tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57637950437724605832024-03-19T10:16:15.448+00:00Talks, Sermons and Reflectionsabout God, life and the things that really matterMalcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.comBlogger575125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-45306274031247030212024-02-27T17:17:00.012+00:002024-03-19T10:07:28.579+00:00John 2.13-22: Spiritual spring cleaning - Getting the centre, the mind and the passion right<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=+John+2.13-22&version=NRSVA">John 2.13-22</a><br /><br />It is getting a bit warmer – we hope – and maybe a bit dryer.<br />And it is time to begin to do some spring cleaning<br />But not just of our houses or places where we work, or even our churches.<br />This is a time to do some spiritual spring cleaning<br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWLTnlv87YkkwEmV8lMXTiGc0d2M3eKvXtIU_HQ6D6679gC7MlXT1RL4Qrb2mxuuD-eCsFmwCFVL6dRcITHbtOhieSggkMsJUUdbei7mhd3SB2dbYYj9GrKVw_L6vTaX6AteWgqiozX9V9jRN0kP2VXR6-86QbqGkIovFB9Yg_Xl0dMAIBj-ecif3ORg/s588/1403_Lorenzo+Ghiberti,+Purification+of+the+Temple_Italian,+c.+1403-1424_Florence,+Baptistry+cc.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="520" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWLTnlv87YkkwEmV8lMXTiGc0d2M3eKvXtIU_HQ6D6679gC7MlXT1RL4Qrb2mxuuD-eCsFmwCFVL6dRcITHbtOhieSggkMsJUUdbei7mhd3SB2dbYYj9GrKVw_L6vTaX6AteWgqiozX9V9jRN0kP2VXR6-86QbqGkIovFB9Yg_Xl0dMAIBj-ecif3ORg/w566-h640/1403_Lorenzo+Ghiberti,+Purification+of+the+Temple_Italian,+c.+1403-1424_Florence,+Baptistry+cc.jpg" width="566" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="background-color: #0d0d0d; color: #a2834e; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
</span>Lorenzo Ghiberti (Italian, 1378-1455). Chasing the Merchants from the Temple, 1403-1424. Bronze panel, North door, Florence Baptistery, Italy.</td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><b style="font-size: x-large;">Getting the heart right</b></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Jesus clears the rubbish out of the temple. <br /><br />The temple was the gift of God to his people. <br /><br />It was the place where God had said that his presence would dwell. It was place where men and women came together to meet with God. <br /><br />Jesus describes the temple as ‘my Father’s house’. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">That is not just a claim to unique authority. It is. John writes in John 1, ‘we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son’. <br />But it is also a relational term: the temple is not just a building where people worshiped. It was a home, where people came to meet the Father of the Lord Jesus and where people could come to meet the Father for themselves. The only other time that Jesus speaks of his Father's house is when he tells them that his Father's house has many rooms and he is going there to prepare a place for them. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />But they had turned this gift of God, the Father's house, into a stock exchange, a trading market, a bazaar <br /><br />One of the recurring issues through my ministry is what should we do in our buildings, especially because we have to pay the bills. <br /><br />At St Mary’s, Bury St Edmunds, we put on concerts and exhibitions. Once a year we became part of the town Christmas market. And there was always the question with the concerts, what sort of music? I notice that some cathedrals are now putting on silent discos<br /><br />St Andrew’s in Moscow – it was both more complex and simpler. <br /><br />It was more complex because more people came to us. There are not many gothic style churches with towers in Moscow. We had countless organisations and individuals asking to film in our church and I had to try and decide what was suitable and what wasn’t. On one occasion a Russian megastar (well, his minions!) asked if he could film a music video in the church. They said it included a dance routine, but when they explained to me what they wanted, it sounded to me more like women rolling around on the floor with hardly any clothes on. I thought that we should probably not do that. It was a good call, because when I saw the final video, recorded elsewhere, it was not just women rolling around the floor with hardly any clothes on, but nuns rolling around on the floor with hardly any clothes on. <br /><br />It was also simpler, because whereas for us in the UK our historic church buildings have always been both community spaces and sanctuary, Orthodox churches would never be used for anything that was not worship, and wider society would be more quickly scandalised if something happened in church that was not considered appropriate. And so it was easier to say no when we needed to say no. <br /><br />I was probably over cautious, and there was little consistency. I said no to a high-end fashion show, to a dinner for wealthy people, to a whiskey tasting day, but yes to concerts (most evenings), filming, bazaars, summer and Christmas fairs and a motorcycle rally!<br /><br /><i>Our church buildings do matter. </i><br /><br />They don’t matter in the same way that the temple matters<br />The temple was the unique meeting point between God and humanity<br /><br />But with Jesus there is a huge change. <br />Jesus becomes the new temple. That is what he is getting at here when he says. ‘“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19). He is talking about his own body.<br /><br />Up to now it was the building that mattered. Now it is the person of Jesus who matters. <br />He is the meeting point between men and women and God.<br /><br />In John 1 he has told Nathaniel that he will see angels going up into heaven and coming down from heaven on him. He is the ladder between God and us. <br />And Jesus says that where two or three people meet in his name, wherever they are, then he is there. <br /><br />But that doesn’t mean that our church buildings are not important. <br /><br />They are not necessarily important in terms of enabling us to meet with God (although I hope that they are places where people can meet with God), but they are important for us in what we are saying about God. <br /><br />a) That is why what is at the physical centre of our church buildings is important. It is saying that this is what is important to us. <br /><br />I have to confess that I struggle when the centre, the focus of the place that we set aside to worship God, is a political symbol, a charismatic person, a choir or music group. That is not what unites us.<br /><br />People have argued whether the centre of the building should be the Lord's table or altar – as they are in each of our benefice buildings; it might be; or whether, as in many non-conformist churches, it should be the lectern and the pulpit. Or it might be the symbol of a cross: as Paul states, ‘we proclaim Christ crucified … Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.’ (1 Cor 1:23,24)<br /><br />I am not sure that it really matters – because they are each symbols pointing to the person of Jesus Christ. <br /><br />Our buildings do matter. <br /><br />Jesus could have gone into the temple, looked around and said, ‘The temple has become corrupt. It is not serving as a meeting point between God and humanity. And it is being replaced by me. So what goes on in the temple doesn’t matter. They want to treat it like a market – let them treat it like a market’. <br />But he doesn’t. He wants the temple to fulfil the role for which it was built – to be that meeting place where all peoples can come and worship God. He wants it to be a place where God, and God things, are at the very centre. And he gets angry when we put things in the place of God that are not God.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">There is a passion about his anger. 'Zeal for your house will consume me'. It was his passion, the reason the Father sent him, the reason he was prepared to go to the cross - so that men and women could be drawn together into the presence of his Father. <br /><br />b) What is at the centre of our church building? And now I am not just thinking of the visible centre. <br /><br />I wonder if Jesus came to our churches – I wonder what he would say. If he came to the Church of England, what would he say. <br /><br />Would he be angry? Have we replaced him with money or business? They are not necessarily the same thing. It is possible to go about our busy-ness and not make any money, because it makes us feel important and gives us meaning. <br />Or have we replaced him with entertainment, popularity, acceptability, status or comfort or what I like?<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I do not think that is is wrong to have the occasional Christmas market or summer fair in our church buildings.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And it is not, I hasten to add, that the marketplace in itself is wrong. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It is just that things need to be in their right place. <br /><br />When I was a student in Durham I attended St Nics. They called it the church in the marketplace. I like that. We pray that we can put, in our society, the church, a place of prayer (not the place of prayer) in the centre of the marketplace – so that our society is, in our prayers if not in reality, centred on the communion table, the word of God, the message of the cross. <br /><br />But let’s keep it that way round. The church in the marketplace. Not the marketplace in the church.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe our buildings need to be safe places which enable us to encounter one who is not safe. One who is always drawing us to what is beyond us, bigger than us.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">I met one family who, every time they drive here, stop at St Mary's, North Creake church, and go in and lie down on the pews. They look up at the angels. That is what I mean about coming into buildings that make is look to one who is beyond us. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And maybe, by the work of the Holy Spirit, people will encounter Jesus and a glimpse of his Father's house. <br /><br />And what if Jesus came to our homes. What would he say? What does our home say about us – about the most important things in our life? What takes centre place? There is a lot to be said for putting a cross or some Christian symbol in a prominent place in our home. A reminder to you. A message to others. 'In this place, Jesus is Lord'. and a reminder to myself. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It is also why wearing a cross for some can be very helpful - whether publicly or hidden, close to our heart. <br /><br />It is not coincidental that we have this reading during Lent. This is the ideal time to ask the Holy Spirit to do a spring clean in our lives. Just as Jesus came in and cleansed the temple, so we ask Holy Spirit to help us as we self-examine, as we confess and repent of the rubbish, and as we allow Holy Spirit to throw that rubbish out, to do a spiritual spring clean.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div>---------</div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>Other notes on the Passage</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>1. Getting the mind right: the place of memory </b><br /><br />Twice in John 2.12-22 we are told ‘his disciples remembered ..’ (v17,21)<br /><br />The first remembering is a passage of scripture: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me’ (It is a quote from Psalm 69.9)<br /><br />The second remembering is the saying of Jesus, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’. <br />“After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” John 2:22<br /><br />There is much here. <br /><br />First, I note that Jesus’ words are identified with scripture. When they remember what Jesus said we are told that ‘they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken’<br /><br />Secondly, it is the collective disciples who remember: that is very good news for those of us who despair of our individual memories. It is the whole Church, people of God, that remembers. What we are doing now – and especially what we will do in a few minutes around the Lord’s table today - is collectively remembering.<br /><br />Thirdly, they remember Jesus words in the light of the resurrection. <br /><br />It was only after Jesus rose from the dead that those words began to make sense. <br />No doubt one of the disciples – maybe it was John himself – after the resurrection said, ‘Didn’t Jesus say ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up’? He was talking about his body! I get it!<br /><br />At the end of John’s gospel it is written – and it is the other book end to this particular text – ‘Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.’ (John 20:8-9)<br /><br />They saw and believed and then understood the scripture. <br /><br />We, 2000 years later, have not yet seen the risen Jesus (although I have met two people who have had visions of him), but we have the words of those who did see him – the scripture - and we are invited to receive the scripture and believe. <br /><br />Forgive me, that is quite complicated – but also exciting<br /><br />It means that if we want to get our minds right, then we have all that we need here (in the scriptures) and here (in each other) and here (in what we are doing today). <br /><br />We need each other for this. We actually need all Christians from other times and other places, because otherwise our ‘remembering’ is going to be very lopsided. <br /><br />The world has recently discovered book groups. <br />The people of God discovered book groups thousands of years ago: gathering together to listen and to talk about what it is that we have heard read.<br /><br />But there is a difference. <br /><br />When we read and study scripture together (on a Sunday or in a Lent course) we are not reading words about someone who was an inspiring teacher but who died 2000 years ago. We are ‘remembering’ words about someone, of someone, who was crucified, but who rose from the dead and is alive now. And by reading, and putting our trust in those who wrote, and in what they wrote, we meet with the risen Jesus. <br /><br />We read believing that the one of whom it speaks, the one who speaks is still alive, indeed is with us - that he meets us as we read the scriptures.<br /><br />‘Therefore, says Paul, be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God’.<br /><br /><br /><b>2. Getting the passion right </b><br /><br />Jesus was angry. <br />But it was a right anger. <br />It came from a heart centred on God and a mind set on God. <br /><br />‘Zeal for your house will consume me’.<br /><br />We should get nervous here. We live at a time when people rage: there are the obvious: extinction rebellion, pro- Palestinian marches, or Capitol riots. It doesn’t happen so often in Burnham Market, although mention the National Trust .. <br /><br />But actually that rage can be shown in our attitudes to people, in our social media posts, or the email that we slam off to someone<br /><br />Our anger is usually inappropriate. <br /><br />So often I speak from here [my gut] when my brain is not in gear. <br /><br />We need passion, but we need godly passion. <br /><br />And it is that passion that will drive us. At times it will eat us up. ‘Zeal for your house will consume me’.<br /><br />And that godly passion will mean that at times there will be anger. At other times profound sorrowing. At other times deep longing, And at other times great joy.<br /><br />And I note here that Jesus’ deep passion, the reason that he came from heaven to earth, the reason that he went to the cross, was – and I’m using John’s language here – his love for the world. In his passion he gave himself for us. He was consumed with zeal, and he said that he would give his body to us to be consumed as our bread. He came to draw us to himself and to his Father in heaven, so that we could be in communion with each other, with him and with his Father, so that we could become dearly beloved children in his Father’s house. <br /><br /> <br />My prayer is that this time of lent, this time of spiritual spring cleaning, will be a time when the Holy Spirit helps us get the centre – the centre of our buildings and the centre of our hearts - right, and helps us as we remember scripture and allow God to continue to shape our minds right – so that then we will, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be driven by the passion of God. </span></div>Talks, Sermons and Reflectionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04683550198623401330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-33729551195552636452024-02-18T13:27:00.002+00:002024-02-18T13:43:50.572+00:00Mark 1:9-15 When wild beasts surround us<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1.9-15&version=NRSVA" style="font-size: x-large;">Mark 1.9-15</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_398bV4Y46QCeQeKFq7HUdcWc7A69MApLZnIQJ0-8AaarOJT3pGgAJkadg7eHAVmfZQsCIsFd2rnbUFLvC3eMNlDYgZAkJn53IJklzC92F9PMeFAtwxGuY6aAI3swCFUggbE3ykOyE1WhLSpbETKJlJxlXAOfggSuyYNMFzazf9RTSQOMkhVQ0AB8E3Y/s800/7086162-gaur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_398bV4Y46QCeQeKFq7HUdcWc7A69MApLZnIQJ0-8AaarOJT3pGgAJkadg7eHAVmfZQsCIsFd2rnbUFLvC3eMNlDYgZAkJn53IJklzC92F9PMeFAtwxGuY6aAI3swCFUggbE3ykOyE1WhLSpbETKJlJxlXAOfggSuyYNMFzazf9RTSQOMkhVQ0AB8E3Y/w640-h426/7086162-gaur.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">‘Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion’ (Ps 22.13)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>1. Jesus humbles himself so that he is in a position in which he can receive from God </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Jesus chooses to come to John the Baptist to be baptised, to receive the gift of God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">He did not need to be baptised. He had no sin for which he needed to be forgiven. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But he chooses to be baptised, to identify himself with John the Baptist, with his message of repentance, and with God’s amazing offer of forgiveness. And he chooses to identify himself with those who recognised their need for God’s washing, God’s forgiveness; with people who recognised that they needed God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And so Jesus allows John to baptise him. He goes ‘down’ into the water and receives baptism. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And Mark tells us that it is ‘as Jesus was coming up out of the water’ that he sees the heavens being torn open, the Spirit descending on him in physical form like a dove (park in Kislovodsk and these tiny sparrows settled on our hands to eat the crumbs) and the voice from heaven with its incredibly personal message: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Baptism is a precious gift that God offers to us. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But it is a gift. It cannot be earned. It can only be received. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">It is the gift of forgiveness (washing clean), of – in the words of 1 Peter – ‘the pledge of a good conscience before God’. That is not just about having a feeling that we have nothing to be ashamed of before God; it is also about beginning the process by which we are changed so that in reality we have nothing to be ashamed of before God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">I don’t remember my baptism.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">I have an excuse! I was only a few weeks old!</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">I did not have any say in what happened to me.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But that in a sense makes baptism even more special.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">It really does show that my baptism did not depend on me. I was helpless in the whole process. I was a baby. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">People sometimes say, ‘Have you had the baby done?’ Not the most ringing endorsement of baptism or christening as some people call it, nor the most theologically astute question. But actually – baptism really was ‘done’ to me. In my absolute helplessness I was being blessed whether I wanted to be blessed or not! </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The point is not when or how we are baptised, as a baby or as an adult, by sprinkling or by full immersion – although it is important, an act of obedience, that we have received baptism. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The point is whether I am choosing to live my life now as a baptised person, in the spirit of baptism – as one who now voluntarily chooses to go down - to empty myself so that I am once again in that place of complete vulnerability and dependence on God, to receive the blessing of God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And Lent, these 40 days before Easter, is one time when we can intentionally try to do that. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">We choose to go down into the water, in order to receive from God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe it is about making a decision to commit ourselves to communion weekly during Lent. As we come forward to the altar, the Lord’s table, we come with open hands, as people who have nothing to offer, maybe even our faith is a bit shaky. But it is a bit like going down into the water. We come simply to receive, so that by faith Jesus comes deep into our very being. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe it is about making the decision to put time aside for one of the Lent courses, or to listen to the Bible being read (</span><a href="https://www.prsi.org/" style="font-size: x-large;">Public Reading of Scripture</a><span style="font-size: large;">) or to read the Bible for ourselves: reading not just for intellectual knowledge, but coming empty asking God to fill us. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe it is about putting aside special time to pray.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">There are some helpful daily reflections from the Church of England. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Often people say, ‘But I don’t know how to pray’.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">That is OK. Prayer is about coming to God in our emptiness and helplessness. It is about going down into the water, the place of death – and receiving from Him the gift of life. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Or maybe it is about fasting.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Again, we do not fast because we are spiritually strong. Nor do we fast to make ourselves spiritually strong. We choose to fast for a season, so that we strip ourselves of some of the things that we put in place of God (food, fitness, work, TV, alcohol, puddings or cakes, non-essential shopping, gaming, constant music or social media). Fasting should lead us to that point when we come face to face with our vulnerability and weakness – and for our need for God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But the model of baptism is that when we choose to follow Jesus and empty ourselves and symbolically go down into the water, to come to God in our weakness and openness and need then we will –not necessarily in the way we expect - receive from him. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">We place ourselves in a position in which we can receive from God. </span><br /><br /> <br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>2. Jesus is sent by the Spirit into a place where he can be transformed by God </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Jesus, immediately after his baptism, after the voice from heaven, is ‘sent out into the desert’… and he was tempted by Satan’. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Mark does not tell us how Jesus was sent into the desert. It may have been an inner prompting, or it may have been external circumstances.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Nor does Mark, unlike Luke or Matthew, tell us what the temptations are. That is not important for him. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">What is important for Mark is that Jesus, having received baptism, having heard the voice, is sent into the desert to be tempted by Satan. He is surrounded by wild beasts: </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">We think back to Psalm 22, the Psalm Jesus speaks when he hangs on the cross: ‘Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion’ (Ps 22.13) </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And when we deliberately choose to put ourselves in a position to receive from God, to come to that place of complete dependence on God, we sometimes find that God takes us deep into the desert. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Sickness, the death of someone we love, redundancy, loneliness, failure and disappointment, false or true accusations, economic desperation, when nothing seems to go right for us, even the apparent absence of God can all be desert experiences. There are no safe places, we are surrounded by wild beasts, and we struggle with temptation. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Two years ago, our Ash Wednesday service in Moscow came two weeks after President Putin had invaded Ukraine. The vast majority of our congregation in Moscow were broken and scared. Many of the westerners were preparing to leave the place that they had called home, some for many years. Many of our young Russians – who saw their future in relation to the West - were crushed: ‘What has he done’, said one person. ‘He has put us into the fire’. For so many, it was not as if we had chosen to enter into Lent, but that Lent had entered into us. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">One young man wrote to me yesterday: he fled to Indonesia. He writes, “I am afraid I have to admit that I am completely lost and helpless now. Navalny is dead, the war goes on, Indonesia is likely to become a dictatorship again with their new [war criminal] president, and I cannot handle it anymore. It's just too much, so I cannot even focus on anything. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And for many of the young Russians we knew, and certainly for Ukrainians or those living in Gaza, or waiting to hear news of those taken hostage, they did not choose to go into the desert, but the desert came to them. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Christian calling is not a calling to success or to victory in this life. It is not even a call to security and comfort. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Mark makes that clear. It is a calling to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus – who walked on the way to the cross. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But notice it is not hopeless. There are those four words, ‘and angels attended him’. Even in the despair and darkness and confusion and temptation, even when the wild beasts are out there on every side waiting to get us, there is hope. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Hugh Latimer was one of the bishops who, in the C16th was arrested by Mary. He was in prison, awaiting his execution. They would tie him to a stake, surround it with wood, and then set it on fire. That is a pretty extreme wilderness place. And it was a place of testing for him. He was surrounded by wild beasts. And he writes, “Pardon me, and pray for me. Pray for me, I say, pray for me, I say. For I am sometime so fearful, that I would creep into a mouse hole.” But then he adds, “sometime God doth visit me again with his comfort.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And perhaps you may know glimpses of breathtaking beauty in the wilderness, or moments of deep peace in the middle of a crisis - as we call upon God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And I think that Mark is also trying to tell us that the desert can also be a place of preparation. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Israelite people were slaves in Egypt. They were led through the red sea in an amazing act that showed the power and love of God – and Paul later writes about how the people of Israel were ‘baptised’ in the red sea. But then they were led into the wilderness for 40 years. And when they came out of the wilderness and entered the promised land, they established what was meant to be the Kingdom of God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And now Jesus is sent into the desert for 40 days to be tempted. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">He is being prepared for a far greater temptation that will face him in the future. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">There will come another day when he will need to choose to give himself up to the wild beasts, to be falsely accused, mocked and shamed and humiliated, nailed to a cross. He will be tempted by the voices challenging him to come down, challenging him to despair and give up on God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">He never does that. Notice that even when Jesus says, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’, he is not giving up on God. He is asking God why God has given up on him. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And this desert experience prepares Jesus for his future ministry. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">He comes out of the desert, hears of the arrest of his cousin John, and then begins his ministry. He proclaims that the Kingdom of God has come near. And he calls people to repent and believe, to put their trust in the good news:</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">God has not abandoned his world. There is justice and mercy. His Kingdom will be established. There is resurrection. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> ----- </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">For some of us this Lent, these 40 days before Easter, can be a time when we choose to go to that place of vulnerability and brokenness with Jesus. If you like, we become again like babies and return to the font of baptism – with nothing to offer apart from ourselves and everything to receive. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And for some of us, we may find this Lent that we have had no choice in the matter. We have been sent into a desert place. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The temptations are fierce. The wild beasts are many and vicious and they are out to get us.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But please do not despair. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">You are not on your own. There will be ‘angel’ moments:</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And God can use this time to prepare you for something so much more. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Kingdom of Heaven is very close. Jesus is near. Hold on. Believe it and trust Him. </span><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><i><span style="font-size: large;">Our Father God, we pray that this season will bring us back to that place where we throw ourselves on your mercy and receive again your grace and love.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Father, lead us by your spirit into desert with your Son. Show us our idols. Strip away those things that are not of you in which we put our trust.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But do this, we pray, with gentleness.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">May we hear your voice declaring your love and may we know your angels ministering to us.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And we pray that as we are brought out of the water, as we are led out of the desert, your Spirit will empower us to declare your Kingdom and to glorify your name.</span></i>Talks, Sermons and Reflectionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04683550198623401330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-49584637582652559042024-02-11T12:11:00.001+00:002024-02-11T12:11:26.208+00:00Mark 9.1-8 The glory that shapes the suffering.<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+9.1-8&version=NRSVA" target="_blank">Mark 9.1-8</a><br /><br />Last week looking at 'cosmic' Christ. Jesus the creator and lord of all, the source of everything - even life and being.</span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> Today we see the glory of Christ, Jesus transfigured, shining with a brilliance that one of the gospel writers describes as like the sun. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">There are echoes in this story of Moses who met with God on the Mount Sinai, and Elijah who met with God on Mount Horeb. Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are different names for the same mountain. And there are echoes also of Isaiah's vision of God (Isaiah 6), when he hears the angels proclaim, 'Holy Holy Holy'.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> In verse 1, Jesus says “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.” (Mark 9:1)<br /> And in verse 2 we are told 'six days later'.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">That 'dating' is unusual in Mark. We are meant to understand the transfiguration as the fulfilment of that promise. The 'some' are Peter, James and John who see here the Kingdom of God come with power.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> <br /> This is important. Jesus has just told them that he is going to be crucified. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">And then he has told his followers, us, that we too are called to deny ourselves (i.e. do what God wants us to do and not what we at first want to do), to take up our cross (to live as people sentenced to death), and to lose our lives for him. <br /> it is not exactly the most attractive prospect. <br /> <br />It reminds me of Gimli, the heroic dwarf in the film, Lord of the rings. The fellowship are about to go into the cave to rouse the living dead, and Gimli says, as they are hesitating before they go in: "Certainty Of Death? Small Chance Of Success? What Are We Waitin' For?"<br /> <br /> Lent is a time for reassessment and realignment. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">It is about realising that to follow the Lord Jesus is costly. <br /> Yes it is about self denial (and there are always, at this time, the discussions of what are you giving up for Lent). But to be honest self denial is necessary for many things (three illustrations in the bible are athletics, army and farming). <br /> It is about being taken to places - and I'm not necessarily talking about geographical places - where we would really not go. Perhaps it is about seeking to heal a broken relationship even if it means saying sorry or forgiving or swallowing our pride; it may be about facing up to truths about ourself; it might be about learning outrageous risky generosity. <br />But it is more than that: Jesus in Mark 9.1-38 is talking about a very specific form of self denial. It is about being prepared to face ridicule and accusation and suffering because we stand up not even for an at times discredited church, but for the person of Jesus Christ. <br /> <br /> But before we go into Lent, and before Jesus goes to the cross, 'some' of the disciples are given a glimpse of the Kingdom of God coming in power - and that cannot be separated from the glory of Jesus. <br /> <br /> Peter, James and John see Jesus shining more brightly than any natural thing on earth. We are not told about him, but his clothes - which are in direct contact with him - are dazzling white. <br /> He transcends history and time: he is speaking with Moses (died about 1350 years earlier) and Elijah (who is transported up into heaven in the chariots of fire about 900 years earlier). <br /> He transcends any religious act: the three 'dwellings' - recalls one of the most sacred moments in Israel's history when they left Egypt and lived in tents in the wilderness. They became symbols of God's love (bringing them out of slavery), punishment (disobedience which kept them in the wilderness for forty years) and mercy. Of God's guidance and provision and protection. <br /> Peter wants to put Moses, Elijah and Jesus into one of those memorial religious dwellings - no!! He didn't know what he was saying. There is nothing that can capture, or frame, the glory of Jesus<br /> <br /> And we are shown here Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God. <br />The voice from the cloud declares him to be the Son of God: 'This is my Son, my beloved'. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">We've read those words earlier. At the baptism of Jesus the voice from heaven speaks. But then it is much more intimate and personal: 'You are my Son, my beloved'. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">But now the words are declaratory: 'This is my Son ..'. And something new is added to it: </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">'Listen to him!'</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> We are shown here Jesus Christ, the one who we are called to listen to: more than we are called to listen to even Moses and Elijah. He is the one who speaks the words of God.<br /> <br /> Perhaps as we go into Lent we need to put aside time to listen to him. That means primarily putting aside time to read the Word of God. Perhaps we might read through Mark's gospel. To do that involves discipline and self denial: giving time to read. I'm discovering again what is called 'slow reading', when you read through a passage once, then again, then again. Maybe we try to learn it by heart. But we allow the words to sink into us. <br /> <br /> And remember, when it gets hard, when it seems that we are so foolish following Jesus Christ in a world that minute by minute is increasingly forgetting him, remember what Mark tells us. Remember this vision. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> When we are led into the valley, when we choose to go into the valley, and when it seems that it is all deep dark cold valley, stir your mind. <br /> There is a mountain top and the Son is shining.<br /><br />And as over the next few weeks we look at Jesus, shamed and crucified, seemingly powerless in the face of evil and death - we remember that in the background there is the real Jesus who is the Son of God, who is beyond space and time, who conquers death, and who shines with the glory of God.</span></div>Talks, Sermons and Reflectionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04683550198623401330noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-44383021841222025812024-01-27T12:23:00.009+00:002024-01-29T09:15:55.488+00:00Luke 2:22-40 For people who feel powerless<p><span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A22-40&version=NRSVA" target="_blank">Luke2:22-40</a></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>[A sermon preached at St Luke's West Holloway]</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">I was vicar of your neighbouring parish, Mary Mags, for 10 years from 1995-2005. It was rather daunting to have Dave Tomlinson here on
one side and Stephen Coles on the other and to be this nobody in the middle.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">I became vicar in
Bury St Edmunds for 12 years and then, from 2017-2023 I was the Anglican
chaplain in Moscow. Alison and myself returned to the UK last summer. Our final
weekend in Moscow was the weekend that Prigozhin, rather like the grand old
Duke of York, marched his troops to the edge of Moscow and then – fatally for
him – turned them around and marched them back.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">There is
nothing that can justify what Putin did on 24 February 2022, even if some of his grievances against the West have some justification. It has led to what some calculate to up to 500000
deaths from both Ukraine and Russian; millions of people – some of you may be
here – had to flee their homes; terrible things being done: the problem with
atrocities actual, or faked, is that they legitimize other atrocities; and there
is the infestation and fostering and festering of hatreds that will take
decades to heal. We also saw first hand the devastation that it caused to so
many in Russia. Most western foreigners left in the first three months, and
then many of our Russians left in September after the beginning of
mobilisation. And we saw how the authorities clamped down on any criticism of
the ‘special military operations’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">It is awful. Leaving
aside the possibility of a miscalculation by either Russia or the West with
apocalyptic consequences, I fear that many more people (Russians and Ukrainians)
are going to have to die; I wonder how many miles of territory are going to be conquered
or liberated, and how much land one person’s life is worth? I suspect that vested
interests are taking advantage of this. And I worry that this is more an
ideological conflict between Russia and the West, played out with Ukrainian
lives on the territory of the people of the Donbas who – in all honesty – did
