When You Come in Fourth

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Sermon preached on Sunday 12th May – Easter 7 based on Acts 1:15-17, 21-end,

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

In one of the many art museums that I recently visited in Australia, there was a photographic exhibition of Olympians who came fourth. It portrayed them as they either crossed the line in a race or realised the final positionings of the medals. After all, those who come fourth have just missed out on receiving not only a tangible form of recognition, but whoever remembers who came fourth?

Today in our reading from Acts we have one such person, who came so close, but will forever be remembered, if we even remember his name, as the one that wasn’t chosen to join the most important and influential group within the Christian church.

Throughout this period, we are encouraged to look more closely at the Acts of the Apostles as the fledgling church emerges through the words and actions of those who had become disciples of Jesus. Many of those had become part of a group of people, who had witnessed not only his teaching first hand, but been with him since his baptism by John and had recently witnessed his crucifixion and subsequent predicted but still miraculous resurrection.

The group of the original eleven remaining disciples, who had been chosen by Jesus had now become apostles. As Vicky explained last week, a disciple is a student, a learner, a believer, whilst an apostle is a messenger, one who is sent to deliver those teachings to other.

These eleven, along with Judas had been the ones chosen to work closely with Jesus on a day to day basis for the last three years, gradually being changed from disciples, which all believers are, into apostles.

Now, following the death of Judas, they were feeling obliged to find a replacement, after all eleven is an uneven number, twelve is much more biblical. Had Jesus chosen twelve disciples to mirror the original twelve tribes of Israel, signifying the renewal of the covenant between God and humans.? Or was it because Jesus had chosen the twelve, that the remaining apostles felt a divine purpose that there should continue to be twelve of them.

It’s a shame that we miss out several verses around and within the scripture chosen for today as the answer to the above question was actually given by Peter, when he quotes the psalms not only about the fate of Judas, seen at that time as the betrayer or enemy of Jesus, but from Psalm 109:8 ‘May another take his place of leadership’

So here we have a crowd of believers, numbering ‘about one hundred and twenty’. This group included men and women and it is likely that it also included Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers, as the apostles had been staying together in Jerusalem where they had been joined in constant prayer together.

We know this because when Peter stands up his opening words ‘Friends’ are translated from the Greek word adelphoi for brothers and sisters, referring to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family, although the NRSV translation that the Church of England prefers, give the translation as men or brothers.

This gives us an indication that the replacement is not going to be a radical one for that time! Indeed, Peter confirms that it is to be ‘one of the men’ who had accompanied them throughout this whole time.

How to make that choice though? Even without it being a patriarchal society, it was highly implausible that they would have considered Mary, of Mary and Martha fame, despite her being one of the best students of Jesus, learning at his feet, she may not have qualified as having witnessed the baptism.

What of Jesus’ brothers, in particular James and Jude. There had been a time that they were very sceptical about Jesus’ claims as he went around preaching a different gospel. From within what would have been a devout Jewish family, this would have jarred with their beliefs about the Messiah, but we now realise that they had subsequently become believers with their presence among the group. In fact, James would go on to have a prominent role within the Jerusalem church and both would have books included in New Testament.

The decision then wasn’t to be taken directly by the apostles but handed over to God in prayer for them to then go on to cast lots, almost a game of chance, but a traditional Jewish way for making decisions, between two of the men who met the qualification, Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias.

The holy dozen was therefore restored.

What about the one though who had not been chosen, who essentially came fourth? What was his reaction? Well, he could have had a silent hissy fit and feeling rejected left the group in a huff or been angry with the leaders.   

He might even have been angry with God. After all, it was God that had had a hand in this selection, as they had prayed, therefore it was God who decided to not pick Barsabbas. It’s one thing for a person to tell you ‘No,’ but for God to say ‘no’?

 Yet we don’t hear of him having any of these negative responses. We see no indication that he reacted with disappointment, because we don’t hear anything about him after this. However, Christian tradition being what it is, he was believed to be one of the seventy disciples sent out by Jesus in Luke’s gospel to the cities he was to visit and is possible that we do see that he stuck around and continued to make God his priority and focus, as with his plethora of names, he could be Judas called Barsabbas, who was chosen to be part of an important delegation sent to Antioch from the apostles and elders of the church.

And as for Matthias? Not another peep in the whole of the New Testament, but again Christian tradition suggests that he did fulfil his apostolic role, by taking the gospel to Aethiopia, not at that time the Ethiopia of the North African continent, but in a region called Colchis in modern day Georgia in Eastern Europe, where he was crucified.

What then does all of this tell us about being disciples and apostles in today’s world, because that is what we are called to be, students of Christ to be sent out as messengers to share that knowledge. How many of us will be remembered in the annals of Christian history? Not many of us I would say.

But we still undertake those roles, knowing that God is always with us. We know that prayer opens the door to a closer relationship with him and that anyone can be called by God, at any time, to further his kingdom and share his message, and also know that God will lead the conversation.

And if God can call us to serve him at any moment of life, then we are never too old or too young to share his love with others. We may be aware that God often chooses the weak and the humble to serve, but that he always equips those whom he calls.

We may not be famous, or need to be placed on a pedestal when we share his Word, because we know that the glory goes to him, not us, but that we are blessed and loved in doing so.

Put very simply, sharing the love of Christ and the message of God comes through our words and actions. It is these things that will be remembered long after we are gone.

