I was sick and you cared for me

6:30pm Service

Sunday 15 January 2017

St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds

Preacher: Dorothy Haile

This evening we continue with our series based on the panels in our beautiful West Window. This time we are thinking about ‘I was sick and you looked after me’ from Matthew 25 v 36. As I have been thinking about what to say I have been surprised by some new ideas, so I hope and pray that we shall all learn something new from these familiar words.

Our reading was from Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi. Phil 2:25-30

I suspect that if you or I were asked out of the blue what we know about the Bible character Epaphroditus we would probably look a bit blank. As far as I can tell he does not appear anywhere else in the New Testament, and we don’t know much about him. He is mentioned again in chapter 4 of this same letter, as being the person who had taken gifts to Paul from the church in Philippi.  Apparently he came from Philippi and had travelled to Rome to visit ‘their missionary’, Paul, who was in prison, and to take care of Paul on their behalf. This was a journey of about 700 miles, and somewhere he became very ill and almost died. We are not told the circumstances of his illness; perhaps he became ill on the journey or perhaps he caught a Roman bug and did not have resistance to it. Paul presumably prayed for him to recover, and did not necessarily expect miraculous healing, in fact his illness and recovery took long enough for news of it to get back to Philippi and cause them concern. So Paul says he is sending Epaphroditus home, to reassure the church that he has recovered, and to take back the report of how Paul is doing.

I don’t know about you, but this paragraph shows me a different side of Paul’s character. Earlier in this same chapter he had written of Jesus in the most profound terms: … “Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross! Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” We tend to think of Paul as a great intellectual with the ability to express deep Christian truth, a strong missionary who has plans and is determined to fulfil them. And so he was. But he was much more than that.

In our reading Paul is expressing his concern for a sick colleague and for the worry other friends are feeling. This is a much gentler side of Paul, it seems to me, not the important apostle but a man who has personal needs and cares deeply about others. Here is a man whose friend has had a life-threatening illness, and a man who is also sensitive to the concerns of his friends back in Philippi, so much so that he sent Epaphroditus back to Philippi rather than keeping him alongside to care for Paul.

We take it for granted that caring for people in need in general and for the sick in particular is a core expectation of our faith. Jesus gave us that example and the early church followed it. But we shouldn’t take it for granted. In the days of the early church one of the things that shocked onlookers was that Christians looked after people who were sick, beyond their own families, even when it meant giving their own lives. Here is a quote from the writer Tertullian, who lived between 155 and 240 AD, “It is our care of the helpless, our practice of lovingkindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. Only look, they say, look how they love one another.” That is all very well, you might say, just the Christians blowing their own trumpets. But what did their enemies say? In the 4th century the Emperor Julian, who hated the Christians, calling them ‘the Galileans’, wrote ‘I think that when the poor happened to be neglected and overlooked by the priests, the impious Galileans observed this and devoted themselves to benevolence’, and ‘ the impious Galileans support not only their poor but ours as well, everyone can see that our people lack aid from us’. This Christian behaviour happened because the teaching of Jesus clearly told Christians to love God and to love each other. When a Jewish teacher asked Jesus which the greatest commandment of the law was, Jesus did not hesitate:  ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself’. Even though this kind of relationship between disciples and God was a core part of the Jewish faith it was completely new to the non-Jewish world of that day – followers of Greek religion had to offer sacrifices in order to please their gods, but there was no personal relationship of any kind. The Christian teaching that there is a relationship of love between God and his people, and that their love for him expresses itself in love for other people, was completely foreign to the pagan world. In the second and third centuries of the Christian era two great epidemics struck the Roman Empire, perhaps first smallpox and then measles. Death rates were very high, as we know happened in situations more recently in history when diseases like these came to populations that had no previous exposure to them. In these catastrophic circumstances many of the pagans fled to places they assumed were safer, and many Christians in contrast stayed and cared for the sick. Bishop Dionysius wrote at the height of the second great epidemic that ‘most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ’. This did lead to quite a number of deaths among the carers, though overall it seems that the death rate was much lower among the Christians. They had the hope of eternal life, and they had the teaching of Jesus, both of which seem to have stimulated them to sacrificial caring. One writer suggests that this was one of the reasons for the rapid growth of the church in the first few centuries.

The history of the church makes it clear that caring for the sick has been a characteristic of Christians for more than 2000 years, and it still is. We believe that God loves us as whole people, body as well as soul and spirit. God sees us as whole people and cares for us as whole people.

In the past monasteries cared for sick people, and hospitals still do. I was born in St Bartholemew’s Hospital in London – Barts – which was founded as a monastery in 1123 and re-founded as a hospital in the reign of Henry 8 after the monastery had been closed. Much more recently the hospice movement was started by Dame Cicely Saunders so that people in the last stages of their lives could be cared for with Christian compassion. Christian mission around the world has always included healthcare ministries, ranging today from primary and preventative care in communities to specialised surgery and surgical training. These healthcare ministries are often very significant in helping people see God’s love in practical compassion. I recently read a book about Dr Ruth Watson who was one of the pioneers of Christian mission in Nepal in the 1950s and 1960s. The Shining Hospital at Pokhara where she worked as a surgeon was greatly used by God in healthcare, and also in the growth of the church in Nepal. In the Ebola crisis in West Africa a couple of years ago the Christian hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, was the last health facility still functioning in that country. Now, the church in Liberia is still sharing Christian love, especially to orphaned children who are shunned by the community at large because people fear that the Ebola epidemic was caused by spiritual forces and curses.

So our West Window panel is completely consistent with our faith. ‘I was sick and you cared for me’ has been demonstrated through the centuries, and Jesus said that if we do it to the least of them we are doing it for him. In these days of challenge to our NHS and social care arrangements, I believe that we shall continue to see Christians follow the Lord who loves us and calls us to love others, in responding with Christian compassion to the needs around us. May the Lord help us to play our part in helping to meet the health and care needs of the people around us. 

6:30pm Service

Sunday 24th July 2016

St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds

Preacher: Duncan MacInnes

Galatians 4: 21-31

Galatians 4: 21-31 'Grace to the Barren'

In our series on Sunday evenings here at St Mary's, over the past few weeks we have been looking at Paul's letter to the churches in Galatia – Galatians. Galatia was a region in what is now central Turkey, and Paul's letter was to the churches in that region.