not want to be part of Ukraine nor, particularly, part of Russia.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">And I, like millions of others, feel so powerless. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">The job description for the role in Moscow said that the person appointed could make a significant difference for world peace. On that criteria, I failed spectacularly.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">And looking beyond
Russia and Ukraine, we see the war between Israel and Hamas which has already
claimed over 30000 lives; not to mention wars in Sudan, the Horn of Africa and the
many f</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">orgotten conflicts.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And we
continue to live with the consequences of COVID. The latest statistic is that 234203 people died as a result of
COVID and that number continues to increase. That is the statistic, but every
one of those 234203 is a person with their unique story – and so much pain. I suspect
we have all lost someone we knew – and many of you will have lost people who were
very close to you. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">It is very easy to give
in to despair.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">To be overwhelmed by
our sense of powerlessness. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">We were talking with our
integrative members at the Community of St Anselm last week (they work in London and are part time with
the comm</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">unity) and they were telling us that many of their peers were facing increased
stress, isolation, financial pressures and mental health issues. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">And that is happening with the background mood music of ongoing
wars and out of control climate change.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">We feel so powerless. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">And as followers of
the Lord Jesus, what do we say? Not only for others, but for ourselves.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">For a few minutes I’d
like us to look at the story of the presentation.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">And as a companion to the passage that we read (Luke 2:22-38), I would like to
use this old picture, from the early 1400s, an icon from Novgorod in Russia.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZULaYFG6eUa4KeNCn2o_pNQ2BBX2QLTq3qWfKqsVB8jDvXLEs7drvlYI_q4KKi131Tkk8YqtX0ujgPt6wKq6-Z-s9XrOZI26xqAlPFEEbFZhcUAPVWKmTQY2SNqbAsLWIbkLTHdvijHlttst2Li-x_wOyiRyc-2298JpKh9o-1yEeydbKLtqsDELdZh0/s1927/%D0%A1%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5%20velikynovgorod1484-1504.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1927" data-original-width="1400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZULaYFG6eUa4KeNCn2o_pNQ2BBX2QLTq3qWfKqsVB8jDvXLEs7drvlYI_q4KKi131Tkk8YqtX0ujgPt6wKq6-Z-s9XrOZI26xqAlPFEEbFZhcUAPVWKmTQY2SNqbAsLWIbkLTHdvijHlttst2Li-x_wOyiRyc-2298JpKh9o-1yEeydbKLtqsDELdZh0/w464-h640/%D0%A1%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5%20velikynovgorod1484-1504.jpg" width="464" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It shows Joseph and
Mary, Simeon and Anna.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">First of all, on the
left, is Joseph.</span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Old Testament law
stated that a woman needed purification 40 days after the birth of a child. She
needed to come to the temple, make a sacrifice and be declared ritually clean. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It is not that giving
birth was seen as sinful, but to do with blood. There is a lot of blood
involved in child birth: and they had a thing about blood being the life source
of a person, and therefore spilt blood was seen as contaminating and disrupting. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span>What I note, and it
is significant, is that Luke writes, ‘When the time came for <i>their</i>
purification’. Technically, it should have just been ‘her’ purification. </span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">But Joseph fully
shares in this. He also needs purification. He carries two birds (turtle doves
or pigeons) – which is what poorer families were required to bring for
sacrifice.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">And that is right,
because as we approach God, we each need purification.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Not because of spilt
blood – things have changed after the death of Jesus – but because of the way
that we have contaminated other lives and allowed our life to be contaminated. It
is that contamination, fuelled by our lusts and our fears, which leads to the sort of things we are seeing in the
Donbas and Gaza. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I know the power of that fear. The worst thing that would have probably happened to me if I had stepped over the line in Russia and spoken out clearly is that I would I have been roughed up a bit, had my visa cancelled and been put on a plane (which would not have been shot down!). They made sure - fairly early on in the war - that I knew that, but it was a fear that meant that I became like the three monkeys. And then I look at people like Kara Murza, like Navalny and like others who we knew. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">We need washing
clean.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">And the rite of
purification is a gift of God. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">God offers to make us clean.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It is why Jesus told
his disciples to baptise all peoples. The only thing required of someone to
become a member of his people is that we receive the gift of baptism – that we recognise our helplessness, our sinfulness, and allow someone else to throw water over us in the name of the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">And so the journey in
this icon begins with purification</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Then there is Mary. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">She is bringing her
first born child to be presented at the temple. As the first fruits of the
womb, that child belonged to God. And a sacrifice would be made to God to
redeem them, to buy them back. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">What is significant here
is that no sacrifice is made for Jesus. </span><span>He is presented but not
redeemed.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">There are echoes of
the Old Testament story of Hannah who brings her first born, Samuel, to the
temple and leaves him there.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And it is interesting
that the next time we hear of Jesus, when he is 12 years old, he is in the
temple. And he says to his parents, ‘Did you not know that I must be here, in
my Father’s house?’<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">So Mary comes and presents
Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">She offers to God that
which God had given her, and that which as a new mother was the most precious
thing that she could give: her only Son.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And that is costly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In our powerlessness, we first receive purification and then we offer to God ourselves and what we have.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Romans 12:1, "Therefore, in view of the mercies of God, offer your bodies as living sacrifices"</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And so we offer to God our powerlessness - but we also offer him what we do have: our loaves and fishes: our money, our homes and families, the roles we play, our money and our time.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Yes, it is painful and costly. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span>For Mary, it is the first moment of separation. I remember watching our oldest son walk from the car to get on the bus to go on his first overnight school trip. Something really got me. <br />And for Mary there are other moments of separation, leading up to that time when </span><span>she sees Jesus rejected and hanging on the cross. A sword pierces her soul.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But because Mary was willing to offer her son in the temple, the world was changed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And then we have Simeon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">He takes the child in
his arms and looks straight into the face of the child.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">In Russian or
Ukrainian, the church festival today is not called Purification or Presentation, but
‘Sreteniya’, meeting.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It is the meeting of God
and humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">Simeon sees the promised
one, the one who is the Messiah – the one who has come to bring in the Kingdom
of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And Simeon looks in
the face of Jesus and he praises God: ‘My eyes have seen your salvation’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">This is what makes this particular icon so special for me. It is the look between the child and Simeon. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjekUN4kXAaA15LUelGRiZq0AN2cPYy9IXQLDLFmbz3oCp2fA4TRvEneH1p-Tgbb87YWiouY58JebWxT0gdIaPT2k6f9Z-6ngzvhyZAwbrUN2EECGQsOypTEM3AMdv0mYliuCyrorJjN-nw3rcIkxf-Nl-TAHxQaETCIIGqRJBH3WQqOssdSXtQgwTueEY/s717/SimeonandJesus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="649" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjekUN4kXAaA15LUelGRiZq0AN2cPYy9IXQLDLFmbz3oCp2fA4TRvEneH1p-Tgbb87YWiouY58JebWxT0gdIaPT2k6f9Z-6ngzvhyZAwbrUN2EECGQsOypTEM3AMdv0mYliuCyrorJjN-nw3rcIkxf-Nl-TAHxQaETCIIGqRJBH3WQqOssdSXtQgwTueEY/w363-h400/SimeonandJesus.jpg" width="363" /></a></span></div><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: xx-large;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: xx-large;"><br /></span></span></p>And as we receive
this gift of God, and look in the face of Jesus</span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">We see the love of
God. <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">Jesus is God’s gift of
love to us. ‘For God so loved the world, he sent his one and only Son …’</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">In the face of the global and national crises: war, climate change, the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, disease, mental health issues.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">In the face of death and suffering and pain,<br /></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">God has come to us.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">He lives among us.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">He knows us: our fear, our failure, our stress, our confusion, our sense of powerlessness. And he has come as one of us to live
among us, to die with us – and to die for us.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">In the icon, love
responds to love. Simeon responds by receiving the baby, receiving the love and
praising God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">We see the way that God works</span></i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">When God intervened
into the world he does not send a tank, an F1 fighter or a cruise missile or kinzhal - but
a baby.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">We live in a culture which
is completely focussed on surface things: power and wealth and comfort and appearance
and status and respect. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">It gets things done by
being more powerful, bigger and stronger and standing over the other<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">But the Kingdom of
God is about something much deeper. It is about the heart.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">So Jesus comes among us
as one who has nothing that the world values, no power, no status or wealth. He lives among us as a
servant. He is despised and rejected and he ends up on a cross.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">And he calls his followers
to deny themselves, not to live for the things of this world, to give what they
have to the poor, to become the rejects of society – to become hungry and
thirsty and naked and a stranger - and to take up their cross for him. </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">I don’t know how that
makes you feel! </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">Jesus has come (as Simeon says, ‘to reveal our inner thoughts’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">He has come to humble
those of us who think we have everything, and to raise those who have nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">He has come so that
we begin to see the world in a different way – so that we begin to realise that
the things we thought mattered, do not really matter at all. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">He has come so that
we might begin to discover how to love</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">c)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">We are given hope. <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">This is the child who
died on the cross.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">He gave himself up to hell. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But this is also the
child who rose from the dead, who God used to defeat death, who gives the Holy
Spirit, who reigns in heaven, who is bringing in the Kingdom of God and who is
one day coming again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I remember one of the US ambassadors, who attended some of our services, before he left - having lost over three quarters of his embassy - saying to me, 'thank you for speaking the message of hope'. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And finally, there is
Anna</span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">Anna is the almost invisible one, but she is also in a significant position. She is the last person mentioned in our reading in Luke 2, and the icon writer has put her behind Simeon, but above Simeon. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">There is a movement from left to right, a movement that is upwards to the top right corner.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">Anna is the preacher.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">She points people to
the future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">“She began to speak
about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">Sometimes, in icons
of the presentation, her fingers are pointing upwards, asking us to look up. But
here, she is pointing people to the altar, to the fact that Jesus will be the
sacrificial offering for us. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">The altar, and we see this in some classic church architecture, has this large canopy over it. It is not just an altar on which the victim is sacrificed. It is also the throne. And the Russian/Ukrainian word for altar is the same as a word for a throne. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The one who is crucified in weakness, in powerlessness, is also the one who reigns. He is establishing his
kingdom and he will establish his kingdom.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>So what do we say in the face of our powerlessness?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Purification: receive the gift of the forgiveness of God. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Presentation: offer
yourself to God, offer what you are and have - and then see what God can do through you<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Meeting/Encounter: Receive the Lord Jesus, receive the love of God<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Proclamation: Speak, in the right way and at the right time (Anna waited 64 years to preach this sermon), of the hope that we have of the resurrection
and of the coming Kingdom of God. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Talks, Sermons and Reflectionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04683550198623401330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-31140072746598653212024-01-13T20:12:00.001+00:002024-01-13T20:19:10.583+00:00John 1:43-51 For people who feel invisible. <p><a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/2016/JHN.1.NRSV" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">John 1:43-51</span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is very difficult to be unseen, invisible<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I remember on one occasion when we were having a meal. There
was Alison, myself and the three boys. Maybe others. We were having an intense conversation.
John, our son who was probably about 5 at the time, had clearly been trying to say
something, but nobody was paying him any attention. He was invisible to us. So
he stood up on his chair and he shouted out, ‘Listen to me!’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps we feel invisible at work. I've just started work in a large organisation and at times it seems that I am invisible. That everybody is getting on with their life, their interests, their systems and I don't exist, I don't really matter. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And as a new person in a new place – perhaps we’ve moved to a
new village or town or country, or begun college – maybe at first people notice us, but later it can feel that nobody notices us. We begin
to feel that we do not matter.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And as we grow older, or suffer sickness – maybe we are stuck
in home, or even experience bereavement – it is quite possible to find that we have become invisible. It is as if we do not exist, we do not matter and that nobody will miss us. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And it is also very difficult to be misunderstood.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I don’t mean linguistically misunderstood: that happened to
me on too many occasions when I was trying to speak Russian:<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I remember trying to tell a visitor to our church in Moscow
that the electricity was not working in our building. I told her that the
electric trains were not working in our building.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On another occasion, I asked our premisses manager to hang a
chain across our gate. The word for chain is quite similar to
another word, so I asked him to hang some little chickens across our gate.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But I am talking about deeper misunderstandings: when the
other person just does not understand us, indeed misrepresents us, uses us or
abuses us, or even accuses us of a crime.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Post Office sub post masters and post mistresses
were completely misunderstood. When the money apparently went
missing, nobody listened to them. I heard one commentator last week speaking of a dystopian vision of a world where computers made an error; computers identify
us as making the error; computers assess the evidence and in this world of AI, computers judge us and sentence us.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is only now, as their story is told, that people are
beginning to understand them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>The story we read today is the story of a man, Nathaniel, who
chose to come and find out more about Jesus, and who discovered that with Jesus
he was not invisible and he was truly understood.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Philip has met Jesus and become his follower. He goes to
Nathaniel and tells him, </span>“We have found him about whom Moses in the law
and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” (John 1:45)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nathaniel is cynical: ‘Can anything good come out of Hunstanton
– sorry, I misread that - Nazareth?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But Philip invites Nathaniel, ‘Come and see’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And Nathaniel discovers:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That Jesus has seen him.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you’. I
saw you. I noticed you. You matter to me. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus knows him.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus says of Nathaniel, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom
there is no deceit’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That might seem rather vague to us, but it is rich in
meaning.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the beginning of the Old Testament there is a man called
Jacob. He has a twin brother Esau who is older than him by a few minutes. Jacob
steals the blessing that belonged to Esau by deceiving their old blind father into
thinking that he is Esau. And the name Jacob is very close in Hebrew for the
name deceiver.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Esau is not very happy. He is so not very happy that he
wants to kill Jacob, and Jacob legs it. And while he is away, Jacob – the deceiver
– is deceived, and then he meets God. And God wrestles with him. And Jacob,
although he is defeated, refuses to let God get away from him until God blesses
him. And God does bless him, and gives him a new name. Not Jacob,
deceiver, but Israel, ‘the one who wrestled with God’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So now, Jesus looks at Nathaniel and says: Here there really
is an Israelite – one who wrestles with God – and there is no Jacob, no
deceiver, no deception about him. He may be cynical. He may be blunt. But he is
authentic, transparent through and through.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now that gets to Nathaniel. And he realises that this Jesus
is someone who truly understands him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-size: 12pt;">Well, when you or I choose to listen to our Philip, and when
we come to find out more about this Palestinian peasant who lived 2000 years
ago, who Christians claim was crucified and risen, and that he was, and is, the
Son of God, we can get far more than we bargained for.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As you come to meet him, you will meet one who has <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Noticed you: He has seen you. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is something interesting happening in these verses</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus found Philip before Philip claims to have found
him.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Verse 43: The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He
found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me’. .. Philip found Nathaniel and said
to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses spoke’.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">True. Yes. But Jesus first found Philip.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And Nathaniel is invited to come and see if Jesus is the promised Messiah. But when he gets to Jesus, he discovers that Jesus has already seen him. <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you are beginning to seek God, know that God has already sought you. If you are beginning to look for God, know that God has already seen you.<br /><br />You are not invisible to him. He has seen you.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You will meet one who really sees
you. He understands you.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You may have seen Avatar.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the film Jake is moonlighting in the body of a Navi, an
alien people, and he falls in love with one of the Navi, Neytiri.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Neytiri has only known Jake in his Navi body. But the real
Jake has a human body. And at the end, as Jake is dying, Neytiri comes to find
him and sees him in his human body for the first time. But she looks into his eyes and she
says, ‘I see you’.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I really see you. I see beyond the body – and I see into your
soul.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Well the Lord Jesus looks deep into us – into our soul – and he
says, ‘I see you’<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I understand you more than you understand yourself. I
understand where you came from, what you have been through, where you are going,
what and who you can become. I understand your sin and failure and fear and
inadequacies. I know them – you can’t hide them from me – but I still love you.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I understand your uniqueness. I know in this universe, maybe
multiverse, with billions and billions of souls, I know what your unique
gifting and role is. I know you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Bible names are very important. They sum up a person. And
God will give us a new name, that corresponds to our true identity, when we are
with God.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So Jacob – deceiver – becomes Israel – one who wrestles with
God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Metropolitan Anthony Bloom (in his book, <i>School for Prayer</i>) writes, <br />‘We
also have another name, which we do not know. You remember the passage in the
book of the Revelation which says that in the Kingdom each will receive a white
stone with a name written on it, a name which is known only to God and to him
who receives it. This is no nickname, no family name, no Christian name. It is
a name, a word, that is exactly identical with us, which coincides with us,
which is us. We may almost say it is a word which God pronounced when he willed
us into existence and which is us, as we are it. This name defines our absolute
and unrepeatable uniqueness as far as God is concerned. No one can know the
name, as no one can, in the last analysis, know anyone as God knows him; and
yet it is out of this name that everything else comes that can be known about
us.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We meet someone who can offer us a
future<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus says to Nathaniel, “Do you believe because I told you
that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.”<sup>
</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he said to him, “Very truly, I
tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of Man.” (John 1:50-51)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He is saying to Nathaniel and he says to us:. I can offer you
something more, more than can begin to imagine here and now.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There are echoes here of the Jacob story. Because when Jacob
ran away to escape Esau, he comes to a place where he falls asleep. He has a dream,
a vision. And in his dream he sees a ladder and angels ascending and descending
from heaven to earth and earth to heaven.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jacob thought it was the place that was significant.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But Jesus is telling Nathaniel that it is not the place that
is significant, but a person who is significant – himself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And if you choose to follow Jesus then we will be with the
one who is the door between heaven and earth. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There will be times when we are given glimpses of heaven</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">: moments in prayer or worship or
when God simply touches you – when we see heaven opened. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And there will be times when we see heaven working on earth: <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nathaniel saw ‘greater things’ than this: he saw water turned
into wine, he saw the healing of someone who had been paralysed for 38 years, a
boys picnic lunch turned into a meal for 5000, a blind man healed, a dead man
brought back from the dead. And he saw Jesus crucified and he saw the risen
Jesus.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Nathaniel saw Jesus giving life, eternal life to people who
were spiritually dead – people who will physically die but who now will never
really die.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And Jesus offers us a future – whoever we are, however young
or old we are. He offers us a future even if we are invisible here and now. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">None of us know how long the future will be that we have on
this earth – but even if our time here is short, we have a future there: with him, with the one who is the door
between heaven and earth, the one who sees us, who knows us, and who gives us a
name.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Talks, Sermons and Reflectionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04683550198623401330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-88927452789266442012023-12-23T13:44:00.004+00:002024-01-13T19:18:09.658+00:00Christmas and the glory of God<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=+Luke+2.1-14&version=NRSVA">Luke 2.1-14</a></span><div><span style="color: #0000ee; font-size: x-large;"><u><br /></u></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=+Luke+2.1-14&version=NRSVA"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=+Luke+2.1-14&version=NRSVA"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaXPvZjMMGHmj7XH20BkN7HX2zrS5CsPULdtwzIAARas2auepBopB6f9heEZueVOyqUkUbkQOpbWFGgIX9_eh-fQQM9ydnTti9uM2snNP5wfqZMux8NXKKAA_5jR2aZqilU0_vo0V_c0kmNxbiPR0Y3Lxve2SlAR_dXTI2h1G-_wbUiu-WpopmURiG_o/s2000/the-manger-ra8sz6zm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="2000" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaXPvZjMMGHmj7XH20BkN7HX2zrS5CsPULdtwzIAARas2auepBopB6f9heEZueVOyqUkUbkQOpbWFGgIX9_eh-fQQM9ydnTti9uM2snNP5wfqZMux8NXKKAA_5jR2aZqilU0_vo0V_c0kmNxbiPR0Y3Lxve2SlAR_dXTI2h1G-_wbUiu-WpopmURiG_o/w640-h336/the-manger-ra8sz6zm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />"In that region there were shepherds living in the fields .. then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them"<br /></span><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest heaven ..'"</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">"The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God"</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /><b>There is a lot of glory at Christmas. </b><br /><br />The glory of the sun is that it shines.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">The glory of an architect is the stunning building.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">The glory of the football team is an immaculate set of passes and outstanding skill that climaxes in a spectacular goal.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">The glory of a performance is where the orchestra and choir and soloists are in perfect harmony, where every note, every beat, every emotion is exactly right - and at the end there is stunned silence and then the audience explodes with a sense of joy in rapturous applause<br /><br />But tonight there is something strange going on here. <br /><br />The glory of God is revealed in a baby 'wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.'<br /><br />Poverty and dirt and rejection and blood and pain and weakness: not quite what we expect when we talk of glory.<br />But when this baby is born, heaven is torn open and we glimpse the glory of heaven. <br /><br /><b>We see the glory of the Love of God </b><br /><br />God in his love comes and lives among us. This child is 'Immanuel', God with us. He is, we heard this yesterday morning, the Son of the Most High, the Son of God.<br /><br />And in his love he does not simply come down and touch the earth, and live a golden privileged life: born in a palace, with everything he could need, waited on by servants, where his every wish and desire was fulfilled. <br />Instead in his love he comes deep into this world, into our real lived experience, of dirt and poverty and rejection and violence and pain and weakness and blood. <br /><br />How much do you love another person? </span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">I'm not talking about physical desire or whether they are someone you do not think you can live without. I'm talking about real love. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">How much would you give up or suffer <b>for their sake</b>? Would you really walk 500 miles, and then 500 miles more, for them - would you give up everything for them - would you go through abandonment and excruciating pain so that they would be blessed and you could be with them?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-large;">In God's love he chooses to identify himself with us not in our glory, but in our shame and failure and brokenness. And that love is his glory.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">[Reflection: At the heart of human love there is a paradox. Love delights in the other, wills the best for the other and desires (appropriate) communion with the other. But those three dimensions of love, which should be held together, can contradict each other. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Jack (from the film Titanic) loves Rose. He wants the best for Rose. So at the end of the film he gives his life to save Rose. He dies so that she might live. But in giving his life for her, he denies her the possibility of communion with him and also denies himself the possibility of communion with her, and so denies a critical element of what love is. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">That is the tragedy of love, and it is inevitable in a world in which there is death. The paradox can only be resolved if death is temporary and not the end]. <br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>We see the glory of the transforming power of God</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">This child has come to bring change to the world. He is Jesus, the Saviour. The name Jesus means 'God Saves'.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">There were the old jokes: 'Jesus saves but Maradona gets the rebound'. That is made more complicated today by the fact that some strikers are called Jesus - so now it goes, 'Jesus saves but Jesus also gets the rebound'.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">But Jesus came to save us from all that destroys life, all that brings death and destruction. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">He came to save us from sin - our rebellion against God and the consequences of that rebellion. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">He came for both our forgiveness - for all the hurt we have caused to him, to others, to this creation and to ourselves - and our transformation. </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">He came to transform our desires and thinking so that we begin to will what he wills (we pray 'Your will be done on earth as in heaven'), our relationships, our identity, our eternal destiny. </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">He came to turn us away from a road that leads to eternal death to a road that leads us to eternal life. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">As one of the earliest Christian thinkers said, 'The Son of God became a son of man, so that the sons and daughters of men can become sons and daughters of God'. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">That is the 'good news of great joy for all people' which the angels have come to proclaim, that is what Christmas is all about, and that is the glory of God. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">But why?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">Why would God in Jesus come to us?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">Why would God in Jesus forgive us and transform us?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>We see the glory of God in his longing for communion with us.</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">Jesus told the story of a shepherd who has 100 sheep. The shepherd is counting them and realises that one is missing. So he leaves the 99 and goes to search for the one lost sheep. And when he finds it, he is so so delighted, that he puts it on his shoulder, carries it home and has a party with all his friends. 'Party with me', he says, 'I have found my lost sheep'.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">God in Jesus came to us to search for us.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">That is what happens at Christmas. The Son of God comes among us.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">We can imagine Father and Son and Spirit having a conversation. 'How do we reach out to human beings, who have turned from us and who are lost?' And the Son says to the Father, 'I will go - if you send me'. And the Spirit says, 'Great idea, but we will need to flesh it out' (that was my wife's very theological joke).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">But that is what happened. The Son of God took on flesh, came among us as one of us, to seek us because God desires communion with us, and for us to be in communion with him and others. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">That is his glory. It is also what we were created for - and when we turn to him, receive him, begin to live in communion with him and through him with others, we share in that glory </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #212529;">Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji";" /><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #212529;">Hail the Sun of Righteousness! ...</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji";" /><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #212529;">Mild he lays his glory by,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji";" /><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #212529;">born that man no more may die,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji";" /><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #212529;">born to raise the sons of earth,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji";" /><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #212529;">born to give us second birth.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji";" /><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #212529;">Hark! the herald angels sing,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji";" /><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #212529;">“Glory to the new born King!”</span></span></i></div></div>Talks, Sermons and Reflectionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04683550198623401330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-54448908747826695012023-12-21T15:12:00.006+00:002024-01-13T19:21:51.930+00:00The Annunciation. Christmas eve 2023<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1.26-38&version=NRSVA"><span style="font-size: large;">Luke 1.26-38</span></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNeZaKa6E4-8M9qnrYLcxRK8WCnZvTYGXYCDG7KhvbKGIWRN9DjKrE4sD416bDE48urf_v0gqMYdFJoOnQa8wjIuPjsZ1zfIdG7GpXzDFuvJynI3FnOdF1o3RQlJoJPW1VCCFIUdq2KV1Reem3Kghic-ZIsmC-TzzmxbNHfmbFMV5G-WQ3DR7UdLVS-aI/s1699/1200px-Annunciation_ystuj.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1699" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNeZaKa6E4-8M9qnrYLcxRK8WCnZvTYGXYCDG7KhvbKGIWRN9DjKrE4sD416bDE48urf_v0gqMYdFJoOnQa8wjIuPjsZ1zfIdG7GpXzDFuvJynI3FnOdF1o3RQlJoJPW1VCCFIUdq2KV1Reem3Kghic-ZIsmC-TzzmxbNHfmbFMV5G-WQ3DR7UdLVS-aI/w452-h640/1200px-Annunciation_ystuj.jpg" width="452" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Today - this last Sunday in Advent, which happens to be Christmas Eve, we remember Mary<br /><br />It means that we have the story of the annunciation this morning and the birth this evening. Shortest pregnancy ever! <br /><br />And this morning I would like to focus for a few minutes on Mary's Yes to God:<br />'Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word'<br /><br />She did not need to say Yes. <br />Indeed, she is contrasted to Zechariah (the double reference to ‘the sixth month’, [Luke 1.26,36] places the annunciation in the context of the story of the birth of John the Baptist)<br />Many similarities: an angel appears to him and tells him that Elizabeth his wife will have a baby. But clearly Zechariah responds with unbelief: How is this possible? I'm really old and my wife is getting on. <br />He is a priest in the temple of God and he does not believe the word of God. And so he is struck dumb. He cannot speak because he has nothing to say. <br /><br />But Mary responds with faith. She says, Yes to God. <br /><br />It is a yes which shapes everything: <br />It shapes her relationship with Joseph<br />It shapes how other people saw her<br />It shapes what happens to her body<br />It shapes her future life, her identity and her destiny<br /><br /><b>1. She says yes to the love of God</b><br /><br />The first words that the angel speaks are. 