Amen

When Heaven Touches Earth

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Sermon preached at Midnight Mass based on Isaiah 9:2-3, 6-7 and Luke 2: 1-14 .

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

‘It came upon the midnight clear’… ‘that glorious song of old, from angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold.’ The beginning of a poem by Edward Sears and tonight we are celebrating those angels bringing heaven to touch earth. Regretfully, we are not singing the carol of the same name this evening, but if you want to look at the words then you can find them as number 14 in your carol sheets [See full lyrics at end].

It’s 11:50, only a few more minutes and it will be midnight, and once again we will remember the baby born in a manger, over two thousand years ago. A baby born into a land where its people were subjugated to Roman rule; a people who were waiting for the long-expected Messiah, a people who for hundreds of years had only heard the silence of God’s voice in the darkness.

Now those same peoples were listening to the song of the angels and the glow escaping from a crack in the stable door would soon grow to be a blaze of light, flooding the people and nations with a new sense of God’s purpose – love.

Love was indeed the message that God wished to share with the world. A love so deep and so strong for his creation, that he emptied himself and came in flesh and was to live among us.

The hundreds of years of people turning away, of following their own ways would surely now end. Here in amongst them was the Christ child, God in person living with his people, experiencing their joys and their gladness, their pain and their suffering, and he would show them that there was a different way to live, that gave them the freedom they craved, a revolution that didn’t have to lead to their blood being shed, an eternity of peace for the whole world.

How then to get this radical new way of living underway. Announce the arrival of a new king to the rulers and leaders, those in authority who had the most influence, who could make things happen by decrees, and had the greatest communications network? That would indeed light a fuse to set ablaze the old way of doing things, but it would also meet the most opposition for those who felt threatened that their own power was under attack.

The fact is the smallest of lights shines brightest in the darkness and this was to begin as a grass roots revolution. In the dark of night Jesus was born and God knew exactly whom he needed to tell. Those whose position in society was not revered, ordinary people, doing an ordinary job, which some considered made them outcasts because after all who wants to associate with a ragbag bunch of smelly shepherds.

Yet on the hillsides of Bethlehem he sent his messengers, a heavenly host of angels, radiating the glory of God and singing of God’s love. The shepherds were not to be fearful, but to be filled with great joy – their Saviour was born and they were to go and find him in the most unlikely of places, so that they could testify what they had seen and heard to his family.

But most importantly, that they could return to their work, ‘glorifying and praising God’ as Luke tells us in the next part of his gospel. I often wonder what impact the shepherd’s story would have had when they told others about what had happened. Did they meet with total disbelief or did some hold that hope in their hearts that things would be different now?

The fact is we don’t really know much more about the baby that was to grow into a man and be revealed to the world in his epiphany moments. The hope that was revealed on that hillside would be raised again in a man who had grown up within an ordinary household, learned what it meant to be part of an ordinary family, with all of its trials and tribulations, learnt a trade, prepared to begin his mission of reuniting all peoples with God.

Surely, his authority would be established and his role as a peacekeeper would bring about this revolution of love… but humans are fickle and resistant to being told to submit to a greater power than themselves.

When Edward Sears wrote his poem in 1849, he was suffering from a spell of personal melancholy, living in Massachusetts, it seemed that the world had once more sunk to an all time low, with news of widespread social and political revolutions. Called the Springtime of the Peoples, some fifty countries in Europe had been affected by these uprisings including France, Prussia and Austria.

Class differentiation fuelled the realisation that the world was not a place where all were equal. For workers who had no choice but to spend half of their income on food, which consisted mostly of bread and potatoes, the failure of several harvests and widespread potato blight triggered mass starvation, migration, and civil unrest, most keenly felt in Ireland.

Hence, the ‘babel sounds’ and ‘the woes of sin and strife’ were enough to drown out the ‘heav’nly music. Yet still God’s messengers to the world came, ‘with peaceful wings unfurled.’ That was just one moment in human history, but how many others both before and after have blocked out God’s love song to his people.

We can all think of times within our own lifetimes when the wars and conflicts of ‘men of strife’ have pushed us to block our ears to hearing the message of the angels of ‘peace on earth’.

This very night there are those who will be trying to find the Christ child among the rubble and razor wire, as Christians in Manger Square in Bethlehem hold muted celebrations. Instead of a hay-filled manger their baby Jesus has been wrapped in a black and white keffiyeh and lies among broken breeze blocks and paving slabs.

Surely now is the time that we look beyond factions and cliques, beyond race and religion, beyond political power and military strength, beyond gender discrimination and racial hatred. These ‘crushing loads’ are not what life should be about. That is not the song that the angels sing.

Each of us has an opportunity to show God’s love to every single person that comes in contact with us. To share the Good News, and hope that they too will hear the song in our words and our actions and go and share it with others.

We too are the people walking in darkness, but we have also seen a great light. The light is shining all around us this Christmas Day and it is a light that will never be extinguished.

So let us rejoice together, and hear the angels sing, ‘for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, authority rests upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’

Amen

It Came Upon The Midnight Clear by Edward Sear

It came upon the midnight clear,
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth
to touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
from heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
to hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come
with peaceful wings unfurled,
and still their heavenly music floats
o’er all the weary world;
above its sad and lowly plains,
they bend on hovering wing,
and ever o’er its Babel sounds
the blessed angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long,
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring—
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way
with painful steps and slow,
look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
and hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hastening on,
by prophet seen of old,
when with the ever-circling years
shall come the time foretold
when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendours fling,
and the whole world send back the song
which now the angels sing.

