This was the last sermon I gave at my post in the Kidderminster and Stourport Circuit; it was given at an ecumenical service of Holy Communion that worshiped together every Wednesday.
The sermon is based on John 12:1-8.
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Introduction
Today the church celebrates the festival of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Our Gospel reading for today contains all three of these characters as well as Jesus, but it also contains another character: Judas.
If you were going to make a film out of this morning’s story, I reckon that you could turn this into quite an uncomfortable scene.
Lazarus has just been raised from the dead in the previous chapter and, although the text doesn’t say it explicitly, we imagine that Jesus is having a celebratory meal with these friends who he loves. Mary then does something that would be as embarrassing as someone in our society hiking her skirt up to her thighs.
In my imaginary film I can just see Judas portrayed as a model of calm and sensibleness, looking at Mary with an attitude of pity and announcing: “The money you spent on all the drink you’ve just poured down yourself could have been given to poor”…
So when Jesus opens his mouth to speak, we expect that he’s going to take Judas’ part and tell Mary to calm down and stop making everyone uncomfortable. But instead Jesus tells Judas to leave her alone. And the narrator tells us that Mary’s heart is right with God and that Judas’ is not.
Resurrection
Although today is the feast of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, it’s the character of Judas who is the foil that helps us learn from the example of these three siblings.
Let’s think about the difference between the Judas and Lazarus to start with. Lazarus has experienced resurrection and Judas has not.
None of us has any idea of what it would feel like to be resurrected, but there are people in our culture who have had near death experiences. It seems to me that one universal outcome of such experiences is that people often have a sense of the true meaning and the true value of life.
I imagine that Lazarus might feel that he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. He’d lost his life but now he’s found it again and every moment, every day, every taste of food, every drink, every moment shared with a loved one is a sweet and joyful bonus.
Judas, I imagine, thinks that life is much more serious than this. Life is about freedom from political oppression and Judas will stop at nothing to get it.
But although Judas is serious and apparently lacking in a certain degree of empathy, we are also told that he is not straight. Judas’ serious outlook toward life did not prevent him from stealing from the common purse.
Lazarus, along with Jesus, is on the right side of resurrection.
The readers of this story are invited to be on the right side of resurrection as well: the poor will always be with you until the resurrection of the dead and the kingdom of God has come.
Turn your sights to the day when God’s children will live in true freedom. Be like Lazarus and live the resurrection life today.
Workers for the Kingdom
Then we have Martha.
Poor old Martha; I always think she gets a bit of a raw deal. Martha does all the work of the kingdom behind the scenes and, although she always gets mentioned, the picture I have of her is as some sort of generic worker-bee.
And it’s the Marthas – male and female – who are the backbone of the Church, and often the backbone of society’s army of carers. People who quietly do the work of God asking for no recognition or reward who often influence the lives of many for good.
Here again, though, is a contrast with Judas.
I imagine the Judas thought of himself as working for the coming of the Kingdom of God. But I suspect that he also wanted that kingdom to come in a blaze of earthly glory. And I somehow doubt that he would have been content to fade into the background.
Martha, unlike Judas, understands what the real work of the Kingdom is. We are called to be like Martha. When we work, we work for Jesus and for the Kingdom of God. We do not work for personal glory or gain.
Prophets for the Kingdom
And then we have Mary.
Mary the sister who sits at the feet of Jesus learning from him. But Mary who also embarrassingly proclaims her love for Jesus in today’s text.
Mary is something of a prophet. She is happy to ignore what is normally expected in society in order to learn from Jesus. And she is happy to embarrass herself in order to proclaim the profound truth about Jesus: Against all expectations of what the Messiah will be like, Jesus will have to die in order rise again.
The Messiah does not look like what the world expected. The Messiah will not bring about the Kingdom of God the way that the world expected.
That, of course, is the great contrast between Judas and Mary.
Judas insisted that Jesus must follow his expectations. And when Jesus’ Messiahship didn’t follow the pattern that Judas wanted, he was willing to betray Jesus. Mary learned from Jesus. Judas expected Jesus to learn from him.
Need I say: be like Mary, learning from Jesus. Do not make God in your own image.
Conclusion
Mary, Martha and Lazarus appear to have been amongst Jesus’ closest friends during his earthly life.
But we celebrate their lives not simply because of their intimacy with Jesus, but because they represent three important aspects of being a follower of Jesus. Resurrection life, active discipleship, and the willingness to pray and learn from Christ.
As we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together this morning, I pray that we all may be strengthened for the journey ahead. May we learn from Christ, may we seek to follow him actively and may we always keep our eyes on the resurrection. Amen
Showing posts with label discipleship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discipleship. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sunday 12 July 2009 - Sow Love, Reap Hope
This sermon is based on Ephesians 1:1-14 and Mark 6:14-29. This was also the last sermon that I preached at one of my four churches.
====
Introduction
What a contrast we have in the two different readings assigned for today.
The first reading we heard was from the letter to the Ephesians: a letter that is dedicated to explaining the covenant relationship between Christ and his Church universal.
The particular reading that we heard this morning/evening from the beginning of the letter was written in a style that would have been familiar to people in the Greek and Roman world. It’s a eulogy of praise that people might have heard given at a banquet in honour of a wealthy patron. Except that here the words of praise are not directed at a human being but toward God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.
The second reading we heard this morning/evening was from the Gospel of Mark as the assigned readings continue through the 6th chapter of Mark. This reading is quite a contrast from the glorious opening verses of the letter to the Ephesians. Here we have a dark story: a powerful man (Herod) who recognizes the prophetic calling of a man of God, but who nonetheless allows the forces of jealousy, anger and hatred to have their way. And John the Baptist is killed because of the evil intentions that Herodias has been harbouring in her heart toward John the Baptist.
It occurred to me that there is a contrast in these two readings between different attitudes of the heart:
The first reading expresses all sorts of Godly and constructive perspectives: the praise of God, gratefulness, unity with God and with fellow Christians, forgiveness, grace, wisdom, goodness, hope, abundant life, truth, redemption and good news.
But the second reading is a lesson in evil. We see that evil arises from wrong-doing and from anger and vindictiveness.
We also see illustrated in this story the fact that evil is given free reign when good people do nothing to stop it.
So my thought for today is ‘Be careful what you wish for’. Or maybe more accurately, ‘Be careful what you think’
Keep your Eye on the Goal
Many moons ago, my husband and I decided that we were going to take golfing lessons together. I still can’t really play golf because I never learned how to use a driver, but that’s a different story.
As those of you who do play golf know (and pardon me if I’m teaching my grandfathers to suck eggs but) this is a game that is not just physical, but it is also mental.
And one of the things that our golfing instructor taught us was that we should visualize where we wanted the ball to go before we took a shot. If we wanted to get the ball on the green, we should visualize not only the green but also the hole that we were aiming for. He also pointed out that the worst possible thing that we could do would be to think ‘Don’t go into the sand trap, don’t go into the sand trap.’
Guess why? Because our brains would be thinking about the sand-trap and visualizing the sand-trap and that’s exactly where the ball would end up going. The combination of the physics of golf and the leverage involved in the game somehow manage to transmit your thoughts into physical action and to have a real effect on the direction of the ball.
As you think, so shall you reap.
Herodias’ thoughts were apparently on revenge. We are not given any details about what Herodias, Herod’s wife, thought and felt prior to asking her daughter for the head of John the Baptist, but we can well imagine the strength of emotion behind this request. How long had Herodias been rehearsing this day in her head? How long had she been wishing for John to get his comeuppance? She certainly seized the opportunity to initiate his death the minute the opportunity presented itself.