'Greetings favoured one!'<br /><br />The first word that God speaks to any of us are words of love. The call of God to us is a call of love to love.<br /><br />There must have been many times when Mary did not feel favoured. <br />She probably did not think she was favoured being told that something very scary is going to happen to her. She was going to have a child – and in the process she would probably lose her reputation, her fiancée, her family, even - at the extreme - her life.<br />And I wonder whether she felt favoured when she had gone into labour and there was nowhere for her to give birth<br />I wonder whether she felt favoured when she saw her son dying on the cross. <br />But she holds on to the fact that the first words that God speaks are words of love: she is the favoured one; 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God' <br /><br /><b>2. She says yes to the power of God, to the Holy Spirit</b><br /><br />"The power of the Most High will overshadow you"<br /><br />Mary does not know how she can possibly become pregnant while not having sex with a man. <br />But she is told that the Holy Spirit can do the impossible<br />And she trusts God, that he can do it. <br /><br /><b>3. She says yes to being part of the story of hope that God gives us</b><br /><br />God had promised that one day a descendant of David [David was the great king in Israel's history], would be born, and would establish God's kingdom - he would be Son of God and he would be the Messiah: God's king in God's world. <br /><br />Of course, many people dismissed that as a fairy tale. <br />Others paid lip service to it but didn't really believe it could happen - and just got on with their lives. <br />But there were a faithful few who believed the promises that God had given in the Old Testament, and who longed for and looked for and who lived their lives in the light of the one who was going to come as the fulfilment of that promise.</span><div><span style="font-size: large;"> <br /><br />And in saying Yes to God, Mary does not only say a personal Yes to him. <br />She says the Yes of all those who had longed and waited for the birth of Messiah. <br />She says Yes to being part of that story of the fulfilment of hope. <br /><br /><b>You don't have to be Roman Catholic or Orthodox to say that Mary is pretty central to the Christian faith. </b><br />She was the human mother of God: the eternal Son of God was in her womb. <br />She is, as Elizabeth says, when Mary visits her, 'Blessed among women'</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">She is an example of faith in God's word: on one occasion while Jesus was teaching a woman calls out, 'Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you'. And Jesus replies, 'Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it'<br />And Mary is also, in Revelation 12, a person who embodies historic faithful Israel - that part of the nation and people who held to the promise of God and gave birth to Jesus - and she is the person who comes to embody the Church, the people of God. <br /><br /><b>So Mary's Yes is an example to us, but it is also – if we have come to Jesus Christ - our Yes to God</b><br /><br />It is a Yes which will shape everything about us: how we use our bodies, how people see us and treat us, how we live our lives. And it will shape our thinking and our desire, our identity and our destiny. <br /><br />With Mary we say <b>Yes to the love of God</b>: that love that calls us to love. <br />And even though that call may be difficult and costly - to follow him, to deny ourselves, to face potential ridicule or shame for him - we are called to hold on to that love. <br />And when he calls us through death shadowed valleys, that even then, 'all things in the end will work for good for those who love him' (Romans 8 cf Julian of Norwich: 'All will be well').<br /><br />And with Mary we say <b>Yes to the power of God</b>: that he can do the impossible: that Christ can be born in us and live in us, that he can </span><span style="font-size: large;">change us, that he can transform us. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span>God may not answer prayers in the way we demand, or in the sort of time scale that we expect, but Paul in Ephesians says that God will answer our prayers in a way that we simply cannot imagine, and that he will satisfy our deepest longings:</span><br /><span>'Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine ...' Ephesians 3:20</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And with Mary we say <b>Yes to the transforming hope of God</b> and not to be hope cynics (which is what Zechariah was), but to be hope givers.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>Mary appears in Eastern icons nearly always with Jesus. </b><br />That is because she is favoured, but he is great.<br />She submits and he reigns<br />And here is an icon of this event, the Annunciation (Ustyug, Russia, C12th)</span><div><span style="font-size: large;">The angel brings the message of God to her. She hears and receives, and Christ is born in her. <br /><br />With Mary we say Yes to the word of God and Christ is born in us. </span><br /><br /><br /><br /></div></div>Talks, Sermons and Reflectionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04683550198623401330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-70382661330824554422023-12-15T10:17:00.004+00:002023-12-17T11:15:56.301+00:00Who are you? John 1.6-8,19-28<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=+John+1.6-8%2C+19-28&version=NRSVA">John 1.6-8, 19-28</a><br /></span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Who are you?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Today we are looking at the question of identity.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">A number of years ago I did a thesis on the work of John Zizioulas, the Orthodox theologian. He wrote a book, 'Being as Communion', which says that we truly are who we are in relationship with (including relationship with God)<br /><br />Today we look at how John the apostle speaks of his namesake, John the Baptist, who answers the question, 'Who are you?'</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>1. Our identity is tied to our origin</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">You may well know the TV programme, 'Who do you think you are?' The subject is shown who their human ancestors are. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">But John does not tell us his John the Baptist's human ancestors. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The first thing that we are told about John is that, 'There was a man sent from God' (v6). We are told about his origin in God. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It is in very marked contrast to how John introduces the people who come to John to ask him who he is?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">We are told three times that they were sent by the Jewish leaders (vv19,22,24). And because they had been sent by the Jewish leaders they were answerable to the Jewish leaders.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Who are you?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Of course your identity is tied with your human origins. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">But our true identity does not begin in this world, but in that world. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It begins with our rootedness in God, and therefore our accountability to God and our destiny in God</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>2. Our identity is tied in with our name</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">John writes, 'There was a man sent from God. His name was John'.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Our names are really important. They are often what are given to us by the world and they are how the world relates to us. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">John's name, we are told by Luke, was given by divine direction. They were going to call him according to their tradition, after his father Zechariah, but Zechariah had been told to call him John (which meant 'The Lord is gracious').</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Who are you?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The answer we usually give is by telling people our name. 'I am Malcolm'</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It is how people relate to us. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes we change names, because of tradition or by choice: in marriage, or - in some traditions - when people are baptised or take religious, monastic, vows. Or sometimes we change our name as an act of rebellion: we refuse to be called by the name that our parents have given us.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And sometimes we do not feel that our name 'fits' us. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">In a sense that is right. Our human name does not fit us. We are told that in heaven we will be given a new name, known only to God and to us - and that new name will 'fit'. It will be our true name that truly expresses our identity. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>3. Our identity is tied up with our specific calling. </b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">John the Baptist has a unique, specific calling.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">They come to him and they as him, 'Who are you? Are you the Messiah (the one who will come as God's ruler in God's kingdom), Elijah (the prophet who will come before the arrival of the Messiah) or the Prophet </span><span style="font-size: large;">(God told Moses that another prophet would come who would be like him: Deuteronomy 18:15)?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The answer that he gives is a clear NO!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And they ask him again (v22), 'Who are you?'<br />and this time he says, 'I am the voice - pointing to Jesus'.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">He defines himself in terms of Scripture. He says that he is the voice in the wilderness foretold in Isaiah 40. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">So John defines himself in terms of the history of salvation - the story of how God has come to save his people. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Our identity is part of what we do. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">When they ask us, 'Who are you?', we often respond by saying what it is that we do. I am a mother, a farmer, a teacher, a vicar, a student. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">That is why it can be quite difficult when we are retired - unless we turn being retired into something that we do. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">But as Christians we do have a role, a part to play in the body of Christ.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps we too can be a voice pointing people to Jesus.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And John, in chapter 3, tells us that John the Baptist is 'the friend of the bridegroom', where the bridegroom is Jesus. He delights in hearing the voice of Jesus. He delights in the fact that Jesus is with his bride - and the bride of Jesus is the people of God, the Church </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">So our role is to be both the voice, the bridegroom, pointing people to Jesus and also, and also to be the bride herself - to be with Jesus. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And John has told us that whoever receives Jesus, is given the right to become a child of God. (John 1:12)<br /><br /><b>4. Our identity is tied with our vision of God.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">We are told that John has come 'to testify to the light'.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">John testified to the light and John saw the light</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">He saw the glory of Jesus</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">That is why he says, when he is asked, 'Who are you', </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">- I am a voice calling people to prepare for Jesus<br />- I am the servant, the envoy, the forerunner: Jesus is coming after him<br />- I am nothing in comparison to Jesus. Not even worthy to kneel down and untie his shoelaces.<br /><br />Catherine of Siena (C14th Italian mystic) wrote of an encounter she had with the risen Lord Jesus. He said to her,<br />“Do you know who you are and who I am? If you know these two things, you will be blessed and the Enemy will never deceive you. I am He who is; and you are she who is not.”</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">That is not crushing - it is incredibly liberating. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">When we see true glory, and recognise true glory, we begin to share in that glory. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And as we go through life, as we grow in our faith, as we long for the glory of Jesus and wait for the glory of Jesus, so that vision of the glory of God will grow - and we will grow. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And one day we will see Him as He is, in his beauty and holiness and radiance. We will see him face to face. And we will finally be who we were truly called to be. </span></div>Talks, Sermons and Reflectionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04683550198623401330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-3105093365530310862023-10-12T11:42:00.004+01:002023-10-15T09:06:12.299+01:00How can I be worthy enough for God? Matthew 22.1-14<p><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=+Matthew+22.1-14&version=NRSVA" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Matthew 22.1-14</span></b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">‘Those invited were not
worthy?’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">What does it mean to be
worthy – to be worthy of God?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">There is the L'Oréal advert:
‘Because you are worth it’ <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The reason why that catches
is because many of us do not think that we are worth it – worth anything. We
try to make ourselves worthy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">I was hearing a chaplain
speak about the people she works with at Cambridge University. She said, there
were so many people she met – from college principals, to professors, to
students (and college chaplains!) – who had a sense of imposter syndrome: there was that feeling that
I’m not really worthy to be here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">So what does it mean to be
worthy of God – of God’s love, of God’s invitation?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">I mean this is a big thing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The King sends out
invitations to the guests to come to the wedding of his son.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">God sends out invitations to
his guests to come to the wedding of his Son.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgow_1hquTB1HBzXF2HgHuZIJJlIX1BiO4NxSzWzWHijPveVUPJ6847fMHunvFRMKvs9Zx6DgkEBK56X160Pm8S5RscIFgJieFdnGu1Rmz_eeuk6LJU_lYhq7l39KA0R-RTchFHp8wbvDNGSXWwVAGJXtwmG435OZXoY7sEBVs3YRdW227ho_aa89NypKg/s1200/Luke-14_12-The-Parable-of-the-Great-Banquet-1200x640.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1200" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgow_1hquTB1HBzXF2HgHuZIJJlIX1BiO4NxSzWzWHijPveVUPJ6847fMHunvFRMKvs9Zx6DgkEBK56X160Pm8S5RscIFgJieFdnGu1Rmz_eeuk6LJU_lYhq7l39KA0R-RTchFHp8wbvDNGSXWwVAGJXtwmG435OZXoY7sEBVs3YRdW227ho_aa89NypKg/w640-h342/Luke-14_12-The-Parable-of-the-Great-Banquet-1200x640.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">It is an astonishing
invitation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">It is an invitation to spend
time with God, to share his joy in the wedding of his son <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">We’ve just had the wedding
of our son. It was a bit different. We didn’t send out the invitations. Peter
and Amy did. But they were saying to the people they invited, ‘You are
important to us. Come and share our joy with us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">And God is saying, ‘You are
important to me. Come and be with me. Be my guest. Share my joy with me’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">What do we need to do to be
worthy of that?</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Three things. One negative.
Two positive.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b>It is not
about morality. To be worthy of God’s invitation is not about whether you are
good or bad.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Notice how we are specifically
told that the slaves go into the streets to gather all who they find, ‘both
good and bad’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Jesus could so easily have
said, ‘The slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found; …
so the wedding hall was filled with guests’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">God’s invitation is for all
people. For good people and for bad people. Even, if you are an Archers follower, the Rob Kitchener's of this world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">So no, you don’t have to be
good to receive an invitation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b>To be
worthy of God’s invitation is to hear the invitation and to receive it. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The people first invited at
best ignore the invitation and, at worst, treat it as an opportunity to declare
their hatred of their King and their independence from him. They kill his
slaves.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">That is very similar to the
previous story we heard about last week, where they kill the servants and
ultimately kill the son. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The King passes judgement on
the rebels, and now sends his slaves out into the streets: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">in other words, the
invitation which was initially for a chosen few becomes global. It is now for
anyone and everyone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course, it is not because
we are morally worthy, good enough, to receive that invitation. It is not
because we are rich enough or important enough or poor enough or humble enough
to receive the invitation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">It is all God’s gift – God’s
grace<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">But we become worthy of that
invitation when we receive the invitation as an invitation from our king and
our God and choose to allow our lives to be interrupted by the voice of God,
and for us to come into the presence of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">We become worthy when we
choose to put aside time in the day, to be with God, to pray morning or evening
prayer, or simply the Lords Prayer and to read some of the bible.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">We become worthy when we meet
with God’s people to pray and study together. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">We become worthy when we come
together to worship and come forward to receive communion. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b>To be
worthy of God’s invitation is to receive the wedding robe that he would give
us.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">It is not just enough to hear
the invitation and to come into the wedding feast.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">It is about being willing to
let God change you – to give us a new identity, to put us in a new set of
relationships, to transform us<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">When you put on a uniform you
can become a different person<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">We’re working with the
Community of St Anselm, with people aged 20-35 from all over the world, who
have come to put aside a year of their life for God. It is sort of
semi-monastic, where monastic means to be focussed on the one thing. And when
they make their commitments, they are given a robe, which they wear in prayers
– a symbol of the new life which God is giving.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">And the uniform of God is a
wedding robe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">It is described elsewhere as
the robe of righteousness. Paul speaks about clothing yourself with compassion,
kindness, humility, meekness and patience. It is about clothing ourselves with
love (Colossians 3.12ff)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">This is not stuff that is in
us that comes out of us. This is the gift that God offers us<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">And we invite the Holy Spirit
to come and clothe us with this wedding robe.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Of course, we are not
worthy to receive God’s invitation. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">What made us even think that
we might be worthy of it?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The Roman Centurion, a senior figure, says to Jesus, 'I am not worthy for you to come to my house'.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">But we can become worthy of
the invitation if we hear it as it is: the invitation of our God and King to
spend time with him, to share his joy, and to be transformed by him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: large;">One final thought about
this story.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">We hear of the groom, the Son
of the King. But we do not hear of the bride. Who is she?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">She is usually the one who is
wearing the wedding dress, the wedding robe. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">And who here is wearing the
robe?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps, just perhaps, in
telling us this story, Jesus is telling us that God the Father is inviting us
to come not just to the wedding of his Son, but to come to our own wedding –
the wedding of the people of God – with his beloved Son.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-50052923526078881452023-08-25T14:03:00.004+01:002023-08-25T14:03:53.209+01:00The Great Confession. Matthew 16.13-20<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+16%3A13-20&version=NRSVA">Matthew 16:13-20</a> <br /><br />Jesus asks the disciples, who do you say I am?<br />Simon Peter answers, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God’. <br /><br />This is the great confession. <br /><br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3GLrii-pZ4Px65bA6ZHwDYJk37ZjHzaoxn2ER7OywQI9VFKrxX7EicUwP7VtLxwdejzqXs4WE8_TblZJhIJQfHVIh3E6d5x33R-Le4Dt1vgL9NnKWUc_kUIaMpEFU5HQoAjWs48BSatyao8_vJRn6vOM-BaTEgebN_mRY6jg2DaAFHqbMw8sfJIbMdzY/s2441/confessionpeter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2441" data-original-width="1826" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3GLrii-pZ4Px65bA6ZHwDYJk37ZjHzaoxn2ER7OywQI9VFKrxX7EicUwP7VtLxwdejzqXs4WE8_TblZJhIJQfHVIh3E6d5x33R-Le4Dt1vgL9NnKWUc_kUIaMpEFU5HQoAjWs48BSatyao8_vJRn6vOM-BaTEgebN_mRY6jg2DaAFHqbMw8sfJIbMdzY/w478-h640/confessionpeter.jpg" width="478" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><a href="http://easternprom.com/pismenny2.shtml" target="_blank">The Confession of St. Peter. Alexey Pismenny</a>, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">2009-2011</span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It is interesting to see how the disciples have grown in their understanding of who Christ is. <br /><br />In Matthew 8, there is a storm at sea. Jesus is asleep in the boat. The disciples wake him up, and he calms the storm. And they ask, ‘Who is this man? Even the winds and waves obey him’. <br /><br />In Matthew 14, the disciples are again in a boat. There is another storm. Jesus comes to them walking on water. This is the story you may have heard a couple of weeks ago when Peter gets out of the boat and walks on the water. But when Jesus gets into the boat, the wind and waves become calm. And the disciples now say, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’. <br /><br />In the Old Testament, Israel is described as a son of God. Israel can call on God as Father <br />David is described as a son of God. David can call on God as his Father. <br />So when they call Jesus the Son of God, they are recognising that Jesus has a special, a unique relationship with God. He can call on God as Father. <br /><br />But now, Peter not only says to Jesus, ‘You are the Son of the Living God’, but he says to him, ‘You are the Messiah (Christ), the Son of the Living God’ <br />You are the Messiah - the one who the Old Testament pointed to; the one for whom we have waited; the one who God has sent to be our saviour and our ruler; the one who will bring in the Kingdom of God; the one who is God’s King – ruling in righteousness and justice and mercy, bringing peace and abundance and joy. <br /><br />And notice something else about Simon’s confession. <br /><br />It is not theoretical or theological. He does not say, ‘Jesus <b><i>is </i></b>the Messiah, the Son of the Living God’. <br />It is deeply personal. He says, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God’. <br />He is not talking about God. He is speaking to God, to the Son of God. <br /><br />And it is that personal confession to Jesus of Jesus: that revelation, that realisation, that conviction which changes the world. <br /><br /><b>1. This confession of Jesus gives us a new identity </b><br /><br />In the Orthodox church, people change their name at their baptism, especially if they are baptised as adults. They had their secular name, and they are given a new God name. Some of our young Russian adults who were baptised would ask me what name they should take. I had no idea what to say! As any parent knows, it is a big thing to name someone. <br /><br />Simon makes the great confession and Jesus gives him a new name, Peter. <br />Simon is the old man. Peter is the new man. <br /><br /><i>He is a new man with a new vision. </i></span><div><span style="font-size: large;">He sees the world in a different way. <br /><br />It is not a world of chance or chaos. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It is not a world that is simply a stage for my existence, in which I should shine and in which everything should exist to serve me, or my family or my interests. <br />No. This is a world that has a destiny which is far bigger than me. It is a world that has a ruler and a king. And that king is Jesus. <br /><br /><i>Peter is a new man in a new set of relationships. <br /></i>A new relationship with Jesus Christ, with God. <br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">He has dethroned himself. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">He realises that he has been a pretender to the throne, with no claim to the throne, and he now steps down. <br />When Simon says to Jesus, ‘You are the Messiah’ he recognises the true king. <br /><br />In John 1, we are told that “to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born … of God.” John 1:12-13<br />I’m sure you have heard the phrase ‘born again’. Well, this is what it is speaking about.<br />Simon Peter, declares that Jesus is the Messiah, his king, and he is given the power to become a child of God.<br /><br />And Peter also finds himself in a new set of relationships with others who confess that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is their king. <br /><br />When a person becomes a Christian, when we ‘receive’ Jesus, when we turn to him and say, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’ – whether privately as a prayer, or as a public declaration (that is what happens at baptism or confirmation, as well as at other times) – we become new people with a new identity</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />‘If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come’. (2 Cor 5.17) <br /><br /><b>2. This confession of Jesus is the rock on which God builds His Church </b><br /><br />Jesus says, ‘And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church’. Matthew 16:18 <br /><br />Peter means ‘rock’. The name that Jesus has given Peter means Rocky <br /><br />But in the New Testament, the true rock is always Jesus Christ himself. <br /><br />Jesus speaks of himself, quoting from Psalm 118, as the rock who the builders rejected. He tells his listeners that he is the cornerstone or the capstone. He is the rock people will either stumble over or on which they will be broken and become new people. (Matthew 21.42-44) <br /><br />He says that if we listen and do what he says, then we will be like people who build the house of our lives on rock. When the storms and troubles of life come, it will stand firm. (Matthew 7.25) <br /><br />And Paul, writing later, describes Jesus as the moveable rock who provides for the Israelites in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10.4) <br /><br />And here it is no different. The rock that the church is built on is the rock of the confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. <br /><br />This confession it is our praise. It is at the heart of our worship. <br /><br />It is our message – it is what we preach: that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Son of God.<br /><br />It is our unity – this is what holds us together. <br />I am passionate about this. In Moscow we had Trump lovers and Trump haters. We had some people who thought that the war was necessary, a defence of Russia against an imperialist NATO – and we, of course, had many who thought the invasion of Ukraine was completely unjustifiable. And I suspect that there may be a few different political opinions here. But politics is not what holds us together. What holds us together is our common conviction that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that we are his servants. <br /><br />This confession is our comfort – we can call on the one who is the King, the rock who is always present with us, the one who will meet us and who will, in his time, provide for us. <br /><br />It is our hope – even though this world seems at times to be out of control (war, uncontrollable climate change, challenge of AI) –we declare that Jesus is the Messiah; we declare that there is one who is in control, and that there is one who is coming. <br /><br />It is our identity – we are the people who call on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It is this confession, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, which is the rock on which God will build his Church.<br /><br /><b>3. This confession of Jesus will bind Satan and set people free </b><br /><br />“I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:18-19 <br /><br />This is not an easy verse to understand, and is one of those verses that deserves and will reward long study. <br /><br />But note a couple of things. <br /><br />First, this Church that Jesus builds is on the offensive. It is not the gates of the Church holding out against the forces of hell. It is the gates of Hell which break before the invading power of the gospel. <br /><br />Second, Jesus gives to his people on earth an astonishing authority. Later (Matthew 18.18) Jesus uses the same words about binding and loosing in heaven when he talks – in the context of a passage about forgiveness – about what happens when two or three people pray in the name of Jesus. <br /><br />When we, the people of God, proclaim the great confession that Jesus Christ is Lord, the foundations of Hell shudder. The devil stops his ears. We are proclaiming the great truth to the father of lies. He cannot bear it. He is confused and frustrated. He ties himself up in knots. He is bound. <br /><br />And people, as the Holy Spirit touches their hearts and minds, hear the message – so they hear truth, they are set free, they are loosed from their chains. They discover that there is freedom from condemnation, freedom from the compulsion to sin, freedom from despair and freedom to become the people who God created us to be. <br /> <br />---<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">This is a precious passage. <br /><br />It tells us of the great confession that changes the world. <br /><br />This is the confession that gives us a new identity; it is the rock on which the Church is built and it is the confession that binds Satan and sets people free. <br /><br />Before Alison and myself went to Russia the first time, in 1993, we were sent by CMS to the Orthodox Monastery in Tolleshunt Knights, in Essex. It is a remarkable place. <br />At the heart of the community is morning and evening prayer, when they pray the Jesus Prayer. They repeat it slowly: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It is the sort of prayer that has become so much part of the men and women of that community that it sort of prays itself in them. One imagines that even if they slip into the shadows of dementia, it will continue to pray itself in them. <br /><br />This prayer has become the core of whatever spiritual discipline I can claim to have. <br />This is the prayer that I always return to: when I pray early in the morning as I lie awake, or as I walk, or as I go round the supermarket, or as I sat waiting at the border for yet another interview with the FSB. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />It is a good prayer to pray. We find it here. The first half of that prayer is Peter’s confession: ‘You are the Messiah, the Christ, the King, the Son of God’. <br /><br />So we turn to him and we call out to him: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God – have mercy on me a sinner’.</span></div></div>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-62428483135866685022023-06-26T05:27:00.003+01:002023-07-05T21:38:12.774+01:00The kiss, the mantle of love and the cup of life. A final sermon at St Andrew's Moscow. Colossians 3.12-17<p><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=+Colossians+3.12-17&version=NRSVA" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Colossians 3.12-17</span></b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts’ (v15)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cross-and-resurrection/episodes/The-kiss--the-robe-and-the-drink--Final-sermon-from-St-Andrews-Moscow--Colossians-3-12-17-e266imv" target="_blank"><i>Link to the audio of this sermon</i></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRYs8u9fhjvD7cvK9EB68xvAJiYih5kvqwW7221YoJ8IT7xXiRLZINLnCyv3aid_dK-a-IqOV4S7njFL5G5iM1Z2uHauLI1BbNsdmuYZECShQFDDyuPmku_nX14BtdBxe6HUlhdgLHkZSmaG6_2N86oOt8-mTrpdx640k7Jw4FhlaDNlDADzVN5FhxGrk/s1600/e6cd64f6-0d4a-48fa-a338-d030ee8c2558.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRYs8u9fhjvD7cvK9EB68xvAJiYih5kvqwW7221YoJ8IT7xXiRLZINLnCyv3aid_dK-a-IqOV4S7njFL5G5iM1Z2uHauLI1BbNsdmuYZECShQFDDyuPmku_nX14BtdBxe6HUlhdgLHkZSmaG6_2N86oOt8-mTrpdx640k7Jw4FhlaDNlDADzVN5FhxGrk/w640-h480/e6cd64f6-0d4a-48fa-a338-d030ee8c2558.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />I think we need to hear that! I spent most of the time
yesterday writing this talk feeling very chewed up – we simply did not know how
things would work out. I was not even sure whether we would be meeting this
morning. </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>[Saturday June 24: Prigozhin and the Wagner group mutinied and marched on Moscow] </i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But we need peace. Peace in our relationships: which is what
this passage is about (“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to
which indeed you were called in the one body”. Colossians 3:15) and peace in
ourselves.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So I’d like to leave you with four instructions! They come
from Colossians 3.12-17, and they are instructions that will lead us in the way
of peace</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><b>Remember that you are chosen, holy
and beloved</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved” (Colossians 3.12)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This really is the starting point of everything</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When Jesus was baptised, a voice was heard coming from
heaven: ‘This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When we are baptised, we are identified with Jesus in his
baptism, in his life and in his resurrection. We are super-glued to Jesus<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So when God looks at Jesus, he sees us – because we are stuck
to Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Because Jesus is the chosen one, because Jesus is holy,
because Jesus is beloved, we are chosen, holy and beloved. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There are three symbols we use in baptism.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There is the symbol of the water. We are washed clean, we are
forgiven. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There is the symbol of the candle. We are given the Holy
Spirit<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And there is the symbol of the cross signed on the forehead.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I often speak of that as the divine stamp, God’s branding on
us, to say that we belong to him. Wherever we go, especially when we drift away
from God, we can put our hand to our forehead and realise that we do not belong
to this world, we do not belong even to ourselves, but we belong to God. It is
when we are with him, we are truly home.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But we can also see that marking the sign of the cross as
God’s kiss. When the minister marks the candidate with the sign of the cross, it
is as if God is kissing them. He is saying to them, ‘You are my chosen one,
holy and beloved’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Remember you are chosen. Not chosen instead of other people,
but for the sake of other people.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And remember that you are beloved by God.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That is so releasing, so affirming, so liberating.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He knows you. He knows how mixed up you are. He knows your
angers, your passions, your hurts, your fears. He knows everything that you
have done. He knows your thoughts. There is nothing about you that is hidden
from him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And despite all of that, he still has chosen you, called you
to him and loves you. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So you really really are OK.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">You do not need to pretend – you can be completely open with
Him.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And you have nothing to prove – not to your family, not to
the world, not to yourself.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And you do not need to make yourself lovable.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And irrespective of what the world says, because you are
chosen, holy and beloved, you do matter.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There was an English spiritual mother, Julian of Norwich, who
wrote in one of her reflections: ‘All will be well’<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And yes, we may be led through the fire, we may suffer, but
in the end all will be well</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Paul writes, ‘All things work for good for those who love
him”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Remember that God loves you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Put on the beautiful robe that God
gives you.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">‘Clothe yourselves with love’ (v14)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Holy Spirit holds out to you a robe. It is the gift of
God to you. It is stunning. The person who wears it becomes radiant.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And it is the gift that is offered to every person who has
received the love of God. All we need to do is to take it, and put it on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is the robe of love.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And as we look closer at what this love is, you see <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Compassion – a genuine feeling for and suffering for the
other: often it comes when we ourselves have suffered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Kindness – be kind to each other! Be kind in what you and
what you say. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Humility – We are beloved. We have nothing to prove. We can,
if we choose, serve the other. We can do the equivalent of kneeling down and
washing the feet of the other. As a genuine service. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Meekness – We are beloved. So we don’t need to assert
ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Patience – God is in control. It is his timing that matters.