God’s Time Is In The Waiting

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Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent based on 2 Peter 3:8-15a and Mark 1:1-8

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

I hate waiting… I’m a completer / finisher and if something needs completing or finishing why wait around. Get on and do it straight away. Soonest done, soonest mended, soonest you can move on to the next thing. Yet haste is not always on the side accomplishing the best results. Yes, it creates a sense of achieving a lot in as little time as possible, but it’s also possible that things get missed, that plans change, that you have to go back and do it all again!

It’s taken me a long time to realise that time is not something to be got through as quickly as possible. Time is a precious commodity and the freedom of youth and endless days of pleasure give way to a sense of time passing too quickly towards its ultimate conclusion.

A recent spell of three hours in the waiting area of the Royal South Hants walk-in a few weeks ago, actually got me sitting and contemplating the nature of waiting. Situations such as this throw together a group of people each with different needs and attitudes, and I found myself noticing that the medical staff had perfected a list of priorities which was sensible and fair, however much everyone looked up each time hoping they were the next to be called through. The possible broken limbs, the youngest children, those who might be in immediate need of treatment to prevent further deterioration, and those who knew it wasn’t a matter of life and death but would really like some relief from their present condition.

The trouble with time is that it is a human concept, to be regulated and measured, and for those who believe a literal understanding of the beginning of time as described in the Genesis narrative it can seem that God ordained the hours, the days and the weeks to give us the rhythm of nature and seasons to measure our earthly existence.

It’s an interesting conundrum, and one which I recently spent discussing with some 8-year-olds at school the other day. I have to say that these are some of the best moments in my work as a school chaplain, when children divert me away from discussing how they might present a bible story in their Child-Led Collective Worship and morph into pondering the bigger questions in life. From annunciation to childbirth to creation in the space of two questions. From the miracle of Jesus’ conception to the lack of stories of his childhood to the question of how Adam and Eve’s son’s managed to find wives. Then back to the key question, but who created the creator and did he really do it all in six days.

Of course, the best way to answer these questions is to deflect it back to the questioner… What do you think? No, it’s not a get out clause, but it gives a chance for them to express what they might be thinking but not quite wanting to suggest in case it’s the worst answer ever and Reverend Linda will scoff at their ignorance and everyone else will laugh. To be honest you don’t get that sense of reticence with 8-year-olds, and they are actually very respectful and will listen to each other.

So, the response that God would have done it in God’s time and if he could create two people why could he not have gone on to create a few more. Nevertheless, it was the first statement that I heard so confidently expressed, and here this morning we hear the same point being made from the pen of St Peter, ‘do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and thousand years are like one day.’

 Peter is noting that the completion of God’s plan for his creation should not be something we are concerned about on a human timeline, but how we spend that waiting time, so that when and if it should happen in our lifetime, we could stand before God with a clear conscious that we had striven for all that is demanded of us as followers of Christ.

The fact is God’s plan has never been set to a particular timescale. He has been one of those draughtspeople who will take things back to the drawing board, recalculate and adjust depending on what is now wanted and needed.

If we look back over the Old Testament stories, we can clearly see God making these adjustments. He’d tried ripping up the original blueprint and starting again with Noah and his family, he’d given detailed plans to various architects of faith, including Abraham and Moses and he’d sent engineers into the field with instructions of what needed doing such as his prophets, Elijah and Isaiah, but it would seem that the people didn’t grasp the vision or understand what sort of kingdom he was trying to build.

It seemed that the workers had downed tools and were taking a long vacation, and God was silent… Except he wasn’t, he was busy pulling together the next part of his plan, and it would be the greatest draft yet because it needed to be absolutely right, and it needed to be a one off. He had tried giving chance after chance, now he was doing something new, something amazing.

So, what sort of publicity campaign would he run. How many global publishers would he engage to follow up the big launch? As always God surprises us. No big fanfare, well apart from a host of angels in the middle of the night. A teenage girl, a reluctant fiancé, in a land under foreign rule, a rag-tag bunch of shepherds and a foreign diplomatic visit. An aged couple in the temple and a wild-haired man in the desert, not exactly front-page news.

But he was here, and the next part of the plan was about to begin; ‘the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’. Today we focus on that beginning as John announces that the time has come, to repent and turn back to God, because time is running out.

He speaks with urgency and recognises that he is merely the preliminary act. The messenger sent ahead to prepare the way. And Jesus was coming out of his own time of preparation, not just a mere 40 days in the desert, but thirty odd years of learning, observing, listening, and waiting and it was now his time.

For John his understanding was likely to be that this was it, this would change everything, the Messiah had come, and things would never be the same again, and of course they weren’t. However, God’s plan was still not marching in time with that of his people and we can see that some two thousand earthly years later that his plan is still being worked out.

Nonetheless, it’s sometimes hard to see amongst this world of increasing secularism and human conflict the bigger and brighter plan for us. Someone asked a question the other day as to whether we were really living in the end times at the moment, and that maybe we’d all be better off if God did bring these times to an end. It’s hard to deflect such a question because of course there is no answer to that. God’s time is not our time, so we just have to wait.

