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The scheme for July and August can be found here

Prov 17-19; Matt 16; Psalm 80

In so many ways the gospel is distorted.

When we make it in any sense a message about ourselves, we so distort it. The gospel is in the end about the Glory of God – and for those who love God with all they have and all they are, this is Good News.

Jesus makes this plain – ‘It’s not about you!’

For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?

Again we distort it if we make it an internal thing – that nothing is demanded of us.

Listen to the words of Jesus

 ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.’

The scheme for July and August can be found here

Prov 15-16; Matt 15; Psalm 79

All too often the Pharisees reveal to us what we are. There desire to preserve the purity of Israel, a kingdom constantly under threat, means that they shut the door on so many with whom Jesus associates. We can I am sure think of many contemporary instances where desire to preserve that which we have excludes the other, from the personal to the national level.

Here it is there traditions. Of course we must be careful here. There are those who are against ‘traditions’ in the church, failing to recognise that ‘Love of neighbour’ is very much our tradition, as is observance of the Eucharist. There are traditions which are doors held open to Life, and then there are those that close the door to Life.

We have been thinking much about obedience to Christ these past weeks. We may I suggest see many readings of the gospel as ‘traditions designed to avoid concrete obedience to the will of God’. This is precisely what is going on here. The Pharisees have as it were added to the Law, but in so doing have negated it. To avoid the concrete call from God to honour father and mother – they create a ‘tradition’, a gospel if you like – which acts as a way out.

The scheme for July and August can be found here

Prov 12-14; Matt 14; Psalm 78 vs 32-end

Throughout Matthew there are examples of the life of the Beatitudes. Here in Chapter 14 we find the life of those who are persecuted for the sake of Righteousness. John the Baptist speaks truth to power and Herod has him jailed and then executed.

Thus he is numbered amongst those ‘prophets of old’ – making even more plain, ’twere it necessary – that he is that Elijah which is to come to prepare the way of the Lord.

The Way of Jesus is now more starkly revealed than ever. Upon hearing the news of the death of John he retires to a quiet place. But still the crowds come. Here in the most dramatic of all his Signs, as Moses had fed the multitude in Sinai, So the living bread from heaven is revealed amongst the children of Israel. The Disciples as the incipient new Israel are commanded out to be Light – to give them something to eat.

Yet still they doubt – this of course will be a common theme in Matthew to the end.

23-Jun-13-7pm

Link to talk

Sermon for Sunday June 30th 2013 – Six after Pentecost, Ordinary 13, Year C

Luke 9:51-62

One Thing

‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’

There is need of only one thing. I’d like to begin with a story which I now will be familiar to one or two of you. It was told by the Christian writer, Rob Bell, and concerns a day he spent with his family on the beach.
As small children like to do, his sons had been collecting piles of lovely shells and had quite a handful, when one spotted a Treasure. There, a few yards out on the sea, bobbed a HUGE starfish! And so his son, screaming with delight ran into the waves towards it, but before he’d gone any distance he turned and ran back. Thinking he lacked a little courage to go that far into the water, his family yelled their encouragement – Go on! You can do it! Get your starfish! So he ran back in and went a little further, but turned back once more. Again, his family encouraged him – Go On! You can get it! So he ran back to the shore. A third time he ran, even further this time, but again returned – anguish written all over his face. And his family once more said, Go get your starfish, and he cried back at them “I can’t!”, Why they asked? “Because my hands are full of shells . . .”1

I have to admit that when I last listened to that story it triggered a deep emotional response in me. I connected to that sense of dearly wanting something, but being unable to take hold of it, because my hands were full.
Of course we know the familiar story from the gospels all about those ‘shells’. The rich young ruler comes to Jesus ad asks “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”, and Jesus tells him, put down all your shells, and follow me. The Danish Christian Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote a book entitled “Purity of heart, is to will the one thing” An exposition of the Beatitude, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’. Singleness of eye, of purpose, of living. Put down your shells and follow me

Last week we thought about the Gospel and how the Gospel Is Jesus Christ. Last Sunday evening in a fairly off the cuff talk I explored how that is true with regard to the whole of Creation. How Jesus Christ Is the gospel for the whole created order. Thus if we are to inherit eternal life, then our life must be with him – indeed He is the Treasure.

