Sermons

 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

A Grape Vine Explains All.  Acts 8: 26 – 40;  John 15: 1 – 8 Our relationship with Jesus simply explained and explosively defined. From time immemorial the grapevine has been a highly valued plant. Vines and vineyards are mentioned often in the Bible. The vine or vineyard became the symbol of the relationship between God and people. The image of the vine was so important that Jesus says; “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower”.  And then in a few sentences further on says; “I am the vine, you are the branches”. [Jn 15: 1,5]  It couldn’t be clearer: God is the vinegrower, Jesus the vine and we are the branches. We read in the OT in Psalm 80; You (God) brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. The prophets used the image of the vine.  Isaiah saw Israel as God’s vineyard; For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting. [Is 5:7]  Jeremiah (2: 21) tells us that God planted Israel as a choice vine, from the purest stock.  Hosea spoke of Israel as a luxuriant vine that yields fruit [10:1].  In the great Temple of Jerusalem there was a carving of a great golden vine over the entrance to the Holy of Holies. We might understand what Jesus means by claiming to be the ‘true vine’ by recognising that the Bible never uses the image of the vine as a sign of Israel’s faithfulness.  Isaiah’s picture of Israel is that the vineyard has run wild. Jeremiah sees the vine as degenerate and Hosea as empty of fruit. Psalm 80 acknowledges that Israel as the vine needs restoration. Jesus is saying that if the people have proved to be a degenerate, wild and an empty vine he will be the vine for us. It is not surprising to see that we humans make for poor vines that bear the fruit of God, for the cultivation of vines is a specialised task. It may be the case that it is easy to grow ornamental vines as vines are hardy plants and grow vigorously. However cultivating vines to produce fruit is another matter. The vinedresser needs to give regular attention to the plant.  The soil needs to be carefully prepared. A new vine must not bear fruit in its first two or three years. The vine needs vigorous pruning each year for it to be fruitful. The vine produces two kinds of branches: one fruit bearing and the other non-fruit bearing. The non-fruit-bearing branch must be cut off so the fruit-bearing branch can enjoy the full value of the vine. This basic information will help us understand the imagery Jesus is using. We are the branches, Christ the vine and God the  vine grower! The connection is vital between the three. Leave one out and you have a wild plant of little use and in some instances a destructive plant. God the vine grower.       It is God who plants us, prepares us and sustains us. It is the particular work of the Holy Spirit who sustains and nurtures us. Before Jesus spoke about being the ‘true vine’ and we ‘the branches’ he had said to his disciples that he was leaving them, and that was for their good.  He was going to be with the Father and the Holy Spirit would come and nurture and sustain them. John recalls Jesus’ teaching in these words.  “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, 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. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” [Jn 14: 25-27] We are not alone and God has given us the Holy Spirit. It is so important for us to call upon the Holy Spirit to bless and build us up in the faith. Christ Jesus is the ‘true vine’. The true vine is the vine that has been properly cared for, grown, matured and regularly pruned to produce the best fruit.  Jesus is the vine – the best and the truest. He has shown the quality of the vine in his love and truth that he exhibited in his care and compassion for us. His truth and love is demonstrated through his obedience to God’s plan, his humility in serving us, and his sacrificial love for all. Jesus let God ‘prune’ him through suffering. Jesus’ servanthood shows the true nature of love and truth. Christ Jesus is the Vine – the true vine of life. We are the branches.  His disciples and all of us who follow and receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, are connected to the ‘true vine’.  We belong to the best of love and truth. We bear the fruit of truth and love.  We don’t do it alone. We bear that fruit that flows through the vine to us. The very sap of the ‘true vine’ flows through to the branches and leaves. Without getting too technical the movement of sap is critical to the vitality of a plant and its fruitfulness.  The connection of branch to stem is essential. The flow of sap begins with the water absorbed into the roots and moving through the plant stem, branches and finally the leaves where it escapes. Jesus is appealing to us saying let the sap of God – the Holy Spirit – flow through us into the world. We don’t have to be the vine – we just have to be the branches of the true vine. The branches are pruned. The branches of the vine cannot be left to themselves. They need training

