Sermon 17th July: Awake O sleeper!

Ephesians 5:14  This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Do you like to sleep? Or is it a begrudged necessity? Are you too busy? And what of prayer? Are you too busy for that as well?

Sleeping is necessary for us it is a good thing. It is getting apart from the normal. And so is prayer - take time to sleep, but also to be with God

Having to sleep reminds us of our limitations. There is an increased need when a person is young and when old. One value of age is then that there is more time to pray, which we should do when we realise our limitations.

Sleep is also good as it deadens pain. Prayer also helps us to cope with pain, suffering and difficult circumstances. Are we aware of our need?

Good to be regular in our sleep, and not just when bored or tired. Our bodies are made that way. Likewise it is good to have a fixed time to pray. Of course we may also take both quick naps and prayers as needed. Then just as napping is not always a good idea, some times are not appropriate for prayer - it is the time for doing! "A little sleep, a little slumber" (Prov 6:10), leads us to material and spiritual poverty. Especially be well awake in worship - do we need coffee BEFORE the service?

Why are we able to sleep? It is the same reason why we can pray. It is because God is not sleeping! (Ps 121:4, 1 Ki 18:27). That is a reassurance - or do we find it a problem that God always sees what we are doing?

The tragedy of today is those who are spiritually asleep - wake up those around! (1 Thess 5:6). But be slow to judge them, rather seek to increase awareness. Now is the time (Rom 13:11). Wake up your friend! Wake up society!

Maybe people just think that when they do die, they just fall asleep, so there is no problem. But there is a very real judgement.

Incidentally, just as there is no night in heaven, so there is no soul-sleep. People just look as if they are asleep (Matt 27:52, Jn 11:11, 1 Cor 15:18, etc). We will be immediately conscious. I want to see God immediately!

Prof David T Williams
Theology (retired)

Earth School on Hogsback

On the 7th July Helen, one of our church councillors, invited members of the St Patrick’s congregation and some of her friends to the dedication of her Earth school. We were interested in how this dream came about and here is her story:

"My many tears are formed through the abuses and terrors we inflict on God’s most beautiful earth. A growing sense of my life’s purpose has been to create a space where people can come to be inspired and empowered to be a beneficial rather than destructive presence on the earth, thereby helping to realise our being made in the image of God’s love. This sense has grown into a dream of creating an Earth School here in Hogsback, to be built on Wild Fox Hill, the name of the land God has given me to look after. A wide range of people will be invited to attend the various programmes to be run here, with different programmes being developed to cater for the different groups of people. 

These groups include:

• Young travellers who are looking for a memorable African experience and wish to learn valuable knowledge while contributing to society. A 6 month to year long accredited course will be offered for them. 
  
• Christians who desire to learn about being effective stewards of God’s creation. A one week course, drawing from Biblical inspiration and practical action, will be offered with options to extend this into further courses. 
• Underprivileged children who would benefit from feeling a sense of connection with the earth, growing hope and developing earth keeping and entrepreneurial skills. A one week course will be offered. 
• Privileged children who would benefit from loving all creation, desiring to serve and gaining practical earth keeping skills. A three to five day course will be offered. 
• Teachers who will be offered a one week SASS accredited course to support them in linking the curriculum to environmental knowledge. 

The focus will be on the participants’:

• HEART (love for and connection with creation will be deepened); 
• MIND (spiritual, philosophical, scientific and practical knowledge and understanding will be gained); 
• HANDS (earth keeping skills will be developed: e.g. permaculture, green building, bee keeping etc).

The participants will also be encouraged to participate in activities that benefit the broader Hogsback community.

Very excitingly I express with much gratitude that my mum has given me an interest free loan to see this dream begin to be realised. The loan is to assist in the construction of the first building that will form the heart of the Earth School. It has been christened the Cabin Heart project and the photos show progress thus far :) On the 7th of July, what has become a very special day to me, a ceremony was held with friends to dedicate the land and Earth School to God’s purposes. I now look forward to God building the team of people who will help realise this dream."

The members of St Patrick’s who were present were very impressed with Helen’s passion and faith and enterprise. She is an idealist and will make the world a better place making people more sensitive to our responsibility with regard the earth, just as Betty Chew had a dream to give needy children a happy holiday in the Hogsback mountains 70 years later. An look what has happened!

Community Service

Last Sunday we had our first (hopefully of many) community services at St Patrick-on-the-Hill. The congregation from the New Voice of Bethlehem congregation from down the valley came to visit our little chapel to share communion during our Anglican service.

Simon, the visiting congregation's  pastor said that they wanted to experience our kind of service to learn from us as God is our shepherd, to which Trevor, our warden, replied that we want to learn from them too, and that is how it all came about!! God is working!!!!

The message fitted in nicely with where we are trying to be, namely the story of the good Samaritan. No matter where we come from, what the colour of our skin are and which "tribe" we represent, we are all God's children and should care for each other in love!

We really enjoyed the loving spirit of community and of course the lovely singing and drums!!

The photo album is here: https://goo.gl/JMmwyM  and the videos can be found here: https://youtu.be/jFMfGbWjpho

Pressing on! (Sermon 19th June)

Read: Phil 3:10-16 

Do you have a goal? For the church and for yourself?  Or are you spiritually complacent?

We should make progress, as God says, "be perfect"! But there are problems!