In a foreshadowing of Pilate’s role in Jesus’ crucifixion, we get the impression that Herod would rather let John the Baptist go all things being equal. But events seem to have taken on their own momentum and ordering the death of this holy man is now Herod’s safest option.
Herodias’ evil thoughts led to evil being unleashed in to the world.
A World of Grace and Hope
But look at the contrast with this morning’s Epistle reading.
We move from a world of evil to a world of grace and of hope. We move from a world ruled by the forces of chaotic, incoherent evil to a world ruled by mercy, by grace and by hope. We’ve moved from the Kingdom of Evil to the Kingdom of God on earth.
I suppose that one lesson you could take from what our golf teacher taught Trevor and me is the ‘power of positive thinking’.
But the power of God’s Kingdom isn’t just the power of positive thinking. All the positive thinking in the world isn’t going to do anyone any good if hope isn’t real, if the Kingdom of God isn’t real. The words that the author of the letter to the Ephesians uses are powerful words precisely because they are expressions of the underlying truth of God’s rule.
It is certainly true that there is evil in the world. Today’s Gospel story reminds us of its power. But the Good News that Christians proclaim is that, in Christ, the powers of evil and chaos and confusion have been conquered.
That means that we do have real choices, under God, about the influence we have on the world around us. It is not futile to hope. It is not futile to seek to do what is right. It is not futile to forgive.
The choices made by God’s people can and do help to further the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God.
And it is by being careful to tune our hearts and minds in to the will of God that we can be used, as God’s church, for agents of good in the world.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the task of a Christian preacher is both very easy and very difficult. The easy bit is the Gospel message.
The Gospel of Christ is that creation has been set free from the powers of evil and that human beings have real power to choose good. The Gospel of Christ is about the fact that God loves each and every individual and wants to draw each person to him.
The difficult bit for the preacher is that we need to find 50 or more different ways to say this every year!
But, I think that, most of us understand intuitively what is important in life and that is love in all its various aspects and relationship in all its various aspects: with God and with other people.
By turning both our thoughts and our deeds in God’s direction, we gain practice in all those things described in the introduction to Ephesians: The praise of God, gratefulness, unity with God and with our fellow human beings, forgiveness, grace, wisdom, goodness, hope, abundant life, truth, redemption and good news.
My prayer this morning is that, as we prepare for our ways to part from one another on this stage of our journey, we may all grow in the grace and knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To him be all the glory for ever and ever. Amen
====
Introduction
What a contrast we have in the two different readings assigned for today.
The first reading we heard was from the letter to the Ephesians: a letter that is dedicated to explaining the covenant relationship between Christ and his Church universal.
The particular reading that we heard this morning/evening from the beginning of the letter was written in a style that would have been familiar to people in the Greek and Roman world. It’s a eulogy of praise that people might have heard given at a banquet in honour of a wealthy patron. Except that here the words of praise are not directed at a human being but toward God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.
The second reading we heard this morning/evening was from the Gospel of Mark as the assigned readings continue through the 6th chapter of Mark. This reading is quite a contrast from the glorious opening verses of the letter to the Ephesians. Here we have a dark story: a powerful man (Herod) who recognizes the prophetic calling of a man of God, but who nonetheless allows the forces of jealousy, anger and hatred to have their way. And John the Baptist is killed because of the evil intentions that Herodias has been harbouring in her heart toward John the Baptist.
It occurred to me that there is a contrast in these two readings between different attitudes of the heart:
The first reading expresses all sorts of Godly and constructive perspectives: the praise of God, gratefulness, unity with God and with fellow Christians, forgiveness, grace, wisdom, goodness, hope, abundant life, truth, redemption and good news.
But the second reading is a lesson in evil. We see that evil arises from wrong-doing and from anger and vindictiveness.
We also see illustrated in this story the fact that evil is given free reign when good people do nothing to stop it.
So my thought for today is ‘Be careful what you wish for’. Or maybe more accurately, ‘Be careful what you think’
Keep your Eye on the Goal
Many moons ago, my husband and I decided that we were going to take golfing lessons together. I still can’t really play golf because I never learned how to use a driver, but that’s a different story.
As those of you who do play golf know (and pardon me if I’m teaching my grandfathers to suck eggs but) this is a game that is not just physical, but it is also mental.
And one of the things that our golfing instructor taught us was that we should visualize where we wanted the ball to go before we took a shot. If we wanted to get the ball on the green, we should visualize not only the green but also the hole that we were aiming for. He also pointed out that the worst possible thing that we could do would be to think ‘Don’t go into the sand trap, don’t go into the sand trap.’
Guess why? Because our brains would be thinking about the sand-trap and visualizing the sand-trap and that’s exactly where the ball would end up going. The combination of the physics of golf and the leverage involved in the game somehow manage to transmit your thoughts into physical action and to have a real effect on the direction of the ball.
As you think, so shall you reap.
Herodias’ thoughts were apparently on revenge. We are not given any details about what Herodias, Herod’s wife, thought and felt prior to asking her daughter for the head of John the Baptist, but we can well imagine the strength of emotion behind this request. How long had Herodias been rehearsing this day in her head? How long had she been wishing for John to get his comeuppance? She certainly seized the opportunity to initiate his death the minute the opportunity presented itself.
In a foreshadowing of Pilate’s role in Jesus’ crucifixion, we get the impression that Herod would rather let John the Baptist go all things being equal. But events seem to have taken on their own momentum and ordering the death of this holy man is now Herod’s safest option.
Herodias’ evil thoughts led to evil being unleashed in to the world.
A World of Grace and Hope
But look at the contrast with this morning’s Epistle reading.
We move from a world of evil to a world of grace and of hope. We move from a world ruled by the forces of chaotic, incoherent evil to a world ruled by mercy, by grace and by hope. We’ve moved from the Kingdom of Evil to the Kingdom of God on earth.
I suppose that one lesson you could take from what our golf teacher taught Trevor and me is the ‘power of positive thinking’.
But the power of God’s Kingdom isn’t just the power of positive thinking. All the positive thinking in the world isn’t going to do anyone any good if hope isn’t real, if the Kingdom of God isn’t real. The words that the author of the letter to the Ephesians uses are powerful words precisely because they are expressions of the underlying truth of God’s rule.
It is certainly true that there is evil in the world. Today’s Gospel story reminds us of its power. But the Good News that Christians proclaim is that, in Christ, the powers of evil and chaos and confusion have been conquered.
That means that we do have real choices, under God, about the influence we have on the world around us. It is not futile to hope. It is not futile to seek to do what is right. It is not futile to forgive.
The choices made by God’s people can and do help to further the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God.
And it is by being careful to tune our hearts and minds in to the will of God that we can be used, as God’s church, for agents of good in the world.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the task of a Christian preacher is both very easy and very difficult. The easy bit is the Gospel message.
The Gospel of Christ is that creation has been set free from the powers of evil and that human beings have real power to choose good. The Gospel of Christ is about the fact that God loves each and every individual and wants to draw each person to him.
The difficult bit for the preacher is that we need to find 50 or more different ways to say this every year!
But, I think that, most of us understand intuitively what is important in life and that is love in all its various aspects and relationship in all its various aspects: with God and with other people.
By turning both our thoughts and our deeds in God’s direction, we gain practice in all those things described in the introduction to Ephesians: The praise of God, gratefulness, unity with God and with our fellow human beings, forgiveness, grace, wisdom, goodness, hope, abundant life, truth, redemption and good news.
