Trusting Jesus

Mark 7:24-29

This is one of those very hard passages in the bible

In verse 27, Jesus answers the woman with what seems an incredibly offensive statement: "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

He calls her a dog.

It was the term that Jews used for Gentiles (the Gentiles could be just as abusive when talking about the Jews). Some commentators say that the word that Jesus uses here is the word that means 'little pet dog', but even if that is the case, it doesn't really change things.

Jesus calls her a dog and says that the good things - God's salvation, healing and life - are for the children: for the Jews.

It is not politically correct.

The woman however,

• does not seem to be offended
  
  Maybe she had not expected an answer at all. After all she knew that she was not only a Gentile, but a woman, coming to a Jewish rabbi. Most Jewish rabbis would not have even bothered to speak to her. At least Jesus speaks to her.
  
• accepts the premise: she does not challenge the validity of Jesus' statement. Instead she answers, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
  
• perseveres in her request: she is after all desperate

Most of us here are, I guess, of Gentile descent. We are not Jews. And this passage is particularly for us

It is, as Tom Wright points out in his commentary, a highly political incident. It is not simply the story of how a Gentile woman throws herself on Jesus' mercy, gives a witty reply and receives the answer to her prayer. There is something much more radical happening.

In Mark 7:1-23, Jesus has effectively broken down the divide between things that are clean and unclean. It was a very physical divide, and being ritually clean was one of the very visible ways that Jews separated themselves from Gentiles. The Jew refrained from doing things that would make them ritually unclean, and they observed rituals that made them clean. But Jesus, in Mark 7, states that ritual cleanness or uncleaness is irrelevant. He says the real difference is not between those who are ritually clean and those who are ritually unclean, but between those who are clean on the inside and those who are unclean on the inside. In other words he has gone quite some way to breaking down the divide between Jew and Gentile

Now he has left Bethsaida and gone to Tyre, a Gentile region, because he needs to be on his own for a while. But this Gentile woman comes to him, and she tells him about her daughter who is possessed by, and the word that Mark uses is, an 'unclean' spirit.

So what will Jesus do. Will he remove that which makes her daughter unclean on the inside? In other words, has Jesus come to totally abolish all distinction between Jew and Gentile.

And the disciples would be waiting to see how Jesus answered the woman. How far would he go?

Would he send her away -
Or would he heal her daughter - abolishing all difference between Jew and Gentile?

He does neither. Instead by his answer

1. Jesus affirms the priority of the Jewish people

When he says to her: ""First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.", he is saying very clearly that there is a difference and that he has come first for the Jewish people.

It was Abraham, a descendant of Shem (hence the word Semite), who was chosen by God to be the father of a people who would be God's representatives in the world and bring God's blessing to the world. (As an aside, it is interesting that God chose a family through which to bless the world, rather than a people who lived in a particular place.) And it was to the Jews that the word of God was given - the word of God's presence and guidance and protection and blessing. It was to the Jews that the laws were given - good laws, laws that enable people to live. It was to the Jews that the warnings were given - warnings that if they strayed from God, if they were unfaithful, then disaster would happen. It was to the Jews that the sacrifices and priesthood were given, so that they could know that they were forgiven and that God would hear them when they prayed. And it was to the Jews that the promise of a messiah, a deliverer, a saviour was given - who would come and usher in the Kingdom of God and its reign of healing and peace and love.

And in her answer, "Yes Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs", she is recognising that - as Jesus put it - salvation comes from the Jews. She realises (and many of the Jews did not realise this) that she is kneeling before the Jewish messiah.

And as Christians we need to remember that to seek Jesus, to kneel down at Jesus feet, to seek his mercy, is to kneel down before the word of God that came to the Jewish people; it is to receive the history and the legacy of the Jewish people as our history and legacy. It is to receive the Old Testament as the word of God

A Jewish lady was in this church last year and she looked up at the star of David window above the entrance to the chancel. And she asked, "That is a Jewish symbol. Why is it in a Christian church?" And my answer was that as Christians we believe that Jesus is the descendant of David, not just in biological terms, but in terms of the promise. He is the one who was the child who God promised to David who would reign for ever and who would bring in God's Kingdom.

So we do need to remember that the people who God first called to be his children were the physical biological descendants of Abraham through Sarah. We need to remember the very special place that they had in the plans of God, and that they still have in the heart of God. There is no place for anti-semitism, or anti-anybodyism for that matter, in this world. But there is particularly no place for anti-semitism in the church, and it is to our shame that there have been times when the Christian church has led the persecution of the Jews.

So Jesus affirms the priority of the Jewish people

2. Jesus extends the mercy of God to all people

Jesus answers her request. He removes the unclean spirit from within her daughter. In other words he is saying, 'the Jews have priority; I am the Jewish messiah; but now God's mercy extends to all people'.

But notice why Jesus grants her request.

It is not because she gives a witty reply; it is not because she somehow deserves Jesus to answer her request. It is because she throws herself on Jesus' love and mercy. She realises that what she will receive from Jesus will be complete gift.

And we need to remember that what we receive from Jesus we receive as complete gift.

We have done nothing to deserve it.

The cry of the woman, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." has become part of our communion service: "We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same Lord, whose nature is always to have mercy .."

The woman could have said: "But I'm also a child of God and so I deserve the good things". That is how she would be told to answer today: stand up for yourself and for your rights. But she knows that before God she is not worthy to receive anything; before God she has nothing that she can demand. She is completely dependent on the mercy of Jesus.

