Sermons

What’s our Perception of Jesus? Matthew 21: 1 – 17 What’s messing with your perception of God? There is a famous story of Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the great explorers and travellers during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I of England. On one occasion he was with the queen when she was walking through London. They came to a place where rainwater had made the ground very muddy. He quickly took off his cloak and placed it on the ground so the Queen could walk over it without getting her feet muddy. The story of Raleigh taking off his cloak has become famous, partly because it’s not the sort of thing that happens every day. It’s a very special gesture, especially if it’s the only cloak you have. (This didn’t apply to Raleigh.)  It says, quite clearly, that you are valuing this person about as highly as you can.  It implies that, if the need arose, you would give them more. We can’t say in Sir Walter’s case any more than it was a gentlemanly act for a person he valued most highly. In the instance of the crowd accompanying Jesus as he entered Jerusalem we can say a lot more. There are precedents for what they did. This kind of thing had happened before. In the history of Judaism when one of Israel’s famous kings was proclaimed king in defiance of the existing king, his followers spread their cloaks on the road for him to walk on. It was a sign of their loyalty to the king. [2 Kings 9:13]  When Simon Maccabeus finally conquered the Seleucid army in 141 BC and took Jerusalem he entered Jerusalem to “a chorus of praise and the waving of palm branches’. [1 Macc. 13:51] Psalm 118:19-20 speaks of the righteous entering the gates of Jerusalem. But even more specific is the prophet Zechariah’s word: Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  [9:9] Jesus’ followers and any observers of the procession would have caught the significance. God’s anointed was entering Jerusalem as their ruler in peace riding on a donkey. At least that is the claim of this action. If Jesus’ followers understood this they failed to recognise its implications details exactly what kind of ruler to expect and how this king would rule. What I find interesting are the perceptions of the characters on the stage. I am thinking of Jesus, the disciples, followers, the Jewish authorities and the onlookers. Jesus clearly perceived what he was doing. He is quite deliberate in choosing the colt of a donkey and quite accepting of the crowd welcoming him as the messianic king. The disciples and followers of Jesus that made up the bulk of the crowd, tell us what they perceived by their actions and speech. Their hosannas, the palm branches and spread cloaks speak of their joy and support of Jesus as the one to rule Jerusalem. Their cloaks were a symbol of their loyalty and commitment. But note the mood of the crowd. Outside the gate of Jerusalem they shouted hosannas, but when they entered Jerusalem and the spectators ask “who is this?’ their response was muted, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee”. [Mt 21:11]  Prophets you see are not as threatening as kings. Our perception is an interesting thing. Let us briefly reflect on what perception means. Perception is the use of our senses to understand and interpret what is experienced. Perception is more than seeing something it is about understanding, interpreting and making sense of what is seen. Our perception is also influenced by our state of mind, beliefs and past experiences. Perception also has an intuitive factor. Sometimes we understand intuitively. There is the tale of five blind men encountering an elephant for the first time. They said to the elephant keeper, the mahout, ‘What is an elephant?’ The elephant keeper invited them to approach the elephant and touch it in the hope that they may understand. The first man felt the leg and said it was like a pillar strong and immovable. The second felt the belly and said it felt rough and thick like a wall. He said, ‘An elephant is a wall!’ The third blind man felt the trunk, round, thin and waving like a branch. He said, ‘No, it is a branch.’  The fourth felt the tail and declared that an elephant is a rope.  The fifth felt the ear and said,’ An elephant is a big sail.’ There are different versions of this story where the blind men go away arguing about what an elephant is, while others have the story introduce the importance of collective wisdom and listening to each other.  I tell the story to highlight how our perceptions can be quite subjective and informed by our previous understanding, experiences, beliefs and state of mind. It reminds us to examine openly our perceptions. Turning back to today’s reading we can learn a few things. Jesus certainly knows what is happening. In fact he is making it happen. On entering Jerusalem Jesus immediately goes to the Temple and cleanses the outer court where the Gentiles have space to pray. It is not a case of Jesus’ perception rather a case of him creating a new perception. This new reality people have always found hard to perceive: they have found it hard to understand, to interpret and to make sense of it.  Our hopes and fears, our beliefs and experiences interfere with our perception. And we struggle to trust our intuition. Outside the city of Jerusalem and beyond the eyes of religious authorities Jesus’ followers perceived Jesus to be King Jesus – God’s anointed. Inside the city and in eyesight of the religious authorities and the hearing of the crowd they shift to a considered response saying;

