Part 1 – Introduction
[NT reading – Colossians .3:12-17]
The reading is from a very long letter from the Apostle Paul to a group of Christians who lived in Collose. The small part of the letter that was read for us by Catherine is from a chapter about how Christians should behave. Paul has already explained a lot of the things that Christian shouldn't do, and here he is starting to explain the things that Christian should do.
He starts by saying that we should do these things because we are God's chosen people.
He says “always do these things, show mercy to others, be kind, humble, gentle and patient.”
For me to talk about all of these things, would take much more time than I have, and you would get bored listening to me, so I'm going to concentrate on talking to you about just two of the things that Paul is telling us Christians should do.
The talk is split into three parts, this is just an introduction, in the second part I will be talking about Forgiveness. In verse 13 Paul says “Get along with each other and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you forgive that person because the Lord forgave you.”
That piece will be next, and after that in the last part I will talk about peace. I'm going to ask some of you to help me as I talk about these things. So please be ready to volunteer.
Part 2 – Forgiveness
Can I have a volunteer please. I have two things I would like you to do. [Name] can you please now pick seven other volunteers.
[Get the volunteers seated at the front and choose one. Give him/her the instructions. The intent here is for the one person to commit an offense – stealing all the sweets, and see if the others can forgive]
What do you think it means to forgive?
[get some suggestions and comment on them]
To forgive someone means that we no longer consider that they have hurt us, or upset us. You may not be able to forget what was done, but you will not take it into account in future dealings with that person. In our example, if the group had really forgiven the [boy/girl/name] who had acted as the thief, they would not in future, in the same situation, do anything that would limit [boy/girl/name]'s chance of repeating the crime.
More even than that, when they get to school tomorrow, they will not use the events of today to in any way affect how they get along with [boy/girl/name]. In other words they will not hold a grudge against [boy/girl/name]. That means that what's happened cannot be part of the conversation you will have with your friends. There must be no whispering “Guess what [boy/girl/name] did to me yesterday”. No comments “ There goes [boy/girl/name] the well known criminal!”. There must be no discussion at all What's happened has happened, and its behind you. So far behind you that when you turn around you can't see it. You may remember what happened, but if you've really forgiven them, then you should start to trust them again. In our illustration that means that if sweets are given out, you won't do anything that would prevent [boy/girl/name] from repeating the same crime. If you do, then you haven't really forgiven them.
That's hard isn't it? [get a response].
Suppose [boy/girl/name] does the same thing next time round? What are you going to do then? Can you forgive them again? And again, and again? How many times do you think you should forgive someone? [get a response]
Do you remember what Paul says “Get along with each other and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you forgive that person because the Lord forgave you.” By the Lord he means Jesus, and in another part of the Bible Jesus was asked this question by his friend Peter.
"Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, you must forgive him more than seven times, You must forgive him even if he does wrong to you 77 times.”
Lets have a look at the scale of the problem. [tape measure, and large numbers] As we move along the scale does it get easier or harder to forgive? That will depend on the sort of person you are. When Peter spoke to Jesus he asked about seven times, because that's what the people who lived in his time and place had as their rules. They are supposed to forgive someone seven times. Jesus's reply in our bible is 77 times, in some other translations it is 70 times 7 times.
What is 70 time 7? - if you don't know we will soon find out. Can we have the first cartoon please.
[Slide 1]
http://www.reverendfun.com/?date=20020328
[Slide 2]
http://www.reverendfun.com/?date=20060512
The point of the number is Jesus is not intending for Peter to be able to keep count! Could you? Like the man with the ledger really keep count up to 490, or even 77. If you are keeping a count, is that really even forgiveness.
And remember what Paul said . “Get along with each other and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you forgive that person because the Lord forgave you.”. We forgive people because Jesus has forgiven us.
[Slide 3]
http://www.reverendfun.com/?date=19980522
No-one in the 12 or less things to be forgiven for. None of us would even get into the 490 or less things to be forgiven for queue I'm sure. We forgive people because Jesus has forgiven us, so the process we have to follow is simple.
[Envelopes]
[Ask for volunteers to open and read the contents of an envelope]
“Get Jesus”
Remember that Paul is writing to Christians, they have all accepted Jesus as their Lord. Its the crucial first step.
“Get Forgiven”
When you accept Jesus he forgives you all the thing that you have done wrong in your life. You no longer have to worry about them, they are in the past, and God will not be looking back to them.
“Forgive Others”
Now you have been forgiven its time tom start forgiving others.
Part 3 – Peace & Conclusion
[After Gospel Reading – John 19:25-27]
Do you remember that I said I would talk about only two of the long list of things that Paul mentions in the first reading that we had? Can you remind me what the second one was? [get response]
Peace
The second of the long list of things that Christians should do is live in Peace. Pauls says “Let the peace that Christ gives control your thinking, because you were all called together in one body to have peace.” He's asking the Christians in Colosse to live in peace with one another. What does he mean do you think?
[get response- if you can]
not war
no arguments and fights
Sometimes its easier to start by thinking what something isn't, before we can work out what it is. So here are some of the things that peace isn't:
[Slide 4]
http://www.reverendfun.com/?date=20031103
Peace isn't chaos. It isn't a complete absence of chaos either
Peace is often seen as the absence of war. Ask you Mum and Dad when the last war happened in this country – it was over sixty years ago, so most of them won't remember it. Our country, and our immediate neighbours have been at peace for all that time, but as I sure you've realised a lot has still happened in that time.
Has your Mum or Dad ever said “Will you give me a bit of peace and quiet”? - when you've interrupted then or asked them for something? I know mine use to. The are asking not to be disturbed
Peace isn't Sleep or rest
[Slide 5]
http://www.reverendfun.com/?date=20060706
He may be peaceful, but that's not true peace.
Lets get our eight volunteers to help us out again.
[The game is a race to distribute sweets to the congregation as quickly as possible. The whole team are involved, and its against the clock. They are expected to divide the church up into four and distribute from each side of each row.]
The team have shown us that they can work together to achieve a goal. In their own way they are demonstrating a kind of peace. There was (or should not have been) any arguing or fighting, they worked together.
Here's a statement of what peace is that I've simplified so that we can all understand it – especially me.
Peace is a state of well-being that is characterized by trust, kindness, and justice. In this state, we can be encouraged to explore as well as celebrate our differences, and search for the good in each other without the concern for personal pain and sacrifice. ... It provides us a chance to look at ourselves and others as part of the human family, part of one world.
[repeat]
Its a good attempt to describe peace, but the peace that God gives goes deeper than this. Lets take a look at our second reading – Jesus is on the cross and is dying. He does not have very long left, and must be in considerable pain.
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