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.

Easter Dawn Service - Sunday 27th March 2016 - Preacher: Craig Young

I chose this reading about the disciples on the road to Emmaus not because it is what we know comes next in the Easter story but because it makes me think about what it is that Jesus is doing.

I don’t know if you are like me and continually find new things in the Easter story and the preceding events surrounding the passion. For example I read during lent that when in the Garden of Gethsemane just before he was arrested Jesus prayed that this cup be taken from him. I read this time that whilst Jesus knew what had to happen to secure our salvation, that it wasn’t just his death which he feared but and this is the bit I hadn’t realized before, that he could not bear to be cut off from God whilst he took on our sin. Maybe you know this but for me it was a revelation which increased my understanding.

With that in mind the story of these two disciples on the way to Emmaus becomes one of comfort when you see what was actually going on. To understand the context we must consider what it must have been like for a disciple that day. Just looking at the time between Palm Sunday with that brilliant entrance into Jerusalem, that pinnacle of joy as they accompany Jesus; then as the week goes on the pure evil which envelopes them as the situation goes against them, particularly since the devil does not want Jesus to go to the cross. He tries everything to tempt him away from his mission to save the world.

Jesus prophesied that the disciples would desert him and here we have an account of two of them as they leave Jerusalem. I imagine that they would have been spiritually drained, exhausted, disillusioned, suffering from severe doubt and not knowing what will become of them. As they take their first steps away from Jerusalem and possibly their discipleship they encounter Jesus whom they do not recognize. As they walk together they discuss the previous week’s events. The disciples seem to know everything but have understood nothing so Jesus explains everything to them by relating all of the events to the prophets and what they had written about the Messiah. When they recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread they stop their journey which is taking them away from their discipleship and go straight back to join the others in Jerusalem. Jesus disappeared, job done, the disciples are back on track. The significant thing apart from the encounter with Jesus is that their hearts burned as the meaning of the scriptures was revealed to them. All of a sudden a light went on and they could see plainly what Jesus had accomplished and why.

Those of us here today will have a good reason to follow Jesus, maybe we will be able to point to a moment or an event in our life which has given the motivation to follow Christ or maybe it has been a gradual process which has led to our faith in him as Saviour. Maybe even a combination of the two but in any event I know that you are serious about Jesus. I know this because when I was speaking to Malcolm about how to prepare for this morning he said that anyone who gets up this early is really serious about Jesus. In a way each of us as Christians have had an encounter with Jesus, maybe not recognizing the event straight away but something has certainly happened so that we see more clearly in relation to our faith. However when the moment passes it may be a long time before we have another encounter so we should seek Jesus all the more. Where we find him is in the Bible. After all the two disciples were turned because the scriptures had been revealed to them and as we read further we find that what happened next after Jesus said peace be with you is that he taught the rest of the disciples the meaning of the scriptures and all that was promised to them.

From Johns Gospel we read this, “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.”

Jesus the Word Became Flesh and today we celebrate that the light is in the world and we can see that the darkness did not and will not overcome it. Jesus has given us all that we need to go forward in confidence and we have a great resource in the scriptures. It may be that all is not revealed, but it is there and as we live and work for Jesus we move towards that next revelation or encounter by studying the plain message. We have not to overcomplicate it for ourselves but we have to hang on to that bit which has been revealed to our heart, the bit that we understand and act on it. If at times we find ourselves walking away towards our own Emmaus we are to stop, find Jesus and to turn back towards God.

On that first Easter day Jesus was not having the day off. He was seeking out his disorganised disillusioned disciples and he was encouraging them. I believe that Jesus is still in the world and that there are still disciples who need encouraging. I know I do.

Our resurrected Lord came back with great power having secured our salvation.

It was by His power that the scattered disciples could throw off their disillusionment and despondency. It was by the risen power of Jesus that they could see and understand so that they could renew their commitment to follow him.