From now to Eternity. Psalm 130; Romans 8: 1 – 11;  John 3: 1 – 8 Could a letter written to a church change the course of history? If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. [Romans 8: 12] The Spirit dwelt in the hand that wrote the letter to the Roman Church and gave life to the church in Rome. The Spirit dwelt in the text of the letter to the Romans and changed the course of history giving life to the church universal. You may say that is a bold claim; indeed it is, but look to the facts of history.  A learned doctor, monk and professor of theology at Wittenberg University in 1517 wrote to the Pope providing 95 reasons why the Roman Catholic Church was wrong. He was Martin Luther. Luther’s reading of Romans, Galatians and the Psalms convinced him that salvation was through faith alone in Christ Jesus, that Scripture was the final authority of the Church and that the selling of forgiveness was entirely wrong. In Luther’s time the Pope had authority over all, salvation was by works and the sale of indulgences offering forgiveness was promoted. Luther refused to retract his 95 theses. He was excommunicated and exiled in Wartburg Castle near Eisenach in Germany. Luther’s action along with other historical currents led to what we know as the Reformation. The Reformation spawned a number of new Churches and independent states. The Roman Catholic Church and the European empire were broken up.  The Reformation played a major part in forming the modern world, as we know it. It spawned Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, Methodism and such notions as democracy and the separation of Church and State.  Paul’s letter to the Romans led the way.  Paul expresses the kernel of the Gospel in chapter 1 verse 16 and 17:  I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God’s power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles. For the gospel reveals how God put people right with himself: it is through faith from the beginning to end … . ‘The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.’ [Goodnews]   When Luther pondered these verses and read Paul’s presentation of the Gospel of Christ Jesus he knew that our salvation, our relationship with God, is solely dependent on our trusting God. Humanity cannot earn its way to God’s presence.  Paul reiterates succinctly this truth in Romans chapter 5:1 We are justified by faith … through Jesus we have obtained access to grace … . Re-claiming the Gospel truth fractured forever our dependence upon the priest as the conduit to God and set the individual’s faith as the key factor in experiencing God’s free and undeserved gift of love.  All these things we take for granted to day. This theology also nurtured individualism. Paul’s explanation in Romans is the standard belief of Christendom today, for both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. It is universally recognised that we are saved by faith in Christ Jesus, who is God with us, and that the Holy Spirit nurtures our faith. You may wonder whether Paul’s thinking is in line with Jesus’ teaching?  In the Gospel according to John Jesus says to Nicodemus that unless one is born of water and the Spirit one cannot enter the Kingdom of God [Jn 3: 3].  The four accounts of the Gospel consistently present Jesus accepting us as we are. He calls his disciples, welcomes tax collectors, accepts the Samaritan woman at the well, forgives the woman caught in adultery and heals the sick. There is no indication that any of these people deserved or earned Jesus’ attention. All they did and all they could do was to trust Jesus. Nicodemus was presented with only the choice of trusting God. In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus John summarises Jesus’ teaching and practice in that famous text in chapter 3 verse 16: 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.  This is exactly what Paul is saying in his theological explanation. He shows that from Abraham’s time our relationship with God has always been based on trust. Now some said to Paul that if God simply accepts us and treats humanity as good, when they are not, surely this makes God unfair?  Is God immoral for not administering justice to humanity for their wrongdoing? Paul responds to this question in two ways. Firstly, Jesus’ obedience in doing the Father’s will and his sacrifice both act as atonement for us. Paul mentions this, but that is not where his emphasis falls. The weight of his writing falls on the obligation of humanity to respond to God’s unconditional gift of acceptance.  We are in debt to God [Rom 8:12].  Paul understands that believers should not behave as if they can receive God’s gift of forgiveness and acceptance, but continue their old pattern of living. There was in Paul’s time and in ours the danger of accepting God’s mercy then going on in our normal way and coming back to receive God’s mercy again.  There is a potential danger in setting up practices in our liturgy and pastoral care for forgiveness. It is not acceptable to hear each Sunday the declaration of forgiveness and then carry on for the rest of week as before and then return to receive again the declaration of forgiveness the following Sunday. This is why I am not keen on having a regular declaration. It runs the risk of relying on God’s forgiveness when our reliance should be on the Spirit guiding us into truth and maturing our faith. If we treat God as an eternal fountain of forgiveness we run the risk of cheapening God’s graciousness towards us.  It