It is a very difficult thing to be helpless. And before God we are helpless. There is nothing we can demand, and there is nothing we can offer.

I do not know what it is that we are crying out for: it might be for a sick child, or a child who we have lost. It might be for someone who is the grip of something that is destroying them - something or someone that cannot be removed by medicine, or education, or psychotherapy. It might be for a desperate longing: for a reconciliation with someone, for a partner, for a child, for a particular job, for peace. It might be that we are in a pit that is so deep we simply cannot see any way out: a financial disaster or marriage crisis. It might be that we have messed up and are in deep trouble - maybe nobody else knows about it. It might be for forgiveness, for meaning in life or intimacy with God.

I do not know. What I do know is that before God we are helpless; we have no right to receive anything, but that because of Jesus, whoever we are - Jew or Gentile - we can cry out to Jesus to have mercy.

And I also know that because of Jesus, the Jewish messiah, the saving mercy of God extends to all people. He will answer our prayers. Sometimes immediately and wonderfully, as in this case. Sometimes we may need to exercise faith. And sometimes he may answer our prayers not as we wish, and in very painful ways for us, but ways that actually are for the ultimate best.

There is one more thing that I would like to say. I spoke earlier about us as Gentiles having no rights before God. But because of Jesus death we do now have one right: the right to become children of God. In other word, although we are not worthy to even gather up the crumbs under God's table, we have been invited to come up and to sit at the table - not as servants of God, not even as friends of God, but as children of God.

Loving Jesus

John 21:15-19

We’re looking today at Jesus’ question to Peter: “Do you love me?’

It is an unusual question.
Peter has denied, let down Jesus. Three times he has told people: “I do not know the man”

Jesus could have asked him:
Are you sorry?
Will you be loyal to me?
Will you lay down your life for me?

Instead, Jesus asks Peter, “Do you truly love me?”

At the heart of the Christian life is love for God.

It is the first and great command.

To know God, to trust God is to love God. Because God is love.

We do not love God because either we do not know God, or because we do not love love.

Ø When we look at the one who is completely other to us, who is eternal (beyond all ages), who is bigger than all our concepts or categories, who created us with a word, and yet who loves us personally and knows us by name – how can we not love him?
Ø When we look at the one who made us and this world, who gives us life, beauty, music, creativity – how can we not love him?
Ø When we look at the one who welcomes us, who forgives us, who accepts us, who gives us the right to become his children, to share in the intimacy that Jesus had with him – how can we not love him?
Ø When we look at the one who gives us his promises, so that even when we go through difficult and dark times, even when everyone else deserts us, there is hope – how can we not love him?
Ø When we look at the one who gave us his only Son, and with his Son gave us everything: identity, purpose, fulfilment – how can we not love him?
Ø When we look at the one who gives us his Holy Spirit, his presence to live in us, strengthen us and guide us – how can we not love him?
Ø When we look at the one who even when we deny him, in big ways or in little, goes on loving us and who gives us second or third chances – how can we not love him?


1. Jesus asks Peter to go back to the beginning.

Peter has made a fairly clear declaration of commitment to Jesus

He has said: “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you”. (John 13:37)

But Jesus does not want Peter to make a statement of commitment.
This is not the time and place.
Peter has made great statements in the past – and he has messed up.

Jesus, in his love, simply wants to give Peter the opportunity of saying to him, “I love you”

Peter does love Jesus

He is someone who has been touched by grace – and he has responded in the only way possible: with love.

When Jesus called him, Peter was given the gift of seeing himself as he was, and seeing Jesus as he was. He didn’t like what he saw. He said, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man”. But Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be a fisher of men”.

And Peter is devoted to Jesus:
He is the first to confess who Jesus is
He is horrified when Jesus tells them that he is going to be crucified
He pledges his undying loyalty to Jesus
When they come to arrest Jesus, it is Peter who takes out his sword and tries to defend him
When the others run away in the garden of Gethsemane, when they arrest Jesus, it is Peter who follows Jesus
It is Peter who is the first to get to the tomb when the women tell them that they have seen the risen Jesus
It is Peter who, when he sees Jesus on the shore, earlier in chapter 21, jumps out of the boat fully clothed to meet him.

And it is because Peter loves Jesus that he is so devastated that he has denied Jesus.

And now Jesus takes Peter back to the beginning:

He is not asking Peter to make a declaration of commitment, a statement that even Peter will not fully believe is possible
He is simply asking Peter to declare his love for him here and now

“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than all of these”

There is a time and place for commitments.

Preachers will ask people to make commitments. “Will you give your life to Jesus? Will you follow him for the rest of your life?”

But I am not sure that God is particularly looking for statements of commitment. What he does look for, particularly when we mess up, is a declaration of love.
He is allowing us to declare the love that we have for him, out of which commitment flows.

The question that Jesus asks Peter is a question that he asks each one of us: “Do you truly love me?”

And the answer that we give? With Peter we say, “Lord, you know ..”, but if there is spark of love for Jesus, a spark of gratitude, a glimpse of a recognition for what God has done for us, or even just a desire to love Jesus more, then I think that we can answer: “I love you”

That is all that God and Jesus need. They can work with that.

2. Jesus asks Peter to look at himself

Jesus asks Peter: “Do you love me more than these?” – no doubt looking round at the other disciples. “Do you love me, more than they love me?”
Peter’s answer is significant. He simply says, “Lord, you know that I love you?”