The context on the ground in those churches was a difficult one, for those churches were being challenged, and many believers led astray by false teaching, in this instance by the Judiasers – people who taught that in order to be a true Christian believer you had to follow the Jewish law – in effect to become Jewish. Paul writes this letter directly confronting and challenging this false message, and these false teachers – and in many parts of his letter he doesn't mince his words! And in its place Paul upholds, defends and affirms the wonderous, liberating, free gospel of grace alone; through faith alone; through Jesus alone.

In tonight's passage, Paul attacks these false teachers, the Judiasers, from a different angle to one before. He gives an Old Testament history lesson and applies it to his (and our own) time.

So let's have a look at the passage together, Galatians chapter 4 verses 21 to 31 on page 1171 in our Bibles.

At first glance it is a rather perplexing passage, with Old Testament history used in Paul's argument. And as such, it is a passage in my preparation, that I have been grateful for some really good commentaries!

We are witnessing an interesting period in history in the world, and certainly the western world at the moment. Economic turbulence has created political turbulence, in western Europe and North America. At the moment it seems political populism is in the ascendency – from Donald Trump in the United States, Marine le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in Holland, to UKIP and the 'Brexiteers' in Britain. Good on simple easy to remember slogans, and obvious 'common sense' solutions, but often (and usually most of the time) lacking in detail of how the policies they promote will be implemented, and the concessions, compromises and alliances needed for them to happen. Liking, following and voting for a policy is one thing, but when the rubber hits the road [PAUSE] Question mark?!

The influence and effect of the Judiasers in Galatia were a bit like the new populist poltics and politicians on the block today. They presented a popular and fresh (so it would seem to some of the Galatian Christians) take on following God. 'It's simple – to be truly Christian all you need to do is get circumcised and follow Jewish law'. It's something people can do – something that is tangeble, it's not spiritual 'head in cloud', just get circumcised, follow Jewish law, and hey presto! It must have been seductive, as Paul was writing this letter addressing the issue!

But like many populist politicians, the Judiasers lacked substance and reality, and overlooked history. Paul – who himself was one of the greatest Jewish scholars of his day - was about to educate the Judiasers, and give them a history lesson.

To Jews and the Judiasers Moses was the key figure in the Old Testament they looked up to, but it's Abraham who Paul points to in verses 22 and 23:

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

Paul is talking here of Abraham's sons Ishmael born of the Egyptian slave girl Hagar (in Genesis 16), and Isaac born of Sarah, Abraham's wife (in Genesis 21). As the Judiasers chief charge was circumcision and Jewish law, it's a bit strange – at first glance – that Paul here talks about Abraham and his sons instead.

Leon Morris in his commentary says:

“[Using the argument from Abraham] would have been a most unexpected use of the law. The Judiasers would have made much of the law's demand for circumcision and the observance of holy days and feasts, and it is highly unlikely that they would have paid a great attention to Abraham's offspring...The mother determined the status of the children (not the father), so the son of the slave girl was necessaily a slave.”

Abraham's son born of Sarah – the 'free woman' – was a gift from God, as Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old! It was a gift from God, and a promise that God would build his people through the line of Isaac.

Verse 24:

These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves. This is Hagar.

This is quite an incendiary and very provocative thing to write amongst the Jewish and Judiasers. Paul is saying here that Jewish law first instituted at Mount Sinai when God met Moses on the mountain, is irrelevant, it's useless. In fact it's slavery. This is because the new covenant – an everlasting and unbrakable one – secured by the cross and resurrection of Jesus, has swept away the need for rules based Judaic covenant. It was a remarkable thing to say – here was Paul, one of the greatest Jewish scholars, one of the greatest minds, saying that Jewish law was in fact slavery!

What's more, in verse 25, Paul ladels on, and cranks up the rhetoric – the covenant at Mount Sinai is like Arabia, which to Paul's Jewish and Judiaser hearers stood as the land of Ishmail's decendents – the Arabs - very much foreign, gentile and looked down upon by Jews. But, whats more is that Paul, also says Sinai stands for Jerusalem 'because she is in slavery with her children'. Arabia and Jerusalem, one gentile and the other Jewish, but both under slavery to sin, both unclean because they have yet to be washed anew by Jesus.

But, verse 26, all who have accepted Jesus, and his offer to be washed anew, are now born into the Jerusalem that is above – the heavenly Jerusalem.

The Jews saw Jerusalem – as Jews still do today – as the place where the presence of God is closest to them. Muslims have to visit Mecca for the Hajj once in their lifetime, Hindus and Buddhists have their shrines and temples where the presence of god is to be experienced. Jesus says come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, and I will give you rest.

As Christians the true Jerusalem, the true kingdom rests in our hearts with the presence of the Holy Spirit. We do not have to go to a particular place to find God, and do rituals for him. God sought, found and seeks the lost through the person and work of Jesus, and only him.

Then Paul, in verse 27, quotes from Isaiah 54:

“Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labour pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”

This is a well known passage from Isaiah, but why does Paul include it here?

There are two main reasons commentators give.

Firstly, Sarah, Abraham's wife was barren, but broke into laughter and joy at the birth of Isaac (which means 'he laughs') at the age of 90. Christians have reason to be joyous too, as we are barren – nothing do we bring to God but our dirty and sinful rags, but through Jesus we are made new and are reborn in the Spirit. We should rejoice in Jesus.

Secondly, the Isaiah passage alludes to the condition of Jerusalem just after the exile of its population to Babylon – a city deserted, 'like a barren woman'. But when the Jews returned to Jerusalem they were in greater numbers than before the exile, and Paul may well have been alluding to the even greater gathering of people – people coming to faith and following Jesus – as he was writing the letter in his own time. Church historians say that the first century was one of rapid growth in the church, at a period of time when lines of communications in the Roman world were more advanced, enabling the gospel message to spread far and wide. [PAUSE]

And all this is down to a promise, verse 28. The belevers in Galatia and belivers today, were and are children of promise, like Isaac, who was God's promise to Sarah and Abraham, belivers have salvation and the promise and guarantee of God's Spirit to be there with us. Paul here is emphasising again the continuation inside the new covenant of Old Testament history fulfilled by the new – belivers and followers of Jesus have the same promises and priveledges as Isaac, but even more so.

We as belivers are children of the promise, and are living that promise now, as we run our Christian race, but verse 29, we will face hurdles and stumbling blocks in our race. And these hurdles, opposition, like the Judiasers within the Galatian church, can come from within rather than from outside the church. James Montgomery Boice states that:

“The remarkable thing about the perescution of Christians is that this will not always be by the world but also and indeed more often by their half-brothers – the unbelieving but religious people in the nominal church”.

An example of this that springs to mind, is opposition to a new church plant in a local area from an established church in the same area that is not open to the gospel, and is scornful of the new initiative.