And so it is with us, it is by the power of the risen Jesus that we will ourselves be able to deepen our own commitment. As followers of Jesus we expect to be faithful and we can do this much more effectively when we trust in his power and not our own. It is by the power of Jesus that Gods great plan for humanity is revealed, just as it was to the disciples and it is by his power that we will be encouraged. Let us then go forward in faith and into the world full of confidence and with encouragement to meet Jesus the risen Christ. Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed alleluia.

St Mary's 9:30am Sermon - Sunday 13th March 2016

Sermon from St Mary's on Sunday 13th March

Reading: 1 Corinthians 11 v 17-34

Preacher: Dorothy Haile

This passage is about two meals. The early part of it (verses 20-22) sounds like a shared lunch gone horribly wrong, and then Paul goes on to some strong words about the importance and meaning of the Lord’s Supper, or Communion as we usually call it here. In order to see the connection Paul is making between these kinds of meal, which may at first look unconnected, I think it is helpful for us to think for a minute or two about the city of Corinth and the church.

This major city had a quarter of a million citizens plus many slaves and so was the largest and most diverse that Paul had come to. He arrived from Athens, probably in about AD 50. Corinth was a Roman colony, an important crossroads for sea and land routes, cosmopolitan, multi-cultural, a centre of commerce, wealth, idolatry and immorality. Paul worked there for about 18 months and many people came to faith. Inevitably, because of the sort of city Corinth was, the church was made up of a wide variety of people, who would not normally have had much to do with each other in a personal way. He had spent much of his time teaching these new Christians, who were learning to live their Christian lives in a very challenging environment, so he had a special relationship with them. Later he went to Ephesus, and it seems that while he was there he started to get news of divisions in the church at Corinth. There is lots of discussion in the commentaries about the exact sequence of events that led to what we now have in our New Testament as I and 2 Corinthians, but there is no disagreement that the situation in the church was pretty bad. When you read the letter you find Paul addressing very diverse – and sometimes rather odd - issues, but if we can remember that he is responding to reports, questions, and concerns, it may help us to see some themes.

In our passage verse 18 refers to divisions among the Christians, and in chapter 1 of the letter Paul says that there were factions – some of the Christians saying that they followed Paul, others, Apollos, others Peter and others that none of these men was as significant as Christ – they were the really spiritual people in fact! We can easily identify with this sort of division today, depending on which of the preachers and leaders we find most helpful, or most sympathetic to our particular views. These and other differences are inevitable, Paul says in verse 19, and they bring out the genuineness of our faith and how it is applied in our lives. I think he is saying that differences of opinion among genuine believers should not destroy relationships. I had a colleague in the mission who used to say that we had to learn to agree to disagree agreeably. Our passage today about the unhappy meals they had together is one example of the divisions, but there are several other examples earlier in the letter – they were taking each other to the secular courts instead of sorting out their legal differences among themselves; there were different convictions about eating meat that had been offered to idols before it was sold in the market – some said it was wrong to eat it and others that it was OK because idols were meaningless anyway; some were saying you should not do a certain thing because it could offend another Christian, some of them probably thought that if other people were offended it was their problem. This sort of argument is familiar now as well, because we don’t always agree about what it is right to do as Christians. Here again I think it is really important that we have respect and sensitivity for each other, and don’t allow these differences to destroy our relationships.

So we come to the symptom of disunity in today’s passage: it seems that the Christians of Corinth met together quite often in their homes to eat together, and then to have Communion together. But the problem was the lack of ‘togetherness’. At this shared meal there was discrimination among them – apparently the rich people brought lots of delicious dishes and didn’t share them; the poor people in the church who didn’t have enough anyway and couldn’t bring anything the others were willing to eat were excluded and went away hungry. This would be bad enough if it were what you might call ordinary hospitality.