Peter has given up making comparisons.

He may indeed love Jesus more than the others.
But he doesn’t know.

Please, we do not judge other Christians as to where they stand with God. We may agree with them on certain issues. We may profoundly disagree with them. But it is not our place to assess whether we love God or Jesus more or less than they do. Our job is to declare our own love.

Peter’s commission is to ‘feed the sheep’, not to judge the extent of the love of the sheep. That is between them and God.

The important question is not how much they love Jesus, but how much you or I love Jesus

So Peter gives up worrying about other people. Well, almost. In the next few verse, after Jesus has told Peter what will happen to him, Peter sees John. And Peter says to Jesus, “What about him?” And Jesus reminds Peter of that great spiritual truth: “Mind your own business”.

3. Jesus recommissions Peter

Three times Peter denies Jesus
Three times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?”
Three times Peter says “Lord, you know I do”
And three times Jesus tells Peter, “Feed my sheep”

Jesus gives Peter a new calling. He is still to be an evangelist, “a fisher of men”
Now, he is to “feed my sheep”, to be a pastor and a teacher

I wonder what you imagine to be the qualifications for a pastor.
Based on our passage, I suspect that they are twofold:
Ø An awareness of their own sin
Someone once said to me that if I am ever shocked by someone else’s sin, then I do not know myself well enough
Ø An awareness of the love and forgiveness and redeeming power of God.

There is one more thing.

Don’t get me wrong. Declarations of commitment are important.

When we were thinking about working in Russia, we wondered whether God was calling us or not. We tried to push several doors and nothing happened. And then someone wrote us on a postcard a very simple message: “Say your prayers and make your commitment”. We did that, very consciously. Literally, three days later, out of the blue, we had a phone call from the States and a man said, “I’m hoping to set up a bible training college in Russia, and I’m having a conference in Riga in two weeks time. Can you be there”. And that was the beginning of the opening of doors.


Peter has said: “Lord, I will lay down my life for you”

The first time that there might have been the possibility of that happening, he bottled out: “I don’t know him”

But Peter continued to follow Jesus, and in the end he did lay down his life for Jesus. He laid down his life for Jesus in his death; but more than that, he laid down his life for Jesus by the life that he lived. He was sold out for Jesus.

And the reason that he was prepared to do that was quite simple. He knew that Jesus loved him; and he loved Jesus.

Following Jesus

Mark 1:14-20

I wonder who or what we follow?

Most of the time we are following things or ideas or people without realising it.

We follow the crowd. We do things in a particular way because that was how we were brought up or because ‘everybody’ lives this way. And if we start to be different, we begin to worry: ‘am I a freak’?

Sometimes we consciously follow something. It might be a team or a hobby or a career; fashion – the girl dressed up in the Goth gear is making a statement: she is saying – ‘I’m not following you - I’m following an alternative society’. Or we follow a cause: cats, the environment, anti-war. I had an eccentric uncle who waged a one man campaign against the putting of fluorine in water.
And sometimes we follow a person: a parent, an anti-parent (someone who is not like our parent), a celebrity, a boss, a friend, a religious leader or a political leader

A journalist, a man called William Allen White, wrote of his first meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt in 1897:

“He sounded in my heart the first trumpet call of the new time that was to be.… I had never known such a man as he, and never shall again. He overcame me. And in the hour or two we spent that day at lunch, he poured into my heart such vision, such ideals, such hopes, such a new attitude toward life and patriotism and the meaning of things, as I had never dreamed men had.… After that, I was his man”.


In our reading Jesus comes up to Simon and Andrew and calls them to ‘follow me’. It is an invitation that comes to them, and it is an invitation that comes to each one of us

1. IT IS AN INVITATION TO FOLLOW A PERSON

The Christian life is about a relationship with Jesus Christ.

In verse 15, Jesus declares: "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

That is the theology. In verse 16 we come to the practice: Jesus comes to Simon and Andrew and says: "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men." And later, he sees James and John. “Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him”.

In other words, Jesus is the good news.
Believing the good news is the same as following Jesus.
We can know all the stuff that we need to know, but if we are not willing to follow Jesus it counts for nothing.

For Peter, Andrew, James and John it really was a call to literally follow Jesus on a journey. To be his companions. It was not an unusual call: many rabbis would have their own travelling disciples.

But it was more than the call to become an itinerant rabbi’s companions.

The call to follow Jesus was and is a call to listen to him, to do what he does, to love the way he loves, to pray the way he prays, to go where he leads

It is the call to trust him.

“The story is told that a national magazine assigned a photographer to take pictures of a forest fire. They told him a small plane would be waiting at the airport to fly him over the fire.
The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane stood waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, "Let's go!" The pilot, a tense-looking man, turned the plane into the wind, and soon they were in the air, though flying erratically.
"Fly over the north side of the fire," said the photographer, "and make several low-level passes."
"Why?" asked the nervous pilot.
"Because I’m going to take pictures!" yelled the photographer. "I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures."
The pilot replied, "You mean you’re not the flight instructor?"

The call to follow Jesus is not to go with a pilot who doesn’t know what he is doing. But it is the call to come on the most astonishing journey.

