is a problem that can be solved.
Job is not a nice book to read, and one could be forgiven for thinking that God is being really quite nasty, if one had no idea at all about God’s nature. We, however, do have a really good idea of what God is like. Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father”, and he taught us to know God, not only through his teachings but through his life, death and resurrection.
We know that God is love, and that this love is expressed in every experience we have of him. So we must then read the bible with that knowledge – that is the filter of meaning we apply.
If you got a note that said, “I will be at your house at 3 o’clock”, you may feel excited, or nervous, or curious, depending on who sent it. If it was from someone you were in love with, it would be the best news. If it was from your enemy, it might be serious, If from an acquaintance, interesting. We interpret what is written through the filter of what we know about the person and their relation to us.
So we read God’s reply to Job through the filter of knowing his tremendous love for each of us. His reply is not sarcastic or critical. T is a loving explanation of the difference between Creator and creature. Our minds simply cannot manage all truth, even all knowledge.
Some mysteries we just have to accept in blind faith, and we can, because we know who is in charge, and that his plans for us are for good and not for evil.
What we can solve, then, with his help, is how to cope with the existence of suffering. Asking why won’t help, because we cannot have an answer. Asking HOW is far more sensible, because there he can help us. And we can know that the suffering will not be wasted.
St Paul, who knew personally about bad things happening t good people, wrote, “For we know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purposes.”
I offer you that today. No answers, no trite, comfortable words. Just the uncomfortable truth that, as Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation, But do not despair. I have overcome the world.” And, “Look, I will be with you right to the end of time.”
Sunday, 21 June 2015
Heavenly food
Do you like to eat? I am sure that most will immediately agree! But what of spiritual food? Do we like to feed our spirits?
Food is enjoyable when we eat it, but do you enjoy spiritual food? If you do not enjoy eating, perhaps your body is not working well? And if you do not enjoy the “means of grace”, perhaps you should check up on your spiritual health.
What is important is to eat what is good for you and not what is useless or harmful. There are many foods that look attractive, but do little good, and even harm. The same is true of the spirit – are we feeding on what is helpful? Is what we are exposed to spiritually harmful or beneficial? What are we watching and reading? How do we fill our time?
Just as there is a great variety of food available, there are many foods for the spirit, the “means of grace”. It is not only church, but bible study, the communion, prayer, good books, even material on Youtube. Perhaps a bigger mystery is with such opportunity, why do many starve themselves?
Of course, eating requires effort! There is the buying, preparing, even the chewing of food, so we should not be surprised if spiritual feeding requires effort. There is a cost, but for our spiritual life Jesus paid a great price – are we prepared to do our bit?
Why do we eat? Firstly to give energy NOW, secondly to enhance the health of our bodies with vitamins and minerals, and thirdly to provide for the future. We cannot eat all the time! The same is true of the spirit – to get an immediate boost, for our spiritual health, and to sustain us in our daily lives, and then forever. Let His Word dwell in you, it will keep on blessing.
It is most important to realise that most food gives benefit slowly. When we eat, we do not immediately get satisfied, but if we wait, and do not yield to the temptation of continuing to stuff ourselves, we will. If you want to slim, eat only a little and wait! The same is true spiritually. (but I hope that nobody is trying to slim spiritually!) If we have repented and accepted Christ we may immediately feel joy and peace, but more likely those feelings come later. Similarly with healing – it is rare that the results are immediate – it normally is slow improvement, so persist in prayer.
Do you eat to live, or live to eat? In JESUS – BOTH are true!
Sunday, 14 June 2015
A MATURING INVESTMENT
ELEVENTH SUNDAY: EUCHARIST
Reverend Margaret Fourie
Readings:
This second parable on the kingdom of God seems at first sight to be simply that there is a gap between the two things that we as human beings can do, namely planting and harvesting, and that that gap is in the hands of God. The goodness of the seed in interaction with the goodness of the earth will predispose the seed to growth and fruiting, but how and why that should happen is a mystery, and the path of growth is not in our hands at all. It is intrinsic to the very nature of the seed that the growth will happen.
In the same way, from a small beginning, in the hands of God, by the activity of his Spirit, we who have received the seed of life, will be brought to harvest. It is a mystery and it is in God’s hands. We do what we can and leave the rest to him.
But if we look a bit further, there is another slant to this simple thought, told in the following bit.
Here Jesus introduces the mustard seed story with, “what parable will we use for it?” - in the Greek it means literally, “in what parable are we to place it?” as if the parable were a kind of wrapper for the truth. Here again we may suppose that the story merely confirms the message ‘from small beginnings may come a great harvest’, but the commentator Campbell Morgan suggests that Jesus may be continuing his imagery of the birds of the air as evil (compare the parable of the sower where they come and eat up the seed) and that the parable may be saying that the kingdom of God may grow to an unmanageable size and provide a nesting place for the very ones who would destroy it.