My prayer this morning is that, as we prepare for our ways to part from one another on this stage of our journey, we may all grow in the grace and knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To him be all the glory for ever and ever. 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
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
Monday, September 10, 2007
Sunday 9 September 2007 - Take Up Your Cross
The sermon below is based on Luke 14:25-33 with a short reference to the Old Testament reading, Jeremiah 18:1-11.
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A Warning
The heading in my bible pretty well sums up the message in this morning’s Gospel reading. The heading is: ‘The Cost of Discipleship’.
Imagine a politician campaigning for office[1] who gets up at the rostrum and tells his or her expectant listeners: ‘Vote for me and your life will be more difficult than it is now. If I’m elected, there will be sacrifices to make. You may lose your homes and your family.’ I wonder what the reaction would be to such a campaign speech? I actually doubt that the reaction would be booing or jeering because I reckon that it’s quite possible that the crowd might be stunned into silence. It’s not exactly the kind of thing you expect to hear from a politician.
But the thing is, today’s Gospel reading is not a campaign speech and it’s not a recruitment speech. Jesus isn’t trying to convince people to follow him. On the contrary, Jesus is addressing a crowd of admirers who are more than eager – at least they think that they are eager – to become his disciples.
And Jesus is trying to give them an informed picture of what exactly is involved in following him. Rather than thinking of him as a politician campaigning for office, it might be more accurate to think of Jesus as a mountain guide, leading an expedition through the mountains to bring life-saving supplies to a remote village. Jesus is not threatening us, but simply informing us of the very real costs of being his disciples.
And what is the cost of being a disciple of Jesus? At least according to this passage in Luke? The cost is that we are called to prefer the way of Jesus to the way of the world. If circumstances require it, Jesus is exhorting us to bear our own cross for the sake of his name.
Hate Your Family?
Before we go any further, I want to take a side-track for a minute and focus on verse 26, where my text reads (NRSV) ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.’
I think that we need to understand the word ‘hate’ the way that Jesus’ hearers would have done. There was a Jewish expression that went: ‘I love A and I hate B’. It was a way of expressing a strong preference. So, if you were to say ‘I love the Japanese and I hate the Chinese’, it wouldn’t mean ‘Every time I meet a Chinese person, I become filled with fury and upset and it’s just about all I can to do keep from punching that person the face.’ The expression would have meant something more like ‘I have a strong preference for Japanese people over Chinese people.’
So, I want to caution us against thinking that Jesus wants us to hate the members of our family. Such a message does not make sense in the light of Great Commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves nor does it make sense in the light of the commandment to honour our fathers and our mothers.
Bearing Our Crosses
The warning that we are being given from Jesus – our guide who is leading us across a perilous mountain path so that we can bring necessary aid to a suffering world – is that his disciples are to be willing to give up the comforts of this world, our families and our possessions, if we are called upon to do so for the sake of the gospel.
More specifically, we are called to bear the crosses that we are given.
As I think I’ve said before, the biblical concept of ‘bearing our cross’ is about what we are willing to do for the sake of Christ and for the sake of being true to the Gospel. In the bible, the concept of ‘bearing our cross’ does not refer to persevering in the face of illness or tragedy, even if we use the expression in this way today.
It is about sitting lightly to the values of this world in order that all our focus may be on the values of the Kingdom of God. We can certainly enjoy all the blessings that God has given us, but we are to understand that these are not ends in themselves. Christ asks us to be willing to let go of them for his sake, if we are called to do so.
But for many of us, this is not the message that we want hear and it’s not the kind of God we want. God calls us to trust in him to guide us to stand up for Kingdom values, but if we’re honest with ourselves, what we want is a magical magician God who will sort things out for us.
And so some people in our culture protest: There cannot be a good God because otherwise, innocent children would not die. They say that if they cannot have the God with the magic wand who spares all innocent children from injury and destruction, then they are not prepared to believe in God at all.
But Christians are guilty of wanting to believe in the Magical God myth as well. In one version of this myth we declare that God will give his followers status, wealth and prosperity in this world on the condition that we ‘have enough faith’. Or another, subtler version of this is to turn our Christian faith into a transaction where we exchange our conversion for an admission ticket into heaven.
But in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is telling us that being a Christian is not about believing in a Magical God. And that being his disciple is not just about some sort of transaction that lets us into heaven. Jesus is telling us that being his disciple might possibly involve turning our backs on the values of our society and choosing to bear a cross for his sake.
We are not going to get our magical God; but we will be called to bear a cross. Every Christian is called to make choices between following the ways of this world and following the ways of God.
In some countries, being a Christian can very literally put your life in danger. In our culture, being a Christian means being called to use our time, energy and money for goals that are different from those of the world. We are stewards of our resources and our goal is the Kingdom of God where justice and righteousness reign. Christians are not meant to use the precious resources we have been given by God for our own fame, fortune or security.
Imitate Jesus
The images used in the rest of this morning’s gospel readings are interesting ones.
Who would build a tower without a proper foundation? The same people, perhaps, who would build a temple as a focus of national pride but where the true worship of God was absent?
What kind of king would prepare for war without considering whether or not he could win the war? The same kind of king who thought that the war that the Messiah was to fight would be a war against the Romans rather than a war against the forces of Evil?
Who would think that following Jesus meant getting on the bandwagon of the conquering Messiah for an easy ride into the Kingdom of God? Who would think that following the Messiah meant fame, fortune and security? Well, probably the crowd of people who were following Jesus. After all, he had to warn them that being his disciple was difficult rather than easy.
These people probably didn’t want to follow Jesus in order to give anything up. The wanted to follow Jesus in order to enjoy what they had and to get more. (Unlike us, of course!) And Jesus is warning them (and us): being his disciple is not like joining a pleasant hike on a rolling hillside on a sunny summer afternoon. To be his disciple is to be called to navigate dangerous mountain paths in order to bring needed medicine to the world.
To be a disciple of Jesus is to be called to imitate Jesus.
To imitate Jesus is to proclaim the love of God to those who are not respectable and to associate with people who others will not associate with. To imitate Jesus is to proclaim God’s message of justice to people who have enough power to destroy us. To imitate Jesus is visit those who are sick and in prison.
All of this is difficult work. All of it is costly. But Jesus told us that to follow him is to bear our cross.
He also told us that we were not capable of doing this on our own but that he would send us the Holy Spirit to help us to imitate him. Using Jeremiah’s image, God will form us into the kind of vessels he wants us to be if we will let him.
When we get it wrong – as we all will from time to time – God will not dispose of the clay, but will continue to work to reshape us until we become the creations that he wants us to be.
Conclusion
In a few minutes, we will come to the table of the Lord, a physical sign and symbol of the Kingdom of God on earth where Jesus promised to be present among us. In the prayer called the Great Thanksgiving which we pray before receiving communion, we remember Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross.
We remember that, before sacrificing himself for us, Jesus promised to meet our own weakness, pain and suffering with his presence. We remember that Christ is here and that his Spirit is always with us.
As we come to his communion table, I pray that each one of us will ask Jesus to shape us as according to his will. And I pray that we will each be strengthened for the journey as we meet our risen Lord. Amen
----
[1] Illustrations of the politician and the mountain guide taken from: Wright, Tom; Luke for Everyone; SPCK, London 2001. p. 180.
=====
A Warning
The heading in my bible pretty well sums up the message in this morning’s Gospel reading. The heading is: ‘The Cost of Discipleship’.