Following Jesus for the first Christians was awesome and gloriously unpredictable. One day he was wrecking a funeral: bringing the person back from the dead; the next he commands a storm to be still; he then takes them to meet a violent lunatic who nobody can control; he asks them to feed 5000 people with a few loaves and fishes, and provides wine out of water. He sends them out to preach the kingdom, heal the sick and cast out demons. He is overwhelmed by people wanting him to heal their sick, but is constantly on the move preaching the Kingdom of God. He resolutely sets out to go to Jerusalem even though they are going to kill him there. And when they thought he was dead and that the journey was over, he explodes back to life again and tells them that his Spirit will live in them.

The call to believe the Good News is the call to follow a person
It is not primarily about subscribing to a set of beliefs
It is not about obeying a moral code
It is not even about doing certain ‘religious’ things
It is about putting our trust in Jesus Christ and letting him lead us.

2. THERE IS A COST TO THIS CALL

Jesus says, “Repent and believe the Good News”.
Repentance is about a mental U-turn. It is about realising that the Kingdom of God, heaven, the ultimate, ‘the meaning of life, the universe and everything’ is not to be found by following the crowd, by pursuing money or career, or power. It is not to be found in seeking to satisfy our very human desires. It is not to be found in finding another person. It is to be found in Jesus

That meant for James and John that they left their father and their father’s business

And yes, following Jesus is about putting our hand in his hand. It is about intimacy and comfort and reassurance and hope. But it is more than that. If we follow Jesus he will lead us out of our comfort zones, he will take us through the hedges that we grow to separate us from other people, and there will be times when we need to risk everything to follow him.

But even though there was and is a cost, it is worth it.

There was something about Jesus Christ that was so magnetic, that Simon and Andrew stopped what they were doing and followed him.
There was something about his call that made James and John leave the family business and follow him. They wanted in on this.
There is something about his call that has made countless men and women, including people here, change the whole direction of their life and follow him.

Following Jesus is about following someone who loves us. It is about following someone who desires to lead us to our true identity, purpose and destiny. It is about living the God stuff: preaching the Kingdom, healing the sick, loving people; confronting, in Jesus name, the demons that trap us in order to destroy us and others. It is about following someone who desires that we find fulfilment and freedom: a life that can be controlled not by the crowd or by what others think I should be doing or by guilt or fear, but by love and by God.

It is worth it


3. IT IS A CALL TO BECOME

Jesus says to Simon and Andrew, ‘Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men’

If we respond to the call to follow Jesus then we are responding to a call to change, to be changed.

If you are not willing to be changed, then do not come to Jesus

Jesus is in effect saying to Simon and Andrew, ‘Come follow me and I will make you such attractive people that you will draw other people to me’.

Jesus is saying to them: ‘Let me make you beautiful – not on the outside (that will happen in heaven), but on the inside. Let me make you so loving, so gracious, so gentle, so peace-making, so giving, so full of life, so different – that people will see me in you’

And the call is not just to them. Jesus’ call comes to each one of us. It comes to us whatever we do, whoever we are. It is the call to let God change you, to become the person God would make you to be.

It is important to realise that. We think that we need to be perfect to follow Jesus. No, Simon Peter wasn’t perfect before Jesus called him. He wasn’t perfect after Jesus called him. And you won’t be perfect before Jesus calls you, and you won’t be perfect after he’s called you.

But Simon Peter was on a journey (we’re going to be looking at that over the next few weeks), and you will be on a journey. I do not know where he will take you: that really is between you and him.

But I do know that the one who calls us can be trusted and that the call to follow Jesus is exciting. It is liberating. It is about getting involved in God’s purposes for his world today; it is about living life the way God made it to be lived. It is about becoming the sort of people who God made us to be.

Trinity Sunday 2007

ROMANS 5:1-5

Today is Trinity Sunday

I suspect that many of us have been brought up to think of the Trinity as a problem to be solved: a mathematical conundrum. How can 3 be 1 and 1 be 3.

And so we have heard the Trinity described as a venn diagram, or as ice-water-steam, or as one person in three roles.

May I very apologetically suggest that you forget them. They are actually about as useful as Robbie Coultrane in Nuns on the Run.

The Trinity is not a problem to be solved. The Trinity is about a life to be lived.

For me, one of the most helpful ways for understanding the Trinity is Rublev's icon of the Trinity

Three figures seated around a table. They’re the three angels who appear to Abraham at Mamre – when they tell him that he is going to have a child. Christian tradition very quickly identified them with the three persons of the Trinity.

Notice how, although there are three figures, there is a unity about them.

Ø They are the same age (they have been from before time began, from the beginning of eternity, together)

Ø They have the same face (Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is ‘the exact representation of the being of the Father’ – according to Hebrews: there is no vengeful brooding Father hidden behind a loving Son: what we see in Jesus (his love, his mercy, his passion for righteousness, his anger at sin and his judgement) is what we get in God the Father;

Ø They have the same naff hairstyle (I can’t read any theological significance into that!)

Ø They are all dressed in royal blue, and hold a sceptre of authority. The Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God. What the Son speaks, the Father speaks; what the Spirit does, the Father does; When I bow before the Son, I bow before the Father: if I turn my back on the Spirit, I turn my back on the Son and on the Father.

But although there is a unity about them, there is also a uniqueness about each of the figures.

We look at the Father.

The Father wears the gold. And the heads of the other two are inclined towards him.