Certainly history supports this view. It was after the Emperor Constantine made Christianity not only legal but necessary by his patronage, that the church really began to decay.
That action led to the entry into the church of many who wished (and there are many today who still wish) to use the church for their own ends, to be respectable so that they could increase their power base, or to con people into thinking they were good.
Thus we have the shameful history of the Christian church over the ages, and for many people that is the final stumbling block against an already strange faith. In England today where the Church is still the state church, and the monarch titular head of it, with sole power to appoint bishops and priests to their office, the church is in disarray and the strange things we read on the back pages of Sunday papers confirm our worst nightmares for it.
We are in much the same danger here today. Our very respectability and success make us open targets for the powers of evil to attack. That attack will not usually be easily identifiable. It is more likely to come in a very subtle way, but even if we do not notice it, or cannot identify it, this evil will most certainly interrupt and restrict the work of God,
I believe most firmly that we are in the last days now, and the work of the Kingdom is urgent, urgent, urgent. How comfortable are you that many of your friends and family are doing nothing about their souls? Have no real relationship with Jesus?
To go back to the attacks on the church: one way in which we suffer attack is in our certainty that we would recognise Satan in any form that we very easily get lulled into not thinking at all. We become lazy and start to settle into familiar ways
A parable is designed to reveal a truth by contrasting two things; it is also meant to provoke serious thought and perhaps surprise and stir the conscience. We always like to think of ourselves as a great bunch of people, and I am sure that you are lovely. Does that give us the right to be complacent? Or to condone behaviour that is evil, immoral, dishonest, self-seeking? Does that give us the right to fall back on prejudices with impunity?
From time to time, I come across in the church, some deep-rooted prejudice, some closed minds to areas where the church is struggling to gain a clearer understanding of the truth revealed in scripture, and even some lemon-mouthed self-righteousness which allows others to feel judged and excluded. Not much, mind you, but some. And even, sometimes, some downright wickedness, like people who try to stop the work of God because of their own hurt feelings, disobedience or pride.
If I invite a gay couple to join us, will you welcome them? If I invite people living together without marriage to join us, will you welcome them? If I invite Xhosa-speakers and then wish to include some of their language in the service, will you welcome them with love?
As we have been accepted freely and without judgement by our beloved Lord, and as each of us has been accepted with love by our fellow parishioners, so we must accept freely, without judgement and with great love, those who come here at any stage and in any condition. And that means truly without judgement. It is God’s task and God’s alone to judge. Ours is to love and accept.
So as we read in 2 Corinthians, “...we make it our aim to please him...” so that we “...might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and was raised for us..”
Don’t be afraid that the shape of things will change, or that the fabric of the church will disintegrate if we let things change. It won’t. Jesus called the most extraordinary, definitely suspect people to be his disciples and followers. They created the church and spread the kingdom. They were specially chosen by God, who does not look at the outside, nor at the obvious bits that we can see. He knows the inside, and his judgement is often very unexpected. I have so often been brought face to face with a clear direction from God which has shown me that something I had thought quite unacceptable is in fact quite acceptable to God. Again, with Paul, then, we might say, “...From now on therefore we regard no one from a human point of view....”
It is a good investment to learn humility before the wisdom of God, and to open ourselves to being pleasantly surprised when we stop judging and start to allow the Kingdom of God to develop along its own lines, in its own time, in us and in the strange people we find ourselves sharing with right here. It is a maturing investment that will bring great rewards both for us and for those who will come to faith through and with us.
And to live a life free from compromise. The bible is quite clear. People who pretend to be good and hide secret vices will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Pretending seldom fools anyone for long. There are several Christians on this mountain who live lives so full of compromise and sin that others cannot bring themselves to come to church or be in any way identified with them. Then the work of God is halted and the attack of evil has succeeded.
How’s your life?
Where is your priority?
How is your eternity-investment?
Readings:
- 1 Samuel 15:34 – 16:13
- Psalm 20
- 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17
- Mark 4: 26-34
This second parable on the kingdom of God seems at first sight to be simply that there is a gap between the two things that we as human beings can do, namely planting and harvesting, and that that gap is in the hands of God. The goodness of the seed in interaction with the goodness of the earth will predispose the seed to growth and fruiting, but how and why that should happen is a mystery, and the path of growth is not in our hands at all. It is intrinsic to the very nature of the seed that the growth will happen.
