This sermon is based on the second lectionary Gospel reading: Luke 9:51-62.
====
Introduction
The prophet Elijah was not exactly a compromising sort of guy. You may remember the story of Elijah who, according to biblical tradition, did not die but rather was taken up into heaven by God in a chariot of fire. And you may remember the story about Elijah and the prophets of Baal: how God answered Elijah’s prayer for fire from heaven to start the fire of offering to the God of Israel, even though the offering and altar were soaked with water?
But do you remember the story of Elijah and Ahaziah? Ahaziah, king of Israel, became involved with the prophets of the god Ekron and Elijah gave Ahaziah a prophecy of his impending death that Ahaziah didn’t want to hear. When Ahaziah sent his troops to Elijah in response, Elijah called down fire from heaven on the soldiers and destroyed company after company.
And, of course, it was Elijah who the Jewish people believed would return to earth to announce the imminent return of the Messiah.
No Compromise
What’s all of this got to do with today’s Gospel reading? The reading that we just heard is filled with images that a first-century Jewish audience would have understood to be about Elijah.
In fact, some of the original manuscripts add a reference to Elijah in the text. Some manuscripts have the text: ‘Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, as Elijah did’?
And it’s not exactly an easy text to hear because the text goes on to be just as uncompromising as Elijah was. In fact, more uncompromising: in 1 Kings 19:19 Elijah’s disciple Elisha was allowed to go back and say good-bye to his family before becoming Elijah’s disciple and wandering in the wilderness with him. This evening’s text suggests that those who want to follow Jesus aren’t even allowed to do that.
No compromises. Not only are we not allowed to say good-bye to those at home, we’re not even allowed to fulfill our obligations to our family (not a message I want to hear right now!), nor are we allowed to have a home. Everything must be sacrificed for the Gospel.
Difficult, but not impossible
I hope that you don’t need me to tell you that there is a bit of the famous Near Eastern practice of exaggeration to make a point going on here? I don’t believe that these verses mean to recommend to us a level of discipleship that sounds more appropriate to obsessive-compulsive disorder than it sounds to following God.
Still, these verses are most certainly meant to emphasize the seriousness of being a follower of Jesus. To be a follower of Jesus is to understand that God’s way of life is radically different from the way of life of the world around us.
And its not just about having hope in difficult situations, nor is it about not using bad language nor is it even about following a code of ethics and personal morality that is of a higher standard than the world around us.
To be a follower of Jesus is to live a radically different lifestyle from the prevailing culture.
For those who are called to such work – missionaries, for example – it may mean not having a home or family. And it means not calling down fire and brimstone on our enemies. Because God’s way is the way of dying and forgiving, not the way of killing and vengeance.
Thy Kingdom Come
Today’s reading marks the beginning of the journey to Jerusalem in Luke’s Gospel. In one sense, you could look at Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem as Jesus’ own journey of discipleship. He has been called by the Father to the mission of dying and rising so that the world may be forgiven. His mission is precisely a mission of dying and forgiving.
His crucifixion and resurrection result in the very real redemption of the universe: Jesus’ salvation goes to the very being of creation. At that level, Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection usher in the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom that God promised to the Jewish people, which Elijah worked for and which the Jewish people have been waiting for.
But Jesus’ mission is also an example to us and it is to be our mission as well. We cannot bring about the Kingdom of God ourselves, but we are called to live as if the Kingdom is already a reality in our lives and in the lives of others. The whole point of our discipleship, the whole point of living in the radical way that we hear about in this reading is to live as if the Kingdom is already here and to be a pointer to that Kingdom.
Jesus’ life was an example of the Kingdom life and, if we are to be disciples of Christ, then we are called to live such lives too, in order to be signs and pointers to the Kingdom. We are to live lives of ‘dying and forgiving’ rather than lives of killing and vengeance.
We are not to seek peace of mind and soul by seeking revenge or by seeking to hurt others as much as they have hurt us, but we are to seek peace of mind through forgiving them. We are not to seek peace of mind and soul by one-upsmanship or self-seeking but rather through the consideration of others. We are not to seek satisfaction in life by competition or by trying to be the top dog, but by using the gifts that God has given to us for the benefit of other people so that God may be glorified in it. We are not to use any power that we may be given for our own benefit, but rather for the benefit of other people so that God may be glorified in it.
Conclusion
At first glance, there may not appear to be good news in this evening’s reading, but we can’t take it in isolation from the rest of the Gospel. When we consider this text, which is exaggerating to make a point, we can find many points of good news.
The good news is that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die and to rise again so that we may be forgiven. The good news is that the Kingdom of God is coming and that it is a kingdom of forgiveness rather than vengeance. And the good news for those who love Christ is that we are called into God’s amazing work and that our lives not only have a purpose, but their purpose is glorious. This is a mission that is worth being single-minded about.
As we come to the Lord’s table this evening, I pray that we may be reminded of the good news of God’s kingdom of forgiveness. I pray also that we may each be filled with the kind of unswerving dedication and passion for God’s Kingdom that Jesus himself had. Amen
Showing posts with label Kingdom of God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kingdom of God. Show all posts
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sunday 22 February 2009 - Transfiguration and Transformation
This sermon is based on the story of the Transfiguration in Mark 9:2-9
===
Introduction
When the television show 'Grumpy Old Men' first made an appearance, my husband and I enjoyed watching it immensely. We'd sit there, laughing, and we both agreed that - yes - my husband is a grumpy old man.
But then, one Christmas season, I got my comeuppance, didn't I?
Because there was a new show on television called 'Grumpy Old Women'. And my husband laughed at me and said 'You're a grumpy old woman!' And I had to laugh and agree with him.
The gist of all the comments of the grumpy old men and women, of course, is that things were better 20, 30, 50 or even 100 years ago.
They say that when most people yearn for the 'Good Old Days', that they yearn for a mythical Golden Age that they most likely didn't live through. That era is part of the story of 'When we were a great society'. And it may not be a real era at all.
I'm not sure about exactly when the British golden era was, but I have a fair idea of what it looks like: A farming village in mid-summer that Constable could have painted, with happy obedient children in their Sunday best walking to church with their plump, rosy-cheeked parents.
And we hear the British Christian media harking back to that golden age a lot. Whenever it was, that age was 'When we were a Christian society'.
Transfiguration and Transformation
I think Mark's Gospel gives us some hints that when Peter, James and John went up to the mountain-top with Jesus that they were yearning for a Golden Era of Israel.
Just before his excursion up the mountain, Jesus has told the twelve that the Messiah must suffer and die and Peter has rebuked Jesus for saying such things.
But the experience on the mountain-top, now that's more like it! I reckon this experience is a lot more like what Peter, James and John had in mind. The three of them, alone with Jesus and two great immortal - literally - figures of Israel's Golden Age: Moses and Elijah.
The Transfiguration is a divine manifestation of God on earth.
Peter wants to stay here. In his mind, this is why he became a disciple of Jesus. This is what he's been waiting for. As far as Peter is concerned, this place on the mountain is the Real Deal. The goal has been obtained.
Transformation
But the Transfiguration is also a transformation.
The Transfiguration doesn't bless the past or the idea that God's people need to go back to a Golden Age. As with all supposed Golden Ages, that Golden Age of Israel never actually existed.
And the Transfiguration certainly doesn't call us to stay in the present.
When the disciples look like wanting to bask in the glow of this fantastical other-worldy moment, Jesus moves them all smartly down from the mountaintop back into the everyday world.
The Transfiguration is about moving into the future, but it's not a future that will look like that Golden Age that we are imagining.
It's not the future where the Messiah cannot die, as Peter imagines. And it's not a future where Jesus is going to be a supernatural conquering king, as James and John imagine when they ask him, just a few verses from now, to sit at his right and left when he reigns in glory.
The Transfiguration is a transformation: not only of the world but also a transformation of our way of thinking about God and his Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God, and God himself, are not to be found only on the mountain-top and only in the Spiritual Realms, they are also to be found in the nitty-gritty of everyday life.
In Matthew's Gospel, this story stands right at the transition-point between the first part of the Gospel in which we hear about Jesus' ministry and teaching. And the second part of the Gospel in which we hear that the Messiah must suffer and die.
This glorious manifestation of God doesn't come at some triumphant point in the life of Jesus. It comes at the point when the disciples and the readers are only just beginning to come to terms with the idea that Jesus' glorious divine mission on earth is not to be a supernatural superhero but it is, in fact, to die a very human death.
How appropriate, therefore, that we should read this story today, in the Sunday before Lent.
Conclusion
The story of the Transfiguration is a story of transformation and it is also a
revelation of Jesus' glory.
The glory of Jesus that is revealed in the Transfiguration is the glory of the cross.
Jesus will destroy sin, death and the power of evil not by obliterating them, but by submitting himself to their full fury.
But Jesus has to come down off the mountain in order to accomplish this mission.
And human notions of 'spirituality' and of what it means to encounter God need to come down off the mountain too.
To be a Christian is not to seek to live always on the mountain-top. To be a Christian is not to put God in a box labelled 'spirit' or 'prayer' and to ignore his presence in the physical world. To be a Christian is not to yearn for a Golden Past nor is it even to believe that salvation will only happen in the future.
Our God is a God whose salvation centres in the very fact that he became human, took on our sins, suffered and died.
Christianity properly understood says that God is in the here and now. Where-ever we go, when we encounter joy and sadness or health or pain, God is there. In fact, God was there before we ever got there ourselves.
The Christian God is to be found in the here and now and God's presence is to be found in suffering and death as much as in health and life.
My prayer for us this morning is that the Transfiguration will transform our hearts so that we can become ever more open to the presence of God in our world. As we come to encounter our Lord present in the Eucharist, may the Spirit of Christ grow in our hearts so that we may see the presence of God in the people and the world around us. Amen
===
Introduction
When the television show 'Grumpy Old Men' first made an appearance, my husband and I enjoyed watching it immensely. We'd sit there, laughing, and we both agreed that - yes - my husband is a grumpy old man.
But then, one Christmas season, I got my comeuppance, didn't I?
Because there was a new show on television called 'Grumpy Old Women'. And my husband laughed at me and said 'You're a grumpy old woman!' And I had to laugh and agree with him.
The gist of all the comments of the grumpy old men and women, of course, is that things were better 20, 30, 50 or even 100 years ago.
They say that when most people yearn for the 'Good Old Days', that they yearn for a mythical Golden Age that they most likely didn't live through. That era is part of the story of 'When we were a great society'. And it may not be a real era at all.
I'm not sure about exactly when the British golden era was, but I have a fair idea of what it looks like: A farming village in mid-summer that Constable could have painted, with happy obedient children in their Sunday best walking to church with their plump, rosy-cheeked parents.
And we hear the British Christian media harking back to that golden age a lot. Whenever it was, that age was 'When we were a Christian society'.
Transfiguration and Transformation
I think Mark's Gospel gives us some hints that when Peter, James and John went up to the mountain-top with Jesus that they were yearning for a Golden Era of Israel.
Just before his excursion up the mountain, Jesus has told the twelve that the Messiah must suffer and die and Peter has rebuked Jesus for saying such things.
But the experience on the mountain-top, now that's more like it! I reckon this experience is a lot more like what Peter, James and John had in mind. The three of them, alone with Jesus and two great immortal - literally - figures of Israel's Golden Age: Moses and Elijah.
The Transfiguration is a divine manifestation of God on earth.
Peter wants to stay here. In his mind, this is why he became a disciple of Jesus. This is what he's been waiting for. As far as Peter is concerned, this place on the mountain is the Real Deal. The goal has been obtained.
Transformation
But the Transfiguration is also a transformation.
The Transfiguration doesn't bless the past or the idea that God's people need to go back to a Golden Age. As with all supposed Golden Ages, that Golden Age of Israel never actually existed.
And the Transfiguration certainly doesn't call us to stay in the present.
When the disciples look like wanting to bask in the glow of this fantastical other-worldy moment, Jesus moves them all smartly down from the mountaintop back into the everyday world.
The Transfiguration is about moving into the future, but it's not a future that will look like that Golden Age that we are imagining.
It's not the future where the Messiah cannot die, as Peter imagines. And it's not a future where Jesus is going to be a supernatural conquering king, as James and John imagine when they ask him, just a few verses from now, to sit at his right and left when he reigns in glory.
The Transfiguration is a transformation: not only of the world but also a transformation of our way of thinking about God and his Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God, and God himself, are not to be found only on the mountain-top and only in the Spiritual Realms, they are also to be found in the nitty-gritty of everyday life.
In Matthew's Gospel, this story stands right at the transition-point between the first part of the Gospel in which we hear about Jesus' ministry and teaching. And the second part of the Gospel in which we hear that the Messiah must suffer and die.
This glorious manifestation of God doesn't come at some triumphant point in the life of Jesus. It comes at the point when the disciples and the readers are only just beginning to come to terms with the idea that Jesus' glorious divine mission on earth is not to be a supernatural superhero but it is, in fact, to die a very human death.
How appropriate, therefore, that we should read this story today, in the Sunday before Lent.
Conclusion
The story of the Transfiguration is a story of transformation and it is also a
revelation of Jesus' glory.
The glory of Jesus that is revealed in the Transfiguration is the glory of the cross.
Jesus will destroy sin, death and the power of evil not by obliterating them, but by submitting himself to their full fury.
But Jesus has to come down off the mountain in order to accomplish this mission.
And human notions of 'spirituality' and of what it means to encounter God need to come down off the mountain too.
To be a Christian is not to seek to live always on the mountain-top. To be a Christian is not to put God in a box labelled 'spirit' or 'prayer' and to ignore his presence in the physical world. To be a Christian is not to yearn for a Golden Past nor is it even to believe that salvation will only happen in the future.
Our God is a God whose salvation centres in the very fact that he became human, took on our sins, suffered and died.
Christianity properly understood says that God is in the here and now. Where-ever we go, when we encounter joy and sadness or health or pain, God is there. In fact, God was there before we ever got there ourselves.
The Christian God is to be found in the here and now and God's presence is to be found in suffering and death as much as in health and life.
My prayer for us this morning is that the Transfiguration will transform our hearts so that we can become ever more open to the presence of God in our world. As we come to encounter our Lord present in the Eucharist, may the Spirit of Christ grow in our hearts so that we may see the presence of God in the people and the world around us. Amen
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Sunday 18 January 2009 - God the Unexpected
This sermon is based on 1 Samuel 3:1-10 and John 1:43-51.
====
Introduction
Once upon a time there was a teenager. I'll call him Jack and I think that he was probably about 16 or 17 years old. Jack had attended church all his life. He'd gone to Sunday School until he was about 14 and then - believe it or not - after he was confirmed he actually started coming to Sunday services!
That particular church had an active group for young people and one day, they arranged to visit a youth conference in Birmingham. It was one of those big worship events with several hundred young people and lots of good music. The kind of worship that we all need now and then in order to give us a boost and encourage us in our faith.
Who knows why God picks the times and the ways that he speaks to us in a special way, but at that service in Birmingham, Jack was able to hear God in a powerful way. He was touched by the hundreds of young people worshipping God together without worrying about what their friends might think. He was touched by words of the music.
And he was particularly touched by the speaker.
It was at that worship service that Jack felt that he really understood for the first time what the Gospel was all about. He understood in a personal way God's love for him. He understood in his heart that, even if he made mistakes, God would forgive him and give him a second chance. And Jack also felt that he really understood for the first time what it meant that the Holy Spirit would give him strength to be a disciple of Jesus.
Jack was overwhelmed by this experienced and, like many people when they first really 'get it', he felt overjoyed.
But on the coach trip him, Jack began to feel a bit betrayed. Why had no one ever told him this stuff before? Why hadn't his Sunday School teachers told him about the real Gospel? And, for that matter, why wasn't the minister preaching the real Gospel?
Jack, full of the boldness of his new-found understanding, resolved that he was going to have a word with the minister and ask her why she never preached the Gospel.
When he got up on Sunday, he thought 'There's no time like the present. I'll speak to the minister after the service.' And then, as Jack listened to the sermon, he realised that the minister was preaching the Gospel. So he decided to wait and see what happened the following Sunday.