The Father is the main man of the Trinity (although that is probably the wrong word because God is bigger than, beyond sexuality). Behind the Father is a house. Heaven and earth are the Father’s house. Jesus talks of ‘my Father’s house’.

It is also from the Father that the other two come. The Son is ‘eternally begotten’ of the Father. The Spirit proceeds, ‘goes out of’ (John 15:26) the Father.

And in Romans 5, Paul talks about ‘peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’. Ultimately the Christian life is about peace with Father God. The God who we worship is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray to ‘Our Father in heaven’. We live, as Jesus lived, for the glory of our Father in heaven.

And Romans 5 verse 2 hints at our destiny. It is tied up with Father God: “We rejoice in our hope of the glory of God”.

The glory of God, Irenaeus said, is a human being fully alive. And we can only be fully alive when we are in relationship with God, at peace with God.

And we are invited to come into this relationship, into the intimacy that is shared by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you look at the icon, you can see that there are two movements within the circle. There is the movement of the head, a movement of submission before the Father from whom all things come and to whom all things will return (1 Corinthians 15:28); and a movement of the fingers, out from the Father, a movement of blessing, of life and love.

And we, you and me, are invited to join into this movement, into this circle of submission: by the Spirit, through the Son to the Father. But we are also invited, through the act of submission, to join into the movement of blessing and life, that flows from the Father, through the Son by the Holy Spirit, out to us.

This circle is open to all people. Everyone is invited to join in this company, this fellowship. Everyone is invited to sit and eat with the Father, and to share in this love.

And that is to be reflected in our communities. I believe that St John’s still uses a logo of people, centred on the cross, but in a circle reaching out to others.


We look at the Son

The Son wears the garment of the priest. Behind him is the tree. In front of him is the communion cup. And the table around which they meet is the stone on which the dead body would have been laid. But the body is not there.

Romans 5 tells us that it is through the Son that we have access to the Father. It is because he gave himself for us, because he died for us. The cross is the demonstration of the love of God. How do I know that God loves me, when later verses talk of the wrath of God against sin, and all the things that happen in my life seem to point to the contrary? Very simply: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”

Please, my brothers and sisters, this is so important. We have peace with God not because we’re good or righteous or holy. We have peace with God because, in love, he sent his Son to die for us.

And that is good news, because we are all messed up people; we all have dark places in our lives (and if they came out into the open we would die of shame); we all live lies to different degrees (whether hidden lives or the masks that we all wear); and our motives are all pretty mixed up and some of them are quite murky.

If it was down to us, there is no way that we could have peace with God. How could we have peace with God when we are so often not at peace with ourselves, let alone our neighbours.

But the good news is that it is not up to us. It is God’s gift. God in his mercy and love has reached out to us. Through Jesus, he has invited us to come to him; and through Jesus he has made it possible to come to him.

Notice that as we come to receive the cup, we begin to share the life of the Trinity. But also notice that the shape of the Father and the Spirit also make a cup, and as we come to Jesus, so we begin to share in the life of the Trinity.


We look at the Spirit

The Holy Spirit wears green. He is the life giver. But behind him is this thing that looks like a wave. It is in fact a rock, a symbol of the wilderness.

So often the place of meeting with God is the desert place. So often the place where God works with us most powerfully is in the place where humanly we feel totally abandoned and deserted.

It was true for Abraham (costly obedience), for Moses (40 years in the wilderness), for Hannah (tormented by her rival and crying out to God for a baby), for David (running for his life), for Paul (inner turmoil), for Peter (having let down Jesus and the other disciples). It was even true for Jesus.

That is why Paul in Romans 5 can talk of rejoicing in our suffering. Why? Because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us.

It is all very well having a great faith when things are going well, when prayers are being answered as we would have them answered, when God feels close. But usually all that does is make us feel that we can take on the world. The real character formation takes place when we are out of our depth, when things are going badly, when it seems that God has walked out on us. That is the point when we need to persevere, to stand firm.

Notice again the double movement in the icon. The movement of submission and the movement of blessing. They go together. It was because Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient even to death on a cross”, that “God has given him the name that is above all other names”.

But the Spirit is also the one who is on the edge of this circle, in the sense that the movement of blessing comes out from him; and that the movement of submission begins with him.

He is the one who touches our hearts and minds: who convinces us of our sin and our need for God, who persuades us that the things of this world are provisional, and who points us to the things of God (that is a very loose translation of John 16:8-11). It is the Holy Spirit who comforts us and gives us hope. It is the Holy Spirit who brings his Word alive, and speaks to our heart and mind. And it is the Holy Spirit who begins to pour into us the love of God, that enables us, that gives us the confidence to submit to the one who loves us, even when it seems that he does not.


So today, as we draw near to receive communion, try and imagine that we are not simply being invited to come to the table to receive bread and wine to remember Jesus death. You are being invited by the Spirit to join into this communion, to receive Jesus, to submit to the Father who loves you, to rest in his presence, and to join in the movement of blessing that comes out from Him.

Wedding Talk

The story is told about the bride who was walking up the aisle. She was trying to remember the order of the service, and she was heard muttering under her breath, ‘Aisle – Altar – Hymn’

It is a dodgy attitude to go into marriage with. Marriage, people say, is about give and take. There is the old quip: “She gives – I take”
But I would suggest that marriage is about give and give and give, and when you’ve given everything you can, you give again.

It is about GIVING TIME TO THE OTHER.

We live such busy lives. And in the middle of all the activity, we need to give time to the other person.