Imagine a politician campaigning for office[1] who gets up at the rostrum and tells his or her expectant listeners: ‘Vote for me and your life will be more difficult than it is now. If I’m elected, there will be sacrifices to make. You may lose your homes and your family.’ I wonder what the reaction would be to such a campaign speech? I actually doubt that the reaction would be booing or jeering because I reckon that it’s quite possible that the crowd might be stunned into silence. It’s not exactly the kind of thing you expect to hear from a politician.
But the thing is, today’s Gospel reading is not a campaign speech and it’s not a recruitment speech. Jesus isn’t trying to convince people to follow him. On the contrary, Jesus is addressing a crowd of admirers who are more than eager – at least they think that they are eager – to become his disciples.
And Jesus is trying to give them an informed picture of what exactly is involved in following him. Rather than thinking of him as a politician campaigning for office, it might be more accurate to think of Jesus as a mountain guide, leading an expedition through the mountains to bring life-saving supplies to a remote village. Jesus is not threatening us, but simply informing us of the very real costs of being his disciples.
And what is the cost of being a disciple of Jesus? At least according to this passage in Luke? The cost is that we are called to prefer the way of Jesus to the way of the world. If circumstances require it, Jesus is exhorting us to bear our own cross for the sake of his name.
Hate Your Family?
Before we go any further, I want to take a side-track for a minute and focus on verse 26, where my text reads (NRSV) ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.’
I think that we need to understand the word ‘hate’ the way that Jesus’ hearers would have done. There was a Jewish expression that went: ‘I love A and I hate B’. It was a way of expressing a strong preference. So, if you were to say ‘I love the Japanese and I hate the Chinese’, it wouldn’t mean ‘Every time I meet a Chinese person, I become filled with fury and upset and it’s just about all I can to do keep from punching that person the face.’ The expression would have meant something more like ‘I have a strong preference for Japanese people over Chinese people.’
So, I want to caution us against thinking that Jesus wants us to hate the members of our family. Such a message does not make sense in the light of Great Commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves nor does it make sense in the light of the commandment to honour our fathers and our mothers.
Bearing Our Crosses
The warning that we are being given from Jesus – our guide who is leading us across a perilous mountain path so that we can bring necessary aid to a suffering world – is that his disciples are to be willing to give up the comforts of this world, our families and our possessions, if we are called upon to do so for the sake of the gospel.
More specifically, we are called to bear the crosses that we are given.
As I think I’ve said before, the biblical concept of ‘bearing our cross’ is about what we are willing to do for the sake of Christ and for the sake of being true to the Gospel. In the bible, the concept of ‘bearing our cross’ does not refer to persevering in the face of illness or tragedy, even if we use the expression in this way today.
It is about sitting lightly to the values of this world in order that all our focus may be on the values of the Kingdom of God. We can certainly enjoy all the blessings that God has given us, but we are to understand that these are not ends in themselves. Christ asks us to be willing to let go of them for his sake, if we are called to do so.
But for many of us, this is not the message that we want hear and it’s not the kind of God we want. God calls us to trust in him to guide us to stand up for Kingdom values, but if we’re honest with ourselves, what we want is a magical magician God who will sort things out for us.
And so some people in our culture protest: There cannot be a good God because otherwise, innocent children would not die. They say that if they cannot have the God with the magic wand who spares all innocent children from injury and destruction, then they are not prepared to believe in God at all.
But Christians are guilty of wanting to believe in the Magical God myth as well. In one version of this myth we declare that God will give his followers status, wealth and prosperity in this world on the condition that we ‘have enough faith’. Or another, subtler version of this is to turn our Christian faith into a transaction where we exchange our conversion for an admission ticket into heaven.
But in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is telling us that being a Christian is not about believing in a Magical God. And that being his disciple is not just about some sort of transaction that lets us into heaven. Jesus is telling us that being his disciple might possibly involve turning our backs on the values of our society and choosing to bear a cross for his sake.
We are not going to get our magical God; but we will be called to bear a cross. Every Christian is called to make choices between following the ways of this world and following the ways of God.
In some countries, being a Christian can very literally put your life in danger. In our culture, being a Christian means being called to use our time, energy and money for goals that are different from those of the world. We are stewards of our resources and our goal is the Kingdom of God where justice and righteousness reign. Christians are not meant to use the precious resources we have been given by God for our own fame, fortune or security.
Imitate Jesus
The images used in the rest of this morning’s gospel readings are interesting ones.
Who would build a tower without a proper foundation? The same people, perhaps, who would build a temple as a focus of national pride but where the true worship of God was absent?
What kind of king would prepare for war without considering whether or not he could win the war? The same kind of king who thought that the war that the Messiah was to fight would be a war against the Romans rather than a war against the forces of Evil?
Who would think that following Jesus meant getting on the bandwagon of the conquering Messiah for an easy ride into the Kingdom of God? Who would think that following the Messiah meant fame, fortune and security? Well, probably the crowd of people who were following Jesus. After all, he had to warn them that being his disciple was difficult rather than easy.
These people probably didn’t want to follow Jesus in order to give anything up. The wanted to follow Jesus in order to enjoy what they had and to get more. (Unlike us, of course!) And Jesus is warning them (and us): being his disciple is not like joining a pleasant hike on a rolling hillside on a sunny summer afternoon. To be his disciple is to be called to navigate dangerous mountain paths in order to bring needed medicine to the world.
To be a disciple of Jesus is to be called to imitate Jesus.
To imitate Jesus is to proclaim the love of God to those who are not respectable and to associate with people who others will not associate with. To imitate Jesus is to proclaim God’s message of justice to people who have enough power to destroy us. To imitate Jesus is visit those who are sick and in prison.
All of this is difficult work. All of it is costly. But Jesus told us that to follow him is to bear our cross.
He also told us that we were not capable of doing this on our own but that he would send us the Holy Spirit to help us to imitate him. Using Jeremiah’s image, God will form us into the kind of vessels he wants us to be if we will let him.
When we get it wrong – as we all will from time to time – God will not dispose of the clay, but will continue to work to reshape us until we become the creations that he wants us to be.
Conclusion
In a few minutes, we will come to the table of the Lord, a physical sign and symbol of the Kingdom of God on earth where Jesus promised to be present among us. In the prayer called the Great Thanksgiving which we pray before receiving communion, we remember Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross.
We remember that, before sacrificing himself for us, Jesus promised to meet our own weakness, pain and suffering with his presence. We remember that Christ is here and that his Spirit is always with us.
As we come to his communion table, I pray that each one of us will ask Jesus to shape us as according to his will. And I pray that we will each be strengthened for the journey as we meet our risen Lord. Amen
----
[1] Illustrations of the politician and the mountain guide taken from: Wright, Tom; Luke for Everyone; SPCK, London 2001. p. 180.
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.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Sunday 5 August 2007 - Greed
This sermon is based on Luke 12:13-21
Introduction
(Luke 12: 15) Take care! Be on your guard again all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
This morning’s Gospel reading is often called ‘the Parable of the Rich fool.’ But don’t be fooled by the title; because the parable is not so much a parable against wealth as it is a parable against greed. And, I think, hand-in-hand with greed, we are also being taught some lessons about the sin of self-centredness, the sin of making our own lives and our own welfare the be-all and end-all of our focus.
This reading from Luke 12 speaks right to the heart of our society and our personal lives. Because greed and self-centeredness are not just modern problems. Sinful human nature has ordered ‘worldly’ values around greed since ancient times. The underlying problem is that the world does not always recognise greed as being a bad thing. In fact, worldly society often orders itself around the assumption that greed is either good or amoral.
The Heir
Before we even begin to look at Jesus’ parable, let’s consider the interaction between Jesus and the man who came asking him to settle an inheritance dispute. This problem is hardly unique to the ancient world.