And the following Sunday, miracle of miracles, the minister preached the Gospel again. On the third Sunday, when the minister preached the Gospel yet again, Jack thought to himself, 'Maybe the minister has been preaching the Gospel all along. Maybe it was me who just wasn't hearing it.'
Hearing God in Unexpected Places
When our perspective is changed, we can suddenly 'see' things that we have never seen before.
Like Jack, we can see God in places where we have never seen him before. We can see God in expected places. And this seeing of God in unexpected places is what seems to be going on in both of our readings this morning.
On the one hand, we have Samuel. Still a young boy, he is under the tutelage of Eli the Priest. Samuel doesn't have the ability or the experience to hear the voice of God on his own, but Eli instructs Samuel in how to do it.
Eli gives Samuel this instruction - he does the right thing - even though he knows that his own sons have been cursed by God for being scoundrels. According to the laws of the Hebrew people, it is not Samuel who is supposed to hear the voice of God, yet God has chosen him over and above the sons of Eli.
Through Samuel, God speaks through an unexpected source. Samuel's perspective was changed from then on and he was able to gain experience in hearing God speak.
I think that there is a similar thing happening in the story of Nathaniel. We have some hints from the reading that Nathaniel was a dedicated scholar of Jewish Law.
First of all, his name: a very Jewish name in contrast to the other disciples whose names have been translated into Greek. Secondly, the way that Jesus greets him as 'an Israelite in whom their is no deceit' And, finally, Nathaniel's habit of studying under a fig tree - a symbol for the nation of Israel.
What is unexpected here is not Nathaniel's interest in being a disciple of God but rather his confession of Jesus - of all people - as The Son of God and the King of Israel. In John's Gospel, these title are very intentionally Messianic.
The man who had just questioned 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' is now acknowledging Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.
Something happens, and we don't really know what it is, that entirely changes Nathaniel's perspective. He moves rapidly from a stance of writing Jesus off completely to recognising him as the Messiah and becoming Jesus' disciple.
Samuel and Nathaniel both had their perspective changed. They were able to hear the voice of God and become disciples even though the voice of God seemed to be coming from an unexpected place.
History Belongs to God
The historian Arnold Toynbee famously said that 'History is just one (darn) thing after another.' (He didn't say 'darn' but I wouldn't want to shock you too much from the pulpit!)
Toynbee believed that human civilizations don't learn from history but that they simply keep making the same mistakes over and over.
The question as to whether anything good can ever come out of Nazareth is perhaps poignant in the context of current events where the government of Israel is locked in battle with Palestinian militants.
Two thousand years later, we can look at that area of the world - both Israel and Gaza - and wonder whether anything good will ever come out of that place. We might be very tempted to take the view of Arnold Toynbee and think that history is doomed to repeat itself over and over in this region.
I'm not imagining that I'm going to come up with a solution to the problems in the Middle East in this sermon, but I think that today's readings suggest to us at least the outline of a Godly response.
First of all, as Christians we do not believe that history is just one darn thing after another. History has a goal and that goal is the coming of the Kingdom of God.
A world in which human dignity is real and the presence of God is manifest. Where God's kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.
Even if we cannot see an inkling of The Kingdom at the moment, the Kingdom is in God's hands just as surely as the future of Israel was in God's hands in Eli's time. The world has seen the hand of God at work in human history. The healing of European tensions during the 20th century is one example. The peace in Northern Ireland is yet another example.
As Christians, it is central to our belief that there is always hope for human history.
Secondly, as disciples of Christ, we must be dedicated to the truth. We must have the eyes to see clearly when evil is being done, no matter who does it, and name it as evil. We must have the eyes to see clearly when good is being done, no matter who does it, and name it as good.
Both Eli and Nathaniel heard the voice of God calling from unexpected places.
If the world assumes that no good can come from Israel or that no good can come from Palestine, then there will never be clear enough vision to sit down at the negotiating table to begin the process of peace.
And finally, as disciples of Christ we are called to be agents of peace by being the agents of truth and righteousness and clear-headed ethics.
Please note that I'm not saying that Christians will be the only agents of peace. In fact, it is my belief anyone whose actions serve peace, truth, righteousness and clear-headed ethics will, in fact, be doing the will of God whether or not they call themselves a Christian.
However, to be a disciple of Christ is necessarily to be committed to the pursuit of these things.
It may be a lot simpler to simply pick a side and refuse to acknowledge when that side engages in injustice; but truth will not be served by such a process. Peace, forgiveness and reconciliation will not be served by such a process. And the Kingdom of God will not be advanced by such a process.
Conclusion
During the course of our lives, God will call to us from unexpected places and in the voices of unexpected people.
The principles outlined above can be applied in our personal lives and in our spiritual lives.
They are as applicable to Christian unity as well as to international relations and, of course, they are applicable to our personal lives as well.
How can we hear God's call when it comes from an unfamiliar voice?
I think that we can hear God's call when it sounds like Jesus. When it sounds like forgiveness rather than retribution; reconciliation rather than division; peace rather than war; inclusion rather than exclusion; service rather than personal glory; the good of the other rather than my own comfort.
My prayer this morning is that, as disciples, we can be clear-headed enough to recognise the voice of God by the message that it brings. May we be given the discernment to hear the voice of God even when it comes from unexpected places and unexpected people. Amen
====
Introduction
Once upon a time there was a teenager. I'll call him Jack and I think that he was probably about 16 or 17 years old. Jack had attended church all his life. He'd gone to Sunday School until he was about 14 and then - believe it or not - after he was confirmed he actually started coming to Sunday services!
That particular church had an active group for young people and one day, they arranged to visit a youth conference in Birmingham. It was one of those big worship events with several hundred young people and lots of good music. The kind of worship that we all need now and then in order to give us a boost and encourage us in our faith.
Who knows why God picks the times and the ways that he speaks to us in a special way, but at that service in Birmingham, Jack was able to hear God in a powerful way. He was touched by the hundreds of young people worshipping God together without worrying about what their friends might think. He was touched by words of the music.
And he was particularly touched by the speaker.
It was at that worship service that Jack felt that he really understood for the first time what the Gospel was all about. He understood in a personal way God's love for him. He understood in his heart that, even if he made mistakes, God would forgive him and give him a second chance. And Jack also felt that he really understood for the first time what it meant that the Holy Spirit would give him strength to be a disciple of Jesus.
Jack was overwhelmed by this experienced and, like many people when they first really 'get it', he felt overjoyed.
But on the coach trip him, Jack began to feel a bit betrayed. Why had no one ever told him this stuff before? Why hadn't his Sunday School teachers told him about the real Gospel? And, for that matter, why wasn't the minister preaching the real Gospel?
Jack, full of the boldness of his new-found understanding, resolved that he was going to have a word with the minister and ask her why she never preached the Gospel.
When he got up on Sunday, he thought 'There's no time like the present. I'll speak to the minister after the service.' And then, as Jack listened to the sermon, he realised that the minister was preaching the Gospel. So he decided to wait and see what happened the following Sunday.
And the following Sunday, miracle of miracles, the minister preached the Gospel again. On the third Sunday, when the minister preached the Gospel yet again, Jack thought to himself, 'Maybe the minister has been preaching the Gospel all along. Maybe it was me who just wasn't hearing it.'
Hearing God in Unexpected Places
When our perspective is changed, we can suddenly 'see' things that we have never seen before.
Like Jack, we can see God in places where we have never seen him before. We can see God in expected places. And this seeing of God in unexpected places is what seems to be going on in both of our readings this morning.
On the one hand, we have Samuel. Still a young boy, he is under the tutelage of Eli the Priest. Samuel doesn't have the ability or the experience to hear the voice of God on his own, but Eli instructs Samuel in how to do it.
Eli gives Samuel this instruction - he does the right thing - even though he knows that his own sons have been cursed by God for being scoundrels. According to the laws of the Hebrew people, it is not Samuel who is supposed to hear the voice of God, yet God has chosen him over and above the sons of Eli.
Through Samuel, God speaks through an unexpected source. Samuel's perspective was changed from then on and he was able to gain experience in hearing God speak.
I think that there is a similar thing happening in the story of Nathaniel. We have some hints from the reading that Nathaniel was a dedicated scholar of Jewish Law.
First of all, his name: a very Jewish name in contrast to the other disciples whose names have been translated into Greek. Secondly, the way that Jesus greets him as 'an Israelite in whom their is no deceit' And, finally, Nathaniel's habit of studying under a fig tree - a symbol for the nation of Israel.
What is unexpected here is not Nathaniel's interest in being a disciple of God but rather his confession of Jesus - of all people - as The Son of God and the King of Israel. In John's Gospel, these title are very intentionally Messianic.
The man who had just questioned 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' is now acknowledging Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.
Something happens, and we don't really know what it is, that entirely changes Nathaniel's perspective. He moves rapidly from a stance of writing Jesus off completely to recognising him as the Messiah and becoming Jesus' disciple.
Samuel and Nathaniel both had their perspective changed. They were able to hear the voice of God and become disciples even though the voice of God seemed to be coming from an unexpected place.
History Belongs to God
The historian Arnold Toynbee famously said that 'History is just one (darn) thing after another.' (He didn't say 'darn' but I wouldn't want to shock you too much from the pulpit!)
Toynbee believed that human civilizations don't learn from history but that they simply keep making the same mistakes over and over.
The question as to whether anything good can ever come out of Nazareth is perhaps poignant in the context of current events where the government of Israel is locked in battle with Palestinian militants.
Two thousand years later, we can look at that area of the world - both Israel and Gaza - and wonder whether anything good will ever come out of that place. We might be very tempted to take the view of Arnold Toynbee and think that history is doomed to repeat itself over and over in this region.
I'm not imagining that I'm going to come up with a solution to the problems in the Middle East in this sermon, but I think that today's readings suggest to us at least the outline of a Godly response.
First of all, as Christians we do not believe that history is just one darn thing after another. History has a goal and that goal is the coming of the Kingdom of God.
A world in which human dignity is real and the presence of God is manifest. Where God's kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.
Even if we cannot see an inkling of The Kingdom at the moment, the Kingdom is in God's hands just as surely as the future of Israel was in God's hands in Eli's time. The world has seen the hand of God at work in human history. The healing of European tensions during the 20th century is one example. The peace in Northern Ireland is yet another example.
As Christians, it is central to our belief that there is always hope for human history.
Secondly, as disciples of Christ, we must be dedicated to the truth. We must have the eyes to see clearly when evil is being done, no matter who does it, and name it as evil. We must have the eyes to see clearly when good is being done, no matter who does it, and name it as good.
Both Eli and Nathaniel heard the voice of God calling from unexpected places.
If the world assumes that no good can come from Israel or that no good can come from Palestine, then there will never be clear enough vision to sit down at the negotiating table to begin the process of peace.
And finally, as disciples of Christ we are called to be agents of peace by being the agents of truth and righteousness and clear-headed ethics.
Please note that I'm not saying that Christians will be the only agents of peace. In fact, it is my belief anyone whose actions serve peace, truth, righteousness and clear-headed ethics will, in fact, be doing the will of God whether or not they call themselves a Christian.
However, to be a disciple of Christ is necessarily to be committed to the pursuit of these things.
It may be a lot simpler to simply pick a side and refuse to acknowledge when that side engages in injustice; but truth will not be served by such a process. Peace, forgiveness and reconciliation will not be served by such a process. And the Kingdom of God will not be advanced by such a process.
Conclusion
During the course of our lives, God will call to us from unexpected places and in the voices of unexpected people.
The principles outlined above can be applied in our personal lives and in our spiritual lives.
They are as applicable to Christian unity as well as to international relations and, of course, they are applicable to our personal lives as well.
How can we hear God's call when it comes from an unfamiliar voice?
I think that we can hear God's call when it sounds like Jesus. When it sounds like forgiveness rather than retribution; reconciliation rather than division; peace rather than war; inclusion rather than exclusion; service rather than personal glory; the good of the other rather than my own comfort.
My prayer this morning is that, as disciples, we can be clear-headed enough to recognise the voice of God by the message that it brings. May we be given the discernment to hear the voice of God even when it comes from unexpected places and unexpected people. Amen
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Sunday 16 November 2008 - No Buried Treasure
This sermon is based on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 and Matthew 25:14-30
Introduction
For the last two Sundays, the subjects of our Epistle and Gospel readings have been the Second Coming of Christ (and the reign of the Kingdom of God) and our place as believers in that Kingdom (the resurrection life) Today is no exception as the assigned Scripture readings continue to look at these subjects from yet another angle.
As I said last week, Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians is an answer to the concerns of the church at Thessalonica - 'When Christ returns to earth in our lifetime and the Kingdom of God comes, what is going to happen to our brothers and sisters in Christ who have already died?' And Paul's answer to them (he's still expecting Christ to return in his generation) is 'Don't worry, they will not be second class citizens in God's Kingdom but they will also participate fully in the Kingdom life'.
The Gospel as Light of the World
Today's reading from Thessalonians is part of Paul's closing of the letter. And Paul takes the opportunity to remind them that the coming of God's Kingdom has already begun and that they are a part of it. And he uses the images of darkness and light to make his point. In 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5 (NIV) he writes: 'But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.'
I suppose that many of the Thessalonians and many people in society today might want to respond incredulously 'How on earth can anyone claim that the Kingdom of God has already begun? Are you blind to all the evil that is going on in the world? Blind to the Roman occupation? Blind to the suffering in the Congo? Blind to people in Gaza who are starving? Blind to the current economic crisis?'
And I think that, theologically, the church's answer is 'No we are not blind to evil and injustice, but we also have hope for the future that God's certain intention is that evil and injustice will end and that they will be replaced by his Kingdom.' We believe that God has promised that as surely as the sunrise follows the nighttime, that evil and injustice will most certainly end. Paul makes this point a number of times in his first letter to the Thessalonians and, now at the end of his letter, he reminds us once again of the Church's glorious hope: The Gospel of Christ is the light of the world and we have been entrusted with that light.
The Gospel as a Great Treasure
In today's reading from Matthew, we have yet another image of the the Gospel message: the image of a great treasure.
How great a treasure is the Gospel? Well, it's like fifteen years' wages for a labourer (one talent). And that's just for starters because, although one of the servants in the story was given 15 years' wages, another servant was given 30 years' wages and still another 75 years'. The message of the Gospel is a huge treasure! As a child might say, the Gospel is as wonderful as a hundred million gazaillon years' wages.
And what does God want us to do with that treasure? God wants this treasure to be invested, he wants the talents to be spread around and wants the light to make the whole world glow But instead of spreading God's light all over the world, the church is often times guilty of hoarding it for ourselves, like a treasure buried for safekeeping.
Don't Bury Your Treasure
So if we are share our treasure better, what might this mean for church-going Christians at a practical level?
First of all, you might be glad to hear that I'm not trying to say that I think we should be out knocking on doors asking people if they've accepted Jesus into their hearts. Personally speaking, I actually think that this form of witnessing comes under the category of the third servant: it's an activity that meets our needs rather than the needs of others. As someone put it, it comes under the category of 'Because I need to tell you this, therefore you need to hear it.' Which is exactly the sort thing that this parable is warning against, I think.
But hold on to your pews because this parable is certainly not meant to make us comfortable or complacent. Rather this parable is a call to believing that the Kingdom of God will come on earth as it is in heaven not by things staying the same but rather by things changing. If the church doing things the way we've always done them were the key to the Kingdom of God, then the Kingdom would have come along time ago.
Now, I have to confess that I don't have any easy answers at a practical level about how to magically turn 10 portions of the Gospel into a great harvest. But I do have a few observations from the text.
First of all, the third servant was following the traditions and customs of his time: valuable treasures were to be buried. It was actually the first and second servants who we acting in a way that the prevailing culture would have called irresponsible.
The third servant was behaving as if God was that 'better safe than sorry' God who I talk about sometimes: He thought that God's main demands on his disciples is that we shouldn't break rules. When, in fact, God's main concern is that we spread his treasures about with abandon.
Church Idols?
But worse than that, the third servant seems to think that the religious customs of his time are not human-made customs, but that they actually are the will of God. I think that perhaps this is a lesson to the church: 'Which of our human customs do we confuse with God's calling? Which of our human customs do we idolise?