Yes, we need time to be alone (but that is often not a problem). We also need time to be together.

We need to give time to do the things the other person wants: going out; doing what they enjoy

And we to give time to talk to each other and to listen to each other. Many couples I know will try to put aside one evening a week, even when – particularly when – there are children, in order to do something together that they both enjoy so that they are able to talk.

The three key words for any marriage, for any relationship are ‘communication, communication, communication’.

And marriage is about GIVING EMOTIONAL SUPPORT to each other. It is about being there for the other person.

That means being open with each other: open about what we are doing, what we are thinking, what we are feeling. And that can be the hard part. It is very easy to freeze the other person out. We need to learn to say to the other, and to allow the other to say to us: “I’m hurting” or “I’m confused” or simply “I need you”.

Some of us, and I think that this is particularly true of men, can be a bit like unemptied vacuum cleaners. We take in all the stuff of life, we think we can deal with it ourselves, and in the end we clog up.

And marriage is about BUILDING THE OTHER PERSON UP. In marriage you cease to belong to yourself. You belong to the other person. So when we build up the other person, we build up ourselves.

We need to be like Rugby players at a lineout and not dodgy footballers at a corner. When the corner is sent over, dodgy footballers leap onto the shoulders of their opponents to push them down so that they can go up higher. But when the ball is thrown in at a lineout, the Rugby players gather round one of their team mates and lift him up so that he get the ball.

In our marriages we are in the business of lifting the other person up – to encourage them, to say thank you, to be there for them when they fall.

Someone once said, “If you wish to be married to a princess, treat her like one”.

So marriage is about giving yourself to the other person: totally. All that you have, all that you are, all that you feel.


But marriage is not only about giving. It is also about ACCEPTING EACH OTHER.

If you give yourself to another person that much, then it is very easy to be hurt.

And today you have said “YES” to each other.

A couple who had just celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary were interviewed on television. He was asked what the secret of the success of their marriage was. He replied: “It is two words”. “What are those?” asked the interviewer. He replied, “Yes, dear”

But it is true. It is about both of you saying to the other, “Yes, dear”

Marriage isn’t only about an arrangement
Marriage isn’t only about a feeling

There will certainly be times when you don’t feel in love with each other, and there may even be times when you ‘feel’ in love with someone else. But that doesn’t matter.

Marriage is ultimately about a COMMITMENT – a commitment that you have made here in Church in front of us and in front of God.

It is about a ‘Yes’ that you have said to each other.

Ø Yes, we are going to give ourselves to each other

Ø Yes, we are going to work through our difficulties

Ø Yes, we are going to accept each other – with all the faults, problems, hang ups and funny little habits

Marriage is about a big Yes that eats up all the little no ’s


WE NEED GOD to help live like this. 1 Corinthians 13 talks of the kind of love that God is asking of us. No one can love like that without God.

We need to know God’s love for us, before we can begin to love
We need to know God’s forgiveness for us, before we are set free to forgive

(as an aside: it is worth bearing in mind Ogden Nash’s advice.

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in your marriage cup -
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up!)

We need to know God’s acceptance of us, before we can truly accept another.
We need to know God’s hope, so that we can trust and go on trusting even when we’ve been hurt
We need to know God’s power, so that we can change and work through the difficulties.
We need to know God’s YES to us so that we can learn to say YES to each other.

You need God’s help. And I would encourage you to spend time getting to know him: coming along to church, picking up a bible and reading one of the books about the life of Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John), going on one of the many churches offer: Alpha or Christianity Explored.

You also need our help, the help of family and friends: our love, support, at times our distance, and our prayers.

So our prayer for you today is that God will bless you both richly, and that through your marriage many others will be blessed.

The Holy Spirit

ACTS 2:1-13

The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force – he is a person

Ø He comes as fulfilment of Jesus’ promise
Ø He comes at a time when the Father in heaven chooses
Ø He comes, as a person, to persons: to ‘each one’. It is a strong theme in Acts 2. Peter, later on, recalls a prophecy made about 600 years earlier, when God says through a man called Joel: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people”, men and women, old and young.
Ø He comes every time in a unique way: on this occasion he came with wind and with tongues of fire. But there is no formula, no single pattern.

Sometimes he will come with shaking and heat. Sometimes he will come and there will be weeping and joy. Sometimes he comes and there will be falling over. Sometimes he comes and people will speak in tongues. Sometimes he comes and there will be an overwhelming sense of peace and the presence of God.


But when the Holy Spirit comes upon the church and upon individuals, a number of things happen.


1. People are released to praise God.

The disciples speak in tongues. They don’t understand what they are saying, but others do. They are ‘Praising God’: “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues”.

2. People will be amazed:

The words that Acts 2 uses are ‘bewilderment’, ‘utterly amazed’, ‘amazed and perplexed’ - and later on, ‘everyone was filled with awe’.

The Spirit will break open our assumptions, and disrupt our patterns.

3. People will be mocked:

When things happen that we don’t understand, that are slightly threatening to us – because they challenge our assumptions – we try and to explain away. And if we can’t, then we mock. In this case the disciples were accused of being drunk

4. People will be changed

We read about that at the end of the chapter (vv42-47): there is faithful discipleship; things were happening; there was a real – and very practical - unity among the Christians; there was an overwhelming generosity: people sold their stuff in order to help other people who were in need; and there was great joy.