‘It depends on faith’. Genesis 15: 1 – 6; Romans 4: 1 – 12; John 5: 5 – 16, 39 – 42 XXX ‘It depends on faith.’ Paul writes to the Roman Church and says, ‘it depends on faith’ [Rom 4:16] Paul is making a breath-taking statement. Paul has been saying that our relationship with God does not depend on our effort, our moral goodness or our holiness, but our relationship with God depends solely on our faith in what God has done in Christ Jesus. The reason is that the image of God in us is so tarnished we can’t clean it up ourselves. God alone can make us good enough to be included in God’s family.  All we can do is trust God. Deep down we know we aren’t good enough. Unfortunately we also don’t trust God enough. I recall visiting a member in hospital. She was one of those in the inner circle of the Church. She was involved in adult education. There she was in hospital, very sick. I asked if she was at peace with God. She replied, “I’m not sure I am good enough to go to God.” I was a little surprised. Her tone of voice echoed her uncertainty and there was a hint of fear. My standard reply to someone who says this to me is that they aren’t good enough and never will be, but God accepts us and makes us right with God through Christ Jesus. That is the Gospel. That is Good News!  It is one of the hardest things for people to understand that God accepts us as we are and makes us good enough to enter God’s presence and group, because of the work of Jesus Christ. Paul has argued very thoroughly that the way to God is not through us achieving any level of goodness, or because one is circumcised, or because of belonging to a religious group or ethnic group, or because we have been baptised, but because God gives us the gift of God’s acceptance of us. Paul writes; For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. [Rom 3: 23-25] The point is that our sin – assertion of self against the other – has broken down our connectivity to the rest of life.  Our assertiveness destroys our relationships. Our sin is a destructive force undermining our inter-community relationships, personal relationships and even our sense of self-worth.  At best our connectivity to others is weak and shallow.  Paul reinforces the gift of God’s love to us by saying that if we could earn God’s acceptance it would  merely be something we deserve.  It wouldn’t be a gift. Like wages received for work done our thank you, if at all, is perfunctory. It is not necessary to thank someone for your wages. One’s wages are our due. If we could prove that we are worthy we would not need God to help us.  God’s gift of love comes to us as pure gift – love given to the unworthy. That is grace. God loves us all – from the worst to the best of us.  This gift gives us benefits. God’s gift builds up our self-esteem.  For all our failings God’s acceptance of us tells us that we are worthy because we are God’s.  Even if we are not so worthy in the eyes of the world, we are God’s creation made in God image and God does not make trash.  Humans make trash God doesn’t. God’s gift teaches us to be grateful.  Gratitude is a life giving emotion. A thankful heart is an energise heart.  The heartbeat of the thankful person is stronger than the heartbeat of the cynic or the sad person. The gift of God’s love energises us to reciprocate in some way or other. We cannot be loved without being moved to love.  God’s gift of acceptance through Christ calls forth trust in us.  Without faith where would we be? Faith in this instance is not belief in a set of rules or principles or precepts, it is having faith in someone. Faith here is trust. Trust belongs to a relationship. One cannot enter into a relationship without a measure of trust. Good relationships are built on trust that is ever deepening. This is the Gospel. This is why we need the Gospel.  We are a disconnected people. Our common history and our personal history point to this disconnection within the fabric of our personal and communal lives. God meets us at this point of need for connection with others, this world and God. The connection begins with God who declares God’s acceptance of our unworthiness.  Then God sets us on a path of renewal through Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. God accepts us as we are and begins the process of restoring the tarnished image of God’s self in us. That is a long road to walk and for some of us it is a very hard road. It is an earthly-life walk. Only as the image of God begins to be restored do we become beacons of life and love. God has given us the gift of life and love and God has given us marvellous examples. There was the 17th Century preacher’s boy who grumbled about the dirgy psalms they had to sing. The boy was a bit like his father. His father had an independent and thoughtful mind. He had been imprisoned on two occasions for his nonconformist beliefs. When his son complained about the dirgy music of the church his father snapped and told him to be quiet or do something about it. The boy did. He grew up with a fine mind, a gift for poetry and love