I honestly don't think that God cares if we have pews or chairs (although the Methodist Property office certainly does!) I don't think that God cares if we sing traditional hymns or Matt Redman worship songs. I don't think that God even cares if we stop worshipping on Sunday mornings and have a meal and a worship mid-week instead.
Thinking about some of these changes might make us nervous but I think this parable is asking us to stop and consider what it is that we might be doing simply as human custom that hinders the working of the Holy Spirit in us to spread the treasure of the Gospel.
Before I end, I want to say that I don't have a hidden agenda and I'm not to drop a bombshell on you. I'm simply trying to reflect on this passage.
This year, our circuit did a circuit review and, along with other churches in the circuit, we've seen the positive benefits of that exercise. I think it's important that we don't think of review and change as a one-off but rather as something that we must do on an on-going basis as part of our discipleship.
But in the middle of all this remains God's Good News: the coming of the Kingdom has begun and the Kingdom will reign on earth as it does in heaven. If the early church could profess this Good News whilst living in the middle of an occupation army, then we too can profess it in our own circumstances. Our God is a God of freedom and not of fear. His Spirit is there to guide us through the challenge of change. Spirit-led change is an adventure and not a threat.
My prayer this morning is that we will always continue on a journey of trying to discern how we can share the Gospel in a way that serves the needs of others rather than in a way that serves the needs of the Church. And I also pray that we can live joyfully in the freedom of the Holy Spirit so that we are not afraid of change. Amen
Introduction
For the last two Sundays, the subjects of our Epistle and Gospel readings have been the Second Coming of Christ (and the reign of the Kingdom of God) and our place as believers in that Kingdom (the resurrection life) Today is no exception as the assigned Scripture readings continue to look at these subjects from yet another angle.
As I said last week, Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians is an answer to the concerns of the church at Thessalonica - 'When Christ returns to earth in our lifetime and the Kingdom of God comes, what is going to happen to our brothers and sisters in Christ who have already died?' And Paul's answer to them (he's still expecting Christ to return in his generation) is 'Don't worry, they will not be second class citizens in God's Kingdom but they will also participate fully in the Kingdom life'.
The Gospel as Light of the World
Today's reading from Thessalonians is part of Paul's closing of the letter. And Paul takes the opportunity to remind them that the coming of God's Kingdom has already begun and that they are a part of it. And he uses the images of darkness and light to make his point. In 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5 (NIV) he writes: 'But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.'
I suppose that many of the Thessalonians and many people in society today might want to respond incredulously 'How on earth can anyone claim that the Kingdom of God has already begun? Are you blind to all the evil that is going on in the world? Blind to the Roman occupation? Blind to the suffering in the Congo? Blind to people in Gaza who are starving? Blind to the current economic crisis?'
And I think that, theologically, the church's answer is 'No we are not blind to evil and injustice, but we also have hope for the future that God's certain intention is that evil and injustice will end and that they will be replaced by his Kingdom.' We believe that God has promised that as surely as the sunrise follows the nighttime, that evil and injustice will most certainly end. Paul makes this point a number of times in his first letter to the Thessalonians and, now at the end of his letter, he reminds us once again of the Church's glorious hope: The Gospel of Christ is the light of the world and we have been entrusted with that light.
The Gospel as a Great Treasure
In today's reading from Matthew, we have yet another image of the the Gospel message: the image of a great treasure.
How great a treasure is the Gospel? Well, it's like fifteen years' wages for a labourer (one talent). And that's just for starters because, although one of the servants in the story was given 15 years' wages, another servant was given 30 years' wages and still another 75 years'. The message of the Gospel is a huge treasure! As a child might say, the Gospel is as wonderful as a hundred million gazaillon years' wages.
And what does God want us to do with that treasure? God wants this treasure to be invested, he wants the talents to be spread around and wants the light to make the whole world glow But instead of spreading God's light all over the world, the church is often times guilty of hoarding it for ourselves, like a treasure buried for safekeeping.
Don't Bury Your Treasure
So if we are share our treasure better, what might this mean for church-going Christians at a practical level?
First of all, you might be glad to hear that I'm not trying to say that I think we should be out knocking on doors asking people if they've accepted Jesus into their hearts. Personally speaking, I actually think that this form of witnessing comes under the category of the third servant: it's an activity that meets our needs rather than the needs of others. As someone put it, it comes under the category of 'Because I need to tell you this, therefore you need to hear it.' Which is exactly the sort thing that this parable is warning against, I think.
But hold on to your pews because this parable is certainly not meant to make us comfortable or complacent. Rather this parable is a call to believing that the Kingdom of God will come on earth as it is in heaven not by things staying the same but rather by things changing. If the church doing things the way we've always done them were the key to the Kingdom of God, then the Kingdom would have come along time ago.
Now, I have to confess that I don't have any easy answers at a practical level about how to magically turn 10 portions of the Gospel into a great harvest. But I do have a few observations from the text.
First of all, the third servant was following the traditions and customs of his time: valuable treasures were to be buried. It was actually the first and second servants who we acting in a way that the prevailing culture would have called irresponsible.
The third servant was behaving as if God was that 'better safe than sorry' God who I talk about sometimes: He thought that God's main demands on his disciples is that we shouldn't break rules. When, in fact, God's main concern is that we spread his treasures about with abandon.
Church Idols?
But worse than that, the third servant seems to think that the religious customs of his time are not human-made customs, but that they actually are the will of God. I think that perhaps this is a lesson to the church: 'Which of our human customs do we confuse with God's calling? Which of our human customs do we idolise?
I honestly don't think that God cares if we have pews or chairs (although the Methodist Property office certainly does!) I don't think that God cares if we sing traditional hymns or Matt Redman worship songs. I don't think that God even cares if we stop worshipping on Sunday mornings and have a meal and a worship mid-week instead.
Thinking about some of these changes might make us nervous but I think this parable is asking us to stop and consider what it is that we might be doing simply as human custom that hinders the working of the Holy Spirit in us to spread the treasure of the Gospel.
Before I end, I want to say that I don't have a hidden agenda and I'm not to drop a bombshell on you. I'm simply trying to reflect on this passage.
This year, our circuit did a circuit review and, along with other churches in the circuit, we've seen the positive benefits of that exercise. I think it's important that we don't think of review and change as a one-off but rather as something that we must do on an on-going basis as part of our discipleship.
But in the middle of all this remains God's Good News: the coming of the Kingdom has begun and the Kingdom will reign on earth as it does in heaven. If the early church could profess this Good News whilst living in the middle of an occupation army, then we too can profess it in our own circumstances. Our God is a God of freedom and not of fear. His Spirit is there to guide us through the challenge of change. Spirit-led change is an adventure and not a threat.
My prayer this morning is that we will always continue on a journey of trying to discern how we can share the Gospel in a way that serves the needs of others rather than in a way that serves the needs of the Church. And I also pray that we can live joyfully in the freedom of the Holy Spirit so that we are not afraid of change. Amen
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Sunday 9 November 2008 - Christ will Come Again
This sermon is based on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 with a reference to the day's gospel reading Matthew 25:1-13. It was delivered at a service for Remembrance Sunday.
Introduction
Pity the poor preacher this morning, please.
Our texts for today deal with the subjects of the Second Coming of Christ and the future resurrection of believers who have died in Christ. If you want the very short version of what these texts are about, that's basically it. You can go home now, if you like.
Now, these two doctrines are not quite the hottest of hot topics in the Christian world, but if I'm not mistaken, I think that there are two broad schools of thought about them.
The first school of thought is the literal one: the body that Jesus had in his life was resuscitated and came back to life. And at the second coming our bodies will be resuscitated and come back to life. At the opposite end of this spectrum is the school of thought which seems to see both the Second Coming of Christ and his and our Resurrection as some great metaphor of meaning. These things are not something that thoughtful modern people actually believe in (says the second school of thought), but rather we see them as powerful tools or symbols in the Great Human Search for Meaning.
So what does a thoughtful, modern preacher make of these doctrines? (Well, I strive to be thoughtful, anyway!)
The Thessalonians
First I want to begin by pointing out that the purpose of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians isn't to give them a description of the Second Coming of Christ but rather to encourage them that those who have died prior to Christ's Second Coming aren't going to miss out on any of God's blessings in the coming Kingdom of God.
In this, his earliest letter, it seems that Paul expects to be alive when Christ returns. And I think it's also probable that Matthew also thought that the Second Coming would be something that their generation would see in their own lifetime. So, although other allegorical interpretations of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins might inspire us and are also perfectly legitimate, I believe that it means what it seems to imply: be on your guard so that you will be ready when Christ returns to earth again as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The only problem is that, with the benefit of over 2000 years of hindsight, we know that Christ did not return to earth during the generation of his peers. And we, like every generation since then, have had to grapple with the fact that Scripture seems to believe that Jesus would return in the lifetime of his own generation. So how can we make some sense of these things: of the Second Coming and the future Resurrection of believers?
Describing Colour to a Blind Person
Tom Wright, currently the Bishop of Durham and an internationally-respected bible scholar, provides a helpful framework, I think.
He asks a very interesting question: How would you describe different colours to a person who was born blind with no residual sight?
You might say that Red is a hot, hard colour. You might say that Green is a cool, soft colour. And you might say that Yellow is a dissonant, prickly colour. In describing these colours to your blind friend, both of you would be absolutely aware that these descriptions are extremely inadequate. But we might agree that, as inadequate as the are, the descriptions provide some way of trying to describe the indescribable.
So, just as it would be incorrect for a blind person to insist that yellow does not exist because they can't see it, so too it would be equally incorrect to insist that yellow is 'literally' prickly or dissonant. Yellow exists but cannot be described to a person without sight, nor can that person grasp the fullness of the colour yellow.
Resurrection and the Second Coming
I think that this way of thinking is a helpful tool to use when trying to imagine the resurrection and the Second Coming of Christ.
Because the assurance of resurrection into the Kingdom of God of all who have trusted in Christ is a key doctrine for our faith, so I want to try to grapple with it. It is a key narrative of the Christian faith that when the Kingdom of God finally comes, then God will put all wrongs to rights and grief will turn to joy. But I can't tell you exactly what either of these things mean any more than a blind person can explain the fullness of the colour yellow.
Nevertheless, I have a belief, trust and hope in God that we will some how be transformed into the fullness of what we were meant to be from before the beginning of time. (Resurrection) And with that same belief and trust and faith, I believe that God will bring all creation into the fullness of what it was meant to be (The Second Coming of Christ, The Kingdom of God)
To use the classic symbols, our future resurrection life will be lived in the Kingdom of God.
How God will work his purposes out, I don't know. And I don't think that the apostle Paul knew either - that's why we are disciples of the Christian Faith and not disciples of the Christian Explanation.
Conclusion
Today's scripture readings weren't actually meant specifically for Remembrance Day because they are the internationally-agreed readings for this Sunday.
Yet, I think that there is a connection between these readings and Remembrance Sunday. Whatever we believe about the necessity of war in this world, I believe that the bible tells us that there will be no war in the coming Kingdom.
The bible also most certainly tells us that war and death are not part of who God is.
There are people and regimes in the history of humankind that are willing to use war and murder as tools to gain an advantage over other human beings. They think that it is their willingness to kill and to murder that sets them apart and gives them real power. But, through Christ, God has said that there is actually no power in death because all things will be raised to new life in his Kingdom.
For Christians who watch and wait, this is our joyful hope.
For the forces of evil and those who rely on the power of death to define who they are, the coming Kingdom of God is their ultimate demise.
My prayer this morning is that, as Christians, we are encouraged by the hope that God is a God of life. May we pray for peace, work for peace, and look forward to the coming Kingdom of God. Amen
Introduction
Pity the poor preacher this morning, please.
Our texts for today deal with the subjects of the Second Coming of Christ and the future resurrection of believers who have died in Christ. If you want the very short version of what these texts are about, that's basically it. You can go home now, if you like.
Now, these two doctrines are not quite the hottest of hot topics in the Christian world, but if I'm not mistaken, I think that there are two broad schools of thought about them.
The first school of thought is the literal one: the body that Jesus had in his life was resuscitated and came back to life. And at the second coming our bodies will be resuscitated and come back to life. At the opposite end of this spectrum is the school of thought which seems to see both the Second Coming of Christ and his and our Resurrection as some great metaphor of meaning. These things are not something that thoughtful modern people actually believe in (says the second school of thought), but rather we see them as powerful tools or symbols in the Great Human Search for Meaning.
So what does a thoughtful, modern preacher make of these doctrines? (Well, I strive to be thoughtful, anyway!)
The Thessalonians
First I want to begin by pointing out that the purpose of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians isn't to give them a description of the Second Coming of Christ but rather to encourage them that those who have died prior to Christ's Second Coming aren't going to miss out on any of God's blessings in the coming Kingdom of God.
In this, his earliest letter, it seems that Paul expects to be alive when Christ returns. And I think it's also probable that Matthew also thought that the Second Coming would be something that their generation would see in their own lifetime. So, although other allegorical interpretations of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins might inspire us and are also perfectly legitimate, I believe that it means what it seems to imply: be on your guard so that you will be ready when Christ returns to earth again as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The only problem is that, with the benefit of over 2000 years of hindsight, we know that Christ did not return to earth during the generation of his peers. And we, like every generation since then, have had to grapple with the fact that Scripture seems to believe that Jesus would return in the lifetime of his own generation. So how can we make some sense of these things: of the Second Coming and the future Resurrection of believers?
Describing Colour to a Blind Person
Tom Wright, currently the Bishop of Durham and an internationally-respected bible scholar, provides a helpful framework, I think.
He asks a very interesting question: How would you describe different colours to a person who was born blind with no residual sight?
You might say that Red is a hot, hard colour. You might say that Green is a cool, soft colour. And you might say that Yellow is a dissonant, prickly colour. In describing these colours to your blind friend, both of you would be absolutely aware that these descriptions are extremely inadequate. But we might agree that, as inadequate as the are, the descriptions provide some way of trying to describe the indescribable.
So, just as it would be incorrect for a blind person to insist that yellow does not exist because they can't see it, so too it would be equally incorrect to insist that yellow is 'literally' prickly or dissonant. Yellow exists but cannot be described to a person without sight, nor can that person grasp the fullness of the colour yellow.
Resurrection and the Second Coming
I think that this way of thinking is a helpful tool to use when trying to imagine the resurrection and the Second Coming of Christ.
Because the assurance of resurrection into the Kingdom of God of all who have trusted in Christ is a key doctrine for our faith, so I want to try to grapple with it. It is a key narrative of the Christian faith that when the Kingdom of God finally comes, then God will put all wrongs to rights and grief will turn to joy. But I can't tell you exactly what either of these things mean any more than a blind person can explain the fullness of the colour yellow.
Nevertheless, I have a belief, trust and hope in God that we will some how be transformed into the fullness of what we were meant to be from before the beginning of time. (Resurrection) And with that same belief and trust and faith, I believe that God will bring all creation into the fullness of what it was meant to be (The Second Coming of Christ, The Kingdom of God)
To use the classic symbols, our future resurrection life will be lived in the Kingdom of God.
How God will work his purposes out, I don't know. And I don't think that the apostle Paul knew either - that's why we are disciples of the Christian Faith and not disciples of the Christian Explanation.
Conclusion
Today's scripture readings weren't actually meant specifically for Remembrance Day because they are the internationally-agreed readings for this Sunday.
Yet, I think that there is a connection between these readings and Remembrance Sunday. Whatever we believe about the necessity of war in this world, I believe that the bible tells us that there will be no war in the coming Kingdom.
The bible also most certainly tells us that war and death are not part of who God is.
There are people and regimes in the history of humankind that are willing to use war and murder as tools to gain an advantage over other human beings. They think that it is their willingness to kill and to murder that sets them apart and gives them real power. But, through Christ, God has said that there is actually no power in death because all things will be raised to new life in his Kingdom.
For Christians who watch and wait, this is our joyful hope.
For the forces of evil and those who rely on the power of death to define who they are, the coming Kingdom of God is their ultimate demise.