I’ll bet that if I opened up the floor right now, each of us could tell a story about wills and inheritance. Maybe a story like today’s story: where one child or beneficiary is worried that he or she isn’t getting their fair share of the inheritance and they take other beneficiaries to court. Or maybe you’ve heard a story of bitter parents, convinced (rightly or wrongly) that their children were only looking after them because they were worried about getting the inheritance.
This is a story with which we are intimately familiar in our everyday lives. Furthermore, in Jesus’ time as in our own time, there were clear procedures for deciding fairly who gets what. These laws were interpreted and applied by rabbis and that was the capacity in which Jesus was being asked to act. He was being asked to interpret the law – presumably in the man’s favour – so that the man’s interests would be looked after.
But Jesus refuses to do so. He doesn’t want to play the part of the rabbi-judge in this instance. Some of us may wonder why?
Doesn’t God care about fairness and justice? Doesn’t God care about the law? The law that the man wants Jesus to uphold is the law written in the Torah; why would God be indifferent to his own laws? How can God be a God of truth and justice if Jesus is refusing to rule in this man’s favour?
I think that the answer to these questions lies in Jesus’ statement ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’
I suspect that if this man had come to Jesus saying that he’d got more inheritance than his brother and he wanted Jesus to command his brother to take his fair share as the law required, that Jesus would have willingly played the part of a Rabbi-judge.
I think that Jesus declined to play judge in this situation because he knew that the man was motivated by greed and self-interest. Although the man appeared to be invoking justice, the man was not actually motivated by fairness, he was motivated by self-interest.
The Parable
But in this particular story Jesus doesn’t confront the man with a direct judgement of his sin. Instead of admonishing him directly, Jesus provides both him (and us) with the opportunity to change our ways.
The parable that Jesus tells is also quite applicable to the 21st century.
Here is a farmer who has been suddenly blessed with an excellent crop. God has sent a harvest that is far more than he himself can use.
So what does the farmer say to himself? Does he say ‘God has sent me a harvest that far exceeds my needs. Let me see who is hungry and who can use my excess.’? No, he doesn’t.
Rather, he congratulates himself on his talents and ability as a farmer. The harvest is no longer a wonderful blessing with which to bless others. It’s become a storage problem – which, of course, it is if the farmer intends to keep it all to himself.
But, as the saying goes, you can’t take it with you. The man’s life is required of him unexpectedly. Not only was the farmer not able to benefit from God’s blessing, he also missed the opportunity to shower blessings on others.
One can only hope that his heirs did not act like the man who asked Jesus to judge between him and his brother!
Challenges: for Christians and Society
I think that there are challenges for individual Christians in this parable as well as challenges for society in general.
At the individual level, it could be too easy for a preacher to sound like he or she is saying that everyone here needs to give more money, time or talents to church. I’m not saying that and I hope it won’t be understood that way.
But here are some pointers to where individual challenges or invitations may lie:
God might be inviting some of us to become increasingly concerned about the rights, interests or welfare of other people around us.
God might be challenging someone else to deepen their awareness that everything – absolutely everything – we have is from God, including our very lives.
God might be inviting some people to be more free with their time or money and to give it away more cheerfully.
God will challenge each of us differently, and I don’t know where he is challenging you.
But I think that greed and self-interest are not just individual issues; they are social issues as well. Of course, these are a lot harder to change!
Here are some thoughts about how this parable applies to our society; you may or may not agree with me.
First, as a society do we question the idea that corporate profits must grow every year? If the population stays roughly the same, where do extra profits come from? Often they profits must come from exploiting the poor, the vulnerable, the gullible or encouraging us to consume things we don’t need.
This parable suggests that perhaps a Godly society would share its profits with those in need.
A second observation. Our whole system of national and international government is still based on the idea that each country looks after its own economic and political interests. This may strike many of us as the safest and most realistic way to govern in a hostile world, but it’s hardly in line with the Great Commandment. This is not the way the Kingdom of God is to be governed.
If we are hoping and praying for the Kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven, then we need to understand that obeying God is not just a matter of individual morality. We need to understand that God wants us to do more than say ‘I’m only responsible for what I do, I can’t have an influence on the rest of society.’
Equally, we are not free to say that sin is mainly a social problem that has nothing to do with individuals changing their hearts and behaviour patterns. God calls the world and its people to repentance and conversion at both an individual level and a social level.
The Good News
So where is the good news in this stew of human greed and self-interest which has not improved at all since Jesus told his parable?
(1) Well, for a start, the good news is that God is not a human being! The good news is that God is not greedy or self-interested in the human sense of the concept. All of God’s actions toward his creation are generous and life-giving and are concerned with the well-being of his creation. When we use our free will to sin against God, against other people or against God’s creation, God works to restore and repair what our sin has destroyed.
(2) The good news is that God blesses us every day with many blessings. We know as a fact that God blesses us daily and we also grow in our ability to become conscious of these blessings on a daily basis as we come to know the Lord better.
(3) The good news is that God has created each one of us to be agents and messengers of his blessings in this world we inhabit. The Greek word for ‘angels’ means ‘messengers’; so, in a very real sense, we are called to be angels to other people. The more expansive and generous our spirits become and the more we give God’s gifts away, the more we become the people that God created us to be and the more we grow in holiness.
(4) And finally, the good news is that God’s table is always laid for us. His door is always open for us; the door is never shut and it’s never locked. Repentance is always possible, conversion is always possible, forgiveness is always possible. We are always invited to the table of the Lord and God wants us to invite as many guests as we can.
As we come to the Lord’s Table in a few minutes, may our hearts expand to embrace all the love that God wants to give us and may we find freedom and joy as we learn to give that love away to others. Amen
Introduction
(Luke 12: 15) Take care! Be on your guard again all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
This morning’s Gospel reading is often called ‘the Parable of the Rich fool.’ But don’t be fooled by the title; because the parable is not so much a parable against wealth as it is a parable against greed. And, I think, hand-in-hand with greed, we are also being taught some lessons about the sin of self-centredness, the sin of making our own lives and our own welfare the be-all and end-all of our focus.
This reading from Luke 12 speaks right to the heart of our society and our personal lives. Because greed and self-centeredness are not just modern problems. Sinful human nature has ordered ‘worldly’ values around greed since ancient times. The underlying problem is that the world does not always recognise greed as being a bad thing. In fact, worldly society often orders itself around the assumption that greed is either good or amoral.
The Heir
Before we even begin to look at Jesus’ parable, let’s consider the interaction between Jesus and the man who came asking him to settle an inheritance dispute. This problem is hardly unique to the ancient world.
I’ll bet that if I opened up the floor right now, each of us could tell a story about wills and inheritance. Maybe a story like today’s story: where one child or beneficiary is worried that he or she isn’t getting their fair share of the inheritance and they take other beneficiaries to court. Or maybe you’ve heard a story of bitter parents, convinced (rightly or wrongly) that their children were only looking after them because they were worried about getting the inheritance.
This is a story with which we are intimately familiar in our everyday lives. Furthermore, in Jesus’ time as in our own time, there were clear procedures for deciding fairly who gets what. These laws were interpreted and applied by rabbis and that was the capacity in which Jesus was being asked to act. He was being asked to interpret the law – presumably in the man’s favour – so that the man’s interests would be looked after.
But Jesus refuses to do so. He doesn’t want to play the part of the rabbi-judge in this instance. Some of us may wonder why?