Two of the great Christian figures of the nineteenth century, JC Ryle, and Charles Spurgeon encountered great opposition from parts of the church and church establishment – what Boice calls 'unbelieving but religious people' – in their day. But they established ministries with a lasting legacy, pointed and helped thousands to know and love Jesus, and produced writings that build up and edify people today, and will in the future too. Whereas their opponents are largely forgotten.

Another great Christian figure, was the great Cambridge minister and preacher Charles Simeon of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, who also faced challenge and opposition from within the church. When he became vicar of Holy Trinity he started to face mounting opposition from the existing congregation of the church for preaching the gospel, instead of preaching what went before, very little really – just stories and reflections. Simeon carried on preacing the gospel faithfully and it attracted many new people to the church – more and more were coming to hear the gospel message through Simeon's preaching – so some of the people who were opposed to this locked their pews to the newcomers (in the days when the 'great and good' had their own lockable pews in many Anglican churches – pretty shameful really), so Simeon encouraged the newcomers to sit in the aisles of Holy Trinity! And this was not to be the first and only time he faced opposition.

In 1831 towards the end of his ministry at Holy Trinity, Charles Simeon was asked how he coped and persevered through all the many challenges he faced in his fruitful ministry there, Simeon replied:

“My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for Christ's sake. When I am getting through a hedge, if my head and shoulders are safely through, I can bear the pricking of my legs. Let us rejoice in the rememberance that our holy head has surmounted all his suffering and triumphed over death. Let us follow him patiently; we shall soon be partakers in his victory.”

It was like it then, and is thus today, we face opposition, but through prayer, and God's help, God – through Jesus, the one who has gone before us – will help us through.

Verse 30:

But what does the Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.”

This is the conclusion to Paul's illustration of Hagar and Sarah's sons to make a point. Timothy George in his commentary says:

“[In writing] 'get rid!' of the slave woman and her son', Paul was calling on his erstwhile disciples to free themselves from the grip of the Judiasers and to expel them from their midst...This grim imperitive, 'get rid!' raises the issue of the limits of tolerable diversity within the Christian community. It is clear from Paul's Corinthian correspondence that he was quite willing to tolerate considerable divergences of opinion and even irregularities in order to preserve unfractured the unity of the church. But the false teachers of Galatia had transgressed those bounds. What they were advocating was a denial of the gospel itself. When this kind of heresy invades the church, there can be no question of compromise or concessions for the sake of superficial harmony.”

We must get rid of slavery to empty religion and those, like the Judiasers, who espouse it, and clothe ourselves in the assurance of Jesus' salvation, once and for all, that cancels out slavery to sin, and nullifies slavery to religion.

As Christians, verse 31, we are indeed children of the free woman – children of God who gives us true freedom from the power, the penalty and slavery of sin, and freedom from empty religion that enslaves so many today, just as it did in Paul's day.

So in summing up, how can we take tonight's passage and apply it to our lives today?

• We should question and test simple solutions. The Judiasers were offering a simple formula to add on, to add extra spice (but was actually poisonous) – Christians should become Jews to really be Christian. Paul calls this out – it is wrong, it is dangerous, it is slavery. We need to question and test what our leaders are saying by the ultimate standard of scripture. Does it sound a bit odd? We need to test and question it.
• We need to examine ourselves. Are we following people or agendas that are unhelpful in our walk with Jesus, and could knock us off course? We need to ask God for his help in highlighting areas where we still need to change, and for his help so we can make those changes.
• We must expect challenge and suffering. Jesus says 'take up your cross and follow me'. The Christian race is a race of endurance, it will have its hurdles to surmount, and those of us who are in ministry – of whatever shape or form – will face opposition and obstacles. But we have a great God who is there to give us the strength to stay the course.
• We should rejoice. God in his mercy and love sent Jesus to deal with all our sins – past present and future, and through trusting and following him, we are truly free, and heirs of the coming kingdom – now that's something to rejoice about!

11:00am Service

Sunday 31st July 2016

St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds

Preacher: Craig Young

Luke 12: 13-21

Today we will be looking at the reading from Luke which tells of the “Rich Fool”. It begins with Jesus being asked by someone to tell their brother to share their inheritance and Jesus responds in such a way that he is almost saying this is none of his business and please go and sort it out yourself. Jesus is here on earth for a short time and in that time he is to teach us how to live and not act as judge especially if we have the power to sort it out for ourselves.

I hope that by us looking at this passage today we can see how this parable shows us how to live rather than just appreciate how the foolish man in the parable got it wrong.

We all know that with God all things are possible and that we should ask for His help in all that we do. However we need to be aware that as Christians we are in a unique partnership with God and that by seeking his help we should not be abdicating our responsibility to this relationship but seeking to shoulder that part of the partnership which we can. We need to think for ourselves, how we are to live up to God’s standards and values but do this by being informed by the example of Jesus and the Gospel message which he left us as the way to lead a Godly life. We need to trust in God but we also need to realise how much we are called to do as we discern what our part of the partnership will entail. In doing this we should be able to strike the correct balance in our partnership where we do the things which God knows we can do and ask Him for guidance to enable us to do it and then to ask that He take care of those parts which we cannot handle.

Jesus says watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed because life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.

Looking at our rich Fool we can see that he owed everything to the Grace of God. Farming in those days and even today still depends on the grace of God as it relies so much on the elements of weather and soil which man cannot totally control. Of course with technology we can create an alternative environment and influence conditions to a certain extent with irrigation or by growing in shelters such as greenhouses but if the sun does not shine then all is lost. This man’s wealth was an activity that depended on God as it was not like buying and selling so his story is not really about accumulated wealth but how we relate to God as we go about accumulating wealth if that is where we find ourselves. It’s a parable about recognising that to live a good life we need to have a good relationship, a good partnership with God. Our man by contrast decided to store up great wealth but made the mistake of putting his trust in that alone. This is not an uncommon fault as history tells of business men, politicians and dictators who have done just that but we can also see that in the end their lives really amounted to nothing as their greed has brought them disgrace or disaster. By contrast there are very wealthy people who give the bulk of it away in acts of philanthropy and we can think of Andrew Carnegie or Bill Gates and by doing this demonstrate that there is nothing to be gained by storing up great wealth because they have recognised that more good can come from sharing their resources than locking them up.