But it’s in the waiting that we can make a difference. We can still share the Good News, we can represent Christ in what we do and say, we can show people that there is always hope. However dark a tunnel is, it is just that a tunnel, a means to get from one place to another, and as we move through it there will always be that glimmer of hope and light that appears at the opening.

We have to be patient, yet active. To wait, but to do so with hope. To mark time but to make the most of it. To let God be the completer / finisher in his own time.

This Advent we wait once again to share the Good News, God is with us. Amen

There Is Always Hope

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A thought for our Remembrance Sunday Service

When all else has gone there is always hope. When we hit rock bottom, there is always hope. When we can see no light at the end of the tunnel, there is always hope. Hope is the one think that we can be assured of because very often it is the only thing that is left when we feel that all hope has gone, which seems a real contradiction.

Today we are honouring the memory of the millions of men and women who answered the call of their country to fight against evil and oppression. Who fought to liberate innocent men, women, and children, caught up in conflicts whose agendas were against human rights, racially motivated or politically expedient.

From the First World War, we hear so many poignant stories of young men, barely adults (and sometimes not even that) taking up arms, marching away from their homes and villages, dreaming of being heroes and finding themselves in what might be described as the depths of hell on the Western Front.

From the Second World War, with more sophisticated weaponry, aviators took to the skies, using their planes like the infantry had used swords and bayonets in dog fights. Flying long range missions to drop bombs on strategic targets to try and disrupt and demoralise those targeted. Until the ultimate weapon of destruction was unleashed.

From more recent conflicts, in Afghanistan and the Middle East, trying to establish basic human rights for young men and in particular young women and today we find ourselves living in a world where once more innocent children and civilians are living in fear for their lives, for their families and for the future.

Wars are designed to spread fear, to crush resistance and to demonstrate both physical and psychological power, but the one thing they can never defeat is the hope of peace and restoration.

Today men and women of all faiths and none in our armed services, answer the call to bring about peace in the face of war and terror. They are willing to sacrifice their lives, if necessary; but as Christians we have the ultimate hope through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus, that even death will not be the end.

For the Thessalonians, Paul was reassuring them that they should not be grieving deaths in their community without hope. If this life is all we have, then its end in death produces considerable grief. However, Paul says that if you believe that Jesus died and was raised (the basic Christian affirmation the Thessalonians had accepted), then you can also believe that God will raise our loved ones. Those who also believed in the death and resurrection of Christ are caught up into his eternal life.

Paul refers to Jesus’ own words, that the Son of Man will return in the clouds with the angels gathering the elect from the four corners of the earth to meet him and at this point the dead and the living will be gathered as one.

This is the hope that trumps all other hopes.

However, later this morning we will gather together to remember all those who have died in war and conflicts, those of our families and the unknown soldiers, sailors, and aviators. To honour their memory. Those long dead and those killed in more recent clashes.

We will remember that: ‘they shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.’

But above we will pray for peace to be the hope of all nations, that there will be no more killing of innocent civilians and children, that we respect the sanctity of human life because our common belief is that all life is precious to God and in him is our greatest hope.

Amen

Based on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Your God Is My God

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Continuing our Old Testament series, a talk based on Ruth 1: 1-18, 22

May I speak and may you hear, through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ruth – one of only two books of the Old Testament dedicated to the life story of a woman. So their place in the Jewish faith must warrant special consideration. Mild, obedient, and virtuous; or free-thinking, feisty and highly respected for their own worth? As always, their characters are a mixture of both. Bound by their culture, limited by circumstance, yet determined to make a distinct mark on history.

Culturally, Ruth was a Moabite; a point made clear in the opening verses, part of a group of West Semitic people who lived in the highlands east of the Dead Sea. The land of Moab had been established by its namesake, Moab the son of Lot and a nephew of Abraham. But his parentage was ill-desired being born of an incestuous relationship between his father and Lot’s daughters and God was not best pleased by this or their worship of foreign gods. Hence there was a history of condoned conflict between the Moabites and Israelites.

Yet our story begins with a family seeking respite from a time of famine in the land that last week we heard described as a land flowing with milk and honey, and a promise that God would be with them against anything they would face. The land though was under the control of the Judges. A people, who had trusted God to get them through the wilderness were now a people loosely connected within a judiciary system, but also a period when ‘everyone did what was right in their own eyes.’

Everyone did what was right in their own eyes
Judges 17:6

A lack of trust in God and sense of thinking that he knew best finds Elimelech uprooting his family and taking them to live in this neighbouring country, where they integrated themselves further after his death by his son taking Moabite wives. But this land, where the grass had seemed to be greener was about to become a place where three women were left in a place of real vulnerability.

Perhaps at this point though we should consider the thought of what it means to continue to place your trust in God in the difficult times. What it might have looked like if they had stayed in Bethlehem? What it means for us to trust God when our head and our heart are telling us different things, because as we will realise later, the move to Moab may have been hasty.

However, back to the situation in Moab. Three women widowed in a society that provided rules for what should happen to them – in fact it was a God given command to care for the widow and the orphan, and the consequences for not doing so were to incur God’s anger as expressed in Exodus (22:23-24), ‘If you do mistreat them, I will heed their cry out to me and my anger shall blaze forth.’