But the crunch came because they were going on after this shared meal to have Communion, which is a stimulus to real unity as well as a symbol of it. As Paul writes in verses 23-26 we have this special meal to remember what Jesus did for us when he died on the cross. In fact another theme that is woven all through this letter is Paul’s emphasis on the cross of Christ and the implications of it. Back in chapter 1 he says that he came to Corinth to preach the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – as simply as possible, not like a specialist Greek orator. In chapter 2 verse 2 he says ‘I resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’. Why was and is that so important? Because, I think, we are all equal in our need of God’s gift of salvation. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, young or old, well-educated or not, privileged or not, ashamed of things in your past or not - we all need God’s grace and forgiveness if we are to become part of his family of saved people. That gift of God’s forgiveness and new life in Christ is possible only because Jesus died for our sins. The ground is level at the foot of the cross, as someone has said. And because of this we all come to Communion on the same basis. We come remembering and thankful for the death of Christ, eating the bread and drinking the cup, and (verse 26) proclaiming to each other and the world (including the unseen spiritual world) that our salvation depends utterly on the death of Christ for our sins.

Also, I think, this passage challenges us to look at how we relate to people whose Christian faith we share, but who may be very different in other aspects of life – perhaps political views, or lifestyle choices, or social background. How can we welcome each other in genuine ways with respect and love? The people of the church in Corinth were all Christian believers, at different stages of Christian maturity, and with a great range of attitudes and backgrounds beyond their shared faith. What about us? I’m still pondering what this might mean for me.

Paul ends this passage by going right back to the place where he began – when you have these meals together, wait for each other and be together in a real way. Our Christian faith has very practical implications: for the people in Corinth it meant changing their behaviour and living like people who all followed Jesus and loved each other, as he says in chapter 13. The implications for each one of us will of course be different in some ways from the exact situations that applied to Corinth nearly 2000 years ago. The challenge to me, and to us all, remains – how can I live as a follower of Jesus, in unity with my brothers and sisters, and showing in all aspects of my daily life that I am a believer? I depend on God’s grace each day, and come to Communion this morning, as you do, to remember the life, death and resurrection of our Lord, knowing that he told us to do this until the day of his return. May the Lord help us to have real togetherness as we worship and as in a whole variety of ways we serve the Lord.

St Mary's 11:00am Mothering Sunday Sermon - Sunday 6th March 2016

St Mary's 11:00am Mothering Sunday Talk, Sunday 6th March 2016

Readings:

Exodus 2:1-10

John 19:25b-27

Preacher:

Craig Young

When preparing for today’s sermon I found this on the Mothers Union website

We come here today to thank God for mothers and carers around the world. It takes a very special love to care for a family. Today we’ll celebrate that love and thank God for his own perfect love for us all. We’re not all mothers ourselves but we all have a mother, whether or not they are still with us, and we are all children of God. He is our loving Father but is also the one who remembers and comforts us as a mother comforts her child, and draws us close as a hen protects her chicks.

Here we see an idea forming that the love which God has for us is like that of a mother and that image of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings for loving protection can be found running throughout our faith like a strand of DNA. Jesus himself uses this image of God’s love in Matthew 23:27 when he says of Jerusalem, “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” This goes right back to the beginning and we see it referred to in Psalms from the Old Testament. God’s love for us, his children, is something which is as vital to us today as it was to those who wrote the psalms. This love is best exemplified in our humanity by the bond of love which runs between a child and its mother. As you will probably detect I am not a mother and this is something which try as I might I cannot experience. My relationship with others whilst loving is not the same. However my love should always try and emulate the love which Christ showed to us and which he told us is the same love which God has for each and every one of us because we are children of God.

In our readings today we have two pictures of that love in action.

Moses in his life was the great deliverer who brought the children of Israel out of oppression in Egypt and we can see God’s plan being worked out from the very day Moses was born. What was special about Moses was that the Egyptians had passed a law that all Hebrew boys, of which he was one, were to be killed at birth because their race was increasing and the Egyptians feared that this immigrant community would one day turn against them. Moses’ mother hid him and when he got too big or too noisy to hide at home and she made a floating waterproof protective capsule for him and hid him at the river’s edge where he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter. Pharaoh’s daughter obviously felt for the child and by virtue of the fact that she organised the care of the child had also adopted him. As Moses adopted mother she would see him become a powerful man, a prince of Egypt. His natural mother was actually paid by Pharaoh’s daughter to do the very thing that she would naturally want to do. God’s plan for the salvation of his people was made secure by one of their enemy’s leaders, a princess of Egypt. The most unlikely people are able to demonstrate the love of God which transcends all barriers which our earthly authorities can build.