Matthew 6: 1 -6, 16 – 18;    Matthew 4: 1 – 11 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. [Mt 4:2] We know this story well. Jesus after his baptism goes off into the wilderness for 40 days to reflect on his ministry. At the end of 40 days he faces three temptations on how to win people. Now we have heard many sermons on the temptations of Jesus. I have preached two sermons on the temptations in my seven years with you. But this week reading the texts I felt led to focus on ‘fasting’. In a culture where the landscape is dotted with restaurants, cafes, and fast food halls the subject of fasting seems out of place. We hold to myths regarding food, like you must have three meals a day. And of course breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Such stuff is trotted out without any thought to our body types and the style of work we do. It seems natural to us to eat regularly. Naturally our bodies are attuned to this. What we term hunger pains, are merely an indulgent stomach telling us its time for another top up, not that we are starving.  I fasted once a week for three years. I went without three meals each time. I did this for health reasons and it made a huge difference to me. The important thing is to be sensible when you are fasting. Don’t rush into fasting. E.g. don’t begin with a three day fast. And always keep your liquids up. If you have a medical condition or are taking medicine consult your doctor first. The Christian author and thinker, Richard Forster, who is possibly best know for his little classic, ‘Celebration of Discipline, observed that between 1861 and 1954 he could not find one book that was published on the subject of fasting. This is strange because right up until the early 19th Century the Church widely practised fasting. Fasting was part of life in Biblical times. The list of Biblical persons who fasted becomes a ‘Who’s Who’ of Scripture. Moses the Lawgiver, David the King, Elijah the prophet, Esther the queen, Daniel the seer, Anna the prophetess, Paul the Apostle and Christ Jesus the Incarnate Son. Through out Christian history people fasted. There was Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney and countless others. And fasting is not exclusive to Christianity. Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and Moslems fast. Christianity today keeps a few tokens of fasting during the period of Lent. Fasting is the decision to go without food or some foods for a period of time. Jesus’ 40-day fast only included food as it says he was famished at the end but not thirsty. Now it is common to hear about fasting as a political protest or as a means of dieting, but not for spiritual reasons. Religious or spiritual reasons are the reasons for fasting in the Bible. I will try and offer you some reasons why fasting helps us spiritually from my own limited experience. Firstly, fasting prepares us for service. Christianity is about faith in Christ Jesus as Lord and loving our neighbour with self-denying service. Jesus denied himself setting aside his safety to make us safe and show his love. He expects the same of us. He called us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him [Mk 8:34].  The discipline of fasting helps us develop the ability to set aside our desires and wants and focuses on the things of God. Developing self -denial helps us love others with self-denying service.  It is very hard to offer others self-denying love when we spend our time indulging our every want and wish. Secondly, Fasting sets us free. In learning to control the body’s desire for food helps us deal with the attractions of life and our cravings. These can become addictions. Have you never found yourself craving some food, or you see some lovely food and it seems to be beckoning you. It is very interesting that Satan uses food to entice Eve in the Garden. There is no indication that Eve was dwelling on the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. Satan drew her attention to it. She was distracted from whatever she was doing or thinking and Satan enticed her to assert her will against the will of God using the attraction of the fruit.  Eve made a bad assumption. The fruit looked good therefore it must be good for her. I want to suggest to you that simply giving in to foods and other things that are quite good in themselves will develop in us a disposition towards self-indulgence. This will distract us from the godly things of this world. So fasting develops a self-discipline, which in turn sets us free from things that hold us in their grasp. Thirdly, Fasting helps us focus on God.  Now I have fasted. When I fasted the hunger pains have not distracted me from my prayers, but been a reminder that I am there to pray and meditate. The hunger pains initially are challenging but they soon become less intrusive. Fasting is not about getting a blessing or a prayer answered – that may happen – but about drawing closer to God and God’s will. It is in sensing God in our lives and inviting God closer that answers come. We make the error in rejoicing more about the blessing than the blessor. To be in the presence of God is to be at the centre of life and true humanity. To be centred in our self and our indulgences is death and inhumanity. The further we are away from God the more inhuman we are. Listen to your news and hear about the how inhuman many people are. The further away from God we are the more centred we become in our egos and the less human