On a practical level, Naomi had some protection through her marriage – as when she had married Elimelech she became part of her husband’s household, and now without sons – who would have taken on this duty of care – she came under the protection of her former husband’s male relatives. Where did that leave her two daughter-in-laws though? In theory they could have married another of Naomi’s sons, which Naomi points out is likely to be a physical impossibility, and she is certain that the decisions made by her dead husband have brought about a loss of God’s blessing.

In addition, whilst she is returning to her own culture, the younger women would be abandoning their own. Hence Orpah decided to stay in Moab and return to her family. Ruth, however, sees an opportunity for a new and different life. Her genuine love and respect for Naomi is passionately declared, ‘where you go, I will go… Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.’

For Ruth, this meant forsaking her homeland to help provide for Naomi with no guarantee of security for herself. Ruth expressed her loyalty to Naomi in a solemn vow, calling judgment upon herself if she ever left her. More tellingly though, Ruth made a commitment to follow Naomi’s God as well. She would abandon the gods of Moab, and Ruth and Naomi would both be committed to the one true God of Israel. Significantly, when Ruth said, ‘May the Lord do thus and so to me… if even death parts me from you’ she uses the covenant name Yahweh, which convinces Naomi that Ruth was serious.

The story of Ruth and Naomi shows what true loyalty is like, but in addition to loyalty, Ruth exhibited respect, love, friendship, and humility. Just as she chose loyalty to Naomi and to Naomi’s God, it shows us how we should choose loyalty to God and to his people over any commitment to the world. To trust rather than to worry, as Jesus tells us in Matthew’s gospel (6:33), ‘but strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well…’

Our thoughts can be deceptive, often strong and confusing, but we can always come to God and ask him for wisdom and insight whenever we need it. In the meantime, hang in there, and trust that he does know where he’s going and where he’s leading us! For Ruth, though, the risks were great and there were many unknowns, but like Jesus’ friend Mary, Ruth had chosen the most important thing. Her mind was made up, because she knew the person she was following, just as we can know the person of Jesus.

In Bethlehem, the harvest had begun, and Ruth’s loyalty was followed by the provision of many blessings. She was to remarry, to a man she truly loved and would give birth to a son named Obed, who would be the grandfather of King David, and provide a direct lineage to Jesus himself.

‘I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go.’
Song of Solomon 3:4

Despite Ruth’s non-Jewish, outsider status, God worked through her life to change the history of the world. In Song of Solomon, the bride, representing us, God’s beloved, clings to her bridegroom, ‘I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go.’ So, hold on tight, everyone, and don’t let go. The road ahead may be difficult, but there’s a great future to look forward to. Amen.

God’s Promises

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Part of an Old Testament series working our way through the key figures and stories, in which Abram looms large. Based on Genesis 15:1-6

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’

A promised reward, a question of lineage, a vision of progeny, a silent indication of trust and a recognition of righteousness. In these six short verses lie the nub of the three great Abrahamic faiths. To date adherents of these number some 3.8 billion people in all the corners of the world, of which we are but a few. However, we first need to go back almost to the beginning, to understand why this one man would be so important both to God and to ourselves.

Our Old Testament reading begins with us needing to know after what things ‘the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision’. Here is a man with an impeccable lineage, whose eight times Grandfather was Shem, the son of Noah. His father, Terah, had set out with their family from Northern Mesopotamia to travel to the land of Canaan, what would become the promised land of Moses and the Israelites, but only got a far as Haran in Eastern Turkey.

However, God called Abram to leave behind his kindred and strike out once more towards Canaan, with the promise that ‘I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing’ (Genesis 12:2). Having reached Canaan, the question of progeny is affirmed, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ However, Abram and his wife Sarai remain childless, and a famine forces them into Egypt, where Abram’s sense of self-preservation allows him to use Sarai as a bargaining pawn with Pharoah. Deceit uncovered, they are sent out of Egypt, where the now wealthy and prosperous Abram is once more travelling, and whose destination of the land of Canaan is literally decided by Lot.

God again gives an insight into the breath and length of Abram’s future prolificacy, ‘I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted’ (Genesis 13:16). Yet, Abram and Sarai remain childless, blessed only with the offer of more riches and accolades by the King of Sodom, which Abram rejects, but receiving the blessing of the high priest Melchizedek. Now God offers Abram a vision, not only has he acted a shield and protector of him, but his ‘reward shall be very great’. For Abram though, there is only one reward that will do – an heir, a natural heir of his own.

Being childless can be a painful and heartbreaking process to go through. As human beings we inherently desire to reproduce, to leave a small part of our DNA embedded in our children and children’s children. Abram’s deepest desire to produce offspring allows him the tenacity to question all the promises God has already made to him.

God’s blessing though is not just to produce a physical miracle. The body can be a frail and vulnerable organism, but the divine Spirit is vital and lifegiving. Having promised an incalculable number of descendants comparative to particle of the dust of the earth, he now get’s Abram to look heavenward towards the stars.

For us looking up at night we can not imagine the vastness of the that promise, with our few pinpricks of light moving across the sky, but for Abram in a land where light pollution doesn’t exist, the stars almost smother the darkness.

Yet none of this would have meant anything without Abram’s unshakeable faith that God would deliver. The enormous compassion of God in responding to what Abram desperately wants is only matched by Abram’s trust that God will deliver it. God sees his trust and ‘reckoned it to him as righteousness’ (Genesis 15:6). 