We do not need to push it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And when we put on this robe of love, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">we learn to bear
with each other.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We are all strange. We all do stuff that irritates other
people.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We think some people are boring, unattractive, creepy or
pompous or ignorant. Just remember that there will be people who think that you
are boring or unattractive or creepy or pompous or foolish.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Bear with one another. Give them time. Be kind to them and
pray that God will give them grace to bear with you, give you time and be kind
to you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And the clasp on this robe of love is forgiveness</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">‘Forgive each other, just as the Lord has forgiven you’ (v13)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We often say, ‘I’ll forgive when they say sorry’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But that is missing the point. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">God forgave us long before we said sorry. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He forgave us 2000 years ago when his son died on the cross.
And at our baptism, we are reminded of that. We are washed in the water. It is
a sign that our sins have been forgiven, were forgiven when Jesus died on the
cross. It is a sign that God forgave us even before we became aware of the fact
that we needed forgiveness<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And that is particularly true if we were baptised as infants.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is prayer that is used by the French Reformed Church:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“For you, little child, Jesus Christ has come, he has fought,
he has suffered. For you he entered the shadow of Gethsemane and the horror of
Calvary. For you he uttered the cry, "It is finished!" For you he
rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and there he intercedes — for you,
little child, even though you do not know it. But in this way the word of the
Gospel becomes true. "We love him, because he first loved us."”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Of course, we need to receive that forgiveness and that is
where saying sorry comes in, but we can sorry to God because we have first been
forgiven.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">God first loved us. God first forgave us. And in the light of
that we are set free to say sorry to Him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So secondly, put on the robe of love which the Holy Spirit
offers to you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness
and patience. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Bear with one another. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And put on the clasp of forgiveness – the forgiveness that
you offer others because you first have been forgiven. That is what holds this
robe together. It is what keeps it close to you.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><br /></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Drink deeply of the word of Christ</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly’ (v16)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I hope that if you have realised nothing else from my
preaching, you will have realised that I have a deep passion for Scripture, and
for the word of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I have tried to teach what is in the passage – whether it is
in sermons or on what have I just read or in our bible studies. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Not what I think should be there. Not what I would like to be
there, which would make my life much easier, and would make my message more
palatable. But what I think and pray is there. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Of course, we need to rightly understand the Scriptures. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We need the help of how our brothers and sisters from ages
past have understood those scriptures. And we need the help of each other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And of course, there are times when we do not and cannot
understand a passage, and then we simply have to admit it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The story is told of a spiritual father who asked his three
disciples what a complicated passage of the bible meant. The first gave his
interpretation; the second his; and the third said, ‘I don’t know. I am listening’. And the
spiritual father said, ‘This third has begun to understand the scripture’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I realise that there will have been many times when I have
got it wrong. And for that I ask your forgiveness and God’s forgiveness.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But we need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. It
is that word of Christ which challenges us and teaches us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was when I first started to read the bible that I really
did begin to experience the presence and power of God at work in me and working
through me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When I am spiritually dry, I will go back and study the
scriptures – drawing connections between passages, seeing what the main thing
is, drawing out new insights along with the old insights. There is always
something new. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When I do not know how to pray or what to pray for, I will learn
verses and try to pray those verses for myself, for the church, for those for
whom God has given me responsibility. For instance, this morning as I lay in
bed I prayed that God would help me put on that robe of compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness and patience. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And I will pray some of the Bible prayers: Lord’s prayer,
Zechariah’s prayer, the Jesus prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I would urge you, drink deep from the scriptures, the word of
Christ.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Read, mark and inwardly digest them’, to use the words of an
Anglican collect. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Read it – mark it (maybe literally) – and take it into
yourself, just as we take the bread and wine at communion into ourselves. Let
it dwell in you richly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Listen to the story of the Bible. Become part of the story of
the Bible.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Drink deeply of the Word of God</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Be thankful</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Be thankful for all that God has given us: his love, his
forgiveness, his compassion, his patience, his forgiveness, his strength and
peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Be thankful for his promises: Forgiveness, transformation,
Hope for us and creation, Holy Spirit, presence<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Be thankful in the good times: for the blessings and the joys
and happiness that he gives. Give thanks to him for hopes
fulfilled and longings satisfied.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But also give thanks to him in the difficult times: because
he never abandons us and uses those difficult times to shape us so that we can
become like him.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“We rejoice in our sufferings”, says Paul, because suffering
builds character and leads to hope and longing – and that hope and longing will
not be disappointed, because God pours out his love on us through his Holy
Spirit (my own very loose translation of Romans 5)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Diamonds are the hardest material in the world; they are also
one of the most precious and one of the most beautiful. But to begin to be
formed, diamonds require at least 725,000 pounds per square inch of pressure
and temperatures between 2,000 and 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit. And it takes
between 1 billion and 3.3 billion years for them to be formed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are called to become spiritual diamonds: resilient,
precious and beautiful.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So we thank God when he takes us through the heat of
suffering, and places us under great pressure because he is beginning to make
us spiritual diamonds. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Today I particularly give thanks to God for this place, and I
give thanks to God for you, people from all over the world gathered together to
worship God, to receive from God and to grow in God. I thank God for all we
have received and for what we have seen Him do.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We thank God for the difficult times we have been through: the
political difficulties, the uncertainties, COVID – and those we lost in COVID, particularly I think of Hong;
the many friends we have had to say goodbye to (by the way, Goodbye in English
is ‘God be with you’). I think, in particular, of that 2022 Ash Wednesday
service. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And we thank him for the good times and encouragements: the
fetes and bazaars, history days and this year when we finally managed to put on
a Maslenitsa. For money raised for the restoration, for the west end and the new
roof and the chapel. For those who have become Christians and have chosen to
follow the Lord Jesus, who have received baptism or confirmation; for those who
have gone forward for ordained ministry; for our youth group and children’s
groups; for some of our very special services – not just the large (eg midnight
communion and singing silent night), but also the small. For the sense of deep
peace that often came at the end of the Wednesday communion service in the
early years. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And I thank God that we have discovered that when we are
weak, then we are strong. When we are nobody then God can work in us and
through us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And I thank him that we can entrust our future into his
hands. My own future – and no, we do not yet know what we will be doing – and
the future of St Andrew’s. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We thank him because God is in control and he loves you. And
Jesus will never leave you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Four things: </b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Remember the kiss, that you are beloved. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Put on the beautiful robe of Love that the Holy Spirit offers
you<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Drink deeply from the word of God<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And be thankful<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And as we do those things, then we will know ‘the peace of
Christ’ and we will become people of peace, who make for the things of peace.</span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-76509253850554514192023-06-11T06:32:00.003+01:002023-06-11T06:32:58.441+01:00Desiring mercy not sacrifice. Matthew 9.9-13<p><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+9.9-13%2C18-26&version=NRSVA" target="_blank">Matthew 9.9-13,18-26</a></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus says, 'Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy,
not sacrifice'. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Pharisees are criticising Jesus because he has called
Matthew, a tax collector, to come and be one of his disciples – and no doubt
Matthew has invited all his friends, his mates, to come and meet Jesus, and now
Jesus is eating with ‘tax collectors and sinners’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This was not respectable company. Tax collectors were collaborators
with the Roman occupying forces. They had sold out whatever faith they had, and
broken the law of God for power and wealth. There are many stories of how they
abused their power and exploited people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And they are put here together with 'sinners', which usually
refers to prostitutes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This was not respectable company. Today it would be as if
Jesus was calling a known paedophile to follow him and was associating with
drug pushers and gangsters. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is not that Jesus condones the sort of tax collection that
was going on then – although he does tell people to pay their taxes; <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And of course he does not condone cheapening your body by
turning it into a commodity, or in abusing others for our own gratification,
especially those who can be exploited. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But Jesus came to bring hope to people who know that they are
lost and change to people who know that they need to change.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">People do not go to a doctor if they think they are well. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The people who go to a doctor are the people who think that
they are ill.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus came for people who knew that they needed a spiritual
doctor; who knew that things were not well, who were looking for healing, a new
life<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And Jesus sees Matthew and he calls Matthew. He offers
Matthew a new life: ‘Follow me.’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That is unusual.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rabbis were like our doctors. They did not usually call
people. They waited for people to come to them, to choose them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But not so with Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For a start, nobody in their right mind would choose to
follow Jesus! He was far more demanding than the other rabbis. He talks about
denying ourselves, giving up everything to follow him, going to the cross with
him. He promises hardship and persecution. Why would you choose crucifixion! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Indeed, when people did come to Jesus and ask to become his
disciple, his follower, Jesus often put them off. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">No, we do not choose Jesus, but Jesus chooses us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He is the doctor who comes to us – often before we realise
that we need a doctor! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And he is the spiritual doctor who calls people like Matthew:
people who need a new life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And he offers whoever hears his call a new way of thinking,
relating, being. He offers us life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Pharisees could not see this. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All they could see was Jesus eating, associating with people
who did despicable things. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And they expected a Messiah who was going to crush the sinful
and support the righteous. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They certainly were not expecting a Messiah who would accept
and transform the sinful – and who would dismiss the ‘righteous’ as
hypocritical. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And Jesus tells them, 'Go and learn what this means: I desire
mercy and not sacrifice'<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the passage from Hosea which Jesus is quoting, he says 'I
desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God and not burnt
offerings' (Hosea 6:6)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hosea is criticising those who are part of the religious
establishment, who do the religious rituals but who have lost the heart. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They are going through the rituals, but they have lost sight
of the God who loves them, who called them to be his holy people, and to show
his love and his mercy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This verse from Hosea is very important for Jesus. He refers
to it on at least three occasions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Once here; once when he rebukes the Pharisees for criticising
his disciples for breaking the law by eating grain they had taken from the
fields on the Sabbath - because they were hungry (Matthew 12.7); and once when
he challenges them for being meticulous in giving their tithes but in
neglecting the ‘weightier matters of the law, showing justice and mercy’.
(Matthew 23.23)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Go and learn what this means, says Jesus: I desire mercy and
not sacrifice. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We could do far worse than make that the purpose of our life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If when we die, they say of us, this is a person who learnt
what God meant when he said, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’, not just here
(head), but here (heart), then we will be people like Jesus. We will be people
who can speak a word of God and bring healing to a woman who had suffered with
life long inner bleeding. We will be people who bring life to the dead. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And the starting point of how we learn what it means when God
says that he desires mercy and not sacrifice is to realise that everything that
we are, everything that we do is dependent on mercy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is when we begin to become aware of our need for God - of
our need for a new life - and of our inability to save ourselves, that we begin
to become aware of what mercy really is. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We encounter the call of Jesus; We hear the knock of the
doctor on the door. And we come to him – we receive all that he offers us: his
forgiveness, acceptance and new life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But then we forget. Having started with grace, having started
with God’s unconditional love, we move back to works. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We think that if we are to continue in God’s love, then we
have to somehow make ourselves ‘worthy’ of him. We have to do the religious
stuff and follow the rules. We think that we have to earn God’s favour. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have spoken several times of how for me, as a young church
leader, I found that I could not pray. Whenever I prayed my head went all
whizzy and strange - well, more whizzy and strange than it is normally. And it was
a revelation when I realised that in my mind I had turned prayer into something
that I had to do in order to get God to love me, or in order to get God to
bless the work that I did. So of course, my head went whizzy. Prayer had become
a big pressure: I had to pray right, in the right way, for the right time, for
the right things. And if I didn’t pray right then things would not go well or God
would not be pleased with me. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And then one morning, lying in bed, I had this sudden
thought. It was so counter-intuitive and yet so simple, so right and so releasing
that it had to come from God. It was the thought that if I never prayed another
prayer in my life he would still love me and he would still bless the work. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And instantly I was set free to pray - because prayer stopped
being a burden that I had to do and was rather a response to God who first
loved me. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I had turned prayer from something that was a gift of God’s
mercy, into a sacrifice that I had to give God<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If we turn Christianity into something that is all about
sacrifice; if we think that we have to earn God's love, then we will end up either
being crushed because we know we cannot do it, or we become become proud and
judgemental of others, because we think we have done it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We've followed the rules. We have come regularly to worship
and communion. We've given our tithe. We’ve followed the regulations of the
church. We are somebody in the church or in the community. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And we begin to think that we are better than others. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And we think that because we have done it, others should also
do it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We become judgemental. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We forget that we are sinners who have been saved by grace,
and who are being saved by grace. And we begin to look down on others. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To learn what it means when Jesus says that God desires mercy
and sacrifice begins when we recognise that we have first received mercy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Paul in Romans’ lists a whole load of sins that the pagans commit:
having talked about sexual sin, of how our desires are twisted, and how we
abuse our own bodies and the bodies of others, he goes on to talk about envy,
murder, strife, deceit, gossip, slander, hating God, rebellion against all
authority, ruthlessness. He says that the pagans know that these things are
wrong, but still do them and applaud others who do them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But then he continues, and turns to his listeners, to the
people in the Church. 'Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you
judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because
you, the judge, are doing the very same things'.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Have you noticed that the things that another person does
that really wind you up, are often the things that you do and that you hate in
yourself. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus tells the story of the person who tries to take a speck
of dust out of another’s eye while having a plank of wood in their own.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Never think that you are superior to the person who you might
consider to be a sinner. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Indeed, if you are shocked by their sin, by their weakness,
by their cruelty, by their lusts and desires, by their inhumanity - you do not
know yourself well enough. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">John Stott, who was an Anglican priest, an immensely godly
man and a world-renowned teacher was, on one occasion, introduced to an
audience he was about to speak to. The person spoke of him in glowing terms, of
his achievements and of his godliness. At the end, John Stott thanked him, but
then said to the audience. ‘If you could look into my heart, you would spit in
my face’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Before you stand over another person in judgement, look deep
into yourself. Look beyond the image of niceness that we portray to others and
to ourselves and see the seething snakepit of the fears and angers, the hatreds
and grudges, which are here – in our heart – and which from time to time flare
up through the niceness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps you might be someone who has begun to realise that if
others could look into your heart, they would spit in your face. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But then you realise that there is one who can look into your
heart. And he has seen the cesspit that is deep within. And he is perfect. And
if anyone could spit in our face, he would be that person. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But he does not spit in our face. Instead, he looks at us
with deep impassioned love: not a love that is blind to our sin, but a love
which would set us free from our sin. He looks at us with a love that says if I
have to die to set you free from sin, then I will. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was talking with someone this week who was saying to me
that, as Christians, most of our values are shared by other religions. But
there is one value that is unique to Christianity, and that is the value of
forgiveness. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To receive forgiveness or to show forgiveness in most
cultures and in most religions is a sign of weakness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian faith - and
it is first about us receiving mercy, forgiveness, from God<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Romans 5.10: 'God shows his love for us in this. It was while
we were still sinners that Christ died for us'.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If we are to begin to learn what it means when God says, 'I
desire mercy and not sacrifice', then we need to begin to realise that we can
stand tall before God only because of God's love and mercy for us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I always thought that the purpose of the spiritual
disciplines: daily prayer, regular worship, fasting, giving – was to make us
spiritually strong.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">No. The purpose of the spiritual disciplines is to call us
back to the truth – daily – that we are dependent not on our own works but on
the love of God<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They are there to bring us back to that child like trust in
and dependence on the God who loves us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And it is as we realise that: that everything we have is of
God’s grace and mercy, and as we throw ourselves completely on him, as we deny
ourselves, and trust him - that we will be released to show mercy to others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We will look at others in a different way<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And in our weakness and emptiness and brokenness and
vulnerability we will throw ourselves on the mercy of God<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And that is when the miracles will happen. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not
sacrifice. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-87190024188118521162023-05-28T12:48:00.005+01:002023-05-28T12:48:56.891+01:00Thirsting for God. John 7.37-39<p> <b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+7.37-39&version=NRSVA">John 7.37-39</a></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Today we hear a wonderful invitation.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cross-and-resurrection/episodes/Thirsting-for-God--John-7-37-39-e24q2d5" target="_blank">Listen to the audio of the sermon here</a></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let
the one who believes in me drink’.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLaANFsvNXRTLkUSN2A6xyU1KqPqMAHmR6_kt1UZWogrzjeT0DoGhLXi-u3Mp6QcCAVn3S2KXhkCGP5r9EFW8JnAkzno9littB4jEuchi1WzpVbhz5uMIHl9f_5Dp2eoTM-xxmZRQ9qstnD4VRqnyqTyHrj0cikUr6MWumpvZ3xyPNssO0Em9ljEg5/s750/photo_2023-05-28_14-47-40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="750" height="552" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLaANFsvNXRTLkUSN2A6xyU1KqPqMAHmR6_kt1UZWogrzjeT0DoGhLXi-u3Mp6QcCAVn3S2KXhkCGP5r9EFW8JnAkzno9littB4jEuchi1WzpVbhz5uMIHl9f_5Dp2eoTM-xxmZRQ9qstnD4VRqnyqTyHrj0cikUr6MWumpvZ3xyPNssO0Em9ljEg5/w640-h552/photo_2023-05-28_14-47-40.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p>Jesus is talking to people who live in a dry land.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There was little water, much of the time the earth was
barren;<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">but when the rains came the world exploded into life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus was at the feast of the tabernacles, of the booths.
This was a festival, held every year, when the people of Israel remembered how,
about 1300 years earlier, God had led them out of Egypt to the Promised land,
through the wilderness.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was a desert land. There were times when they had no water.
On at least two occasions the people are very scared. They begin to complain.
They accuse Moses, who had brought them out of Egypt, of bringing them into the
desert so that they will die. And Moses cries out to God. And God tells Moses
to take his staff and to strike a rock, and miraculously water pours out of the
rock.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The New Testament draws a parallel between the rock out of
which that life giving water flowed and Jesus Christ. Paul writes, ‘That rock
was Jesus’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He was struck for us, and life-giving water flows out of him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">When he dies, we are told by John that blood and water flows
from his side. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I am told that it is known that, in some kinds of death,
water and blood separate. But I don’t think John, when he tells us that water
and blood flowed from Jesus’ side, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">is
wanting to make a biological point (I’m not sure he would have been aware of
it).<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What he is telling us is that out of Jesus pours not only
blood – the blood of the sacrificed lamb of God which brings forgiveness - </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">but also water which brings life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And at this feast of tabernacles, on the last day, they would
take water and (for that matter) wine and pour it onto the altar. They would
pray for rain. They would give to God what God had already given them, and they
would cry out in their desperation that God would pour out his water on them
again.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is not the first time that Jesus speaks of living water.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At the beginning of his ministry (John 4), he met a woman who
had come to draw water from a well. He asks her to give him a drink, and then
has a conversation with her about how he can give her living water, which will
never run out, and which gives eternal life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today Jesus talks about a living water which will not only
come into the believer, but which will flow out of the believer.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is hard to know which verse Jesus is quoting when he says,
“</span>As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow
rivers of living water.’ ” John 7:38</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Possibly Isaiah 58:11<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs
in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered
garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Possibly Zechariah 14:8<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem,
half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall
continue in summer as in winter.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Or maybe Ezekiel 47, where the prophet has a vision of the
temple, and from out of the temple a river flows. It gets deeper and wider,
until it gets to the sea. It is abundant with life, and on its banks grow trees
with wonderful fruit that are always in season and which bring healing. And
when the river flows into the sea, it turns the sea water into fresh water.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What makes this invitation so exceptional is that Jesus is
not just talking about how God will provide living water which will bring us
life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By quoting this unknown verse, he is stressing that the
individual who receives the Holy Spirit will not only drink from this
life-giving water, but that this life-giving water will flow out of them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>How thirsty are you?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One of the things that I have loved about ministering here,
is that people are thirsty here in a way that I have not known in the UK. They
have come here wanting to know about God. They have come here wanting to learn
to pray and serve God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I remember Chad Coussmaker (a former chaplain) saying to me,
with rather some surprise, that he had never before been in a church that was
actually growing! Yes, there are many reasons why people want to come here, and
English is one of them, but one of the reasons is that they really are seeing
God. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But how thirsty are you – thirsty for God, thirsty for the
life that is life?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The world claims to offer life.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It claims that it can satisfy all our desires.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It offers power, wealth and fame. It says that you can be or
do whatever you want to be or do.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But that is the offer of death, not of life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Remember the story of Icarus. He thought that he could fly to
the sun. But as he flew closer to the sun, the wax on his wings melted and he
fell.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Remember Aesop’s story of the dog who had a bone. He looked
in the water and saw another bone that looked bigger and juicier than his. So,
he let go of his bone to grab the bigger bone, only to realise too late that
the bigger bone was a fantasy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The world offers fantasies to satisfy our surface desires.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Initially what the world offers will satisfy our thirst – but
only by making us more thirsty. It offers not fresh water but salt water. Or
like a dealer offering the first drug. The more you drink, take the more you
need, and it will kill you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And the world continues to package its death water, which it
claims will satisfy you, in new and more brighter ways.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It says, if you are not satisfied with your body, you will
satisfy the thirst by changing it.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">My friends, unless you have been involved in an accident, or
do have some appearance that does destroy your confidence, don’t go down the
plastic surgery route. It will not satisfy.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">People go further and think that they can satisfy their
thirst by changing their gender. They think it will solve all your problems.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But that is not really the answer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Or you think you can satisfy your thirst by retreating into
the virtual world; or by taking stronger and stronger drugs; or by doing more
extreme sports – because they are the only thing that make you feel alive.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The world says that you can satisfy your thirst by being successful,
wealthy, significant; or by having the perfect partner (and so you ditch the
current partner because you think that the one out there is better. Remember
Aesop’s dog with the bone). Or you might throw yourself into a cause – the eco
movement, save the planet, or into a political cause or religious movement,
even into Christianity or even Anglicanism. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And the bad news is that even if you do find something that
appears to satisfy your thirst, it will only be temporary, and it will not
satisfy the deepest longing that is in us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The deepest thirst that we have is the thirst to be
reconciled with God, to know God, to have peace with God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Augustine in a very well known passage said that we each have
a God shaped hole in our heart and we will only be satisfied when that God
shaped hole is filled – with God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It does not mean that life will go well for you, or that many
of your surface dreams will be satisfied. Indeed, many of your surface dreams
may be taken away from you, and life at one level may become pretty rubbish for
you; but there will be one who walks with you through life, through the
persecution, through the trials, through the valley of the shadow of death. And
you will know life and peace and joy. You will have a hope that will not let
you down. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus said that if we come to him, if we drink of his water
(in a few minutes we are going to drink wine – his water has already become wine!),
if we receive the Holy Spirit, then we will begin to know God – and that is
life. And it is in relationship with God that we will begin to learn to accept
ourselves as we are. And yes of course we long for that perfect whole
resurrection body, but with Jesus we will learn to accept our bodies as they
are – with our frailties, our disabilities, our screwed up psyches, our compulsions,
our desires, with our sticky out teeth or dodgy hearing or whatever, with our
aches and pains and even with our aging. Because we will have hope and we will
have HIM.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And it is in relationship with God that we can bring to him
the things that we are ashamed of, the people we have let down and hurt and
abused, the people who have let us down and hurt us and abused us. We can bring
our resistance to him, and he way that we have for so long refused the cup that
he would give us, and our darkest places to him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And it is in relationship with God that we discover our true
acceptance and forgiveness and meaning and destiny. And it is in relationship
with God that we discover how he can transform our weaknesses to bring blessing
to people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And Jesus says that if we come to him, if we believe in him,
if we drink of what he gives us, then living water will flow from our hearts
(‘bellies’), from our deepest being.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We will be people who bring life to a parched and thirsty
land. We will shine like stars in a dark world. We will hold out the word of
life in a universe of death. We will be the aroma of life rather than the
stench of death.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But this life giving water can only flow out of us, if it
first comes into us and wells up in us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So often we try to give of ourselves without allowing God to
first fill us with his Spirit – and we end up doing good, yes, but without God
constantly filling us up, we become weary and critical and cynical and
disillusioned. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You can only offer peace if you have received peace.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You can only offer forgiveness, indeed you will offer
forgiveness, if you are living in a state of being forgiven.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You can only kneel down and wash the feet of another person,
if your feet have first been washed.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You can only offer life if you have been given life.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You can only pour out this living water if you are receiving
and being filled with this living water.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Forgive the mixing of metaphors, but it is not just water
that is a picture of the Holy Spirit. <br />Fire is also a picture.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Today is the end of the Easter season. At the end of this service,
we will extinguish the Easter Candle.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But that is not sad, because we will only extinguish it when each
of us will have been given a light that comes from that candle.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You can only shine if you have been lit.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Today we hear a wonderful invitation. Jesus says, ‘Come to me
and drink. Come to me and find life. And you will become a life liver and a
life giver’.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Come to me and receive my life giving water, my Holy Spirit.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Come to me and receive life, and be a life giver</span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-8841849401378988292023-05-21T08:41:00.006+01:002023-05-21T08:41:48.489+01:00What is the glory of God? John 17.1-11<p><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+17&version=NRSVA" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">John 17:1-11</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Madonna, the
mega star, was being interviewed. They asked her if she prayed. She said that
she did. She said that before she went on stage, she gathered her crew around
her and she prayed, ‘God, make them love me’.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I speak of
Madonna, but I suspect that that is a prayer that each of us might want to
pray.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In John
17 we are shown Jesus at prayer.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">At first
glance it might look like Jesus is praying what Madonna prayed, only bigger.