BEING OURSELVES Homily for Leighmoor Uniting for 15 April 2018 Let us look first at the essence of the Epistle, or letter written by Jesus’ cousin, John the Apostle, who, as an eye witness to some of Jesus’ doings, also wrote the fourth Gospel. The letter is dominated by two great thoughts: God is light and God is love. God is the source of light to the minds and of warmth to the hearts of his children.  I note particularly verse two of chapter three: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known”. From the Easter period we all know that Christ came to take away our sins. In Christians this effect is that No-one who lives in him keeps on sinning. Indeed the life we live reveals the source from which we draw our life. John clearly states that we, who do what is right, in the sight of God, are righteous. The standard is Christ, just as he is righteous.  A Eddie Askew, Past President of Leprosy International, who I often refer to, from one of his many his books, “Talking with Hedgehogs” refers to the longest running play in London, “The Mousetrap” It is a thriller by Agatha Christie, running for 70 years plus. The cheese may be getting stale but there have been generations of mice come and gone. And the tourists love it. The audience is asked to keep the secret of who did the murder when they leave. Knowing how the play ends would spoil it for those who come later. And it could spoil everyday life too. There are times when we’d like to know what’s going to happen tomorrow or next year. There really is no way we can predict it with any certainty. That is why footy tipping is so popular. And if we knew what is to happen, we may not like it. Perhaps would not be able to cope with it. We want to feel safe, to know where we are and where we are going.  Hans Christian Anderson, who wrote some wonderful fairy stories, was born in a slum and felt insecure all his life. When he travelled around the world, he always carried a rope with him, so that he could escape through a window if he was caught in a fire.  Not knowing, not being sure is part of life. As we start each New Year, we should take life as an adventure, a pilgrimage. It’s scary sometimes, but God is with us on life’s journey. Now I want to share a sermon, the theme of which was given by Garry Deverell, at the South Melbourne Baptist church   in April 2015. This is based on both our Gospel and Epistle readings. The disciples were not sure it was Jesus standing with them until he showed the wounds in his hands and feet and slipped some fish into his mouth to show that he was himself. The essence of the story this morning is becoming who you are by letting yourself go of who you are to become a new self that is like the risen Christ. Luke‘s story shows that Jesus was not always himself. His name was Jesus, a son to his mother and a brother to his siblings. He grew up in Nazareth and learned a trade and used it to support his family. Even after his baptism by John the Baptist, in Jordan, and even after Jesus left his home town in pursuit of a new dangerous vocation, Jesus was recognizably Jesus. And yet, Jesus had not yet become entirely himself. At the point of his death on the cross Jesus was not yet what God had promised he would be. He was not yet the risen one, who could shake off the power of sin, evil and death. For much of Luke’s story, then, Jesus is not yet himself in the sense of having become who God had destined him to be. Crucially, Jesus is only able to become truly himself by letting go of a whole heap of cherished dreams about his future, some originating in his own imagination and some in the imagination and hopes of others. His Jewish mother probably hoped that Jesus would become a successful merchant and maybe a lawyer or rabbi. She and Jesus had to let go of such dreams. His friends and companions hoped that Jesus would become a political leader and oust the Romans and restore the fortunes of Israel. They and he had to let go of that plan. From the story of the garden of Gethsemane, we guess that Jesus himself would really have preferred to live rather than to die. One option was retirement to some regional small business rather than to suffer the wrath of the Jewish Council.  In the end, he makes a crucial decision which makes all the difference.  “Not my will, but yours be done”, he says. He says that to God, his Father. By that decision he lets go his own hopes and dreams in favour of his Father’s hopes and dreams, which ultimately enables God to complete the process of his becoming. By this death, Jesus becomes the Christ, the one anointed by God to bring a new kind of life in the world, a life so new that most of us still have trouble coming to terms with what it all means. That is how it is for all of us, as well. We shall never be truly ourselves until we are able to let go of ourselves, the usual hopes and dreams planted in us by family, friends, and culture, grasping, instead, the self that God wills and promises for us, the self that is Christ. The Christ-self, as the first Letter of John tells us, is righteous. Not righteous in the sense of a self-interested hiding away from the rest of the world or a sitting in judgement