This willingness on the part of God to accept our trust in him as the equivalent of actual goodness is an abiding characteristic. We see it over and over again; ‘your faith has made you well’ to the haemorrhaging woman, the ten lepers, the blind beggar, but no more so than Jesus’ response to the penitent thief on the cross.

Here, as Paul will later refer to in Romans (4:3) and Galatians (3;6), is the first instance of justification by faith. Faith here is not based on the performance of good deeds or religious devotion – although they may be important ways of expressing our faith. Rather that faith is trusting God’s promises and acting as if it will be fulfilled. Throughout the bible God makes many promises – specifically in the New Testament, Jesus promises that he will be with us always and ‘whoever lives and believes in me shall never die’. For us, genuine faith holds on to those promises whatever life throws at us and acts accordingly believing them to be true.

At Abram’s calling God tells him that ‘all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ because of him. Whatever, your description of family covers, a brother, a sister, a mother or father, adopted or fostered, church or community, you are blessed to be a part of it, and by placing our trust in God, we too can be a blessing to others, for he always keeps his promises.

The 200 billion trillion stars in the universe testify to the magnitude of his greatness, our faith in him testifies to our willingness to always look upwards and outwards and be beacons of hope in this world.

Amen

Letting Go

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Talk based on John 17:11-19

I wonder how many of you, if you’ve ever been a parent, or have trained someone in an apprenticeship or simply have given some instructions and then had to leave someone to carry them out without supervision. Then we come a point that we all have to let someone go in order for them to flourish on their own. It can cause much heartache and a lot of prayer that they will remember everything you have taught them.

I can remember both of my girls leaving home and the feeling of helplessness that I wouldn’t be there to step in and protect them if they came up against some adversity, and over the years, like everyone I suspect, from time to time things have not always gone smoothly. but I have prayed to God that he would be there with them, and sure enough whether the outcome was what I would have wanted or not, he seems to have answered my prayers.

Of course, I haven’t had to face those times of feeling powerless to act alone, and reaching out for prayer from others and sharing my concerns has helped me see what is happening a little clearer and gain greater understanding that a mother cannot always make things better with a hug and a magic kiss – although it works with my grandchildren… but that prayer can be the most valuable thing I can do.

In today’s gospel, Jesus’ prayer for his disciples continues from that we heard on Sunday, and like a lot of John’s gospel it is full of theological toing and froing around the topic – but at its heart it is telling us that Jesus will be letting go of his earthly protection of the disciples and it handing them into the care of the Father. He has taught them how to live by God’s Word and has warned them of the dangers they will face as his followers in their lives on earth. He knows that this will set them at odds with a lot of people. He needs them now to take up the reins of his ministry and start to do things for themselves, however hard that might be to start with.

So how good a job did they do on their own?

For nearly 2000 years the Word of God has been lived by millions of people, from that small group of Jews become Christians to worldwide mission and founding principles of many democracies. Not everyone has agreed that it is linked to a higher power than that on earth. Its radical idea of living in a loving community, of showing vulnerability and forgiveness has caused many to decry its power. For the disciples themselves, not many lived to see old age but became matyrs. However, they remained true to their mission and set an example for others to follow. And follow they did, which is probably one of the reasons that we are here today.

How often though do we feel like giving up on this difficult world of ours, so resistant to the gospel and its values; when we look at our divided world, where not even those who believe in Christ are united. Yet Jesus, who is fully aware that we share his same lot of being hated by the world, does not ask the Father to remove us from the world, but to protect us, as we do our best to carry out our mission, and we must continue to pray for healing and the overcoming of division. For the disciples and for us, we shouldn’t ask to be taken out of the world with all its messiness. This is where we belong until the time comes for us to follow Jesus to the place he was going to. We can face all of the risks and the struggle that it sometimes is for survival because we can be assured of God’s protection.

Jesus tell us that we too are being ‘sent’ in his name to continue his mission. Our mission as his followers is in the midst of and in the depths of the world. He wants his love and message inserted in the centre of the world, the city, the neighbourhood. In following him in mission and love, we are ourselves blessed. Jesus’ love for the disciples didn’t fade because he wasn’t with them any longer, it endures eternally. When he asks God to protect and guide them this is a request that includes all those that have come after and are going forward today

The reality of the risen Christ is that, from now on, nothing and no one will ever be able to separate us from his love and the same is true for those we love. Parents and guardians spend their best years guiding children in life and in faith. Then there is a gradual letting go as they grow into adulthood.

Like Jesus we should pray for those who move beyond our active care. This morning, at this very moment, my daughter Ruth is in hospital undergoing a planned C-Section operation for the early arrival of my latest grandchild. She is beyond my physical reach, but I am praying for her and the doctors and nurses, for their skills and protection. But most of all I have placed them in God’s hands, because the Father’s arms are a safe place for them and for us.

Amen

In-Dwelling of the Trinity

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Worship The Holy Spirit by Lance Brown

Talk given on Easter 5 based on John 14:1-14

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me’.

We are being taken back to the Last Supper with Jesus still very much alive in the flesh. He has washed his disciples’ feet, foretold his betrayal and revealed it to be Judas Iscariot now in the thralls of Satan, given the remaining disciples a new commandment to love one another and foretold Peter’s denial of ever knowing him, but with a hint that eventually all will be well.