Not ‘make them love me’, but ‘glorify me’!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Is Jesus
praying, Glorify me: let me be a star, let me be there in the headlights, let
them love me and praise me, let them say their great big ‘</span><span lang="RU" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: RU;">ура</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">’ about me?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But as we
read through this prayer, we begin to realise that true glory is so much more. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When Jesus prays ‘Glorify your son’,
he is praying for that his Father will complete his work in Jesus, will make
him perfect, through the cross.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus has
already lived a perfect, authentic life: a life that was driven by love of God
and love of people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He loves
Father God and puts his complete trust in Him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He knows
that everything he has comes from the Father: his authority, the work that he
has been sent to accomplish, the people who have come to him. He was sent to speak
the Father’s words, to make the name of the Father known and to give eternal
life to all whom the Father brings to him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And now he
prays, as he faces the cross, ‘I glorified you on earth by finishing the work
that you gave me to do. So now Father, glorify me in your own presence’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘The hour
has come’. (v1) Everything in Jesus’ life has been leading up to this moment. This
is to be his moment of glory. This is when his work will be concluded and he
will be made complete.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But that
will happen only as he goes to the cross. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus has
already spoken twice in John’s gospel about how he will be lifted up (as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness) and all people will be drawn to him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Hebrews
we are told that the Son of God was <i>made</i> perfect through what he
suffered. That seems strange. Was not Jesus always perfect?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes, but
there are degrees of perfection. It is easy to be obedient when what I want and
when what God wants are the same thing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A lot of my
prayers are about my trying to persuade God that what I want is what he wants,
and he should give it to me! But when what God wants of me is difficult and
painful for me (e.g., forgiving someone, saying sorry, letting go of someone, going
somewhere I don’t want to go, standing up for what is true, going public with
my faith), then of course it is harder to be obedient; it requires a denial of
self, a costly obedience and a greater trust. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And I will
only know complete perfection when I am completely obedient in the hardest of
circumstances.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus will
be glorified in this his hour. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He has
resisted everything that the devil has put in his way to prevent him going to
the cross, so far. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And now he
will be obedient to the last. He will pray ‘not my will, but yours be done’. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He will trust in the promise of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So be
careful when you ask God to glorify you. You are asking God to perfect you, to
complete you. It was Irenaeus who said that the glory of God is a human being
fully alive. And we will only become fully alive when we allow God to perfect
us, and to complete the work he has begun in our lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When you
pray, ‘Father, glorify me’, you are asking God to take you to your cross. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When Jesus prays Father glorify me,
he is praying for us: for our protection, our love for each other, our joy and
our holiness!</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The glory of
Jesus is the glory of the people of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In v10 he
prays, speaking of his people, those who have received him, who have believed
in his name, ‘All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified
in them’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is like a
teacher who loved her children and who was with them through the grades. She
looks at those children as they grow and flourish, and as she looks at their
achievements she can say, ‘they are my glory’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And as we,
those who follow the Lord Jesus, live in love with one another, and as we are
made holy, so Jesus is glorified in us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So when
Jesus prays that he will be glorified, he is also praying for us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">John 17 is
Jesus’ prayer for us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He
prays for our protection and our unity.</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Holy
Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be
one, as we are one’ (v11).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He is
praying that God will protect us from all that would tear us apart from one
another: from sin, unforgiveness, pride, lies, hatred. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He prays
that we will be set free from the demon of self-glory that separates us from
other people. It is so often because I want to be glorious, it is because I
want to be recognised and honoured as number one, that I will push ahead of you
and push you down.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He
prays for our joy:</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> the joy that comes from being part of each other, and part of him. ‘I
speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in
themselves’ (v13)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And
later he prays that we might be ‘sanctified’</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, made holy, made perfect, brought to
completion: ‘Sanctify them in the truth’. (v17). Because it is as we are made perfect,
complete, that we will know joy, we will united in love and he will be
glorified in us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Throughout
this prayer Jesus speaks about being in the Father and the Father in him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But he also
talks about how those who believe in him are in him, and he is in them. He is
part of us and we are part of him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Or to use
language that is probably a little simpler to understand. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus is
like the conductor. He has composed the music and chosen the members of his
orchestra – us! He has given us each a score, written for us, perfect for us.
He spends time with each of us and teaches us how to play our part. And now he
is bringing us together. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And it
really will not work if you are on the drums and you are beating the drums all
the time because you want people to notice you, to ‘love’ you. In fact, it will
make the other members of the orchestra either jealous or angry with you, and
the sound will be appalling. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">No, it is
only as we look to the conductor, follow him or her, follow the score, as we listen
to each other, and faithfully play the part that has been given us in the way
the conductor has taught us, then the music will sound as it was meant to
sound. And at the end the audience will rise and applaud. There will be glory.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And when
Jesus prays that he might be glorified, he is praying it in the same way that a
conductor might pray it. If their orchestra play together and produce a
wonderful sound, then each member of that orchestra will be glorified, the
orchestra will be glorified and the conductor will be glorified.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So when
Jesus prays Father glorify me, he is praying for us: that we too will share his
glory. That we will be made perfect, made complete in love. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">3. When
Jesus prays that God will glorify him, he is praying that his Father might be
glorified</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Father,
glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you” (v1)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Glory, in
the Bible, is all about relationship.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The glory of
the Son is not something, but someone: the Father. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The glory of
the Father is not something, but someone: the Son.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is like a
father standing on the touchline watching his son play football. The son makes
a great save. The father gives glory to the son, but he also shares in the
glory of the son.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is very
hard to exactly say what glory is. One way is to think of it like this:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When we talk
about a relationship between two people, we can say that as they look at each
other their eyes ‘light up’. We say there is a chemistry between them. We use
the language of electricity: sparks fly between them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps one
way of thinking about glory is thinking about it as the brilliant, dazzling,
lightening sparks that fly between Father and Son.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is those
sparks that are the unapproachable light, of which Paul writes to Timothy: “It
is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one
has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion”. 1 Timothy
6:16</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But there
are times in history, and maybe in our own experience, when in the mercy of
God, he has revealed to us glimpses of his glory.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Moses asks
to see the glory of God. God tells him that nobody can see his glory and live.
But God in his mercy gives Moses a glimpse of him from behind. Exodus 33.18,20.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And we are
told that Moses, whenever he met with God, came away from the meeting with a
radiant face. The sparks had set him on fire.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Or we think
of Isaiah who is given a vision of God, high and lifted up, and he says ‘Woe is
me! I am lost’. Isaiah 6:5 But because of that vision he was sent out to be one
of the greatest prophets for God<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Or we think
of Peter, James and John who are up the mountain with Jesus. Theysee him transfigured
and shining with a dazzling pure radiance like the sun. Peter becomes a
gibbering wreck, and they are terrified. Luke 9:33f. But later Peter writes, ‘we
[were] eyewitnesses of his majesty.<sup> </sup>For he received honor and glory
from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”<sup> </sup>We
ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy
mountain.” 2 Peter 1:16-18<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They saw
those sparks of love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And it is
that relationship, those sparks flying between Father and Son, which is at the
very heart of creation. It is those sparks which created the world, which
sustain the world, which transform the world. Those sparks have life in
themselves. They are called Holy Spirit.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Do you
notice how often in this prayer Jesus talks about the disciples coming to know
the relationship between the Father and the Son. It is almost the most
important thing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“They know
that everything you have given me is from you” (v7)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“They know
in truth that I came from you; and have believed that you sent me” (v9)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“These know
that you have sent me” (v25)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The witness
of the disciples to us is not just that Jesus came to us, lived among us, taught,
healed, died and rose again. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is their
witness that Jesus was the Son of God, was sent by the Father, that he lived in
total trust in and obedience to and love for the Father, and is now with the
Father. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is the
witness to the sparks that flew between Father and Son.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They saw
those sparks: when Jesus turned water into wine; when Jesus publicly called to
his Father and Lazarus was raised from the dead. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That is why
John can write at the beginning of his gospel: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“And the
Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, <i>the glory
as of a father’s only son</i>, full of grace and truth”. John 1:14</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So when
Jesus prays that the Father will glorify him with the glory he had in his
presence before the foundation of the world, he is praying that he might come
home to be with his Father, that it will not just be sparks that fly between
them but that one eternal flame, and that his Father will be glorified.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">----</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, yes,
pray that God will glorify you – that he will enable you to share in his love. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But realise
that in praying that prayer, you are asking God to make you perfect, and that
will mean that you are willing – if he asks you - to go to the cross, to go through
the fire, so that you might become fire.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It will mean
that you are praying for others:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that
they will be given joy in unity and be made holy: because you realise that you
are part of them and they are part of you, and that you cannot be glorified
unless they are glorified. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps
instead of praying, ‘Make them love me’, we could pray, ‘Help me to love them’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And it will
mean that you are praying for the glory of God<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At the same
time that I heard about Madonna, I heard an interview with Dana, Ireland’s
winner of the Eurovision song contest back in 1970. She was asked if she prayed
before she went onto stage. She said yes, I do. I pray, ‘Father whatever
happens tonight, may your name be glorified’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If you are
glorified, with a true God given glory, Jesus will be glorified and the Father
will be glorified.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-21990928252250081082023-05-18T11:10:00.003+01:002023-05-18T11:18:49.009+01:00Four promises from John 14.15-21<div><b><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14.15-21&version=NRSVA" target="_blank">John 14.15-21</a></b></div><div><br /></div><div>I hate preaching from John and I love preaching from John!</div><div>I hate preaching from John because there is so much here and some of it is very complicated. </div><div>But I love preaching from John because there is so much here, and there are always new truths to discover. John’s gospel is like a mine – the deeper you dig, the larger and the more precious are the jewels that you draw up. </div><div><br /></div><div>Today is no different. Although I fear that we are not going to dig very deep. We are simply scraping over the topsoil. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cross-and-resurrection/episodes/Four-promises-from-John-14-15-21-e2491sa"><i>Audio of the talk</i></a></div><div><br /></div><div>In John chapters 13-17, Jesus is speaking to his disciples. It is his last night with them. These are his final words. That very evening he will be betrayed by Judas and arrested. That very night he will be tried and sentenced. The following day, at about 9am, he will be nailed to a cross and at about 3pm he will die. </div><div><br /></div><div>Jesus knows that his followers will be crushed. He knows that they will be lost and broken, feel abandoned and utterly hopeless. He knows that they will want to give up – to give up on the hope that he held out to them, to give up on all that he taught and on all he has commanded them. </div><div><br /></div><div>And so he is speaking to them.</div><div><br /></div><div>We live after the resurrection. We know that Jesus came back. We know in our heads that he is alive. </div><div>But there are many times in our experience when it seems that Jesus has gone AWOL, when the ‘reasoning’ of the world (that does not see God or know God) seems so persuasive, when our prayers are not answered, when there is no sense of communion with him, when we feel abandoned.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well I think Jesus is also speaking to us. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>1.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Jesus promises them that they won’t give up. He says, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments’. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Jesus does not say, ‘If you love me, you should keep my commandments’.</div><div>This is not a condition. It is not a test. It is a simple statement, even – maybe – a promise. </div><div>“If you love me, you will keep my commandments”.</div><div><br /></div><div>In other words, Jesus is saying that even if he is taken from them, if they love him, they won’t give up. </div><div>He is saying that even if we feel abandoned by him, if we love him we will keep his commandments. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even if I am not with you, he says, you will hold on to my teaching. And you will continue to obey, even when it gets difficult. </div><div><br /></div><div>It makes a lot of sense. </div><div>If we are beginning to love Jesus then we will want to please him and do what he says </div><div>If we are beginning to love Jesus, then we will do what he says, even if it is difficult or we don’t understand why, because we are learning to trust him. </div><div>If we are beginning to love Jesus, then we will be beginning to learn to love what he loves and desire what he desires. So of course, we will want to do what he says. </div><div><br /></div><div>We will want to love our brothers and sisters. That is the great command that Jesus gives in John. He is speaking to his followers, and he commands them, ‘to love one another’. And we will want to love them because we share with them one Spirit, one hope, one destiny. And we are beginning to love what they are beginning to love. We love Jesus. </div><div>We will want to love others because we will see them as women and men, girls and boys who are beloved of God; </div><div>We will want to do whatever we can to work for the wellbeing of others: the material and spiritual wellbeing. We will long to see each human flourish and we will begin to hate injustice. </div><div>And we want to do whatever we can to work for peace - that we will be at peace with each other, and that they will be at peace with God. </div><div>And so we will say sorry when we have hurt others, we will forgive when others hurt us, we will pray for our enemies, we will kneel down and wash the feet of others, even those who will betray us. </div><div>And if we love him, we will want to be faithful to the end, to ‘remain’ in his love, to keep on growing in our faith, in our understanding and in our love. </div><div><br /></div><div>Jesus reassures his followers. He is simply stating a fact: ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.’ </div><div><br /></div><div><b>2.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Jesus promises them the Holy Spirit.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>“I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever”.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is hard – no, impossible – to do that on our own. But Jesus tells them that he will ask the Father to give them the Spirit. </div><div><br /></div><div>He describes the Spirit as the parakletos, translated as Advocate, Helper, Interceder, the one who comes alongside us and who speaks to us of God and for us to God. </div><div><br /></div><div>He is the Spirit of Truth. He reveals to us the Truth: the truth of God, of the love of God, of our need for God. He ignites in us the spark of love for God and for Jesus, the Son of God. He gives us a longing for God; He will begin to open us up to the word of God and open the word of God to us. He will help us to understand and to receive the word of God. He helps us ‘to remember’ what Jesus has said. He helps us to pray, to cry out to God in love and longing, and even prays within us.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another word used in older translations for parakletos is ‘Comforter’. </div><div>We tend not to use that now because ‘comforter’ has changed its meaning. We think of comfort blankets, of comfort foods, comfort zones. We think of fluffy slippers and sitting on the sofa under a warm duvet. </div><div>But in the past comfort had a much stronger meaning. It meant to come alongside and strengthen someone: ‘com-fort’. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaVCtjKapCARpJo52BnutBP1K03Le8meHTqP3lXJl1qbV3OHT3InuFc6UDRQviGZgD1tsgXqik6U2Qjk9FXeDMA1mGhdxQ3k1t7djCOYfTRTEw7g2yMUHISOgXbwOC3qBGh-QPWPCXq8fY3stAH-AlqOt0UEU2Vdem40xdfrMFk3z27Hxowp5O-ER/s993/Odo_bayeux_tapestry.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Bishop Odo comforts the troops" border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="993" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaVCtjKapCARpJo52BnutBP1K03Le8meHTqP3lXJl1qbV3OHT3InuFc6UDRQviGZgD1tsgXqik6U2Qjk9FXeDMA1mGhdxQ3k1t7djCOYfTRTEw7g2yMUHISOgXbwOC3qBGh-QPWPCXq8fY3stAH-AlqOt0UEU2Vdem40xdfrMFk3z27Hxowp5O-ER/w640-h464/Odo_bayeux_tapestry.png" title="Scene in the Bayeux Tapestry showing Odo rallying Duke William's troops during the Battle of Hastings. Latin tituli above: HIC ODO EP[ISCOPU]S BACULU[M] TENENS CONFORTAT PUEROS" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>In the Bayeux tapestry, which depicts William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066, there is a scene under which there is an inscription, ‘Bishop Odo comforts the troops’. It shows Bishop Odo of Bayeux with a great big club rallying the troops. </div><div><br /></div><div>And the Holy Spirit rallies us, equips us and encourages us in our service of God. </div><div>It is the Holy Spirit who gets us out of our chair and onto our knees. It is the Holy Spirit who moves us out of our comfort zones, to love and serve others. </div><div><br /></div><div>So Jesus, about to be taken from them, promises that they will not be left on their own. </div><div>Another Advocate will come, another person who will take his place speaking to them of God and for them to God. And this Advocate, the Spirit of Truth will never leave them. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>3.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Jesus promises that he will come back to them</b></div><div><br /></div><div>‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you’ (14.18)</div><div><br /></div><div>Jesus is going away from them.</div><div>It is hard in John to work out whether he is talking about his crucifixion and death, or whether he is talking about the time after his ascension (which we remember on Thursday) when he is taken into heaven.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I guess it doesn’t really matter. </div><div>Jesus promises the disciples that whatever happens, he will not leave them orphaned. He will come back to them. </div><div>Jesus has already said this to them earlier in John 14. He has said that he is going away ‘to prepare a place for them’. He continues, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also”. John 14:3</div><div><br /></div><div>But this is not only a promise for them. It is also a promise for us. </div><div>I have spoken of two people who I know who have seen the Lord Jesus, but that is the exception. Those who love him today are called to live by faith and not sight.</div><div>There are times when we experience the presence of the Lord Jesus with us – when he is so real.</div><div>But there are also times when it seems that he has been taken from us, when he has gone from us. </div><div><br /></div><div>But this is the promise.</div><div>That because he did rise from the dead, that because he lives, even though we cannot see him, we will live.</div><div>And that he will not leave us orphaned. He will come to us. He will come to us at times in the little ways, the encouragements, the feelings of spiritual closeness. He will come to us through other people and the words of the Bible, and through those marks of his presence with us: the bread and wine and water and oil. All we need to do is hang on in there, with the help of the Holy Spirit who has been given us and wait with expectation. </div><div>But one day he will return for us and we will see him in the most real way possible: </div><div>As John writes in his letter: “What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is”. (1 John 3.2) </div><div><br /></div><div>In both the section about the coming of the Spirit and the seeing of Jesus, Jesus warns his disciples that even though they will know the Spirit, even though they will ‘see’ him, the world will be blind to him. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is the flip side of loving him. </div><div>If you set your love on the things of this visible world, if you live for the things of this visible world (for status, stuff and sex) – then you will be blind to God. You will not know the Spirit and you will not ‘see’ Jesus – either with the eyes of faith now, or with the eyes that we are given in the resurrection body. </div><div><br /></div><div>I guess we know that. Talking with someone about God when they have no spiritual interest whatsoever, is like bashing your head against a brick wall. It can seem so obvious to us, and yet they just cannot see. As Jesus says, ‘The world cannot receive [the Spirit of Truth], because it neither sees him nor knows him. </div><div>And the answer, in those cases, is not better or louder arguments, not greater incentives or more effective threats, but more desperate prayers and greater love. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>4.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Jesus promises them that they will share in the life of God, in the life the Trinity</b></div><div><br /></div><div>‘On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you’ (v20)</div><div><br /></div><div>On that day – well it is the day of resurrection, that first Easter when Jesus rose from the dead – on that day they did begin to understand the relationship between the Father and his beloved Son, and they did begin to understand that they could come to know the Father as Jesus knew him. But it was only the beginning.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I suspect that, ‘that day’ is the day when we see Jesus face to face in heaven. </div><div><br /></div><div>And then we will understand.</div><div>Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13: ‘Now we understand dimly, like looking through frosted glass – but then we will understand fully, as we are fully understood’.</div><div><br /></div><div>We will understand truly the love between the Father and the Son, the delight that the Father has in the Son, and that the Son has for the Father. We will see that for all eternity they are part of each other, belong to each other, that the heart of one is the heart of the other. </div><div>And we will begin to realise that we too are part of that relationship, because we are part of Jesus. We will be beloved, and we will love. And it is then that we will fully discover our truest identity, our deepest belonging, our greatest glory and our perfect destiny. </div><div><br /></div>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-87492462931547138822023-05-07T15:29:00.002+01:002023-05-07T15:35:27.562+01:00Service and leadership. Luke 22.24-30<p><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+22.24-30&version=NRSVA" target="_blank">Luke 22.24-30</a></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">King Charles III said, at the beginning of the coronation
service yesterday.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a name="_Hlk134189334"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">‘In his name and after his example, I
come not to be served but to serve’.</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cross-and-resurrection/episodes/Leadership-and-service--Luke-22-24-30-e23kgh0" name="_Hlk134189334" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>The audio of this talk can be found here</i></span></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk134189334;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is the first time that those words have been put in the
coronation service.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Possibly that is due to the very real way that his mother understood
her calling to leadership – as sacrificial service to God and to the peoples
for whom he had given her responsibility; and also to a movement of the Spirit
which is reminding the Church, and especially church leaders, that we are not
here to be served by people, but to serve the people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Of course, we often use the language of serving others, especially
in the church, as a sham, a god-speak way for ruling over others.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">‘I am your servant’ means ‘do what I say’. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That is not something new. That desire to Lord it over others
is the way of the world in which we live.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In our reading, the disciples are arguing – again. ‘A dispute
</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">also</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> arose’ (v24)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">They have just shared the last supper with Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He has told them that one of them will betray him. And they
have already argued about who it will be. That must have made the atmosphere
quite toxic: ‘I would never betray him – but you, you are the sort of person
who would’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And they move on from arguing about that, to arguing about
which of them was the greatest. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I guess that desire to be ‘the greatest’ is part of our
desire to be significant, to have meaning, to be respected. To know that we
matter.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is one of the reasons why we crave celebrity, or want to
become social media ‘influencers’, or pursue wealth and power (because often
the two seem to come together), because then we will be someone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And of course, in this fallen world, after the great
rebellion when men and women rejected the will of God, we are driven by the
desire to be ‘the greatest’. It is a consequence of the sin virus which has
infected and corrupted our moral and spiritual DNA.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And so we get the Alpha male chimpanzee who defeats his
opponents, gets all the females and all the goodies, and his defeated opponents
are destined to skulk around the fringes of the tribe until they are strong
enough to defeat him. There is not much win-win in that: that is very
definitely one wins and all the others lose!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And of course, most of us quickly learn from painful
experience that we are not going to be King, that we are not going to be THE alpha
male or alpha female, so we give up that battle, but we do try to make sure –
just as the disciples were doing here – that we are alpha male or alpha female
in the groups to which we do belong.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But Jesus comes to offer something that is radically
different.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He challenges his disciples: ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord
it over them; and those in authority over them are benefactors’ (v25)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That reads very oddly: who are the ‘them’? Why does Jesus not
say ‘lord it over people’ or ‘others’. Why ‘them’?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We have a cartoon in our kitchen: it shows the women and
children in the kitchen tidying up a huge pile of plates, and through the door
you see Jesus at table with the disciples. It has the caption, ‘after the last
supper’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-W6UErfJXSBOrd3UH9ER_C-3IfdRbgNbGEaEheaoOKr5QUg4pCwxMU4n2YoOn0b4MtWuMk7KXQWzXe60Z5C8NKAlWGsIRl2zDA9LZYPCdAh6q8K7rSfW75q0yafVFQy_WVDl_ikz5SmPDZJf29Pr1wCjPpHruAzcWR647rO3dKiAcEb_J-2lwA2Pn/s4032/IMG_0997.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-W6UErfJXSBOrd3UH9ER_C-3IfdRbgNbGEaEheaoOKr5QUg4pCwxMU4n2YoOn0b4MtWuMk7KXQWzXe60Z5C8NKAlWGsIRl2zDA9LZYPCdAh6q8K7rSfW75q0yafVFQy_WVDl_ikz5SmPDZJf29Pr1wCjPpHruAzcWR647rO3dKiAcEb_J-2lwA2Pn/w640-h480/IMG_0997.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />I wonder, when he says ‘them’, whether he might be pointing
to the women and children in the kitchen. <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is the last supper. Jesus is at the table with his
disciples. And he continues</span><a name="_Hlk134190102" style="font-size: 12pt;">: “For who is greater, the
one who is at the table or the one who serves?” </a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Luke 22:27</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There are two answers to that question:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The answer of this world is that the person who sits at table
and is served is the greater.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Rulers in this world are considered greater than those who
rule. They have power and responsibility. Some have huge power and
responsibility. They make decisions which will affect the lives of thousands if
not millions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">They expect to be served; they expect that what they say will
be done; they expect that they will be treated like benefactors: that they are
blessing people by letting people serve them! That people should be grateful
for whatever they get.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And in this world, it is right that they will be served by
their subjects.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In this world, if I am considered greater than you, especially
in a more traditional society, then you are expected to serve me. You are
expected to make sure that my life is as good, or as comfortable, or as
convenient, as it can be.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If King Charles was here today, we really would not expect
him to do the washing up after our shared meal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The answer of the world to Jesus’ question is that the ones
who sit at table are greater than the ones who serve.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The answer of the world is that they, the disciples, who sat
at table and were served by the women and children, were more important, were
‘greater’ than the women and children who served them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But this is not the correct answer. It is not the way of the
Kingdom of God. It is not what the disciples are called to. It is not what the
Church is called to. It is not what those who are Christian rulers are called
to. It is not what you and me, as believers, are called to.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Because there is another answer to that question: the kingdom
of God answer.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one
who serves?”<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Kingdom of God, the one who serves is the greater.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That is what Jesus came to do: the King of kings and Lord of
lords came to be a servant for all. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And so, Jesus says, in the Kingdom of God the greatest must
become like the youngest; the leader must be one who understands what she or he
does as genuine service.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When Jesus says that we need to become like the youngest</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">, he is not saying that we need to
become childish, or even necessarily child-like. We are adults.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Rather, he is saying that we need to become like children in
how we see our status.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In that society children had no status.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Perhaps if Jesus was speaking today, he might say ‘become
like an older person with dementia, like a refugee from a despised nation, like
someone who has no power – who has nothing to offer, who is not even able to
beg but can only throw themselves on the mercy of another’.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Become like them in their status.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And when Jesus says that the leader must be like the one who
serves</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">, he is not
saying that we must never let others serve us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Remember where we are: Jesus was at table and others served
him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You cannot possibly be the servant of all at all times, and
part of service is sometimes receiving the service of others.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In our next hymn we will sing<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">‘Brother, Sister let me serve you, let me be as Christ to
you’<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But it continues: ‘Pray that I may have the grace to let you
be my servant too’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus was sitting at table being served, but he had already done the slave task, washing his
disciples’ feet; and in a few hours he was about to do the greatest act of
service for all of ‘them’. He was about to choose to go to the cross and to die
for them, for the women and children, for the disciples and for us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And the answer of the Kingdom of God, is that the greater is not
the one who is served, but the one who is like the one who serves, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">who has
the attitude of the one who serves.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This teaching of Jesus is radical.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Of course, we live in this world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There will always be kings and presidents and rulers. There
will always be hierarchical relationships. There will be masters and servants, employers
and employees, parents and children. And sometimes we will be rulers and
sometimes we will be servants. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And yes, we are called to obey, to serve those who are ‘greater’
than us in this world. God help us when we start to think that there is nothing or
nobody ‘greater’ than us in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But the Christian message which radically
transforms worldly leadership, is:<br /><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That whoever we are, whether leading
or serving, we are to see ‘them’, the other, as better than ourselves.</span></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In God’s eyes, the greater person is not the person who is Lording
it over people in this world, but the person who is serving them:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And we are called to see the other person with his eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Paul writes about this in quite remarkable words in
Philippians 2: ‘in humility regard others as better than yourselves’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">If you are a king, or a president or a ruler or a bishop or a
chaplain or simply in a restaurant waiting to be served; even if you have the money or you have the
status, you are to treat the person serving you as better, more important, more
valuable than yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">True leadership, in kingdom terms, is
about service – service to God and service to those for whom they are given
responsibility by God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is about the ruler who sacrifices themselves, their
desires, their comfort – even if it means that they are rejected, even if they
are crucified – because they truly wish to bless their people.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is about the employer who works not for just for profit,
or to get noticed by someone higher up, but for the genuine benefit of those he
or she is responsible for; <br />It is about the church leader who is not seeking their own
status but the eternal wellbeing of those in their care; <br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is about the ruler, the leader who does not use their position to make themselves richer or more powerful or
more secure and protected, but who sacrifices him or herself for the good of
the people for whom God has given them responsibility.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So how can someone crowned king or queen, or ruler, who has immense
responsibility and who will be served by so many, say in all integrity, ‘In his
name and after his example, I come not to be served but to serve’?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">If it is to be real, then of course they are called to lead and to make decisions that will affect many, and of course they will be served by many, but they are saying that, with God's help, they will do what God has called them to do with a particular attitude to those
who serve them, seeing them as of more value than themselves.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They are saying that, with God's help, they are willing to sacrifice themselves, their comfort, yes even their life, for the eternal wellbeing of ‘them’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">One final thing</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is a children’s game in English (I’m sure it is
everywhere) called ‘I’m the king – or queen – of the castle’. It is the one who
is standing highest. We play that game not only as children, but as adults. We
want to be top of the heap, ‘king or queen of the castle’, to prove to others,
to ourselves that we matter, that we are important.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus reassures his followers that we do not need to play
this game, because – whoever we are, wherever we are on the world’s status
ladder - we already do matter, we are important, and we are beloved.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He says to them: You don’t need to seek greatness in this
world – even though it will hurt – because you are already part of a kingdom.
