Sermons

The Source of Right Power. Psalm 48;  Mark 6: 2 Corinthians 12: 1 – 10 God’s power is perfected and magnified in our weakness.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying, “whenever I am weak, then I am strong” [2 Cor 12:10] It is fascinating how we love power; it is amazing how little we understand power.  This doesn’t prevent humans seeking power and exercising power.  Our trust in power to enforce our ideas or achieve our ends is widely displayed in the arenas of sport and politics, often in the work place and sadly also in the home. The Bible itself is interesting on the subject of power.  Take the Common Lectionary readings set for this Sunday the 8th.  There is the Psalmist [48] singing the praises of God because Jerusalem is a powerful city with an awe-inspiring Temple. Ancient Jerusalem in the times of King Solomon must have been truly awe-inspiring. Its powerful fortifications and magnificent Temple dominated the landscape parading the power of the Kingdom of Israel mistaken for the presence of God.  But, is this God’s way? Is the psalmist representing God’s intention or humankind’s pretensions?  We only have to think of the prophet Isaiah who spoke of the Servant of God as a suffering servant to realise that God may see things differently; or, to read the prophetic book of Hosea to see something of the vulnerable love of God; or, to recognise the power of the humble prophet-priest Samuel, whose spiritual discernment made him a king-maker but not a king;  or, the power of the poor speaker Moses, who led the people out of Egypt. It is interesting to reflect on God’s power being demonstrated in our weakness in our Western culture today! Our Gospel reading tells another story of power. Jesus’ disciples are sent on a mission. They are still in training. They are dispatched with Jesus’ authority and the power of the Holy Spirit.  But it is not their power; it is the power of God exercised through them. Yet even such awesome power comes with a gentle reserve. The disciples were instructed to treat people with honest and respect. There would be no imposition of God’s power on people. Instead, when God’s power is welcome we are empowered. Paul provides a delightful and provocative example of God’s power working in him.  He writes about it in his letters to the Corinthian church.  After addressing the issue of boastfulness, that was evidently present amongst the Corinthian church leaders, Paul speaks of what God has done through him.  Paul senses that God does not allow him to dwell upon his successes and enjoy them. Instead it seems that God has deliberately allowed Paul to be kept mindful that he is dependent upon God for his strength and success as a preacher of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  Paul says; to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.  Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. [2 Cor 12: 7-9] This very personal passage presents us with a profound spiritual truth.  God’s power is perfected and magnified in our weakness. After every major military victory in ancient Rome, a “triumph”,  as it was called, was celebrated. The victorious general led his triumphant parade of troops and prisoners through the streets to the temple of Jupiter. He was honoured before all the people.  One of the most interesting parts of this ceremony was that behind the general in the chariot stood a slave whose task was to hold a golden crown above the general’s head and whisper in the general’s ear, ‘Remember you are mortal’.  This no doubt was to save the general from hubris – arrogant or excessive pride.  We don’t know what Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ was precisely. It may well have been some persistent persecution or insults or hardships, which served to remind Paul that what he was accomplishing was not of his own doing.  I think that all spiritually aware servants of God know where their real power comes from, and that power is manifest in their weakness or inadequacy.    God’s power does not come upon us because we have some inadequacy or addiction.  To discern God’s power we need to discern what is the weakness, what is its source and what purpose does it serve.  According to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he suffers from insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  Paul lists what he has endured in chapter 13: beatings, imprisonment, persecution and a shipwreck.  These weighed upon him, draining his energy and may have caused him to doubt himself. Paul was confronted by such challenges to his mental equilibrium, physical strength and spiritual endurance. God, he may have prayed, please release me from these endless attacks. It could be that some person or persons attacked him personally. Such attacks do affect us adversely.  They are not easy to take. Paul knew his weakness like Moses knew his inadequacy in speaking. Now Paul is not saying that his weakness is due to his sin or bad choices or some form of addiction. Rather the source is Satan, says Paul, who has sent a messenger to torment him. [2 Cor 12:7] In other words doing the good things of God has resulted in a backlash from the evil in the world. It is not uncommon to find ourselves facing criticism, rejection and sometimes violence because we represent God to others. Sadly such attacks can come from within the Church.  What we can say is that God uses these attacks of evil for God’s purposes. Satan attacks us to prevent us from doing God’s

The Mystery of Suffering. Mark 6: 1 – 13; 2 Corinthians 1: 1 – 11 Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. (Helen Keller.)  Helen Keller at the age of two contracted an illness that rendered her deaf and blind. Through an amazing teacher she progressed by the age of six to communicate effectively. Helen is the first American deaf-blind person to attain a Bachelor of Arts. She became a well know humanitarian and was the co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. Paul wrote to the Roman Christians saying; “we boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, … because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” [Rom 5:2-5]. The first thing I want to say about our theme today is that Suffering is a reality of life. There is the apocryphal story of the Buddhist monk in training.  One day his mentor said to him, Today when you take your rice bowl and go and beg for food, you must first ask this question; ‘have you suffered?’  ‘You may take the gift of food only if the person has not suffered.’ The young Buddhist monk went off with his begging bowl as usual. At every place he asked if they had suffered.  After a long day he returned to the monastery. His begging bowl was … empty, for everyone he asked had suffered in one way or another. Everyone suffers in some way or other and at some stage or another in life. Suffering comes in many forms and leaves its mark upon us. What we can determine is the nature of suffering’s mark on our lives. We can’t avoid suffering, but we can determine how it will affect us. When we suffer we often ask questions. A not uncommon one is,  ‘Why did God allow this to happen?’  This is not a helpful question. Firstly, we must say there are many causes for suffering ranging from natural causes related to our growing and nature’s continueing development and our self-centredness. Secondly, God has given us freedom to choose, so that we can have relationships. We can’t have a relationship with God if we’re puppets and neither can we have relationships with each other if we are mere machines. Our freedom is crucial to our humanity. However we make bad choices at times, which add to our and other’s suffering.  Finally, if we did know the answer to ‘why?’ we would still have to deal with our suffering. This maybe the most compelling reason for setting aside the ‘why’ question. The question that really matters is; ‘what can I learn from this suffering?’ The first Christians experienced suffering through persecution.  The Christian believer started behaving differently to the general population. The population rejected and persecuted them. They learnt that suffering led to maturity in their faith. Helen Keller’s understanding of the influence of suffering is very similar to the biblical perspective, and especially Paul’s. Let’s reflect on this some more. We go to our doctors so that the pain can be relieved, but we go to our ministers and counsellors so that pain can be accepted. Now suffering at the physical level can find relief through medication and in most cases a cure. But at the same time we are still suffering. Then there is the suffering of soul and mind. Confronting the suffering, whether physical, spiritual or mental, often creates more pain as we examine it. When we reflect on our suffering we uncover it not mask it. We uncover it not to be resigned to what is happening but to accept it. Resignation leads to the suffering being suppressed, while acceptance leads to suffering being examined and evaluated.  The encounter between minister and parishioner, counsellor and client, deepens the pain of the suffering. This may be the main task of a minister/counsellor so to prevent people from suffering for the wrong reasons. Many suffer because of the false assumption that there should be no loneliness, no confusion, no doubt, heartache, or brokenness in life.  However the reality of life is that all this happens, which reminds us of our mortality and the human condition. We can only address them positively when we face them. When we read about the first Christians they developed an interesting understanding of their suffering. They saw their suffering as an opportunity to share in the suffering of Jesus. They saw their suffering as something they should accept just as Jesus accepted his sacrificial giving for the world. In their suffering they shared in the hope of the Resurrection. So Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4: 10 that Christians are always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. Again in Philippians we read that God has graciously granted you the privilege of not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well. [1:29] And our response to suffering is to rejoice and be thankful that we can witness through our suffering [Rom 5: 1ff]. And we are reminded in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. They understood that suffering gave them a ministry of consolation. Paul expresses this in the opening words of 2 Corinthians 1, which we read this morning. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. [2 Cor 1: 3-4] Here is the Christian framework for suffering.  Firstly, we see our suffering as sharing in Christ’s suffering.  Secondly, through

What is Truth?  John 1:14; 14: 1–6; 16: 12-14; 18: 37-38 It’s hard see truth when surrounded by much falseness.   What is truth? Pilate may have asked Jesus that question, but countless people before and after Pilate have also asked that question. What is truth?  The word, truth, is a slippery word, that’s the truth of the matter.   ‘Truth’ is most often used to indicate a correspondence between what is said and reality. It is used to describe the faithfulness to a standard or an account of what has happened. This would be the common usage of the word.  It also means something is genuine. Reports received are assessed on their truth value. I wonder what the Air Force made of these reports made by pilots to the maintenance staff and the replies they received?  One might wonder where or what the truth is in these reports.  They read like this: Problem: Left inside main tyre almost needs replacement. Solution: Almost replaced left inside main tyre. Problem: Test flight OK, except autoland very rough. Solution: Autoland not installed on this aircraft. Problem: The autopilot doesn’t. Signed off: IT DOES NOW. Problem: Something loose in cockpit. Solution: Something tightened in cockpit. Problem: Evidence of hydraulic leak on right main landing gear. Solution: Evidence removed. Problem: DME volume unbelievably loud. Solution: Volume set to more believable level. Problem: Dead bugs on windshield. Solution: Live bugs on order. Sometimes the truth is a little confusing, if not amusing. Jesus had said to Pilate, for this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. Jesus’ response to Pilate would have seemed mystifying  if not rather silly. Who would listen to this beaten, whipped, half naked victim of political machinations? What truth does this man know that is so important to bear witness to? What would such a man know about truth? Pilate knew what was the truth. To him it was the power of Caesar, the emperor, who made truth in his own image. It was the truth of dominant power over the masses enforced through the great administration of the empire and its legions of soldiers. But things weren’t what they looked like.  We know that. We stand on the other side of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and we know what Jesus achieved. It is the truth he witnessed to on that day that we witness to today. We have reflected on the power of Jesus.  