Doesn’t God care about fairness and justice? Doesn’t God care about the law? The law that the man wants Jesus to uphold is the law written in the Torah; why would God be indifferent to his own laws? How can God be a God of truth and justice if Jesus is refusing to rule in this man’s favour?
I think that the answer to these questions lies in Jesus’ statement ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’
I suspect that if this man had come to Jesus saying that he’d got more inheritance than his brother and he wanted Jesus to command his brother to take his fair share as the law required, that Jesus would have willingly played the part of a Rabbi-judge.
I think that Jesus declined to play judge in this situation because he knew that the man was motivated by greed and self-interest. Although the man appeared to be invoking justice, the man was not actually motivated by fairness, he was motivated by self-interest.
The Parable
But in this particular story Jesus doesn’t confront the man with a direct judgement of his sin. Instead of admonishing him directly, Jesus provides both him (and us) with the opportunity to change our ways.
The parable that Jesus tells is also quite applicable to the 21st century.
Here is a farmer who has been suddenly blessed with an excellent crop. God has sent a harvest that is far more than he himself can use.
So what does the farmer say to himself? Does he say ‘God has sent me a harvest that far exceeds my needs. Let me see who is hungry and who can use my excess.’? No, he doesn’t.
Rather, he congratulates himself on his talents and ability as a farmer. The harvest is no longer a wonderful blessing with which to bless others. It’s become a storage problem – which, of course, it is if the farmer intends to keep it all to himself.
But, as the saying goes, you can’t take it with you. The man’s life is required of him unexpectedly. Not only was the farmer not able to benefit from God’s blessing, he also missed the opportunity to shower blessings on others.
One can only hope that his heirs did not act like the man who asked Jesus to judge between him and his brother!
Challenges: for Christians and Society
I think that there are challenges for individual Christians in this parable as well as challenges for society in general.
At the individual level, it could be too easy for a preacher to sound like he or she is saying that everyone here needs to give more money, time or talents to church. I’m not saying that and I hope it won’t be understood that way.
But here are some pointers to where individual challenges or invitations may lie:
God might be inviting some of us to become increasingly concerned about the rights, interests or welfare of other people around us.
God might be challenging someone else to deepen their awareness that everything – absolutely everything – we have is from God, including our very lives.
God might be inviting some people to be more free with their time or money and to give it away more cheerfully.
God will challenge each of us differently, and I don’t know where he is challenging you.
But I think that greed and self-interest are not just individual issues; they are social issues as well. Of course, these are a lot harder to change!
Here are some thoughts about how this parable applies to our society; you may or may not agree with me.
First, as a society do we question the idea that corporate profits must grow every year? If the population stays roughly the same, where do extra profits come from? Often they profits must come from exploiting the poor, the vulnerable, the gullible or encouraging us to consume things we don’t need.
This parable suggests that perhaps a Godly society would share its profits with those in need.
A second observation. Our whole system of national and international government is still based on the idea that each country looks after its own economic and political interests. This may strike many of us as the safest and most realistic way to govern in a hostile world, but it’s hardly in line with the Great Commandment. This is not the way the Kingdom of God is to be governed.
If we are hoping and praying for the Kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven, then we need to understand that obeying God is not just a matter of individual morality. We need to understand that God wants us to do more than say ‘I’m only responsible for what I do, I can’t have an influence on the rest of society.’
Equally, we are not free to say that sin is mainly a social problem that has nothing to do with individuals changing their hearts and behaviour patterns. God calls the world and its people to repentance and conversion at both an individual level and a social level.
The Good News
So where is the good news in this stew of human greed and self-interest which has not improved at all since Jesus told his parable?
(1) Well, for a start, the good news is that God is not a human being! The good news is that God is not greedy or self-interested in the human sense of the concept. All of God’s actions toward his creation are generous and life-giving and are concerned with the well-being of his creation. When we use our free will to sin against God, against other people or against God’s creation, God works to restore and repair what our sin has destroyed.
(2) The good news is that God blesses us every day with many blessings. We know as a fact that God blesses us daily and we also grow in our ability to become conscious of these blessings on a daily basis as we come to know the Lord better.
(3) The good news is that God has created each one of us to be agents and messengers of his blessings in this world we inhabit. The Greek word for ‘angels’ means ‘messengers’; so, in a very real sense, we are called to be angels to other people. The more expansive and generous our spirits become and the more we give God’s gifts away, the more we become the people that God created us to be and the more we grow in holiness.
(4) And finally, the good news is that God’s table is always laid for us. His door is always open for us; the door is never shut and it’s never locked. Repentance is always possible, conversion is always possible, forgiveness is always possible. We are always invited to the table of the Lord and God wants us to invite as many guests as we can.
As we come to the Lord’s Table in a few minutes, may our hearts expand to embrace all the love that God wants to give us and may we find freedom and joy as we learn to give that love away to others. Amen
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Sunday 4 February 2007 - Forgiven Sinners, God Believes in You
This is a two part sermon. I used to do a lot of two-part sermons but some reason I stopped. Each scripture reading is followed by a talk and the two talks are also separated by a hymn. In addition to being a two-part sermon, this is something of a narrative sermon in the first person. Something different for a change.
===
The first part is based on 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I’m Paul. Paul of Tarsus.
At the moment, I’m in the middle of writing a letter to the Christian Church in Corinth. “And now I want to remind you, my brothers and sisters, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm.”
The Gospel message is the key to our faith as Christians and it is central to what we are all about. But I think that sometimes we can take this message for granted or it becomes so commonplace that we hear the words but they don’t have the same impact that they did when we first heard the Gospel. That’s why it’s important for followers of Christ to keep reminding each other of the Gospel message.
I know that my brothers and sisters in Corinth are perfectly familiar with the Gospel message, but I hope that by reminding them of it that they can hear it in a fresh way:
“Christ died for our sins as written in the Scriptures, he was buried, was raised to life three days later as written in the Scriptures; he appeared to Peter, and then to all twelve apostles. Then he appeared to more than 500 of this followers at once. Then he appeared to James, and afterwards to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared also to me.”
What’s that? You say that this sounds more like a recitation of events than a statement of belief? Well, we in the first century church believe that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried and that he rose from the dead. That he appeared to so many people after his death is just proof of the resurrection. I think you have a creed now that says much the same thing, don’t you?
What’s that you say? Ah yes, the resurrection! That’s a tough one for a lot of people! Don’t think that it was any easier to believe in my day than it is in yours. We weren’t all a bunch of superstitious primitives you know. I’ll bet the Greek philosophers could give your 21st century scholars a run for their money! Some of them didn’t even believe in an after-life.
Hmm, but you do bring up a good point. I think I will have to write a bit more about resurrection next. I’ll probably point out that belief in the resurrection is essential to the Christian faith but that no-one knows exactly what the resurrection life will look like or what sorts of bodies we will have after the resurrection. I need to give it a bit of a think but I do insist that ‘resurrection’ is an important part of our faith; If Christ was not raised, then our faith is in vain. Oh! That sounds good; must make a note of that for later.
But in the meantime, my point is that because of Jesus’ death on the cross and God’s forgiveness of our sins, humanity has a real and concrete hope for the future. And disciples of Jesus like you and me have been initiated into a church that believes in real and concrete hope for humanity.
Being a follower of Jesus isn’t just about having some sort of religious experience today. This is what some of the Corinthians seem to think and where they have taken their eye off the goal. They’ve not really been behaving like people who are hoping for a realised Kingdom of God in the future. They’ve been focussing on the minor things like spiritual experiences and whether or not being a disciple of Apollos or Peter brings one better spiritual gifts.