Now I cannot comment on their partnership with God but I can look at my own partnership with God and try and see the point which Jesus was trying to get over with this parable. I live by the grace of God. I am not a fatalist but I do know that one day I will die but also that in life I have at least got this far. I am what I am and have been working in partnership with God. I often wonder what would have happened if I had given over more of my life to God, given Him a more prominent role in informing what I could have been but then I’m stuck with being me. How much better could I have been or more importantly how much better can I become if I try to do more for God’s work and take on more in my role as partner. Am I becoming lazy by expecting God to step in and do it all? Well Jesus says in verse 21 right at the end of our reading that we need to be rich towards God.

How do we become rich towards God? I will argue that as we develop our relationship with Him we need to discern something of His will that becomes part of and adopted as ours. There needs to be something in us which will truly reflect an aspect or a combination of aspects of Gods will for humanity and when that happens we can clearly see where we are to go. Some of us just get an inkling and need to work hard at putting God’s will into practice whilst others get it in spade loads and go off and do great works. What Jesus asks us to do is to trust in God and to develop a good working partnership with him by first of all following his example. This takes us right back to the beginning when before the parable Jesus is asked by someone that he tell his brother to share their inheritance. Jesus is not the judge in this family dispute and the man who is complaining should really sort this out for himself. Jesus does not tell him what to do but suggests that the pursuit of wealth may not bring true justice to this situation. If his brother does not share then he is at fault and our man needs to realise that true life is to be found in developing his partnership with God. It is more important to guard against greed of all kinds and be rich towards God because when all’s said and done it will be just you and God in the end and wealth will not count for anything but if you had any it’s what you did with it which will determine your character and how your relationship blossomed. In a way this sort of thing makes me shudder because I can always think of those times when I could have been rich towards God but failed to carry it through. God is a very good partner because he is always in helpful mode. He encourages us through the Holy Spirit to develop our gifts and is most patient with us as we struggle to become more than we are as we try to follow His will for the world. God himself helps us to become rich towards God if we let him.

The one thing which we should never forget is that God loves each and every one of us but he does want us to change in a way which will see us reflect His values much more closely. God wants to preserve our free will so it needs to be we ourselves who make the changes and this is how we get our partnership with God to work. When we meet challenging situations in our lives or read in the scriptures values that we must put into action we can become demoralised or demotivated. We might feel inadequate or guilty because we doubt or realise that we really need to raise our game and do better. Remember that due to His love for you God sent Jesus to find the in’s and out’s of us and that due to that humanity God does really understand our problems no matter how unique we think that these might be to ourselves. The forgiveness and Grace brought to us by the life and resurrection of Jesus present us with a powerful set of faith principles which will offer continual encouragement for us no matter the situation in which we find ourselves. This enables us to keep trying to effect the changes that we know we need to make and it’s never too late to do this.

When we decide to follow Christ we enter into a partnership with him and adopt his values.

Through the work of the holy spirit who Jesus has sent us we have a guiding influence who on one hand helps us to see where we need to change and on the other makes God aware of our struggle. No matter what the outcome as long as we want to keep trying to develop our partnership with Him God will not give up on us. In this partnership relationship we need to be aware that God does more for us than we do for Him. Whist we may quite correctly feel that we can never do enough for God we actually do well because of our desire to be rich towards Him. Not only will we know peace and contentment in this life but as followers of Jesus we have him as our brother and he has promised that as such we will be co-heirs with him in all that God the Father will give us in inheritance of the Kingdom. God has adopted us as his children and as such would like us to do our bit to sort out the problems of the world by trusting in Him. Trusting Him to be in charge of the big things in the big picture but hoping that we will do all we can to support him in those little things which we can influence. We need to look to our relationship with him and to deepen it by honing those skills and gifts which he has given us. We need to guard against greed and be rich toward God. How we do this is our mission in the world.

6:30pm Service
Sunday 7th August 2016
St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds
Preacher: Dorothy Haile

Esther, chapter 1:

Tonight we are starting a new series at our evening services, looking together at the book of Esther. We don’t know who wrote this book, but the internal evidence suggests that it was written by a Jew who knew Persian customs well, and who also knew how the Feast of Purim started. This suggests that the writer was almost certainly someone who lived in a Persian city and wrote soon after the events themselves. It is interesting to note that God’s name, and his role in saving his people, are not specifically mentioned in the book, perhaps because it could have been politically dangerous in the local situation. Apparently though there are acrostics of YHWH in the Hebrew, and it is very clear that God’s providence and sovereignty were behind the situation. As we learn more of the story in the next few weeks we shall see that God used what we might think of as a very unlikely means to save his people from serious danger and even genocide.

In Biblical history the story takes place among the Jews who are living in the Persian Empire. Some had returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel a few years before when Cyrus began his reign in the Empire, and it seems that Esther’s story took place before the times of Ezra and Nehemiah. Many Jews were still living in exile, and some of them were in Susa, the winter capital, where this story takes place.

This is the 5^th century BC. In secular history the events are about Xerxes, who has recently come to the throne of the enormous Persian Empire at the age of 36. If like me you grew up with the KJV, you will remember that Esther’s king was called Ahasuerus, which is the Aramaic version of his Persian name; Xerxes is the Greek version, used in the NIV. His father Darius the Great had already acquired a huge empire and had wanted to expand it by defeating the Greeks, who - especially Athens and Sparta - were at their peak at this time. But in 490BC the Persians under King Darius had been defeated at Marathon. Now Xerxes wants to avenge that defeat and try again. The Vashti incident happens while Xerxes is preparing for his campaign, almost certainly in 483BC, and then he goes to war – he defeats the Spartans at Thermopolyae in 480 (but the Spartans are heroic!), and in the same year the Persians are defeated in a naval battle at Salamis. The next year the Greeks defeat the Persians at a much less famous battle called Plataea and the series of wars ends with Persian defeat. Chapter 2, where Esther enters the story, takes place after the war.

This first chapter is about power. Who has it, how does it show, what does it do?

Xerxes has power. He is the ruler over 127 provinces from Egypt to India. He needs his whole empire on side for his attack on the Greeks so he is giving all these nobles, officials and military leaders a great time with six months of entertainment, presumably a sort of rolling banquet. At the same time he is assessing their loyalty and their resources. This is an example of what is often called ‘conspicuous consumption’, and it was very conspicuous. V4 says he ‘displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendour and glory of his majesty’. At the end of his elaborate entertainments for the out of town people he gives a banquet for his own staff and other locals in Susa. It isn’t a small event either, but a full week of an extravagant banquet in a luxurious environment. If it was anything like what we know about our own country’s history there would normally have been a huge gap between the top and the bottom in society, with most of the people living in squalor and the top few living in luxury. So to give the people at the bottom a taste of luxury living was probably a PR success.