Jesus’ self-giving love was the only way that evil’s power could be broken. Jesus confronted the evil with the power of love and love prevailed. Jesus’ love lives on through his followers – people like us.  But what is this truth Jesus speaks of? Our readings tell us a lot about the Truth. In them we see, what we find in the whole Bible, that ‘truth’ is the very being and essence of God.  The Bible declares that God is love and we can conclude that God is truth.  It does make sense.  If God is the Creator of this universe then all things come from God.  Nothing exists that is not of God.  Therefore as love is found in its complete fullness in God, so it is with truth.  God is truth. Truth is part of the nature of God and as Jesus fully reflects God, Jesus also reflects the truth of God. Likewise the Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of truth leading us into all truth.  In John’s account of the Gospel John provides us with a deep understanding of the relationship of God the Creator, Jesus the Redeemer and the Spirit of Truth. In these three expressions of God we see how truth resides in God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.   Where else could truth come from? Surely not humans?  We have shown by our bad choices that we seek our own interests and that we know little of truth.  At best we understand the distorted truth that serves our self-interest.  John wants us to understand this Biblical truth that Jesus comes full of grace and truth [Jn 1:8,14]; that Jesus is the truth [14:6];  and, that the Spirit is the Spirit of Truth [16:13].  Finally, Jesus declares to Pilate that he has come to witness to the Truth.  Let’s hear these texts again. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. [1:14] Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [14: 6] When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth … [16:13]. Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?” [18:37,38] So when we follow Jesus and experience the Spirit we enter into the Truth and become part of it. The Truth is about love, justice, mercy, kindness, faithfulness and loyalty.  Our deeds and words express these things and in so doing we practise the truth.  Based on the Bible and Jesus I am defining the truth as – Faithfulness:  God is faithful. God’s love and mercy is constant. God has not given up on God’s creation. So for us to be truthful is for us to be faithful. Faithfulness always requires another. In the first instance we are to be faithful to God and secondly to others around us – friend and foe. A faithful person is constant, reliable and a lover of others. The faithless person loves themselves more than others and lacks dependability. What else would you expect from others

My Neighbour who is not my Neighbour? Leviticus 19: 9 – 22;  Luke 10: 25 -37 Love your neighbour or is it being a good neighbour? I was travelling on the open road on the way to take a service at Douglas – a rural community near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. It is an expansive arid region.  All of a sudden I saw a man lying next to his bicycle on the opposite shoulder of the road, as I flashed by at 120ks. My mind raced. As usual I was running close to my timeline. I didn’t have much extra time. I wondered for a moment and then I thought of Jesus’ story about the Good Samaritan. Yes, a priest passed by too busy to stop. I realised in a flash that being late for the service was nothing in the light of someone in need. I quickly pulled up my car and did a smart U-turn.  There were no other cars on the road. In fact I didn’t come across one that morning on the road. I drove back and pulled up. I got out and looked around wondering how I was going to handle whatever. I wondered if any others were around watching me. The man was very still, sort of half over his fallen bicycle. There was no blood and no signs of skid marks on the road.  He seemed to be sleeping. I gently touched the man and spoke to him. He stirred. He had been asleep. And he was annoyed with me for waking him up. He wasn’t in need of help. He just needed to sleep. Obviously he had a good time drinking and too drunk to ride fell off his bicycle. Fortunately he fell onto the shoulder of the road just off the tarmac. And I, the Good Samaritan, had woken him up. No Good Samaritan points for me this morning, I thought. I hurried on my way chuckling to myself. In preparing for this sermon I realised I needed to clarify a few more things about love. I learnt some new things in my preparation. So how does Jesus’ famous Good Samaritan story help us understand who our neighbour is?  Before we remind ourselves of Jesus’ story let me recall some responses from last Sunday’s sermon on the 1st of the two great commandments: loving God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength. I offered a longish list of loves of mine. In fact it was a short list really as I have many loves. I happened to mention in the list that I loved Donald Trump. There was a respectful gasp or two here at Leighmoor and a bit of a guffaw at Heatherton. From conversations that followed some obviously took my statement that I love Trump to mean that I liked him – I approved of him. I had deliberately added that ‘I loved Donald Trump’ to illustrate the Bible’s truth that love in its many expressions includes all people regardless of whether we know them, like them, or approve of them. The Christian’s love is like God’s love. It’s inclusive and unconditional. But what is Christian love? It is not about a strong affection for another. It is much more than that. The story of the Good Samaritan is set in a context of entrapment. Jesus’ enemies want to trap him into saying something that would get him into trouble. We are told that a lawyer ‘stood up to test Jesus’ [Lk 10:25]. The lawyer asked Jesus who was his neighbour. The lawyer wanted Jesus to define who his neighbour was. Did you notice that Jesus didn’t answer the question? Jesus instead put a question to the lawyer. In fact that question confronts each one of us rather than defining who our neighbour is. The story Jesus gives is about a man who is robbed, stripped of his clothes and left on the side of the road.  Along come two respectable citizens – a priest and religious expert.  They see the man and for a host of reasons, which are not given, walk past the man.  