There have been rivalries and factions among them, each faction claiming that members of their group are better disciples of Christ than the others. Of course, I had hoped that the church would have been beyond factions by the 21st century, but it can be so hard for us human beings to grasp the meaning of the Gospel.
Anyway all this focus on who is the best sort of Christian or what sort of spiritual experiences a Christian has to have completely misses the Good News of the Gospel of Christ. The point is that we are all forgiven sinners. We are all sinners. And through Jesus’ death and resurrection we are all forgiven by God! The life, death and resurrection of Jesus demonstrate God’s transforming power and this power can transform human society as well as individual lives.
Do you want proof of God’s transforming power? Look at me. I get the feeling that some of you in the 21st century have conveniently forgotten the fact that before Jesus appeared to me on the road to Damascus, I had made it my life’s work to murder Christians. When I say that I am the least of all apostles and unfit to be called an apostle, I’m not just mouthing pious words. As far as I’m concerned, I’m telling the truth. I murdered people. I murdered Christians.
When Jesus appeared to me, the first shock I had was the painful understanding that far from being a righteous man, I was actually a sinner. The chief of all sinners. That was a horrible experience, let me tell you. I had dedicated my life to trying to serve the Lord of Heaven and then, in a blink of an eye, I understood that I was persecuting him instead. But thanks be to God, immediately after that, Jesus revealed to me that his mission here on earth was all about reconciling God and humanity and that God offered me forgiveness.
It was then that I understand that I am a forgiven sinner – that we are all forgiven sinners. That might sound like a contradiction in terms – being a forgiven sinner – but it’s actually a wonderful freedom!
Human beings don’t have to try to play the impossible game of trying to earn God’s forgiveness. Christ has made forgiveness possible on our behalf. And we don’t have to try to hide our sinfulness from God either; he sees us as we are and, in Christ, he offers us the grace of his forgiveness.
What’s that, you say? That sounds more like what you call the Gospel message? Well, that’s a relief! I’m glad to see that things haven’t changed that much in the 21st century.
====
The second part is based on Luke 5:1-11
Shalom, brothers and sisters! My name is Simon but people also call me Peter, or Cephas in Hebrew. That all started when I left everything I had to follow Jesus of Nazareth, my Rabbi and my Lord.
I first came across Jesus in the synagogue when he read from Isaiah and seemed to be claiming to be the Messiah. Everyone spoke well of him until he suggested that the Messiah had also come for the Gentiles and the outcasts, and maybe especially for the Gentiles and the outcasts. Well, I can tell you that that caused quite an uproar among the congregation! People began to chase him out of the synagogue and they tried to stone him. But I was intrigued by this person Jesus who had a strange air of authority about him.
After he left the synagogue, Jesus came to my house where my mother-in-law was lying very ill with a fever. We were worried that she might die but Jesus healed her immediately and she was well enough to get up out of her bed and prepare a meal for us there and then!
Well, I tell you, that certainly increased my curiosity about Jesus even more. Of course, it is not unheard-of for holy men to be healers here in the first century, but I was beginning to entertain the possibility that Jesus might be more than just a holy man. Jesus and I were beginning to develop a relationship and because of that relationship that my regard for him began to grow.
It was the incident with the unexpected catch of fish that changed everything for me. I’d always believed in God but after that experience I realised that God believed in me!
Let me see if I can try to explain this a bit better.
I’m an experienced fisherman. Me and my mates had been trawling all night and we really didn’t catch very much. Do you know what it’s like when you try to do something and fail? You’ve got the experience. You’ve got the knowledge. You try your best but all your efforts come to nothing. If that goes on and on you start to doubt yourself and what you know.
Maybe I’ve lost my ability to catch fish. Maybe I no longer have the right knowledge. Maybe I need different equipment. Maybe I’m not trying hard enough. You’re grinning. I think you’ve been there, right? You know what I’m talking about.
So then Jesus comes along. You have to remember that we’re already getting to know each other and that I’m already thinking that there is a lot more to Jesus than just being a rabbi or a holy man. Jesus has got this whole crowd of people following him, hanging on his every word, but he comes to me and to my boat and he asks to go out into the lake.
Now, this already felt like a bit of encouragement. Because when I was cleaning my nets, I was feeling like something of a failure. And then this man who could be the Messiah comes up to me and asks me to do what I do. He trusts me not to sink the boat even though I’m feeling like a failure.
It’s a good job I already knew something about him and about his character, because when he asked me to cast my nets into deep water in the morning, I got my back up a bit. In about a half a second the thought crossed my mind, ‘I’m the fisherman! You’re a Rabbi!’ But then I thought, ‘Why not? The worst thing that can happen is that I end up in the same situation I was in a few minutes ago. And anyway, I already think that there is something special about Jesus. Why not just listen to what he says?’
And so I listened to him and I did something that went against all of my fishing experience. And Jesus was right! My nets were filled with fish. So many that the boat almost couldn’t carry them all back to shore.
And then my eyes were opened. I saw that Jesus was the Messiah and my Lord. I can’t really explain why. The first thing that came out of my mouth was ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ Funny, isn’t it? All those other people had been chasing Jesus around trying to get close to him and now I’m saying ‘Go away from me.’ You just can’t come face to face with pure holiness and not understand that you’re a sinful person. And that’s painful.
But Jesus didn’t go away. More than that, he told me that he wanted me to follow him and be his disciple! Me, a sinner! A simple fisherman with only a basic knowledge of the Torah! No ordinary Rabbi would even consider having me as his disciple, but here is the Messiah, the Son of God, showing me that he believed in me and in the work that I could do with him. Just like we caught all those fish that morning, Jesus showed me that together with him that Jesus would use me to “catch” many people to be his disciples.
Well, you all in the 21st century know the rest of my story. I wasn’t a perfect disciple by any means, but God still used me to build his Church. In my cheekier moments, I like to think that my mistakes and personality quirks can encourage other Christians to realise that God uses all sorts of imperfect people to do his work on earth.
The thing that I learned about God during my life is that God doesn’t work alone. Being Creator of the Universe, he could work alone, but he wants to work with us. Imperfect as we are. Isn’t that amazing? Being a follower of Jesus wasn’t always an easy thing to do - you know I became a martyr in the end - but it was worth it. Well, for me, anyway.
God took me, flawed as I am, and used my life to his glory. God believed in me and I know he believes in you too.
===
The first part is based on 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I’m Paul. Paul of Tarsus.
At the moment, I’m in the middle of writing a letter to the Christian Church in Corinth. “And now I want to remind you, my brothers and sisters, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm.”
The Gospel message is the key to our faith as Christians and it is central to what we are all about. But I think that sometimes we can take this message for granted or it becomes so commonplace that we hear the words but they don’t have the same impact that they did when we first heard the Gospel. That’s why it’s important for followers of Christ to keep reminding each other of the Gospel message.
I know that my brothers and sisters in Corinth are perfectly familiar with the Gospel message, but I hope that by reminding them of it that they can hear it in a fresh way:
“Christ died for our sins as written in the Scriptures, he was buried, was raised to life three days later as written in the Scriptures; he appeared to Peter, and then to all twelve apostles. Then he appeared to more than 500 of this followers at once. Then he appeared to James, and afterwards to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared also to me.”
What’s that? You say that this sounds more like a recitation of events than a statement of belief? Well, we in the first century church believe that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried and that he rose from the dead. That he appeared to so many people after his death is just proof of the resurrection. I think you have a creed now that says much the same thing, don’t you?