Exodus 24: 12 – 18; Matthew 17: 1 – 9 During a pastoral visit a person said to me that God had come to her in a dream on three nights in a row. She said it had been life changing. This outstanding event in her life was a once off event. Such things are not uncommon. Neither is the contra experience of feeling that God is far away. The Christian life is like that. There are spiritual milestones that stand out, but much of it is routine. Part of the mural on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in Rome, has a scene that beautifully and poignantly depicts both the nearness of God and our distance from God. Michelangelo in depicting the Creation has God’s hand stretching out towards a-dam – humankind – and humankind reaching back. Both are reaching towards each other but not touching. So close are the hands of God and humanity, yet so far apart. It’s a small gap potentially reveals a huge chasm. There are times when we talk to God and we sense God’s presence and there are times when we talk to God and God seems so far from us. So we can speak of God being immediate – there with us. And we can speak of times when God is mediated to us – a third person helps us experience God’s presence. The notion of immediacy and mediacy are theological terms that describe the direct connection with God and the indirect connection with God. Connectivity is a big thing in our culture. Our technology provides for immediate connectivity. I’m old fashioned, I mainly use my email system, but social media is rich and immediate. If you have an iPhone or Smart Phone you have SMS, Twitter, Facebook and your emails right there with you. We live in this immediate culture. Ironically as much as there is so much immediate connectivity we also have distance. So many ‘friends’ may result in quantity of friends rather than quality of friendship. Ironically we can be so connected that we are disconnected. This story of Moses is about connectivity. Moses’ going up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments in stone is a verbal picture of the direct and indirect connectivity. That is, it is a story of God directly communicating with Moses and God indirectly communicating with the people through Moses. The people need a mediator. Moses goes up the mountain and the people remain behind. They are fearful. The cloud on the mountain and sound of thunder frightens them. It looks and sounds ominous. In fact to sense God’s presence can be an awesome and fearful experience. Moses is God’s chosen mediator. Moses has the courage to take off his shoes and approach the burning bush and stand before God. Moses has the faith and courage to return to Egypt and confront Pharaoh with God’s help. So Moses goes up the mountain and is enveloped in the cloud. Moses is hidden from the sight of those on the valley floor. That might have sent a shiver up the collective spine of the people. Their leader … where is he? Moses waits for six days, before he enters the centre of the cloud on the seventh. A very significant encounter with God takes time. We can presume Moses was prepared to meet with God after six days. All we are told is that the glory of God appeared. To the people the glory appeared as an awesome fiery cloud. Moses enters the cloud and spends 40 days and nights with God. All in all he spends 47 days away. That’s a fair absence. The people would have wondered what had happened. When Moses returns with the Ten Commandments written in stone he finds the people have not waited. Their small distance from the cloud became a huge gap. That gap was too much for them. Their fear wasted their patience. They took matters into their own hands. They built a golden calf and worshipped it. They weren’t prepared to wait patiently on the Lord. When Moses returns he is angry with the people. He throws down the tablets and they break. He castigates the people. He finally returns to the mountain and to God and pleads for mercy. The Ten Commandments are re-written on two new stone tablets. During this time with God Moses receives the plans for a worship place, the ritual of worship and the administrative format for worship. This is a pivotal story for the faith of God’s people. What has happened is that God has directly connected with Moses. God has provided the people with the Ten Commandments, the format for a place of worship and the form of worship [Ex 25 – 31]. These two elements – the Commandments for living and the place and form of worship – are the two pillars of connectivity. The people will be connected to God and each other by practising the Law of God and worshipping. These two things are mutually inter-dependent. These two pillars comprehensively maintain connectivity with God. The Ten Commandments have these essential elements. There are three sets of rules: one for worship, one for family life and one for communal living. God’s instructions for worship are equally life-giving. The place is a tent suggesting that a permanent place is not essential for worship. The Tent of Meeting became the Temple, but I find it interesting that in time the Temple was destroyed, the Synagogue effectively replaced the place of worship and in time they understood the true Temple to be the gathering of the faithful in worship. This is why when we gather here in this place God is present and God’s temple is constituted. Our collective worship is sustained by our personal devotion. Our practice of the faith and our worship is sustained by our knowledge of these things. This provides the basis for the people of God to be a holy people like God is