In the same way, from a small beginning, in the hands of God, by the activity of his Spirit, we who have received the seed of life, will be brought to harvest. It is a mystery and it is in God’s hands. We do what we can and leave the rest to him.
But if we look a bit further, there is another slant to this simple thought, told in the following bit.
Here Jesus introduces the mustard seed story with, “what parable will we use for it?” - in the Greek it means literally, “in what parable are we to place it?” as if the parable were a kind of wrapper for the truth. Here again we may suppose that the story merely confirms the message ‘from small beginnings may come a great harvest’, but the commentator Campbell Morgan suggests that Jesus may be continuing his imagery of the birds of the air as evil (compare the parable of the sower where they come and eat up the seed) and that the parable may be saying that the kingdom of God may grow to an unmanageable size and provide a nesting place for the very ones who would destroy it.
Certainly history supports this view. It was after the Emperor Constantine made Christianity not only legal but necessary by his patronage, that the church really began to decay.
That action led to the entry into the church of many who wished (and there are many today who still wish) to use the church for their own ends, to be respectable so that they could increase their power base, or to con people into thinking they were good.
Thus we have the shameful history of the Christian church over the ages, and for many people that is the final stumbling block against an already strange faith. In England today where the Church is still the state church, and the monarch titular head of it, with sole power to appoint bishops and priests to their office, the church is in disarray and the strange things we read on the back pages of Sunday papers confirm our worst nightmares for it.
We are in much the same danger here today. Our very respectability and success make us open targets for the powers of evil to attack. That attack will not usually be easily identifiable. It is more likely to come in a very subtle way, but even if we do not notice it, or cannot identify it, this evil will most certainly interrupt and restrict the work of God,
I believe most firmly that we are in the last days now, and the work of the Kingdom is urgent, urgent, urgent. How comfortable are you that many of your friends and family are doing nothing about their souls? Have no real relationship with Jesus?
To go back to the attacks on the church: one way in which we suffer attack is in our certainty that we would recognise Satan in any form that we very easily get lulled into not thinking at all. We become lazy and start to settle into familiar ways
A parable is designed to reveal a truth by contrasting two things; it is also meant to provoke serious thought and perhaps surprise and stir the conscience. We always like to think of ourselves as a great bunch of people, and I am sure that you are lovely. Does that give us the right to be complacent? Or to condone behaviour that is evil, immoral, dishonest, self-seeking? Does that give us the right to fall back on prejudices with impunity?
From time to time, I come across in the church, some deep-rooted prejudice, some closed minds to areas where the church is struggling to gain a clearer understanding of the truth revealed in scripture, and even some lemon-mouthed self-righteousness which allows others to feel judged and excluded. Not much, mind you, but some. And even, sometimes, some downright wickedness, like people who try to stop the work of God because of their own hurt feelings, disobedience or pride.
If I invite a gay couple to join us, will you welcome them? If I invite people living together without marriage to join us, will you welcome them? If I invite Xhosa-speakers and then wish to include some of their language in the service, will you welcome them with love?
As we have been accepted freely and without judgement by our beloved Lord, and as each of us has been accepted with love by our fellow parishioners, so we must accept freely, without judgement and with great love, those who come here at any stage and in any condition. And that means truly without judgement. It is God’s task and God’s alone to judge. Ours is to love and accept.
So as we read in 2 Corinthians, “...we make it our aim to please him...” so that we “...might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and was raised for us..”
Don’t be afraid that the shape of things will change, or that the fabric of the church will disintegrate if we let things change. It won’t. Jesus called the most extraordinary, definitely suspect people to be his disciples and followers. They created the church and spread the kingdom. They were specially chosen by God, who does not look at the outside, nor at the obvious bits that we can see. He knows the inside, and his judgement is often very unexpected. I have so often been brought face to face with a clear direction from God which has shown me that something I had thought quite unacceptable is in fact quite acceptable to God. Again, with Paul, then, we might say, “...From now on therefore we regard no one from a human point of view....”
It is a good investment to learn humility before the wisdom of God, and to open ourselves to being pleasantly surprised when we stop judging and start to allow the Kingdom of God to develop along its own lines, in its own time, in us and in the strange people we find ourselves sharing with right here. It is a maturing investment that will bring great rewards both for us and for those who will come to faith through and with us.
And to live a life free from compromise. The bible is quite clear. People who pretend to be good and hide secret vices will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Pretending seldom fools anyone for long. There are several Christians on this mountain who live lives so full of compromise and sin that others cannot bring themselves to come to church or be in any way identified with them. Then the work of God is halted and the attack of evil has succeeded.
How’s your life?
Where is your priority?
How is your eternity-investment?
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