What’s that you say? Ah yes, the resurrection! That’s a tough one for a lot of people! Don’t think that it was any easier to believe in my day than it is in yours. We weren’t all a bunch of superstitious primitives you know. I’ll bet the Greek philosophers could give your 21st century scholars a run for their money! Some of them didn’t even believe in an after-life.
Hmm, but you do bring up a good point. I think I will have to write a bit more about resurrection next. I’ll probably point out that belief in the resurrection is essential to the Christian faith but that no-one knows exactly what the resurrection life will look like or what sorts of bodies we will have after the resurrection. I need to give it a bit of a think but I do insist that ‘resurrection’ is an important part of our faith; If Christ was not raised, then our faith is in vain. Oh! That sounds good; must make a note of that for later.
But in the meantime, my point is that because of Jesus’ death on the cross and God’s forgiveness of our sins, humanity has a real and concrete hope for the future. And disciples of Jesus like you and me have been initiated into a church that believes in real and concrete hope for humanity.
Being a follower of Jesus isn’t just about having some sort of religious experience today. This is what some of the Corinthians seem to think and where they have taken their eye off the goal. They’ve not really been behaving like people who are hoping for a realised Kingdom of God in the future. They’ve been focussing on the minor things like spiritual experiences and whether or not being a disciple of Apollos or Peter brings one better spiritual gifts.
There have been rivalries and factions among them, each faction claiming that members of their group are better disciples of Christ than the others. Of course, I had hoped that the church would have been beyond factions by the 21st century, but it can be so hard for us human beings to grasp the meaning of the Gospel.
Anyway all this focus on who is the best sort of Christian or what sort of spiritual experiences a Christian has to have completely misses the Good News of the Gospel of Christ. The point is that we are all forgiven sinners. We are all sinners. And through Jesus’ death and resurrection we are all forgiven by God! The life, death and resurrection of Jesus demonstrate God’s transforming power and this power can transform human society as well as individual lives.
Do you want proof of God’s transforming power? Look at me. I get the feeling that some of you in the 21st century have conveniently forgotten the fact that before Jesus appeared to me on the road to Damascus, I had made it my life’s work to murder Christians. When I say that I am the least of all apostles and unfit to be called an apostle, I’m not just mouthing pious words. As far as I’m concerned, I’m telling the truth. I murdered people. I murdered Christians.
When Jesus appeared to me, the first shock I had was the painful understanding that far from being a righteous man, I was actually a sinner. The chief of all sinners. That was a horrible experience, let me tell you. I had dedicated my life to trying to serve the Lord of Heaven and then, in a blink of an eye, I understood that I was persecuting him instead. But thanks be to God, immediately after that, Jesus revealed to me that his mission here on earth was all about reconciling God and humanity and that God offered me forgiveness.
It was then that I understand that I am a forgiven sinner – that we are all forgiven sinners. That might sound like a contradiction in terms – being a forgiven sinner – but it’s actually a wonderful freedom!
Human beings don’t have to try to play the impossible game of trying to earn God’s forgiveness. Christ has made forgiveness possible on our behalf. And we don’t have to try to hide our sinfulness from God either; he sees us as we are and, in Christ, he offers us the grace of his forgiveness.
What’s that, you say? That sounds more like what you call the Gospel message? Well, that’s a relief! I’m glad to see that things haven’t changed that much in the 21st century.
====
The second part is based on Luke 5:1-11
Shalom, brothers and sisters! My name is Simon but people also call me Peter, or Cephas in Hebrew. That all started when I left everything I had to follow Jesus of Nazareth, my Rabbi and my Lord.
I first came across Jesus in the synagogue when he read from Isaiah and seemed to be claiming to be the Messiah. Everyone spoke well of him until he suggested that the Messiah had also come for the Gentiles and the outcasts, and maybe especially for the Gentiles and the outcasts. Well, I can tell you that that caused quite an uproar among the congregation! People began to chase him out of the synagogue and they tried to stone him. But I was intrigued by this person Jesus who had a strange air of authority about him.
After he left the synagogue, Jesus came to my house where my mother-in-law was lying very ill with a fever. We were worried that she might die but Jesus healed her immediately and she was well enough to get up out of her bed and prepare a meal for us there and then!
Well, I tell you, that certainly increased my curiosity about Jesus even more. Of course, it is not unheard-of for holy men to be healers here in the first century, but I was beginning to entertain the possibility that Jesus might be more than just a holy man. Jesus and I were beginning to develop a relationship and because of that relationship that my regard for him began to grow.
It was the incident with the unexpected catch of fish that changed everything for me. I’d always believed in God but after that experience I realised that God believed in me!
Let me see if I can try to explain this a bit better.
I’m an experienced fisherman. Me and my mates had been trawling all night and we really didn’t catch very much. Do you know what it’s like when you try to do something and fail? You’ve got the experience. You’ve got the knowledge. You try your best but all your efforts come to nothing. If that goes on and on you start to doubt yourself and what you know.
Maybe I’ve lost my ability to catch fish. Maybe I no longer have the right knowledge. Maybe I need different equipment. Maybe I’m not trying hard enough. You’re grinning. I think you’ve been there, right? You know what I’m talking about.
So then Jesus comes along. You have to remember that we’re already getting to know each other and that I’m already thinking that there is a lot more to Jesus than just being a rabbi or a holy man. Jesus has got this whole crowd of people following him, hanging on his every word, but he comes to me and to my boat and he asks to go out into the lake.
Now, this already felt like a bit of encouragement. Because when I was cleaning my nets, I was feeling like something of a failure. And then this man who could be the Messiah comes up to me and asks me to do what I do. He trusts me not to sink the boat even though I’m feeling like a failure.
It’s a good job I already knew something about him and about his character, because when he asked me to cast my nets into deep water in the morning, I got my back up a bit. In about a half a second the thought crossed my mind, ‘I’m the fisherman! You’re a Rabbi!’ But then I thought, ‘Why not? The worst thing that can happen is that I end up in the same situation I was in a few minutes ago. And anyway, I already think that there is something special about Jesus. Why not just listen to what he says?’
And so I listened to him and I did something that went against all of my fishing experience. And Jesus was right! My nets were filled with fish. So many that the boat almost couldn’t carry them all back to shore.
And then my eyes were opened. I saw that Jesus was the Messiah and my Lord. I can’t really explain why. The first thing that came out of my mouth was ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ Funny, isn’t it? All those other people had been chasing Jesus around trying to get close to him and now I’m saying ‘Go away from me.’ You just can’t come face to face with pure holiness and not understand that you’re a sinful person. And that’s painful.
But Jesus didn’t go away. More than that, he told me that he wanted me to follow him and be his disciple! Me, a sinner! A simple fisherman with only a basic knowledge of the Torah! No ordinary Rabbi would even consider having me as his disciple, but here is the Messiah, the Son of God, showing me that he believed in me and in the work that I could do with him. Just like we caught all those fish that morning, Jesus showed me that together with him that Jesus would use me to “catch” many people to be his disciples.
Well, you all in the 21st century know the rest of my story. I wasn’t a perfect disciple by any means, but God still used me to build his Church. In my cheekier moments, I like to think that my mistakes and personality quirks can encourage other Christians to realise that God uses all sorts of imperfect people to do his work on earth.
The thing that I learned about God during my life is that God doesn’t work alone. Being Creator of the Universe, he could work alone, but he wants to work with us. Imperfect as we are. Isn’t that amazing? Being a follower of Jesus wasn’t always an easy thing to do - you know I became a martyr in the end - but it was worth it. Well, for me, anyway.
God took me, flawed as I am, and used my life to his glory. God believed in me and I know he believes in you too.
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