5. People will be converted

3000 were converted on the day of Pentecost. And v47 tells us that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Why? Because the Spirit of God was touching people and drawing them into the community of believers.


So often we operate our Christian life at the level of duty.

Now don’t get me wrong. Duty is essential in the Christian life. It is actually something that is desperately needed in our churches today. We need men and women who will do their duty to God: who will read their bible and say their prayers daily, who will come to church, and be obedient – even when they do not wish to do so. I like the story of the student who was converted. His friend had been talking with him about Jesus for many months. The student went up to see his friend. He was so excited. “I’ve invited Jesus into my life – and he’s so real”. “Great”, replies the friend, “We’re going to go out and buy you a bible and an alarm clock”.

Duty is essential. The words that the bible uses for the idea of duty are the words ‘self-discipline’ and ‘perseverence’ and ‘faithfulness’. They are actually all works of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

But duty on its own is not enough. A religion that is based on duty will inevitably lead to legalism. And legalism has two little brothers: pride and inadequacy. If I do my duty I feel proud. If I don’t do my duty, I feel condemned.

A Christian faith that is based purely on duty is like a relationship, a marriage that is based purely on duty. It’s stable, it’s bearable but not very attractive.

Last week I was talking with someone about his daily cycle of prayer. I would give him full marks for discipline. But I found it very hard to see where the joy was for him, or the intimacy with God or the love, or the life. It was simply a duty.

And there is a real danger that our relationship with God becomes sheer duty: we have a fixed pattern of daily prayer; we come along to the prayer meetings, home groups and church. And maybe we enjoy the company, or the music, or the building – but actually our relationship with God has become stale. It is about maintaining a stable and very formal relationship. We’ve lost – or maybe have never known – the love and the joy.

I have a suspicion that the single strongest reason why we do not share our faith with others is because we do not really think that we have much to share.

The problem is that if I do not know the peace and joy and freedom and hope and life that come from knowing Father God – if my faith is simply duty bound – why should I wish for someone else to become a Christian? Why should I impose on them all my hang-ups?


I don’t know what language you use for this. Some people talk about the baptism of the Spirit; some people talk about being filled anew with the Spirit. I don’t actually think it matters. What does matter is that we need to pray that God will pour out his Spirit on us – that he will renew us with his love, and that he will refresh our intimacy and that he will restore our passion.

Some of us will be confused – we really do not know what to make of it all. We need the Holy Spirit to give us the courage to take that first step of faith – whether it is committing ourselves to Jesus or saying that we would like to be baptised or confirmed (with all that it means), or choosing to attend an introducing Jesus course, exploring Christianity or Alpha course

Some of us here will be weary – we need refreshment. You’ve been working your socks off for the kingdom, and the gauge has been bouncing on empty for as long as you can remember. We are giving ourselves and we’re not giving Jesus. And the problem is that while he is infinite, we are finite.

Some of us have become complacent – we need, not to put too fine a point on it, a kick up the spiritual backside. We had a routine; that became a rut. And the rut has got deeper: and as someone said, ‘The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth’. We need the Holy Spirit. It is his speciality to convince people of the reality of sin, of the fact that life apart from God has no future and of how to live right. But he needs us to allow him to do it.

Some of us find ourselves out of our depth. We’re going through things or doing things that are much too big for us. Or it seems that God is asking us to do something that we don’t think we can do. We need to know again the reassurance of God’s presence and guidance and equipping

And some of us have simply lost our way. We did believe it, but now we’re not so sure. We need the Holy Spirit to give us the courage to persevere through the darkness, and to break through and bring his light and hope.


I long for God to pour out his Spirit on us again: I’ve seen what happens when the Spirit has come on a group of people. There were about 30 of us gathered together. Someone had spoken. There really was such an awesome sense of God’s presence. Two people were converted. Eight or nine people experienced God in a completely new way. And over the rest of that term we saw a considerable number of people becoming Christians.

We need to trust the Father’s timing. And we need to trust Jesus’ promise.

The Spirit was given at the first Pentecost, but that does not stop him from coming again and again and again and again.


Martin Lloyd Jones used to say, “You claim you have the Spirit. That’s great. Where is he: where is the love, the joy, the freedom?” And he would go on to say: “People ask me if I believe in a second blessing. Of course I do. I believe in a second blessing, and a third, and a fourth, and a fifth. God, bless me, bless us, bless us”.

So I’m going to invite you to pray with me for the coming of the Spirit. We’ll remain seated. You don’t need to do anything. You can simply pray this prayer with me – and then we’ll wait in silence. And if you wish to, use the silence to invite God to send his Holy Spirit, to work in you through his Holy Spirit.

Ascension day 2007

LUKE 24:44-end

It is good for the Christians in Bury St Edmunds to gather together and to celebrate the ascension here

For those who do not know the story it is very simple.

Jesus was crucified
Three days later he rose from the dead
For a period of 40 days he appeared to his disciples

And Jesus uses those times
to convince them that he is alive
to demonstrate that the cross was as much a part of God’s plan as was the and resurrection
to prepare them for their future work: the preaching of repentance and forgiveness to all nations

And then, at the end of the 40 days, Jesus is taken from them into heaven. Luke simply says, “While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.”

So why celebrate the ascension? Is it not a sad day, the day that Jesus was taken from us?

We celebrate the ascension because it points us to another world

It is the very absence of the living physical Jesus which points us to another world: a world that is beyond what we can see, feel, hear, touch or smell.