My prayer this morning is that, as Christians, we are encouraged by the hope that God is a God of life. May we pray for peace, work for peace, and look forward to the coming Kingdom of God. Amen
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Sunday 15 June 2008 - A Dangerous Gospel
This sermon is a thematic sermon loosely based around the day's Gospel reading: Matthew 9:35-10:23
===
Introduction
I suspect that you are probably familiar with the 1930s American comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are a couple of friends who go through life together lurching from one disaster to another. These are usually disasters that are often caused by their failure to grasp the consequence of a particular situation. Except that Oliver Hardy always has someone to blame for his own incompetence: his friend Stan Laurel. One of Ollie’s (as he is known) oft-repeated phrases is ‘Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.’
In this morning’s reading, Jesus tells the twelve – and by extension us – that being his disciple is going to get us into one fine mess after another if we decide to follow him. In Matthew 10, verse 16, Jesus tells his disciples: ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves’.
Now like all good Jewish rabbis, Jesus sometimes exaggerates to make a point, but I’m not sure that he’s exaggerating here. At this point in the story of Jesus’ ministry, he is beginning to encounter opposition and I suspect that he is beginning to get an understanding of the very real dangers of proclaiming his counter-cultural message. And I believe that Jesus is very plainly telling the disciples that they will be in the same danger if they follow him: That when they proclaim the message of the Kingdom of God that they too will be like sheep in the midst of wolves.
A dangerous Gospel?
The question I’d like to ask this morning is ‘What is it about the Gospel, what is it about the proclamation of the Kingdom of God that makes the message dangerous?’ ‘What is it that makes the proclamation of the Kingdom of God that makes the message foolish?’ As Christians in the 21st century, should our message be a dangerous message or was the danger only for Jesus in his time?
This morning, I’d like to point two of the primary ways that I think that the Christian Gospel is both foolish and dangerous. You are, of course, free to make up your own mind and perhaps to think of your own dangers of the Gospel.
Forgiveness
The first ‘way of the Kingdom of God’ that I believe is foolishness is that the Kingdom is based on forgiveness. This is a topic that could be the subject of several sermons and I’m not going to pretend that the practice of forgiveness is easy.
Nonetheless, this is a patently foolish message in all sorts of ways if you start thinking about the practical applications of forgiveness.
Think of all the people in our lives who it would be difficult or impractical to forgive. Certainly God does not mean for us to forgive the person who bullied us in school and whose bullying handicapped us in so many ways as we grew into adult life? Certainly God does not mean for us to forgive the drunk driver who killed or maimed a member of our family? Certainly God does not mean for us to forgive the individuals who bombed a public square on mothering Sunday or the London tube system during morning rush hour?
It may seem obvious to us that Jesus wanted his followers in his day to forgive their Christian bothers and sisters seventy times seven, but it is equally obvious to us that God understands that some people have hurt us so badly that it is simply not possible for us to forgive them.
As I said earlier, forgiveness is something that can often seem impossible, or at least extremely difficult. I do believe that God understands that it can seem impossible to forgive and I do believe that he will have compassion on those who struggle to forgive and find it difficult.
However, God’s compassion for those who have been hurt does not mean that he lifts the standard. He does not say ‘OK, I understand that it is difficult for you to forgive, so in the Kingdom of God, forgiveness will just be an optional extra’. And I suspect that the disciples were just as challenged as we are at the commandment to forgive seventy times seven and that they felt is was just as impossible as we do.
To proclaim forgiveness in the 21st century is as foolish as it was in the 1st century. Those who proclaim these values wholeheartedly will be like sheep amongst wolves.
Peace & the Rule of God
Another foolish characteristic of God’s rule in the Kingdom is that it is characterised by peace.
Once again, the direct application of Jesus’ teachings on peace seem highly dangerous in our own context today. To make Christ and the Kingdom of God the centre of our political values as well as the centre of our own personal morality would be dangerous as well as stupid.
We can easily accept that Jesus really meant that Rome was an illegitimate government in the eyes of God. We can understand that Jesus thought that the accommodation of the Temple to the prevailing Roman values of the time made the Temple illegitimate. And we can easily agree with Jesus’ opposition to the Zealots’ plan to raise an army of resistance against Rome.
But when we try to apply Jesus’ teaching directly to our own situation, we can see the dangers and complexities very clearly.
We look at our world and feel threatened by terrorism; and we see our precious sons and daughters being killed in foreign lands. We look at our own complicated world, our threatened and threatening world and we think ‘God can’t possibly be asking us to behave as if peace were already upon us; its too difficult.’
The way of peace is not only foolish, it’s downright dangerous. Couple the message of peace with the commandment to forgive others and with the message that the last shall be first and you might end up getting yourself killed just like Jesus. The ways of peace and forgiveness are not practical. They are naïve and idealistic and ‘everyone knows’ that the world does not work this way.
The Good News
But Jesus never said that being his disciple was going to be easy. Jesus tells us that we are going to be sent out on mission without any of the usual resources that the world thinks necessary to do a good job. And he tells us that we are going to be like sheep: targets for all the wolves who think that the way of Jesus is foolish and impractical.
But he also tells us that the world is in need of our mission. We, his followers, may be like sheep amongst the wolves, but at least we have a shepherd: the world does not have a shepherd and it is crying out for guidance. Jesus’ mission of spiritual and physical healing is our mission too. It’s the mission of the Church in the same way that it was the mission of the disciples. God’s determination to bring about the Kingdom of God begins with the twelve tribes of Israel, and it reaches fulfilment in the death and resurrection of Christ.
This is the Good News and it’s the Good News that we as a Church are sent out to proclaim. Just like the twelve disciples who Christ commissions here, Jesus’ mission is carried forward by us – the Church of Christ in every age. In this reading, we understand that our mission will not be easy but we are promised that it will be worthwhile; the healing of body, mind and spirit are always worthwhile.
Faith in Jesus will make our mission possible, but it won’t make it easy and it certainly will not earn us the world’s stamp of approval. Nonetheless, just like each one of the disciples, each of us has been called personally into our discipleship.
My prayer this morning/evening is that we may each be given the grace to follow where God leads us. I pray that we may be faithful messengers of his Good News and that our lives reflect God’s love, forgiveness and peace. Amen
Introduction
I suspect that you are probably familiar with the 1930s American comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are a couple of friends who go through life together lurching from one disaster to another. These are usually disasters that are often caused by their failure to grasp the consequence of a particular situation. Except that Oliver Hardy always has someone to blame for his own incompetence: his friend Stan Laurel. One of Ollie’s (as he is known) oft-repeated phrases is ‘Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.’
In this morning’s reading, Jesus tells the twelve – and by extension us – that being his disciple is going to get us into one fine mess after another if we decide to follow him. In Matthew 10, verse 16, Jesus tells his disciples: ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves’.
Now like all good Jewish rabbis, Jesus sometimes exaggerates to make a point, but I’m not sure that he’s exaggerating here. At this point in the story of Jesus’ ministry, he is beginning to encounter opposition and I suspect that he is beginning to get an understanding of the very real dangers of proclaiming his counter-cultural message. And I believe that Jesus is very plainly telling the disciples that they will be in the same danger if they follow him: That when they proclaim the message of the Kingdom of God that they too will be like sheep in the midst of wolves.
A dangerous Gospel?
The question I’d like to ask this morning is ‘What is it about the Gospel, what is it about the proclamation of the Kingdom of God that makes the message dangerous?’ ‘What is it that makes the proclamation of the Kingdom of God that makes the message foolish?’ As Christians in the 21st century, should our message be a dangerous message or was the danger only for Jesus in his time?
This morning, I’d like to point two of the primary ways that I think that the Christian Gospel is both foolish and dangerous. You are, of course, free to make up your own mind and perhaps to think of your own dangers of the Gospel.
Forgiveness
The first ‘way of the Kingdom of God’ that I believe is foolishness is that the Kingdom is based on forgiveness. This is a topic that could be the subject of several sermons and I’m not going to pretend that the practice of forgiveness is easy.
Nonetheless, this is a patently foolish message in all sorts of ways if you start thinking about the practical applications of forgiveness.
Think of all the people in our lives who it would be difficult or impractical to forgive. Certainly God does not mean for us to forgive the person who bullied us in school and whose bullying handicapped us in so many ways as we grew into adult life? Certainly God does not mean for us to forgive the drunk driver who killed or maimed a member of our family? Certainly God does not mean for us to forgive the individuals who bombed a public square on mothering Sunday or the London tube system during morning rush hour?
It may seem obvious to us that Jesus wanted his followers in his day to forgive their Christian bothers and sisters seventy times seven, but it is equally obvious to us that God understands that some people have hurt us so badly that it is simply not possible for us to forgive them.
As I said earlier, forgiveness is something that can often seem impossible, or at least extremely difficult. I do believe that God understands that it can seem impossible to forgive and I do believe that he will have compassion on those who struggle to forgive and find it difficult.
However, God’s compassion for those who have been hurt does not mean that he lifts the standard. He does not say ‘OK, I understand that it is difficult for you to forgive, so in the Kingdom of God, forgiveness will just be an optional extra’. And I suspect that the disciples were just as challenged as we are at the commandment to forgive seventy times seven and that they felt is was just as impossible as we do.
To proclaim forgiveness in the 21st century is as foolish as it was in the 1st century. Those who proclaim these values wholeheartedly will be like sheep amongst wolves.
Peace & the Rule of God
Another foolish characteristic of God’s rule in the Kingdom is that it is characterised by peace.
Once again, the direct application of Jesus’ teachings on peace seem highly dangerous in our own context today. To make Christ and the Kingdom of God the centre of our political values as well as the centre of our own personal morality would be dangerous as well as stupid.
We can easily accept that Jesus really meant that Rome was an illegitimate government in the eyes of God. We can understand that Jesus thought that the accommodation of the Temple to the prevailing Roman values of the time made the Temple illegitimate. And we can easily agree with Jesus’ opposition to the Zealots’ plan to raise an army of resistance against Rome.
But when we try to apply Jesus’ teaching directly to our own situation, we can see the dangers and complexities very clearly.
We look at our world and feel threatened by terrorism; and we see our precious sons and daughters being killed in foreign lands. We look at our own complicated world, our threatened and threatening world and we think ‘God can’t possibly be asking us to behave as if peace were already upon us; its too difficult.’
The way of peace is not only foolish, it’s downright dangerous. Couple the message of peace with the commandment to forgive others and with the message that the last shall be first and you might end up getting yourself killed just like Jesus. The ways of peace and forgiveness are not practical. They are naïve and idealistic and ‘everyone knows’ that the world does not work this way.
The Good News
But Jesus never said that being his disciple was going to be easy. Jesus tells us that we are going to be sent out on mission without any of the usual resources that the world thinks necessary to do a good job. And he tells us that we are going to be like sheep: targets for all the wolves who think that the way of Jesus is foolish and impractical.
But he also tells us that the world is in need of our mission. We, his followers, may be like sheep amongst the wolves, but at least we have a shepherd: the world does not have a shepherd and it is crying out for guidance. Jesus’ mission of spiritual and physical healing is our mission too. It’s the mission of the Church in the same way that it was the mission of the disciples. God’s determination to bring about the Kingdom of God begins with the twelve tribes of Israel, and it reaches fulfilment in the death and resurrection of Christ.
This is the Good News and it’s the Good News that we as a Church are sent out to proclaim. Just like the twelve disciples who Christ commissions here, Jesus’ mission is carried forward by us – the Church of Christ in every age. In this reading, we understand that our mission will not be easy but we are promised that it will be worthwhile; the healing of body, mind and spirit are always worthwhile.
Faith in Jesus will make our mission possible, but it won’t make it easy and it certainly will not earn us the world’s stamp of approval. Nonetheless, just like each one of the disciples, each of us has been called personally into our discipleship.
My prayer this morning/evening is that we may each be given the grace to follow where God leads us. I pray that we may be faithful messengers of his Good News and that our lives reflect God’s love, forgiveness and peace. Amen
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Sunday 11 May 2008 - Pentecost Mission
This is a sermon for Pentecost Sunday as well as a celebration of 'Christian Aid Sunday'. It is based on the Pentecost reading from Acts 2:1-21.
Introduction
Pentecost is a celebration of a turning point in history. Fifty days after Jesus' resurrection, his followers are together in a house but Jesus is no longer with them – not even in his resurrection body. We can imagine that this group of individuals must have felt confused and possibly disheartened; where should they go from here?
Their confusion would have been made all the more poignant by the crowds and celebrations going on in the streets of Jerusalem. Fifty days after Jesus' resurrection was also about fifty days after Passover. It was the Jewish feast of Pentecost – the feast of Shavuot, a harvest festival when the Jewish people celebrated the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.
I think that we can draw a connection between the Jewish festival of Pentecost and our own festival of Pentecost. Jewish Pentecost celebrates the giving of the law and God's covenant with Israel. You could say that this is the beginning of Israel's vocation as the people of God. Equally, Christian Pentecost celebrates the beginning of the Christian Church – the beginning of our vocation as the people of God.
A modern Jewish Rabbi commented that Pentecost is 'Asking God how we should be with our freedom'. And that's the idea that I would like to explore this morning – that Pentecost is in some way about asking God how we should be – as God's people - with our freedom.
God works through us
So, looking at today's reading from the book of Acts, I think one of the things we should be ready to be is: 'surprised by what God is able to do through us'. I note that although Paul refers in some of his Epistles about speaking in unintelligible tongues in prayer, the tongues that are given to the church in today's reading are real foreign languages. On the day that Jesus' rag-tag band of confused followers are born into his Church on earth, they are given the ability to communicate the Gospel to people of various nationalities.
This gift of the Spirit is not given to the Church for its own edification. It's not given so that we can have lively worship, it's not given so that we can feel ourselves to be filled with the power of God and I don't even think it's given to us for the purpose of assurance of our own salvation. It's a gift that is given to the Church for the benefit of others. As the saying goes, the Church is the one institution that exists for the benefit of those outside itself.
And the gift that God wants to bestow upon the whole world through us is – I believe – life in all its fullness: both physical and spiritual.
So one of the ways that I think we are called to be in our freedom with God is people who are ready to proclaim the Gospel in both word and deed. At the very least we want to be practiced in saying a few words about what it means to us to be a follower of Jesus. We don't have to impose on people and we don't have to try to convert them, but I think it's good to know the words we might use to speak about our own faith if the opportunity comes up.
And we also want to be people who proclaim the Gospel through our deeds – in our interactions with others and by supporting other Christians in their own particular gifts and callings. As Christian Aid says, an important part of the Gospel message is the proclamation of life before death.
Overcoming Barriers
Another thing that happened when Jesus' followers began to speak the language of other people is that barriers were broken down.
'Speaking someone's language' is a powerful metaphor. Anyone who has ever learned a foreign language knows that not only do you have to learn the French/German word for 'car' or 'house', but you have to learn a different way of expressing yourself and sometimes you have to learn a different word-order.
In short, you have to learn to think differently. To some extent, you have to learn a different world view.
Learning to speak another person's language says something about a person's willingness to step outside of his or her own culture and comfort zone. We were helped this morning/afternoon to 'step out' a bit by hearing the story of Rekha Biswas.
Through Christian Aid, we learned something of the challenges that she and her community face and we learned something of her life.
I think, though, that Christians need to keep challenging ourselves about stepping out and breaking down barriers.
As Christians we are called to be counter-cultural, but our counter-cultural calling is to set out a prophetic vision of the Kingdom of God. Our counter-cultural calling isn't to rant and rave and to keep repeating to ourselves that 'things aren't what they used to be'.
Because we are human, we always have to be on our guard that we don't raise barriers against others. 'They are not church people; they don't know how to dress and act properly in Sunday worship.' 'We have values and they don't.' Or...'They don't need as much as we do to live'.
Any barrier that we raise between us and another person is one step in the direction of distancing ourselves from his or her full God-given humanity. Although a small barrier may not mean that we are drawing categories of 'them and us', it can be a first step in that direction. Once we have raised large barriers, it is easy for us to justify to ourselves that we don't have to be concerned with the welfare of others.
And human history has proven that, in the worse-case scenario, we can raise barriers so high that we begin to justify hurting others. As Christians we are called to speak out peacefully against any kind of scapegoating. We need to exercise our vote and work against extremist political parties, we can boycott newspapers and other media that scapegoat minorities and we need to make sure that we ourselves don't fall into the trap of scapegoating Muslims.