In fairness to them they faced issues of uncleanliness and safety. To touch a dead man meant that they would not be able to carry out their religious duties for a week. I faced a similar situation on the road to Douglass. My stopping that Sunday morning might have meant that I would be seriously late for leading worship that Sunday morning. I had two services that morning. There was also the issue of safety for those two religious people and for myself. The man lying on the side of the road may have been a decoy for thieves. These two religious men had genuine concerns. However they lacked compassion. But along comes a Samaritan. Now Samaritans were sort of half-caste Jews and their worship and beliefs were questionable to the Jews. Jesus seems to be making a double point here by using the Samaritan as an example of someone loving their neighbour.   This Good Samaritan attended to a person he didn’t know. And the man being stripped of his clothes had been stripped of his status in society. Clothes were very much a symbol of social status in those days. So the Good Samaritan did not know him or know what status he had in society. He put gave him water, put him on his donkey and took him to the nearest inn. There he left the man under the care of the innkeeper and promised to pay the full bill on return. Evidently the Samaritan is a well known businessman.  He had credit. It is a great story, but it doesn’t identify who my neighbour is. And Jesus turns to the lawyer and asks, who was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? [Lk 10: 36] The lawyer gets it and identifies who has been a good neighbour –

 Love the Lord your God!  Deuteronomy 6: 1 – 9;  Mark 12: 28 – 34 I love ice cream. I love sailing. I love my wife. I love chocolate, especially dark chocolate with a hint of chili. I love my children and grandchildren. I love my MX5. I love the church I serve. I love Rohini’s Turkish delight. I love F1 and MotoGP. I love God. I love the sea. I love quietness. I love romance. I love reading. I love Donald Trump. Love is a strange word, isn’t it?  The common usage of love describes ‘a strong feeling of affection’.  Love means for most of us ‘a strong affection or sexual love for someone’. Yet we use the word for a range of things, which do not have equal value. To say I love my grandchildren and I love chocolate clearly each means something quite different.  I would give up chocolate if necessary, but never my grandchildren.  Then again we use ‘love’ in games like tennis and squash to denote the score as in ‘love fifteen’. It is all a bit quirky isn’t it, this word love?  The Bible talks a lot about love. It talks about loving God, one another, our neighbour – who in fact is not our neighbour – and to cap it all, loving our enemy.  At least the Greeks had it right by having four different words for describing the love for our partner, philanthropic love, erotic love and sacrificial love.  If we were Greeks we would at least understand love better.  We English speakers are left confused with this one word applied to a range of things. And we usually get it all wrong because we generally confuse love with like. We use like in a dual sense as appreciating someone or thing, or as being similar to or of the same kind as another. I want to focus on the two great commandments in the Bible and in particular the first – loving God.  We first get the command to love God in Deuteronomy 6.  This command encourages the people of Israel to remember who they follow. Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. [Deut 6:4,5]  This command appears again in the Gospel accounts with an addition of loving with your mind. ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;  you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’[Mk 12:35; Luke 10: 27; Mt 22:37] The addition of mind in the Aramaic and Greek speaking world may have to do with the fact that in the ancient Hebrew world ‘heart’ also included the mind.  So our love for God should include loving with the heart, the soul, the mind and our strength.  Now the immediate meaning of these ways of loving is simply to love God with all we are.  However I wish to unpack each aspect in a way I hope may be helpful to us. To love with the heart is to embrace God with our emotions. Our culture sees the ‘heart’ as the seat of our emotions. We speak of loving with all our heart. Valentine’s day is about hearts and red roses.  To love God is to love with feeling and emotion. And there is no better feeling when the emotion of love and fondness is reciprocated. Love wells up within us with a desire to embrace and welcome. But it seems that when we come to love God it must be done with decorum and restraint. To show emotion is seen as inappropriate or emotionalism.  However emotionalism and emotion are different. Emotionalism occurs when our emotions lead us and reason flies out the window. Emotion describes the moving moments of life that express something deep and meaningful. Emotions lead us closer to each other.  I think emotionalism alienates us. The psalmists speak of a broken and contrite heart or the burst of thankfulness [Psalms 51 & 100].  Our worship and devotional life should be accompanied by feelings of sorrow for sin, compassion for others in need, joy in thankfulness, awe in praise and a thirst for more.  As the hymn writer reminds us there is a time when we pant for truth and love like deer pants for water. There is a lovely story in the Bible of David returning with the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. It was such a great moment of joy that David, the king, danced in a loin cloth. His wife, Michal, did not approve of the king showing such emotion.  [2 Sam 6: 14ff]  David gives us some of our most feeling-full psalms such as Psalm 23 and 51. Emotions accompanied by Biblical truth and gentle reason help us experience the wonder of God more fully. Thank God for the music that stirs us and the joy or tears that remind us of deep personal encounters with life and with God.  Beware of the decorum that prevents you embracing God and others more fully in your life.  To love God with the soul is to express the true character of our faith.  The term soul is difficult to define. The ancient Greek philosophers who believed we have an immortal soul have influenced us. I use the term soul as the Bible does. It is a metaphor for the inner person and our character.  The soul represents the person we are and the life giving force in our being. We can equally speak of our spirit. Our souls express our compassion, guide our doing and advise our judgements.  The soul is the very essence of who we are. Our enthusiasm, inspiration, energy and vivacity spring from our soul.  But the soul is not independent of who we are. So the soul should be nurtured and