But how do you describe a world that is beyond space and time?

The bible uses the language of ascension. We talk of heaven as being ‘up there’, even though we literally do not mean that it is up there.

CS Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia uses the language of a parallel universe. This universe can be entered, by gift, through things like wardrobes!

And there is a brilliant poem by Dr Seuss called Beyond Zebra. In it, the speaker tells of how his alphabet begins where everybody else’s alphabet ends. His alphabet begins after the letter ‘Z’

"I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends.

"My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!

My alphabet starts with this letter called YUZZ.

It's the letter I use to spell Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz.

You'll be sort of surprised what there is to be found

Once you go beyond Z and start poking around!

So, on beyond Zebra!

Explore!Like Columbus!

Discover new letters!

Like WUM is for Wumbus,

My high-spouting whale who lives high on a hill

And who never comes down 'til it's time to refill.

So, on beyond Z! It's high time you were shown

That you really don't know all there is to be known".

The ascension tells us that there is a world beyond what we know; a world beyond ‘Z’.

This is the world where Christ reigns in glory
This is a world of love, grace, truth, mercy, justice, beauty and righteousness

This is the world that we glimpse in moments of ‘otherness’: those moments when we see and realise our desperate brokenness and need for God – and at the same time are overwhelmed by his love for us.

And the good news that the church has to preach is that because of Jesus the door to this other world is now open, to all people. We preach that there can be repentance and that there is forgiveness.

And it is this world – this invisible world – that is the real thing.
We stand in the ruins of this great abbey. It was enormous. In its time, it was the third largest building in Europe. Now: it is a pile of stones. And one day, the cathedral church of St James and the civic church of St Mary’s will be like this (although if the Christian Platonists are correct there will be in heaven a transfigured St Mary’s, St James and Great Abbey – the real thing of which these buildings here are but shadows)

But the fact that there are ruins here now doesn’t matter: because as Christians we are, as Peter puts it, aliens and strangers in this world, and we look for a world that is beyond our world – a world where Jesus Christ is ascended.

So we celebrate the physical absence of the living Jesus, because it tells us that there is something more.

We celebrate the ascension because it tells us of the Lordship of Jesus

This is not an excuse for Christian triumphalism – for Christian imperialism – for the imposition of our views on others.

We’ve tried to do that in the past, and these ruins are a witness to what happens when we do that. We forgot that the one who we proclaim as LORD is the one who, out of love, was crucified for us.

And it is precisely because it is Jesus Christ who is Lord:

Ø that we are called to clothe ourselves with kindness, with perseverance, with faithfulness and with love.
Ø that we are called to turn our backs on the rewards of this world: the wealth, the possessions, the titles, the power in order to become servants of the powerless and dispossessed, whether here, or among the pockets of poverty that can still be found in our rural areas, or in our inner city estates, or overseas
Ø that we are called to identify with the broken, the child or young person who no-one can cope with, the mentally ill, the prisoner, with those who need 24 hour care
Ø that we are called to swallow our pride; to admit that we do not have all the answers; to admit that we get things wrong; to say sorry and to forgive
Ø that we are called to follow Jesus: to give everything that we have, to give our lives, in order that others might live
Ø that we are called to become like Jesus in his death: to become scum, the despised, the mocked of the earth in order that others may find the freedom that comes from discovering the truth that it is Jesus Christ who is Lord, and the realisation of the forgiveness and love of God.

It is because it is Jesus – the crucified and risen one - who is Lord of all, that we are not to be lords of all, but servants of all, for his sake. And it is because it is Jesus – the crucified and risen one – who is Lord of all, that we know that evil and death will not have the final word.


We celebrate the ascension because it is about the presence of Jesus in this world

The ascended Jesus is not physically here, as you are here or I am here. But because he has ascended, he is with us.

He says to his followers, “Stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high”: He is talking about the power that is the Holy Spirit – the power of his presence with us.

The paradox of the ascension is that as Jesus is taken from us up into heaven, so he becomes closer to us than the air that we are breathing. And this is not something to be explained or understood. This is something to be experienced, to be known, to be lived

People sometimes say, “If I could see him, then I would obey him”. I’m sorry. The logic of the ascension is the opposite. It is because Jesus is Lord in heaven, that we can know him on earth. Faith and obedience usually comes first.

It is as the disciples trust him and are obedient to his command, as they wait in Jerusalem, so his presence – through his Spirit – comes on them.

And it is as we trust him and are obedient to him in our daily lives, so we will know his presence among us.

And as we cease trying to live for ourselves, trying to prove ourselves and trust him and turn to him in prayer, submitting our will to his will, seeking his kingdom, laying our needs at his feet, he is with us.

And as we trust him and are obedient to his command to break bread and share wine in remembrance of him, so that other world – beyond Z – breaks into our world. And the risen ascended Jesus is present with us.

We celebrate the ascension because it points us forward to the future coming of Jesus

The thing that strikes me about the verses that we have read is that although the physical Jesus has gone, the disciples are filled with joy.

The ascension is soaked in hope: Jesus told the disciples that though he was going away, he would be with them. He also told them that just as he had gone into the heavens, so he would return. We don’t know when and we don’t know how. It will be the end of space and time as we know it. But we are told that on that day, this world and that world will collide, and that world will penetrate and consume this world, and on that day, “every knee will 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”.