'Pentecost is asking God how we should be with our freedom.'
I believe that the coming of the Holy Spirit reveals that we should use our freedom to break down the barriers and the walls that divide human beings from God as well as from each other.
Empowering
As Christians, we are not in the business of hurting people and we are not in the business of ignoring people in their need. As Christians, we are called to love God and love our neighbour as ourselves.
On the first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit took a bunch of confused individuals and turned them into people with a passion and people with a mission and the Church was born. The Holy Spirit empowers the Church of Christ; not to have power over others but so that we may empower others.
Jesus said to the disciples of John the Baptist: “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”
This is what the power of the Holy Spirit is all about. This is the mission of the Church. Our mission to be God's hands on earth for justice, restoration and inspiration. It is not so much about us having power as it is about us empowering others.
Conclusion
'Pentecost is asking God how we should be in our freedom.'
As Christians, we are told how we should be: we are called to be like Jesus. But we also know that without the constant help of God, without the power of the Spirit in our lives, that we cannot change ourselves or others.
The good news is that we don't have to. The good news is that Christ has conquered sin, death and the power of evil and that his Spirit remains with us to strengthen us and help us as we seek to love God and our neighbour.
My prayer this morning is that we will all be filled again with a renewed sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And I pray that we will each be strengthened in our proclamation of the Kingdom of God as we seek to love God and love one another. Amen
Introduction
Pentecost is a celebration of a turning point in history. Fifty days after Jesus' resurrection, his followers are together in a house but Jesus is no longer with them – not even in his resurrection body. We can imagine that this group of individuals must have felt confused and possibly disheartened; where should they go from here?
Their confusion would have been made all the more poignant by the crowds and celebrations going on in the streets of Jerusalem. Fifty days after Jesus' resurrection was also about fifty days after Passover. It was the Jewish feast of Pentecost – the feast of Shavuot, a harvest festival when the Jewish people celebrated the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.
I think that we can draw a connection between the Jewish festival of Pentecost and our own festival of Pentecost. Jewish Pentecost celebrates the giving of the law and God's covenant with Israel. You could say that this is the beginning of Israel's vocation as the people of God. Equally, Christian Pentecost celebrates the beginning of the Christian Church – the beginning of our vocation as the people of God.
A modern Jewish Rabbi commented that Pentecost is 'Asking God how we should be with our freedom'. And that's the idea that I would like to explore this morning – that Pentecost is in some way about asking God how we should be – as God's people - with our freedom.
God works through us
So, looking at today's reading from the book of Acts, I think one of the things we should be ready to be is: 'surprised by what God is able to do through us'. I note that although Paul refers in some of his Epistles about speaking in unintelligible tongues in prayer, the tongues that are given to the church in today's reading are real foreign languages. On the day that Jesus' rag-tag band of confused followers are born into his Church on earth, they are given the ability to communicate the Gospel to people of various nationalities.
This gift of the Spirit is not given to the Church for its own edification. It's not given so that we can have lively worship, it's not given so that we can feel ourselves to be filled with the power of God and I don't even think it's given to us for the purpose of assurance of our own salvation. It's a gift that is given to the Church for the benefit of others. As the saying goes, the Church is the one institution that exists for the benefit of those outside itself.
And the gift that God wants to bestow upon the whole world through us is – I believe – life in all its fullness: both physical and spiritual.
So one of the ways that I think we are called to be in our freedom with God is people who are ready to proclaim the Gospel in both word and deed. At the very least we want to be practiced in saying a few words about what it means to us to be a follower of Jesus. We don't have to impose on people and we don't have to try to convert them, but I think it's good to know the words we might use to speak about our own faith if the opportunity comes up.
And we also want to be people who proclaim the Gospel through our deeds – in our interactions with others and by supporting other Christians in their own particular gifts and callings. As Christian Aid says, an important part of the Gospel message is the proclamation of life before death.
Overcoming Barriers
Another thing that happened when Jesus' followers began to speak the language of other people is that barriers were broken down.
'Speaking someone's language' is a powerful metaphor. Anyone who has ever learned a foreign language knows that not only do you have to learn the French/German word for 'car' or 'house', but you have to learn a different way of expressing yourself and sometimes you have to learn a different word-order.
In short, you have to learn to think differently. To some extent, you have to learn a different world view.
Learning to speak another person's language says something about a person's willingness to step outside of his or her own culture and comfort zone. We were helped this morning/afternoon to 'step out' a bit by hearing the story of Rekha Biswas.
Through Christian Aid, we learned something of the challenges that she and her community face and we learned something of her life.
I think, though, that Christians need to keep challenging ourselves about stepping out and breaking down barriers.
As Christians we are called to be counter-cultural, but our counter-cultural calling is to set out a prophetic vision of the Kingdom of God. Our counter-cultural calling isn't to rant and rave and to keep repeating to ourselves that 'things aren't what they used to be'.
Because we are human, we always have to be on our guard that we don't raise barriers against others. 'They are not church people; they don't know how to dress and act properly in Sunday worship.' 'We have values and they don't.' Or...'They don't need as much as we do to live'.
Any barrier that we raise between us and another person is one step in the direction of distancing ourselves from his or her full God-given humanity. Although a small barrier may not mean that we are drawing categories of 'them and us', it can be a first step in that direction. Once we have raised large barriers, it is easy for us to justify to ourselves that we don't have to be concerned with the welfare of others.
And human history has proven that, in the worse-case scenario, we can raise barriers so high that we begin to justify hurting others. As Christians we are called to speak out peacefully against any kind of scapegoating. We need to exercise our vote and work against extremist political parties, we can boycott newspapers and other media that scapegoat minorities and we need to make sure that we ourselves don't fall into the trap of scapegoating Muslims.
'Pentecost is asking God how we should be with our freedom.'
I believe that the coming of the Holy Spirit reveals that we should use our freedom to break down the barriers and the walls that divide human beings from God as well as from each other.
Empowering
As Christians, we are not in the business of hurting people and we are not in the business of ignoring people in their need. As Christians, we are called to love God and love our neighbour as ourselves.
On the first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit took a bunch of confused individuals and turned them into people with a passion and people with a mission and the Church was born. The Holy Spirit empowers the Church of Christ; not to have power over others but so that we may empower others.
Jesus said to the disciples of John the Baptist: “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”
This is what the power of the Holy Spirit is all about. This is the mission of the Church. Our mission to be God's hands on earth for justice, restoration and inspiration. It is not so much about us having power as it is about us empowering others.
Conclusion
'Pentecost is asking God how we should be in our freedom.'
As Christians, we are told how we should be: we are called to be like Jesus. But we also know that without the constant help of God, without the power of the Spirit in our lives, that we cannot change ourselves or others.
The good news is that we don't have to. The good news is that Christ has conquered sin, death and the power of evil and that his Spirit remains with us to strengthen us and help us as we seek to love God and our neighbour.
My prayer this morning is that we will all be filled again with a renewed sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And I pray that we will each be strengthened in our proclamation of the Kingdom of God as we seek to love God and love one another. Amen
Sunday 27th April 2008 - Not a Private Kingdom
This sermon is based on Acts 17:22-31 and John 14:15-21
===
Introduction
I don't know about you, but I'm very glad to see spring once again.
Where I come from in the US, – near the Canadian border - Spring is one of those 'blink and you'll miss it' seasons that happens for a few brief days in May. But here in the UK, Spring is definitely my favourite season, not the least because it is long languorous and it really gives you time to notice it and appreciate it. Sometimes if we're lucky we get snowdrops in early January and then, for what seems like weeks and weeks and weeks, we get one new sign of life after another as different flora and fauna begin to sprout and bloom. Even someone like me, who often fails to notice things, can't help but notice Spring.
The Wheel of Life
There really is a lot of beauty in nature and it's not surprising that many societies down through the ages have worshipped the creation rather than the creator. And within the understanding of many nature-based religious systems, there is the concept of 'The Wheel of Life.' It's easy to see where this concept comes from, especially if you consider that many of our distant ancestors were much closer to the land and to nature than we are today.
Spring, a time of renewed light and life when the earth bursts forth with new creation. Summer, life at its pinnacle when life reproduces. The climax of the year and of nature's beauty. Autumn, a season of fruitfulness, insight and wholeness. Winter, a season of death, but also a season where the land lies fallow, preparing itself for new work and new life in he coming season.
And so, the wheel of life was said to turn from generation to generation. Always changing, but always staying the same: it rotates not so much like a wagon wheel but more like a cog in clock. The sameness is being just as important as the change.
And herein lies the difference between popular ways of understanding the meaning of life and the Christian way. If the human way of seeing 'The Wheel of Life' is as a stationary cog, always changing and always staying the same, The Judeo-Christian way of seeing 'The Wheel of Life' is as a wagon-wheel, travelling on a path or a journey to a very specific destination. For Christians, history has an end-goal, a purpose: the Kingdom of God.
Spiritual but Not Religious
Consider for a moment the reading from Acts where Paul presents the Gospel message to the Athenians. Don't think for a minute that Paul was addressing a group of people with a strong belief in the ancient Greek gods and myths. Whether they were students or teachers, this was a group of people who undertook the study of sophisticated philosophies. It is very likely that they were as sceptical of their own ancient religion as they were of Paul's message. That's why Paul uses a number of concepts, phrases and buzz-words from the Greek philosophers to get his message across: 'In him we live and move and have our being' and 'For we too are his offspring'.
The people to whom Paul spoke on Mount Athos, like many people today, were spiritual seekers. They were not against religion, they were – as many people today claim to be - 'spiritual but not religious'. But their pursuits were private pursuits, dedicated to their own private spiritual understanding and to making their own private meaning. Their relationship with God was not so much 'personal' as it was 'private'.
The Kingdom is not Private
And one thing that the message of the gospel is not is 'private'. Our Gospel reading this morning begins and ends with Jesus' declaration that being his follower – loving him – is all about 'keeping his commandments' – which are, of course, the commandments to love God and love one's neighbour. In John's Gospel, this reading is part of the farewell discourses, a long section where Jesus teaches he disciples prior to his arrest and crucifixion.
If the disciples' relationship with Jesus had been a private thing, then the disciples would have mourned, they would have talked about their memories of Jesus and they would have had nostalgia for the good old days; but if Jesus' death had no more meaning than his private relationship with the disciples, it would hardly have changed the world. Equally, if his death had operated under the rules of nature-religion, it would simply have been one death in an on-going but unchanging cycle of death and new life. His memory would have lived on in his disciples but, again, it would hardly have had the power to change the world.
Behind today's Gospel reading is the implied understanding that the death and resurrection of Jesus have some kind of profound and real effect on creation that alters the very fabric of both creation and human history. Rather than The Wheel of Life rotating endlessly in one place, human history is on a journey to a destiny defined by God: the Kingdom of God, where our reality and our values are defined by hope rather than by despair and by resurrection rather than by death.
The Kingdom is not just a spiritual heaven. Although it will ultimately be brought about by God himself, it is a kingdom that began with the resurrection and for which we are called to work by keeping God's commandments. But we are not called to this task ourselves. God himself is responsible for bringing about the Kingdom, and as his followers we are invited to join in with God's tasks as well as with his celebrations. Just as Jesus joined in with the work of the Father, so we will join in with the work of Jesus and the Spirit will enable us and join in our tasks. This is a community effort, whose power comes from God and not from ourselves.
The Good News is that self-giving love is not a private thing. The Good News is that God has a plan to bring about his Kingdom and that The Wheel of Life has a wonderful destination determined by God. The Good News is that we are invited to join in with God's plan to bring about his Kingdom.
Conclusion
As we come to the Lord's Table this morning, we will join together as a community, with each other and with our Lord. I pray that we will each be inspired with a vision of the Kingdom and empowered by the Spirit of God to fulfil our calling as his disciples. Amen
===
Introduction
I don't know about you, but I'm very glad to see spring once again.
Where I come from in the US, – near the Canadian border - Spring is one of those 'blink and you'll miss it' seasons that happens for a few brief days in May. But here in the UK, Spring is definitely my favourite season, not the least because it is long languorous and it really gives you time to notice it and appreciate it. Sometimes if we're lucky we get snowdrops in early January and then, for what seems like weeks and weeks and weeks, we get one new sign of life after another as different flora and fauna begin to sprout and bloom. Even someone like me, who often fails to notice things, can't help but notice Spring.
The Wheel of Life
There really is a lot of beauty in nature and it's not surprising that many societies down through the ages have worshipped the creation rather than the creator. And within the understanding of many nature-based religious systems, there is the concept of 'The Wheel of Life.' It's easy to see where this concept comes from, especially if you consider that many of our distant ancestors were much closer to the land and to nature than we are today.
Spring, a time of renewed light and life when the earth bursts forth with new creation. Summer, life at its pinnacle when life reproduces. The climax of the year and of nature's beauty. Autumn, a season of fruitfulness, insight and wholeness. Winter, a season of death, but also a season where the land lies fallow, preparing itself for new work and new life in he coming season.
And so, the wheel of life was said to turn from generation to generation. Always changing, but always staying the same: it rotates not so much like a wagon wheel but more like a cog in clock. The sameness is being just as important as the change.
And herein lies the difference between popular ways of understanding the meaning of life and the Christian way. If the human way of seeing 'The Wheel of Life' is as a stationary cog, always changing and always staying the same, The Judeo-Christian way of seeing 'The Wheel of Life' is as a wagon-wheel, travelling on a path or a journey to a very specific destination. For Christians, history has an end-goal, a purpose: the Kingdom of God.
Spiritual but Not Religious
Consider for a moment the reading from Acts where Paul presents the Gospel message to the Athenians. Don't think for a minute that Paul was addressing a group of people with a strong belief in the ancient Greek gods and myths. Whether they were students or teachers, this was a group of people who undertook the study of sophisticated philosophies. It is very likely that they were as sceptical of their own ancient religion as they were of Paul's message. That's why Paul uses a number of concepts, phrases and buzz-words from the Greek philosophers to get his message across: 'In him we live and move and have our being' and 'For we too are his offspring'.
The people to whom Paul spoke on Mount Athos, like many people today, were spiritual seekers. They were not against religion, they were – as many people today claim to be - 'spiritual but not religious'. But their pursuits were private pursuits, dedicated to their own private spiritual understanding and to making their own private meaning. Their relationship with God was not so much 'personal' as it was 'private'.
The Kingdom is not Private
And one thing that the message of the gospel is not is 'private'. Our Gospel reading this morning begins and ends with Jesus' declaration that being his follower – loving him – is all about 'keeping his commandments' – which are, of course, the commandments to love God and love one's neighbour. In John's Gospel, this reading is part of the farewell discourses, a long section where Jesus teaches he disciples prior to his arrest and crucifixion.
If the disciples' relationship with Jesus had been a private thing, then the disciples would have mourned, they would have talked about their memories of Jesus and they would have had nostalgia for the good old days; but if Jesus' death had no more meaning than his private relationship with the disciples, it would hardly have changed the world. Equally, if his death had operated under the rules of nature-religion, it would simply have been one death in an on-going but unchanging cycle of death and new life. His memory would have lived on in his disciples but, again, it would hardly have had the power to change the world.
Behind today's Gospel reading is the implied understanding that the death and resurrection of Jesus have some kind of profound and real effect on creation that alters the very fabric of both creation and human history. Rather than The Wheel of Life rotating endlessly in one place, human history is on a journey to a destiny defined by God: the Kingdom of God, where our reality and our values are defined by hope rather than by despair and by resurrection rather than by death.
The Kingdom is not just a spiritual heaven. Although it will ultimately be brought about by God himself, it is a kingdom that began with the resurrection and for which we are called to work by keeping God's commandments. But we are not called to this task ourselves. God himself is responsible for bringing about the Kingdom, and as his followers we are invited to join in with God's tasks as well as with his celebrations. Just as Jesus joined in with the work of the Father, so we will join in with the work of Jesus and the Spirit will enable us and join in our tasks. This is a community effort, whose power comes from God and not from ourselves.