We don’t know all that much about Xerxes’ character, partly because most of the records come from the Greeks, who were his enemies. Herodotus says he was cruel and despotic even towards his own household, and had a violent temper. He was fairly young, had lots of women available in his harem, and was politically ambitious. We do know that in the end he was assassinated by the commander of his own bodyguard, so probably his hold on power was always a bit precarious as it tends to be in large states where the ruler has to be successful in order to retain his position. In that kind of situation threats to his power need to be dealt with decisively, so the challenge from Vashti has to get a strong response.

At the end of the week of feasting, when Xerxes was at least somewhat drunk, he decided to liven up the proceedings by calling for his Queen Vashti to come and entertain them by displaying her remarkable beauty. I had always assumed that she refused because she did not want to have to show herself off in front of a big crowd of drunken men, and that may indeed be the simple reason. However, our reference book for this series suggests several other possibilities: perhaps she was exhausted after entertaining the women at their own banquet; perhaps she was pregnant, or recovering from recently having given birth to the heir to the throne, who was born in that year; perhaps she was aware that to show herself off in front of all these local guests, who would have known her and would see her again in future, would be especially shameful; perhaps she was a bit drunk herself because of her own banquet. Whatever the reason, she refused to come.

Refusing the command of a tyrant like Xerxes was always going to be a red rag to a bull. He wasn’t used to being defied, least of all by a woman – this was certainly a male-dominated culture. Xerxes was very angry and so he consulted his legal advisors and astrologers to make sure he got the right solution. I suppose they could have tried to calm him down and lower the temperature, but perhaps they didn’t dare; others suggest that they wanted to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity to gain more power at home. Whatever the reason, they advised the king to make a new law, to banish Vashti completely from the king’s presence and to remove her from being queen, so that women everywhere would realise that defying your husband has serious consequences. Xerxes agreed, and a new law was passed, to apply everywhere in his empire, that ‘every man should be ruler over his own household’.

How can we apply lessons from this incident to ourselves?

I asked who has power, how does it show, what does it do. If we slightly redefine power to mean getting your own way and influencing or controlling other people, then it looks more familiar to us. Some of us may think we haven’t got any power, but we all have influence on situations and people. Here are a few questions for me and each of us:

• Xerxes got his own way with his subjects by showing off his possessions and impressing everyone; then by ordering his queen to do something inappropriate, and then by sacking her. What do I do to get my own way?
• Xerxes’ advisers, whose careers depended on his favour, decided to please him even if it meant doing something unjust. How often do I carefully respond so that I don’t displease someone who has influence in my life?
• Xerxes’ advisors recommended an option that would give them advantages at home. How often do I manipulate a situation to my own advantage?

I’d like to suggest that for me and also for you, reflection on those questions can be quite salutary.

What other applications can we see?

God’s sovereignty, which is behind the scenes in this whole book. Remember how when non-believing king Cyrus came to power he allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem? As the book of Esther starts God is still at work and we shall clearly see it in coming weeks. What about us? The world situation looks increasingly dangerous and unpredictable. Our own political scene has gone through major changes in a very short time. Do we believe that God is on the throne and that he will, as ever, bring good from evil, even using world powers who do not acknowledge him at all. We do have to remember that God’s definitions of both good and evil may be different from ours.

Finally, Paul tells us to pray for leaders and authorities. In 1 Timothy 2: 1-6 it is very clear. How often do I pray for President Putin or President Assad? Rarely I’m afraid. Much more often for the US and UK political scenes, and we all need to do that.

So as we start this series, let’s remember Lord Acton’s comment about human power: ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Worth remembering as we pray for leaders. Let’s also remember that ultimate power belongs to God, who as Paul says in Acts 17, ‘is the Lord of heaven and earth’. He is also completely just and righteous, which makes it possible for us to trust that he knows what is right and in the end he will bring about justice, and glory to himself.

6:30pm Service
Sunday 19th June 2016
St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds
Preacher: Dorothy Haile

Galatians 3:1-14

‘You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?’

I am astonished … [1:6]; I fear for you … [4:11]; I plead with you [4:12]; I am in the pains of childbirth [4:19]; I am perplexed about you [4:20];

This letter to young churches in part of what is now Turkey contains some strong language. It is obvious that Paul is deeply concerned about what is happening to people who had come to faith in Christ during what we usually call his first missionary journey. But this is all a long time ago and a long way from Suffolk. Is it relevant to us?

The New Testament letters were written to address specific issues in specific places, which leaves me with a question: why has this particular letter been preserved for us? I think it is because it is relevant way beyond its original context. How?

The simple answer is that Paul is convinced that the people of the Galatian churches have been deceived into a position that denies what Paul calls ‘the truth of the gospel’, and we can be deceived into that position too. Paul uses several different words and phrases for the ‘the truth of the gospel’, such as

• Faith in Jesus Christ
• Justification
• Justified by faith in Jesus Christ
• Righteousness
• Receiving the Spirit
• Being redeemed

These different words and phrases are all describing the same thing: we would often call it ‘becoming a Christian’. So Paul is telling us how a person becomes a Christian, and making it 100% clear that it happens through believing in Jesus, not by believing in Jesus plus observing ‘the law’. At that time ‘the law’ was the Jewish law, because there was a group of people from among the Jews who had become Christians who believed that Gentiles who became Christians – like most of the people who were getting this letter – had to come to the Christian faith via the Jewish faith; they had to be circumcised and keep the Jewish law as well as believing in Jesus. So it was Jesus plus.

Why is this so important to Paul? He has the absolute conviction that the true gospel is based on faith and not on keeping the law. His own experience is really on the line here. After all, his conversion to Christ involved a complete reversal of belief and action (often humanly speaking an embarrassing thing). He had persecuted the church intensely because of his utter commitment to Judaism, then he met Christ on the road to Damascus and found that he had been completely wrong; with a changed life and total commitment to Christ he started to fulfil his calling to bring the gospel to Gentiles; he had been chased out of Damascus and Jerusalem because of his fearless preaching of Jesus as Messiah, the one through whom God’s salvation plan was brought about; he had opposed a senior church leader, the apostle Peter, to his face, in public, which was extremely risky and really counter-cultural in a situation where leaders and elders were treated with respect. All because of what he believed about the gospel. So this is vital to Paul’s life and ministry.