An Unreasonable Faith! Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18; 1 Corinthians 3: 10-11, 16-23; Matthew 5: 38-48 Theology is the art of speaking reasonably about faith. The word ‘theology’ is made up of two Greek words, theos, meaning god and, logos, meaning reasoned words. Theology is the logical explanation of God. Well today I want to focus on the unreasonableness of the Christian faith. It is another instance of Jesus raising the bar, so to speak, and expecting us to jump higher. Over the past two Sundays I have spoken about how the real temple of God is formed by the assembly of faithful people and that God expects us to grow spiritually. The lectionary texts set for this Sunday include these themes of temple and growth. But the prime theme is loving our neighbour. It’s in the very fabric of the Christian life. Christianity without love would not exist. The foundation of the Faith is God’s love for Creation. Love pulsates through the veins of Christian faith. Like blood is to our physical body so love is to the body of Christ, the Church. Love carries the energy, the life force and the fuel that sustains and renews the Body of Christ. No wonder the Epistle of John declares that God is love and that s/he who does not love others does not love God [1 Jn 4: 7-9]. The church had put a new poster up on its notice board in 2007. It had only been up two days and it had created a very wide-ranging reaction. The journalist who contacted me thought it was brilliant. The photographer, who clicked away endlessly first at me and then the policeman examining the signboard, thought it was brilliant. A passer-by on a bicycle stopped to convey his approval lambasting some radio journalist’s denigration of the poster. Yes the police were there. They were taking fingerprints. Well the poster had been up for two days and someone disapproved strongly. They jemmied open the display board and took it away! This was the poster: JESUS LOVES OSAMA. That is Osama bin Laden, the founder of al Qaeda, who claimed responsibility for 9/11 attack. The poster included Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us [Mt 5:44]. The latter was in small print. When I saw the poster I was not keen for it to go up. My reason was simply that I didn’t like the implication that “Osama bin Laden” was possibly the worst person on the earth. Then someone convinced me that it should go up, because they didn’t want it to go up. Their reason was that God does love everyone, … but … well … “Isn’t Osama, a bit too much?” That was their response. They struggled with what the poster was saying, but they recognized the truth behind it. I knew then that it had to go up. You see this value – love your enemies – is the distinguishing characteristic of Christianity. That’s what God did in Christ! God in Christ does love people like Osama, the terrorists, the politicians, the journalists, the refugees and … even us nice people. God loves us all. It was quite amazing time. People reacted I had so many conversations about God, justice and love following that posters display in the shopping strip. Few could imagine that God’s love included such a terrible person as Osama bin Laden. A good few came to recognise the full nature of God’s love. The logic of God began to emerge. At the time I returned to my earlier thoughts about the political and military response to the terrorists. I wondered what would have happened if the USA administration had decided to love their 9/11 enemies. I wondered what that might mean in international political terms. I not suggesting that they should have overlooked the evil act, but what if they had approached the situation with more consideration. Of course, hindsight is merely hindsight. The deed has been done. The Middle East has been destabilised. Countless people are paying the price. Is Jesus being unreasonable in expecting us to love our enemies? We struggle enough with the concept of loving our neighbours let alone our enemies. From our human perspective loving our enemies is unacceptable. We destroy our enemies. We want to neutralise them. In fact we just want to destroy their threatening power even if it means killing them. That is why they are our enemies. You destroy your enemies. Jesus says, love your enemies. Let us try and get our heads around this teaching of Jesus. I always think it is good to remind ourselves that loving is not liking. I like my friends. In general I like people. But liking is not loving. ‘Like’ describes sharing the same characteristics or qualities, whereas ‘love’ describes strong feelings of affection, pleasure or intimacy with someone or thing. Love in the Bible takes on a richer meaning. Our dictionaries pick it up too. Love includes the notion of unselfish compassion for others’ well being, and this is manifested in charity, benevolence, kindness and justice. The Bible speaks of loving our neighbour in the same sense. The Leviticus reading tells us that a holy God expects holiness from God’s people. That holiness code, just like the Ten Commandments, includes right worship of God, good family and community relationships, provision for the poor and aliens in your region, honest business relationships and justice for all. The all this is summed up in the command to love your neighbour as yourself because of God. Read Leviticus 19 again. So how do we love our enemies? I have had responsibility for groups and organisations long enough to experience the ugliness of people towards me. In a couple of instances the reaction to me could be described as hatred. In the one instance I was in a position of authority with the support of 99% of the people deciding to do something, which an individual strongly