The Good News is that self-giving love is not a private thing. The Good News is that God has a plan to bring about his Kingdom and that The Wheel of Life has a wonderful destination determined by God. The Good News is that we are invited to join in with God's plan to bring about his Kingdom.
Conclusion
As we come to the Lord's Table this morning, we will join together as a community, with each other and with our Lord. I pray that we will each be inspired with a vision of the Kingdom and empowered by the Spirit of God to fulfil our calling as his disciples. Amen
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Sunday 9 December 2007 - Repent and Say Wow!
This is a sermon for Advent 2 based on Isaiah 11:1-10 and Matthew 3:1-12
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Introduction
In this second Sunday of Advent, we hear the voice of John the Baptist crying: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ We also hear the voice of Isaiah giving us his vision of the Kingdom of heaven: It’s a place where the wolf and the lamb live together and where God’s judgement results in equity for the poor and meek.
John the Baptist is not a cuddly character and his message this morning is not a cuddly message. The ordinary people of Jerusalem and Judea come to him to repent and to be baptised, but when the Pharisees and Sadducees come for baptism, he proclaims: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance!’ For those of us who suspect that we may have some Pharisaicial tendencies ourselves, this can make for uncomfortable reading.
The American Christian author Frederick Buechner has this to say about the process of repentance: “To repent is to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens. True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, 'I'm sorry,' than to the future and saying 'Wow!.'"1
This morning, I want to think about this idea of looking at the future and saying ‘Wow!’ Because I don’t think that repentance is so much about focussing on what it is that we shouldn’t be doing as it is a process of looking at what life can be like under the reign of God.
Especially in Advent, when we are looking forward to God himself coming to live with us, repentance is about catching a vision of what the Kingdom of God might look like. And once we’ve caught this vision, we are called to be contagious and infect others with it.
Prevention is not the Answer
I just want to put forward a brief defence of this process.
There are those who might say ‘Well, that’s all fine and good, but the problem with society today is that it has no morals, no ethics. What we really need to do is to stop people from sinning. We need to stop them drinking and gambling their time and money away. We need to stop them neglecting their children. We need to stop them committing adultery. And now that I’m talking about it, I need to concentrate on stopping my own besetting sins. I really need to make an effort to stop being easily angered, to stop being so selfish….or…you can fill in your own besetting sins.
Now here is a demonstration of why I think that thinking about repentance as focussing on stopping our sins won’t work. Are you ready for the demonstration?
OK. Whatever you do, I want you to not think about the colour blue. OK? Do not, under any circumstances think about the colour blue! And whatever you do, don’t think about a blue monkey. And whatever you do, don’t think about a blue monkey riding a camel. Worse and worse, do not think about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone!
OK, now, be honest. How many people are thinking right this moment about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone? And how many of you were thinking about that when you came to church this morning? ‘Gee, I hope the preacher doesn’t talk about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone! I’m trying to give that up for Advent.’
The human mind doesn’t do very well at the task of not concentrating on something specific and that’s why this technique doesn’t work very well. And it’s for this reason that I believe that trying to promote the Kingdom of God by making a list of sins that we ought not to be committing is a completely ineffective approach to spreading the Gospel.
Methodism and The Kingdom of God
Now, there are many people, particularly outside the church, who think that this is exactly what the church does: that we preach against sin all the time.
But, I don’t actually think that Methodism has a tradition of doing this. Preaching against specific sins isn’t something that I’ve particularly encountered in Methodism. I’m sure that there are exceptions – there always are – but that’s not historically been the way we’ve approached the Gospel.
Historically, I think that the Methodist Church has approached the Gospel message by painting a picture of the Kingdom of God. And, at the beginning, at least, I think we not only painted this picture of the Kingdom, but we lived it out.
Methodism did catch a glimpse of a picture of the Kingdom and it was successful in being contagious with it.
Travelling preachers didn’t preach and then call for people to get down on their knees right there in the street and accept Jesus as their saviour. Early Methodist travelling preachers invited their listeners to join Methodist classes and it was within these classes that people gradually came to Christ in the company of Christian brothers and sisters.
These were often people who were considered to be so poor and so unfit to mingle with polite society that they were not fit to go to church. Suddenly, here come the Methodist societies saying: ‘You are welcome in our classes and you are welcome in our chapels. God is the God of everyone and he’s your God too.’
Illiterate people who were simply considered fodder for the mines and the factories were given the opportunity to learn to read and their children were given the same opportunity. People whose lives were viewed by polite society as expendable were told that they were of as much value to God as anyone else. All of this, I believe, was an acting-out of a vision of the Kingdom of God.
True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, 'I'm sorry,' than to the future and saying 'Wow!.'" (Buechner)
The Kingdom of God, 101
So, as I often do, I bring to you this morning a question for which I don’t necessarily have my own answer. That question is ‘How can we look out into the future and say “Wow!”’
Because I don’t really agree with those who say the Church has lost its way because it no longer preaches about sin. I think that the Church has lost its way because it no longer has a clear vision of the Kingdom of God.
Whatever we in the 21st century might think, the authors of Scripture thought that the Kingdom of God was going to be a literal, physical Kingdom. Jesus’ contemporaries thought that Jesus would return in their own lifetime and inaugurate this Kingdom. And ever since that first generation passed away, the Church has had to make sense of the fact that this has not yet happened.
Add to all of the above the baggage of our own generation and all the Second Coming predictions of wacky Christian sects (mostly American, of course) and it’s easy to see why we no longer have a clear vision of the Kingdom. The Kingdom seems rather embarrassing and somewhat superstitious.
But over and over in both the Old and New Testaments, we are told that in the Kingdom there will be two important things: 1) peace (Shalom) – there will be forgiveness and reconciliation, not just between God and humanity but also between people and, indeed peace in all creation; 2) and there will be justice for the poor, the meek and the oppressed. Their lives will be redeemed and seen to be of worth.
This was the vision of the Kingdom that fired John and Charles Wesley. They were worried about their own eternal, spiritual salvation to be sure, but they also had and communicated a clear vision of the Kingdom of God.
What makes you say Wow?
So what is it that makes us say ‘Wow!’? What will help us get a clear vision of The Kingdom? I suggest that this is an important question for every church in this circuit and for the circuit as a whole?
I want to leave you with one concrete example of something that made me say ‘Wow!’ Last week at Foley Park, we had a young woman named G come speak to us from an organisation called ‘Night Stop’.
Night Stop operates within the Wyre Forest District and it finds beds for homeless young people between the ages of 16 and 25. Volunteer hosts offer Night Stop’s clients a bed and meals in their own homes for between one and three nights until Night Stop can find them accommodation elsewhere.
G told us that a great many of these young people are homeless because they have been kicked out of the house by their parents. A good many of them are kicked out because their mother or father gets a new partner who doesn’t want them around and their parent sides with the new partner.
Someone asked about whether it was safe to take such a young person into their home and G told us that the clients are all vetted for suitability before being sent to host families. In fact, she said, many of the young people are suspicious of the hosts simply because they cannot understand the idea that a complete stranger would take them in for a few nights. This sort of kindness is something totally outside their experience.
She read to us a story written by one young woman who was taken in by Night Stop and who now works for them. Night Stop provided that young woman with the opportunity to make a new start and get her feet on the ground and feel like a worthwhile person. In turn, she wanted to help others in the same way.
Night Stop made me say ‘Wow!’ because I think it embodies everything that the Prophets and Jesus had to say about God’s Kingdom. It’s an example of human beings reaching out to other human beings. It provides young people with the possibility of turning their lives around and it is the embodiment of a ‘poor’ person finding some kind of justice and help. I think it is a small glimpse into the Kingdom of God.
Conclusion
As we go from our worship this morning, I want to invite all of us to repent. Or, as Frederick Buechner put it, I want to invite all of us to come to our senses and think about what is really important.
I want to invite us to spend less time being sorry about what has happened in the past and to spend more time thinking about what God is doing in the world that makes us say ‘Wow!’ And I want us to think about what it is that makes us say ‘Wow’! What makes us say ‘Wow’ as a circuit? As individual congregations and even as individual church members?
Is there something someone else in this church is doing that makes you say ‘Wow! I wish I could do that, but I can’t.’? Perhaps you can support that person in their ministry.
My prayer this morning is that each and every one of us will catch a vision of God’s Kingdom. I pray that we will be so enthused by this vision that we will say ‘Wow!’ and communicate our enthusiasm to others.
In the words of John the Baptist, my prayer is that, this Advent, we are all enabled to repent, because I believe that the Kingdom of God has indeed come near. Amen
----
1 Buechner, Frederick, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC; HarperOne, 1993, New York p. 79.
=====
Introduction
In this second Sunday of Advent, we hear the voice of John the Baptist crying: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ We also hear the voice of Isaiah giving us his vision of the Kingdom of heaven: It’s a place where the wolf and the lamb live together and where God’s judgement results in equity for the poor and meek.
John the Baptist is not a cuddly character and his message this morning is not a cuddly message. The ordinary people of Jerusalem and Judea come to him to repent and to be baptised, but when the Pharisees and Sadducees come for baptism, he proclaims: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance!’ For those of us who suspect that we may have some Pharisaicial tendencies ourselves, this can make for uncomfortable reading.
The American Christian author Frederick Buechner has this to say about the process of repentance: “To repent is to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens. True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, 'I'm sorry,' than to the future and saying 'Wow!.'"1
This morning, I want to think about this idea of looking at the future and saying ‘Wow!’ Because I don’t think that repentance is so much about focussing on what it is that we shouldn’t be doing as it is a process of looking at what life can be like under the reign of God.
Especially in Advent, when we are looking forward to God himself coming to live with us, repentance is about catching a vision of what the Kingdom of God might look like. And once we’ve caught this vision, we are called to be contagious and infect others with it.
Prevention is not the Answer
I just want to put forward a brief defence of this process.
There are those who might say ‘Well, that’s all fine and good, but the problem with society today is that it has no morals, no ethics. What we really need to do is to stop people from sinning. We need to stop them drinking and gambling their time and money away. We need to stop them neglecting their children. We need to stop them committing adultery. And now that I’m talking about it, I need to concentrate on stopping my own besetting sins. I really need to make an effort to stop being easily angered, to stop being so selfish….or…you can fill in your own besetting sins.
Now here is a demonstration of why I think that thinking about repentance as focussing on stopping our sins won’t work. Are you ready for the demonstration?
OK. Whatever you do, I want you to not think about the colour blue. OK? Do not, under any circumstances think about the colour blue! And whatever you do, don’t think about a blue monkey. And whatever you do, don’t think about a blue monkey riding a camel. Worse and worse, do not think about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone!
OK, now, be honest. How many people are thinking right this moment about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone? And how many of you were thinking about that when you came to church this morning? ‘Gee, I hope the preacher doesn’t talk about a blue monkey riding a camel playing a saxophone! I’m trying to give that up for Advent.’
The human mind doesn’t do very well at the task of not concentrating on something specific and that’s why this technique doesn’t work very well. And it’s for this reason that I believe that trying to promote the Kingdom of God by making a list of sins that we ought not to be committing is a completely ineffective approach to spreading the Gospel.
Methodism and The Kingdom of God
Now, there are many people, particularly outside the church, who think that this is exactly what the church does: that we preach against sin all the time.
But, I don’t actually think that Methodism has a tradition of doing this. Preaching against specific sins isn’t something that I’ve particularly encountered in Methodism. I’m sure that there are exceptions – there always are – but that’s not historically been the way we’ve approached the Gospel.
Historically, I think that the Methodist Church has approached the Gospel message by painting a picture of the Kingdom of God. And, at the beginning, at least, I think we not only painted this picture of the Kingdom, but we lived it out.
Methodism did catch a glimpse of a picture of the Kingdom and it was successful in being contagious with it.
Travelling preachers didn’t preach and then call for people to get down on their knees right there in the street and accept Jesus as their saviour. Early Methodist travelling preachers invited their listeners to join Methodist classes and it was within these classes that people gradually came to Christ in the company of Christian brothers and sisters.
These were often people who were considered to be so poor and so unfit to mingle with polite society that they were not fit to go to church. Suddenly, here come the Methodist societies saying: ‘You are welcome in our classes and you are welcome in our chapels. God is the God of everyone and he’s your God too.’
Illiterate people who were simply considered fodder for the mines and the factories were given the opportunity to learn to read and their children were given the same opportunity. People whose lives were viewed by polite society as expendable were told that they were of as much value to God as anyone else. All of this, I believe, was an acting-out of a vision of the Kingdom of God.
True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, 'I'm sorry,' than to the future and saying 'Wow!.'" (Buechner)
The Kingdom of God, 101
So, as I often do, I bring to you this morning a question for which I don’t necessarily have my own answer. That question is ‘How can we look out into the future and say “Wow!”’
Because I don’t really agree with those who say the Church has lost its way because it no longer preaches about sin. I think that the Church has lost its way because it no longer has a clear vision of the Kingdom of God.
Whatever we in the 21st century might think, the authors of Scripture thought that the Kingdom of God was going to be a literal, physical Kingdom. Jesus’ contemporaries thought that Jesus would return in their own lifetime and inaugurate this Kingdom. And ever since that first generation passed away, the Church has had to make sense of the fact that this has not yet happened.
Add to all of the above the baggage of our own generation and all the Second Coming predictions of wacky Christian sects (mostly American, of course) and it’s easy to see why we no longer have a clear vision of the Kingdom. The Kingdom seems rather embarrassing and somewhat superstitious.
But over and over in both the Old and New Testaments, we are told that in the Kingdom there will be two important things: 1) peace (Shalom) – there will be forgiveness and reconciliation, not just between God and humanity but also between people and, indeed peace in all creation; 2) and there will be justice for the poor, the meek and the oppressed. Their lives will be redeemed and seen to be of worth.
This was the vision of the Kingdom that fired John and Charles Wesley. They were worried about their own eternal, spiritual salvation to be sure, but they also had and communicated a clear vision of the Kingdom of God.
What makes you say Wow?
So what is it that makes us say ‘Wow!’? What will help us get a clear vision of The Kingdom? I suggest that this is an important question for every church in this circuit and for the circuit as a whole?
I want to leave you with one concrete example of something that made me say ‘Wow!’ Last week at Foley Park, we had a young woman named G come speak to us from an organisation called ‘Night Stop’.
Night Stop operates within the Wyre Forest District and it finds beds for homeless young people between the ages of 16 and 25. Volunteer hosts offer Night Stop’s clients a bed and meals in their own homes for between one and three nights until Night Stop can find them accommodation elsewhere.
G told us that a great many of these young people are homeless because they have been kicked out of the house by their parents. A good many of them are kicked out because their mother or father gets a new partner who doesn’t want them around and their parent sides with the new partner.
Someone asked about whether it was safe to take such a young person into their home and G told us that the clients are all vetted for suitability before being sent to host families. In fact, she said, many of the young people are suspicious of the hosts simply because they cannot understand the idea that a complete stranger would take them in for a few nights. This sort of kindness is something totally outside their experience.
She read to us a story written by one young woman who was taken in by Night Stop and who now works for them. Night Stop provided that young woman with the opportunity to make a new start and get her feet on the ground and feel like a worthwhile person. In turn, she wanted to help others in the same way.
Night Stop made me say ‘Wow!’ because I think it embodies everything that the Prophets and Jesus had to say about God’s Kingdom. It’s an example of human beings reaching out to other human beings. It provides young people with the possibility of turning their lives around and it is the embodiment of a ‘poor’ person finding some kind of justice and help. I think it is a small glimpse into the Kingdom of God.
Conclusion
As we go from our worship this morning, I want to invite all of us to repent. Or, as Frederick Buechner put it, I want to invite all of us to come to our senses and think about what is really important.
I want to invite us to spend less time being sorry about what has happened in the past and to spend more time thinking about what God is doing in the world that makes us say ‘Wow!’ And I want us to think about what it is that makes us say ‘Wow’! What makes us say ‘Wow’ as a circuit? As individual congregations and even as individual church members?
Is there something someone else in this church is doing that makes you say ‘Wow! I wish I could do that, but I can’t.’? Perhaps you can support that person in their ministry.