An upside-down kingdom. And in this upside-down kingdom, you will rule. You
will sit on thrones.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And you, you who have served at tables, you will eat and
drink at my table in my kingdom. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-89735228553802187972023-04-22T15:34:00.000+01:002023-04-22T15:34:11.284+01:00Don't get stuck in your faith. Luke 24.13-35<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24.13-35&version=NRSVA" target="_blank">Luke 24.13-35</a></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_cTqjVrizUJbt9wv75WFycTOWZgTjUwBha-PB2lwOXTz5AtG4xwouO4xsGweYZHrMdQ5PhDiy0oDlWcifDzr4wZkgBuBtfce4GE36oK1UHgM411_YJurPqPoymgffTcXVfjpgCu6Csx6nyGM4icOJguPyAUUqc5s48UWFuCnkpt5eLK3-q7-7EnKK/s650/1-emmaus-icon.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="650" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_cTqjVrizUJbt9wv75WFycTOWZgTjUwBha-PB2lwOXTz5AtG4xwouO4xsGweYZHrMdQ5PhDiy0oDlWcifDzr4wZkgBuBtfce4GE36oK1UHgM411_YJurPqPoymgffTcXVfjpgCu6Csx6nyGM4icOJguPyAUUqc5s48UWFuCnkpt5eLK3-q7-7EnKK/w640-h492/1-emmaus-icon.gif" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today we meet two people who go on a journey<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A physical journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, but also another
kind of journey</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At the beginning</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">, when Jesus, who had risen from the dead, meets the two
disciples, they do not recognise him. He asks them what they are discussing, and
we are told, ‘They stood still, looking sad’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But then, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">as they continue with their journey</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, and as
Jesus explains the bible to them, we are told that ‘their hearts burnt within
[them]’.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I love that. I hope you have experienced something like that
– it does not necessarily need to be things about God – but when what you are hearing
makes such sense, clarifies so many confusions, and brings you such joy – that
you are alive, you are on fire. Your heart is burning within you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And then when they come to </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">the end of their journey</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">,
and they invite the stranger in, and he breaks bread – they recognise that it
is Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Forgive me for making Luke say something that he is not
saying, but that I think is true.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Many of us ‘stand still’ in our faith; we get stuck. And
rather than bringing us joy, our faith instead makes us sad.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Please do not stop where you are. Please do not get stuck.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I remember hearing of one older man who stopped coming to
church. When they asked him why, he said, ‘I don’t need to. I’ve heard it all
before’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">First, that is a challenge that those of us who preach need
to hear. We need to work at keeping the message fresh both for ourselves and
for those who listen. Kierkegaard said, ‘Jesus turned water into wine. The
Church [and in this context I would say ‘preachers’] have done something much
more miraculous. They have turned the new wine of the Kingdom into water’. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People ask if I reuse sermons. The answer is
very rarely. Because then I was looking at them with last year’s eyes, facing
last year’s issues, to last year’s people. I’ve been preaching now for just
over 40 years, and I have found that if I look, there is always something new
in a bible passage, something that the Holy Spirit highlights for us in a fresh
way for today. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Second, even if you have ‘heard it all before’, that is no
reason to stop coming to church. It is not just about coming to hear and to
learn – although that is important. It is also about what we can give and –
even more vital – about being together with other believers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And third, how can we have heard it all before? We can never
exhaust the limits of the wonders and love of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Don’t get stuck.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">These two disciples had got stuck. They could not get over
their conviction that the Messiah would come with a great army, as a political
leader to liberate the Israelite people from their Roman occupiers. And so they
could not work out how Jesus, if he really was the Messiah, ended up crucified
by those Roman occupiers, on a cross. “W</span>e had hoped”, they said – with obvious
despair - “that he was the one to redeem Israel”. Luke 24:21</p>
<!--EndFragment -->
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is not an unusual thing for people to get stuck on. We
think that if we belong to God, if we have committed our life to him, he should
bless us. And we do not understand why bad things happen to us, and the people
who we love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But if these followers were stuck, they become unstuck!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And that is because they spend time with Jesus and the bible.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He explains to them that the Bible teaches that the Messiah
had to suffer before he came into his kingdom; that the Messiah had to die, but
then rise from the dead.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these
things and then enter into his glory?” Luke 24:26<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Maybe he told them about Moses (as a fugitive in the desert
looking after sheep), about Joseph (forgotten in prison), about David (hunted
as an outcast in the wilderness), about the servant of God of Isaiah 53 who
suffers before he is exalted, about this mysterious ‘son of man’ of Daniel 7
who is crushed before he is vindicated, about Jeremiah (dropped into a well
because he was faithful to the message God gave him), about the many men and
women of faith who, for the sake of the promises of God of a coming kingdom, of
glory, were willing to suffer and die.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And suddenly for them, it all makes sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We usually don’t have the risen Jesus coming alongside us bodily
and helping us to understand the Bible.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But we believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, who does help
us to understand – both as we pray and think things through ourselves, and through
others.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is the story told of an Ethiopian in Acts 8. He was also
on a journey, from Jerusalem to Ethiopia. He is reading Isaiah 53. And the Holy
Spirit sends Philip, and Philip approaches him and asks, ‘Do you understand
what you are reading?’<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And he replies, ‘How can I unless someone explains it to me?’<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And so Philip tells him about Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Don’t get stuck and sad!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If there are things that you do not understand in the Bible,
don’t dismiss the bible, but hold them and work on them. Talk with some of our people
here; ask in your bible study; talk with youth group, your friends. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You may not be wrong – but you might just have missed
something out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The two travellers on the road to Emmaus were not wrong to
put their hope in Jesus. They had just missed out a huge part – about suffering
– which made all the difference. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And I pray that as we read the Bible, as we study the Bible
and listen to those who explain it (whether in books, online or in person), it
will make sense, it will clarify our confusion, it will bring peace and hope
and joy – and our hearts will burn within us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But that is not the end of the journey.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We are not people who are simply called to know the word of
God.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are people who are called to know the person who the Bible
is all about: Jesus Christ<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Notice how it says, “Then beginning with Moses and all the
prophets, he interpreted to them the things </span><b style="font-size: 12pt;">about himself</b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> in all the
scriptures.” Luke 24:27</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The end of the journey is not a head full of knowledge, but a
seeing of the glory of Jesus</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And the two followers see Jesus as he breaks bread.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We’re not sure what God used to open their eyes: but I notice
it is God who does it.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">V16: ‘their eyes were kept from recognising him’<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">V31: ‘Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Maybe it was when he took the bread, his sleeve dropped, and
they saw the marks in his hands.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Maybe it was the way that he blessed the bread – the way only
Jesus did.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But I wonder whether it was when </span><b style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>he broke the bread</i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
that they suddenly realised that it was Jesus</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The breaking of the bread is not just to share the bread<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is a picture of what happened to the body of Jesus. It is an
illustration of everything that Jesus had been telling them. The Messiah, the
King, had to be broken on the cross.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This was the bit that they had missed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They had seen how Jesus took the bread and blessed it, gave
thanks for it.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They had seen how Jesus had shared the bread.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But they had missed the breaking bit:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They thought that Jesus had come to lead them from success to
success and victory to victory. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But before the resurrection, before the ascension, before the
returning again in glory – there had to be the breaking. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So as Jesus took the bread, blessed it, and broke it, their eyes
were opened. They saw him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I pray that today, as we bless the bread and then break it –
we will begin to glimpse the broken, the crucified and the risen and ascended Lord
Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-81673478283635472992023-04-09T16:05:00.001+01:002023-04-09T16:07:04.459+01:00The glory of the resurrection. Matthew 28.1-10<p><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28.1-10&version=NRSVA" target="_blank">Matthew 28.1-10</a></span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This morning we are looking at Matthew 28, and the account of
the resurrection of Jesus</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Matthew specifically mentions two women who come to the tomb,
and he names them: Mary Magdalene and ‘the other’ Mary (not Mary the mother of
Jesus, but Mary the mother of James and Joseph).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cross-and-resurrection/episodes/The-glory-of-the-resurrection--Matthew-28-1-10-e2227bm" target="_blank"><i>The audio of this sermon can be found here</i></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That is very Matthew: Matthew likes his ‘twos’. <br />He mentions
two blind men who Jesus heals (twice); <br />he mentions two demoniacs from whom Jesus
casts out demons.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And now he mentions two women who come to the tomb.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And the reason is that you need two witnesses in a Jewish
court if your evidence is to be counted as valid<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So Matthew is putting forward Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary. They are his witnesses<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">However, there were other women who came with them to the
tomb.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mark mentions Salome; Luke mentions Joanna and ‘other women’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And so in our icon (a 16<sup>th</sup> Century icon from the Pskov
region), I think you can count 5 women looking down at the tomb plus Mary, the
mother of Jesus, who is also shown. She is the one in the front.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And as they come to the tomb, they encounter an angel, a
heaven sent messenger (angel means ‘messenger’)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIfR6veyQG1rZ5aKHQ09FwEg8MhR51UuEnkwKgrTrfEveAZj4fYH6JBfDjbxyd1KMX3MaBVp-EZPDQH09qX-E0cI2kyx-vVVacwk00wfl0UgFweozebo-C2UAa7XiMwpIC7FtmQ-kjEnF0AOQH4_6wALfuZuvc8Ms1Xe4XNaM_3F2CkTU8rVtAV7ko/s3345/myrrhbearingwomenandappearancetomarymagdaleneC!6Russian.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3345" data-original-width="2700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIfR6veyQG1rZ5aKHQ09FwEg8MhR51UuEnkwKgrTrfEveAZj4fYH6JBfDjbxyd1KMX3MaBVp-EZPDQH09qX-E0cI2kyx-vVVacwk00wfl0UgFweozebo-C2UAa7XiMwpIC7FtmQ-kjEnF0AOQH4_6wALfuZuvc8Ms1Xe4XNaM_3F2CkTU8rVtAV7ko/w516-h640/myrrhbearingwomenandappearancetomarymagdaleneC!6Russian.jpg" width="516" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This is a glorious messenger.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He comes with an earthquake, which was powerful enough to
move the stone covering the tomb of Jesus</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">His appearance is as lightning and his clothing white as
snow. That reminds us of when Jesus was lit up by the glory of God when he was
on top of the mountain, and Peter James and John saw him in all his glory: ‘his
face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white’ (Matthew 17:2)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And the guards, appointed by Pilate to guard the tomb, become
like dead men in his presence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And – and I like this – he doesn’t stand. He sits. And he sits
on the stone, that has been moved from the tomb. It is quite casual.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">God has just raised his Son from the dead. Entropy has been
reversed. Death has been defeated. A new life principal has broken into our
death destined world.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And the messenger sits on the stone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But he is glorious, and probably rather scary: the first
thing he says to the woman is, ‘Don’t be afraid’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>This is the messenger who has become like the message that he
speaks.</i> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Quite often we do become like the message that we speak. We do
all have a message, even if it is simply you must look at this video clip, or
you must try her amazing recipe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Or perhaps we preach money or business or conspiracy theories
or family or fitness and beauty or a particular politics. Or perhaps we preach
hedonism: it is all about having a good time; or nihilism – there is nothing?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Watch what you preach – because we can become like what we
preach<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can preach money, and we can become like money, cold and calculating.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can preach conspiracy theories, and we can end up trusting
nobody.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can preach hedonism and end up sunk in a pit of self-indulgence.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can preach domination through physical force; the bible
warns us that if we live by the sword we will die by the sword (Matthew 26.52)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can preach deconstructionism, nihilism, and end up – like
Nietzsche going mad.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But if we preach the message of the resurrection of Christ,
that love has conquered evil and that life has swallowed death – then the Holy
Spirit will transform us, so that we begin to become like the message that we
preach: awesome and radiant and glorious</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So this messenger is glorious because he has a glorious
message</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is a message from heaven: the angel descends from heaven. It
is a revelation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The women would never in their wildest imagination look at
the empty tomb and think that Jesus had risen from the dead<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They might have thought that his body had been moved. That Joseph
of Arimathea had had second thoughts about letting Jesus body be placed in his
own tomb.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Or maybe they thought someone had stolen the body – although
that was unlikely because the guards were there<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But whatever, they could never have imagined that Jesus had
risen from the dead.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They had seen his beaten, bloodied body. They – and hundreds – had seen him
die. They had then seen the spear thrust into his side – just to make sure he
really was dead - and the blood and water flowing out. You can’t get more dead
than that.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But the angel has a message for them. And it is a glorious
message</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>“He is not here”</i></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Jesus is not here’, he says. ‘Come and see’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In our icon of the myrrh bearing women the angel is pointing to
the empty tomb – to the grave clothes, with the head covering on one side.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[the grave clothes are significant. If the body had been
stolen they would have been taken with the body)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“He has been raised”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus is alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What Jesus spoke about – how he would be arrested and
crucified and then rise on the third day - has become literally true. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus is alive, the gates of death have been broken open.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the previous verses, we are told, “The tombs also were
opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After
his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and
appeared to many”. (Matthew 27:52-53)<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It must have been weird – to put it mildly.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Whatever you make of that, it does suggest that after the
resurrection of Jesus, there were rumours going around of astonishing things
happening, of the dead coming back to life.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And what seems to have happened is a mini anticipation of the
last day when – because Jesus has been raised from the dead - the dead will be
raised.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“You will see him”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">‘He is risen from the dead’ is an amazing statement which is
true but which could make no real difference to the women.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They will go back to the disciples, tell them the incredible
story, show them the empty tomb and then .. then get back on with living their
ordinary day to day lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Many believers live like that today.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We listen to the messenger, we stand there looking down at
the empty tomb, and we sort of believe that Jesus rose from the dead, maybe we
meet with others who sort of believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but it
makes no real difference to our daily life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But this is where the message gets personal: ‘You will see
him’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The angel says to the women, ‘Go quickly (I don’t know why ‘quickly’,
but it is emphasized) to the disciples and tell them that Jesus is going ahead
of you to Galilee where you will see him’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So they are obedient, they go quickly, ‘with fear and great
joy’ and, possibly because they go quickly, they stumble across Jesus. He meets
them. Maybe if they had gone slowly they would have missed him.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But it is because they are obedient to the message that they
meet with him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>This is a glorious message. It offers such hope.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It offers hope, as we heard on Good Friday, to the betrayers
and deniers who thought there was no way out, no forgiveness<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It offers hope to those who have been betrayed, who are
unable to trust, because there is one who was faithful to his word: that he
would die and rise again.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It offers us hope that if we start walking by faith – we will
see him. We will encounter him. There will be the little encounters (bread and
wine, his word that speaks to you, those special intimate experiences) which
are signposts to the big encounter – when we will see him face to face</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The icon we have in front of us shows the women looking down.
They are looking at the grave clothes and at the empty tomb.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But it also puts together the account of the resurrection in
Matthew and the account in John.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It shows Mary Magdalene, here on the left, looking up. And
she sees the risen Lord Jesus. And he looks back at her and invites her to come
with him on a journey – from the earthly city, from Jerusalem, to the heavenly
city.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yes, look down – look down and consider the empty tomb and
listen to the glorious message of the angel, but then look up and look to
Jesus. ‘You will see him’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We see a glorious messenger. He is glorious because he has a
glorious message</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And it is a message about a glorious risen Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is the Jesus we read about in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+10.34-43&version=NRSVA" target="_blank">Acts 10.34-43</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He is the one who God raised from the dead<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The risen Jesus, says Peter, is ‘Lord of all’: Lord of
creation. Lord of life and Lord of death. To him all knees will bow.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He will come as judge of the living and the dead<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And he is the one offers forgiveness of sin and new life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I note, and with this I finish, that the women see the glory
of the messenger and they are afraid.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But when they see the glory of the risen Jesus, who is so
much more glorious, who has conquered death and who is Lord of all, then they
fall at his feet and they worship him.</span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-67415211085848583662023-04-07T15:24:00.004+01:002023-04-08T10:36:28.751+01:00When there seems no way out. A talk for Good Friday 2023<p><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(This sermon is based on an idea in an online sermon, <a href="https://www.preachingtoday.com/sermons/sermons/2020/february/tale-of-two-trees.html" target="_blank">'A
Tale of Two Trees' by Robert Gelinas</a> in Preaching Today)</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Today we remember the day when not just one, but two people
hung on a tree</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The first is Jesus, and we will come to him in a moment</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The second was Judas, who – possibly on Good Friday, maybe on
the Saturday - hung himself. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cross-and-resurrection/episodes/When-there-seems-no-way-out--A-talk-for-Good-Friday-2023-e2201np" target="_blank"><i>The audio of the sermon can be found here.</i></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Judas had betrayed Jesus</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;">It could have been that he had been disappointed with Jesus<br /></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Politically disappointed: he may have thought that Jesus was
going to lead the revolution against the Roman authorities, and nothing happened.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Or it could be that he felt let down by Jesus.</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <br />We are told that
a woman, possibly Mary the sister of Lazarus, pours an eye-wateringly expensive
perfume on Jesus’ feet</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Matthew tells us that the disciples were angry when they saw
it: ‘why didn’t they sell the perfume and give the money to the poor, rather
than waste it’. And Matthew tells us that it is immediately after that, that
Judas goes to betray Jesus.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Perhaps Judas thought that Jesus was overstepping the mark.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But John tells us a little bit more.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He tells us that Judas’ action was not just motivated by a
strong sense of social justice, but rather that Judas was a thief: he was the treasurer,
and he liked to put his hand into the till.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">No doubt, he would have liked to have got his hands on the
sale of that perfume.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">No doubt, most of the proceeds of the sale would have been
given to the poor, but some of them might have found their way into Judas’
pocket. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Or maybe he was feeling excluded by the other disciples.<br /></i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Maybe those rumours about him and money were spreading, and
he knew that he wasn’t completely trusted.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I suspect that that may well have been the case – and Jesus went
out of his way to include Judas. It was Judas who Jesus honours at the last
supper.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Or it may just have been the attraction of the money.</i> <br />30 pieces
of silver – a significant sum. He was blinded by the money</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Whatever, Judas betrays Jesus. On that Maundy Thursday night
he leads the soldiers to the Garden of Gethsemane, a quiet place, where Jesus
will be away from the crowds and he can be arrested without any trouble. Of
course, in the darkness, it would have been hard to know which one was Jesus –
he didn’t have a constant halo – and so Judas goes up to Jesus and identifies
him to the soldiers by greeting him with the traditional kiss</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He betrays him with a kiss. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But when Judas sees Jesus condemned to death, he suddenly
realises what he has done.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I suspect that he hadn’t really thought through what he was
doing.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He simply wanted revenge. Revenge on Jesus because Jesus had
let him down, maybe. Revenge on the disciples. He thought, ‘I’ll show them that
I matter, that I can’t be ignored.’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But as Jesus is condemned to death – he suddenly realises
with utter horror – what it is that he has done. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Matthew tells us that he goes back to the authorities; he
tells them that he has betrayed an innocent man; he asks them to take back the
money – but they refuse. They say that has got nothing to do with them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And so, we are told – and the stories are slightly different
in Matthew and Luke/Acts - Judas left the money there, or he bought a field
with the money, and Matthew tells us that he hung himself, whilst Luke doesn’t
mention the hanging, but does say that his body bursts open in the field. Both
of which are possible. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Why did Judas decide to hang himself?</b></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He must have thought, ‘How can I live with myself after what
I have done?’<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">How can I face the other disciples – when I have so obviously
betrayed Jesus?<br />He lived in a shame culture, where reputation was everything. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He saw no other way out. He had lost all hope. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeAijF4qntX1UTi5pTmErMS1EHZOpDzW-wcFyoRFKzymLFEsx12EYML1LtIGPLDZmUqYW15HhJZmUpLW2xxQyv56ryEJBU5RTcmGEX7I1ypsRcU0M0Q37xN71AHlWjPHDF3Oone4GIK0CQoqmxHOtWrdfdaVQJtbLFmb1OoJX4eoneDGxQyf3aGRQ9/s680/wayoutofdespair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="680" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeAijF4qntX1UTi5pTmErMS1EHZOpDzW-wcFyoRFKzymLFEsx12EYML1LtIGPLDZmUqYW15HhJZmUpLW2xxQyv56ryEJBU5RTcmGEX7I1ypsRcU0M0Q37xN71AHlWjPHDF3Oone4GIK0CQoqmxHOtWrdfdaVQJtbLFmb1OoJX4eoneDGxQyf3aGRQ9/w640-h426/wayoutofdespair.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And so he decided to try and take control of his sense of
total desolation, of utter brokenness and deal with it himself. And the only
way that he could even begin to think of taking control, was to kill himself,
to hang himself on a tree.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">IF ONLY JUDAS HAD WAITED THREE DAYS. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus also hung on a tree.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In one sense, Jesus also took his own life.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">When he went to Jerusalem that last time, it really was a suicide
mission.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He knew he would be betrayed, arrested, falsely accused,
sentenced to death and then crucified.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But there was a huge difference.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus did not go to the cross as a way out.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He went to the cross to give a way out to people for whom
there is no other way out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He took into himself all the awfulness that is in us, all the
terrible things we have done.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He took into himself our betrayals: our little betrayals,
when we have gone back on our word to someone; and our big betrayals, when that
has led to terrible consequences.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The problem of betrayal is that it destroys trust.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And without trust we are lost. Societies disintegrate, institutions
crumble and families break apart. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That is why treason, betrayal of your country, usually is one
of the most serious crimes that a person can commit.<br />It is why 'infidelity', unfaithfulness is the greatest destroyer of relationships. It is not only the physical act. It is also the fact that you cannot trust the word of the other person<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And it is why betrayal by someone you thought of as a friend
is so destructive.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But Jesus, who was betrayed – notice how we say in our
communion prayer, ‘who on the same night that he was betrayed, took bread and
broke it and gave it …’, took into himself the consequence of our betrayal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He was completely obedient, absolutely faithful to his Father
and the word of God.<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16px;">And yet he died for us who are faithless to our words, who deny him, and who betray him in our words and actions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That is why we can trust him</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And because Jesus went to the cross not as a way out, but in
order to give people a way out – there is forgiveness and there is hope.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Peter denied Jesus. In many ways what he did was no worse
than what Judas did.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">His denial was also a betrayal:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It was a betrayal of his word, a word that he had given in
front of all the other disciples <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– ‘I
will never let you down’. He had let himself down. He had shamed himself in
front of all the disciples. ‘Who would have known’, he could have imagined them
saying, ‘that big brash Peter turned chicken’.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was a betrayal of the other disciples.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And it was a betrayal of his friendship with Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And when Peter realised what he had done, when the cock
crowed, he went out and he wept bitterly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Perhaps Peter may have been tempted to take things into his
own hands, to take the ultimate way out. We don’t know.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But we do know that he did wait for three days</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And when he meets Jesus, there is no reproach from Jesus, no
rebuke.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He simply asks Peter 3 times, ‘Do you love me – do you love
me enough to trust your life to me; to take my way out, and not your way out –
even though the end will be the same for you. You will die hanging on a tree’.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He is saying to Peter, ‘I know’. And he is saying, ‘You
thought there was no way out, but I have given you a way out’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">My dear brothers and sisters, maybe you can see no way out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It might be something that you have said or done that has
caused incredible pain and suffering for others. It might be that you have
abused someone. It might be that you have denied someone, betrayed someone by
your word – and in front of others. It might be that all that you can see for
yourself is shame.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Or it may be the actions of others leave you with the sense
that there is no way out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Perhaps, like Judas, you cannot bring yourself to trust
Jesus.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You feel that you have to atone somehow for the hurt you have
caused, or to find a way out of the pain that you feel.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And you decide to take things into your own hands</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But there is a way out.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And yes, sometimes we need to wait – for three days, maybe
for longer – but we wait in hope: because we know that if we are prepared to
trust him, because he hung on a tree, he does give us a way out – a way to face
our own pain, and live. A way to face the pain we have caused others, and live.