Today in our gospel we hear of the focus of Jesus, the one who lives to and lives from doing the will of the Father. This is his life and his sustenance. The bread from heaven is to do the will of the Father. And we see this clearly.

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Jesus’ mission is coming to focus. He has always known for what he came, but now that begins to be revealed to those with eyes to see. ‘He set his face to go to Jerusalem’. There are two significant Old Testament echoes here, or rather this is clearly prefigured twice in the prophets. Firstly in Ezekiel Chapter 212, in all likelihood the key allusion, we read ‘Son of man, set your face towards Jerusalem and prophecy against her sanctuaries.’, Secondly in the Servant songs of Isaiah, in chapter 50 we read,

The Lord God helps me;
   therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
   and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
   he who vindicates me is near.

The direction of Jesus life known in his heart, now becomes visible in his life. His face is set to go to Jerusalem, like flint. He will not be distracted from the work the Lord has given to him. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. When Jesus mission becomes clear, like with Peter, people do not want to have anything to do with it. Hospitality drains away – there was no room for him in the inn, and there is no room for him in the Samaritan village

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ Are you paying attention? Have you seen how the doors close to me? You want to follow me? Do you? Perhaps he looks at this enthusiast as he might look at us – you say you are eager, but will you leave your comforts? Will you leave the warmth of your home? Will you leave all your little treasures? Will you put down your shells??

There is in Jesus an awe inspiring singleness of purpose that profoundly disturbs – He sets his face – the Samaritan village closes its doors – he walks on through – the disciples ask if like Elijah they should call down fire from heaven. But Jesus turns and rebukes them and on they go – on towards Jerusalem – on towards the cross.

As he goes he sees people, as he saw those fishermen on Galilee, he calls them ‘Follow me’ – join me, come with me, to Jerusalem. And they hear the command – they See the Treasure – but their hands are full of shells, beautiful and beguiling. There are other calls, calls which Jesus warns are Siren voices. Voices which keep us from Life. ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’

For the pious Jew, honouring Father and Mother was one of the greatest commandments. It would be unthinkable not to do this brief yet significant honour, But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ These traditions that you keep? One thing is necessary!
This interaction begins with the command to follow – it is as if Jesus is testing this individual – did you hear my command or not? If you heard my command you would know that it is life giving, in starkest contrast to a burial. If you heard my word, you would know that you shall call no-one father, for you have but one father, in heaven.

As we explored in our Lent course on the nature of the church, Jesus totally redefines ‘Family’, as he comes to create one new humanity, where all know their true identity as children not born of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. Did you hear My command? Did you hear My voice. The Voice that calls us from death to Life.

And having heard, do we like Jesus relentlessly pursue the course? Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’

I have a friend who does agricultural contracting work in Western Australia. He works on a vast ‘farm’ where he is part of a team sowing seed, in shifts, 24/7. This requires him to drive the tractor and sow seeds in the middle of the night! And to do this her requires a GPS system which guides the tractor. A few weeks ago, he got into all sorts of trouble – the GPS failed. He couldn’t sown in straight lines. He lost sight of the direction.

‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ We don’t as it were make this Christian life up – no! Christian Life is to follow Christ – keeping our eyes on him. This would be follower wants to turn back for a while – but Jesus is going on. What will he do? The Treasure that is Life in Christ is moving on.
Put another way, our hands are full of shells, the starfish is drifting further out to sea what will we do?
I remember many years ago having a conversation with a friend who was stuck on the shore watching the Starfish bobbing away. She said to me, ‘I’ve come to realise that this Christian life will cost me everything I have – I have to choose’ . . . I don’t know that she ever has done.

One thing . . . Follow me . . .