My prayer this morning is that each and every one of us will catch a vision of God’s Kingdom. I pray that we will be so enthused by this vision that we will say ‘Wow!’ and communicate our enthusiasm to others.
In the words of John the Baptist, my prayer is that, this Advent, we are all enabled to repent, because I believe that the Kingdom of God has indeed come near. Amen
----
1 Buechner, Frederick, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC; HarperOne, 1993, New York p. 79.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sunday 25 November 2007 - Christ the King
This sermon is based on: Luke 23:33-43
===
Introduction
Today we celebrate the festival of Christ the King. But today is also the last Sunday of the Church’s cycle of the seasons. With the coming of Advent next Sunday, a new cycle of festivals and seasons begins and we will prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ Child, God-with-us in human form.
And so as this old year draws to a close it’s fitting that we end the year by recognising and affirming the Kingship of Christ. And it’s fitting that we acknowledge our belief that he is the one who will rule in the coming Kingdom of God.
The issue I want to explore this morning, however, is what do we mean by the word ‘King’? And what does it mean to acknowledge Christ as our King?
A Royal Figurehead
Queen Elizabeth II is obviously not a King, but her reign probably embodies what it means to be a monarch of a Western country today.
As I’m sure you all know, the Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary this week,
but the celebration at Westminster Abbey of this partnership between two individuals was nevertheless a public affair because of the identity of the two people involved. As one newscaster put it, the marriage of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip has been a marriage that has always been punctuated by duty.
There are some people who think that they would fancy such duties as the Queen has, but I’m not one of them as I think that she has a demanding ‘job’. I actually think that she has what I’d call a pastoral role; she may not be a pastor in a church or in a school, but the nation does look to her in times of trouble to visit and encourage people - even if this is in a formal and official capacity.
And so the public admires the Queen - as it admired her parents - for her devotion to duty and her willingness to be among the people and encourage the nation.
And the Kings and Queens of other Western countries: The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, to name but a few, play a similar role in their own countries, albeit usually on a smaller scale. Although these royals are figureheads, they are nonetheless important figureheads who somehow embody the nation, its existence and its values.
I’m just not sure that our experience of Kings and Queens today is entirely what the early church meant when it talked about the image of Christ as King. Does the celebration of Christ the King bring to your mind a picture of a man remote but mild, dressed in royal finerery, for a state occasion? A figurehead, perhaps. A Head of State, perhaps. But not anyone with significant political power.
The Perils of Power
Ancient kings were certainly not figureheads and, even if they themselves were personally remote from the people, their decisions were anything but remote. Ancient kings may have been either good or bad, but they had power to significantly affect the lives of everyone under their rule.
Perhaps today’s equivalent of an ancient King is a Prime Minister, President or Ruling Political Party. The effects that a bad king could have on his people were significant and life altering.
We have only to look at Zimbabwe today to see one example the devastation that can be caused by a government wielding unfettered power against its citizens. This is a country where anyone who is even remotely suspected of being in opposition to the government is immediately imprisoned. Property is often confiscated and loved ones killed. In the summer of 2005, over 22,000 people in the slums of the capital of Harare were targeted because of their alleged opposition to the government; and people’s homes, communities and livelihoods were destroyed overnight. Today, many of the country’s own citizens do not have the basic necessities of life and South Africa recently reported that Zimbabwean refugees are regularly arriving in South Africa at the point of starvation.
This is an example of the horrible consequence of a modern government using unfettered power selfishly and for its own benefit. This is the kind of power that ancient kings had. They had not only the potential to for good but almost unfettered power to destroy the lives of their subjects.
God’s Reign Begins on the Cross
Scripture and Christian tradition, however, teach that the Kingship of Christ is something different.
Jesus is not a powerless, figurehead King who can only be pastoral. He is a King with real power for good or for evil. But his is also a King who refuses the temptation to enter into the game of Might Makes Right. Christ is King, but he refuses the temptation to play Superman.
When we understand this, we can begin to understand the significance of using Luke’s account of the crucifixion as the Gospel reading for the festival of Christ the King.
To wield unfettered power in the cause of Good was Jesus’ temptation in the desert and it’s the temptation that the unbelieving thief presents to him again in today’s Gospel reading: If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross and save us all. If you are the Son of God, throw yourself from the temple, gain political power and use that power to crush evil.
But Jesus is a King whose reign begins on the cross. And Christians throughout the ages have been forced to grapple with this image of a King who refuses to save himself in the way that we would normally expect: by coming down from the cross.
This image of a dying, defeated King who nonetheless claims victory is a scandalous image and it’s supposed to be a scandal. On this last Sunday in the church year, let’s not skip forward too quickly to Easter Sunday. And let’s not turn the crucifixion into some kind of transaction that is too easily understood as a simple exchange between Jesus and the Father.
Let’s sit for a moment and be confused and outraged by the image of a King who refuses to come down from the cross as we would have him do.
If we turn the story of Jesus into the story of a Superman who eventually does use the method of Might Makes Right to crush evil, we’ve missed the point. The Christian faith affirms the Kingship of Christ in defiance of everything that denies it, including his apparent defeat of the cross.
If we believe in Christ-as-Superman, we will be tempted to say – we would be right to say - ‘There is no God. If there were, where is our Superman God in Zimbabwe? Where is God in Bangladesh? Where is God in my personal suffering?’
But the Christian faith affirms that Christ reigns from the cross. Jesus told the second thief ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’. Joining Jesus had nothing to do with dying. It had everything to do with seeing beyond the appearance of defeat to the truth that somehow God is victorious in the cross.
This is this kind of faith that conquers fear and leads to freedom. This is this kind of faith that gives us the courage to imitate Christ and to live our own lives in the power of the crucifixion.
The Christian faith affirms that Christ on the cross is present in Zimbabwe, that Christ on the cross is present in Bangladesh and that Christ on the cross is present with us in our own personal suffering.
And that’s not meant to be a glib statement. It’s meant to be a troubling statement. It’s meant to provoke at least a little bit of outrage. It’s meant to be a statement of faith.
Conclusion
My prayer is that, as we come before the table of the Lord this morning, we grapple with this troubling, outrageous Christ. The King who gave up his life on the cross, who participates in the suffering of the world and who invites us, by the power of the Spirit, to do the same.
===
Introduction
Today we celebrate the festival of Christ the King. But today is also the last Sunday of the Church’s cycle of the seasons. With the coming of Advent next Sunday, a new cycle of festivals and seasons begins and we will prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ Child, God-with-us in human form.
And so as this old year draws to a close it’s fitting that we end the year by recognising and affirming the Kingship of Christ. And it’s fitting that we acknowledge our belief that he is the one who will rule in the coming Kingdom of God.
The issue I want to explore this morning, however, is what do we mean by the word ‘King’? And what does it mean to acknowledge Christ as our King?
A Royal Figurehead
Queen Elizabeth II is obviously not a King, but her reign probably embodies what it means to be a monarch of a Western country today.
As I’m sure you all know, the Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary this week,
but the celebration at Westminster Abbey of this partnership between two individuals was nevertheless a public affair because of the identity of the two people involved. As one newscaster put it, the marriage of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip has been a marriage that has always been punctuated by duty.
There are some people who think that they would fancy such duties as the Queen has, but I’m not one of them as I think that she has a demanding ‘job’. I actually think that she has what I’d call a pastoral role; she may not be a pastor in a church or in a school, but the nation does look to her in times of trouble to visit and encourage people - even if this is in a formal and official capacity.
And so the public admires the Queen - as it admired her parents - for her devotion to duty and her willingness to be among the people and encourage the nation.
And the Kings and Queens of other Western countries: The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, to name but a few, play a similar role in their own countries, albeit usually on a smaller scale. Although these royals are figureheads, they are nonetheless important figureheads who somehow embody the nation, its existence and its values.
I’m just not sure that our experience of Kings and Queens today is entirely what the early church meant when it talked about the image of Christ as King. Does the celebration of Christ the King bring to your mind a picture of a man remote but mild, dressed in royal finerery, for a state occasion? A figurehead, perhaps. A Head of State, perhaps. But not anyone with significant political power.
The Perils of Power
Ancient kings were certainly not figureheads and, even if they themselves were personally remote from the people, their decisions were anything but remote. Ancient kings may have been either good or bad, but they had power to significantly affect the lives of everyone under their rule.
Perhaps today’s equivalent of an ancient King is a Prime Minister, President or Ruling Political Party. The effects that a bad king could have on his people were significant and life altering.
We have only to look at Zimbabwe today to see one example the devastation that can be caused by a government wielding unfettered power against its citizens. This is a country where anyone who is even remotely suspected of being in opposition to the government is immediately imprisoned. Property is often confiscated and loved ones killed. In the summer of 2005, over 22,000 people in the slums of the capital of Harare were targeted because of their alleged opposition to the government; and people’s homes, communities and livelihoods were destroyed overnight. Today, many of the country’s own citizens do not have the basic necessities of life and South Africa recently reported that Zimbabwean refugees are regularly arriving in South Africa at the point of starvation.
This is an example of the horrible consequence of a modern government using unfettered power selfishly and for its own benefit. This is the kind of power that ancient kings had. They had not only the potential to for good but almost unfettered power to destroy the lives of their subjects.
God’s Reign Begins on the Cross
Scripture and Christian tradition, however, teach that the Kingship of Christ is something different.
Jesus is not a powerless, figurehead King who can only be pastoral. He is a King with real power for good or for evil. But his is also a King who refuses the temptation to enter into the game of Might Makes Right. Christ is King, but he refuses the temptation to play Superman.
When we understand this, we can begin to understand the significance of using Luke’s account of the crucifixion as the Gospel reading for the festival of Christ the King.
To wield unfettered power in the cause of Good was Jesus’ temptation in the desert and it’s the temptation that the unbelieving thief presents to him again in today’s Gospel reading: If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross and save us all. If you are the Son of God, throw yourself from the temple, gain political power and use that power to crush evil.
But Jesus is a King whose reign begins on the cross. And Christians throughout the ages have been forced to grapple with this image of a King who refuses to save himself in the way that we would normally expect: by coming down from the cross.
This image of a dying, defeated King who nonetheless claims victory is a scandalous image and it’s supposed to be a scandal. On this last Sunday in the church year, let’s not skip forward too quickly to Easter Sunday. And let’s not turn the crucifixion into some kind of transaction that is too easily understood as a simple exchange between Jesus and the Father.
Let’s sit for a moment and be confused and outraged by the image of a King who refuses to come down from the cross as we would have him do.
If we turn the story of Jesus into the story of a Superman who eventually does use the method of Might Makes Right to crush evil, we’ve missed the point. The Christian faith affirms the Kingship of Christ in defiance of everything that denies it, including his apparent defeat of the cross.
If we believe in Christ-as-Superman, we will be tempted to say – we would be right to say - ‘There is no God. If there were, where is our Superman God in Zimbabwe? Where is God in Bangladesh? Where is God in my personal suffering?’
But the Christian faith affirms that Christ reigns from the cross. Jesus told the second thief ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’. Joining Jesus had nothing to do with dying. It had everything to do with seeing beyond the appearance of defeat to the truth that somehow God is victorious in the cross.
This is this kind of faith that conquers fear and leads to freedom. This is this kind of faith that gives us the courage to imitate Christ and to live our own lives in the power of the crucifixion.
The Christian faith affirms that Christ on the cross is present in Zimbabwe, that Christ on the cross is present in Bangladesh and that Christ on the cross is present with us in our own personal suffering.
And that’s not meant to be a glib statement. It’s meant to be a troubling statement. It’s meant to provoke at least a little bit of outrage. It’s meant to be a statement of faith.
Conclusion
My prayer is that, as we come before the table of the Lord this morning, we grapple with this troubling, outrageous Christ. The King who gave up his life on the cross, who participates in the suffering of the world and who invites us, by the power of the Spirit, to do the same.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Sunday 30 September 2007 - Harvest Sharing
This is a sermon for Harvest Festival, based on 'a Christian theology of sharing'. The text is: Mark 6:30-44
===
Mark 6: 37 (NIV) But he answered, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"
Illustration - The Rice Market in Ghana
===
Mark 6: 37 (NIV) But he answered, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"
Illustration - The Rice Market in Ghana
Last Sunday evening, Channel 4 ran a television show called ‘The Great African Scandal’. It was produced by Channel 4’s religious department and featured the Christian theologian Robert Beckford. Beckford went to Ghana on the occasion of the 50th year of independence in order to understand how international trade policy has affected that country.
It’s important to understand that Ghana has had a democratically-elected government since independence and that it is a stable and free country. It’s also a country rich in natural resources, but it’s significantly poorer than it was ten years ago.
I’m going to tell you just one story from the programme, which is the story of rice. Rice is Ghana’s staple diet and it’s a staple for a reason. Because historically, Ghana’s land and climate was and is suited to the growing of rice.
And historically, the Ghanaian government gave small subsidies to Ghanaian subsistence farmers to support them on their farms to grow rice for their families and a bit extra for a living income.
But in the 1980s, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank demanded that the Ghanaian government stop subsidising its farmers on the grounds of free international trade. And then in the guise of ‘Aid to Ghana’, the American government began shipping subsidised American rice to Ghana, thus making life even harder for Ghanaian subsistence farmers.
We saw pictures of Ghanaian markets flooded with cheap American rice that is more refined and, according to one consumer, ‘more delicious’ than the indigenous product. The end result is that formerly thriving farming villages have been left in poverty and the land has been left fallow.
It’s not that the people are not willing to work - as Beckford found out, the work is extremely hard. It’s not the people are unable to work. It’s not that the land is poor or that the people do not have access to the materials they need to be farmers. It’s that international policy has decimated the domestic and international market for Ghanaian rice.
America and the international trade agencies have destroyed an entire sector of the Ghanaian economy whilst dressing up their destruction as ‘aid to Ghana’.
A Christian Ethic of Sharing
This is all quite a different scenario from verse 37 of this morning’s Gospel reading which suggests that disciples are called to feed others and not to impoverish them.
And so this morning, I want to talk about ‘Why Christians believe that God asks us to share with others’. Because, if we are Christians, the ‘why’ should be important to us.
It’s not just a question of having a vague idea that sharing is good thing or that it would make the world a better place. As Christians, we believe that ‘sharing with others’ is fundamental to who God is, to what we believe, and to the Gospel.
And key to this conviction about sharing is our views about the Kingdom of God and the role of the church in that Kingdom. When we talk about the Kingdom of God, we can only talk in allegorical images about something that we have not yet seen.
The Kingdom of God, the early Christians believed, would be a ‘Kingdom’ where God would reign as king. It would encompass the entire earth and, because God was its sovereign, all people would be treated with justice and fairness and would be fed, clothed and at peace with God and with each other.
In our modern understanding of life, the universe and everything, the idea of a world-wide Kingdom where God is sovereign doesn’t encompass all the ideas and concepts that need to be included in our understanding of the universe, but nonetheless it’s a useful allegory and picture for us.
So, using that picture, as Christians, our hope is that all believers will be resurrected into the Kingdom and that this realm where God’s justice, fairness and dignity reigns will be our home forever.
So what is the role of the church in bringing about this kingdom? I want to suggest to you that the role of the church is not simply to recruit new members to the Kingdom.
Live as if the Kingdom of God were already here
The role of the church is also to live as if we were already people of the Kingdom. To live as if we already inhabited a land where all citizens were regarded with equal worth, a land where true justice reigned and a land where forgiveness rather than revenge was the order of the day.
We are not just to hope to be citizens of the Kingdom in the next life.
We are called to live as if we were already in the Kingdom now. Of course, this is difficult when the world around us does not operate by Kingdom rules but rather often operates by rules of exploitation.
But as Christians, our ethical system is not based on ‘the greatest good for the greatest number of people’. We believe that God loves all people and endows each person with equal dignity through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Our ethical system is therefore based on the principle that we are to treat others with the same dignity and love that God does. Because it’s based on love, the Christian ethical system demands our personal involvement and it demands that we treat everyone as if they were family members: as if they were our brothers and sisters.
In his television programme, Robert Beckford commented that rich Ghanaians were treating poor Ghanaians, the ones who did all the work, as if they were people without feelings, emotions or souls. This is the way that the rich nations of the world treat the poor nations of the world and it’s something that we as Christians cannot condone, let alone bless.