God’s love is something very special indeed and in our Gospel reading we see how Jesus in his last act as he hangs on the cross demonstrates that love which we should hold for others. Jesus says to his friend and disciple that his mother Mary will now be his mother and he her son. No forms to fill in for the adoption people just an undertaking that these two people will now love each other as mother and son. Like Moses, Jesus goes on to secure our salvation. Isn’t it amazing that in his last act before securing our adoption as children of God Jesus demonstrates how we should love one another?

If we take a look at children and how they are treated by society in general we can see that as they grow they will make mistakes and we see how they may be disciplined and offered guidance to ensure that they avoid the pitfalls of life. If they err too much quite often those who do not have a close relationship with them like neighbours or other adults in the community give up on them and call them delinquents or hooligans but their parents don’t. Parents particularly mothers stick with their children warts and all and live in hope that they will turn out to be fine upstanding citizens. God’s love for us is like that. God wants us to come to him as a child comes to a parent but in a way He cannot ignore the times when we did go wrong. As long as we are truly sorry and have changed so that we no longer do what is wrong we can with the help of Jesus approach him. It was for this reason that out of his love for us God sent Jesus to offer us guidance.

I remember one time losing one of our children, just for about half an hour as it turned out. I remember that sense of dread and panic as we tried to find him. How we kept blaming ourselves for not taking more care and how we kept blaming our son for not doing what he had been told which would have kept him safe. I think that God feels all of that about us and longs for us to be safe.

We may have doubts and are a bit like a child who has stayed out far too late and dreads going home because they are worried about the consequences, the ticking off, the punishment but totally unaware that whilst mother will shout and rage at them for being so inconsiderate inside she is thanking God for their safe return. As children we have doubts not realising that in fact Mother does look out for us and has our best interests at heart even if it doesn’t always sound like it. With “GO TO YOUR ROOM RIGHT NOW.” Ringing in your ears.

God’s plan for each of us whilst unique and personal to everyone is that we enjoy His love for us. With life’s experience even with making mistakes along the way we can in the end feel secure in the knowledge that when we get home we will not be shut out, that we will be loved and cherished and gathered up under His loving wings like a hen gathers her chicks.

Jesus was sent to show us all from the very beginning right up to the end of time how we should behave towards our loving parent, God. Jesus teaches that we can safely go home to God the Father who loves like a mother because he is both Father and Mother to us all.

Being a Christian is all about following Jesus home to our loving Father and Mother in heaven. We need to live as he did so that we will not become lost. That’s the problem some do get so lost that they never find Jesus in their lives and can never go home. God loves them all the same but unless they get home they will be shut out. He has sent Jesus to look for them, to guide them to safety but they avoid him for one reason or another.

As Christians we need to ensure that we not only for ourselves, but for those whom we love and know, that we will find our way to God and help and encourage the others along the way. How we do this is to live as much as we can in the ways of Jesus. That maternal love which exemplifies the relationship between child and mother is strong in the relationship which we have between Jesus and God the father and mother of us all.

Today is Mother’s day when we reflect on that undying love that mothers have for their children and we seek to find our way to God bearing in mind this example of his love for us. But it is also Lent when we try to find what it is that God wants of us.

As Jesus meditated in the wilderness so we must meditate and try to see how we fit into God’s plan for his Heavenly Kingdom something in which we see ourselves forgiven and accepted.

What we need to do whilst we live in the world is to find ways of loving those we encounter as a mother loves a child. We need to find that love which is not selfish and only rewards those who are nice to us. We are to seek ways in which we can be deeply compassionate and see the person, the one who Jesus is looking for. We need to look beyond the warts and all of the human condition and do what we can to help Jesus guide them home to a loving Father who loves them like a mother. If we can do this in our hearts we can then turn it into action. But we begin with our hearts.