 A diamond in an Envelope!  2 Corinthians 4: 1 – 12; (Ps 139: 1 – 6, 17 – xx) Mark 2: 23 – 3:6 26th January 1905 the largest diamond in the world was found in South Africa. It was named the Cullinan Diamond. It weighed 3106.75 carats or 621.35 grams. That’s big. The diamond was cut into 9 major stones. Cullinan 1 and 2 were placed in the English Sovereign’s Sceptre and Crown respectively. How would you transport such a valuable gemstone? Surely we would send it under armed guard? Well, it was, kind of!  The diamond was supposedly boxed and sent accompanied by armed detectives from South Africa to King Edward VII in London.  Then the real Cullinan Diamond was wrapped and sent by ordinary registered mail to London. The King chose an Amsterdam diamond-cutting firm to cleave and polish the stone. Again an armed guard on a Royal Naval ship took an empty box across the North Sea.  The ship’s captain didn’t know that. Meanwhile the principal diamond cutter of the company got on a train and then a ferry with the diamond in his coat pocket. In each instance this valuable treasure was conveyed by what we might call a more vulnerable means to its destination. In each case humans were entrusted with the task. When Paul talks about the treasure of the Gospel being in clay jars he is saying something similar.  God has entrusted the message of the Gospel to humans – fragile and sometimes unreliable people. What is the message in this reference to the Gospel – a great treasure – being placed in clay jars?  Paul wants to distinguish between the great value of the message compared to the carrier.  This is an important distinction to make. I have sometimes been bemused by very nice gifts packaged in lavish containers. The extravagance of the packaging can detract from the gift. I have received gifts where, don’t tell anyone, I have valued the packaging as much as the gift! When we convey the Gospel to people it is the importance of the Gospel that matters not us.  Sometimes our skills, competencies and intelligence can get in the way of Gospel. Vice versa: our inadequacies can help show the Gospel. There is another important point about the image of the clay jar containing the treasure of the Gospel. The wonderful truth of the Gospel needs to be carried to fragile people by fragile people.  People transformed by God’s love in Christ best convey the love of the Gospel.  It is so wonderful to read this passage from 2nd Corinthians.  “For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.  For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.” [2 Cor 4: 5-7]  God has shone the light of love and truth in our hearts so we can be transformed by that love and share it with others. Being clay jars or just an envelope reminds us and others that it is the gift that matters. I find it so wonderful to think that God does not need me to be perfect to witness to the Gospel.  I find it such a privilege that I can be used for the well-being of others and their relationship with God. D T Niles put it so well. ‘Christian witness is one beggar telling another beggar where s/he found bread’. We are beggars telling other beggars where they found the bread of life. I now want to shift our focus a little. I want to talk about our worship service as our witness. A few Sundays ago I spoke about the worship service being the first act of witnessing to the Gospel of Christ Jesus. And our worship is like a clay jar.  It too is fragile: easily broken and readily replaceable. Think about that. We should not make our worship an end in itself.    Let’s be clear our worship is often not what it should be. As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” [Jn 4: 23,24]  Jesus was also pointing out to the woman that the right place is not the issue – whether it is Jerusalem or Samaria – it is the nature and character of our worship that matters. I want to illustrate how and why worship is an act of mission by using the Methodist hymn writer, Fred Pratt Green’s, 1972 composition set to the old tune, ‘When in our music’. [Lambeth Praise 91] When, in our music, God is glorified, And adoration leaves no room for pride, It is as though the whole creation cried: Alleluia!   The opening words tell us that we are glorifying God and this leaves us no room for pride. God is our focus, the Creator and Redeemer of this world.  All of creation sings alleluia – God be praised, God we thank and God we worship. That’s the meaning of alleluia. That is the sole purpose of worship – to acknowledge God and proclaim the wonders of God’s work.  The second verse follows: How often, making music, we have found A new dimension in the world of sound, As worship moved us to a more profound: Alleluia! It has been said that music is God’s second language that speaks to our hearts and spirits bringing harmony and peace to our lives.  Christ Jesus is God’s first word spoken to us in human form, and music

Elijah the Troubler  Isaiah 6: 1 – 8; John 3: 1 – 8; 1 Kings 18: 7 – 19   Rainb  I know it is Trinity Sunday but with a name like that, I can’t resist this opportunity:  Elijah the troubler! Actually the thought came to me a good few weeks back. I was sitting on the floor here with the kids doing a “Godly Play” story. Young Elijah and his mum came up. Elijah walks straight onto my green cloth, the centre piece of the story, and sits down in the middle.  Ummm, I thought. Here is a little bit of trouble. Well what could I do, but work around him. His mum had her steely eye on me! Elijah does get involved in story time and it is rather charming. However calling him Elijah the troubler is a compliment, albeit a strange one. The name of Elijah means, “ My God is Yahweh”.  Or we would say, ‘my god is God’. Yahweh is the holy name of God the Creator and Lord of life. Elijah is one of the great prophets of Bible times. He ministered in the 9th Century BC in the reign of King Ahab. King Ahab secured the Northern Kingdom called Israel through a political alliance. He married princess Jezebel a priestess of Baal – a Philistine fertility cult. She brought to her marriage with King Ahab hundreds of Baal prophets. She aggressively promoted Baalism against Judaism.  Elijah was called to confront King Ahab to tell him, that because he had compromised his faith and let his wife promote this pagan religion there would be a great drought in the land.  