No wonder their hearts are troubled, events are moving so quickly and their emotions are about to be tested to the limit…and they don’t have the gift of hindsight. However, we do.

He tells them that he is going on ahead of them to prepare a place for them all be together again, and that they already know this place. This can be one of the most comforting and hope filled passages that is regularly used in funeral services.

Even so, I’ve often been puzzled, imagining what sort of place it would be. ‘In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places’. The original Greek word μοναί (monai) in the Kings James Bible was translated as mansion meaning dwelling place, from mansio, not as in modern usage a manor-house or palace. But μοναί literally means places to stay, to abide, to dwell, i.e. the rooms within a house.

But do our minds conjure up those pale pink sun-soaked Moorish Mediterranean palaces or the stark white of the infinite Matrix rooms? Or perhaps a replica of our favourite cosy living rooms? Perhaps we’re being too earthbound in our imaginations.

The fact is, unlike the disciples at that point, we do know the way to go; through Jesus himself, ‘ the way, the truth and the life.’ But are we like Thomas and Philip, still in the dark about what is happening? I would say we are – to a greater extent – unsure as to what the literal and physical outcome will actually turn out to be and I can live with that. It’s more about what it means for us here and now.

In fact it might not just be about a physical dwelling but an in-dwelling. Jesus will soon be ascending back to the Father and as yet unknown to the disciples, Pentecost looms, when each will be filled with the Holy Spirit and also those who believe in Jesus.

Immediately after our passage today, Jesus reveals that the Father will send the Holy Spirit ‘in my name’, who will be known to you because he abides in you (another form of the verb meno – to dwell or remain in) and suddenly the close interpersonal relationship of the Holy Trinity suddenly becomes a little clearer.

I say clearer, but as always for John it does become highly metaphorical and he uses the verb meno in many of its forms to mean a spiritual abiding. Perhaps we can think of it like this – if something or someone abides in someone, then that person is motivated by what abides in them and are dependent upon it or them. God the Father is spirit and invisible, yet he has shown himself in various ways, his most authentic presence of himself being in Jesus. ‘If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

We also know that Jesus is his own human person, the son of God; and he is on the same page as the Father in all things, having the same nature of love and outgoing concern, not inward focused and prideful, and he has his own will.

However, all of Jesus’ provisions and needs are from the Father. ‘The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works’. But as John revealed at the very opening of his gospel, Jesus IS the very WORD, the intent, the purpose, the reason, the wisdom of God in the form of flesh.

Providing His spirit at Jesus’ baptism, filling him with this essential connection with the Father, gave Jesus the words, the attitude, the wisdom, the miracles and through consistent prayer, the will to accomplish his mission to get to the cross.

 ‘Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father’ and ‘If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it’. This is Jesus offering us exactly the same encouragement, support and ability through the provision of the Holy Spirit, as we try to continue his works here on earth.

All comes from God for us, just as it did for Jesus. Jesus had the Father dwelling in him – just as he and God dwell in us through God’s Spirit. We simply have to choose to accept his presence in us and allow our nature to be aligned with His.

Then and only then will we know the way to go

Amen

Walking the Emmaus Road

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Sermon preached on Easter 3 2023 based on Luke 24:13-35

May I speak and may you hear through the Grace of our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

May I speak and may you hear… sounds like a one-sided conversation to me, and I guess that’s what a sermon is. But it shouldn’t be just so. A sermon or talk should help interpret the words of scripture that have been selected as the day’s topic and bring it to life, using historical facts, contextual references and theological reasoning, so that it can be applied to people’s lives for today.

For some people listening they will find themselves pondering over a word or phrase that they heard at the beginning, such as the fact that Emmaus is about seven miles from Jerusalem and they were having to walk there, on dusty roads, in the hot sun, in sandals, over rocky ground… meanwhile the talk has moved on and they end up having to try and catch up with the main thread.

Whilst others will take on board the key points, weaving them into a coherent thought stream of consciousness. Hopefully, by the end of the talk, the listener will understand a little clearer what the message is within the text and the talk’s climax will reveal something to provide them with something to take away and share with others.

So, let’s see if together we can’t work out what we should be having a conversation about this morning, what questions we have, our ideas and thoughts and the possible and impossible answers we could come to, to help us leave a little bit more aware of what it might mean for us and for others.

We are imagining ourselves back to that fateful Friday. We have witnessed or heard that Jesus has been crucified, his dead body taken down and his body placed inside a sealed tomb. The joy of his arrival in Jerusalem and promise of change now dashed aside. We have spent a mournful Sabbath, wondering how so many people can have been so naive to have staked everything on one man – a man whom God has cast aside just like all of his prophets had been cast aside before.

And here we all are, walking that same road, with our thoughts and questions, our experiences of life, our hopes and dreams, wondering if we can believe all the things that have been told to us. Feeling foolish from time to time to admit that we believe something that we can never prove with incontrovertible evidence.

Therefore, we share our thoughts and alongside us comes a stranger, who wants to know what we are talking about; and we are saddened that here is someone who hasn’t heard about this man, but who appears willing to listen to us. So, we tell of this incredible Jesus of Nazareth, who seemed to have the voice of God and power that brought physical and mental healing and was able to do such things that would appear miraculous for just a man. A man who could have saved us and forever redeemed Israel before God.