A way to confront our own faithlessness, our own betrayals and denials – to
receive God’s mercy and to live. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-43949830341742419332023-03-26T19:35:00.001+01:002023-03-29T10:21:34.214+01:00When Jesus seems to stay away. John 11.1-45<p><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">John 11.1-45</span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus could have saved Lazarus<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus could have travelled to Bethany, when he heard that
Lazarus was ill – and he could have healed him.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">But he does not: “though Jesus loved Martha and her sister
and Lazarus,</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;"> </sup><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two
days longer in the place where he was.” John 11:5-6</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="365" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/63GQWVpgRVU" width="439" youtube-src-id="63GQWVpgRVU"></iframe></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">The thing was that there was something more important that
Jesus wanted to do<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">– more important than saving Lazarus, his friend, from death.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">– more important than allowing Martha and Mary drop into the
pit of the abandonment and desertion of death.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus wanted to show them, and he wanted to show us through
them, the glory of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW_G_byBHVC8hEJ48COQgKAngpU751h0jf_MpLN0qYGJkYxKAZ0sgah-vdNYnZCT5cLArQbMWd0t4lBlKnmvddIcvtyRshW9bKPjjogjM-Z1DWiEx43xnorJ6LodcfS4prt6K2n3GOiXQnp4wguZ86F9A4RhcKaAOOpZk5sMyxnc0aDSt_cqL85A9_/s1000/DZnQzxnX0AAXWAb.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1000" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW_G_byBHVC8hEJ48COQgKAngpU751h0jf_MpLN0qYGJkYxKAZ0sgah-vdNYnZCT5cLArQbMWd0t4lBlKnmvddIcvtyRshW9bKPjjogjM-Z1DWiEx43xnorJ6LodcfS4prt6K2n3GOiXQnp4wguZ86F9A4RhcKaAOOpZk5sMyxnc0aDSt_cqL85A9_/w640-h512/DZnQzxnX0AAXWAb.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p>There are many times when we cry out to Jesus to take away
our pain, to solve our problems, to rescue us from our despair or sadness</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Sometimes he answers immediately and wonderfully<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">But many times there is no immediate answer</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">And for us:<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">We’re praying for peace – and there is no peace. In fact the
situation just gets worse.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Maybe we are looking for work – we’re trying to be faithful
to Him, and nothing seems to come.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Maybe we are watching the life of someone we love unravel – we
pray and God does nothing. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Maybe we are facing sickness – we seek God and there is no relief.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">And Jesus seems to stay away.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">But there is hope in this story, because it suggests that there
is a reason why he stays away – even if we do not at first understand.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">And the reason is that he wants us to glimpse the Glory of
God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Twice in this passage Jesus says that:<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">V4, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for
God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">V40, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see
the glory of God?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So what is this glory that he would us to see?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He wants them to see a glimpse of the
heart of God<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">God’s glory is when his Son is glorified.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">‘Rather it is for God’s glory, so that the </span><i style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Son of God</i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">
may be glorified through it’.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">It is all about revealing the relationship between the Father
and the Son<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">They are so close, so intimate, so ‘on the same page’, so
intertwined that when one is glorified, the other is glorified.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">When Jesus stands outside the tomb of Lazarus, he prays out
loud so that everyone can hear: </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">“Father, I thank you for having heard me.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.3333px;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">I
knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd
standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” John 11:41-42</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">He wants people to know – through his raising Lazarus from
the dead – that God is his Father: He cries out, ‘Father’. He wants them to
know that God listens to Him. And he wants them to know that his Father has
sent him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus came from the heart of God, and is the heart of God</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In Gogol’s wildly surreal novel, ‘</span><span lang="RU" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Нос</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">’ (the nose), Kovalev’s Nose declares
independence, dresses as a senior civil servant and goes walkabout in St
Petersburg.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, in Jesus, God’s heart goes walkabout.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">There is a difference. Whereas Kovalev had no say in his nose’s
antics, the Father sends his heart into the world.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">And Jesus, as God’s heart is both with us, and remains with
his Father<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">(by the way, this is not dogmatic theology – this is me using
poetic license!)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the heart that holds Father and Son together<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">This is the heart that reaches out to us<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">This is the heart which saw the devastation that death
brings, which felt the controlled inner grief of Martha, and saw the open emotive
grief of Mary, and those with her, and which wept.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">This is the heart which would reach out and embrace us<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">And this is the heart which would come and live in us, and
shape us and draw us into the life of the Father and the Son.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">When we walk through times of darkness<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">If we turn to Jesus we may not see an instant answer<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">It may appear that he stays where he is for two more days</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But if we are faithful, and hold on – oh and by the way it is
OK to be honest with him: notice how both Martha and Mary say exactly the same
thing to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”.
John 11:21. There is a cry of anger and frustration and despair there. ‘You let
us down’. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But if, despite our confusion, we hold on, then we will see
his love.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Indeed more than that, we will come to share his love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Paul writes, “we … boast in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance,</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;"> </sup><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">and endurance produces character, and
character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love
has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to
us”. Romans 5:3-5</span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus wants them to see that he is
the One who not only gives life, but who is life. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Mary believes in the resurrection on the last day.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">That is what many ordinary orthodox (with a small ‘o’) Christian
believers also believe today<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">We believe that after we die, we will be raised to life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Jesus offers so much more. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes, Jesus has authority over death.</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We have been reading in John’s gospel how Jesus tells us that
he has been given the authority to speak to the dead and that the dead will
hear him, and that those who trust his word will rise to life, and those who
reject him will be condemned. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus here speaks to a dead man, and the dead man hears. That
is incredible.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">He calls Lazarus – Lazarus is dead. He has no ability to
hear, no ability to respond.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus speaks to him, and his word penetrates deep – deep into
the lifeless Lazarus. And Lazarus hears and obeys.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is like those dead bones in Ezekiel 37. The Spirit of God
comes into them and brings life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">But Jesus offers more.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus does not just have authority to give life to the dead. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He is life itself. He is the source of life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">And he offers Lazarus, and he offers Martha and Mary, and he
offers us, a relationship with Him who is life</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He says here: Not, ‘I give the resurrection and the life’,
but ‘I <i>am</i> the resurrection and the life’. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And if we hear him, if we come to him, if we receive him,
then we will not only be given life – real life, true life, spiritual life
which starts to shape and transform our physical life – but we will come into
communion with life itself. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Up to now we have been zombies, flesh walking about doing flesh
stuff. Eating, drinking, having sex, not having sex, partying, not partying, growing
old, dying.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">But Jesus says that if we come to him, we will come alive – truly
alive, spiritually alive.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus says to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.
Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who
lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Our world does not offer us life in the land of the
living.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">It offers us 70 – 80 or so years
in the land of the dying.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus is saying
to Martha, not ‘I’m going to offer Lazarus a few add on, bonus years in the
land of the dying’. He says to her, and he says to each one of us: I offer Lazarus,
and I offer you, life in the land of the living. Come out of the land of the
dying and into the land of the living (V25)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">I was struck by a prayer that we prayed in morning prayer on
Saturday when we celebrated the Annunciation. I put it on our social media
channels. In it, we pray that 'As your living Word, eternal in heaven, assumed
the frailty of our mortal flesh, may the light of your love be born in us to
fill our hearts with joy ..’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘The light of your love be born in us’: <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When we receive Jesus, his Holy Spirit, his love comes into us.
We begin to know ourselves beloved by God, forgiven by God; we are able to call
out in love to God and for God. And as we begin to become aware of God’s love alive
in us, so that love becomes our light – it shapes our thinking and feeling, it starts
to guide us, to lead us. That is the LIFE that Jesus is talking about here. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">And Jesus shows his glory, he shows that he is ‘the
resurrection’ by raising Lazarus from the dead.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus wants them to see that he is
the one who sets people free.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">His last words are important: ‘Take away the stone’; ‘Unbind
him and let him go’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Elsewhere he says that ‘the truth will set us free’ and ‘if
the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.’ (John 8.32-36)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus is the one who can set us free from everything that prevents
us from living as sons and daughters of God: the sin which destroys us and
others; the fear of death – and the fear of mini-deaths which paralyse us from
doing what is good and right and true because we are afraid of failure, or knock
back, of being shamed, or of missing out on something better. And Jesus sets us
free from the power of death. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Maybe we wonder why Jesus does not come when we call on him.
Maybe we wonder why he stays away, and as a result the situation has become
worse. And God seems absent. We wonder why God seems absent.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Remember this story: when Jesus hears that Lazarus was sick
and waited for 2 days, and as a result Lazarus dies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was not because he did not love Martha and Mary and
Lazarus, but because he did. He wanted them to see that he was more than a
remarkable physician who could heal very sick people. He wanted them to see a
glimpse of his love; he wanted them to see that that he is the one who is life;
he wanted them to see that he has come to roll away tomb stones and set people
free. He wanted them to see his glory.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">And so, when the tragedies hit us, when the prayers are not answered, when it
seems that God has gone absent – if we turn to Jesus, if we are honest with him
and open to him, in His time, we will see his glory.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">John writes (1.14), ‘We have seen his glory, the glory as of
a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-54616312432247229422023-03-13T07:00:00.005+00:002023-03-27T07:57:30.357+01:00The living water of life. John 4.5-42<p><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">John 4.5-42</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP8_raJT-IT6j7ni3CqD0s_mCNa1Z3c0V-7Pmiww75UnOi0pRhwRZjmaXFlASOhu3hSvmkWK4ZIlbhOiHlyUVgWqhPmvwPT01FwA7yXKDDIPgS_NGWi_qdVlbNaqHXCscC1YYV7vIMd0QFXmc1XAZeDU_HopvAsJWMdiMPLn5gcdVCw-zk3YmkbXQV/s640/Woman-at-Well.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="640" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP8_raJT-IT6j7ni3CqD0s_mCNa1Z3c0V-7Pmiww75UnOi0pRhwRZjmaXFlASOhu3hSvmkWK4ZIlbhOiHlyUVgWqhPmvwPT01FwA7yXKDDIPgS_NGWi_qdVlbNaqHXCscC1YYV7vIMd0QFXmc1XAZeDU_HopvAsJWMdiMPLn5gcdVCw-zk3YmkbXQV/w640-h432/Woman-at-Well.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are looking today at the woman of Samaria.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">John does not mention her by name, although Eastern tradition
has given her a name: Photine. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is a remarkable conversation</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It begins when Jesus asks her: Give me a drink of water.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">She replies, ‘How can you ask me for a drink of water? How can you break
all the traditional norms? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">You are a man and I am a woman. We should not be speaking. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There is a story told from the Talmud (a body of Jewish civil
and ceremonial law and legend): Rabbi Yose the Galilean was once going on the road
when he met Beruriah (wife of Rabbi Meir). He said to her: “By which road do we
go to Lydda?” (four words in Hebrew) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
said to him: “Galilean fool! Did not the sages say this: ‘Do not multiply talk
with women?’ You should have asked: ‘By which to Lydda?’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(two words in Hebrew). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Men should not speak with women<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan. We should not be speaking,
let alone asking me to give you a drink.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The Jews considered the Samaritans to be racially impure,
idolators and even demon possessed. The feeling was probably mutual<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And yet Jesus gives her four reasons why he can ask her for a
drink of water.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He is the one who gives us living water.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to
you, ‘Give me a drink of a water,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you
living water.” John 4:10</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“The water that I will give will become in them a spring of
water gushing up to eternal life.” John 4:14<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Later, in John 7, Jesus calls to the crowd and says: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,<sup> </sup>and let the
one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s
heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ”<sup> </sup>Now he said this about
the Spirit John 7:37-39<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are all in need of this living water: whether we are Jews
or Samaritans or Gentiles, black or white, Russian or western, men or women.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Without this living water we are dead, spiritually dead.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is as if our soul is like a dried-up seed, like a rock,
deep within us. It has potential for life, but it has no life. It needs water –
not physical water, our bodies need physical water. No, our soul needs
spiritual water – it needs the Holy Spirit to come alive. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The problem is that we do not recognise that.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We give our bodies water – and that keeps them alive<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But we try to water our soul with all kinds of things – which
do not work. And we are lost.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">Maybe
we try to water it, like this woman, with searching for at least a semi-decent relationship.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is possible that her five husbands
have each died, and she really does not want to commit herself again. But
unlikely. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is far more probable that she was
searching for someone who would at least look after her, protect her – which as
a woman of the time she would have needed – and who might just also love her. And
six relationships really do suggest that she is a bit messed up, that she is
lost. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Or
maybe we try to water our soul with what? Other kinds of drink, substance abuse,
shopping and stuff, wanting to become a celebrity, art and music, our children and
family, our work, a retreat into the virtual world where we can control at
least something, a political, social or religious cause?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The problem is that it is the wrong kind of water for our
soul.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And rather than opening up, our soul closes even tighter. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Please don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that somewhere in
us there is a little physical something that is our soul, which we could see if
we had a sufficiently high-powered microscope. I am using picture language for
a reality that is bigger than what we can see or touch or sense.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But if our soul is to open up, if it is to crack open – like the
rock in the Exodus reading, or like the ground when the first shoots appear (one
of the things that I have done, every year, is take a photo of when the first
shoots come through in our church garden – it is a little ‘wonder’) - </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">if life is going to come out of that seed,
then it needs this living water.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We need to come to Jesus, and ask him for this living water.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj_Pl8epQ_9qGP-yqQWhVJVQ6WmlW5Re75XoZ0cGjLqEX_Y4k-2W2w4qId_OtpgxIQa4Zv94jG9IrHu_KlL3tix5AgPwspiXpy4ce-7qLOO1QCvaGgqhuauID_nySNxgAWwlaA74MKX_9c-E3gz3IofB6B_rG6odAAYcyZKjumbo9XUK9c7FCldi-e/s3300/DSC_9088-6.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="1444" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj_Pl8epQ_9qGP-yqQWhVJVQ6WmlW5Re75XoZ0cGjLqEX_Y4k-2W2w4qId_OtpgxIQa4Zv94jG9IrHu_KlL3tix5AgPwspiXpy4ce-7qLOO1QCvaGgqhuauID_nySNxgAWwlaA74MKX_9c-E3gz3IofB6B_rG6odAAYcyZKjumbo9XUK9c7FCldi-e/w175-h400/DSC_9088-6.jpg" width="175" /></a></div>It reminds us of the water we use in baptism – there is our
remarkable banner<o:p></o:p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We need to drink in his words, drink his cup and allow the
Spirit of God to come into us. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And that water will give life to that seed. It will open it
up. And the water will become a spring in us and fill us with life. And this is
water which will last for eternity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I am not saying that if we have asked Jesus for this living
water, and if we have begun to drink of Jesus – we are never going to experience
frustration or loneliness or emptiness. We will. But what we will always have
is his Word to guide us and feed us, we will always have someone who we can
turn to, and we have the promise that nothing can separate us from the love of
God – not even death.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus says to her, ‘I can ask you for water, because I am the
one who would give you living water, if you ask me’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus is saying, I can ask you for
water because I know you</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He was able to tell this woman about her past and her
present. That made a huge impact on her.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When she returns to her town she says, ‘Come and see a man
who told me everything that I have ever done’ (John 4.29)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus knows us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He knows our past, our hidden secrets – things that our
closest and most intimate friends do not know. He knows our lies and our fears.
He knows our deep hurts and losses and the pain that is deep inside.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He knows what we take pride in, and what we are ashamed of. He
knows our sin.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We cannot hide anything from God. When I worked in our inner-city
London community, and I visited people, I sometimes saw a poster which read, “Christ
is the head of the home, the unseen guest of every meal, the silent listener to
every conversation.” I think it was meant to be an encouragement, but actually
to me it sounds more than a bit scary! It is like there is a 24-hour God camera
on us.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But the amazing thing is that God does know us, we cannot
hide anything about God, he knows the worst about us – and yet he still loves
us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He knows this woman has a very dodgy past and a pretty dodgy
present, and yet he still loves her.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That is why he comes to her and asks her – even her – for some
water to drink.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I have seen it on more than a few occasions – it has happened
here – people come to worship, often for the first time, and Jesus meets with
them. As he touches what is deep within them, so they begin to weep – it is
usually weep, although I have also seen someone laugh, with a deep deep
laughter. And as they open themselves up to Jesus, some of the hidden stuff in
here, pushed down for so long, comes to the surface. As they begin to drink of
Jesus, and often with an openness that puts old stagers to shame, and as they
receive his love, so Jesus – who knows us – begins to deal with them, begins to
bring his healing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus is saying, I can ask you for
water because I have come to bring something new</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Samaritan woman realises that Jesus is not just a prophet,
but the prophet, who the Samaritans were waiting for. The one who would teach
them. So she asks him a critical question. ‘Our ancestors worshiped God on this
mountain, Mount Gerizim, but you – Jews - say you need to worship at Jerusalem,
Mount Zion. Who is right?’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus answers and says, there is a right answer to that one. Jerusalem
– because God’s promises were given to the Jewish people, and he said that his
name would dwell in the Jerusalem temple, and that through the Jewish people he
will bring salvation to the world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But, he says, the time is coming when it will not be a
question of mountains or geography or nationality. The grace of God is going to
flow out, from me, to all people. And all you need to do is to listen to me,
let my words come into you and allow the Spirit to lead you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in
spirit and truth.” John 4:24</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To worship the Father in spirit and truth. It is important to
get that balance.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We can emphasise the Spirit and end up doing anything. If it
feels right, we think we can do it. And you end up with the most weird and
dangerous teaching.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Or we can emphasize the Truth – the words of Jesus; the scripture
as interpreted in the light of church tradition – and we end up turning the
Christian faith into a set of rules that we have to follow.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We need both if we are to worship right. We cannot understand
the truth without the Spirit and we can only be led by the Spirit if we also
are held in the truth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But in this ‘hour that is now here’, the people of God in their
worship of the Father, are not separated by race or by mountain or by language
or by custom.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus really has come to do something radically new. He has
come to bring people separated together. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Later Paul writes, ‘In Christ there is neither slave nor
free, Jew nor Gentile, male nor female. For all are one – united – in Christ
Jesus’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We are united in Christ, part of each other, needing each
other. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That is why I love this congregation. People from all over
the world – I think from every continent apart from Antarctica – worshiping the
Father together.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So yes, says Jesus, I – a Jewish man - can ask of you, a Samaritan
woman, for a drink.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus is saying, I can ask you for
water because I am Messiah<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When
he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”</span><sup> </sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus said to her, “I
am he, the one who is speaking to you.” John 4:25-26</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Messiah, the Christ, is the one anointed by God to be
King, ruler of God’s world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And Messiah can ask you to get him a drink of water!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">--------</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Well, we don’t know if Jesus did ever get his drink of water! We’re
not told!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But we are told that the woman does ask Jesus for the living water – and very
clearly that spring of living water erupts within her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">She runs back to her city – leaving the water jar – and she
says to her people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever
done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What a contrast to the woman who was on her own at midday
drawing water – probably because she needed to avoid people because of what
they would say about her. And now, she couldn’t care less. But she wanted people
to meet the person who had changed her life. And by the way, notice she doesn’t
preach. She tells what has happened to her, she asks a question and she invites
them to come and see.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">According to tradition, Photine continued to be a witness to
what Jesus had done, travelling from Samaria to Carthage. There she was sentenced
to death for Christ.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">According to legend, and I suspect it is not true, she was
thrown down into a dry well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But if it is true, then it is fitting. Because she is the one
who has witnessed to us – that in our dried up wells, on our little separate
mountains, in our barren lost places, there is one who can give us living
water, and that water will well up in us and lead to eternal life<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">All we need to do is to come to Jesus and ask him for that
living water.</span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-5410343334616258772023-03-04T14:52:00.003+00:002023-03-05T13:35:03.951+00:00For God so loved the world. John 3.16<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3.1-17&version=NRSVA" target="_blank">John 3.16</a></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5iR5ll9xEo5DLuV-1lHLQddbHelyrQxzWaVwcC8jn0pkwUgl_jnF3p7KomrESUA_60apvg5SGYPIo02alk5ebBtXqltjAxIW3ffUxQBxAGFC6vGl3-zrjX1-f_bDtiV2d0WwZeSyRGD_4VPDw0e1c9IIY3lRvCzcdRxnqLsCAheNNKEEIauscj7Mt/s1280/WhatsApp%20Image%202023-03-04%20at%2009.04.44.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5iR5ll9xEo5DLuV-1lHLQddbHelyrQxzWaVwcC8jn0pkwUgl_jnF3p7KomrESUA_60apvg5SGYPIo02alk5ebBtXqltjAxIW3ffUxQBxAGFC6vGl3-zrjX1-f_bDtiV2d0WwZeSyRGD_4VPDw0e1c9IIY3lRvCzcdRxnqLsCAheNNKEEIauscj7Mt/w640-h640/WhatsApp%20Image%202023-03-04%20at%2009.04.44.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">FOR GOD</span></span></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">John 3.16 begins with God<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;"><br />Someone wrote to me last week and said that they preferred to
speak not of God but of ‘the Universe’. Many others speak of ‘a force’ behind
creation, a bit like in Star Wars.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But the Bible begins with God.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">The first verse in Genesis reads, ‘In the beginning, God ..’<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">John’s gospel begins with, ‘In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ John 1:1</span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That is important<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">It means that what is out there, what is beyond us, is not
impersonal, but profoundly personal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">Of course, God is completely beyond understanding:<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6.16, “It is he alone who has
immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or
can see.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And Jesus here in John 3, speaks that only the person who has
come down from heaven, who has been there with God in heaven, can speak of
heaven.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But even if God is beyond understanding – and by the way, the
Church has always taught that God is beyond human gender, and that even though
we use male pronouns for God, He is bigger than male or female, bigger than ‘he’
or ‘she’; but even if God is beyond our understanding,
Jesus has revealed God to us as ‘God his Father’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In other words, God is beyond our comprehension – but we can
still know him as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The personal God to whom we call is not the God of the philosophers.
He is not simply God Almighty, God Immortal – but, for the Christian, He is God
our Father. ‘Our Father in Heaven’ – or as Jesus tells his
followers in Luke, simply cry out ‘Father’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">SO LOVED THE WORLD<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God loves this world, and that includes you and me.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He delights in this world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He is like an artist, who has painted the most amazing
painting, and then breathed life into the painting. And he loves it – he loves
us. If you remember, when God created the world, we are told that ‘it was good’.
It was a place of beauty and of harmony, of abundance and creativity and joy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And our Father in heaven desires right communion</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">, intimacy with his world – especially
with human beings who he created in his image. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But God looks at the world and he sees that things are not
right. Our world is broken. Sin (rebellion against God) and death have come in.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">He may want communion with us, but we do not want communion
with him. We want to live separate from him, independent of him. I saw a bag
last week which sums up how we want to live. It had on it the slogan: ‘My way,
my rules’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But God so loved the world, and so loved human beings, and so
loved you and me .. that rather than give up on his painting, and tear it up
and throw it in the bin ....<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Love gives.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">The more you love, the more you will give.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;"><i>Love gives that which it loves, for that which it loves more.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">God so loved the world – so longed that we might become what
we were created to be – that he gave his only Son.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">Others in the Bible are called the Son of God: Adam, the
people of Israel, David. But they are only pointing forward to the one unique
eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">And in giving his only Son, God gives part of his very self.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That is why Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others, are so wrong
when they say that Jesus was not the eternal Son of God, equal to the Father,
but a being – albeit a super-being, a super-angel – created by God.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">God did not create and love the world, and then – when the
world went wrong – make a second creation, a super-being, to save the first
creation. That would demonstrate the power of God, but not the intimate love of
God.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">Orthodox Christian belief speaks that God shows his love
because he sends himself, his heart into the world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And God sent his Son to reveal God to us</span></i></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">He came from heaven in order to remind us of God because we
had forgotten about God. We had turned God into our own invention. You hear
people say, ‘The God who I believe in is like this …’.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">God sent his Son into the world to reveal, to make known to
us, the true and living God; God as he is.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And God sent his Son to bring forgiveness and healing</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">, </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">to defeat sin and death, to restore
fallen humanity. He did that by dying for us on the cross.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">There is another verse, almost as important as John 3.16. It
is Romans 5.8, ‘God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ
died for us’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And God sent his Son to be the bridegroom.</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have spoken of how love desires communion with that which
it loves. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">Well, the Father sent His Son in order to draw people to Him.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">He says, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will
draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). He is speaking about being crucified.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">And when people see his love, the love of the Father who gave His Son for us, and the love of the Son of God who gave his life for us, they will be drawn to him. They
will come to him as their brother, their friend, their lover.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That means: <i>believing in who he is</i>: that he is the Son of God,
come from the Father, who can speak for the Father, with the authority of
Father God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It means <i>believing what he says</i> and what he teaches.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">And it means <i>a personal believing. </i>This is not just a belief in our
head, but a belief, a trust in our heart. Not just </span><span lang="RU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: RU;">вера </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">but </span><span lang="RU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: RU;">доверие</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">It is about trusting him, casting ourselves on him: receiving
the life that he offers us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">SHOULD NOT PERISH BUT MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Without him we are lost<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">Without him we are separated from God; we are deaf and blind
to God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Notice how Jesus says to Nicodemus, who was one of the
religious leaders who was supportive of him, ‘no one can <i><u>see</u></i> the kingdom of God
without being born from above (or again)’<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">The point is that without Jesus we are half dead. We are
physically alive, but we are spiritually dead.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14pt;">But with him, in communion with him, we become alive. We
receive the Spirit of God. We are born again and are made spiritually alive.