God then told Elijah to leave the Northern Kingdom, because his life was in danger. He went to Zarephath and stayed in a widow’s house. In time Elijah returned to the Northern Kingdom and encountered King Ahab, who on seeing Elijah said: “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” [1 Kgs 18:17] At this encounter Elijah challenged Jezebel’s prophets to a dual to show whose God is real. Ahab strangely did Elijah’s bidding. He assembled all the Baal prophets on Mt Carmel where the contest of faith was to take place. Each side built an altar, placed wood on the altar and a bull.  Both wet the wood on their respective altars. The Baal prophets were challenged to call upon their god to ignite the fire. They failed after much ritualistic performance. Then Elijah stepped forward and called upon the Lord God, then the altar ignited consuming the sacrifice. Yahweh is shown to be more than a match for Baal. Jezebel’s prophets were killed by the Israelites. The rain comes and the drought is broken. Queen Jezebel is furious and orders her soldiers to kill Elijah who escapes. Elijah is the great prophet who successfully defended Israel’s faith. So significant is Elijah that a tradition arose that Elijah would return to prepare the way for the Messiah. At each Passover / Seder meal a cup of wine is set aside for Elijah in the event of his return. Elijah successfully defended the Faith against the corrosive influence of cultural populism and religious compromise. Elijah is God’s troubler!  Today we live in a time when the cultural gods of acquisition, materialism and independence corrode our lives. These gods compete for our faith and loyalty.  You may wonder why I call these things gods. I do so because they take on the character of a god. That is, they demand our attention and loyalty. Our media, our shopping malls and our economic system are structured around materialism, acquisition and our self-interest. Listen to advertisements and you will see they appeal to who you are, not to whose you are. The advertisers already know who you belong to – their gods of acquisition and materialism. Many believe that their fulfillment lies in what they own and possess. We speak lightly of ‘retail therapy’. It is true; there is a degree of therapy in shopping.  We fall prey to this. We get caught up in such activities failing to see the moment when we are no longer exercising our God given free will. Have you ever reflected upon how what we have created and come to possess ends up possessing us? It is that shift from we possessing and using things out of necessity to those things possessing and using us. I see the present uncovering of corruption in many financial institutions as an example of people losing control and the culture possessing and controlling those who work within these institutions. The humble motorcar is another example of this. We created it and now we can’t live without it – at least we think so. Today we are deceived into thinking we are independent and need no transcendent being or values to guide and direct us.  Strangely, to give up God is not to give up belief and dependence. The giving up on Christianity or any other religion that acknowledges God, has resulted in us believing in many different spiritual movements, often accepting them with blind faith. Compounding our naïve believing is a new dependence on constant entertainment and masking of our superficiality.  When we descend into our selfish and greedy ways we ultimately bring trouble upon ourselves and upon the innocent victims of our corruption. But our lives are not free of troubles. We are plagued with anxiety, distress, fractured relationships and sickness.  Self-centredness drives us apart not together. More trouble occurs. I believe God sends us trouble and troublers to save us from the self-destruction of our ways. Elijah was one such troubler. He was a right royal pain to the king and queen. He reminded them of their guilt and self-interest, their disloyalty and corruption. God’s troublers remind us that we aren’t doing well. God’s troublers remind us of the injustice and suffering we cause.  Here are some of the names of God’s troublers:  Elijah, Nathan, Ezekiel, Amos, Thomas Becket, Luther, Mary Wollstonecraft, Wilberforce,

God’s Mission: Our Mission.  Acts 2: 1 – 21; John 16: 12 – 15 Who are what is driving you? Where’re you going? Wow! What a mind-blowing moment! There they were together thinking about their Lord and it happened as Jesus said it would! The Spirit came upon them. They were taken up in an ecstatic babble of voices. It was quite a disturbance. People heard them. A crowd gathered and grew. Here were a group of men and women babbling away like drunkards, yet the crowd recognised different languages being spoken. It was Pentecost and many of the Jewish and proselyte pilgrims from the corners of the Empire were still in Jerusalem. It must have been an amazing spectacle. It was followed by Peter’s sermon explaining what was happening. This event marks the birth of the Church. The Spirit came in power and dramatically changed things. Jesus told them to wait for the Spirit to baptise them and then they would be witnesses [Acts 1: 4,8]. The disciples had done three things: they obeyed the command to wait; they waited prayerfully and expectantly; and, they waited together.  These were purpose driven followers of Jesus. What purpose drives you? What mission do you have in life? What expectation do you have of God? Why are you a Christian? Why are you here today? [Take some time to elicit this info.] A purpose driven community is a community with a mission? A mission drives us.  So let’s go back to the basics.   Firstly, what is a mission statement?  A mission statement is a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organisation or individual to which all subscribe.  In a nutshell a mission statement proclaims why we exist. A mission statement focuses on who we are, and a vision statement on where we want to be.  A mission statement has more to do with where we are and what we are doing. The vision statement has more to be with where we want to be in the future.  So we have this Vision statement drawn up by the VicTas Synod.  The Vision Following Christ (Jesus), walking together as First and Second Peoples, seeking community, compassion and justice for all creation.   I think it is a mix mission and vision. I understand ‘following Christ’ Jesus is something we do now and so with the ‘walking’ and ‘seeking’.  The statement is certainly something we want to do and should be doing now.  