As Christians, we share with other people because we believe they are our brothers and sisters. In our individual lives, we are therefore called to treat all people we encounter as brothers and sisters: as people with dignity, with feelings and with souls.
On a national and international level, we are also called to work against all powers and systems that enable the haves to exploit the have-nots. We can do this by voting, by campaigning for trade justice, by acts of charity which empower people and by supporting Fair Trade.
As we come to communion together in a few minutes, we will come as a local church community to feast with our Lord at his table. As we come to his table, let’s bring with us in our prayers those individuals we know who have yet to know the Lord and those individuals who are struggling in any way.
Let’s also bring in our prayers the families who are being helped by FARM Africa and let’s commit to do what we can for global justice.
I pray that, in our communion, we may all be empowered to live today as if the Kingdom of God is already here. Amen
Thursday, September 06, 2007
The Magical Seed Bush
The story below was written for a midweek fellowship group. It's based on Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52.
I give to readers the same caution that I gave to the fellowship group. This is a story. It's not an allegory. You can't focus on one character or thing and decide that it strictly represents such-and-such an idea.
People seem to listen more keenly to stories than to sermons. One member of the fellowship group told me that they had been thinking about my story all day.
Enjoy.
====
Once upon a time, there was a bush. But this bush wasn’t just an ordinary bush, it was a very special bush. Because this bush produced magical seeds.
Once the seeds were planted, you never knew what it was that they might grow into. The seeds might grow into a different kind of plant, or they might even grow into an animal, a person or a thing.
Very occasionally, the seeds grew into a magical seed bush, but only something like once in a lifetime. You see, the Creator knows that there shouldn’t be too many magical seed bush in the world.
+ + + +
One day, one of the seeds happened upon a clearing in the middle of the forest. The seed dropped on to the grass in the clearing, and it found itself burrowing deep into the ground: first one foot, then two feet, then five feet.
The seed lay buried deep below ground level for a number of years. Sometimes she wondered whether she had died, but then she realised that if she could wonder if she was dead, she probably wasn’t!
Then, one day, something happened. The seed felt a great sharp rush and then all of a sudden, a great chest appeared. It wasn’t like a chest of drawers, but something more like a treasure chest. Before the seed knew what was happening, a copper coin appeared inside the box, then a silver coin, then a gold coin. The treasure chest was being rapidly filled with copper, silver and gold coins. Not pennies and twenty-pence pieces and gold-coloured pound coins, but real gold, real silver and real copper.
After all those many years of the seed just lying underneath the ground, all of a sudden everything started happening in a rush. No sooner was the treasure chest filled with precious coins when suddenly there was the sound of digging. The five feet of earth that had covered the magic seed and which was now covering the treasure chest was being removed. And the sound of a man’s voice could be heard: ‘Hope! Come here and look at this!?’
Then the sound of a woman’s voice could be heard. Hope joined her husband Promise and they both stared down at the treasure chest. ‘Do you think we should open it?’ Promise asked Hope. ‘How could it hurt?’ she replied. Upon opening the treasure chest and seeing all the coins, Promise and Hope gasped. They lived in a poor village and never had either one of them seen that much silver and gold in their lives.
They looked at each other and realised that their prayers had been answered. The only problem was that the chest was simply too heavy to lift, so they quickly covered it with dirt again. Then they went and sold their home, their furniture and all their other possessions in order to buy the clearing in the forest where the treasure-chest lay.
Not too long later, Promise and Hope were finally able to come back to claim their treasure. They took all the gold coins, the sliver coins and the copper coins and sold them for their national currency. Then, in a celebration of thanks to God that their prayers had been answered, they were finally able to begin doing what they had always wanted to do: they built a hospital for the people of their village, indeed, for all the region around them. They were even able to build themselves a small house in the hospital compound and they began to offer medical treatment to the people in the region.
+ + + +
But let’s get back to that bush that produced the magical seeds. One of the seeds left the magical bush and it got caught up in a current of air. It floated beyond the forest, and it floated beyond the hills, and it floated beyond the plains until it landed several miles out to sea.
As it hit the salt water, this particular magical seed felt itself getting heaver and heaver and denser and denser. He looked to see what was happening and he realised that he had sunk to the bottom of the sea and had turned into a grain of sand. He was swallowed up by an oyster and before you could say ‘Bob’s your uncle’, the grain of sand started being covered by the oyster’s pearl. The grain of sand chuckled to himself thinking, ‘Ah yes, this is rather like being a seed.’
The grain of sand remained inside the oyster for many, many years. And because it was a magical grain of sand, the pearl that formed around it was perfectly coloured, perfectly smooth and absolutely, perfectly round. It was also very, very big. It was the biggest, roundest, most perfectly coloured pearl you’d ever seen in your life.
And then, one day, the oyster was caught up in a fishing net and the pearl found itself in the middle of the village in the hands of Prosper, one of the most successful of the village’s traders. Prosper was contemplating his next move with some glee. The clueless fishermen had sold him the pearl for almost nothing; well, it had been a handsome sum of money, but nowhere near what his Japanese jewllerly contacts would pay for it. This pearl was Prosper’s ticket out of the village. The big break that he had been waiting for all his life.
Prosper wanted to see the world and he was almost 60 now. His children were grown and he and his wife were healthy and fit. This pearl was his big chance to leave the village, travel and settle in the capital city where he and his wife could retire in luxury. No more village life, but a villa in the city with running water, electricity and access to all the entertainments the capital could offer. That was Prosper’s dream.
+ + + +
All that was, of course, before the magical seed bush began to work it’s magic once again. Another seed burst forth from the bush. It didn’t float too far this time. In fact, it floated right into Prosper’s kitchen where the cook was preparing bread for the entire household.
The seed landed in a very large vat that was filled with flour, milk and oil and the seed began to levan the bread. Forgetting that she hadn’t actually put the yeast in the vat at all, but smelling the yeast and noticing that the bread dough had risen, cook began to make loaf after loaf after loaf of bread in a quantity that was much larger than usual. In fact, there was so much bread, that cook had to give it away to people in the village.
And the bread had a very unusual effect on everyone who ate it. Some people continued to live their lives as they had done before but the vast majority started acting differently: some for the better and some for the worse. The strange thing was that you couldn’t really predict how individual people would change.
One young woman who seemed mostly unobtrusive but not very confident went off to the city and became a prostitute. A teenage boy who had always seemed angry became a successful cattle rancher. A middle-aged woman who had been tearful and depressed since her children married began to work in the village hospital as a midwife, teaching new mothers how to care for their babies.
And then, of course, there was Prosper. He’d eaten the magical bread too. Rather more of it than most people since it was his bread in the first place. And he changed too.
Prosper had sold the pearl of great price for, well, a great price. But after eating the magical bread, he lost all interest in moving to the city. And truth be told, he realised that he had a pretty good life in the village with his friends, family and community. One evening, he invited Promise and Hope and their hospital staff to his house for a feast and he informed them that he was giving all his wealth to the hospital.
From that time on, the village thrived. People with no money were able to come to the hospital and get medical care. They were able to make sure that their children were healthy, they learned how to care for themselves and their families and they got medicine when they needed it. Simple medicines, but ones that meant the difference between life and death to them.
What’s more, the magical bush kept working its magic. The people who really paid attention understood that lots of little bits of good luck were being generated around the village. A word of encouragement helped someone go out and do something good that they didn’t have confidence to do before, and the village prospered. Villagers who had bad luck often seemed to be miraculously helped by other people who couldn’t possibly have known about their difficulties.
And, contrary to all expectations, the more the village grew and prospered, the more people in the village looked out for each other. No one seemed to ask the question ‘What’s in it for me?’ Everyone seemed to ask the question: ‘Do my fellow villagers have enough? Are they eating? Are they healthy? Are they happy?’
Some people put all these changes down to the day that Promise and Hope started their hospital. Other people put it all down to the day that Prosper decided to give all his wealth to help the village to prosper. Other people, the ones who understood about the bread, put it down to the day that the goodhearted people in the village actually began to understand and to act on their hearts’ desires.
But no-body ever guessed the secret of the magical seed bush. And even though the bush continued to plant opportunities that could be used for good (or for evil) amongst the villagers, it didn’t ever produce another magical seed bush.
And then one day, for no apparent reason and for no apparent motive, someone looked at the bush and announced loudly: ‘This is a mustard bush! Mustard bushes are weeds! What do we want this thing for in our village? We must burn it!’
And so, with no further ado, the bush with the magical mustard seeds was burnt.
And the Creator declared that, from that day forward, it was to be the angels who would separate the evil from the righteous.
And the village itself continued to live…………ever after.
I give to readers the same caution that I gave to the fellowship group. This is a story. It's not an allegory. You can't focus on one character or thing and decide that it strictly represents such-and-such an idea.
People seem to listen more keenly to stories than to sermons. One member of the fellowship group told me that they had been thinking about my story all day.
Enjoy.
====
Once upon a time, there was a bush. But this bush wasn’t just an ordinary bush, it was a very special bush. Because this bush produced magical seeds.
Once the seeds were planted, you never knew what it was that they might grow into. The seeds might grow into a different kind of plant, or they might even grow into an animal, a person or a thing.
Very occasionally, the seeds grew into a magical seed bush, but only something like once in a lifetime. You see, the Creator knows that there shouldn’t be too many magical seed bush in the world.
One day, one of the seeds happened upon a clearing in the middle of the forest. The seed dropped on to the grass in the clearing, and it found itself burrowing deep into the ground: first one foot, then two feet, then five feet.
The seed lay buried deep below ground level for a number of years. Sometimes she wondered whether she had died, but then she realised that if she could wonder if she was dead, she probably wasn’t!
Then, one day, something happened. The seed felt a great sharp rush and then all of a sudden, a great chest appeared. It wasn’t like a chest of drawers, but something more like a treasure chest. Before the seed knew what was happening, a copper coin appeared inside the box, then a silver coin, then a gold coin. The treasure chest was being rapidly filled with copper, silver and gold coins. Not pennies and twenty-pence pieces and gold-coloured pound coins, but real gold, real silver and real copper.
After all those many years of the seed just lying underneath the ground, all of a sudden everything started happening in a rush. No sooner was the treasure chest filled with precious coins when suddenly there was the sound of digging. The five feet of earth that had covered the magic seed and which was now covering the treasure chest was being removed. And the sound of a man’s voice could be heard: ‘Hope! Come here and look at this!?’
Then the sound of a woman’s voice could be heard. Hope joined her husband Promise and they both stared down at the treasure chest. ‘Do you think we should open it?’ Promise asked Hope. ‘How could it hurt?’ she replied. Upon opening the treasure chest and seeing all the coins, Promise and Hope gasped. They lived in a poor village and never had either one of them seen that much silver and gold in their lives.
They looked at each other and realised that their prayers had been answered. The only problem was that the chest was simply too heavy to lift, so they quickly covered it with dirt again. Then they went and sold their home, their furniture and all their other possessions in order to buy the clearing in the forest where the treasure-chest lay.
Not too long later, Promise and Hope were finally able to come back to claim their treasure. They took all the gold coins, the sliver coins and the copper coins and sold them for their national currency. Then, in a celebration of thanks to God that their prayers had been answered, they were finally able to begin doing what they had always wanted to do: they built a hospital for the people of their village, indeed, for all the region around them. They were even able to build themselves a small house in the hospital compound and they began to offer medical treatment to the people in the region.
But let’s get back to that bush that produced the magical seeds. One of the seeds left the magical bush and it got caught up in a current of air. It floated beyond the forest, and it floated beyond the hills, and it floated beyond the plains until it landed several miles out to sea.
As it hit the salt water, this particular magical seed felt itself getting heaver and heaver and denser and denser. He looked to see what was happening and he realised that he had sunk to the bottom of the sea and had turned into a grain of sand. He was swallowed up by an oyster and before you could say ‘Bob’s your uncle’, the grain of sand started being covered by the oyster’s pearl. The grain of sand chuckled to himself thinking, ‘Ah yes, this is rather like being a seed.’
The grain of sand remained inside the oyster for many, many years. And because it was a magical grain of sand, the pearl that formed around it was perfectly coloured, perfectly smooth and absolutely, perfectly round. It was also very, very big. It was the biggest, roundest, most perfectly coloured pearl you’d ever seen in your life.
And then, one day, the oyster was caught up in a fishing net and the pearl found itself in the middle of the village in the hands of Prosper, one of the most successful of the village’s traders. Prosper was contemplating his next move with some glee. The clueless fishermen had sold him the pearl for almost nothing; well, it had been a handsome sum of money, but nowhere near what his Japanese jewllerly contacts would pay for it. This pearl was Prosper’s ticket out of the village. The big break that he had been waiting for all his life.
Prosper wanted to see the world and he was almost 60 now. His children were grown and he and his wife were healthy and fit. This pearl was his big chance to leave the village, travel and settle in the capital city where he and his wife could retire in luxury. No more village life, but a villa in the city with running water, electricity and access to all the entertainments the capital could offer. That was Prosper’s dream.
All that was, of course, before the magical seed bush began to work it’s magic once again. Another seed burst forth from the bush. It didn’t float too far this time. In fact, it floated right into Prosper’s kitchen where the cook was preparing bread for the entire household.
The seed landed in a very large vat that was filled with flour, milk and oil and the seed began to levan the bread. Forgetting that she hadn’t actually put the yeast in the vat at all, but smelling the yeast and noticing that the bread dough had risen, cook began to make loaf after loaf after loaf of bread in a quantity that was much larger than usual. In fact, there was so much bread, that cook had to give it away to people in the village.
And the bread had a very unusual effect on everyone who ate it. Some people continued to live their lives as they had done before but the vast majority started acting differently: some for the better and some for the worse. The strange thing was that you couldn’t really predict how individual people would change.
One young woman who seemed mostly unobtrusive but not very confident went off to the city and became a prostitute. A teenage boy who had always seemed angry became a successful cattle rancher. A middle-aged woman who had been tearful and depressed since her children married began to work in the village hospital as a midwife, teaching new mothers how to care for their babies.
And then, of course, there was Prosper. He’d eaten the magical bread too. Rather more of it than most people since it was his bread in the first place. And he changed too.
Prosper had sold the pearl of great price for, well, a great price. But after eating the magical bread, he lost all interest in moving to the city. And truth be told, he realised that he had a pretty good life in the village with his friends, family and community. One evening, he invited Promise and Hope and their hospital staff to his house for a feast and he informed them that he was giving all his wealth to the hospital.
From that time on, the village thrived. People with no money were able to come to the hospital and get medical care. They were able to make sure that their children were healthy, they learned how to care for themselves and their families and they got medicine when they needed it. Simple medicines, but ones that meant the difference between life and death to them.
What’s more, the magical bush kept working its magic. The people who really paid attention understood that lots of little bits of good luck were being generated around the village. A word of encouragement helped someone go out and do something good that they didn’t have confidence to do before, and the village prospered. Villagers who had bad luck often seemed to be miraculously helped by other people who couldn’t possibly have known about their difficulties.
And, contrary to all expectations, the more the village grew and prospered, the more people in the village looked out for each other. No one seemed to ask the question ‘What’s in it for me?’ Everyone seemed to ask the question: ‘Do my fellow villagers have enough? Are they eating? Are they healthy? Are they happy?’
Some people put all these changes down to the day that Promise and Hope started their hospital. Other people put it all down to the day that Prosper decided to give all his wealth to help the village to prosper. Other people, the ones who understood about the bread, put it down to the day that the goodhearted people in the village actually began to understand and to act on their hearts’ desires.
But no-body ever guessed the secret of the magical seed bush. And even though the bush continued to plant opportunities that could be used for good (or for evil) amongst the villagers, it didn’t ever produce another magical seed bush.
And then one day, for no apparent reason and for no apparent motive, someone looked at the bush and announced loudly: ‘This is a mustard bush! Mustard bushes are weeds! What do we want this thing for in our village? We must burn it!’
And so, with no further ado, the bush with the magical mustard seeds was burnt.
And the Creator declared that, from that day forward, it was to be the angels who would separate the evil from the righteous.
And the village itself continued to live…………ever after.
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