Parish AGM 2009

2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2

It has been a very busy last 12 months. We have celebrated the 150th anniversary of St Peter's, and we have had the CL mission. Not to mention the pantomime.

One of the events that I found extremely helpful was Clive Paine's lecture on the history of St Peter's. The church was founded on the desire to further the mission of the church and the proclamation of the gospel. And the gospel has been preached at St Peter’s, and from St Peter’s for the last 150 years.

And that has continued: which is why it was appropriate to have a mission in 2008 - to declare the historic truths on which St Peter's was established, but their continued to relevance to people today.

And we need that.

We live in a lost world. The economic foundations in which we put so much trust are being shaken. People do not know how to think or feel anymore. So many of us are controlled by fear.

Lilly Allen: The Fear


The passage that I have chosen for this evening is from 2 Corinthians 5. It tells us why Paul and the early Christians put so much emphasis on spending time with other people preaching, urging, persuading them that we do not need to live this way

'We try to persuade others (v11) .. be reconciled to God (v20)'

And Paul gives four reasons for trying to persuade others


1. We know the fear of the Lord (v11)

We have been entrusted with faith and the message of The Faith.

We know, says Paul, that we will be held accountable for what we have done with the precious gift of the message of the good news about Jesus Christ.

And as a parish and as individual churches we have been entrusted with so much: our people, our buildings, our gospel heritage, and our resources. And we will be held accountable for what we have done with the things that God has given us.

The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) is a parable about what we do with what God entrusts to us. We can use those things, or we can sit on them and lose them. The one who does nothing excuses himself by saying that he is fearful of the master. But the master rebukes him for being lazy. Paul in 2 Corinthians (and he is talking explicitly about what we do with the message of reconciliation) writes that fear of God will make us do something with what we have.

That is why I think that we need to do something with what we have.

It is why I am grateful to St Mary’s committee for having the courage to take the risk and appoint an Events and Visitor coordinator. At St Mary’s we have an amazing building, with about 11000 visitors each year. I think that we can build on that, not simply to increase visitor numbers at St Mary's and revenue, but to see how we can better promote the message of the gospel to visitors. There is a phrase that is doing the rounds of mission focussed churches: how to turn tourists into pilgrims

It is also why we need to do something about the Hyndman Centre. It is a great resource, but at the moment is mostly being used by groups as a venue. I would love to see us taking hold of our centre and using it to initiate community projects: so that what goes on is owned by one or more of our congregations, and is used as a way of both serving our neighbourhood and of building bridges with people in the community.

So the fear of God, the fact that each one of us will have to appear before the judgement seat of Christ, should drive us to seek to persuade others – not, in this case, because they will be judged but because we will be judged.


2. We are compelled by the love of Christ (v14)

We are talking here about a two-fold love

At an objective level we are talking about Christ’s love. Because Christ loves all people, I am compelled to persuade others. I do not try to persuade someone to be reconciled to God because I love them, but because Christ loves them. It does not matter if I do not get on with them or think they are beyond the reach of God - Jesus died for them.

That is why when we entreat people to be reconciled to God, we do so not on our own behalf. I do not urge you to be reconciled to God on my own authority. I do so, v20, on behalf of Christ. He died for you and he urges you to be reconciled with God.

Nevertheless, this love of Christ is also subjective. This love is the first of the fruits of the Spirit that will grow in the garden of the life of the Christian. It is this love that controls how we use the gifts of the Spirit. Paul in Romans talks of how God pours his love into our hearts, and in Ephesians, how he will fill us with his love.

We need to pray that God will give us this love: this love for him and this love for people. It is much easier to go out of our way to persuade someone to be reconciled to God if we love them.

And it is this twofold love: the objective love of Christ for all, and the love which Christ gives us - which I pray will drive us out to persuade people.

It is what drove people to found St Peter’s; it is what has driven people to preach on street corners (‘hell-fire corner’ – although that title should be a warning to us. We do not wish to be known as ‘hell-fire’ people, but as gospel ‘good news’ people). It is what drove people to faithfully serve, witness and preach in this place, to set up mission churches, to use innovation to promote the good news (magic lanterns).