Secondly, from where do we get our mission statement for the Church?  Who gives it to us? Is it something  we decide?   I want to suggest the mission statements are usually given to us from leadership of the company. They certainly might consult with the employees but the owners really decide what the mission is. The employees merely work out the strategies to accomplish the mission.  We need to be clear about what we are doing. The Synod’s document, Introducing the Vision and Mission Principles [IVMP], state that “it is God’s mission of love for the world in Jesus Christ”, which “draws us into a continuing work in fellowship with the Spirit”. [IVMP, p.5]  The mission of God is precisely that, God’s Mission, not ours. In accepting Christ Jesus as our lord and Saviour we take on God’s mission, which John’s account of the Gospel expresses very well.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life [Jn 3:16].  There are three key Scripture texts that sum up the Mission of God in Christ Jesus.  Jesus says quoting the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  [Luke 4: 18-19] And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.   Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [Mt 28: 19] All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. [2 Cor 5: 18,19] So Jesus sees his mission as releasing us from the powers that oppress and bind us. We in turn are to witness to Christ Jesus and the Kingdom and introduce people to Christ Jesus and Kingdom living. It is a life of love in God and reconciliation in practice.  Our mission is to lead people to the life Jesus offers the world, and show them in word and deed what it is. It is a work we can only accomplish through fellowship with the Holy Spirit. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, to be born again involves the work of the Spirit, as did Creation and as does our continuing growth and service to God’s world require the presence of the Spirit. The Spirit is essential to serving and fulfilling God’s mission of love to the world. Pause with me and let me offer you a three-fold mission task  that is quite within the capabilities of everyone present. My experience tells me that when we think of ‘mission’ people think of something new that they aren’t doing. They then start talking about their members are too old to do anything.  There are two problems with this line of thinking. Firstly it does not recognise the mission that is being done in the

Holy Spirit 2: An Encourager Forever John 14: 15 – 17; 16: 4b – 15 We don’t have to cope with life alone. I was meditating at the Taizé service on Monday night and I prayed for the Holy Spirit to come. Sometimes we ask things of God in a clumsy way. At least I do. And then it came to me. The Holy Spirit is dwelling with me. The Holy Spirit is right beside me. She is my companion. That’s what Jesus said; God will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. [14: 16] Praise God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Yes, we have been talking about the Holy Spirit. She is so important. (Oh, I’d better say something about the feminine pronoun. In Greek the neuter pronoun is used – ‘it’ – for the Holy Spirit. Naturally a male dominated world thinks of the Spirit as ‘he’. But God is not a ‘male’ – God is God. Secondly, in the Scriptures the Spirit of God is aligned with ‘Wisdom’ and Wisdom is always referred to by the feminine pronoun.  So I go with the feminine pronoun, as do a few others.) But let us remind ourselves about how important the Spirit is. The Spirit is present and active in Creation, establishes the Church and is crucial to salvation [Gen 1: 2; Acts 1: 8; John 3: 3,5; 14:16ff]. Now let us move somewhere else. Let’s think about good companions. Some quotes from famous people may help us.  Mark Twain said; “To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.”  Suzzane Collins of ‘the Hunger Games’ says; “I realize, for the first time, how very lonely I’ve been in the arena. How comforting the presence of another human being can be”.  R.A. Salvatore, writer, says; “Joy multiplies when it is shared among friends, but grief diminishes with every division. That is life.” How wonderful are Jesus’ words to his disciples and hence to us. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” [Jn 14: 15-17] God gives us a Companion for life. Loving God and keeping God’s commandments is life. And the best news is that we don’t have to do it on our own. Jesus will ask the Father to send the Spirit to us.  Now the word Jesus uses to describe the Spirit’s role is pregnant with meaning.  The Greek word translating Jesus’ promise is paraclétos, which is translated by our English words ‘comforter’ ‘advocate’ or ‘helper’.  These words we find in the Authorised, NSRV and Good News bibles respectively. Tehy indicate that paraclétos is a rich word.  The NT scholar, William Barclay, writes.  “The word paraclétos really means someone who is called in; but it is the reason why the person is called in which gives the word its distinctive associations.  The Greeks used the word in a wide variety of ways.  A paraclétos might be a person called in to give witness in a law court in someone’s favour; he might be an advocate called in to plead someone’s cause when someone was under a charge which would result in a serious penalty; he might be an expert called in to give advice in some difficult situation.  He might be a person called in to encourage and inspire, for example, a company of soldiers who were depressed and dispirited. Always a paraclétos is someone called in to help when someone is in trouble or distress or doubt or bewilderment. Now the word Comforter was once a perfectly good translation. It actually goes back to Wycliffe who was the first person to use it.  But in his day it meant much more than it means now. The word comforter comes from the Latin word fortis, which means brave; and a comforter was someone who enabled some dispirited person to be brave.  Nowadays the word comfort has to do almost solely with sorrow and a comforter is someone who sympathizes with us when we are sad.  Without doubt the Holy Spirit does that, but to limit the work of the Holy Spirit to this function is to belittle her.  We have a modern phrase, which we often use. We talk of being able to cope with things.  That is precisely the work of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit comes to us and takes away our inadequacies and enables us to cope with life.  