In verses 1-5 Paul also points out that if the Galatians have started to add observing the law to believing in Jesus they are contradicting their own experience. He emphasises that they began their Christian life through faith in Jesus, not by observing the law, in other words not by human effort. So it made no sense to continue their Christian lives by observing the law.

Then in the next section, verses 6-9, Paul explains that this is not a new idea, as some of the Jewish Christians may well have thought: Abraham’s own righteousness with God had come through faith (Genesis 15:6), and the same applied to Gentiles: Scripture ‘foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith’ (v8, referring to Genesis 12:3, where the Lord had told Abraham that ‘all peoples on earth will be blessed through you’), and Paul even says later in v8 that God had announced the gospel in advance to Abraham. So there is a sense in which the early church should have known that faith was the way to salvation, as it had been for Abraham. In fact Paul says that those who have faith are the legitimate descendants of Abraham.

In these first 9 verses, the noun ‘faith’, the word ‘believing’ and the verb ‘to believe’ occur seven times. It must be very important.

Paul continues in verses 10-14 to underline the consequences of the other position. People who rely on observing the law – the plus in other words – are in deep trouble (he calls it ‘under a curse’) because it means you have to keep the law perfectly, which is impossible. The punishment for failing to observe the law perfectly is death, and after that no relationship with God is possible. Christ’s death on the cross paid that price on our behalf. The good news of Jesus is that justification (bringing us back into relationship with God) comes by grace alone through faith alone, but Paul’s opponents were saying that this was not enough.

Therefore, Paul is emphasising very strongly that to change the gospel is completely unacceptable. It is a change that makes Christ’s death on the cross inadequate, which is really an insult to Christ and to God who loves us so much. The good news is that Christ has done everything that is necessary so that we can come into a personal relationship with God, as we accept forgiveness by grace through faith. In a way it sounds too good to be true. It is a gospel of grace (God’s free gift) and God accepts us because of his love, not a gospel of works through which we do enough to be accepted and get over the line, as it were.

This letter to the Galatians was probably written shortly before the Council at Jerusalem which is described for us in Acts 15. The result of that Council was a clear statement that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and obey the Jewish law in order to be Christians. So was the issue tackled and settled? Yes, it was tackled, but the controversy went on and on in the history of the early church, because, I think, Jesus plus appeals so much to our human instincts. In fact all through church history this issue has come up again and again – Martin Luther tackled the same problems in the church of his day. There’s always the tendency to add a gospel of works to the gospel of grace. I think it is because we really don’t like to feel that we aren’t contributing anything to something important.

English proverbs include: There’s no such thing as a free lunch, God helps those who help themselves, and You can’t get something for nothing. Even that suggests that we don’t think we can get something for nothing. But the gospel gives us salvation by grace alone – something for nothing in fact.

What about us? No one is now suggesting that we have to become Jews in order to become Christians. What could our gospel of works be? We could think about lots of things, but in this context tonight it is worth noting that the Jewish Christians who were teaching a gospel of Jesus plus were saying that the plus was religious good works. We can apply this to ourselves: our religious acts, whether it is coming to church regularly, giving our offerings, even singing in the choir, don’t earn us any points with God. Our salvation is by grace through faith, God’s gift to us secured by the death of Christ. Does this mean we can forget about all those good and faithful things? Not at all. They are a result of our salvation, not a contribution to it. But this result of our salvation changes our whole lives, determines our priorities, and challenges us to live in a different way, as Paul goes on to explain later in his letter. God has plenty of ‘good works’ for us to do, as Paul writes in his letter to the people of Ephesus:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

I spent most of yesterday at the Ten Year Celebration of Town Pastors ministry in Suffolk. Several VIPs told us how valuable it is. I believe it is a ‘good work’, but I don’t spend a night in the Prayer Base every month in order to contribute to my salvation account I do it as a result of my salvation.

We are constantly tempted to add a plus of some kind to God’s good news. I have been a Christian for many years now, and I can tell you that temptation doesn’t ever go away. But as I read of the extent of God’s love and grace I am also constantly reminded that I have got something for nothing, to be thankful, and challenged to live in light of what God has done.

6:30pm Service
Sunday 29th May
St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds
Preacher: Duncan MacInnes

Galatians 2:1-10

At the moment here at St Mary's we are looking at the book of Galatians. What a fantastic book it is for the church and for Christians, for in a world of division and difference, Paul emphasises again and again, the one true gospel – freedom through trust in Jesus' atoning death on the cross – and that anyone, from any nation, race, culture, ethnic group – you name it – can be friends again with their creator through Jesus.

It's important because this message – of God's free gift of forgiveness of sins through the complete work of Jesus on the cross - was severely challenged in Paul's day. Throughout Paul's ministry we read that he was challenged, and challenged on various different occasions and challenged from different angles. It was sometimes the message that was attacked – the gospel itself. At other times during Paul's ministry it was the messenger – Paul himself – that was attacked.

Galatians is Paul's response. A full throttle, full frontal, multi angled defence and championing of the one true unchanging, and unchangeable gospel.

So if you keep open page 1168 and 1169 in your Bibles, we will be following this passage of Galatians 2 verses 1 to 10.

Galatians 2 verses 1 and 2:

Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabus. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.

It had been fourteen years since Paul had been in Jerusalem, and remember that Paul, before his conversion was a Pharisee, a top Jewish scholar, so Jerusalem would have been a place central to his religion and life. Jews, especially observant Jews, would aspire to visit the city as often as they could to visit the site of the temple. But here was Paul, fourteen years had passed since he had returned to Jerusalem. Paul was too busy fulfilling his God given duty to reach the nations, to reach non-Jews – Gentiles – to be travelling back and forwards to Jerusalem. That task – reaching the Jews - was a task for the other apostles to do.

Verse 2:

I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.

Paul wasn't summoned by the church leaders, or the other apostles to come to Jerusalem and report back, but it was in response to a revelation – in other words, God told Paul to go to Jerusalem – it was through God's initiative that he travelled. And Paul: set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles – it would be the same message Paul was preaching at Jerusalem – the heart of the Jewish world – as it was to the Gentiles of Paul's travels through what is today Turkey, Greece and beyond.

We saw in chapter 1 of Galatians, of Paul writing in astonishment at the rapid way in which the churches in Galatia were turning away from the gospel and replacing it with a 'newer' one. Which Paul says in chapter 1 verse 7, is really no gospel at all. Gospel truth is so important that Paul in chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 emphasises his point by repeating it – if someone – even an angel – preaches anything other than the gospel – adds to it, or takes it away – they are to be eternally condemned. This is serious, serious business.