Grow or Decrease. 1 Corinthians 3: 1 – 9; Matthew 5: 21 – 37 Growth is part of the warp and woof of life. Whether we like it or not we are growing. We grow in our experiences of life. We grow in our knowledge. We grow in our relationships. We are growing in one way or another. The opposite of growth is decrease, decline, withering or dying. Not to grow is to decline. Every aspect of our existence requires development. Take for example our emotions. Because our experiences are ever changing our emotions are not only exercised but are pushed into deeper levels of experience. We have the choice of learning from the experiences and developing how we handle our emotions or not. We can only talk about anger-management training if it is possible to manage the anger.  Better management of our emotions requires maturation. The point I wish to make is that growth is part of our total human life, which includes our spiritual life as well as emotional, intellectual and physical lives. Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth saying that they are still on a child’s diet. He is speaking about their spirituality.  He says to them; I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food [1 Cor 3: 1,2]. The Corinthian church had some problems and Paul experienced difficulty in dealing with these problems because the Corinthian Christians were immature in their faith.  In this instance their jealousy, quarreling and their human inclinations displayed their immaturity and held back the life of church.  What I want to focus on is that a Christian needs to grow. A church full of infant Christians will not be going far. After 50 years of ministry, which includes my training and education to be a minister, I sense there are many Christians who don’t entertain the notion that they need to grow in their faith.  And those who don’t entertain such a concept of developing their faith will either not mature or develop very little. The immature don’t exercise the gifts of the Spirit and struggle with loving their neighbour. It is hard enough at the best of times. I want to suggest that there are two basic reasons why the Church doesn’t give sufficient attention to developing the faith life. Firstly, we tend to talk about our growth in terms of education and follow that up with study groups, workshops and courses. Now part of our Christian growth is about knowing the things of God.  It is about knowing the Bible. But that is not all. Our Christian growth involves developing our prayer life and loving our neighbour. Christian growth is about knowing the bible, developing the spiritual life and practising love and justice.  I am not sure that we in the Church handle our growth well. Firstly, we tend to focus on intellectual growth or Bible knowledge rather than on personal growth. Our personal and spiritual growth happens on an ad hoc basis. I try in my study groups to blend knowledge of the Scriptures with personal and spiritual development.  There is a danger of thinking that Christian growth is about knowing more. The Church has frustrated its Christian Education programme by focusing too much on the intellectual content. That is a problem for us. I have endeavoured to mix spiritual, educational and intellectual knowledge so that our growing in the faith may be balanced. Even in Bible study groups I include thoughts and questions about how the teaching applies to our development as Christians. The second reason why we don’t work well at our Christian development is that we are working with a conflicting concept of being a Christian. Remember we were sent to Sunday School to learn about the Bible and get some good values, we then graduated to the finishing class, Confirmation, and then we were confirmed as members. We became members of the Church.  We no longer were expected to go to Sunday School or actually do much else but attend worship and get involved where we could or wanted to. We became members and that’s it. Our membership was life long. Some even believe that Church membership can be inherited. I’ve had people come and ask something of the Church and add that their grandfather was a minister! Most of us if not all took this membership to be like any club or society’s membership. We had rights, a few responsibilities and we could use the club, I mean the Church, as we saw fit. Does that make sense to you? Do you recognise yourself, or your friends in this brief analysis? I’m sorry to tell you that this is not what Jesus meant. It is not what our theology actually holds. It is not what the Basis of Union understands about membership. Our confirmation did not mark our graduation, but our introduction to a life long walk with God in the company of others. You can see that our concept of Christian education, which was weighted towards acquiring knowledge is complemented our corrupt notion of membership. I’m sorry friends, but these practices were all wrong.  Membership is about being part of Jesus’ earthly body.  Christian membership is about belonging to Jesus not a group. It is unhelpful if not theologically incorrect to speak of being a member of the Church. We’re members of Christ Jesus. We practise the Christ-life for Jesus’ sake. So let us remind ourselves that the first Christians were challenged to grow in their faith, to not remain child-like in their understanding and their practice.  Jesus himself called people to follow him and he taught them. Discipleship was about being an apprentice. It would be far better for us to speak about ourselves as disciples of Jesus rather than ‘members of the church’.  Jesus makes this point in his interpretation