A stranger who might appear in our very midst at any time, who wants to know what it is we believe in, what knowledge do we have that makes such a difference to the way we live, how we treat people, who we love and what we hope for.

And this morning reports of an empty tomb, a missing body and angelic visions speaking of resurrection! But we’re not afraid to reveal the fact that something amazing, incomprehensible, and downright impossible seems to have happened. People whom we have got to know really well and grown to trust have been telling us that Jesus is actually alive.

So, what do we tell our stranger this morning? Tales or legends, mythological stories and fables or the truth?

Truth that has been revealed from the beginning of time, through generations of people who lived as God’s people, who knew him and those whom he sent to guide them. God, who stood by them as they turned away and then welcomed them back with open arms. Who taught them to live according to his word, and whose Word appeared in the form of his Son, the promised Messiah. Whose life would be offered up, to suffer on the cross and whose resurrection would reveal the Saviour of the world.

The evidence is there for us to share as well. For those two disciples it was revealed in the breaking of the bread at a meal they invited the stranger to share. For us it could be through our hospitality, our outreach, our pastoral concerns, our love of God and our love of each other, both friend and stranger.

Eager to do so, we hurry to tell our own experiences to others and find that some of them have already heard the Good News. But there are still many more who haven’t, so we share our experiences, why our belief in God in making a difference in our lives and how the same could be true for them.

Our one-sided conversations has become a two-way discussion, and if our words can ignite a flame that burns brightly in other’s hearts then we will know that Jesus has been alongside us all the time, even if we have never seen him… until we break bread together.

Amen

Where Were You?

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When they ask, ‘Where were you the day that Jesus died?’ What am I going to tell them?

That I was standing at the foot of the cross, comforting his mother? That I was berating the authorities and telling them what a mistake they were making? Or that I was locked in a room in full self-preservation mode?

What have these last three years taught me, if not to take chances, to shake a soft fist at those who misuse their transient powers and to trust that God has everything in hand. But now the man, who was showing us a new way of living, who was a true teacher of what it means to love God and to love one another; the man whom I was proud to declare as ‘the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ My closest and most dearest friend, has gone, and perhaps with it all of our hopes and dreams.

Yes, there were signs and warnings, he’d tried to prepare us, but perhaps we were too slow or too dull to really understand what he was talking about. Why would he look at me, Simon, son of Jonah, simply a fisherman and see someone who would be a rock on which to build anything, let alone his church.

How could he trust me to do such a thing, when I couldn’t even trust in him, even though he showed me time after time that I should. That it was possible to step out of my comfort zone and achieve the impossible. How confident I had felt when he told me to do just that and step out of the boat onto those foam flecked waves, eyes set firmly on him, able to walk as he walked. Until my trust wavered and was replaced by this same fear. Even then he caught me, but who will be there now to catch me when I fail, as fail I surely will without him.

So many incredible things that I’ve witnessed, the things we couldn’t explain, miracle after miracle, yet he couldn’t have done any of them if he wasn’t truly God’s Son. Not only satisfying people’s bodies with such meagre portions, the five loaves and two fishes, but curing their ailments, restoring their dignity, giving them another chance in life.

And those whom he literally did give them another chance to live, raising the widow’s son and Jairus’ daughter, and his dear friend Lazarus. I remember Martha, so annoyed that we were delayed, yet still hoping for the impossible, and sweet Mary, whose tears moved him and all us to tears. His breathing life back into them all to show God’s glory, but where is His glory now?

So many people whose lives have been turned around simply because they believed in him. A man who broke the rules to show us what was really important and all I could do at the end was to deny I even knew him. Such shame I will carry deep in my heart all the days that I have left to me.

Indeed, this weight of sorrow bears me down, yet it is nothing compared to the agony he must have suffered. John, with the assurance of youth, was brave enough to be with him at the last and has told us of the cruel way that they treated him. His head already bleeding from the crudely fashioned crown of thorns, they made him carry is own cross, the sheer weight of it too much, that it caused him to stumble and a complete stranger from the coastal town of Cyrene was made to help him. How ironic that it was my namesake that did what I should have been brave enough to do.

And then the taunts and jeers; the deep sorrow of the women and the unconscionable behaviour of the guards, gambling for his clothes. Yet, all who witnessed it to the very end say that his thoughts were for others, asking that they be forgiven, with his talk of paradise and concern for others future well-being.

This human life, so precious to us, that we cling to it as if there is nothing else that matters, yet His has been taken away. Did he feel that he had been abandoned? Forsaken, by his friends, by God himself? Even the one who betrayed us all, Judas, is dead. His heart and mind so full of despair and darkness that he couldn’t bear what he had done.

And when the end came, the sheer dark void of the moment, the world plunged into night as the light of the world was extinguished by those whose power is fickle and fleeting. Surely, theirs is not to be the triumph.

As he died, so the earth trembled and shook so hard that it tore not only the temple curtain in two, but each of our hearts. We will wait until it settles again and use the tools he has given us to try and tell the world what he lived to show us. That we must turn once more to God, to trust in his goodness and mercy and live lives that reflect his love for us, for each other and for Him.  

His body is now sealed in the cold of the tomb and no doubt the women will honour it once the Sabbath is over. But our greatest gift will be to keep his memory alive. For there can be no more talk of abandonment. Our work is just beginning.

When they ask, ‘Where were you the day that Jesus died?’ What am I going to tell them?

Amen