• How can anyone be perfect? 
• There is too little time left in my life to make a difference I have often failed before, so discouraged 
• Or is the problem that you are just lazy? 
• Why should we bother? 

Gratitude is a response to the grace of salvation - if he has made me his own, we should do what he wants in our life. Then surely we want the "prize of the upward call - the "well done" of the Father because we tried. So what do we do about the problems? Yes, perfection is impossible, we are never good enough, which is why we are saved by grace! Then Adam was "very good", and we should be like him. Then as Christians, we should seek to imitate Christ who was made perfect through suffering. Look at what he did for us! Is there too little time? Yes, but it is God who works, and he can perfect us.

Wesley knew the experience of total sanctification, but it did have to be repeated. What matters is that we must press on - it is in any case good for you (Rom 5:3) So what of past failures? Yes, but we should forget what lies behind (Phil 3:13). After all, God forgets our past to save us, he forgives - so should we! This should be easy for the older folks! And then we are transformed by the power of the resurrection. Paul's plea is that we might know Him better so we are perfected. We should know him in our mind - Read and study And in our spirits - Spend more time with Him

Prof David T Williams Theology (retired)

Our missionary report

Some news from our missionary in the field:

Tithing

The following piece on Tithing was discussed at the recent Anglican Synod in Grahamestown.

The first commandment.

Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind and with all thy soul.

Before we speak about tithing can we speak about God?

1. How important is he in our lives? Does he merit full obedience? Is he number one in our lives?

2. This is a decision we have to take at all times in our lives.

3. If the answer is “Yes” then we have to be his representatives to promote our God on our earth, our land and in ourselves. We only have us to tell the world what Jesus did for all our people and how he can ensure our salvation.

4. This has to become important to us.

We will support God Our Father through our ministry and through our tithes and giving. Render unto ……… God those things that are God’s.

Leviticus 27:30 states. “All the tithes of the land, whether the seeds of the land or the fruits of the land is the Lords. It is Holy to the Lord.” All we have belongs to the Lord.

Genesis 28:22 states. “All that thou shall give me, I will surely give the tenth to the Lord”

The desire to tithe will come very readily if we put God first in our lives. Why? We are returning to God what is rightfully his. If we keep it we cannot tell the world God is real and paramount in our lives. We are shortchanging him.

God’s ministry needs these funds very desperately and this is why all our financial obedience is vital.

Giving a tithe is acknowledgement that all we have is from Christ and our tithe is returning a small part of his favour for the purposes for which it is (as you all know) sorely needed for Gods ministry.

Tithing works

(Mal 3:10) Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Let me give you some examples of how God rewards tithing.

St Patricks in Hogsback started in 2005 to tithe. The first annual tithe amounted to R 600.

Ten years later, with a congregation of not more than 50 persons at the most, and more than half of them not Anglicans, the annual tithe income was R 94 015. This is an increase of approximately 150 times our original tithing income. “Test me and see?”

Why did this happen?

Our chapel council decided to tithe on all our income and religiously paid our 10% to the needy. So in 2015, St Patricks paid out R 16 554 as our tithe. (Test me and see if …)

In addition St Patricks was able, together with our annual Diocesan assessment, able to give 40% of our income to the needy, on top of paying our priest. (Test me and see if I ……)

Tithing, according to Rev Billy Graham, makes us effective partners with God.

An extreme example! Richard Warmbrand tithed his meals to less privileged prisoners, while he was in prison!!!!

Some examples of those who tithed and God rewarded.

Mr. Cromwell of Quaker Oats tithed more than 60% of his income.

Mr. Colgate of Toothpaste fame did likewise.

Mr. Rockerfeller Jnr tithed his first 1.50 dollar income.

Mr. A. A. Hyde even started tithing when he was in debt and God favored his business fourfold. God is the first creditor.

Mr. W. R. Speight says, “Money can’t be put to a higher use than honoring God.”

There are numerous other examples of Christians who have been faithful and tithed and God has prospered them extraordinarily. (Test me and see …..)

Those who receive tithes are still obliged to tithe themselves. We must tithe our tithes received!

A Christian who tithes will be surprised at:

1. The amount of money he has for the Lords work.

2. The deepening of his spiritual life after paying his tithes.

3. The ease of meeting his obligations with the remaining 9/10ths.

4. Ease of increasing the 10%.

5. The ease of managing the 9/10th remaining.

6. The surprise for not adopting the plan sooner.

Our Diocese now has to resort to commercial fund raising to provide the necessary ministry to its people because of the lack of tithing among our congregations. This reflects poorly on our trust of, and faith in God. Jesus died for us for what?

What is the solution?

Each congregation (including the Diocese and the Cathedral) must consciously decide to tithe in faith, at the start, at least 10% of their gross income as the relevant council determines. (Test me and see if I will not reward you). In a short time the 10% will increase but the income will escalate because we are all faithful. We, as representatives of our parishioners, will get this message to our congregants because we put God first in our Churches - but we must start with ourselves.

Finally I pray for Holy Spirit guidance and active support for all our people in our Diocese. Then our finances will overflow and we can truly honor God magnificently. And won’t our Bishop, then, praise God and the Holy Spirit?

Watch the flood gates!!

St Patrick’s Chapel: Service Roster/Duties

To download the Service Roster and duties document, click here:https://goo.gl/tiIdYK