Seeing is Believing? 1 John 1: 1 – 2:2;  Psalm 133;  John 20: 19 – 31 The pathway to perspicacity. Thomas, that disciple of Jesus, declared to his fellow disciples,  ‘I will not believe Jesus has risen from the dead unless I touch his wounds’. [Jn 20:2]  So we call him, ‘Thomas the Doubter’.  But is that a fair description? I mean labeling Thomas, ‘the doubter’, is a bit of a put down. Is it not a reasonable thing to require some proof of a significant, if not bizarre, event?   We place a lot of reliance on ‘seeing is believing’. It is a principle of scientific enquiry.  Let us be fair: Thomas was not the only one to doubt. He was the only one state clearly his doubt. Did you notice that Mary Magdalene didn’t believe until she heard her name spoken by Jesus? Then she saw who this man was. It was her Lord.  Before he spoke to her she thought he was a gardener. The other disciples also believed after Jesus appeared to them. Cleopas and the other disciple on the Emmaus Road only believed when they saw the stranger break bread. I believe when Jesus broke bread in their home they saw his extended hands revealing his wrists through which the nails had been driven. Then they believed and knew that Jesus was with them: risen from the dead.  They all needed to see before they believed.  I guess we can understand this given the circumstances. Jesus obliged them with appearances. However Jesus was not uncritical of their need to see. Reflect again on Thomas’ encounter with Jesus, or is it Jesus’ encounter with Thomas.  When Thomas sees Jesus he declares his belief.  Jesus’ response is very telling. Jesus says to Thomas and to the rest of them; “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”  [Jn 20:29] This is a gentle critique.  It is a critique of Thomas and the others, because they too only believed when they saw Jesus. However future believers will believe without seeing the Resurrected Jesus. They will be blessed. There is an implication that their blessing will be as least as great as first disciples, if not more! There is a rabbinic story that may help us understand what Jesus might be saying about the blessedness of those who believe without seeing.  ‘Rabbi Simeon said:  The proselyte (the convert) is dearer to God than all the Israelites who stood by Mount Sinai.  For if all the Israelites had not seen the thunder and the flames and the lightning and the quaking mountain and the sound of the trumpet they would not have accepted the law and taken upon themselves the kingdom of God. Yet this person, the proselyte, has seen none of all these things yet comes and gives himself to God and takes on himself the yoke of the Kingdom of God. Is there any who is dearer than this person?’ We may all be acknowledging so far the importance of ‘seeing is believing’. But push the pause button and reflect on what happened when Mary Magdalene had reported that the tomb was empty to Peter and John. They came running. John got there first and waited. Peter arrived and went straight in. We read in John 20:8; Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed … . The writer, John, gives us the impression that the disciple John understood.  John only needed to see the empty tomb to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead.   The others saw only the empty tomb. Their seeing led them to conclude that Jesus’ body was gone. John’s sight was informed by his belief in the words of Jesus. Jesus taught that he would rise from the dead. John was putting together the teaching of Jesus and what he saw and concluded that Jesus had risen.  In a sense ‘seeing’ and ‘believing’ worked together. We need to balance the principle of ‘seeing is believing’ with ‘believing is seeing’.   Observation and logic suggests that it is not merely a matter of ‘seeing is believing’. Have you thought about all the things you believe in that you don’t see and may never see? Our sight is important but it is not all-sufficient when it comes to knowing.  We can’t see the wind but we know it is there, because of its effect on things.  We believe in the existence of atoms and electrons but we can’t see them with the naked eye. Radio waves are another matter that is hardly visible to the naked eye. It is only in last 200 years that radio waves and the electromagnetic spectrum have been serendipitously discovered.  We weren’t looking for them! Before that humankind did not believe in them because they were not seen. The parable of  “The Blind Men and the Elephant” reminds us that to rely on our senses may not be enough. You know the parable of a group of blind men who came across an elephant. Each of them grabs a part of the elephant and tells the other what it is.   It’s a big spear says the person holding the tusk. It’s a fan says the person feeling its ear. It’s a tree says the persons hugging its leg, and so on. The Gospel writers are recognising the importance of balancing the ‘seeing is believing’ with ‘believing is seeing’. This is contra to our view that to see is to believe. Certainly that is a truism in many aspects of life. There are instances where seeing is critical to believing. But sometimes we need to hear before we see. That is the case with radio waves. The work of Herschel, Maxwell, Hertz and Marconi convinced us to ‘see’, so to speak, radio waves.  It is the word of Jesus the Christ that reveals the truth.