And we need that drive, faithfulness and, at times, that innovation: film evenings, 5 o’clock services, dinner parties, fireworks, displays, exhibitions (LIFE exhibition, labyrinth), websites, twitter. We need to have the courage to try, even if we fail. But more than the innovation, we need the love


3. We look at people in a new way.

This is a central theme in these few chapters of 2 Corinthians. Paul contrasts what is seen with what is unseen.

Ch 3: we are people who are being transformed into the glory of Jesus because we are looking on him.
Ch 4: the people of this age are blinded by the god of this world. The only reason we can see is because God has shone his light into our hearts.
And Paul goes on to draw a line between the outer visible and the inner invisible. The outer is wasting away. But the inner will last (2 Corinthians 4:18)
Ch 5: continues and states that we walk (live) by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
And in our verses Paul says that he is not interested what people think of him, but what God thinks of him.

We do not look for the visible but for the invisible.
We do not look at the outer but at the inner.
We do not look at the outward appearance but the heart (v12).

By visible, outer standards Christ was a failure. He was crucified.
But from God's viewpoint, from a faith perspective, Christ crucified is the fullest expression and greatest demonstration of the love of God, the wisdom of God and the power of God. Through Jesus death on the cross, men and women were reconciled to God, evil and death was defeated.

So, Paul goes on, we don't look at people from a human point of view (v16). We are not interested in how attractive they are, how old they are, whether they are male or female, rich or poor, black or white, educated or uneducated. We look at them with the eyes of faith.

People in Christ are new creations. On the outside nothing has changed, but they are new people. The tiny seed of eternal life has been sown deep within them. You'll never see it, even with the most powerful microscope, because there is nothing visible to be seen. But by faith we believe it is there. They are resurrection people.

And we look at other people, at our neighbours, at our colleagues, at the people who use the Hyndman Centre with new eyes. Maybe they are successful or failures in the world’s eyes. But Christ died for all. Each person, young or old, is a potential new creation, a potential child of God.

I am so grateful that we are able to look at things through the eyes of faith!

Humanly speaking we are a dead loss. We might have nice buildings, but they are dwarfed by the towerblocks of our multinationals, and shopping centres. Christianity is being rapidly sidelined. Despite the spin, the reality is that the churches that are declining in numbers (even our own figures show a decline of 1 person). Even those congregations or churches that are growing in numbers are often growing at the expense of others, not at the expense of non-Christians.

And yet – looking at it with the eyes of faith – we see a different picture. A God who transforms lives; A God who provides; a God who builds relationships; a God who gives hope.

And even if we do live in a time when it seems that the god of this age has all the trump cards, the light is still shining (2 Corinthians 4:16). Nothing can stop it. And we do not need to give in to despair, or to simply give up. God is still God.

4. We try to persuade others because 'we have been given the ministry of reconciliation'. (v4)

It is significant that v20 is written to the Corinthian church and to all the saints in Achaia. Paul writes, ‘We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God’.

I suspect that this is one of those places where Paul is saying to believers, 'live out this reconciliation'.

Don't talk it. Walk it.

We can say, 'Jesus died for me, and I have been reconciled to God'; We can say, 'I was an enemy of God, but now I am a friend of God'. We can say it, and the words will be meaningless. You may have been baptised; you may remember when you prayed 'the prayer'; you may have always come along to church; you may speak the right language - but if we continue to live for yourself and not for him (v15), we are not living as people who have been reconciled to God. We talk about it, but we have not received the reconciliation on offer.

So before we urge others to be reconciled to God, we need to examine whether we are just talking the talk, wearing the badge – or are we living the life.



Next year we look forward to two major events: the LIFE exhibition and the PASSION FOR LIFE mission. Both are great opportunities for helping us as we persuade others to be reconciled to God. But before we do that, we need to know that we are living as people who are reconciled to God.

The world needed to hear that message 150 years ago. And it needs to hear this message today. It is our task as a parish and as churches to live the message and to proclaim the message