The context of chapter 2 is that the Galatian church was being influenced by what Paul calls 'false brothers' who had infiltrated the church. These false teachers were the Judiazers. These were people who said: 'Yes, Jesus died for forgivness of sins, but, to be a true follower of Jesus, people need to follow and adhere to Jewish customs as well', therefore Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised. So in reality, these 'false brothers' were teaching that being a 'true' Christian was to do works and rituals – Jewish work and rituals, instead of simply accepting, trusting and following Jesus. Paul was strong and called this (verse 4) slavery – it went against the core of the gospel.

Paul's travelling companions to Jerusalem were Barnabus, who, like Paul, was a Jewish background Christian, and Titus, a Gentile convert. Many commentators suggest that Titus went with Paul to Jerusalem, as an example – a test case – to show that the gospel message breaks down barriers and is penetrating into the Gentile world. John Stott in his commentary says that:

“It was to overthrow [the Judiazers] influence, not to strengthen his own conviction, that [Paul] laid his gospel before the Jerusalem apostles”.

Indeed, reading from Galatians chapter 1, you don't get the sense that Paul is unsure and lukewarm about the message, as if he is going through the motions half-heartedly. No, there is real 'fire in the belly' conviction – one of an apostle, who had a meeting and direct commisioning from Jesus himself, to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles, to the nations.

Paul was aggrieved that the gospel he helped to plant was being attacked, and so he was here out to overthrow the influence of the false teachers.

It seems that one of the false teachers lines of attack was to attack Paul and cause a chink, to drive a wedge between the apostles, in saying something like this:

'you need to listen to Peter, James and John – they were the ones who shared Jesus' life and ministry, don't listen to Paul, he came afterwards'.

Paul answered this line of attack in chapter 1 of Galatians, by giving his testimony – that he was commissioned by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus. And his life, from persecuting Christians and dispising Gentiles, to loving, caring and reaching Gentiles for Christ, was a clear statement that God had been at work in Paul.

Verses 6 to 8:

As for those who seemed to be important – whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external apperance – those men added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles just as Peter had been to the Jews. For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul, here was addressing the argument that the false teachers made, that status in apostleship mattered. No, the apostles had equal status but different tasks – Paul to reach the Gentiles, and Peter to reach the Jews. God favours gospel partnership, not rivalry.

Leon Morris in his commentary says:

“In no sense was Peter a rival of Paul; they simply had two different fields in which to preach the gospel...They preached the same gospel, even though Paul recognised that the different backgrounds of their hearers meant that there were different ways in which the two groups lived out their commitment to Christ”.

And we read in verse 9 that James, Peter and John, accepted and approved of Paul's minsitry.

In verse 9 Paul is emphasising two things:

1. That Paul's ministry was recognised as God given and legitimate – from the very one who shared in Jesus' life and ministry – a big accolade.
2. By using the rather belligerent tone of ' those reputed to be pillars', and earlier in verse 6 of: 'those who seemed to be important', Paul was emphasising to his readers that even the apostles are human beings capable of getting it wrong and sinning. Again, it wasn't status, but subsatnce, the message, that was important to Paul, and important to God.

So there we are. Here was Paul strongly facing up to people inside the church peddling a false gospel. It needed to be tackled for if it hadn't, the church would have slid into factionalism and rivalry – the gospel would have been lost, and the fruits of the spirit would have been absent.

What has been the situation since Galatians was written?

Many people have challenged and changed, added or subtracted from the Bible's message throughout the centuries.

People still have sinful hearts, and the devil still prowls, especially wanting to infiltrate and pick off churches and church leaders, wanting to sow confusion and division. We must pray for our churches and especially our church leaders that the Holy Spirit will protect them against attack.

Gospel truth is attacked today from both outside and inside the church. The most damaging, is when gospel truth is attacked from within the church – sadly, the Church of England has been no stranger to heresy through the years.

Perhaps the most critical point in the history of the church, where it teetered on the brink of truth or heresy, was the Arian controversy of the fourth century. Arius was an important church leader in Alexandria in Egypt and taught that Jesus was not God, but 'had a beginning and end' – Jesus according to Arius was therefore created, which is the view today of the Jehovah's Witnesses. As Arius was an important church leader many in the church at the time were tempted to follow him, and it was so controversial that the church could well have fallen into heresy. Arius' teachings were challenged by Athanasius who was also an Alexandrian church leader, who re-stated that Jesus was God and part of the Trinity. The Nicene creed, a version of which we read at church services, is what was written in response to Arius' teachings, and the official condemnation of Arius as a heretic. That Jesus was 'begotten not made' as it says in the creed, was the specific response to the specific attack on gospel truth that Arius in the fourth century had made. In other words, Jesus is eternal with the father, and not created – by saying this in the creed, we are publicly declaring that Jesus is divine, creator God himself, and we are upholding the Trinity by declaring this. We must give thanks to God for Athanasius, and the Council of Nicea for challenging heresy and confirming and upholding gospel truth.

In our passage of Galatians 2, Paul speaks against reliance on status in church leadership, and instead emphasises being true to the message.

Those in church leadership positions should always stive to be humble, to be servant hearted and not to seek out position and power.

A good pastor friend of mine a few years ago went through a very troubling and testing time when his elders seeking status, postion and power plotted to unseat him. Thankfully God overuled in this situation and the elders had to leave and my friend carried on, supported, with a church that came closer together through the difficulty.

In conclusion, then, we should, first and foremost:

• Seek gospel truth – we come with nothing, and bring nothing with us, we are poor sinners who look to, and cling to the cross and only the cross. Salvation is found nowhere else.
• Be humble, caring and loving towards others inside and outside church. The Judiazers and false teachers sowed division and emnity – that's what false teaching does (however 'loving' it's packaged up today). Gospel unity, is just that, unity around the gospel – humble before the cross. Loving others because Jesus loved us.
• We mustn't be afraid today to question people within the church, and challenge them in a loving and humble way, if they are consistently saying things that deny gospel truth. We don't have the apostolic commission Paul had to tackle people who peddle a false gospel, but we can and should take a friend to one side and lovingly challenge them, if we feel the Spirit calls us to. It's the same spirit with us as Christians today as Paul had!

PAUSE

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for Paul's letter to the Galatian church. Thank you that it shows us how to build our lives and to build our churches on the one true gospel.

Help us to seek gospel truth, only relying on the cross and nothing else, and to be humble, caring and loving towards others in church and outside church.

Amen

St Mary's Church 11:00am Sunday Morning Service
Sunday 1st May 2016
Preacher: Craig Young

Today we begin a series of sermons each prepared by the preacher but based on the Footprints series of talks which Andrew Buttress devised for our lent course this year.