Easter: Mary of Magdala. John  20: 1 -18  Not feminism to the fore but humankind! Mary Magdalene is one of the stand-out persons in the Gospel story.  She was a follower of Jesus, present at the Crucifixion, one of two witnesses who saw where Jesus was buried [Mk 15: 47 & Mt 27:61], and one of the first witnesses of the empty tomb.  Pope Gregory the Great in 1591 proclaimed that Mary Magdalene was a reformed prostitute, although there is no NT evidence for that, except imaginative conjecture. We know so little about her and yet she has featured in films and literature as a repentant prostitute, wife of St John the Evangelist and features in the Holy Grail fiction. The evidence for these depictions of Mary relies largely on imagination. The current film, Mary Magdala, portrays her more sensitively, but still questionably. What do we know about Mary Magdalene? We must rely on our four Gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, because they have been rigorously critiqued and proven trustworthy. They form the ground for all our discussions. But the Gospel accounts are not straightforward history books, so we must read carefully and sensitively. Firstly, we know is that she is mentioned 14 times, which is more than any other woman in the NT. This doesn’t mean she is the most important only that she is significant. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the important one. Secondly, Mary is a disciple of Jesus. Luke tells us; The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources. [Luke 8: 1-3] Both Luke and Mark tell us that Mary had seven demons driven out of her. We can say no more than that she was one of those disciples who had been healed through Jesus’ ministry. Her link to Jesus is deeply personal. Thirdly, she is present at the Crucifixion. It is at this point in Jesus’ ministry Mary Magdalene emerges more strongly. Matthew, Mark and John mention that the women disciples of Jesus were present at the crucifixion and Mary Magdalene is specifically named along with some other Marys and Salome. Fourthly, Mary Magdalene is a witness to where Jesus was buried along with another Mary [Mt 27:61; Mark 15:47; Lk 23:55] Fifthly, Mary is one of the first people to see the empty tomb. All the Gospels mention her. She is the first person to see Jesus according to John and Mark [Jn 20: 1, 16; Mk 8: 9]. However Luke suggests Cleopas and another disciple were first [Lk 24: 13-35] and Paul says Peter was the first [1 Cor 15:4]   Sixth, she close to Jesus. John’s account of the Gospel provides us with an intimate picture. After Peter had looked and seen the empty tomb then he rushed back to tell the others [Jn 20: 10].  Mary remained behind and she mistakes Jesus for the gardener before he says her name. Then she recognizes Jesus [Jn 20: 11ff]. Here we see the intimacy of friendship, a common mind and spirit that arises in teacher–disciple relationships.  Now having listened to the simple statements in the Scriptures let us look at the role of love and what love uncovers. Mary Magdalene must have loved Jesus much. I don’t know if it was the fact that she had been rescued from the demons that possessed her. There is a spiritual truth here. Those who have been forgiven or healed greatly by Jesus will love Jesus deeply. Mary’ closeness to Jesus also may have as much to do with a natural connection of spirits and minds. I don’t want to muddy the interpretation of her love with our crass and cynical imaginations that are often more akin to the projections of our own poverty of mind. Mary loved Jesus.  We saw the film, “Mary Magdala” last Saturday. It is an interesting film because it shows Mary of Magdala to be a strong individual who did not conform to her community’s conventions that expected women to marry, bear children and be a homemaker. She is portrayed as a spiritual person who thought deeply. Of course her unconventional approach alienates her and she brings shame on her family, but her father loves her. She meets Jesus who heals her of what appears to be depression in the film. She then follows him. The film portrays her as the disciple who understands what Jesus is teaching, unlike the men who are looking for a military messiah to conquer the Romans. The film makes much of her sympathy with what Jesus is on about, may be too much.  But I do think the women may have understood Jesus better than the men, because the men were more likely to be caught up in the military solution to their problem.  But I don’t think it is simply a black and white situation. However we should not underestimate the role of women amongst Jesus’ disciples.  When I reflect on Mary Magdalene I think of Mary of Bethany, who also was close to Jesus. Some women like Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany, sister to Martha and Lazarus, were special friends of Jesus. In Mary of Bethany we see that there is an intellectual and spiritual connection. I suspect this might be the case with Mary Magdalene as well.  All his disciples loved him in various ways: some with more connectedness than others.  There is John, the beloved disciples, and there is Peter too.  Jesus loved: he loved people. No wonder people loved him. The woman who anointed his feet with expensive ointment and wiped them with her hair loved Jesus. Some think that unnamed woman was Mary Magdalene, but the connection is not conclusive. Jesus loved and people loved Jesus. Now when Mary went to