So what Jesus is saying is: ‘I am setting you a hard task, and I am sending you out on a very difficult engagement. But I am going to send you someone, the paraclétos, who will guide you and make you able to do it.  The Holy Spirit will bring you truth and will make you able to cope with the battle for the truth’.” Jesus’ teaching on the role of Spirit follows this statement; if you love me you will keep my commandments’. We know well Jesus’ commandments to love God and love our neighbour as ourselves. Jesus’ teaching and ministry was about loving.  The parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus’ acceptance of children, his healing touch of untouchable lepers and his acceptance of women as disciples all demonstrate Jesus’ love. Jesus personified love.  Love is everything. As the first epistle of John indicates that to not love others is to not love God  [1 John 4: 20]. Can we see the connection between loving others the giving of the paraclétos?   Loving is not easy because it includes love for the neighbour we may not like and love for our enemy. Remember too that love is not the same as liking. We like people who share our interests and with

Holy Spirit: Power or Person? Acts 10: 17 – 23, 29 – 33, 44 – 48;  John 15: 9 – 17 The difference between seeing the Holy Spirit as a person or a power.   The book of Acts chapter 10 is pivotal in the early development of Christianity. Without the events of Peter’s and Cornelius’ visions and their corresponding faith Christianity might have remained a sect within Judaism. Those events fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah and the intention of Jesus.  Foundational to this pivotal moment in the history of Christianity is the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit’s action then we would be very different. But this is not surprising at all. The Holy Spirit is foundational to our faith. Her work is critical to the existence of the Church. Jesus said this to the disciples in his farewell conversations; I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever – the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you [Jn 14:26]. So what was so important in Acts chapter 10? Well, Peter had a strange vision/dream in which he was instructed to eat unclean things according to Jewish Law. He is aroused from his dream/vision by a request from a Roman officer’s servants to come and explain the Christian faith. Now Romans were gentiles and Jews were not supposed to associate with Gentiles, as they were ‘unclean’.  Peter goes in obedience to the command of the Holy Spirit and he preaches [Acts 10:28]. The Holy Spirit ‘falling’ on the Gentiles interrupts Peter’s preaching and the Gentiles begin to speak in tongues [10: 44,45]. Peter and his Jewish Christian helpers are amazed to see Gentiles now blessed with the Holy Spirit as they were on the day of Pentecost. Peter baptised them saying that these Gentiles have ‘received the Holy Spirit just as we have’ [10:47]. For the first time we have Gentiles baptised and included in the new community of Christ. This is so significant that they later call the followers of Jesus together in Jerusalem and have the first Church Council discussing the issue of including Gentiles into the community of Christ – the Church [Acts 15]?  Wow, this was big and it wasn’t easy, because it raised matters concerning circumcision and what foods one should and should not eat etc. They resolved the issue by accepting that the conditions of entry into the community was acceptance of Jesus as Lord and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life.  Did you notice how many times the Holy Spirit is mentioned and acted. She gave Peter the vision and motivated Cornelius to invite Peter to speak. The Holy Spirit prompted Peter to go, to speak and accept these Gentiles. She interrupted Peter’s fine sermon by coming upon Cornelius and his household and they spoke in tongues. The Holy Spirit is active. This is why some commentators think the book of Acts – the Acts of the Apostles is its full name – should be named the book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit. It is full of stories about the Holy Spirit’s guidance and work. Our problem has always been that the Holy Spirit works quietly and points to Jesus. The result is that we think largely of Jesus and think of the Holy Spirit as a power, when she is a person just as God the Father and Son are.  Seeing the Holy Spirit as a person is so very important to us for three reasons.   Firstly the Holy Spirit is to be worshipped.  She is part of the Trinity. When we worship God we worship God the holy Trinity. Now if you do not see the Holy Spirit as a person there are two problems. In the first instance you are robbing the Holy Spirit of worship, which is her due. The simple test is to ask ourselves do we worship the Holy Spirit?  We do in our liturgy:  our songs and doxologies, e.g. TiS 768: –  Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise him all creatures here below, Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost   We worshipped the Holy Spirit in our opening songs, Holy Lord God and Father we adore you, which are in TiS 132 and 716 respectively. We might do it liturgically but do you, do I, worship the Holy Spirit?  When we fail to worship we rob the Spirit not only of her due but we are failing to surrender to her teaching, guidance and testing.  This failure begins a significant fault line in being Christian. It means we only acknowledge God the Father/Creator and Christ Jesus. It means we are not acknowledging the fullness of God. In the second instance if we are not recognising the Holy Spirit as a person we are merely treating her as an influence or power. The Spirit becomes something we use. It will be the case of how can I use the Spirit instead of how can the Spirit use me? When we see the Spirit as a spiritual resource we can utilise we run the risk self-exaltation.  If I think of the Holy Spirit as an influence or power that I can get hold of, then I will inevitably develop some pride in myself if I think I have the Holy Spirit. Men and women of God let me tell you, when the Charismatic- renewal took place in South Africa there were many Christians claiming to have the Spirit. They showed off their gifts and exhibited a spiritual superiority. It is not how much more of the Spirit I can get but how much more of me can the Spirit get.  When the Spirit dwells in us we belong to God fully [1 Cor 3:16; 6:19]. When we can say I am the Holy Spirit’s, rather