God Heartens. Psalm 27   Matthew 5: 13 – 20 A fortnight ago I turned to Psalm 27. I read it. It spoke to me.  The Lord is my light and salvation; whom shall I fear? I have read it virtually every day since then. It is so beautiful, inspirational and encouraging. So I have decided to share what I understand and build a sermon. So let’s start at the beginning. The psalmist is a person who has known fear and dealt with it. Fear is a powerful emotion arising from a specific threat or danger to us. In fact fear is a good thing. This last week I watched an episode of ‘Foyle’s War’ where the character Pearce says to a young woman about to be dropped behind the enemy lines in France during WWII; ‘You must fear because it is very dangerous and your fear will keep you alert and alive. Fear is a good thing. It does keep us alert and safe. As they say fear instigates fight or flight. The issue with fear is that it needs to be managed. Uncontrolled fear will possibly endanger us more than fear itself. Sometimes a thing is so frightening we do freeze. Unmanaged fear can lead to anxiety. Anxiety is not the same as fear. Anxiety is the fear of something unspecific and general. One can say an imagined fear. So walking down a dark street may make us anxious at the possibility of being attacked. Yet there is no evidence that you will be attacked. Anxiety can lead to fear. They are interrelated, but remain distinct. We know that unmanaged fear and anxiety can develop into a phobia of one sort or another. Let us go back to the psalmist and see how he handles his fear. It would also be true to say that the psalm is not a poetic essay on fear and fear management, but it does offer us an insight. At the very beginning the psalmist tells us two important things. That fear has been part of his life and that God is the source of his strength. The Lord is my light and salvation; whom shall I fear. It is a personal testimony about his life and his strength to cope. The psalmist has had to deal with real fears. His imagery is taken from military conflict.  He has been attacked or an attack is threatening. His context is much more of world where tribal fighting and national plunder took place. He says that even though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident. What has given him heart – the courage and strength to face these dangers?   The psalmist says three things about God. God is his light. The imagery is plain. God lightens his path. God is his sat-nav giving him the directions he needs to find his way though life. But God is not merely a guide or a map: a thing so to speak to use. God is active and rescues, saves and helps him.  God is my salvation he says. Here is a person who believes in a personal God. God is no distant out-of-reach deity, but one involved with us.  God is the psalmist’s stronghold. The image of a safe place is conjures up the notion of a fortified building.  These three images of God are given in the opening sentences of the psalm. God is a guide, a rescuer and a safe place. Each image respectively tells us that God provides us with a way of living; that God proactively comes to help us; and, that God provides a safe place for us to be. The psalmist has no sense that God is going to take the trouble or danger away. Rather God’s presence provides the safe place, the way to respond and ultimately God will rescue us. The psalmist goes on to talk about God being his shelter in the day of trouble, that he will be hidden under the cover of God’s tent and that he, the psalmist will be set upon a rock – a place of safety.  So the psalmist exalts in God.  God gives heart to the psalmist. God heartens us with encouragement, guidance, presence and security. The psalmist shares his personal prayer – his request. It is a beautiful request in that it uncovers the beauty of faith and religion. We see the range of emotions in his prayer. The psalmist’s request resonated with me and heartened me. I from time to time feel overwhelmed, threatened, alone and become anxious because of my fear. I’m sure I am not alone in having such feelings. So too the psalmist prays, in spite of his assurance and faith in God; ‘I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in God’s temple.’ The psalmist asks that he might live in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. For the psalmist to be in God’s presence and beholding God’s beauty is all that matters. Now when you read this for the first time I guess you’re getting stuck with this notion of being in God’s house all the time. It sounds as if he wants to be in church – I would say the worship centre – all the time. I want to say that what makes sense of this request to dwell in the house of the Lord – the Temple – is understanding the background and the development of the role of the temple in ancient times. The psalmist’s request is re-iterated in verses 6 and 8; “Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!” Your face, LORD, do I seek.  Do not hide your face from me.  [Ps 27: 8,9] There are a bundle of images that need to be unpacked. They are temple, lord’s house, tent, shelter, and the