I wonder how this feels to you? I spoke at the outset of my own deep response to hearing that tale once more. It is Huge, no? 🙂

Well it would not be helpful pastorally for me to depart back to the UK, without offering some words of encouragement and hope. The gospel Is Jesus Christ. His Life is everything and his call demands everything. We have to put down our shells. He is the treasure of great price for which we sell everything

The gospel Is Jesus Christ . . . and We are his body . . . the difficulty with so much of what we might call challenging preaching is that it offers little more than a call to us individually to pull up our socks, so to speak. But, as I frequently mention, there is no such thing as an individual. All our lives are tightly bound together. The call of Jesus, demanding as it is, is heard here. In his church, in the assembly of the faithful. We are called together, to respond. We are not called to what seem to be to the individual heroic acts – rather we are to help one another so that we might follow Christ together.
In a world which values ‘Independence’, standing on our own two feet, we as the church renounce that and proclaim our interdependence, that our life is with our brothers and sisters3 – that we can only follow Christ in obedience in the context of that shared life.
So each week, we come together. Each week we hear these life giving yet totally demanding words of Jesus – Each week we need to strengthen and encourage one another in the walk. Calling back those who have turned away, finding fellowship with one another when the world does not receive Jesus, discovering the wealth of the new family that Jesus has established in his body.

The journey that lies ahead of us is to grow in that unity of life and purpose, that Christ becomes visible. When Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem, as it were Who he is becomes Visible. He is ‘the one who comes in the name of the LORD’. As we grow in fellowship with one another in His Body, so too His Light shines before others, as our Life together becomes visible, as we together set our faces towards God’s coming Kingdom

Let us let go of our shells. Together let us take up our cross and joyfully follow Jesus in the narrow way that leads to the fulness of Life in his precious name.

Amen

The scheme for May – June can be found here

2 Sa 23-24; Rev 9-10; Psalm 50

The concluding chapters of the story of David are in some regards quite perplexing. We see the LORD inciting David to count Israel – there is an echo here of his unexplained anger against Moses in Exodus 4. Of course we say it is unexplained, but Moses has doubted God, and David is a man of much blood.

So the text tells us in effect, do not take the name of the LORD your god in vain. Faith is not a game

And then the whole question of numbering? Of course in our age this seems ever so strange? What can be wrong with seeking to know the size of your forces, or the extent of your provisions??? But once more we are undone. Again we turn our back on the Living God, the one who Owns Everything. Why does what we have matter in the least?

Except of course for us, in truth it means all but everything – and it is in that ‘all but’ that our hope lies, the sign that we have not entirely turned away from God

The scheme for May – June can be found here

2 Sa 17-18; Rev 3-4; Psalm 46-47

Of all the letters the risen Christ dictates to the angels of the churches – perhaps none better suits the church of this age [sic], than that to Laodicea. In the West at least the church is decidedly comfortable.

It is interesting that Christ calls this church to account NOT because it is cold, but because it is neither hot nor cold. It is a stark reminnder that there is always more hope for moribund churches than there is for comfortable churches. The dead Can be raised – but the comfortable . . .

The scheme for May – June can be found here

1 Sa 3-5; Heb 9; Psalm 25

One of the strange gifts of the scriptures is that none of us as the people of God can be under any illusion as to how we consistently foul it up.

In the days of Eli the priest we read ‘The word of the Lord was rare in those days’. And for all people post comforting biblical verses on Facebook and the like (and note it is always such verses, not discomforting verses), we might well say, ’twas always thus’. It is hard to look at the world around us and see evidence of the live giving word of God. Certainly visions are not widespread.

So it is in this context that the child Samuel hears the voice of God – and it even takes Eli the priest three attempts before he realises that this is a long forgotten voice in the night. But this voice does not bring a word of comfort in the modern sense of the word. Yes it is a ‘comforting’ word, but only in the sense of one that strengthens – that speaks into the utterly dissolute situation and calls the prophet to strong action.