And as we listen to him, we begin to understand his word. And we begin to see
the presence of the kingdom of God, the wind of the Spirit, at work in this
world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Eternal life, you see, is not just future. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">It is present</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"> – it is about a reality now, being part of the kingdom of
God now, living in the present, in the power of the Spirit as a representative, an ambassador
of that kingdom now. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But is also about a future hope</span></span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">: the hope of the day when the kingdom
of God will come in all its fullness, when it will be evident to all, and then we will be alive for ever with Jesus. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-26300639728789347622023-02-26T11:43:00.002+00:002023-02-26T11:57:56.783+00:00On times of temptation and testing. Matthew 4.1-11<p><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Matthew 4.1-11</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There are times when God tests us.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://anchor.fm/cross-and-resurrection/episodes/On-times-of-temptation-and-testing--Matthew-4-1-11-e1vhp7e" target="_blank"><i>Listen to audio of sermon here</i></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Notice how Jesus in Matthew 4 is ‘Led by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the Devil’. It is the Devil who does the tempting,
but it is the Spirit who leads Jesus into the place where he will be tempted.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQGjCWQtyEp9f2RasLTWBxcLvZRlpZTJyfAC1se0Qpto0RFR5LDG7_r-R7pchjt9-Omd-lzi3KTc9tad2VjCxXON-FJ1hN2w7Xw4agTSbYqbL6bhzJw7u5HLxxuIKkDd8ZMF3_CKwbA0nEG7QvACtSvTsdoI3RSIVS5YDUdpbdagW36ZVtH3MfdIOk/s1167/1168px-Christ_in_the_Wilderness_-_Ivan_Kramskoy_-_Google_Cultural_Institute%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Christ in the Wilderness, Ivan Kramskoy" border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1167" height="562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQGjCWQtyEp9f2RasLTWBxcLvZRlpZTJyfAC1se0Qpto0RFR5LDG7_r-R7pchjt9-Omd-lzi3KTc9tad2VjCxXON-FJ1hN2w7Xw4agTSbYqbL6bhzJw7u5HLxxuIKkDd8ZMF3_CKwbA0nEG7QvACtSvTsdoI3RSIVS5YDUdpbdagW36ZVtH3MfdIOk/w640-h562/1168px-Christ_in_the_Wilderness_-_Ivan_Kramskoy_-_Google_Cultural_Institute%20(1).jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p>And there is a reason that God tests us. It is not to make us
fall or fail, but rather to strip us of our false idols, the things we put in
his place, to turn us back to him, to teach us so that we learn to rely on him
– and discover more of his immense love for us, to fill us with his love, to
prepare us for heaven and to make us radiant.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are tested not because God wants to crush us, but because
we are his beloved children, and he wants us to grow.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As the writer to the Hebrew’s says, “Endure trials for the
sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there
whom a parent does not discipline?” Hebrews 12:7<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Even Jesus, we are told, ‘learnt obedience through what he
suffered’ (Hebrews 5:8)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I’d like to look at three stories of testing in the Bible</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">First, there is the testing of Adam and Eve</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Adam was a son of God. In Luke, we are given a list of Jesus’
ancestors. It begins with Joseph and Heli and it ends by speaking of Enos, son
of Seth, son of Adam, son of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And he was tested by God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">God places his son and daughter in the garden of Eden. He
says that they can eat of any tree in the garden. But there is a test. He
places in the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he tells
them that they are not to eat of it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That is so God! He gives them over 3 trillion trees and he
tells them that they can eat of everyone; of those 3 trillion, there is only
one that he tells them not to eat from! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">God wants us to respond to his love with our free love. We are
not super computers, advanced AI, programmed with a base logic from which we
cannot deviate. He gives us something that is deeper than logic. He gives us
genuine choice.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And Adam and Eve (and by the way, this is not just their
story. This is the story of humanity, this is our story), they are tempted by
the devil in the shape of the serpent:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">They see that the tree was good for food.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> It looked amazing. The first way
that the devil tempts us is not through pride or sex, but food. Isn’t it
interesting that the first of Jesus’ temptations is to do with food: turning stones
into bread? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps there really is something to be said for giving up
chocolate during Lent! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And we are told that the fruit was: ‘a delight to the eyes’.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> They wanted it. Not just to wonder
at it, to praise God for creating such beauty, but to possess it for themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And – and I think that this is the critical point – the devil
told Eve that if she ate of the fruit, she would be ‘like God, knowing good and
evil’. So they desired it, because it would make them wise, because it would
make them like God. Rather than living as sons and daughters of God, in a
relationship of love and trust with God, they chose to try to become like God,
rivals to God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Adam and Eve failed, and in them we see how we fail, but it is
not the end</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And the second story is the testing of the people of Israel
in the wilderness, in those 40 years that they journeyed from Egypt to the
promised land</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">God calls the people of Israel ‘his firstborn son’. (Exodus
4.22)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In his love, he hears their cry for mercy and brings them out
of Egypt, where they were slaves, and gives them the promise of a land. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But in order to travel from Egypt to the promised land, they
need to go through the wilderness for 40 years. And the wilderness was a time
of testing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is a remarkable passage in Deuteronomy 8</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Moses speaks to them: “Remember the long way that the LORD
your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble
you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep
his commandments.<sup> </sup>He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by
feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were
acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” Deuteronomy
8:2-3<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<!--EndFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That is strange. God makes them hungry and then feeds them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Why not skip the hungry bit, and just provide dinner for
them?!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But if God had just provided food for them, then they would
have forgotten him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was because they were hungry that they turned to him.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was because they were hungry that they realised that life
is not just about bread, about the physical, but that we live in complete
dependence on the word of God.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was because they were hungry, when they were fed they
realised that everything that they had was not theirs by right, or theirs
because they had earned it, but was gift from God.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was because they were hungry and then were fed, they realised
that they were dependent on God and could trust in God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The problem is that many of them did not. They saw the
provision of God, and yet they still chose to reject God. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They want to go back to Egypt, they create
idols of silver and say that these are their gods, they complain about God,
they say that God intends them harm and not good.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Although God calls them his sons and daughters, they do not
wish to live as his sons and daughters. They set up rivals to God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And as we read through the rest of the Old Testament we learn
that the majority reject God – they fail the test. But it was not the end. There
are a few, a faithful few who do put their trust in God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Today we read about the testing of Jesus<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus has just been baptised. That is important. A voice from
heaven has come and said, ‘This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well
pleased’. (Matthew 3.17)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And like that other ‘son of God’, the people of Israel, all
those years earlier, Jesus was led out into the wilderness. Notice that the
Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years. Jesus was in the wilderness for
40 days. That is significant.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And he was tested.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus knew who he was;<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He knew what he had come to do – to bring in the kingdom of
God;<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He knew how he was called to do it: to preach the kingdom, to
do kingdom business and to die on the cross.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But now, in the wilderness, like the people of Israel of old,
he is given a choice: to </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">obey God and his word, to do things God’s way, or
to reject God and do things his own way. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He was made hungry and tempted to turn stones into bread.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But he refused. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He had come to be a servant of others, not to use his power
for himself:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is interesting that Jesus refused to feed himself, and yet
fed people who were hungry.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus refused to save himself on the cross [later in Matthew,
his accusers jeer at him when he is on the cross: ‘If you are the Son of God, come
down from the cross’ (Matthew 27.40). It is the same temptation as we see here],
but he saved others by dying on the cross<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus refused to turn stones into bread but gave himself as
bread to be eaten.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8 and says that one must live by
every word that comes from the mouth of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He was tempted to throw himself off the pinnacle of the
temple.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It would make a wonderful spectacle. People would flock to him;
he would be a celebrity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But he refused. He knows that he must do things God’s way, and
not his way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There were times when he did dramatic stuff: calming storms,
raising people from the dead, and rising from the dead. Interestingly, they did
not convince everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But the event that draws people to Jesus is not his miracles
but his love: his obedient, chosen, death on the cross for us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And Jesus is tempted to use his authority and his power to seize
the kingdoms of the world.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It would mean that he could claim his kingdom without the cross.
But it would mean not doing it God’s way, but doing it satan’s way. No doubt
raising an army and conquering his enemies. But Jesus refuses. He could have
done it, but by doing it he will turn people into a slave people, he will strip
us of dignity. We will do the right thing but only because we have no choice. And
it would mean that he would break the Father – Son relationship and set himself
up as a rival God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And so Jesus says that he will worship only God, and he will
do things God’s way – even if it means going to the cross<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And there is the testing that we face.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m speaking specifically to those who would call themselves
Christians, who have turned to Jesus, acknowledged him as their Lord and ruler.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We too are sons and daughters of God. John writes, that
whoever has received Christ has been given the right to become a son or
daughter of God. (John 1.12)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And when the testing comes:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Will we reject God, as Adam and Eve rejected him?<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Will we reject God, as the majority of the people of Israel
rejected him?<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Or will we, with Jesus, be faithful to him?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">When the testing comes – and it will come - will we finally stand
firm in our identity as sons and daughters of God</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Will we use our gifts and our power for ourselves or for others?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We will be tempted to use the gifts that God gives us for ourselves:
satisfying our own cravings and desires; exploiting any position of power that
we have: using it in a way that does not honour God, that abuses other people
and strips them of freedom and dignity; using them to get financial or material
or sexual advantage for ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Or we can live as children of God, using the gifts that God has
given us for God and his Kingdom, in the service of others. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Or will we be tempted to sit in
judgement on God and not let Him sit in judgement on us?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is interesting that the temptation is for Jesus to stand
on the top of the temple and throw himself off: to try and force God’s hand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But the temple was not the place to be stood on. The temple
was the place that people were meant to be inside – worshiping God. Not setting
the agenda for God, but allowing God to set the agenda for them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Someone said to me that they had a crisis of faith. They have
been praying about the present situation, for peace, for the last year, and
nothing seems to have happened. In fact, it just gets worse, and there seems no
way out. And so, they said, they were tempted to give up on God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Of course, we would love to see the miraculous answer, God
overruling in a dramatic way – and who knows, it might happen in that way. But
God’s children are called to let God be God, to let God do things His way, and when
he doesn’t give us what we think is right, or what we want, to persevere,
despite the hardships, despite the suffering of others and ourselves, and the seeming
silence of God to our prayer, to be faithful, to love and serve, and to weep
for those who suffer and to pray for peace and work for peace. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are not to be standing on top of the temple making
judgements over God, presuming to force the hand of God, but to be on our knees
in the temple before God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Or will we be tempted to go the way
of power, of compulsion, of seizing the Kingdom for God?</span></i></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">Never think that you can seize the kingdom of God by power</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Never think that you can bring in the kingdom of God by getting
powerful or wealthy people on your side.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When people have tried to conquer in the name of Jesus, it
has always worked out disastrously.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Even today, 900 years later, we live with the tragic
consequences of the crusades<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What perverted logic made us think that we could bring in the
kingdom by military conquest in the sign of the cross?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The way of the children of God is the way of the cross, the
way of self-denial, of silence before our persecutors, of the willingness to
die for our enemies. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">If you are a Christian, a follower of the Lord Jesus, then the
Spirit will lead you into ‘the wilderness’, into the place of testing.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">At times it will be very hard. Like Adam and Eve your desires
will tempt you to do what you know is wrong, even to set yourself up as a rival
to God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Like the people of Israel you will be tempted to think that
God does not exist, or that he means you harm and not good, and you will be
tempted to give up on him or to go back to your old life<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And like Jesus you will be tempted to avoid walking the way
of the cross<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But do not despair when you are tempted or tested</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">We
are children of God.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">We
are not on our own. Jesus has been there. He knows and he has conquered. And He
is with us.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">And
we are told that: ‘God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what
you can bear </span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">but with the testing he will also provide the way out so
that you may be able to endure it.’ </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">(1 Corinthians 10.13)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The most radiant, God-reflecting Christians who I know are
the people who have been through the fire of testing and temptation. They have
failed and repented. They have failed again and repented again many times. But
despite their failures, they have stood firm in their faith in Jesus. They have
kept going back to Jesus. And in the end, they have walked through the fire
with Jesus, and they have become fire for Jesus.</span></p>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-45979903603614444502023-01-29T15:25:00.001+00:002023-01-29T15:27:14.159+00:00Meeting with Jesus. Luke 2.22-40<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=+Luke+2.22-40&version=NRSVA">Luke 2.22-40</a> <br /><br />This morning I would like us to focus on the words that Simeon praises God with. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlF_4xTMNaTtI2LSQ7IrvJ8_b0DKhH4l59ZSSuGxyGyahghZ65jr_V_LWrU4dEA5DYJTePRDy71EVEN8To4JSoMwvnrIRDpHyS2AbkpE3XElzTcDOxhVFK8nM99F5KtkK11MXC31fxq8yh6UkJAv-bVFcv8oLGL1FbPZNdkt1IQMtQuiXo--4b19LK/s2926/%D1%81%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2926" data-original-width="2359" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlF_4xTMNaTtI2LSQ7IrvJ8_b0DKhH4l59ZSSuGxyGyahghZ65jr_V_LWrU4dEA5DYJTePRDy71EVEN8To4JSoMwvnrIRDpHyS2AbkpE3XElzTcDOxhVFK8nM99F5KtkK11MXC31fxq8yh6UkJAv-bVFcv8oLGL1FbPZNdkt1IQMtQuiXo--4b19LK/w517-h640/%D1%81%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5.jpg" width="517" /></a></div><br />It is known in church circles as the Nunc Dimittis: comes from the Latin meaning ‘Now let us depart’, but it doesn’t sound quite as impressive if the service leader says, let us sing the ‘Now let us depart’ <br />It is a hymn that the people of God, for probably almost 2000 years, have said or sung daily in the evening of the day.</span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://anchor.fm/cross-and-resurrection/episodes/Meeting-with-Jesus--The-nunc-dimittis-e1u5tmk"><i>Listen to audio of the sermon</i></a><br /><br />Alexander Schmemann writes in a beautiful passage about the Nunc Dimittis: <br /><br /><i>“Simeon had been waiting all his life, and then at last the Christ child was given to him: he held the Life of the World in his arms. He stood for the whole world, in its expectation and longing, and the words he used to express his thanksgiving have become our own. He could recognise the Lord, because he had expected him; He took him into his arms, because it is natural to take someone you love into your arms; And then his life of waiting was fulfilled. He had beheld the one he had longed for. He had completed his purpose in life, and he was ready to die.”</i> (<i><a href="https://christspieces.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/schmemann1973_forthelifeoftheworld.pdf" target="_blank">For the Life of the World</a></i>, p77)<br /><br />I love that. <br /><br /><b>1. Simeon recognises Jesus because he expected him. </b><br /><br />The Holy Spirit had told him that he would see the Lord’s Messiah (King, ruler). <br />“It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.” Luke 2:26 <br /><br />We don’t know how. Maybe it was a vision or dream. But he believed God that he would not die until he saw the Messiah. <br /><br />And it meant that he expected someone; he was looking for the Messiah <br /><br />I strongly doubt that any of us have had a vision telling us that we will see Jesus before we die. <br />I do know people who have seen him (Dorothy; Jenny) <br /><br />But we have the word of God, the promise of God, that Jesus has come – that Simeon held him in his arms; and that one day Jesus will come again and reveal his kingdom – present now but hidden. And everyone will see it. ‘Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father’. <br /><br />But we also have the promise that the Lord Jesus is near to us now. And that through his Holy Spirit he will come to us and meet with us now. <br /><br />We don’t know where or when. We can’t control him. He is the ultimate free agent. <br /><br />By his grace he comes to those who do not expect him. He came to Paul on the road to Damascus <br />And by his grace he will come to those who are looking for him, who are crying out for him. <br /><br />You may have to wait many years. You may at times be tempted to give up. I remember a friend from university who was longing for an encounter with Jesus. He had had nothing and so, he told me, a couple of years later, he had given up his faith. <br />If I was talking with him now, I would point him to Anna and Simeon – who had to wait so many years for the promise <br /><br />And if we are looking for him, then we will see him in many different ways: a person in need, someone who offers us support, in bread and wine at the communion table, as well as in the ‘spiritual experience’. <br /><br />Some of you may know Tolstoy’s story of the old shoemaker. <br /><br /><i>He is told in a dream on Christmas eve that he will see Jesus. And so on Christmas day, he prepares a feast, and keeps looking out of his window for his special guest. <br />He doesn’t see Jesus, but he does see a street sweeper and gives him a hot drink; he sees a young mother with her baby and invites them in for something to eat and gives the baby a brand new pair of shoes; and at the end of the day, when Jesus had not come, he sees the beggars and he gives them the food. <br />He goes to bed deeply disappointed: Jesus, he said, you said you would come but you did not. But then he wakes up and knows that he is not alone in his room. And he cries out, ‘who are you?’ <br />“Then another voice answered him. It was the voice from his dream -- the voice of Jesus. <br />"I was hungry and you fed me," he said. "I was naked and you clothed me. I was cold and you warmed me. I came to you today in everyone of those you helped and welcomed." <br />Then all was quiet and still. Only the sound of the big clock ticking. A great peace and happiness seemed to fill the room, overflowing Papa Panov's heart until he wanted to burst out singing and laughing and dancing with joy.” </i><br /><br />Jesus will come to us, but we need to be expectant. <br /><br /><b>2. Simeon takes Jesus into his arms and looks into his face </b><br /><br />Some of the icons of the presentation focus on this: the face to face encounter of the Son of God and Simeon. The Russian name for this festival is сретение and it means 'meeting'.<br /><br />We speak a great deal about costly obedience to God and Christ, of following Jesus where we do not want to go, of experiencing opposition, of suffering for the gospel, of dying to ourselves. And that is true. It is all here, in the coming of Mary and Joseph to present Jesus in the temple, and in the words of Simeon to Mary <br /><br />But the great emphasis in these verses is the encounter of Simeon and Anna with God, and their praise. <br /><br />Anna, like Simeon, has been waiting for ‘the redemption of Jerusalem’. And she praises God. In many icons of the Presentation, she is shown pointing up <br />Simeon takes the baby Jesus in his arms and praises God. <br /><br />As I wrote this, I heard a song. The title was ‘Sing out in praise, the joy of all the world has come.’ <br />But that is exactly what this is all about. <br /><br />This is the Son of God, the child who has come to bring salvation – to set us free from sin and death, to bring forgiveness of sins, a new start, a daily new start because we are always messing up, a new life, a new way of living. <br /><br />This is the child who has come to bring in the Kingdom of God, ‘the redemption of Jerusalem’. The promised Kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice and security and peace and abundance and harmony, of love and laughter and creativity and joy. <br /><br />This child will be a light for revelation to the Gentiles: he will show us the love of God, the way of God. He will teach us the right way to live, and give us a reason to live and strength to live. He will answer the long-prayed prayer for justice, and for vindication. He will walk with us through the hard times. He will bring people together, will unite us so that we live in harmony, as part of one another, seeking to serve one another, to build the other up – because when they are built up, we are built up. He will help us to see, to really see – the God image, the beauty in each person, in each object. He will give us a purpose – not just for us but for all creation. <br /><br />He defeats evil and the devil, sin and death and invites us to share in the life of the eternal. He gives us hope. He gives glory. <br /><br />And this is the God who has become one of us, a human baby, who Simeon can hold in his arms, who he can look at face to face. <br /><br />The eternal God who is so holy, so other, so set apart, that his name is not a name: ‘I am who I am’. And when Moses asked to see God, God said to him, ‘Nobody can see my face and live, but you will see my back as I pass by’. When Isaiah has a vision, not of the face of God but of the glory of God, he cries out ‘Woe is me for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ <br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-size: large;">And now God has come to us, not as fire in a burning bush, not as darkness, thunder and lightning, not even as an unseen voice that booms from the heavens – but as a human child. Simeon holds him in his arms and looks into his face. And he loves him and praises God.</span></div><div><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>3. Simeon’s life of waiting was fulfilled. He beheld the one he had longed for </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Nunc Dimittis is the hymn of the end </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">It is often used at the end of traditional funeral services as the coffin is taken out of the church </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">It is the hymn of the end of the day. It is said or sung at evening prayer daily. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">It is very appropriate and very special. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Simeon sees Jesus; he knows that everything is going to be OK, that God’s word has been fulfilled, and he can die in peace. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word’ (v29) </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Last week I was 60. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">I think it is the human condition to feel much younger than our actual years. Our mental age rather lags behind our physical age! I feel 50, whatever that means. And I hope and pray that there will still be quite a few years of active work and service ahead of me. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But 60 is one of those milestones on the journey of life which, even if you feel much younger, as someone very kindly put it – I have become an ‘old codger’. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">When you are younger you push the idea of death away, but as you grow older – you begin to have to face up to the reality of death. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Our society is not good at facing up to death. We do everything we can to avoid facing the reality of death. And of course the process of growing older or of dying is not always a good experience. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But, for the person who is looking for Jesus, death need hold no terrors. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Simeon has seen Jesus. He knows that Messiah has come, that God’s kingdom will come. He knows that everything will ultimately be OK. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">So there is no fear. There is peace, there is hope, there is light and there is glory.</span></p></div></div>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5763795043772460583.post-35310525718289403442023-01-22T15:17:00.003+00:002023-01-26T06:15:46.191+00:00Hope for those who sit in darkness. Matthew 4.12-23<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4.12-23&version=NRSVA">Matthew 4.12-23</a><br /><br />For some it is very dark. Perhaps we might speak of these as dark times, but some people have to go through terrible suffering. <br /><br />They struggle in terrible circumstances, because or war, famine, drought, sickness. They may have to flee for their lives. They may have to helplessly watch their child die of starvation. <br />Or people experience the pain of abandonment, or live for years in abusive relationships, unable to escape. Or we live in fear of what someone might do. <br />People suffer unbearable losses. One couple arrived here at the embassy, and a week later their 19-year-old perfectly healthy son died in the UK after getting ordinary flu – that was pre COVID. <br />In Bury St Edmunds I remember a man in his early 70s. His wife died, then his older daughter died, and I was visiting him because his only surviving child, the younger daughter, had died. <br />And many struggle with depression, or with constant emotional or physical pain. There is not much you can say. <br />And we hear of tragic stories from COVID times, of people dying in hospitals on their own, separated from family. <br />Or we hear of victims of unspeakable evil. <br /><br />People would sometimes say in the UK that tragedies come in threes. That is just not true. For some, they come in far more than threes. <br /><br /><b>The good news today is that Jesus comes and makes his home with people who sit in darkness. </b><br /><br />Matthew speaks of how Jesus makes his home in Capernaum, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali – and then he quotes the prophet Isaiah. <br /><br />“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,<br /> on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— <br />the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,<br /> and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” <br /><br />It is a quote from Isaiah 9, spoken about 700 years earlier. The prophet is speaking of how the Assyrians will come as an invading force and utterly devastate the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. It will become a land of grief and death. <br /><br />It is interesting how Zebulun and Naphtali are described, the land ‘across the Jordan’. <br /><br /></span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_C832XsMd_4PitQxmJlS-xlEP9X2qPQbY3hFJzbbVA-A_IMrpMeaLrTDST-_KkXC5FR9bN3hogSAbKkmcARQt6hHCInz216GdYPpX5h_BpubG--p2G4eiL5PEOWJW4OjP6fedi0s4sxaEdAonydpwl2EwkRgzHpOnPzv3Q2W-e3Df_wLXebbqwm4t/s398/NaphtaliHighlited.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_C832XsMd_4PitQxmJlS-xlEP9X2qPQbY3hFJzbbVA-A_IMrpMeaLrTDST-_KkXC5FR9bN3hogSAbKkmcARQt6hHCInz216GdYPpX5h_BpubG--p2G4eiL5PEOWJW4OjP6fedi0s4sxaEdAonydpwl2EwkRgzHpOnPzv3Q2W-e3Df_wLXebbqwm4t/s320/NaphtaliHighlited.jpg" width="241" /></a></div></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It is from the perspective of the east, of someone from Assyria.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And the road that it speaks of is the road that went from North to South, the road that invading armies from the North would use to get to the South and those in the South would get to the North. And sometimes those armies would meet in the middle, in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. <br /><br />It was not just then at the time of Isaiah. <br />It was also a land of darkness and the shadow of death, at the time of Jesus. <br /><br />People feared plague and sickness; and there was deep poverty. <br />They feared raiders – who not only took their possessions but also their sons and daughters; <br />they feared the violence of the zealots and the reprisals of the Roman soldiers; <br />they feared having all that they had grown taken from them by force in taxes that had to be paid to the occupying forces – and that they would not be able to feed themselves or their family. <br /><br />But now, after the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus makes his home in Capernaum, in this place of darkness, in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. <br /><br />And the hope for us is that Jesus makes his home with us in our suffering, in our darkness, in our fears and in our death. <br />He was born in a cowshed, laid in a manger. He was a homeless wandering preacher. He was betrayed and died naked and abandoned on a cross.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />He knows. He has made his home with us in the darkness. <br /><br />Someone once wrote: <br /><br /><i>“At the end of time, billions of people were seated on a great plain before God's throne. Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly, not cringing with cringing shame - but with belligerence.<br /> "Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?", snapped a pert young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. "We endured terror ... beatings ... torture ... death!"<br /> In another group a Negro boy lowered his collar. "What about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. "Lynched, for no crime but being black !"<br /> In another crowd there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes: "Why should I suffer?" she murmured. "It wasn't my fault." Far out across the plain were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering He had permitted in His world.<br /> How lucky God was to live in Heaven, where all was sweetness and light. Where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.<br /> So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. A Jew, a negro, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the vast plain, they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever.<br /> Before God could be qualified to be their judge, He must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth as a man.<br /> Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind.<br /> Let him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured.<br /> At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly alone. Then let him die so there can be no doubt he died. Let there be a great host of witnesses to verify it.<br /> As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of people assembled. <br />When the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered a word. No one moved.<br /> For suddenly, all realised that God had already done what they asked. He not only sat in judgement over them. He stood beside them as one of them.’ </i><br /><br />The good news is that Jesus knows. He has made his home among people who sat in darkness and the shadow of death. He was with us, and he is with us. He shares our fears. He knows our cry of pain. The Jesus who rose from the dead and is ascended is the Jesus who was nailed to the cross and who still has the scars on his hands and his feet. <br /><br /><b>2. The good news is that Jesus gives hope to people who sit in darkness and the shadow of death </b><br /><br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6hetYTXvzIuIB0wyEIyf5EVif4l18wtW2Q5o8CScQg6X5N30PAMPLP6nER43fKyhBlnAaSmoqErNUK0F-1xQPChaQBTsDIFfB9LvaXvVS1at-TKVovvWmRuZXf2hMWI-9sopoY5PnPKsvIxZ6lGLpfD-HfMPKRZ04fLNxg4lyOmcpEpcbyxR_giKJ/s1450/GettyImages-868064724.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1450" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6hetYTXvzIuIB0wyEIyf5EVif4l18wtW2Q5o8CScQg6X5N30PAMPLP6nER43fKyhBlnAaSmoqErNUK0F-1xQPChaQBTsDIFfB9LvaXvVS1at-TKVovvWmRuZXf2hMWI-9sopoY5PnPKsvIxZ6lGLpfD-HfMPKRZ04fLNxg4lyOmcpEpcbyxR_giKJ/w640-h360/GettyImages-868064724.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It is not just that Jesus is with us, identifying himself with us.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">If you are drowning at sea and a rescue helicopter flies over, and someone jumps in and says, ‘it’s OK, I’m going to be with you as you drown’ - it is not very helpful <br /><br />But Jesus comes among us, not just to live with us in the darkness, but to be the rope to the helicopter, to bring the light. He comes to give us hope. In Isaiah 9.6-7, just after the verses we had read this morning (from Isaiah 9.1-4), the prophet speaks of how a child will be born who will be called ‘wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace .. He will establish his throne with justice and righteousness.’ <br /><br />Isaiah was preaching about something that would happen in the future. <br />And that something began when Jesus was born. <br /><br />So when Jesus says, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven has come near’, he is not just teaching that something will happen in the future. <br />He was not just saying that in the end ‘all will be well’, although in the end, for those who love God, ‘all will be well’. <br />Rather he came to call people, with an irresistible authority, to begin to know the kingdom of God, to live the kingdom life here and now <br /><br />And when the church of God, when we, are faithful to that task, when, even in times of darkness we have the courage to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is near, then we start to see glimpses of the kingdom: lives are changed. <br />People respond to the call of Jesus with radical obedience: like Simon and Andrew, James and John they will leave the things that they depended on in the past and follow him. <br />We think of people like St Anthony, St Francis, like Hudson Taylor. They all left behind great wealth to follow Jesus <br />Others leave behind familiarity, comfort, security and safety to follow him. <br /><br />I was struck to read that some of the first missionaries who went from Europe to Asia or Africa would pack their possessions in a coffin. They went with the assumption that they would probably not return alive. And many of them did die either on the voyage or shortly after arriving at their destination. <br /><br />I know that it is difficult to proclaim the presence of Jesus and the coming Kingdom of God when things are dark. <br />It is difficult to hold on to the presence of Jesus in the face of evil, sickness, pain or death. <br />Sometimes it means we have to first simply ‘make our home’ with people in the dark places. To sit with them and to be with them. <br /><br />But for those who hear the call of Jesus, who respond to that call, in that very dark place we hear hope, speak hope and experience hope. <br /><br />I’ve spoken before of Michael from my previous church. If there is anyone who I would have expected to say that God had abandoned him, it was Michael. <br />He was diagnosed with Motor Neurons, a vicious disease which paralyses you slowly from your feet up to your neck so that you eventually can’t breathe. There is no cure. <br />He was someone who I would regularly visit. <br />I recall one visit towards the end of his life, as the disease had spread right through his body and was beginning to affect his swallowing. We were speaking about a passage from the Bible, and Michael spoke to me, through his oxygen mask, of the comfort of the love of God, and of the still small voice of calm that brings peace. And then he said how he longed to be able to take that peace, wrap it up and give it to others. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">--------------------</div></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The good news of Matthew 4 is that Jesus makes his home with us in our darkness. <br />The good news is that he preaches the kingdom of heaven, and he invites us to begin to live the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. <br /><br />When we are hear the call of Jesus, that the Kingdom of God is near; when we turn to him and are faithful to the task of believing the kingdom, of proclaiming Jesus and the Kingdom, and calling people to follow him, then we have a promise: that in our darkness the Holy Spirit will come. <br />And Holy Spirit will work in us; He will bring Jesus to us; He will comfort us; He will help us to pray; He will give us a longing to change, to become holy and righteous, and will change us. <br /><br />And in God’s way and in God’s time, wonders, чудo, will happen. We will see glimpses of the coming Kingdom. People will be healed and will be set free. <br /><br />And in the darkness we will begin to see the light.</span></div>Malcolm Rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09083867841137252699noreply@blogger.com0