Andrew introduced us to the way we leave a Christian footprint in the world and today we will be looking at the disciples as apprentices and how they followed the master.

I wonder what sort of image the name apprentice conjures up for you. A spotty youth with a big mouth, Alan Sugar getting tough with someone he doesn’t want to suffer gladly, or maybe Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer’s apprentice as we see an eager but naughty one who tries to use knowledge and power before they have the wisdom to appreciate their limitations or the consequences of their actions. Maybe you were apprenticed yourself.

For the last four years of my formal working life I worked on a consultative basis with many of the public service organisations in the East of England on running good apprenticeship schemes which has given me an insight into how best to succeed with apprentices. Selecting the right candidate is key to the process and the mantra used by good organisations is, recruit for attitude and train for skill.

Bright people who come from a good background and are well turned out are not always the ones who will succeed in the world of work. It depends on their attitude or as we used to say, have they a heart for the role to which they aspire. How much do they want to carry through with all of the training required to become a fully qualified in their chosen field?

Jesus selected his disciples, his apprentices, not from those whom you would expect to be disciples of a powerful teacher in the Lord. People chosen by the great teachers of the time as apprentices were often from wealthy families or were highly intelligent and diligent religious people who had the right connections in society. No Jesus chose ordinary people when making his selection. Jesus was looking for people who would follow him when the going got tough and he was looking for attitude. Jesus could discern something in people and could see the potential which a person had to possess if they were to be a follower of his. The important word to note is that of potential and this not just true for the disciples but also with us. Jesus has described all Christians as those whom the Father has given him which also means that as far as Jesus is concerned we all possess potential because we have taken that first step in agreeing to follow him. Jesus knows everything about us and can discern a potential in us which we very often don’t see for ourselves. We have been chosen or selected whichever you prefer and as we follow Him our training proceeds and our heart is put right for the task in which we have been invited to participate.

So how should we react to that which God is calling us? I’ll give you an example.

There is a very interesting story that came from the rebuilding of St. Paul’s as the first building designed by Sir Christopher Wren was destroyed in the great fire of 1666 whilst still under construction so he had to begin again.

One morning, Wren, who was not personally known by many of the workers, stopped and asked three different laborers, all engaged in the same task, what they were doing. He got three different answers.

The first said, “I am cutting this stone.”

The second answered, “I am earning three shillings and six pence a day.”

The third man straightened up, squared his shoulders, and still holding his mallet and chisel, replied, “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build this great cathedral.”

They each had three different ways of looking at the same job.

The first one was just doing a task.

The second one was just earning a living.

The third was doing a small part of a great work. He did not personally know the architect or understand how his task fitted into the overall plan. But he believed that there was a plan and that by following it, he would help create something greater than himself.

Which worker do you think was getting the most satisfaction from his work? Which worker was really on board with Wren’s vision?

Today in our reading from Matthew we see Jesus calling those in whom he recognised the sort of potential he was looking for and they had been selected for having the right attitude. Due to the Gospel writers and others such as Paul we know that the disciples were not all clones of Jesus. Whilst they had the right attitude and answered their calling to follow Jesus they were still all different in the way in which they carried out their appointed ministries. There were many disciples but scripture concentrates on the twelve really close ones. Those outside of the twelve were also following Jesus in carrying out God’s great plan but in a way which brought out and developed their own potential. Just read Acts and the epistles and you see many references to people doing great things as they follow Jesus’ teaching and build up the church, the body of Christ.

Paul often describes followers of Jesus as being part of the same body. Each part is vital to making the whole thing work. To be fully functional we need everything to work and that includes the parts we cannot see and even the parts that are far too small for us to see. We as followers of Christ have answered a call to be Christian and like the willing worker of Christopher Wren we should be aware that there is a big picture which Jesus is asking us to work towards. It’s God’s plan and it is much bigger than us but at the same time it cannot be completed without us. The plan is that one day the world will be perfect and as willing workers all we can do to make this happen is to do the basics, love god and love our neighbour as our self. When we realise the magnitude of the task we sometimes put up barriers. We might think that this is far too big for us to be of any use whilst others leap straight in and with a great demonstration of faith give everything up to follow. However we must remember that even the chosen few close disciples were not clones of Jesus. Jesus is perfect and is the master of everything. When we follow him we are in training and it is due to that we develop our potential. It’s a life’s work for us and we should not be discouraged. There are many barriers and I believe that one is that we look at what others do and dwell too much on what we think we cannot achieve rather than carrying on in faith. What we all too often do is to fail to appreciate our potential and maybe don’t recognise the power which Jesus has brought to our lives. I’ve been coming to St Mary’s for twenty seven years and have known most of you for many years. Over those years I have seen you develop in Christ as you have faithfully attended St Mary’s and carried out many duties. You’ve lived worked and witnessed in the places where you go and brought a Christian influence to all that you have done. The Holy Spirit has been working in you. This is true for all Christians to varying degrees so if you’re here for the first time today stay engaged with the process of following Jesus and you will develop.

However none of us are perfect and none of us have arrived at that stage where we can say we know it all because God’s plan is so magnificent. Our apprenticeship is a work for life and it is one where we are always learning whilst we try and emulate our teacher and master craftsman Jesus. Apprentices make mistakes. Have you ever made a mistake at work and felt awful about it? I bet you did. Being an apprentice for Jesus is just the same, we do make mistakes but the important thing is that we learn from these and move on. Justified by faith we have the assurance that we will be forgiven so there is no excuse for us not to take the hard knock of failure, or the fear of it, and to get back to the task of helping Jesus bring Gods plan to perfection.

In my own apprenticeship as a Christian I know that I have not got my heart sorted out in all sorts of areas but I take comfort in the fact that Jesus has not given up on me and that he is still teaching me. It’s up to me to keep turning up for my work with him and doing my best to discern what I can do to make the wider plan of God a reality. Not an easy task.

A question we should all ask ourselves is this, “Here I am Lord with all my imperfections, please guide me in the ways which will help me to appreciate what Jesus is doing for me and how I can help others to benefit from his teaching.”

A final note on apprentices. By taking on an apprentice you are in a way taking a risk because you invest a lot of time and effort in the person you have selected. God the father has invested in us and sees a potential which quite often we do not recognise for ourselves. All we need to do is to live and learn his values and pray that a right heart will be created in each of us. And so as we listen for the prompting of the Holy Spirit we grow in faith and stay on track for reaching our true potential.