Our narrative continues with the capture of the Ark – unthinkable. But God will not be without witnesses and if the people of God will not witness to his Glory, then he will allow himself to be put in the hands of wicked men, that his glory may be revealed. And so, the Ark is placed in the presence of Dagon, the Philistine Idol – and the idol is shown to be ‘as nothing’ before the presence of the Lord.

So in an age when the word of the Lord was rare, one will come who is content to be betrayed into the hands of wicked men – to become the place of atonement (the cover of the Ark) – and thereby he ‘disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them’

The scheme for May – June can be found here

1 Sa 1-2; Heb 7-8; Psalm 23-24

Perhaps the dominant theme of the epistle to the Hebrews is that of the Priesthood of Christ, one without beginning or end, like that of Melchizedek. It is interesting that the writer reaches back in the history of GOd’s people to a time before the formal establishment of the sacrificing priesthood, to Melchizedek, one who offers bread and wine . . .

Throughout the Old Testament, there is an ongoing critique of the Aaronic priesthood – which culminates in Jesus’ conflict with the Temple authorities. It is Aaron after all, the first High priest, who causes the Israelites to sin by creating the Golden calves. Warning there surely and a Powerful one to all those of us who are involved in the leadership of the church in an age which like the city of Athens is full of Idols, many of which we worship within the church.

Throughout the Old Testament it is the prophets who lead the critique of the priestly cult and their forerunner is Samuel. And so the story of Samuel begins in the context of the sacrificing priesthood. [It is I think important to note that for all the two books of Samuel are focussed on the rise and fall of David, its roots are to be found in this critique of the sacrificing priesthood]

And so as often happens, when God seeks to raise up a faithful one, one is born beyond human hope, by the intervention of God most High, to Hannah. And so Samuel is born and in the early years of his service we are introduced to the degenerate ministry of Eli and his sons – the reverberations of which will continue to be felt for many years. At its heart is indeed that which brings Satan down – ‘Why then look with greedy eyes on My sacirifices and My offerings – the offering of My people Israel?’

The first temptation was to take that which belonged to God, to seek to be like him, Satan fell from heaven we are told because of his desire, his lack of humility, his thirst for that which was not his – Jesus comes to us at the end ‘as one sho does not consider equality with God something to be grasped . . .’

The scheme for May – June can be found here

1 Ch 9; Heb 5-6: Psalm 22

‘imitators of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises’

It is in such passages as today’s reading form the Hebrews that we dicover a unity in the Scriptures – all of the Scriptures pointing to the same End – which is the person of Christ Jesus. We have the words of Psalm 110, the Royal psalm which speaks of  ‘a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek’ – itself a backward reference to the encounter of Abraham with Melchizedek in Genesis 14. Then again we hear of Abraham, or rather of God’s promise to Abraham and a reference ot the incident in Genesis 15 when God puts Abraham to sleep to bless him – ‘swearing by himself for he had no-one greater by whom to swear.

Hebrews is scattered with pictures of those who have endured to the end. But supremely it is a witness to The Faithful One – Jesus Christ – ‘who learned obedience through what he suffered’. This suffering as we considered yesterday is not the suffering which is the common lot of all humanity, it is the suffering which we undergo when who we are in Christ comes into conflict with the world in which we live, exemplified Perfectly in the crucifixion of Jesus.

What is more there is a strange note here which we might miss – that Jesus ‘learned obedience through what he suffered. It was not that he suffered because he was obedient, but that he learned obedience through what he suffered. In our suffering for the faith we share, as we exhort one another, we grow in obedience – and thus Christ becomes our source of Salvation.

For it is obedience that we are to learn. St Paul as he opens his gospel to the Romans, describes it in terms of the Obedience that comes through faith. Jesus warns those around him ‘why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?’ To listen to these words of Jesus is to suffer if we love him? ‘Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?.

All to often as Christians we imagine faith as something in our head – whereas it is nothing less than obedience to Christ, the faithful one – who through His obedience has opened a new and living way.